Escape

Kaylie’s POV

Cold. It’s very cold. The snow keeps slamming down on my foggy windshield. I can’t see where I’m going. Everything is just white! Why can’t I just catch a freaking break?! I can’t even see the roadway! How am I supposed to drive like this?! I know I’ll probably end up in a ditch somewhere if the storm doesn’t clear up soon.

It doesn’t matter anyway. I have to get away! And honestly, it would be better that I was in a ditch… I would still be safer!

He’s after me! I see his headlights approach in the rearview. They are speeding up, gaining on me. Is he planning on running me off the road?

At this point it wouldn’t surprise me! But I won’t let him! I’m stronger than he thinks I am… Well, at least I used to be stronger… I don't know what I am now!

Tears are leaking down my face! I can’t let him get to me. Not this time! I need to leave! Why haven’t I left before? Why wouldn’t he let me leave? I don’t understand! Why can’t he just let me go?

My breaths are coming out in ragged pants. I can’t let him catch up to me! This is my only chance! I know if I don’t get away now, he will kill me! I would rather have my end due to Mother Nature, than from his hand!

I slam my foot on the accelerator, and the engine roars loud through the quiet night. It echoes off the mountain pass I’m trying desperately to pass through. As long as I can keep the wheels on the road I should be fine! The car skids out slightly before I regain control. But I don’t have time to process the fact I almost lost control of my little vehicle.

I don’t have snow chains or anything… To be honest, I’m surprised it has gas! I didn’t even know if it would turn on… It’s been sitting in the garage for the past two years. I didn’t even know when he’d fixed it! The steering is a little off…

But that’s fine! I don’t care! I just have to get out of here!

In fact, if I get pulled over by a cop right now, I think I’d kiss him! He would have unknowingly just saved my skin! He could put me in jail and I would be safe!

But my halfhearted prayer seems to go unheard because there is no one on this lonely road, aside from the maniac trying to kill me!

Where are the freaking cops when you need them?!?

I punch the gas as I come around a sharp turn. I thank God I am not careening off this blasted mountain! By all rights I should have been dead ten times by now, but it seems someone is watching out for me after all.

My heart almost skitters to a stop as I swerve to miss some big animal standing in the middle of the bloody road way. I can’t stop! Not now! I’m sweaty and the grip on my wheel isn’t exactly solid.

Why the hell did it think it was a good idea to sit there in the middle of the flippin’ road on a stormy night? I thought animals had more sense than that!  Shouldn’t it be home in a nice warm cave… Safe from crazy drivers?!?

It doesn’t matter! Nothing matters! I didn’t kill the animal, so that’s good… By any luck the car behind me will hit the poor beast giving me time to escape. The only thing that matters is getting away…

Why? I’ve been asking myself this question for the last two years. Why does he keep doing this to me? Why can’t he just let me go? I don’t understand! If I bother him this much, he should’ve just kicked me outta the house! Not trapped me there…

Out of all the times he’s beat me, and sometimes until I’m unconscious… Never has he pulled a gun on me! Why does he want to kill me? What happened today that all of a sudden made him want to go on a murderous rampage?

Tears continue to blur my eyes as I drive like a madwoman going full throttle down a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm. But what else am I supposed to do? Just stick around and let him shoot me?

Yeah, right! I’ve gone down hill the last two years, but I won’t let him do this to me! I have every right to live a life! And a life free of pain… Free of misery… Free of him!

Mom, why is this happening to me? I didn’t do it! I know you know I didn’t do it!

It seems I’ve been talking to my mother for the last two years and no one else. I can’t talk to him… He never listens! But Mom listens to me… She just can’t respond.

I choke on the memory of when Mom and I were in the middle of a snowstorm similar to this one. Only, she didn’t see the semi and we crashed. I lived, but she didn’t.

And that’s why he blames me.

Is today the anniversary? I don’t know… I haven’t seen a calendar in our house in years.

But it wasn’t my fault! Why can’t he see that? I’m his daughter, after all!

He used to love me! We all used to be the happiest of families, but when mom died, dad went nuts… literally.

He wouldn’t let me go to school any more. I couldn’t leave the house. I was locked in the basement, and forced to be a maid. I don’t mind the cooking and cleaning, that’s not a problem. It’s the beating I get if I don’t get things just right, and even if everything is right, he still beats me. He finds pleasure in punishing me for something I didn’t do.

Dad, why? Why can’t you love me  anymore?

I shouldn’t even be living at the house anymore… I should be in college or in a job! I’m 21 for crying out loud.

“God, if you can hear me, please save me from my father…”

Before I can finish my prayer, I hit a patch of black ice and slide off the road, straight down the mountain.

Before I pass out, the last thought I have is, I need to escape…