Work Text:
“Do you remember anything that happened that night?”
I was sitting with My therapist on a Friday afternoon. The question rang in my head for a good minute before I was asked again.
“Do remember anything from that night at all, Jak?” he asked again. I did remember, I just didn’t want to remember at all. But I had to tell him. Its why I am here in the first place
I nodded.
“Could you tell me what you remember? That would be great.”
I reached to the back of my head for the memory.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
It was 10 years ago; I was six years old. I was living with a man and his wife, Hugh and Jaune, and two other children, Tari and Roman. I remember Hugh had a café that we helped with after school. We had an aunt who was visiting from Jersey, her name was Misty Waters. She babysat us sometimes, but Tari kept insisting she didn’t need one since she was already 17 years old.
Roman wanted to visit some movie Studio in California, so Hugh and Jaune took all of us to America for his birthday. Hugh had this second home in the middle of nowhere in California, a few miles away from civilization. It was a few days before Roman’s birthday, and we were already on our way. Hugh saved up from the cafe’s earnings for this special day.
The day of the trip, we all got into this old red van and left. We crossed the border and, after a few hours, we pulled off the highway and ended up on a rocky, uneven road that was sure to get someone sick. The van being as old as it was didn’t help, and the tires felt like giving out and popping off. It was late and foggy which made it hard to see anything. The car was filled with silence, only accompanied by the sound of the tires against gravel road. We were going decently fast because it was only a narrow road to the house. Hugh was checking the mirrors to see if anyone was fallowing us. When he looked back, a deer ran onto the road, making him swerve to avoid hitting it. I heard tires squealing and before I knew it, we were rolling down the road. The windows were shattering, the hood was crumpling, and airbags were going off. Suddenly, everything stopped.
Nobody was moving. Nothing was happening. I couldn’t feel my arm, and I could hear my breaths echoing back to me in the dark night. Faster, faster. I felt short of breath, I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and passed out.
A while later, I awoke, and it got darker. I was crying for help; begging for someone to rescue me from this nightmare. But nobody came. I could see Hugh, Jaune, and the others but they weren’t moving. Glass and debris were everywhere. Blood was leaking down my arm and onto the seat. More hours pass, no help is coming. It was pitch black out, everyone and everything is quiet. Alone and stuck in a wrecked van, I didn’t like it. I didn’t like it at all. My breathing gets heavier as I feel the dread of dying in the middle of nowhere.
After a while, Misty pulled me out of my seat and onto the rough gravel road. She told me that the others were gone, and that we were going to the house. Before I could ask where they went, she picked me up and took me to the house down the road, the vacation house. I was told we were gonna camp there until help arrives. After we entered the building, we sat on the couch in the living area and fell asleep for the night.
We spent the next few days in solitude, trying to stay alive. I finally understood where Hugh and Jaune were, but they were not coming back. A few days pass, no signs of help show up like we hoped. A few days later, I hear the front door open in the middle of the night. I went to check out who or what entered. It looked like a couple of people in uniforms with flashlights and guns. They were enforcers. Enforcers are people who claim to help the public, but the system restricts them from doing anything other than shooting people to fix a problem that wasn’t there in the first place and escalate a situation.
I ran upstairs and woke Misty up and told her about the enforcers that entered the house. She rushed awake and told me to hide. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen area and hid in a cabinet while she grabbed an axe she found in the attic. The enforcers were getting closer with their bright lights and guns in hand. Misty struck one of them from behind, killing the enforcer. Gunshots echo through the silent house as they scrap in the kitchen. Through the crack in the cupboard door, I see blood spill and carnage ensue. When things calmed down, Misty pulled me out of the cupboard and informed me there was no doubt that there were more of them coming so we needed to leave as soon as possible.
Just like she said, more vehicles pulled up to the house with more enforcers with them. We climbed out a back window and silently ran towards the forest. Lights shine towards our direction, shouts echoing through the darkness of the forest. Misty grabbed my shoulder and told me one thing. Run, and never come back. She said she would be fine, before running back and trying to ward off the enforcers, axe in hand. Wanting to help her, I ran back with my knife and tried to aid her. In the blink of an eye, something slash across my face, and I felt a stinging sensation across my eye. Time felt like it slowed to a crawl, but everything was still going too fast. Misty was still yelling at me to run, so I sprinted away with blood down my face. I couldn’t see much but I could hear people screaming and ammunition being fired while I ran. I sprinted through the forest, hurdling over logs and bumping into trees before stopping leaning against a tree. Being as tired as I was, I decided to camp there for the night before trying to find help wandering through the forest.
The next morning, I kept walking through the forest knife in hand. I was walking for days on end, with no help except for the occasional empty tent with food in it. I was starving and tired the whole time, 5 days. One night, however, I found this mansion looking building. I was intrigued by the size, so I tried to find an entrance. All the doors were locked, but I saw an open window on the second floor. I had found a rain pipe connecting to the roof by the window. The idea to scale the wall sprung into my head, fueled by never-ending desire to find food. I grabbed onto the drainpipe and began climbing up to the second floor, still holding on to the knife. I climbed through the window, which appeared to be a bedroom. Exiting the room, I ran into a teenager roaming the halls, but I stayed out of sight until they went back to their room. I looked to the right, I found a refrigerator with plenty of sustenance, just for me. My hunger took over me, and I instantly began scarfing down any food in sight. A woman named Maya came into the kitchen to see what was making that noise and saw little old me, eating her food. She took me in, feeding me and caring for me when I needed it. She became my new family.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Thank you for telling me everything, Jak. This appears to be all the time we have left together. Ill see you next week”
I left the office and out into the parking lot where my mother was waiting in her van to pick me up. Getting into her car, she told me she was proud of me for being able to open up to someone about it. She turned the key, starting the car, and we left homeward.