Escape

Chapter 4

"Hey, Ash-" Luke stopped right when he walked out of the bathroom. "Are you okay? You look sick."

I leaned over the bed trying to breathe. "Th- they- they-"

"Hey, breathe. Just breathe, Ashley." Luke was by my side. "Breathe."

I grabbed my phone off the bedside table. "Look at this!" I handed Luke the note. He read it and frowned. "They did this to you. And they think it's funny. They put you in a hospital and they think it's funny!"

Luke hesitated. "Okay, where's your mom?"

"No! I'm not telling her about this! She'll worry and I can't put her through that again. She's barely recovered from the last time. I can't do this to her."

"Ashley, if you don't tell someone, it could get so much worse. I mean come on, you watch Pretty Little Liars. You know what happens when you hide things like this. You have to tell someone."

"I can't, Luke. Not yet."

"Ashley, you have to. I mean you said it yourself. They could kill someone. You have to do something about this before it gets any worse."

"Luke, I'm not. Just forget it."

"Ashley! Please. For me."

I sighed. "Alright."

Right before I could pick my phone up off the bed, my phone buzzed. New text message. I looked at Luke and shook my head. I opened the text and it said:

If you tell ANYONE, I promise you someone WILL die. And you know I'm more than capable of killing someone. Xoxo

I showed Luke the text. He read it and sat down on the bed. "I'm sick of this," I said and threw my phone of the bed. "So basically, if I don't tell anyone, someone could die. But if I do, someone will die. I can't do this anymore, Luke."

Luke opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it. I sat down beside him and put my head on his shoulder. "I'm tired. I'm tired of being scared all of the time. I'm tired of feeling like I can't even stand on my porch or I'll be kidnapped. I'm just tired."

Luke layed down and pulled me down with him. I layed my head on his chest and eventually fell asleep. 

                                                                   ***

I opened my eyes to find my mother sitting on the small couch in the hospital room. In her hand was my phone. I sat up and wiped my face. She looked at me for a few seconds and then said, "What is this?" She held the phone up to me. On the screen was the texts that my tormentor had sent me. "Why didn't you tell me this was happening? I could have reported it. We could have prevented all this."

I looked down and then back up at her. "Mom, you just stopped worrying about what happened two years ago. I've put you through so much in the past few years. I thought I could handle it myself without getting you involved. I didn't want you to get hurt. I didn't want you to worry. You have so much on your plate already and I didn't want to burden you."

She sighed. "Ashley, if you would have told me, I could have reported it to the police. Then maybe all this wouldn't have happened."

"I'm sorry. I thought I could handle it."

"Well, I'm telling the police."

"Mom-"

"Ashley! I'm reporting this before it gets any worse."

"Mom, if you report this, it will just get worse." I looked at her, pleadingly. "I mean you saw the notes. You know what they said. If I tell anyone, they'll kill people. They've.... done it before." I looked down.

She sighed. "Ashley, you know that if I don't tell anyone, you could die. Right? You do know that, don't you?"

I looked down at the hospital bed and then back at her. "Mom, I'd rather die because I didn't tell anyone than a lot of people die because I did. And I know that's not what you want to hear. But I'm not selfish. You always taught me to love others as myself. And I can't live with myself knowing that because of me and my motor mouth a lot of people got killed. I'm already having a hard time knowing that my dad died because of me. So please, just don't say anything."

She looked at me and then at the ground and then back at me. "Alright. But just to let you know, I won't be able to live with myself knowing that I let my child die when I could have saved her if I had only told the police." Then she walked out of the room.

I sat down on the bed and started crying. "Why? Why me? Why do I have to go through all this? What did I do to deserve this?" I layed down and sobbed into the pillow. A few minutes later, Luke walked in.

He walked over to me, got in the bed with me, and pulled me into his arms. "I'm so sorry, baby. I'm sorry you have to go through this. Shh. It's okay, I'm here." He pulled me closer as I slowly stopped crying.

"I don't know.... I don't know what I did to deserve this. Am I just a horrible person?"

"No, you're not a horrible person. You're an amazingly kind, beautiful person. I don't know why this happened to you. But I'm here. You're going to be okay." He kissed me on the forehead and said, "Shh. Go to sleep. You need to rest."

I nodded and closed my eyes. Slowly but surely I fell asleep.