Forgotten

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

   Watching from the front seat of his car he sees Jenna and a man leave the police department. He recognizes the man but can’t pinpoint where from exactly.

   As Jenna gets in her car and the man gets in his, they leave one after another. Aaron waited three minutes before finally turning the key in the ignition and driving away. As he drives, he rubs his whiskered chin. Ten minutes outside of Anderson, he takes a sharp left turn onto a road he’s driven thousands of times before. As he thought, adrenalin rushed through him as memories came back of each and every one of the six victims taken.

   Jenna darling, it’s time you come home now. I miss you. Why don’t you want to come home?

   He hits his palm against the steering wheel and shouts out to the dead night. “No! She can’t come home yet! It’s not time! You have to wait!”

   He parks in the driveway of an abandoned house far off, with nothing but trees surrounding it. Not a single light was on inside. He smiled to himself as he got out and unlocked the door. He hears a scream and flips on a light. Processing the scene before him, he tackles the woman to the ground and drags her upstairs, back to one of eight bedrooms.

   “Please, no! Don’t make me go back!” The woman whimpers out as she drags her bare feet across the dirt covered, wooden floors. The already pale woman had gotten paler and Aaron just held tighter.

   “You think you shouldn’t be punished for this? You tried to get away, even if you did, you would die out there. You don’t know how much I take care of you!” Aaron burst out. He threw her into the room and slammed the door shut before another word could come out of her. He could hear the cries coming from the other side of the door and felt a tinge of guilt. He sulked as he went down stairs to get some tea for the woman.

   He came back up with the tea and creaked open the door. As he peered in he saw Lena curled up in the corner of the room with her red hair covering her face. She heard his footsteps and looked up. Her green eyes reflected fear and her freckled face blotched with red from crying. He came to her and knelt down to put her tea beside her. As he got closer, he saw more and more fear in her. “Lena, don’t be scared, I am taking care of you.”

   Another tear slipped and ran down her cheek. He brushed it away and she sat there, stiff as a rock. Aaron sighed, put down the tea and left, locking the door behind him.

   Why don’t they understand I’m caring for them?                                                                            

***

   Jenna wakes up to the phone ringing at three am. Eyes still closed, she feels around her nightstand attempting to make her hand come in contact with a phone. She grabs it and puts it to her ear.

   Mumbling, she rolls over and says, “Hello?”

   A woman’s voice responded, “Jenna? Are you alright? I heard screaming.”

   Waking up now and recognizing the voice on the other end as Mrs. Sanders, her neighbor. Jenna opened her eyes and flipped on the lamp. She was sweating. She brushed her wet hair from her face as she apologized. “I’m so sorry Mrs. Sanders. It was just a bad dream I guess. I’m so sorry to wake you.”

   “Well do you want to talk about it?”

   Jenna smiled into the phone. Mrs. Sanders was the sweetest woman in the world. She was always there and didn’t mind talking at three in the morning just for a little bad dream. Not growing up with a real mother, Mrs. Sanders has always seemed to be the closest she had. “No, I think I’m okay. Thank you. I think I’m just going to go take a shower.”