Chapter 3 Ruling Days

"Hey. Wake up. It's time to get up." I hear

faintly as I open my eyes. Robert. Not the face

I wanna see when I first wake up. "Kay,

thanks," I say and put the pillow over my

head. All I hear is the door close. With a long

deep sigh, I sit up and scratch my head.

Checking my phone it says it's 9 o'clock in

the morning. I got three hours of sleep. Great.

Throwing on some shorts and a tank top I

head downstairs to be greeted with a smiling

Mama and rushing Papa. "Carla, I trust you

will keep the house in one piece while we're

away." Marthy, my papa says as he hugs me before turning to Robert. "And I trust you won't

make that a hard task for her to complete you

hear?" He scolds. This of course almost

makes me double over in laughter. My father

is a very strict man. He was raised with

Strict military rules and though he tries

his best not to raise me and Robert that way,

sometimes a little bit slips through

and it's really funny when its aimed at

someone besides you.

wendy then comes over and kisses me on

the head. "See you later, Robert you heard

Marthy behave yourself. Carla, make sure

Robert behaves himself." This statement

makes Rob roll his eyes and turn to go to his

om. "Bye guys." I giggled. I then walk to the

kitchen to be greeted with a note and some

pancakes. "Here you go, Carla. There should

be some pancakes if Roberto didn't eat them

before you woke up." Aw, I love Mama she is

amazing. To think that I have known Rob since he was nine and he is still the same asshole ten years later.These thoughts go through my head as I eat my pancakes that you can tell where made from love. When I was done I put my plate in the sink and called Justin. "Hey, my parents

are out of town so you don't have to worry

about them," I say as I run upstairs. "Okay,

Have you talked to Mary?" He answers.

"Yeah, she said she is fine going out of town

these next few weeks since she is taking a year

off before she starts college." By now I was

sitting on my bed going through a magazine

absentmindedly. "Okay cool. So what's the

game plan?" He questions. "Um...Don't know

yet call you back in a minute." I say and hang

up the phone.

I hadn't thought that far ahead. I take out one

of my notebooks and flip to a blank page.

Titling it what we know. Then with bullet

points, I list the things. We know that Anon

has Max. We know that Anon wants me. We

know that anon wants me to find Max for

some reason. But why now? Why just when

I'm about to be out of this town and move on

with my life does whoever this Anon person

wants me to come back in balls deep? Just as

I was contemplating these thoughts the pre-

paid phone starts to ring. And with every ring

that passes my heart beats faster.

I make mny way over to the phone and pick it

up. Hesitant to speak my voice shakes as it

squeaks out "Hello?" The voice chuckles and

responds with "Hi. That magazine you were

looking at sure looked better than those notes

you were writing. You were right. I do want

you and I do want you to find Max." There

was a pause. Almost like the voice was crying

and needed to catch their breath.

"You were born with a tiny brain tumor which threatened your life, still sobbing it continues

"God knows I tried everything I could do to help my baby, before those demons came, Marthy and Wendy, they took you away from me!, They tried to get rid of me and keep me away from you"

"What the hell are you saying? How do you know my parents?"

"When I took Max it was a mistake. I meant to take you. But I mistook Max for you."

" I wanted us to be together Carla"

I was just met with silence. "Enough

talk. I am in Columbia Ohio with Max and if

you want to see him again you need to come

to me." There is the kicker. "Fine. Where do I

meet you?" This sentence came out of my

mouth rather foul tasting. Full of resentment.

I didn't expect it to come out in such ways

and I instantly felt more powerful. Like the

deck was stacked in my favor. This wouldn't

last long.

"Look here, don't have that attitude with my

little girl in case you forgot I have no

emotional attachments to your little friend

and I will gladly slit his throat. So be careful."

This sent chills dowm my spine. "Okay, sorry,"

I mumble and just like that the deck of cards

ripped themselves to pieces. "I want you to

meet me at the Holly Berry Inn on the corner

of Nineteenth and Sycamore," Anon saying

this like I know where that is located, makes

me think that they live in that area. That

narrows the people down quite a bit. "Okay.

When?" I ask. "In four days. If you aren't here

I will cut my loose ends and disappear

forever. Don't think about calling the cops

either because I will know and I will do the

exact same thing as if you never showed up." I

doubt that when Anon said cut loose

ends They don't mean the strings on a

sweater that has been washed too many times

but cut loose ends as in cut Max off which

which I don't think she means give him to me but

more like give him to death.

Just when I was about to ask why they were

doing all of this they hung up the phone. So 1

texted Mary and she said she'd pack and that

we can take her car so Rob doesn't get

suspicious and tell Mama and Papa. I'm

pretty sure he won't notice I'm gone. Or I

could tell him I'm going camping and he'll be

so psyched that he gets the house to himself

to have all his dumbass friends and their

bimbo girlfriends over. Either way, I need to

take care of Rob and then I need to pack so

that Mary can pick me up tonight. Everything

is just now setting in. Max is alive. The person

I have been wishing to come back home for

the last ten years, the person who took my

childhood away by disappearing is finally

going to be mine again. That is if Anon

doesn't want to kill me.

On one side of things, I am okay with Anon

killing me. I feel I never got to experience life

and I want to don't get me wrong, but I

wouldn't be devastated to look death in the

face. I haven't even thought about what I am

going to do when I come face to face with

Anon. If I don't turn them to the police then

what? Are they just going to go on their merry

way and go kidnap and ruin someone else's

childhood? Or are they going to continue to

watch me? To observe my every move and not

let me know when, why or how they are doing

SO?