If My Voice Had Wings
Book One
Chapter 04 – Asphodèle jaune
Written By: Wrath of an Aerow
(Flower, also meaning "King's-Spear") Asphodèle jaune ~ Regret
"Oh my God!" Charlie said, shocked, and helped her friend into her house. Charlie's mother saw this and gasped, rushing over. Charlie sat beside Shauna on the couch, and Charlie's mother kneeled in front of her, putting a hand on her knee.
"What happened, Shauna?" asked Lindsey, which was Charlie's mother's name, in confusion and worry.
She shook her head. "I got jumped by a cop. I've been hiding from him all freaking day."
"Did you do something wrong?" they asked in unison, looked at one another, and then back at the family friend.
Again, the tomboy shook her head. "I was walking to your place today and there was a cop, and he asked if I needed a ride, and I said no. He asked me again and I told him no. Then he grabbed me and told me that I was going with him. He shoved me in the backseat and I kicked him and ran off. He caught up to me again and tried to drag me off. Then this happened," she pointed to her eye. She sighed heavily. "I got away again, and I've been dodging him since ten thirty. The dude stole my phone, so I couldn't call and see if you could come get me."
"A police officer did this to you?" Charlie was shocked. She believed Shauna, but it was weird how the cop in question just attacked her.
Mrs. Reese got up and hurried to the kitchen to get a bag of ice, and the sophomore nodded. "Yeah…I don't know what I did to get him so pissed off before he shoved me into the car."
"That little snot," growled Charlie. She could have said something much more worse than that, but seeing how her mother was around, she didn't dare it. Lindsey came back with an icepack and held out for Shauna to take. She gratefully took it and held it up to her eye.
"Thank you, Mom," Shauna smiled softly. She called Mrs. Reese 'Mom' sometimes because she had known her for a long time. Charlie and Shauna had been friends since first grade, and they were family to each other, you could say. Lindsey smiled serenely.
"Would you like me to call your father, Shauna? To tell him where you are?"
"No, not really. But, I know you're going to insist, so why not?"
Lindsey smiled triumphantly and sauntered over to the phone.
Charlie leaned over and said; "Maybe you could stay the night, Shaun'. Mom can probably talk Trent into it."
Lindsey heard her daughter state that, and didn't see any problems in it, but she knew Shauna's father, and didn't approve of him in the slightest. But being the better person, she was always nice with him.
"Hello, Mr. Fairheart? Yes, this is Lindsey Reese, Charlie's mom; your daughter's friend…I was wondering if she could possibly stay the night here, and we can gladly bring her back to your house tomorrow….Well, she got in a fight and…no…no…Sir, she's scared to go back-…" she sighed. "Of course. I understand. Good-bye."
Lindsey slammed the phone back on the receiver and tapped her foot, her arms crossing over her breasts. Her cheeks were red, and both teenagers could see she was livid.
"Shauna-"
"Go ahead, rant about him all you want. He deserves it." Shauna interrupted.
/Barricade! You lousy piece of scrap-metal!/ growled Sideways over the communication link as he drove swiftly behind him. /How could you let the human get away? Surely you weren't busy losing at a game of hide-and-seek, were you?/
/Shut up!/ hissed Barricade as he picked up speed on the highway. His brother was right on his tail, and the police cruiser growled maliciously. /It's not like you helped, Sideways!/
/It's your job to get that pathetic excuse of flesh, not me./ retorted the silver sports car. /I even thought this would be a snap for you, but you even injured the human femme. That wasn't an order he gave you. Your metallic hide will be mantled in the throne room and all of the other Decepticons will get a painful reminder not to mess up. Are you going back to base knowing that Megatron's going to do that, brother?/
Barricade didn't say anything as he revved his engine, picking up more speed. Sideways was right, which was painful to admit. At first, Barricade thought his plan would follow out smoothly, but seeing how the human female refused to get in the cruiser, his plan backfired and he had to improvise. And in the process, he punched her in the face. And Megatron had specifically said no harm was to come to the human female.
It was true.
Barricade was slagged.
He had to create a new plan if he was to succeed in retrieving this human girl, and an even better one to make an excuse for her having a blackened eye. But, he knew he could do it. He had gotten away with many things before, why not this one?
Except, a single question resided and kept nagging in his Central Process Unit…
And that was why Megatron needed this human girl in the first place.
/Are you listening to me, Barricade?/ Sideways inquired, irritation in his vocalizer.
/Hardly. I've come up with a new plan, though./
/Oh, another one to fail at?/ sneered Sideways.
Barricade huffed and tried to keep his emotions at ease. /I am in possession of the human femme's cellular device. If I can track a close friend or relative of hers, I may be able to bargain her into coming with us so her partner can be free./
/How are you going to do that?/ Sideways wanted to know.
Barricade rolled his optics, though he was in alternate form so Sideways couldn't see them. He could be such an idiot, Sideways. /I can look through text messages received and sent in her phone and see who she contacts the most. Once I find a name and the person she talks to or seems to be her closest companion, I can easily track him or her down and take them. One of us can contact the femme and tell her we have her friend, and if she wants them back, she'll have to come get them. Think of it as ransom, but we aren't looking for fame and money; we're in it to kidnap her and take her back to our base./
/Oohh,/ Sideways seemed to like this plan that his brother had. /I will follow this plan. But when we get the other human, what will we do with it once we've finished with it?/
/We will see where the tide takes us, Sideways./
Barricade could imagine his brother mocking him behind him or rolling his eyes. Sighing, Barricade activated his holoform for a quick moment to plug the cellular devise into his already-built-in computer and let it download the files. After a few moments of scrolling through messages and phone calls, two specific names popped up.
Charlie Reese and Emily Williams.
Picking the one that was on their course already, Barricade sent coordinates to his brother. The sirens on the cruiser flashed and rang to life as he increased speed, his brother following his tail.
Lindsey and Charlie Reese both took Shauna home a few hours after she arrived under her father's orders. None of the girls were happy about this, but they couldn't do anything about it.
Charlie and Shauna both sat in the back seat of Lindsey's SUV silent, Charlie's head resting on her friends' shoulder. Shauna didn't mind; in fact, it was comforting. Her mind was so jumbled by the fact that the cop had attacked her and knew her name. She didn't want to be out of her friends' sight because she was so scared. Her heart thumped against her chest every time she'd see a police car, and shrink down so she wouldn't be seen, and Charlie would frown. She couldn't believe what a police officer had done to her best friend when she didn't do anything.
When they pulled up in the driveway, Shauna saw her father cross his arms behind the screen door, and she suddenly wanted to disappear.
Lindsey and Charlie and Shauna said their goodbye's, and Shauna cautiously stepped into view. She thanked them for the ride and told Charlie she'd talk to her later.
Walking up the porch steps, her father opened the screen door and let her in, her head hung. The mother and daughter backed out of the driveway and headed back to their house. Shauna plopped down on the black leather couch and took off her hat, running her fingers through her hair. She could hear the door shut by her father's hand and she could smell cigarette smoke inside the house. She was in deep trouble after all.
Trent sat down on the couch beside her, and turned off the football game that was on the television. He folded his hands in his lap and looked at his daughter with an expression mixed with anger, confusion, shock, and worry. But it was mostly anger.
"Who the hell did you pick a fight with this time, Shauna?"
After a second, she responded softly; "I didn't do it." She hated the smell of cigarettes, and wished that he would have the decency to smoke his addiction outside. Of course he didn't, though, seeing the slob that he was.
"Then explain that!" his voice raised as he pointed his finger to Shauna's now dark-purple bruise.
"A cop jumped me."
He narrowed his eyes. "A cop jumped you," he repeated. "Am I supposed to believe that bullshit? Why would a cop do that to you?"
She bit her tongue. She was about to say something that would make her regret it, and she tried with all her power to hold it in.
"Just like your mother. You're a liar."
"My mom isn't a liar!" yelled Shauna louder than she should have. "At least she gives a damn about me and lets me have friends! Her friends don't pick on me and force me to get them drinks! SHE doesn't smoke in the house! SHE doesn't keep me from my FAMILY!"
Her father's eye twitched, and she knew she had struck a nerve…hard. She covered her mouth with her hands, but she didn't feel bad for what she just said.
"Get to your room. Now. And I don't want to see you for the rest of the night. We'll have a nice long talk tomorrow. Don't you forget that."
Shauna almost leaped from the couch and ran back to her room, slamming the door behind her. She locked the door furiously and turned off her light, crawling upon her bed and curling into a little ball.
It even smelt like cigarette smoke in here, too, and Shauna felt a loose, clear tear run down her cheek and she sniffed. She stared at the dark ebony wooden wall, wondering what her father was doing, or how he felt about this situation. She knew he didn't care that much about her, but was overprotective at the same time. He showed no sympathy when he saw her eye.
A huff escaped her lungs as she wiped the stray tear away. She didn't know why she cared about it anymore. She could easily slip out and run away. She had thought about running away so many times, that she was close to doing it. But the only thing stopping her tonight was the fear of the police officer attacking her again, and she didn't want that.
Slowly, her thoughts jumbled and fear blossoming through her heart, she slowly drifted to sleep, letting the tears dry on her face.
"I'm goin' to the park, mama!" called Emily, her hand on the doorknob. She fixed her beanie and moved her hair behind her ears.
"Okay! You have your cell phone with you?" her mother asked from the office.
"Si, mama! I'll be back later."
With that, the fourteen (almost fifteen) year old retired her white, one-story home. Outside, the sky was blanketed in a single light gray cloud and a slight, chilly but nice breeze. The smell of upcoming rain and freshly chopped grass lingered in the air and the Hispanic teenager smiled. She sauntered down the driveway with her hands in her pockets. Since she lived on a usually unfamiliar street, she need not worry about traffic, so she walked on the side of the street, but kept her ears open. She didn't want anybody scraping her lifeless, ran-over body off the pavement with a snow-shovel.
She wondered what her best friend was up to, since she hadn't been replying to her texts today. But Emily shrugged it off. She was probably stuck doing chores or something; she'd hear from her later. Emily wasn't worrying about it.
It was a five minute walk to the neighborhood park, where she'd usually hang out and calm her nerves if something was going wrong in her life. This trip wasn't one of them; she just liked watching the birds fly from one tree to the next, chirping sweet melodies as they did so. It calmed her when she didn't need to be calmed, and she enjoyed mother-nature's gifts of animals. She couldn't hurt one if she tried.
As she got to the park, she climbed the few bars to get to the monkey-bars. She climbed onto the top of them and let her legs hang between the breaks of the bars. She saw a police car drive by the park, but didn't pay much attention to it, seeing how common they could be in Nampa. A silver colored sports car cruised behind it at a reasonably close distance, which made Emily stare a bit. Now that she found awkward.
'Hmm-ing', she fished out her cell phone from her jean pocket and opened a new text message. After typing in her message, she read over it;
Y'all nevah guess wut I just saw, Shaun. Oh, and btw, I got the new MK 2day, ya gotta come over a play it wit me.
Content, Emily pressed the 'send button'.
She didn't see it, but the police cruiser and the silver sports car smoothed to a halt just beyond her range of sight.
/Was I correct, Barricade? Is that the femme?/
It was a moment before Barricade responded. /I believe so, Sideways. Now, remember the plan./
Emily was watching a squirrel fight another one over an acorn when she heard approaching footsteps. Quickly turning her head to see if it was someone she knew, she saw an officer sauntering towards her.
Raising a very suspicious eyebrow, she stayed where she was, and hoped that the officer was just passing through.
To her bad luck, he stopped just a few feet away from her.
"Excuse me, Miss, may I have a word with you?" asked the cop, putting his hands on his hips. He didn't look like he was going to haul her into jail or anything. Maybe he was just looking for someone.
"Uhh, sure," Emily shrugged and gracefully climbed off the monkey-bars. She crossed her arms over her breasts. "Whatchya need, officer?"
He looked sympathetic…and yet…sad?
"Have you heard from a friend named Shauna Fairheart recently, Miss?"
Worry suddenly struck Emily's frame. "No! What's goin' on? Is she okay?"
"Well…she has gone missing. I was wondering if you'd have any clue to where she may be."
Emily nodded her head, "Yeah, I do. Do you want me to tell you? She should be in Boise."
The officer nodded. "Will you be willing to come with me and look for her?"
Emily would do anything for her best friend, and she couldn't believe she was missing. Quickly nodding, she followed the officer to his cruiser and opened the passenger door for her.
Everything took an unexpected turn when two belts slithered across her chest, binding her to the seat.
"What the fu-"
"Shauna! How many times do I have to call you?" yelled her father from the opposite side of the door. Again, he knocked, rather loudly, and Shauna shot up in her bed. The room was pitch back and she would have guessed it was at least nine o'clock in the late hours. After another loud banging coming from her door, she got up and unlocked it, staring sleepily at her father.
"What?"
"Phone." He simply said through a clenched jaw.
Huffing, she snatched it from his grip and went back into her room, shutting and locking the door in his face.
Turning on the light, she held the phone up to her ear.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Shauna Fairheart. Are we still playing hide-and-seek?"
A/N - Yay another update! Thank you to all who is interested in this story; it means a lot! I've got a little surprise for all you little awesome people in the next chapter. A heads up is that it doesn't deal with the time period this chapter is in. I only own my OC's, and Charlie Reese belongs to one of my bestest buddies, SouthAmerican Eggplant. I do not own Transformers; they rightfully belong to Hasbro/Takara. Hoped you enjoyed and reviews are welcomed.