Chapter XIII
Pressing my head against the cold metal door, I sighed as I stared at the keys. There was too many in different shapes, sizes and colors. I swear I had tried all of them, even some of them twice. Maybe because my hand had been shaking and my fingers started to cramp, I had gotten some of them confused. I just couldn’t focus. The erie silence that surrounded me was too much to bare along with the growing knot in my stomach, I could almost feel the terror in the air of something soon to come.
I closed my eyes trying to get my thoughts to stop pounding at my skull. For that moment everything seemed calm, as if the whole world had stopped in its rotation and was now holding its breath for the moment to come. In that moment I could feel something rising inside of me, something big starting from the soles of my feet and jumping from bone to bone, slowly making its way to my head. It was a wave of fear.
“Aba,” a voice whispered in my ear.
I was up and alert in an instant, jumping from my slouched form to standing ramrod straight. It took me awhile to realize that my whole body was shaking out of control. I swallowed my fear and tried my best to control my shaking hands. In my panic attack I had kicked the flashlight that was now rolling away from me down the hallway. Leaving me in total blackness. Something was resting on my shoulder, but I was too afraid to move. The object started to curl around my shoulder getting a strong grip on me.
“Aba, calm down its me,” the voice came again. This time I could make out the faint line of someone standing next to me, there hand on my shoulder. And thats when I couldn’t hold it in anymore. The wave of fear had rose to my head, consuming me in one effortless sweep.
“Aba,” the voice came again.
That is when I screamed.
The grip on my shoulder was released, I watched breathlessly as they walked down the hall and picked something off the ground.
“Aba what the heck were you thinking? It’s just me.”
I squinted as the light of the flashlight blinded me, “Jason?”
“Yes, me Jason. I’m back with Amari.” He flashed the light on the limp body that was laying next to my feet.
“Is he dead?” I asked. His breathing seemed even more labored then when I had left him.
“No, he’s fine.” I heard Jason sigh. It was such a quiet sigh however in the silence it traveled and echoed down the hallway.
“You find the key?”
His voice seemed tired and wary, like he had already given up.
“No, I tried though.”
Jason soundlessly pushed past me and knelt on the floor shoving key after key into the lock. The silence stretched around us, I could almost feel the anxiety and anger coming off of him in waves.
“I’m sorry for screaming,” I barely whispered. “You scared me.”
I waited for Jason’s response, even a simple ‘okay’ would have made me feel better. But he continued to shove keys into the lock at such a fast pace.
“Can I help with something, I feel kind of stupid just standing here.”
“It was kind of stupid to scream like that don’t you think? The guards are coming, we have to get out of here!”
I was taken aback, I hadn’t mean’t to scream. It was his fault, what kind of person just walks up to the other in the middle of an escape and doesn’t expect that kind of reaction. Instead of getting into a fight with Jason I grabbed the flashlight and shined it on the lock.
“Try that square key, I think you missed that one.”
Jason grumbled under his breath. The pace of the footsteps was getting faster and louder. By the sound of it a whole herd of elephants were on there way to capture us. The knot in my stomach twisted.
“Hurry,” I whispered.
Jason grunted, “I’m going as fast as I can!” Key after key he picked up, shoved into the lock and twisted and when nothing happened pulled out and thrown in the corner. Soon it became a sort of rhythm and for a quick moment I forgot about the horde of elephants that were drawing closer.
“STOP!” a big booming voice yelled at us, loud enough to wake the dead.
I froze, but Jason continued his strange rhythm- key, lock, throw. In a second the flashlight was ripped out of my hands and I was pushed to the cold floor. I tried to stand up but something heavy came crashing down on my back, making me groan in pain. The roaring in my ears grew louder until all I could hear was heart beating painfully against my rib cage.
“Let me go!” Jason’s voice cut through my roaring heartbeat.
I concentrated on the movement around me. Jason was trying to put up a fight, screaming and thrashing around, but soon the erie silence surrounded me once more.
“You guys are funny,” the man with the loud voice said. I felt his shoes touch the ground by my head. “Thinking you can run away like that.”
“Let us go. You cured them right? What point do you have with them now?” Jason yelled his voice filled with raw emotion. He sounded borderline hysterical.
“Where not done with you yet. Especially not you, Jason. Your our special little tool.”
“SHUT UP!” howled Jason.
“Oh don’t worry Jason, your little Aba knows all about what you do here for us.” The man crouched down by my ear. “Don’t you Aba?”
I squeezed my eyes shut even more and tried to block out the sound of his voice. His hot breath came in furious rasps covering my face in his hot spit.
“I hope you know that your escape tonight was very entertaining for us.”
I cursed under my breath, I knew they were watching us this whole time. Just waiting for us to screw up so they could come and capture us at the right time.
“You guys are dirty, your nothing! You think your so powerful well---”
My breath caught in my throat.
“Were so what Jason?” the man teased.
But Jason was silent, what were they doing to him? I soon found out as something sharp poked my leg and a hot liquid entered my body. In minutes I had been knocked out.
* * * * *
I woke up several times after that but when I tried to remember anything my head felt like a giant black hole. I was in a constant world of nothingness. I’d wake up to pitch black walls and as soon as my eyes were open I felt them drooping back into my world of darkness. Every time I woke up, I tried to remember where I was or what had happened. The moment a thought came into my mind, my eyes would droop and the darkness would take its place again. Soon I became use to the darkness and it was comforting to find myself there, drifting into space. With no where to go and nothing to do, I floated in darkness for hours.
I was suspended in an ocean of black, any way you looked all you could see were black waves rippling and all you could feel were the black waves crashing against your body. In my world of nothingness I could scream, and shout. I could run through the waves, but nothing was as magnificent as the black waves carrying you along. Soon I felt void of anything, but then I opened my eyes and for the first time in awhile, they stayed open.
The first thing that I felt was a pounding headache followed by a rush of dizziness as I tried to sit up. My stomach knotted and growled, and my bones ached like a eighty year old person. The room was small, I looked down at the old cot I sat on- probably the reason for my aching body. Dim lights hung from the ceiling I squinted as I stared at the lights after being in darkness for so long I wasn’t use to the light anymore. It took all my effort to swing my legs off the side of the bed which each movement brought a bout of dizziness. I reached for my head, feeling my curly hair matted against it. A huge wave of dizziness took over, I cringed under the pain and let my body fall back down onto the cot.
A strange women was forming in my mind, the dizziness started to fade as I concentrated on the women’s face, she seemed so familiar yet I couldn’t remember her name. She held out her hand to a young girl with gloves on. The little girl reluctantly took her hand, the women smiled as if to reassure her. She led the child down a dark hallway and into a room and fed her. She watched as she let the girl play with a strange set of toys- all yellow in color.
I groaned quietly as another stronger wave of dizziness came, I gagged as my stomach twisted and turned threatening to throw up. Closing my eyes the image of the little girl appeared, she was alone in a room and crying. The women no where to been seen. A man entered her room and yelled at her, but the girl didn’t move. He resorted to grabbing her arm and from her hand an amber butterfly necklace fell onto the ground. He yelled at her some more before snatching the necklace and leaving the girl to weep to herself.
I moved into the fetal position, no longer able to control the dizziness and pictures that flashed in my brain. A wave of dizziness undertook me again, this time stronger than any other. I shrieked. My head was burning, sweat dripped down into my eyes, the pounding of my headache bellowed in my ears. Gasping I closed my eyes. The women had come back for the little girl, although now the girl looked older, prettier too. She had long curly hair that hung by her sides, her eyes seemed brighter and her hands pale against the sunlight. The women smiled while running towards the girl, crushing her in a hug.
Flashes of the girl and the women came to me now, each followed by a wave of dizziness that made me scream out in pain: The girl in a car with the women, looking out the window. dizziness, screaming. The girl meeting a baby that looked exactly like the women. dizziness, screaming. The girl growing up in with the women. dizziness, screaming. Suddenly everything was coming to me faster now, flashes of the girl and the women swarmed my head. Girl with women, women smiling at girl.Girl, Girl, Girl, Women, Women, Women, Girl. Dizziness.
Hannah.
I sat up gasping for air, my shirt stuck to my body like a second skin. That was the women’s name. Hannah, my foster mom. It only took me a minute to realize that little girl had been me. Hannah had known me all my life, she was the caretaker in my dream. I leaned my head up against the wall and sighed. The pain was gone now, leaving only a faint memory- like a ghost. I sighed, everything was coming back to me now. The only think left to figure out was how to get out of this place.