Cowboys and Angels

Chapter 24

*Emerson's POV*

I sat under the window with my eyes closed tightly. I couldn't imagine myself ever being a normal teenage girl. I couldn't ever think that I would ever get out. A few things I'd realized in my days of being kidnapped was that no one should ever take life for granted. I did. I had made so many stupid decisions and mistakes that I couldn't take back. Ever since I had been kidnapped, I felt disgusted at myself. How could have I just taken everyone for granted? Avery, Austin, Hunter, Brett...Trevor. What was wrong with me? Who was this girl I had become? 

Thinking about Trevor hurt. It hurt my heart, my head, my everything. He couldn't care less about me. He'd propably be happy if I was dead. And sadly enough, I wish I was. 

I swear I'd lost about fifty pounds from not eating. My asshole father hasn't been here for weeks. And right before he left...he locked me in the basement. So why even think I'll ever see daylight again?

Flashback

I stumbled over my feet. I could barely walk anymore. The monster of my father was hurrying around his house, gathering things he'd probably need a long vacation. Was he going to leave me here? When I fell over from being so weak, he laughed.

"You're so pathetic..." He muttered.

I coughed dryly and cried out. "Let me go. Please. I won't tell anyone you did this to me. Please. I can't live like this anymore."

"You think...you think I'm just gunna let you go? People will go to the ends of the earth to find who did this to you." He threw a few more items into his carryon, closed it up, and dropped it on the floor. 

I was giving up on everything. I hated asking him to let me go or telling him to. He wants me dead. Killing me would be less painful than living by now. After he walked up the stairs to grab the rest of his things, I crawled up into a ball and sob. I wanted to go home. I wanted someone to save me from my misery.

"Why? Why? Why?" I cried into my arms. "Why me?"

"Stop crying, dear God." he groaned walking down the stairs with a suitcase in hand. Where is he going? He's going to leave me here, isn't he? I thought. "I'm going away for awhile. I...I don't think I'll come back for you, because I really don't care what happens to you so, yeah."

"Why did you kidnap me?" I asked even though he had answered this queston a hundred times before. And to think I'd been kidnapped for almost three to four months...could be longer but I wasn't counting the days until I was freed. I knew I wasn't ever going to be. 

"Ohhhh my god, stop asking me that! I hate you. So I kidnapped you. I hate your mother. You were a mistake okay? That satisfy you for the billionth time?"

I bit my tongue to hold back the profanties I didn't want to say, because I knew he'd surely kick me in the head like he's done before. 

I turned my head away from him and before I knew it, I was yanked by my shirt collar and pulled across the floor. I couldn't breathe at all. Gasping for air was deathly. It happened all the time. Yet, I couldn't get used it. I was drug down into the basement and thrown across the room. 

"Oh yeah...your filthy self will stay down here. Nobody will find you. I'm on my way. Nice knowin' ya."

And that was it. That was the last time I ever saw him. I was left for weeks for dead in this basement. 

*End of Flasback*  

I smelled something. I felt trapped. And slowly as these weeks passed, my memory was fading away. I wasn't thinking much of anything, because what was there to think about? I was alone...most likely forever. When I opened my eyes, it hit me. This house was on fire. The smoke was so thick and black. My lungs were so close to collapsing. But that thought was almost comforting compared to living like this. I coughed until there was nothing left of me.