Running Free (unedited)

Chapter 3

๑Chapter 3 ๑

Being eighteen, you’d think I would be one of the happiest girls alive. That I’d be having the time of my life with friends and family, and getting ready for my last year in school. But you couldn’t be more wrong.

Ten years ago my dad, my real dad, was diagnosed with Leukemia, and unfortunately for us, it was not caught on time. After four months of treatment my father could no longer fight and passed away. I was only eight but the memory is still fresh.

A few years later my mother met a lawyer that would change our lives forever, Clark Dawson. Within a year of meeting each other they married. It did not bother me to much because he seemed like a nice man, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

It wasn’t till after they were married that we found out the truth, that this, so called, lawyer was actually one of the country’s most wanted men. He was the most wanted drug lord every police agency was after, but no one seemed to even know his real name.

We found out when we come home early from a day out shopping, he was having a meeting in the living room. My mother and I didn’t know what to do. He had threatened us that if we say anything he would kill us. I’m starting to reconsider his threat but I wouldn’t do that to my mother.

When the threats started to subside, my mother told Clark that we were going to go traveling. He was skeptical at first but decide to let us go seeing as we were too frightened to tell anyone. And that’s how we have been spending our time, just traveling around, never staying in one place for too long just in case Clark showed up. I never really had friends, I didn’t want to risk the chance of anyone getting to close and then having to move unexpectedly without as so much as a goodbye. I was always the weird quite girls at school.

Every once in a while he would catch us off guard and stay with us, but when he went off to meetings we would pack up and move somewhere else. We had to suffer through physical and emotional abuse from him; we just didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like we could go up to a police officer and say the most wanted drug lord is lounging around in our living room. Clark has men on the inside, he would never get caught.

And this is how I find myself in the back seat of his expensive car going up the drive way to his expensive house, scratch that, it’s more like a castle, after having diner in a restaurant you can only eat at if you have reservations months in advance.

“Home sweet home,” Says Clark, as we start to get out.

“Yea home sweet home….” I mumble so no one can hear me.

As we make our way inside, maids take our suitcases and lead us to our rooms. I didn’t need to follow her though; I have been here before and can’t seem to forget it. I know this place like the back of my hand; it’s hard to forget something with so many bad memories.

When the maid left me I just sat on the edge of the bed and began to do something I haven’t done in years, cry. I had promised myself I would be strong for my mom, but it seems no matter where we go, we can never escape. No matter how hard we ran, we can never get free.

I am awakened by someone fiercely knocking on my door. I guess all the events that unfolded yesterday were quite a bit for me and I ended up dosing off last night. The door swings open and Clark barges in.

 “Your mother wants you to go to school, so staring next week you will be going to Northington Academy. Here’s some money so you can buy all your school supplies and clothes. You could go ahead and take which ever car you want but you need to be back by five, understand?” says Clark.

“Yes Cla… yes dad.” I catch myself before saying his name because I really don’t want to deal with him today.

“Alright then, here’s a lists of things you will need at your school.” Clark hands me a brochure that says Welcome to Northington Academy and a wad of cash. With that done Clark leaves.

I look through the brochure and find the list of school supplies that are needed; pencil, pen, paper, folders, binders, graphing calculator, books, etc. Looking up at the clock I see that its ten past noon, shoot why did I sleep so long?

Before leaving I hop into the shower. After getting dressed I make my way over to the garage to pick from the many cars Clark has.

“Now let’s see Lamborghini Reventon, no, Zenvo ST1, no, McLaren F1, no, Ferrari Enzo, no, SSC Ultimate Aero, no, seriously I don’t want to bring attention to myself.” I say to myself. I end up having to settle with a ZL1 Camaro since it’s the only one that doesn’t seem to attract to much attention.

I seem to do a pretty good job at laying low on my way to the mall. I did get a few people staring while I was trying to find a parking space, but I ended up parking in the back so no one would see me.

It didn’t take me to long to go and buy all the things I needed; I even bought myself some new clothes. Might as well spend Clark’s money if he just throws it around like nothing, I thought to myself. I was on my way back to the car when I see a couple of guys standing around and taking pictures of the car. Groaning inwardly I make my way up to them.

“Excuse me guys can you move?” I ask them

“Holy shit this is your car?!” asks the one with dirty blond hair.

“Um…sort of… but can you move I have to get going.”

“Wait can we take a picture of us sitting in it?” This time the red head asked.

“Eh… sure but hurry.”

They each high five each other and climb in when I unlock it. After taking multiple pictures they get out.

“Thanks for letting us take some pictures, our friends would never believe us if we just told them we saw this car.” Says the brown headed one.

“No problem.” I start to climb inside when the brochure falls to the ground. The one with brown hair picks it up and reads it before handing it back to me.

“Hey my friend’s and I go to Northington Academy, are you new?” he ask.

“Um yea I start next week.” I say, oh great now he knows who I am.

“Oh cool, my names Aiden, the red head is Robert, and blonde is Luke.” Says Aiden.

“Oh hi, my names Raven.”

“Nice to meet you” they all say in unison.

“Alright well I should be going.” I say while looking at my watch, its four thirty, I need to get going.

“Yea alright then, I guess I’ll see you in school next week, I’ll introduce you to my friend, I’m sure he would like to see this car too.” Aiden says as he once again admires the car.

“Uh… sure I guess, bye.” I would prefer to not even know anyone at school, but looks like that plan is out, hopefully he would forget by then.

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A\N: Raven's mean old nasty step father, Clark, to the side