Ugly girl

Chapter 14

Four Weeks Ago

“So, what’s the plan?” Blake asks as the driver drops us off at the local train station.

I shake my head, not really having any sort of plan in place. We’ve just sat in the back of an Uber for twenty minutes, me in tears and filled with pain while Blake sat like a statue, looking terrified of what the future holds and most likely wondering if I’ve made the wrong call.

I don’t want Blake to resent me for this. I’ve taken him away from everything he knows. Please, God. Let this work out for the best. I can’t have Blake hating me. He’s all I’ve got in this despicable world.

I walk up to the ticket machine and look over our options. I follow the color-coded train lines and look over the names of the suburbs, looking to where we could possibly end up when a name stands out.

Haven Falls.

I smile, feeling as though this is some kind of gift from mom and dad. They know we need them now more than ever. I reach for the twenty-dollar bill and feed it into the machine as Blake looks over my shoulder. “What are you doing?”

“We’re going home, Blake. Everything is going to be okay.”

“You’re sure?”

I shake my head, looking up at the kid. “No, but this is all we’ve got.”

Blake looks down at me for the longest moment with his big, too trusting eyes and for the briefest moment, I want to tell him to go home, to have the life he wants and to forget about me. All I’m going to do is fuck him up. I don’t have the slightest idea what I’m going to do. What was I thinking of taking him away from a life of silver spoons when all I’d be able to offer him is a warm smile? He could have gone to the NBA and now…I don’t know. I’ve promised him the world but I have no idea how I’m going to give it to him, all I know is I have to try. He deserves so much more than this nothingness.

Blake reaches past me and presses the button for Haven Falls and then repeats the process for a second ticket. “I guess we’re going home.”

We sit on an old bench, counting down the minutes for the train in an absolute panic. We’re lucky that we got out of the mansion undetected, though I know it’s probably because Lucien was sleeping like a baby after defiling the child he raised with his wife…or should I say the child he bought?

The second they realize we’re gone, all hell is going to break loose. We need to get out of here as soon as we can. I didn’t consider how hard it was going to be being seventeen and on the run from a mobster, not to mention all the dangers that come from being a teen with nowhere to go. There’s going to be people who want to manipulate us, people who’ll try to steal, people who want to hurt us, but we can’t let it happen. We need to be strong.

The thought has me reaching for my phone and taking out the sim before asking Blake to do the same. If we’re doing this, then we’re doing it right. I go through our bag and make sure there’s nothing else that can be tracked and once that’s done, the pressure finally begins to fade off my shoulders.

I won’t go back there. Not now, not ever.

After what feels like a lifetime of waiting and fidgeting, our train finally arrives and we trudge onto the empty car, feeling somewhat free. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.

Being the only ones in this car, Blake stretches out and falls into a light sleep while I find sleep an impossible task. I spend hours upon hours fingering the knife that has remained in my hand since the second Blake handed it to me in his bedroom.

My eyes travel up and down the knife, over the old, worn wood, and across the initials that had been carved into the wood. This thing means so much to me. I can’t believe Blake has had it in some stupid safe, collecting dust for the past few years.

Three hours turns into four, and as the train comes to a stop in Haven Falls, the clock ticks over to five hours. The sun is just peeking up over the horizon and I feel like this is the start of something new, a new begi

The only question is how?

I shake Blake’s shoulder and stand up. My body is cramped from not moving a muscle the whole ride here. Blake groans and stretches his impossibly long arms out, making me have to step around him. “Come on,” I tell him, trying to help him grab his bags. “Let’s go before they close the doors.”

Blake grumbles something in his sleepy tone but thankfully gets his shit together and clambers out of the train behind me. We step out into the early morning and I breathe in the fresh air. This is home. This is the life we were always supposed to have. I probably would have come and gone from this train station a million times if I’d never been taken away from my home. I could have walked these streets, made friends with the local girls and had a happy life. Instead, it was all stolen from me, from us.

We walk out from the train station with our bags on our back and into the station’s parking lot. “So, what now?” Blake asks, looking around and feeling just as lost as I do.

“I think I’d like to see mom and dad’s place and then we’re going to the police station and telling them exactly who we are.”

“Won’t they just send us back?”

“No, we were bought, Blake. We never have to go back there. They’ll call children’s services and…”

“And we’ll be put into the system,” he says, not liking the idea one bit.

“Maybe,” I admit. “Or maybe mom and dad had a family. We can’t be alone out here, Blake. I feel it. There’s someone here who’s been looking for us all these years and we just have to help them find us.”

“You know what they’ll do if we’re put into the system, right?” he questions. “We’re nearly adults. No one is going to care about us. We’ll end up living in some group home with rough kids who don’t give a shit if we get hurt. We can’t risk it, Sky. What if we’re separated?”

“We won’t be separated,” I promise him. “No matter what.”

“And if the worst happens?”

“Then I’ll be eighteen in six months and I’ll come for you. We can make this happen, Blake. You just need to trust me.”

He lets out a deep breath, watching me as the early morning sun shines in his green eyes. “Okay,” he says. “Mom and dad’s place is this way, but I’ve got to warn you, it’s nothing like you remember.”

He starts pulling me away and I look up at him, feeling refreshed about our new future. “You know, you never did tell me how you figured out our old address,” I ask, recalling how he’d come home one day telling me he’d visited Haven Falls and stolen the knife from our old home. “I could hardly remember the suburb let alone mom and dad’s first names. How’d you know about this?”

“It’s called Google, Sky,” he says with a soft chuckle, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “Once Anton’s case was closed, the details were available to the public. You just had to know where to look.”

“Are you kidding me? How come you never told me this?”

“What I read wasn’t exactly something I wanted you to relive. It’s not nice, Skylah. It was very descriptive, but that’s beside the point. It had mom and dad’s address and the second I found out, I had to come.”

“You know I hate you for not bringing me.”

“I didn’t know what I was going to find when I got here. What if the house was never cleaned up and put back together after…that night.”

“It’s my family too, Blake. I could have handled it.”

“I know, but it’s my job to protect you from stuff like that.”