3

At two am, her phone started buzzing. She was reaching for it when she saw who it was. She answered it quickly. “Mom?”

“Bree, I need help.” The woman said in a panicked voice.

“What?” Bree asked as she blinked her eyes some more.

“I need you to come to get me in Franville.” Her mother said. “I’m on the highway at a bar.”

“Great, mom,” Bree said.

“Just come and get me.” Her mom said, “I think he is going to kill me.”

“Who?” Bree asked.

“No time.” The older woman said. “Just get here. You can’t miss it. The name of it is the shamrock.”

“Mom?” Bree said, but the phone was already dead. “Wonderful.”

Bree got up and then redressed from school, and she grabbed her purse and keys. She walked out of the apartment and turned to lock it. She walked down to the parking lot and saw the light from his apartment on. The blinds moved, and she walked faster. He was watching from his apartment. The door opened, and he came outside.

“Bree.” He called out.

“Sorry, Mr. Danner, I got to go,” Bree said as she neared her car as he was already across the parking lot.

“It is two in the morning. Where the hell are you going?” He demanded.

“To get my mom.” She said, “At a bar.”

“Oh.” He said. “I wanted to talk to you about earlier.”

“No,” Bree said. “Sorry, my mom said it was an emergency, and I had to get there as quick as possible. Your girlfriend is your problem.”

“She was out of line.” He said.

“I don’t care about your problems.” She said as she unlocked her car, “I have enough of my own.”

Bree got into her car and started it up. He was still next to it. She rolled down the window, “Could you please move. I don’t want to run you over.”

“Drive safe, okay? The bars are letting out.” He said as he moved slightly.

“Don’t worry about me,” Bree said. “I am always fine.”

When she was on the open road, she knew that it would take a few minutes to get to the town over from where she was. She started driving as if she was headed to the gates of hell to collect her due. When she was nearing the area, her mother had told her to look for the bar, she saw it in the distance. When she got by the parking lot, she slowed down a bit to see if she could see her mother waiting somewhere when her mother came running like a bat of out the hell she had been picturing a few minutes before.

Her mother opened the door to the car and threw herself in the passenger seat, and looked at her daughter, “Floor it.”

“Mom,” Bree said.

“Go! NOW!” her mother yelled, and Bree took off. “Whatever, you don’t head toward the house.”

“Where am I supposed to go then?” Bree said.

“Just keep driving.” Her mother said, and soon enough, they were on the highway. They were driving around the rural areas of the neighboring towns when a truck came right up on her bumper. “Damnit, they did see you.”

“Mom, what is going on?” Bree asked as she tried to speed up, but the truck was right there, still riding on her bumper. She was trying to think of anywhere she could use to get away from the large truck that was so close she was afraid to slow down.

“No time.” Her mother said as she reached over and pulled on the steering wheel to jerk the car.

“Stop, Mom,” Bree yelled.

“Bree, just stop the car.” Her mother said, but the truck hit the back end of the car right then. Bree felt the jerk of the tapping the truck was doing to the back end of the car. “Stop the car.”

“I can’t. They will cream the car.” Bree said as she tried to get away again, but the truck was still riding on her bumper. “What the hell is going on?”

“Your father sent them.” Her mother said.

“What?” Bree asked as she looked at her mother for a split second. She knew her father didn’t care for her mother or her, but this was too much for her to believe. Bree knew her father wouldn’t do this. Her mother had gotten in trouble with the wrong people or something. Now Bree was involved as well. She just sighed and knew she had to stay focused on the road to try and get away from the truck somehow.

“Just stop the car. I will deal with it.” Her mother said with a sigh.

“Mom, no,” Bree said, but the sound was lost in the crunching of fiberglass and metal. She felt the pain of hitting the steering wheel and then saw a large flash of light in her eyes right before her head hit the glass of her front window.  

“What the hell did this girl go through?” Bree heard as she tried to struggle against the straps that were holding her down.

“Sad, really.” She heard a woman’s voice said. The light was too bright. She couldn’t open her eyes. “Her mother was at the crash as well. She didn’t make it, but the ones that they found who did it said the older woman had a debt to be paid, and they took it out on the girl after the accident. That had been the mother’s plan all along. For them to scare and then use the girl.”

“They raped her as well?” The man’s voice said.

“At the first exam, when she arrived, it was plain to see.” The woman said softly. “Poor thing. She hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Well, then let's get her up to surgery and prepped.” The man said as his tone changed. “Hopefully, we can fix some of this and get her right again.”

“Hopefully, she will find some peace either way.” The woman said.

Bree felt the bed move, and then she realized they had been talking about her. She had been in a car accident, but they were saying that she had been raped as well. Her mother didn’t make it. What the hell happened? She couldn’t move. Nothing made any sense, and then she couldn’t feel anything again.