Stay(24)

Son of a bitch.

I hit the steering wheel, angry with myself. I should have looked inside the RV for his keys. But I didn’t. I screamed in frustration. I madly opened the glove box and pulled down the visors. I was wasting time.

The smell of body odor and cigarette smoke inside the old Caddy suffocated me. I needed out. I needed to leave. The interior door handle was sticky, but I didn’t have time to grimace at the mystery substance. I wrapped my fingers around it and pushed the door open.

I moved out of the car and looked at the RV. I could see the man’s large silhouette moving behind the pulled curtains in the small bedroom. I put one hand on the doorframe and bent inside, ready to pop the hood and try my best to damage the engine when the RV creaked. I didn’t want the man to drive away and find Zane. Or follow me down the road… if I made it that far.

Adrenaline surged through me, pricking every nerve in my body. I jumped away from the car, consternation pulling me into irrational darkness. I spun around and took off, sprinting down the dirt driveway. It had to lead to a road. It just had to. And once on the road, I would run into a car, and that car would take me to safety, just like I imagined.

“Hey!” the man yelled from behind me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? I can see you, bitch!”

Keys jingled, and the door slammed. I jumped off the dirt road and crashed into the trees, feet catching on tangles of weeds and uneven earth. I threw my hands out in front of me to catch myself. Low hanging branches hit my face, tearing open the skin on my cheeks.

I cried out when my knees hit the ground, tree limbs and roots biting into my flesh. I pushed myself up and blindly ran forward, not realizing how much noise I was making until I was several yards into the forest. I came to a sudden halt and put my hand over my mouth, trying to quiet my rapid breath.

Red-hot fear radiated off of me and hung in the thick air, cloaking my body in a sticky reminder of the danger I was in. I pressed my back against a tree and closed my eyes, trying to force out a slow, steady breath. Around me, the wildlife was blind to the horrors and went on with its usual night routine. Something whizzed past me and landed in my hair. Too worried about my life to freak out, I calmly batted the insect away.

Moonlight filtered through the thick vegetation, casting dark and eerie shadows off the trees. With my hands still pressed against my lips, I looked around, unsure of exactly where I had run from. I made a straight line off the driveway, right? Branches snapped behind me, and I jumped, making an irritating squeaking noise I winced and scooted my feet back until my heels protested against the roots of the tree. The underbrush crunched under someone’s feet from only a few yards away. I edged around the thick tree trunk and put my shaking hands on the bark.

I counted to three and pushed off. Bits of sap pulled at my hair and stuck to my hands. Ignoring it, I dropped to the ground and out of sight. Slowly, I lifted my right hand and left knee simultaneously and moved forward. Something squirmed under my hand and I recoiled; my elbow hit a tangle of weeds that trembled from my touch.

“Shit!” I mouthed and battled against the urge to give up and sprint away. I put my hand back down and moved, only to repeat the slow process two more times before freezing.

“Yeah, the bitch escaped,” the man’s gruff voice carried through the humid air. I could see the glow of a cell phone only feet away. My heart plummeted to the ground, beating so fast and loud that he had to be able to hear it. “I chased her down the driveway, but the whore went into the woods. I didn’t pay for this,” he angrily spat. “Bring me another and find your own cunt-ass bitch!”#p#分页标题#e#

My eyes finally focused on his large shape. He turned around, swatting at bugs. His shoulders were tense, and his free hand curled into a fist. He lowered his phone from his ear and slammed this thumb onto the screen.

“Un-fucking-believable,” he mumbled before shoving the phone into his pocket. He pulled something else out and put it close to his face.

The sudden brightness of the cigarette lighter blinded me. I flattened myself on the ground and closed my eyes, the shape of the flame burned into my retinas. The stench of smoke wafted slowly through the thick air, mixing with the scent of the man’s overpowering cologne.

I peered through dew-covered leaves and watched the red end of his cigarette glow as he took a drag, then disappear from view when he turned around. Gravel crunched under his feet as he walked up the driveway. I let out my breath and crept forward, not daring to get up. When the nasty smell of cigarette smoke was gone, I painstakingly crawled on my hands and knees to hide behind the fat trunk of an oak tree. I pushed myself up and took off again, putting what I had hoped was yards between us before I darted onto the driveway again.