Toddlers Until Teenagers

Chapter 39

      

         My dress is ripping, but I really don't care. It's Ben's money, more like stolen money that bought me this dress. The bottom of the dress looks uneven, as if it was eaten off by an oversized cow.

    My feet pad across the grass in the forest area, the duffel swinging behind me, in Ethan's arms as I hear his heavy breathing behind me. "Just...a bit more."

    Finally, we reach an almost broken down car. It's rusty and old, the windows tinted of the backseat but the front seat ones not tinted. "This will take us back to a subway station." Ethan explains, as he lets me sit in the backseat. He starts the ignition, as my feet relax a teensy bit. "We're going to take the long way, to a place. Okay? We are also going to take the old subways, just in case. We need to be so very careful, so just do what I say."

   I nod slowly, fanning my face as we exit the area, driving on dirt for a while until we reach a road, and then I don't know where we're going because I stare at my feet. The heels are in my hands, my dress is ripped a bit, just enough to show my feet, as some dirt has caught up on it.

   After what seems like fifteen minutes, he skids to a stop. "There's two more people working with us. I've got them to, persuaded them, in these few days. I knew we had to have a plan because we had to get out of Ben's reach."

   "I hope you understand, because these next few hours will be action packed and not at all comfortable." He concludes, and I nod.

   "I think I'm ready for it." And so we lock the car, and dash to the subway station. We wait, and I catch eye of people who are watching me, whispers, and some sympathetic glances.

   "Who are the people, Ethan?" I ask him. He turns toward me, sighing.

   "I've got a girl and a man, that were working to come at the wedding, but I persuaded them. Ben is blackmailing them, by having their loved ones at hostage. The girl's mom, and the boy's brother." Ethan explains to me. "They'll be meeting us at the train to Switzerland."

   "Wait, we aren't getting a direct train?" I inhale a sharp breath as he nods. This will be dangerous. Very dangerous.

   Just then, the train wheels by, stopping, as the wind carries out, and I sigh in relief. These are the old stations and they are so hot, filled with no air conditioning. We step inside and sit down. People whisper, even more, as I look at my feet.

   I start to cry. Silent tears, of course. Ethan reaches to me and squeezes my hand, let's go, then looks out the window as the doors are closing. A little girl, maybe 5, or so, climbs on just in them with her mom. They sit in front of me. The little girl looks at her mom, and whispers very loudly "Why is she crying? And why is she panicked, mama?" She asks.

   Her mom closes a protective arm around her daughter, staring at me. Then she whispers something to her daughter and pretends that I'm a murderer and I'm not supposed to exist. And that I'm about to kill her daughter.

   I sigh, more tears rolling down my cheeks, blurring my vision, nose getting stuffy. You ever climb onto a subway, thinking, oh my god, today was the worst. And then you look at a bride in a ruined white dress, sobbing, mascara running down her face, and think wow, I feel bad for her. And everything's better? Well that's what everyone around me is thinking. Mostly.

   I don't know why my life has to be so complicated. I don't know why Ben loves me. Love, heck, it's turning into something I don't even know. Maybe he wants revenge. I bet he does.

   Before Ben, life was also still a bit complicated. Issues in between me and Alex, only sometimes, but also the grief of Dina. And then my parents also left. To Tokyo. I can't believe that I'm here, in a runaway subway, when I should be home because school is starting in less than two weeks. My parents only left me in Canada because, of my studies. I don't know what will happen if me and Ethan succeed. If we reach to Alex and beat everyone, and make him free, what will I tell him? I slept with Ben and I took a couple of weeks to come and get ya? Will he ever forgive me?