Lost Girl 3 (3 page)

Slowly I open my eyes as the early morning sun starts shining its rays through the small opening of the door and I turn to my side to face an empty pillow.

“Rick?” I whisper, but there’s no reply. I sit up and look around the beach hut. Anna is still sound asleep, but Rick is nowhere in sight. I stretch out and push myself up from the bed. I quickly get dressed and walk over to the doors.

“Rick?” I whisper again as I push the doors slightly further open.

He looks up at me from the step in front of the beach hut. “Yes?”

“What are you doing out here?” I ask him.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he shrugs.

“Haven’t’ you slept at all?” I ask, sitting down next to him.

“I’ve slept for a little while,” he replies with a yawn. “But I’m too nervous about finding my dad.”

“Aww,” I reply and place my hand on his arm. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” he shrugs again. “What if he doesn’t want to see me?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” I retort. “It’s not your fault your dad left.”

“I know,” he sighs. “But he probably has a whole new life now. He won’t want me there.”

“Don’t be silly,” I try to comfort him. “You’re his son. I’m sure he’d want you.”

“Maybe.” He sighs and stares out at the rising orange sun, “we’ll see.”

“Yes. You’ll see,” I smile at him. “Shall I wake Anna up so we can get breakfast before we make a start?”

“Nah,” he replies in a lacklustre voice. “We should probably pack our stuff up, you know, just in case,” he shrugs, “let Anna sleep for a little while longer until we’re ready.”

“Okay,” I reply, and get up to go back inside. First I let the air out of the blow-up bed, then I start packing our blankets and clothes back into the bags. When I’m almost done, Anna starts stirring, and sits up to look at what I’m doing.

“Are we leaving already?” she asks while rubbing her eyes.

“We are,” I reply. “I don’t know if we’re coming back, so I’m just packing everything up for now.”

“Aww,” she pouts, pulling a sad face. “I liked it here.”

“So did I,” I reply, and sit down on the bed next to her. “I’m sure we’ll come back here at some point. Would you like that?”

“Mhm,” she nods. “Very much.”

“Why don’t you go and see Rick?” I suggest. “He’s outside.”

“Okay,” she replies cheerily and hops off the bed to join her brother outside.

I pack the blankets off of the bed as soon as she’s left the beach hut and put the bed back into table and bench formation.

“I’m done,” I call out to Rick and Anna when everything’s packed up. “Do you two want to wear anything else before we put all of the bags into the car?”

It takes a moment for them to reply, but then Rick says, “No, we’re good.”

“Are you ready for this?” I ask Rick after we’ve locked the beach hut back up and take the last bags to my car.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he replies with a deep sigh as pulls the passenger seat forward to let Anna slip into the back. I hand him the last bag with the left over drinks and biscuits to place at his foot well and open the driver side door to get in myself.

Within ten minutes we’re at the library, and I find an empty space right in front of the entrance to park. We all get out and, walk up the steps and enter the big concrete building.

“Wow,” Anna breathes in amazement as she looks at the rows and rows of thousands of books on the shelves. “I’ve never seen so many books in my life! Can I read some?”

“We can have a look at a few,” I nod at her. “You’ll be okay at the computers by yourself right?” I ask Rick.

“Mhm,” he nods.

“We’ll be at the children’s books,” I say to him, as he slowly starts dragging his feet towards the computers. Placing my hand on Anna’s shoulders, I start guiding her to the back of the library where the children’s section is. The whole corner is kitted out with beanbags, toys and rows of colourful looking books. Anna lingers at the shelves for a little while before picking out a book about a princess and flops herself down on a beanbag with a giggle. I walk up to the beanbag closet to her and push it with my foot to be right next to the one she’s sitting on so we can read together.

***

When we’re halfway through the story, an elated looking Rick comes jogging towards us.

“I think I’ve found him!” he exclaims with a wide smile and sits down next to Anna on the floor.

“That’s great,” I smile back at him. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. It’s the only Edward Sullivan they have on record who’s the right age.”

“Does he live nearby?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “He still lives in Stockport. It’s where I was born,” he says with a sad smile, “but that means it has to be him right? What are the chances of two Edward Sullivan’s living there?”

“Very small, I guess,” I reply, still smiling at him. He looks so excited, his smile’s infectious. Even Anna’s looking at him excitedly, and she doesn’t even know what just happened or what we’re about to do.

“Can I read my story to you?” she asks Rick when we’ve finished talking.

“Go on then,” he smiles at her encouragingly. “But after that we have to go.”

“Where are we going?” she asks, looking at him curiously.

“We’re going to see my dad,” he smiles at her.

After a nearly two hour drive, I hesitantly park in front of an idyllic looking suburban home.

“Is this the one?” I ask, turning to Rick.

He looks at the picture he’s holding in his shaking hands, and looks up at the house. “Yes,” he swallows hard. “This is the one.”

He’d printed out a map and pictures of the house from Google maps while he was using the library computer, and has been staring at them intermittently the whole journey up here. Now he’s staring into the front garden of the house that might chance his life.

“I’m not sure if I can do this,” he suddenly sighs, slumping into the passenger seat.

“What?” I look at him in shock, “but you were so excited earlier. What changed?”

He sighs again, “look at the garden.” And I do.

“Do you see the football?”

I look around until I spot it. “Yes, and?”

“And, that means he probably has a new son. A new family. He won’t need me here.”

“He’ll need you as much as you need him,” I try. “Just because he has a new family, doesn’t mean he has ever forgotten about you.”

“I suppose,” he takes another deep breath and sits up straight. “Okay, I can do this.”

“I know you can,” I smile at him, “you’ll be fine. Just ring the doorbell, and see what happens. If worst comes to worst, at least you would’ve seen your dad one more time.”

“What if he isn’t there? What if his new wife opens the door and doesn’t know my dad has another kid?”

“You’ll be fine,” I repeat myself and place my hand on his arm for comfort. “Take it one step at a time. Ring the doorbell and see what happens. We got this far, you might as well try it.”

“Yes. Yes you’re right.” He takes another deep breath, unlatches his seatbelt and steps out of the car. He hesitates for a moment before closing the door and then takes a few cautious steps towards the white fence. He looks over his shoulder at me while his hand rests on the gate and I nod back at him encouragingly. “You’ll be fine,” I mouth to him and he turns back to face the house. Slowly he opens the little gate, I see his shoulders move up and down as he takes another deep breath and with a few big strides he walks towards the house, where his finger lingers over the doorbell for a moment before I see him press it.

Within a few seconds the door slowly opens and a woman in her late thirties stands in the door opening. I take a deep breath myself as I watch her face turn from curious to surprise and a big smile spreads over her face. Suddenly she stretches out her arms and takes his hands in hers to pull him inside the house. I guess she knew about him, and I’m guessing they’ve been waiting for this day to come. I smile with relief.

“Who was that, Summer?” Anna asks from the backseat.

I unlatch my seatbelt and turn around to face the backseat to reply to Anna, when I realise she’s starting to shake visibly.

“What’s wrong?” I ask her. She doesn’t answer me, but just points ahead of herself, out of the front window. I turn to follow her direction and suck in a deep breath when I notice the black BMW pulling into the space in front of my car. Within seconds two men jump out of the car and run around to mine. The back door flies open and one of the men leans over Anna to unclick her seatbelt. I stretch out, trying to stop him, but before I can reach them, my door swings open and a strong arm pulls me back. I try to fight him off, struggle against his grip as much as I can but he’s too strong. He starts pulling me out of my car and I take a deep breath to scream, but his hand clasps over my mouth before I get a chance. I try to bite him, but only manage to catch a small bit of his skin. If it’s hurting he isn’t reacting to it, he isn’t showing any pain or loosening his grip. In a desperate last attempt to grab someone’s attention, anyone’s attention, I reach for the steering wheel instead, slamming my fists in the centre to make the horn sound and make as much noise as I can.

The two men forcefully push us into the backseat of the BMW and slam the doors. I try the handle but it’s no use, the door won’t open. I scream at the top of my lungs for Rick while the men both jump back into the front of the car. The skinny one on the passenger side turns to me. “Make one more noise and you’re dead.” I instantly stop screaming, but the silence doesn’t last. Seconds later I hear Rick’s screams as he comes running out of the front door of his father’s house.

As the car pulls away at a high speed, my body is slammed into the backseat with force. I twist my neck to look through the rear window, and see Rick desperately running after us. But it’s no use, he can’t keep up, and as the car takes a right turn, Rick disappears out of sight and the cries for us become ever more distant, until the sound of his voice completely disappears. I turn to face Anna, who is sitting next to me, white as a sheet. Shock and fear are clearly written on her face, and thick tears are streaming down her cheeks. Her mouth is wide open, but other than the occasional hiccup, she makes no sound. I grab her hand and tightly hold on to her, squeezing it a little to ensure her everything will be okay.

With a trembling deep sigh I look up at the two men in the front of the car, “what do you want from us?” I ask in a barely audible voice.

“That’s none of your business, Missy.” The skinny man snaps at me.

I turn back to Anna and she quietly shuffles over to me. I hold her tightly in my arms while brushing a hand over her head. “It’ll be okay,” I whisper to her. I look back out of the rear window and watch the empty road behind us. “Why didn’t Rick follow us?” I mumble, more to myself than anyone else. Suddenly the heavy-set man rumbles with laughter.

“Do you think we’re stupid?” he asks.

I look up at him in shock. “No,” is all I can think to say.

“The reason your precious boyfriend isn’t coming after you, is because he can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

He takes one hand off of the steering wheel and digs around in his pocket, then he pulls out a set of keys and dangles them in front of him. I gasp when I realise they’re mine.

“Did you really think we’d leave your keys in your car so he could go and come after us?”

I want to say something, but it takes a moment for the words to come out. “Where did you get them?” I finally ask.

“I took them when I took you,” he rumbles with laughter again.

I swallow hard and hold Anna even tighter, when suddenly I feel the vibrating buzz from my phone against my legs, seconds before the ringtone starts playing and I curse myself for not having it on silent like I usually do. I hold my breath and look at the men in front of me while I try and push my arm over my pocket to silence my phone, but it’s no use, they’ve clearly heard it.

“Don’t even think about answering that!” the skinny guy shouts in a menacing voice without even looking at me. And I don’t, the heart beating in my throat as loud as my vibrating phone refuses to let me move, terrified of what they might do to us if I do.

“This will do,” the heavy man says as he pulls into an abandoned alley way.

“This will do for what?” I ask with a quiver as the car pulls to a stop.

“How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet?” the skinny guy yells at me while he gets out of the car. The heavy man gets out too and walks around the car to join the skinny one at the side of my door. He pulls a gun out of his belt and points it at my face from the other side of the glass. “Get out!” he demands while the skinny guy opens the door for me.

I don’t dare to say anything, to ask any questions, and do as I’m told. Shaking on my legs, I stand next to the car.

“Turn around,” Skinny demands, and I do as I’m told again. I turn to face Anna, who’s still white as a sheet, still has her mouth open and tears streaming down her face, but she isn’t making a noise. She just quietly watches in shock as my hands are bound behind my back and the world goes dark when they wrap some sort of cloth around my eyes. I let out a little scream when I suddenly feel two hands in my back pushing me forward, and I feel sick with the feeling of weightlessness and fear of not being able to stretch my hands out in front of me until my face touches down on the soft back seat of the car. I take a deep unsettled breath and quickly pull my legs up to my body before they slam the car door.

I can hear them move around the car, walking over to Anna’s side, and when they shout at her to get out, I assume they’re doing the same to her, but nevertheless I hold my breath while I intently listen to what they’re doing, making sure she isn’t harmed by them, and gets back into the car.

“Are you okay?” I whisper to her when I hear both men get back into their seats.

“I think so,” she replies in a shaky voice.

“Did they hurt you?”

“No,” she whispers back.

The darkness is actually giving me time to think, time to follow all the left and right turns we’re taking, instead of just looking at the two men in front of us in a panic, when I suddenly realise something about those two men. They look just like the two men I had dreamt about, and I’m starting to wonder if and where I would’ve seen them before, when the car comes to a sudden stop and I hear both of their car doors slam. Then I hear both of the backdoors open simultaneously and a hand grabs me by the shoulder the same moment Anna lets out a scream. “What are you doing to her?” I yell, when the hand roughly starts pulling me out of the car.

“The same as we’re doing to you,” Skinny growls. He closes the car door and the hand in my back starts pushing me forward. I hear a key in a lock and a door opening, then I’m being pushed again. I almost trip over a doorstep and enter a musty smelling room, but we’re not staying here, the hand is still pushing me forward, and I hear another key being turned in a lock. This time I carefully shuffle my feet over the floor until I can feel the threshold, and take a wide step over it.

Placing my foot on the floor in front of me, I feel my breath catch in my throat, my belly flip with sickness and let out a load gasp when my there’s no floor and my foot keeps going down. Losing my balance, I feel myself fall forward until my foot finally grounds itself with a loud crash and a snap. I let out a scream and tumble down. I hear the skinny man behind me chuckle loudly as I scream while I roll all the way down a set of stairs, until I come to rest on a concrete floor, feeling an agonising burning sensation rushing through my ankle up my leg.

“Summer?” Anna cries from somewhere above me, “Summer where did you go? Are you okay?”

“Be careful,” I manage to say in between gasps and sharp breaths, “there are stairs. Walk down slowly.”

“Okay,” she replies in a barely audible, panicked voice, she must’ve heard the pain I’m in, because before now, she hadn’t sounded concerned or this scared.

I feel something softly nudging my leg. “Is that you?” Anna asks in a whisper.

“Yes, that’s me,” I reply in a whinge.