Abducting Avery ( completed )

Locked Up

Avery woke up somewhere else this time; it was still dark, but the room she was in had a window and the moon's light shone bright enough through the glass for her to see the metal bars in front of her, confining her to a filthy cell. She was laying down on a small cot-like bed with dirty and terribly itchy sheets. The room was cold, the atmosphere ominous and frightening.

It reminded her of the scary movies her mother used to watch, late at night when Avery was supposed be asleep. She was never allowed to watch them with her mother, but that didn't stop her from trying. A few times she'd fake being asleep, then sneak into the living room and hide behind the couch to get a glimpse of what her mother was hiding from her. It's safe to say the view granted her a slight lecture from her mother about disobedience and a week's worth of terrifying nightmares. But nothing she'd ever seen on those horror movies could compare to this.

For a while, she just laid there, too scared to speak and too cold to move. That was when another voice was heard. It wasn't the same voice as the man from earlier. The tone was lighter, softer and feminine. It called out to her, encouraging her out of the bed and her feet onto the ground.

"Hey... You!" The girl whispered to her as their gazes fell upon each other. 

The girl was bigger than her, ten or eleven years old maybe. She had curly blonde hair and blue eyes, just like Avery, but she looked hurt and tired. Her hair had dirt and blood mixed in with it's messy clumps and it looked like the hair had been self-cut around the face and the back left long, reaching down to the girl's midsection.  She stared at Avery with wide yet sad eyes, urging her to come forward. She was locked inside her own cell, her fingers wrapped around two of the bars and her head rested against them as she looked over at Avery.

As Avery approached the front of her cell, the girl across from her smiled.

"What's your name?" The girl asked, keeping the same warm smile painted on her grief-stricken face. The way she appeared to Avery, it seemed like it hurt to smile. Like every muscle in her face worked against her, forbidding her to be happy. 

"Avery." She replied softly, a couple warm tears flooding down her face and her heart racing. The strange girl's smile faded and she looked down at the ground.

"My name is Charlotte.... Don't worry, Avery. We won't be here long. He takes us a lot of different places, that way the bad people don't find us and take us away from him. He won't hurt you, just don't ask too many questions and don't make fun of him. He takes good care of us." 

Avery shook her head, wiping at her cheek to rid it of the wet tears. "I want my mommy."

Charlotte shook her head. "Don't tell say that a lot, he'll get angry. He says he takes better care of us."

Avery sighed, choking back a few more tears, trying to appear strong in front of the other. It was hard, especially for a four year old girl scared out of her mind.

"He usually keeps up separated, to keep us from escaping or talking too much. He's running out of places to keep us, though. We aren't the only ones. There are four others. I'm the oldest. I've only met the other four once, when he had to move us all together because the bad people were too close to finding us. It was too early for us to be asleep yet. We only got to talk for a few seconds. I forgot their names, it was so long ago..." Charlotte sighed; she'd likely been with Bruno the longest. "He'll be back soon. It'll be better if you pretend to be asleep, that way he doesn't try talking to you. He's been... different, lately. You have to watch what you say. He gets angry easily." She warned softly, as if she knew he'd be back any minute and she didn't want to get caught badmouthing him.

"Okay." Avery replied, biting her lip. Charlotte forced another smile at her, before retreating inside her cell at the sound of a door down the hall creaking open slowly. The sound of heavy footsteps echoed throughout the building, and with Charlotte's fair warning in mind she rushed over to the  bed, got in and squeezed her eyes shut. She grasped Biscuit with one hand, then propped a finger in her mouth and pretending to be asleep.

Seconds before she finally dozed off, she felt a cold, dirty hand running gently through her hair and caressing the side of her face. Somehow little Avery was able to imagine those freezing cold, foreign hands were her mother's. Then, her mother's voice sounded distantly in her head, which slowly lulled her to sleep.

-----

Heather's night was spent curled up in her daughter's bed. Having skipped her medication, the voices spoke to her, distant in her head but their tones full of worry. With every breathe she took, the scent of her daughter - her hair, her clothes - washed over her and with each second sprung a new tear from her eyes. Barely moving her lips, from them she released a softly sung lullaby, one that she would sing to Avery every night before she went to bed. Without her daughter's teddy to cuddle up to, the song was the only thing she had left to hold onto. With an exhausted voice she sang:

Angels watch over my baby,

Grant her a lifetime of your care

So that even when I can not be with her

I'll know you will always be there.

Angels watch over my baby,

Grant her a lifetime of your love

So that even when my eyes are closed

I'll know that you watch over from above.

Angels watch over my baby,

Bless every eyelash and curl.

For there is no one on earth any dearer

to me than my little baby girl.

The thought of never seeing Avery grow up, have children or get married came down on her that night, and it was the first time in a long time that she cried herself to sleep, barely able to imagine what would of happened had she lingered in her daughter's room just a little bit longer, if she held onto her daughter for just a few more seconds before saying goodnight.