Authors: Jack Parker
That brought
a
moment of relief. I was just being silly. Long day at school and all, probably still bothered from the lockdown thing. I unlocked the door, stepped in, and threw my stuff on the ground.
Big mistake. When my bag landed it made a thunk type of noise. And my house seemed eerily still. I stopped moving, not even closing the door, and then movement picked up again. Upstairs, near my parents room.
I am probably the dumbest human being ever. Do you know how you see a movie, and the character inches towards a door, down
a
really dark hallway, that is open just a tiny bit? And your watching the movie going "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" or "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?". I'm assuming you also think things like "I would never have done that, who would do that?" Um… Everybody would. And if you're ever in this position, I advise you not too, but you won't listen, you won't heed this advice, because the thought of not knowing what is going on, it will kill you. The thoughts and feelings you get that something isn't right, you have to prove them wrong, you
need
to prove them wrong. How else will you be able to
enter
your home? Your home, where it's supposed to be comforting, even safe.
In fact, you will want to know so badly what's wrong that you're willing to risk just about anything to find out, including that safety. So I did what any stupid human would do, I went upstairs. I looked around for a weapon; I'm not too out of it. So I grabbed a pan from the kitchen. You know, one of those big metal ones.
I have to admit, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. It was a mix of absolutely terrifying, body-numbing fear, to complete calmness. It was bizarre. I'm not one of those environmentalists or anything like that, but I had never felt so intune with the world before. All the sudden, I noticed things, saw things differently, more clearly.
I successfully made it upstairs, and it was for sure that someone was here that shouldn't be here. They had deep, murmuring voices, that rumbled like some kind of thunder, clashing against each other when they argued. Which they did: a lot. As I came closer to the door of the bedroom, all I had to do was slip inside. At this point I was really jumpy,
but
when I saw three men in my parents bathroom, all I could do was freeze.
I don't know how long I stood there- to me, it seemed like a really long time, but it was probably only seconds. A part of me wanted to run, sprint out the door, a part of me wanted to hit them all on the head, another wanted me to hide under the bed.
All these choices, different things my brain was telling me to do. And what did I do? I stood there. My thoughts going a mile a minute, but at the same time, it was hard for me to register or believe it.
I mean, what the hell are these people doing in my parents bathroom?
That's when I decided it would probably be best to run. But I stood there too long, apparently, and when I turned to run, one of the men bolted after me, tackling me to the ground.
The breath was completely knocked out of me. I mean, this guy was huge and so heavy. But my entire mind blanked. I couldn't even process what I was thinking, I was just squirming and rolling, trying to breathe, kicking and fighting until somehow I burst free, kicking him square in the face and I got up and ran forward only to smack right into another's chest. I fell back, and my head hit the ground, hard.
The pain was everywhere, jolting though my forehead, and pounding at my temples. I tried to get up, but felt like someone was sitting on my chest, as I struggled to regain normal breathing. I tried rolling over to one side, before flopping on my back. I felt delusional, trying to focus on my surroundings began to be a struggle. Staring up at the man above me, all I could notice was he had pretty hair, blonde, and fluffy. The other guy seemed rude; the one that tackled me. I squinted at his small height, even with his obvious juiced up muscles, I couldn't help but wonder how he even took me down. He was shorter than I was.
My eyes surveyed the room, searching for the other person, wondering what he was doing, why they were here. I tried moving again, but the ache in my head only intensified. My eyes started slipping, closing, but I forced them to stay open. I looked up, and saw…not
a
man, like I assumed, but a redheaded woman.
"Mick?" the fluffy blonde one asked
"Hmmm?" The women replied turning from looking at me to looking at him.
I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, I felt my whole body slipping… slipping away.
"What should we do with her?" His voice sounded like any mans, deep, throaty.
"She's bleeding." A higher voice said. I would laugh if I could. It had to be the short mans. "We could take her and dump her body somewhere."
The blond fluffy man hit him, "She's not dead you idiot."
"She's just out of it." The woman's voice was strong, and clear. Very commanding.
"We could get rid of her if you needed us too." The higher voice suggested.
There was silence. I saw the woman turn slowly, rather menacingly "And why," she gritted, "Would we want a murder? So the police will look more closely than they are already?"
"Take her and throw her in the ally." Her voice regained its calm, commanding manner. I could hear someone stepping over me, "Make it look like she was jumped on her way home."
Have you ever gone into a deep sleep, but woken up randomly, in a haze? That's what I felt like. I felt heavy, and slipped in and out of consciousness. I could hear the car rumble, and hear random things like the blinker before a turn, and switching gears from park to drive, or drive to park, but my sleepiness had began to wear off, and my mind wasn't as hazy. I could hear their voices, and I began to open my eyes, now fully awake, only to get punched in the nose and shoved back. I hit the ground, landing on my back. The force hurt so much, I couldn't help but start crying, and rolling over, tasting blood, fully flowing into my mouth. It felt like shock waves through my nose and into my brain, my eyes watering, the pain like a sting.
Spitting out blood, I tried to get up before looking up just in time to see the short, muscular man kick me in my stomach. My breath left for a moment, causing a surge of panic I've never experienced before. It felt like dying.
I screamed when one of them grabbed me by the hair and wrenched it back, making my scalp feel like it was on fire, I got slapped across the face, forcing me to fall on the ground. I shook my head, trying to clear it, and went to stand up, to make a run for it, but I was grabbed by the arm and yanked back, only to be hit across my temple. My eyes could only see white, before being surrounded by black.
I caught my breath, and heard a smack of
a
door being kicked opened, and a voice yell, "Hey! Get away from there!"
The men looked up and one came up behind me, dragging me by my arms, his hands yanking at my sockets. He pulled me fast, and I felt the gravel scratch against my legs, before being rolled behind some tree.
"Do you think that's good?" One of them ask.
"Yeah. We better get out of here anyway."
I just laid there. My head hurt. I couldn't think right, I couldn't think straight. I ached all over; I saw them quickly move around me, stepping over me like I was some type of insignificant trash. Weak. That's what I was; I couldn't even stop them, what if they wanted something more? I wouldn't have been able to do anything. I started crying, tears stinging the cuts at the side of my face. I looked up at the sky.
How long would I stay here? I couldn't move, not now.
After a couple minutes of contemplation, I realized I wasn't going to lie in some ally, waiting for them to come back, or have some other creep find me. I ended up thinking about it so much, I was terrified all over again, I even forgot about the pain, at least a little bit. I dragged up, and used my arms, which were unsteady and unstable, standing up, I walked towards the end of the ally, towards a street. Ironically, I realized I knew where I was. Pretty close to my house, just about 15 minutes away. Close to my school too.
The alleyways where behind buildings, some restaurants, where they threw their trash out, other random businesses, like a nail salon, pet groomers, any type of store. I saw the back of
a
laundry mat my family uses. A guy was looking around and turned to go back inside, the slam of the door very familiar to the one I heard earlier.
I opened my mouth to speak, my lips pulling apart, dried together from blood. I croaked out some pathetic noise. I coughed; the shaking hurt my whole body. I tried again, a moaning noise escaping my lips.
No one could hear me, no one would see me, I would have to walk all the way home, it would get dark soon… and then someone else would have to find me.
I felt an arm on my shoulder, and I screamed as loud as I could, trying to run but arms clasped around my waist.
"Shhhhh." I heard from behind me "Its okay, I didn't mean to scare you,"
I kept screaming, then started crying, the arms released me, and I saw the guy from the laundry mat. His eyes were scared. Not like the other ones. The ones that could kick and hit me, his were brown, with laugh lines at the side.
"I called the police." He said, afraid to touch me, afraid to even look at me. "Are-are you okay?" he asked hesitantly.
I opened my mouth only to let a pathetic noise come forth. I couldn't hold it in anymore; I just started crying, and held on to this guy's shirt. No one would hurt me if I weren't alone right? He wouldn't leave me here. I could tell by his face.
This poor guy. I think I might have scared him. But I wasn't letting go. I stayed with him while he led me to the back room of the laundry mat.
He sat me down, in an office, on a nice chair that swiveled. "I'm just going to get some water okay?" He looked at me but I shook my head.
"Please don't leave me, don't leave me here. Don't leave me here alone." I pulled my knees close to me, hiding my face. So embarrassed. I must look a mess. My lip quivering, not even control what I was saying, couldn't even stop crying.
"Okay." He just sat down next to me. I could feel him watching me. But I wouldn't
look
up.
My tears started to dry, and I could feel my body relaxing a bit, and I worked up the courage to look over at him. He raised his eyebrows asking a question all themselves.
"Thank you."
"Of course."
"You called the police?"
"They should be here any second." He patted my leg, and it involuntarily twitched. He pulled back his arm, afraid I might start freaking out or something I'm sure.
I smiled at his reaction "I'm fine." I wasn't.
"What did they do to you?" he asked softly, his brown eyes searching my face.
I opened my mouth to say something but closed it soon after, just shaking my head in response. I couldn't answer. I didn't even know.
The knock at the door saved me from silence. Two officers came in.
I had never been in a situation like this. I had never even needed to call 911 before. The officers were calm and composed; one got me water while the other questioned the guy that worked at the Laundry Mat.
"Hello." The man said that got me water. "My name is Officer Parker, we've called an ambulance, and they are on their way to pick you up, okay?"
I nodded, my body aching all over.
"Can you tell me what happened?" He put
a
hand on top of my own, looking up with kind eyes. Officer Parker was young. Probably not even 30. He was dark skinned with pretty eyes, eyes that were warm and inviting, just a like
a
cop who wants information should be.
But this was not some assault. Not some mugging or gang incident. I had walked in on something big, I could feel it. "Do I have to talk now?" I asked, my voice coming out a little weaker than I wanted it too. I'd have to work on that.