Chapter 22 Chapter 22 Attacked

It is very kind of you to receive me today, doctor.If I'm going to go on thinking about these things by myself, you'll probably have to visit me in a madhouse.Also, I might be safer with you.You should have seen me on the news again.Who didn't see it? A few nights ago, I pulled out that photo of me that the freak stole again.There is no obvious logo in the photo, and I can't figure out why I put it in the office.I'm trying to remember where I might have put it, but no matter how hard I try, the only image that pops up in my head is the freak holding the photo up like a trophy.

The next morning, I went out for a run.At the end of the driveway, I turned right onto the sidewalk and saw a white van pull up to the side of the road.When I ran past the car, I called out to Emma, ​​who was running in front of me, and I told her to wait for me before crossing the road. I was watching to see if Emma had stopped, barely noticing that the door of the van next to me was suddenly opened.As I passed the car, a large man in black and a ski mask jumped at me.I tripped and stepped on loose tiles on the sidewalk.I fell hard on the ground, hit my chin, bit my tongue, and scratched my hands.

I tried to get up, but a hand grabbed my ankle and started pulling me into the car.I grabbed the ground with my hands and tried to break free.For a moment, I was free and on my feet, ready to run.Suddenly, that big hand covered my mouth and the other hand hugged my body and lifted me up so that I could hardly breathe.The big man dragged me back.At this time, Emma screamed and ran over. I wanted to scream and fight, but I was too scared to move.I seemed to see that perverted smile, and I only felt his gun against my back. We walked to the door of the van.The man shifted his weight to one leg and tightened my grip, presumably to get me into the car.I still remember the scene where the pervert closed the car door next to me, walked around the front of the car, and got in the car—

Calm down, damn it!You only have seconds, seconds.Don't let him drag you into the car. I bit the hand that was covering my mouth, and I kicked hard.I heard a scream.I bumped my elbows here and there and probably hit his jaw.I struggled with all my strength, and finally fell on the hard ground and hit my temple.It hurt like hell, but I rolled over right away.The man jumped at me again and I started screaming and kicking him in the stomach.He moaned and continued to lunge at me. I tossed and turned, hit his arm with my fist, and screamed loudly: "Help! Come and help!" I heard the sound of dogs barking.The man took a step back.

Emma had bitten his leg and he was kicking Emma. "You're not allowed to touch my dog, you bastard!" I was still lying on the ground, crossed my arms, and kicked him hard in the groin.He bent over in pain, staggered a few steps back, gasped for breath, and then fell to his knees on the ground. A woman on my left was yelling, "Let her go!" The man struggled to his feet, trying to walk past me and back into the van, but Emma was still biting his pants.I grabbed his other leg too.He broke free from both of us and climbed into the car.The car drove away quickly, and the tires made a sharp sound, and Emma quickly avoided the wheels.I tried to see the license plate number, but the car was going too fast and I couldn't see anything.

I was out of breath.I stood up and looked back.Saw one of my neighbors running across the street with a phone in his hand.My vision suddenly became blurred and I fell to the ground. "Is she all right?" "The police will be here soon." "Oh my God, what the hell is going on?" I wanted to answer her question, but my whole body was shaking uncontrollably, I was short of breath, and I couldn't even see clearly.Emma rubbed against my face, licking it with her warm tongue.Someone pulled it away.Then, a woman said, "Can you tell me your name?" "Annie, my name is Annie."

"Okay, Anne, someone is coming soon, you have to hold on." Sirens.People in uniform.Someone put a blanket over me.I answered their questions intermittently. "A man...in black clothes...in a white van." More sirens, then people in different uniforms. "Where does it hurt, Annie?" "Try to take a deep breath." "We're going to immobilize your neck." "Can you tell us when your birthday is?" Someone put their hands on me and ran their fingers around my waist.Someone yelled one, two, three.I was put on a stretcher and strapped on, and I recognized one of the men's voices.

"She's my niece, let me in." Then, I saw Aunt Val looking at me worriedly.I grabbed her hand and howled. My aunt accompanied me to the hospital. "Annie, you'll be fine. Mark has already called your mother. She will come to the hospital to find us. Mark took Emma to our house first." I don't remember anything after that, I just feel The car drove very fast, and my aunt kept holding my hand. In the hospital, I was on highs again - too many people screaming, children crying, lights too bright, nurses asking too many questions - they left me in the observation room until the doctors came I checked and I could see the police talking to the nurse and my aunt in the hallway.

I started counting the tiles on the ceiling.A nurse came in and asked me to squeeze her hand, then she took my blood pressure and checked my pupils.I continued to count. Finally, the doctor finally came and he asked me the same question again and I kept counting.They took me to X-rays and I counted the number of machines there.They took me back to the ward, and the police came back and asked me questions—what was the man wearing, how tall was he, what make of that van—and I counted faster.Suddenly, a tall male nurse came in and he grabbed my arm and I started screaming. The doctor asked everyone to leave the ward, and he asked a nurse to call the emergency team immediately.I closed my eyes, counted my pounding heartbeat, and listened to their voices.Someone gave me a shot.They were still talking and I couldn't hear anything.Someone put a hand on my wrist and counted my pulse.I also counted with him.

I heard the sound of someone running down the corridor and then my mother's voice, I ignored it and kept counting. one two three…… When I opened my eyes, Mom and Aunt Val were sitting by the window, with their backs to me, talking quietly. "Mark was driving me to get the medical report, and we saw a bunch of people. She was lying there..." Auntie shook her head. "I managed to squeeze in. Within a few minutes, the reporters came. They must have seen an ambulance. Look, there are still many reporters outside." Mom said, "What did you tell them?" "Reporter? I didn't say anything, I was worried about Annie, but Mark probably answered a few of their questions."

"Mark?" Mom sighed. "Val, be careful what you talk to those people. You don't even know..." I cleared my throat and they turned to look at me.I started to cry. Mom ran over and hugged me.I sobbed on her shoulder. "I'm so scared, mother, so scared." By the time the doctor came again, I had calmed down.I didn't have a broken bone, but I had bruises and abrasions all over my body, not to mention a terrible headache.The doctor said I had gone from pain and fear to a state of shock.nonsense. Their biggest concern was that I hit my temple, which could cause brain damage, so they wanted me to stay overnight in the hospital for observation.The emergency team also wanted to check on me again the next morning.Throughout the night, every few hours, a nurse would come in and wake me up to see if I had concussion symptoms. Any loud noises startle me.Sometimes, I just look at my mother sleeping on the small bed next to me and count her breaths. I had learned from my previous hospitalization that an uncooperative attitude would only lengthen my stay, so when the emergency team came the next morning to check on my emotional stability, I was very cooperative.What they wanted to know most was whether I would be cared for if I was discharged from the hospital.I told them I was seeing a psychiatrist on a regular basis and they gave me some psych hotline numbers and the names of some support groups. They thought I was emotionally stable enough to talk to the police, and I tried to answer the police's questions—no, I didn't see his face; no, I didn't see the license plate number; no, I didn't know Who the hell wants to kidnap me. I thought they would protect me 24 hours a day, but no, they said, the most they can do is to send someone to check from time to time, and then help me install an alarm device that is directly connected to the police station.They told me to carry my phone everywhere and to be aware of vans parked on the side of the road.nonsense!Be "mindful of your surroundings" and try to continue as normal a life as possible while they investigate.What life?Is this my life? The doctor said, I can leave the hospital, but someone must watch me for the next 24 hours.My mother insisted on taking me back to her home. I was still in shock, my whole body was sore and achy, and I immediately objected.My mother had no choice but to take me back to my own home. She sat with me on the sofa and watched TV all day, brought me ice cubes to cover the bruises on my body, and made me tea.I don't mind her excessive concern. Later, Uncle Mark brought Emma over, and my mother even let Emma into the house, asking her to "protect Anne well".And it did.Although Uncle Mark took care of it all day, it still didn't get close to him. It started barking at the slightest movement, and it also yelled as soon as Mom walked into the room.Wayne had to stay away from it and let it calm down slowly. That night, my mother and I slept in the same bed, just like I did when I was a child, but I didn't fall asleep.After several hours, I still couldn't fall asleep, so I quietly climbed into the cabinet in the living room with my mobile phone, and Emma followed closely behind me.Of all the cops I wanted to talk to, Gary was the only one who didn't show up the day I was almost hijacked, and he didn't show up the next day.I wanted to see him when I was in the hospital and they said he was out of town again.I hid in the closet and tried to call him, but the call went straight to voice mail. My whole body hurts, and I shrank in the closet. This time, even if I hid in the closet, I still didn't feel safe. My mind was full of thoughts, will I have a safe day in the future?Finally, I finally fell asleep, and in the nightmare, I saw the white van chasing me. When I first came back, I used to go to the Clayton Falls Regional Police Station to identify photos of suspects. After a few months, I looked at thousands of photos of bad guys, but I still couldn't find the pervert. I was very frustrated.The police let the picture of that perverted corpse appear overwhelmingly on TV and newspapers, and even appeared on the RCMP website, "Looking for Unknown Source", but in my opinion, it was a picture of a dead person.Hell, even if he could be seen in the photo, it would be hard to find him, he did a good job of concealment. The police found that the cabin and the surrounding land had been bought for cash a few months before I was kidnapped, but could not find any evidence of the buyer's identity - he had no bank card information, did not drive License, nothing.That pervert must have used a fake ID.He even used this false identity to open a bank account to pay property taxes, but none of the bank staff remembered him. The previous homeowners never met the buyer, and a couple of Clayton Falls lawyers handled the sale.The only thing the buyer needs to do is to sign a name, and the lawyer is so stupid that he can't tell what the buyer looks like.He said that he handled 60 transactions that month, but he really doesn't remember, and I suspect he didn't check the buyer's ID at all. A few days after I was nearly hijacked on the street, Gary finally called me.I later moved to live with my mother.He told me that the police had installed a burglar alarm at my house and said he was sorry he hadn't called me sooner.He was investigating the case at a fishing ground in the north, and could only communicate with the outside by radio.We discussed everything that happened, and then he asked me about the damn photo.I told him I still hadn't remembered where it was originally, and he sighed and stopped asking.He said that because the pervert had followed me, they originally thought he should be a local, but now, he thought he might be from out of town, living in a hotel, and then driving to Clayton Falls every day to follow me. "Last month, I was investigating the case every weekend. I showed the photo of the corpse to every hotel and hotel staff within an hour's drive." Gary said.Clayton was in the middle of Vancouver Island, so he must have checked a lot of places. "Why don't you send a fax of the photo to the hotel? Besides, why are you doing this? Don't you have subordinates you can send?" "First of all, if I just send faxes, they are likely to be thrown into the trash can. During the winter, these hotels have laid off a lot of employees. Now that it is the peak tourist season, these employees have come back to work. I want to communicate with them. They'll have a face-to-face meeting. Second, the reason I didn't send anyone else is because they're all busy with other cases. I'm taking advantage of my time off for these investigations, Anne." I was amazed and ashamed that he was running around for me while I was killing time in front of the TV every night, wondering if that was the reason he wasn't married. "I guess your girlfriend must hate me." I said.He didn't speak for a long time, I felt my face was heating up, fortunately he couldn't see my face. "I know you're tired of the previous procedure, but now, with this second kidnapping, I think you should come to the police station and keep looking at these pictures." He didn't answer my question about the girlfriend and I felt stupid and I said "do you think the guy who tried to catch me this time had something to do with that pervert?" "I think we should consider all possibilities." "What's the meaning?" "There are a few things in your case that don't fit our typical case analysis, for example, that photo. We need to know how he got that photo, he has taken so many photos of you, why He also wants this one. If you can find a suspect from the police station's case file, then the rest of the matter will hopefully be solved." I told him I would go to the police the next day. One morning, Gary came to see me in the hospital, doctor, and I remember it so well.He had been "on the field" and arrived wearing jeans and a black jacket with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police logo on it.Also wearing a baseball cap.I thought his attire looked like a tough guy, so I jokingly asked him why he wasn't wearing a suit, and whether all his suits and leather shoes had been sent for dry cleaning.Although I joked about him a lot, there was always a serious air about him. Last night I was sleeping at my mom's again and she and Wayne had been fighting all night and she's been drinking again since I was in the hospital last time.At night, I had nightmares about the white van, only this time it ended well: a man took me in his arms and protected me.When I woke up, I realized that it was Gary.I feel very guilty.On one side was poor Luke, so hardworking and so patient, and on the other side, the man I was dreaming about was precisely a policeman who had questioned him. Sometimes, I wish Gary was with me all the time, like a bodyguard.Then, I will blame myself in my heart, I know that no one can make me feel safe forever.It’s funny, I always thought I felt safe with Luke, but it was a different kind of safety—a calm, simple kind of safety.Gary's feeling to me is by no means calm and simple. This morning, I went back to my home, and I took Emma to inspect the surroundings of the house. I was terrified by the slightest sign of trouble, and then I checked the anti-theft system 10,000 times.To distract myself, I went back to the art school brochure I told you about.The school is located in the Rocky Mountains, and the campus is very beautiful. I always thought that Harvard was nothing more than this.I even downloaded some application forms from the school's website.I do not know why either.Here, the only thing I'm reluctant to part with is the house, and while I'm terrified right now, there's not enough reason why I can't sell the house to pursue a childish dream.And if I do that and I don't end up being an artist, what do I do then? Speaking of which, let's end our treatment this time, doctor.I also have to go to the police station to identify the photo.Still, it's a good excuse to call Gary again tonight.