Prologue155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBb5SNDZcmy
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZvVDdWiRnq
Hating what was happening to them and before them.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡySV0qRFQF3
The light was so bright, so hot.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGDOtpuCv2P
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrV4MWMbyZk
Slowly realization hit her, screams?155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOiKkviBccW
no, just one. One scream, Hers 155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpYSEfIGgyz
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRGX8PAhQCx
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7cNUYEGsW
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV1598TOazM
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAdmPnSWb5
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ZsKH8cPve
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxoSoiVGP2J
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCyfeOpRBD
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpo6Qqm5s0
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwxmtJ2nm3w
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjLSgsUxEo
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQB8XYxry2n
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTniiUnAjAg
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAtZZcUItIR
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSYHtjxUmNn
And she needed it more and more every day.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9J9kQpiAU4
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?155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL1qk48XoAI
Hell no!155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTf8owqfnwr
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsbbj8SFpr
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkXNmmd9oG1
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPsiU5U981n
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLNrRlyrDwC
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5D0uS8cMyG
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPpFiZUYCLE
So why would she bother trying to explain?155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNHUlfCmVLg
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbtX7LTmBt7
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMRRCZcZ113
Everything!155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVki1AKQZN
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIDMFjDA8hn
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB17XwsNk1r
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNRt3R56Fq3
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi9MiN4NB1j
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjWt0fUYaH
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEPLvFQIDDf
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7HLPFEtkoX
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJKshlCBPwz
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOHh3OKq0u
He was a douche-bag after all.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbkTNF3hyYo
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKg2ERSiQ9L
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjtDdchUEF
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfGTX1wSXdr
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB3Id2uq48F
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jFpBcGmSs
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw5YH89H15D
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡERRV8cW2la
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.155Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡexiblYYvcR
