We were all gathered around in Ethan's room. Noah and Ethan were sitting on Ethan's bed next to each other, I was sitting on a chair opposite of Ethan's bed, Stone was standing next to the door and Rose was standing next to me twirling her knife between her fingers and looking at Noah while waiting for him to explain. He looked at Ethan and me and asked us if we wanted to tell our story or if we would prefer it if we did. Ethan and I immediately agreed that we wouldn't want to have to relieve the whole thing all over again and so Noah started talking. He began with the day Ethan was kidnapped and told Rose a bit about Ethan and Eztli's life's as well. He continued with the story of Ethan being kept prisoner in the mine for so long, about being beaten up and tortured by Eztli. At this point I could see that Ethan had begun to shake a bit and lost a bit of color as well. I think that Noah noticed it as well because he started gently running his hand up and down Ethan's arm until he calmed down a bit. Ethan didn't even stop telling the story, he was still looking at Rose, but at the same time he was calming Ethan down. I think Rose noticed it as well by the way she raised her eyebrow and smirked at Ethan. He seemed to realize what he was doing and blushed slightly looking away from Rose and stopped running his hand up and down Ethan's arm, but he still kept his hand next to Ethan, so the tips of their fingers were still touching. And Ethan actually doubted that Ethan liked him. I could not believe these two.
Noah then continued with the part of me and Tim being kidnapped and told Rose about everything that we saw in the mine. I had to look away when Noah got to the part of the room full of dead girls and when we saw Eztli sacrificing the girl in his temple. I then tried to zone out for a bit because I was afraid I'd actually start having another attack if I had to relieve the story once more. When I looked back Noah was already at the end of the story and was telling Rose about how they finally captured Eztli, figuring out that Doctor Rachel Davis has escaped and getting us to the hospital.
When Noah finished the story, for a minute complete silence surrounded us. That was until Rose started talking. And by talking, I mean swearing and yelling out insults that I would rather not repeat. She was walking up and down Ethan's hospital room saying things that sounded Latin and I believe she said something about how she would sacrifice Eztli and "examine" Doctor Rachel Davis. The rest of us were watching her with wide eyes, except for Noah, who looked like he was used to this type of behaviour coming from the woman in front of us. When she was finished with her many, many, many threats towards our kidnappers, to some of which I didn't necessarily object, she walked back to her duffel bag and put the Bowie knife back in, pulling out a pair of black fingerless gloves instead, put them on and played with the threads that were hanging from the sides of the gloves. She then turned towards Noah again and raised her eyebrows. 'So, what exactly is the plan here then? Just head down to the station and ask the Aztec fanboy if he knows the whereabouts of Doctor Frankenstein?' Noah smiled and shook his head slightly. 'Well, yes and no. I mean I expect that even if he does know where Doctor Davis is hiding, he won't just tell us. He'll probably want to get out of jail sooner or something…' He saw Ethan's face whitening and hurriedly continued, 'No, no, no, don't worry, we won't let him get out of jail ahead of time. The only thing for him to avoid is capital punishment, but he'll still get a life sentence. He may not have had his trial yet, but I can guarantee you Ethan, he will never hurt you ever again.' Ethan slowly nodded but I could see that he was still slightly shaken up by the thought of Eztli getting out of prison ahead of time. Ethan cleared his throat and then spoke up. 'I…I want to go with you. To question Eztli I mean.' Noah looked at him, a mix of shock and concern on his face, and I knew that expression was mirrored on all of our faces. Noah recovered first. 'Ethan, you can't! Seeing Eztli again after everything that has happened to you, it could break you completely! Why would you want to go with us anyways? I understand that he is your brother, but still…' Ethan shook his head. 'No, this isn't about being brothers or any of that blood makes you family crap. I don't even know to be honest why I want to go, but I just feel like I have to. I won't even go into the holding cell with you, I'll watch from the other side of the double way mirror while you and Rose question him. I'll be fine I promise. Look, I've got nowhere to be, I'll be an adult in a few days anyways and I've mostly lived on my own for the last few years as well. So? What do you say?' Ethan then looked at Noah with pleading eyes and if the situation wasn't so serious, I would laugh. I looked over at Eztli and could see that he was weighing options. 'Fine, you can come with us, but the minute you start to feel bad or having second thoughts you tell me and go home, you got it? Oh, and more question. How do you know how a questioning of a suspect in custody looks like?' Ethan just shrugged. 'I was a troubled kid, seen my fair share of police stations in my life.' At this point Ethan looked like he was about to hug him, but before any of us could say anything the door sprung open and in burst two people.
My mom and my dad.
Before I knew it, I was in their arms, crying tears of happiness, crying out all of my feelings, every ounce of pain I endured while being taken, everything. They held onto me and it was hard to tell who was supporting who. I could hear my mom sobbing and even my dad was quietly crying while hugging us both. I had missed them so much. From the moment I had woken up in that cell, bound and dizzy, not knowing where I was or what happened. Every single time I was beat up by Eztli I wished I could go back to my parents and to my home. I love my family, because my family, it's just the right mix of chaos and love. Because no, we may not be perfect, no one is perfect, and no family is perfect either. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you fight, cry, argue or even stop talking to each other sometimes. At the end of the day, all that matters is that the family is together, no matter who or how many people it consists of, no matter if your family are your parents and brothers and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts or your best friends, the important thing is that you are together, because no matter what, the love in a family will always be there.
I hugged them until I felt like I had to sit down, or I would collapse otherwise. It was all so much at once. I mean, seeing my parents again after such a long time of being locked up, meeting Rose, the person who would be able to help us find Doctor Rachel Davis... I quickly pulled the chair that I was sitting on before towards me and sat down, still not quite believing that this was really happening... I looked around and saw that my mom and dad had a hard time processing it all as well. My mom sat on a chair next to me and was wiping her tears away with her hand, while my dad looked around the room and then stepped towards Stone and shook his hand. 'Thank you so much for bringing her back home to us. I know that whatever I say will just sound like empty words but believe me, without Juliet, our lives would be so much emptier. So once again, thank you.' Stone gave a thin smile and shook my dad's hand. 'Of course. It is our job after all. Although Juliet and Mister Castro over there got out of the mine completely on their own. Maybe that's something that your daughter can tell you about at home.' I nodded, but when I locked eyes with Ethan I knew that I would be leaving out so many parts of the story, I absolutely couldn't afford to get another attack like before.
I stood up and while my parents were talking with Noah and Stone, I walked over to Ethan and sat down next to him on his bed. 'I know I'm going home right now, but this will not be the last we see one another all right? You keep me posted on everything that happens. I'm probably going to come back to the hospital to visit Tim again soon, but in the meanwhile, you, Noah and Rose are going to go talk to Eztli right?' he nodded. 'Yeah, like I said, I don't know why I want to go and see him again, but I just feel like it's something that I have to do you know? But don't worry, as soon as we get from the police station, which is going to be later today or when Rose finds Doctor Rachel Davis, I'll call you. You just take care of yourself, you got it Jules?' I smiled and nodded. 'I will, I promise. You take care of yourself too, okay? Where are you going to be staying in the meantime anyways? At your foster family?' Ethan shrugged. 'To be honest, I don't know yet. But I've signed up to a nearby college and I got the acceptance letter a few days before… Anyways, the college is one town over, in Strodwood. They have a great course that focuses on Psychology and such, and I really like it. I'm probably going to study it part time and work in-between, so I'll be able to afford an apartment while studying there and have a place to live afterwards as well. Until the school year starts, I'm going to be staying with my foster family and work for a bit.' I smiled and nudged his shoulder. 'You know, that sounds like a really great plan, Tim and I were thinking of going to that college once we finish high school as well, so in about a year. But, while I do think that your plan sounds great, there's something missing.' 'Yeah? What's that?' I grinned and looked towards Noah who was talking to my parents with a smile on his face. 'Oh, I don't know, maybe hanging out a bit with a certain green-eyed sergeant?' Noah scoffed, 'What are you talking about Juliet? Noah's eyes aren't green, they're caramel gold sometimes even light brown…' he looked over at me and saw that I was grinning. His cheecks colored a faint red and I heard him curse under his breath. I leaned back on my hands, fully intentional to take advantage of this. 'And how would you know what color his eyes are or even how the color changes sometimes?' 'Shut up.' He muttered and I smirked and then slowly got up as I saw my parents getting ready to leave the hospital. I walked towards Noah and looked up at him. I honestly didn't know what to say. I know that he wasn't the one responsible for my case, but he was still so much nicer to me then Stone. 'Thank you. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, you helped us get a part of our normal life back.' Noah smiled and shook my hand. 'Hey, don't thank me, you and Ethan got out of that mine all on your own.' I smiled and looked over at Ethan who was looking out of the hospital window. I turned back to Noah. I knew that Ethan might kill me for what I was about to tell Noah, but I just had to say it. 'Yeah, speaking of Ethan, he probably won't admit this, hell, he might not even realize it, but he needs you right now. I don't mean that you have to look after him every second of every day, he's not some damsel in distress, far from it, just, take care of him a bit, please? Especially now that you're going to go question Eztli. I may not know Ethan all that well, but he deserves to be taken care of, to have someone by his side that understands him.' Noah smiled, his cheecks and neck colouring a faint pink. 'I know. I mean, I know he deserves all that. I don't exactly know how to do all that, but I can promise you that I'll try my best. You take care of yourself too alright Juliet?' 'Absolutely. I'll see you around Noah.' He nodded I walked over to Stone to thank him as well. I might not like him as much as I like Noah, but he was still responsible for my case and I knew that he and Noah are going to do anything they will be able to put Eztli in prison for the rest of his life and to find Doctor Rachel as well. He shook my hand as well and his lips formed what could be referred to as a smile. If you looked closely, that is. 'Good luck Juliet. We are all happy you are alright' he said to me. I nodded and then turned to Rose, who was standing at the head of Ethan's bed with her arms and ankles crossed. She looked at me and smirked. 'Good luck' I said to her, 'with finding Doctor Rachel.' She nodded; the smirk still present on her face. 'Oh, we'll find her alright, don't you worry about it.' I smiled, looked at everyone in the room again and then left the hospital, with my parents in tow.
I don't think I've ever been so happy to be driving home. The road was still a bit jammed, but nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride. As soon as we got home I could smell the homey aroma around the house, saw the beautiful view out of my bedroom window, that I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see it again. I took some clean clothes out of my wardrobe, a pair of dark grey sweatpants, a red t-shirt and a fluffy black hoodie with a skateboard on the back that Harry got me for my birthday last year. I then went into the bathroom and took a nice, relaxing shower. It felt so nice to finally shower after such a long time of wearing the same clothes and not being able to even wash my hands or face. After I got out of the shower and got dressed, I started drying my hair in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom and only then I saw how much I had changed while I was in the mine. My hair was always messy and tangled, the brown waves never were falling down my back very nicely, but now, my hair was so different. While before it had volume and shape, now it was lying in messy strands, looking unhealthy and thin, it had split ends and quite a lot of it fell out as well. My blue eyes seemed sad and empty, with no real spark in them, only sadness. My cheeks were once full and a healthy pink color with a bit of blush on each, but now they looked hollow and my face looked like a skeleton's. my body looked like a skeleton's in general. Before I was kidnapped I used to have slight muscles on my legs, arms and abdomen, but now my legs looked like they were just skin and bones, you could almost count my ribs and my arms weren't looking so much better either. Before I put my shirt on, I also saw the bruises forming along my rib cage and the moment I touched them, it sent pain up my spine and I winced slightly. I quickly pulled on my t-shirt, pants and zipped up my hoodie. If I looked like that, I wondered how Ethan must look and feel right now, considering how long he spent in the mine. I tried to get my mind away from all of the dark thoughts and went to the kitchen to eat. My mom and dad prepared some lunch while I was showering and getting dressed. It was nothing fancy, but it was my absolute favourite meal in the world, fried cheese, with some fries on the side and fresh lettuce. I'm pretty sure I could eat that my whole life and never get tired of it. While we ate, my parents carefully asked how I was and if I wanted to get anything off my chest, either considering the mine, Eztli, Tim or anything else in general. I slowly shook my head since I really didn't want to tell them my story all over again. I know I'll have to talk about it in court anyways and I've decided to try and avoid telling it more times than necessary.
Once we finished the meal I went into my bedroom and just laid down on my bed. I didn't realize how much I would miss the feeling of laying down on my own bed. I then sat up on my bed and my mind started going places. Yet once again the memories of the mine tried to get back into my mind, but I pushed them away. I knew that I wouldn't always be able to do so and I was afraid of the day when I couldn't push them away anymore and I would be able feel as if I was back in the mine once again. I tried to focus on other things. Like the fact that the summer holidays would start soon, and that Noah, Ethan and Rose were probably on their way to the police station right now. I started thinking about how they were doing rather than being stuck inside my nightmares that would surely come back to haunt me during the night.
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Being inside Noah's police car could be called relaxing but tense at the at the same time. Noah and Rose were sitting on the front seats with Noah behind the wheel, Rose stretched out on her seat and Ethan was half sitting, half lying down on the back seat. Stone decided to hitch a ride with another police officer and Rose left her motorbike back at the hospital, with Noah promising her he'd drive her back after they talked with Eztli. The drive back to the police station should've taken them about 15 minutes, but they all felt like the drive was much shorter than that. Once they got to the station and got out of the car Noah turned to Ethan. He looked him up and down and at last he stopped at his face with concern in his eyes. 'Ethan, are you really sure you want to do this? I can still take you back home or-' 'For the hundredth time, I'll be fine! I won't even talk to Eztli and he won't know I'm even there either. I'll stay on the other side of the mirror, I just want to hear what he'll have to say, that's the only way I know how to explain it.' Noah nodded and together the three of them walked into the police station. Once inside, they led Noah, Rose and Ethan towards the questioning room where they brought Eztli. Noah walked with Ethan towards the other side of the questioning room from where he would be able to observe everything that was happening but would not be seen by Eztli at the same time. They both looked through the glass, where on the other side Eztli sat at a table with another police officer looking after him. Eztli was still wearing his usual attire, just not as much of it as before. This time he was dressed in bright blue loose jeans, a red shirt and green Nike sneakers. Noah looked at Ethan again and once he nodded he smiled encouragingly at him and then entered the questioning room with Rose by his side.
The minute they stepped through the door Eztli's head shot up and he looked at them with a smirk on his face, his eyes full of danger. He looked at Ethan first and then his eyes skipped over to Rose, his eyebrows lifting. Rose just shot him a dirty look and rolled her eyes and then sat opposite Eztli at the table. Noah was still standing at the door and when Rose looked back at him she could see that he was almost shaking with rage, his eyes shooting daggers at Eztli. Once the latter saw the looks h got from Noah he just smiled, but it was clear that he was faking it. He looked up at Ethan again and started speaking with obvious sarcasm. 'Well, well, well, if it isn't my future brother in law!' Eztli's eyes darkened again. 'We meet again.'