After

Chapter 1

Richelle's pov
This is my chance. Today is the day. What am I talking about? Let me tell you, maybe we should go back a bit...

{Flashback to ten years ago}
I wake up and see the bright sun beaming through my window. My eyes squinted as I looked at it. Agh, too bright. Oh how I hate Monday mornings, school is the worst! I have a maths exam today! How bad is that? The only good thing I have is Noah I guess. He's coming to pick me up at twenty to eight, like he does every school morning.

Suddenly my phone beeps. I pick it up and see that it's a text from Noah. 'Sorry, Richie I can't pick you up today. I'm sick and not going to school, sorry :(' Well that's my ride gone. I'll just walk, it's not too far. Quickly, I reply with 'It's ok No, feel better soon! Hugs from Richelle x' He loves my hugs. In a few seconds, I get a reply, 'Haha, you'll do great in your maths exam by the way!' 'Thanks No, but I have to get up. See you tomorrow?' 'Should do :)' 'Ok, don't get any worse!' 'Lol, bye Richie, have a good day.' 'You too, lucky.' ';)'

I feel a smile grow on my face. He always makes me happy and I always make him happy.
"Richelle? You up yet lazy bones?" my mother yells, knocking on my door.
"I'm getting up now!" I reply and she goes away.

I put my phone on charge, regretting I didn't do it last night, and pick out an outfit. I change out of my blue pyjamas into my blue skinny jeans and white crop top. Yes, we don't have a uniform code at our school. Pretty lucky huh?

I jog downstairs, after doing my hair and makeup, for breakfast. I just have fruit, it's the thing that I can eat quickest because I don't want to be late for school. Our teachers are like dynamite- they can go off at any minute.

"Bye mum, bye dad! Love you!" I say, speeding out of the door.
"Bye hunny! Be safe!" my mother yells after me.
"I will!" I yell back.

Once I'm out of sight, I slow down to a walk. What? Running is hard work! Especially when you're going to somewhere you don't want to! I mean, what teenager actually likes school? And now that Noah won't be there! Who am I going to hang out with? Emily? No, she's older than me and I'd be tagging along. Abi? No, she's younger than me and it'd look weird. I guess I'll just be a loner. I guess-

"Get in the van," a masculine voice says, covering my mouth with a white cloth.
I don't move a muscle. My heart is pounding, oh no! Oh no! Noah why are you sick today?
"You deaf or something? Get in the van!" he snarls, slapping my cheek and pointing to a white van.
I start to walk towards the van, but the I stop. I don't want to do this!
"Move girl!" he yells.

Suddenly, I attempt to wrestle him to the ground but as I do, I take a breath and the cloth's chemicals enter my body. Then, I pass out.

I wake up in a cold, dark room being tied to the wall with a rope. My head hurts like hell, and I can feel it bleeding. I look down and saw that he had changed my clothes. Creep. I went from stylish to fashion failure. I mean, I'm dressed in what looks like a white night gown, but I'm not sure. What happened? Have I actually just been kidnapped? What time is it? Where am I? How long have I been here? Why do my arms and legs ache so much?

The door slowly creaks open, revealing a middle aged man with no hair but wearing a plain white t shirt and black joggers. The strange thing is, he's wearing a mask! Only enough skin is showing so I can see his smile, his creepy smile. After acting like a total creep, he walks over to me. His face was so close to mine that I could smell his breathe. Mostly alcohol and cigarettes, yuck. I feel like I want to throw up.

"Have a nice nap did we?" he asks tilting his head.
"Help!" I scream.
"There's no point in screaming love, no one will hear you," he snarls, revealing a golden tooth.
"What time is it?" I ask as he places his hand on my...well...my boob. What a creep!

By chance, a light appears in my room. My phone! But it's in his hand. The time says seven in the evening. Then I look down a bit. Twenty messages and five missed calls from Noah. Noah! Oh Noah! He has no idea where I am, no one does. Out of all the days he could've been ill, why today?

"You won't be seeing anymore of this 'Noah' anymore. You're staying down here." He says and walks out of the room, locking the door behind him.
Why me?
{End of flashback}

Ten years I've been here! Ten! I'm twenty six now! Fifteen when I arrived, twenty six when I plan on leaving. He has abused me, raped me so many times! But today, today is finally my chance to escape! A few minutes ago, I heard him close the front door and heard footsteps above me. Even though I've never been out of this room, I have a pretty good idea of where I am. The cellar. He wouldn't hide me anywhere else so it's obviously the cellar. I also keep track of what objects make what noises. I know that the door he shut is the front door and the footsteps I heard were above me so he walked down the path. Then I heard a car speed off, that was him!

Now that he's gone for a bit, I have time to undo my knots. My hands have been tied to the wall for ten years, not let down. It's amazing that I can still feel them but my feet aren't tied. The ropes that he used to tie me with are quite old now, so I can easily slip out of them with a tug. And that's what I do. Wow, I'm free! I'm actually free from the ropes!

Ok, second step- getting through the door. I walk towards it with so much determination and when I get to it, I pull the handle and bam! It opens! He actually left it unlocked! Lucky me! I swing it open and run up the stairs that are in front of me. Then, I get to the front door and it's locked. You know what? I don't care about damage! So, I run against the wooden door and it falls to the ground.

That's when I'm greeted by light! Daylight! Sun! Life! Wow, I'm actually free! Without looking back, I run down the street. I turn a corner to a public path and run down that. I stumble across a field. Is it trespassing if I run through it? Yes but I don't want him to find me! So, I run through the field and don't look back. I just keep running. I feel like an olympic athlete, I'm finally running free!

After a while, I soon arrive at a small village. But not just any village, my village!

Left it on a bit of a cliffhanger there! 😉 What do you guys think of this book so far? Please let me know!