Pretty Faces and Dark Places Read Online Free PDF Page A

and couldn’t recognize, nor even know what had brought me there.
    I tried to get up but couldn’t; I felt exhausted, sore and aching. Every inch of my body hurt, and my head was pounding so hard that I wanted to scream in agony but didn’t dare to speak, as if I knew speaking would hurt.  Instead, I stayed on my side, in the same position I’d found myself in when I first opened my eyes.
    The heat of the sun was almost as hot as the feel of his body when it was pressed into mine. And that was my first thought after I found myself all alone in that terrifying place. Him. And the feel of his closeness.
    With a great effort and loud groans, I sat up and looked around me, having no idea what had put me in this situation or this shape, confused and worried at the same time as to why Sophie had left me there – knowing very well that she would never do that. Fear consumed me due to the lost hours of my memory, making me scared to death of what had happened in those hours – to her or to me.
    I forced myself to get up; I knew I couldn’t just stay there and be all miserable, I had to do something to get out of there. Wherever that there was.
    All I was able to do was cry in agony as I lifted my arms the slightest just to push myself up on them, barely steadying my frame on all fours before pushing my body up to stand on my feet.
    “God! Oh, God!” I screamed my pain into the nothing that surrounded me.
    Anyone looking at me would think I was drunk, it was so freaking hard to stay steady on my feet. I kept swaying and tripping, groaning and moaning with every new, heavy step.
    I walked for what felt like ages, worry filling me from the inside out – whether I was walking in a direction that would lead me to a secure place, or if I was walking to a hell that was even worse than where I’d already been. I worried the most about whether I would be walking until nightfall, or if I was to face death soon right where I was.
    Eventually, possibly hours later, I felt like I was dying and my soul was lost and just returned to me when I heard the undeniable sound of an engine running. A car passed by, and the old woman driving it was nice enough to pull over and let me in. Maybe she felt sorry for how I looked, or maybe she pitied me for the tears on my face that wouldn’t dry. Or maybe she just did what any kind human would do for another human who was lost in the middle of nowhere, as the only option that would lead the other to their survival.
    “Oh, dear!” the lady gushed. “Are you okay, Kiddo? Do you want me to get you to the hospital?”
    “N-no, please, I j-just need to go to my house and see my granny,” I said in a low voice, my throat drier that a dead leaf in autumn, and my breaths shallower than ever.
    Luckily for me – if I could call anything that was happening to me to be something related to luck, that is – the lady didn’t ask anything further than to where she should take me.  And I think that right after I gave her my address with all of the power I could manage, I passed out, because the next thing I remembered was being dropped off at my house. I didn’t even get the chance to turn around and thank her, for she left the same second I closed the car door.
    I didn’t blame my grandmother for appearing to be scared out of her skin when her eyes landed on me as I made my way through the door. She had every right to let out a cry that she tried to muffle by her hand over her mouth. After all, I was barefoot, my feet dirty and bleeding; my hair was wild and messy, and might be as dirty as my feet were. My dress alone was something else – ripped, and had long since lost its white color to something near gray.
    “Oh, my God!” Nana cried out as she hurried to me, took me in her arms and wept. “Oh, Maya, I was so worried about you, Child. I thought I’d lost you. Thank you, God! Thank you.”
    Her words made my chest swell with emotion, guilt consuming me for putting her in this situation and what