Prologue299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNxtKCeUVAF
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuPnzO6vMXf
Hating what was happening to them and before them.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeHQ5uktMol
The light was so bright, so hot.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhghk8DexlL
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCylD0mDEex
Slowly realization hit her, screams?299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ317kRaqGvj
no, just one. One scream, Hers 299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNiM6LaxwBo
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWaAsTTzgq9
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xidgw88IW
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn3clHZJag4
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4EhR4U3zX
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDAa3HqE75
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx6OzEJvnvP
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4dd6WdHrec
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8SW0maw6c
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyM9G1BB4bV
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBZICH2c3v
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB3whWp6EVl
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RhcXJWYk2
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewXJNMk6Fn
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkszbtLI3J9
And she needed it more and more every day.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qSR70Ii4O
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?299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7y9kqMljcq
Hell no!299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu3jiC3cfp2
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBzCH94Apj1
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6aC3Nr5Zdl
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpIe3cr8FV
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriHZsFkyyL
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPidpUoe5Wk
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYEgqrK5SpE
So why would she bother trying to explain?299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLgUWCUa0u
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpcaB6Wt8qu
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA9WhdrYiHg
Everything!299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwc9DnlWP0v
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwwfDsEOdi3
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQVZJKtK3rw
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTo4oe6kNkk
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZveTocra0r
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OFHpzFLGq
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YrEL6tjGd
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBxfL9urR9U
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91Qvu8Ntnf
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKhPOOtdHiB
He was a douche-bag after all.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnDWBOOrvA
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Y04OlCtJ1
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN9wGUFzLG7
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmZu3PjENr3
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh5Ybs7ikTd
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1z081tnKxm
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz9xAEndQyT
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAh5kjsQZXT
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.299Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuhIHRwvJRS
