Enslaved Heart (A "No one lives" fan-fiction)

Pain

Pain. A strong factor in a human's life and something Donna Greenwood had become accustomed to in her many years of living. Just at the age of five she had memories of dashing across the old brick road from her apartment place in hot pursuit of her two older brothers eager to play 'swords' with them. A dangerous game including wielding an empty unused pipe stored behind the wooden garages of the tenants and left there to rust now put into use as weapons for them to swing at one another. They would clang and smash, the connection of the metal sending a violent vibration that could be felt through the tube all the way up to their pudgy fingers clasping desperately to the end and swinging with all their might despite the considerable weight of the pipes. Oftentimes a hand or leg would be clipped in the effort of a lowered swing and pain would be instantaneous but fleeting, she desired her pain to be fleeting now just as it had been then.

Clutching the metal topper of the cane Donna laid to rest on an overturned log catching her hastened breath and staring back West towards the direction of the cabin which had long since disappeared behind the trees and shrubbery of the area consumed by darkness and far in the past. It felt as if hours had drifted by since her journey from the window but gazing upwards through the shade of the leaves she could see the once lowered sun was just beginning to touch the top of the sky, it would be midday by now. Life bustled in the forest around her, squirrels and other rodents leaping along the floor gathering acorns and food for the winter approaching and colorful birds of any species leaping with nimble bent legs from one branch to another supplying food to their calling young. Life. Before she took this for granted never truly stopping to behold the wonders of nature and now.. Everything had changed.

Nauseous hit her like a wave and the urge to topple backwards onto the ground was almost unmanageable but she managed to stay upright breathing in deeply the fresh air steeped in the aroma of pine and dirt. The scent was pleasing to her brain and something to focus on other than the dull thumping in her leg which had been impossible to walk on for the several miles she managed to. Before the cabin it wasn't difficult to navigate the low touching ferns and roots poking from the ground but now she was at a severe disability. Movement was twice as exhausting and her muscles also shook with the weakness of blood loss. If she was concerned with walking any further in the past it seemed impossible now.

Just leaning on the cane wasn't enough, she needed drugs of some kind to take away the pain though getting them wouldn't be easy. There was nothing in her line of sight but trees that seemed to stretch on for an eternity and the only sounds that could be picked up were the chirps of birds and rustling of leaves swept by the brisk wind. Nothing. How foolish had she been? To believe that escaping him would be easy if even possible. No, she'd never escape and now Sharla..

The name brought a thud of pain in her heart and a sob to swell at the base of her throat but she choked it down and rested her forehead against the cool skin of her knees. Sharla was dead now. There was nothing that could have been done to spare her of that fate, even if Donna so desperately yearned to turn back time and sink in the warmth of the older woman's hands. It wasn't fair that her kindness had been her undoing...

She straightened and pulled the golden chain of the necklace around her neck feeling the pendants metal plop weightlessly against her palm and the name still neatly engraved in cursive staring up at her. 'Dotty'. Sharla's daughter. Did she know her parents were dead yet? Had their bodies been found or was he hiding them for the right moment? His intentions with them were unclear as they were simply.. Obstacles but something deep down inside her wished that despite how cruel it was that Dotty were to find her parents.

Not knowing hurt the most she could tell from the several interviews in the past done by grieving parents or family members searching for their loved ones. The constant wonder and thought of where they could be, if they were hurt or dead, hoping. Hope was cruel. She wondered if her family was on the news now and calling for the return of their daughter. Would they cry and plead or attempt to be strong in front of the cameras? Would they use a horrific photo of her on their missing posters or claim she could 'light up a room'? A bitter smile tugged at the edge of Donna's lips and for a moment she let it curve them upwards twinged with the salty taste of her own tears. Did they miss her? Dwelling on the past and family was a topic she purposefully ignored but now she felt the stinging desire to go home. Only she couldn't go home, not now or ever. Going back to that house would be condemning her whole family to a death at his hands.