Page 5 of Ensnared By Silence
“Let’s take her for one more spin. I’ve been dying to see how tight her pussy is.” Wesley laughed and the three of them tossed back their drinks and stood, extinguishing their cigars.
Knowing I had to get out of there before they realized I was awake and aware, I slipped out the back door leading to the garage, silently closing the door behind me. Using one hand to hold myself up as I slid down the side of the pool house and stumbled through the grass, I found Tucker’s old ten speed and pushed it away from the garage.
“You can do this,” I silently reminded myself as I crawled painfully onto the bike. “They’ll kill you if they find you.”
I didn’t know if it was true, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out. They were right—no one would believe me over them. They were rich while I was poor. They were respected while I was a nobody. It would be my word against theirs, and I know how the criminal justice system treats women in this situation.
The first few feet down the back driveway, the bike wobbled as I pushed it with unsteady steps, and I could hear them opening the back door, calling my name.
“Aubrey! Sweetheart, where are you?” Tucker called. I briefly closed my eyes and exhaled through my nose, fighting the urge to throw up.
Tears fell, and I blinked them away as I mounted the seat, pain shooting through my core. They weren’t gentle with me and I could feel the bruises forming on my skin. I pumped my legs, and the bike rolled down the back driveway, each rotation taking me further away from horrible people who I thought I could trust. I should have remembered that people are only out for their own agenda and to never put my trust in someone else. My mother abandoning me with a piece of shit father taught me that. I forgot for a moment and allowed pretty words and a world I didn’t belong in to destroy a part of my soul.
Peddling across Lincolnville, I used backroads and alleyways, hoping to avoid the three assholes. I didn’t know if they would come looking for me, and the last thing I wanted to do was be confronted by them. I heard talk of how Tucker’s father handled problems that arose within his family, and Jared’s father was some kind of diplomat, I think.
I quietly let myself in to the only place that ever felt safe, like a real home, and packed my suitcase. My foster sister was asleep in her bed, blissfully unaware of the real dangers that existed in the world, and I swiped the tears from my cheeks as I slipped from the room. I wanted to tell them goodbye, but one look at me and they would insist on calling the police.
The police weren’t for people like me, and it would be my word against theirs. Not wanting to bring to my foster family the attention this would generate, I solidified my decision to stay silent. The deck was stacked against me from the moment I was born, and tonight resolved my belief that no matter the pretty covering, people were ugly in their souls. Going down to the basement bathroom, I turned on the light and removed the shorts and t-shirt I was wearing.
One look in the mirror and I choked down a sob. Taking a few pictures in the mirror, I climbed into the shower and, with scalding hot water, scrubbed the evidence of their sins from my skin. With each painful drop of water, I felt myself pulling farther and farther away from the person I had grown to become and closer to the person I tried to hide.
The shameful girl who was broken from the inside.
With my wet hair clinging to my face, I stared at myself in the mirror one more time. Whispering so only I could hear it, my reflection mocking me, I promised, “They will pay for what they did.”
I didn’t know if it was a promise I could keep, but it was the only thing keeping me from breaking apart. I dressed in a pair of yoga pants and pulled on a hoodie, a chill building across my skin. I left my foster parents a note, thanking them for their care and compassion, and silently slipped out the door and pulled my car out of the garage.
My eyes were on a swivel as I drove away from Lincolnville. Every car had my heart racing with worry, but the further away from them I got, the calmer I became. My car wasn’t anything special, but it ran great and was paid for. I drove throughout the night with no destination in mind other than escaping the long reach of Mr. Prescott and his demented sons. He would stop at nothing to protect them and I will do whatever I have to do to burn them all to the ground.
With no one and nowhere to go, I debated going back to the Flats, only to realize that wasn’t the place for me. The memories from my life there were worse than what I survived tonight, so I kept driving. I finally stopped a few hours away in a quaint little town called Pierce Bluff and pulled into a public parking lot facing a picturesque lake. Locking the doors, I let my seat down and curled into myself as the tears finally fell. I don’t know how long I laid there until I finally fell asleep.
Chapter 2
Three years passedsince I ran to Pierce Bluff, and I still looked over my shoulder every day. I still thought about the mysterious stranger who freed me from my nightmare from time to time, but I no longer agonized about him returning to finish me off. Mostly I worried about the trio who wrecked my soul. I didn’t hide myself, but I didn’t advertise where I was either. I had no social media accounts and was in my last months of online classes for computer programming. My professor helped me set up a few freelance jobs designing websites, and I made a decent living.
My twenty-first birthday was last week, and my friend, Mathias, decided we needed to go out and celebrate. We met during a self-defense class at the local rec center shortly after I moved here and became fast friends. Knowing he wasn’t interested in trying to get into my pants made me trust him explicitly. He worked with me, building me up and strengthening me, not only physically but mentally as well. I could never fight a man, but I hoped if I had to use my training, it would allow me to escape.
