Finding Maisie
Chapter 15
The airport was full of people. We had to push our way through the crowds to get to the correct terminal for our flight to Venice. I was rushing so much that I got many grunts and complains from the people I pushed past.
It was seven o'clock in the evening of the same day and Callum and I had booked the closet flight to Italy. As soon as we left the hospital we went back to Joshua's to pack and look at flight times. We were staying in an average nothing-special-about-it hotel, because that's all we could afford. Luckily, Joshua insisted he'd pay all the bills for food and electricity at his house so I had saved some money.
We finally made it to our terminal and, after putting ourselves and our luggage through the scanners, we sat outside where we were boarding our plane from. We had ten minutes until we were allowed to go on it and there was one thing I wanted to check.
I got out my phone and dialled the hospital number that I had researched earlier. It rang a couple of times before someone answered.
'Farrings Hospital,' spoke the male receptionist that I had met very early this morning.
'Hello, this is Poppy Leads, Adam Trevors cousin. I'm just ringing to ask how he is,' I asked.
'Oh, I'm sorry to tell you this Ms Leads,' he spoke. My heart skipped a beat. Here came the bad news, 'But Adam Trevor's left the hospital in the morning without checking himself out. We have not been able to locate him.'
A small smile tugged at my lips, 'No worries. Thanks for telling me,' I said as I hung up the phone.
They had taken our advice and had left the hospital, on the run. Hopefully, they would escape the abductors clutches for a long while yet. At least this trip to Venice would keep the abductor busy for a bit and give Adam and Heather a chance to hide from him.
'Why're you smiling for?' Callum asked with a questioning look.
'Adam and Heather have left the hospital. They're hiding from the abductor,' I said.
'That's good,' Callum replied, 'Especially as Adam knows who the abductor is.'
Now we had time to persuade Adam to help us. If he was safe and away from the abductor then there was a better chance of that happening.
Callum and I spoke for a bit before we were allowed onto the plane. We showed our boarding passes and travelled to our allocated seats. I took the aisle seat because I knew Callum was going to be sleeping the whole journey and I didn't want him blocking my way to the toilets.
We made ourselves comfy in our seats and, instead of relaxing, I analysed everyone who walked through the door. The abductor was coming to Venice as well and, knowing him, he would've waited at the airport to make sure he got the same flight as us. Every time someone made the slightest of eye contact to me I tensed up and prepared myself to jump out of my seat if I needed to. Of course, nobody came over to me or did anything remotely suspicious. Even if the abductor was on the plane, he wouldn't make it obvious. As the last person stepped on board, I knew I could relax a little, but I didn't let my guard down completely.
Soon enough, everyone was sitting in their seats and the air hostess was telling us about the flight. Next to me, Callum was already on the verge of falling asleep, he was still annoyed about having to wake up early this morning to go to the hospital.
The flight attendant finished her speech and soon enough the plane was in the air. I decided to not go to sleep, I didn't want to leave both Callum and I unconscious without knowing the people around us, and so I listened to my music instead. About halfway through the flight, my legs were aching and so I got up to go to the toilet.
I walked down the plane and was just about to walk to the toilet when someone walked past me. I glanced up at them quickly, trying to see if I recognised them. When I realised I didn't, I was about to walk into the toilet when I noticed the man had stopped moving. From the corner of my eye, I could see that they were staring at me. They didn't look like they had anything to do with the treasure hunt; they looked as if they were dressed for a business trip.
Before I could turn to face him, the mysterious man stepped forward, closing the gap between us and moved his mouth near to my ear.
'Watch your back. He's always watching.'
The man walked away, leaving his whispered message in my head. So that confirmed it; the abductor was on the plane. He was one of the people who walked on the plane, he must've been. Unless he was on the plane before us.
My thoughts were distracted by a noise. It was simple ticking, steady and even. I looked around where I was and saw nothing, no music players or anything that could make that noise. I focused on the ticking sound a little longer before it just stopped. Everything was quiet again. I decided to ignore the ticking for the meanwhile and went back to my seat.
The flight passed quickly enough and we were in Venice without any trouble. Callum and I were at the front doors of our hotel after getting a taxi here. It was called "La Riva" as it wasn't too far from the beach.
It was made of brick of different colours and had flowers and plants growing in the flowerbeds around, with many colours like pink and blue and orange. They grew in different directions and didn't look as if they were trimmed very often, but that made it look like it was from a fairy tale. From the windows we could see white lacy curtains on the inside which added to the prettiness of the hotel. There were the occasional balconies, made of white wood, that came from some of the rooms. Of course, Callum and I didn't book the one of the balcony rooms. As well as the money, I didn't think I would be able to sleep knowing the abductor had two ways to get into our room.
As we walked into the reception I tried to forget why I was here. I tried to enjoy the fact that I was in Italy, just until we had to see the abductor.
We got to our room, with a little difficulty from the language differences, and put down our bags. The room had two double beds, both with light rose pink sheets and white throws. They faced large windows which both showed a view of the city and were framed by the white curtains I saw from outside. Against the back wall there was a white wardrobe that matched the colour of the throws and curtains. An ensuite, I presumed, was situated behind the white door from one of the walls. Overall, it wasn't a bad place to be staying in.
I ran and jumped up onto one of the beds, claiming it as my own. Callum sat down on the other bed and faced me.
'What do we do now?' He asked.
'What are we meant to do?' I replied, whilst unzipping my suitcase.
'We didn't come here for a holiday, Poppy, we have to carry on with the treasure hunt.'
I rolled my eyes at Callum, 'Yes Callum, I do know that, but how are we meant to carry on when the abductor hasn't given us an instruction?'
'We're meant to be looking for clues to the next place, Poppy, this is a treasure hunt. And, besides, how do you expect us to outsmart the abductor if all we do is sit on the sidelines waiting for him to make the first move?' Callum said.
I nodded, realising what Callum was saying, 'Yeah, okay. But where do you suppose we go?'
Callum stood up and began to walk to the bathroom, 'I have an idea. I'll tell you later. Be ready in an hour?'
'Sure,' I replied as I lay down on my bed. I decided to spend the next hour sleeping, seeing as I didn't want to on the flight. I closed my eyes, knowing that when I opened them again Callum and I would be off to find the abductor.
'Poppy!' My eyes flew open and I was met with Callums face.
I rolled over so I wasn't facing him, 'Has it been an hour already?'
'Almost,' he replied, 'I just thought you'd want to get dressed before we leave.'
'Nope,' I said, popping the 'p', 'I'd rather sleep.'
I heard Callum chuckle as something hit my face. I turned around to find that Callum had hit me with a pillow.
'Alright!' I moaned, 'I'll get dressed.'
I threw my clothes on and stood at the door, waiting. Callum threw me a bag of crisps from his bag and joined me.
'Hey, Poppy. Wanna go to the beach later?' Callum said.
I smiled at him, 'Sure. Where are we going to now anyway?'
'To the hotel that our families stayed at. I heard it's closed down and empty, sounds like the perfect place the abductor would lead us to.'
I thought back to the hotel we stayed at when I was a child. We used to spend the mornings swimming at the pool and the evenings in our adjoining rooms with our room service. It was a very good holiday. But the hotel would now all be empty and echo with our memory. Just thinking about the dark, dingy rooms made me feel cold inside. That made me certain that we had to go there.
I quickly changed into my clothes and Callum and I walked out of the hotel. We obtained tourist leaflets, which had maps, to help us find our way to the hotel. Of course, as it had closed, the name wasn't actually on the map, but the building was. Luckily, Callum had good memory and remembered the name of the area it was in so the hotel wasn't too hard to find.
When we got there, I looked at the hotel. It made me feel sad. A place that once was the giver of many happy memories for me now looked abandoned and hopeless.
The windows were bordered up and the paint was fading. There was nobody to trim the plants so they were growing wild and everywhere. The hotel was in a more quiet area and didn't have many neighbouring buildings whichonly added to the lonely feeling of the house.
We walked up to the doors, but we knew we couldn't enter that way. They were obviously locked and, even though the street was pretty deserted, if someone walked by they would see us breaking in.
'Round this way!' Callum called. He was walking round the side of the hotel. I followed him and found Callum looking at a bordered up window.
'It's not as secure,' he said as I walked to him, 'There's only one plank of wood bordering it up, so I say this is our best way of getting in.'
Callum started pulling on the wood whilst I looked behind him. If this was where the abductor wanted us to go then he would have had to get in first. There would be somewhere that had already been broken into. An open door, a broken window, the place the abductor broke in.
And as I looked over Callums shoulder, as I thought, there was a way to get in the fence that guarded the hotels outdoor area. Two of the wide planks were only on one hinge, it was hard to notice and that must've been why Callum skipped past it when looking for a way in. If we pushed the loose planks on the wooden fence to the side then we would be able to get into the hotel area.
'Callum stop,' I said. He looked at me questioningly as I pointed to the fence, 'Some planks are loose so we can get in through the fence.'
Callum squinted his eyes then looked at me, shocked, 'How did you see that?'
'Just have a good eye for looking at detail,' I said, shrugging my shoulders, 'Come on.'
We walked over to the wooden fence and pulled the planks that were on their last hinge. The planks moved to the side, granting us our entrance to the hotel.
I crawled through first and came into the back of the hotel. There wasn't a garden, just a place for all the bins and waste to go. I saw the door leading that came from the hotels kitchens. Callum crawled through the fence after me and we opened the hotel door. It was unlocked and that only proved to me that the abductor had been here and probably still was.
The kitchen was mostly made up of stainless steel kitchen units and a few ovens and refrigerators. A lot of them had been taken away but a few still remained. I could tell almost straight away that no one on the abductors side would hide in here, the reflection on the metal of the few counters would have given them away. The room immediately smelt of dust and concrete as it had been abandoned for a few years. I could feel the air was similar, not clean but stuffy.
'What do we do?' I asked Callum.
'What we always do,' he replied. 'Look for clues, find the abductor instead and almost die when we escape.'
I nodded my head. He had said it like facing the abductor was easy; I knew it wasn't.
'How do we know they're here?' I asked.
As if answering my question, a loud bang sounded from the ceiling, coming from another floor in the hotel. I jumped back a little from the suddenness of the bang. There was definitely someone else here.
'We should go to the hotel room we stayed in when we came here. That'll be where we're supposed to go,' Callum said.
At first I was about to agree with him. That would be what the abductor wanted us to do, what he expected us to do. But knowing that Maisie was alive, I knew that Callum and I would have to outsmart the abductor. We would have to surprise him and do the unexpected. Instead of walking into a trap, we would have to get one step ahead.
'No,' I replied. 'We need to go somewhere where the abductor doesn't suspect us to, otherwise it'll be like walking into a trap.'
'Where else can we go? Do you think there's another clue here?' Callum asked.
I thought about our plan when something came to my mind. Something didn't add up.
'Maisie...'
'Maisie?' Callum asked at my sudden mention of her. 'What about Maisie?'
'Well, where is she?' I asked. 'The abductor has been losing people helping him. Max, or Adam, and Alan-'
'Why would he have lost Alan?' Callum interrupted.
'Oh, you don't know,' I mumbled. 'Well, when you were at hospital and the abductor took me to a warehouse, Alan fought with the abductor so I could escape. I left before anything happened, I don't even know if he's alive. The abductor won't let Alan stay close to him after that.'
'So he's definitely on our side.. Or was on our side,' Callum said smiling sadly.
I nodded. I hadn't really thought about what might have happened to Alan at the warehouse, but now I did I felt guilty. Alan knew what the abductor was doing was wrong so he helped us. Time after time I had my life saved and when the tables were turned I didn't save him. I wished with my every fibre that Alan was still alive.
'So, Maisie..?' Callum said, snapping me out of my thoughts.
'Oh,' I said. 'So, the people helping the abductor has decreased, he has no Max, no Alan, just Harry.'
'Don't forget the guy we saw helping the abductor in the first warehouse we went to,' Callum interjected.
'Oh, yeah. Assuming that that person wasn't Harry just disguised that leaves the abductor with two helpers. The abductors not stupid, he won't face us alone, he'll be outnumbered even though he has a gun. That means at least Harry has to come with the abductor here. So, where would Maisie be?'
Callum's face immediately went into thought, 'She would have to go with the abductor. He's in a foreign country; he can't leave Maisie by herself. The abductor won't own any buildings here and he can't leave Maisie on her own in a hotel or wherever he's staying, she could escape. That means...'
'She must be here,' I said, finishing Callum's sentence. He smiled and suddenly pulled me into a hug.
'You genius, Poppy,' he mumbled against my shoulder.
'It's quite obvious when you think about it,' I replied modestly.
Callum pulled out the hug and looked at me, 'So instead of doing the obvious and looking for the abductor...'
'...We look for Maisie.'
Callum took my hand as we began to run to the kitchen door. Suddenly he stopped and looked at me.
'We can't be seen.'
I nodded and we ran out of the kitchen. We were met with a simple hallway which probably led to the eating area. We came to a corner and before running past it we stuck our heads around the corner to check if anyone was there. Luckily, the hallway continued to be deserted.
Callum and I continued to run before we got to the main lobby. Before running to the next floor I turned to him.
'Where should we look?' I asked.
'She'll be near the abductor I think. That way if anything goes wrong, he won't be far from her,' Callum replied.
'So around where we stayed last time?' I asked.
'Yeah, but that just means we have to be more careful about not being seen,' Callum replied.
We began setting off down the hallway that led to the stairs. My adrenaline was pumping now. I had seen the abductor many times before but the fact that I couldn't be seen made it that much more exciting and frightening. Callum and I leapt up the stairs, making sure we saw no one on the way, and stopped when we got to the floor our hotel room was at. Our room was just down the right of the hallway and round a few more left and rights. We knew that it was paramount to stay absolutely quiet now; if our suspicions were right then the abductor wouldn't be very far away.
Instead of taking the quick way and turning right, we turned left leading us to the other rooms on the floor. If Maisie was near the abductor, she would have to be in one of the rooms on this side of the floor.
'What do we do?' Callum whispered so quietly that I even had trouble hearing him.
'Open the doors. Maisie has to be in one of these rooms if we're right. If she's not, then we search the other floors, agreed?' I asked.
'Agreed.'
We began to open the doors with the slightest of pressures so that they wouldn't make any sound. They were unlocked. I quickly poked my head in each of the rooms just to make sure that no one was in there, but room after room there were only cobwebs and dust laden floors. My anxiety was increasing with each room; although Callum and I were being as quiet as possible we were still making some noise. That was the exact thing we didn't want to do.
I continued opening the doors when a sound distracted me. It was muffled and hard to decipher, but sounding most like a sob. My head shot to the direction of the sound. It had come from behind a door. With every strength I had in me not to run, it would have caused too much noise, I walked to the door. The air around me was quiet again, but I was sure that the noise had come from behind this door.
As I placed my hands up to the handle I noticed that they were trembling. Someone was in this room. Even though I tried not to I couldn't help but get my hopes up thinking that it could be her. Maisie could be behind this door.
I pulled down on the handle but the lock resisted. The door wouldn't open. It was locked. My breathing quickened and a small smile even tugged at the corners of my lips. The door was locked to protect something.. Or to keep something from escaping.
'Callum!' I said, loudly.
My whole body froze. I had made a noise. I had given away our position. I turned around and saw Callum. He was looking at me with an expression mirroring my thoughts.
Fear.
We couldn't give up now, though. We were so close to Maisie. I turned back around and pulled down hard on the handle and pushed the door with my shoulder. Of course it didn't budge, but I needed to try. Callum was immediately at my side asking me what I was doing.
'There's someone behind the door,' I told him. He looked at me with the same hope in his eyes that I had and began pushing on the door as well.
'Maisie?' He called. 'Maisie is that you?'
There were more muffled noises behind the door. I could now tell what they were. The noises were someone trying to call out, but couldn't as they had something preventing them to. That sounded exactly like the condition Maisie would be in.
'Maisie!' Callum called and we both began more frantically hitting the door. There was a thud behind the door and the muffling stopped. Had someone just hit Maisie? The question only made me fight against the door more.
A creak from behind made Callum and I both stop hitting the door. We turned around. Once again, the abductor was facing us. He was standing at the end of the hallway, watching us. The air felt thicker, it was like the calm before a storm. All of a sudden the abductor began stepping towards us. He was coming, closer and closer.
Callum jumped forward, putting a shield between the abductor and I, even though he was still at the other side of the hallway.
'Poppy, keep breaking the door down!' Callum commanded.
I immediately began hitting the door, kicking the door and doing anything to the door that would make it weaker. I kept glancing back to look at Callum and every time the abductor was getting closer.
'Callum, it won't open!'
'Push it, harder! Please!' He yelled.
The muffling from inside the room began again, but louder. Maisie could hear us shouting.
'Callum!' I yelled, 'Callum run! You can't protect me just run!'
'No! I'm not leaving. Just keep working on that door!'
The abductor was getting so close now, and he wasn't alone. Harry was standing not far behind the abductor. All the hope I felt before had completely vanished with not one trace left. We weren't going to be able to get Maisie and get out of here.
'Callum, it won't open!' I shouted again.
He quickly turned his head and looked at me so fearfully, 'Okay, forget the door and just run.'
'Come on then,' I said pleadingly as Callum didn't turn around.
'Go, Poppy! Just run, I'll hold off the abductor but I want you to go!'
'But-'
'GO!' Callum yelled.
I looked at the abductor, he was so very close to Callum. He wasn't rushing his walking, he was moving slowly. Like a lion stalking its prey.
I turned and ran down the hallway, the opposite way to Callum and the abductor. I ran to the stairs and didn't look back. Only until I was out in the warm air did I collect my thoughts. I had left Callum in there. How could I do that?
I continued to run around the streets until my feet met sand. I had run to a small beach that Callum, Maisie and I found when we came on holiday here. The sun was beating down on me so I walked under the shadows of the trees and knelt on the ground. I felt so ashamed of myself. By leaving, I abolished all hope of both of us getting out.
A twig snapped behind me. I turned around but my vision was taken by darkness. Something had been put over my head. Someone grabbed my arms and began to drag me along the sand and towards the sound of the ocean.