A/N: Hello everyone! I am SO sincerely sorry it has taken me this long to update, but it has been one thing after the other all summer! Now that everything is up and running again I'm going to try to update as much and as fast as possible. My school starts again in 10 days but I'm going to start scheduling writing my fanfiction, blog, articles, other stories, etc. Anyways, I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that I still have some people out there excited to read and again, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to update until now…but I do promise I have been thinking about it a lot and have a pretty good idea with how this story is going to go unless some random streak on inspiration comes along and ruins it all…just kidding! I love you all!

Chapter 18

Natalie's Point of View

After I had dropped that little bomb of information to my father, he finally let me leave. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do when I reached this mystery destination of mine, but I had to get out of this house of terrors. Actually, that wasn't right…I had nothing against this house or any of the members in it, I just couldn't stay here-at least for the time being.

None of the family members tried to stop me as I reached for some car keys to leave. They had undoubtedly heard my explanation and were in just as much shock as my dad. I didn't even pay attention to which set of keys I was grabbing, just anything that would get me beyond these property lines. Forget property lines, I wanted to get out of this town, out of this state, out of this world even…but I knew that I wouldn't be able to do that without the help of some very strong drinks and I wasn't in the mood to do that sort of thing. Not now.

It turned out to be the keys to Rosalie's convertible. She wouldn't mind…they barely even used the thing anyways. I sped out of the driveway, by the time I reached a normal road I was going inching past one hundred miles an hour. I thought more about what I was doing and where I was going. I thought a heck of a lot about what I could do and the places I could go with such a nice car and the debit card I had managed to grab before my grand exit. There were a lot of nice places.

I considered how much I longed to go to New York, but decided later that I would just go wherever the wind took me.

However, the 'wind' headed straight east anyways. I probably looked a mess. I hadn't brushed my hair and my mouth had a funny taste to it. Not necessarily like morning breath (although that was probably a contributing factor) but it was more like if you could taste fear and sadness mixed together with just a hint of rebellion—that's what I was tasting inside my mouth.

I had managed to grab very few things before I left. I was pretty much empty handed. I had the clothes on my back, my phone, the debit card, and a water bottle, not to mention the car. I drove and didn't stop until I needed to fill the car with gas. I realized it was nearing two in the morning and I didn't even know where I was when I decided calling home wouldn't hurt me.

I sighed, "Might as well face it Natalie," I whispered to myself "you're lost, tired, confused, sad, don't know where you're going and haven't brushed your teeth all day. Calling home is pretty much all you can do right now."

I finished filling the tank and got into the car, pulling up to one of the parking spaces there by the 24-hour food mart and dialed my father's phone number.

It didn't even finish the first ring when I could hear his worried voice on the other line.

"Natalie!?" he breathed in relief, "Are you okay? Where are you!? Do you want me to come get you? Please just come back home Natalie! Are you there? Hello? Natalie!?" He managed to get out what felt like an entire soliloquy in one breath while I just listened to his voice while the tears I had been holding in started to fall.

"No…" I managed to squeeze out in between my frantic breaths.

"No what!? No you're not okay? Are you hurt!? Natalie, please just tell me where you are!"

"I can't, Daddy" my voice cracked.

"Why not, sweetheart. What's wrong?"

"I can't tell you where I am because I don't know!" My voice continued to be extremely high pitched and crack while I was talking.

"It's okay, Natalie, it's okay. Where are you right now? Are you still driving? Are you at a hotel? A gas station, maybe?"

"I'm parked in front of a food mart at a Chevron." I said, calming down a little bit. I knew he would be able to help me, even if I was just talking to him over the phone.

"Is it 24-hour? Are there lights on inside?" He continued questioning.

"Yeah, it's open"

"Okay, I want you to stay on the phone with me and go inside and look for someone working there."

"Okay" I responded as I got out of the car and locked the doors. A little bell dinged when I walked in, "there's a guy behind the counter but he's the only one here I think" I practically whispered into my phone as I walked by the drink aisle. "Daddy, I have a weird feeling in here…"

"That's why I told you to stay on the phone. Look around are there any maps or anything?"

"I don't see one, I can keep looking, but he's staring at me."

"Calm down, sweetie. Just keep looking and if he moves at all I want you tell me. If he tries coming toward you I want you to run to the car and drive away as fast as you can, okay? But until anything like that happens you're safe, okay?"

"Okay" I let out a shaky breath. I continued searching when I saw something. There was a stand by the door with key chains and maps and things like that. I walked over to it and realized that I was right.

"I FOUND ONE!" I more or less screamed into the phone! And that's when I saw it. In my peripheral vision I could see the employee start to get out from behind the counter with his eyes glued to me so I grabbed the map I had seen and booked it to my car. Lucky for me, the man behind the counter looked like he hadn't exercised in 5 years and I had an almost unlimited supply of energy on top of adrenaline from the scare so I had my car started before he even made it out the door and then tore out of that parking lot like women running to the last pair of shoes at a shoe sale.

I had managed to put my phone on speaker before I threw it on the seat next to me so I heard my father panicking over the phone. "Natalie!? What happened? Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay!"

"Yeah," I panted, out of breath. "I found a map when he started to come after me so I grabbed the map and booked it, but I'm getting back onto the freeway now." I continued as my breathing started to slow.

"Okay" he said a little bit more calmly.

Once I was on the freeway I pulled over to the side and turned the light in the car on while grabbing the map to look at it. It was then that I realized I was in Nebraska.

"Nebraska" I told my father.

"What? That's where you are!? How fast were you driving?" He sounded slightly panicked.

"Fast enough," I answered while playing with the map some more. I realized on the back there was a map of the entire United States. When I looked at the map, I realized what had taken me this way, why my metaphorical wind had blown me this way. I was struck with inspiration when I came up with an idea. "I know where I'm going now, Daddy. Thanks for helping me! I love you!" I quickly said.

"Natalie, wait!-" but I hung up before he had the chance to finish saying whatever it was he had been planning on saying.

With my inspiration now intact and the radio playing some classic rock and roll, I continued to drive, going where my heart longed to take me.

A/N: So what do you all think? Reviews are always appreciated! Thank you for reading if you all continued to! Like I said, I'm so sorry I wasn't able to update much sooner!