Kicking the despicable woman off of her, Sasha climbed to her feet. She grabbed Carol by the hair and swung her around with all of her might. Carol was flung on the stairs behind them. If Carol had been hurt, she was good at hiding it.
Carol stood up and leapt off of the stairs. She screamed as she did so, leaving an unsettling feeling in Sasha's gut. Like a bull chasing a matador, Carol charged at Sasha. Sasha sidestepped but not quickly enough. The two women flew into the seats in a tangle of limbs. Both women struggled back to their feet. Quickly, they were at it again. Punching, clawing, slapping, kicking. The two women wrestled for their lives.
With a sweep of the leg, Sasha brought Carol to the floor. She straddled on top and raised a fist in the air, ready to knock every single tooth from the woman's mouth. But several strong hands stopped her at the last moment. She was pulled off Carol and thrown to the ground. Several more hands pressed down and held her in place. She kicked and screamed and bit and clawed to no avail. They had won. They had captured her. Of course, she knew what this meant. Her thoughts turned back to her daughter. If Tara had made it to safety, it would all be worth it.
Carol, as if sensing Sasha's thoughts, approached her. "We're going to catch her, you know." She sneered as she adjusted her clothing and hair. Sasha could feel a dribble of blood running down her lip but she ignored it. Her mind raced faster than it ever had before. She desperately searched for a way to escape.
"Nothing to say to that, witch?" Carol continued.
Still, Sasha remained silent. It seemed to be eating Carol up inside and Sasha reveled in it.
"You're silent cause you know you've been beaten."
Nothing.
"Don't you want to plead for your life? Tell us you’re innocent?"
Sasha smiled. Carol took a step back as if horrified but quickly gained her composure.
"If I were you, I'd wipe that smile off your face. Otherwise, the devil will do it for you when you get to hell."
Sasha's grin widened. "I know something you don't."
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tara ran. She ran for what felt like hours. She kept running until her lungs felt like they would explode. Then, she ran some more. When her body could no longer handle it, she collapsed on the pavement. Her mother had told her to run and she knew where she was supposed to go. It was far and she was tired. A quick rest couldn't do any harm. But the thought of the town catching her made her surrender the thought of a break and continued on, though at a much calmer pace.
She passed all the places she remembered seeing on the drive in. The road leading to the next town had to be the one she was on now. She was sure of it. Her little mind raced with anxious thoughts of saving her mother. If she made it to the next town in time, she could send the police back to save her.
For such a young girl, she had been thrust into an extreme situation. Most people double her age had never experienced such stress before. She didn’t know it yet but it would take many years of therapy before she would ever be normal again. And even then, it would follow her for the rest of her life.
For now, Tara carried on her way towards the neighboring town. Hope filled her heart. All she had known, up until this moment in her life, had been her toys and her mother. She had barely known her own father before he had left them. This was the first real terror and the first misery she had truly felt. And it wouldn't be the last. Not by a long shot.
The town seemed to come to an end. The buildings melted away into nothing but endless forest on each side of the road. A few minutes later, she passed a metal sign that read, Welcome to Carlisle, Maine. Est. 1692 Our Lands Whisper with the Echoes of the Past. It was familiar. They had driven past it on the way in. She remembered reading the phrase on the way in and not understanding what it meant. Desperately, she tried to figure out its meaning as she walked. Tara needed something to occupy her mind otherwise terrifying thoughts would enter it.
The meaning of the sign seemed to melt away when she heard the call of an owl somewhere in the trees. The sound made her ears and curiosity perk up. It was a welcome sound in an otherwise awful night. Something about it was calming. Almost like knowing the world around her still went on helped take the fear away. She was too young to understand how her own mind worked. It craved stability and it found it in the nature around her.
She listened to the hooting of the owl for several minutes as she walked along the road. It was impossible to tell how long she had been walking but eventually, the hints of another town began to appear. Far down the road, she spotted another sign. It was too far to read but she could almost make out the word Welcome. She knew it had to be good news. Help was over the horizon.
Tara felt a new energy envelop her. Being within sight of a new town gave her the strength she needed to start running again. The welcome sign drew closer and closer as she ran. Tara panted hard but didn't
