I hugged my arms around my body, trying to warm myself. I had been walking for about three hours in freezing cold weather. I can say it might not have been the smartest decision of my time, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care if I froze to death all alone because he took whatever life I had with me away when he left.
Headlights shone in front of me, momentarily lighting up my path. I got a quick glimpse of litter and dried up grass before the car passed and I was left in the darkness yet again.
I was past feeling anger, despair, hopelessness, and even self-pity. Now the only prove I had of a heart inside me was the feel of it beating against my chest rapidly as I tried to warm myself.
Another pair of headlights shone. It seemed like the car was passing in slow motion. Then I realized the car was slowing down, falling into a slow trudge beside me.
I didn’t dare look at it; I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead. So this was how I was going to go. I was going to be kidnapped and raped until they finally decided to shoot me. Not the way I imagined passing over.
I heard the faint sound of what sounded like an insect buzzing as the drive rolled the window down. I knew that sound. I heard it almost every day when he rolled down the window to say bye to me as he dropped me off at school.
“Honey, get in the car,” my father ordered in a stern voice. I didn’t even look at him.
“No,” I growled. I felt a slight twinge of guilt; the first feeling I’d had in about an hour. He hadn’t done anything wrong. My dad was one of the best you get. He was laid back, didn’t give me a curfew, and we were extremely close.
As soon as the feeling came, it was gone just as quickly.
“It’s freezing outside and we need to get you home,” he said. I shook my head fiercely. I stopped as my head spun and for a split second, I thought I was going to collapse right there on the road. I forced myself to draw in a painful breath and the world stopped spinning.
“I don’t want to,” I said. Before he could say anything else, I turned left in dashed into the woods beside me.
I couldn’t make out a single thing other than the leaves crunching beneath my feet and the sound of my deep panting. I stuck my hand out in front of me and felt my way deeper in.
I let out a small, hysterical and crazy chuckle at escaping him. There was absolutely nothing funny about the situation and I seriously considered my mental health.
A huge crash and the sound of metal twisting and breaking exploded so loudly I had to cover my ears. My eyes widened as I remembered my dad in the car only a minute earlier.
I spun around and sprinted back to where I started. Panic paired with adrenalin as I ran faster than I ever had before through the woods and towards the faint shine of head lights. I finally made it out and surveyed the scene.
A car had collided with my dad’s familiar gray BMW. I didn’t have time to notice the other car, or the driver. My eyes were focused on the body lying limp on the ground about ten feet away from the accident.
I sucked in a breath through my clenched teeth and a blood curling shriek came through my lips.
“Dad!”
