SIXTY FOUR-- LOSING AND SAVING

"Didn't I tell you to desist from following Miranda Harley? She's not exactly a potential enemy but all her friends are your potential enemies. Didn't I tell this before the war?" He wanted to hit me again but I took his hands and kissed them. "I am sorry. It was the only thing I could do, to keep myself sane." I cried. "You were not available" "It's okay, my Lady" I smiled. He saw that it pleased me, and he said it again and again until I had to laugh out loud. Then it struck me. "Did you say all Miranda's friends are my potential enemies?" I asked carefully. Maybe he meant 'some'. "Yes. All of them. Everyone except her family" "Including our ..." "I just told you all of them are likely to hurt you. All. Of. Them, except her mother and brother, let that sink, okay?" His raspy, fine voice resounded in my eardrums. Including our other friends- Phoebe, Josephine and...? I thought. And Mash too? Chris, her boyfriend too? Why would they want to hurt me? "Many people do not have a reason to hurt you. They just hurt you because that's what they want to do" he replied because he had read my mind "Stop reading my mind" I recoiled. It really was both intriguing and annoying. "I don't want to stop. Just do what I asked you to do" he said and got up. I followed him quietly. I wondered where he was taking me to. "Don't you want to go home?" He asked me "Not now. Are they looking for me yet?" "Of course. Your mom is worried. Everyone is hoping you come back. They don't know your whereabouts, so they can't fall asleep. I don't want your earthly family to worry about you. Even if you have to leave them later, I want it to be pre-planned and I want it to be pondered on, carefully well" I really wanted to live in the castle forever, but I also didn't want to leave mom, Mike Tony, my siblings and my friends. I didn't know what will was stronger in me: the will to stay or relocate to the supernatural world and remain there forever. I wondered if I'd have to die on earth to be able to safely transport myself to the supernatural world. Robin said it was called the 'superhuman world'. "The Earth is a human world. Ours is a superhuman world, because it's a world of humans with a difference" If I left, mom would never heal. She loved me to a fault. Sometimes I told myself that she loved me more than she loved herself. She had said I was her hope of staying alive. We were literally best friends. Except for age and physical difference, you wouldn't know she was my mother and I was her daughter. Our bond was stronger. That's why I'm staying back. I'd never leave her alone, until maybe after my siblings grow up and she starts to share the affection between the three of us, and also when she becomes very happy and fulfilled, maybe when she finds a good husband, and some internal long-sought peace . That way, she wouldn't miss me too much. My absence would not hurt so much. Or maybe that's my thought. Isn't that what you think too? "You should go home" he said. "Please" "I will, but not now. You said you'd stay with me a while" he didn't respond. "Can't I call mom and assure her I'm fine? Can she hear me here? Did you bring my phone with you from the cold room?" "No. Wait till I go fetch it" he said and before I could argue, he disappeared. I was alone in the field again. I hid somewhere and shivered, waiting for him. A part of me feared he might leave me there, even though he wouldn't ever do something that wicked to me. He returned to me almost as soon as he left, with the phone. "Call her" he said. And I did. Mom was screaming and crying over the phone. I told her I was rescued by someone and that I was not feeling strong enough to return home yet. She was saying something about Miranda but I didn't hear that part. She said she was glad to hear that I was fine and she asked where this person took me to. She insisted she'd love to talk to this person but Robin didn't want to talk to her, so i hung up. "Now they're at least rest assured about my safety" I said to him. "It is me and you now" He smiled satisfactorily, took my hands and walked me down the field, and out into town. "I want to show you two important things" he said. He held my hands and crossed the street with me. "What are they?" I enquired as soon as we were safely on the other side of the street. He didn't say a word. We passed by so many houses and convenience stores, but we didn't stop to enter any. Instead he left my hands and started to walk faster than I did, on the pedestrian walk. He wouldn't wait even though I asked him to. I wished I could move as fast as he did. At a point, we entered a compartment in the woods. "Where are we going to?" "Just follow me" he said. "Don't you trust me anymore?" He sounded just like the raspy voice I heard on phone that landed me in Quendia's cold room. "Sometimes I wonder if it was you or not" I sighed, following his steps closely. I was not feeling tired despite that we had walked for so long. It was very early in the morning. "It wasn't me. It was Quendia" he responded without looking back. "Do you even know what I'm talking about?" I questioned. "I read your mind. It was Quendia who called you on phone, it wasn't me. You have to know that he has the power to twist his characteristics like some others. Next time, don't fall so easily for that trick. I'd never call you on phone, especially not on a night when you were grounded" he said, then turned back to stop me with a hand. "Careful. There's a pit there" I jumped over the spot he pointed to even though it looked just normal to me. "He'll probably still try to lure you again. He doesn't give up so easily especially knowing that you alone have the power to do what he needs done" he continued. "I will not be deceived a second time. By the way, I thought you already killed him in the cold room?" Saying the word 'kill' sounded strange in my mouth. Robin laughed. "Just like me, it will take more than a crack in the spine and three punches to kill him" That means he could be immortal as well. More reason I needed to be very careful- I am not immortal like them. All of a sudden, Robin stopped in his tracks, few metres away from a gate that stood almost unnoticed in the bushes, transformed into his wolf and crawled into the woods. He was almost very far away when he said to me, "Go into that building. Into the basement, and find it. Make sure no one sees you" "Find what?" I asked, trembling. What did he think he was doing. "Don't be afraid. Just go. I'll be here" he said and disappeared. I wanted to sit on the ground and cry. How did he expect a child to pass through an old gate into a building with tall fences and into the basement to find something you didn't even mention? What if I died in the process? Was this a test? Stupid. He wasn't anywhere around. I tried calling him back but he wouldn't answer me. After a while, I heard his voice, "Don't be afraid. You need to do it" . It sounded like he was right behind me but when I turned back, he wasn't there. So I walked carefully towards the gate. The gate was very old and almost totally covered by grasses and weeds. He said there was a building in there but all I could see was weeds and trees. I got to the gate and tried opening it but it would not budge. The lock had rusted from age. I looked at the fence. It was very high. "How would I jump over this?" I thought. I tried but the edges were too raggedy. I stared at the big gate I could lift this with my power, I thought, but it was dangerous. It could rouse the attention of whoever was in there. I started to kick at it. After a while, I gave up, climbed the gate and looked into the premises inside. There was a narrow road in there that I was sure led into an uninhabitable house. I jumped down the gate, and immediately I heard footsteps coming, I ducked into the thick grass and bent low. Looking carefully at the intruder, I sighed. He was a huge man with tattoos and he was smoking. It looked like he'd not be easy to handle because he carefully looked around wondering what made that thudding sound, clenching his fists as if ready for a fight. I caught the smoke escaping his nostrils as he dropped the stick of cigarette and stepped on it. This place looked like an hideout of bad people-- pedophiles, serial killers, and generally heartless people. Why would Robin send me here? Why didn't he go in there himself? Immediately he walked away, I followed him, carefully of course. I saw him walk into what looked like the basement of the house. I hid as soon as I was few metres away from him. I never knew I had the skill of trailing someone that smoothly without being caught. I was already feeling proud of myself when he turned back, and said something that I couldn't interpret, because it was not English. It sounded like a threat. I was so panic-stricken that my teeth gnashed against one another, and my palms watered in apprehension. Even my heavy breath was constituting a distraction-- noise. I tried to hold my breath so I could follow him quietly into the room before he shut it. But he shut it before I could reach him. I hid behind a plank of wood that stood tall in the way to the basement, and waited. I heard his voice in there. He was talking to someone obviously but I couldn't quite place his words. I heard muffled breaths, moans and shrill cries from inside, not of one person but of many. They sounded terrified and hopeless. My heart started to beat faster in a matter of seconds. It was eerily noisy. Was I to save these souls? How was that going to happen? After a while, I heard loud cries emanating from the basement, cries very loud but not loud enough to be heard over the high fences and tall gates. It seemed he was torturing them because their cries moved in high and low progressions successively. Five Minutes and a thousand groans later, their cries started to die down gradually. Sniffing, struggling, heavy breathing, sobs. Argh! I felt so empathetic immediately. These people were young children like me. Maybe a little older or younger, but the point was they were young and dependent, like me. They had parents who were worried about them at the moment. Maybe they've been captured for a year or two or three, or less. Maybe they've been there only three days. However long it had been, it still was a bad place to be, especially for little children. What was I to find in the basement other than these tortured, captured souls? Again, Robinson knew that I would decipher his words because I was very smart and strong-willed. Suddenly, he walked out of the basement, locking the doors firmly behind him. I almost got caught but I swiftly ducked into the dark behind the thick plank in time, that is , before he turned around. There was a belt in his hands and his trousers came loose underneath his waist as he walked away. He was sweating profusely too, and panting. I figured he must have had a field day on one of the girls in there. That must have been why they all screamed. Pathetic.