It's all coming back to me now

Chapter 3

It’s All Coming Back To Me Now

 

This wasn’t the first time the voice had come to me , or controlled me. I didn’t like to admit it but there had always been something ‘strange’ about me. I suppose it was just peoples instincts that told them to keep away. While children were playing and having fun i was the wierd girl who’d sit inside and watch them. My reason; i was terrified to go back out there. This is the story of how the voice came to me.

When i was young- very young- i had been happy. True i was still in a care home but that didn’t bother me, i’d had plenty of interest. I was bubbly , happy, funny.... beautiful. I was everything you could want in a adopted toddler.

By the age of 5 I had been fostered 4 times. I was unusually bright and perceptive, and my beauty was flourishing, though not popular i had friends. Even though things had been so up and down for me i hadn’t lost the joy in life , i saw the beauty in everything- way too trustful. That was my downfall, betrayed trust and the events that are about to unfold are what have made me what i am today...

                     

 

                           ***

I can still remember the little details about that day. It was 6^th of june2002 and it was my sixth birthday. The sun was shining and the birds singing. The grass had been freshly cut and I remember the smell filling my nostrils, calming me, the gentle breeze blowing on my curly locks as I swung on the handmade swing outside the home. I was living in the little village of Inglestock basking in the sunlight, dreaming of the birthday cake that awaited me inside, viewing the glory of life, feeling that things couldn’t get beter than how i felt just then! How right i had been- for after that day i would never again take wonder in life or nature- i would be scared of it.

I remember the second he approached me. Face of an angel but some hidden evil inside- even at 6 years old i could sense that. I remember his smell,  a smell that left your mouth watering- a sinfully lovely smell. All the things i loved most;the smell of rain, of baking cookies, of chocolate, but most importantly the smell of books (even at that age i loved books) I looked up at him beaming

“Hello mister” I said in sweet child politeness

“Hello darling, what’s your name?” He said in an annoyingly sweet voice adults always used on children.

“ My name is Laila Reynolds, what is yours?”i asked my inquisitive red tinted eyes meeting his- which where an identical shade to mine. ‘How strange’ i had thought, ‘ no one has my eye colour’ The man must have had the same though for suprise flashed in his eyes.

“who would have ever though it would be this easy?”he mumbled under his breath not meaning for me to hear it but the wind carried it to me. He crouched down so that he was my height. He had rustic grey coloured hair but looked barely mid thirties , his eyes told a completely different story though, his eyes had a look of millions of years of knowledge and sadness.

“well i was looking for a special little girl to help me with something, the problem is she has to be six do you know anyone?” he said it in a sweetly chilling voice  but i was to curious what he wanted help with.

“You’re in luck, I’m 6 today!” I said with a big innocent grin. A look that practically screamed BINGO enlightened his face, but i was just too young to understand.

“wow, well i suppose you’ll have to do” he said with a little wink.

“cool what have we got to do i have to be back soon, ive got my cake waiting!” I said breaking out into an adorably cute smile.

“well actually i have a little birthday suprise for you at my house. I know its something you’ll love.” My forehead crinkled.

“But you didn’t know it was my birthday.” I replied completely confused and more than a little uneasy. I saw the man register my worry and the last thing he wanted me to do was not trust him.

“Okay Laila heres the thing, i came here looking for you. I have reason to believe that you’re my daughter. Your mum didn’t tell me about you and she passed so quickly. Laila, you cant pretend you don’t see the similarities between us. Look at my eyes- don’t pretend you haven’t noticed. I am your father and i’m here to take you home” he said with a kind love over  powering his face.

“But i am home” i replied with a smile. I didn’t trust him, but i so wanted to. What you have to remember is  that i was happy here, but all i have ever wanted is a real family and a real home.

“I know my love, but things change and you’ve got to think i’ll always be with you whereas this place  is just a memory.” He phrased it in a way that made me see the truth, had he said “i am your home now” i probably wouldn’t have gone, but what he said made me realise this home wont always be with me, this home was going to forget me. So with one final look at the place i took his hand and walked into the unknown.

As soon as i got into his car i felt that something was wrong. He had lost his sweet chattiness and kind remarks. He was stony, silent, and set, like nothing was going to stop him. My gut clenched when the realisation that i’d done something very stupid hit me. I looked up at him eyes full and lip trembling.

“Who are you?” I asked my voice shaking

“ I think the more appropriate term would be what are you? Well Laila today is the day that you meet your master. I wont be around a lot but you will always belong to me. Laila your the girl i have been searching 2 centuries for.” His eyes glistened with the ghosts of his past. My heads spun, not coping with what he had just told me.

“So your not my daddy?” My husky voice pleaded, my heart breaking already knowing the answer. How could i have been so foolish- so trusting? It was at that moment that a became living stone, no emotions... no trust.

“No your like my pet...” His words confused me.

“pet?” i asked

“Hmm maybe that’s not the right word. My puppet, that’s it , your my own personal Pinocchio.” He said a small smile playing around his lips “Now no more questions until we get you to the hideout”

“wha-“

“Shut up. What did i tell you child!” He said in a tone so harsh- so deadly- i didn’t dare disobey him. I remember just sitting there, gently rocking, trying to convince myself this was all some horrible sick dream. Thats what the police tried to convince me later, but no matter how hard i pinched or screwed my eyes up I always opened them to see the inside of this mans car. I had no idea where i was heading, if i was ever going to make it there.  All these terrible, terrible thoughts whirled around my young head. My skull felt just about ready to crack due to the overload of anxious upset that had over ridden my brain. It may sound silly but my mind kept travelling back to the cake that waited for me in the home, i had thought that maybe if i had made the right wish i wouldn’t be here, that is was all my own stupid fault

I had been so captivated in my own thoughts that i hadn’t realised the car had begun to slow and then, gradually, stop. It was only when my side door started to open that i snapped back to reality.

“come on Pinocchio, time to get your strings attached...” my eyes darted up to him in confusedly, i honestly didn’t understand a word this physco said, i grown up wouldn’t understand a word he said. He looked at me impatiently then just grabbed my arm dragging me out the car i could already feel my tender skin bruising and blood being drawn from where his nails dug in. “ Now girl, i give you permission to speak, you’ll have to know what your doing, to a certain extent anyway.” He said his ruff voice puncturing me. I tried to speak but my vocal chords seemed to tie under all the anxiety of it all. Instead i took to surveying the scene around me.

I  was in a small- extremely dark, room. There didn’t seem to be any windows and the dim light only illuminated the millions of cobwebs that covered this dust filled room.

“You don’t live here.” I said it aloud but did not mean it as a question.

“Correct.” He replied simply a dirty mischievous smile on his lips.

“You got it to imprison me?” this time it was a question still wanting to believe that things weren’t as bad as they seemed.

“Correct and false.” He said his grin broadening

“You said you’d answer my questions, so answer them properly you sicko!” i didn’t scream it but the severity in my voice surprised even me, but i was tired. Tired of being scared, tired of being upset, tired of him!

“Feisty what i need, i knew you’d be perfect for this.” He said with an ugly look contorting his beauty.

‘Oh, for goodness sake. Stop with the mumbles and mind games and just tell me straight, what are you planning on doing with me?” I cried finally letting the emotions take over.

“calm girl, i cant stand your childish hysterics!” He hissed, eyes flashing. I sobered myself up knowing the tears were no help to me. That was the moment i matured dramatically. “That’s a good girl, now that wasn’t so hard was it ” A horribly condescending look covered his face.

“oh shut the hell up and answer my questions!”I shouted- no longer a hurt and confused 6 year old.

“you know that blasphemous language is not attractive coming out of a young girls mouth” he smirked still winding me up, quickly carrying on though not allowing my retort to reach him. “ Okay first question; No i do not live here. Second; Im not going to improsin you i intend to let you go, but  i did buy it with the thought of holding you here in mind, and what I;m planning on doing with you? Well Laila, your a very special girl. You- like i said- are the girl ive been searching for. Now i need you to be brave and patient and look after something very important for me, and i only want you to unleash it on my say so. Laila i want you to know that if you try destroy it, or yourself, the consequences will be deadly, people will get hurt, and it will be entirely your own fault.” His look was of that i will never forget; full of superiority and acient power but mostly i took in the look of complete sincerity. He meant every word he said and he definitely meant that if i disobeyed it would result in the assassination of innocent people.

“O-okay” I gulped “ But what are you actually going to do to me?” I asked swallowing my fear.

“Well, follow me and you’ll find out!” He leered once again grabbing my bruised and battered arm. He led me through an even grimier hallway. The cob webs sticking to my face and hair and i swear i could feel things moving about my feet. Just to top it all off i could hear whisper coming from the seemingly never ending hallway. Oh my god i had thought ‘ im going bonkers’ if i had thought that this was enough to drive me mad god knows how i coped with what was about to happened next...

 

“Now in this room lies your future, your not going to like it, but your the only one who’ll be able to accept it.”

“Accept what?” My unusually controlled voice inquired.

“well you’ll have to wait and see wont you?” His eyes lightning at the thought of the pain i was about to receive. I didn’t bother answering, what was the point? I’ll never get any sense out of him! We eventually came to a halt at the very end of the corridor, the whispering didn’t get louder but shivers coursed through me at the sound of them, the hairs on my arms refusing to lie flat. The door was grimy, the sort you’d expect to see at a squatters flat. The man looked down at me- i had never asked his name. “its time!” he cried a truly spine tingling tune escaping his mouth.

“Wa-wait!” I stuttered but he just ignored me and throwing open the door shoved me into the darkness.

As soon as the door had opened i felt the blast of evil- i may have been barely 6 but i knew what evil like and this was the worst kind. I felt the air dragged out of me and the room around me dissolve- the pressure compressing my lungs until i thought they’d burst. My brain throbbed due to the blood that pulsated so energetically through my body, eyeballs bulging through the lack of oxygen.  I remember the excruciating pain as my eardrums began to bleed because the loud hum of excited whispers, but i would have took this pain ten times over, to stop what happened next. All that had just happened became so insignificant, there are hardly any words to express what had happened without the fear of seeming insane. I could feel the whisperers, inside me, burning me from the inside out, every organ blistering from the intense fire that surged round my body. Then the pain hit the breaking point. I felt as there vicious teeth latched onto my heart, removing my little remaining humanity, my heart bleed the tear i couldn’t muster. The blood made the fire fizzle out, but this pain, it was just... mind blowing. Tortured screams escaped my lips, my whole body tensing and writhing. I felt he transfer take place between the whisperers and my heart, the latter giving way to all my emotions and secrets and the first giving away nothing. I was still kept excruciatingly in the dark. My head had felt like exploding under the pressure and pain that went through me. It felt like a million hot pokers where stabbing into any part of the body they could find, sweat seeped out of every pore. Blood gushed from my mouth with the pressure of my teeth pressing down on my tongue in the hope to stop the screams that were endlessly emitting my mouth. Then every part of my body tensed and tightened so suddenly i could not be sure it happened but sure enough i felt the two pairs of teeth gripped firmly onto my heart. With the pain already starting to subside i let the darkness come to take me for its prisoner once more...

 

“ you need to make sure she never does anything stupid. If worse come to worse you kill- but you come to me after, if shes having doubts i need to know!” the same beautiful voice of my nightmares whispered. Was  i asleep? I didn’t think so. The ground was too real beneath my back.

“yes!” i wanted to be sick when this horrible hiss came out of my own mouth, it had all happened. My bleary eyes began opening, the questions already burning in my throat, but not quick enough for him.

“uh oh, time to get her  back!”

I opened my eyes. I was sitting on the swing outside the home, tears pouring from my eyes.

“Help!” my husky voice pleaded “ please, just help.” A care worker came rushing out and my gut gave a hopefull twinge.

“have you hurt yourself darling?” she asked concern wringing in every syllable, i could trust her.

“There... was...a ... man!” i sobbed gasping for air ,the care worker looked about her.

“ theres no one there, besides ive been watching you all the time youve been out her, Birthday Girl!” Birthday girl... was it really the same day?

“No.” I said, my voice becoming firmer and stronger. “ A man took me. He lied to me and then he... then he...” my words broke off into sob.

“ Darling, you must have dreamt it, i promise you, no one was here.” Sh was trying to console me. This is what every one tried to convince me after; the police; the shrinks ; the care workers, but i knew better. I knew the truth.

 

Reviews

Wow. Intriguing. I'm not sure what's going on and this makes me want to read more. More please ... :^)