“Tavi!” he called after me. I didn’t look back; I just ran to the voice. I kept running as she kept howling to the snow.
“I’m coming!” I screamed to the voice. The voice cried again, for my help. I ran and ran, and then stopped. William caught up to me, grabbing my arm so hard that it turned red. Coming out of the woods, there was a family.
They all had black hair and dark eyes, and very pale skin. They had almost looked like vampires, which I would have embraced then with open arms if they were.
There was a woman, a man, and a girl that looked to be around my age. They were running toward us.
“Help!” the woman screamed. She had a strange accent, and I couldn’t make out what it was. When they caught up to us, the woman ended up hugging William and shaking crying.
She let go. The father spoke for the group. “Please, we have been stuck out here for a day and a half. Our car broke down. We were trying to get to El Dorado, to go skiing. We don’t know where we are.”
William put me behind him. Before he could speak, I spoke. “We have a cabin. You could stay with us.”
William shot me a look, but he couldn’t hurt me. Not with people around. He wouldn’t do that. He looked back to the family.
They all looked like they needed food and water, poorly. William studied to the family, and I guess the monster saw that they needed help, badly.
He just nodded his head. “Yes, we have a cabin. You can stay the night, and I’ll drive you to town in the morning.”
The smiles, I would never forget their smiles. That were so grateful, and it made me happy that we could have helped them. I could tell that William was nervous, and that made me happy. I wanted him to feel on edge like I had been for the past few months.
I wanted to make him feel what I had felt. I wanted him scared.
We all began to walk back to the cabin, and William grabbed my arm hard and whispered in my ear, “I mean it this time, I fucking mean it. You tell them anything; you try to escape, you try to do anything, I promise I will make your life hell, do you understand? You tell them I’m your father, and we are a happy family, do . . . you . . . understand.”
Once again, he won, and he scared me. I gulped and nodded.
He let go, and we walked. I made sure the family was following us. I smiled at the girl who looked to be my age. She had short curly dark hair and dark brown eyes.
When she caught me staring, she didn’t run away; she didn’t scream, she didn’t do anything I thought people would do when I stared at them.
She just smiled at me, and I almost gasped, but I was so happy that I grinned back. It was the first time in years that I could ever look at someone my age, and not feel so scared.
When we got to back to the cabin, William started to cook dinner. We let the family warm up by the fireplace. The father was talking to William. He was talking about how they got lost, and they had no idea where they were going and that their phones broke.
“That sounds like bad luck,” was all William could say.
“Oh, but we are all so lucky that we found you and your daughter,” the man said, making me roll my eyes at that word. “I am Tatianus Prieten, and that is my wife, Ilinca,” he said pointing to the woman with the long black hair. He said it as if he was proud of his wife, and I thought that was so sweet and that I hoped that one day, someone would be proud of me like he was proud of her. “And also,” he said with even more pride, “That is my daughter, Mihaela.”
I tried to repeat it in my head. Mihaela. Ilinca. Priten.
“Oh, well, I’m William, and that’s Tavi,” William said. Mihaela looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. Neither one of us were stuck with just adults, which was ever kids dream when there was nothing but adults around.
There is just something about being the same age as someone else. It’s like, you both have gone through the same thing, and you both were confused by some things, and having them in the same room makes you feel safe.
That was the first time in a long time that I felt safe.
“Your accent, where are you from?” William asked. I was just as curious.
Tatianus answered, “We are Romanian, but we moved to Australia about ten years ago. We moved there, to be with family and so I could give my daughter more at life.”
“Your English is so good,” William said. I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes. The girl was staring at me. Her mother got up and went to her husband, but Mihaela stayed. I didn’t know what to do. I ended up blushing and keeping my head down.
“Hello,” she said. “I’m Mihaela.”
I was so shocked she even said anything. When I raised my head, I caught her eyes. “Um, I’m Tavi.”
“Nice to meet you, Tavi,” she said putting her hand out. We shook hands and smiled. Her accent was a mix of her parents and a combination of Australian.
“So, um, you were going to El Dorado?” I ended up asking. That was in Colorado. I was still in my home state.
She nodded. “We were, but we got lost.”
“Oh, well, my dad and I are happy to help.”
She looked to William, and I could see in her eyes that she felt something was wrong. “He doesn’t seem happy.”
I turned around and saw William acting a little nervous, and grumpy. “Oh, well, he’s always like that. Um, would you like to go to my room?” I asked. Hope jumped up on me and lay in my lap. Mihaela was happy and nodded. We got up. “Um, we’re going to my room for a little while,” I told everyone. William nodded.
“Hey, Tavi, help me with something real quick,” he said.
I came over to him, and he put his mouth to my ear, his hand wrapped around my skinny arms, crushing them. It hurt. He used to pain and fear to control me. The sad reality of it all, it worked. “One fucking thing, and I swear.”
I nodded and took off. Mihaela and I went to my room. I sat on my bed and played with Hope. Mihaela looked around. “I love your place.”
“Um, thank you,” I said smiling.
“I like your kitty, he’s very cute,” Mihaela said, breaking the ice some more.
“Thank you,” I mumbled, looking to Hope.
“What’s his name?”
“Hope,”
“Hope?”
“Yeah, Hope the kitty,” I said, trying my hardest not to be lame.
She smiled. “I like it.”
I smiled at her back. She was very easy to talk to, and that made me euphoric. I wasn’t sure what to say to her, though. I wasn’t all that great at making friends. I just nervously looked around. She did the same. She was in the mountains for a long time. How did she survive?
Well, how did I survive so long with William? The answer; you fight.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
