Run

A/N I know that this has been a long time coming, but I doubt anyone has been waiting for this update. I suddenly started writing again. As I uploaded the first chapters of a new fic, I saw this and read through it. I was very proud of myself, and started another chapter. It's not too long, but I like it. I'm still looking for a beta. Please review.



I started the next day. I got two drive ups, and overcharged both. I was careful, only making ten dollars on each. Too much would be obvious. When we got home, I hid my cash in my shoes, underneath the sole padding. I was sure it would be safe there.

Draco knew what I was doing. He watched me nervously for weeks as I saved up. He was scared. I knew he wanted to stop me, but he never talked about it. We got closer, spending hours every night, after everyone was asleep, together on the couch. We kissed or held each other, feeling close and safe in each others arms. He didn’t know it, but these stolen moments in the dark were my motivation to keep going. He kept my spirit strong. He needed me to succeed.

I was strong, but Draco wasn’t. I was watching him grow weaker as the weeks flew by. He was using more than ever. Maybe it was his nerves, or something else, but he was losing control. I didn’t ask him to stop. That was a mistake on my part, but I thought he wouldn’t listen to me. He got thin. We were all too skinny, but he was worse. He didn’t sleep, or eat enough. I worked harder, trying to beat the clock. Hoping that we could escape before I lost Draco forever.

“Draco. I’m worried about you.” I whispered one night after I couldn’t hold my tongue for any longer.

“ Don’t” he said quietly. I watched his body begin to tremble, and could not hold back the tears.

“ Why are you doing this to yourself?” I cried. He didn’t answer, he just sat that shivering in the dark.. I quickly poulled him into my arms. “I love you Draco, doesn’t that mean anything.’ Draco pushed me off of him, and stood up.

“Don’t love me Harry.” He said quietly. “I’m not worth it.” He walked to the door. I would have followed him, but something made me stay back. I knew that me following would only make things worse. We were so close, and he was drifting farther away.

The next morning, I woke up in my bed. The sun was starting to sink, casting the warm orange glow over the entire room. I sat up, and started to get ready for another night. Everyone else was up talking softly, laughing occasionally. I smiled, despite my hatred of what this place had done to me and especially to Draco, I was happy to have found a home. I finished dressing, and reached under my bed for my shoes, but they weren’t there. Suddenly I was panicked. Where had they gone? Did someone take them?
“Has anyone seen my shoes?” I called out from under the bed, trying to sound as calm as possible, I mean who would be hysterical over and ordinary pair of shoes.

“Oh, Harry I have them.” Tom’s voice drawled from above. My heart dropped. He knew. He had found the money, and he knew about the plan. How did he find out? Who told him. My mind jumped to Oliver. He was Tom’s little lackey. Oliver was so addicted he’d do anything for some smack. I’d kill him.

“Oh thanks Tom, where were they?” I came out from under the bed, smiling, trying to play dumb. I knew it wouldn’t work, but there was always the chance that he had just found my shoes in the middle of the room.

“They were in my office. You should come in and get them, and while you’re in there, we need to have a chat.” He said with the most horrible smile I had ever seen. His jet black eyes dug into my soul, filling me with a cold that I was afraid would never leave.
He didn’t wait for my reply, but turned and went into his office. I looked around for some support, from anyone, but none of them would even look at me. It was like I was already dead.
“Draco?’ I whispered in a last effort. But he wouldn’t turn to face me. I could see him shivering from across the room.
“Harry?” Tom called out in a mockingly sweet tone. I wanted to vomit. I had never been more scared in my life. For some reason my body decided to answer the call, and I found myself in Tom’s crampped space.

The door closed behind me.
“Well it seems you weren’t paying attention when I explained the ground rules that first night.” om said softly. His eyes glinting in the dull light. “ A little bird told me that you were stealing from me. I didn’t believe it, Harry was my top earner, and I always got payments from him. But the bird insisted, he said to just stay up one night, and I’d hear the entire plan. So I humored my feathered friend and waited up. Well everything seemed normal, all my children were asleep in their beds. I was about to turn in myself, when I heard something. It was you Harry. You talking about how close you were to escaping, and how much money you had already collected.” I was shaking now, my mouth was squeezed shut. I knew this was the end. Tom had caught me. I’d seen the bruises on Bella, and he loved her. What would he do to me?
“But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find the money. You see Harry, I’m a reasonable man. And since I was receiving all my payments, and hadn’t seen any extra money, I wasn’t going to accuse you of anything. Innocent until proven guilty and such. The our little bird came flapping into my office again. Squawking about how he had found where all the money was. ‘his shoes, check his shoes’ the bird said, and so I did. I went right up tp your bed, and grabbed your shoes, and when I looked inside I found this.” Tom pulled out a large pile of bills. I was numb at this point. There was no fighting it. I’d either die here, or stuck in this place my whole life. Escape was no longer an option.
“Did you really think you could get away with this?” Tom continued, growing angrier than I had ever seen him. “ you think you can just waltz out of this house, with MY MONEY? Who do you think you are you? You stupid little faggot..” He leaped up and grabbed me by my head, and slammed it down into the desk. I saw stars and felt a wave of nausea. He began to thrash me. Fists flying. I fell to the ground almost immediately, but he kept going, kicking me in my stomach. I felt and heard a rib crack. The entire time I was begging myself to pass out, so I wouldn’t have to feel the pain, either that or for him to kill me, I didn’t want to live anymore. He just kept hitting me, until it suddenly stopped. I heard the door open, and Tom called out. “Where’s Draco, get him in here!” The pain I felt suddenly increased tenfold. Draco was about to receive the same punishment that I was. I wanted to beg for him not to be hurt. I would say it was all my idea, that Draco had told me not to do it. “What do you mean he’s gone?” Tom screamed. He turned and kicked me full force in the face. I felt my nose break, and the blood start to gush from where it once was. “oh I’m sorry Harry, but your Boyfriend ran away.” He said in a mocking tone. Another sudden blow to my head and I blacked out.

I woke up at some point, and I knew that I was in my bed. Besides that the only thing I knew was that the only thing holding my body parts together was pain. I blacked out again after a brief flash of light.

This time I woke up and was able to open my eyes. I was in bed alright. There was someone over me, wiping me with something that felt like it was made of steel wool and broken glass. I tried to tell them to stop, but taking a breath proved to be too much work and I passed out again.

I was getting really tired of this in and out of consciousness thing. It really sucked. After a few more tries I was finally able to remain awake for more than a second or two. They had moved me to my bed, and Bella had come over to clean me up. I had no idea where anyone else was. Mostly I wanted Draco to hold me.

The next few days really sucked. I was awake, but that was about it. According to Bella’s best guess I had suffered a major concussion, a broken nose, two cracked ribs, a broken wrist and intense bruising and bleeding. Lucky me. I was in horrible pain, and the worst part was, I didn’t want to get better. I pleaded with Bella to just let me die, and she’d just laugh and tell me that I was being silly.

I saw the others from time to time. They avoided me. Cedric was the only one who would even make eye contact with me. I laid in my bed, broken inside and out, and resigned myself to my fate.

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Almost a year had passed since the day in Tom’s office. I was still broken, but that’s how Tom like me. My body had healed. I was perfectly healthy now. But I was still in pain. No one had heard from Draco since then. The worst was when Ginny brought a new girl in. Her name was Alicia and she took Draco’s spot on the couch.

I was working. I ate with everyone. I laughed at their jokes, and made conversation. But I wasn’t there. This was someone else playing my part for me. Harry was gone. He ran off with Draco a year ago.

One evening, I was sitting on the bench after a job, waiting for everyone to come back so we could go home. Oliver was sitting next to me, and Ginny and Alicia were at the curb. I had gotten over my grudge with Oliver. I wasn’t even sure it had been him. I had no idea who had told tom about my shoes. I didn’t really care. Oliver was sitting next to me, twitching like he usually did. In his pocket I knew he had a new bag of whatever the hell it was that he shot up.

“Oliver? What does it feel like?” I asked him bluntly. I had always hated the thought of drugs, because I saw what it did to Oliver, and to Draco. But I was different now. Maybe it was the key to finally feeling something.

“Uhmmm.” He stammered. “It’s like the air you’ve been breathing your entire life isn’t really air, it’s like tofu air. And when you shoot up, you finally get to taste and breathe in real honest to goodness, no preservative air. And it fills you up and you’re floating through it. Everything is amazing until the tofu starts creeping back in. Once you have the real thing, you’ll never be happy with tofu.”

I left it alone until we got back for the night. Oliver and I went into the bathroom. He pulled out a small plastic bag filled with a light powder. He pinched some into a water bottle lid, and poured a little water in. He told me to hold out my are. I did. I turned my head. I didn’t want to watch. I felt him tie something tightly around my upper are.
“Are you ready?” He whispered. I nodded. I wanted to feel what Draco felt. The needle stung as it entered my vein. I clenched down my teeth. Then suddenly it was over. The needle was out, and Oliver was untying the cord around my arm.
“When will I feel it?” I asked. A little scared that nothing would happen.

“give it a second.” He said as he prepared his own arm for the same process. Suddenly it hit me, I felt strange. I wasn’t me anymore. I fell backwards onto the cold tile floor as the world spun around me.

“This is amazing.” I moaned. My body felt like it was on fire, but I felt no heat. I had an unlimited supply if energy, but couldn’t move. If you could extend the moment of an orgasm this would be the closest thing to that.

I woke up the next evening rather confused. All around me, the world seemed darker than usual. I had a headache that didn’t go away, but got worse as the day went on. I was hungry, but the sight of food made me sick.

Bella noticed, and handed me a small baggy and nodded towards the bathroom. I went without a second though. Just like Oliver said, I was breathing real air again.