Fanatic (G/T)

19: Abandoned

POV: Hailey Herndeau

2008

God, his fist is tight. I'm barely getting any air. I shake in his grasp as he keeps yelling and yelling and yelling. He's not quiet either, not at all. If my arms weren't pinned to my torso, I'd surely have them on my ears.

How to get out of this. Despite my calm thoughts, I'm thrashing like a disaster, trying to escape his grip on my body. Fuck giants, through and through. I decide to give him a taste of what he's doing. I roll my eyes back a bit and go limp, holding what little breath I have left. My eyes stay closed and I hear him end his rant short.

The dumbass tries to feel and hear my pulse. The one advantage of being a human: the best thing I can do for him is be dead. He panics, I can sense it.

Suddenly, I'm taken again and I struggle to keep my eyes closed, wanting to know where I am. I hear a creaking noise and my eyelids go from red to black, indicating the light space being covered. I open my eyes hesitantly, not wanting to meet crystalline pools and a booming voice again.

It's pitch black. Where the hell am I? I hear footsteps above me. Above...?

That bastard.

2018

"I know he keeps humans." That's all I have to say. I carry the dim, nearly-dead battery powered plastic candle like a basketball.

"Not for long," says a mint-haired girl between sniffles, trying to roll up twine but not succeeding. Something must be wrong with her arms. Maybe it's why she was crying. "Who are you?" There are three other humans, all standing still.

"My name is..."

"Hailey Herndeau?" asks the dark-skinned girl in a blue sweater. I look at her questioningly. "You... you were pronounced dead a few years ago. You've been missing for ten years."

"It took them that long to call it?" I ask, tossing the candle in hopes of catching it in my other arm. I mess up and drop it, and the battery finally gives out. We're encased in full darkness. "Fuck."

"Yeah. So why are you here?"

"Who do you think made me go missing?" I ask. "I'm sure you all have as much experience as I do of being a victim to a certain someone."

"Did you escape?" asks the only boy of the pack.

"Sort of." I retell the story of what happened in '08, and though I can't see their faces, you could cut the tension with a knife. "But I'm not dead, so that's cool."

"I'm so so sorry," the sweatered girl says.

"If I didn't want to kick his ass already..." the third human trails off, and I smile.

"There are police here." The mint-haired girl gets back on topic. "They're looking for all of us, and I'm sure they'd be pleased to find you too. I'm Avery, the three over there are Missy, Jason and Riley." She points kinda vaguely, but we are in darkness.

"Oh Christ, I haven't been out when it's sunny in an entire decade. I only go out at night when Kevin's at concerts or at a club or whatever he does for fun, besides killing people." I joke.

"He hasn't killed anyone though," Jason says.

"He doesn't know that," I smile again. "So how do we get them to know we're here?"

"I know what we can do. We haven't been allowed to do anything like this since we've been here, so let's do it now that we have the opportunity. Three, two, one."

And just like that, she lets out the loudest scream I've heard in my entire damn life.