Imagine you are given two choices. Choice #1 gives you a stable life with little to no uncertainties. You can have a comfortable existence but you may never experience the thrill of falling in love or the satisfaction of taking that leap into the unknown. Choice #2 gives you all the thrills and all the satisfaction but you also have the possibility of heartbreak and failures along the way. Which would you choose? For Aurora Butler, this is the exact crossroads she has come to as she starts her Senior Year at a new school. Her head is telling her one thing but after meeting Owen Marshall, her heart is telling her something entirely different. Choices are made even more difficult as responsibilities take a toll on her and she realizes some choices requires sacrifices she just isn't able to make. Just when she thinks she has it all figured out, bodies of young women who look eerily similar to her start showing up as the town realizes there is a serial killer walking among them, one who has particular tastes when it comes to his next victim. Will Aurora's instincts lead to the right choices or will her choices have deadly consequences? Can she survive to have it all or will she lose everything in the end?
View MorePROLOGUE
My hands trembled as I searched for the phone. I knew it had to be around here somewhere. She was never without it, always within reach, waiting for that next call. The call that would lead to either the next big hit or the means to an end. My hands felt blindly, frantically through the sheets. Not finding what I needed, in desperation, I ripped them from the bed. I breathed a sign of relief as I heard, no felt a thud on the floor next to me.
I was temporarily deaf. The pounding of my heart fueled the high amounts of adrenaline running through my veins, creating a dull roar in my head, an endless pulsing wave rolling back and forth, blocking out all other sounds around me. My heart beat was strong, albeit a little too loud and unnecessarily quick at the moment.
I scooped the phone off of the floor, my knees buckling as I flipped it over in my hands. Pain ricocheted through my legs as I hit the hardwood on impact, all strength leaving me as I collapsed to the ground. The screen glowed brightly in the dusky darkness of the room. Her background was a picture of me holding Nate, taken the day we had brought him home from the hospital. I became so immersed in the image that I lost all train of thought, feeling the numbness seep in as I stared at the screen, lost to everything else.
A single tear splashing against the glass shook me from my daze. I hurriedly swiped them away from my cheeks and dried the screen against my shirt. I could not show weakness, not now. That little boy needed me and I needed to do whatever necessary to keep him safe and keep us together.
I opened her contacts, fighting the angry flames of betrayal and the bile that rose in my throat as I scrolled past the many disgusting and perverse nicknames in her list of clients and otherwise. If the beer bellied swine on the police department in this godforsaken podunk town really cared about the drugs and the prostitution rings that resulted, confiscating her phone would be on the top of their list of priorities. They could take them all down in one fell swoop. But, of course, it would take an IQ higher than fifty or actually giving a damn about your job to begin with for that to happen so I knew better.
This town was just like all the rest. The police department was long ago bought and paid for by the highest bidder. All paid to look here, not there and don’t do anything to rock the boat. She was just another useless face, a snag in their otherwise picture perfect days. That arrogant prick in the living room would end his day most likely climbing on top of a woman just like her, hooked on the high the drugs promised and willing to sell anything and everything, including herself, to get that next fix.
I cursed as I scrolled, struggling to find the name I needed. Why couldn’t she have just been normal? That’s all I ever wanted. No riches, no luxuries. Just some semblance of normal in our lives. Thinking I could possibly go with “Paycheck”, I scrolled on further, just in case. Coming across “Sperm Donor”, I’m thankful that I did but scoff at her audacity and the pedestal she propped herself upon to think she was any better of a parent that he was in the short time I knew him. If he was “Sperm Donor” she was little more than “Birth Giver”.
I was the one that took care of that little boy since the moment he entered this world, making sure he was fed, clothed and bathed. Walking the floors with him when he was a colicky newborn. Making sure he was at every appointment he needed, including dragging her to the ones that ensured he had formula and everything else a baby needed to survive. Shoving cup after cup of thick, black coffee down her throat to sober her up enough to fake our way through whatever ring of fire the government agencies made us jump through to get the handouts and giveaways. All so Nate could be a happy little boy and never know the pain and heartache I have had to face.
Not that any of that would matter if I couldn’t manage to pull one more miracle out of thin air. The last sixteen months will be for nothing if he won’t take us in and play along. With that in mind, I stabbed at the contact number with a forceful finger and with baited breath and a still shaky hand, brought the phone up to my ear.
After just two rings, he answers.
“Dammit, Janet. I am not doing this with you today! I’m at work and I don’t have any more damn money to send you!”
“Janet’s dead,” is all I manage to croak out before my lower lip wobbles and the dam breaks.
After the longest pause, I hear him take a deep breath and roughly exhale again. “Rory?”
“Yeah.” I clench my eyes tightly shut, trying to stop the tears.
“Where are you?”
I told him where we were staying and heard him curse again. “That’s five hours away. It’ll be dark by the time I get there.”
“Okay, but you are coming, right?”
“Yeah, I’m coming. That’s my kid.”
“There’s one more thing, Phillip.”
“What’s that Aurora?”
“I told them you are my dad, too.”
Silence. Complete silence to the point that I pull the phone away just to make sure we have not been disconnected. He’s still there but he says nothing for what seems like forever.
“Fine. I’ll deal with it when I get there. Anything else I might need to know?”
“No.”
“Be packed and ready to leave. I have work in the morning.”
Owen’s POVAs I entered the office, I was thankful that I didn’t see Sherry. The last thing I needed right now was her running everything she knew back to Phil. Regardless of his past importance to her and the fact that he was Nate’s father, I despised the guy and just looking at him made my blood boil.There were a few students with one need or another in front of me so I had to wait. As I was beginning to get impatient, I happened to glance over at the log they used to track students coming in early and leaving for various reasons and my eyes widened to see Aurora’s name there. She had listed a doctor’s appointment, of which I was absolutely certain she didn’t have and had left the school not long after she had sent me to class.The pit of anxiety in my stomach only grew seeing that. On one hand, it confirmed what I already knew to be true in my heart and that was that she wasn’t in the building. It made it much easier to know my need here in the office. I needed to sign out, too.W
**TRIGGER WARNING CONTINUED**He shook his head, bringing him back to reality, back from reliving the memories of his horrendous act. He grabbed the hems of my tattered jeans and in one quick move, ripped what remained from my body, leaving me in nothing but my underwear from the waist down. He eyes glazed over with lust as he drank in the sight laying before him and I closed my eyes, just wanting to disappear.“My God, Aurora! You are gorgeous! If you only knew how bad I wanted you, how long I have waited to see you like this. I barely have any clothes off of you and I already salivate just thinking about how much I have craved you over the last few years.”In that moment I knew that I had never knew Phil. I had lived with yet again another monster and hadn’t the slightest clue. I felt disgusted and just having him looking at me this way made me feel dirty and used.“Don’t worry, though. I just want to get a look at you right now. Just look at the gorgeous prize that I finally won af
**CONTINUED TRIGGER WARNING**He didn’t wait for an answer, not that I could have given him one anyhow, considering that I was rendered helpless and without a voice. Laying on a table and completely at his mercy, I had no choice but to remain still and silent as he continued to talk and cut my pants away from my body.“I was never as happy as I was that morning that I left after we talked in the kitchen. I had put some closure on the Janet memories and you were actually willing to give us a chance, to see me as a real man, a man that could provide for you and take care of you. I was on cloud nine at work all day and coming home that evening, I couldn’t wait to see you and Nate. My family was complete and I had everything I ever wanted.”I lay very still as the scissors continued to cut away, the space between the scissors and my skin becoming more restrictive to the point that I could feel the cool metal against my thigh as he worked his way slowly up the pants leg, cutting away the d
**CONTINUED TRIGGER WARNING**He continued to work his thumbs into the pressure points on my feet, an act that if done normally and by Owen would have been heavenly. Instead, I shuddered at his touch and wanted to pull away from him and kick him in the face but I was stopped by not only the restraints he had on my feet but also the deranged look on his face as he talked of our plans for the future.“I’m thinking we will go somewhere remote. Tennessee has some rural places but nothing remote enough and I think it will be too easy for them to find us in Tennessee. No, I’m thinking someplace like Montana or maybe the Dakotas. Someplace where we won’t have neighbors for miles. You can homeschool Nate while we grow our family and everything will be perfect. We could have had all of that here but no, you had to decide that I wasn’t good enough for you and run off with that pretty boy.”His grip on my feet tightened to the point of painful and I couldn’t help the whimper that escaped my lips.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: The next few chapters come with a TRIGGER WARNING. Although I would never include graphic imagery of sexual assault or anything like that, given this situation with Aurora being held captive, it could potentially bother some readers. If you are one of those, please skip this chapter. From this point forward, I will warn if the chapter could potentially be triggering.Aurora’s POVAs I opened my eyes, my vision blurred and my head was pounding. I tried to move and found my arms and legs restrained. Not only that but when I tried to open my mouth, I found it taped shut. I could only breathe through my nose and that, on top of being tied down sent me into an automatic state of panic. Wherever I was, it was dark. I was laying on something hard, like a table. I pulled against whatever restraints were holding me down but it was useless. I was stuck, trapped.I laid my head back and closed my eyes and tried to recall what had happened and how I got here. I remembered leaving th
OWEN’S POVAs I walked away from Gracie, I had to fight the lump in my throat that threatened to suffocate me. I should have listened to her this morning and just let the two of us sleep in and completely ditch school altogether. It would have saved us from the shocking surprise this morning, letting our friends tell us in advance so we could talk about it and prepare for it.Instead, my girlfriend can’t even stomach being around me right now. I know she loves me and I know she believes me when I told her that I didn’t have anything to do with what happened in that video she was sent but at the same time, I know it has devastated her seeing Chloe walk through that door this morning. Looking at me right now is just a reminder of every emotion she felt when she watched that video for the first time. All her self doubts, all the hurt, all of the feelings of inadequacy. I can just see it all running through her mind right now and there is not a single thing I can do about it because my mer
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