Abandoned

Chapter 14

Madeline POV

My heart was racing.

I needed to leave.

I needed to go back for my tent, and I needed to leave.

I couldn’t stay here.

Someone didn’t want me when I was a kid, so why would they want me now? What would stop them from hurting me again? What would stop them from killing me this time? Maybe they weren’t okay with killing a four-year-old girl, but what would stop them from killing a 17-year-old one?

I couldn’t stay here.

Not even for the boys.

I felt a connection with them. I saw a birthmark. I even remembered them. The boys from my memories were very similar to these boys.

But I couldn’t stay.

I didn’t belong here.

I didn’t belong in this warm, soft bed. I didn’t belong in this house. I didn’t belong in this life.

It’s been about half an hour since the boys left me in the room.

I didn’t know where they were, but it didn’t matter. I had to leave before they came back to check on me.

I took a deep breath, removed the warm blanket, and stood up.

My body hurt like hell, but my fever wasn’t as bad as before. The pill was working. I didn’t have time for pain, though.

I had to go.

I saw my shoes in the corner of the room and rushed to put them on my feet. I couldn’t find my jacket anywhere in the room. Maybe I would be lucky and it would be somewhere by the front door.

I opened the bedroom door, trying to be as quiet as possible. I closed the door behind myself and froze when it made a small click.

Thankfully, nobody came to see what was going on.

Maybe they fell asleep?

I looked around, and I had no idea where to go. The house was huge. The hallway seemed like it had no end.

I took a chance, turned to my right, and started walking down the hallway.

Unfortunately, it was a dead end, so I turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.

As soon as I reached the stairs, I could hear quiet voices coming from the ground floor.
The voices were too quiet, so I couldn’t tell if they belonged to the boys. Was there someone else in the house? Was it the same someone who left me on the side of the road all those years ago? Would they try to hurt me again?

I hesitated to take another step.

What if they hurt me again? What if I never made it out?

I felt tears in the corners of my eyes.

I would never finish high school. I would never go to college. I would never experience anything good in my life. My life would end before I even got to live it.

The fear started gripping my insides. My heartbeat increased, and I could feel it in my throat. My palms started sweating. My breaths became short and fast.

I needed to get out of here.

Now.

If someone wanted to hurt me, they could hurt me in the room the boys left me in. If I tried to escape and they hurt me, at least I could die knowing that I tried.

I took a deep breath and started walking downstairs.

My legs were shaking.

The further I walked, the louder the voices were. By the time I reached the end of the stairs, I knew that the voices belonged to the boys.

I looked around, trying to find the front door, when I heard something that made me freeze.

“Should we tell them about her?” one of the boys asked.

The fear inside my body exploded.

Tell who?!

“Yes.” the other boy agreed. “They will want to meet her. They will be so excited.”

I furrowed my eyebrows. I was so confused. Someone would be excited to meet me? Why?

“Not right away, though.” the boy continued. “She needs more time to get comfortable. We won’t tell anyone until she tells us it’s okay.”

I felt the lump in my throat forming. A warm feeling spread all around my body. Did they really care about my feelings?

But who were they talking about?

“I love her so much.” one of the boys mumbled after a few moments of silence. “I can’t believe that we forgot her. I can’t believe that we didn’t grow up together. Why did they do it, Max?”

“I don’t know.” the other boy mumbled. “But did we really forget her, Milo? I think we just repressed the memories of her to make it easier. I remember that pain, Milo. We must have forced ourselves to forget.”

My heart clenched painfully. Tears fell on my cheeks.

I remembered them. But did I force myself to forget some stuff too?

“Something happened to her, Max.” the other boy said, and I could hear pain in his voice. “She was living in a fucking tent. I will kill whoever was responsible for that, starting with our parents.”

Their parents?

My heart raced.

“We can’t be sure that they left her, Milo.” Max mumbled. “I don’t want to think that they left her.”

“We found a forged death certificate.” Milo said angrily. “Why would they do that, Max? If someone kidnapped her, they wouldn’t fake a fucking death certificate. They would have tried to find their daughter.”

“Maybe the police declared her dead.” Max sighed.

“You don’t really believe that, Max.” Milo said. “You know as well as I do that those fuckers had something to do with it.”

My heart clenched painfully.

Did my own parents leave me on the side of the road?

I always knew that was a possibility, but a small part of me always hoped that it wasn’t them. A small part of me always hoped that someone took me from them. A small part of me always hoped that they were searching for me.

Why would they leave me? What did I do?

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

I didn’t want to listen to their conversation anymore.

It didn’t matter anyway. I would be gone, and I would never see them again.

I couldn’t stay here. Especially if my parents really were the ones who left me. They obviously didn’t want me. What would they do to me if they saw me in their house after 13 years?

Even more important, what would they do to the boys? They would surely be so angry at the boys. Would they hurt them? I couldn’t let that happen. I had to protect them.

I had to leave.

I turned around and started walking in the other direction.

I sighed in relief when I saw the front door.

I looked around, trying to find my jacket, but it was nowhere in sight.

I would just have to work and earn money for a new one. It would be okay. I was used to the cold.

I turned around toward the room where the boys were.

My heart clenched painfully.

“I am sorry.” I whispered. “I remember you too.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat, turned around, and opened the front door.