Tag: flash fiction

Fuelled by fear and desperation, Sasha ran.

But a voice whispered at the back of her mind.

She wanted to silence it, remind her of the hell she’d survived, and that if it wasn’t for the man who had told her to run she would have already escaped. He sent her back, he deserved to stand in her place this time.

Only …

He’d come back.

Saved her.

As she ran, Sasha knew she had to figure out how she could help Graham. Freezing, chest heaving, body shivering from cold and fear, she stood there for several long seconds, but she already knew what she had to do.

She had to find a way to save Graham. As terrified as she was, she didn’t think she could live with herself if she lived and he didn’t, if he traded himself for her.

So she turned and ran back the way she had just come, didn’t stop until she heard voices. Graham’s voice, Bobby’s too. He was a particularly vicious streak, and as she crept closer she saw he had a weapon in his hand, was probably going to lead Graham back to the others where they’d … do unimaginable things to him.

Scanning the area she noted a broke branch lying at the base of a tree trunk. It could work. When she curled her fingers around it, it was heavier than she’d been expecting. Fear still demanded she turn and run, but she didn’t give into it, instead she moved closer. All she needed was for them to stop for a second and she could act.

Grabbing another stick, a smaller one this time, she tossed it as far in the opposite direction from where she was and watched. When it hit the ground, both Graham and Bobby stopped, spun in its direction.

“Who’s there?” Bobby called out.

“Me,” she said, feigning bravery she didn’t feel as she wielded her branch, swinging it at the man’s head, which it hit with a satisfying thunk, dropping him immediately.

“What on earth do you think you’re doing?” Graham growled at her.

“Saving you.”

It wasn’t like he in any way regretted his decision to tell Sasha to run, but he also couldn’t help thinking to himself, let’s hope Graham can get himself out of the mess he made.

Sasha disappeared from view and almost immediately a man stepped out. It wasn’t Dylan, but that didn’t really mean he was any safer. Especially since the man was carrying a weapon.

Still better him than Sasha getting caught. Sure the men might kill him if he couldn’t talk himself out of this, but he deserved it for letting Sasha get dragged back into a nightmare. There was no way he could have missed the ragged, open wounds lining her back, and he knew they had to have been caused by Dylan’s belt.

He’d put her back into that cabin with that man.

Him.

He deserved whatever was coming to him.

“Who are you?” the man asked suspiciously, holding the weapon not directly pointed at Graham but not completely away from him either.

“Are you okay?” he asked instead of answering, feigning concern he certainly wasn’t feeling.

The question threw the man off and he hesitated, glancing behind him back towards the cabin as though wishing one of his friends would hurry up and show up.

“What are you doing out here?” the man demanded.

“Out hiking. I ran into a guy earlier, his name was Dylan, he was looking for his sister, she’s going through some stuff apparently, I found her for him, then continued on with my hike. Heard an explosion and was worried it might have been his place, thought I would come and check if he needed help. Do you know Dylan? Were you there? Is everything okay? What happened?”

Each question seemed to leave the other man more confused than the last as he tried to figure out if Graham was being genuine, or if he was somehow responsible for helping Sasha escape. Telling her to run had been the right call. If they were seen together then it would be obvious he was helping her, but this way it left it up in the air, even if Dylan got involved.

“Yeah, man, we had a problem. I know Dylan, me and some of our friends were hanging out at his cabin. One of the cars blew up.” There was still suspicion in the man’s eyes but at least he wasn’t firing his weapon.

“Whoa, what caused that?” Graham asked, fighting not to smirk at the mayhem he’d caused.

“No idea. You, uh, want to come back with us, see if you can help?”

Catching the note in the other man’s voice, even though he didn’t let on that he had, Graham knew that walking back with this man was walking to his own execution.

But what choice did he have? He had to keep their attention on him to give Sasha enough time to get away. So he was going to have to go back there and hope he could do the impossible and talk his way out of this, because he had zero chance of fighting off seven armed me.

They ran hand in hand through the tunnel.

Sasha couldn’t believe that Graham had come back for her, that he’d cared enough about her to worry that he’d made a mistake. It had been so long since anyone had cared about her at all other than using her body for their own amusement, that she’d forgotten what that was even like.

“There are steps here, do you know where it comes out?” Graham asked as they started climbing.

“No idea. I just knew it existed, they used to brag about how they were so smart and even if the cops found out what they were doing they’d never be caught. I don’t think … I don’t think I’m the first woman Dylan has kept here,” she admitted.

“He’s not getting away with what he did to you,” Graham vowed. “None of them are.”

Clinging to that confidence, Sasha shivered as they stepped out into the cold night. They were close enough to the cabin she could see the flames dancing from the car, but not so close that they’d be spotted.

“Dylan probably knows I’m gone by now,” she worried as Graham tugged her along with him.

“Even if he does, all we have to do is get to my car, it’s just on the other side of the cabin. We’ll move further away, then circle back around to it. Once we’re in my car we’re driving straight to the police station.”

“What if they … don’t believe me?”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“Because I came here of my own free will. I … didn’t know what he was like until we got here. He was my boyfriend, I thought … I loved him.”

“Because he was lying to you, hiding who he really was. Just because you thought you were coming here with a boyfriend doesn’t change the fact that he’d been keeping you prisoner and hurting you.”

Again Graham sounded so confident and Sasha wished she could be too. They ran side by side, her naked body cold and hurting, there was a time she would have been mortified to be out here with nothing on, her body exposed for all to see, but now she only cared about freedom. Living.

But the universe didn’t seem to want her to live. Because they heard the sound of voices up ahead. Dylan and the others knew she was gone and they were looking for her.

“Go,” Graham ordered, releasing his hold on her hand and giving her a small shove in the opposite direction. “Run. Find safety.”

“They’ll kill you if they find you,” she warned, wavering, she wanted to live, but she couldn’t abandon Graham when he’d come back for her.

“I’ll be fine, now go,” he insisted.

As scared as she was to leave and run off on her own, Sasha wasn’t going let this chance slip away, so with a last look at Graham she turned and ran.

Okay, she was laughing.

Well, he guessed at least she wasn’t just staring blankly at nothing with those terrifyingly empty eyes anymore. Although he wasn’t sure the hysterical laughing was really all that much better.

Over her laughter Graham could hear footsteps getting closer.

They were coming.

Shifting so he was behind Sasha, he clamped a hand over her mouth to quiet her. “Don’t know what you think is so funny, honey, but I’m serious, I’m getting you out of here.”

Something in his tone must have gotten through to her because she stopped laughing and went lax in his hold. Good. If he was getting through to her, breaking her out of her shock, then they stood a chance.

“Is there another way out?” There was no possible way they could go through the door and up the stairs, even if he’d imagined the sound of someone coming.

When Sasha nodded, he removed his hand, but still kept an arm around her waist to keep her upright. She looked like a gentle breeze could blow her over.

“Show me.”

With another nod, Sasha headed over to the furthest corner of the room. “A door leads to a tunnel, Dylan and the others had it there in case this place was ever found,” she whispered, her voice soft and shaky, but at least she was focused and not lost inside her own head.

“Lets go,” Graham said without hesitation as he found the handle and shoved it open. “We have to go fast, because as soon as they see you’re gone they’re going to know what happened and that you’re not alone.”

“What did you do out there?”

“Blew up their vehicles, well one of them anyway, although it would be great if it set off a chain reaction and took them all out.”

“That’s … genius,” she said the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement.

“You gonna laugh again, honey?” he asked as he guided her into the tunnel and closed the door behind them.

“Nope. I’m going to run.”

And that’s exactly what they did. Because they both knew there was every chance they wouldn’t make it back out into the woods before they were caught.

Right before she sank too deep inside her own mind that she lost her connection to the real world, there was some sort of loud sound, and then Sasha heard the men rush out of the room and, in the back of her mind, wondered what had happened.

Did it really matter?

Even if something had distracted them, they’d be back.

So she allowed herself to fall deeper into her mind, let everything else fade away. Blackness seeped into her, not like darkness, it was like an emptiness you couldn’t full explain. It was like allowing yourself to die even if you were still alive.

Then just when the blackness settled over her and she was about to disappear for good, something stopped her.

No. Someone.

“Come on, Sasha, hang in there for me,” a voice urged and she felt something tugging at her wrists and ankles.

The voice … it was familiar in an unfamiliar sort of way. It wasn’t Dylan, or one of the others, wasn’t one of her family members or friends either. Yet she had heard it before.

“Come on, honey, don’t give up on me, I am getting you out of this house, I swear I am.”

Sasha laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement. She wasn’t getting out of this house. Ever. He would never allow her another opportunity to escape, no matter how long he kept her body alive.

“Snap out of it,” the voice insisted. “I need your help getting out of here. Come on, Sasha, I know you’re still in there somewhere.”

Whoever was preventing her from slipping away completely shook her hard, and it was enough to jar her, send the blackness retreating. Against her will her eyes popped open and she saw who was standing before her, hands on her shoulders, one knee on the mattress by her hip, a mixture of guilt, anger, and concern in his eyes.

It was him. The man who had found her in the forest and then returned her to Dylan. Graham.

What was he doing here?

“I’m sorry I let him take you back, I’m sorry I didn’t do something, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make that up to you,” he said in a rush when he saw her eyes were open. “But right now I am getting you out of this place.”

Those words were so ridiculous there was only one thing Sasha could do. Laugh.