Holed up in my hotel room, I press the phone button multiple times, but the guy refuses to pick up. “Fuck!” I yell, chucking it across the room.
What use is a cell phone when you can’t contact the people you need to talk to?
I should have that helper thrown into the suffering hut for ignoring my calls. He’d better have a fucking good reason.
I should’ve thought twice about bringing a man like him along for this journey. It’s not often people like us get to travel outside the community, and when we do, things can get complicated, as none of us are accustomed to this atmosphere. Usually, my father and I only travel with elders because they’ve been trained to follow strict rules. Contact your patriarchs when you arrive and leave. Explain in detail what actions are being taken. No one leaves without telling a patriarch. The rules work because not only does it keep us together but it also keeps the community intact. So we can all go back home together.
But this man … he’s never left the Holy Land before. He’s never set foot in a world like this with flashing lights and people bustling about. Temptation is everywhere and to give in is to commit sin, according to my father anyway.
I’m glad he didn’t come along because then shit would’ve hit the fan the moment he realized the helper left without saying a word.
I should’ve never told him where Natalie lived because of course he’d go out and try to find the women on his own. All he needed to do was find a map and transportation, and that’s it.
I run my fingers through my hair and stare at myself in the mirror, wondering how stupid I could be to let this happen. I let my emotions cloud my judgment by letting that helper come along just so he could find his wife.
What if that helper finds them first? Will he capture them or let them go out of pity?
There’s a real chance Natalie could convince him to do so. After all, she knows this world better than anyone, and she could spin anyone around her finger if she wanted to. That girl who escaped with her, Emmy … she might’ve already succumbed to the pleasures of this world. Maybe it’s already too late. Maybe, instead of him bringing them back, they’ll kill him.
I close my eyes and sigh. No, they’re not vicious enough to do that. Certainly not a girl like Emmy, who grew up in our strict community. She’d never touch her husband like that.
But Natalie? She could definitely hurt someone if she had to.
The mere thought of her getting away triggers me, and I pick up a glass of whiskey and chug it down in one go.
If I’m going to find out the truth, I’d better go out there and catch her myself.
Natalie
Screaming on the streets is no use.
No one’s listening.
Passersby think I’m losing my mind.
No one would believe me when I tell them a girl’s been taken. All they see is a woman wearing oversized, dirty clothes, shouting at random people like she’s crazy. I feel as if I’m going delirious with fear and grief. No one will help me; not one person I speak to will give me their time.
What can I do? If I go to the police, they won’t believe me because Emmy was never here in the first place. She wasn’t born here, so to them, she doesn’t even exist. And if I told them about the community, they’d wave it off like some nonsensical story coming from a lunatic.
All I have left is a bag filled with groceries toppled onto the ground. The girl who carried them has vanished off the face of the earth.
With tears streaming down my face, I kneel and pick up whatever’s left. What else am I supposed to do? I would’ve run after her. I would’ve chased the guy until my lungs gave out, and I would’ve given it my all to save her. Not because they’d bring back more guards to find me and not because I want to hurt the guy who took her, but because she deserves freedom.
She wanted it so badly that she threatened me over it. She fought tooth and nail and almost died to get what she wanted, to gain her wings and spread them wide … and that man just clipped them as if it was nothing.
He took her, and now she’ll never see the freedom she loved so much.
That smile on her face is one I’ll never forget.
But I’m the only person who ever saw it.
The only one outside the community who’ll remember her … who knows she even exists. And it kills me.
With a heavy heart and tears falling down my cheeks, I go back inside the building and let the door fall closed behind me.
When she saw that man, she turned as white as a ghost and looked completely numb, unable to fight back.
All she’d learned while she was here … gone in the blink of an eye. Just an agreeable, submissive shell of a girl stood where Emmy once was, and she fell back into place as though it came natural to her. It’s all she ever knew and all she was ever taught. What else was she supposed to do?
I sigh and go back up the stairs and enter my home, where I place the bag of groceries on the table and sink down onto the couch, hugging a pillow tight. Emmy must be going through hell right now. The fear. The anguish.
They’ll probably hurt her … so badly.
I close my eyes and stuff my fingers into my ears.
I don’t wanna know, but my mind … it compels me to place myself in her shoes, forcing me to feel the pain she’s about to endure, and it wounds me. It cuts into my soul and strips me of every defense I ever had. I scream out loud even though I’m alone.
There’s no one here to hear.
Just like there’s no one there to hear Emmy’s torment as she’s dragged all the way back to that “camp,” that infernal hellhole filled with nothing but heartless monsters.
Fucking Family …
Emmy and I were more of a family than those people could ever be, even in what little time we had together.
I grunt to myself and throw the pillow out of frustration, wishing it was a brick I could smash into someone’s head.
If only I’d watched her more carefully. If I’d only held her hand, then she wouldn’t have gotten snatched away. If I hadn’t gone inside, maybe I could’ve smacked him in the head and alerted people around us to help.
But I didn’t. And I will never, ever forget or forgive myself for that.
Suddenly, my belly cramps, so I run to the toilet, but instead of peeing … there’s blood. My eyes widen as panic fills my veins.
Is my baby okay?
A mixture of feelings shakes me to my bones. I don’t know why I care so much. This baby was made there in the Community. Noah is the father. I shouldn’t want this …
Yet right now, I want nothing more than for this baby to survive.
What do I do? Where do I go?
I don’t have anyone to help me, so there’s only one option left; the hospital.
I’d wanted to avoid any big facilities at all cost for fear of being identified, as I’m sure Noah has the means to track me down if anyone enters my information into a computer. But Noah already knows where I live; how else would that man have found us and taken Emmy?
It’s already too late. And with a bleed like this, I have no choice but to go, so I pack my things and run out the door.
Noah
Hours later
At nightfall, I go to her home.
I’ve always known where it was, but I wanted to forge a plan first so we could capture both girls and bring them back alive and unharmed. Unfortunately, there’s no time for that anymore. The guy probably already took Emmy, which means Natalie knows we’re here and that I’m coming for her.
No time to waste. I have to act now.
I ring a random doorbell and wait until a stranger picks up his phone.
“Hi, I have a delivery for you,” I lie.
The guy presses the button, and the door to the building opens up. Too easy.
I go in and run up the flight of stairs, just in time before the man whose apartment I rang walks outside to wait for his nonexistent package. I’m already out of sight, and I quickly go up to her apartment door.
I wonder if she’s home.
Without waiting, I ring the doorbell.
No one opens up. Guess not.
Fuck. I hope she hasn’t run already. But it’s worth waiting. Maybe she’ll come back.
I fish out the key I stole from her the moment we took her and stick it into her door. It opens with ease, and I step inside and look around. I’ve never taken a look around. The last time I was here, it was solely to use her laptop to announce to her job she’d quit and to tell her landlord in writing that she’d be vacating the place.
I would’ve never guessed I’d actually come back here. Or that she would.
She’s clearly been here, as there’s stuff all over the place, blankets, clothes, water dripping from the faucet, used cups. I guess she ran off in a hurry … but to do what?
I look around the place and notice the door opposite to the bathroom is open. What’s inside immediately captures my attention. A changing station … and a crib?
Her scar.
Of course.
Why didn’t it dawn on me sooner?
A smirk spreads across my lips as I slide my hand across the table and touch the butterflies on the wall. Cute. Exactly how I imagined she’d decorate a nursery for her child.
But where is the child? And why does this room look as though it’s been perpetually stuck in time?
No wonder she refused to tell me about the scar on her belly. She’s afraid I’d use it against her … or worse, that I’d find her kid and use him to keep her with me.
I don’t blame her. I would’ve done the same thing if I was her.
Family above all.
Suddenly, the front door creaks, and I spin on my heels and look.
There she is, hazily walking through her apartment as though she’s lost in thought. But the minute she spots me from the corner of her eye, she stops in her tracks. Her pupils dilate as she turns her head. The shock on her face is exhilarating.
“Hello, Natalie,” I say with a grin. “I’m so glad I finally found you.”
