Charades

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝙵𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

Ahiras POV

The fresh morning air greets me from the open window as I open my eyes. Although I've been through hell these past few days, today I slept like a baby.

I sit up in the guest bedroom and stretch my arms while arching my back. Lydia's faint fruity smell surrounds the room, and the walls are bejewelled with modern artwork, which nicely complimented the nude-coloured wall decorations. Birds twitter from outside the window. Slowly, I rise from the layers of clouds and take a look at myself in the mirror in the bathroom.

My navy blue silk pyjama set is wrinkled in every way possible. Half of my bonnet is falling off, and one of my fluffy socks is completely missing from my left foot.

Yet there's this glow to my face that I haven't seen for a while.

What is it?

I squint closer into the mirror and carefully scrutinize the image.

I don't feel anxious.

I almost feel a bit calm.

That's nothing to the normal person but for me? 

This is everything because I might not know when I'll have another time like this again.

I bask in the zen atmosphere coming from the off-white LEDs casting a soft tranquil glow. The light eucalyptus scent smelt like it had a hint of cleaning products, and the marble under my left foot felt as cold as winter.

I take a disposable toothbrush from the lower cabinet and brush my teeth before grabbing my phone to order an Uber. I'll shower once I'm home, I need to get there before Father does.

While I wait for one to arrive, I gather all my things and head downstairs.

Seeing that the loudest noise coming from this home was my footsteps, I doubt anyone is awake. Frankly, I don't think anyone in our group has the energy to wake up at six after pulling an all-nighter.

I connect my earbuds to my phone and wait for the car a few meters from Lydia's house.

On time, a car smoothly halts in front of me. The man's eyes widen in surprise as he sees me. I give him a small smile and head into the passenger's seat with the rest of my things.

Thankfully, the good old trick of having earbuds in with no music does the job. Though I would kill to have some music on, Father taught me the valuable lesson of always being alert when travelling with people from the public.

I vividly remember when I was eight, he got one of his friends (whom I didn't know) to coax me into his car. I was reluctant to do something so reckless so instead, with a kind smile he told me that he was my Dad's friend. Naïve little me hopped into the black car and expected him to drive me home but instead, he drove me to his house.

At that point, I was terrified. Tears streamed down my face while I tried to open the car doors that he sneakily locked. Once we arrived a tall masked man approached the vehicle, opened my door and hoisted me on his shoulder. I was begging for the unknown man not to hurt me, I even tried calling Father's name thinking he would magically come.

But, once he placed me in the living room, the tall scary man took off his balaclava and instead I saw someone familiar. Very familiar.

Father.

Though thinking of it now, organising a whole kidnapping for your eight-year-old daughter is slightly twisted. But, it would've never happened if I didn't get into the car. It was a tough thing to go through yet, I had no reason to be upset. He would always warn me never to do such a thing but I still went against his word.