Get Out

Implies sexual assault, has kidnapping, violence and trauma about a minor.

The sky was dark, and the trees loom in front of me. I can’t see anything but I know that he’s behind me, trying to find me. “Out of the woods! I have to get out of these woods!” Is all that I can think as I stumble wildly around. I need to leave, before he catches me. Before he finds me. I can't go back there, back to the middle of the woods. Back to his cabin. I have to get out of here. I wildly move about, absolutely terrified. I can hear him, calling out my name. But I won't go back, I just can't go back to that cabin in the woods. “Come back darling! Come back!” I hear him call out. Panic rises in my heart and I feel the need to get out faster. I have to get out of the woods. I stumble over an unseen tree root and go tumbling to the ground, causing my world to go black.

I remember nothing. There's a pounding in my head and my whole body hurts. I fear that I’m back there, back at his cabin. Suddenly I realize that I'm not tied up. There's no chair to my back and no rope around my wrists. I groggily look around and try to figure out where I am. I hear him calling for me again and everything comes rushing back. I must have passed out when I hit my head. I get up to my feet, swaying as I move. “Darling oh darling! Where are you? You don’t want to keep me waiting, now do you?” I stumble along, unsure as to where I am going, and how much time I have until he finds me. I fall to the ground again, this time staying conscious. I can't see in the dark and I'm beginning to think that running away in the middle of the night was a bad idea. I crawl along the ground, thankful that I put on jeans those many days ago when everything had happened. I can’t move anymore, I’m just so tired. I lay still on the ground, and the memory of that morning comes rushing back as I lay there. I had been running late for school, and I wasn't going to make the bus. I had told my dad this, and he called me an uber. He couldn’t give me a ride because he was running late for work, and, being a single dad, he couldn’t afford to lose his job. When a car pulled up in front of our driveway I assumed it was the uber, and jumped in without hesitating. It hadn’t been an uber, just a crazy middle aged man who had taken me to his cabin in the woods. It had been days, and I feared for my life every second every second since getting in his car. He hadn’t killed me yet, just tied me up and done the unthinkable. This evening, when he untied me to let me use the bathroom and then got distracted I took the opportunity to run. It had been a bad idea, as I had no idea where I was or where I needed to go. Suddenly I hear him again, and I know that it’s time for me to continue on. “Darling, where are you?!?! It’s not time for you to leave yet, you still have to meet the other girls.” I had to get out of the woods, if I went back to his cabin he would surely kill me. I was too young to die, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be killed by this wackjob. He probably had a graveyard of kidnapped girls in this forest, and I did not want to become his next victim. I can hear him closer by, and I start to freak out even more. “Think, girl, think. There has to be a way out of this situation.” I try to move as quietly as possible while looking for anything to use as a weapon. I grasp a branch in my hand and shakily get to my feet. He hadn’t been feeding me much and passing out earlier hadn’t done me any favors. My head starts to pound even more, and I start to fear that I have a concussion. It fit right in with my bruised and scraped up arms and ripped up jeans. “Darling, I can hear you. Please dearest, just let me take you back home. After I'm through with you, you’ll never run away again.” A manic laugh accompanies these words and my heart races. I hear him close by, I know that it's now or never. I had seen him in the light and I knew that he wasn’t exactly in good shape. I was young. I worked out. I could take him. I had a fighting chance at getting free. It was now or never. I could either die tied up in some random guy's hunting cabin or I could die trying to get out of these woods. I grip my branch tighter and move toward him as quietly as I can manage. “Darling, what are you doing?” he asks. I can hear him moving in my general direction, but due to clouds blocking the moon, he can't see me very well. I wait another second, take a deep breath and then advance. I swing the branch wildly, hoping that I land a blow. I hear a crack and then a groan. I continue to swing my branch, until I'm sure that he’s gone down.

I could run wildly through the woods, but I don't know where I am. I do know that I need to get out of here, but I don't even know where here is. I move towards where he is lying on the ground and wack him in the head with my branch again. I search his pockets for a phone or a flashlight. The idiot had his phone and it’s not even password protected. I call 911 and explain the situation. He starts to stir, and the panic rises in my chest again. Without thinking a wallop him with the branch again and again before moving away from his unconscious body. I lose track of time staring at his body. The sound of sirens in the distance draws me from my trance. There are flashing lights and dogs barking somewhere in the distance. There are lights bobbing up and down in the forest and I know that they're coming for me. To save me. I don't know if I can go back though. I am only 14 and I was seriously considering hitting him with this branch until he stopped breathing for what he had done to me, and the others before me. I could kill him now, and be done with him forever. Then I hear my dads voice. I wasn’t sure how, but I hear it and I know I have to go home for him. I couldn’t leave in the same way mom had. It was time for me to get out of the woods and go back to my dad. “Sweetheart! I’m here with the police! Where are you?” I hear my father call out. I stumble forward toward my fathers voice, and then I stop. If I leave him, will he get up? Will he come after me again? Will I ever be safe again? “Sweetheart, where are you?” my father calls out. “Here, I’m here,” I weakly respond. Suddenly the area is flooded with light and the forest that once looked absolutely terrifying appears almost normal. My father wraps me in a hug as I look at him in the light. He looks so harmless lying on the ground, but I know he's not. At least, that's what I tell the nice policeman. “Come on sweetheart. Let's go home and get you cleaned up,” my father says. I numbly nod my head, watching as he is loaded into the ambulance in handcuffs. He can never hurt me again, at least that's what I tell myself as my father leads me away.