𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰

10 - Countermeasures.

My Claire.

My sweet Claire.

Mama... Mama needs you, right now.

She could feel her, oh how she could and it left her mind blank but her heart aching.

Sadly, only a part of her. The young mother’s nose drowned in the familiar scent of her daughter as she clutched the pristine newborn’s blanket against her chest, damp spots found on the cotton cloth proving the numbness her heart succumbed to. Maybe she has cried herself senseless, but while every emotion was gone there was one thing that lasted and endured.

Hurt.

Why couldn’t she move? Why couldn’t she just scream? Why couldn’t she just try to do something.. Anything... to get her back?

Threats—they were no absolute joke. When she scampered onto her feet and tore herself away from Aiden’s embrace and drove the Ferrari to its full speed down the blurry streets, the stoplights were only a mere flicker to her vision as she hurried and pressured to accelerate. Her chest had undulated and sweat moistened her skin under the faint rays of the moonlight when she staggered up to the entrance of her home, nearly out of breath.

She really shouldn’t have worked late.

Kai had ran to her and almost knelt on his knees if it wasn’t for her insistent “Tell me what happened” and she was quite impressed she managed to speak. The head butler hoarsely rasped out his sincerest apologies in tears and his eyes were puffy and red; but Elsa heard nothing.

It’s already clear that Kai was the only one left with feelings, the others seemed too traumatized to even utter a word as they tidied up the commotions caused by the prior events.

So she ran, slammed the door and she heard the lock click. Sloppily landing on the mattress, Elsa wept, while reality numbly slithers away alongside her consciousness as she fantasizes what was left of happiness.

It was a Thursday evening, the 3rd day of June, four years ago when she decided to play cat and mouse with fate by walking through the darker and quieter streets of New York. She paid no mind to the occasional vulgarity scrawled all over some areas with canned paint, finding the lack of blinding billboards and assertive crowds soothing rather than scary.

She was just so immersed with the song plugged straight into her ears as the world grew more invisible every heeled step she took. Elsa couldn’t determine if it was her curiosity that led her into a dark alleyway, or plain distraction.

That was when she saw it. She heard it.

The noise started off faintly, before it echoed, effortlessly convincing her to slip off one of the blasting earphones. As Elsa warily approached and trailed after what she detected, the other bud followed, thus increasing her hearing’s perception.

The noise was as tragic as it sounded like.

Her stance quaked, and her knees weakened and finally gave in next to the rattan basket which she prayed didn’t lodge what should not be surrounded by an overflowing dumpster.

But it did.

Frenzied newborn eyes tried to identify the blurry stranger inching closer to her in panic, in fear of the unknown. A whimper breached the infant’s tiny lips and it quickly transformed into a distraught wail, spurring Elsa on to completely pick her up.

Recalling the time she first steadily held her once thrashing younger sister, Elsa wasted no time supporting the baby’s downy head, lifting the little person’s body next.

She did what felt right.

Elsa cradled her in her arms, her hand managing to rub the not so ample area of the bawling infant’s stomach. The child was not too skinny, though she could tell despite the mere moonlight she was definitely not plump enough.