Big Black Car

Big Black Car
By likeanamerican

The Los Angeles sun slipped further behind the skyline, the colors blurring and fading into the night as the summer air cooled. Annik Jenkins checked her Nike running watch – three miles to go. She came to an intersection, cars honking and flashing their lights as the last few commuters left the city for their respective suburbs.

Annik was still getting used to LA, having arrived just a week ago. She had an internship with a nonprofit that provided help to inner city families and children that struggled to make ends meet and put food on the table. The past week had been for training, and by the end, she was worn out and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of help these people needed. After all, she only had a summer here before heading back east for her last year of college.

Annik didn’t know much about LA, but after the week she had had, what better way to unwind than with a long, hard run. It would also enable her to explore the city she would be living in.

Currently, her feet pounded the sidewalk as she came upon a sign for MacArthur Park. Seeing a large pond, she began to make her way around it, trying to ignore the feeling telling her she should probably not be here alone at night. Annik picked up her pace, glancing around hastily every few paces.

"I’m just being paranoid."

Her mom would probably kill her if she knew she was outside and alone in such a big city so close to nightfall.

As she began to retrace her route, she stopped at a street corner to catch her breath.

Suddenly, a large hand covered her mouth and jerked her into the nearby alley way.

“We saw you out there waiting for us, sweetheart,” the man crooned in her ear, wrapping a second hand around her waist.

Ohmygodohmygod.

Annik couldn’t think. Her heart pounded out of her chest as she frantically tried to recall any information that might prepare her for this moment. She kicked out her legs toward a second man. The movement allowed her one scream as he caught her ankle in his hand.

“What’s your hurry, girl?” he taunted, looking around to make sure no one had heard, his face hidden by the darkness of the street.
J smiled. All Annik could see in her blind panic were his rows of white teeth before he began touching her roughly, violating her, shoving her head into the brick wall. She felt her mind begin to detach from the rest of her body, hearing a yell and the scraping of running feet before she blacked out.
___________________________________________________________________________

Adam Levine was running, too. Running away from the lights, the constant photographers, the fame. Each step took him further away from his Hollywood Hills mansion and toward temporary relief. Running allowed him to breathe, even if the only air left was polluted.

He purposely ran in sketchy areas, enjoying the way his heart accelerated with the risk he was taking. Something about the bad areas of LA gave him comfort, a kind of control over his destiny. A control he had been lacking.

As Adam neared MacArthur Park, he heard a shriek. His chest spasmed; the immediate reaction was to run faster toward the sound. As he rounded the corner, he saw a few men in an alley way, laughing about something. He squinted closer, and saw a flash of blond hair before one of the men slammed a body in to the wall.

Adam sprinted towards them, yelling.

“Get away from her, now, before I shoot!” He didn’t have a gun of course, but he hoped his black clothes and tattoos would be intimidating enough for them to move. “I mean it!” he screamed as loudly as he could.

Fortunately, the two men looked scared. They glanced, panicked at each other before dropping the girl to the ground and sprinting away.

Adam looked between the men and the girl, who should he go to? Should he try to catch them? In the end, rational thinking won out and he jogged to the girl. He was outnumbered and didn’t want to leave the girl to be picked up by someone else.

Ohgodohgod.

She was bleeding from the side of her head, and he saw the rips in her tank top, how her black spandex pants were wrinkled and askew.

Choking back nausea, he gently picked her up and carried her, half running to his car parked a mile away, her pale hair streaming behind her. Laying her slowly in the backseat, Adam pulled out his phone and sped toward the hospital.

“George, it’s an emergency,” Adam spoke quickly, “I’m headed toward the hospital now. Can you be ready in the back?”

Adam had a doctor friend whose team dealt with celebrities who wanted their hospital/doctor visits private. He would know what to do.

“Definitely, Adam,” George said, sensing the urgency in his friend’s voice. “What’s the problem.”

Adam choked back a sob.

“I found a girl. I think she’s--,”Adam hesitated. “God, George, I think she’s been raped.”