Chapter 1
Stranded In The Cold
Snowflakes had been falling from the grey sky ever since the morning, and even though it was claimed on the weather forecast that the weather would be more bearable around three o'clock in the afternoon, it was still snowing when the lampposts in the streets of the snowy streets of the city were switched on with one click, followed by a barely audible monotone buzz that was sure to continue for the rest of the cold winter night. It was two weeks away from Christmas, but everywhere you looked, you could see bright, colorful lights decorating the frames of the windows from shops and apartments alike, people balancing boxes in different shapes wrapped in red or green paper with a bow on top in their arms while trying not to slip and you could hear the occasional hearty voice of a man dressed in a Santa Clause costume accompanied by the shrill chiming of the bell he waved, so loud that you could hear it from two blocks away, all in the hope that some people had that right amount of warmth in their hearts to donate some money to the local homeless shelter. It didn't matter how much money they would give, as long as those unfortunate blokes wouldn't freeze to death underneath a bridge or bench in the local park. It was one of those rare times where some people would forget about the almost daily traffic jams, exhaust fumes, the numbers of crimes that seemed to increase more and more by the day and everything else that was part of a big city like this one, and enjoy the somewhat peaceful, fairytale-like atmosphere the snow and the magic of the upcoming Christmas brought along.
However, for one young woman who lived in the more luxurious apartment complexes of the city, buying early Christmas presents for friends and family and enjoying watching the snowflakes illuminate in the faint light of the lamppost with a cup of hot chocolate was the last thing that was on her mind.
Sasha Banks could clearly feel it; a headache was slowly creeping up inside her head. That always happened when she was on the verge of becoming angry and there was a damn good reason why she was about to be mad. This was not how she had expected to spend the last couple weeks before Christmas, it almost felt like she had been scammed in some sort of way, damn it. Sasha let out an irritated sigh, hid a long lock of magenta hair behind her ear and grabbed her cell phone. If it hadn't been for that scumbag ex-boyfriend of hers, she would've now been lying on this white, leather sofa without a single care in the world, have a good glass of wine and catch up with the latest episode from her favorite reality show. A plate containing the leftovers of her dinner, pasta with spinach and fish, was lying in the sink, but she was absolutely not in the mood to get up from the sofa and wash it.
It had been five days ago since Sasha had decided to find out the reason why the hell Tyler spend most of his time texting whenever he came over to her place or when she drove all the way to see him a couple hours before he had to leave and have another professional photo shoot. Now that Sasha thought about it, she used to hope that his pretty face would make the cover of some well-known fashion or work-out magazine one day, but now she was pretty damn sure that she was going to tear each magazine that had his arrogant, cheating, scumbag face plastered on the cover to pieces. Tyler was a model with the looks that every young man envied and he had loads of cash; the perfect boyfriend for her. However, the dream of dating a male model who had big chances of stealing the show on catwalks in Milan, Barcelona and New York, was instantly shattered into smithereens right on the moment where she read those texts. It were dozens of texts, each more flirtatious than the other, all send to women she didn't know. All hell broke loose in Tyler's apartment when he came back from the bathroom and asked her what she was doing with his cell phone; the bastard managed to duck away just in time when Sasha furiously flung a vase to his head, along with some other small items that were in her reach at that moment. Then she stormed out of his apartment, not looking back for one second; cheating bastards were not worth her time. She decided to forget about Tyler and move on with her life... but she had made one mistake when she left his apartment that night.
A leather coat, a pair of high-heeled boots and three dresses were still in that cheater's apartment and there was no way in hell Sasha was going to leave them there. Did Tyler even know how much she had paid for those clothes and boots? She wanted them back, no matter how many screaming matches they were going to have about them. Sasha had called Tyler two times after she had dinner to demand to get her stuff back, but those calls were immediately canceled by him. She knew that he was doing this to piss her off, but she wasn't going to give up that easily. She dialed her ex's number for the third time and pressed her cell phone against her ear. Three monotone beeps followed with short pauses, which signaled a change; Tyler had cancelled the previous call after only one beep.
'Come on, you blonde jerk... I know you are home by this time...' Sasha mumbled. After two more beeps, it seemed like Tyler had caved in, at least, slightly perhaps.
'What?' he rudely snapped on the other side of the line.
'Um, excuse me?' Sasha asked indignantly. 'Is that how your mom taught you to greet someone on the phone?'
'Leave my mom out of this, Sasha.' Tyler hissed, trying to hold back his answer. 'What the hell do you want? I thought you never wanted to see me again, isn't that what you said when you left?'
'I'm pretty sure you might have an idea why I'm calling you.' Sasha replied calmly. Hell, this wasn't the first time she had demanded stuff that belonged to her back from ex-boyfriends. 'It has something to do that is hanging on your coat rack in the hallway... oh yeah, and in your wardrobe. Let's not forget about that.'
'Wait... what do you mean... Hold on, is this about that coat and those boots?'
'Why else do you think I called? To reconcile with you after what you did behind my back? Do you really think I am that stupid? And you still have three dresses of mine, remember?'
'Oh Christ...' Tyler groaned in annoyance. Sasha was pretty sure that he was pinching the bridge of his nose whilst squeezing his eyes shut; he always did that when he was annoyed... and he did that quite some times during the seven months they had been dating. Seven months down the drain... somewhere deep inside, Sasha hoped she would have found those texts earlier so she wouldn't have wasted all that time on that scumbag.
'I'll just get to the point here, Tyler.' Sasha said. 'I want my clothes back, right now. Have you any idea how much I have paid for them?'
'You paid for them?!' her ex exclaimed in a mix of disbelief and anger. 'How damn stupid are you, Sasha?! Have you forgotten? I was the one who paid for them! Those boots were a birthday present, remember?!'
'Uh, yeah, but I paid for the coat and two of the dresses! That coat was two-hundred dollars, real leather, mind you! And those dresses, I'm pretty damn sure they cost almost that much! Look Tyler, I'm getting tired of this. I don't want to waste much more time on you. As soon as I get my clothes back, I will be done with you. I'm getting in the car right now, I will head to your place and you'd better stand outside with my stuff when I arrive! You got that?!'
A sigh could be heard after a few seconds of silence. 'Fine, whatever... Let's get this over with.'
Without even bothering to say goodbye, Sasha hung up and shoved the cell phone in the pocket of her black jeans. The headache she was anticipating had reared its ugly head and the sides of her head were pounding like crazy, but that didn't matter to her anymore. She was going to get her stuff back, that was all that mattered to her... and getting what she wants had been the best medicine against any headache, if you'd ask her. Just then, the intro song of her favorite reality show could be heard from the TV, but tonight it looked like she was going to skip the newest episode. Sasha grabbed the remote control, pressed a red corner and the screen of the TV instantly turned black, abruptly cutting off the intro song. She got up from the couch, went to her bedroom, opened the drawer of her nightstand and retrieved her car keys and apartment keys. Despite the headache and the anger, she could feel a hint of triumph pooling in her stomach. Victory was hers, she got what she wanted. But hey, that's how it always went in the end. And that was the best feeling in the world. She exited her bedroom, walked through the living room, headed into the hallway and put on her dark brown suede ankle boots and black leather jacket. For a little moment she considered putting on a wool bonnet and a pair of gloves, but she quickly figured out it wasn't going to take too long. Tyler would be waiting for her outside, she would snatch her stuff out of his hands, thank him for wasting seven months of her life, get back inside the warm car and head back home, end of story.
After she turned off all the lights in her living room, Sasha closed the door of her apartment behind her. It was empty in the hallway, but that didn't mean it was silent. Behind the closed doors she passed by, she could hear the voices of the other residents of the apartment complex, most of them sounding cheerful; Sasha assumed that some of the families who lived on this floor were already setting up the Christmas tree. And since most of the people who lived here earned enough money to pay the insanely high costs here, the kids were guaranteed to be surprised with some really expensive toys underneath the decorated tree on Christmas morning, oh yeah, that was for sure. Those kids were sure having an awesome childhood... Sasha sighed and shook her head when she entered the elevator. She got out on the last floor and exited the apartment complex. Outside, Sasha was immediately greeted with a cold gust of wind, which almost wanted to adjust the collar of her jacket. Come on now, it was just a few steps towards her car, a little bit of cold wasn't going to kill her. Sasha headed towards the parking lot, where all the cars were covered with a layer of fresh snow, including hers. Her footsteps created crunching noises whenever one of her feet touched the snow. As soon as she reached her car, Sasha leaned over and wiped the snow from her windshield with her arm; she planned to wipe the rest off with the windscreen wipers. She put the keys in the lock, twisted it and got in after she opened the door. The engine started without any problems and off she went.
Driving through the city, Sasha didn't have any eye for the Christmas decorations that were already displayed in the windows of the shops. She always thought it was a stupid idea to put up those decorations while the holiday hadn't even arrived yet, she had never seen the point in it. However, it was quite a shame that it looked like she didn't have a boyfriend anymore to go shopping for presents with. Maybe she could ask some friends to tag along with her... but then again, perhaps she wouldn't actually mind it if she had to go shop alone. The more presents for her alone, the merrier. Thinking of that made a chuckle escape past Sasha's lips. She could buy whatever she wanted, she had money. And she didn't have to be worried about being alone for too long; as soon as she would find a guy who earned a good buck, she would be okay.
Tyler lived in a city that was a bit more than ten miles away from where she lived, if she would hurry up, this could all be over soon. But despite that thought, Sasha planned on slowing down a bit as soon as she was out of the busy city. A coat, pair of shoes and three dresses were not worth a car crash on a slippery road, she thought. No, she wanted to live a couple years longer, thank you very much. She followed the stream of traffic that was heading out of the city and it took five minutes to leave the buildings, busy roads and obnoxious Christmas decorations behind her, soon enough replacing the road in front of her with a highway. Even on the highway, there were lights wherever she looked. For a couple more minutes, Sasha had to look at the red lights on the backs of all the other cars that passed her by. It surprised her that it wasn't actually that crowded; she figured out that most people decided to stay inside while it was still snowing. Well, that was fine for them. While those people were at home hiding early Christmas presents from their family members and trying to stay awake while watching TV on the couch, Sasha Banks was getting back what belonged to her. The windscreen wipers rhythmically moved left and right every few seconds, the squeaky noise it produced while doing so occasionally interrupting the song that was on the radio. Sasha soon noticed that was getting close to the exit she had to take. She turned on the blinker and turned right, leaving the highway.
After driving for twenty more meters, Sasha had to turn left, where a huge forest was awaiting her... and honestly, that had to be the part that was creeping her out the most.
During the time she had been dating Tyler, she had to drive through those woods in order to get to the city where he lived. She never had a problem with that, since most of the time it was before dark that she drove through the woods, thus there was no real reason to be bothered by it. In fact, it could be even soothing sometimes, especially during the summer. If it was too warm, Sasha would open the window and almost immediately she could hear the birds that lived in these woods for who knows how long singing their songs. One time, she even saw a deer with full-grown antlers crossing the road, which was quite a sight. But there was absolutely nothing calming about driving through the woods on this cold night. Not a single lamppost could be seen on the road in front of her, the headlights of her car were the only sources of light she had. The snowflakes appeared out of the darkness, hitting her windshield before slowly sliding away. The branches of the trees on the sides of the roads were full of green leafs during the spring and summer, but now that all of those leafs had fallen off during the autumn and were covered in snow, they somehow reminded Sasha of the hands of skeletons... reaching out for her to pull her out of her car as soon as she would stop and drag her into the woods to tear her into bloody pieces like a helpless insect. That thought alone made goose bumps appear all over Sasha's arms, despite the fact that the heat in the car had been turned on from the moment she had left the apartment complex.
'Jesus Sasha, what's wrong with you?' she mumbled to herself. 'They can't harm you, nobody can harm you. Not anymore. Those are just some stupid branches, don't be dumb!'
Talking to herself seemed to work, her body was relaxing and her mind was more at ease. It was just her imagination going wild for a second, that's all. She was a grown woman, she shouldn't think like that. Like branches could actually come to life... how ridiculous. She glanced at herself in the back mirror and slowly breathed out through her nose, letting out the last bit of unease she had unnecessarily brought upon herself.
'Come on now... what's the worst thing that could hap-'
An ear-deafening bang on her left made her world look like it was violently shaking. Sasha could feel the car leaning over to its left, as if it had lost its balance. 'What the hell?!' she exclaimed at the same moment her heart traveled up to her throat. A loud screech followed, dragging the car to the left side of the road. There was absolutely no time to panic. Sasha rotated the steering wheel to the right as fast as she could, hoping for the love of God that there was no vehicle on that side. For a split second, she even expected to crash into one, but when her eyes moved from her hands on the steering wheel to the road, there was thankfully no other vehicle that was about to smash into her. Sasha steered her car back into the direction of the right side of the road, all while the hellish screeching continued. The wheels on the right touched the ground next to the asphalt. Rumbling snow and snapping branches joined the screeching, creating an orchestra of surprise and panic. Sasha knew that she could risk a lot of pain if she would recklessly stomp on the brakes in a fit of adrenaline. Even though her throat was dry and her heart was beating like a jackhammer, she gently pushed the brakes with her foot until the car finally stood still on the side of the road.
Complete silence reigned inside the car, that was, if Sasha's trembling breathing didn't count as a sound. Staring at her hands, she finally saw how much they had been trembling. 'Oh God...' she whispered. Then something else went through her mind; what the hell happened? Sasha briefly gulped in an attempt to make throat feel less dry, but it didn't help too much. Her trembling left hand managed the open the door. Even though her legs felt heavy, she managed to step out and slightly kneel down to check.
Sasha's eyes slightly widened in disbelief.
'Oh no... no no no no no no...' she whimpered.
The front left tire didn't have one bit of air left in it, turning it into an useless heap of rubber.