Hold My Hand

Chapter 4

Alistair Blake

Its been a long day. The longest one to exhaust me like this. One minute I was finishing my meeting and heading back to the airport, waiting to fly out to see my family again and the next, it was utter chaos and bloodshed. Everything is such a blur. I feel like my body has been ran over. We all stand in line as the officials takes us in one by one giving us a full body check-up. In my hand I have a five year old girl, and front of me there is this stranger who is holding this little girls eight year old older brother. One minute we were all stranger and the next, we only have each other to count on. And for some reason, I felt the need to protect these three people. The women in front of me was Aryana. She looks so young, yet the way she works and thinks, just has me glued by her side. It was a sad and troubling sight to watch the mother of these two young ones pass away and even more heart-breaking because we could not even pay our respects for the dead.

The line seemed never ending. The critically injured during the crash was rushed in while the ones they claimed as not emergency were expected to wait in line along with the other people who were being deported here and yet to be sent in. Luckily we were almost near the entrance of the facility. I could see how tired Aryana and Drake were, Lilly was fast asleep in my arm. I looked around and I could see people sitting on the floor, well something was better than nothing.

"Let's sit down here until the line starts moving yeah?"

Aryana and Drake look at me and nod their heads. They were too tired to even respond. We all sat down and it wasnt even five minutes Drake was already fast asleep in Aryanas lap. Aryana carefully caressed Drakes hair, as if she wanted to sooth away even a little pain he was feeling if possible. I could see how tired she was as she was struggling to even keep her eyes open. I was used to sleepless night because of my profession back home.

"Lean on me and rest your eyes for a while, I'll wake you up once we start moving again okay?"

"But-"

I could see that she felt so relieved yet guilty for being the only one who gets to sleep for a while and she wanted to argue. I shook my head telling her no and for some reason, I couldn't help but give out my commending aura, a habit I couldnt break and unconsciously emitted here. I was ready for her to freak out, because people generally got intimidated by my commanding voice. It rather made me appear to be cold in front of people and that never bothered me until this moment. For some reason, I didnt want her to push herself away from me. I wanted her to lean on me for some reason. I look at her, and I see her biting her lip, my eyes unconsciously follow her moment. I look back at her eyes and I don't see an ounce of fear, and for some reason all I can see in her eyes are that she is grateful and she trusts me. I don't know why and I don't know how, but that made me feel better. Anything was better than her pushing herself away from me.

Wait, what am I even thinking. God, she is young. I shouldnt let my thoughts over emotions run wild. She just feels that I am someone who she can count on because she has no one else. But the thought of her depending on anyone other than me also didnt sit well in me. I finally see her nod and agree to my suggestion.

"Only for a few minutes. I'll just rest my eyes for a few minutes." She whispers, as if she was trying to convince herself.

I couldn't help but give a soft smile and agree. "Only for a few minutes."

Not that I was planning to wake her up until it was our turn. She leaned closer to me and rested her head like it was the most natural thing and like it was a habit and her body exactly knew what it wanted. And oddly, I liked that. She falls asleep within few minutes. I look at her and see that she has fallen into deep sleep. Her breathing comes in a rhythm. I could see that she was a little bruised up here and there due to the crash. Her hair was tied in a messy manner, her face wasnt covered in makeup. And despite being beaten up, she still looked gorgeous. She looked like such a harmless kitten now but I remember back to the time when she was ready to fight the guy for a piece for extra food for the kids, she hand her claws out and was ready to strike. I cant help but deep down for some reason be proud of her for standing up for whats right.