The Vanished

Part Nine

                                                      *A couple days after Jagger found the kids.*

   I wake up to feel a huge pressure in my right leg. I look down to see Imani wrapping a white fabric around my leg. "What happened?" I ask. She looks at me, "Jagger got you pretty good. He started firing and Kit and myself dropped to the ground, you and Jericho got shot. The bullet barely grazed his shoulder, but yours got lodged in your leg."

 "Is Jericho okay? I know Jagger got all of us with his bat." I ask. Imani responds, "Yeah he's okay. Are you though?" 

"I think so, it doesn't hurt that badly, maybe adrenaline." I respond as she connects the velcro.

"Oh no, he gave you some drugs, he felt bad for shooting you even that's the first thing he responded to." She says this with a chuckle. "What's funny? I ask. She says, "Can I give you a hot take?" And before I can respond, she says, "I don't think we should escape, living is living, and I'd rather be living than having my head bashed in with a bag."

    I gape at her, at first. But then I understand it, we don't have a death wish, but we can't live here so that's why we escaped. I feel like we knew that he wouldn't kill us, but he wouldn't let it slide.

     I sit up and notice a crutch like stick leaning against the wall and I shoot Imani a 'really?' look. She nods at me and helps me stand up, I lean on the crutch and it's pretty easy to stand with. I try walking a couple steps and fall immediately.

   I'm on the floor laughing my ass off, I was a junior high student, and not once did I ever expect that I would wind up kidnapped by my goddamn science teacher.

   Imani asks if I'm alright and I respond. "It's kind of poetic isn't it? We're told to trust our teachers at every school. But there are teachers that sa their students, abuse their students, yell at their students, manipulate their students, and kidnap their students."

"And they wonder why our generation has trust issues." 

     Imani chuckles at this. "You make a great point Anya, this world can be beyond fucked up, and we're supposed to pretend it isn't?"

     Just then, the cellar door unlocks and Jagged steps inside. I sit up and Imani places a protective hand on my leg. "How are my children doing?" He asks, "We're doing fine father, Kit and Jericho are still sleeping." Responds Imani, and by sleeping, she means they're still unconscious from when Jagged whopped them with a baseball bat.

    "Well I guess it will be just the three of us for dinner then" He walks up the stairs and Imani helps me stand, and I use my crutch to hobble up the stairs.

   We start on dinner, I'm grabbing a pan to start some ground beef when I hear a siren in the distance. I turn my head toward the sound and estimate it to be 8 to 10 blocks away. 

     Unfortunately, Jagger hears it. He springs into action, he sprays a few squirts of cologne to cancel out the scent of girls. He folds up all the chairs but one and shoves them in a closet. He tells us to step back as he trashes the bed and shoves all the utensils into a cabinet.

     He shoves us through the cellar door and down the stairs. We hear him lock all the bolts on the door and we hear a scraping sound. I think He's moving the big bookshelf in front of the cellar door to hide it, smart.

     Jericho and Kit are awake now, they've come to sit next to us. Let's be honest, we all wanted to scream out for help when we heard a knock on the door, but we were terrified, more terrified than the time in fourth grade when the school was put on lockdown because there were shots fired in the area.

     We hear footsteps approaching the door, the door opening.

"Hello officers, how can I help y'all today?" Jagger asks.

"We're going through each neighborhood, asking around, checking houses, may we come in?" A male voice with an accent that I couldn't place responds.

"Sure, but if I may ask, what are your names?"

"My name is Glenn and this is my partner, Micah."

"Nice to meet y'all, my name is Luke, come on in."

     We hear two different pairs of footsteps enter the house and begin walking through the house.

     The officer named Glenn stands next to Jagger at the table. "Can you tell me a little about yourself Luke?"

"My name is Luke Kline, I'm a science teacher at the junior high in town. I go canoeing and camping in my free time"

"Luke Kline? Did you come down to the station a few days ago?"

"Yes I did, the police suspected me as a suspect, but they released me after they sound probable evidence against another man." Jagger says, effortlessly seeming not suspicious.

"Clear!" A shout comes from another room. "Alrighty Luke." He tears a piece of paper off of a notebook pad. "Write your number down and we'll contact you if we have any updates.

     Jagger writes his number down. He hands him the slip and escorts the officers out of the house. "Good bye officers." He says as he closes and locks the front door.

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Are we ever going to find out what Jagger found in the basement? Maybe later 🤐🤷🏼‍♀️

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