Prologue114Please respect copyright.PENANApp7v9O1KSD
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.114Please respect copyright.PENANAc2PsrWqpdO
Hating what was happening to them and before them.114Please respect copyright.PENANAw6hTort1q9
The light was so bright, so hot.114Please respect copyright.PENANArrfslyZXkg
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.114Please respect copyright.PENANA1fIbwYfUI8
Slowly realization hit her, screams?114Please respect copyright.PENANATGp6za5WqX
no, just one. One scream, Hers 114Please respect copyright.PENANAwu0SAXYzaE
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.114Please respect copyright.PENANAIgwsqMGQtB
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.114Please respect copyright.PENANAoY6iN36Vta
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.114Please respect copyright.PENANAJuOXR3xCIe
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.114Please respect copyright.PENANACxqWPYdGf7
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.114Please respect copyright.PENANAb0tWRJ5g60
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.114Please respect copyright.PENANAzEcT1yNC9I
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!114Please respect copyright.PENANA5HDdCTt8PD
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.114Please respect copyright.PENANA6NJPlJM2rB
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.114Please respect copyright.PENANAjLdIsFpG5L
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.114Please respect copyright.PENANAUAHbIJVsQT
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.114Please respect copyright.PENANAFDeljD8Htu
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.114Please respect copyright.PENANAPiNlQxMKAv
The only thing in her life she actually, sort of, cared about. Running, endurance, pushing herself beyond her limits made her brains stop going places she didn't want it to go. Stopping the memories, the guilt.114Please respect copyright.PENANAoLcGFNifZf
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.114Please respect copyright.PENANAZtEdHqwiKR
And she needed it more and more every day.114Please respect copyright.PENANA8JiEFn01lj
Having lost everything in her past, at the age of twelve, the track was also the only place she dared to let have any meaning to her. The rest of her life, her surroundings?114Please respect copyright.PENANAxSWIqZT1mn
Hell no!114Please respect copyright.PENANAiTKss0Xe8t
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.114Please respect copyright.PENANAhTE597ZayR
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.114Please respect copyright.PENANAPnl8HuKA5L
Her heart was surrounded by a thick, impenetrable wall some would say, and she heard it more than once behind her back, as she walked through the halls of the college, that she seemed like a robot.114Please respect copyright.PENANA1pYJBIewLc
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.114Please respect copyright.PENANAvAm8PXdbI6
If she spoke more than twenty fully formed sentences in a day, not counting interviews and media, it was a lot and people found her silence, her preference for solitude simply. Well, unsettling.114Please respect copyright.PENANAlx0KRlQu94
They didn't understand, would never be able to understand how it felt to have nothing. Nobody to care about you, to listen to you, to comfort you.114Please respect copyright.PENANA6BPqCocZQi
So why would she bother trying to explain?114Please respect copyright.PENANApXvU6LHn1g
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.114Please respect copyright.PENANAT6NiZdirSZ
They could however use her words for a couple of minutes of fame. Causing a sensation if the media ever found out the truth about what happened that night. That she lied. That she remembered everything.114Please respect copyright.PENANAcauEyb3Qjf
Everything!114Please respect copyright.PENANADQQB6s2cWH
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.114Please respect copyright.PENANARK9DC2PDJV
She was still on edge, was familiar with the feeling by now, and knew the only way to get rid of it was to run. Deplete her energy. There was a time she didn't know when to stop.114Please respect copyright.PENANA872lubINUy
More keen on punishing herself, for her involvement in past events, than making sure she would actually survive the run. More than once it had resulted in blackouts, cardiac arrest, and eventually involuntary hospitalization.114Please respect copyright.PENANAXtFyfWZJur
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.114Please respect copyright.PENANAfUrZN4BMmq
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.114Please respect copyright.PENANAPwOk8eJvmF
It all changed when Jonah, a junior high school coach and a total douche-bag, took it upon himself to teach her how to safely push her limits. How to become better and faster without causing major damage to herself.114Please respect copyright.PENANAdhZRE8PfW0
She despised the guy and was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. However, she couldn't deny what he had done for her. Pulling her out of a downward spiral, a dark place she never wished to go back to.114Please respect copyright.PENANAYhqfrEv7B6
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.114Please respect copyright.PENANAcjw1s6u2ii
For that, she was thankful to him, and still was, but it didn't take long for their fragile cooperation to come to an abrupt end.114Please respect copyright.PENANAXsvIsMbmw2
He was a douche-bag after all.114Please respect copyright.PENANADuB3pSZ3d6
He'd mistaken her silence for consent and started showing up at the most inappropriate times, the worst and the final blow to their teamwork, was showing up while she was showering.114Please respect copyright.PENANA6WfvFkCuGM
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.114Please respect copyright.PENANAXUJmu1VLUy
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.114Please respect copyright.PENANAR4GdXNHtoO
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.114Please respect copyright.PENANAMPZT36BDB7
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.114Please respect copyright.PENANA6SIXmGytWU
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.114Please respect copyright.PENANA1CsYQNoEld
After yesterday's competition, he waited outside her dressing room. Guiding her to his office as soon as she tried to leave. They didn't speak, as was usual for them when it was just the two of them outside a working environment.114Please respect copyright.PENANAGfsWbNfhBg
But his expression had said enough, tension radiated from his normally stoic face and his small lips were pressed into a thin line, all signs that she was not going to like what was going to happen when he opened that door.114Please respect copyright.PENANA9qlryLEc3W