The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 5

We left the library in silence, and he lead me back down to the kitchen. We went through a small door and down a narrow staircase with a low ceiling that took only a couple of minutes and lead straight into the back of the kitchen.

"So," Jaylon said, striding over to the bench where he'd left food out earlier. "You hungry?"

"Sure" I murmured. I was still thinking about his story, about how awful it must have been for his entire family to just be gone like that, and never know where they went or why you weren't taken too. I stopped suddenly, right in the middle of the kitchen, a memory that I had tried so hard to forget flooding back in.

"Mommy?" I called, running through from my bedroom with a piece of paper clutched in my hands. "Mommy, look what I made!"

She looked up at me, and I stopped dead. She was curled into a chair by the door and tears were running down her face.

"Mommy, what's wrong?" I asked, my voice small and fearful. If she was crying, there must be something really scary out there. I let my drawing fall to the floor and climbed into her lap, squinting out into the darkness of the night. Her arms wrapped around me and I cried with her, not even knowing what was going on. It was early morning when she got up, and I was half asleep in her arms. She set me on my feet and looked down at the picture on the floor, the one I had drawn.

Me, mommy, Charlie, daddy, and the baby that was going to be born soon, all of us clearly labelled. Mommy picked up the drawing and I trailed behind her as she walked over to the kitchen table and picked up one of the crayons I had left there.

"What are you doing?" I asked feebly as she started to change my drawing. I didn't want her too, I tried to reach out and grab it but she moved it out of my reach. She gave it back to me a minute later and then left. I stayed there, standing in the middle of the kitchen, holding the picture and just staring at it.

Me, mommy, Charlie, and the baby that was going to be born soon. And Daddy, but there was a big red cross through him and his name was scribbled out.

"Louisa? Louisa!"

I looked up and saw Jaylon standing in front of me, realizing I was no longer in the kitchen of the house I grew up in but in the kitchen of this enormous mansion that I was being held a prisoner in.

Me, mommy, Charlie daddy, and the baby that was going to be born soon.

"Louisa, are you okay?"

Me, mommy, Charlie and the baby that was going to be born soon.

"Hey, come sit down, you don't look so good." Jaylon took my arm gently and lead me to a chair on the other side of the counter. I sat down heavily and was vaguely aware that he was saying something to me but I couldn't seem to make out the words.

Me, mommy, Charlie.

"Do you want some water?" Jaylon was asking, but his voice seemed distant and far away.

No daddy, no baby born soon.

"Louisa, Louisa!" He was shaking me gently by the shoulders, but his voice now sounded like it was coming through a layer of water.

Me, mommy, Charlie, daddy gone, baby gone.

"They're gone" I whispered.

"What?" Jaylon asked, sounding confused. "Louisa, I think you need some rest. Can you get up?"

"They're not coming back."

Daddy gone, baby gone.

"Come on, let's get you upstairs," Jaylon said, his voice firm. He tugged on my arm, but I was limp. I couldn't seem to make my limbs work. With a sigh, he slid an arm around my shoulders and the other under my legs.

"Gone" I whispered.

"Yeah, you said" Jaylon muttered, lifting me up. I could feel his bare chest against my side and his arms around me. His skin was hot, so hot I almost felt like it was burning me through my clothes.

My vision was blurry, and there was something hovering around Jaylon face like a cloud of colour. I reached out to touch it but there was something on my arm, some markings. I brought it closer to my face to try and see what they were but they seemed to leap off my skin, rushing towards my face at an alarming speed. My head jerked back away from them but I had nowhere to go. They hit me, and my vision went black. My head rolled against Jaylon chest, and my mind seemed to float away as I drifted into unconsciousness.