Taken into the Unknown (Complete)

Repercussions

Chapter 42: Repercussions

News about the human trafficking had seeped into the news not too long after I got out of the hospital. They talked about it for about a week before the next big, juicy story overshadowed it. I kept tabs on every article and news report given on the subject and though Bax and Jayden’s names were briefly mentioned, somehow Damon and mine were avoided. I assumed Damon probably pulled some strings to make that happen and keep things out of the public eye. Reporters tried to get an interview from Jayden, but, of course, her parents didn’t allow any of that for many obvious reasons.

In my 16 years of formal education, school had never been tougher. Going through my daily routines without Jayden was foreign and rough. On top of all that, I couldn’t deal with the people, the rumors. Even though none of the stories had mentioned me in the kidnappings people knew about my disappearance; mainly because of my connection with Jayden. Without a concrete story, people had come up with the most fanciful explanations for my disappearance.  

All these people noticing me and talking about me, for however long it was, bothered me. For someone who had basically been invisible all her life all the stares and attention was unnerving. It’s not like everyone knew what happened to me or that everyone cared or that everyone recognized me, but it was those few who did know, care, and recognize me who made me feel like everyone did.  Suddenly anyone looking in my direction or whispering near me was talking about me. I was self-conscious—no, paranoid that everyone was judging me, and it made me feel more alone than I ever had. As a rather introverted person, yes, I liked to be alone, but this was different.  

I think that for someone who has close, loyal friends to fall back on, this would be difficult to understand, but for those of us who have no true friends to lean on, as much as we don’t want to be people-pleasers, as much as we don’t want to care about the opinions of others, people’s opinions bear a heavy weight on our shoulders, on my shoulders.

Everything felt so off, different. The dorm felt too quiet and empty without Jayden to talk to me. On top of all that, I found it harder and harder for me to concentrate in class. After everything that happened, going to classes and taking tests felt all too normal and almost…pointless. I found my mind constantly drifting to Red, the state I found Jayden in, all those other girls trapped in that horrific house. Every once in a while I had nightmares about all the brutal things I imagined had occurred there to those girls for however long they were trapped there: the rapes, the beatings, and the absolute heartlessness. I shivered involuntarily as if my body were trying to shake the thoughts out of my head. My own bruises were fading, but the haunting memories had scarred me forever.

Too often though, I found my thoughts drifting to the one insufferable man who constantly plagued my thoughts, Damon.  I found myself often wondering what he was doing, or how he felt after everything that happened. I even went so far as to—in a rather stalker-like manner—keep tabs on his company and any possible articles that could be written about him, but he had managed to keep out of the public eye pretty damn well for someone as successful as him. It was actually somewhat annoying that I had no way of getting in touch with him. It wasn’t like I could just call someone from Vanguard Technologies and ask to set up an appointment to speak with their CEO.  And flying to Alaska was out of the question. I wouldn’t even know where to go in the first place.

The only thing keeping me sane--with all the changes in my life--was getting away from campus and seeing my dad and Landon some weekends. I was grateful my relationship with my dad was patching up. Landon had become a crutch I could lean on too now that he made an effort to be a bigger part of my life once again. Life away from campus felt so much more normal, comfortable, blissful, and almost complete.