Nightmares. We all get them. Nightmares about raccoons eating all of your Jaffa Cakes not so much. My nightmares were not of the Jaffa Cake eating raccoon variety (Jaffa Cake company please don't sue me, I'm sure Walkers are already on my trail; and while we're taking can I ask: are Jaffa Cakes cakes or biscuits?)
My nightmares are in fact memories, much like flashbacks to a horrible time when you wished you didn't exist...
"It's been months! Where is that money? Why haven't they paid up yet?" I heard Finn's voice through the door and his alleged footsteps walking back and forth.
"I don't know, Finn." Luca said in a tired voice. More pacing was heard, presumably Finn.
"I'm getting her now."
"Wait Fi-"
I quickly and quietly ran to the other side of the room and pretended to be asleep. My eyes were shut but my ears were working just fine.
Whenever one of them came into my room they would usually just stare and make sure I'm not doing anything they didn't want me to do and then leave.
This time I felt Finn's hand wrap around my wrists and drag me out of my mattress. If he weren't so strong, I'm sure he wouldn't have dragged me the whole way to the kitchen. But he was strong and I was dragged, despite my kicks and attempts to get up.
He then released his grip and glared at me, on the floor, as if it was my fault that they hadn't been paid.
"Why haven't they fuckin' paid yet?" I stared at him with wide eyes, not knowing what to say and not wanting to say the wrong thing.
"I don't know why you think she knows anything, Finn. She's been locked in her room this whole time." I turned my head and on the table at the far side of the room sat Luca.
Finn glared at me once more and then gave a frustrated look to both Luca and I.
"I bet they're planning something. They wouldn't paid unless they were planning something."
"You're being dramatic, Finn. Send the girl back to her room and we can sort this out later." Luca said, still in a tired and bored voice.
"Oh no. This girl isn't staying here getting free hospitality for months while we wait for the cash." Finn pointed at me. "Get up now."
I hurried onto my feet quickly, stumbling a bit.
"You can do some chores while we try and get some money off your parents, alright?"
"Finn, I don't think getting her to do stuff around the house is the bes-"
"Oh shut up Luca. You've done nothing but complain the entire time."
"I haven-" Luca protested.
"She's going to die. She's not well. She needs feminine products. Well I don't fuckin' care she can bleed all she wants. As long as I get my cash I'm fine."
Finn turned to me, still in rage that Luca had argued against it.
"Go do something useful like washing the plates or something." I nodded and quickly did as he said.
+++
"Do you remember what your captors looked like?"
Yes. One had dirty blonde hair and the other a chestnut brown.
"No. They wore masks." I answered in a monotone voice.
"Did they mention any names or nicknames of any sort?"
Finn and Luca.
"No."
"What did they do?"
Kidnapped me, often deprived me of basic food and forced me to do labour. They often tied me up and gagged me too.
"They just locked me in a room."
"How did you escape?"
They- they- Never mind.
"I don't know, I was knocked out and woke up to a new and unfamiliar town."
"Alright then." Matthew said upset that I didn't tell them any valuable information. My mother put her face in her hands.
"I am so sorry you had to go through all that, Vanessa." My mum said, looking at me with sad eyes. "If you give me a minute I can tell you everything, so you understand the situation better."
I nodded while Matthew got up to leave the room.
"I think I should leave you guys to it. I'll just been in the other room, ok-" I tugged on the sleeve of his uniform.
"Can you please stay?" He looked at me in surprise as did my mother but nodded anyway, respecting my wishes and sat back down.
"As I told you before your," she glanced at me not wanting to upset me.
"Blackout. It's fine to say it." I said.
She nodded and continued. "I had just found out I was pregnant with Dylan." My mum glanced over at Dylan by instinct to make sure he was alright.
"Normally I would've been filled with joy, however your father had recently met up with an old friend." She said the word 'friend' with hostility.
"Your father and his friend had history. His friend also had a son a several months before we had you. The father of her son was annoyed with her and didn't want anything to do with the baby."
My mum continued after shaking and taking a glass of water and a small sip. She then placed it back on to the coffee table.
"So he demanded a DNA test knowing that he wasn't the only man she had been with. They tested the baby and it turns out his father wasn't his father. There was then a desperate search for the real father. Your father was brought in and his DNA matched." I saw tears in the back of her eyes and my mum's desperation for them not to fall down her face.
"It's understandable. We were going through a rough patch when his friend's child was conceived and it was you that brought us back together again." She said looking at me with a sad smile.
"With you just kidnapped, your father explained that he couldn't stay with me because of the memories. And he chose to focus his life on his new found son. He and his friend later got back together around the time I found I was pregnant with Dylan."
"So when I told him, he said that he didn't want to be in Dylan's life, afraid that what happened to you may happen to him and said it didn't change anything between us." I immediately felt my fists clench.
My mother quickly said. "But you have to understand that you being gone hit him much harder and affected his work and personality all together."
"With him unwilling to support Dylan and I trying to make ends meet ends, while preparing for Dylan's birth. We couldn't afford the price your captors put up."
"But the police and I worked day in and day out finding ways around it until everyone soon forgot and explained to me that you were probably... because of so little contact from the kidnappers afterwards." I nodded letting the process of information form in my brain.
There was a reason. There was a reason why my parents didn't pay up. There was a real genuine reason.
Matthew cleared his throat. "Well seeing as there are two potential guardians for Vanessa, I do believe that she should visit both before she has the choice of choosing who she will stay with. Providing, of course, that her father wants her there. Do you know where her father lives, by any chance."
My mum nodded and scribbled down an address on a loose sheet of paper. She then passed it to Matthew. He took it and read it.
"About half an hour from here. It is alright if I take Vanessa, isn't it Miss Melslee?"
My mum nodded in response. "She will be safe won't she?"
"You have my word, miss." Matthew stood up and looked towards me, before I did the same.
Matthew went towards the front door, "I'm just gonna get the car, okay Vanessa?" I nodded.
I walked towards the door and glanced at my mum, who had just picked up Dylan and started to stroke through his hair.
I ran back and hugged my mum, at first she was surprised but she soon gave back the embrace.
"I missed you more than you think, Vanessa." I nodded and then waved to Dylan goodbye as I went out the door.
+++
Unlike my mum's home, my dad's home was an average family home and had obviously been carefully looked after.
"You alright, Vanessa. I know it's hard seeing your family after all this time."
I stopped staring at the house and looked at Matthew.
"Yeah, I'm alright thanks." I mumbled and he nodded in acknowledgment before ringing the doorbell."
Like before, I stood behind him, hoping he would do most of the talking at first.
"Hello, is this Mr Thomas Harve-" Matthew said automatically, until he realised that it was a woman at the door.
"Oh, I am sorry Miss."
The woman was pretty. She had natural black hair which should have made her look older, with it being past her fore arm.
"Oh, it's fine." She smiled, making a quick glance at me. "Are you looking for Thomas?"
Matthew nodded and the woman called for him loudly, before putting her hand out.
"Dianna Harvey." She said shaking hands with Matthew. "Come on in."
Dianna was married to my dad?
While still thinking, Matthew and I walked into the open kitchen. It was very modern, with touches of white, black and grey.
"Jacob! Feet off the table." Dianna screamed at a boy before looking at us both sheepishly.
The boy looked upwards at the three of us.
"Mum, you didn't say we were having guests or police officers. What's dad done now?"
Dianna glared at her son and ignored him. Jacob went back to his phone.
The light that came through the room was then shaded when a tall figure appeared at the frame of the door.
My dad.
Matthew only had to glance once at me before realising that I was in no state of mind to talk.
"Mr Harvey, I have you daughter, Vanessa, here."
Jacob dropped his phone, followed by a string of colourful vocabulary and Dianna looked at me in shock.
I looked up at my dad with pleading for not the same response as my mum but for some kind of recognition in his eyes.
But instead he turned away and walked back upstairs, not saying another word.
a/n: Come back for the next chapter and all that fun drama. Peace.
chapter release date = 20/02/19