Perfect (Rewrite)

Chapter Seventeen

The power went out before Chloe finally returned downstairs and joined the others sitting in the kitchen. They were discussing something about a door, but she wasn't in the right mind to engage in the conversation. None of them spoke to her, not even a word. Jacob was right, no matter how much she wanted to hate him, she couldn't. Chloe just needed space and time to cool down.

"Is it possible to break it down?" Melanie asked as Chloe finally decided to listen in and be a part of the discussion.

"We've already tried that," David answered, shaking his head. "It's solid."

Melanie waited a minute and thought before asking, "Can we remove the hinges?" Who would've thought a girl like her would think of such a thing?

"There are none," David said; then he pulled out a flashlight and walked into the living room. Melanie followed him and groaned after he proved himself to be right. They returned just before the lights came back on and then everyone kept quiet, so he couldn't hear anything he wasn't supposed, anything that would've made him mad.

They slowly migrated to the living room, one by one, until Chloe received the order to go to bed. Luckily she was the first one to depart the group; she didn't ever want to be in the living room alone. She thought about the looks on her families faces the day she saw them on the TV screen, seeing them again would've only crushed her more. It killed Chloe to think of her home being invaded like that and to not know whether her mother, brother, and sister were safe or not. And what if her father came home too? Then he was in as much danger as the others.

After Chloe entered her room at the end of the hall, she fell onto her bed and shoved her face into a pillow. Then she screamed into the soft squishy fabric, closed her eyes, and, rather quickly, fell asleep.

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"Chloe," She called out. "Chloe." Chloe mumbled something under her breath as she rolled onto her side and peeked through her barely opened eyelid. Then she jumped up and looked closely through the glass in front of her. Her mother, her brother, and her sister. All there, standing, waiting, giving her that ever so creepy smile. Chloe's mother pressed the palm of her hand up against the glass and said, "I'm sorry for this. I know it's not fair." They were so close.

"What's not fair?" Chloe asked as she tried to swing her legs off of the bed to approach the glass, but her legs wouldn't move. She pushed the blanket and sheet off of her leg and stared at the straps. Then she turned back to her mom and asked, "What's going on? Why am I here, what's happening to me?" Where was she? Another one of the rooms infest with guards? No, after a sweep of the room, Chloe knew she was alone in the small room. And it seemed her family was alone in the room across the glass, staring at her, acting stranger than she'd ever seen them. 

"We don't have much time," Her mother replied, motioning for her siblings to come forward, to step closer, to say their goodbyes. They stared at her like she was a wounded creature, the sad expressions hidden behind the fake smiles. Why were they smiling? This wasn't their choice. "Say goodbye to your sister."

"Bye Chloe," Molly said as she reached up and placed her hand on the glass; Chloe struggled against the straps. She wanted to place her hand over her sisters and tell her everything would be alright, make sure she knew everything would be back to normal soon, that they would all be home, together, again in not time, but she couldn't. They were too tight to break free, and even if she could've physically done so, Chloe wasn't sure if shes would have. She had never liked lying to her siblings, especially not in front of their mother, she always managed to see right through them. And Chloe knew all of them would see right through this one.

"We'll miss you," Drew said, but he didn't place his hands against the glass, in fact, he didn't even look at Chloe again. His smile was gone; Chloe hated to see him this way. It wasn't fair for him, for Molly, for her mother, or for herself. None of this was humane.

Her mother released a tear before wiping it away. "He said that it's time honey," She answered. "You're his now."

"What?" Chloe asked before a guard entered the room and began ushering her family outside. "No, leave them alone! Let them go!" She screamed as she pulled her legs as hard as she could. Her right one broke free and then she pulled the left one off and jumped towards the glass. She beat on it as hard as she could, but her mother didn't even turn back towards her for a last longing glance. Her brother did, he looked back to her and waved, one last gesture to remember him by. "No!" Chloe screamed as her family disappeared and then the room on the other side of the glass went dark. She continued hitting and punching the glass until guards entered the room and strapped her back down to the bed, this time locking her arms up too, tighter than she could ever remember. One of them shoved a needle into her arm, pushed down on the end, and let her go. After they left the room, Chloe stared at the glass until she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. Her mother said it was time; she said Chloe was his.

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Chloe screamed as she hit something hard. Her eyes opened up, the floor was right in front of her. Somehow she had managed to roll off the bed without taking the covers with her. The door opened up and Jacob raced to her aid. "What happened?" He asked, picking her up and laying her back on the bed. Chloe's entire body was shaking and she couldn't stop it, her face was streaked with tears, and she didn't even want to imagine what her hair looked like. The waterworks poured down like the Niagara Falls. "It's okay now." He told her; then he climbed into her bed and cradled her in his strong arms. "You have me here now, it's okay. Everything's going to be okay."

"I remember," Chloe said after her sobs were almost finished. Her crying had stopped a while before, but she hadn't been ready to talk about it then. There was no point in waiting any longer, it wasn't going to change the truth, the horrifying, terrible, truth. Her family hadn't even tried to help her.

"What do you remember?" He asked, his eyes ever so brown. Chloe looked up to him and shook her head as the crying started all over again, remembering her family's faces broke her.

"I remember my family," Chloe said. "They said goodbye to me, and then they just left me here."

After a while Chloe thought Jacob had fallen asleep; then he finally said, "I'm so sorry. That must really hurt."

"It does," Chloe said, burrowing her face into his shoulder and wrapping the blankets around herself. Then she pulled them up over Jacob too. He held onto her side and rested his chin on the top of her head as she closed her eyes. "It really does."