Prologue254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6jPWYIyFg
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPvj2kmMzj
Hating what was happening to them and before them.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSzzgGrPxsh
The light was so bright, so hot.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ64PVUMOAqk
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz2bd7N7wAc
Slowly realization hit her, screams?254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqGaXdRiTWx
no, just one. One scream, Hers 254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh4NXTzYb7s
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYCxUCY3nBK
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uEUthTg5s
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX06PPeVbcN
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVCbJT6CtO
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKb6azk7meP
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvKPpX4PB4k
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVocBdO54FG
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdb2Etl2PtK
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaxyusqGT18
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eDfSsf76j
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWzUDVGKz9k
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQqKfgwHLOB
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2B6TmzAyI4
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4rDqHjEGX
And she needed it more and more every day.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKQ48e9NXm
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?254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJlvERH3t8
Hell no!254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9fM460TH08
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPxbwWXaJee
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMq0KlSm3F
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBC6d8l2qx6
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEpp5SXz2C7
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEa5BPYMuAC
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7b5suEfhCg
So why would she bother trying to explain?254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1KWhP8kx6x
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7N9rjNFlX8
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLcMGaZZEPw
Everything!254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvUUIos5IG
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPAg07ojlSW
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBHguXnOT0
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiXoKJfEZx5
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLAad2lpp7L
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVs4GcyXNeg
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmS4gl6kxxz
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZwUrrdFpz
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZR0Hzxe9F
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPQNVrWi2ej
He was a douche-bag after all.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYb0AvUOdkj
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUdQYNHtkd
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kkQASoUP0
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBKSs2G1AH8
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBNLe8R4TA
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMrj1CFpZh
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpVnZRygVX
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8nhp71mPEt
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.254Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTPWBXeYtVi
