Kidnapped with Cameron Dallas

Chapter 56

"Kate, you're going to have to come out eventually." Cameron said through the bathroom door.

I sat there on the edge of the tub trying to catch my breath. Today was the day. The first day of Hannah's trial. "The trial of the decade" it had been dubbed. "The YouTube Kidnapping." It already had a Wikipedia page.

I ran my fingers through my hair. How could I face her? My physical injuries had fully healed in the past four weeks since my hospital release, but in many ways I was still very much wounded. I had woken up screaming at least four times last night that I could remember. Each time Cameron pulled my close to him on the bed and rocked me, I love him so much for all he did, but nothing could soothe me from this.

All of the beatings played on a loop in my mind. I kept lifting my pajama shirt, half expecting to find my ribs decorated with purple and blue bruises. But there were no bruises, there was no visible mark of that abuse. It was in the past and the only thing I could use to convey what had happened to other was my words.

If I could find any words.

I couldn't even muster any strength to talk to Cameron, and he had been there with me. I sat there with my face in my hands, completely immobilized by all of those past memories.

Paranoia held me tight. What if she walked? What if I couldn't find the strength to tell my story? What if they didn't believe me? After all, Cameron was the star of this trial and he was never beaten. He had never been starved or locked in a plywood closet on a hot Nevada day. He hadn't even seen me during some of those times. Truth is, as horrible as it was what he had to go through in the big house with Hannah forcing herself on him, he escaped almost entirely unscathed.

I was only a nineteen year old girl from Delaware, most people hadn't even known I was missing. No one knew that I knew Cameron, I mean I did meet him the night we were kidnapped. What if it simply wasn't enough?

What if they didn't lock her away and throw away the key? What if I had to lay awake at night worried Hannah would come to terrorize me again?

I sat there shaking. I knew also that I was going to have to finally find out what Hannah had done to her father. Cameron had offered to tell me over the past few months, so I'd know going into the trial. Every time I told him no, I didn't want that picture in my mind. I still had flashbacks of our escape, his bloody shirt and hands appeared in my nightmares. I didn't want to know, but now I had no choice.

They say that trials of this magnitude can take months to fully process. Months that I would have to spend every day sitting in a courthouse having to relive a nightmare I thought I had escaped.

Cameron loved to kiss my head and tell me we were free, that our lives were ours now. He loved to try to get me to laugh. But the truth is that in many ways I felt more trapped now than I ever had in that shed.

I opened the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a small box. I ran my fingers over the golden embossments. I slowly lifted the lid with a shaking hand. I pulled out the Chino High t-shirt. I held it to my chest and let out the sobs.

I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back and have never went to LA in the first place. I was stupid, I shouldn't have been so rash. Why did I insist on going on so many crazy adventures? Why couldn't I have just stayed home and continued living my quiet life?

I jumped and fell backwards into the tub at the sound of someone knocking on the bathroom door.

"Kate, come on, we're going to be late if you don't start getting ready." I heard him sigh on the other side of the wooden door. "Look, I know you're scared." "I know that Hannah messed with you and I know that you're afraid of what this trial's going to bring." He jiggled the door knob. "Please, just let me in."

I climbed out of the tub and walked over to the door. I took a deep breath and turned the lock. It clicked and the door swung in. Cameron stepped in and wrapped his arms around me.

"It's alright to be scared, but you have to be strong." He ran his hand down my hair. "You have to be strong so that she gets locked up forever and we can have our happily ever after." He rubbed my back. "We just have to get through the next few months and then it will be calm seas from then on out."

I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I love you, Kate." He placed his hand on the back of my head. "Don't forget that."