A year with my kidnapper

20

It has been several weeks after the girls had come back. It took a few days for everything to settle down from the shock of what had happened. The men that were guarding the girl's doors were removed. As well as the freedom to roam around the estate again. Even though everything returned to normal for the girls it hadn't for the boys. Having gotten a physical description of this man Xavier and Quin spent their time trying to find this man. Hiring the best hackers and lurkers that money could buy this still wasn't enough to find him. He might as well have been a ghost that Justin and Will imagined as nothing anywhere could find him.

For the next few weeks, Ember started to realize that the day of October 31st was closely approaching. She realized this one night while she was sleeping. In her dream, she was all alone until she found Xavier. He said that everything had been faked and he never wanted her to stay here in the first place. Ember's body violently shook her awake. Her heart was beating fast, her skin felt clammy and her body felt hot. After being woken up she sobbed for the rest of the night.

The next day Ember came to Beatrix to tell her about the dream. Even though Beatrix has come to the same realization she decided to remain positive.

"Don't worry Ember. They would never do that" Beatrix assured Ember. Although Ember's initial reaction was to agree with Beatrix her mind thought differently. Her first interaction with Xavier is what came to mind. The papers. The seal on the papers. The transcript of the conversation. The timestamps. The rejected refusals. She always knew this fairy tale wasn't going to last but refused to believe that. Now she is forced to acknowledge just how ignorant that was.

Upon realizing this, Ember went manic. As days went by Ember started to spend time with every single person in the estate. Whether they were a servant, a cook, or lived downstairs, it didn't matter. Ember wanted to remember every part of this place down to the very dust bunnies. This made Ember continuously bounce around the estate from person to person every day never taking a break. That was until September 4th came around. 

~~~

Ember had just finished being around the lead cook from the kitchen and was headed downstairs to be with one of the guys when Will and Justin came downstairs. Ever since Ember went manic and jumped around the estate everyone took notice that it was blatantly obvious that something was wrong. But anytime someone would ask her about it they received a vague response before she ran off somewhere else. Never stopping, always on the move. 

"Hey Ember wait," Justin said jogging toward her

"Oh hey Justin, hey Will what's up?" she said putting on a noticeably fake smile

"Look, you know we care about you right?" Justin started 

"What's this about?" she asked trying to deflect

"Ember, we know something is going on with you" Will stated

"Why are you running around the estate like this?" Although she knew this was bound to happen she wasn't prepared for how would feel afterwards. She knew exactly what was happening and what she was doing but she didn't want to come to terms with it. She wanted to avoid facing the current present. Because if she faced the present then she would have to acknowledge that in a certain number of days, she and Beatrix would have to go back to their previous lives they lived abandoning their current one. 

Eventually, she came back to the present moment as her whole body ached in pain. Ember held onto Justin and Will as her legs began to give out falling into the boys. With her body shaking and her face beginning to twitch as well as her lips trembling. Ember with all her might let out the rawest sob within it held unexplainable amounts of pain and agony. Her grip on the two boys strengthened as if they would disappear into thin air at that moment. They were also holding onto her but with much more care as they both wondered what they could do to help her at that moment. Every cry echoed throughout the estate while with each sob her body was racked. In between sobs, Ember would gasp for air having to be reminded to breathe from one of the boys. The cries had echoed so far around the estate that they reached Xavier and Quin who turned white upon hearing those cries and immediately rushed toward them. The scene they saw was Ember twitching and walling with a death grip on Justin and Will as Justin and Will were looking around wondering what they could do.