PAST
It was a beautiful sunny day for Eliora and her dad, but a troublesome one for her mom.
Eliora's mom, fresh out of the shower, gave them an earful after she met the mess they made with the food she gave them
for dinner. Jane, Eliora's mother, picked up the broom and started cleaning, still with the towel wrapped around her body.
The father and daughter pair hid behind the window, watching Jane clean their mess ferociously. They were about to take another glance at her through the window when they noticed her standing close by with a fry pan in her hand and a glare on her face. She was about to march towards them when they immediately took off.
They were currently sitting in a park, eating ice cream and chuckling to themselves about the things she would make them do when they returned home.
"Eli, isn't that your friend?" Eli's father, Arthur, pointed at a little girl walking some distance away from them. The little girl gave them a glance for a few seconds before turning her head as if she did not know them.
"Can I go say hi?"Eliora begged Arthur as she was still on her holiday and had not met any of her friends for a while.
"What about your ice cream?" he shot back, returning her pout with a cocky grin.
"Come on, Dad!" She blinked her eyelashes, trying to give him her best puppy look.
Letting out a massive sigh, Arthur gave in," I'd give you only ten minutes."
"But that's not enough!" she grumbled.
"Ok, 15 minutes. But you better get back before the time elapses, if not, I will be eating your Ice cream," he joked.
She crossed her arms in defiance. "You cannot do that!"
Smiling like a kid, he replied, "Do you want to find out?"
"Your friend is leaving," he added, pointing towards Antha, who was walking farther and farther away.
"Are you coming?" Eliora asked, trying to conceal her excitement.
He took a deep breath, trying to look serious. "You know I and her father don't get along," he answered, his voice slightly subdued.
"Oh, bye then!" She kissed him hastily on the cheek.
She couldn't help but burst out laughing at the sad face he was trying hard to form. She quickly ran off to catch up with Antha and her father.
"Antha!!" she yelled as she ran towards her.
Antha gave Eliora a slight glance, which she quickly averted.
Panting, Eliora asked," Where are you going?"
Antha turned back to her, holding her hand up slightly. "Papa's taking me home," she said.
Eliora's heart started pounding in her chest as she stared at the face of the man wearing a dark grey hoodie. She tried to match the resemblance of
Antha's father to this man, but there was none.
"Your dad?" Eliora asked, just to be sure she heard it right.
"Yes!"
The moment that particular word came out of Antha's mouth, the alarm in Eliora's head went off.
"What a beautiful friend you have here," he said, his voice dripping with a disgusting kind of charm.
Eliora involuntarily moved backward as he moved forward.
"He's not your dad!" She cried out to Antha, her voice trembling and in panic. Antha gave her an odd look, confusion written on her face, before looking back at the man at her side.
Eliora's stomach stirred as she watched him lean in, his face just inches from hers. "Honey, do not mind your friend, she is just fooling you," he told her, a wicked spark in his eyes.
She turned back to face Eliora, her face twisted into a scowl. "That's not cool."
The man smiled chillingly, causing goosebumps to rise all over Eliora's body, and then he snapped his fingers.
Eliora attempted to look for any adult she could see around, but there was no one.
A man wearing a black shirt and cap came out from the darkness into the dim light. Without delay, she rushed in his direction.
"Hey! That man is trying to take my friend away, please help her!!!"
The man covered in leaves and twigs tilted his head towards her, and the only thing she could see were his glinting teeth.
"Isn't she pretty? The boss will love her."
Eliora stood back, frozen with panic.
"Exactly, you grab her while I grab this one and get her in the car."
He informed, gesturing to Antha, who was about to slide down from the unsteady way her body had turned.
Eliora was frightened watching him push Antha into the car and himself into the driving seat. She was about to scream her dad's name, hoping something would happen, however, a pair of hands grabbed her body and raised her off the floor.
She fought and tried to scream, but the sounds were silenced when he covered her mouth with his hand. She kicked and punched, trying to escape him, but it was in vain.
His hand holding her mouth tilted a little, giving her access to take a big, bold bite on his palms, causing him to release her, dropping her onto the ground.
Her head struck the cement, and her eyes began to darken. The only thing her failing eyes were able to detect was the red smudges on her eyelash, and the only thing her failing brain could come up with was:
Dad help.
————
Slowly, Eliora's eyes opened, a sharp headache hitting her. She closed her eyes for some seconds, hoping the pain would recede, but it didn't after she opened them again. She tried to use her numb hands to rub her head, that's when she noticed the long chains on her hands. She was chained to the large ground of the rusty iron cage she was in.
She tried standing up, but her legs couldn't take the weight, so she had to use one of the iron bars for support.
When she looked around, she noticed the presence of another iron cage, each lined up in either direction. The cages contained children around her age and older, all of them lying unconscious. A look at the cage beside her was when she noticed the unconscious Antha." Antha," she called out, but there wasn't a single movement or response coming from her friend. Eliora noticed she was still breathing, so her heart beat that had spiked up previously went down a bit.
Her chains were rattling with each pull of the chains, she continued to move around and tried to avoid making much noise.
She rotated her wrists, trying to pull them out of the chains, but they didn't budge. She only ended up with a small superficial cuts on her skin. She bit her lips, exerting more pressure, but she still couldn't move her hands even a few centimeters from the wall.
Raising her head to see if the sound had attracted anybody, she was amazed to find a boy standing outside her cage. The boy looked and seemed to be older and more disheveled than her. When their eyes met her brain finally convinced her that she was not seeing things, he was real.
"H-Hey," she stammered, a bit shaken.
But he didn't respond.
"How did you manage to get out?" she inquired. "No, you must escape," she said, her voice urgent with determination.
He lifted one of his eyebrows, evaluating her. There was a quietness in his eyes that did not fully go along with the negative their surroundings.
"Did you hear what I just said?" Eliora insisted, her voice filled with desperation.
Only a nod from him would have been enough for her because it meant he at least understood.
Eliora was on the verge of screaming at him, she wanted him out so that she could at least have a chance to be found by whoever helps him. Changing her position, she tried describing with her hands but gave up when she realized her chains wouldn't budge.
"If they catch you, they will hurt yo~"
Her plea was interrupted by the loud sound of a metal door being slammed open while the boy appeared so exuberant in a state of panic that it amazed her.
Several men in black clad came down the stairs, an elderly man leading the way, "Hey Son, you are here already. Have you found one to your liking?"
Eliora was dumbfounded when she saw the child point at her, and the scary-looking man turned to her.
"She was going to be a part of my special edition? Well, it is no longer possible now."
He said it involuntarily whilst stroking his beard, and two men in black went into her cage as he snapped his fingers.
She didn't resist when they took off the chains and checked her wrists for cuts, yet she kept looking at the dirty boy who kept on looking at her, his emotions blank.
The older man let out a weary sigh and then commanded, "You know what to do with her." his voice faded as he walked away.
The messy boy, however, stayed back, hanging in the dim light with his eyes on Eliora as she hissed in pain, and they cleaned up the cuts on her wrists gently.