Back To The Stars: ROMANCE: ALIEN (Alien Invasion Abduction SciFi Romance) (Fantasy Anthologies & Collections) (42 page)

Chapter 11:

I didn’t know what I did was right or wrong. I guess it was just too early to judge. The entire town was in shock and as James left, I started to assume that all my troubles would be gone soon after his departure. I was wrong. I came home to Elaine and Rosie and they both were terrified.

The day came to an end and I had no idea how to go back and face my own family. How was I supposed to let them know that I let James go? Janet was inconsolable. She never thought that her wedding would end like that. Her sister died right in front of her eyes and she couldn’t do a thing to save her. She wanted to go back in time and undo it but nothing about it made any sense. She just kept crying her eyes out and didn’t really know how to celebrate her wedding when she lost her sister the same day. She knew that from now onwards, every time she would think of her wedding, she won’t complete the thought without thinking of her sister and how she died.

The incident ruined her wedding and she had no idea what to do. Everyone knew that Nancy was murdered. Almost the entire town was there in the reception hall and witnessed the murder. Surprisingly, not even a single one of them had any clue. I realized that the murderer must have been an expert who was able to come clean even after killing someone in front of hundreds of people.

The entire town was in shock. The residents were not even coming out of their houses, knowing that a killer would be out there. As I walked to our place from the house, I could see that all the streets were empty. There was no one around – any kids or even adults in the streets. They were all hiding inside their houses. Janet’s family was coming up with Nancy’s funeral. I was not even able to comprehend what she must be going through.

It was her wedding which would soon be followed by her sister’s funeral. I wanted to be with her and support her, but before that, I wanted to make sure that my family is fine or not. The locals were terrified but at the same time, they were forcing the police to take some actions. The sheriff and his team were looking all over the town for some clues, but I knew that they won’t be able to reach any conclusion.

The mafia would always be a few steps ahead of the police and I knew that no force would be able to catch Nancy’s murderer. As I stepped inside our house, Rosie welcomed me by wrapping her arms around my leg.

“I have missed you so much dad!” she said and I realized the reason why I choose my family over everything else. There are moments like these which makes it all worth it. I was with Rosie and Elaine and I knew that all I needed to be happy was their company. I took her in my arms and passed a kiss on her forehead.

“Daddy missed you too honey! Why don’t you go to bed and sleep? It is getting late,” I suggested as I wanted to talk to Elaine about James.

“I just wanted to see you first, daddy. I was getting worried about you after what happened today,” the way she said, I realized that she knew what happened. Even though we tried to hide it from her, but she got to realize what went wrong. I didn’t know what to say to her or how to explain her, the dynamics involved in the entire situation. I knew that one day when she would be wise enough, I would explain her everything about Nancy’s death, but that day was not today. It was too early to tell her anything about the mafia or drugs. I didn’t want to let her know about the harsh reality of life or how people murder each other because of money or revenge. It was a big bad world out there and I wanted to keep my daughter safe from it.

When Elaine and I moved to Texas, we exactly knew the kind of upbringing we wanted to give to your daughter. We didn’t want her to have the kind of childhood that we had. We didn’t want her to come near drugs or have anything related to the mafia. We wanted her to have the best of education and let her follow her dreams.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a pilot. Elaine, on the other hand, wanted to be an artist. Our hopes and dreams should not have taken away from us – but they were. We were robbed with every other option. The only thing that was left in our lives was drugs. We were trapped by the mafia and lost our sanity in order to save us. Little did we know that in the process of saving us, we would end up losing everything in our lives! We have lost so much already and I didn’t want to lose Rosie as well.

She was only one good thing that was mine. Both, Elaine and I made her and we couldn’t let her go. We couldn’t let her believe that her parents were involved in the mafia or that we were obsessed with drugs. We wanted her to respect us and we knew that it could never happen if we will tell her the truth.

“I am here, honey. I am not going anywhere. Let’s get you to bed, okay?” I said as I made her walk towards her room. Elaine followed my room, as she realized it would be tough to handle Rosie that night. She could have a lot of questions about Nancy and her death and we knew that we needed each other to tackle them.

“Did you have dinner?” I asked her as I tucked her in.

“Yes, daddy. It was good. Did you have dinner?” she asked me.

“I will have it in a while with your mom, Rosie. You know how much we love you, right?” I asked her.

“Yes. You love me a lot. But what happened to aunt Nancy today? Did she die?” I didn’t really know how to answer her question. What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t tell her the truth. I couldn’t lie to her as well.

“Yes. She did,” Elaine said while she held my hand tightly.

“Why? Why did she die?” Rosie asked the two of us.

“Sometimes people just die, honey. There is no reason behind it. Sometimes, things just happen without any reason and we can’t do anything to change it,” I answered her in order to give her some consolation.

“So she is not going to come back? Ever?”

“No, honey. She will never be back!” I replied.

“But I didn’t even get to say goodbye. This is not fair!”

“Sometimes, you don’t get to say goodbye to the people you love. Life is not fair, I know. We can’t do anything to change it,” I knew I was getting emotional and looked at Elaine for some assistance.

“It’s time to sleep. We love you!” Elaine said as she closed Rosie’s eyes and kissed her forehead. We both decided to leave the room in order to discuss a few things about Nancy’s murder.

“What happened, Andrew? Who killed Nancy?” Elaine asked me as she closed our bedroom door.

“It’s a really long story!” I said, hoping to dodge the question. It was a really long day and I was extremely tired. I simply wanted to go to bed and sleep.

“I have all the time!” she said, letting me know that she wanted to know everything about my discussion with James.

As we both got in bed, I decided to let her know everything about James and Nancy. I told her about his connection with the mafia and how I think Nancy was killed. I briefed her details of our conversation and told her why I let him go.

“You did the right thing, Andrew. I would have done the same. I am really proud of you!” she said as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my goodnight. She knew how tired I was and didn’t want to keep me awake.

We both lay peacefully, hoping for the next day to come soon. He had too much that day and just wanted it to come to an end. We knew that the next morning would come with a new ray of hope. It was that one thing which we desperately needed – hope.

Chapter 12:

The moment I opened my eyes the next morning, I knew that something was wrong. I would feel it all around me. It was life as if a significant part of me was lost and I was not able to breathe without it. I turned around only to see Elaine sleeping peacefully. She was about to wake up and I didn’t mean to disturb her.

I left the bed and got dressed before going to Rosie’s room in order to check her. As I was changing, Elaine got up and realized that something was up with me.

“What’s wrong? Why are you up so early?” Elaine asked me as she opened her eyes and was trying to leave her bed.

“I don’t know. I just have a feeling. Let me go and see Rosie first!” I said as I rushed to her room. There was just something wrong that day, something was too different that I was not able to comprehend. It was like as if I was having a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen. Maybe, it was just my intuition or maybe, my mind was playing games with me. I decided not to think about it and first checked on Rosie before talking to Elaine and explaining it to her.

I found her room to be locked, which was really unlikely of her. We always keep her door ajar so that she would sleep peacefully, knowing that we would be there just a few steps away. The moment I saw I her door locked, I realized that something was surely wrong. I opened the door only to find out that Rosie was not there.

“Rosie! Honey, where are you?”

I screamed out loud, hoping for her to reply, but I couldn’t hear her voice anymore. Her bed was still untidy and it seemed like as if she had left it only a few hours ago. It was still undone and everything else in her room was neatly placed as well. There were no signs of any struggle. The window, as well as we door, was also safe without any sign of damage. Not even a single glass was broken, which left me baffled.

“Rosie!” I called for her at the top of my voice as I moved to the bathroom, hoping for her to find her. Elaine realized that something was wrong. She rushed to the kitchen and started calling for Rosie. In the next few moments, we inspected the entire house, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Oh my God! Andrew! She is not here. She is gone!” Elaine said as she started to cry. I was worried for her as well. She was just a little girl and had no idea about how bad the world can be. I wanted to do something and get her back. I decided to check our backyard and asked Elaine to check the neighborhood.

I looked at almost every accessible place for her but could not find her anywhere at all. Elaine asked the neighbors about her, but nobody had even the slightest of the idea about her disappearance. I called John and asked him to tell the sheriff about the incident. Elaine went to Janet’s house in order to make sure is Rosie somehow walked to her place or not. She was quite baffled by the idea of Nancy’s death and both Elaine and I knew that she wanted someone to answer her questions about Nancy’s death.

When Janet and Rob got to know about Rosie, they were as shocked as everyone. The news gradually spread everywhere in the town and people couldn’t stop looking around for Rosie. She was the apple of our eyes and I knew I won’t find peace without getting her back in my life. All the residents were terrified. They all faced too much in just one single day.

The wedding was soon followed by a murder and the disappearance of a little girl. It all happened on the same day and I knew it had to do something with James. Either he was the one who kidnapped Rosie or the people from the mafia who were after he got to know about me. I could think of some thousands of people who were not fond of me and wanted their revenge. Rosie could be taken by anyone of them.

The sheriff and the local authority members arrived at our place in order to inspect what really happened. They could not find even a single piece of evidence of someone breaking in or doing any damage to the property. It was like as if nobody came to the house and still took our daughter away. It was a mystery and I knew that the local police was not competent enough to figure it out.

The entire day went like that. Our friends came and went, hoping to give us some consolation. Some came with things to eat while others came with their concerns regarding the safety of the town. Both, Elaine and I, kept sitting on our couch simply watching people. The police also came and went, but didn’t give us anything to hold on to. The day was gradually coming to an end, and it was just the two of us in the house.

The silence was haunting us as we were not able to hear her voice. It was unexpected and we wanted to do something in order to break free. Rosie was the most important part of our lives for the last four years. It was like as if our entire life rotated around her, and we didn’t know how to exist without having our beloved daughter by our side.

It was hard to even exist and breathe in the same room anymore. I looked at Elaine and realized how hard it must have been for her. Her eyes were sore and red, and it seemed like as if she had spent the whole day crying her eyes out. She was Rosie’s mother. I didn’t know what to say to her. A mother’s love can’t be compared to anything else in this world. Out of everyone in this world, she was the one who was the most concerned about her. I knew that she could do anything in this world in a heartbeat to get Rosie back. I would do the same, but that’s the tough part. We didn’t even know how to start.

“I am really sorry. I think I am the one who caused this,” I finally said and broke the uncomfortable silence.

“What? What would you think that?”

“We were having such a great life before James came to this town. We were a family and we had our friends around us. Nobody was dying. Nobody was getting abducted like this. Janet and her family were happy. We were happy. It all changed the day James came. I should have done something in order to prevent all this damage, Elaine.

I was the only person in this whole town who knew that James was not a nice guy. I should have asked him to leave. I should have reported him to the sheriff. I should have told Janet and Nancy about his past. I should have kept an eye on him in order to track his activity. I didn’t do anything like that.

I just trusted him instead and thought that he would simply leave without doing any damage. But look where our trust has brought us now. We are left with nothing. We have lost our daughter and if anything would happen to her, then I won’t be able to forgive myself!” I said as I looked at her and confessed everything. I was not having a good time in consolidating myself.

Everyone was telling me that things were going to be alright. According to them, Rosie would be back soon, but they had no idea about the mafia. Almost half of the people there had never even placed a foot outside their town. They had no idea how bad things could get, but I did. I knew that Rosie could be in deep trouble and I considered myself accountable for what happened to her.

“Look at me, Andrew! None of this is your fault. We don’t know that this is done by James. Someone else could have done it!”

“I know it is James. I know him, Elaine. I know he did this, but I am just not sure why. I need to figure out his reasons. I was trying to call him since morning but his phone is going directly to voice mail. I know this is him. I can feel it!” I said in order to make her realize that it was really James who did it.

“Even if James is after all of this, then it’s not your fault, okay? I told you to trust him as well. We had no idea that he would be capable of doing something like this, Andrew. You considered him as a friend and if he really did this, then he is going to pay for you. We are not going to sit here and wait for our daughter to come home, right? We are going to do something about it.

Together, we have overcome the worst of scenarios, Andrew. We will sort this out well. I know you will do something to rescue Rosie. You will save Rosie. I trust you. You just need to start believing in yourself. You can’t think that this happened because of you. No, you didn’t do this, Andrew. James did. You can’t blame yourself for this. We both need to do something, right now! We have to come up with a plan of action. I have full respect for the sheriff, but you and I, we both know that he is no good. If we really need to find Rosie, then we need to do it ourselves,” Elaine said in order to motivate me.

She was right. We could no longer simply stay there and expect everything to change. We couldn’t expect Rosie to come back home on her own. We were her parents and we were supposed to do something. I knew that there was only one person who could help us find Rosie, and that was Daniel.

I called him the next moment and asked him to come to Wimberley the next day. I had a couple of friends in the mafia and the police, but no one was as good as Daniel. He was a private investigator and detective, who used to solve some of the biggest mysteries in a day. Now only he was highly efficient in finding people, but he used to do that really fast. I had a word with Daniel the last time almost five years back.

The moment he heard my voice, he instantly recognized me. He was quite shocked to know what happened and agreed to come and pay us a visit. It was the first time when I contacted someone from my past life. I didn’t know if it was the right thing to do or not, or if it will blow our cover, but I wasn’t really concerned about any of those things. I knew that I had to get Rosie back at any cost and I was ready to give everything I had in order to get her back.

Daniel promised me that he would be here as soon as he could. I made Elaine believe that we would find Rosie soon and that we would be happy once again. I knew that Rosie would be saved and that we will find her once again. It was just getting to that day which was the toughest part.