Down The Train Tracks *Jason McCann*

Down The Train Tracks. ~Ch.9 ["You can go home."]

Thump.

My shoulder filled with pain, I had fallen on the floor. Opening my eyes, I noticed it everywhere, every inch; every corner of the room was filled with darkness.

That scared me a little, until I realized it was still the night time. It scared me, because I thought I was in the room I was in when I first woke up here.

“Melani,” I heard Jason’s tired voice fill the dead silent room.

His voice brought back memories of what I had dreamed about.

At that moment, realization filled all my veins, arteries, and blood cells. It filled my mind, my thoughts, everything.

The realization of the matter was I had been kidnapped. I dreamt of when Jason kidnapped me, I guess it’s only hitting me now.

I was kidnapped.

I rolled under the bed, beginning to cry. I began screaming, the more I thought about it, the more I cried. I started panicking; it began to get harder and harder to breathe. It felt like my lungs had closed up, this was the worst feeling ever.

“Melani!” Jason was on the ground with his head under the bed, the rest of him was sprawled across the cold floor behind him. “Melani, what’s wrong? Come out from under there and tell me what’s wrong.”

I curled up on the floor, hugging my knees.

“No!” I screamed. “No Jason, leave me alone!”

“Melani, I’m really starting to worry. What’s wrong? What happened?”

“What’s wrong?!” I screamed, letting go of my knees and violently wiping the tears from my face. That was useless though, because the tears just kept pouring out.

“You took me away, you took my life away! I’ll never get to see Sophia anymore; I’ll never graduate high school or go to college! I won’t get a job or buy a house! I won’t fall in love or have a family!”

I’m not going to lie; I never planned on doing any of that. My plans were different, I planned on not living that long. The thought of living to twenty-five years old depresses me. I never thought I’d be able to live that long, I could never see myself living past graduation.

“You kidnapped me, Jason,” That was the last thing I cried out before he grabbed onto my hand, and dragged me out.

Once I was out from under the bed, he stood up, throwing me over his shoulder.

“No! Jason!” I screamed, and screamed. He ignored me the whole time, as if I wasn’t even there.

He walked down the stairs, and approached the front door.

“No! Let me down!” I roared out, tears still pouring out of my eyes.

Opening the door, and locking it behind him, he walked over to his car and put me sitting down in the front seat.

“Don’t move,” he told me quietly, clipping my seat belt on.

I’m sure it looked like I was a baby throwing a tantrum, and Jason was the parent who had the strap me in, and take me for a ride in the car to calm me down.

His car door shut and he started the ignition, driving off fast into the night.

I propped my elbows on my knees, and put my head in my hands. Having a banging head ache from screaming and crying.

It was a few minutes later until it dawned on me where he was most likely taking me to.

I jumped up, looking at him scared.

“No, Jason, please. Don’t take me there, I promise I’ll behave if you just stop and take us back, just don’t take me to Johnson!” I begged, tears rushing up, stinging my eyes again.

“Melani just shut up! I’m not taking you to Johnson,” he looked at me, shocked I would even think that after all he told me.

I sighed, and relaxed a tiny bit. The rest of the ride was silent. I always used to appreciate silence, but this silence had my entire body filled with panic and wonder.

He stopped the car. Leaning over me, he reached out and opened my door. I looked out, and seen my house.

He had asked me for my address before, saying it was just in case of an emergency. I had wondered what kind of ‘emergency’ he was referring to; I guess I have my answer now.

“What-” I gulped, my whole throat was dry. I didn’t know what to say. Just seeing that house brought an uneasy feeling to my gut.

“You can go home, Melani,” I looked at him shocked.

“Wha-”

“Melani, just go home,” he looked out the window in front of him, his hands squeezing the steering wheel.

I reached out, grabbing the door and slammed it shut. His head snapped over, looking at me shocked.

“Melani, what are you doing?” I looked out of the car window at what was once my house.

“No,” I said emotionless, shaking my head.

“What?”

“I’m not going home.”

“Melani, I kidnapped you! You said it yourself; I took your life away.”

“I don’t want it back.”

“What are-”

“Just drive!” I shouted.

He obeyed me and drove off.

“Why didn’t you go in?”

“To tell you the truth, it wasn’t much of a life,” I replied, sighing back. Also knowing that Johnson would kill Jason if I left, I knew he wouldn’t kidnap another girl, and letting me go would mean the end of his life. So why was he letting me go?

“What and this one is?”

“No, but at least in this one I’m not blaming everything on myself. The voice is gone; it’s not my fault anymore. This time, I’m not the one causing myself all the pain,” I said, not realizing how bad that might sound to Jason. I sighed.

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“It’s alright, I deserved at least that,” he said, not pissed off or angry.

Tiredness engulfed me on the way back, all the crying catching up to me. My last thought being: What was he going to do when he found out I was lying, that my name wasn’t Melani?