SEARCHING FOR A SHELTER
As I followed the road, the night kept coming closer and a coward like me couldn't really handle it. The darkness was what I feared the most, and in a new world like this, who knew what scary things was lurking in the shadows?!
"You are going to be fine, Leni, just fine," I kept repeating to myself, in an attempt to calm my nerves. "Absolutely fine! There is no such thing as monsters, of course not!"
Did it work? Well, no. I was still panicking, at the same time my feet were aching and I started to get really tired. Nothing was seen in front of my but dead, cold ground and a never ending road.
I soon realized I might as well sleep somewhere and layed down on my back next to a nearby tree. It didn't take too long for me to fall asleep, as tired as I was.
The dream that appeared that night was surprisingly good - I found myself standing in front of my mother, then running towards her. She hugged me and I could almost feel her warmth. Therefore it was really horrible, waking up and realizing I was still lying on the ground in the shadow of a tree by the desert. It was early morning now, and the fear vanished with the darkness.
I just had to keep on walking.
Reaching up to the top of a mound my search for a shelter seemed to finally come to an end! I couldn't stop myself from shrieking of relief, and as if my body weigh no less than a feather, I started running down towards the tiny house next to the road. Finally, I could get something to eat, and somewhere to rest!!
Of course it did come to my mind that the probability of someone staying in that house was quiet high, so I saw to it that I carefully looked through all of the windows before standing by the entrance door. Surprisingly enough, the house looked quiet normal to me, maybe a little futuristic in style but nevertheless normal. Which was the main reason as to me reaching out my hand, trying to open the door.
To my surprise the door was unlocked and easily opened with a gentle click. Normally, unlocked doors would make most people suspicious, but hey, I was hungry and would do almost anything to get something to eat!!
In the corner of my eye I saw a kitchen, and a kitchen meant if something - food! I rushed up against the fridge and threw the door open, almost hard enough to make it break! None of the stuff inside were recognizable, but at least looked edible. So I quickly grabbed something that looked like leftovers...
...and scooped the food inside of my mouth with my bare hands! Of course I was so hungry finding a fork or a spoon was a waste of time, I needed nutrition, and now! As you can see, licking the bowl was something I just had to do as well, nothing was to go to waste! Luckily enough no one was there watching me make such a fool out of myself.
Or so I thought! After resting my sore feet sitting on the chair I rose up...
As I turned around, I saw a man. And he wasn't looking to happy! Well, who would, finding a stranger getting all comfortable in your house?!
"Enjoying yourself?!" he said with a harsh voice. His glare almost gave me a heart attack!
I found him so frightening it became hard even raising my voice.
"I didn't... I didn't mean to... I mean, so hungry, sorry." My voice was so weak I could hardly hear it myself. The man didn't find any trouble raising his voice though.
"Who do you think you are, entering someone elses home and eating their food, huh?!" he roared angrily. "Who gave you the permission to do that, you ignorant, stupid, girl?! You want to get hurt?! Because I can seriously hurt you right now!"
Many times had I gotten scared in my life before, but somehow, hearing his threat made me more scared than ever!
"I'm sorry!" I said with my shaky, scared voice, which somehow managed to get loud enough for him to hear it. "I was just so hungry! And I have no idea where I am, I just went through my mothers time machine and now I'm here! I just want to find my mom, I can leave, please, just don't hurt me!"
By some reason the mans facial expression went soft, and a smile which was everything but heart-warming spread across his face.
"Oh, I see! So you travelled through time. That makes sense! Of course, a time maching brought you to my house, just so you could crash my place and steal my food. Oh, wait, did you say your mom made the time machine? Then you must have a really smart mom, congratulations!"
Oh, so he didn't believe me. Well, I don't blame him.
His laughing suddenly went silent and he looked just as mad and fierce as he had done before. He then turned me around and pushed me so hard on my back that I stumbled on my feet and almost fell to the ground.
"Get out, now!" he raged. I had no choice but to obediently do what he said.
When I got outside I sat down on the ground by the entrance. I couldn't help but feeling mad at the same time as despair caught on to me - the night was on it's way and I had nowhere to go. Tears started falling down my cheek, what was I supposed to do?!
I ended up doing what I had always been good at since the day my mom went missing - crying myself to sleep. I guess I cried quite a lot, and loud at that, since I could sometimes hear the man swear at me from inside the house.
It wasn't until later that I found out he had actually gone outside to get me...
When I woke up the next morning I found myself unusually warm, sleeping outside. It didn't take too long for me to notice I was actually sleeping inside, in a sleeping bag! I yawned loudly, and rose my head, still a little sleepy.
That's when I noticed the yellow eyes that were staring at me. Those eyes belonged to a quite handsome face. With the hair flowing over his face it made him seem somewhat mysteriously attractive. But wait, no - that was the same face of the person that just yesterday threatened to hurt me!!
I quickly rose up to my feet, shocked and no longer sleepy at all - realizing he had been staring at me was like getting a cold shower.
"Hey, calm down!" he said, raising his hand in a supposedly calming gesture. "I'm not going to hurt you!"
"B-but you s-said you would, y-yesterday," I stuttered.
"Well, if I really wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have brought you inside last night when you were sleeping."
Hm, guess that's true.
"But why would you do that?" I said calmly, still scared though.
He smiled, this time not as creepily as yesterday.
"Well, I thought you said something interesting last night," he said. "Something about looking for your mother?" I nodded, since I wasn't so sure my voice would come out. "Oh, beacuse I think I know where to find her! There is this woman I've heard of that's been speaking about creating a time machine. Maybe that's your mother?"
"Really?!" I suddenly burst out eagerly. "That sounds like my mom! You know where to find her?!"
"Well, of course I do! We can leave this evening, if you would like to!"
The happiness I felt then was unexplainable, was I really to meet my mother this soon after getting here?!
"But why this evening, why not now?!"
"Oh, calm down now," he said laughing. "We leave tonight. What's your name, by the way?"
"Leni!" I said, still as eager. "Leni Fox."
"Oh, nice to meet you, Leni. My name is Calden Blackthread."
The evening came surprisingly fast; it was the first time in my life I actually wanted it to get dark soon. I was no longer alone and the thought of me soon meeting my mom put me in high spirits.
"Okay, Leni, time to go!" Calden finally said, and I obediently followed him.
I might have mentioned earlier that I have a perceptive ability, right? With that I mean that I easily know when somethings not right or when there are causes that rises to suspicion. Well, that ability was quite dampened now, stupidly enough. I might have needed that.
But I would be lying if I said I didn't suspect anything weird with Calden, he was after all very quiet as though reflecting by himself. I was still scared of him and the last thing I wanted was to annoy him, I mean, what if he would seriously hurt me after all? I couldn't trust him, but he was my only hope of seeing my mom. So I carefully walked by his side, quiet.
Calden suddenly stopped by a wall and started searching for something.
"It has to be somewhere around here," he said, carefully feeling every crack by the wall.
"What is?" I said nervously.
"The door," he answered casually.
Then he started leaning on the wall and you could hear a cracking sound as the heavy door of stone was pushed aside. At first the room behind the door seemed to be abandoned, but as the light was switched on I could see two thug-looking men, one standing in the front and one sitting behind. Their angry faces spread a chill down my spine... What did they have to do with the search for my mother?!
"Well, well," the larger of the two men said as Calden stood in front of him. "Look what the cat dragged in!"
The thinner one, still sitting on the chair, smiled stupidly at us. "If it isn't shorty Calden!"
Calden glared at him, but seemed to decide it wasn't worth fighting over. I couldn't help but thinking he was right about calling Calden short, I was after all taller than him. But never would I dare to say that out loud...
"Well, it's great to see you two as well, Mick and John! Still as happily in love as always, I see!"
"Watch it!" Mick said, gritting his teeth like an angry beast. "You want to die, shorty?!"
"Easy there, boy!" Calden said and chuckled. "I have the delivery with me, that Frida specifically asked for."
The delivery? I thought to myself.
"The delivery?" John asked from his seat, as though reading my mind. "What delivery?"
Then Calden pointed his finger at me. "Well, the girl that travelled through time, of course! Worth every single expensive simoleon!"
Wait, WHAT?!
"No!" I screamed out. "No way! What?! Why?!"
How could he do this to me?!
"Well, you didn't think you could live off of me for free, right?" Calden said calmly. "And from the looks of it, you don't have a single simoleon in your possession."
"But," I said, tears welling up my eyes. "You can't do this to me!"
"I'm doing it now, right?" He looked remorseless as he said it, making me realize it was useless to say anything more.
"Oh, Frida will LOVE her," Mick said and looked at me with something that might have been a flirtatious look, but, if you asked me, looked more like he had trouble while sitting on the toilet. "We will leave her to the boss tomorrow morning!"
"That will be the first thing you do tomorrow morning, got it?" Calden suddenly said, with a harsh, strict voice. "But most important of all; no touching the girl at weird places! If I ever find out any of you even trying something like that, I will see to it that you will regret it for the rest of your lives, you hear me?!"
I couldn't help but stare at him, was he really standing up for me? But that didn't make any sense! He was the one selling me in the first place!
"Are you theatening me?!" Mick roared, but Calden had already turned his back on him and left in a flash.
"Someday I'm gonna teach that shorty a lesson!" the big thug said to himself with an evil look.
Then he turned his evil look over at me and John as well rose up from his seet and closed the secret passage. Mick gave me a creepy smile.
"Sit in that corner and be a nice girl. If not, we might be forced to use those ropes on you and that won't be very comfortable, you see...!" Then they both burst out laughing.
I did as they told me. Could I do anything otherwise? Luckily enough they had a game to keep them entertained, hopefully they wouldn't get tired of it. I was still desperately trying to find a solution to my hopeless situation; was there any way I could escape? Maybe I could escape later, when I arrived to this Frida person, that bought me? But the bigger question was if I could get through this night without the two of them doing something horrible to hurt me...
However, a few hours went by and neither Mick nor John seemed to notice me sitting in that corner. They started playing dart and didn't seem to bother at all. I tried my best not making any kind of sound, even though my bladder was starting to get some trouble and I started to shiver because of the cold.
But then, as John was concentrating before throwing the dart, I could feel it itching in my nose. And there was no way for me to stop it!
"Achoooo!"
Damn it!
John turned around and glared at me. "Look what you did!" he burst out angrily and glared at me. Apparantly my sneeze made him miss the target.
"I'm sorry!" I said, bending my head down and trying to fight the tears. If I started to cry, I really wouldn't be able to stay quiet!
But John just sneered at me. "You cold, babe?" he said and went towards me. Chills went down my spine.
"John," Mick warned him.
"What, are you scared of what that shorty Calden will do to you? Well, he's not here, right?"
Micks expression hardened upon hearing Caldens name. "Do what you want."
"Well, of course!" John said and pulled me out of the chair. He was surprisingly strong, and left me with no chance of struggling! "Don't worry about being cold, I can warm you up!"
Oh, nonononono....!
"What did I say about touching wierd places?!"
No one had even noticed the door was open. In came Calden, with a furious look on his face!
I was so surprised I fell down backwards. Now I really couldn't stop my tears; he actually came back to save me! But did he have a chance against those two?! And why would he come back to save me, when he was the one selling me to them in the first place?!
My first thought didn't really cheer for Calden, I mean, there was no way that short guy had any chance against those two! But it was with easiness and strength that Calden managed to kick John down to the floor, so hard it left him unconscious. By that time, Mick had not even gotten a chance to react!
Mick went straighforward and aimed with a punch at Calden's face. He was strong and a punch like that would probably send Calden unconscious immediately, if it hit, that is! But Calden was faster and avoided the punch with ease.
Micks punch however had been sent with such force that even after it missed, it continued to fall down a bit. Calden quickly used that to his advantage and pushed Mick down, and he fell against the door. The thud when he landed reached as far as to where I was sitting, frightened and unable to move!
"I've always wanted to do this!" Calden said, and threw two quick punches against Micks face.
The second punch sent Mick to sleep for some time...
When the fight was over, Calden turned around and looked at me. I was still shivering by fear but was at least able to move now. With shuddering legs I tried to stand up, but Calden was soon there, holding my arm and helping me get up. His hands were surprisingly cold - just how had he known it was just the right moment to arrive and help me?!
"Well, look at you, just like a panda!" he laughed and tried to stroke his thumb under my eyes where my mascara was all smudged.
I quickly brushed him off, I don't now why but his touch made me shiver. Maybe it was because his hands were all cold...
"Don't touch me," I said, and started to cry again. "If it weren't for you I wouldn't have gotten into this mess!"
"Well, I guess I'm sorry about that, but you know, at least I came back and saved you right?"
"I won't forgive you!" I said, surprising myself at how angry I sounded.
"Ouch," Calden said and smiled. "But you know, I never asked for your forgiveness either. But maybe I can make it up to you by letting you stay at my place, until we find somewhere else for you to live."
I stared at him suspiciously. "You won't go off selling me to someone else?"
Calden smirked. "Well of course not!"
This time my perceptive ability was on at least, and it somehow told me I could trust him this time.
"Fine." I said after a moment of thinking, and we left the building, where John and Mick slept peacefully.
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