Chapter 1 - Samantha
**Author's Note: This is a working draft. As such, there are a few minor side characters which suddenly show up about half way through and it seems you are supposed to already know who they are and some of their back story. The final version will have these characters earlier in the story and all their pertinent information will be available. Until then, I apologize if you get confused.
Thank you for reading! **
Samantha
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mumble as I turn on my headlights and my wipers to see better in the closing darkness and rain. Not that they help much. Headlight cleaning is just another item on the long list of things my car needs but yet can’t afford. Other items on that list include new wiper blades, tires, oil changes, serpentine belts, brakes, etc.
Stealing from the tables I waited on earlier to be able to get this tank of gas was a testament to how bad things were for me. How bad they’ve been for a while, to be honest. My car was on its last leg, but I couldn’t abandon her just yet. Sheila has been good to me. I just wish I could return the favor.
I’ll have to do something to earn money in order to move on to the next town. That or beg. Maybe Daisy would take pity on me and give me just enough so that I could get out of there. After all, it’s because of her that I had to skip town today. Going back to the town I was in—before hopping in my car and driving away mid-shift and stealing cash patrons had left on the tables for their meals—wouldn’t be an option. I doubt Juan would give me that shitty job back even if I did go back. No one else there gave a damn about me.
Not that I ever let anyone get close enough to know me.
No. I have to keep moving from town to town. Never letting anyone in. No friends. No lovers. No one.
It wasn’t safe.
For me or for them.
Another sign for Goose Creek passed, telling me that I was just another thirty minutes from the turnoff. I grip the steering wheel tighter as I drive through the switchbacks heading up the mountain. I can’t fucking believe I’m going to just drive through the town I thought I’d never step foot in again. The only place in this godforsaken world where I was happy. The only place I’d ever felt loved and wanted... Even now I have a hard time thinking of this town and knowing that I won’t be able to stay. Even if I want to. Even if I want just a glimpse of the only many I’ve ever loved.
My heart rate sped up the closer I got to Goose Creek. The closer I get to him and everything else that happened here. I’ve tried for eleven years to forget about this place. Walking away from Wyatt Carter was the worst mistake I ever made. However, there had been no choice, I had to do it. It was a matter of survival. But he didn’t know that, and I’m sure he hates me for it. Of course, I don’t blame him. What I did was unforgivable.
If I can just get through this visit without the whole damn town knowing I’m here… Once that news gets out I’ll be screwed. My entire cover might be blown which not only puts me at risk, but everyone in this town that I care about.
I can’t and won’t do that. I just hope Daisy isn’t in too much shit and will come quietly.
The entire trip down I worried, stressed, and freaked out over, not only where I was going, but also wondering what Daisy could have gotten herself into that required me to get in my car and head her way at breakneck speed.
She had been panicking. Terrified. Speaking nonsense about getting into a shitload of trouble and that I was the only one who could help her. Which didn’t make sense.
Daisy has a whole town full of people who love her. Who would do anything for her. Hell, her cousin Trace Eakins has practically been her big brother our entire lives. Always protecting her and any of her friends. It also made it hard for her to date anyone. Which was why she usually sneaked around in order to get past his radar.
The fact that she called me, telling me that I was her only hope, the only one who would understand, meant I knew she really was in trouble. So, I didn’t waste any time getting to her.
I replayed our conversation in my head in an effort to distract myself as every second that passed increased my anxiety ten-fold. Especially when I didn’t know what I was walking myself into.
“Sam,” Daisy frantically whispered through the phone.
Her tone made me pause. Usually, she was a chipper, happy, glass-half-full type of person who never let anything get in the way of her happiness.
“What’s up, Daisy?” I asked, while my boss, Juan glared at me for being on the phone during my shift. I held up my finger—though I wish I could use the other one on him—telling him I’d just be a moment. “I only have a minute before my boss takes the phone from me.”
She had messaged me with our secret code. The one we used with each other when we needed to talk. Daisy was my only friend in the entire world. She’d been there for me through the worst years of my life when I literally had no one else. She’s the only one I’ve confided in since I left my hometown. She knows everything I’ve gone through.
“I’m in trouble. I need you to help me get out of Goose Creek.”
My grip on the phone tightened and I looked around the kitchen. No one, other than Juan, was paying me any mind. “What kind of trouble Day?” I asked hesitantly.
I could hear heavy breathing and what sounded like a creek nearby. “I did something I shouldn’t have. I got involved…and… I’m so…” She was breaking up and I was only catching every few words.
“Daisy, you’re breaking up. Do you need me?” I asked, biting my lip and hoping she would say no.
“Please, Sam. I’m… lake… I shouldn’t… Help.” Her last words before the phone dropped connection, were full of terror.
I dialed her back, but it went straight to voicemail. Biting the inside of my cheek I contemplated what to do. Not like I could call anyone from town and have them check on her. I didn’t have anyone’s number, other than hers and his memorized. There was no way in hell I was going to call him. It would take me at least three hours to get to Goose Creek from here and I didn’t have enough gas to get there.
Contemplating whether or not to call nine-one-one, I decided not to. What would I tell them? I didn’t know where Daisy was. Who she was with or why she was scared. I didn’t know anything.
Putting the burner phone in my pocket, I went back out to the dining area and, noticing that table three had just left their bill in cash on the table, I went over and picked it up, pocketing it before getting to the back with their tray of dirty dishes. Then I went over to the register we use to close out our tabs and put their info in. When the register opened, I took a couple of twenty-dollar bills from the slot and then closed the register, praying that no one noticed the slip of my hand.
The guilt of stealing always ate at me and I hated doing it. But that was life on the run. One day I might be able to stop running, but that wasn’t today or anytime soon. One day, I planned to repay everything I took, with interest. I kept a notebook in my emergency bag where I kept track of everything.
Telling Frank, the cook, that I was going to take a smoke, I walked out the back doors and immediately got in my car, and drove off without a backward glance. I filled my car up in the next town over, grabbing a single bag of chips as my only food for the day, and refilling my water bottle at the drinking fountain.
My stomach grumbled at me, reminding me, once again, that I was treating it horribly. The only time I was able to eat a full meal was when I was working. Juan would let the waitresses and other staff eat a discounted meal. This meant that my last full meal was two days ago since I had been off yesterday.
The sign for Goose Creek Valley came sooner than I wanted it to, and I took the next exit while my whole body went into survival mode.
“Get in, get out. Get in. Get out.” I repeated to myself over and over trying to keep away the ebbing panic being back here brought me.
It was sad really. The one place I had felt at home was now the only link that could be used to find me. Part of me wondered if I wasn’t driving into some kind of trap. Had Daisy told Grayson she could get in touch with me? Had he forced her to call and lure me here? While I had never told him about Daisy, Wyatt, or anyone else, my uncle had. Uncle Mason had told him everything there was to know about me, this town, and anywhere of importance to me.
Just thinking of his name made me start to sweat. Daisy and Goose Creek were the only links I had to my old life. The life where everything was as it should be. Where life was normal.
Until it wasn’t.
Until the world as I knew it, had shattered.
Then the punches, some literal, had just kept coming.
However, if Daisy was in trouble, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to help her. Even if that meant putting my own life on the line, I’d do it without a second thought.
The dark sky closed in around me as I turned left towards town. Going right would have taken me up to Crown Lake where I spent many summers playing in the cooler, crystal-blue water. It was where I had my first kiss. Where I had lost my virginity in the back of a truck. The place where my parents would take me on lazy Sunday afternoon picnics.
Remembering something that Daisy had said, I pulled off the side of the road near Bean Street and tried to think of what to do next. I could go to her home, where anyone in town could see me, or I could go up to the lake where we—and all our friends—would meet up. She had mentioned the lake in her phone call. Well, what I assumed was Crown Lake.
I flipped around and headed up toward the lake, which was only a few minutes out of town.
Goose Creek Valley had gotten its name because of its shape. The founder, an old guy named William Houston—I think—had wandered into the valley from Mason Pass looking for an area to settle. He took one look at the valley down below and decided it looked like a goose and he had to have it.
That meant everything in this town was goose related. Crown Lake was supposedly the goose’s head, the road that went down into town from the lake was the neck, and every single street in town was some part of the goose. Even the creek, which started at the lake and meandered its way down to the other end of the ‘goose’, had been nicknamed shits creek—and no I’m not talking about the show.
The local coffee shop on Main Street, if it was still around, was called “Goosin’ It Up”. The Leaning Goose was the bar on the other side of town—a place I have definitely never ever been. Not like Kingston or Wyatt would ever try and sneak empty, or mostly empty, bottles from the trash and we’d drink it.
It was quirky here, and when I was a kid, I loved it.
There have been so many times throughout the years when I was close to coming back and living the life I should have had. The one that was ripped away from me.
Even now, I still dream of the home with the picket fence on Breast Street, with its turret tower that Wyatt wanted to put a slide in, the wraparound porch, and the beautiful garden patch in the back. I’ve imagined kids running around, squealing with their friends, or because their dad—Wyatt—was chasing them. I can see our three dogs—Mo, Liza, and Rey—joining the fray or cooling down in the shade. My parents laughing together on the porch swing as they watch our crazy.
But I learned long ago that dreams were just that. Dreams. Reality and the truth have a way of knocking you down and showing you just how painful life and love can really be.
There are no happy endings and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves. I’ve seen what happens in the dark corners of society. The things no one ever talks about and pretends don’t exist. I’ve seen it and had the unfortunate opportunity to experience it, in more ways than one.
I refuse to go back into that hell.
Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention as a deer darted out from the wooded area to my right heading straight for me.
There was no time to react or to miss it.
My windshield shattered as the deer’s body went right through it. Screaming, I slammed on the brakes, my tires hitting a wet patch of the road from the rainstorm I had driven through earlier, and I could feel the back of the car sliding out from under me.
Everything went in slow motion after that.
The car rolled once. Twice.
My head slammed into the steering wheel and the body of the deer, which was miraculously still attached to the windshield, before my whole body was thrown to the driver’s side door as my trusty, dependable Sheila slammed against a tree finally coming to a stop.
Dazed and in an enormous amount of pain, I tried to reach for my phone which had been sitting in the console. It wasn’t there now.
It was hard to breathe, and it felt like the entire car was closing in on me, crushing me like an empty pop can. My shoulder burned and throbbed while my head felt wet and sticky. I wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Panic gripped me and spotted darkness slowly filling in around the edge of my vision until everything went black.
You know when they say that your entire life flashes before your eyes? Mine didn’t. Instead, it was filled with the one person whom I wished more than anything was still by my side, encouraging me to hold on.
Wyatt.
I could hear him. Sense him. Hell, I could even smell him. That musky scent mixed with pine. I swear I could even see him hovering next to me. Reaching out with unbelieving eyes and a wavering hand. God, how I’ve missed those green eyes.
Arms surround me. His arms, the ones I would know anywhere.
He needs to know that Daisy is in trouble. If I’m going to die, then at least I’ve told the Wyatt in my dreams that she needs help.
“Daisy… trouble,” I whisper, before everything went still.
