Chapter 3

I look at every single object we pass—trees, trash, houses, buildings, etc. I don't have a car, so I'm obviously using Gloss's. He never lets me drive it, and when he does, it's only when he literally can't drive, or when he wants me to pick him something up from the store. That's it.

I look at Creek sitting on the back seat, looking out the window, observing the objects fly by. I feel terrible for doing this, but it's for the best. I guess.

"Mommy," he speaks, "When is Daddy going to come with us?"

I hope never.

"When he starts feeling better, sweetie," I say. "He's really sick right now and can't even get out of the bed."

"But he wasn't sick when we were eating?" he responds.

"Well…" I start to think of something. I absolutely hate lying to him—I know I don't like it when people lie to me. I absolutely hate it. "He got sick whenever he was going to sleep."

"How did he get sick?"

"The boogeyman gave him coodies."

I'm stupid and retarded, I know.

"Ew," he says, "Daddy has coodies, yuck!"

"I know," I say.

"Will the boogeyman come after us?" he asks.

"No, honey," I say, "We're going to a much better place."

"Candy Land," he smiles—I can see him through the rear-view mirror. "I can't wait 'til we get there. It's going to be so fun! I love you, mommy."

I feel something in my heart. My heart feels warmer, and I feel softer. I feel better.

"I love you too, Creek."

I keep driving us away and away and away until we make it out of San Bernardino. I've been living there since I met Gloss; so five years. Probably the worst five years of my life, besides living with my parents all those other years.

It takes us less than an hour to reach the next available town to put gas in. That's right; I have money from life-savings. I have never once taken money from Gloss, ever. If I did, I probably wouldn't be alive today.

We're in Victorville right now, and I stop at the nearest gas station. I have exactly four-thousand, nine-hundred and eighty-nine dollars in cash with me. Whenever I was in college, well university, California State University, I worked part-time at a sandwich shop. Luckily, I got paid ten-dollars an hour, and got my paycheck every week. I worked a little before I attended college as well, too. But when I got pregnant, and had to drop out of college, I had to stop working. I worked a little after I gave birth to Creek, but Gloss made me stop. He said my job was around the house—keeping it clean and organized. I also had to stop because of Creek. We weren't going to send him to day-care or hire a babysitter. Gloss says that spending money on those things is useless, that's why wives exist, so he says.

"Is that all, ma'am?" a middle-age looking woman asks me when I'm checking out my things in the gas station.

"Yes," I say and take out two hundred dollar bills from my rag-so-called purse.

"You heading somewhere?" she asks.

"Yeah," I say and hand her the dollar bills.

"Vacation? It is the middle of May," she responds—I feel like she's asking too much.

"I'm visiting my parents for the week," I nod. "I haven't seen them in years."

"You're going to visit one of them at the graveyard and one in prison?" she asks and that's when fear strikes me. Shock, surprise, fright; everything strikes me. What? I think. Did she just say that? How does she know my mom is dead? How does she know my dad is in prison? I grab the plastic bag that contains four bottles of water and a few snacks, and slowly start backing away.

"Don't you need your change?" she asks.

I reach my hand out but I don't want to look at her anymore. I don't want to. I left Creek alone in the car! She hands me ten dollars and a few cents worth of change and that's when I rush out and step outside. That's when I hear her yell, "My name is Wiress! Call me sometime!"

I rapidly put gas in the car—over eighty gallons—and quickly drive off. Creek is still inside, and I'm thankful when I see that the streets are empty. I drive fast, to take advantage of the fact that there are no cops roaming around. I pass the speed limit, quickly driving off, trying to get out of the town. I officially do when almost four hours later, 7:55 in the morning; we're in a town named Kingman. It's in Arizona and we barely got out of California like thirty or fifty minutes ago. I don't know, I didn't keep up, but I keep driving. I still have plenty of gas left. I look over my shoulder and see that Creek has fallen asleep; his little body is taking over the whole back seat. Seven hours later, we've arrived to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I read the time: 3:23 in the afternoon. I decide to stop at a Subway near me. I'm craving a sandwich for some reason; thinking of my old job back at that sandwich shop in San Bernardino, it made me crave a sub. I pull over and manage to wake Creek up. My goodness, he's so tired.

"Where are we?" he yawns and rubs his eyes.

"We're getting something really quick to eat," I say, pulling the door open and entering the shop. "What do you want?"

"Do they have candy here?" he responds.

"No, but they do have sandwiches here. And cookies for dessert. What kind of sandwich do you want?" I say.

"Aw man," he says, "Well, can I have cookies?"

"Sure, sweetie," I smile and turn to the lady who waits for me to order.

"Welcome to Subway, how can I help you?" she asks—she's short and has vicious eyes. I read her nametag and it says Clove.

"Can I have an Italian BMT foot long?" I ask, "And a six-inch black-forest ham?"

"What kind of bread?" she asks.

"On the foot long, I want wheat. On the six-inch, Italian." I order.

I watch her get the two kinds of breads and she asks me if I want them toasted or not. I decide that I don't. It doesn't take long to order, and I end up paying her with a twenty-dollar bill. She gives me nine dollars and a few cents as change and we quickly get out of there, enjoying half of each of our sandwiches. Of course, mine was the foot long and his was the six-inch. But I'm sure I won't be able to finish mine by myself, so I'll have to give Creek some of mine. Good thing he eats plenty of food. I see him eating his cookie first but I don't mind. After I eat a quarter of mine, I decide to keep driving. As I keep going, I know that Gloss has already found out that we're gone. He probably wants to murder me right now, and I don't blame him at all. If I was him, Thank the Lord that I'm not, I'd want to kill me too. I left my husband and took our child. I didn't do it for a selfish reason, but like I said, I did it for the best. I did it for the best of me; for the best of Creek, especially for him. It wasn't healthy for him to be living over there. It was kind of like how I lived with my parents. I don't want Creek to live that life—he clearly deserves better.

I move along forward, pressing the gas pedal harder and the car moves faster. I'm surprised there aren't many cars along the way—I haven't seen any cops but one this whole way so far. I keep heading the next miles down the road: fifty, sixty, and seventy, and so on and so on…

Creek did finish his sandwich so I decide to just leave the rest of mine for him. I'm not that hungry anyway and I need to concentrate on the road. I think of that lady, Wiress, from the gas station in Victorville. I still have no idea how she knows that background information about me. No one really knows about that, except the lady who called the police, my aunt and uncle, my parents (they're the reason), and of course, me. I haven't told anyone, and I don't want to mention it to Creek either. I just want to make sure he lives his whole life positive. I don't want him to end up like me.

Four and a half hours forward, and we're in Amarillo, Texas. I've never once in my life have been in Texas, ever. The weather is completely different—it was even more different in Arizona. It's kind of weird but makes sense at the same time. It's 8:21. The sun hasn't completely gone down but it will in a matter of minutes. We've been in a car for over seventeen hours and I'm completely exhausted. But we have to keep moving, at least a little bit further. I don't want to be anywhere near California—Gloss can track us down easily like this. I keep driving for five more hours, and surprisingly, I haven't run out of gas but I think I'm about to… I pull over at the nearest gas station but this time, I don't make any interactions with anybody. I quickly go in, pay, done. Simple as that. I figure out that we're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I never even noticed that we passed Oklahoma City. I guess I've been keeping track of going far and far, and I don't look around or look back. There's really no reason to.

"Mommy, where are we?" I notice that Creek is awake.

"We're in Tulsa, sweetheart," I say.

"Are we almost to Candy Land?" he asks.

I look down and think: no Creek, we're not. We're nowhere near Candy Land. We're not even far away from your father. We're still too close. But we have to rest. We can keep going further in the morning.

The time is 1:43. Just go to sleep, Annie. I think to myself. Just sleep. You need sleep. You haven't slept in hours. Like you said, you can keep going in the morning. Please, just sleep.

"We're almost there." I tell Creek and drive into an alley. I don't park the car in the middle of it but find a space to the side. There's a large tree by where I park the car, so we'll have some shade in the morning and it won't get too hot. I unbuckle my seatbelt, turn off the car, and close my eyes, ready to enter into the world of darkness and hopefully, into my dreams.

NOTES: Wow! 7 followers and 7 favorites! 5 reviews already as well! Sorry, I'm bragging but I just want to say thank you all! You guys are seriously the best! I also want to give a huge shoutout to my friend Juliet's Shadow! Her story, Search All of the Alaskan Sky for You, inspired me to write about Gloss and Annie being a married couple. You guys should definitely check her stories out; they're unbelievably amazing! You won't regret reading them! Also, in this chapter, Annie and Creek have finally escaped from Gloss. This chapter's pretty slow, kind of, but I just want to set the mood on how they are during the ride. Annie is happy but scared to death at the same time. Creek wants to go to his imaginary place called "Candy Land" and doesn't know what's really going on. I enjoyed writing this chapter and can't wait to hear you guy's opinions:) Thank you all again, and please review:)

Juliet's Shadow: Yay! Thank you so much for the shoutout! It was an honor to be mentioned in a highly-great story that's out of my league! I'm really glad you're enjoying this story and can't wait to see how it turns out for you:)

Addicted1-Your-Story: I'm glad you like it; thank you! Yeah, I agree that it's really depressing but it just shows how dark Annie's life is and has been. But don't worry, it'll get better:)

Draco lover: Thanks!:) well, here's chapter 3 - hope you liked it! And chapter 4 will be updated really quick, because I already started it. I'm glad you like this!:)