8
Chapter Eight:
You’re being punished. Just like he promised.
That’s all I can think as I come to. My head wobbles around as my line of sight fills with indistinct blurs of harsh light and red spots. I feel like I’ve been punched in the chest and my head is throbbing. There’s a hiss of smoke and dying car parts croaking in the background.
I look over to Emmett’s foggy silhouette. His head is hanging limp and heavy from his neck. He’s still out. I want to think over my options for killing him…making it look like it was from the accident.
But an urgent need to get out of the car takes over. The seatbelt buckle sticks at first, causing me to panic. I don’t want to be stuck in here…with him. But my frenzied jiggle of the contraption finally sets the buckle free. My chest burns as the belt loosens. I can imagine a big red and purple strip across my skin from being flung against it so hard. I begin pushing on the car door which sticks at first – the same as the seatbelt. But once again I am able to pry it open. Some sort of adrenaline-powered strength, I figure.
I realize all of this is being made more difficult by the giant white balloon pressing against me. It whistles as I awkwardly maneuver around, not deflating fast enough to make this any easier.
By the time my feet finally touch the ground again, I nearly fall over. Everything aches and hurts. But not with the rewarding swell I am used to feeling from running. These pains are blunt and sharp. Unnatural.
I manage to find my footing as my eyesight slowly readjusts. That’s when I realize my ears are ringing. The sound takes me back to what I saw just before the crash.
What was this fucker going to do with that rope? Just how was he going to punish me?
But then my heart begins to beg a different question… What if he wouldn’t have hurt me at all? For once. What if he really did only mean to take me for a nice, innocent drive.
I remind myself of how he yanked me back into the seat as I tried to run. Don’t be stupid, Ophelia. There was nothing sweet and innocent about this.
This is punishment, I think again.
For letting my guard down. I willingly got into that car. I let him know that all he had to do to get me where he wants me was pretend to be nice for a few minutes. Looking back, it wasn’t even that convincing of an act. I only made him put forth the bare minimum effort of a show.
How could I be so easy and stupid?
I tell myself it’s only because I was exhausted. But that’s not good enough. No excuses. I don’t get to run slower or cut the miles short…no matter how tired I am. I don’t get to cave into these Elite fuckers just because they’re wearing me down.
Toughen up. I clench my fists and repeat it to myself over and over.
I hear Emmett rustling out of his door. My feet immediately begin to bounce, needing to run far away from him. But the sight of blue and red lights stops me.
There’s blood dripping from his forehead as he shoots his eyes straight to me. They’re filled with rage and confusion, but I can tell he’s blaming this all on me. Taking in the sight of his car and his banged-up body, he has the nerve to look to me with a What did you do!? victimhood.
I shake my head, snarling at him through my own bloody lip. How dare he look at me as if this was my fault. Don’t stalk girls, trick them into getting into your car, and then hold them by the hair when they try to run. Then your car won’t get smashed up.
Thankfully before he can say or do anything, he has the police to answer to.
“Are you two okay!?” One of the officers yells out as their doors swing open.
Oddly though, they both run up to Emmett and immediately begin giving him all of their attention. Wrapping him in a blanket, propping him up on their arms to help him over to their car to sit down.
I am left standing with the sickening reminder that everyone in this town is shoved up the Elites’ asses. Even the cops. They did warn me but standing here now…just as bloody and beaten as my perpetrator…while the two cops that should be helping me are fawning all over the town’s golden child. It reminds me just how alone I am in all of this.
“What happened?” they ask him, willing to get his side of the story before they even so much as acknowledge my existence.
I wait for him to blame this on me. Find some way to twist it all around to make this completely my fault.
“It’s my fault,” he confesses. “I feel so stupid… I guess I was showing off doing donuts and dumb shit like that…But I was distracted having a beautiful woman in my car. You know how it goes.”
One of the cops laughs, “Oh, son. Believe me, I do. No sweat. Just be glad you’re okay.”
The other cop finally comes over to me and helps me over to lean against their car…too close to Emmett. I guess they can acknowledge me now that I’m not considered to be a problem or an enemy. I wonder if he had told them he was just getting ready to rape me if they would have helped him finish me off or dumped me somewhere.
More flashing lights emerge from the nearby winding roads. This time an ambulance. Each new arrival makes me feel safer, no matter how entrenched they all are in the game of the Elites. Safety in numbers. The more people who are here, the more likely it is that someone will make sure I’m okay.