Shackled Life

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, unbelievable sharp pain, mixed with a white-hot burning sensation, glancing down where my hand rested on my abdomen, red began to form between my fingers. Voices were shouting all around me, yet none of them were clear enough to make out actual words. A heavyweight rose upon my eyes, slowly drooping to a shut, I felt someone shake me, causing my eyes to shoot open, but it didn’t last long. Fighting against the urge to close them, it was a losing battle, eventually, everything went still, sound bending into silence, darkness engulfed me. 

About a year ago I moved across the country to restart my life. A fresh start, a new town, a brand new job, it took me a while to get to where I was, and I was grateful to the people who helped me get to this part in my life. Glancing towards the man that helped pave the way to this new beginning, he smiles kindly at me. Motioning with head to the door, I grab my jacket and follow him outside, we begin walking through the small town of Oakshore, “you know, I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me for the past few months. I know I haven’t been the easiest to get to know, but I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.” 

“It’s hard to move cross country and start over, plus, you’re a good person who deserves only the best”, shoving his shoulder playfully, we continue down the road in perfect silence. Every so often, I see him glance down at me, but every time I catch his eye, he quickly shifts his gaze back in front of us, with each shift a small smile begins to grow between us. Turning the corner, we headed up my street, our shoes echoing between both of us, in a soft rhythmic pattern that was only ours. His hand brushed gently against mine as we neared closer to my apartment. With each step, his hand began to slowly intertwine with mine, without looking down towards our enclosed hands, a smile danced onto my lips, as warmth traveled up my neck, pouring over my cheeks. From the corner of my eye, I saw a similar look forming onto his face as we continued to walk hand in hand. 

Arriving at the front of the building, we slowed to a stop, still holding hands, our eyes connected, neither of us wanting to break away, he murmured out a quiet “you should head inside before you catch a cold”, releasing my hand, he opened his arms for a hug. I hesitated for a moment before breathing deeply and accepting his gesture. Closing his arms around me,  I hug back. It’s been a while since I last hugged someone, yet it never quite felt this warm, or safe before. Just before he pulls away, he moves carefully over to the side of my face, leaving a light feather kiss as he completely pulls away. 

Unable to comprehend anything, I try to muster up something to say, but he just smiles and leads me up to my door, “Goodnight, get in safely”, making his way to the sidewalk, he waits till I get inside before he walks away. Closing the door, a giddy feeling flows throughout my body, as I dance up to my room in the complex. Sending him a quick text message, I hope you got home safe, thank you for walking me home, it was a walk I’ll never forget. With that, I got myself ready for bed, and just as I was about to fall into a peaceful sleep, my phone dinged from the nightstand. Jackson replied, Hopefully, I get to walk you home again tomorrow, sweet dreams.

The morning after getting ready to head to work, I checked my mailbox for anything new and a note was inside, no address, no name, just a folded piece of paper. Opening it up, all that it said was I FOUND YOU.  Everything in me froze,  my chest felt as if it was closing in on itself, air refused to go back into my lungs as everything around me started to blur. I reread the words, five, six, seven times, yet they never changed, someone must be playing a joke on me, this can’t be true. As if something snapped in my mind, I jerkily glanced all around me to see if someone was there waiting, watching. But I was alone. 

The sound of knocking came from behind me, quickly jumping and cowering away, throwing my hands up to protect my head, the knocking stopped. Shakily I look up to see Jackson standing there worried, trying to get in but failing to open the locked door. Closing my eyes, inhaling deeply, I released all my nerves as I let out the breath of air, trying to compose myself. I got up and walked over to the door, yet with each step, my legs felt like they were bowls of jello wobbling in every which way. 

Pushing the door open, Jackson quickly walks towards me, making me flinch back from him. Halting his movement, he gives me a questioning look, “Are you okay? What happened? You look scared, and white as if you’ve seen a ghost”, trying to take a step close, I flinch back again away from him. 

“I’m fine, I just thought I saw a bat flying around, it spooked me a bit”, trying to play it off, I quickly shove the note into my back pocket. Giving him a half-smile, I walked around him to get outside, following after me, we walked to work. The walk was quiet and felt a bit odd from the whole scene that happened in the lobby, I would glance at him, but his eyes stayed focused ahead as if he wasn’t really here. Every so often, I would glance around us, checking if we were being followed, or if something was off, but with each glance, my paranoia rose.

As we headed inside, I sat at my desk and tried to distract my mind with my work, after an hour of working Oliva headed over to my desk in her usual peppy aura. “Good morning Willow, how are you today?” 

Taking a seat on top of my desk, “I’m okay, how are you?” giving her a gentle smile back, she perks up and tells me about everything that happened from the moment she woke up as she does every day. Her voice slowly drains quietly as I see an envelope in her hand with my name on it, waiting for her to finish, every so often glancing at the note waiting for her to give it to me. 

“Oh! By the way, this was dropped off a minute ago for you.” handing the envelope over to me, I quickly put it in the desk, wanting to read it in private, yet it seems that wasn’t good enough for Liv, “What are you waiting for! It could be a secret admirer, open it now.” reaching over she grabs it from my desk drawer, opening it up. I quickly snatched it back from her before she could get the paper out of the envelope.

“I’ll open it, it’s only fair if I get to read it first”, giving her a fake laugh, I slowly slip the paper out of it. Fumbling with the paper, my hands begin to shake as I unfold it, my heart stops beating with the single word that is written across the paper, TONIGHT. 

“Well, what does it say?” Liv’s words breaking me from my trans I look at her and smile brightly towards her.

“Oh, just a note from my mother asking how the new job is going”, quickly closing it, I shove it into my purse, as Liv goes off talking about how adorable it was that my mother sent me a note. Excusing myself, I get up and head to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. Pacing back and forth, how did he find me, it should have been impossible. I moved cross country, I picked the most unknown town in the state, this can’t be real, this can’t be happening. 

Closing my eyes, I attempt to calm my nerves but all I can think about was my life before this, images flashed through my mind, causing me to flinch with each memory that was stained into my head. Opening my eyes, for a moment I thought I saw him standing there, with his menacing smile, cowering back into the corner tears began to swell, rocking myself, fat tears fell down my face as the memories came flooding back. How could I be so stupid to think I could be free. 

My phone dings in my pocket, pulling it out, I open a message from an unknown number, but all that was there was a picture of me, at my desk reading his note. How? It was taken from inside the building, he’s in here. My heart begins to beat heavier, pounding against my chest, my breaths quicken as I barely keep up with my own panting. A knock comes from the door, snapping my head at it, my hands cover my mouth as I try to stay quiet. Another knock echoes in the bathroom, squeezing my body even smaller into the corner, I shut my eyes and wait for him to break through the door. 

The door unlocks, I freeze, unable to make a move. Footsteps walk in and the door closes, locking us in. Slow heavy steps get closer and louder until they are right next to me. A hand touches my shoulder, causing me to flinch. “Willow?” a voice I didn’t expect called out to me softly, slowly looking up, Jackson is kneeling in front of me, his eyes filled with pain. “What happened?”, he goes to wipe a tear from my face, but I flinch back harder into the wall. Jackson goes to say something but before he could a knock at the door echoes into the bathroom, my head shoots up glancing at the door and him, shouting to the person on the other side, “Someone’s in here”, he looks at me, seeing that making the person go away settles my nerves.

“Sure, man. Take your time”, just as the voice from the other side of the door replies, my breath quickens, my eyes widen at the familiar voice that haunts my nightmares. Jackson tries to settle my breathing before I go into another panic attack, but it was too late, my chest spasms out barely getting air in. Clutching my hands into balls, I place them over my ears as the memories slash open the dark wounds of my memory. Rocking back and forth, my vision begins to blur as everything spins around me, quickly getting darker. A voice tries to call to me, but within seconds everything goes still, as the darkness engulfs me. 

Swaying slowly, a sweet hum fills my head, prying my eyes open, I’m still in the bathroom, but I’m no longer in the corner of the bathroom. I was sitting in Jackson’s lap, his eyes closed as he continued to hum lightly to the swaying of his arms. Tensing in his grip, his eyes open, and he peers down at me with a small smile, I go to say something but he beats me to it, “can you please tell me what happened?” you can hear the sadness that pours from his words. Trying to come up with some type of lie, just as I am going to say something, he cuts me off, “the truth please”.  

Sighing, “I ran away a year ago from my old life, from someone who is a very bad person, and they found me. They found me and they want to hurt me again.” Tears fall slowly down my face, he goes to ask something but I continue “before when that person knocked, it was him. He’s in the office waiting for me, I don’t want to go back” my heart begins to pick up speed again as the thought of being near him again. Jackson quickly wraps his arms around me making me flinch, but he doesn’t release me until my body relaxes against his.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. Plus everyone already went home, he shouldn’t be here anymore. I promise” Trying to soothe me, he cradles me and hums again to ease my mind. After a few minutes and my heartbeat slows back down to normal, he helps me stand, and brings me over to the sink to clean up my face from the makeup that smeared from crying. 

“I look like a raccoon, I can’t believe you’re seeing me like this”, he laughs lightly behind me as he hands me a paper towel to dry my face. Unlocking the bathroom door, we head over to my desk, everything is quiet and eerie. Grabbing my belongings Jackson asks if I want to come with him to his desk to grab his belongings but I told him, I’ll wait at my desk for him. Giving me a small nod he heads off around a cubical to grab his things. 

“I’ve been waiting for you”, a voice travels from behind me, everything in my body stills. Footsteps slowly approach from behind me, getting closer and closer till I could feel his breath on my neck. Flinching, his hot breath whispers into my ear, “You will always be mine, girl”, tears slowly drop as I blink, I make a step forward, but his rough hand grabs the back of my scalp, twisting my hair into the ball of his fist. “Make any noise, and I will make you watch as I hurt Mr. Hero. You will follow my every direction.” gripping tighter, he waits for my answer, a small yes whimpers from my mouth. “Good girl”.

Pulling me by my hair, he walks me to the front of the building, as he was about to push me into the stairway, Jackson’s voice rings out through the office, “Willow! Willow, where are you?” Mark leans down close to my ear, reminding me of what he is capable of doing to Jackson and me. “Please Willow, say something, anything!”

The hand in my hair tightens, and just as he was about to push me into the stairwell, I shout out “the stairwell, please!” I wasn’t able to get out another word before Mark covered my mouth with his hand and shoved me down the stairs. Rolling down them, each step stabbing into my body jolting my back into odd positions, causing me to land oddly onto my wrist, a snap echoes throughout the stairwell. Crying out in pain, I clutch my wrist, cradling it carefully in my chest. Barely catching my breath Mark grabs me by my hair dragging me out of the stairs, right before the door closed behind us, I saw Jackson running down the stairs after us.

“I told you to keep your damn mouth shut!” Mark throws me into the lobby of the building causing me to crash into a glass table shattering it. The stairwell door swings open, Jackson quickly runs over to me, but before he reaches me Mark pulls out a gun, aiming it at me. “Take one more step Lover Boy and I shoot her”, halting Jackson in his steps, his eyes glance around urgently looking for a plan, but you can see his panic begins to rise. 

“Just let him go, he has nothing to do with this, you have me okay?” I plead with Mark, but he just gives me a dirty look. Jackson attempts to take a step closer to me but Mark cocks the gun and aims it at me once again.

“I have what I want, so you should mind your own damn business and walk away while you still can”, the tension rises from the click of the gun, I grab a piece of glass from the table, taking a steady breath, I lunge towards Mark, as I make contact with him the gun goes off. Mark falls to the ground clutching his throat where I impaled the glass into. Falling to the ground next to him, Jackson runs over to me, screaming my name. My breath hitches as I flinch when placing my hand on my stomach.

It wasn’t a feeling I was used to, unbelievable sharp pain, mixed with a white-hot burning sensation, glancing down where my hand rested on my abdomen, red began to form between my fingers….