Becoming a Possession

• prologue •

    I dropped the phone and threw the cash at the biker and stripped off my apron.

  I ran to the back where my locker was and threw off my uniform and hurriedly put on my pair of dark gray skinny jeans, my black tee shirt and my black hoodie.

     I threw my work shoes in my bag and left the uniform in the trash bin, only keeping my name tag and slipped on my heavy Doc Martin's.

     I rushed out the back door without a word and ran to the bus station that luckily for me was only a 5 minute walk from the diner.

    All the memories of the last 14 years were bombarding my mind.

I was in and out of foster homes until I was 17 when I was staying in a home in Philly. I just slipped out the back door.

No one bothered to search for me, I had faced the facts long ago. No one had nor would ever want me, since I was five I had been continually abandoned.

I was almost there and I began to pull out all my personal items.

I only kept a few things, my ID, which was under the name Bailey Reynolds, the last name of one of my foster parents, all the cash I made working and a burner cell that I replaced every two weeks.

It was because I moved so frequently that I packed light, I could always buy new clothes I only had a few spare changes of clothing and my one pair of Doc's.

I walked up to the station counter. It was late but they ran busses all night here.

"Hello, are there any busses leaving in the next five minutes?" I asked the clerk quickly, glancing at the clock behind him and seeing that it was much later than I thought.

The clerk looked through his schedule. "Well, there's only one route tonight and it leaves in 20 minutes to a small town in upstate Washington, it's called-"

"It's fine, I'll take one ticket." I shoved money in through the slot hurriedly.

I needed to get as far away as I could and I needed to leave no trace of where I was going.

He could track me if I so much as said my name to someone or made myself too noticeable.

"Here," He handed me my ticket. I nodded a silent thanks and left the booth, covering my head with my hood.

It was dark in the station and I sat on a bench near the bus parking lot. It was quiet, only a few crickets could be heard in the early spring morning. It was still a little chilly but it was growing warmer as the days passed.

I looked down at my palms, spotting the circular shaped scars of the burns of his cigarette butts in my arm.

I flinched at the memory of his bloodshot eyes looking into mine as he burned me repeatedly.

How had my life ended up like this? At 19 I had barely graduated high school and now I wandered from state to state working cheap waitress jobs and living in motels.

I had no credit cards, no bank account, there were almost no records of me existing in any database.

I held onto the woven bracelet around my wrist. It belonged to my foster brother, Luka.

We took care of one another, he was the closest thing I had to family. He was one of the older kids in the house. He protected me from the other boys.

But when he turned 16 he was arrested for beating up our foster father after he tried to rape me and a few other girls in the home and I never saw him again but he gave me this, he said as long as I had it I would find my way.

I looked up into the dark sky. I'm sorry Luka, I thought.

I hadn't found my way, I was lost. I had no family, no friends. I was alone in this world.

I looked up as headlights shown on the bench. The bus pulled into the parking lot and I stood up, collecting my old back pack and walking towards the opening doors.

"Hello." The driver greeted. He was old with a withered face that told me he'd been working this job for a long time.

I swiped my ticket and continued to the back of the bus. No one was going to get on so I might as well get comfortable.

  I laid my head against the window and looked out. I could see the diner I had just run away from but it felt so much farther away.

   I sighed, maybe a bit out of exhaustion but mostly out of relief that at least I would be gone. He wouldn't find me. Because he only called, I knew he didn't know where I was, one of his goonies probably gave him a number to call. That's how he liked it.

   That was his game, Cat and Mouse. He would let me get away for a while, somewhere he couldn't find me then after a bit he'd have his goons track me down and find me again.

    I knew this was a stupid move for me, taking a one way trip but I was hoping he would think I hitch hiked because I usually didn't have enough money for a ticket but I had been saving.

   I was saving because I wanted to try and find Luka. I was going the right direction. He sent me letters once he got out of Juvie, he was working and he had an apartment in Seattle.

   I was going to find him. He wanted to find me but then I lost his letters moving from one foster home to the next.

   I only remembered the street he lived on. If I could find Luka maybe he could help me go into hiding.

   The lights on the bus were flipped off and the driver started pulling out of the parking lot and I said goodbye to Montana.

   Hello Washington. I hope I'll be safer there than I was here.

• • •

   Hello fam. Yes, there's Bailey! Anyway you'll hear from Brayden next time. Love ya. :)

            Forever yours, ~Vamps