Their Situation, Our Problem

Chapter 7: Sofia

The group arrived at Sofia and Amara's house promptly. The house was dark, which was expected, yet, disappointing at the same time. She had hoped that her parents had for some reason delayed their cruise. Today had been the start of a three-week couples cruise to celebrate their twenty years of marriage. And while it was a well-deserved break, she really needed her parents right now. Alas, life wasn't so fortunate.

Elijah parked in the driveway but didn't turn off the car.

"We did our part. You're home. Off you go now," Rachel dismissed them with the whole shooing motion and all.

"I don't exactly have my keys with me. They weren't really on my mind as I was trying to dodge psychopaths earlier," Amara snapped at Rachel.

"I'll jump the fence into the back yard and go in the back doors. I'll open the front door for you when I'm inside." Sofia intervened before they could start arguing. She opened the door and jumped off. She hesitated before leaving. She wasn't exactly comfortable leaving Amara alone with them.

"We'll help Blondie out and to the front door," Elijah added when he noticed Sofia's hesitancy. She turned to Amara, who nodded. She looked at Elijah once more before walking off.

Sofia walked to the side of the house. There was a tall wooden gate enclosed by two rock posts. She had jumped this gate thousands of times but she could tell her adrenaline was wearing off as her shoulders were starting to bother her. She knew she had hurt her back and shoulder earlier thanks to her tango with the thugs, but she was decidedly ignoring any feeling slowly creeping back into her system. It also didn't help that the last time she jumped the gate, she was wearing converse and not heels. She looked back at the SUV, and she could see both of the oldest Arsenic's staring at her through the windshield. Their lack of faith was plainly written on their faces and in her true defiant nature she turned and squared her shoulders. Sofia placed her hands on the gate and post, jumped, and pulled herself up the gate. Her arms buckled and she fell on the post. She had never been more grateful that her mother had always made her wear spandex shorts underneath her skirts and dresses than at that moment, as she lay bent over the post with her rear end facing the SUV and by default, everyone. It knocked the breath out of her, but she took a second to inhale and exhale calmly before rising again, and pulling herself into a sitting position. She didn't dare look back at the SUV. She turned around and dropped, rather gracelessly, into her backyard. She was lucky she didn't hurt her ankle.

She made her way to the back of the house and to the sliding doors that led inside. She picked the hidden keys from under a pot and made her way inside. She wasn't sure what it was but she got an eerie feeling as soon as she stepped foot in the living room.

Sofia set the spare set of keys cautiously on the coffee table. Nothing moved and nobody jumped out. She was met with loud and deafening silence. Her heartbeat was the loudest thing in the room. Nothing was out of place. The couches were up against the walls. The TV was still mounted on the wall. The tall old school CD rack was still in the corner. Nothing was out of place. Except for a small sized envelope taped to the TV. It was white, normal sized, one of those expensive and pretty looking ones with Amara's name elegantly written on it, in her mom's handwriting. She peeled it off the TV and realized it had a gaudy, red, wax seal that you would find in one of those medieval themed TV shows.

She made to rip it open but a small sound behind her stopped her. The eerie feeling returned with a BAM! A footstep. A footstep is what she had heard. Fear froze her to the spot and it seemed like eons before she finally heard the noise again. Except it wasn't noise, it was a voice.

A gravelly, quiet and definitely male voice whispered behind her, "took you long enough."

It felt a lot longer than it actually was, but she still didn't react fast enough. Sofia bolted for the hallway that led out of the living room, but he was expecting that. He caught her before she could reach the hallway and yanked her back. If the silence was deafening before, her screams were earsplitting now.

"Listen here, bitch," he snarled in her ear, but he didn't finish. He fisted his hand in her hair and pulled her back into the middle of the living room, shaking her rather harshly to get her to shut up. But as cheesy as it sounded she wasn't going down without a fight.

He jerked her around so she faced him. Sofia was expecting a dirty, rough-looking, man with yellowed out teeth or something along those lines but it was just an average looking man. There was nothing out of the ordinary and he seemed completely unmemorable if not for the pure hatred on his face.

"I said listen," he rasped again, and Sofia couldn't help but whimper as he tightened his hand, "you made a mistake. It's time to pay for that."

He pulled her closer and Sofia's first reaction was to pull back but his hold of her made it impossible. She heard a commotion coming from the front door and so did the intruder. They heard her. The Arsenics heard Sofia's screams and they weren't leaving. They were trying to come inside. All she had to do was hold out. The intruder was thinking the same thing because he started pulling her backwards to the sliding doors.

"You're not getting away." He grunted as Sofia struggled against his hold.

Fighting him was not working, so she decided on a different tactic. She went limp, looked up at him, and spit at his face. His shock momentarily loosened his hold and she used the opportunity to push him as hard as she could. His hand was still twisted in her hair so she tumbled down with him. They fell back, against the TV, which came crashing down as well. He took the brunt of the hit as he hit the TV. She used his disorientation to disentangle herself and crawl away. She made it two steps before she realized there was another man already inside the house. The second man was walking into the living room from deeper inside the house with a bag half filled with stuff. He took a second to take in the situation before making his way to Sofia, but at that exact moment, Elijah and Colton walked in through the sliding doors behind her.