Chapter Fourteen

Florence wants to escape, but she has absolutely no idea where she is right now. Will she ever escape? Will she ever be happy again?

Chapter Fourteen; The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It was three hours later when Frankie had finished telling me the truth. I wanted to know everything, and I’d told her never to hold back. But now, looking back, I really wished she hadn’t of told me in the first place.

Reasons why? You can probably guess. The stories, the secrets…it made me feel physically ill. It made my bones and my heart ache…it made my blood boil. It made me hate Michael even more than I did before, and I absolutely detested him, but now, it was much worse.

I’d sobbed my heart out for hours since Frankie had spoken the last word. She tried to calm me, and told me that I wanted to know and it was probably for the best. I’d have to find out soon enough…

But it was just so, disgusting and evil. You just wouldn’t imagine someone doing that, it’s just absolutely horrifying. I didn’t want to even think about it anymore.

I couldn’t stop myself from being sick, after Frankie told me, I had to run to the nearest corner and puke my guts up.

Luckily, all the corners have buckets in them, to catch the drips of rain that fall through the holes in the roof. Now filled with puke. But it was better than having it all over the floor.

That night, I didn’t even try to get some sleep. It wasn’t even worth it. I couldn’t sleep after hearing that. I’d have nightmares, I’d wake up in the middle of the night screaming my head off, thinking that I was next….Michael was coming to get me next.

My eyes stayed wide open all through the night. Frankie had made me a bed out of straw and hay, and old blankets. It was warm and comfy, and I felt safe because I wasn’t alone. But my mind wouldn’t let me rest.

My mind wondered to other places, planets…I thought about how my parents were feeling right now. Were they worried about me? Were they searching? I hoped that they were. I knew they would be in my heart, they loved me no matter what. How could I ever doubt them?

My heart ached at my imagination, a picture of Leo. It hurt so much just to think about his beautiful face. I just wanted to go home and be with my family, to stop the pain that was hurting them throughout right now.

I wondered even more though; I couldn’t stop myself. Did they think I was dead? Had they given up? Or were they looking for me, had they got a whole search party looking for me…

I didn’t know the answer, but I knew what I wished the answer would be.

Then my mind searched even deeper, and stopped at another image. Wayne.

My heart ached even more, my stomach tied knots and did somersaults. How must he be feeling? I knew that he’d be feeling guilty, which was just a little bit his fault but at the same time, had nothing to do with it. I wondered if he even cared that I was missing, if I was dead or breathing….if his baby, our baby was okay.

Though, I didn’t even know the answer to that myself. I was nervous, anxious….worried. I was four months gone, maybe even five now considering how long I’d been away…

Shouldn’t the baby had kicked by now? Or moved around? I’d felt no movement whatsoever, and this scared me, it scared me throughout. If something happened to my baby, I wouldn’t be able to carry on. 

Which was why I wanted revenge on Michael, and why I wanted to get out of here…

When morning arrived, I’d made myself promise to talk to Frankie, again. Ever since she’d told me the horrific stories, she’d thought that I was convinced. But I wasn’t. Yes, it was disgusting, and it was dangerous to leave but it made me even more determined….Or maybe I was just completely insane.

I gathered that Frankie would just think I was insane, and that’s it. I woke myself up, and tried to be as quiet as I could as I sat up and pulled myself into standing. I approached the broken windows, the floor creaked, but the none of the girls began to stir.

I stood on the boxes of hay, and looked out into the early morning. It was just becoming light, my eyes were sore and I couldn’t yet see clearly, but I knew from what I could see, that we were surrounded by trees. We must have been in the middle of some forest, but this still didn’t give me the information that I wanted. Were we still in London? Or were we in a completely different town? City, country?

I was scared. I think I’d just realised how hard it would be to escape and make our way back to London. There weren’t any such clues to tell me where we were…it made me feel even more helpless. We couldn’t escape, and no one would find us.

We were completely hidden…

Michael was obviously smarter than I thought.

‘Florence, what are you doing? A voice, a small and broken voice travelled its way closer. I didn’t even have to guess who it belonged to.

‘Amelia. Go back to bed…’

‘Florence, don’t tell me what to do.’

I sighed heavy and hard, ‘I’m just dreaming….dreaming someway we’d get out of here…’

‘We will, with time?’

‘We don’t have any time! We’re dying….we’re all dying in here.’

‘Stop being so negative….Do you even know how long we’ve all been in here? Excluding you?’

‘No.’ I frowned sheepishly, feeling a little stupid now.

‘I know it’s hard because your pregnant and you’re worried about your baby. That’s fine, that’s normal. But trust me, you’d be able to survive in here if you wanted to. We all did…’ She turned a little, gesturing to all the girls that were sleeping on the floor in their hay beds.

‘How long?’ I swallowed, my voice rough and cracked.

‘Months. You’ve been here, what? A week? And you think we can’t survive?’

‘Maybe we can survive, but not much longer Amelia. What happens when all the food runs out? When the girls get ill? When I’m about to give birth? I’m not being selfish. I want to get every single one of us out of here….not just me…’

‘I know that. I know you’re not selfish.’ Amelia smiled, her smile was warming and genuine. I believed to have made another friend.

A silence passed, we both stood side by side looking out into the forest. Behind us, the rest of the girls, including Frankie, slept without a stir.  I glanced at Amelia, just as she tipped her nose up to the air, screwing her face up to sniff.

‘Do you…smell something?’ She said, still whispering.

I stared back at her, my heart suddenly racing. I sniffed the air, and found the same smell that Amelia must had been talking about. Burning. 

In an instant, Amelia and I rushed to wake the girls up. We shook their shoulders while they slept and pushed them off their beds, tearing away their blankets. ‘Wake up! Wake up!’ We yelled in desperation, ‘Wake up! Fire! Girls wake up, there’s a fire!’ 

The girls awoke slowly, their faces wondering why we were yelling at such an early hour. Their ears blocked with the sounds of their own sleeping dreams, they didn’t want to hear anything else. ‘Fire! C’mon wake up!’ 

‘Amelia, how do we get out of here!’ I screamed at her.

‘I don’t know!’ She screamed back, her anxiety raising with the smoke from the fire. 

Then, the smoke began to pass through the door. And everybody, started to panic….

‘Amelia!’ I screamed, trying to control my breathing, I didn’t want to breathe in the smoke.

‘Keep calm, get all of the girls ready and somehow, we’re gonna get out of here!’

‘What the hell is happening!’ Another voice screamed, it was Frankie, I knew it was.

‘Frankie!’ I hugged her, pulling her towards me. ‘We have to get out of here.’ I said, through the smoke.

‘How? There isn’t any way out…’ She said, coughing.

‘We’ll have to jump…through-’ I paused to cough, the smoke blocking my throat. I couldn’t breathe.

‘Florence! Florence breathe! Breathe!’ Frankie yelled at me, ‘C’mon we have to get out of here!’ 

Amelia was standing at the window, all the girls had gathered round to try and clear their throats with cold, fresh air. ‘Jump!’ I croaked, ‘Get out of here, jump.’ I told them, I didn’t know what else to say, I’d die here….but the rest of them, they’d have a chance.

‘We can’t leave you!’

‘Go!’ I coughed, ‘Go, please!’ 

Frankie and Amelia stared at me, screaming and sobbing. Tears dripped down my cheeks, I grabbed my stomach tight. Silently rocking myself to sleep…

‘Wait!’ Frankie screamed, her arm was hung around my shoulder, keeping me upright. ‘Drop the hay boxes down there! Then we’ll be able to jump!’

From what I could just about see, the room had darkened with all the smoke. The hay boxes sat on the floor, being used as beds. I watched as the girls began to throw them out the window, as if trying to make a safety bed for when they landed. I knew I wouldn’t survive….

‘C’mon! Get out! OUT OUT OUT!’ Frankie ordered the girls to jump, and one at a time, they did as she commanded.. ‘Amelia! Go!’ 

‘No! You first!’ 

‘Quick!’ 

‘NO!’ 

And then everything went black.

Author's Note

Uedited! Enjoy :)

Reviews

[daydreamer]

good interesting read. you will surely become a hell of a novelist soon:)