Live or Die

After Aaron had arrived in Chicago, he had called me immediately.  We had spoken multiple times over the next several days, by phone, but then I hadn't heard from him.  He wouldn't (couldn't?) tell me where he was going or what he was going to be involved with or doing.  He told me he wasn't entirely sure when he'd talk to me again, either.  He said he'd touch base as soon as he could.  I had cried.  Hard.  My heart felt broken and I was devastated that he was temporarily gone for an unknown amount of time.

It was now almost a month later and I hadn't heard from him.  I had broken down and called Brad (Detective Stratton) July 3rd to see if he knew anything.

He sighed into the phone.  "Aleah, you know that I couldn't tell you anything even if I knew."

"I know.  I'm just... worried.  What if something bad happened to him and he's in a hospital dying, alone?"

He chuckled.  "Trust me, he wouldn't be alone.  And I would definitely at least know that."

I furrowed my brows, even though he couldn't see.  "I guess..."

"Listen to me.  He's got a good head on his shoulders, and he's crazy about you.  I didn't encourage this relationship between you two, but I would have made sure it never happened if I thought he was going to do something to fuck it up."

I trusted Brad, too, and knew he wouldn't lie to me and would protect me, since I was his pseudo-daughter and all.

I had watched fireworks with Sarah, Matt, Maddie, and Gavin.  I felt like the 5th wheel, although it was really in my head, I'm sure. 

The day after was really nice, but I was feeling lazy, so I lounged around the house until ate afternoon.  Sarah and I were planning on having a roomie night, but I wanted to go running first.  I had hooked my MapMyRun app to her phone, so she knew where I was, now, since Aaron was MIA for now.

I decided to run a half marathon in the fall, so I was in the training process, building my miles up.  My jog today was 7 miles.  I had planned out a tentative route that I thought would get me close, and I knew I may have to improvise to actually get me the full 7 along the way. 

I had ended up getting the dog that Aaron and I went to look at in the shelter.  I named him Bosco.  If I was running 3 miles or less, I would take him with me.  It made me feel more secure.  But I felt like more than 3 was just too much.

About half way out, I ran through a wooded trail at a park.  I had my headphones in and was watching the dirt trail closely so as not to step on a gutted out tree root and twist my ankle or worse, when I ran straight into someone.

Their hands clasped my upper arms and gripped tightly.  I frowned, and quickly looked up, expecting someone to just think they were catching me from falling.  Instead, I looked up into the overeager face of Luke.

His mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear what he was saying because of my headphones in, and he had my arms pinned at my sides, so I couldn't take them out, either.

He stopped speaking and looked at me, intently, but amused.

My eyes darted around, but not finding any humans.  I knew with how deep into the wooded area I was, it was probably useless to scream.

He gripped my arms even tighter and backed me up against a tree, but still on the trail.  I was frozen in fear.  I didn't think I could move.  My eyes were wide, my mouth slightly parted.  My breathing was shallow, but my heart pounding out of my chest.  Although the music was blaring in my ears, I didn't hear anything except white noise.  A bead of sweat trailed down my temple, and my jaw, resting on my chin before dropping.

Luke released one of my arms and grabbed the cord to my earbuds, ripping them out.  He smirked at me.  "Well, I'd say it's time to finish what we started."  He stated it matter-of-factly, as if this was an agreed upon activity.

My legs started shaking, barely holding me up, as his hand slid up the side of my leg over my black spandex shorts, under my tank top.  He grazed his hand along my stomach, then roughly pried my sports bra up and stuck his hand under, squeezing my breast.

For the first time ever in my life, I was super thankful for my pre-period symptoms.  My breasts were super tender, and the pain seemed to jolt me awake.

Without removing my dead, wide-eyed gaze from his, my jaw dropped open and I screamed as loudly as I could.  A blood-curdling, bone-chilling, scream.  When my breath ran out, I quickly inhaled and screamed again.  I still couldn't force the rest of my body to work, move, push, fight, anything.  But, my lungs came to life.

Luke seemed shocked, momentarily not responding.  He quickly pulled his hand down and put it over my mouth, but it was barely muffling the high pitched, shrill shriek.  "Shut the fuck up, Aleah.  What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed loudly, looking around for anyone that might have been present.

I kept screaming.

He moved his hand to my throat and squeezed.  And that did shut me up.  I couldn't breath.  Natural instinct kicked in, and I knew I needed to fight for my life.  I was frantic.

I started swinging my arms wildly, trying to claw at Luke's eyes, kicking at him.  He tried pinning my limbs, and we fell to the ground, his hand still wrapped tightly around my throat.  I felt the sharp stab of a stick or something against my side, and winced in pain.  Everything seemed more heightened.  All of my senses, except for smell, were awake.  It was live or die. 

Everything started to narrow and tunnel, going dark on the edges.  My oxygen was depleting.  I looked around, and behind Luke, and saw a hazy image of a couple of people running towards us.

And then it all went black.