Into You

I ran, back home

I'd packed up most of mine and Lily's stuff and packed it into the back of my car.

"Lily! Come here honey, we need to go see Nana Maggie." I chuckled as she came running at me like a hurricane in a fit of giggles.

I bent down to pick her up,"Ah, you're so big now. Come on we gotta go sweetie."

She smiled that great big grin of hers showcasing the little gap between her bottom front teeth.

"Mama, can I go ride all the horseys? Ooh and feed all the ami-ami-aminals?" Her emerald eyes shone with glee.

I laughed at her mispronunciation, "You mean animals, but yeah sure you can. You'll get to do lots of cool stuff," I began as I walked towards the car with her on my wide hip, "We could even go to the aquarium that's there and see all the fishes, I know how much you love all of them. Like Dory!" She grinned up at me as I strapped her into her car seat, "And even ice cream!"

Her little eyes lit up at the mention of the delicious treat. "Ice cream?!"

I giggled in response as I tapped her button nose, "If you're good."

She started smiling and singing to herself as I shut the door and jumped into the front seat.

This was gonna be at least a good three hour ride to Bramley. I put the car into gear and set off in the hopes that people wouldn't remember me and if they did they wouldn't bring up anything about the man up state who looks like Lily.

I just hoped it was a coincidence because I couldn't have him finding her. I couldn't let him take her. I wouldn't.

It had been about two and a half hours since we set off. We'd had three pit stops for snacks and toilet breaks for Lily.

The sugary sweets I'd let her have after her cute pout broke my resolve at the last pit stop about 40 miles back had knocked her out. I could see her head tilted at a funny angle, with her long black tresses curling around her face and some falling over her thick eyelashes that dusted her chubby cheeks.

She was a true beauty. A lot of its origin was unknown to me. Like her green eyes, the dimple in her left cheek and the jet black hair. I could only assume they came from him.

Nathan Bridges. That's all I had on him. That and the fact that he's a complete prick for not staying with my sister when she was pregnant.

But then again I didn't know if he even knew about the pregnancy. She came to me in such a state. One that took a long while to get her out of. Chelsea was in the latter end of her third trimester when she came home to me. She never told me where she stayed for the beginning of her pregnancy or why she was so thin.

After a while I stopped asking. I just did what I was good at. I fixed it. I got her registered with the local OB/GYN and got her well fed and and back to a healthy state. Luckily there weren't any real issues with her or the baby, Lily.

Both were healthy and strong. But Chelsea still hadn't quite got back to normal, not mentally anyway. She would stay up late at night and just sit. So still you'd think she was a wax model. Her only movement would be her lips chanting away and her hand twirling her locket. Some nights, in the early hours of dawn I'd wake to Lily's cries and Chelsea would be there. Still. Looking.

It bothered me enough to move Lily in to my room, but Chelsea was my sister. I couldn't turn her in to a mental hospital or take her away from her own daughter. So I just did what I had to. I let them bond and stepped in where needed.

Funnily enough it was around the time that Chelsea was killed that she had begun to stop with the stillness and the looking. Instead she spent almost all of her time with Lily and became more protective of her.

When I look back I realise that maybe Chelsea knew what was to come. Did she know who the men were? Why they were there maybe?

All I know is what I don't know. I don't know why they attacked us. Why they took my sister from me. Or what they were searching for.

I was abruptly shaken from my thoughts as the cars engine gurgled and sputtered until it eventually came to a halt.

"Oh for fucks sake!" I hit the steering wheel and hit my head on it. After a few intakes of breath to calm down my rage, I got out if that car and opened up the bonnet only to see it smoking.

"Great, just absolutely fucking great!"

I bent down into the backseat as I reached for my phone that Lily had been playing on. Dead.

When it rains it pours.

I couldn't do anything to fix the car, I was a software engineer not a mechanic. My phone was dead and my car was too.

It was only about five miles from here to Bramley Ranch. I could walk that, right? Whilst holding Lily too?

It's all I had. I picked up my purse and put my phone in it and picked up Lily wrapping a blanket around her to keep her warm. I locked  the car and started the long walk.

After about twenty minutes I was sweating and my arms were aching. I heard a humming in the distance and after a few seconds a red pick up truck was parked ahead of me.

I was worried. Had the men found us? Was it Lily's dad?

My mind whirled with questions as I continued walking until the drivers door opened and he stepped out.