Don't trust anyone part 1

Don't trust anyone
I thought it was a matter of staying alive.
Now it's a matter of survival.
Who can I trust?

Written by Petra Jenny Helena Örlegård

Prologue

“Melinda, I have to tell you something. You are going to be mad at me, and you have every right to. After that night on the bonfire when your father got drunk, he told me some strange stuff. I decided to research it further, and it turns out that he's not the man he has told everyone he is. He never served in the military. He was never chief of navy. He served five years in prison, Mel. He killed someone. Don't trust anyone. Don't even trust me. Escape. Hide. Run for your life. Something bad is going to happen to you if you don't run. Run. Don't look back.”

I was forced to escape and hide one month after the devastating night in October when I got to know some strange stuff. I couldn't trust anyone, anymore. Those I had trusted most had betrayed me. I thought I could trust everything my father told me, when he had always been my hero. I thought I could trust my boyfriend with my life. I thought my mother would always be there, just like she had promised me when I as a child was having horrible nightmares. Everything was just a completely devastating lie. My father never served in the military, he was never chief of navy. Instead, he served five years in prison for murder. I don't know why. Least of everything, I don't know why he lied about it. My boyfriend turns out to be someone else than he actually told he was. I saw him shot a guy that I recognized from a picture with my father, and I have no idea why he did that. My mother committed suicide, but I don't know why she did it either. Maybe she found out the truth about my father but if so, she never said anything to me. Everyone who has always played a big role in my life turned out to be something else than who they actually were. Where's the truth? It seems as if I cannot trust anyone. And Josh said I shouldn't trust anyone either. And he also got killed telling me that. Something is happening, and I don't even know why.

Chapter One

“Melinda, are you awake?” Josh whispered softly in my right ear. Josh Harrison was my best friend, and I have known him since I was ten.
“Yes, what do you want, Josh?” I told him and turned in my bed and tried to sleep further. “Wake up, Melinda. Please. It's important.” He sounded desperate. Something had happened. Suddenly I was widely awake.
“What?” I said worried. He had never been like this. Something important? Then it should be really important. I knew Josh, he was like that when it was something really serious.
“I have to tell you something.” He paused. “Your mother was in the news this morning. She wasn't on a business trip like she told you, Melinda. She spent the night in a motel room and committed suicide.” He started crying. It was the first time ever I had seen my best friend cry. Josh was quite a sensitive guy, but I had never seen him as sensitive as this. I knew how much my mother had meant for him. He lived with his father, and his mother had died when he was three. My mother was the closest mother he has ever had. I couldn't cry. My mother was dead, and all I could think of was my father's lie and my ex boyfriend who killed that guy last night. I haven't even told Josh about this.
“Josh, I have to tell you something too,” I told him. “I was stalking Scott yesterday and saw him shot that guy who I recognized from the picture with my father you showed me one month ago. Something strange is happening.”
“It's time for you to run.” He walked around the bed, and looked outside the window, and continued. “Your father is nowhere to be found, but you can never be safe. He might come back. It's not safe for you to stay here anymore, where he easily can find you. Your mother's gone, and you have no idea what your father is capable to. And now, you are telling me your boyfriend killed Tim Robertson? Listen to me, Mel. Leave your life behind and run. Forget me, and don't even contact me. Don't trust anyone. Never come back.”
I stood up, and faced him and gave him a long, hard hug. “I love you, Josh. I'll never forget you even if you tell me to,” I said and ran to my closet where there was a full suitcase. I had packed down my things in case I really had to run, and now it was time to do it. I turned to face Josh again, and told him, “Don't worry. I will be OK. Have a great life.” Josh whispered silently that I didn't catch it at first. “Be careful.” I ran downstairs out to the garage where my car was parked. I started the car and drove out to the sidewalk. I then looked up to my house, where I had been living in my entire life and saw Josh was still standing there by my window. I waved, and drove down the road without looking back. It would take a long time before I returned to this place, and a long time before I learned what had happened with Josh.

Chapter Two

I was asleep in my car, but something was wrong. I felt something vibrate. I looked around me, and saw a man stare straight through the car window. He said with such a frightening voice:
“You don't belong here. Go.”
It couldn't be more than 5 a.m. in the morning - it wasn't even sunrise yet.
“Sorry, man,” I said and started the car machine and drove down the road. I looked around, and it was very dark. Far away in the horizon I could notice an early sign to a sunrise. It was very cold, and I trembled in the car, trying to keep myself warm. I was now out in Minnesota, middle in nowhere. I knew nobody, and I trusted nobody. I had not even really met any stranger; I had rather avoided them. I had just been driving through state and state for two days, and stopped when I was hungry, tired or when I just couldn't drive anymore. I don't know how long it will last until I can't run anymore. I don't have that much money left, and I neither have any credit card or something like that. I left all that at my home in Maine. I only brought cash, my saving money that I had been saving since I was thirteen but didn't include that much money, and my clothes. I didn't even bring my books, family albums or poems that Josh had wrote. I just left all that behind. When I had been driving for two hours, I stopped by a gasoline station. Before I tanked my car I was thinking of Josh, and really hoped he was all right. Then I automatically thought of my parents. They were not who I thought they were. Why had all this happened? Why did dad go to prison for murder? Why was he lying about his past in the military? Why had mom committed suicide? Did she know the entire truth all the time, or did she commit suicide because she had just found out the truth? Suddenly, I was shaking on my head and tried to get away with all these thoughts and questions.