Sakura's Journey Chapter 10 Bonjour
I don't know how long we were in the back of that van. I transmitted that static sense to Squible until he fell asleep. Daemon was leaning against me and I could feel every shake of his body as he sobbed in silence. I know I shouldn't be doing this, as I wasn't very experienced, but I reached out to him with my aura, focusing on calm thoughts. He tensed briefly, obviously not used to the feeling, and then slowly calmed down, letting out a shaky breath. "T-Thanks, Kura..." We didn't speak more than that. I was scared. I was down right terrified! Where were we going? What was going to happen to us? Why were we taken? I had a strong suspicion that it had something to do with me being a slender. In that case Daemon didn't belong here. It was all my fault that he was here! He shouldn't be here...If I was just a normal human, he wouldn't have been taken too. In the darkness, I felt his hand close around my wrist. "Don't blame yourself."
I grinned and reached to him with my closest tendrill. We were still restrained in the thick rope, but we had been given enough loose to move around, and I had managed to remove the rag from his mouth so we could speak. We both knew that nobody would hear us if we screamed for help ayway... Finally, the van stopped. I winced a little when the door was opened and light reached my hazel-grey eyes. I instinctively lowered my head to try to block out the sun's rays with my hair. It worked to a certain extent. We were brought out of the van, Squible clinging to my shoulder desperately. I looked around us, we were in the forest, but not one I recognised. It seemed to go on for miles and as far as I could extend my aura, I felt nothing other than us and a few normal woodland critters. We started walking towards the base of a mountain, which had a large steel door. On the inside, it was a long, dull and grey hallway that reached in, lit poorly by a few old and cold lamps. A man, obviously a janitor with his mop and all, was cleaning a corner of the hallway when the man who had held Daemon earlier motioned to him. "Hey! Frank! Get over here!" The man shakily stepped over to us. I tried to reach to him with my mind, seeing as he didn't have any weird head devices. He looked at me with worried chocolate brown eyes. I sensed enormous guilt and sorrow from him, but also a resignation to do this. "Yes, sir?" The man, David, pushed us roughtly towards him. "Take these kids to the cell." The janitor looked back up to us, a curious look in his eyes. "Are they both..." "Just the girl is. But the boy was with her and saw us." I knew they were talking about me being a slender...just who were these guys?!
As we were walked down the long and dark halls by this janitor, I decided to ask him questions. "I'm sorry, lil' lady. I'm just the janitor so I don't know much... But this is the headquarters for Shadow Blood, top secret Canadian government branch dedicated to the research of slenders. Sometimes, the people take members of your kind and bring them here...always little kids...little innocent kids..." He looked down and I knew he didn't approve of his job. Further down the hall, I saw a second person mopping the ground, this time, a little boy. He had dark skin and black hair and was probably around 8 or 9 years old. He looked up at Frank with worried brown eyes when he saw us. "Juan! These are the new kids. This one's name is..uhh..." He motioned to my friend by my side. "Daemon." He had answered briefly and was obviously scared. Frank nodded and turned back to Juan. "Daemon. He'll be your fellow trainee." Daemon turned to him, fear and anger in his emerald eyes. "Say what?!" Juan and Frank looked away and the older male began to speak. "Juan came here 2 years ago along with his twin brother, who had only recently changed to his other form. They were the first people ever captured. Juan was human, so he ended-up being a janitor trainee...and you will too, kid. It's what happens when humans get here." I felt cold anxiety rip at my insides. "W-what about me?..." The man looked to me again, sadness in his eyes. "I don't know..." We arrived to a cell at the end of the corridor and were locked into it, the janitor pair leaving, Juan's eyes lingering on us a little longer.
Squible jumped down from me and began to scamper around the bottom of the cell. Daemon sat on the floor, back against the wall and giving a sigh of defeat. That's when I noticed that we weren't alone in here. Across the room, there was a little girl with blonde hair, and she was crying. At first I thought I only looked quickly, but as I looked again, I let my mouth hang agape. It wasn't the fact that she had tendrills that shocked me, it was that she had 6. It was a very rare gift, even rarer than the power to remove memories. An additional set of tendrills... I extended my aura to her and she looked up with puffy eyes, redened from crying. She sniffled a bit. "Hey." She tilted her head to her side and looked at me funny. "Bonjour?"(Hello?) My eyes widened a bit. She speaks French... Good thing I knew some, but Daemon didn't. He'd be confused by this... I brought my attention back to the girl. "Quel est ton nom?" (What's your name?) She looked to me and sniffled again, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Laurianne." I nodded. "Quel âge as-tu?" (How old are you?) "6" I nodded again, this time giving her a sad smile. Several minutes later, all introductions set asside and me acting as a translator for the most part, and we knew pretty much all that needed to be known about each other. Juan brought us a meal of beef and a few vegetables. It wasn't that bad actually... He and Daemon signaled to each other. They were the only two humans in the room. After he left and the food was done, I curled up in a corner of the cell, Squible lying close to my neck and wrapped myself in my tendrills. At least the ground was soft... I clutched my dad's scarf close to me and prayed that we would be out of here soon. I had family that loves me, and I'm more than just a normal kid...
(Angie's P.O.V.)
Stunned silence. That's all it was when I told everybody what happened. My husband was at my side, clinging to my arm and trying very hard not to cry. Sitting across from us were Sarah and Tom, the slender clinging on to the woman with his tendrills and crying. Sarah's face was burried in his chest and she played with strands of his curled brown hair, the hair Sakura had inherited. The kids were gone...they were gone and I had no real idea of where they were. Finally, through the crying, Tom returned to us, wiping tears from his sky blue eyes. He sneered, showing his much longer and pointier than average teeth. "Can you remember any detail that could help? Anything at all?!" I was in shock at the time...I couldn't remember much...But I then remembered one phrase that one of the men had said. "Good, we got'em. Now off to Pinemount." "What's Pinemount?" Tom and Sarah both perked up at this new information. Johnny looked worried, but he still kept his arm over my shoulder protectively. "It's a mountain in the center of a forest not too far from here...it's woods for miles around it though, and there's no trails leading there." Tom spoke slowly. He looked down to his feet before continuing. "I haven't been there before so I can't slenderwalk there...but I know where the edge of the forest is." "Take me there." I turned in shock to Johnny, who had spoken. He spoke the words with such finality. He held my hand tightly, knowing he would stop at nothing to rescue his son.
Tom looked at him calmly. He finally spoke again, no longer showing emotions in his eyes. "I'll go with you." Johnny shook his head. "No, I'm getting the kids out of there. The animals at the clinic need you, and you already took a week off when Sakura got her powers..." The slender seemed to tense a bit, but he sighed. He agreed. My husband, the last one of my family to be with me that remained, well...concious and visible... was going to go on a long journey through the woods to get these kids...all by himself... If only I had watched them better, none of this would have happened. As the men left the room, me and Sarah looked at each other. She rushed across the room and embraced me into a warm hug. We just cried in each other's arms. Maybe we were 38 years old, but we had a reason to cry. Between chocked sobs, I managed to speak. "He...H-he was g-g-going to b-be a b-big brother..." I felt my friend tense up in my arms a bit, but she relaxed. Regaining her confidence, she spoke again, assuredly as though her words were pure fact. "He WILL be." I believed her. As we seperated and sat back down side by side on the couch, she still had warm tears going down her face. I was just stopping my sobs. Sarah fiddled with her engagement ring, an amethyst carved Master Ball. Before I left with my husband, she spoke to me, this time managing a grim and sad smile, but a smile none the less. "Congratulations, by the way..." I also smirked sadly and left.