Evil Taught Hannah How to Drive

Excruciating pain throbs at the base of Hannah’s head, pulling her awake into a strange place—this definitely isn't her Taylor Swift inspired bedroom. It’s dark, agonizingly hot, and stuffy. Her soaked clothes cling to her body—she thinks it's sweat. Wherever she is, the heavy, tangible air smells of old moldy clothes and motor oil.

Hannah squints her eyes, attempting to focus through the darkness, she can only make out dim bands of light revealing scattered objects strewn about—an old suitcase, Barbie dolls, women's clothes, coils of rope, and metallic glints of tools that seem oddly familiar. Ah, it’s a car jack and a four-way wrench—tools she remembers her dad using last summer in their driveway.

Then, a shiver of terror vibrates through her body as she grasps her situation…Hannah is in the trunk of a car, and she's been abducted.

Flailing like a fish caught in a fisherman's net, she discovers she can barely move—her wrists and ankles are bound tightly behind her. Her mouth is stuffed with cloth and secured with multiple layers of tape, the back of her mouth tinges with hints of gasoline and bitterness. She realizes the bindings are fashioned with duct tape as the sticky adhesive rips hair off her limbs when she periodically adjusts her body’s pain points.

Hannah transitions herself from her side to face up. Now, she can't feel her left arm—wait...the slow sensation of pins and needles start to pepper her arm—it's asleep.

Panic fully sets in; she violently contorts and kicks with desperate attempts to break free. Each movement succumbs to the suffocating heat, the compactness of the space, and her bindings, making it impossible to move freely. A couple minutes pass, as she becomes exhausted, struggling to breathe air through her gag.

The smothering heat lays on her like a hot blanket, making every movement heavy and unbearable. Ninety degrees in south Texas hits different.

She can’t move. She decides there is nothing she can do. In addition to the darkness preventing her from seeing clearly, sweat continually rolls down from her brows into her eyes, stinging after each squint to push it out. She is slowly overheating, growing dizzy and tired.

She wonders, “Am I dying?”

Hannah thrashes her head side-to-side, beginning to cry uncontrollably, calling out to her mom. The muffled pleas don't reach outside the car’s trunk—calling out is futile.

***

With no hope to grasp, Hannah's thoughts travel to the time her mom picked her up from her first sleepover in kindergarten at her best friend Sarah's house. It was the first time in her life she had been away from her mom for more than a few hours. Toward the end of that sleepover, she wanted to go home. She wanted her bed. She wanted her mom.

When Hannah’s mom eventually picked her up that Sunday morning, Hannah vividly remembers her smile, the smell of her perfume and lotion on her skin, and the feeling of safety she felt when her mom picked her up for a hug. She remembers the yellow sundress with the daisy pattern as her mom embraced her. It was the safest place in the world to Hannah; nothing in the world could hurt her—she wanted her mom so much.

Then Hannah thinks about her baby brother. Before Hannah left for school yesterday, she remembers calling him a “dufus,” exchanging morning insults before heading out for school—she regretted that so much now. She thought, “Is that the last thing I say to my bubba?”

She remembers when he was just a baby, holding him and helping her mom feed him bottles. She never thought about that until now—she misses that.

All the seemingly insignificant moments in Hannah’s life suddenly become her regrets; being mean to her baby brother; not giving her mom hugs when she's dropped off at school; and pretending to be asleep when her dad knocks on her door to say goodnight—she doesn’t know why she does that.

Hannah hopes, “They know I love them.”

Hannah knows it's just a matter of time before the trunk takes her.

Then, her thoughts of regret shift to something her Pepaw Bill told her last summer when her grandparents visited for Hannah's basketball tournament.

After being down 20 points at half, Hannah’s team came back to win that final game. Hannah made the game-winning layup. Everyone was so proud of her, but none more than her Pepaw. After the game, Pepaw Bill gave her a big bear hug and said, “Great job, Hannah girl, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight—it’s the size of the fight in the dog!” Hannah was the smallest player on the team, but the highest scorer. Because of her small size, she always had to fight to earn the respect of her coaches and teammates.

Fight was in her DNA.

Hannah was grinning ear to ear when Pepaw said that. He was a Vietnam Veteran, and she knew he was tough, and Pepaw saw that same fight in her that weekend he used to survive Vietnam. Hannah thought, “I’m sure not fighting right now, I’m giving up. I wonder what Pepaw would think?”

Squinting to push the sweat and tears out of her eyes, Hannah finally catches her breath. She resolves, “I'm going to get the hell out of here!”

***

With a renewed sense of urgency, Hannah tries to think of her last moments before waking up in the trunk. Images start to flicker in her mind: a conversation about a homework extension with her Algebra teacher Mr. Lawrence, laughing with her best friend, Annabelle about the way Jake Schmidt asked her to the winter dance as they walked home together, the moment Annabelle turned down her street, and then the few blocks Hannah continued alone towards Ash Street—only three blocks away from home. Right before she turned down Ash, Hannah heard footsteps behind her, then a sharp pain at the base of her head—everything turned black.

Now the point of attack is clear, “That was when they abducted me!”

But why? Hannah's thoughts raced, resorting to terrifying scenarios from the crime shows she and her mom watched on Hulu—serial killers and rapists, tainted love stories, and drug deals gone bad. She thought, “Was I the next victim in someone’s sick plan of abduction and murder?”

Hannah lays calmly listening for any movement or sound outside the trunk that might hint at her location. She knows the car isn’t moving, but she feels a slight vibration and hears a low rumble—the engine was running!

The abductor had to be nearby. “Did they stop for gas or a bathroom break?” she reasons.

She continues to focus on any sounds that might hint at people nearby. She thinks, “If I create enough commotion, maybe they will come over to investigate.” Hannah waits and listens intently, trying to drown out the pain of her bindings and agonizing heat from her psyche. About a minute goes by.

Nothing. Only the engine's soft rumble and the distant chirping birds. Leaves rustle nearby. Are they in a park or woods?

She lays still for what seems like an eternity. She can feel sweat trickling down her face and arms as she tries to sit up as far as the trunk will allow her.

Then, a stroke of luck, she feels the tape around her wrists give way slightly. Energized by this small victory, Hannah doubles her efforts. Her skin is raw, but the thought of seeing her family again pushes her beyond her physical limits. She twists her hands in a scissor motion, stretching out the tape, voila! She gets her right hand free. She quickly brings her hands to the front of her body to take off the gag. But there is a problem, the tape is wrapped several times around her hair—this is going to hurt.

She pulls down the tape enough to take the rag out of her mouth. That creates enough space to pull the tape under her chin—that’s all she needed, screw her hair.

Before she can reach down to work on the tape around her ankles, she hears distant footsteps approaching the car. It sounds like one set of footsteps—it must be her abductor. She can hear each step trouncing through leaves and breaking twigs. They must be on a road by some woods somewhere. Then they stop. She hears a distinct, ZIIIIIIIIP! Then, shuffling and clinging—tools or a shovel, perhaps?

Hannah thinks the worst, “Is this person digging my grave?

She lies there expecting them to open the trunk and clock her over the head again when they notice she is awake, but they don’t. Instead, she hears them walk away from the car, their footsteps wading through the leaves fading into the distance until she only hears the car’s slow rumble again.

This is her chance.

She goes into the fetal position and raises her knees to her chest so she can use her hands to remove the tape from her ankles. Sweat rushes into her eye again with the familiar sting. She squints and keeps her eyes clinched, concentrating on feeling for the end of the tape at her feet.

Slowly, she feels with her wet fingers a slight edge along the tape’s slippery smooth surface. It takes a couple of minutes, but she manages to unwrap the tape from her legs. She yanks the last loop, ripping some of the skin and hair on her legs—small price to pay to get the hell out of here.

Free of her bindings, she identifies her next task—find a way out before she dies of heat stroke. Hannah clears a space so she can lay down and kick open the trunk. After about fifteen kicks, she realizes she is not making any progress.

She tries to get on her hands and knees to push up on the trunk with her back, but that doesn’t work either. Hannah isn’t tall enough to be able to push her back on the inside of the trunk while on her knees.

She comes to the realization she can’t force the trunk open. She lays back down and begins to sob again. Hannah resigns to the fact that she is going to die here.

She begins to question why, “This isn’t fair, why me? What did I do to this person for them to want to kill me? I hope mom and dad are searching for me.”

The Millers on the corner of Ash had to have seen something, she was right in front of their house before her world turned black.

With nowhere to go, Hannah crawls into a ball, making herself as small as possible, maybe she can make herself invisible. Maybe this is a dream, and she will wake up from this.

“Mom, Dad, and bubba, I’m sorry. I love you so much. Sorry I was a jerk. Pepaw sorry I can’t fight any longer, there's nothing else I can do,” Hannah sobbingly whispers to the cosmos.

She hopes her prayers will travel through the ether and reach them; she hopes they know deep down inside that she will always love them.

Hannah tucks herself in further, hoping to collapse into nothingness, pushing herself as far back as she can from the opening of the trunk.

"Maybe, just maybe, when the man comes back to open the trunk, he won’t see me," she thinks. She pushes herself back some more.

Then, something gives way behind her.

She feels an arctic-like breeze of air caress her back. She maneuvers around and sees a small opening through the darkness.

She reaches her hand inside…it’s the back seat!

Realizing the back seat folds down, she quickly squeezes through the opening making sure she stays low so no one can see her through the car windows. It was like opening a freezer door.

She takes a giant gasp of air, "oh my god the air feels like heaven." Luckily, the windows were down. She grabs some mechanical towels she sees on the floorboard to wipe her face. She pokes her head up enough to see the outside of the car. They are parked on an isolated road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest. She peers toward the direction she heard the footsteps earlier. About fifty yards through the forest pines, Hannah sees a man setting up a tent.

She recognizes him, “Oh my god, that’s Mr. Miller!”

Her fear turns to anger and determination. “How could he do this?!” she thought.

She now understands what he was doing when she heard the commotion earlier—he was taking out a tent, and tools to set it up. She also sees two large coolers, chairs, and three duffle bags. Hannah’s not sure what Mr. Miller is doing or preparing, but it isn’t going to be with her, no sir!

She looks around the car and sees a ditch leading into a large ravine. The forest is very dense there… “looks like a good escape route,” she mutters.

Then she remembers the car is running. "I have a better chance of getting away in the car.”

Bingo! She remembers watching her dad drive all the time, seems simple.

She slowly climbs over into the driving seat as she keeps her eyes on Mr. Miller. As soon as she maneuvers into the driver's seat, Mr. Miller stands up from a knee to stretch his back, he glances in her direction—she quickly ducks down. She waits a moment, hoping he redirects his attention back to the tent. After about ten seconds, she slowly peeks over the front seat. As her vision crests the top of the front seat, her eyes lock with his.

He sees Hannah.

Mr. Miller begins walking back to the car. He yells, “Hey, honey, what are you doing Hannah...it's not what you think." He starts running.

Terror and adrenaline jolts Hannah’s body into action. She quickly shifts her butt forward in the driver’s seat to reach the pedals. She remembers her dad teaching her the different shifts. P means park and D means drive. The left pedal is the brake, and the right is the gas. Gas means go.

She pulls down the shifter to the “D” and steps on the gas.

Hannah attempts to will the car forward, “Goooooo!"

As soon as she steps on the gas, she feels the aggressive revving of the engine, but she wasn’t going anywhere. She hears the tires turning and shooting rocks toward Mr. Miller—he's almost behind the car. Looking in the rearview mirror, some of the rocks halt Mr. Miller in his tracks.

The car eventually lunges forward but swerves to the left. She quickly corrects to get the car under control—Hannah’s off. But she has no idea where she’s at—she’s lost. That doesn’t matter to Hannah, right now she’s getting away from Mr. Miller and his insidious plans.

She follows the road noticing nothing but woods to her left and right, then she sees a sign that reads, “Brazos Bend State Park.” She’s heard of it from her friends' camping trip stories, but she’s never been here. She knows if she just keeps driving, she will eventually find someone. She just needs a phone.

***

Ten minutes of driving brings her to an intersection with a stop sign. Next to it is another sign that says, “Farm Road 762.” She thinks, "That must lead to a gas station, house, something." She turns right, and immediately sees a large billboard that reads “Three Sisters Farm.”

In the distance she sees several “farm” looking buildings and a big red barn on the right side of the road.

She turns right into a winding gravel driveway leading up to the red barn with giant bales of hay in front. Arriving at the bales of hay, she slams on her brakes sliding and swerving on the gravel road, eventually coming to a stop.

Three little girls are playing by the bales of hay. They freeze with curiosity. Hannah jumps out, “Where are the grown-ups!” She yelled.

The shock of seeing a 13-year-old girl driving up their country driveway, they couldn't get out a word, they just point to the barn.

Hannah sprints to the open barn doors and sees a woman in a yellow sundress feeding chickens. It wasn’t her mom's sundress, but it was close.

The woman turns around and sees Hannah—a dirty, exhausted girl, skinny as can be with what looks like duct tape wrapped around her blonde hair and neck. Hannah begins crying hysterically sprinting in the woman's direction.

The woman’s eyes open widely with horror. She drops her bucket of chicken feed and covers her mouth as her draw drops, masking her raw emotion hoping to protect the remnants of Hannah’s innocence.

As soon as she gets close, Hannah leaps into safety, the woman’s arms. It isn't mom, but she is a mom, and it'll do for now.

The woman immediately knows something was very wrong. Hannah melts in the woman’s arms, vomiting her emotions and pent-up torment. The woman, who has three girls of her own, instinctively knows what Hannah needs. The woman holds Hannah closely on the barn floor. She rocks her back and forth, like a mother should, “Oh, honey, it’s okay, you’re safe,”

After a few minutes, she quietly asks, “Honey, what happened to you?”

Hannah explains her abduction, the trunk of hell, and getting lost after stealing Mr. Miller's car to drive to the barn.

The woman asks Hannah how she knows how to drive.

Hannah replies, “Evil taught me how to drive.”