Prologue236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8AsiIKv8k0
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡucwBNgBEfw
Hating what was happening to them and before them.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI4wKAx8r5e
The light was so bright, so hot.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBysr0J34S3
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzGH8KRsbd
Slowly realization hit her, screams?236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTv2B3eQL8T
no, just one. One scream, Hers 236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Iub5vXsMA
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgOVW8snqsp
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhFywzTGCD
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡADEv3jnpB7
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgVDCJDDs2t
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlmmFNsn94l
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ooatuwhh3
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjU2rLD6z9w
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgZaE5lnssO
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvfzeiO9hd
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9kSll4HGx
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrNJq0FUGeq
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZK4bN5E2jM
The only thing in her life she actually, sort of, cared about. Running, endurance, pushing herself beyond her limits made her brains stop going places she didn't want it to go. Stopping the memories, the guilt.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqnc8oL1hw2
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfdFMCKqGa
And she needed it more and more every day.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOY51UzHSB
Having lost everything in her past, at the age of twelve, the track was also the only place she dared to let have any meaning to her. The rest of her life, her surroundings?236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDgxnSpew85
Hell no!236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMvvXlH76FT
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2HUFfxxqrp
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5VrjrenLGx
Her heart was surrounded by a thick, impenetrable wall some would say, and she heard it more than once behind her back, as she walked through the halls of the college, that she seemed like a robot.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx16KmeRQXl
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP5kdBHhy2f
If she spoke more than twenty fully formed sentences in a day, not counting interviews and media, it was a lot and people found her silence, her preference for solitude simply. Well, unsettling.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJp3sjO1bg
They didn't understand, would never be able to understand how it felt to have nothing. Nobody to care about you, to listen to you, to comfort you.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHYfrAJL0X8
So why would she bother trying to explain?236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh6iA2MRc3x
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNrRiFqMkLK
They could however use her words for a couple of minutes of fame. Causing a sensation if the media ever found out the truth about what happened that night. That she lied. That she remembered everything.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVwM2simJZh
Everything!236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lTbARm8y5
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3wP8rRsFE
She was still on edge, was familiar with the feeling by now, and knew the only way to get rid of it was to run. Deplete her energy. There was a time she didn't know when to stop.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh8Qu4D01aO
More keen on punishing herself, for her involvement in past events, than making sure she would actually survive the run. More than once it had resulted in blackouts, cardiac arrest, and eventually involuntary hospitalization.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8n6GhkHKEq
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQtGItSi7q
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXX94DERYh
It all changed when Jonah, a junior high school coach and a total douche-bag, took it upon himself to teach her how to safely push her limits. How to become better and faster without causing major damage to herself.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB46OdQx4AP
She despised the guy and was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. However, she couldn't deny what he had done for her. Pulling her out of a downward spiral, a dark place she never wished to go back to.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVG49s1pTWt
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxfR42A3xLO
For that, she was thankful to him, and still was, but it didn't take long for their fragile cooperation to come to an abrupt end.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY2QcKvTKdY
He was a douche-bag after all.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuhKSbpqEvQ
He'd mistaken her silence for consent and started showing up at the most inappropriate times, the worst and the final blow to their teamwork, was showing up while she was showering.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFE9Pf8zyZt
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi4DkliJrlV
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtzhdgruhAp
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLu841qkhSJ
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yzGzqNSw5
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD7YVVy16ME
After yesterday's competition, he waited outside her dressing room. Guiding her to his office as soon as she tried to leave. They didn't speak, as was usual for them when it was just the two of them outside a working environment.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIQP2k47C5R
But his expression had said enough, tension radiated from his normally stoic face and his small lips were pressed into a thin line, all signs that she was not going to like what was going to happen when he opened that door.236Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnl4G73qUUf
