The Day Before

I woke up with a start, quickly sitting up with my eyes wide open. My hand wasn’t clutching the gallon of water anymore, and my arms felt…cool. Like mint was rubbed all over them. I smelled…aloe. I grazed my fingers over my right arm and felt a gel substance, which felt like it was wiped hastily over my arms.

The orange hue of light was gone and it felt like it was just a big, cold, empty room. It had white walls and blankets and sheets were thrown all over the floor. I saw three resting forms scattered around; the loud snoring of one, the quiet rustling of movement from the other, and the other that just laid still, trapped in a deep slumber. I heard soft pitter-pattering on the floor and I froze. It got closer to me until I heard the panting of breaths. “Oh, Dash…” I said softly, I spread my arms out and he jumped into my lap, wagging the stub of his tail. You could still see the twinkling of his amber eyes, even in darkness. He licked my face and I pulled away, petting him on his head, instead. I got up, dizzily, and almost lost my balance. I quickly held on to anything that would support me and crashed into the wall instead. It felt like I had drunken myself into this state but I guess I was still a little bit delirious.

Dash quietly followed me, while I walked alongside the wall, patting it every now and then to get good balance. There still some red and yellow spots in my vision, but it was just a speck every now and then. I walked over to the entrance and peered out, the hallways were dark and quiet. It seemed like we were in some storage floor up on top of the mall. But why weren’t we in the store floor? And then the waterfall that was the crack came crashing in my mind. It was all probably flooded; all up to the brim. And it was all my fault.

I walked around the twists and turns of the hallways. Everything was dark, but I could tell that everything was being…pressured. Like something was squeezing everything together. Dash never ventured in front of me. He always stayed in the back of me and I was glad for that, I didn’t want to be loud and call his name and wake everyone up. I back tracked and instead of going forward into the pressured-feeling walls I went near to the door that led to the roof. I opened the door as soundlessly as I could, but there was a loud creak or two and I cringed every time I heard it. When the door was wide enough for Dash and I to slip through, I slowly closed it. My arms weren’t hurting as badly as before, so I was happy that I had some use for them.

There was a low humming coming from a part of the roof. I stood still and saw the red and yellow spots form and then disappear from my vision. I heard some murmuring and I strained my ears. I began to walk closer to the sound, curiosity taking over.

“…Come with…and I’ll help…” I could only hear fragments of the conversation, but the voice was definitively a male’s.

There was a long stretch of silence and then another voice spoke up.

“Help me? How so?” The voice was loud and confident. It sounded like…Charlotte’s.

“I can get rid…of…for…” the person said, calmly and low. I needed to poke my head out of from behind the concrete-painted-over-wall I was hiding behind. The smooth, gray, concrete roof of the building hid the scuffing my shoes made whenever I moved. I saw both of their faces; the people who were having the conversation. It felt like my jaw unhinged and shattered to the ground as I tried to comprehend what was happening before my eyes.

I saw Charlotte’s scowl, her red hair in a high ponytail and her hands limp at her sides. And the guy next to her, his blonde hair disheveled, his cool blue eyes staring at her intently, a smug smirk on his face. Benji.

I quickly retracted my head back against the wall, my neck muscles aching at the sudden movement.

“Really? And…? What else?” I heard Charlotte say loudly, not bothering that her voice echoed around her and that anybody could hear her.

“Eli,” Benji said evilly, “will be all yours.”

I peeked out from my hiding place, seeing Charlotte’s scowl turn into a slight smile. Her eyes glittered and she nodded her head firmly. “Violet, gone. Eli, mine? Okay, you have a deal.” Charlotte smiled genuinely, but it all felt wrong, as she stuck her hand out and Benji took it gracefully; shaking it up and down. I looked away, then back again, seeing Benji bow down and then leading Charlotte into a boat of luxury. I had to take a double take, because I knew for a fact that the boat wasn’t there before. It came so silently and gracefully. It had a blue streak along it’s side and there was a name for it, but I couldn’t see it.

Somebody threw down a rope ladder (it was that high up) and Charlotte hesitated before gripping it and climbing up slowly. I turned my gaze back to Benji, just as he pulled out some type of phone. He held it against his ear and murmured into it. He nodded his head every once and a while, then pressed a button.

Automatically, two burly men dressed in all black, had Cove and Ruth thrown over their shoulders. They both had tape over their mouths, and ropes that bound their wrists and ankles together. The man in the front, that had Ruth, also held a bag that was thrashing around. My senses automatically alerted me that Dash wasn’t with me. I looked all around, I didn’t even notice he had left me! I stepped out from my hiding spot, but I noticed that the wall I had been hiding behind had it’s shadow covering me, so I knew I wasn’t seen. Ruth picked up her head, glistening tears streaming down her face as she kicked and thrashed on the shoulder of the man, she brought her gaze to me, like she knew I was there.

I saw her shake her head frantically, but she didn’t stop thrashing around. That stopped me from going any further. Was she confident that they weren’t going to hurt her? And where was Eli? I bit my lip, not knowing what to do. My brain did circles inside my skull and I clutched both sides of my head to stop the spinning that I was feeling.

After the men had talked to each other, they boarded the boat, and I saw Benji smirk at the wall. Like, he knew I was hiding behind it. He turned around and grabbed the rope ladder, tugging it, and he didn’t even have to climb up, his lackeys were pulling the ladder up.

Bastard! was all I could scream in my head, his psychotic smile flashing in my head, his windblown hair…I gripped both sides of my head and blocked out the images. Ruth will be safe, Cove and Dash…all will be safe, she knows…I tried to assure myself. She knows…

It’s all a dream. I’m still delirious from the heat, yeah, that’s it. I’m delirious, still. They’re not gone, my head said to me.

I opened the metal door and ran through the halls, quickly going into the entrance of the bare room. I ran inside, my arm over my eyes to shield the tears that were flowing nonstop out of my eyes. And it could have also been because I didn‘t want to see the room with no resting forms in it, because I didn‘t want to accept that Cove and Ruth were kidnapped. I walked around aimlessly, not knowing where I was going, and tripped over something and landed on a big pile of sheets. I sobbed into them, was I delirious, still? Or did it really happen? Please be here in the morning, Cove and Ruth…please.