Killing Tink

Ch. 7

Tink talked for twelve minutes straight. She watched the clock as she did, keeping her voice calm and her back straight.  The chair close to the bed bothered her but she wouldn't let him know, she needed to get out of this place and set up a life for her baby.

"That was a good start Hope. A middle class all american family with a mom, a dad and a dog.  Bravo.  Unfortunately you didn't give any specifics at all, so I'm keen on thinking you've given me a generic story maybe?"

She huffed loudly.  "I'm only telling you what I know is true."  Paraphrasing she hit the highlights again for good measure. "I lived with my mom and my dad in Seattle, I went to school, I had friends, I had a dog.  I liked a boy named Dixon, and hated life being the same every day.  We decided to run away together, but things didn't work out between us."

He waited for more, as if there were more, Tink couldn't stand his looks today. She felt like a caged animal waiting to be let loose.  Her skin itched and her brain fired signals to run but there was no where to go.  She needed to get this visit out of the way and find a chance to leave.

"Was it Dixon that did this to you?"

She remembered Dixon, the school heart-throb who was magic on the baseball field and turned out to be a loser at everything else.  She remembered the first few days, adventurous and exciting, gas in the tank, the open road, and no one telling them what to do.

They survived for a week like that, eating, drinking, and having sex in the cheap hotel room where they played house.  Dixon got angry when he couldn't find a way to make a buck, and he took her down to the local bar to drink the last of the money before they called it quits. It was below a dive, no id's needed, none asked for.  At first she found it thrilling, until Dixon, drunk and desperate, decided to bargain her to the highest bidder.

The hotel room got smaller as she ended up having sex with strangers for money that she never got to spend. By the time she'd made enough to pay for the hotel bill, they needed more money for food.  It was a cycle they couldn't break. She dreamed of going home until she thought about who she was now, and what she had done. She could imagine the punishment her parents would give.

One day she had a customer who decided to give her what she deserved. He beat her until she couldn't stand up and when Dixon finally burst in, the man beat him too before running off. It was a turning point, the whole idea was a giant mistake she wondered if she could pretend to be the Jade that left, and go home. No matter what her parents would do, it was better than living like she was.

Dixon, out of options and with an ego bruise larger than the ones covering his face flew into a rage. He decided to take his anger out on her for not keeping the guy happy enough in the room and causing him to get violent. He dragged her out to the beach threatening to drown her.  He cursed her for making him leave home and ruining his life, and she remembered that she started to believe it all.

That was the day she met Stash.  The knight in leather armor that offered her the back seat of his bike, and a ticket away from Dixon.  It took no time to make the decision, and Jade hadn't even grabbed her wallet. 

"No, it wasn't Dixon.  He and I had a fight, and it got physical.  That's when Stash rolled up on his motorcycle and rescued me."

John looked at the clock and at Tink's hands.  Her right hand trembled and her left, which she continued to bite on while talking, left bloody circles on the sheet.  When she noticed him looking she placed them both under the covers. 

John looked at the clock and back to the spots on the sheet before speaking.

"I have a meeting today... with your doctors actually, it should have started about five minutes ago.  They guess you're about sixteen, and they'd like to put out a bulletin to the local law enforcement with your picture to identify you.  I'm trying to delay that, hoping you'll be ready soon to give me specifics about who you are and who I can call for you, but I won't be able to stall them forever.  You're a minor, and I'm sure your parent's are probably worried sick."

Tink looked at him blankly.  "I'm not sixteen, I was seventeen when I left."

He pulled his collar and cocked his head to the side.  When was that?  From the shape you're in it has been a while.  Do you remember the date you left home?'

That was one was easy, Dixon and her had taken off the night after graduation. 

"Sure, it was last year, 2014" 

John sat back in the chair and his eyes showed an expression she couldn't read. He stretched his hand to the end of her bed.  She stared at it waiting for it to move, or slap.

"Hope, that was three years ago.  It's 2017.  Are you sure about the date?"

Tink felt the world spinning and her chest getting tight.  Three years?  That wasn't possible.  She had lived in a single underground room for three years?  Her body rocked back and forth and she could no longer hold in the wails that escaped from her throat, she began hitting her head against the wall and yanking out fistfulls of hair. 

John put his hands on her to hold her down as he called for assistance.  Sarah came into the room and grabbed her legs as another nurse put medication in her IV.  As her body filled with the warm heavy feeling Tink continued to rock until everything went black. 

She woke up in the night, the slow steady beeps continued but she was once again strapped to the bed.   She tried to wriggle a bit to see if there was a chance they were loose, but nothing budged. 

It wasn't possible, this was some kind of mind trick to see if she'd break, she was sure of it. And she had done exactly the wrong thing, just like always. 

She looked at the calendar on the wall, the paper the nurse ripped off every day when introducing herself. Under the soft glow of the hall lighting she could see that it said 2017. How had she never paid attention. 

She tried to reinvent her dates. Maybe she graduated in 2016, but as much as she tried to muddle that bit, it was crystal clear. She had been Tink, a ghost, less than a shadow for three years. No one had saved her, no one had come looking. Of all the things Stash did, one thing that he said rang in her ears.

"No one is looking for you Tink. You aren't the kind of girl that goes on a milk carton. You left, and became a whore. I saved you from that Tink. I did.  And now you're mine. We belong together. You and me.  Tink."

Three years of being Tink. Three years of Jade being dead. She wished she were with Stash now. Just to break the rules. Just to feel his hand sting as it landed on her cheek; just to feel him kick her would be justice for the bitch she was. But even that she ruined. She killed Jade running, and Tink by being stupid. There was nothing left but the baby, and she had no idea who its mother even was.

It swam and it curled until she could no longer find her way back to surface, and she didn't mind at all.
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