Capture My Heart

“I’ll go I speak their language, Im a girl and Im hurt; they won’t find me as much as a threat.” Poppy was saying as we waited on the edge of the woods.

“No.” De’Andre said with finality. “Your exactly right; you’re a girl and your hurt. They could take advantage of you.” He growled through clenched teeth.

“I can protect her,” Beck said, cutting the two off. Poppy glared at him for the suggestion. Of course she wouldn’t want protection, least of all from Beck.

“I can control the situation more than anyone, I’ll go,” Violet said, joining the argument. I shot her down before anyone could even consider it.

“Absolutely not,” I growled, and Violet gave me an angry look before clenching her tiny fist. I looked right at her, daring her to protest.

“…The three of them would be our best option.” I caught someone saying as me and Violet had this intense stare off. She broke it first and looked towards who said it…Jay, of course. It was obvious now that I wasn’t the only one staring at him either.

“Yeah, Poppy and Violet are right in their own ways, and obviously Jake won’t let them go alone, or with anyone else.” Kyle was adding. I caught on immediately.

“I can’t let them go,” I told Jay, talking only to him, ignoring everyone watching and listening to us.

“Jake, relax. There’s no danger, the two of them will be perfectly safe.” Jay soothed me.

“And if not, you’ll be there; and we can get away a lot faster than the humans can follow. We didnt get any vampire scents when we did a perimeter sweep.” Kyle added.

“You don’t need to baby me,” Violet grumbled.

“Or me,” Poppy added, but it sounded like she was talking to Violet. Reminding her that I cared about both of them. Violet frowned.

I sighed deeply to distract the pair.

“I’m going with you?” I asked. Multiple nods while murmurs went around our group. It was easy to see my decision was made.

I’d been convinced.

“You’ll be with us the whole time,” Poppy assured, grinning half way. I sighed again and glanced at Violet, who was both pleading and comforting me with her deep eyes.

“I’ll go, but I won’t like it,” I grumbled.

XxX

There wasn’t exactly a handbook on how to approach a town of Brazilian’s not quite-up-to-date with modern technology or customs similar to ours.

Saying we were winging it would be an understatement.

After we had left the forest, there had been a muddy kind of path that led towards someone’s back garden, which was where we were hesitating by.

Violet walked slightly, but not farther than I could handle, ahead of us as Poppy limped beside me.

Her arm was thrown over my shoulders as one of my hands wrapped around her waist to help support her. She had put up a fuss about getting helped, but not too much.

Her eyes were wary, watching the scene, and her head was tilted ever so slightly so she could listen to everything. I couldn’t see Violet’s face but I knew that the wariness would be in her too, despite her optimism about this.

We were approaching the edge of the town and I could hear children. It was a family home that was closest to us obviously.

Large plants didn’t quite block us from the view of the mother with two children gardening, but she hadn’t noticed us yet.

Violet paused and looked back, and when she did Poppy nodded for her to continue. I heard her take in a breath and at that moment was when one of the children, a little girl, noticed us.

She had a dark complexion and big dark eyes that looked over the three of us, not knowing who we were but that we weren’t supposed to be here.

She was maybe six. Her eyes were curious, and Poppy spoke beside me, saying something I didn’t hear.

Her big eyes widened even more and she scurried backwards upon hearing that. I felt nervousness settle in my stomach.

This was it.

The little girl tugged on the long skirt of her mother, who had her hair in a bun on her head and a toddler, a boy, on her hip. Her eyes were tired as she worked on her garden, and even more so when her daughter spoke.

The daughter said something I didn’t understand and I grew tense.

Poppy looked at me, and squeezed my shoulder when she saw how frustrated I was getting. I relaxed a little, and gripped her hip a bit more easily.

The mother looked up at us as the girl talked, looking concerned. Her eyes widened and she shifted the baby on her hip as she dropped the metal shovel and edged backwards.

Poppy said something else, directed towards the mother, the arm that wasn’t on my raised in defense.

The mom asked Poppy a question.

Poppy replied, and I shifted nervously when the mom looked over the three of us, thinking. The little girl said something very sweetly to Poppy, and pointed to me.
Poppy nodded.

“The mom says we can come in,” Poppy whispered to me and Violet and Violet nodded. “I understood it, if only a little.” She said, and followed the woman inside.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of multiple questions, accusations and statements to prove out innocence. All of which I didn’t understand.

The little girl was named Levia, the boy Kauldi. The mother was Maura, and she didn’t know any English at all.

There was no man of the house, because Maura’s husband had left them a while ago, after Kauldi was born. It wasn’t easy getting by but they managed.

Maura cooked up rice and ham and used a first aid kit to wrap Poppy’s leg as they talked. Violet translated when she could.

I remembered how Violet was from Brazil before, but she didn’t know that, and most of her language was lost along with her memory. But not all of it.

Levia sat close to her mother while her and Poppy talked, wanting to be in on the grownups conversation.

I studied the house mostly as this went on. It was a one story, two bedroom place made of wood, sort of like a cabin. There was an ancient wheezing refrigerator, and about two lamps that gave off light, not including the sun coming in through the simple locked window.

It was cluttered inside, random items strewn about the short couch and chairs and stools and shelves.

The bathroom was tiny, and there wasn’t a shower or tub. Apparently the natives here were more into using the river, which the three of us would have to use eventually.

We were filthier at this time than we had been this morning, since the last time we bathed was yesterday, again in the grimy river.

After a few hours I knew the others would be worried, and I voiced this to Poppy, almost in a whisper although I didn’t know why. Maura couldn’t understand me any more than I could her.

Poppy nodded and told Maura something. Maura asked a question, surprised.

Poppy sheepishly told her and Violet whispered in my ear that she told her there were eleven of us in the woods, and that we’d been helplessly lost for weeks in the forest since we went hiking.

Maura stood after hearing this information, said another unknown sentence and walked out of her house.

“What’s she say?” I asked Poppy, fearful. My emotions were on a blind roller coaster right now. I had no idea what to expect next and quite frankly, I was sick of the unknowns.

“She said to wait here,” Poppy said her eyes on Levia and the room where Kauldi was sleeping. The mom couldn’t have meant us any harm if she left her children alone with us, could she?

It was a half an hour later when I got my answer, Maura returning with two other woman, both thick boned and tan, with concerned eyes.

Not speaking English still, I could just barely understand her introduce them as Gianni and Rayne. I wondered if our names sounded as strange to them.

Gianni walked forward into the house, looking straight at Poppy with an unfathomable expression. Poppy only gazed back evenly, unfazed.

“We understand you are in trouble, bring your friends,” she said, in a deep, strangely accented, scratching voice; the kind of voice you get from years of chewing tobacco.
Poppy nodded, and looked to Violet, who stood.

“I’ll tell everyone what’s going on,” She said and left. I tried to relax as she disappeared, knowing it was safe. Things were gonna be okay.

“We will prepare places for you all to stay, until you can return to your home.” the deep voiced Gianni said, looking over the two of us and Rayne and Maura both nodded in agreement.

It was hard to realize that they were going to help us after all the negative things that I had been forced to think recently, but it clicked after a while.