Boscha Noceda

Chapter 10: Taken

A few days later, after Luz was less scared of Boscha, Camila went to get dinner and Gabe was in charge of watching the children, which was pretty easy as the day of running around the house playing had just tired them out and they were on the couch, fast asleep. There was a knock on the door and Gabe went to answer it. He opened the door and was knocked out by a baseball bat to the face. The wielder of the bat swept back his hair and adjusted his glasses after that brutal swing. He made his way through the kitchen to the living room, where he spotted the girls napping. Quietly, he crept up to the couch. He looked at Boscha with interest and poked her temple with his index finger, causing her eyes to flinch.

All three of them.

"So it IS true."

In his haste, he pushed Luz away from Boscha in his effort to take her. This woke the human child, who looked at the stranger holding her sister in his clutches. As soon as she realized it wasn't her mother or uncle, she took a deep breath and let out the loudest shriek she could muster. Boscha woke up instantly, hearing the cries of her sister and thinking she was in danger. When she found herself in the stranger's arms, it dawned on her that she was the one in trouble. Immediately, she thrashed and clawed any part of him within reach, knocking off his name tag in the process. Luz joined in, kicking the man in the shin. Wincing in pain, he kicked back, knocking her to the floor.

"LUZ!"

Boscha was furious at seeing her sister harmed, and swung at the man with closed fists this time, causing him to drop her. Immediately upon landing, she made another magic circle. But before she could incinerate the intruder, she saw Luz behind him, her face frozen in fear. She hated seeing her with that expression, hated that her own sister was afraid of her. She couldn't use her fire. She gave up. That's when the intruder swung the bat and Boscha, knocking her out.

"Boscha!" Luz screamed.

The intruder kicked Luz back, knocking her into the wall and making a picture frame fall and break over her head. Her small still developing head could not take the impact and was knocked out and bleeding from the glass. He managed to pick Boscha back up and hurried out of the house. He stumbled over Gabriel and slipped on the lawn, but he managed to escape.

About half an hour later, Camila drove up to the house with dinner. Before she could even pull into the driveway, she noticed the front door was wide open. Immediately, she realized that something was wrong, so she armed herself with a tire iron and ran into the house. She made it into the living room where she saw a battered Gabriel tending to Luz, who herself was injured.

"Mija!" Camila said, "Oh no, what happened!?"

Luz was still in a daze, and couldn't offer a reply beyond a pained moan.

"I'm sorry, Milly." Gabe looked to Camila, revealing the bruising and hematoma on his face.

"¡Ay, carajo! Gabe, are you okay?!"

Her brother-in-law flinched when she shouted. "Not in the least. Whoever did this blindsided me, and when I came to, Luz was hurting and Boscha..." He took a moment to collect himself. "...they took her."

"Who?!" Camila roared. "Who the hell took my girl?!"

Gabe tried his best to think of who it was, but he only saw the culprit for a split second before being knocked out, so he had little to go on. Luz, on the other hand, pointed to a spot on the floor where the scuffle occurred. Camila looked and found the name tag the culprit dropped. A tag bearing the name of one Jacob Hopkins. Camila grabbed it and went to her room. She went to her closet and went to the safe behind the clothes. She typed in the code and opened it, pulling out a revolver. Heading back downstairs, she checked on Luz one more time.