Megan's Way (6 page)

Olivia’s pleas and promises shot out of the
dark and pierced her mother’s heart. Megan swallowed a yell. The
light ahead stopped, hovering in the cool night air. Megan stopped,
listened, then silently moved deeper into the woods.

Twenty feet away, she could make out a large,
ungainly man with a flannel shirt and torn jeans looming over her
daughter. Olivia’s face, a palette of panic, her arms crossed over
her chest, were enough to make Megan’s heart explode, her anger
rose to an insurmountable level.

The man spoke in rough, harsh murmurs. Megan
moved closer, desperately hoping Olivia would not see her and give
her away. She had not one thought of caution. Adrenaline and fear
for Olivia had repressed any suggestions of delay or defeat. She
rounded a thick bush, ducked behind it, and closed her eyes long
enough to think,
One chance, that’s all I have—one chance to get
her out of this alive
.

With white knuckles, she gripped her keys,
the largest jutting out between her index and middle fingers like a
knife. She placed the stick on the ground, deciding it was too
cumbersome. She did not see a weapon, no gun in the man’s hand. He
hulked over Olivia, and violently rammed her back into a tree.
Megan could hear her daughter cry out in pain as Olivia pushed him
away with all her might, “No! no!” Olivia screamed.

Megan crept quickly behind him, hoping to
remain undetected. Too late, the crumbling leaves beneath her feet
gave her away. The captor spun around just as Megan lunged at him.
Her five foot frame was no match for his height and bulk. She
dropped her keys and clung to his body, her legs wrapped around his
middle, her left hand clenched his hair and her right thumb dug
into his eye, pushing past his eyeball and into the socket.

Somewhere to the side, Olivia screamed, “Mom!
no, Mom!” her terror evident in her shrill voice.

Megan pushed and thrust with all her might,
while screaming at the top of her lungs, “Run, Livi! Run!”

Olivia was paralyzed with shock, her mind too
consumed with fear to function. She watched her mother attached to
her assailant and cried uncontrollably.

Megan continued screaming for Olivia to run.
She gauged her thumb deeper into the man’s eye socket. Blood
spurted and oozed across her hand and arm. The man flailed between
pushing her off his body and grabbing at his eye.

Olivia broke free of her fear, scanned the
ground for a weapon. She picked up a heavy rock and smashed it into
the back of the man’s head. He rocked forward, and she drove it
into his head again, harder. Megan fell to the ground. The man
stumbled. His head spewed blood onto his shirt, and his eye was no
longer visible.

Megan lay on the ground. Her body ached. She
screamed, “Run, Livi! Run! Run!”

Olivia grabbed her mother’s frail arm and
yanked her to her feet. Together they ran back through the woods
and down the path, tripping and holding onto each other. Megan shot
a backward glance and found the abductor’s hands over his face,
blood covering his head like a gruesome mask. His screams of
torment filled the night.

When they reached the car, Megan’s relief was
overshadowed by her panic, as she realized she didn’t have her car
keys. With much struggling, she forced Olivia into the car, and
demanded her to lock the doors. Olivia’s body wracked with sobs and
trembled with such force that her teeth chattered.

Olivia screamed, “No!” several times, but her
mother ran back up the path to find her keys.

When she neared the water tower, the man was
no where in sight. She dropped to the ground by the bush and felt
around the rocks and dirt. She saw a twinkle of light about ten
feet in front of her and dashed for the keys, which were splattered
with fresh blood. Without hesitation, she spun around, pushed past
the pain of what felt like a broken rib, blocked out the stinging
of the cold air in her lungs, and rushed toward the car, praying
Olivia was safe. She looked behind her several times but didn’t see
the man.

She reached the car, out of breath, and
trembling so badly she feared not being able to remain erect.
Olivia was nowhere in sight.

“Olivia!” she screamed, running from door to
door, all of them locked. She screamed again, “Olivia!”

Olivia peered out from under the dashboard,
saw her mother, and reached up to unlock the door. Megan scrambled
into the car and locked the doors, shoving the keys in the ignition
and pitching the car into reverse. She spun out and fishtailed onto
the dirt road, nearly hitting the side of a van as she raced onto
the highway. She could not find her voice. Her hands felt glued to
the steering wheel, her foot to the pedal.

Olivia remained on the floor, huddled in a
ball and sobbing.

Twelve minutes later, Megan pulled into the
police station and eyed the brick building, illuminated like a
Christmas tree. A sense of safety blanketed her. She turned to
Olivia, her arms outstretched.

“I’m sorry, Mom!” Olivia cried. Her body
trembled. Her words rushed out like a waterfall, fast and hard.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Megan’s tears fell, salty and warm, onto her
own lips, “Livi, it’s okay. It’s okay. I’m here. Are you okay?” She
held her tight.

Olivia nodded. Her face was swollen and red.
“I’m so sorry, Mom. I thought he was someone else.”

“I know, honey. I know.” Megan said.
“Whatever happened out there, whatever brought you there, Olivia,
it’s not your fault.”
It’s mine
, Megan thought. She scanned
her daughter’s young body. Seeing no gashes or obvious injuries,
she breathed a little easier. “Did he…hurt you?” Megan braced
herself for the answer.

Olivia looked down at her lap, tears fell
unabashedly. “My back against the tree…my arms,” the words emerged
with difficulty as shock began to take over. She wrapped her arms
around herself and sobbed, shivering.

Megan held her, willing away the tears and
thanking god she was there. When Olivia’s sobs lessened, Megan
whispered, “We have to tell the police.”

“But they’ll think I’m awful! They’ll think
I’m a slut!”

Olivia buried her face in her mother’s
shirt.

Megan stroked Olivia’s hair and held her
close. She felt each sob deep within the pit of her own stomach.
“Livi, do you want to tell me first? Would that help?”

Olivia tightened her grip around Megan.
“That’s worse!

You’ll hate me!”

“I could never hate you! I love you!” She
lifted Olivia’s dirt streaked face in her hands, and was met with
dark circles around her daughter’s haunted eyes.
What on earth
have I done to my baby?
each beat of Megan’s heart hurt with
the answer. “Olivia, you did nothing wrong. I could never think
badly of you.”

Olivia yelled, “But I did! I went to
myroom.com! You told me not to! You said something bad could
happen!” Olivia threw herself against the passenger door, arms
crossed over her chest. She stared out the window. “You told me,
Mom! You warned me! god! I’m such a mess!” She buried her face in
her hands and brought her knees up to her chest. “You must hate
me!”

Megan slid over to Olivia’s side of the car,
wrapped her arms around her daughter’s shaking body, and let her
tears fall onto Olivia’s shiny hair. “Baby girl,” she crooned, “you
made a mistake. god knows I’ve made a ton!”

Olivia laughed, “Yeah, right. You? You are
like Miss

Perfect. You never fuck up.”

Megan flinched at the word. “Yes I do…fuck
up,” she said, and they both laughed through their tears. “I fuck
up all the time, Olivia! I just hide it well!”

“Oh, Mom!” Olivia threw her arms around
Megan’s neck. They remained there, safe in each other’s arms, until
their sobbing stopped and their hearts calmed. “What am I going to
do? Do I have to tell the police?”

“Yes. Otherwise that maniac can hurt someone
else.”

“But, Mom, he isn’t the one I met. I met a
younger guy.

Someone…like…my age. No! He must have been
sixteen because he drove. He drove me to this guy and then took
off.”

“The green truck!” Megan looked out the
window, remembering the vehicle speeding away through the field,
the bright color of it, almost fluorescent.

“Yes! He drove a green truck!” Olivia
said.

“We have to report it, Livi. Besides, I might
have killed that guy. What I did to him was so…” Megan felt sick
remembering the awful sensation of her thumb digging under the
man’s eye socket and rifling through the remains.

“Brave. It was so brave, Mom. You saved my
life.” “Well, someone had to do it!” Megan swallowed her impulse to
cry, trying to remain strong for Olivia.

Just before Olivia fell asleep, she said to
Megan, “If my father was around, he would be so ashamed of me. I’m
glad I don’t know who he is. It hurts less this way.”

Megan tried to console her while wrestling
her own private demons. How had she let this happen? Why hadn’t she
forbade Olivia from going out earlier that evening?
How can I
leave her?
Thankfully, the Valium that the physician had given
Olivia kicked in, and she faded off to sleep with her worries
written all over her young face.

Megan couldn’t leave her bedside. The guilt
she felt swirled through her like a whirlwind, dusting up all of
her confusion and pain.

Jack and Peter had come and gone, staying
much longer than Megan had the energy for, though she was thankful
for the comfort from them. They had both offered to go look for the
man that Megan fought and the green truck, but the police said they
were already doing that, and Megan didn’t want her friends to be
bothered anymore than they already had been. Their guilt for not
having been available when Megan had been in a crisis was evident
in their eyes, their actions. What they didn’t realize, however,
was that the time was yet to come when she would truly need them
like she never had before.

While Holly waited downstairs, Megan
reflected on the scene at the police station. It had been
heart-wrenching to watch Olivia describe how depressed she had
been, and how that was the first time she had “chatted” with anyone
online besides her two best friends. She said she had heard about
myroom.com and had wanted to check it out. Normally, she had said,
she would never go against her mother’s rules, but things had been
so weird lately, and she was so angry and sad that she didn’t know
what she was doing. She said she had felt driven, recklessly she
admitted, but as if it were the right thing to do—to do something
that she knew was wrong.

Tears streaked Megan’s cheeks. She left
Olivia’s bedroom so as not to wake her and paced the hallway. She
pulled her sweater tight around her body and crossed her arms, only
to drop them again and worry her hands. She shook her head, trying
to make peace with the confusion that rumbled inside it.

The police station had felt safe, yet
sterile. Linoleum gray floors met equally dull walls. The faint
ticking of keyboards panged beyond the glass of the office where
they had sat, shocked and trembling, as the police officers had
peppered Olivia with questions. They had asked about the photos,
which, Olivia said, she had her friends take of her so she could
post them online. It had been relatively easy with her digital
camera. She didn’t believe that anything bad would happen, and she
had gotten so caught up in the attention and flattery from those
guys, hotrox42 and the surferdude97, that even the thought that it
might be wrong had gone out of her head.

The officers nodded as if they had seen many
young girls go through the exact same scenario. Megan wasn’t
certain if it was compassion or annoyance she read in their eyes.
That upset Megan even more. This wasn’t any girl. This was
Olivia—her daughter. She let it pass with a heavy heart, and they
had continued to ask pointed questions. They wanted details about
their online chats. Olivia promised that she didn’t give out any
personal data, but the police were going to come by later and check
it out for themselves.

The friend that Olivia had pick her up and
take her to the library, where she was to meet hotrox42, knew
nothing of the clandestine meeting. She thought Olivia was meeting
another girlfriend there. The police said it wasn’t abnormal for
teens to keep details of this type of tryst to themselves,
especially given the fact that this was the first time that Olivia
had strayed.
Olivia strayed
. The mere thought of her
daughter doing something so dangerous, so rebellious, made Megan’s
body shiver.

Apparently hotrox42 was the frontrunner for
the older guy, surferdude97, and the police had been trying to
track them down for the last few weeks. They’d had a few sketchy
leads, but Olivia and Megan provided them with a description of the
green truck, which the officers indicated should be fairly easy to
trace given the color.

They seemed excited that Megan had been able
to physically harm the older man and were going to contact the
local hospitals, shelters, and walk-in clinics in case he went for
medical assistance. They concurred that such an injury could kill
the man, if she had reached his brain, and that he certainly
couldn’t go on walking around without getting medical attention for
such a wound.

They had called a physician into the station,
since Olivia had not been raped, and took DNA samples from her and
Megan’s fingernails and hands. Hair and other fibers were going to
be removed from their clothing, and they were given sweatpants and
t-shirts to wear home. The sketch artist had been able to draw a
pretty true-to-life image of the older man. The police were fairly
certain that they could nail the predators.

Megan had sustained bruised ribs and Olivia
had a few bumps and bruises and a sore back, but thankfully there
were