Broken

Chapter Three - Crash

"Aaron, you know how it is! Come some stupid important meeting and in the car my parents go, zooming away without even telling me! No, 'Kathrine, I have an important meeting to go to, would you like to come with or would you rather stay with Aaron or go to your brother?' Have they ever asked me that? Huh? Have they? I don't think so! But they take Daniel everywhere with them! Am I also not their child? Huh? They don't give a damn about me, Aaron!" The tears were threatening to fall.

I hated being so emotional but my parents were a touchy subject. I would talk about anything but them.

"Kathrine, you know they care about you. And they're not even gone that often. And Daniel is only five, they have to take him. Anyway, you can't miss school."

"I don't care if I'm seventeen or seventy! Shouldn't they still ask me? And heck, I can miss school. I can always catch up. Why are you even trying to defend them? You're supposed to be on my side, Aaron!"

"Kathy, I'm trying to be reasonable here. You know it."

"Whatever," I huffed, and didn't talk to him for the rest of the walk home.

One day, when they're gone, something will happen to me. That will teach them.

I was still giving Aaron the cold shoulder when we got to his house. Aunty Miriam was my mother's sister and I usually stayed with her when my parents went out of town.

"Good afternoon. How was school, Kath, and Uni, Aaron?" Aunty Miriam greeted us, as we entered the kitchen.

I walked straight to my room without answering. That's how often I stayed there. I had my own. Damn. Room.

"Hi, mum. Uni was fine. Boring as usual," I vaguely heard Aaron tell his mother, "We were talking about Aunty Lacey and Uncle Rodger on the way back. You know how she gets."

Aaron entered my room shortly after he spoke to his mother and sat down on opposite end of the bed to where I was doing my homework.

"You were very rude back there, Kathy," he told me.

"I'll go and apologise later," I replied gruffly.

Aaron left the room again. I knew he didn't want to make me feel worse. But really, nothing could make me feel worse.

*

Crash!

I woke with a start. What the hell?

Bang!

My heart started pounding in my chest. I sat up in my bed and watched the door. After a few minutes, when nothing happened, I lay back down on the bed. I was just being silly. Why would there be noises in the house? I fell back asleep but was woken up again a few minutes later when I heard my room door open. I turned my head to the side. Entering the room were three people. It was dark, so I couldn't see them too clearly. I closed my eyes for a moment, maybe I was hallucinating. When I opened my eyes, still looking at the door, the people were gone. I breathed a sigh of relief and then cast my eyes around the rest of the room. My heart stopped. There, at the foot of my bed were the three people.

I could just make out that they were male. A blood curdling scream came out of my mouth. What are they doing in here? I stopped screaming to take a breath and then started screaming again. Before I knew it, one of the men had my mouth covered with a foul tasting glove. I felt the roughness of the glove scratching my face and tried not to breathe in the nasty odour. Another man grabbed my hands and tied them with a white shoelace. They dragged me out of the bed and forced me to walk forwards.

"Please don't hurt me," I begged pathetically.

"Shh!" one of the men hissed.

I kept quiet but I felt tears prickling at my eyes. As they walked down the passage, one man gripping my arm painfully, I could feel the presence of the two others behind me. The led me to Aunty Miriam's room. I was forced to the side of the bed. I looked on the bed; Aunty Miriam was sitting there, coughing and wheezing. She looked scared out of her wits. A few minutes later, Aaron also came in, looking dishevelled. His eyes were wide with fear. He cast a quick look at me before he was forced to the other side of the bed. There was another man, in a leather jacket standing at the door. He said something to the others in a foreign language and the three men started searching the room. One man came towards me.