Critical Acclaim

Stumbling across the crowd, Amanda and Zacky laughed glancing playfully at each other. It was past midnight and the New Year had just been welcomed. Party with Avenged Sevenfold; His Infernal Majesty; Bam Marguera, his crew, and all the pseudo-celebrities gathered in that place meant only one thing; getting wasted.

Amanda couldn’t help but feel flattered, ever since she had met Zacky her life revolved around famous people; every normal person’s email contacts list was full of family and friends, maybe co-workers. Amanda’s held rock bands, pop singers, TV hosts, famous journalists and so on, she wasn’t one to complain, she enjoyed her life and knew Sylvia would as well. Sylvia.

“Zack take me home,” she slurred, her voice made her giggle and also Zacky found it funny.

“Why? We’re having so much fun!” he exclaimed happily, his drunken figure stumbled upon a wall and Amanda laughed.

“Our baby girl’s alone,” she whined, truth be told, she had a strange feeling. The other truth being told, she didn’t know whether if it was the alcohol, the fact she had sort of made things up with Zacky or maybe the little voice inside her head telling her she should look out after her daughter.

Sylvia’s fingers found their way to the light switch and she turned it on, looking around confusedly as her round eyes adjusted to the light; nothing seemed out of common except for the door, a little opened and swinging with air coming from the hall; the hall? Even a four year old knew that meant a current was flowing outside the room, meaning someone had opened the door. Being rather familiar with her mother coming in a little drunk every once in a while, she wasn’t surprised when what seemed like a guitar made a falling sound down the corridor.

“Amanda?” she called out with a confident voice, a few seconds passed and shuffling was heard outside her door, by this time she was almost sure her mother was drunk, the hushed sounds made it blatant.

“Mom…?” maybe Sylvia’s voice stuttered a little as the two figures came through the door. As her eyes widened, a high-pitched squeal came from her mouth and the woman ran to her and covered her mouth with one hand as the other picked her up; Sylvia’s normal fast thoughts and sharp common sense were in a shock.

“You should have told me about this tiny whiner,” said the woman in much of a chuckle, her long red hair swinging behind her back as her hands moved aside just as her partner duct-taped Sylvia’s limbs and mouth, tears streamed down her pale face.

“I didn’t even know she was here, as far as I concern, they’re usually never home, much less with kids!” said a jet black haired man, his voice rather raspy and his gaze dark and deep. He might have been in his middle twenties, along with the woman.

“Just take everything and stuff, and we’re out,” she said giggling casually as she took the girl into the walk-in closet and shut the door. Sylvia stared at the door as shuffling, laughs and voices came from the outside. She was scared, she needed her mom.

“That’s it, I just took the last guitar into the truck,” confirmed the guy as the woman browsed the drawers in look for something valuable. She was in deep thought as a clicking sound came from the front door.

“They’re here.”

“The girl!” whispered the man in a hurry.

“Leave her! Lets go!” said the woman back making her silent way to the room’s door, stumbling and laughter echoed downstairs as more cars parked outside.

“She saw us!” said the man, they both froze and glanced quickly at the window; as the woman nodded, he opened the closet and grabbed Sylvia by the hair, pulling her up and over his shoulder.

“What are we going to do with her?” asked the woman as they made their way to the bathroom, where they had located and easy exit through the window.

“There’s no time for that, we’ll see later,” said the man as she carefully opened the window and swung a leg over the edge, passing the girl over to his comrade and climbing down quickly. As he got to the bottom, he opened his arms and the woman leaned over as much as she could, throwing the girl at him.

Sylvia’s mind clicked and a rush of thoughts came upon her as she glanced everyway worriedly; glancing upwards to see the woman climbing down much more clumsily than the man holding her tightly, she saw the light of the kitchen get on.

“We ran out of Hein! There’s more in the pool bar!” called Jimmy’s voice, Sylvia felt her heart skip and thought as fast as she could; glancing up once more to see the woman halfway down, she kicked the man’s groin.

“What the-?” asked Rev glancing out of the window, a loud grunt had been heard and he wondered where it had come from, with his vision a little blurry he decided it would be best to step out. The man laid on his side breathing heavily as Sylvia laid next to him, trying to get as far as possible; the woman hoped down and looked back just as Jimmy stepped out of the house.

“Get up, we gotta run!” she commanded trying to help the man up and glanced sideways just in time to see the little girl trying to get away.

“You little- get back here!” her yelling came out louder than expected and Jimmy turned at her, trying to focus he saw the girl crawling away and the two figures a few feet from her.

“Sylvs?... Sylvia!” he moved forward to fall on his knees, the alcohol in his blood was enough as to cure an entire hospital. Hearing the shuffle outside, Zacky wandered out, followed by Amanda and Matt.

“Rev? What the fuck are you doing?” asked Zacky giving his friend a funny look, just to look away as a childish muffled grunt came from the distance; Amanda’s body filled with horror and her blood iced.

“There’s no time for this you fucking asshole!” yelled the woman as the guy got up hastily, she ran toward their truck and started it as the man tried to run behind her. Sylvia gave desperate cries catching the man’s attention, who glared at her and pulled her by the hair, shoving her over his shoulder again and running away.

“Sylvia! Get back here! Give me my girl!” screamed Zacky running as best as his drunkenness let him, Matt pacing behind him as Jimmy got up and started to follow stumbling aside; Amanda stared in horror unable to do a thing.

“Let her go idiot! Let her go, we gotta run!” exclaimed the woman as the guy shoved Sylvia inside the truck right after shutting the back of it.

“Just drive bitch!” he replied as the woman sped out of the backyard and down the street, Zacky stared at them for a split second before running toward the front of the house and into his car.

“Wait here,” he commanded and drove away, Matt shook his head but ran toward the house and started calling out for the others.

Zacky drove fast, his blood pressure raised as thousands of terrifying thoughts crossed his mind, he wasn’t going to deny he was scared. His mind tried to work out how two burglars had managed to get into the house; the front door was locked and the windows too, the second story of the house had eight windows, all of them inaccessible except for the bathroom one. Was that it? No, they kept it locked most of the time; he didn’t remember having opened it for a while. His deep thoughts had made his drunkenness go away, skipped the hangover and was right now in desperate needs of some whiskey.

“My baby… we have to get her back, why would they want her anyway?! She’s just four years old for Christ’s sake! Did they win anything? They took all your instruments, they took the fucking safe, they took everything of any value and they took my girl! My daughter! MY SYLVIA!” Amanda couldn’t help yelling as the breakdown started coming upon her. Her hands were sweaty as her shaky voice raised with every word, her knees threatened with not standing her weight too much and her skin was pale in a ghost-like shade; everyone came and went making calls as Matt tried to calm down the freaked Amanda.

Curled into a ball Sylvia cried silently to herself as the couple tried to make up a hideout, their bickering revolved around cops and the two guys that had been following them; they seemed to have forgotten about the little girl as they had threw her onto the floor of the truck and kept her there during the argument. Finally making a stop, the guy pulled Sylvia out of the truck and smuggled her into the motel room.