Chapter 26: Taken
Despite the lesson that Professor Clamp was teaching was quite an interesting one, Tia was tired. She had not slept properly for the past couple of days ever since she had that one dream. Despite dreaming it many times now she could never remember what they were about, all she knew about them was that she would wake up scared out of her wits. Dame Simbai had a look over her and tried to find remedies to help her sleep but nothing worked. She only felt better when Rocket was with her but he couldn't sleep over all the time; he had a job to go to and that had been keeping him more than busy for the past couple of weeks. In all fairness it seemed like Tia wasn't the only one that was going to collapse any second. The professor didn't seem so well himself, he kept stumbling over his words and swiping cold sweat off his forehead. It seemed a relief to everyone when the last bell went and everyone let out a sigh of relief. Tia was the last to get out of the class, since all her body functions were moving slower compared to the average human being. Halfway down the hall she received a text from Sonny saying he was stuck in traffic and that he would be late. Sighing heavily to herself, Tia proceeded to the courtyard at a much slower pace, glad that she didn't need to rush or anything. She must have been moving much slower than expected because by the time she reached the outside nearly everyone was already gone. Not caring if anyone saw her or not, the college student slumped down near the fountain and kicking off her shoes dumped them in the cold water. A pleasant shiver when down her back as her hard feet soon relaxed in the chilling water. There was nothing she could do but watch as other students left the campus. Soon she was the only one left. Taking a deep breath from the fresh air around her, she closed her eyes and enjoyed the small freedom she had been given. She had almost fallen asleep when someone grabbed her by the back of the head and threw her on to the ground. Her face hit the concrete floor first and a burst of pain explored from her forehead. The impact was so hard that her eye sight lost focus and she thought she had been knocked unconscious until she was kicked in the stomach, rolling her on to her back. After her head had stopped spinning around she finally managed to regain focus; she wished she hadn't. Standing above her was the monster who haunted her nightmares – Jonathan. Her eyes widen in fear and she tried to get up and run away but her late husband grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her up to his face. His once handsome face was now half destroyed by a burnt make that had destroyed half his skin. Instinct took over as she kicked hard at his knee, sending him falling to the ground. Ignoring the dizzy sick feeling in her head, Tia forced herself back up, only for her late husband to grab her ankle. She tried to pull her leg free but his grip was to strong, in a panic she kicked back hitting what she assumed was the face but didn't take a risk at looking behind her. She just ran, ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She burst through the front of the entrance of the college, screaming at the top of her lungs for help but it seemed as if everyone had disappeared. The phones! Tia cried out to herself, as she ran over to the receptionist desk, only to find out when she put her phone to her ear the line was dead. She looked back outside and saw Jonathan coming back towards her. Quickly she grabbed one of the cleaning mops and pushed it through the handles to jam the door. The glitter of the light caught in her interest when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was a watch. Of course, Tia thought as she turned it to the side and pressed the button. Angriy thumping suddenly caught her attention again and she look up to see her husband banging on the glass door, trying to get inside. Panic over took her again and she ran. Biting her tongue, she tried to stop herself thinking of the amount of blood she was losing through her head wound and began searching the class rooms to see if any of the teachers had stayed behind. She was having no luck until she reached her own classroom and looked inside to see Professor Clamp working at his desk.
"Professor!" Tia cried out from the other side of the room, making him look up and see the young terrified woman running towards him, clearly injured since the was blood pouring down the side of her head and dried on her clothes.
"Tia, what the hell happen to you?" The old man cried out once the girl had stumbled on to the stage of the room. She found it impossible to speak at first since she was too busy choking on her tears to make any sense.
"He's... he's here, he's after me!" Tia cried out, as she stuttered through the tears. The poor man didn't know what to do, never in his life had he comforted a crying girl. He did try his best though, directing her to his seat and rubbing her on the back like he had seen other people do when someone was in distress.
"Who's after you Tia?" Professor Clamp questioned, trying to make of what the hell was going on. Nevertheless, he wished he would have never asked when he suddenly felt a chilling presence behind him.
"That would be me my friend." Jonathan's cold voice echo through the room. Tia didn't have time to react when Clamp was thrown half way across the room.
"Professor!" Tia cried out as she tried to get to him but she suddenly found her husband's hands on her back again and slammed her down on to the table. Her already cracked open skull was being forced open even wider as the monster continued to slam her face repeatedly against the oak table. She tried to claw at his face and beat him with her hands but her fists only seemed to punch air as she aim wildly. I'm going to die! She suddenly thought, as the memories of everyone she loved began to flash before her eyes; the last one was Rocket. Rocket! She though as memories of her and him together, every kiss they shared, every touch the sparked heat waves across her skin but what mattered to her most was the way he looked at her, it was like her very presence could cure all diseases and make the most miserable man smile. To him she was the most important thing in the world and these thoughts gave her the courage to not be afraid. She loved him, she really loved him and yet she had never said it to his face. That's when she knew she was going to live, maybe not long but she knew she was going to live long enough to tell him she loved him, that to her she was the pure light that existed in her miserable existence.
"Jonathan! Stop!" A sleek voice commanded out of nowhere. To Tia's surprise he did what he was told and stopped but instead held her mid air by the hair so her head just felt like it was hanging from a hook. Opening her eyes all she could see was red. She could hear her husband giving some kind of disgusted laugh behind her before he let her collapse on to the floor. "Remember what I said Jonathan, we need her alive." The very sound of the new man's voice and a part of her was glad she couldn't hear what was going on; she kept falling in and out of conscience. Not to mention her head was banging making it hard to concrete on anything. The feeling of cold metal wrapped around her arms and lifted her up. She wasn't sure where she was going or that she even wanted to go but despite herself she could not move a single muscle to fight back. The last thing she heard before she feel in the darkness completely was someone familiar calling her name.
It was a good thing that Sonny had a large car otherwise Rocket wouldn't have been able to fit his legs in. He couldn't help but laugh to himself on some of his teams past missions when they had been forced to steal a car and it would way to small for him to fit in. Though his day couldn't be much worse, first his alarm o'clock hadn't gone off and was late for work, as a punishment for being late, Sonny had given him double the amount of paperwork to do (Sonny's way of getting rid of some of his own) and third, his car refused to started so he had to get a ride with D'jok and his father. What annoyed him the most was that he was ten minutes away from his angel and they were late picking her up because of the traffic? The trip towards their destination was no trip to the park as well, since the two grown men had been acting like young teenagers and had picked on Rocket the whole time they had been in the car; he was used to it from D'jok but from Sonny it was just downright humiliating. At the moment they had stopped because a song both the men liked was playing on the radio and even though Rocket wasn't a big fan of the type of music itself it did give him a time of piece. However, the song was soon cut short when the radio suddenly began to scramble and a voice on the speaker was trying to get hold of D'jok. With an annoyed sigh his old friend picked it up and answered.
"Sergeant D'jok here, over." The higher officer spoke into it, letting go of the receiver button go and waited for the reply.
"Sir we received a call for University from a witness saying someone with your cousin's description was being attacked outside the front entrance, what are our orders sir!" The speaker's voice echoed through the car. Every single man in the car didn't dare move or breath. They should have been heading off to the university like a heat seeking missile but all of the men were in shock. It was only a few seconds later that there beeping on Sonny's watch activate, snapping through the dreaded silence. Sonny swore as he slapped his police light onto the stop of his car and slammed onto the pavement, speeding off past the other cars. While, Sonny was in grand theft auto mode, D'jok was shouting orders down the receiver, requesting permission for back up, while in the back seat, Rocket was loading his gun and preparing himself. When the car reached the front of the college, Rocket didn't even wait for the car to stop completely as he jumped out of the back and started running down the path towards the entrance of the school.
"Tia!" Rocket cried out hoping for a response but received no response from his girlfriend. Damn it, he thought, as he continued towards the front of the building. Running past the fountain, his mind only gave a quick though to the red substance that lay on the ground close to the water fountain and burst through the doors of the academy. "Tia! Tia where are you?" he cried out again when he still saw no sign of her, quickly running along the hallway and began searching the rooms. By this time, Sonny and D'jok had finally made it into the building and began searching the other class rooms as well. The sound of a woman's scream was what finally led them in to the direction of the double doors ahead, ignoring all of the others doors that existed down this hallway, ran straight to the end of the corridor. With a strong and well aimed kick to the centre of the door, Rocket kicked the door open and ran in. His eyes landed directly on his angel of was being carried away by his worst night mare; her ex-husband. Plus, another man old small man that Rocket had never seen before "Tia!" he screamed once again, which made the man in the room finally look up and noticed him for the first time and also to find out that General Bleylock was standing only a few feet from him.
"Fire!" The man commander and his robots began to shot energy bullets in his direction. Finally realising the full extent of danger he was in, Rocket dived out of the way of fire but was not quick enough to avoid all damage as a beam of energy hit him in the shoulder. He cried out as he hit the ground and stayed low as rains of fire shit past his head. Thankfully, reinforcements arrived as D'jok and Sonny started firing their own guns. Gritting his teeth, Rocket got out his own gun and started firing. It took them only a few moments to get rid of the robots and for back up to arrive but they were already too late. Tia and the other captive were gone.