Different | ✔️

21 | Scarlett Bates

A ray of sunlight peeked through the kitchen curtains and right into my eyes. "Ugh." I raised my palm across my face, shielding my eyes from the sunlight. I reached for my phone, which I placed on the cabinet.

It's nine in the morning, I was knocked out all through the night.

I positioned my hand on the cabinet as a support, my legs wobbled as a groan slipped out of my lips. I still had some cuts untreated since the accident, and it seemed to have festered.

Not good.

I ambled wearily towards the upper cabinet in the kitchen. The medical kit should be somewhere in here if I recall correctly. I pulled open the brown wooden cabinet and a red medium medical kit with a white cross on the top, and the side was situated behind some jars of peanut butter. I carefully took out the medical kit with one hand while holding the jars of peanut butter with my other.

I hopped onto the cabinet, and another groan eluded my lips. Why does it hurt so bad? Tears pricked my eyes, but I staunched it. I opened the lid of the kit and applied a hand sanitiser on my palms, cleaned the cuts on my legs and arms and placed a sterile gauze pad on the bigger cut on my thigh, securing it with adhesive tape and carefully lifted my weight off the cabinet. I slid two kitchen knives into the pouch of my black hoodie, placing the hood over my head, I headed for the door. I halted as my hand gripped the door knob. I sucked in a sharp breath before walking out.

It's time to end this.

Dusk had already fallen. The air was cold and still. Mist blinded my vision, but I waded it off with my hands. It was a fifteen-minute walk to the abandoned refinery factory. I prepared myself for whatever I might encounter. A hint of joy bubbled up in my chest at the thought of finally putting an end to this madness. My mind painted the scenery of my mum and I chatting and giggling happily, seated opposite each other in a local dining restaurant. The hooting of an owl brought me back to reality.

That's enough daydreaming. Let's make this a reality.

I increased my pace, my body shivered with excitement, or probably due to the chill atmosphere. A run-down rusty two storey building came into view, which I assumed to be the factory. Last I heard, this was once a steel refinery factory. I didn't know the full details as to why it got abandoned. As I took a step forward, the street lamp hovering above me flickered and instantly went off. The buzzing of my phone sent a bolt through my body, causing the phone in my palm to slip out and crash into the gravelled ground.

This is starting to freak me out.

I hunched over and picked up my phone and grazed the dirt off it. The impact pasted a few cracks on the screen. I ignored it as dread filled my lungs at the content of the message.

Unknown number:
Do you plan on sleeping out there? Or perhaps, you've forgotten whose life's at stake here.

I frantically skimmed the area in search of anyone or hidden cameras but found none. The hair on my skin rose as I took a step into the rusty old factory. Its eerie darkness drew me back a bit, but I pushed myself forward, keeping in mind whose life was at stake. A light bulb flickered on at the centre of the building and dimly lit the room, the second I took a step in. I scrutinised my surroundings and found it vacant until my gaze fell on a woman in her mid-thirties with her head slumped to the side and her legs and hands fastened by thick, dusty rope on a wooden chair.

I gasped.

Mother.

My legs moved on their own and clashed to the ground as I shook her shoulders but got no response from her. My pulse quickened.