Taken

Chapter Eight--DENNY

I woke to the bright light streaming through the tall windows of the entrance.  A sinking feeling in my stomach hit me when I saw Jeremiah wasn’t beside me, but I had to keep my thoughts under control.  He probably went to go get something to eat, I told myself, and sat up quickly to look around.  Haven was still out, laying on a separate pillow and wrapped in a few blankets, so I folded the ones that were covering me and stood to get a better look of my surroundings.

          Hours had passed, and I knew he should have been back by now.  But the deciding factor that I was going to go look for him was his missing shotgun.  Unfortunately, I had about half the amount of arrows I started with and as I slung the quiver around my shoulders, I was at war with myself.

          Should I take Haven? Or should I hide her?  Finally, I voted to take her with me.  If something happened to me, too, then no one would be there to take care of her, so as she put her shoes on, I folded up her stuff too.  I tossed everything in a closet on my way to one of the big department stores and started to search.

          While I walked past, I picked some clean shirts up for all of us and more pairs of pants.  I had to guess on a size for Jeremiah, but I had tried to remember back when I had gone shopping with him for his Christmas outfit his parents forced him to find last year. 

          We probably searched for an hour, and I started to feel sick to my stomach.  I was almost shaking with fear as we walked down another corridor, and when someone jumped out at us, I almost screamed, but they covered my mouth and pulled me and Haven into a closet.  It was pitch black, so I couldn’t see, but I was relieved once he finally introduced himself.

          “I’m Grady.”

          “Have you seen Jeremiah?” I asked desperately, my voice shrill and loud.

          “Shh,” he warned, and as my eyes were adjusting to the darkness, I could see him check over his shoulder. A little bit of light was filtering through the slats of the door.

          “You must be Denny.” He smirked a little.  “Anyways.  Last night, they took him away into the dark,” he explained in a whisper, slowly so as I couldn’t miss a thing.  “I’m guessing you two were asleep.  I assume he heard us messing around and chose to investigate.  Seems like something he’d do, but a bad idea.  Now Boss has him locked up somewhere, but I’ve seen where they keep guys like him, so you’re in luck.”    

          “Why didn’t you stop them?” I asked, anger edging my words.  “You were obviously there, why didn’t you call them off, tell them you knew him?”

          “It’s not as easy as you think Tinker Bell,” he replied sarcastically, but it seemed fake, as if he wasn’t normally like this.  “Those men are ruthless, eager to have some fun with a gun.  You’ll be lucky if he is even there once you get there.”

          I shifted nervously and fingered the wooden charm Jeremiah had finished and given to me for my birthday that I now wore around my neck all the time.  It was a dolphin, my favorite animal, and it meant a lot to me.

          “You don’t have much time.  Luckily, I’ll show you the way.  But stay close to me and keep your little one under control.”

          “I’m very much in control,” Haven protested. “And I’m not a little one.  I’m six!”

          “Whatever.  Now shut up and let’s go.  It’s lunchtime so I don’t think they will be guarding him. The only problem is the lock on the door.”

          “I’ll pick it,” I replied quickly, and we left the closet, setting off across the mall to the department store I had come from earlier.

          “Last time I checked, they keep ‘em in here,” he said, pointing to the dressing rooms.

          We walked through and knocked on the doors, receiving no reply from any of the rooms.  “He’ll be tied up and gagged,” Grady said, so I pulled a bobby pin out of my hair and bit the tips off.

          I wiggled the pin in the first knob until I felt a give and then twisted.  The door easily swung open.  I did the same with all the others until finally there was Jeremiah, lying pale on the ground of the largest room, with his hands and feet tied and a dirty rag in his mouth. His eyes fluttered open, then narrowed on Grady.

          “Oh, God, man,” he muttered as he kneeled down.  He took out a knife and cut through the ropes that bounded Jeremiah’s limbs, and then untied the rag. He had a black eye and bruises up his arms and around his face and I escorted Haven back out of the dressing room, biting my lip to keep from crying.

          “Stay here,” I instructed her, “and come get us if you hear anything or anyone.”

          She nodded and I hugged her, then went back to the room, where I could hear angry exchanges going on between Grady and Jeremiah.  “Why didn’t you stop them you sorry little—”

          “Hey,” I said, cutting them off, and then knelt down beside Jeremiah. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself but having to keep swallowing or else I felt I was going to puke.  “Are you okay? Anything broken?”

          “Do I look like I’m okay?” He turned to glare at Grady, and then switched his gaze back to me, his expression softening slightly. “No, nothing’s broken. They just beat me a little is all.”

          “Sorry,” I said sympathetically.  “I  can’t believe they did this to you.”

          “I can,” stated Grady quietly.

          Jeremiah sat up and I had to admit, he looked rough. His hair was mangy, blood seemed to have gotten everywhere. It stained his shirt, his shorts, his socks, his shoes. Everything.  “We need to get out of here,” I said, standing up and going to grab the clothes I had snagged for him from my hiding spot.  Not that I really needed to hide it, I just needed somewhere to keep it.  I was surprised how close I had been without noticing it.

          Once we had all gathered around the entrance, I said to Grady, “Your guys aren’t very attentive.”

          “Nah.  They like to have their fun and forget about it.”

          I nodded my head and glanced quickly over at Jeremiah.  He hadn’t changed or anything, mainly because he didn’t have any water to clean up with and there was no point in changing into clean clothes dirty. 

          “There is a river about four miles north of here,” Grady said, turning towards the shadows of the deeper part of the mall.  “You can clean up there.  Good luck.”

          “Yeah, we crossed it,” said Jeremiah.  “But wait, where are you going?”

          “Huh?”

          “You aren’t going with us?”

          “I can’t,” he said as if Jeremiah had asked a stupid question.  “’You don’t abandon the group,’” he seemed to quote.  “I belong here.”

          “But we came here for you.  Specifically.” Jeremiah’s face took on a look of urgency.  “You have to come with us.”

          “No,” Grady said matter-of-factly, looking at the ground.  “I don’t. I can’t. I’m sorry you wasted your time.”

          “Yes you can,” Jeremiah pleaded, ignoring his apology.

          Grady turned and walked off into the dark.  Jeremiah slowly picked up his bag and strapped it on his back, knowing the battle was lost.  His friend wouldn’t have gone even if it meant he would die there in that mall with all those evil guys, and even though they were evil, I had to honor his loyalty. It took a lot of guts to turn down your best friend, guts I wished I had.