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“Yeah. I don’t want to leave, but Hunter…”
“You don’t have to say any more. But he hasn’t done anything to you, has he?”
I pause for a few moments, trying to decide how to answer that question. Hunter hasn’t done anything physically to me yet, but I have no doubt if he was pushed, he wouldn’t think twice about it.
“Not yet.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. I need to get as far away from here as possible. Just long enough to claim my inheritance, and then we’ll be on our way to college together.”
I force a smile as if she can see it. I have no idea if I’m even going to be able to claim my inheritance, let alone go to college in a few months, but Lisa doesn’t need to know that. I’ve burdened her enough just by calling her and asking for help.
“My brother’s old car has been sitting in the garage for weeks. It’s nothing to look at, but it runs. I can meet you at the park by your house in an hour, and you can drop me back at my house before heading out of town.”
Sadness clogs my throat as I think about possibly never seeing my best friend again. Hunter said he would deem me a runaway and make sure I never see my inheritance, which means I could be on the run for the foreseeable future. I’ll never go to college or have the life my mom planned for me.
“Okay, I’ll see you in about an hour. Thanks, Lisa.”
“Anything for you, bestie.”
Now for the hard part, not that anything about this situation is easy. I have to figure out how to pack my entire childhood into a backpack.
Yeah…easier said than done.
CHAPTERTWO
SAVANNAH
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” I screech as Lisa’s brother’s piece-of-shit car comes to a puttering halt on the side of the road.
After a tearful goodbye with Lisa a few hours ago, I plugged in the address for the hunting lodge I copied off my inheritance paperwork and set off for Tennessee. It’s been a few hours, and according to the map on my phone, I’m only a few miles away, but hell if I know if that’s even accurate since I lost cell service a couple miles back.
“You couldn’t have waited until I was at least closer to civilization?”
I have no fucking clue what I’m going to do right now. I’m surrounded by trees. It’s getting dark, and I have zero cell phone service. This is like the horror movies. A young girl gets stranded in the middle of the mountain and is so relieved when someone comes along and offers her a ride into town. Next thing she knows, she’s chained up in the basement of an old cabin getting fattened up to be someone’s dinner come winter. Yeah, no thanks.
I look around, searching for any signs of life, and notice a yellow glow peeking through the trees about fifty yards away.
“Here’s to not getting murdered by a serial killer,” I mumble to myself before grabbing my backpack from the seat beside me and climbing out of the car.
I only packed a small suitcase and my backpack before leaving my childhood home. I have enough clothes for the week, a beat-up copy ofThe Outsidersby S.E. Hilton, and a few pictures of my mom from before she got sick. As I was packing, trying desperately to choose what I was bringing with me, I realized there were only a few things I couldn’t live without. I’ll miss the house I grew up in, but the memories I made in the time I spent there with my mom mean more to me and a building.
Using my flashlight to see, I head toward the light glowing through the trees. It isn’t ideal walking through the woods in the middle of the night alone, but it beats sitting in the car, hoping that someone comes by to help. Either way, there is a strong possibility I’ll become an old man named Angus’s bride and spend the rest of my days learning how to live off the land. At least this way I’m being slightly proactive about my fate.
After about a mile, I notice a long driveway leading to the east and closer to the light. I stand there for a little while contemplating my options before deciding that heading toward that light has a stronger possibility of me not freezing to death.
“Here’s hoping they aren’t a serial killer or an old man named Angus,” I mumble before checking my backpack for my mace and heading up the road.
I don’t really know how long I’m walking toward this light, but no matter what I do, it doesn’t seem to get any closer. Most people would probably turn around and head back toward the road, but not me. I’ve already committed to making it to whatever is by that light, and come hell or high water, Iwillmake it there. It may not be the smartest idea, but I refuse to be bested.
It’s one of the many parts of my colorful personality that I’d say could be considered a bad thing. I always finish what I start, no matter the cost, and I refuse to fail at something. Basically, I’m stubborn as a mule. Once I make my mind up, I’m going for it one hundred percent. Mostly, that way of thinking has never steered me wrong. I hope this isn’t the one time it does.
“Finally. Thank fuck,” I groan before shoving my phone into my back pocket and striding toward the log cabin in front of me.
If my GPS was correct, this isn’t the small hunting lodge in my mother’s will, but one of my neighbors. I don’t know what I thought a small hunting cabin in the woods should look like, but this isn’t it.
Two porch lights are shining brightly and illuminating the beautiful front porch that runs the length of the house and the deep-colored door positioned between two decent-sized windows. This is the perfect space for a hideaway from society when you need to recharge – or in my case, hide out from your psycho stepfather who wants to sell you to the mob to pay off his debts from your mother’s death.
