-*-Still Around Four Hours Earlier-*-
Now, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. With this in mind, I had to assume she wasn't talking to me. No, she had to be speaking to the very muscular bald man with his equally muscular hand wrapped around the top of her arm. I really did want to believe that, really I did. It's just that this particular man was obviously in a deep conversation with the person on the other end of his phone.
Okay, fine. Then maybe she was just interrupting him because he was ignoring her. See, this made sense because he had to be hurting her arm and she was just a little girl. It was a perfectly normal reaction. There were just a couple small details that I couldn't ignore. The smallest one was the fact that she was looking directly at me. The slightly bigger detail was that her other, unrestrained, arm was up and the hand attached to it was pointed directly at me. At least, I'm pretty sure it was me because I checked and no one else was around.
"Hey, idiot! Are you even listening to me? Come here right now!" The pitch of her voice kept increasing and was enough to snap me out of my confusion induced trance. "I said come here. Also tell this idiot to let me go while you're at it."
Ignoring her condescending tone, and let's just call it following a misguided sense of duty, I quickly ran the distance separating us with a yell to the intimidating muscle man. "What are you doing to her?" Nothing. That's the response I got, absolutely nothing. So I did the next logical thing and threw my candy bar at his head to get his attention. Not only was this a lot less dramatic then I thought it would be, it did nothing to stop him from talking to the person on the phone. Getting more irritated, I tried to rip his hand off the girl with my one unoccupied hand. It's like I wasn't even there.
So, before I tell you what I did next I have to make a tiny confession. I may or may not possibly get a little irrationally mad sometimes and this may or may not have been one of those times. So I can't really be responsible for how I brought up the gallon of milk and gently tapped it against his head...the first time. I'll take responsibility for the second time because it was obviously intentional with how I then gripped the small handle with both hands, turned my body slightly the other way, and used all the strength in my one hundred and twenty pound body to "tap" the side of his head again.
Believe me though; it was way more satisfying then before with how I felt the resistance his head gave to the movement of the milk container. This resistance was brief and before I knew it the container gave way, drenching muscle man in its contents. If you're wondering if he gave me his attention at this point, he most definitely did. He also let go of the girl, which was a win in my book. What quickly brought down the high of my victory was when he slowly turned to look at me with a murderous expression and took one, albeit very big, step towards me.
I did what any logical person would do and used the same strength I used to wield the milk jug to swing my foot right between his legs. As he crumpled with a look agony on his face I quickly grabbed a hold of the girl's wrist and sprinted as far away as fast as I could while dragging the girl. After a while, my momentum was abruptly jerked to a stop and I stared in surprise at the girl.
"Gosh, exactly how far are you planning to run. Such an idiot." She stared up at me with a serious face as she said this and actually seemed like she wanted a response.
I had ignored her words and tone before because of the situation, but I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Just who do you think you are and how old are you? You should know how to talk to people by now and what the heck are you wear-"
This little girl, the one who looked like a pink textile factory blew up on her, actually put up her hand to stop me from talking. I was starting to see why she might have been in trouble with the guy now.
"I am obviously Anna and I am six. It took you long enough to get me away from that guy. Not only that, but you got milk on my pretty dress. You're lucky I'm not making you pay for it. You know I was just so afraid for my life and there you were, taking your slow, slow time. You should really work on that next time. Anyway, I should go now. Places to be and all that, bye now."
I stood frozen in shock as I watched her walk away. The only thing moving was my eyelid as it twitched. I knew my body had to remain immobile for a while so I didn't do something bad to that sweet little Anna. She needed time to get far away from me. She couldn't actually be six with how she spoke. I mean she was bratty enough, but were did she learn to be that hateful? I saved her and she just lectured me. This was unbelievable. Too numb to think anymore, I started to make my way home before suddenly turning back the way I came. Mom would not be happy if I arrived home empty handed.
I was almost to my house when I felt a flare of irritation. I had forgotten to get another candy bar and couldn't help but think I shouldn't have wasted it trying to save that little girl. The thought quickly vanished when I walked inside and smelled my mom's cooking coming from the kitchen. I hurriedly walked the short corridor and turned right into the kitchen.
My mom was in the middle of making dessert when she turned to me and said, "There you are. I just used the last of the milk and need to start on the sauce soon." She turned back to what she was doing before she seemed to think of something and asked, "By the way, what took you so long did you meet any cute guys? Huh? That's what it was right?"
One side of my mouth quirked up in a small smile and I responded with, "Yeah mom. He was super muscular too." Not wanting to have any deeper conversation into the topic I left her to finish lunch and went upstairs. As I passed Jace's room, I heard the loud sounds of his latest video game coming through the door. He must've really liked this one since he'd been playing it pretty consistently lately. I guessed I should try to work on my essay until lunch.
Lunch was a success and Dad was happily surprised to find we were having his favorite foods. The normal conversation topics came up with Jace talking about how much fun he had at his friend Mark's house. It was the usual for us, even when mom slipped in a quip about me meeting a guy today. After that, we hung out some and went off to do our own things. See, all normal. That was until I woke up not having any memory of having fallen asleep.
I appeared to be in the bed of a truck. A truck that was on a very bumpy road might I add. As I became more aware, I noticed my hands were tied in front of me with rope. The continuous bumps caused me to roll around in an unceremonious heap all around the truck bed. Getting tired of the repeated abuse every time my body came in contact with the hard surface, I tried to get my barring enough to sit up. Having accomplished that much, I attempted to get the rope off. This was not the smooth type of rope either. It was stiff and had hard bristles sticking out that dug into my skin. With my back against the side of the truck, I maneuvered the rope off with a lot of effort. Truthfully, it was the blood that really helped. It made my wrists all slick and that was enough to slide it off.
Momentarily satisfied, I looked to the side and saw the sand kicking up from the truck's passing. So, my choices were to either stay here with whoever kidnapped me and find out why or bailing and most likely breaking something in the process. It didn't seem like we were going too fast because the truck had to stick to a small path. I then looked towards the cab of the truck and saw a very bald and somehow muscular looking head. That right there is what made my decision so much easier, that not so innocent looking head was not my friend.
With that thought, I put one leg over the gate of the truck and swung the rest of my body over so I was crouched on the back. Closing my eyes I took a deep breath and did my best version of a tuck and roll. Let me say, the movies lie. That perfect scene where the actor gracefully falls from a moving vehicle and stands up unharmed is an even bigger lie. Oh, and when they still look all beautiful with just a couple well placed scratches, biggest lie ever. Cause just then I was in so much pain that I had to just stay looking like an undignified blob on the ground for a while.
I eventually checked to see if anything was too badly injured limb by limb and once I was satisfied with the results, I stood up. I had a passing thought about how these scrapes and what were sure to become bruises were nothing compared to what that muscle guy would probably do to me for what I definitely did to him.
That brings us back to the present. You know the one where I'm running for my life? So once again, curse you Anna.