"I. WANT. MOMMY!!!!"
My heart lurches into my throat as I'm startled awake by Bella's screams.
I throw the covers off me and my feet pound the floor as hard as my heart pounds in my chest as I frantically search for her.
"I WANT MOMMY!! I WANT HER!!!"
The house is still shrouded in darkness making it hard to distinguish the shadows. I peek into Elliot's room but she's not there, so I softly close the door.
"Bella?" I call out, but she doesn't answer. I hear her whimpering and I know her little tear-stained face is hiding somewhere.
I check the bathroom at the end of the hall.
Nothing.
I just can't figure out where her cries are coming from. They sound like they're all around me, bouncing off every wall.
"Isabella... come out, sweetie..."
I'm just about to peek into Luca's room when she brokenly screams, "BRING HER BACK!!!"
I whip around in a panic and follow the sounds back down the hallway. Coming to an abrupt stop at the top of the stairs, I grip the railing and my heart feels like it's going to run right out of my chest as I see a faint figure standing out amongst the darkness as the bottom of the stairs.
I descend toward her slowly as not to frighten her further, but fear and confusion overwhelm me as the figure becomes clearer with each step I take.
When I reach the bottom, it's not Bella crying.
A little blonde girl is standing there; arms wrapped tightly around herself. Sobs wrack her body as she stares up at me with red-rimmed, puffy brown eyes.
"I want her back," she whispers hoarsely to me.
No, not she... me. 5 year old me, whispers.
I look around, as if the shadows will give me clarification in my haze of confusion. But what I can make out of Luca's house begins to fade away, crumbling like a sandcastle struck by a rogue wave.
"Will you bring her back to me?" she asks as I watch the living room shift into a vast darkness that feels like it's closing in on us.
"No," a sad voice answers, making my head whip back to young me.
"Why not?!" she whines, and I realize she's not speaking to me. She's staring up at something that I can't see. "Please! I need her!"
"I wish I could," the voice answers from somewhere in the shadows.
"But I'll be good! I'll be a better girl! I promise!"
My breath falters and I suddenly feel like my chest is going to cave in.
"You're already good," the voice says, closer this time. "That's not why she left."
"I don't care why! She left me all alone!" she cries. "....Are you gonna leave me, too?"
An arm, glowing as if it holds a light all of its own, reaches toward her out of the darkness.
The voice echoes softly around us, "Never."
"I'm scared!" she tearfully admits and my heart shatters into a million pieces from seeing the pain she's in.
I reach out to wipe her tears away and as soon as I touch her, she disappears and I'm suddenly on my knees. The hand is now reaching out to me and as I look hard into the inky black, I see a familiar face.
"You never have to be afraid again, Sienna," Luca vows as he steps out of the darkness. "You're safe with me."
He crouches before me, the glowing light seeping from him disperses nearby shadows.
YOU ARE READING
Clover Undercover
General FictionThe moment Clover West walks into Detective Luciano Cavella's office, his world stops on its axis. She arrives with a tight-lipped past and two incredibly important pieces of his life in which the hardened detective never knew were missing. The more...
