When Annabelle, a young eighteen year old is sent to her grandmothers attic to fetch something she discovers some old photographs and newspaper clippings from 1919. The dates go back to when her grandmother was a child and lived out her own teenag...
It had now been seven days since Annabelle's disappearance. Every morning I woke up and a numbing feeling over took my entire being. I wasn't sleeping, I hardly managed a single meal and the only solace keeping me from the brink of insanity was my whiskey and cigarettes. Everyone could see that I was crumbling, slowly decaying into a empty life force but no matter what happened I would not stop searching for my wife.
Every night I would sit in the corner of the the room, slumped down against the wall and would wait for the morning morning sun. I watched it rise and sometimes even stood at the window just waiting to see if by some miracle Annabelle walking back down the pathway into our house. I wished Solomons would stop playing games but without the guns it seemed as if seeing Annabelle again was becoming a less and lesser likely outcome for the future.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Aunt poll and Ada constantly tried to remind me that none of this was my fault and that I needed to stop the guilt because I was becoming a mess. Taking on their advice I had sent some men to fetch the remaining guns from London. This was no longer a simple game Solomons was playing and I could tell that in the next week alone things were going to escalate beyond what we originally expected.
I had ordered the blinders to frisk search anyone who wished to speak to me or my family. Ensuring that this happened meant that a lot of people then began to not want to come into contact with me for the last week which strangely relived a lot of stress of having to speak to people. However there were two men who did want to speak to me about something. They claimed it to be of high importance and that it had to do with the whereabouts of Annabelle.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I forced myself to make myself presentable for when the men came to see me. I waited in my office patiently but the unsettling feeling in my stomach never ceased. "Good morning Mr Shelby" they they nodded as I motioned for them to take a seat at my desk. "We have news about your wife..." one of them spoke taking their hat off and holding it in their hands. "We know where she is" my heart began pounding inside my chest.
"What do you want?" I asked them looking down at the floor trying to remain calm. "What?" they looked confused "What do you want in return for the location of her whereabouts?" I asked calmly. Almost panicked they franticly shook their heads "no no Mr Shelby! We don't want anything. We just thought you aught to know". I nodded and walked over to my desk and took a seat.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"where is she then?" I asked "London" they replied simultaneously. "we had seen her being walked into a building with a bearded man. You see we knew the people who own the building and got the information from them". "Is she hurt?" I asked unable to look them in the eyes. Both shook their heads no, "she is perfectly fine as far as we have seen and heard. I can imagine she is probably scared and shaken up though" they commented.
"She's tougher then you might think so I believe you, thank you for your time" I began to usher them out the doors so that I could then begin packing for a very short notice trip to London. I asked the men to give the address to John which they did hastily not wasting anytime. Although they had asked for nothing I made sure Aunt Poll was to reward them for their honesty and generosity. I decided that our children would be staying here in Birmingham with Ada for the time being which meant I had to say a quick goodbye.
Scooping Charlie up in my arms gave him a hug and then explained to him how I would be leaving for a couple of days to go and find mummy. He was growing so quickly as was Lily that I thought that if I blinked they would be fully grown in no time. I feared their future in all honesty, what lied ahead for them might not be exactly what their parents wanted. I walked with Charlie in my arms and dropped him off to Ada before heading out with a few of the boys.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The car engines were already running and the cold air was beginning to intensify as the winter weather began to change. After saying goodbye to my children and making sure they were in safe hands I swiftly made my way out to the cars and within moments we were all out on the road. With haste and urgency we would arrive in London with a couple of hours. There would be no stopping other than to fill up the cars.
Everyone was on edge and no one really knew what to expect when we arrived. No one could deny the tension that was building on the way there. The city of London was quiet when we finally arrived. The sun was now setting and we only had enough time time settle into the place we would be staying at. We had sent some men undercover to go and scope out the building in the meantime. we couldn't leave anything to chance if we wanted to get Annabelle out from there quickly.
