I Fake That Smile! ( Completed Watty Awards finalist 2012)

Chapter twenty one

Lee said he was going to make some calls, as there was know reason why his friends could not start the search in the morning. He said before he left the room. Hearing him saying that melted my heart, as now it wouldn’t take as long as I thought it would. In addition, knowing every day, there would be all of us out looking made my heart beat faster, realising we could find him soon.

I woke up the next morning feeling great after having the first good night sleep in I don’t know how long. As usually, I spend every night crying myself to sleep, but then I would wake up from the nightmares. Cherelle had given me one of her suits last night to borrow for court today, and seeing the suit hanging on the back of my door brought my happy feeling, crashing down. Trying to shake it off me, I jumped in the shower hoping I could get that happy feeling back. Once I was ready, I made my way down to the kitchen where Auntie Heidi was sitting at the table alone. She looked like she had not slept all night, as the dark circles under her eyes were worse than usual. “Morning” I greeted her as I walked over to poor myself a coffee. When she didn’t reply I looked over my shoulder to see her crying, placing my coffee back onto the side I walked over and gave her a hug. This was the first time I had ever seen her cry, as she was always the strong one out of all of us. She was even mentally stronger than Lee, I was thinking to myself. Cherelle and Lee walked in and froze at seeing us, I could see Cherelle was ready to cry at seeing her mother like this, then I noticed Lee grabbing hold of her hand and walking her over towards us. “Come on girlies lets go kick some butt,” he said trying to lighten the atmosphere. Cherelle took over my place and hugged her mother while Lee and I made some breakfast.

The day was long but it was well worth it, as they all got a life sentence without parole. We all cheered and clapped as they took Cherelle’s and my dad away. We were now officially released from the witness protection programme. However, we were all given a new home each, compliments of the justice system. As they gave me the keys to my new house, I felt overwhelmed. Knowing that I will never ever have to live on the streets again, and now own a place I can call home. That all came crashing down the minute Lee called me over, “Come on let’s go and find Damon” he said excitedly.  He started to introduce me to the men that where standing beside him. “Lee then pulled me aside “Sheena these are all good men and good friends too, but I want you to pick who you would feel the most comfort ablest with to accompany you”. I looked over the men and picked two out Lee gave me a big smile and nodded. I followed him back over to where everyone was standing; Lee gave out orders to all of us before handing us all a radio each. After arranging to meet tonight, we all headed back to the safe house to get changed.

 Auntie Heidi had told us, that she would have all our stuff moved to our new homes so we didn’t have anything else to worry about. We all thanked her and ran to our rooms to change. About an hour later, I heard auntie-shouting diner, making my way down stairs to the kitchen I noticed that all the officers where now gone.   The house had a horrible empty feeling to it. Auntie Heidi had filled the table with enough food to feed an army, I looked over at her thinking are we having visitors?

“You will need to eat as much as you can, because this will probably be the last cooked meal you will have for a while.” She said with a serious look on her face. I laughed while I started to pile up my plate, as I took in what she had said.

Cherelle Lee and I where now waiting at our meeting point. None of them had arrived yet and I was starting to freak out. However, Lee promised me they were coming and it was still early. As I sat waiting impatiently in the back seat of Lee’s car, I kept nervously bouncing my feet off the floor. Which was starting to drive Lee and Cherelle mad, they kept shouting at me to stop but I couldnt.  Nevertheless, I just wanted to get out there and start searching with or without the men.

After what felt like hours everyone had arrived, just before we all headed off out in our own ways, Lee gave out a few last orders. After we said our goodbyes, we all got into our designated cars. Feeling a spark of warmth shooting through my heart comforted me, knowing I was now on my way to finding Damon.

It has been three weeks now since we started the search and we were still no better off. As we did not even find a clue to his whereabouts, the only thing we have found out, is that he was not on the land where we were attacked. Therefore, now it was a case of did they capture him, or did he make it out by himself. Tonight was the last night the men could help us, as they had to go back to work. As much as I was feeling so disheartened by this, but I knew, they had too. Moreover, I was grateful for all they had done to help me.

Lee and Cherelle dropped me off at my new house, seeing it for the first time you would have thought I would have been excited. But I wasn’t I have been planning this day for so long, Damon was meant to walk through those doors with me, I thought to myself. Walking up to the front door, I waved Lee and Cherelle off, as soon as they where out of sight I took a seat on the top step. I tried thinking of anything we could have missed out. That is when I thought what if he had some sort of amnesia from where they had beaten him or something. Pulling out my cell phone, I called for a taxi. As soon as it arrived, I gave him the first hospital I could think of, I asked the taxi driver to keep the meter running and I will be back in a minute. After asking the nurse at the reception, she made a few calls and apologised. Back in the taxi, we headed to every hospital in the state, with no luck what so ever.

My heart was breaking at the thought that I was never going to find him.  “Hmm excuse me mam, but there is one hospital you have left out” the taxi driver said. I looked at him bewildered, as we had been to every hospital that I knew of. “It is not that well known, well that is by us anyway, as it only caters for the rich and famous. Nevertheless, it could still be worth a try” he said. As I thought over everything, he had just said to me, I realised he was right. “Your right, can you take me there please?” I asked him, “Sure can” he replied, as he started to drive out of the hospital.   The whole way there, I prayed that he would be there, as realistically this was the only place left that I could think of. I was so deep in my own thoughts that I didn’t even realise that the taxi had stopped, “We are here,” the taxi man shouted. I looked at him and gave him a smile “would you like me to wait mam?” he asked,”yes please” I replied.

As I reached the entrance into the hospital, I stopped as I tried to pull myself together a bit. My hands were all clammy and my heart was beating so fast, it felt like it was going to burst any minute. Slowly I started to make my way through the double sliding glass doors. “Hello, how may I help you” the young receptionist asked. After I had explained everything to her she started to type away at her computer, she looked up at me seeing the expression on her face had the tears streaming down my face. She came running out from behind the counter and handed me some tissues. ”hey it can not be that bad,” she said full of concern. That is when I decided to tell her the real story, as I needed someone to talk to and right now, I did not care who, I just needed to get it all of my chest. I must have been sitting there for a while, as the taxi man came in to ask if I still wanted him to wait. Which I told him I did. As Damon was not here, it was time for me to go back to my new home alone. I thanked the receptionist and started to walk out through the doors when I heard her shouting out stop! Looking back towards her desk I crashed into her, I could not work out how she got over here so quick. She didn’t say a word she just grabbed onto my arm and started to drag me along the corridor. We reached a wooden door and she gave me one quick look before opening it, as soon as the door opened, I looked into the room before I collapsed onto the floor where I fell into the blackness.

Well I hope you all enjoyed :)