STOP PRETENDING

SPIDER: the call

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?? I thought I told you to be here in twenty minutes?... I don't care! Excuses are for wimps! You're a grown man after all. Why d'you think I picked you to be my right armed man?" Silence on the other end of the phone. "...I'm not gonna bottle anything...I brought you in our group for a reason... I don't care if it was for a bargain..." Spider swore under his breath. "Look, the kids with me now! Anyone could be watching...I'm not happy. If you're not here in the next ten minutes, then we're done for! All our careful planning would've been for nothing."
The call ended there.

Chapter four

An hour later, I reached my old folks' place. I was finally home.
Home.
Mum was ecstatic - hysterical most of the time as well: asking me all sort of questions. I tried my best answering of course as dad came into the room calming mum down. But as dad was being dad, he was mainly the calm one of the family. But in the end, it was all over.
"You should get some sleep at least." Mum went on. "You're brain won't be able to function that well from a lack of sleep, darling."
"Mum, would you cut it out! I'm 31 for Christ sake!" Mum didn't know what to say to that.
"Well, since we've got this situation sorted," dad began looking over at mums direction, "why don't we let Siobhan unpack from the guest room upstairs, huh? Give her some space." He glanced over at me.
I met his gaze feeling grateful.
"Well, I guess it's not a bad idea." Mum went on. She looked over to me and said nothing else to me after. I sighed with relief.
Mum and dad trooped back the stairs as soon as I came back from the car, carrying my small suitcase with me. Hearing the mum and dads bedroom closing quietly, I too climbed up the stairs.
The wood from the stairs made a creaking sound which made my ears hurt as it took nearly forever to climb at the top of the house that had nearly two landings overall. My legs ached all over thanks to the effort I made after reaching to one of the guest rooms at the top of the house.
As I made my way inside the room, I already noticed that the sun was high up in the sky, shining brightly that looked like it was going to be another beautiful day. Mesmerised by the light of the sun, it suddenly occurred to me that it felt like yesterday when even myself stared out of the hospital window with the white sheets laying on top of me, holding little Harry in my arms.
I suddenly looked away. I couldn't bear to think how terrified and unhappy Harry must be, all on his own with the people that took him away from me.
The suitcase containing my clothes, felt heavy as I remembered that I was still carrying it in both of my hands. I carefully placed it on the carpet and walked over to the bed.
I sat on the bed and took a deep breath.
I'm coming Harry, I promise. Just hang in there. Blowing out an aching sigh, I lay my head on the pillow and fell into a peaceful sleep.

I woke up late after a long sleep. I checked the clock on the wall. It was almost 1:30pm.
Oh darn. Maybe I needed that sleep after all.
I sat myself up and put my head into my hands, trying to push away me and Arts previous events of arguments.
"What's wrong, darling?" Said mum out of the blue. I looked up at her tired-streaked face with confusion. The only thing that was wrong was Art. I knew for certain that he was lying to me and won't own up. Full stop. The only thing I needed - more than anything in the world, was my son. Harry.
"What's wrong?" She repeated. I said nothing and put my head into my hands again.
Without even hearing her, she quietly closed the door.
Stop pretending, you liar. Give me back my son. Stop pretending to be someone you're not and just confess. Be careful who you pretend to be. You might forget who you are.
And right now, all I wanted was my child.

Straightaway, I heard my phone buzz. Seconds later, my phone was in my hand. I stared at the screen. I suddenly noticed that the person who had sent me the text, was withheld. The number was withheld. It was creepy in a way. No one on my contact list would dare send me a text that had their number withheld.
Could it be some sort of prank? No. The number was withheld, yes, but there was a name on my phone screen: code X.
That name felt more strange than creepy. So in the end, I read the text.
'If u want yr son alive, then come ALONE. Meet at Sandcove Chine. 3pm'
Now my head was full of questions. Will Harry be actually there? What was going to happen if I came went alone? What if it was some sort of trap?
What if they're here to take me away just to shut me up?
And then I knew what I had to do.
"DAD?!" I shouted. I quickly pulled the quilt away from me and sprawled out of bed, running downstairs to find my dad.
As I reached the ground floor after running to flights of stairs, dad appeared carrying a bowl of cereal in one of his hands - a worried expression filling his face.
I explained everything.
As soon as I finished, dad nodded slowly. "Well, one things for sure," he said "I'm not letting you go to Sandcove Chine alone. I'll hang back so I won't be seen, but I'm definitely going to be right behind you, sweat heart."
"Oh, dad!" I flung into his arms - being well careful not to spill his bowl of cereal. He stoked my hair.
"Don't worry, Siobhan," dad went on "we'll get Harry back. I was in security for fifteen years remember?"
"But it's only Siobhan they want to deal with," mum said, walking towards us. Me and dad drew ourselves apart and stared at her.
"So you said." He said as all three of us walked through into the kitchen and sat ourselves down at the table. Dad looked concerned. "What's that about, then?" Ignoring him, mum glanced over at me.
"Mum, what's wrong?" I said anxiously.
"I..." She paused, the cleared her throat. "...I think the people that abducted Harry, might've involved someone... Someone you know very well."
"Who?" I said, feeling much more desperate than ever.
"Well, I might be wrong...but I think it might be Art."