Damaged Goods, A Priceless Return

whisper. It was barely audible, but it was enough. Enou

w was plastered on Cheri's face. When she finally looked up, her eye

d, her voice sickly sweet. She extended

to my feet, my body trembling, my legs weak. I looked

nts and jeers chasing after me like a pack of vultures. I ran until my lungs burned

allowing the sobs to tear from my chest. My phone vibrated uselessly

the woods, alone. And in my haste, I had left my sensory aids on the bus. The unfamiliar rustling of leaves, the eerie silence, the loomi

The forest, once a comforting blanket of green, now felt like a

rated through the earth. The first drops of rain bega

into the muddy clearing where the

dled near a small, dilapidated cabin, t

ry as he spotted me. "What were you thinking, running off l

familiar," I croaked, my voice ra

u're not a child! You can't just wander o

rieked, my voice cracking, but stronger than it had been in years. "You ca

burden, Elia," he said, his voice cold and de

in my chest with a dull, sickening thu

's arm, shivering dramatically. "Jermain, darl

gaze still fixed on me, a flicker

ferocity. The wind howled, whipping through the t

split the sky, followed by an

her. Her foot slipped in the mud, and she flailed wildly,

. I tumbled down a steep, muddy embankment, my head hitting so

lence. My sensory aids must have been

I couldn't hear. I couldn't understan

no sound escaped my lips. No

top of the embankment. Jermain. He was a

n at me. Her mouth moved, words I couldn't hear

ody swayed. The words were l

a silent, desperate plea. I s

y mind: the suffocating fear, the helple

e and Cheri. His fear, his utter cowardi

st one last, fleeting glance at me, a look of profou

g rain, leaving me alone at the bottom of the