Ghost
God, she was tired. So, so tired. Two thousand miles--south Florida to Maine. Quite a difference. Heck, everything was different. There were hills here. South Florida was flat, well, except for the interstate ramps and overpasses. She'd noticed a lot of things along the way. The trees, the plants, entirely different. The air felt different, smelled different. people dressed differently. A lot more covered up. But, most of all the car wasn't like a thousand degrees when you climbed back in after a pit stop.
She smiled to herself, and not a single friggin' fire ant mound. She wouldn't miss those buggers at all. The rule was always keep moving in the grass--never stop. If you held still for even thirty seconds or a minute or so, those suckers would start biting. She hated them. They were everywhere. Big bumps with a crown of pus that took forever to go away. And itched...itched like crazy. She shivered at the recollection.
Drive, sleep in a rest area. Drive, sleep. On and on. Just to put as much distance as possible behind her. But now she was free! After four years of wearing long sleeved tees under her uniform to work in order to cover the bruises; trying to hide the sprained wrists or shoulders from being thrown against the wall; the makeup to try and hide the bruises on her face.
God, all the times she told the folks at the ED that she fell off a ladder, tripped, fell down--a million excuses for her injuries. But they knew. Everyone knew. Hell, all her friends knew--and never said a word to her, never made her feel ashamed or more humiliated than she was. But she knew they were all there ready to help whenever she was ready. But she finally had to do it on her own. Had to find the strength to say NO!
She'd firmly believed that if she just hung in there, he would change. Stop the drinking and carousing, stay home more. But he never did. Never would. Finally, as he was preparing to give her the punishment 'that she deserved', she'd had enough--knocked the son of a bitch out and called the police. She smiled to herself. One punch! That's all it took. Hell, her hand still hurt.
He'd never seen it coming. The last look on his face was surprise. No, shock! She smiled to herself. He couldn't believe it. She hoped his ass sat in jail quite a while and hoped he liked that gap where his front tooth used to be.
Restraint order filed. Check. Divorce paperwork filed with the court. Check. Name change. Check. New job, new house, new community--new life. Hit the road. Free!
Here she was, finally. Her new house was in the woods, next to a lake, backed up to a two hundred acre county park--the Colonel Bartholomew Daniels estate--she couldn't wait to explore it.
She'd never been here before. Hell, never been to Maine before. Did it all on line. Found the house, explored it, bought it. As soon as she'd seen it online...she knew, just absolutely one hundred percent knew she had to buy it and move here. It's like she didn't have a choice. And then all the other pieces just fell into place. She still couldn't believe it.
A price she could afford and an easy commute to the hospital; a better job than she'd had--trauma nurse in the ER and director of the code team and nurse intervention teams. Perfect. The pay was less, but it didn't matter. Not at all. It was never about the money.
Never again. Never again was she going to be that typical woman who feels she can fix a guy with issues. Why the hell did she always think that way? Didn't really matter. Guys and dating were off the list for now--way off the list, maybe forever.
She laughed to herself. One of her friends at work had suggested switching to women, but based on how the girl:girl relationships she observed at the hospital seemed to go, it didn't seem any different; although she supposed they couldn't hit as hard and chuckled to herself.
Bad boy after bad boy. High school, nursing school, and beyond until she had finally married one who beat the hell out of her for four years and spent all her money. Once again, instead of her fixing him, he destroyed her. Or nearly destroyed her at least. Never again!
She unloaded her new mattress and dragged it inside, trying without success to keep it off the dirt and pine needles. Screw it, she could clean it later. Her strength was running out and she decided she just didn't have the strength to lift it.
She let the mattress flop to the floor in the bedroom, rotated it around and decided against putting the frame together tonight or bringing in the box springs. A chair and her coffee and her coffee maker and that was all the big stuff for tonight. Thank God for coffee. She lugged a few more boxes from her car and trailer--toiletries, her blanket and pillow from the passenger seat, the old coffee cup from her last pit stop--it would be fine for tomorrow morning.
She went around the house and very carefully locked the doors and made sure all the windows were secured. Force of habit, but especially now that she had escaped--just in case. Taking another bite of a protein bar--God, she was starting to hate those things--she flopped onto the bare mattress in her tee shirt and undies and pulled a blanket over herself. She took a deep breath, let out a sigh--<,ksafe...finally safe and home; and fell instantly asleep. Lots to do tomorrow was her last thought. She needed something besides those friggin' protein bars and smiled to herself.
'WAIT! I HEAR YOU! HELP! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!'
She bolted upright and stared in the darkness. Well, that was a hell of a dream. Cripes! She must really be exhausted. It seemed so real.
'HELP! YOU HAVE TO HELP! PLEASE!'
She jumped back up from her mattress and looked around. "What! Where are you?" She reached for the lamp on the floor next to her. Click, click. No light. "Shit, that's right! It's hooked to the switch at the door. Where are you? How'd you get into my house?" She was sure she had locked everything up. She scrambled out of bed and frantically started looking around the house. Going to have to change all the locks first thing...
She stumbled around, but finally found some switches to the overheads and started searching.
'HELP! I'M TRAPPED!'
The voice sounded panicked, afraid. "Where are you?" Frantically, she dashed around the house--searching, looking everywhere. The small house took only moments to search--each room, each closet. She went out onto the porch and looked into the woods. "I don't see you..."
'I'M IN A BOX AND I CAN'T GET OUT!' She started to cry, 'I've tried and tried and tried! I can't breathe anymore. I...Please help me. Please?'
"Fuck! No! No, no, no! You're in my head! I'M HEARING YOU IN MY FRIGGIN' HEAD!" Fear and worry engulfed her. "I must have been poisoned or something. Toxic mold, hallucinogenic fungus? Can't be food, all I've had is protein bars all day. God! Surely not some kind of electrolyte abnormality because of the damn protein bars! And surely not flashbacks from college. I mean, it was only the one time. And actually the trip was a lot of fun.
"Fugue state? Schizophrenia! Yes! I must be a schizophrenic! But I'm getting a little old for that to suddenly happen..."
'Wait! I hear you in my head too! You have to get me out. Hurry! I've been alone...oh, no, I've been alone a long time-- a long, long time. What day is it?'
"Thursday."
'No way! It can't be...That means I've been in here since Friday? A week, I...Oh, no! I hate to ask, but...what's the date?'
"June 3rd."
