Prologue124Please respect copyright.PENANAopGfHtisNk
Heat burned her eyes, making them tear in defense, in despair.124Please respect copyright.PENANAx75tYxM2kA
Hating what was happening to them and before them.124Please respect copyright.PENANAGLXl63IdoH
The light was so bright, so hot.124Please respect copyright.PENANAocX6nwbMt7
Screams reached her ears, so high in volume and ferocity it almost made her eardrums bleed.124Please respect copyright.PENANADUjNnwq6S0
Slowly realization hit her, screams?124Please respect copyright.PENANAubQiWTQDqU
no, just one. One scream, Hers 124Please respect copyright.PENANADyXsIgUjBV
In despair, she jolted upright on her bed.124Please respect copyright.PENANAtwKSzRstdd
Her breathing was still shallow and irregular as cold sweat poured down her sun-kissed skin.124Please respect copyright.PENANAEMwadeCr5T
Oh, how she hated going down memory lane. The guilt that rode along with it.124Please respect copyright.PENANApjl8YU5LX5
Making her stomach twist in all different sorts of knots she didn't know how to untie.124Please respect copyright.PENANAY0VWH86JOK
She took a couple of deep breaths, steadying herself, before slowly standing up.124Please respect copyright.PENANA6uKxhf5Zli
Daring a quick glance at the clock an exhausted sigh escaped her lips.124Please respect copyright.PENANAwdv0G91Uw0
It was 3 o'clock, freaking 3 o'clock in the morning!124Please respect copyright.PENANARqwBt1YBcI
She sighed again. Well, at least she slept for a whole four hours this time.124Please respect copyright.PENANAhnUX0NKntM
In the ten years, since the insomnia started, she became an expert in power naps.124Please respect copyright.PENANAg9djGBk74L
She had to, to survive. As soon as her legs could carry her she made her way to the living room.124Please respect copyright.PENANAtlxYpWyPui
As usual, she stayed in a hotel room, the hotel changing weakly sometimes daily when it was necessary.124Please respect copyright.PENANAWwklciDOsZ
Traveling from country to country to chase the best and hardest competitions to improve her skills on track.124Please respect copyright.PENANAH1CuMnyOPd
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAOCCe04WGNd
It was the only place where she was able to find peace of mind, for a little while at least.124Please respect copyright.PENANAP0OipttRwE
And she needed it more and more every day.124Please respect copyright.PENANAi7JRZy0Daj
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?124Please respect copyright.PENANAFt8uephNK7
Hell no!124Please respect copyright.PENANAKKyJhiwVbz
Shielding her heart meant she would nothing, nothing! have any meaning to her.124Please respect copyright.PENANAOD7DSnzeHE
That way it wouldn't hurt as much as you lost it. And after ten years of practice, she mastered the skill.124Please respect copyright.PENANA1uTLt5nV5G
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANA1W3HURhEPC
Unresponsive, unsympathetic to anything around her.124Please respect copyright.PENANATajYOajfny
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAytkWOFrFua
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAUEBHKHRYSH
So why would she bother trying to explain?124Please respect copyright.PENANAtYfCucTG6X
They didn't care, not really. And they couldn't help her, or ease the pain she was now accustomed to.124Please respect copyright.PENANAR0k1tPkSWp
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANA8i58Piv2eJ
Everything!124Please respect copyright.PENANANZkWWcs8dJ
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After taking a shower her discomfort from the nightmare finally resided to the back of her mind.124Please respect copyright.PENANAC2f4NXfU4u
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANA04I7E8BhOd
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAd3czdMjIEa
Yeah, she was a mental case and many psychiatrists had tried to peek inside her brain, the turmoil of emotions raging inside of her.124Please respect copyright.PENANAPhw1QTuTiP
Of course, as the scared little kid she used to be, she resisted every single one of them. Making her time there only worse.124Please respect copyright.PENANA6jbMFgg3M0
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANArl10R6aefq
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAoOqmzFlBBA
He gave her the outlet she needed to survive, to cope.124Please respect copyright.PENANA9scdJNLzYY
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANABmszcDkifZ
He was a douche-bag after all.124Please respect copyright.PENANAFm8hQgGC1t
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAJF4BjXyftM
Without thinking twice she left, after kicking him in the groin that is, and never encountered him again.124Please respect copyright.PENANAjRZi0rrnkK
Lucas, who was her coach these days, was a totally different person. Calm, loyal to a fault and a devoted family man.124Please respect copyright.PENANAGQMNV9oA6d
She liked that he didn't hover, as long as she ate three meals a day and performed as expected, that is.124Please respect copyright.PENANAX9MnIN6ScY
Recently though he did seem to notice the change within her.124Please respect copyright.PENANAW6uIczH9hO
That he didn't hover obviously didn't mean he would let her suffer in silence.124Please respect copyright.PENANAgmQS4qAJWy
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAdcfQOaHCGL
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.124Please respect copyright.PENANAUaV4Rld70o