Tyler walked down the street. She had looked carefully at herself in the mirror, and she sighed; she wasn't Billy's angel anymore. No, Tyler Williamson had been resurrected and the all-American country girl she had once been was the one walking down the sidewalk.
She made her way to the police department, passing the apartment complex that she and her dad had been living in when she was kidnapped. She stopped on the corner, staring up at the familiar building with a strange feeling building in her gut. It had been so long since she'd seen it, so long since she'd forced herself to stop picturing it in her head. It was like going through some exhausting experience, only to come out of it and find an old friend waiting for her with a smile on their face. She smiled sadly up at the building for a moment before turning and continuing on her way. The police department was only a few streets away now.
She'd never been inside, but she'd passed it nearly every day on her way to Joe's gas station. Sighing at the memories that came flooding back at the thought of Joe, she crossed the final street, looking up at the large building in front of her. Her whole life was about to change, once again.
She approached cautiously, walking through the front door and getting a good look at the room around her before she made her way to the reception desk at the front. A pretty blonde woman was sitting behind it, typing something on the computer. Tyler reached up and set her hands on the edge of the desk in front of her, realizing that she was trembling as she did.
The lady looked up and smiled. "How can I help you?" she asked.
Tyler took a deep breath. This was it. After she spoke there would be no going back. How to start? She'd rehearsed this very moment in her head a thousand times since the day before, but a lump was forming in her throat. She forced it away and said quietly, "Almost three years ago, there was an armed robbery at Joe's Gas, the station at the edge of town. The owner and a little boy were killed, and a fifteen-year-old girl was taken."
She paused, and the receptionist said slowly, "Yes, I remember the case. It was filed as unsolved just a few months ago because there wasn't any evidence and they had no leads." Then she frowned up at Tyler, but it was a concerned frown. "Do you have information about it?" she asked. "Have you seen Tyler Williamson?"
Tyler took another deep breath. "You could say that," she said after a minute. Then she let out her breath very slowly. "I'm Tyler Williamson."
The woman looked startled, but she nodded. "Alright," she said. "Would you mind waiting here for just a minute?"
Tyler shook her head. "That's fine," she said.
The receptionist turned to her computer and began typing furiously, and a moment later she stopped, staring at the screen. She turned slowly back to face Tyler, and she glanced between the computer screen and Tyler's face several times. "Oh my god," she said after a minute. "You're Tyler Williamson."
Tyler nodded.
The receptionist seemed startled and disgruntled, but she stood up and said, "Would you follow me, please?"
Tyler nodded again and followed the woman through a door and down a hall. The receptionist left her seated in an office and rushed out, closing the door behind her. Her name was Leah and she'd worked at the department for a long time. But nothing like this had ever happened before.
Leah rushed down two hallways, eventually coming to rest outside of a large door. She opened it quietly and poked her head in, biting her lip nervously; she wasn't supposed to interrupt important meetings like this one. All heads turned to her when she said quietly, "Um, Deputy Rowe?"
Michael Rowe raised his eyebrows in response.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt," she said, looking apologetically at the faces around the table, letting her gaze rest on the man she'd just called by name, "but . . . you're gonna want to see this."
Michael stood up, wondering what on earth could be so important that Leah would interrupt a meeting. She'd never done so before. And she looked strange, almost as if she'd seen a ghost. They closed the door behind them, leaving the meeting behind, and he followed her back to the office where she'd left Tyler.
He walked in, immediately noticing a young woman sitting in one of the chairs. She turned when he entered, and though she didn't recognize him, he knew his eyes grew big and his mouth fell open at the sight of her; he had been in charge of her case. This was the girl he'd been looking desperately for, the one he'd failed to find, for so long.
He introduced himself and then he went to sit behind the desk. And then he started the interview.
And she told him what he wanted to know. She told him the names of the men who had kidnapped her. She told him where he could find the trafficking place. She told him where the two men who ran the place lived. And she told him that their home was where she'd been held captive the entire time she was missing. She told him that the men had kept her even though they sold the other girls, and she told them that she had been raped and abused. And she told him that a fight had broken out between the men and someone she didn't know, and that she'd taken a chance to escape.
And he believed her. In reality, it wasn't so far from the truth; she had been taken away from the other girls, she had been raped, and she had been put through hell. Just not exactly the kind of hell she was telling the deputy.
When she'd been thoroughly interviewed and the entire police force was satisfied with her answers, they asked if she wanted to be the one to call her parents and tell them that she was alive. But she shook her head. She told them that it would be too much of a shock for whoever answered the phone to handle, and that she didn't know if she could do it without breaking down. So she stood near the desk in the front room and watched and listened as Leah called instead. At one point during the conversation on the phone she thought she could hear the person on the other end of the line shouting or sobbing, or maybe both.
And when Leah set the phone down she looked up at Tyler. "They're going to schedule flights," she said. "They'll be here to come and get you on Wednesday or Thursday. They wanted to talk to you."
But Tyler shook her head. "I'm not ready," she said.
Leah nodded. Then she changed the subject. "Okay," she said, "You'll need a place to stay until your parents get here and take you home."
Tyler nodded.
"I've spoken to the sheriff," Leah went on, "and he says you can stay in my apartment with me. Would that be alright?"
Tyler nodded again. "That's a really kind thing to offer," she said. "Thank you."
Leah smiled, nodding once.
Tyler spent the rest of the day in the department. Whenever she wasn't answering phones or checking things on her computer, Leah took every spare moment she had to talk to Tyler and get to know her better.
And Leah was really nice. She was taking art classes at the local college, and she was originally from Kansas. She had two younger brothers and an older sister, and her boyfriend was the owner of a chain of Mexican food restaurants.
But Leah didn't treat Tyler like she was some incredibly fragile thing that would break at any moment, as every else did. And Tyler liked that best about her. Leah was kind and gentle, but she wasn't afraid to ask questions or give Tyler a squeeze on the shoulder or a smile. And Tyler knew that she wasn't going to hate living with Leah while she waited for her parents to arrive. In fact, she might even enjoy herself.
And in all honesty, she did. Leah wasn't too pushy, but she treated Tyler like she would have treated anyone else. She asked what Tyler wanted for dinner and then if they should watch a movie afterwards. And they ate spaghetti for dinner—which Tyler helped make—and watched a chick-flick afterwards, complete with popcorn and sodas.
"Wow," Tyler said when the movie was over and she was arranging her pillow and blanket on the couch, "I haven't seen a movie in a really long time."
Leah had smiled, but it had been a sad smile. "How do you think you're gonna adjust to regular life? I mean," she shrugged, "do you think you'll ever be able to readjust completely?"
"Not completely," Tyler said after a moment. "Never completely. But I'll figure it out."
"I'm glad," said Leah. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and said, "Oh, I forgot; you don't have any other clothes. You can totally borrow some of mine. Is that okay?"
Tyler nodded.
"Be right back," Leah said. Then she stood up and disappeared down the hall.
While she was gone, Tyler thought about what she'd said. And Leah was right; she didn't own anything other than the clothes on her back. She had acquired plenty of belongings after she joined the gang, and she missed them now. She missed her army boots and her dark clothes and the leather jacket that Billy had given her. She missed the dark sunglasses she'd bought, and she missed wearing dark eyeliner and mascara and grey eye shadow and red lipstick. Hell, she even missed her lingerie.
She pushed thoughts of her lost belongings away and looked up with a smile when Leah came back into the room. Then she stood up, taking the clothes Leah gave her to the bathroom to change. Leah had handed her a cream-colored camisole and short white sweat shorts to sleep in. She changed and went back to sit on the couch, setting her folded clothes on the floor beside her feet.
She glanced up at Leah after a moment, and it was then that she noticed the receptionist's wide-eyed stare that was directed at her back.
Oh. She'd forgotten about her wings.
"They, um, they made me get them," Tyler said after a moment. "They called me their little angel."
She had looked away, but she glanced at Leah's face a moment later. The young woman's eyes were brimming with tears and she was frowning in concentration, probably trying not to cry. She bit her lip, which was trembling, and then she opened her mouth and asked slowly, "Wings? How big are they?"
Tyler nodded. "They go all of the way across my shoulders and down my back."
Leah took a deep, shaky breath. She licked her lips and bit her lip again. "When did you get them?" she asked.
"About six months after they first took me," Tyler said.
Leah nodded, and she just kept nodding, and her shoulders sagged.
It had been one hell of a long time since Tyler had even been in the presence of a fellow female for any length of time, but she still recognized what Leah needed. So she scooted closer to where Leah sat and she reached out, putting her arm around the older girl.
"No," Leah said, turning away, "This is all wrong; I'm supposed to be comforting you. I'm sorry."
Tyler just shook her head, smiling small. "I accepted it a long time ago," she said, shrugging lightly and giving Leah's arm a squeeze. "It was going to be my fate, and now it's not. I think, after yesterday, I kind of stopped feeling. I just went numb."
Leah turned back to face her, wiping her tears away hastily. "What happened yesterday?" she asked.
Tyler was tempted to tell her the truth. To tell the story, from the beginning, the real story, and the whole thing. But she knew better. Leah was committed to her job at the department and she wouldn't be able to keep that kind of a secret for Tyler. So she just smiled small again and said, "Yesterday I escaped."
"You didn't come to the department right away?" Leah asked.
Tyler shook her head. "I couldn't. It was late and I had just barely made it out the door when they realized I'd left. I had to run and find a place to hide. They spent almost the entire night looking for me, and they went back inside in the morning. That was when I left and walked to the department.
Leah nodded. "Just numb, huh?" she asked after a moment.
Tyler nodded.
"Is it better that way?" Leah asked. "I mean, is it better to feel nothing than to feel something else?"
Tyler shrugged. "Both of them aren't easy to go through; anger or sadness can consume you, but so can numb emptiness, I guess."
Leah nodded. Then she glanced up at the clock and nodded once, to herself. "It's getting late and you've had an exciting few days . . . or years."
Tyler smiled. She took her arm from around Leah's shoulders and said, "Yeah."
Leah stood up. "Goodnight," she said.
"Night," Tyler smiled back.
Leah was just about to disappear down the hallway when Tyler said, "Leah," calling her back.
She turned around, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Thank you," Tyler said, "for everything."
Leah nodded once and then she turned and walked down the hall.
Tyler lay down on the couch and spread the blanket over her. Then she reached over to the small table beside the couch and turned out the lamp that had been on. She curled up under the blanket, feeling cold even though it was rather warm in Leah's apartment. But she knew that she wasn't cold because of the temperature around her. She was shivering because she didn't know what she was going to do with the rest of her life or how she was going to cope with what had happened to her. She knew that the pain of losing Billy would eventually fade, as all pain did, but she also knew that she would never forget it, or forget him.