Prologue303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCLIBhSwuU4
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqHxQDla9JR
Hating what was happening to them and before them.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntwsYOyVwp
The light was so bright, so hot.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp2HvV4lthW
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvCtohWACoZ
Slowly realization hit her, screams?303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJWB829T2x
no, just one. One scream, Hers 303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98hXjjfr5k
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIMtlV9Y40
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXohqLaKbTf
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJFUgDfuXlY
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJta7q0N5a
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFWIcA9af68
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoFvqKtUgb
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf3aogfS41e
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42x5oLGipe
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDqauEqhRdI
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJlNTtnySqg
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ65cA4vB0M4
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Z4ONjDrHk
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZcm8Pt7mCP
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiydGVhsbG3
And she needed it more and more every day.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6oOxJM6s7L
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?303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMJDuiRB16
Hell no!303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb4JRr3Uxj7
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuxgL76gaWk
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSqMJHNHAf9
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCSGteCJyZ4
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡByI9faMU27
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ee96kN0bf
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7BT0IPmC0Z
So why would she bother trying to explain?303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc5RiD1G9SZ
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡja13PCnDTO
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp4cVfDgijL
Everything!303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFn1a9y05Qk
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCTkmmoNQwg
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLqOuJM0XkV
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡquTiOSIVur
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ6YF6J4Pob
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡObojggd9gP
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGwK7VG238D
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWPJDj6cIK3
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmyA5XyP0pq
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU5NOQaLIqq
He was a douche-bag after all.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXtdqck2wzH
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaAynRAbWS7
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBv4eD9HglD
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYNPf5Tivs
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1imdVwhxxO
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCAmx14VbaG
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOV8sgNhrti
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4rA0u0g1zY
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.303Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRiUBk3FAwO
