The Extraordinary Accounts of One Lost Girl

- 6 -

I do not know how long I was unconscious for. All I remember were voices in strange accents speaking in strange languages, my head lying on a lap as a vehicle horned. The vehicle sped up. It didn't take long for me to fall sleep again.

I knew that they had been poking needles at me. My neck prickled with a strange feeling, like when the doctor drew blood from my veins with a syringe every year. I was born weak, mother said. But I have always wondered what they needed my blood for. No matter what, it just made me feel sleepy.

I heard voices again. Still in strange languages, languages I had never heard before. I heard a loud horn blaring to loud it was annoying. I have never heard a horn that loud. Not even a train was so loud. The sound reverberated right into ears. I tried to stir to block out the sound, but I couldn't move, couldn't feel my body.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the swaying. The endless swaying that made me feel nauseated. But there was nothing my stomach, so I could only retch as I leaned over from where I lay. It seemed like a bunk. I was in a room; a steel room with green painted walls. The only source of light was from a circular glass window that poured sunlight inside. I was still in the same attire as I remembered last wearing. It took me a while, to reorganize my thoughts, to figure out what was going on.

From the swaying and the found of birds outside, I could only tell that I was at sea. I was in a ship. I was not tried up. I was given a bunk bed with a pillow and a blanket. There were no other furniture in the room save for more bunk beds. But I was the only occupant on the room.

When I stood up, I didn't feel my legs. Yet I still tried to make my way to the door. I grasped the handle and shook it.

As expected, I was locked in.

I could only wait till my captors decided to check on me.

Sleep overtook me again, for the sake of not feeling sick.

I bolted awake when the door of the room opened with a groan. A woman stepped in. She was tall, blonde and wore tight trousers and a jacket. It was an attire no sane women would even dream of wearing. At least, not any women I know. She had sharp cheekbones and thick lips, hazel brown eyes and a look that seemed very serious, stoic and almost flirtatious. Her movements were like that of a soldier.

I guess that explained her clothing. She must be a soldier. Gowns and skirts hindered movements.

When he saw me awake, she smiles and poked her head outside the door to yell something at someone. The language sounded very foreign. It didn't have the purring of French, the gibberish nature of Tamil or Hindi, nor the strange sway found in Italian or Greek. At first I thought that maybe it was German, which always sounded so rustic and block like. No. Instead it was fluid and yet stoic at the same time.

'Are you hungry?' the woman asked me. Even her English sounded weird.

I nodded.

Someone spoke in the other end the woman yelled, 'Da!' before stepping in completely and closing the door behind her. She sat down in the bunk bed in front of me as I tried my best to at least not look scared out of wit.

'My name is Aanya. You are Emery Aloysius Wilows, am I right?'

I nodded.

'You are in a ship, in the middle of the Indian ocean. It is advisable that you should not try to escape, for it will only end in a watery grave.'

That was fairly obvious, I said to myself.

'I will be straight to you and say that you won't ever be returning home.'

I was kidnapped and I am in a ship in the sea. So I was not kidnapped for a ransom, which made me traveling in a ship unnecessary. So they wanted me for something else. Then I thought that maybe they kidnapped me thinking that I was an esper.

'I am not an esper,' I said.

'We know.'

'Then why am I here? It's not for a ransom. Then what? Human trafficking? But you would not waste the efforts of using an esper to kidnap someone from selling for slavery.'

Aanya smirked, flipping her long hay blonde hair to one side of her shoulder.

'I like you.'

I didn't care whether she liked me or not.

'Why am I here?'

Aanya stood up when someone knocked on the door. A tray was handed to her which held half a loaf of bread, cream cheese, a half wrinkled apple and a cup of what seemed like milk.

'Eat,' she said, handing it over to me.

I took the tray and laid on my the bunk before asking again, 'Why. Am. I . Here?'

Aanya shrugged. 'What would I know, girl. Our client wanted you. We took great efforts to find you, thinking that maybe you were stuck somewhere in the Royal Adacamy of Science only to find that you were adopted by the Willows.'

I froze. I literary froze. Aanya must have noticed it as well before she stood up and laughed, 'You didn't know?' she said with a smile. She combed her fingers through my hair. I backed away and she allowed the strands to fall down in front of my face.

'Such beautiful straight hair. I always envied those folded lid Asians and their straight hair. Look at you... Such gorgeous dark skin and bright green eyes. Reminds me of emeralds.'

Aanya took out a small circular object which flicked open, revealing a mirror and held it n front of me.

'Tell me, what features of you resembles William Antony Willows and Seetha Radalage Willows.'

I stared at the mirror. I had dark skin, green eyes and black hair. It was expected from a child born from an inter-racial mix. But for the first time, I looked closer. Aanya was right, no one of my family had straight hair, but maybe one of my grandparents did. My face was long and pointed while mother had a beautiful heart shaped face and father a handsome face with sharp angles. I saw the colour of my eyes. They were bright green, unlike father's whose eyes were dark forest green with some gold around his pupils.

No, I thought myself. She is just bluffing, or got the wrong person. I am my parents' biological daughter. But the more I stared at the mirror, the more I realized, I looked nothing like my parents. All my brothers resembled some aspects of my parents. Then I remembered that I was not an esper, when all my brothers were, even if having a normal child was relatively normal.

'You are lying,' I said to Aanya.

Aanya sighed. 'Believe what you want. But I must say, your father's superior must have thought a lot before handing you over to be adopted by the Willows. The perfect couple to adopt such an odd looking child. Only an inter-racial marriage can produce featured like yours, or a mutation. No one would question whether or not you are their daughter.'

I then remembered my mother's sympathetic gaze that always fell on my, Charles's indifference, Henry's rather respectful behavior and father's suspicious gaze. Father always studied me, as if expecting I might turn up with a flower growing on my head. Only Christopher interacted with me more, calling me stupid and trying to make me mad. The more I thought about it, the more that realized that what if Aanya said was true, then the only person who had ever considered me to be of family was Christopher. That annoying brat who always wanted to piss me off might be the only one though genuinely thought that I was his sister. He was born fours years after me, so he probably must not know.

Then I looked up at Aanya. 'Even if what you said it true, that is no reason to abduct me.'

Aanya grinned, leaning over too close that our faces were only a few inches apart.

'That is because you are not of this world, and those other-worlders wants you back.'