Cassie travels on...

I thought yall might like to read a little of the next piece of Cassie's story. The first piece was here, second piece here and third piece here
To be warned...This post is not suitable for children.

Cassie woke to the biggest hangover she had ever had in her life! Her head was pounding, the sunlight was painful, her body felt like it had been drained of it's blood. She was in no condition to leave but she had to. He drove her to the interstate and filled her head with lots of warnings to hopefully help her stay out of trouble. The biggest warning was to not get drunk with strangers, that one she heard and whole heartedly agreed to. He made her feel like he truly cared and that there was hope in this new day.

The best thing Cassie has is the ability to shake things off and look forward, instead of dwelling on the pain. The past 48 hours have been hard and the tears flow wherever she thinks about it, so instead she hears her father's voice telling her to shake it off and put on your happy face. Her parents taught her well how to pretend to be happy. Everywhere they went it was important to make sure that people saw us as a happy family, nothing is wrong. "Unless you are bleeding or dying, you better smile."

So when the big rig pulled over with two men in it, she smiled, "you need a ride, darlin?" They were headed to Arizona, she hopped up into the truck with no fear, just happy to finally be headed in the right direction.
The driver was a tall, muscular, red headed man with freckles, with a friendly smile. Having lots of redheads in her family she was instantly drawn to him, maybe he could be her friend or even her boyfriend. The co driver was of average height, slender with curly brown hair and the more talkative of the two. 

Leaving Oklahoma behind her was such a relief and the drivers took her mind off of it by talking for hours. She had relaxed, felt safer than she had in days. They reached Arizona by that evening. She had breakfast in Oklahoma and dinner in Arizona. She marveled at that and when they proposed to her to travel along with them, she thought what difference will a few days make, no one knows I'm headed to California anyway.

She trusted them, felt safe with them, they were fun. Their next load was going to Florida. She got a little excited about going to Florida, her grandparents summered there every year. Although she didn't know where exactly in Florida they lived, she thought "maybe I could find them and stay with them, they wouldn't send me back, I'm sure of it." 

They reached Florida in the dark, she was having a great time chatting and viewing the towns as they went through each state. They convinced Cassie to stay with them, they were going to Indiana and then right back to Florida again. One more trip wont hurt her plans.

She never saw or felt the change coming.

(This is my story of when I was 15 and what all happened at that time. Cassie is the name I started using as an alias, so no one would be able to know who I was and send me back to my parents. This story doesn't end till I am back with my parents.)

Cassie's Journey Continues

I thought yall might like to read a little of the next piece of Cassie's story. The first piece was here and second piece here.
To be warned...This post is not suitable for children.

After being pointed in the right direction, she was once again walking along side the road. A little red sports car pulls up beside her and the man asks if she needed a ride. The tears had stained her face and her eyes were puffy and red. She left in such a hurry she didn’t even know how bad she looked. She leaned down and briefly eyed him and said NO and proceeded to keep walking. The man took one look at her and parked his car their on the road and got out. She wasn’t sure yet if he was hostile or not. She had just learned a lesson of “You can never tell”. She started to back up and retreat, but something in his voice made her stop and give him a chance.

He put her in the car with the gentlest of hands and took her to his place. He put down some blankets on the floor, showed her where the bathroom was and he went to his room. She sat on the floor and stayed as quiet as she could; waiting to be sure he wasn’t coming back out. After being pretty sure he wasn’t, she locked herself in the bathroom. She had never wanted a bath so much in her life! She lay on the blankets on the floor all fresh and clean, she fell asleep instantly.

The next morning she woke to the smell of eggs and coffee. The previous night he looked to be around his late twenties, but this morning in the light she could tell he was more like her dad’s age. She sat there and ate her breakfast and they talked. Before she knew it, she was spilling her guts to him about everything. It felt so good to finally have someone to listen and actually understand. He never once yelled at her or made her feel bad for what she did or for what had happened last night. She cried on his shoulder most of the morning and he was very fatherly to her. Unfortunately he had to go to work and said he would drop her off on the interstate. She didn’t want to leave, but she understood that he had gone out of his way by picking her up. She was grateful. He did however wag his finger at her for not bringing warmer clothes and gave her one of his sweaters. He said “Here is my address, when you get to your aunts, you can mail it back”.

They said their goodbyes on the side of the road and he drove away. Cassie had now been gone from home a whole day. She stood there wondering if her family missed her yet, if they were even looking for her and if her mother was sorry yet. Knowing her mother, Cassie was sure her mother was still mad.

Cassie hadn’t even started to walk yet and a van pulled up. He looked nice enough and was sweet with his words, so she climbed in. He convinced her to go to a bar with him; she had been drinking for a year already and relished in the idea of a drink. She got her first beer in a bar and was feeling very grown up. So far this man seems to be enjoying himself and was very funny. He told all kinds of jokes and had everyone laughing, more drinks were passed around and she was feeling very carefree. They had been there for hours and she lost count of how many beers she had had.

He grabbed her hand and led her outside, she knew from the grip of his hand that he wasn’t going to let her go. She struggled to get loose; fear was at its peak! She had drunk so much she was stumbling, her words were slurred and she could feel her throat closing up from the fear. He was pushing her into the van and she tried to scream, but nothing came out of her throat except for a little squeak. She tried to kick him, scratch him and even bite him; nothing worked. He was too strong and she was too drunk.

Cassie laid there not able to control her crying, she straightened her clothes as he rummaged through her bag. He found the little piece of paper with the address on it and started driving. She hugged the stuffed dog with floppy ears that she had brought with her and passed out. She woke to being yanked out of the van and thrown to the sidewalk. The sudden movement made her stomach release its torment all over the loaned sweater. She crawled and stumbled to the man’s porch and passed out again.

Her eyes opened to his angry voice, she cried that she was sorry for barfing on his shirt. It was already very late at night; she wondered how long she had been out there on his porch. He grabbed her by the arm, lifted her to her feet and took her inside, he wasn’t gentle this time. He was grumbling and pushed her towards the bathroom. She just thought for sure it was going to happen to her again, every man so far that grabbed her, took her. Instead he took off the sweater and threw her in the shower with her clothes on. He yelled at her to not come out till she was clean and had sobered up! She managed to take off her clothes and put them on the floor. She stayed in the shower for what seemed like forever, she was afraid to face him, but she had to get out of the shower eventually.

When she opened the curtain, her clothes were gone and instead a towel had been placed on the toilet seat. She thought to herself...I can’t go out there with just a towel! Suddenly she heard him yell through the door in a voice very scarily similar the voice her father would have used. “Get that towel on and get out here!” She did as she was told and as soon as she opened the door he wrapped her in a blanket and made her sit at the table and tell him what happened. She bawled it all out to him, very incoherently. Some how he got the jist of it and cradled her in his arms for a long time.

That night after he had gone to bed, she laid there and couldn’t get to sleep. The last two days were enough to keep her awake for many more nights, so she thought. She went to his room and crawled on the bed, she stayed on top of the covers. She laid there looking at him and eventually feel asleep.




(This is my story of when I was 15 and what all happened at that time. Cassie is the name I started using as an alias, so no one would be able to know who I was and send me back to my parents. This story doesn't end till I am back with my parents.)

Cassie's Journey Begins

I thought yall might like to read a little of the next piece of Cassie's story. The first piece was here.
To be warned...This post is not suitable for children.



Cassie knew her only hope of really getting away was to leave town, instead of going to a friends or boyfriends house. Cassie ran as far and as fast as she could. The fear was extreme! She kept looking over her shoulder, afraid her mother was going to come around the corner any minute or worse yet her mother had called the cops on her. When Cassie got to the last grocery store close to the town limits, she finally slowed down and relaxed a little.

Cassie had taken some of the food stamps and was grateful for it now; she was going to need them for food. She stopped in the grocery store and bought four apples. She suddenly realized she hadn't eaten anything all day. She devoured her first apple before she had even gotten out of the grocery store parking lot.

Once back on the main road out of town, she was quickly offered a ride by an elderly couple. They took her as far as Dallas, under the promise that she truly had relatives in the area. Well it wasn't a total lie; her mother's aunt lived in Ft. Worth. She waved them away and waited till they were out of sight.

Cassie made her way to the interstate and started walking. She hadn't walked no more than five minutes and her next ride came along. He was a delivery driver and talked so much she didn't have to say very much and for that she was grateful. He took her to the end of the street that her mother's aunt lived on. She walked to their door and knocked. The delivery driver was still there waiting. She turned in his direction and waved the cue that they were there and all was okay. He left. They really weren’t there, but he made her feel funny and she wanted to be rid of him.

Cassie wasn't sure where she was going to go now. At this point, this idea had been her only one. She sat on their front porch thinking. She had been to her aunt's house in California just last summer; surely her aunt would take her in. California was a long way from Texas, she wasn't sure she could go that far. She mulled over other possible ideas, but in the end, California was her only option. So she headed for the interstate again.

This time she walked for a good hour before someone stopped to give her a ride. This ride took her as far as Oklahoma City. The sun was just starting to go down and she was in another state, a good 200 miles away from home and completely lost.

She was still very angry with life at home and her mother, but she was starting to think this wasn’t such a good idea. She was scared, cold and tired. The sun had now passed the horizon and it was getting colder, she didn’t think to pack socks and a jacket.

The cars were whizzing by and it felt like she was invisible, she wanted to be invisible at home but now wasn’t the time for nobody to care. She walked and walked, not sure what direction she was going. Just following the interstate, that was the plan.

Finally a man in a pick up stopped to give her a ride, she was very uncertain of this man, but she was very tired and hopped in. She knew she was in trouble when he touched her leg. She tried to move closer to the door, but he refused to move his hand. She was scared but didn’t panic; she had been with her boyfriend, so she knew what he wanted. She reluctantly went to the hotel with him. She thought that if she did what he wanted then she could get a shower and possibly a bed to sleep in, maybe even some food.

He was vile and cruel and all she wanted was to run. Cassie knew that if she didn’t get away from him she was going to be in more trouble than she had ever been in her life. She waited for him to finally pass out.

When she snuck out of the hotel room, she ran like her life depended on it. The tears just wouldn’t stop; she was on the verge of hysterical. She thought about calling the police, but she couldn’t, they would just take her back home. She just couldn’t let her parents think she was unable to handle herself, but after what just happened, she wasn’t so sure if maybe they weren’t right after all. She ran to the nearest McDonalds and instead of asking to call the police, she asked how to get to the interstate and in which direction was California.


(This is my story of when I was 15 and what all happened at that time. Cassie is the name I started using as an alias, so no one would be able to know who I was and send me back to my parents. This story doesn't end till I am back with my parents.)

Becoming A Teen Runaway

To be warned...This post is not suitable for children.

Cassie was in her room lying on the bed trying to zone out from the noise surrounding the house. Her much younger siblings were laughing, running and playing. She was in torment over her boyfriend leaving her and her parents where unsympathetic. Her dad was clueless and her mother just didn't care.

Her mother stormed into her room with a glare in her eye and pierced lips. She knew from the look of her that trouble was inevitable. She was always in trouble for one thing or another. Granted there were times that she deserved to be in trouble, but if her parents would just back off and leave her alone, everything would be fine.

Her mother swings her arm out in front of her with the food stamps booklet in it. She waved it in Cassie's face and accused her of stealing them. Her face grew hot, she knew she had taken them but was never going to admit it. She jumped up and started screaming, tears started streaming and the plea of just being left alone was uttered for the billionth time. Her mother left the room in a huff.

Her utmost desire was to have her mother focus on the younger children and to forget about her. To stop telling her to do things and then yelling at her for not doing them. Her mom always said "If you want something done do it yourself, don't rely on others to do it for you" Why does she say that, but yet order me to do things that were supposed to be her job as the mom. She was losing her temper more and more these days and had had enough! She felt weighted down by all the controlling, ordering, responsibility and her ever growing anger at it all.

She sat there on the edge of her bed crying feeling frustrated and sorry for herself. She knew she had to get out before she did something awful to the woman! But where? She had tried to leave before and that lasted 2 hours. Her mother knew exactly where she was and sent her little sister to tell her she had better come home. She had to do better than that this time!

Cassie had made up her mind that it was time to leave. She knew her mother was laying on her bed, so she crept out to the kitchen and grabbed a paper bag. She got back to her room undetected and preceded to throw her clothes in the bag. She didn't have all that many clothes, so the selection was fairly easy. She was still crying, but they were tears of anger now. Why didn't she love her? Why did she hate her so much? If I leave she won't look for me because she will be relieved to be rid of me. If she did look for me it will only be because she needs me to look after the kids and clean for her. Well she would show her! She will have to step up and do it herself, like all the other moms do!

Her mother came back into her room and saw what she was doing and grabbed her by the arm and flung her across the room. Cassie recovered herself quickly and was like a tiger that had been caged and tormented for to long. The fight was a blur in her eyes. She had finally lost control and was hitting back! Her rage scared her, she felt like she was going to burst into flames and take this woman out! The next thing she knew she was pinned against the wall in the hallway, with her mothers arm pressing against her throat. Her mother released her with the promise that she would calm down. Cassie rushed to her room and slammed the door. She heard her mother's door slam too. She stood there in the middle of her room shaking, crying and scared of what just happened and what she just realized she might be capable of doing.

Cassie grabbed up her bag of clothes and snuck out the front door.


(This is my story of when I was 15 and what all happened at that time. Cassie is the name I started using as an alias, so no one would be able to know who I was and send me back to my parents)