CHAPTER 42 - TOBIAS
Soft rays of sunlight shine through Beatrice's window and wash over us, making the whole world feel lighter and warmer. I open my eyes just a crack to see her face. It's beautiful. The golden sunlight makes her skin look fuller and her hair glow like it has been braided with liquid gold. Even after a week of starving, she still looks beautiful. Stunning, even.
"Oh my God. Beatrice!" My head snaps up to see Mrs. Prior standing in the doorway, staring at her lost daughter and I laying on the bed. I am so startled by her appearance that I jump back and forgetting that I am on a smaller bed, fall to the floor. Beatrice stirs, but stays dead asleep.
"Andrew! Get up here! Now!" Mrs. Prior hollers down the hall. She whips her head back around to make sure Beatrice isn't just some hallucination and has disappeared. The shaking woman quickly rushes over to Beatrice's bed, hovering like a protective mother bird, tears slipping over her cheeks as she finally validates that her daughter is real and alive.
"How did you return?" Mrs. Prior whispers to her sleeping daughter that doesn't wake.
Still laying on the ground, I raise my arm into the air.
"I got her back. Your welcome."
I haul myself to my feet and rest my elbows on Beatrice's mattress. My shoulder stings from the drop and Mrs. Prior stares at me like I've grown a second head. I wouldn't blame her. It's not everyday you wake up to find your lost daughter reappeared in the middle of the night and dead asleep with her Senior boyfriend claiming he got her out of trouble. Before I can open the window and escape, Mr. Prior rushes into the room.
"Tobias?"
I swallow my fear.
"Hello sir."
Mr. Prior gives me a questioning look.
"I uhhh… was about to leave." But Mrs. Prior grabs my arm tightly in one hand and pushes me back. Her eyes are filled with awe.
"Andrew, Tobias is the one who brought Beatrice back. He brought our daughter back." Mr. Prior steps forward and grasps my hand in his, shakes it twice, then lets go.
"Young man, I cannot think of the horrors my daughter must have faced this past week. I am eternally thankful for you bringing her home safely." Mr. Prior's eyes drift back to his daughter, who is deep asleep, safely tucked under her blankets.