April 24th, 2019, New York City, California, US.

"Keep your body open, swim

I'm swimming, I'm swimming, I'm swimming, yeah
I'm swimming, I'm swimming, I'm swimming, yeah
Out in California, I'll be forward stroking, swim
So hard to ignore ya', keep your body open, swim
Pop a couple pills in the daytime
How'd you get a phone with a headlight"--

Avery hummed the tune of the song, while strutting along the isles in the grocery store. Keeping in mind
what she needed to buy, the girl slowly made her way around the store. When she finally got all of her
food products, she stood in the line.

The cashier didn't hurry. But it was okay, for Avery, at least. She wasn't in a hurry. After getting out of
her abusive  relationship and getting therapy, she always dealt with hardships with a smile on her face.
Started being more empathetic and helpful to people, especially children and elders. When as before,
she'd always shy away from people. Guess you could call it more social.

The cashier smiled at Avery and started scanning her items. Avery smiled back.

***

Avery went back to the inside parking lot and made her way to her car. She sighed and unlocked her car,
grabbing the door handle. To her big surprise, the car was now locked. She furrowed her eyebrows in
confusion, pressing the remote once again.

This time the car door opened. Avery smiled at her mistake. Had she forgotten to lock her car?  Silly
her... "Wow," she laughed out. "I'm stupid." She shook her head and sat into the driver's seat. Put down
her backpack in the passenger's seat, put the keys into the ignition to start the car and--

Felt cold metal on the side of her head.

Avery widened her eyes and sharply inhaled. "Who are you?" she blurted out, looking up at the rear-
view mirror. In her backseat sat a person with a hood over their head and a black face mask over their
lips and nose. The person let out a weird noise, most probably a chuckle, mumbled by their face mask,
and answered. "You really don't need to know. Start the car." This very mysterious person also had an
accent, though Avery couldn't tell at that moment.

However, she obliged, and started the car. The person once again let out a noise of victory and pressed
the gun harder against Avery's head. She yelped. "Please don't--"  she whined. Somehow that convinced
the kidnapper to stop. Now the cold metal just sat there, burning at her skin.

Avery started the car. The person probably  thought that they succeeded, but... Just after starting the
car, Avery slammed on the accelerator, while shifting the gear stick back, forcing the car to roughly drive
backwards. The person swore and hit their back on the seat, for a moment accidentally throwing their
gun down on the floor.

Avery quickly took the keys out, and opened the car door to climb out. Unfortunately, so followed the
kidnapper, too – opening the door and getting out. The girl took off running. Her heart almost exploded
when she heard a gunshot hit the ground next to her. She loudly cried out; diving left behind a tall Jeep.
They played Cat and Mouse around the full parking lot.

Avery had many close calls, but still managed to get away each time. After some time, she stopped and
hid behind a van. "Please work, please work..." she whispered and cried to herself, tears running down
her cheeks in despair. She remembered her keys, so she aligned them in the palm of her hand, and
stood up, waiting for the attacker to find her.

So, they did, seconds later. Avery didn't miss the chance and hit the motherfucker in their hidden face
with her fist, her secret weapon being the car keys. The attacker yelled and averted their attention to
the pain. Avery also took the chance of kicking the person in their crotch.

It worked. They fell down, and the girl kicked them more times to the side, stomping on their legs,
hands, even their head once. When Avery was satisfied, she stood there, breathing heavily.

Sadly, our Avery did not feel the upcoming danger behind her, and, seconds later, was hit in the back of
her head, falling to the ground. She opened her eyes to feel blood oozing down her forehead. Everything
around her got very blurry and the world started spinning. A pair of Juun.J  hi top chunky sneakers
walked in front of her, crouching. However, Avery was too out of it to look up and see the person's face.
She couldn't stay awake much longer and blacked out.

Avery woke up in the backseat of her very own car. She inhaled and realized her situation.

Hands tied behind her back, car driving through the streets of California and hair sticky from a red liquid
still dripping from the wound on her head.

She craned her neck to look up at the driver.  However, her blurry eyes did not do her justice. All she saw
was a black shadow, which she realized as a hoodie with the hood on the person's head. Avery moved
ever so slightly, uncomfortable from the position she was laying in. That was all it took for the kidnapper
to notice. They looked up at the rear-view mirror, and reached up to adjust it. Avery saw the person's
eyes in the mirror as the driver pointed it at her.

Avery blinked repeatedly. Her eyes slowly started working again, and the blur went away.

A pair of gray-ish blue eyes stared at her for a few seconds, then looked back at the road. The car was
silent, with the only sound ripping the tense air being the driving car. To Avery's very surprise, the
person lifted up their gloved hand from the steering wheel to turn on the radio. It was playing a happy
pop song. The kidnapper then clicked their tongue happily and sighed.

"I like it."

Avery flinched to the person's awfully casual sounding voice. Now it was clear her kidnapper was a man,
although he didn't sound at all like all of the other stereotypical old men that kidnapped girls. Avery
remembered the first person's that got in her car voice. She realized they were different people. But this
one,  too, had an accent.
"Who are you?" she involuntarily stuttered out, making the man make contact with her in the rear-view
mirror once again. He looked at her with wide, surprised eyes. However, he didn't have time to respond
as he realized they had gotten to the place he needed to be at. As the car pulled over, Avery noticed the
huge sign claiming that this place was a gas station. Her heart started beating faster. Could this be her
escape?

The man took of his seat belt and adjusted his face mask. Then he turned around to finally face Avery.
She got so scared she closed her eyes tightly shut and rolled up into a painful ball. The man exhaled
loudly. He turned back around to open the car's glove box and grab something out of it. Suddenly,
something flew right onto Avery. She opened her eyes to see what it was.

A beanie.

It was a gray beanie.

Avery looked up at the man staring at her again with furrowed eyebrows. "Put it o--oh..." he realized his
mistake. Seconds later the gray beanie was on Avery's bleeding head. She quietly whimpered out of
pain.

"Roll over."

Avery obliged.

To her very big  surprise, the kidnapper untied her hands. Maybe he was sure she wouldn't fight back
because she was so injured? Well, he was most probably right. The amount of pain Avery was in, she
could barely move her body.

"Sit."

These were beginning to sound like dog commands. And the command to do something so unbelievably
difficult  at this moment was enough to make Avery sob out loud. "I can't. I can't.  I'm so  sorry. I'm
so sorry. I'm sorry." She started and now couldn't stop. Couldn't stop sobbing. Her head started awfully
hurting, and the world around her was spinning.

However, the mysterious man instantly jolted towards her.

And made her sit up.

And wiped her tears. Her mascara dripping down her face.

"I'm a bad person. I'm such a bad person.  But I'm not bad enough

To hurt you."

“I’m a bad person. I’m such a bad person. But I’m not bad enough to hurt you.”

Everything blurred together as Avery tried to look into her kidnapper’s eyes. She felt like her head
started to slowly split into two halves and slide down to her shoulders. The pain reminded her so much
of things that she had learnt to control. To deal with. Sometimes just repress inside her. However, this
time they all came back extremely clear and hurt even more. She had truly started to believe that she
would never have to feel this again. This pain. This hopelessness. Insufferable questioning to why it had
to be her. Hasn’t she had enough?

Suddenly Avery shook her head and slid back into reality. Back into this nightmare.

Without saying any words, the mysterious persona opened the car door and climbed out of his seat.
Avery began grasping her situation when he started slowly walking away. The sound of clicking rang
through the car. He locked the car. But what about me? Avery thought.

“Hey!” she banged twice on the window. “Hey, come back, please” she yelled, somehow expecting the
masked man to hear her. To her surprise, he instantly turned around. Avery made eye contact with him
through the window. The man started walking back to the car, and Avery’s heart jumped. She couldn’t
help it. Even the sight of his ominous appearance made her remember and re-live the pain he had
caused her.

The car door opened. Fresh air flowed into the car, and Avery breathed in. For the first time in a while
she felt like she could breathe.

“Get out.”

Easier said than done, she thought, but still obliged.

Avery’s legs carried her through the parking lot more than her own brain. Every movement she made
was mechanical, but it was definitely something after laying mindlessly in a car for an hour or two.

Her kidnapper walked slowly behind her, as if trying to look out if she ran. Avery looked back at him,
slowly gesturing that he was being over-cautious. However, he continued walking straight after her.

Avery opened the gas station door, ringing a tiny bell above it. Only a few people were looking around
the isles. Avery stopped walking and gazed at the gas station. She felt someone’s hand lightly tap her
shoulder and push her towards the back isles. She instantly started walking, feeling that same someone
follow her.

The girl stopped walking and turned around, slightly leaning on the back wall. Unexpectedly, she was
met face-to-face with a completely unknown person. Her eyes widened, looking straight into a familiar
pair of brown eyes.

This sight.

Some may say it was delighting.

Avery’s eyes teared up. But not because she was delighted. Fucking hell, definitely not because of that.
But because she realized who he was. And what he had done. No, she did not know this black-haired
Korean man. And she swore to herself that she would never, never, NEVER would. She would never try
to know him.

Deep silence dwelled between them. Avery’s miserable look, full of hatred, told him enough. She slowly
breathed in. And slowly craned her neck to the side, not meeting his eyes anymore.

“Jeongguk. I’m Jeongguk.”

The door to the gas station bathroom flew open and a distraught woman fled inside, her powerful push
resulting in the door closing on its own. This mentioned woman then ran straight to the furthest stall,
closing herself inside and nervously fiddling with the lock until she finally locked herself in. She sat on
the closed toilet and buried her head in her hands. Endless thoughts ran around her mind, pushing each
other, overlapping, intertwining together.

“God. Shit. Fuck. Fucking Christ.”

Avery couldn’t stop her mind from going insane. Her head continued to pulsate so hard that she thought
it might explode. This situation. It was completely not graspable to her. It felt unreal, a total joke, a
nightmare. It had to be one of those things. After contemplating for a few minutes, Avery lifted her head
up to look around her stall. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t totally hopeless. By the time her survival
instincts kicked in, she had stood up and was ready to open the stall door, when the bathroom door
opened, followed by a loud yell.

“Hey, excuse me, sir, that is the women’s restroom!”

Avery guessed it was probably the cashier working behind the counter. But the door opened anyway
and closed behind the entering person.

“Hello?” Jeongguk loudly asked, slowly making his way to the stalls. Avery inhaled and rubbed her puffy
eyes. “Y—yes?” She had hoped to confidently shout her answer, but couldn’t help stuttering. Jeongguk
sighed out of relief, pursing his lips. “Get out”, he yelled once again. “We’re leaving in 10.”

Avery nervously swallowed and lifted her chin up. “Right. Al—Alright. 10. Got it” she stuttered out,
making circles on her palm with her thumb. And as Jeongguk turned around to leave the bathroom
before someone called the police, an idea popped into Avery’s head. It was extremely unlikely that it
would succeed. Avery would need all of the world’s luck, and as of right now, it was pretty clear she had
none of it. But she realized that because she had no other plan – this was her best bet.

“Um—Hey, I, uh, just wanted to ask you that maybe you could…get me some, uh, you know,” Avery
started speaking out loud. “Lady products?”

Heavy, tense silence began flowing in the room. Jeongguk’s eyes widened, not expecting this question,
and without thinking, he answered. “Why?” Right after saying it, his expression went sour and he shook
his head. “I mean, uh, are you on your period?” he asked. Avery stared intensely at the wall in front of
her and continued making up her speech as she went along. “Oh yeah, actually, my flow is really heavy
right now, I mean damn, there’s so much blood everywhere. So, if you could get me some tampons, that
would be...” she lightly smiled to herself, feeling victory, and continued talking, “Great.”

After Avery finished her gross talk, she took a deep breath, waiting for Jeongguk’s answer. All she got
was a quiet ‘alright’ as he walked out of the bathroom. Avery furrowed her eyebrows and pushed the
stall door open. She then walked out and started quickly looking around the bathroom. The thing that
finally caught her attention was a tiny window above one of the stalls. The girl opened her mouth in
shock and jumped to the stall. She climbed on top of the toilet and lifted her hands up to touch the
window. After fiddling with it with her shaky hands, Avery finally managed to open the window.
She groaned and climbed up a bit higher to look around outside the gas station. She quickly scanned the
area with her still somewhat blurry eyes and, for her big surprise, and of course, luck, she saw a black
car standing in the almost empty parking lot. Inside that car, Avery could see a man, sitting in the
driver’s seat. Taking every chance she could get, she decided to ask the person for help. In hopes that he
wasn’t also a violent kidnapper.

Avery gathered up all the strength she had left, and jumped up to the window, grabbing onto the edges
and sticking her head through it. It most definitely was a weird sight to see, but she didn’t care. She was
going to get away and go back home. She continued to push herself through the window, her entire
body shaking from the lack of energy. Suddenly, she lunged forwards, sticking her entire upper body
through the window. She let out a pained whimper – her legs didn’t have ground to stand on anymore.
Flailing her legs around, she slid her way out of the window. Her upper body turned upside down, facing
the ground. Her eyes made contact with the hard ground and she prepared for a pretty harsh fall.
Pushing the wall outside of the bathroom with her arms, Avery finally managed to slide through the
small window, and fell out of it.

After a couple of loud swears and yells she got up. Now her entire body was aching, adding in the still
bleeding cracked head and some fresh wounds along the left arm.

“You fucker, you absolute idiot, fucking asshole. Fuck, fuck, okay. Alright.” Avery made her way to the
stranger’s car, heavily breathing and holding her ripped blouse in place so that it wouldn’t fall off. When
she was finally in front of the car, she lifted her hand and knocked on the window. After a few moments,
the window started slowly rolling down, revealing the person inside. It was a young, well-kept man.

This new man looked up at Avery while talking with someone on his phone. Shocked, he stared at her.

“Uh, look, dude, I’ll call you back, alright? Something came up. Yeah, yeah, I’ll call you. Take care,” he
mumbled quickly into his phone, and ended the call. Avery anxiously looked around the parking lot and
leaned in. “Hey, I’ll be quick. I know this is weird—and I—look, I can explain, but—Just take me back
home, right now, okay? Please? I will pay you back, I swear—” “Is that blood?” the man suddenly asked,
talking over Avery. She breathed in, trying to stop herself from sobbing. “It is. Just… Please.”

Avery looked him straight into his eyes. He noticed her teary eyes. He also noticed her rosy cheeks. Her
puffy lips, strained downwards from pain. Her furrowed eyebrows, holding every piece of anger and
hopelessness from the whole world in them. He noticed her bruised hand, clutching the ripped off
material from her shirt. He saw her. The terribly injured poor soul, who deserved nothing but happiness
and love. He saw the galaxy in her eyes. However, that galaxy was now torn into chunks of nothingness.
Emptiness.

“Get in.”
Avery mindlessly scratched at her bruised hands. She traced small circles along her thumbs, drifting out
of reality. Her lips pouted and eyes stared into nothingness. Inside of her mind, she remembered her
best friend, Sam.

France. 2015. Old buildings and narrow streets. Stone. Every time she remembered it; everything was
exactly the same. Sam’s wide smile. Her soft and pure laugh. Both of their naïve looks. Avery recalled
taking Sam’s hand and tightly squeezing it. Once again, Sam would smile. It was as if the sun was right in
front of her, shining. Quite surprising, that her favorite color was actually black.

But one horrible thing happened. She forgot. Avery forgot Sam’s…face. She started to forget it about a
year ago. Maybe because she could not bring herself to pull out her phone, open her gallery and click on
the bright folder called “Sammie”. It felt forbidden. As if when she would do that, the world would
collapse on her head. Everything would come crashing, tumbling down.

Right after Sam went missing, Avery managed to memorize her face. Every tiny detail, every freckle,
every wrinkle, every spot. The way Sam’s forehead would wrinkle up when she got annoyed. How her
eyes would turn stormy when she was mad, and brighten up when happy. How her lip corners would
change directions based on her mood.

“Lady? Lady? “

“It was a mistake!” Avery shouted and instantly calmed down, her eyes widening. “I’m so sorry I…”

“You’re okay,” the man quietly said, his lips puffing up in confusion. Avery nervously swallowed and
raised her head up.

“I, uh, just wanted to ask where I should take you. We’ve left the gas station like five minutes ago. I was
calling, but I guess you were someplace else.” He smiled. Avery sighed and nodded. “I was. Sorry.”

The two of them kept quiet some time, but the guy spoke up first. “So, what’s your name? And where
should we go?”

“Avery.” She smiled back at him; however, her eyes were still teary. “Cool. Mine’s Chris. I would say nice
to meet you, but I’m guessing you wished we hadn’t?” Chris pitifully looked at Avery, eyeing up her
awful state. “You’re right. Now I just don’t…don’t know,” she leaned back and rested her head on the
seat. “Don’t know what will happen. If I’ll even…be okay.” Chris loudly exhaled air through his nose and
put one hand back in his lap, steering the wheel with his right one. “Course you will. Why?”

Avery looked through the window. Different kinds of views flew by as the car drove faster. The sun was
starting to set. Avery laid her head on the window. Her breathed out air collected on the glass, forming
tiny water drops. “The only thing I worry of right now is a hot bath and my bed, Chris.” His name left her
lips, and he chuckled. “Alright, Avery, I get you,” he mocked her. Both of them silently laughed, but the
atmosphere was still heavy.
The car finally pulled up to Avery’s street. She told Chris where to park. After he did, they both climbed
out. Avery stopped walking, and inhaled the fresh, breezy air. “Refilling your oxygen, I see?” Chris
teased, making Avery laugh. She opened the building door and they both walked in. Avery blindly
stepped forward, hoping for the light to start working. However, it didn’t. “Shit, is the light broken
again? Goddamnit.”

“Hold up, I have a flashlight.” Chris mumbled under his breath, taking his backpack off and reaching in.
After a few moments he grabbed the flashlight and stood up. The flashlight turned on, lighting up the
stairs. “Thanks,” said Avery, and they started walking up to the apartment. Once they finally reached the
door, Avery leaned in to the handle and pulled it down. Nothing happened. The door was locked. Avery
opened her mouth to say that she was stupid for forgetting to unlock the door, at the same time sliding
a hand into her jeans for the keys. However, she then realized something.

“Oh shit…oh no.” Chris calmly stood against the wall, watching the situation unfold. “What?” he asked,
slyly smiling. “The keys,” Avery breathed out, lifting her hand up to massage her temples. “I lost my
fucking apartment keys, Chris,” she said louder, cursing herself to Hell and back for doing so. Chris
silently chuckled, taking his backpack off again and reaching in to take something out. “And you know
what I have? Lockpick.” Chris took his hand out of his backpack, clutching a small tool. He extended his
arm and showed it to Avery. She sighed out of complete content, leaning against the door. “You are my
biggest savior, you know that?” she spoke, making Chris laugh. “Pretty sure I do.”

Chris took a step towards Avery, gesturing to her to move away from the door. “Have you ever
lockpicked anything?” he asked, while crouching down and inserting the lockpick into the keyhole. “No, I
don’t think so. Although my best friend would flex her lockpicking skills whenever we’d sneak out at
night,” Avery spoke. Chris nodded his head. “It’s a pretty useful skill to have. When you, ya’ know, lose
your house keys and need to get in,” he laughed at his own joke, so did Avery. “Mhm, yeah, I get it,” she
sighed.

The lock clicked and the door creaked open. “You’re welcome,” exclaimed Chris. “I am, thank you,
Chris,” Avery happily scoffed, slowly entering her awaiting home. Chris walked in, too, wiping his shoes
on a ‘Welcome!’ rug and closing the door behind him.

Avery’s apartment was pretty small, thus giving off very comforting and welcoming vibes. Chris looked
around, seeing an alarming number of flowers and plants, followed by an also alarming amount of
paintings and drawings, all hung on the walls. Some were even unfinished. “You paint?” Avery heard a
voice ring from the living room, as she was in the kitchen, stuffing her face with a mix of bread, cheese
and various deli meats.

“Nope,” she yelled back, “My best friend painted all of these for me. I mean, not exactly for me, I just
took all of them.” Avery walked back to the living room to see Chris standing in front of a painting, one
of her favorites. “I like this one,” Chris spoke up, nodding his head at the painting. It was a pair of hands
holding a snake. A Kenyan sand boa. Avery gazed at it, softly smiling. “Me too. I think I like it more than
any other painting in the world.” They continued to stare at it, until Avery coughed and turned away,
walking to her bedroom. Chris followed her with his eyes.

“Your friend,” he hesitantly asked. “The one with the lockpicking skills, who likes to draw snakes. She
seems like a fun person to be around.”
Chris heard a vibrant laugh from the bedroom. “Yeah, you could say that,” Avery replied, coming out of
the room with a pair of blue sweatpants and a black t-shirt. She didn’t stop to talk with Chris, instead
she continued walking to the bathroom. “Come on, that’s all you’re gonna give me?” he whined,
crossing his arms and walking to the couch. As he plopped on it, Avery turned around and smiled. “I
might give you more if you let me bathe in peace.” Chris nodded and looked around the room, searching
for the TV remote. “Deal,” he spoke.

Avery smiled and turned back to the bathroom door, opening it and walking inside. She closed it after
her and twisted the lock. She walked to the bath, leaning in to turn the water on. As soon as she heard
the water hit the bottom she sighed and instantly started feeling better. The TV turned on and started
playing some sort of reality show. Avery chuckled, imagining Chris sitting on the couch and watching the
show, immersed in it.

The water filled the bath up quickly. Avery slid out of her dirty jeans and torn apart blouse, which she
was still holding up so it wouldn’t reveal her bra. The clothes fell down on the floor. Avery sighed and
walked up to her mirror, looking at her miserable self. The blood from her head stained her hair, locks of
it being stuck together. Avery lifted her hand up and wiped a few tiny rocks off of her chin, which had
probably ended up there from her falling on the ground.

The girl also stripped of her undergarments and let her hair out a braid. She walked to the bath and
turned the water on, grabbing her shampoo, conditioner, body wash and sponge. She put them all on
the side of the bath and slowly slid in. The warm water soothed her skin, making her feel a lot better and
less disgusting.
Door is locked, avery doesn’t have the key, chris pulls out a lockpick, opens door, avery asks why he has
it, hes on a mission. Averys abusive ex hired “Jungkook” to kill her.