10 Jan 2010 |
| We had run on and on, finally finding a small hotel where we could stay the night. It had a little store where they sold some extra snacks for the road. I bought a lot with my cash. Our room had two beds, a T.V., and a dresser. It also had another room that it was connected to. Dan and I sort of had a mutual decision that we wouldn’t touch even the door and when we signed in to use fake names. Mine was Gianna and Dan’s was Richard. The beds were covered in flower petal quilts that made me shiver. I had never seen anything so nice and homely. It almost made me sick to think about that. I suppose that the reason I had never seen something like that was because my mother was dead. And that happened when she was driving along the road to our old house. It was at night and a hit and run. She had been meant to die. So had Dan and I. But for the miraculous reason that was life we survived. Dan and I were three. And I knew that the bomb that day and her death were oddly linked. I had uncovered these facts when my dad had gone on one of his business trips I was looking for something in his office. There was a drawer that was locked so I got Dan to open it, one of his special talents, out of plain curiosity and what I saw inside almost frightened me, almost. There had been files. File after file on her. On my mother. From her marriage to Kory (my dad) to her death, five years later. I didn’t read most of them because I was afraid of what I would find. I quickly put everything back. And that was the last I ever thought of my mother. Until now. Now I really missed her and wanted her to be here for me. Maybe even doing something like it’s going to be O.k., giving me reassurances, or stroking my forehead. The kind of stuff they did in movies. I felt silly and useless. Right now I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except Dan. Hopefully I would always have Dan No matter whatever happened. I would always have him. And together I knew we could get through this. Whatever this was. And that was my last thought before I climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep. Before I knew it I was being roughly shaken awake and even in my semi-awake state I could tell that something was wrong, utterly definitely wrong. I could tell that I was in a vehicle and that I was moving, from the sway of the car. My hands were tied behind me for I could feel the rope scratching a dent into my skin. But I immediately I knew that it wasn’t my captor shaking me awake; I could tell that the hands were my brother. Rough but careful. Finally I opened my eyes. And I saw men in black suits sitting in the passenger and driver seats. I very quietly gave a moan of alarm since I then saw that I was also bound at the ankles, too. I then looked into my brothers eyes and saw that he was obviously happy that I was awake, but there was also the same dismay that I felt. Suddenly, one of my captors, the one in the passenger seat that was bald, glanced back and saw that I was awake. He seemed happy by this, since he turned back to his partner with the tiniest of grins playing across his rough features. They spoke in whispers for a long amount of time, during which Dan and I exchanged small sad smiles. Then Baldy turned back to us and said, “We will be there shortly. You might want to ask your friend to help you get your bonds off as I see he has already done so for himself.” Then I looked at my brother and he very willingly untied me though I knew even without looking at him that he hated the men for getting past him. I leaned back slightly so I was almost in his chest, saying, “It’s o.k. There’s a fifty percent chance that these people can tell us what’s going on.” “And the other fifty percent chance is that they can kill us right now while we aren’t watching!” He growled back, into my ear. But this didn’t worry me and we waited in silence through the rest of the ride. And finally the car stopped and the man in the driver’s seat turned around. He had a scar that ran the length of his face, from hairline to chin, which sent a shiver of horror down my spine. His voice was hard and gravelly when he spoke, “Welcome Danielle, you are a hard girl to find and an even harder girl to understand. You shall need some clothes, I expect, no? We will get them for you inside. By the way, this is HQ. Welcome to the world of spies.” |