Dire {h.s.}

13

Ava Manakova

My hand is quick to shut the door behind me, and I do it so quietly that even Harry won't hear it... and he hears everything.

Locking it helps too, it reassures my safety in this confined room for just a moment. Slow and steadily, I walk towards the phone, my heart seems to be beating faster and faster the closer I get, and I can't seem to catch my breath once I stop in front of it.

This is it, one more chance served to me with no distractions, there's nothing to stop me from finally getting help. I've been looking forward to this day for so long.

My hand is shaking so much as it reaches for the phone, that I might press the wrong numbers when dialing the most important three.

Please don't mess this up.

My finger presses into each digit slowly, I'm so nervous I can hardly breathe. But then my mind changes at the last minute, and instead of dialing three numbers, I diall ten. I stand near the nightstand with the phone pressed up against my ear, waiting for her to answer.

Please answer.

When the line cuts to a voice, one that's so familiar, everything in my heart shatters and I can't control the cries that escape me. Just hearing her voice for the first time since I've been taken is another level of emotion I can't describe. I never thought I'd hear her again, and I have to force my cries to be quiet or else I'll get caught.

"Hello?" she says through the phone,

I sniffle my cries back, trying to get a word out, but it's too much for me to handle.

"Ava? Is that you?" she begins to ask with panic laced through her voice, I can already hear her cry too.

A wave of strength rises within me when I finally say,

"Y-Yeah, it's me, mom."

"Oh my god! Will, it's Ava! She's called me!"

"Mom," I say, trying to calm her excitement down. I feel terrible, she's getting excited, thinking I'm okay and returning home. I want to, but I don't know how this will all end up.

"Are you okay? Where are you? We've been so worried, Ava!"

"Mom, you need to listen to me, try to record what I'm saying, okay?" I say, hoping for the best.

"Is everything okay?" she asks, worried.

I sniffle, I can't tell her everything I've been through, it would break her. I can't do that to her. "J-Just make sure you're recording everything I tell you, okay?"

"O-Okay," she says, before another voice comes through the line.

Dad.

"Ava, where are you sweetheart?" he asks, and I can't help but cry again.

"I-I am, I'm fine," I lie, "are you recording this?"

"Yes, dad got his phone out, he's recording this on the voice app." mom says, I smile at her calling Voice memos 'the voice app'. I miss her so much.

"Don't panic, don't worry––I'm okay." I begin to say,

Mom interrupts me, worrying, "What is it? What happened?"

"I've been kidnapped."

The biggest weight lifts from my chest, and I've never felt so relieved. I finally told someone, I'm going to get help, I'll finally get to go home.

"Oh my god!" she cries, and I feel horrible.

"I'm okay, but you need to listen to me because I don't have much time. I don't know what state I'm in, I don't know which forest I'm in, but I'm in a cabin. We won't be here for long, and they'll take me back to where they first brought me." I explain, "A small cabin in the middle of nowhere, it looks abandoned, but it's not. In the basement of it, is a secret room. There's others like me, girls who have been there longer than I have."