Chapter Text
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQh6szk8bsU
The cold hurts and bites at my skin as I sit at the side of the road; nothing covers me but my old, thin jacket. My short skirt and ripped vest top let the cold in easily while my worn boots don’t even attempt to keep it out. Cars roar past with shouts and cries, sometimes the loud boom of music. The sidewalks are empty but the roads full. I know I have to pull myself up, get moving to keep warm but I already seem frozen to the ground. Sitting at the side of another road trying to hitchhike, it seems like a dead end. Nowhere to go. I pull myself up on the lamppost next to me and use it for support, weak from lack of food and sleep. Pitifully I stick out my thumb yet again, hoping for a kind stranger to drive me to the next town; from there I have no idea where I’ll go.
My vision is going blurry when the red car pulls up and a rough voice asks me if I need a lift. I step into the car, no questions asked. Then, I slept.
The driver of the car didn’t match his voice from the night before, but then I had been close to passing full out then. He wears a suit and tie, black hair slicked back, tie pulled to its highest point. I stretch and look at my surroundings before I even attempt conversation. The car is nice, I’d go as far to say expensive. Not the typical hitchhiker-accepting kind of car. We’re driving down a highway I don’t recognise, when you’ve seen as many as I have you realise they all look the same really.
“Wakey-Wakey,” The man’s voice floats over, like he’s trying not to startle me. I look up, not quite ready to speak yet and I realise what a state I must look like to a well-to-do man like this. Greasy dyed blond hair, covered in acne and freckles, skinny (not even thin, skinny), tattered clothes and most likely I’ve managed to scratch a scab on my arm in the night so I’ve been covered in blood. He stares at me for a while, waiting for a response but I haven’t spoken in days and I can’t remember what not being hungry feels like, in short I don’t feel like chatting.
I wake up again what must be two hours later with a sandwich in my lap. I look over and smile at the man, still not speaking. “I hope you like ham and cheese,” he smiles at me but doesn’t seem to want an answer. I shove the sandwich into my mouth, not bothering to chew or even think about it. Now I’m a state who has greasy blond hair, is covered in acne and freckles, is skinny, is wearing tattered clothes, is covered in blood and has a sandwich stuffed in her mouth. Needless to say it wasn’t my best moment. Then, once my stomach is satisfied, I speak.
“Thanks for picking me up,” My voice comes out almost grizzly it hasn’t been used in so long. He just nods and hands me a bottle of water which I gulp down unquestioningly. “Where are we heading?” my voice somehow seems to sound more human this time.
“Where do you want dropped off?” He asks, smiling. Funny thing is, he must’ve been driving all day and all night yet he didn’t seem tired and his hair wasn’t a strand out of place.
I laugh at this, it’s like he’s my personal chauffeur, asking where I want to go. I reply with anywhere in the next town, giving predictable examples like truck stops, hostels and town centres. He replies with, “I know just the place,”
I fall asleep again after my huge meal and for the first time in a long time I wake up without my stomach grumbling. I look out my window only to see a town disappear behind us. “Where are we going?” I sit up straight and look around, the town I had asked to be dropped in getting smaller and smaller in the distance. “I thoug-“ He cuts me off with a hand over my mouth, blood surges in my ears and I can’t hear a thing until for probably the first time ever my eyes close involuntarily.
I wake in what smells like a farm but I can’t be sure as everything is black. My eyes sting as the smell grows stronger. My body wakes and I realise that my hands are tied high above my head, my feet just above the ground. In my shock I start to kick and scream. Straw flies around me as my feet scrape the ground. My hands aren’t coming loose and I slowly begin to realise that they are tied together with a chain. “Hello?” I hear a voice coming from somewhere in the darkness. “Hello!” I shout into the darkness and I hear footsteps rushing towards me. Suddenly a man with sandy blonde hair and sharp features stands in front of me, he’s tough looking but there’s something else about him that I couldn’t even begin to understand. “Take a picture it lasts longer,” I snap at the man staring at me, “Untie me for heaven’s sake, aren’t you here to save me?” I ask sharply and his hands shoot up to where my wrists are tied, he doesn’t even fumble with the tight ropes, I suppose he’s done it before. Suddenly I fall to the ground, landing on my knees; I guess I’m smaller than he anticipated. I curl up, not wanting to move from the spot. All I really want to do is sleep but I know I have to run, get away from whatever that man was planning to do to me.
The man pulls me up and I brush myself down. “Stay here,” he instructs, placing his hands on my shoulders. “No,” I insist, crossing my arms and brushing him off, “I want kill the bastard,” The man laughs and shakes his head, “I think my brother’s beat you to it,” he tells me as an even taller man with long dark brown hair saunters in, there’s no blood on his hands though. “How did you kill him without getting blood on your hands?” I question the stranger abruptly. He just laughs at me, “I guess I’m good,” I stare at him, knowing this is not the truth, he might be good but surely he couldn’t be that good, I’ve never seen anyone that good. “You need a lift, kid?” The first man with the blonde hair asks. I want to refuse, I really do, but I have nowhere to go, nobody to take care of me, nobody to help. So, I simply nod.