Flyleaf

6

"Stop this," he said in my ear, his lips nearly touching it. "I don’t want to hurt you."

"I'm not going to be locked up like a damn animal," I growled, trying to turn my face toward him. "Help me, be free, Im not crazy you know. I dont belong here." I stopped struggling and pretended our argument had distracted me.

"I am trying to help you, lets go to my office and talk."

"Bullshit." I snarled. Meanwhile, I tried to assess his hold on me. He hadn't relaxed his grip, but I hoped maybe the conversation was distracting him.

I lashed out abruptly, trying to break away and scramble out from under him. The best I managed to do was roll myself over before he had a hold of me again, now holding me back-down on the floor.

Well. It appeared that all I'd accomplished was putting myself at a greater disadvantage.

"One day," he said. "You can't even wait one day?"

"Maybe if the place had more color and decent carpets with cable."

I studied him, the determined dark eyes and expression softened by the brown hair that had escaped its ponytail holder. It hung around his face now, just barely touching mine. I could try to break free again but was losing hope of that working. He was too fierce and too set on keeping me here. 

An idea hit me so fast that I didn't pause to analyze it. I just acted. My body might be constrained, but my head and neck had just enough freedom to shift up—and kiss him. My lips met his, and I learned a few things. One was that it was possible to catch him completely by surprise. His body froze and locked up, shocked at the sudden turn of events.

And that was the second thing I discovered. He was kissing me back. But instead, of making out with a really attractive guy, I punched him. I must say I was starting to question my own sanity at this point.

It's true: I've punched lots of guys who tried kissing me but never one I actually wanted to keep kissing. He still had a solid hold on me, but the shock of the kiss had dropped his guard. My fist broke out and connected with the side of his face. Without missing a beat, I shoved him off me as hard as I could and leapt away from him towards the door. I heard him scramble to his feet as I threw it open. I shot out of the hallway and slammed the door shut before I could see what he did next. Not that I needed to. He was coming after me.

Without a moment's hesitation, I pushed the abandoned cleaning cart in front of the  door and sprinted off down the hall. A couple seconds later, the door opened, and I heard a cry of annoyance—as well as a very, very bad word in Russian—as he ran into the cart. He was russian who knew. It would only take him a few moments to push it aside, but that was all I needed. I was down the flight of stairs in a flash and into the meager lobby where a bored desk clerk was reading a book. He nearly jumped out of his chair when I came tearing through.

"There's a guy chasing me!" I called as I headed out the door. Of course He wouldn’t help me considering I was yelling like a crazy person and coincidentally trying to escape from an asylum.

I ran for the nearest fence and flung myself over with great effort. I saw some people coming out of the front doors with flashlights but didn’t stick around to see their next move.

The problem, was of course that I soon lost myself in the darkness.

After living away from the city before, I was used to how completely the night could swallow you once you stepped away from even the tiniest hint of civilization. I was even used to wandering the twists and turns of dark forests. But the old creek park terrain had been familiar. The woods of this place were new and foreign, and I had completely lost my bearings.

Once I was pretty sure I'd put enough distance between me and the asylum, I paused and looked around. Night insects hummed and sang, and the oppressive summer humidity hung around me. Peering up through the leafy canopy of trees, I could see a brilliant sky of stars, completely untouched by city lights. Feeling like a true wilderness survivor, I studied the stars until I spotted the Big Dipper and figured out which direction was north. The mountains we had driven through had been to the east, so I certainly didn't want to go in that direction. It seemed reasonable that if I hiked north, I'd eventually hit an interstate and either hitchhike or walk my way back to civilization. It wasn't an airtight plan, but it wasn't the worst one I'd ever had, not by a long shot.