The Bad Girl, The Bullet & The New Beginning (on-going)

1 ~ Welcome to Lake Larson

When Lila Harper closed her eyes, she could still see the barrel of the gun pointed straight at her forehead, that pitch-black abyss that could end her life in seconds. The image made her pulse quicken uncontrollably and her hands started trembling before she could stop them. Her breaths felt shallow and constricted and she wondered if she was about to pass out.

"Lila? Would you like me to open the window? You're looking a little pale," Aunt Penny asked gently, her voice dripping with sympathy and concern.

Lila's eyes snapped open and took in the scene before her: the smooth leather seats and spotless interior of her aunt's dependable people-carrier and the endless highway hurtling past her vision faster than she could possibly take in. The nightmare was only in her head, she reminded herself. He couldn't get to her now.

"No thanks," she answered in a tight voice, keeping her eyes on the road to stay grounded in reality. She was sure that Aunt Penny sent one of her simpering looks in her direction but she ignored it. No amount of platitudes changed the fact that she was being shipped off, away from her friends, her home and her whole life, to live in the suburban hell of Lake Larson with her "perfect" aunt and uncle. The whole situation made her want to be sick.

"You know, it'll be nice to have a fresh face in town," Penny was rambling on. "There haven't been any new kids in Harvey's year at Larson High in years. I'm sure everyone will be very excited."

Lila didn't know what to say to this. She didn't even know where to begin. Should she comment on the fact that Lake Larson must be a pretty boring place if having a new kid come to school was the highlight of their social calendar? Or should she just remark that at least someone would be excited about her sudden relocation, given that she would rather have taken the bullet in the head that caused this whole mess than have to drop her entire life and start again in Nowheresville.

"Great," she grunted, settling for the least offensive approach of just mindlessly agreeing with everything her aunt said. She sucked in a deep breath as her heart rate settled after the panic attack she had felt coming on moments ago.

Even though she definitely did not want to move away, she had to admit that things at home had been pretty bad just before she left. Since the incident, she'd barely been able to sleep as every dream involved Carter, and screaming, and the metallic stench of blood, and that gunshot that embedded itself in her life, just how it embedded itself in its victim. She'd drifted about the house like a mindless presence while her mom had gone into a hyperactive frenzy, receiving calls and press requests and drowning in all the legal paperwork that came with a restraining order. It'd been hell, to put it simply. But Lila had a feeling it was nothing like the hell she was expecting from Lake Larson.

"You know, it must be years since you've been to visit us," Penny remarked, trying once again to strike up a pained conversation to break up the tense silences. "It'll be nice for you to see it properly now you're all grown up. You'll be able to see all the places your mom used to hang out with her friends," she smiled, obviously thinking this was a good thing to say when really it just set Lila's teeth on edge.

Lake Larson was where her mom's family had all grown up, and it would've been where Lila had grown up if her mom hadn't got pregnant with her and dropped out of college. After her parents cut her off and the gossip spread through the whole town, her mom resolved to move somewhere new to start her little family and planned to move back one day when her daughter had grown up a little and she had got herself into a successful career. It all seemed like a great plan, but clearly plans don't always become a reality. Unfortunately, Natalie Harper's dream career never showed up and three years after Lila was born, her dad decided that family life wasn't for him and left her mom as a jobless single mother living in a strange new town with no one to turn to. No one except Aunt Penny, that is.