Three Hearts Left Intact

Chapter 20: The Key

Finally making it to her parents office door, Lauren looked to her side seeing Kaila was talking quietly to the stuffed mouse she had brought with her from her office. 'No! No! Not now!' Lauren internally screamed noticing the much younger voice coming out of her friend.

Now was not the place nor time for Kaila to have slipped. On the verge of having a mental breakdown Lauren looked around for some kind of solution. Right besides the door to her parents office was a chair. "Come here." Lauren assisted Kaila up and into the seat.

Bending down to look at the small girl who was now hugging the mouse to her chest Lauren face palmed herself. 'This is what I get for letting her bring a toy!'

"Ok, Kay. I need you to listen to me very carefully." She began noticing the little ones eyes darting around the hallway they were in, snapping her fingers to gain her attention back Lauren was just about ready to pull her hair out. "Just listen, you and I were suppose to meet up with my parents to have some small talk. But seeing as...well your like this now...there's going to be a change of plans. Your going to sit here and play with your mouse, while I go in for the meeting. Are you following so far?" Lauren had to check seeing as her friends attention seemed to be bouncing between her instructions and the other people walking through the hall.

Kaila continued to watch people in business suits walk by. Some had different colored ties which caught her eyes. Lauren grunted loudly yelling at everyone else in the hall to leave. Being the daughter of the strongest company in the Cave had its perks. The entire hall was empty in a matter of seconds. Pouting her lips Kaila looked up at Lauren angrily.

"Stop it." She warned. "Stay here, while I go in for the meeting." She backed away ready to open her parents door. Taking one last look at Kaila who still had a sad look on her face, Lauren sighed, "I mean it Kaila, don't move." She finally disappeared into the office behind her.

Left in the hall by herself, Kaila patiently sat in her seat swaying side to side, waiting for someone to walk through the hall again. After twenty minutes of nothing, she tried putting her ear to the wall to listen to the conversation going on within but it did her no good. These walls were thick.

Already getting bored out of her mind, Kaila contently played with the mouse in her lap. She had lost track of time at this point, Lauren was taking her sweet time. Pretending the mouse and her were having a staring competition, Kaila 'lost' to the mouse when a women in a lab coat walked into the hallway.

Looking up at her, Kaila waved with a smile forgetting her situation. She nervously looked back at Kaila and gave a singular wave as she continued on her way. The woman had left just as soon as she came. Putting a frown on her face, Kaila noticed the woman had dropped something on the floor. Her eyes went wide, she called out to the woman but when she didn't return Kaila felt antsy in her seat.

She was shaking, wanting eagerly to get up and return to lost item to its owner. Biting her bottom lip she began to think about getting out of the chair despite Lauren's instructions. 'I'll be fast! Lauren won't even know I left!'

Finally when her conscience couldn't hold back anymore, Kaila shot up from her seat placing the mouse down in her place as she ran down the hall to the shiny object laying in the middle of the floor.

She smiled as she picked up a key. Observing the silver metal she laughed, bouncing in place before looking ahead for the woman. But it was challenging, the hallways split into multiple different pathways, and from her seat Kaila couldn't tell where the woman went. Playing a game of chance, Kaila began her journey down one of the three ways the woman could have travelled down.

Skipping along to a melody playing in her head she reached an open space where almost a hundred people in business suits were gathering around for a press conference of sorts. Looking through the crowd of people, Kaila tried looking for the woman she saw earlier.

"You lost?" A man's voice rung out behind her. She turned towards him quickly. He wore a full white suit and tie. Along with his two friends at his sides.

Shaking her head Kaila began to take tiny steps backwards. "Just...just wanted to see what's happening." She mumbled out when the three men began approaching her.

"Well we're about to have a speaker introduce a new piece of equipment. Would you like to join us." One of the other men asked.

Kaila shook her head furiously turning around to run back down the hall before a large hand grabbed her shoulder. He spun her back around letting the three of them take another look at the small child.

Using his large hand to push Kaila's hair behind her ear one of the men's eyes widened when he saw a small tattoo in the shape of a barcode on the side of Kaila's neck. "She's one of them."

The other two checked the tattoo as well looking at one another in disbelief. The man who had a grip on Kaila pulled her in closer, "you aren't suppose to be here. What department do you belong to?" He asked softly and coldly not wanting to be caught with a rogue.

But the sudden scare frightened the little girl. Trying to pry his hand off her shoulder with both hands, she felt the key being snatched out of her grip. "No!" She screamed causing a few strangling ears amongst the loud room to be thrown their way.

"What's this?" One man asked showing his buddies the key. "Is this how you got out of wherever your suppose to be? Oh girl your in so much trouble if a Hound finds you."

"H-hound?" She shakingly asked.

"Yeah a Hound. Like the entire security squad that roams the halls. The ones who take rogue patients to be 'treated' before being brought back to their departments. Ring a bell." Another man spoke.

Shaking her head the men surrounding her small figure began to laugh. "Tell you what, my buddies and I will take you to a Hound and be rewarded." He paused letting Kaila's fear filled eyes nearly water up as she tried to pry the man's hand off her even more. "Or..." he grabbed her attention again. "You can follow my pals and I somewhere more...private right now. This presentation can wait til another day when we're not in the presence of a pretty girl." The man licked his lips while his friends nodded and chuckled.

Being too innocent to fully understand, Kaila heard Hound in the first option and immediately ruled it out. Taking the second option the men laughed harder as they smiled greedily. They formed a small circle around Kaila as cover, as they led her out of the room. Traveling back down the hallway Kaila chose earlier the men were about to take Kaila down one of the remaining two ways before a very loud and annoyed voice screamed at them.

"KAILA!" The girl shuttered knowing that voice all to well at this point.

The three men stopped in their tracks when Lauren stomped her way over to them. "Move!" She demanded of them. Abiding her order the man in front of Kaila moved giving Lauren full access to the scared girl. Forcefully Lauren pulled Kaila away from the men and pushed her behind her. "What the hell do you think you were doing with her?!" She screamed at the men.

"She...she wandered into the rec room." One man said.

"She had a key. We thought she was a r-rogue trying to escape," another added dropping the key into Lauren's hand.

"We...we were t-taking her to a Hound." The final man said.

Lie was slapped across their faces. Lauren could hear the three men bragging about their business exchange with Kaila as they walked down the hall with her. "She's mines. Touch her, talk to her, look at her again and your all fired! Am I clear?!"

The three of them nodded in agreement. "Get out of my face!" She spat. In the blink of an eye they were all gone back down the hallway they had just come down from. Taking a moment to properly breathe Kaila felt herself more at ease, that was until Lauren turned around to face her.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off