4 O'clock
I was woken up at four. It was dark, and it took my eyes to adjust to the low light. It took another minute to work out where I was. Everything from the previous day came flooding back to me, and a lay back and groaned. I herd the noise that had woken me up again. Someone was shouting outside my room. Then suddenly they shouted thank you sarcastically, and I saw a woman rush into the room.
It was Marie. She looked different from when I last saw her. She looked tired and stressed. For a moment I wondered what was wrong, and then I remembered that she was faking our identities and moving us to New Zealand. I checked the mobile but there was nothing from Liam. I panicked. Why weren't they doing anything? Then I remembered that it was a five hour journey from the dumping ground to Newport. They'd have gotten me out of the country before Mike arrived.
Marie, sorry Harriet, told me to get up and follow her. She didn't sound as strict as the kidnappers in the films. In fact, she sounded tired and stressed too. We went next door to Amelia's room, and we got her out of bed. I was so relieved to see that Amelia was Ok, and I ran over and hugged her, Harriet told us both to sit down so that she could brief us about what was going to happen next.
She told us that we had whole new identities that we would have to memorise. She said that we had to say that she was our mother and Thomas was our father, and she said that we weren't allowed to tell anyone any of our real names. This is what she said:
Amelia, you will be called Anahera and Kaiya will be called Marika. These are Maori names. You have lived in New Zealand all of your life. Thomas made a slip up on one of the pieces of paperwork, so you will now say that you are twins, and you share Marika's birthday, the 10th of August. My name is Hauku and Thomas will be called Ropata. We are your parents, but we were divorced a few years ago. You will tell the friends that you make that you have spent two years in Wales living with your mother, but now you have come back to live with your father in New Zealand. Your surname is Lyne. You will both adopt a kiwi accent and you have an hour together now to practice. You have access to a few videos about the accent on your phones, but apart from them you will have to teach yourselves. We have your new passports, and everything else is sorted.
Once she had left, Amelia sat staring at the space where she had been sitting. It was a lot to take in. The previous night we had been so sure that we would be rescued. We hadn't thought that we would be leaving so early in the morning, and there was no way of Mike getting here faster. I phoned Liam. He answered quickly, and I told him what was going on. There was silence for minute, and then he gave me Mike's mobile number.
I rang the number and it went to voicemail. A minute later it rang, and it was Mike. He asked what was wrong, and I told him that we would be leaving in an hour's time. He was still two hours away, and he had tried to get hold of the police, but they had said that they had asked the hotel and there were no hostage situations.
Great. It looked like I was about to spend the rest of my life as Marika Lyne in New Zealand, having divorced parents, and basing every new relationship that I would ever have on lies. Amelia looked like she was going to be sick, and I didn't feel too hot either. I tried to remember what Thomas looked like, but when I looked back on the moment that I was told my brother was dead, I could only see a blurred outline.
It looked like there was nothing left to be done. Marie/ Harriet/ Hauku hadn't said which airport we were going to, and I didn't know the area well enough to guess. Amelia had no idea where we might be headed, so it seemed as if we were stuck as twins, waiting until we touched down and started our new lives.
We set to work on our accents in gloomy voices. I managed to get hold of it pretty quickly, but Amelia had more difficulty. She kept making it sound too Australian, and if we were going to pretend that we had lived in New Zealand for all but two years of our lives, we would have to be convincing. Marie wanted us to make us think that she was a good person, but if she was capable of kidnap, what could she do to us if we ruined her plan?
An hour later Marie entered, and called us by our new Maori names. They didn't sound right. I didn't know if I'd ever adjust to the strange feeling, but I supposed I had to. We got into a taxi and it rolled away from the hotel, towards the airport where our new lives were waiting for us.
Author's Note: I need to stop improvising these things, they go weirder every time, and I keep meaning to resolve the issues, but it never quite happens… Oh well, hope you enjoyed. Thanks for reading. Please review and be nice!