After His Cruel Joke, I Left Him Behind

Lane Dewitt stood beneath the wind farm turbine, wearing a bright, cheerful smile as he called out to me. "Isabella, come give me a hand." Isabella Upton was my full name. I trusted him—I had done the same thing every single time for the past eighteen years. Then a group of boys grabbed my wrists and ankles. They tied me tight against the giant wind turbine blade with a rough rope. "Lane! What are you all doing?" I shrieked in terror, but my cries were drowned out by their loud, reckless laughter. One boy, Lane's most loyal follower, whistled while he tied up my ankles—he led the whole group. "Isabella, Lane's got a surprise for you. Don't act ungrateful." I thrashed around as hard as I could. The ropes only tightened further against my body. The coarse rope scraped my skin, bringing a sharp, stinging pain. The blade slowly started to rotate, lifting me off the ground. Thirty feet... Sixty feet... One hundred and sixty feet... My skirt flapped wildly in the wind. The 100-degree heat blazed against my skin, and I could feel my exposed flesh starting to burn. Wind roared loudly above my head. The world far below shrank to tiny specks beneath me. I was stretched out with my limbs spread wide. Every spin sent a wave of queasiness from weightlessness through my body. The crowd on the ground looked like tiny specks far away. I caught sight of Lane. He stood there patiently showing Hattie Vines how to operate the drone, and its camera stayed locked on me. Hattie covered her mouth and laughed nonstop. "Lane, you're so awesome! This angle is gonna look incredible!" The drone's tiny red light kept its focus firmly on me. I roared at Lane, but the fierce wind tore my voice apart. "Lane! Let me down!" He heard my shouts and lifted his head. He flashed me an OK sign, still grinning widely—as if he thought I was playing along happily. My heart sank to the very bottom in that instant. A few local villagers walked past the site. They pointed and whispered as they stared up at me. "Kids these days sure know how to mess around." "Wearing a dress and climbing that high? She ought to be embarrassed." Some young boys picked up stones from the ground and tossed them toward me. They acted like they were competing to see who could hit their target. One rock struck my calf, and I flinched from the sharp pain. The hurt on my body was obvious, but it could never compare to the hopelessness filling my heart. I was put on full display for everyone to tease and bully. And the person who put me in this spot was the boy I'd cared about for eighteen years. Hopelessness swept over me completely. I yelled until my throat turned hoarse. Not a single person stopped to help. I closed my eyes tight. Tears, mixed with sweat, ran down my cheeks. I finally understood—hell was never some faraway place. It existed right here, among ordinary people.