Lacunae

Chapter 5

When 3 am rolled in, I saw Kevin really struggling to keep himself awake. I knew he must have had a long day and then had to take a flight late at night. When I heard grandma say that he was actually meant to fly the next day, the thought that he changed his flight for me, made me really grateful.

"I think I feel sleepy now." I told him as I saw him rubbing his eyes.

"Really?" He asked in a wide yawn. His 78th yawn to be exact (yes, I counted).

I nodded my head. "Grandma said to stay the night. See you in the morning."

As soon as I stood up from the couch, he sprawled on it and grinned, "Even if she didn't say, I had planned to stay anyway."

I scoffed and added sarcastically, "Well, make yourself comfortable. Don't be shy in another person's house."

"I have more than half of my things in this house, this is not another person's house." He pointed out.

I rolled my eyes but left him without saying anything. He wasn't wrong.

After brushing my teeth, I lay down on my bed staring at the ceiling. A few minutes later, I felt my eyes droop and I fell into oblivion.

          "Valarie!" My mom called out to me.

I whipped my head to look at the direction of the voice. My mom was standing there. She was very much happy to see me and she ran to envelop me in her arms. She kissed my forehead and kept caressing my back. I saw my dad too, he covered both me and my mom in a tight hug; kissing and caressing me in the same way my mom was.

"Mom, dad! I missed you!! Where were you?" I asked but I noticed that my voice was high pitched. Ah, it's the younger me.

"We missed you too baby girl." My mom said but she pulled out of the hug and put a space between us and continued, "But baby girl, you're not safe here. What are you doing here by yourself?"

"I was waiting for you." I said with a smile but my mom started crying and shaking her head.

"You need to go back to grandma baby girl." She said with tears in her eyes before pulling me into a hug again.

"Sheila, we have to go. We can't put her in danger!" My dad said, anxiously looking around.

"But we can't leave her here Robert! They will take her away. We have to bring her with us." My mom said carrying me with her as she stood up.

My dad looked at the both of us and the look on his face shows that he didn't know what to do either.

That's when a van suddenly came to us in full speed and the driver inside breaking abruptly in front of us. My dad swiftly stretched his left arm in front of me and my mom putting us behind him.

"Let the girl go, you don't need her!" My dad screamed.

The men laughed at him, "And we don't need you either, but we're still here for you."

"You can't do this, she's just a girl!" My mom screamed covering my head and my ears with her free hand.

"What we can and can't do is not exactly ours to decide. We only follow orders." The man bigger than the rest of them spoke with menace in his voice. Then he didn't wait for my mom nor my dad to reply and he suddenly motioned for his men to capture us.

It was like played in front of my eyes in slow motion. My dad tried to fight them off but as he sparred with them, he couldn't leave us unprotected. My mom tried to protect me but she was outnumbered. My dad was kneeling on the floor with his face bleeding and my mom was getting pressed onto the van with me still in her arms.