Fearless (The Story of Samantha Smith #1) (45 page)

A moan escaped the girl.

Correction.
We
were going to freeze to death. “Are you okay?”

Another moan.

“Can you hear me? My name’s Samantha. I’m right here. I’m going to help you. Everything’s going to be all right.” I had no idea what I was going to do, but I was going to do something.
 

If I had a jacket, I would’ve put it over her. I was afraid to touch her. I would probably make her injuries worse.

I stood up and looked at my surroundings. It was nothing but dark trees, fields, and road. I was screwed. There weren’t even houses nearby to ask for help. My only option was to head for town. Then I’d knock on the first door I found.

After walking two hundred feet, I knew there was no way I could make it with one shoe, a four-inch heel at that. I plopped down in the middle of the road and removed my platform. Whoever said fashion didn’t have to be functional was an idiot.

Who the hell invented high heels, anyway?

I tried to break the heel off but I wasn’t strong enough. Shit. How was I going to make it two miles into town on one heel? I tried walking on the grass shoulder, but the grass was freezing. I’d have frostbite in no time. This wasn’t going to work. That poor girl would die, and I would end up toeless, before I ever got to town.

If only I’d had my running shoes. I could jog. The running would keep me warm. But I didn’t have my godforsaken running shoes.

Running shoes.

Wait a second.

That girl had been wearing running shoes. But they weren’t on her feet. They had to be around somewhere!

I put my one heel back on and limped up the road and commenced searching for the girl’s shoes. I heard her moan again, so I started talking to her. My teeth clacked while I spoke.

“Hey, I don’t know what your name is, but I hope you have good taste in running shoes.” I laughed. “Who am I kidding. I just hope your shoes fit my feet! You won’t mind if I borrow them, will you? I know, I sound stupid.”

My arms were pebbled with chill bumps. I hoped all my talking would help keep me warm, and give her something to hold onto. I heard her moan again. Good. She hadn’t passed out completely. Or worse.

There was just enough moonlight for me to see. I kept talking to her as I walked back up the road, the way Damian and I had come. The first shoe was in the middle of the road. Thank god for small favors. I sat down on the pavement and put it on, tossing my useless heel aside. The ground froze my ass in two seconds. It was so freaking cold.
 

The girl’s shoe was way too big, so I tightened the laces all the way. I stood and walked. My foot slid around quite a bit, but it was better than nothing. I continued searching for shoe number two.

I stood with hands on hips, scanning the area. Where the hell was that other shoe? I couldn’t stand here all night. Could I make the run into town with one shoe? Probably not.
 

I turned my head, and a glint in the corner of my eye caught my attention. I whipped my head back. I frantically scanned the trees. Damn. I swore I’d seen a reflection.
 

Wait, there it was! I saw the shoe’s tiny reflectors glinting in the moonlight. The shoe poked out from a fork in the trunk of a tree. I ran to it.
 

How’d it get way up in a tree? I’d never understood how people’s shoes came off when they got hit, but they did. Just as sure as this one had.

I jumped up, trying to reach the shoe, but it was too high.

I’d climbed plenty of trees as a girl. I could do this, if I could find a low hanging branch. I circled the tree. No luck. But the trunk was narrow. I could wrap my legs around it and inch my way up.

If only I’d been wearing protective clothing like jeans, a long sleeved denim shirt, and sturdy hiking boots. Instead, I had only my sleeveless rayon dress, torn pantyhose, and one shoe. This was going to hurt.
 

I clenched my knees around the trunk. Fortunately, the bark was relatively smooth. I monkeyed my way up. My skin was instantly abraded. But I was getting that shoe.
 

The toe of the shoe poked out just beyond my reach, but I didn’t need to grab it. I smacked the nose of the shoe with my finger tips. If I could knock it free and it fell to the ground, I was good to go.

It didn’t work. I needed to climb higher to get a better reach. But my thighs were screaming. I’m pretty sure they were going to bleed soon, if they weren’t already. I made one more swat at the shoe. Nope. It was lodged in good.

I took a deep breath, reached up with my arms, and inch-wormed up another foot. My thighs burned with white hot pain. I reached for the shoe and got a good grip. I wiggled it loose and tossed it to the ground.
 

I took a moment to decide if I should jump and risk twisting an ankle, or inch back down the tree. A broken ankle wasn’t going to help that poor girl. I chose the abraded, bloody thighs. I worked down about a foot when my thigh jammed on a knot. Agony!

I let go and slid down to the ground.

I winced in pain. I touched my thighs to see if I felt any blood. I wasn’t sure. Hopefully it was just sweat. My arms felt torn up too. But nothing I couldn’t handle.
 

I put the running shoe on and laced it tight before climbing back up the slope. I trotted over to the girl.

“I’m going to run and get help. Next time, try to keep your shoes on,” I joked. “It took me forever to find them.”

She moaned. I hoped it was a moan of laughter.

I ran toward town. I went slowly at first, until my body warmed and my legs loosened. Then I sped up. I made good time because the road was slightly downhill the entire way. Thank you, gravity.

As long as some nut like Damian didn’t run me over in the darkness, I’d find help in no time.

All my after-school jogging made this easy work. The skin on my torn up thighs started complaining immediately, but I ignored it.

The shoes were way too big for my tiny feet. I felt several hot spots forming on the balls of my feet already, but I kept reminding myself a few blisters were far better than what that poor girl had already suffered.

Eventually I saw a dark house. I hoped someone was home.
 

A car screeched to a stop in front of me. Damian’s BMW. He jumped out and ran toward me. I sprinted in the opposite direction, but he caught up instantly. He grabbed me by the hair and jammed something in my back.
 

“Stop right now and get in my car or I’m going to shoot you.”

I twisted and saw a silver pistol in his hand. My eyes popped wide. “Have you lost it, Damian?!”

“In the car.” His grip on my neck tightened.

I didn’t know what to do. I let him push me to his car.

“Open the door.”

“No, this is crazy.”

“Do it, or I will shoot you.”

I studied his eyes. I had never seen them this cold. I opened the passenger side door and he forced me inside.

“Put the seatbelt on. Now.”

I did.

“I’m going to get in the other side. If you try to run, I will hunt you down and kill you.”

I was stunned by his viciousness.

He jogged around the car and climbed in. He squeezed the pistol between his legs while he made a U-turn and we drove away from the scene of the crime, and that poor girl.

I realized my jacket and purse were still in his car.
 

“Don’t even think about going for your phone. I will shoot you if you try.”

“Where are we going.”

“I’m taking you home.”

That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I was thinking more along the lines of some abandoned reservoir or coal mine. So he could dump my body after he did who knew what with me.

He was silent while we drove. We were definitely headed to my house.

“Damian, this isn’t right. We have to call someone to help that girl.”

“Do I need to drop you off at the asylum? I can’t have this on my record. I’ll never get into Columbia if I killed someone.”

“She’s not dead. I heard her moaning. If we get her help now, she’ll survive. I know it.”

“I can’t take that chance.”

“What? That she’ll survive? Or you won’t get into Columbia?”

“Either. No one’s going to find out about this.” At a stop sign, he cut me with his eyes. “If you tell anyone, I will kill you. If you call the cops, I will kill you. Look me in the eyes and tell me if you think I’m joking.”

I examined his face. I barely recognized it. Had I thought this young man was attractive at some point? Desirable? My perfect fantasy? I was crazier than he was if I had. Wow, I had poor taste in men. And that was the understatement of the millennium.

“Say anything about this to
anybody
, and I will ruin you. Don’t think I can’t.” He stroked the pistol between his legs. And I do mean the shining gun. Somehow, the way he did it was the foulest thing I had ever seen. It was grotesque, like he loved that gun more than he ever had me.

He pulled to a stop next to my parents’ house, which was dark. They must’ve still been out with their friends.

Damian stared straight ahead, through the windshield. “Get out.”
 

I opened the car door and stepped out. I leaned in to gather my jacket and my purse. He grabbed my wrist and squeezed it hard.

“Don’t tell anyone. Or you’re dead.”

“I won’t.”

He yanked me back into the car.
 

My chin almost smashed into the stick shift. “Hey! Watch it!”

“I’m serious as a heart attack, you fucking cunt. If you tell, I will kill you before the cops get me. I can find you, no matter where you go.” He clamped his fingers down harder, until the bones in my wrist ground together.

I felt like I was supposed to answer him, but I didn’t know what to say. He glared at me.

A pair of headlights turned the corner onto my street. He released my arm.
 

“Close the fucking door.”

I did. He drove off slowly.

I waited until he was gone before I dashed into my house. I bolted the front door behind me and leaned against it. When the tears started, I slid down until I sat on the floor. I bawled in the darkness and hugged my purse and jacket.

With Damian gone, I was free to let it out. All the fear that had raced through me for the last twenty minutes.
 

I had loved Damian. Until I realized he was such a monster. I would be lying if I said I never had any feelings for him. That’s why it hurt so much. The love and sense of loss I’d felt wouldn’t evaporate in a few seconds.
 

I shook with sobs for some time before I could begin to think clearly.
 

That’s when I remembered the girl. She needed help. For all I knew, Damian was driving back up that road to push her off into a ditch so no one would find her. Was he capable of that? An accident was one thing. But finishing the job like that? Was Damian that cruel?

Maybe.

What the hell was I going to do?

I couldn’t let that girl die all alone.

I put my hands on the tile floor and stood myself up. I tugged my coat on and rushed to my VW outside. I drove until I found a pay phone.

There was one beside the Italian restaurant a few blocks from my house. I always noticed the phone when I drove to school and wondered who actually used it. I parked on the street and ran up to it. I didn’t have any change. I dialed 911 anyway.

The operator picked up.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“There’s a girl on Deer Creek Road, she was hit by a car, she’s bleeding, she needs an ambulance.”

“Ma’am, please calm down.”

“She’s half way up Deer Creek Road! She’s lying on the side of the road!”

“Ma’am? I’m going to ask you to take a deep breath and calm down.”

“Send an ambulance! Deer Creek Road! Half way up! On the right side! Near a bunch of trees at the hairpin turn.”

“Ma’am? Please calm down. Ma’am? What’s your name, ma’am?”

I slammed the receiver into the cradle. I took a step back and folded my arms across my chest. I half-expected the phone to ring. I glanced from side to side. I wasn’t going to wait to find out.

I jumped into my VW and drove toward Deer Creek Road. I needed to check on that girl. Screw crazy Damian.

I kept seeing his face in my mind, and hearing his words.
“Don’t tell anyone. Or you’re dead…If you tell, I will kill you before the cops get me.”

A half mile away from Deer Creek Road, an ambulance appeared in my rearview mirror with flashing lights and sirens. I pulled over and let it pass. Thank God. I was about to pull back onto the road when two police cars barreled past. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
 

I drove toward Deer Creek, but a few blocks away, I contemplated making a U-turn and heading home.
 

No, I had to make sure the ambulance went to the right place.

I drove up Deer Creek. I imagined Damian waiting for me in his BMW, ready to chase my VW and run me into a tree. But he was nowhere to be found. When I could see the blue and red glow of emergency lights reflecting against the trees near the hair pin turn, I was confident they were in the right spot.

 
I found a wide section of the road and turned my VW around. I drove home slowly. My hands shook so much, I had to squeeze the steering wheel as hard as I could to keep them steady.

Back at my house, I was ready to vomit. I ran inside and spilled Damian’s home-cooked dinner into the toilet. That was the last of him I ever wanted to see. I flushed it down, rinsed my face, and brushed my teeth.

When I sat down to pee, the burning between my legs hit me full-force. I had blocked it completely out during my ordeal. My inner thighs were hamburger from climbing the tree. I used sterile pads and a bottle of antiseptic from under the sink to clean my wounds. They totally burned, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought when I first looked at them in this light.
 

After I bandaged myself, I stuffed the wrappers in the bottom of my school backpack. I feared my parents might notice the wrappers and start asking questions if I put them in the bathroom wastebasket. I would throw them out at school the next day.