Sirens blared loudly outside the building I was held captives. The two jerks moved over to the window to discuss their current situation, leaving me to think. I noticed the trail of cigarette butts, leading from the door over to the window. Empty bottles of beer were piled up at one corner of the room. No wonder it reeked in here. Filthy pigs! A little harsh? Of course! It wasn't like I was to give hugs and kisses after they released me. Holding a 16-year-old girl just to steal kisses and carress her face. One of this fucking beer-drinking bastards had his tongue in my mouth. My first kiss! Blinking rapidly, I prevented the tears that welled up in my eyes threatening to fall. That's exactly what they wanted from me, to hurt me and break my spirit. The room was empty, aside from me tied up to the chair by the door and the two morons. Why they kidnapped me, I had no idea. Perhaps they were someone my parents had offended, but why kidnap me just to get back at them. I doubted they wanted to get back at my parents. Maybe.... Just maybe they wanted to exploit from me, or explore my mouth?..... The thought of the latter made me sick! They both deserve to die a painful and hurtful death, the strength should be drained from them slowly until they'll beg to die.
As though, suddenly remembering my presence. They turned to look at me in synchronization, eyes fixed and their gazes making me feel uneasy. One had fear plastered over his face and the other remained emotionless. I hated poker face guy the more. With good reasons too.
“ Hear that? Looks like daddy has come to save his beloved princess.” The expressionless dude said mockingly, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Honestly, I'll rather wallow in silence than hear his stupid voice. Someone had come for me, judging from the sirens it had to be the cops. It was strange though, that the hideout of my kidnappers had been discovered. I hadn't expected anybody to declare me kidnapping until about a day at least. Or did these two call my parents, demanding a ransom?
“ Come on now, let's get you out of here.” He walked out of the room but retreated upon remembering that I was tied to a chair. Snapping his fingers, dummy number 2 crouched in front of me and used a pocket knife to cut the ropes skillfully. Pulling me out of the chair with my neck, he raised an eyebrow at his accomplice.
“ Hmmmm, why bother waste the time and walk down the stairs. There are easier ways to get to the ground floor.”
Suddenly, the lights went out. Oh, I was blindfolded again. What's all the fuss about? Shouldn't they be happy that their sorry asses will get paid ransom or something? I don't know how these things work but it should be the point of denouement. The voice I loathed with every fiber in me spoke again.
“ The blindfold is to make things easier for you. Goodbye forever darling”
I felt his warm lips on the side of my face, followed by the cold breeze slapping me across the face. Did someone open the window? His hands gently shoved me towards the direction of the wind, slowly.
Realization dawned on me, no, no, no, no, no. It was too late to struggle with, my legs were no longer supported by a hard surface.
I could hear mom and dad screaming, some other voices too. But I only focused on the ones that brought me into this world and had to watch me leave.
No, the goodbye I had imagined, but goodbye nevertheless. I was going to sleep, a forever slumber.
*************
Nothing else mattered to me at the moment. Not the cops, not the guys being dragged away for murder and kidnapping, not the paramedics. Only my daughter. Her skin turned white from the stoppage of blood flow. The wounds and the blood gushing out front of her head that she hit on the ground was a displeasing sight. I couldn't even imagine the number of broken bones she would have.
“ Zoa's father?” A cop inquired
“ Yes” I confirmed
“ Your daughter has been taking to the hospital. You weren't listening and neither was your wife. We'll come back later to take our statement. I hope it gets better.” He said before walking into his car.
My wife Maria, was curled up in a corner silently sobbing. I wanted to do the same. But I had no choice but to hold her in my arms, being strong for the two of us.
Noël squealed, stretching out his arms for me to pick him up. I placed him on my lap and let him grab my collar. The little guy was upset because his mother was paying no attention to him. Maria sat on one of the chairs across from me. Her face was completely distant as she stared into space. After she cried her eyes out, she looked numb. She wasn't the only one sad, Noël was upset too. His momma wasn't looking at him. I had instructed his nanny to bring him to the hospital earlier. She had somewhere to go and I could not trust him with the little ones.
On normal days, Zoa was in charge of the little ones... But I guess this was not a normal day. Noël grabbed my attention as he tried to nibble on my collar, standing on my lap. It's been three hours since we've gotten here and not a single word has been heard. Although, I signed giving my permission for surgery.
One of the male nurses walked by and I jumped out of my seat to stop him. Noël squirmed in discomfort and I balanced him on my hip.
“ I'm sorry, but please we need to hear something about my daughter Zoa. She has been in there for a while and was brought in as an emergency patient. ” I spoke quickly, all in one breath.
“ You'll be spoken to very soon.” He informed me, before walking away.
True to his word, a doctor searched for me a few minutes later.
“ Zoa's parents?” He asked, unsure. I nodded frantically, as my wife said nothing.
“ We performed a surgical operation on your daughter. An exploratory laparotomy, to check for internal injuries in her abdominal wall. There's no longer internal bleeding. But sadly, there are a few broken bones, cuts and wounds, concussions, and a broken rib cage. It's a 50-50 chance and I can't really tell you much about your daughter. She fell into a coma, and all we have to do now is wait.”
“Where am I?” I asked in a hoarse voice as I rubbed my eyes, the way my brother Noël did whenever he was sleepy. Trying to get up on my feet I asked again, irritated that I wasn't getting an answer.“ RUN!” Someone bursted in, trying to catch his breath.“ RUN!” he repeated and left as quickly as he had come.His words triggered emotions and everyone dispersed. Not having time to think anything through, I followed suit. A stab of pain, from my lower abdomen, caused me to falter in my steps. Nobody seemed to care, so I held on to my side and used up the strength in me. It seemed like we were on our heels for hours, passing through turns and corners as swiftly as possible. My weak self, was behind the rest of the crew, trying to catch up to them. This is ridiculous, running with some bunch of strangers. Away from or towards heavens knows what. Where am I? What I am doing here? Why does my body hurt so much? And what the hell are we running from? I
“ Didn't I tell you to stay in the tent?” An angry voice yelled, as his figure hollered over me.“ Leave me alone mom, the bed is hard” I muttered sleepily. The bed or rather the floor was really hard and uncomfortable.“ I'm not your mother you idiot!” He shouted.“ Ahhh” I panicked and landed a kick in the middle of his legs. I stood up immediately, trying to figure out who the person was. It was the jerk from yesterday, I guess I'm not only a sack of potatoes.“ Ouch” He jumped, greatly pissed at my actions. Okay, so I panicked. I thought a strange guy was in my bedroom. They weren't any bedroom because I cried myself to sleep last night. Heavens knows how he managed to find me under my tree of depression. I quickly apologized. It was really my intention to.... hurt him. “ What was that for? Are you out to commit murder?” He asked as he groaned in pain, ho
“ Is everyone ready?” The informant asked, quickly glancing around. I suppose I should stop calling him “ The informant” but I didn't know his name. I don't know any of them's names. So for now, that's how I will address him. In my mind at least. He quickly took a roll call, which I found hilarious. His older siblings rolled their eyes at him but mumbled their yeses regardless. I could pick up their names from his check.Aghan was the oldest and the one I've spoken to since I got here. Lafeya was a teenager but not as old as Aghan. Adrian and Alhadera looked alike so I assumed they were twins.. The thought of my twin siblings caused a sinking feeling in my heart but I casually pushed it aside. The one person whose name I wasn't able to hear was the informant's, he was the one calling everyone's name and didn't bother to call his. They led the way and I followed. It wasn't like I had a choice, I didn't know the way around. And I wasn't interested in sta
“ We are here” The deep voice informed, I stirred in my sleep and yawned loudly. “ Wake up!” The person said again, a little bit deeper.“ Yes?” My eyes fluttered and I immediately shut it. Too bright. I covered my eyes with one hand, using the other to hang on to Aghan's back. So I fell asleep. The short naps I was having had me worried but I haven't really slept properly recently so I guess it should be expected.“ We are here. I want to put you down now” How gentlemanly. I felt sorry for his back though, but he said I didn't weigh much so that made me less guilty.“ Ok” Releasing my hold around his neck, I swung my feet over his body and let it drop to the ground. He led the way and I followed. Discreetly, I wiped the trail of saliva on my face away. I wanted to crawl inside a hole. I drooled on him, even though he didn't seem to notice. I tried har
My eyes were puffy, but my face was free from tears by the time we left. I'm not sure if we'll be returning here tomorrow. They always wanted to come to the old building, even though it was more stressful. Staying at the cliff will guarantee safety for a longer period rather than walking to and fro. Balmoh led the way, as usual, the twins behind him and Aghan gliding by my side. I took slow steps, enjoying the peace while trying to keep calm inside. “ Your pendant is cool” “ Yeah. It was a present from my Dad. He dragged me along with him to the store and I was forced to see him pick out the one he deemed perfect. I felt it was perfect and it has never left my neck since then, up until now” I explained simply. It was a promise I made to myself. Never to take it off, but know I didn't want to put it back on so I stored it safely in my Jean pocket.Nobody said anything after that. We just kept walking, this time I walked on my o
“ She talked about loss, what happened to her?” I asked Dera on our way back. She wasn't much of a companion and left me to walk behind, I constantly increased my pace to catch up. That's all I ever while walking with anyone, catching up. When I get back, exercising must be my priority. Who am I kidding?.... I wouldn't exercise even if a gun was pointed at my head.“ Dee lost someone very important to her. "“ Oh” I decided to drop the topic, there's no need for me to go sniffing around trying to figure how what anyone has lost. That was the least of my problems. “ Her son Hugh was the volunteer from her family. He was to turn 23 today and had a pretty fiancée named Shannara. San's skin was the prettiest color ever, black and shiny. Unlike my regular white skin, hers was entirely dark without any patch of white and never pale. From what I heard She wasn't from Charlaedon or anywhere nearby but she has
I laid down in my very uncomfortable sleeping bag. You would think after a month of sleeping here I would be used to it by now. That was the opposite of what I was feeling this sleeping bag was just as uncomfortable as the tent. Some find this padded bag warm but it shouldn't be consistently used in place of a bed in my opinion. Oh, the things I would trade to be able to sleep on my comfy bed at home. I have been thinking about home a lot. Not like I had anything better to do. I was stuck in a tent, given three square meals daily and I only step out when I want to shower. I haven't even been to the old building since the first time and I don't intend on making such long trips to see a house. Being left on my own has given me enough time to think. I still haven't figured out how I got here or what I would to get back. I am as clueless as I was one the first day I got to Charlaedon. Nobody had answers for me, I didn't have answers for myself. We were all sailing the boat of cluelessne
“ How can Charlaedon not exist? That's utterly ridiculous. We have school but even Balmoh is done. It's just for children between 1-7, he is 8. But detention sounds exhausting, it must be impossible to sit still for more than an hour.”“ Yes, detention sucks but now I will like to have detention for the rest of my senior year if it means that I can go back home. I'm pretty sure that Charlaedon didn't exist before. It wasn't even on the map of the world.” It must be semi-formal education, they will be sent off to learn a trade or acquire a skill. I guess school is for basic everyday knowledge. Poor guy, it's almost impossible to understand that your home only exists for you. If a month ago, someone had walked up to me and told me that New York doesn't exist, I would have laughed so hard in the person's face that I will be arrested for disturbance. “ Charlaedon is not a map? It has always been on the map.” He scratch