Prologue115Please respect copyright.PENANAs21i4olEpL
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.115Please respect copyright.PENANAOHRWJeUEy2
Hating what was happening to them and before them.115Please respect copyright.PENANAOo60U1c8tP
The light was so bright, so hot.115Please respect copyright.PENANAysJv9N6eCT
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.115Please respect copyright.PENANAuxWhurkG3n
Slowly realization hit her, screams?115Please respect copyright.PENANAuk8GIJK2SV
no, just one. One scream, Hers 115Please respect copyright.PENANAex6BPnewzM
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.115Please respect copyright.PENANAaQ6OuBYyYv
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.115Please respect copyright.PENANAquac93cnBh
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.115Please respect copyright.PENANAu42MAHGviF
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.115Please respect copyright.PENANA9IKBLChS4V
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.115Please respect copyright.PENANAaM9F2gAyU4
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.115Please respect copyright.PENANAt52HRKU762
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!115Please respect copyright.PENANADQUpC1PItn
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.115Please respect copyright.PENANAPV8R7E3lSt
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.115Please respect copyright.PENANAJRezo0wFYn
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.115Please respect copyright.PENANAJTj6ShhDdS
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.115Please respect copyright.PENANAw3y8p99gIL
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.115Please respect copyright.PENANAjRxQex1vxw
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAA9m8KDcWJy
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.115Please respect copyright.PENANAl2UdZtfRM0
And she needed it more and more every day.115Please respect copyright.PENANAleVzdUFSR6
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?115Please respect copyright.PENANArQ4QYNnGJV
Hell no!115Please respect copyright.PENANAsOdA8Nl2NE
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.115Please respect copyright.PENANAxxIjMutcch
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.115Please respect copyright.PENANALbfewqMcNi
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAnYp39WPlDN
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.115Please respect copyright.PENANARNdTHrQvJd
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAJZm7gUIc72
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAJHeOEiwXlC
So why would she bother trying to explain?115Please respect copyright.PENANApAuxI4WTtH
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.115Please respect copyright.PENANASSAuf7hQKj
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAO4OJffCcEe
Everything!115Please respect copyright.PENANAezxMbXloU9
115Please respect copyright.PENANAmvhTcGeUCS
After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.115Please respect copyright.PENANAcfbwHRWY2Q
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAqJ2pTYyAPJ
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANA8PhLwlkinB
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.115Please respect copyright.PENANA8Lhort8o9o
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.115Please respect copyright.PENANAjDB9Zc0PYN
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANA2brAcCgWAZ
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAb8xanNltBB
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.115Please respect copyright.PENANA5VlGnHSNX3
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAheQ8crYytz
He was a douche-bag after all.115Please respect copyright.PENANASOz8KLDctu
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANApWsWN36ARf
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.115Please respect copyright.PENANABIGW87L49k
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.115Please respect copyright.PENANAKK9kKHv6IH
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.115Please respect copyright.PENANAwcpZSm3ovM
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.115Please respect copyright.PENANAI89GsAEoN2
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.115Please respect copyright.PENANAMQIEE5hr1u
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANA7UHeCR8GbG
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.115Please respect copyright.PENANAtDhstJeSS3