What did I get Myself Into?

Kidnapped by My Mates??

April 27th, 2018
The house of Haley Raleigh

    Today is my seventeenth birthday and tomorrow is my junior prom. In part to both celebrate my birthday and have people to help get each other ready tomorrow I threw a party at my house. All of my friends came over, Cristian Dahlem, Jupiter Barsi, Elio Tahir, Jezebel Thommen, Madrigal Kaelin, Aurora Najar, and Ambrosia Wadell. It is currently eleven at night and my dog Shadow won't stop staring out of my window at something the rest of us can't see.
    "Haley, why does Shadow keep staring at nothing?"
    "I don't know Ambrosia, Strange things have been happening to me all day and I feel like this is one of those things."
    Everyone left the conversation at this and we went back to our game of truth or dare Jenga. Little did I know what the strange things meant and how they were going to affect my life.

3:00 am

    It was a couple of hours later after we all had passed out in various places and positions in my living room. I was in my chair cuddled up with my blanket and covered by another, Jupiter and Ambrosia were laying on my couch with heads at opposite ends covered by the same blanket, Elio, Aurora, and Madrigal were laying on the floor with several blankets surrounding them, and Jezebel and Cristian were cuddled up on the giant pile of blankets I like to call blanket mountain. (they have a completely platonic relationship. I may be hard to believe but it is.) I don't know what it was but something woke me up suddenly. As I sat up and looked around nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Now that I was awake I needed something to drink so I went to the kitchen for a glass of water. On my way back to the living room I heard one of the floorboards creak behind me but when I looked no one was there.
    I sat down in my chair and was about to fall asleep again when it felt as if my chair was moving beneath me. I tried to get up and get away from the person but they wrapped their arms around me and put a cloth over my mouth. I tried to fight it but eventually, I had to breathe and whatever was on the cloth made me feel dizzy. The last thing I saw before I passed out was four strange men that I didn't recognize standing above me smiling.

Sometime later in an unknown location

    I was starting to wake up and something didn't feel right. I didn't want to open my eyes until I did a mental checklist of all things that should be normal. Blankie check, a blanket covering me check, soft sleeping surface check, arms wrapped around me check. Wait a minute arms around me and another thing I'm not sleeping at an angle so I'm not in my chair. What the heck is going on here? I was too afraid to open my eyes because of what I might see. The arms that were holding me tightened a little making me stiffen in fear. I don't know these people I don't know what they might do to me. "I know you're awake so why don't you open your eyes and we can all get to know one another." This unknown voice was talking to me and it made me more scared. I started to shake.
    At this point, the last part of his sentence popped into my brain. "WE" There was more than just this one unknown person near me. By this time my resolve shattered into a million pieces. My shaking became more violent, my breathing became labored, and I was clinging to my blanket for dear life. I was officially in a full-blown panic attack. I could hear people around me furiously whispering about me about what I could not tell you, but I think I heard them mention something about me and a file they supposedly read.
    I still had refused to open my eyes when I felt a smooth hand touch my cheek. It startled me so much that simultaneously my eyes shot open, a scream left my mouth and I jumped back. The man that had touched me looked quite startled at my reaction. He tried to come closer to me but I scrambled back in fear. I did not know this man and from my frantic search of the room, I saw three other men that I did not know making my fear increase tenfold. I scrambled into a corner as fast as I could that way I can keep all of these strangers in my view. He tried to come closer to me again but stopped when I screamed.
    Two of the others came to sit by the first man while the third man went to the bed and grabbed something off of it. He came over to where the others were sitting and he had my blanket in his arms. My breath hitched for a moment until he threw it to me. It landed a few feet away from me I was afraid to go get it, but, I needed it so I slowly crawled to it and grabbed it before scrambling back into my corner. I shoved my face into the woolen comfort that is my blanket and used it to calm my breathing. After a few minutes my breathing slowed, and I was able to stop shaking. I looked up at the men in front of me. They were still there just staring at me watching me.
    "Where am I, why did you take me?" They shared a look between that I couldn't decipher then the man that had touched my cheek stepped forward. "You are at the holding house that we own in this world until we get to the transfer station to head back to our home. As for why you are here, well the easiest way to put it is simply you belong with us." "What the heck is that supposed to mean 'I belong with you'? I don't even know you, and what do you mean transfer station? Where are we going?" I could feel the fear creeping in again as I thought of something else. "What about my family, my friends I don't want to leave them. They have to be worried about me. They will send a search party out in the morning when they notice me missing!" This time the man who grabbed my blanket stood up. He didn't say anything he just walked closer to me the whole time keeping eye contact with me. The others seemed to be watching with bated breath because I couldn't hear anything from them, but then again I was also focused on the man walking up to me. I don't know why but the longer I looked into his eyes the calmer I felt, it's like they had a comforting presence. He was about five feet from me when I snapped out of the trance he seemed to have me under.
    "S-stop don't come any closer!" He froze where he was the moment those words left my mouth. He kept looking at him and I was staring at him like he was a lion and I the little gazelle. His next actions shocked me. He just plopped down on the floor and sat facing me. We watched each other for a while more before he spoke. "You were meant for us in the same way we were meant for you, we are soulmates and we are taking you back to our home in Escalera our world. Your family understands what is going on and they gave us their blessing to take you. Your friends might be a little upset but we left them a letter explaining to them what is happening and that it might happen to them as well in the near future. I'm sorry that this all had to happen this way but we had no other choice." I was about to ask more questions but before I could the first guy talked again. "I know you have many questions and we'd love to answer them but they must wait." then he turned so he was talking to the men in the room. "I just got a message that the next transport will be here in a little over an hour we have to get going." All of these men started moving around and gathering up a bunch of stuff from around the room that we were in and they completely forgot about me.
    When I felt for sure that none of the attention was on me. I picked myself up off the floor and sat on the bed. With none of them paying attention to me it gave me some much needed time to think about what has happened to me. In literally less than twenty-four hours I went from a normal seventeen-year-old to being kidnapped by four men who tell me I'm their soulmate and I still don't know their names. I pinched myself but nothing happened so this isn't a dream at all. I watched them scramble around for a few minutes more until one of the men who I hadn't been able to associate a voice with came over to me with a suitcase. "I thought you might like to change outfits before we leave. We had your sister and your dad pack all of your personal items the rest of your bags are over there in the corner but there should be some outfits in here." I recognized him as the one who first spoke this morning, he was the one that held me. I took the bag from him and he pointed me in the direction of the bathroom so I could change.
    I opened the bag and saw all of my favorite comfy clothes inside. I dug through and pulled out my all-time favorite outfit. The outfit consisted of a pair of black leggings, a grey tank top, an extra long knit blue sweater that hangs off the shoulder, fuzzy grey socks, and my black ugg boots. I put on the outfit, brushed my teeth, and put my hair into a messy bun. When I left the bathroom it was like some silent alarm went off that alerted the men that I was back in the room. They all stopped what they were doing to stare at me. I didn't know what to do and all of the stares were making me feel awkward. I tried to pull the shoulder on my sweater up. This made all of them snap out of it and they went back to what they were doing.
    Several minutes later they were all done with what I'm assuming was them packing to head to this "Escalera" place and they turned to me. The man that hadn't talked yet came up to me and gently picked up my bag "We have to get to the transport station soon. We promise that we will answer all of your questions as soon as we get back home." The men all started to walk out but the first man stopped and waited for me. I stood up and was about to follow them when it hit me yet again that I still didn't know any of their names. He went to grab my hand but I jerked away and refused to walk out. "Haley we need to get going please come on." "I won't go with you guys until I know your names." I tried to sound defiant and strong but it came out more like a scared child. All of them laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world. Then they lined up in order. The man who talked to me first and touched my cheek went first, then the blanket tosser, the one who held me this morning, and then the last man. "My name is Ludovic, I'm Phoenix, I'm Orion, Nicasio" I nodded at them and we walked out with all of them surrounding me in a protective square.