Season: Autumn
Weather: cold
Day of the week: Saturday
Date: 6th April, 2024
The state emergency service continues to advise us to not return to the city yet. Volunteers to join the cleanup effort could register and gather at the appointed location in preparation for the all clear.
Deaglan and I decided to head out and thanked our host family who saw us off after cooking us a massive breakfast and packing the leftovers into bread rolls for our lunch and dinner just in case. We were given three bottles of water each from the restaurant.
After a good shower and being able to wear clean clothes again - they had been washed yesterday and dried overnight while we borrowed clothes to sleep in, Deaglan drove us to the volunteer meeting point. There, we discovered the army had turned up and were preparing to go into the city first once they received the all clear. They would do most of the heavy lifting and clear the way for the volunteers who would come later.
While registering our names, the soldier at the registration desk looked up at me after hearing my name. He gave me a long searching look.
"Were you by any chance, kidnapped as a kid?" he asked me in a low voice that only Deaglan and I would be able to hear.
"Yes. How do you know?" I asked, feeling my eyebrows rise.
"My captain was on the rescue team. He still talks about you and wonders where you are now. He always complains that his kids never turned out as cute as you."
Deaglan wrapped an arm around my shoulders that had begun to tremble with my repressed emotions.
"You were kidnapped when you were a kid?" he asked me.
"Is he here? Can I meet him?" I asked in a low voice, unable to answer Deaglan, but eager to meet one of the men who had saved me.
"Yeah. Hang on. Wait over there while I find someone to take my place," the soldier said.
He waved a fellow soldier over and spoke quietly and was soon replaced at the registration table. Then he led Deaglan and I over to where some soldiers seemed to be checking equipment.
"Captain, guess who I met?"
An older man with very tanned skin turned around. He examined us as we approached and his eyes lingered on me for a moment.
"This lady's name is Jane Brown. She's got the same birthdate as the kid you rescued from traffickers back then. After confirming it was her and hearing she wanted to meet you, I brought her over."
"Minnie?" the Captain ventured.
I hadn't heard that old nickname since I hit puberty. Bezel and my parents had always introduced me as Minnie to everyone when we were kids because I had been smaller than Bezel for most of my childhood despite being older. Which was why I had struggled so hard to stop Bezel's charge to see the puppies back then.
"That - that's me," I managed to stammer. "Were you one of my rescuers? I'm sorry, I don't remember much from back then. I've been thinking of trying to find the people who rescued me but didn't know where to start. Could you help me thank your team from that time? I'd like to treat you all to a meal when the city's been cleaned up and you all have time."
"Sure," he said with a beam. "I went from the police force to the army, but I should be able to find the others. They'll be thrilled to see how you are now that you're all grown up."
We exchanged phone numbers and then he asked if he could give me a hug.
I was wrapped up in his strong arms and vaguely felt that this feeling and this smell was familiar.
After that, he sat me down, got me a drink and started chatting, wanting to know about my life and how I was. What I was doing, if Deaglan was my boyfriend and all of that.
"Rescuing you was a turning point for me in my career," the Captain told me. "I had trouble keeping my personal feelings out of it at the time and was almost kicked off the team when I kept insisting your family be investigated for family violence. I'm sorry about that, by the way, but the way you clung to me at the time and cried, asking me not to send you home really struck my heart. Later, I heard you had been forcibly discharged from hospital by your parents when you hadn't even woken up yet. I wanted to ask at the time if you are really your parents' daughter."
I rubbed my nose and looked down
My, but this man was bold. Diving straight into difficult topics without warning.
"I moved away from them to this city when I could," was how I indirectly replied to his intense eyes that looked at me with concern. I couldn't meet those eyes. "My sister was going through a tough time and didn't want me around."
"I saw the surveillance footage of what happened the day you were kidnapped," the Captain tapped a finger on the table. "Did you know it was your sister that pushed you and gave you the head wound and then later pushed you into the kidnapper's arms?"
My head lowered again. I knew. Of course I knew. How could I not?
"I had never believed that children could be so malicious until I saw that video footage and saw her expression. You were covered in blood and in a coma for three days, you know. If there was no video surveillance at the time, we might have believed the lies that your sister told us and had convinced the other kids to tell us. You might not remember, but I later visited and saved you from drowning when your sister was bullying you in the backyard. If I hadn't shouted, you might not be alive. Your sister's friend had been egging her on from the side. That little girl was not a good kid at all."
I looked at the Captain with some confusion.
"Three days? Drowning?"
"You didn't know? You don't remember?"
"No," I rubbed my suddenly aching head. "My sister and I haven't gotten along ever since that demon by her side won her over and became her so called best friend. They were almost inseparable. Her friend is evil. I don't know why he hates me so much."
"Her friend is a boy?"
"Yeah, but his parents for some reason made him undergo a sex change. He confided in me once when he had accidentally gotten himself locked in the basement with me when we were kids. This was before my sister was born, mind you, and when he had just joined our family as a foster kid. He told me he would definitely change back to being a boy when we grew up. After Bezel was born and he held her in his arms for the first time, he declared Bezel was his. That she would belong to him. He stopped being nice and started targeting me." A sudden thought made me slap my forehead. "Don't tell me Bezel's recent pregnancy is because of him. If it is, I might have to go and beat him up. Did she do it with him willingly? Or did he trick her? No, I have to go back and find out."
I stood up in agitation but had no way of crossing the country to question that evil demon. The best I could do was message him.
"Dummy, what took you so long to realise? Bezel is with me now. We're getting married but you aren't welcome to the wedding. She'll have my children when she recovers from the last mishap. A bad luck jinx like you isn't welcome," his message came back before I could put my phone down. He was a habitual liar, but his lies always contained a grain of truth. I just wasn't sure which part of the message was the lie and which was the truth.
"You had your surgery?" I messaged in reply. "You told everyone? Then there's no need to hate me anymore and turn everyone against me now, right?"
"But playing with you and seeing you miserable is so much fun," the evil demon's message was filled with his sneering. "Who asked you to be such a good person and be so nice to me? Who asked you to pity me? I never wanted your pity. Now I can completely take your place in the family and nobody will think of or want you anymore. You made our parents upset. Next time I see you, I'll teach you a lesson."
Somebody plucked the phone out of my hands and sat me back down in my chair before I could fall.
"Who is he?" Deaglan read the messages and then knelt down beside me, holding my face in his hands.
"He's the foster kid that grew up with my sister and me," I replied. "His parents were sent to prison for child abuse and neglect. He's four years older than me. When he first came, it was just before Bezel was just born. I felt sorry for him because he didn't have parents, so I gave him whatever he wanted and was as nice to him as I could be. He never appreciated it and always wanted more. He didn't like me at all, but he loved Bezel from the moment he met her. I don't understand. He's such a twisted person. He moved out during highschool and I thankfully only had to see him during school. He and Bezel used to always giggle in corners and cook up schemes to make the other kids hate me. The time I was kidnapped, my father had taken him out somewhere. I can't remember."
Someone messaged warmth back into my hands and then a mug of hot tea was thrust into them.
"Hey, hey, Minnie, are you alright?"
My mind was filled with his threat to 'teach me a lesson'. It made an old, bitter and familiar sensation rise in my chest and my stomach clench. His lessons always had me begging for mercy when we were young. They had always been excruciatingly painful and humiliating. There had been one time when I had even begged him to just kill me.
I had always been very careful around him and Bezel so as not to be caught and taught another 'lesson'. I had managed to survive highschool with only being taught a lesson twice or once after that, because following that time, I had moved away to the other side of the country.
"Go find the medic. Prepare a bed. We need to lie her down."
"Here, carry her over here."
"Jane. Janey."
The voices floated in the distance but that feeling of dread wouldn't go away for a long while. It soon merged with the nightmare of that evening with Deaglan while we had struggled to get the business contract signed.
I felt cold. So cold.
But that's how I came to spend a night with Deaglan in a borrowed army tent. I have to admit, having him hugging me while we sleep makes me feel much, much warmer.
Maybe I should marry him.
But would he want me with all my baggage?