Prologue120Please respect copyright.PENANAQwax5JQb6H
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.120Please respect copyright.PENANAgI07fLEozC
Hating what was happening to them and before them.120Please respect copyright.PENANANyZ581r81a
The light was so bright, so hot.120Please respect copyright.PENANAryA1apt5xT
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.120Please respect copyright.PENANAFV1nAjaQdw
Slowly realization hit her, screams?120Please respect copyright.PENANAHUBZJ2EuDY
no, just one. One scream, Hers 120Please respect copyright.PENANAWeah2SBcMI
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.120Please respect copyright.PENANAgZqr1wPD9O
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.120Please respect copyright.PENANAPl5HgEGBEx
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.120Please respect copyright.PENANAF01b3gfMgQ
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.120Please respect copyright.PENANAni0tEpCXo4
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.120Please respect copyright.PENANA1uSrEfNlTN
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.120Please respect copyright.PENANAra8deysdlV
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!120Please respect copyright.PENANAmnGbJEygg4
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.120Please respect copyright.PENANAtQsoFGIxYS
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.120Please respect copyright.PENANAVNmAzlOzhg
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.120Please respect copyright.PENANAdFL6ukuUxD
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.120Please respect copyright.PENANAArGujQdbWC
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.120Please respect copyright.PENANAl8D1shZQYr
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAHHRBcsCuhs
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.120Please respect copyright.PENANA729uyJlELk
And she needed it more and more every day.120Please respect copyright.PENANAbfiWzJuiAr
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?120Please respect copyright.PENANAF4jkgUgKob
Hell no!120Please respect copyright.PENANAiznI8vAMtP
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.120Please respect copyright.PENANAtid65TP8Mw
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.120Please respect copyright.PENANAsvrHWo7VJW
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAdYHuU8Xgyr
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.120Please respect copyright.PENANAyAfdrcVd3x
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANABL5EYmjExV
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAbn8TtIWPLx
So why would she bother trying to explain?120Please respect copyright.PENANADFsu4sMK1V
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.120Please respect copyright.PENANAjPkpKfBi6i
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAm4dM1l6TeP
Everything!120Please respect copyright.PENANAsVxsuxiaXq
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.120Please respect copyright.PENANAJsoHGW4Qz1
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAeUYXio6JiX
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANA0D7NY69phO
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.120Please respect copyright.PENANATprPGQZtS6
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.120Please respect copyright.PENANAJXib0KaKMj
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAatu4sAdWyq
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAwRv91Ird5G
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.120Please respect copyright.PENANArhgqnszlbp
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAfm8HvhFfEl
He was a douche-bag after all.120Please respect copyright.PENANAONK8Gm9rib
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAEfWY02ezeO
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.120Please respect copyright.PENANAisSuVKzRDF
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.120Please respect copyright.PENANAbNVKqqZNtk
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.120Please respect copyright.PENANAfLOdHZaJMH
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.120Please respect copyright.PENANASvZF3xfISr
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.120Please respect copyright.PENANAuOb0r0t5ZS
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAfPAALgMlsj
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.120Please respect copyright.PENANAO0ZBC7yDnU