Saving Anne [Complete]

Chapter One

Bliss. That is what I would call these last 5 years at U of M. Sure I was broke and sharing an apartment with two girls I hardly new. I was never around. I worked endless hours waitressing at Casey's. This was great during the football season and after being on payroll for 2 years, I finally earned the Saturday afternoon spot. Happy football fans equaled great tips. I also picked up shifts at Hatcher Graduate Library on Campus. This was ideal. During down times, I could study, which I never seemed to have enough time do. Maintaining my partial scholarship was essential to my plan.

•Get a degree. Check. Business Management.
•Get a job. I have an interview on Monday.
•Forever stay away from Jason...please.

God, just saying his name gives me the chills. You know how it is when you are young and in love. It is more like young and blind to everything. My parents tried to warn me. I scoffed it off to them being overprotective, out of touch, or just not wanting me to grow up. My friends never liked him. "Carolyn, Jason is obsessed with you." "The way he stares all of the time is creepy." "Just showing up wherever you are at is not cool" To me, they were all just jealous. Jealous that Jason wanted to be with me all of time and their boyfriends didn't. Jealous that he cared enough to show up and surprise me. What I didn't realize at the time is that Jason was just fucking nuts.

I was floating in a puppy love hazed bubble of everything being so perfect until prom night. You know how it is. Girl and boy have been dating for two months, prom night, the final gift to each other. Well, that was not how it happened at all, even though that was the plan. Instead of riding my little bubble up to what I was sure was going to be the beginning of Heaven on Earth. My bubble popped. Leaving me to plummet to depths of Hell, or at least what I assume Hell would be like.

I had just finished putting the final touches to my make-up and hair when Jason showed up in his dad's Mitsubishi Eclipse. My long mahogany hair with natural amber highlight was pulled up on the sides with elegant ringlets cascading down the back. Ruby red bow shaped lips stood out against my fair skin. Giving myself a final glance in the mirror. Noting how the red spaghetti strapped dress hugged my curves like Jessica Rabbit. It was red hot, just like how the night was supposed to be. I felt sure that was a sign as to what funs times were going to come. We already had our room at the Hyatt, King size bed and...well, what else was I going to need really. Now, I think it was a sign of the devil. After a barrage of photos from my parents, we were off with promises of a night to remember. A night I wished I could now forget.

"You are mine," Jason whispered in my ear. I can still feel his liquored breath sticking to my neck. "Do you know what it did to me when those guys stared at what is mine?" He sneered as the back of his hand made contact with my face. Gasping, I tried backing my way to the door of our suite.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about. You're scaring me, Jason." The look in his eyes may not have told me what he was talking about, but they gave away what he was going to do. Whether or not I wanted to now, I was going to be his tonight. Noticing my pulling away, he grabbed arm and jerked it behind my back, until I heard a pop, followed by a blinding sharp pain. I cried out and tried to remain focused as darkness started to creep in at the edges of my vision. With my hand on my cell, I held down my power button, knowing that it would give me four options, one of them for 911. Praying that I had made the right choice, I let the phone drop to the floor. Please, help me...

"I will not share you, ever." His lips breathed across my neck. I pleaded with him to let me go home. Promising him I would call tomorrow. His look told me that he wasn't stupid and that I was going no where. Now I know that he never planned on me going anywhere ever again. With a brutal hand, Jason pushed me down on the bed, holding my face in mattress, effectively snuffing out my scream. That was when I felt the cold hardness pressed up against my cheek. "This is going to be fun, Carolyn. Don't you think?" Unable to speak, my body just shook with muted sobs. He shifted slightly, drawing the blade down my cheek, sliding along my neck to strap of dress. A quick flick of his wrist, he forcefully freed my shoulder. Just as quick, the other strap was severed. Jason now straddling my back, looked down at me and released my head as he gave a satisfied sigh, "There is no way I can stop now. You know that right?"

Turning my head slightly, I whispered through sobs, "Please, please don't do this. Don't do this to me...I-I love you..."

"You don't get it, do you? I NEED to do this, because I love you! I need to do this. Then you will always be only MINE." Red hot pain seared through my back. "One, for every guy who looked at you tonight." Then another and another. Mercy was shown to me as the darkness came. Darkness and numbness enveloped me in a cocoon of safety. "Oh, no you don't! You made me do this, now you are going to feel it! Feel what you made me feel when those fuckers looked at what was MINE!" With a hand on either side of the zipper, he yanked and tore my dress down the middle, examining my back. "Look at how beautiful you are with my marks. That crimson streaming down your back to your sides. Like little ribbons and bows. A gift for me." Jason now had his hands on the side of my dress, pulling the tattered remains down slowly, exposing my cut and beaten flesh. My arm still at an odd angle due to the dislocation.

"Carolyn, I will love you for the rest of your life. I will be your only love. The only one to have you." Now I was sure that I was done. My vision hazing out again, more due to the loss of blood than pain. Funny thing when you are dying, the pain starts to fade, sound goes out, vision is lost.

In a distance, I could hear banging. At least I thought I did. Then there was nothing again.

Bright white light was flooding my vision. This is it, I thought to myself, the white light, Heaven. "You're going to be okay, miss...We got you....Can you hear me?" My eyes flitted open. I was in an ambulance, not dead. The darkness overtook me once more.

***

Sitting in the courtroom, it all came flooding back to me. In all, I had been stabbed in the back seven times, suffered a dislocated shoulder and a black eye. Jason's plan was to rape me as I died. To be the last thing I would ever experience in this life and the first in my next. His plans were stopped due to my call. I sat there numb, in disbelief as the court decided my attempted murders fate. A psychiatrist took the stand for him. She had apparently diagnosed him with bipolarism a couple years back. He had not been taking his medication and was deemed mentally unstable and petitioned for in-patient hospitalization and rehabilitation. That was it. No jail.

***

"Carolyn, can we talk?" Mom's soft voice filtered into my room. I have done nothing but lay in bed for three days. Wrapped up in my blankets, protecting me from the outside world. Looking up, I saw both my mom and dad standing at the door. Dad had a large folder in his hand that he was tapping against his leg.

"Sure." I sighed, sitting up on the edge of the bed. My parents sat on either side of me. Mom taking my hand. Dad kissing top of my head like he used to do when I had nightmares.

"We have been thinking about college coming up. We know that you had your heart set on going to Arizona State. Your mom and I would have loved it. A whole family of Sun Devil's. Plus, it was close enough so you could come and visit Laurelli...Sweetie, with all that has happened we thought that maybe a change of scenery might be a good idea. I have put a couple of calls in and one of the investigators on your case, Detective Briggs, has a friend on the board at the University of Michigan. He was able to get a couple of strings pulled for you and if you accept, they will grant you a late submission and a partial scholarship." I sighed and snuggled into his shoulder, welcoming the comfort. "Carolyn, we just don't know how long Jason will be hospitalized. We just want you to be safe."

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