Twisted Mercy

Prologue

February 10th, 2014

10:08pm

Location: Greenville, TX

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"Come on, Genna! We're going to be late," I yelled. As I ran around the corner of the street, I saw the lights to our houses up ahead.

"We're going to make it. We have one minute and forty-five seconds left," Genevieve responded. She ran past me, her jet black ponytail whipping in the wind as we tried not to break curfew.

"We have to get into our rooms by that time! We won't make it!" I was pumping my legs as fast as I could for a 13 year old girl who spent too much time eating sweets and not enough time in the gym.

"Don't be such a worry wart, Lily. We're going to make it," she called out.

Sixty feet.

Fifty feet.

Forty feet.

Hope began to swell in my chest as I thought we were going to make it. I really didn't want to be grounded again. However, hope can only get you so far. Just as I hit the thirty feet away mark, I tripped over a rock and flew across the road. The familiar sting of my skin getting ripped open by cement flooded my nerves. I cried out and Genevieve, hearing my shriek, turned around and booked it towards me.

"Are you okay, Lillian," she asked me. Her chocolate brown eyes were filled with concern as she looked over my palms and knees. My favorite blue jeans now had a rip in them as blood seeped from a deep scrape on my left knee and my arms and hands were covered in blood, ruining my white t-shirt.

"Peachy keen," I winced out. The red blood was a stark contrast to my porcelain skin and the moonlight made it glisten. If I weren't in so much pain, I would've laughed at how crazy I must've looked.

"Come on, we still have forty seconds. If we get into our houses, I'm sure your parents will understand why you aren't heading straight for your room," Ivy reasoned. Her logic was sound. So, ignoring the pain I was in, I started to stand up. Just as I gained balance, bright headlights blinded me and caused me to fall down again.

Genevieve tried picking me up and ushering me out of the way of the moving vehicle, but we weren't fast enough. The squeal of tires and doors opening caused Ivy and I to try and run away, but we weren't fast enough. We were grabbed and, despite our screams and flailing limbs, we were carried away.

All because we weren't fast enough.