Take Me Away | ✔️

PROLOGUE

TWO YEARS AGO, Sam, which is me, was sixteen and obsessively in love with the idea of love when it came to that someone whom she thought was "it" for her. She was happy. For a split second.

           My mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer a month before my birthday. They say, the survival rate for such a disease is only between two to thirteen percent at least five years after the doctors caught the diagnosis; and that's why my twin brother, Sean, and I work very hard because of the desperation to get the medical care my mom deserves.

          There isn't any time to get a lot of money in a short span when it comes to my mom's appointments of chemotherapy and filling up the prescribed combination medicine of hers. That's why I do underground fighting.

          How did I get here, you ask? I worked hard at a café shop named Penelope's, met a guy named Alex who was known by the workers inside the shop because of his regular order of a vanilla cupcake and black coffee to go with it, we got to know one another, even flirted when there are opportunities, and eventually, he talked me into going out with him and told me about his job—which was managing fights at an underground location. When he learned about my situation, he agreed to train me to fight, and a year and a half later, I built myself a reputation in the fighting ground. I am Sam by day, Ice by night.

          My family, of course, wasn't entirely thrilled at the idea but they couldn't really stop me. My brother and mother begged me not to.

          Why shouldn't I risk everything for my mother? This, what I'm doing, is helping her stay as healthy as she can. She deserves everything after what she's done for me and Sean. There were moments wherein she would cook pancakes and they're always burnt at the side. To avoid upsetting her, Sean and I would always drown them in honey syrup to lessen the taste of burnt pancakes.

          She could never cook except for spaghetti, the sauce of that thing is so delicious that it got to the point where she would always laugh about how Sean and I would fight over the left over spaghetti that was for tomorrow.

          My dad, however, was far too busy with his growing business and banging his secretary to even try to change my mind about my job.

          It is extreme. To have your mother watch the love of her life not come home most of the nights, knowing full well that he's at somebody's home— at somebody's bed.

          To tell the truth, I never really cared enough about my father. At a young age, he was stricter to me than my brother, more lenient to my brother, more loving to him than to me. Sean was the favorite, it was obvious. The times where he would be with Sean, he would teach him how to play football; and I would be with my mother, watching her get sick and then, get sicker and not even bothering to go to the hospital because of the expenses.

          Sean never really understood the concept of why I hated our father. I get it and I'm not really angry at him because of it. I would rather have my brother experience dad's affectionate side rather than the stricter, and always yelling side of him.

          After a few months of being a fighter, I didn't realize that I was being cheated on until I caught Alex in the act at a party of his friend we went together. When I came back from the bathroom and stumbled upon a supposed empty room, I saw him with his tongue shoved down a brunette's throat and groping her ass. I left that house and went to Penelope's to cry my eyes out after because I thought that my world was ending, until I met Max.

          Max Adams was a better man than Alex could ever be. He was the supposed white knight in shining armor every girl dreamt of—he understood what I was going through, didn't judge who I was, and wiped my tears as I cried again, explaining about what happened that night. He was the best of everything—at least, that's what I thought. I just didn't realize how it was a nightmare to be with him after just a few months of dating.

          Nightmares. How I remember to have only little of those but as I grew older, they became out of whack and are now, everywhere. I would give everything to get out.

          Including high school. Right now, we were finally going to start senior year; which meant that if I survive this year, I get to have the chance to go to college and leave this hellhole of a town but not without mom. I'm going somewhere with best doctors that can help mom and I'll be able to get the help that she needs.

          But, I can't get ahead of myself. It's survive the hell of the popular kids of the school who owns the place, make sure no one knows who I am when I fight at night because of the dangerous stakes of having people know who I am, take care of Sean (we always take care of each other), and bring the money in for mom.