Fly

Chapter 5

I woke up with several problems.

Problem one: both my left arm and leg were asleep.

Problem two: all the muscles in my back were cramped into immobility from my curled-up position inside of the box, with nothing to sleep on but a thin layer of cardboard between me and the street.

Problem three: I was still partially nude, and it was daytime.

Problem four: I still hadn't found my parents.

Problem five: there was a policeman standing just outside of the box.

Side note: Dane was gone.

The cop nudged at my leg with the tip of his boot - for the second time, I realized. The first was what had woken me up.

Groggily, I shuffled around, then poked my head out the front of my shelter, shivering a little at the crisp spring air outside. A pair of kind brown eyes blinked down at me. I blinked back.

"Can I help you, officer?" I said politely.

He gestured toward the entrance to the alley. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. You aren't allowed to tenant public property, or block alleys. Plus we have a missing persons case in the area, and we would prefer if you would vacate the premises while we perform a search."

My sleep-muddled brain was rapidly clearing with every word the man said, so that by the time he finished, I grinned. "I'm your missing person!" I said, thinking rapidly. "I was down on the lakeshore last night with my parents. It was my birthday, you see, and we had just come down from Wisconsin--"

"Holy-- James!" the policeman's eyes had gone wide, and he was now practically yelling into his walkie. "James, it's Daley, I found the 10-57 from Indiana Dunes! Subject is alive and appears well." As he was saying this, he offered me a hand up. I let him help me to my feet, and stood shivering slightly as the breeze blew up my bare legs under the sweatshirt. I crossed my arms over my chest, suddenly nervous.

"Sir?" I looked at him hopefully, "are my parents alright?"

He nodded. "Yes, they'll be contacting them now to let them know we found you. Now, let's get you back to the station and into some decent clothes, and if you feel up to it, you can tell us what in the world happened. Sound good?"

I nodded, and as my stomach growled, he added, "And some hot food too."

I smiled at him, and walked carefully back out of the alleyway, wondering how I had managed to avoid stepping on any of the broken glass or bits of metal that were strewn everywhere on the ground. I crawled carefully into the back of the police car, while the officer Daley went around the back to get me a trauma blanket and a bottle of water. I gratefully wrapped the first around myself, and sipped at the second while we drove back to his station.

When we arrived, I was hustled into a restroom to change, before being seated next to my rescuer's desk, while an EMT checked me over for injuries and asked me some general questions like 'were you injured', 'have you taken any medication recently', as well as some other, more general questions. When she got to my eyes, waving a small light in front of them to check for a concussion, she frowned, and peered closer for a moment. I drew back, suddenly nervous for no discernible reason. She blinked a few times at me, like she was seeing me for the first time.

"Have you had anything... special... done to your eyes? Dyeing or surgery?"

I shook my head.

She frowned. "You have some unusual pupils, you know that? Highly unusual."

I just nodded, and she shrugged, and continued with her inspection. Nothing else seemed to be different, except that my temperature was slightly higher than normal. Not enough to be called a fever, so it was dismissed as my body still dealing with the affects of sleeping out in the cold.

After that, I was left mostly to myself, sipping a mug of steaming chicken noodle soup, and watching everything that was going on around the office. It was a lot less busy than on TV, though people still bustled in and out occasionally. At one point, a dreadlocked man wearing a shabby pair of jeans and a striped hoodie, and smelling strongly of weed, was dragged in through the door and handcuffed to the side of a desk, where he slumped, a far-off expression on his face. I watched him for a moment, then turned away, bored. Everyone else seemed to be either tapping away at keyboards or doing paperwork, and not much was being said. After about twenty minutes of this, officer Daley reappeared, striding across the room and sitting himself in his desk chair next to me.

"So, Fiona, your parents are on their way. Now, if you'd like, I want to talk to you about how you got all the way into downtown Chicago from another state. What happened?"

I shrugged, holding the mug a little tighter and trying to look small and afraid. "I'm not sure... all I remember clearly was getting up from where my family was sitting to use the restroom. I had to pass by some bushes to get there and I guess someone jumped me. I didn't feel anything except something being held over my face. After that..." I paused, as if thinking really hard, "I just have some hazy images and sensations. I remember being bounced around, then a bright light, like a door being opened. I was pulled out and shoved... somewhere.... there was a blindfold over my head but I think it slipped, so I could see a little. Everything was super fuzzy looking... though maybe that was the fog?" I shivered a little. "There was one really bright light, and then darkness everywhere else. I think I managed to slip out of the hands of the one that was holding me, and I dashed off into the darkness. I don't know when I realized I wasn't wearing anything, but I don't think they did anything to me. I bet they were going to though...." this time, the shudder was real. I knew that though my story was fake, there were definitely people who had gone through something similar. Some people are disgusting creatures who shouldn't be allowed to walk freely, and I wished that I could help those who really were trapped and unable to run away. Suddenly, an idea began to tickle at the back of my mind.

Officer Daley frowned. "Can you identify any of the ones that captured you? Maybe describe them or imitate their voices?"

I shook my head. "Everything was a blur. I can't even remember what colors things were. All the voices sounded like they were underwater... I do remember hiding in that box of rags, though. It seemed like the safest thing at the time." For some reason, I decided not to mention Dane. He likely would have been a suspect no matter what I told the police, if I involved him. And he had helped me. I couldn't turn around and get him arrested.

The policeman sighed, seeming slightly disappointed. "There's been a rash of disappearances lately. We think there might be a human trafficking ring operating in the area. If you think of anything that might help us identify your kidnappers, please let us know. It could help us to capture them."

I nodded, and bent to take a sip of soup, feeling slightly guilty. I didn't want to lie, and I felt like it was somehow my fault that they hadn't caught the real criminals yet, as if I were impeding their progress. There was nothing I could do about it at the moment, however.

Minutes later, just as I was finishing up my soup, my parents burst through the door, my mother sprinting between desks to grab me up in a hug, my dad striding along behind her, trying to look manly even though I could detect a hint of tears behind his wire-frame glasses. He hugged me from the other side, a little more gently, so that I was surrounded by warmth and familiar smells. Suddenly, I felt like crying myself. After all, I had no idea what was really going on. I closed my eyes and let them hug me tighter, pretending that we were all at home and nothing had happened at all.