AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Our faces didn’t look anything alike.
I paid her a hundred bucks for her ID anyway.
I pulled it out and laid it on the counter along with the money. Then I held my breath. Milliseconds stretch into eons. The sweat on my brow slipped down my forehead behind the bangs of the wig.
The ticketer took the money and barely even glanced at the ID before pushing it and the ticket back across the counter to me.
Don’t show your relief, don’t show your relief.
I mumbled something like, “Cool,” before grabbing both and turning back into the crowd.
Right at the same time I heard a familiar voice call out, “Have you seen this woman?”
Shit! Shit shit shit.
It was Buchanan, Jeff’s overly involved lead attorney and best friend. He who famously covered up, shut up, and otherwise took care of all of Jeff’s dirty underhanded dealings that never saw the light of day.
Including me several times in the past, when Jeff went too far, and I was left bloody and broken enough to need a hospital.
Broken left orbital bone. Shattered ulna from the time Jeff hit my forearm with a baseball bat. The… other time that led to me slashing my wrists. Which he of course also cleaned up, seeing to my in-patient treatment, locking me away, and having them put me on suicide watch so I couldn’t escape, even by death. He also made sure I was immediately put on the numbing drug cocktail so no one would believe anything I said, and yes, I did try.
I was diagnosed as being bipolar with schizoid episodes. And suicidal ideation, obviously.
I heaved for a breath that didn’t come and turned away from where Buchanan was pushing through the crowd, showing his phone around, no doubt with my picture on it.
He hasn’t got you yet. You can still get out of this. I stumbled through the crowd, clutching my ticket in my hand.
Away. I just had to get away.
I fought back the tears that threatened and bit the inside of my cheek as hard as I could. Fuck Buchanan, fuck Jeff.
I was here. I’d come this far.
Just get to the bus. Get to the bus.
I nodded to myself and then reminded myself to shuffle. I was a woman without a care in the world. I was just a normal millennial, barely out of college. Off to visit my sick aunt.
Even though it killed me, I slowed down instead of hurrying. I took my time and though every instinct in my body screamed for me to look over my shoulder to see how close the hunter that was stalking me was—
No.
That was the logic of a person who got themselves caught.
Not this time. Not this fucking time.
So I kept cruising forwards. It took me a panicked second, but I finally found the bus for Seattle. I didn’t look over my shoulder as I climbed on. I didn’t freeze up even though my feet felt like lead blocks. I kept myself fluid. Just like any other person. Visiting a sick aunt, visiting a sick aunt.
A couple peopled glanced up as I moved down the aisle and took a seat at the back, but only a couple. I wasn’t Penelope Chambers, turning heads. I didn’t sit by the window even though I preferred the window seat. Any barrier from Buchanan was good right now.
And I’d timed it well. It was only five minutes until we left.
Five horrifying, terrifying minutes where every muscle was rigid and me about sweat out my entire body weight, clutching my backpack like it was a life preserver, but then—
The blessed noise of the door closing.
I collapsed, boneless, back against the seat in thanks as the bus pulled out of the depot, taking me away from Penelope Chambers, Jeff Chambers, and the prison I prayed I’d never, ever see again.
Chapter Three
