Nora: finding a secret (ON-HOLD)

Chapter 1

Picture of Nora on the side

Chapter 1

I was finally home after spending long hours in the Guggenheim. This internship was taking a toll on me. For the last twenty days I hadn't been sleeping nor eating much. The cold Berliner winter didn't help at all. I just felt miserable, but the exhibition would take place in a couple of days and everything inside the museum was just complete chaos.

"How awesome does the word vacation sound?", I thought.

I lingered for a moment against the door until a pair of yellow eyes peeked from under the red sheet on the couch. Amused I watched two fluffy black paws emerging from under the piece of cloth.

"Hey, Meg! How's my little girl?", I said approaching the dark creature, "I'm sorry for being late, but the prep for the exhibit is just hell on earth...", I sighed. Megara, the black cat that's being my only companion during the last couple of months just meowed at me.

"You're hungry, aren't you? Let's see what we have for you."

I took Meg with me and went to the kitchen; I placed the gourmet cat food on her bowl and then rummaged through the fridge... But there's only a lonely plate of chicken noodle soup from the day before waiting to be eaten. On days like that I felt how the loneliness surrounded me and everything seemed darker and more difficult to endure.

I took the plate and heated it on the microwave. Then watched how Meg devoured her favourite food, her rattle tinkling. I yawned, exhausted, and waited for my meager soup to be ready.

After dinner and a relaxing shower I decided to head straight for bed. Megara followed me and jumped on top of her comfy cushion and slipped under the little purple blanket with the white paws printed on it. She meowed and it seemed as she was saying goodnight to me. I tenderly stroked the animal's soft black head and slipped under the comforter.

"Good night, missy. Sweet dreams", that was what Oma used to say to me every night, "oh, Oma, how much I miss you... I'm trying, I'm really trying to find him, but every time I seem to be on the right path, he disappears... I'll keep looking for him, just as you told me to...". Every night I "talked" with my grandma. I felt closer to her that way. I didn't forget what she said to me that fateful day.

Then I turned the lights out before the traitorous tears that threatened to spill from my eyes could properly form. The event that took place 14 years ago keeps playing on a loop in my mind, particularly at night when I'm alone with my thoughts. In the end I'm able to close my eyelids and finally set for the night.

******

"I have to look for a... Jonathan Maler... in Madrid. Who-who is he?", I started having a headache that made me stutter.

"'Tschuldigung, Nora... Ich kann nicht...", she couldn't almost speak and it was difficult to hear her. The rush of my blood made me clench my teeth.

"Oma! It hurts! What's happening? Oh, God... It hurts!, I screamed and felt my body trembling.

That's when my eyes opened and I hoped they would have stayed closed...

The men that surrounded us kept getting closer and closer and I felt the fear take my whole body, freezing me in place. Everything hurt, specially my wrist. I took a look of it and saw that it was red and had three raw and angry marks that seemed like a cat had lashed out at me.

I looked for my grandma and I saw her on the floor. Her skin was paper white and her eyes were tight shut. I crawled as fast as I could to get her, but the strange men arrived first.

"No! Leave her alone! Oma! Oma! Wake up!", I tried desperately to make her open her sweet and wise eyes, but she was unconscious.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around my body and I lashed at whoever was holding me, screaming my lungs out and doing everything in my power to set myself free. But I wasn't strong enough and I watched how those men captured and brought us to a navy blue van. The only thing I could do was try to convince our captors to leave us alone, because it seemed that my grandma was dying and the sole thought of it scared the hell out of me. If she died I would be alone. No family or friends who'd miss me. She was my guardian since the death of my parents and the only family member that I knew of.

"Please, please, we haven't done anything. I promise! My grandma is sick; look at her! We have to take her to the hospital! Leave us alone, please. We won't tell a soul about what happened", I tried to persuade that man. For a moment his sky-blue eyes set on me with a remorseful gaze.

"Sorry, kid. There's nothing I can do. I have orders to follow", he said with a deep baritone voice.

I drank in his appearance. Apart from his eyes I noticed he had cropped dark brown hair and a small scar on his left eyebrow. He seemed dangerous, but his eyes... They were gentle, even sweet-looking; it didn't add up. He was wearing black clothes from top to bottom and a letter K keychain was peeking from the front pocket of his pants. I returned my gaze to his face.

"Orders? What orders? We haven't done anything, we don't know anybody, what could we have done?", I frantically asked.

He didn't answer me and then tied my achy wrist with the other together behind my back. The man that hold my grandma left her on her back inside the van and then the one who was holding me did the same thing with me and then closed the door. I looked through the tinted window and watched how the other men took all our stuff from inside our home and brought them to the other vans that were waiting on the curb and then set the house on fire.

The vehicle I was in started down the road and I couldn't tear my eyes from the burning house that had been my home for as long as I could remember. My vision started blurring and I couldn't stop the tears that streamed down my face. I moved closer to my grandma and realized that her breathing was labourious.

"Oma, hold on. I need you... Please, hold on... Don't leave me", I whispered, weeping.

Then I rested my head on her chest and closed my eyes. I could listen to her fragile heartbeat and desperately prayed that she would be better soon, that somebody would rescue us.

My crying seemed unstoppable, but in the end darkness engulfed me and I felt asleep.

******

"...You show the lights that stop me turn to stone, you shine it when I'm alone, and so I tell myself that I'll be strong and dreaming when they're gone...", I opened my eyes to Ellie Goulding's Lights. It was one of my favourite songs and definitely gave me energy to start a new day. I tried to get rid of the distressing sensation last night's dream had left me. Every day I dream about that day, about everything that happened to us.

"Enough of that, Nora Baker!", I angrily said to myself, "Soon you'll find the elusive and mysterious Jonathan Maler and you'll have your revenge", I left the bed, fed Megara and got ready for another tiring day in the museum.