AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I left him a letter on my bed explaining that I’m leaving and that he needs to escape from the Bratva as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if he goes to California or France or wherever, I just need him miles from my father and all of his corruption.
My heart hurts for my poor mother, who will probably find out about my disappearance from an underpaid psych nurse. They’ll use that same awful voice that they use to patronize her the way they do when she refuses her medication. She’ll fall to the floor, weeping immediately, and they’ll sedate her rather than choosing to comfort her at all.
The only people I don’t regret leaving are my father and Izet. Now that I’ve learned just how tyrannical and selfish my father is, I don’t think I could ever consider him my family ever again. He’s got his own family now, and they all make him loads of money by putting their lives and safety on the line. I don’t know how he did it, but I doubt he’ll be able to keep it up much longer. He’s going to work them to the bone until they revolt against him. It’s just a matter of time.
I approach a large public park just before the bridge that stretches over a huge river. Despite how late into autumn we are, there are barely any leaves on the ground here. The grass is cut unusually short, and the lack of overhead lighting gives the park a haunted, inhuman atmosphere.
Either I cross the bridge to find shelter for the night, or I find a bench in this park. I can’t see anyone else in the park, which should comfort me. But it doesn’t. I doubt the kinds of people who I’d find here would be the types that I’d want to hang around for too long, but seeing another human in this barren, over-manicured landscape would bring me some comfort.
At least then, I would know that humans can survive here without being swallowed into a wormhole.
I never knew how easy it was for my mind to run away on me when I didn’t have someone around to keep me in check. Suddenly, I’m discovering fears that I never knew I had that are crawling to the forefront of my consciousness. Who the fuck is afraid of parks? Why does it make me feel like I’m in danger?
Was Dominik really that important to me from the beginning?
After deliberating for a moment, I decide that I’ll just cross the river and find a place to stay there. It’s a more progressive side of town anyway, so I’ll probably find a women’s shelter somewhere that will accept me without my ID.
Now that I’m an adult, they can’t arrest me for being a runaway anymore.
I begin to traverse the bridge, discovering another fear as I look down from the railing. I’m at the halfway point, and the water beneath me is black. Deep and black. I’d be lost forever if someone threw me in, or if I jumped…
My attention is torn from the depths as I hear someone revving their engine from the base of the bridge. I figure it’s just men trying to get my attention, or maybe even intimidate me, so I decide to just ignore them and keep moving.
When they pull up next to me and stop the car, my heart sinks to the ground.
I don’t have much time to look, but I’d never forget those faces – it’s the men who beat the shit out of Slava in the parking garage.
“No!” is all I can say before the right passenger door flies open and another set of hands emerges from the dark and grabs me by my hoodie.
I’m screaming now, and they’ve got me only partway inside of the vehicle, so I just need to fight for my life and scream as loud as I can before someone notices. It’s a big city, someone has to notice.
Or maybe that just means that they’ll care less.
The man in the car is about to cut my leg in order to force me to unhook it from the side of the car. It’s the only leverage I have now, and if I lose it, I’ll die for sure.
Then I hear gunshots.
Then the glass behind me shatters.
A familiar vehicle speeds up to the car that I’m being violently pulled into, stopping directly behind it. When the driver gets out of the front seat, I see him.
It’s Dominik.
He wastes no time sprinting up to the driver’s side door and breaking the window with his gun. He drags the driver out, pulling him off the seat like a rag doll as the man fights back to no avail. Dominik kneels down on the ground, punches the man in the head three times, and jumps back to his feet. His eyes meet mine, though his are not filled with any affection. He’s enraged.
“Car, now.”
At this point, I realize that I’m not going to talk my way out of this one. I can’t use a sarcastic, bitchy shell to hide how I’m feeling, and what I’m feeling is terror. I could never survive out here on my own, and it was stupid and naïve to think that I could.
I nod in his direction, my eyes nervous as he walks back to the car. I want to escape from him, but there’s no point in trying anymore. He’s caught me, and I’ll be lucky if all he does is scream at me.
Hastily, I grab the door handle and flop into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind me and locking it immediately. He follows right behind, and the second he’s back in the driver’s seat, he flips the car around and speeds away before he even closes the door.
With the roar of the engine blaring as we escape, there’s no point in arguing about what just happened. The noise is horrendous, but I can take some solace in it before I’m forced to come to terms with my future. Whatever semblance of a free life I thought I had is over, and all I was trying to do was take my own future into my hands.
I’m going to be punished for running away, and it’s not like I can just call the police and tell them I’m being held hostage by my father. If I gave any hints at all to such a thing, everything he’s ever worked for would crumble into nothing at his feet. It would be the biggest betrayal of his life, and it would be coming from his own daughter.
Now I realize that I’m truly out of options.
