Melia-Irrevocable Journey (Sequel to Irrevocable Quest)

085:

085:

First she was shoved one way and then the next, and all her terrors from before were realized as the three men in the car pulled out onto the freeway going south and she was left looking fearfully behind her at the chaos she'd created.

"This isn't.... I need to talk to someone in charge...." She began, hoping there would be someone in charge, they hadn't killed her yet, maybe they wouldn't, but they might do something terrible to her girls if she didn't get them to be quiet.

"Shut up, or I kill you all!" The man beside her backhanded her with a heavily ringed palm. Melia's head cracked against the window painfully and she tasted blood in her mouth.

Her eyes watering she pulled Hannah up on top of her and Abby away from the man in the seat next to her who was holding the gun pointed at her, and she twisted her away. "Shhhh, baby, shh, hush, momma's right here, hush Hannah." She crooned and Hannah began to gulp. So Melia began to sing the popcorn song, a new one Hannah seemed to like and very slowly the girls began to settle down. "They're just babies," she said to the man still holding the gun to her. "Can you put the gun away?"

He waved it in her face. "Shut up!" He yelled through his mask and suddenly the car screeched to a sliding halt and the doors were opened and Melia was jerked out with no regards for herself or her children. She gripped Hannah and Abby hard, one in either arm, her fingers clutched in their clothes. She went down on one knee, her arms aching with the unsupported weight of the babies. Someone kicked her in the leg, and she screamed, but didn't drop the girls.

They were telling in Spanish.

The two men who had been in the front seats lifted her up and shoved her none too gently into a waiting helicopter, and all she could think was, oh no! not another helicopter!

There was no time to feel the fear, although part of her realized this was the very thing that Jared had warned her of. This was it! The thing he had kept her safe from, and she--- she had taken his daughters right into it!

She really had thought they wanted money, what else could it be? Money ruled the world, after all her careful thinking, it had to be money! And now, now she had really done it.... Perhaps gotten herself into a jam that she alone couldn't... ever get out of... this was serious....more serious than she'd ever had happen to her....

Before she was even sitting, in fact she had sprawled on the floor, one of the men had jumped in and shut the door, turning to shove the gun in her face again, telling her to keep her baby quiet or he'd throw her out the window. Before she was even sitting---the helicopter lifted off and veered sharply to the left and twirled around, flying away from the sun.

The gun waved in her face. Shut the kid up, shut the kid up!

She sat up, willed herself to cover Abby's mouth, Hannah was too scared now to peep. She quickly bared a breast and gave it to Abby, who squeezed her eyes shut and latched on immediately. The waving gun nodded in acceptance and the owner of that gun turned to look ahead. She held Abby carefully, not letting her arms share their tension, and kept Hannah on her lap as well, practically on top of Abby. Her binky was attached still, and she put it into Hannah's mouth. She usually only used it when she was going to sleep, but right now seemed appropriate. Then Melia rested her head back against the wall of the helicopter feeling the screeching vibrations and whirring. What to do? What to do?

Acknowledge it, she commanded herself.

She closed her eyes.

I have failed miserably and most likely got us all killed.

She couldn't scream her own rage. That would scare Hannah and Abby. She couldn't lose it, if she did start to build she could pass out--- and then what would happen to Hannah and Abby?

Oh my God, she whispered, a tear leaking out the corner of her eye, as they welled painfully close to the surface. Oh my God! What. Have. I. Done?

This time there is no Jared....if he is on the other side watching, he is very, very angry with me. And what about everyone else? They were very angry too. Not one person would have condoned her behavior, every single person she knew including Robert had told her no. But oh, no! She thought she knew better.

*****