A tear fell down her cheek as she slowly laid in the grass, her arms outstretched, taking in the falling sun, while she caught her breath. Her chest rose and fell rapidly and another tear soon followed the first. Then another, and soon, sobs were racking her body.

She was sure she was safe. She’d been running, running far and fast, and now she could feel the pain in the soles of her bare feet, the ache in her legs, and the pounding on her head. She wasn’t sure where she was, but it must’ve been hours since she’d escape, as the sun was high in the sky when she first started her journey.

The adrenaline that was pumping through her was fading, leaving her feeling weak and vulnerable, while thoughts caught up to her. What if he found her again? What if she wasn’t as far as she thought and he could still find her and bring her back?

The lull of the grasshoppers, and the birds, and the owl was suppressing her panic, the ground felt so nice and comfortable underneath her frail body. And she sobbed. How long had she been gone? Were her parents still looking for her? Did they forget about her?

She knew it must’ve been a year, or somewhere near there because of what he’d put her through, and the grief that followed shortly thereafter, but she had no idea how long she’d been trapped before that whole… before that happened.

She could feel the dirt crawling up her legs, she felt disgusting knowing there was dirt all over her body, but somehow, the tears made her face feel cleaner. A smile broke out on her face, the first one she’d have since this all began. She had no idea who he was, only that he told her to call him daddy or there would be consequences. Unfortunately, she learned what those consequences were.

Even more so unfortunately, she calling him daddy didn’t stop him from hurting her or isolating her. She sniffled and looked to the sky, another sob racking her shivering body, as she felt the air around her grow colder while she watched the moon start to take its place in the sky.

Then she heard it, in the distance. There. Slowly, she sat up, scanning her surroundings but all she saw was patches of grass and trees. She knew there had to have been a road somewhere close by, she couldn’t have possibly been hearing those sirens if it wasn’t.

Wiping her face, she used both her hands to help her stand up again, straining to listen what direction it was coming from and while she had little to no energy, the adrenaline came rushing back, and she took off in the direction she heard the ambulance coming from. Or maybe it was a police siren. Either way, it was help.

With branches and thorns scratching her legs, gravel and little broken glass cutting her feet, she tore down a path and soon stumbled over a bush, tumbling onto the hard ground below her, but she quickly shot up to her feet, looking around for the saving grace.

She frowned, she could hear it but she wasn’t seeing it.. she walked further up, and relief flooded through her as she saw the police car coming down the hill. She waved her arms and screamed, “Please, help me, please!” She could barely recognize her own voice, but she was thankful the police had stopped at the bottom of the hill for her.

Whether they stopped because of her desperate pleas for help, or because she looked like a homeless person, or maybe a mixture of both, she didn’t care. She was finally escaping. Collapsing one more time in a heap on the ground, she sobbed with no more energy to keep going, watching a man step out of the cruiser, radioing dispatch for an ambulance, she cried out. “Please, help me.”

Horror flooded her body as she recognized the second man getting out of the car and she cried and shook her head, “no,” she whispered, trying to gain the energy to get back up. This was supposed to be her ending, this was supposed to be a happy ending, maybe not right away but…

This entire time… She screamed into the horizon, forcing herself to stand up, only to collapse in the first man’s arms because of how weak she actually was, she hadn’t realized…

“It’s okay, it’s okay, you’re safe now.” She heard him say in her ear, “We’ve got an ambulance on the way but why don’t you sit in the back of the car and tell us what happened?” He sounded so gentle and sweet, his voice soothing her, but she was still on edge.

“No, no, no, not with him.” She croaked, her throat dried, her lips cracked, for the first time she noticed just how foreign she sounded to herself. Just how much pain she was in.

Worry creased through his brow but he nodded, still leading the young lady to the car, opening the door for her and letting her sit. When he noticed his partner starting to come closer, he took a protective stance in front of her and called for his boss, he wasn’t going to take chances. “Alright, I think I’ve got some water in here if you’d like while we wait for the ambulance.”

When she nodded her head, he reached to the front and grabbed an unopened water bottle he was saving for a later time and handed it to her. Within minutes, she downed the entire plastic bottle, and color started to return to her already. She took a shaky breath. “Where did you come from? What happened?” He asked her, hoping she would answer but she took wary glances not to him, but the man behind him. “Would you want to talk later?”

She nodded, that was best, being away from… him… she couldn’t take chances. He was a cop… she hadn’t realized… what if they didn’t believe her? His partners seeming protection of her could only do so much if the department was only going to protect this awful man to begin with.

—————-

A/N: I was going to leave it with an open ending and I might post that version, though I’m not sure if it’ll spoil the work done here…

I might add to it? I don’t know

I definitely want to gain feedback for this piece, though!