Chapter 1 Disappearing Act
1525 Words
Disappearing Act
Ava's POV
"He's going to kill me, isn't he?" As I stared into the mirror and watched the sky behind me crack with lightning, I whispered.
Even though the reflection didn't respond, I knew. I was pale. As I pressed the twins to my chest, my hands trembled. As if summoned specifically for this night, the storm outside roared, providing a cruel backdrop to the escape I had spent months planning.
Liam let out a whimper. Lily shifted. They were too young to realize how dangerous it was. We're too little to realize that this night could determine our fate.
I crept through the dimly lit hall, each floorboard creaking like a gunshot. Behind me, the nursery door was ajar. A few days prior, I had concealed a small bag in the closet's back. Only the things that were important were now slung over my shoulder.
My fingers struggled to open the back door. The handle had become slippery due to the rain. I looked toward the front of the house and felt my heartbeat thunder in my ears. I believed I saw movement, a shadow or a wind trick close to the driveway.
Not enough time to check.
Slipping out into the chilly night, I opened the door. Behind me, the wind slammed it shut, and I recoiled as the sound reverberated through the trees.
The only way out was through the muddy, steep forest path. In any case, I took it.
It was a fight at every step. My shoes dug into the damp ground. With their warmth as the only constant in this chaos, the babies pressed into my arms. I didn't cry. I didn't yell. All of that was already done by me. Grief was not allowed tonight. just surviving.
And then the river appeared. I knew what needed to be done. A few months prior, I had chosen the ideal location where the rocks below were sharp and the current was strongest. I took the decoy wrap, a bundle of cloth in the shape of a baby, out of the bag.
I kissed Lily's forehead after kissing Liam's. Afterward, I carefully concealed them behind the ancient tree's roots. There, it was covered in leaves and dry. The twins remained silent. They seemed to understand the significance of this moment.
I held the fictitious bundle to my chest as I ran back to the river. I let out a cry. A loud, desperate, real scream. One reverberated through the night.
The bundle then disappeared under the waves after I tossed it into the water.
I fell to the ground, soaked with tears and mud. I shivered for a long time, knowing that the bundle would eventually be discovered. That someone might believe I had leaped.
Charles might think I was dead.
It was only when the trees began to light up that I allowed myself to return for the twins. Both babies were asleep by the time I got back to the hiding place.
I carried them to the road, where an old pickup truck was waiting, down the slope. The driver didn't inquire. She avoided looking directly at me.
She did nothing but drive.
Where we were going, I didn't ask. All I needed was for it to be far. Way away from him. Not at all like the lies. Not like the life I'd been pushed into.
The hours went by. Perhaps days. We arrived in a tiny town that I couldn't locate on a map. It had an old dusty and pine tree scent. Cameras weren't present. No queries.
We managed to find lodging. We were taken in by a woman named Nora. Her eyes were gentle and her hair was gray. I reminded her of someone she used to love, she said.
My name was Anna, I told her.
Anna... No, Ava.
Ava was no longer alive.
The twins became more resilient. They gave a smile. They burst out laughing. A future appeared to me for the first time. One that is silent. One that is secure.
But it was short-lived.
I had a feeling one night. The cold feeling at the nape of my neck. The wind's peculiar silence. I took a look out the window.
Across the street was a parked car. It had not previously existed. The engine was not running. All of the windows were dark. My house was being watched by someone.
"Ava, you can't get out of this. Aren't you aware of that?
I remained silent. There was too much shaking in my hands. While the other arm reached for the lighter, the other held the twins close. The odor of gasoline stuck to my body. Everything I cared about had already burned; this was just the last step.
Rain loudly and angrily slapped the windows, as though the sky itself wished to prevent me. It cracked like thunder. My breath escaped in sharp, quick gasps. In the blanket I had wrapped them in, the twins whimpered. I gave them a quick head kiss.
I muttered, "I'm sorry." "But we can’t stay."
There was a click from the lighter.
It began as a small fire. A curtain and then the couch's edge caught. Flames spread out like enraged hands, grabbing hold of everything. Before I could decide otherwise, I turned.
I kept my eyes forward.
As soon as I stepped outside, the rain hit me like a wall. I staggered toward the car I had concealed in the woods, my boots sinking into the mud. My heart was beating so loudly that I was no longer able to hear the wind. I did not pause. Even when the smoke rose behind me, it didn't. Even when the distant sirens started to blare.
The twins were crying when I finally made it to the car. In an attempt to reduce the noise, I pressed their heads against my chest. They couldn't be heard by me. Not yet.
Every mile of my nighttime drive was heartbreaking. The rain-slick, winding road was twisted, and trees loomed in shadowy shapes. Even though my body begged for a break, I couldn't stop.
Charles would show up in search. Never once did he say he would let me go.
I gripped the wheel more tightly as I remembered his voice. The way he would smile while hurting me was still palpable, as were the bruises. "Love," he had said.
There had been a few questions from the hospital. The plan was that. A quick delivery, a phony name, and a morgue friend who owed me a favor. Ava was believed to be dead.
Indeed, she was.
However, the girl who was storm-driving? Now she was someone else. Someone chilly. A more powerful individual.
The town I selected was peaceful. A space too small for secrets, but too exhausted to inquire. At the edge of the woods, I discovered a cottage. The floors creaked and the roof was broken, but the water functioned and it was a long way from the city. It was sufficient.
I gave the twins the names Lily and Noah. They cried very little after the first week. Perhaps they realized that noise was beyond our means. I developed my ghostly movement. Always waiting, always seeing.
There were still nights when I believed I could hear Charles's voice.
However, weeks became months. I was employed at the diner. I did not talk to anyone. I got my hair dyed. I gave my neighbors a smile but never a name.
Until one evening, when I noticed a man standing near the forest's edge.
I didn't make it to the door before he left. I told myself it didn't matter. The light trick. However, the mud had boot prints in it the following morning.
I began to sleep with a knife beneath my pillow. And then the letter arrived.
No stamp. Not a name. Only one line, written in sloppy black ink: "I know what you did."
I destroyed it and set it on fire. However, I kept trembling.
Other days went by. The twins became bigger. It was the first time Lily had laughed. Noah's first step was taken. Those moments were like lifelines to me. As though they demonstrated that I was doing something correctly.
The fear, however, persisted.
A stranger once entered the diner right before it closed one evening. Tall. Clean your suit. Like frozen glass eyes. He did not place an order. He simply gazed at me.
And grinned.
My stomach fell. That smile was too familiar.
He started to say something, but I turned away. made a show of wiping the counter. However, his eyes were like a hand on my skin.
He had vanished by the time I looked up again.
The twins wouldn't go to sleep that night. Their gaze remained fixed on the window. I pulled the curtains closed. I made two checks on the locks.
I heard a creak in the floorboard at midnight.
Slowly, with my heart in my throat, I got up. Grabbing a knife. An additional step. Nearer.
I rounded a bend.
And confronted a man I had assumed was deceased.
- Writer
