Captivated

I’d learned to ignore the stares and whispers from my classmates as they looked on though it scared me half to death. The fewer people who know about us, the better. But he’d refused to do anything differently since the first day he picked me up there unless I gave him a good enough reason, which I couldn’t. Not unless I wanted him to see more than I was ready to share right now, or maybe ever.

The only place I’ve been able to get my way when it comes to holding him off is when it comes to home, and when I think about it, that’s the one place I really wish he’d put his foot down and insist. No, that’s not fair; he has no idea what’s going on here, though he has a healthy disrespect for the monster my sister is married to.

He’d told me the story of what he suspects had happened to his sister, and I believed him without a doubt. As much as he hates him, I doubt even he knows the true depths of just how evil my brother in law really is. My only question is, how had he so easily got my sister to follow in his footsteps?

Sometimes I dream of running away. In fact, the night Dray almost ran me over; I was on my way to the park to hideout until I could come up with a better plan. I’d been staking out the place for a while, a little shanty town beneath one of the long-forgotten tunnels in the park where the homeless found refuge. I won’t say they lived there, because no one can, but at least it offered some shelter from the elements.

It figures that on the night I finally got brave enough to actually go through with it, it had rained cats and dogs. Still, I would’ve carried on had I not had that run-in with Damien. I’d been too embarrassed and afraid to tell him the truth, and so had ended up giving him my real address.

Thank goodness, my sister and her husband had been out that night and weren’t back when I snuck back in. That night I’d dreamt about the hot guy in the expensive suit who’d stepped out of the even more expensive car to see if I was okay.

I relived every second I’d been in his presence, no doubt blowing it all out of proportion until it became something more than it really was. Even his voice had drawn me in, as if each word, each syllable, was a direct link to my nerve endings. And that forceful way about him that I’d felt even in that one short time spent together in the confines of the car.

The next day I’d made up my mind to try again. My time was running out, and I only had a few short weeks until school was out. That’s when they’d decided to carry out their sick twisted plans. At least I’d bought some time there, though they weren’t doing it for me, but to safeguard themselves.

I would’ve tried again no matter the consequences had Damien not come looking for me. He’s the one good thing about this city, about my whole life since my parents died in fact, but I’m about to lose him because there’s no way I can stay in this city any longer.

I’ve been taking these last few days for myself, storing up all the love and adoration he’s offered me, for a time in the future, a time when he’s no longer there. Because I can’t get him in the middle of my nightmare, even if I could overcome the shame to even bring it up to him.

School ends next Friday. I can only think of the graduation I’m going to miss, though it’s not that much of a big deal. As a homeschooler, it would’ve been nothing more than a gathering of other kids like myself, not the big to-do they have in high schools across the country. Plus, I hardly know any of the girls at my school though I’ve been there for the better part of a year.

I was too ashamed to make friends with anyone, though at first, I’d been so excited to be in a classroom for the first time since I was about twelve and mom and dad decided to take me out of school because of what they saw as a decline in the system.

Thinking about that, about how protective they were of their young daughters, I could only be glad that they weren’t here to see what had become of my sister, their oldest child. I pulled my thoughts back from there since there was no point. She as no longer the daughter they’d raised.

My hand faltered as I wrote the words next Friday with three stars next to them. My heart raced sickeningly in my chest as I thought of what it meant. I hadn’t been this afraid the last time I tried to make a run for it, and I knew I felt this way only because of Damien. I don’t want to lave him, but I have no choice; they’d left me with none.