Surviving High School

Be Strong

A/N: Well, folks. This is it. The last chapter before the epilogue. A huge thank you to all of you for reading my story.  

*Warning*: There is a lot of violence and swearing in this chapter.  If that's not your thing, feel free to skip to the end.

....

Ouch, my head hurt. I felt as if someone had hit me with a two-by-four, and there was a throbbing pain behind my eye. What the hell had happened? I'd been running in the woods to get away from The Creeper. I remembered turning around to see if he was nearby, and then, Bam! Darkness. I reached up to touch my head, only to realize that my hands were bound. I felt the sharp edge of panic begin to set in. I tugged at the rope that was binding my wrists, but they were bound tightly. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. Panicking would do no good. Carefully, I opened my eyes, but couldn't see anything. It was pitch black. Then I realized that there was fabric over my eyes. Blindfolded and bound. That wasn't good. I knew I had to stay calm, but honestly, I was freaking out on the inside.

I knew that by now, Edward would know I was missing, and would have alerted Charlie. Charlie would be looking for me, and I wished like hell that I'd left some sort of clues behind. I'd been in such a panic to get away from James that I hadn't thought about it at the time. What was it they said? Hindsight was twenty-twenty. Yeah, it was. It wouldn't do any good to dwell on the what-ifs. It was time to try to find a way out of this situation that I found myself in. I tried to think of things that Charlie had told me, and I knew that he'd want me to pay attention to my surroundings. Hard to do when you couldn't see what was around you.

Despite the fact that my hands were bound, I could still feel around, so that's what I did. I quickly realized that I was laying on something hard. A floor perhaps? Running my bound hands on the surface beneath me, I felt wood. Yes, definitely a floor. I then focused on my senses of smell and hearing. I smelt pine and must, along with the lingering odor of fast food. Straining my ears, I could hear rain falling on what could be a tin roof. A cabin! I must be in a cabin. I didn't hear anyone moving around, and decided to try to remove my blindfold.

After several attempts, I finally got it up enough for me to see. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, allowing me to get a better look around. It looked to be a one-roomed cabin, small and sparse. I was sitting on the floor, in a corner. The door was across the room and to the right. There was an old card table, a wooden chair, and a cot. The cot was placed between the door and the small fireplace, which was smoldering with the remains of a fire. That would explain why I was so cold.

Looking around again, I could make out what looked like crumpled food wrappers on the floor as well as empty beer cans. This was where James had been hiding out. It seemed he wasn't around, and I realized this was my chance to escape. I quickly discovered, as I tried to stand up, that my feet were bound as well. Shit! That complicated things greatly. I was busy trying to formulate a plan, when I heard a vehicle pulling up to the cabin. Crap! He was back. I nudged the blindfold back down. I heard the door slam and footsteps coming my way.

A rough hand grabbed my shoulder, shaking me. "Rise and shine, sweetheart," he said in a slimy voice. I kept still, hoping that he'd leave me alone if I didn't respond. I should have known better. A sharp sting landed on my face from the blow that he dealt me.

"Don't mess with me, Isabella. I know you're awake," he snarled, ripping the blindfold off me.

I squinted at the bright light shining in my face. He lowered the flashlight and gave me a creepy smile. He dragged the wooden chair from the table over to me and sat down. Reaching over, he stroked the side of my face, causing me to shudder in revulsion.