Page 2 of Forgiving Fate

Allie

The wind hits mein the face as I sit on the curb in front of the bus stop.

I have no idea how long I’ve been sitting here, but it feels like hours. I look down at my phone and see another text from Logan.

Logan: Hey. Just checking in. Are you okay? Landon will be there soon.

I sigh and debate whether to text her back. But then think of the ramifications if I don’t. So instead of sending her into a tailspin, I text her back.

Allie: I’m fine. Okay.

Ever since I called her less than twenty-four hours ago, she has texted me every few minutes to check-in.

Not that I blame her. It’s not every day you find out your best friend escaped the hands of a madman. A madman that just so happens to be her stepfather.

Escape isn’t even the right word. I’m luckyhefulfilled his purpose and moved on tohistrue victim.

Another gust of wind hits my face, and it sends a shiver down my spine, causing me to tug the jacket tighter around my body.

The road is eerily quiet. Which makes sense. I am sitting at a random bus stop in the middle of nowhere upstate New York. The leaves on the trees are a burnt orange and starting to fall, and the subtle breeze has a chill to it. But I can’t revel in the beauty because just yesterday, some random little girl found me sleeping in a shed in the woods behind her house. And now I’m here, waiting for some random man to meet me at this stop to take me to the airport.

I guess he’s not random. He’s Logan’s fiancé’s brother, Landon. I should be nervous that a man I have never even seen is about to travel with me across the country, but I am so numb that I can’t seem to care.

The past few months of my life have been a series of one horrific storm after another. At this point, I am so blind to the pain and hurt that I don’t even think I would feel it if this man tried to hurt me.

Part of me wishes it was Logan coming, but it turns out that as Mike was leaving me to die in that basement,hewas going to seek vengeance on her. Andhealmost succeeded.

I heard the arguments between Logan and Grayson. She was seconds from getting in a car and driving across the country to be with me, but due to her injuries, she couldn’t.

So now here I am, waiting for Landon to show up and bring me back to my best friend. Who I have no idea if I can even face right now?

I wish I could say I was excited to see her again, but this reunion isn’t normal.

I have nowhere else to go. My parents are gone. They were taken at the hands of amonsterwho was on a warpath to destroyanyone and everyone who got in the way ofhisultimate goal. Which was Logan.

Every day I sat in that disgusting basement, I thought, no, I begged, the next day would be my last. But as the days turned into weeks, I started to believe that this was how I was destined to live.

The cycle of life is simple. You’re born, you live, and then you die. The living part is subjective. It depends on the directions you take that lead you down different paths. The number of outcomes is infinite, but they all end in the same place. I just wish my story could have ended before I had to feel the painheinflicted on me.

Another gust of wind hits me, but I barely feel it. I barely feel anything anymore. My entire body feels numb. Like someone could come up to me and push me over and I wouldn’t feel a thing. I would just fall to the ground and beg for it to swallow me whole.

I’m not even sure if I remember how to speak because any time I would, it would result in punishment. But not for me, for them.

I have done more talking in the past twenty-four hours than I have done in months. It’s a funny feeling. My words would be weaponized against me and now they are the one thing that is helping me get out of this godforsaken town.

When the little girl found me, I had been wandering for what felt like days and when I found the shed, my body gave in to the exhaustion. The door was unlocked, so I snuck in. I have no idea how long I slept, but when I woke up to her tapping my forehead like I was an animal behind the glass at a zoo, I froze.

She didn’t scream. She didn’t run. She simply walked away and came back moments later with a man, who I later found out was her father. And that’s when the fear kicked back in. Unlike the young girl with her inky black hair, that screamed innocence, he was terrifying.

I guess my mask had slipped and when he saw how scared I was, his demeanor softened. But that didn’t do much. He was still standing there in an all-black suit, his raven hair sitting perfectly on top of his head. But it wasn’t the suit or the intimidating way he was standing over me that had me trying to sink further into the corner. It was his icy, almost white eyes staring into my soul, begging me to reveal why I was sleeping in a shed in the woods behind his house.

I tried to hurry and explain, but my voice wouldn’t cooperate. How does one even begin to explain the horror that has occurred? A horror that has made me feel like I have lived a thousand lifetimes in a matter of months. And when the traitorous tear slipped down my cheek, his mask slipped further.

He introduced himself as Alec Novikoff. His accent was strong but, in my haze, I could not place it. Somehow, he convinced me to leave the safety of the shed, but in my gut, I knew I wasn’t safe. My suspicions were then confirmed when two large men met us as we came out of the woods.

When I tried to bolt, one of the large men caught me, but to my shock, he didn’t attack. He simply nodded his head towards a small cottage and flashed me a smile.

Alec sent his daughter off with the other guard, walked me into the cottage, and sat me down at the kitchen table. The cottage was small and simple, but I didn’t bother looking around.

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