Forced Family 3

S I X

Twisting in the sheets, Annika grunts feeling her arms being held down.

Her worst fear of being confined debunks itself when with another struggle she's sitting up in bed panting at the gravity of her ever-real nightmare coming true.

Forest eyes dart around the room, panic sets in, her breath hitches at the cheery pink walls, the curtains that moved in slow paces at the gentle wift of the wind.

It was real.

Last night, Happened.

Her hands fly to her face wanting to secure even the slightest similarity. Shakily, they line her bottom lip, there are no new foreign bruises on her cheeks or eyes she could feel. Removing herself from the blankets and bed completely, she scans the room in full feeling two feet tall at the size of the furniture. 

Ballerina decor with glitter and hints of Pairs styled the room. It resembled every little girl's room in the Lifetime movies. The chilling thought haunted her as she paced to the window gulping peering at the ground below.

Clearly, she resided on the second if not the third story of the home. Pulling at the window, she grunts at its resistance to open. Backing away, Annika feels the familiar sting of tears burning her eyes, the intensity of her current situation overwhelms her as she pulls on doors in the room in hopes of one unlocking to the outside.

One opened to the closet, the size of her old bedroom in the apartment. The next to a bathroom with another door in it. Wanting to investigate further, she decides to save it for later as she moves to the last door in the bedroom itself placing her hand on the knob inhaling deeply twisting it.

The doorknob flings itself back, the sound of a locked door being no stranger to Annika that cries at it. 

Her eyes slip shut, tears spilling onto her cheeks as she backs away from the door in defeat. Roaming the room once more from her position on the floor she sniffles seeing a name with sparkling letters spelled across the bed, Annika Grace.

Her breath hitches, her eyes brightening as she realizes that the men had the wrong girl! Her name was Annika Jane, she feels herself calm knowing that the minute it was sorted out she'd more than likely be let go.

Or killed, you've seen their faces. They wouldn't let you live.

Knowing her subconscious has a point, Annika groans chalking it up to stress. She rises wiping her cheeks of the tears retreating to the bathroom to see what laid behind the door she didn't go through.

Liam runs a hand through his hair taking a seat at his desk, he glances at the picture frames showing Niall, and Louis, the lone one of the family together.

Louis' grin was impossible to miss.

He looked content, loved, and most of all safe. 

Safe from any horrors the boys had suffered before in the care of their mother.

Niall enters the room suddenly, he has sympathetic eyes that grow concerned the minute their eyes meet, "Tell me," He pleads knowing Liam wouldn't have spoken at all if not forced. 

The younger husband sighs bringing the book he'd written to Niall's view, "What makes us different?"

"I haven't killed anyone," Niall admits the obvious strolling closer to Liam's desk with an apologetic smile, "We won't scare them-"

"We already have," Liam growls rising from his chair stopping Niall from closing the gap between the two, "I-I just have to know,"

"Know what?" Niall returns, "That we're not them." 

Slapping her hand to her mouth, Annika's breath trembles, she feels her knees weakening the longer she stands on them staring at the room she'd just entered.

Apparently, the bathroom didn't only belong to her, there laid in the next room over sits a crib, a playpen, rocking chairs - it was a room straight out of a baby catalog. She traces her bottom lip as she brings her hand from her face attempting to control her breathing to not alert anyone on what she'd just stumbled into if they were listening.

The room was dark unlike hers, the lone window in the room had blackout curtains with only a hint of sun peeping through. In the slits of the curtains her forest eyes can mask out the furniture, and what resembles a hump in the bed, a body if someone was sleeping in it.

Stepping forward, her feet move from the tile floor of the bathroom to a luxurious carpet beneath her.

She can feel the carpet rise between her toes, part of her wanting to bury herself in the fabric. Clenching her fists, Annika propels forward swallowing past the burning lump in her throat. 

She can hear the Heat kick on, the curtains beginning to shift at the movement from the vents on the floor, the room dances in random spurts of light - what she thought could be a body is confirmed as the room brightens at times letting her see it more in full.

The name THOMAS is spelled above the crib, her heart leaping to her stomach as she gasps in horror. 

Sticking her hands through the bars in the crib she shakes the boy in an effort to awake him, "T-Tommy, Thomas!" Her attention flies to the side of the crib wanting to undo the bar. 

The boy groans shifting from his position, tears prick his eyes as he glances up at his sister, "W-wha-?" A pacifier pops from his mouth landing on the floor outside of the crib, both siblings shoot their eyes to the damned thing.

Silence encaptures the two as the reality of the current situation sinks in. Thomas remains in the crib, Annika outside of it staring at the pacifier now barren on the floor. 

"D-do you-you think 'Mumma knows?" Thomas asks softly, his hands wrap around the bars glancing at his sister, "I-I don't know Tommy," She admits wishing with everything Danielle would finally be a decent mother and file a missing person.

The bus had to have cameras.

Someone must've seen.

They would be found. 

We'll be rescued, Annika thinks to herself eyes remaining uneasily glued to the pacifier.

>The Update has arrived! Enjoy! All the love, Emma :)