Five Years, A Forgotten Name

I stood there, shivering, the icy wind whipping around me, tearing at my thin dress. He was gone. He had actually

s around me was absolute, a thick, suffocating blanket broken only by the faint, indifferent stars. There w

someone else drove by, someone worse than Braylon? My mind raced, conjuring horro

lf. I had to. Clutching my arms around myself, I began to walk, my eyes strai

ot sl

CRACK echoing in the silence. Pain exploded in my ankle, a searing, white-hot agony that sho

e. It was a broken bone. I knew it. I collapsed back o

?" I hated myself more than I hated him in that moment. My foolish hope, my endless patience, m

xcited chatter. His mind was elsewhere, a gnawing unease simmering beneath hi

!" Dallas chirped, leaning in for

bled, already puttin

on't forget our promise!" she called out, as h

lowed his cries. The road twisted and turned, each bend looking exactly like the last. Panic began to set in. He was lost. He drove up a

ugh the undergrowth, his own fear escalating with every passing minu

le and gray, but Eliza was nowhere to be found. He felt a cold dread seep into h

e steering wheel. As he entered the bustling station, a fragment of c

winding road... looks like a hit and run.

worst fears. His knees buckled. He clutched the counter, his knuckles white, barely