SEVENTEEN years to Live

16 ●○► A JOURNEY

CHAPTER 16

A JOURNEY

Tears immediately flood in my eyes, making my sight blur. I stand there still, stiffed. What Janine just told me makes me want to blame myself for following Jamela to their house. I don’t know if I can forgive myself for leaving them.

“Who captured her?” I ask.

“The guards,” Janine says.

“Why did they capture her?”

“We don’t know,” she mutters. “They just took her.”

I glance over her shoulder at Kate and Heather. Their palms are covering their faces while they sob. In a few moments, the door opens behind me. I turn around, and Bryan steps inside the house.

“What’s wrong, Mary?” he asks, closing the door behind him. His eyes go to Kate and Heather who were seated on the floor/bed. “Why are they crying?” he asks after a few moments, gesturing a hand at them.

“Bryan,” I say. He turns to me quickly and pays attention. “Beth has been captured by the guards.”

He frowns at what I said. At first the expression on his face seems like he doesn’t believe. He keeps quiet for a minute. Then he shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “That can’t happen.” His eyebrows meet together. “The guards cannot do that. They have no reason for capturing her.”

Silence. He glances at Kate and Heather over my shoulder, and I follow. They are listening to him, their eyes red and tired of crying. I look back at Bryan. He glances back at me and says:

“What can I do to help?”

“You’re the son of the mayor,” Janine says. “Do you think you can convince your father to free Beth?”

Bryan looks at her and stares at her for a long moment. Janine has a point in what she says. He is the son of the mayor. If he can convince his father to free Beth, Beth can still live with us. I hope that Bryan can do it. If he cannot, we cannot see Beth anymore. They will kill her. I don’t know. But if they do, they just can’t do that. They have no reason to do that.

“I don’t know if I can,” says Bryan, a little melancholic. “If she did not do anything wrong, there is no reason for the guards to capture her.”

“But do you know where they take her?” Janine asks.

He sighs. “I know where they take someone they capture,” he says. “But we can’t go there this time. It’s too dangerous for us.”

Janine nods. “When will we go?”

“We can live in the morning,” he tells her. Then he looks at me after Janine nods once again. “Mary,” he begins, “we’re taking so long. The family is waiting for us. Get your—”

“No, Bryan,” I say, cutting him off. He stops immediately and sighs. “I have to stay here for the night. I have a friend to help. And if you really care about her, you can stay here for the night as well.”

I wake up in the morning with Beth’s name in my mouth. I was the first one who got up. But when I hear someone crying softly beside me, I knew I wasn’t.

“Kate,” I say, her name a whisper as they left my lips. I touch her arm and try to turn her around so that I can see her. “Are you okay?” I begin to pat my hand softly on her arm.

“I missed Beth,” she sobs, turning around now.

Beth’s pillow is pressed tightly against Kate’s chest. Beth used to sleep beside her every night, so maybe Kate is assuming that the pillow was her. Tears are welling down Kate’s temples. Some are streaming down toward her ears.