An Ordinary Life

Chapter 17: Take Us Home

     Desperate voices tumbled into existence, the distressed, anxious tones of both a man and a woman drifting down the eerie, dimly-lit hall. From somewhere up ahead, the speech of the two individuals easily glided towards Mercy's ears like a mighty eagle soaring within the great blue sea in the sky. "Where have you put them? Tell me, please! I need to know where my daughter is." Mom and Dad are here? They must have been looking for Molly and I. "The girls are fine. At the moment, you should be more concerned about your own lives!" A man barked, his masculine voice barbed with a seething, fiery hate that was only flamed further by the intensity of his scalding rage. Tingling chills descended Mercy's spine in swift jolts, her pounding heart paralyzed with a ruthless injection of numbing fear. The man's voice boomed so explosively that even Mercy could hear him, his formidable vocals crashing down the eerie corridors like roaring thunder. Why was he so enraged? What had sparked this stranger's abnormal, despicable behavior? What could have possibly driven him to resort to kidnapping in order to get what he desired? Mercy's brain wildly spun with questions, leaving her dizzy with uncertainty. Her troubled, fretful mind was not fit for the mere task of responding to such inquiries logically; especially since she lacked the required knowledge in order to do so.

"Mercy, are you okay? You zoned out for a bit." A small tap upon Mercy's shoulder roused the absentminded, rigid girl back to the present as if she had been launched from a slingshot against her will. A wee, faint gasp of surprise slipped from betwixt the horizontal slit of her closed lips. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that, Molly. I didn't mean to worry you." Mercy mumbled, her lean, clammy fingers intertwined with Molly's own pale, stiff digits. The longer the two young juveniles spent trekking down the dull, barren hallway, the heavier the atmosphere seemed to grow like toxic smog above a bustling city. There was just something about the place that oozed with a foreboding aura, and Mercy couldn't deny that it spooked her down to her jovial, carefree spirit. Almost like an animal in foreign, unexplored territory, Mercy couldn't help but feel helpless, lost, and even disoriented in this strange, seemingly abandoned abode. Mercy, unfortunately, had no clue as to where she and Molly even were, and somehow, that made the perilous situation even more terrifying.

"I think I heard other voices up ahead." Molly announced, hope illuminating her cloudy, unfocused gaze like the bright lights located on the front of a restaurant's sign. "It sounds like my parents. They must have figured out where we were being kept. I don't know how they got here, but they're here looking for us. They will bring us home safely." With sluggish steps forward, Mercy neared the end of the corridor until Molly's tight grip kept the other girl from approaching the next room up ahead. "We can't just walk in there. That creepy guy is there. What do we do, Mercy?" Molly inquired softly, and for a split moment, Mercy almost hadn't processed her best friend's nearly inaudible words. Molly's faint voice quaked into the air like the earth's precious terrain being tossed around by the unforgiving fingertips of a merciless earthquake. "I have to let my parents know that I'm okay, Molly. They're worried sick about me!" Mercy protested, her tone raising as her determined mentality urged her to reunite with her distraught, fretting parents.

     Right on the other side of that opposing door was Mercy's mother and father, whom had somehow traversed all this way just to retrieve her and Molly. The agitated, conversing voices ceased their heated exchange, the pleading and the shouting dying out abruptly like an extinguished flame. Mercy's loud exclamation had alerted the three gathered individuals of her and Molly's presence, and the only thing now keeping the two girls safe was that protective barrier of a shut wooden door. Both Mercy and Molly's efforts to remain unbeknownst had been shattered like the transparent glass in a window frame. Truth be told, Mercy had already begun to fear the worst as soon as the doorknob began to turn ever so slightly, and as the irritable man's voice shrieked into existence once more, Molly's grip tightened severely around Mercy's clammy, quivering palm. "Stay right where you are! I know that you girls are out there. When I get my hands on you both, I'll—"