Veronica (teacher x student)

17

Almost as an instinct, I kick Erica as hard as I can. She falls back and I start running, there were woods near the freeway and I begin running straight into them.

My childhood house was by the deep woods, I would often play in them. All the friends I ever had over would get scared because they would lose me so easily. I would run through the abundance of trees, never running out of energy. It was the place I'd lose myself.

My feet began to hit the leaves as I run into the thicket. I weave between trees, I wouldn't have been able to trace my own steps back. The only thing was the damn leaves, the crunching beneath my feet led to a very obvious clue to where I was. My solution sat only a few hundred yards in front of me.

My dad was a big hunter growing up, I never enjoyed it but I would sit with him in the deer blind and there was one in front of me. I run up to it and open and close the door swiftly. I crouched down under the window and see a pocket knife laying on the ground. I take it and awkwardly begin cutting the rope tieing my wrists together. I hear a faint voice.

"Ronny! You can't run anymore!" Erica's voice.

"Stop this Ronny, I promise, this is all a big misunderstanding," she continues.

I sneak out of the blind and try to walk as quietly as I can away from her voice. I hear another road full of cars coming up, but I doubt I could find a car to actually take me before she finds me. I resort to my usual tactic. I begin climbing a very big tree.

I get to a point where I think I'm good and find a good branch to sit on. I look down and around for her, but I can't find her.

Eventually, I hear her footsteps coming closer, then I hear her.

"Ronny," She almost whispers, "Ronny, please,".

I look at her sneaking around, she must've seen the deer blind and is careful if there are any hunters here. She stopped directly below me, looking around. My heart began to pound, she must know to look up, she must. She knows me, she does, she'll look up and the cycle will begin again of us hurting each other. There's no way she won't look up and I'll give into those soft eyes of hers. She must look at me.

A faint sound of a car door slamming shut calls Erica's attention and she begins running towards the other road where the sound came from.

She never looked up. Why didn't she? Couldn't she have known I was up in a tree? Why didn't she look? She should've looked. We should've locked eyes. She should've cried and said some petty munchy shit and I should've gotten down. We should've run away and lived our lives together. I mean I don't know why she was trying to kidnap me but it was probably in good means... Right?

I hear Erica running along the forest back to where 'her' car was parked before. Suddenly, I become sad that she's gone. For once, I'm alone. Why am I feeling this way? I slowly get down from the tree. Erica knows I'm here, she's coming back. I listen for her footsteps but only silence fills my ears.

Why isn't she coming back? I thought we knew each other so well. Why would she leave me?

I guess it's time to try to hitchhike and see if I get kidnapped for a second time. Before I try my luck, I return to the deer blind and slide the pocket knife into the waistband of my pants.

My hands shake as I hold up a thumbs-up. A bloody bandage still covered my head. The cold wind stabbed needles into my skin. I see a state patrol car and flag it down, it pulls up next to me. 

The officer gets out of the car and walks up to me.

"What are you doing on the side of the freeway young lady? You ain't no lost puppy are you?"

"Uhm... I was just kidnapped. I escaped, I don't know where to go," I tell him calmly.

"Truly? Don't joke with me missy, you seem too calm,"

"No, I actually was. It was my high school teacher Erica Wright, I think she stole a car too," I tell him my heart burning with fire.

He looks down in disbelief and starts writing something down in his notepad. Then, he reports some codes over his walkie-talkie.

"Ok, look I'll take you back to the station and we'll contact your parents. Now, what is your name?" He says.

"Veronica Holmes," I answer. His eyes grow wide as he looks back up at me.

"You're Veronica Holmes?" He asks.

"Yes, why?" I ask.

"Everyone's been lookin' for ya. It's been a big case, you've been missing for a week-ish. It was like you just disappeared off the face of the Earth," He responds shocked.

"I have Veronica Holmes, takin' her back to the station. Over," He speaks into his walkie-talkie. Wow, this whole time did not feel like a week.

I sat quietly in the passenger seat of the cop car as the cop drummed his fingers to some 80s song on the steering wheel. The whole drive I couldn't stop thinking about where Erica could possibly be.

Once I got back to the police station in my town, they asked a lot of questions.

"Why did you leave the dance with Ms. Wright?" All the questions before were easy but I didn't know how to respond to this one.

"I had some arguments with my date and I wanted to go home. We had a close relationship so I confided in her and she offered me a ride," I tell the investigators.

"Did you willingly go into her house?" They ask. I think carefully about my words.

"Yes," I didn't want to lie, "She said she just had to grab something and her house is closer to mine so I just figured it was alright," sometimes you just have to lie.

"You claim she was stalking you, do you know why?"

Yes, we were in love with each other and she was obsessed with me. "No,".

"Do you know she could've gone?"

"No clue," this was one of the only questions I answered completely truthfully.

"I think we are done here," The investigators seem unsatisfied as I get up to leave.

I met my parents in the lobby of the police station, they have eyebags and seemed heavy with burden. I feel bad for them but there was really nothing I could have done. We didn't speak a word to each other going home.

It felt like I haven't been in my house for years when in fact it has only been a week. Police have been searching for Erica, but have come up empty in every lead they have. God only knows where she could be. I would like to think she'd go somewhere warmer like Florida but maybe she'd like the mountains of Montana.

My room no longer feels like my own. My whole body feels tired. I go to lie down on my bed, and as my head rests on my pillow it makes a crinkle noise. My head immediately lifts up and I pick up the pillow. There is nothing under it so I shove my hand inside the case and feel a piece of paper.

The paper is folded neatly, I unwrap it. It reads,

Ronny,

You didn't have to do this to me. I hope you make it home safely. We could've made a life together, I wish I got to explain everything but you had to run. So, come, and I'll explain everything. 45.62483, 3.27516.

XOXO
Your love, E.

I open my phone quickly and type in the coordinates written at the bottom of the letter. It pinpoints a cafe in Osmussaar, Estonia, Europe. I look up the name and it's an island off of Estonia. It is only reachable by boat or helicopter. 

God, I want answers.