WARNING: MENTIONS OF ABUSE!
AVA'S POV
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I stood to lower the temperature gauge above my head as the others reclined comfortably.
A couple of girls pushed their seats back and extracted the thin TV from the ceiling to have their mini hang out.
Party in the USA burst out from the speakers above. Leslie immediately belted the words at the top of her lungs along with Jasmine. Andy joined in, her long arms whipping above her with a bag of Skittles in her grasp.
Lucia had come around to share her goodies, and there were still bags of the sugary stuff around. God save our kidneys.
Humming along, I bobbed my head from time to time when the chorus came up.
As the song rolled into another, I lazily glanced out the window.
My eyes widened into circles.
A circular arc of light nestled between the clouds. Its slim rims reflected the colours of the rainbow, light, but it was there. I glanced down when a couple of birds flew parallel to the glass, the reds and greens of their wings sparkling in the sunlight. I couldn't help it, I was hooked within seconds.
My hands stayed plastered to the screen as I tried to capture all I could. From the incredibly tall but caricature-shaped trees shadowing the road to the yellow bug glued to the window's edge, I stored it all in memory.
With a sigh, my forehead slumped on the cold glass and I shut my eyes. I couldn't wait to tell Mama about all that I'd seen. She'd finally be glad that I also thought nature was so breathtaking.
A memory played in my head, and I smiled.
It happened when I was at that age when I asked many questions and always asked 'why' to the response.
Daddy, mommy, and I were on our way to the industry when I saw a poster of a missing person.
I turned away from the window and asked, "daddy? What does death feel like?"
"Ava!" Mom exclaimed, then laughed nervously like I was growing a foot from my nose, and she didn't know what to do about it.
Daddy poked my cheek and smiled, those sky-blue eyes sparkling with mirth. "Ever the inquisitive one, aren't you?"
I pouted.
"Hm, well, death feels like nothing."
"Nothing?" I moped. That was such a letdown.
He nodded. "When you close your eyes, what do you see? What would you feel if I took away your arms, and if your nose was gone, what would you smell?"
"But daddy, those are also disabilities."
"True," he ruffled my head, "but what happens when you don't exist? What do you feel then?"
My eyes widened, and my heart skipped like I'd been given the world's secrets. "You don't feel anything because-"
"You don't exist!" We finished in unison.
I giggled, giddy with excitement. Daddy had such an entertaining way of explaining things.
"But daddy?"
"Yes, Avie?"
"Does death always feel like nothing?"
He tapped his chin thoughtfully, "some say it feels nice, some go through pain before they die and others don't even know that they're dying so I guess it depends."
"I want my death to feel nice!"
Mommy rubbed my head and kissed my cheek. "Well, I hate to burst your bubble Avie, but you're not dying. Not on our watch."
Daddy agreed, "you're living forever, Avie."
I grinned at the memory as my eyes closed.
Now I missed my parents.
Daddy was probably stuck at the office again with piles and piles of paperwork, and mommy had to be with her business partner right now.
There was a sudden shout, and the bus jostled several times, snapping me awake.
I must have fallen asleep.
Bending my neck, I tried to relieve the stiffness. Ugh, I had a crick. That would teach me to sleep on windows.
"-now!"
Someone was screaming.
Another was muffling a sob.
What were they watching? Another horror movie?
"All of them, and make it quick!"
"Ugh, what's with all the yelling?" I croaked.
When no one answered, I frowned.
Looking to my left, I saw none of the girls were there. Even Andia was not in her seat.
My brows knitted. Weird. They would have woken me up if we were getting off.
Using the headrest in front of me, I jerked up to identify the person speaking.
A gasp escaped me.
Two muscled men stood in the middle row. Two grimy and suspicious-looking men.
Strapped guns bounced over their torsos as they effortlessly hauled my screaming classmates off the bus to armed men scattered about.
Those weren't our bodyguards.
One of them caught my eye. My knees wobbled. I gulped and slumped down, pressing into my seat, wishing it would swallow me.
He stomped forward with a leer on his tanned face as he adjusted his gun. I glanced over at my orange safety bag, contemplating, but what were a flashlight and alcohol wipes going to do?
My chin quivered, every thought dissolving as he roughly grasped me by the shoulders. When I opened my mouth to scream, he yanked me up and tossed me like a dirty rag to the next person.
Kicking, yelling, and biting didn't help. All I got was a hefty smack across the face that left me reeling between fainting and falling to my knees.
My vision swam, dark spots clouding it for a moment as I was shoved around.
A heavily tatted man gripped my underarms as he led me to a black, rusty trailer. From the corner of my eye, I spotted red liquid dripping from the minivan that had been following us.
The van for the guards.
My trembling hand covered my mouth.
Mr. Tee! No!
I whimpered, tears rolling down my cheeks, and folded my free arm around my midsection.
The door of the trailer grated open to reveal my friends huddled together. Their frightened eyes immediately fastened on us.
He tossed me right into Jasmine's shaky arms when a gunshot sounded.
The tatted man held onto the sides of the metal door and fixed his sinister gaze on us.
A couple of girls sobbed and whimpered in the back, and it fed his smile, his metallic canines gleaming under the sun's glare.
"Your parents should have seen this coming," he cackled, then stepped back to slam the door shut, drowning us in eerie darkness.
At that moment, I started to deeply appreciate my parents' overprotectiveness, but it was too late.
It would have saved me a lot of trouble and heartache.
A whole lot.
And this was just the beginning.