I lie in my
bed and stare at the ceiling. Dad covered them with glow-in-the-dark stars for
my tenth birthday. I think of leaving for the mountains and I’m filled with a
mixture of agony and relief. In a way, I don’t want to leave this place;
memories of my father, as painful as they can be, are everywhere and it’s all I
have left of him now. But in another, I want to start fresh, even if we have to
live in huts or caves or whatever they’re planning on doing. The thought
unnerves me a little, like any unknown thing, but it’ll be good for mom to
leave here and be around others. And I’ll be able to see Jacks and Luxxe more;
I desperately need their company.
A knock on
the front door startles me. It was too loud to be Jacks or Luxxe. A man shouts
through it, but I can’t make out what he’s saying from here. Our dog is going
wild.
Mom stirs on
the couch and I wait to see if she’ll get it.
The man
shouts again, and her feet patter my way. She finds me erect on the bed with my
covers wrapped around me in a cocoon. Her eyes are huge white saucers, and she
presses her finger against her lips to keep me quiet before she shuts my door
and sprints away.
Alone in my
room, I hide inside the space between my bed and the wall and snatch a book of
Robert Frost poems on my nightstand, hugging it close for comfort. To distract
myself, I try to recite The Road Not Taken
but can’t focus enough to do so. My heart gains speed as panic courses through
me. Whoever is on the other side of the door has her worried. Are we in danger?
I’ve never wanted my dad more than I do in this moment. This isn’t right. He
should be here to protect us. If I wasn’t so scared, I’d pay more attention to
the anger writhing inside me. I hope whoever took him from us is dead. I hope
they’re gone for what they did.
The man
shouts louder this time and bangs three times on the door. I still hear our
dog, but where’s mom? I don’t hear mom!
After an
eternity, she shows up again with a bag slung over her shoulder and points to
my cracked window. She wants to escape. But where would we go? I nod silently
and stand, slipping the book into my waistband.
A loud
bang rattles our apartment, and the living room door hurls into the kitchen.
Splinters of wood lie in its wake. In one swift movement, mom snatches me by
the arm and heaves the window open the rest of the way.
The thumping
of loud boots fills our apartment, and to keep from screaming out, I bite my
tongue so hard it bleeds. The men in uniforms, they’re here for us.
Author bio:
Susan James Pierce has a degree in
Marketing Management, works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta, Georgia, and
devotes her precious, spare time to writing Fantasy, Paranormal and Sci-fi
novels.
Please visit
www.sjpiercebooks.blogspot.com and sign up for her mailing list or subscribe to
her blog if you’d like to hear when new books come out!
Coming soon:
Iris (Novella: The Captivated
Series) Available now!!!
Fight for Me (Book Two: The
Captivated Series)
Website:
Buy links:
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