I was awaken by someone gently shaking me and whispering my name.
“Kris,” I said groggily, “What’s going on?”
“We’re here. Come on, I hid the boat in some bushes. It shouldn’t be able to be seen by anyone so we can always come back to it if we want to.”
I just nodded, wiping the sleep from my eyes. We got off the boat and walked inland.
“Where exactly do your parents live?”
“Near the beach.”
“Great. It should be easier to find them now.”
We started to walk and would’ve gotten there sooner but we kept hiding from every military official that we saw. Eventually, we arrived at my old home just as the sun started to set. I couldn’t hold in my excitement as I knocked on the door.
As soon as my mother opened the door I crushed her in a hug, I didn’t even wait for her to see me probably, I was just so happy to see her again. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my father and I ran over to hug him as well.
“Honey, what’s the matter? What are you doing here, aren’t you supposed to be at the specialized training facility?”
“Yeah, but it’s umm…a long story.”
Suddenly, my father turned to the door and saw Kris, “Who are you?”
“Oh, dad, this is Kris, he helped me escape.”
“Hold on honey, escape from what?”
After I sat them down and told them everything, they couldn’t believe what was going on. After a while of just sitting there, I got up to look for Jessica and left Kris with my parents.
*Kris P.O.V*
“So, Kris, do you like my daughter?”
“Umm, sir, what do you mean?”
“Kris dear, there’s no need to act so clueless. We see the way you look at her, it’s quite obvious that you have some sort of feelings for her, I mean why else would you save her from that horrid place, by the way we are forever in your debt for saving her.”
“Well…to be honest, yes, I do like her. I’ve been seeing her every day for 6 months, her beauty and her strength just caught me and I’ve been falling in love with her every day since the first day I laid eyes on her…but I don’t think that she likes me back. She either just sees me as her brother or just the guy who helped her escape.”
“Don’t worry about her. She’s just a tough nut to crack. She’ll come around and you’ll see that she starts to have feelings for you as well. I mean, look at you! You’re a very handsome young man!’
I smiled, “Thank you miss.”
I thought about it, should I try to make her fall in love with me…or should I just continue to admire her from afar…but I don’t think I can continue that way anymore…
*Lilly’s P.O.V*
I went into Jessica’s room but she wasn’t in there. I looked all over the house for her but I still couldn’t find her.
I ran back into the living room, “Jessica’s missing!”
My parents looked at me sadly.
My mother spoke up with a voice laden with guilt, “Honey, umm, Jessica’s not here.”
“What do you mean she’s not here!” I yelled.
“Don’t you dare yell at your mother Lilly Kim! Jessica’s not here because we sold her!”
I felt my world crashing down on me and I felt tears escaping my eyes, “Sold? You sold her? As in…,” I couldn’t say it, “as in to a brothel?”
“What? No! We would never do that!”
I calmed down a bit, “Okay, if you didn’t sell her there, then where did you sell her?”
“We sold her to the government, specifically the military.”
“What! Why?”
“They paid us a good money for her. For every day she spends in the military we get $1000.”
I was speechless, I couldn’t believe
“You two sicken me. How can you sell your 15 year old daughter to those savages!? Don’t you know what they do to people there? Where did they place her?”
“They put her to replace you…don’t think we didn’t know that you escaped; they notified us as soon as it happened…you two are wanted. You’re lucky we’re not going to turn you in because-”
“I don’t care why you’re not turning us in! They turn people mindless there! They brainwash people and literally leave them with no sense of who they even are! My sister is so special to me…isn’t she special to you? After all the trouble you went through to have her? If the two of them were born would you sell them both to get double the money?!”
“Honey please-”
“I don’t care what you have to say! I trusted you; she trusted you! I can only imagine her face when they took her away,” tears started to pool in my eyes, “I can’t even look you in the eyes anymore. From now on, I don’t consider you my parents anymore…goodbye, turn us in if you want to but you’re never going to see us again.”
With that I ran upstairs and grabbed my secret stash of snacks and stuffed it in my bag then I ran back downstairs, grabbed Kris’ hand and pulled him out the door. I slammed the door for good measure.
I had already pulled Kris halfway down the road when he suddenly stopped, making me almost trip.
“Lilly, wait. What are you going to do now?”
I stared off into space for a second, “I’m going to find Jessica and save her. Are you with me?”
He thought about it for a while, “Yes,” he smiled at me, “of course.”
Don’t worry Jessie…I’ll find you. I promise.
