I've Got Your Back

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

When I came to the only thing I could process was the pounding headache I had and how I was sure my head would explode any minute. It took me a minute to realize my hands and feet were tied. I panicked not knowing where I was; not knowing where any of my friends were. Where was everyone? I thought frantically. My eyes were still adjusting to the bright white light so I had to squint in order to see. The bright white bulbs were illuminating the clean white tiled floors, and even whiter walls. Painfully I turned my head to the side and saw him.

Tyler.

Beaten and bruised, blood caking his hair, handcuffed and tied to a too clean white pole, his mouth gagged- unconscious.

A gasp tried to escape, but it got caught in my throat. What have they done to him? I tried pulling my hands out of the ropes, but they just got tighter cutting into my skin. My eyes were glued on Tyler, and the bruises all over his body. I was far from him, very far, but thanks to my heightened vision I could clearly see every stab wound and slash of a knife on his, face, chest, back and arms. His wrists were bloody, probably from him trying to escape the cuffs. He looked so helpless, so defenseless sitting there. I cleared my throat and started to yell.

"Tyler!" No reaction but still I continued, "Wake up! Tyler! Tyler can you hear me?! Help? Somebody help us!!"

Still no answer.

A dreadful thought entered my mind; was he dead? He couldn't be dead,they wouldn't kill him.

Would they?

I started to hyperventilate. I lost Hunter already, I couldn't lose Tyler too. I looked closer, trying to ignore the slashes on his body, and saw the rise and fall of his chest. I slumped back against the cold metal pole, relieved. He was alive, that much I knew. I looked around the big white room, trying to find a door, a window, anything to the outside world. There was none.

I opened my mouth to try and wake him again, when a voice behind me interrupted.

"Oh honey, there's no use. He can't hear you."

My head snapped to where it was coming from. There was a woman standing over me, her flawless features striking. Her brown hair was cut perfectly right under her chin, and her bright blue-green eyes stood out on her fair complexion. She was wearing a white blouse (I was seeing a common pattern here), tucked into a black knee length pencil skirt. But what was even more noticeable, was the fact that she looked exactly like me. It was like watching a middle aged me, a me in the future who obviously had my life together.

"Who-who are you?" I asked finding my voice.

Her face clouded, like she was genuinely puzzled. "Ava,I thought you would recognize your own mother."

Mother? I felt as if I had been slapped in the face. This was my birth mother, the woman who had carried me for 9 months before dropping me off by my real family.

"Mother?" I spat at her. "If you're really my mother, tell me why all the theatrics? Tell me why you had to kidnap my best friend. Don't look at me like that. Were you expecting me to be happy? To give you a big hug? You should have thought of that before binding my hands."

"But Ava," she said seeming confused. "I'm your mother."

"No you are not. You may have given birth to me, I may have your DNA, but you are not my mother. And I will not answer any of your questions until you let Tyler go and answer some of mine.

She sighed, "Adolescences. I should have known you would react like this. Tell me darling, why are you so concerned for the well being of this human?"