When Life Begins Again

Chapter Eight

July 12th, 2023

The next morning came, and I jumped out of bed, excited to start my day. Last night was a s**t show and the club would be closed for today, so we get a night off. I couldn’t wait to see Daniel again today. I really wished I could’ve been with him last night. But I had Rose and Angelia with me. They were the only girls that really liked me. I knew why Rose liked me, because she was basically in love with me, but I don’t know about Angelia. I walk over to my closet and pull out a long blue dress with off the shoulder straps and slipped it on. I looked at myself in the mirror and played with my hair. “I think I’ll put my hair up today.” I grab my wide tooth comb off the top of the dresser and brush it through my hair, pulling my hair up in the middle and tie it up halfway, placing the comb back on my dresser. I look at myself in the mirror and nod my head satisfied.

A knock comes at the door, and I turn to look at the clock. It was 8:58am.

I grab my bag off the floor and open the door. “Good morning, Rose,” I said with a smile as I stepped out of the room and locked the door behind myself.

“Morning Annabelle. I couldn’t wait for you to come find me, so I got up and came to you,” she tells me excitedly.

“I figured as much when I heard the knock at the door,” I told her, walking towards the elevator.

Rose follows me to the elevator and says, “You look radiant today, Annabelle. I love your hair.”

“Thanks,” I tell her, stepping into the elevator and pressed the button for the main floor.

“Everything okay with you Annabelle?” She asks.

The elevator comes to a stop, and we come off and walk out of the building.

“I’m doing just fine Rose. I just didn’t feel like talking in there. I’m looking forward to this morning and I’m glad that the club is closed for tonight,” I tell her, walking toward the crosswalk.

Rose follows me, trying to keep up with my determined walking pace. “Okay, I get it now. Can we walk a little slower?” She asked.

I get to the other side of the road and continue walking towards the park. “I’m going to walk at the speed that I’m currently walking at because I really want to get to where I'm going to. If you can’t keep up then I'll see you there,” I told her, happily.

Rose started lightly running beside me. “Alright, could you at least tell me where we’re going?” She asked.

“The park that I brought you to yesterday. We agreed to meet up there today,” I told her, walking a bit faster.

“Oh, come on! I have to run to keep up with you and now you’re walking even faster,” she tells me, panting.

I smile, half laughing and say, “This is nothing to me. I could get faster, so you better keep up.

After walking for a bit, we finally reached the park.

I walked into the park and looked around for Daniel.

Rose collapsed to the ground, laid out onto the grass and said, “I’m done. I’m dead now. This is the end of me. Just leave me here.”

I laugh at her as I look down at the ground where she was lying. “Alright Rose, I’ll just leave you where you lay to be trampled on by anyone that doesn’t bother to look at the ground when they walk.

Rose quickly sits up and leans against a tree that was nearby. “Okay, I’ll rest here till I regain my stamina which is greatly depleted right now,” she tells me exasperated.

Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder and I quickly turn around to see Daniel smile down at me.

“Hey there beautiful. I wasn't sure if you’d be here yet,” he tells me.

I quickly throw my arms around him and breathe him in, snuggling my head into his chest.

Surprised Daniel slowly wraps me in his arms. “Is everything okay Annabelle? Did something happen since we talked yesterday?” He asked me, breathing in my scent.

“I take it this handsome looking man is Daniel,” Rose says from the ground, watching as the scene plays out in front of her.

Daniel turns and looks down at Rose sitting on the ground and says, “And who might you be?”

I pull Daniel’s attention back to me and tell him about everything that happened last night and about taking Rose with us.

He took my hand and led me over to a bench where we could sit down and talk about it. “Are you sure you’re okay Annabelle? That sounds horrible. I wish I could’ve taken you with me yesterday,” he tells me, sitting down beside me on the bench.

I rest my head on his shoulder and say, “I’m okay Daniel. I just need to know if Rose can come with us. She’s my only true friend here and I don’t want to leave her behind. Please tell me she can come with us... she doesn’t have to live with us. I just want to take her back home to be with her family. She still has another year of school to finish. I couldn’t leave her behind. I feel like if I do something bad is going to happen to her.”

Daniel stares into my eyes intently and he leans in to kiss me softly on the lips.

I move my body to get closer to him and kiss him more intensely, breathing him in.

His hands come around me and his tongue slides into my mouth.

Rose walks over to us and groans. “Do you really have to do that now? You guys are in a public park.”

Daniel pulls away from me and looks over at Rose. “Are you sure Annabelle?”

I look at Rose, shaking my head and say, “Yes, I’m sure Daniel. She’s just jealous cause she’s wishing it was her kissing me instead of you.”

He stares at Rose and says, “You’re in love with my Belle?”

“I like the way that sounds,” I tell him.

Rose looks shocked and says, “No, not ever. I just like her a lot. And I may have kissed her the other day. But she pushed me away and told me to never do that again.”

Daniel looks back at me and says, “She kissed you and you never thought to mention this to me? I can take her with me when I take you. I won’t leave your friend behind. But Rose, you need to keep your comments to yourself about our interactions and I don’t like it and I’m sure that Belle doesn’t like it either.”

“I can come?” She asks, sounding excited.

“Yes. And after what happened I've decided to do it tomorrow. I don’t want you spending another day in that club,” he tells me, squeezing my hand gently.

“Thank goodness. Thank you so much Daniel. I couldn’t even think of how I could repay you for all that you’re willing to do for me and my friend,” I told him, throwing my arms around him again.

“You don’t have to repay me. I’m just happy I get to love you,” he tells me honestly.

Rose jumps up and down, spinning around. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“So, what’s going to happen?” I ask him, pulling away from the hug to stare into his beautiful dark blue eyes that twinkled like the night sky.

Rose sat down on the grass waiting to listen.

“I’m going to clean out my workspace today and pack up my essentials then put everything into my truck. I’ll bring my truck with all my stuff on the other side of the park, and I'll pick you up here. Make sure to be here at ten o'clock in the morning. If you get here a bit earlier that’s fine but don’t be late. We’re going to get into the truck and then I’m going to start driving till I can’t drive anymore. Once we get a safe distance away, I will take you to a police station where you can report Dalia and her operation. I won’t let anything else happen to you girls. And hopefully we can free the rest of the people being held captive by that woman,” he tells me.

Both Rose and I nod our heads.

“That sounds like a solid plan. We just have to be really careful and not look suspicious in any way,” I tell him.

“I’ll be careful and act normal so that she doesn’t suspect anything,” Rose tells me, knowing that I was already capable of doing that.

“Great. With all that settled. I will start on my part, and I’ll see both of you tomorrow. Until then. Be careful,” Daniel tells me. He then hugs me like he was never going to see me again and kisses me briefly.

I sigh, staring at him as he stands up to leave. I knew he had to go but I really didn’t want him to. And I could tell that he didn’t want to either. “Take care Daniel,” I tell him, waving him off.

Rose jumps up and sits on the bench beside me, saying, “s**t, that was crazy.”

“In a good way,” I responded.

“What now?” She asks me, staring at me.

I look at her and say, “We act normal and go about our day doing what we normally do. Explore and talk. Speaking of normal, are you hungry cause I’m starving.”

Rose laughs with me and says, “Famished. I feel like I haven’t eaten in a week.”

I jump up off the bench and head off towards Clover’s. “I’m not sure if they do breakfast at Clover’s but that’s where we’re heading,” I tell her as I head for the closest crosswalk.

Rose runs after me saying, “I just barely recovered walking with you to the park, could you walk a bit slower now? And if you’re not sure about Clover’s having breakfast then shouldn’t we find somewhere else to go for food?”

I stopped walking for a minute and looked around us, thinking about what Rose had just said. There must be a place around here that serves breakfast other than the café near our prison.

Rose stops beside me, looking around curiously, “Is there a reason you’ve come to a stop and are looking around like a mouse in a trap?”

“I’m looking around for a place that serves breakfast that’s close by,” I told her.

“There’s one right up there that I went by yesterday when I was waiting for you. It doesn't seem bad. I kind of like the way it looks. What do you think?” Rose asks me, pointing towards the restaurant.

I looked towards where she was pointing and saw a breakfast place attached to the string of buildings. “Sure, that should be okay. No harm in trying it,” I told her as I began walking towards it.

Rose followed after me and we walked to the restaurant getting there in no time at all.

I pull the door to the restaurant open and walk inside, with Rose coming in after me.

The door swings shut and we walk over to the greeter.

A young woman stands behind the podium and smiles at us, saying, “For two?”

We both nod and say “Yes.”

“Alright, right this way then,” she says, grabbing two menus and leads off to a table in the corner of the room. “Your server will be right with you, until then feel free to look over the menu.”

“Thank you,” we tell her and take a seat.

The greeter turns and walks off.

I pick up my menu and look it over. Everything on the menu looked pretty good. “How do you choose out of everything. There’s so many choices,” I asked Rose.

A middle aged woman walks over to our table and says, “Hello ladies, my name is Shelley and I’ll be your waitress for this morning. May I get you something to drink to start?”

“I’ll have orange juice to drink,” I tell her and turn back to my menu.

“I’ll take the same,” Rose says to her.

Shelley writes it down in her note pad and says, “Alright. I’ll go get that for you then I’ll be back to take your order.” She then turns and heads to the kitchen.

“I just look at everything and pick what I want the most,” Rose tells me.

“I guess that’s a good way to decide,” I tell her, scanning the menu. “I think I know what I want.” I put my menu down on the table and waited.

“That’s great Annabelle, I think I know what I want too,” she tells me doing the same.

Just then Shelley comes back with our drinks. She places them in front of us and says, “All ready to order?”

“Yes, we both are. I’ll have the big waffle with bananas and caramel on top,” I tell her, smiling.

“I’d like the bacon and eggs with toast,” Rose said. “I want my eggs sunny side up.”

Shelley writes down our orders then takes our menus and says, “Perfect. I’ll put in your order and it’ll be ready in a few minutes.” She then turns around and heads back to the kitchen.

“What made you choose that?” Rose asked me curiously.

“I love sweet stuff and waffles and that sounded really good to me,” I told her, looking over at her.

“I love eggs and bacon. They make their bacon super crispy here, from what I've seen.” Rose told me.

“Sounds good. Maybe I’ll have to steal one of your bacon strips,” I told her while smiling mischievously.

“You will do no such thing,” she says, guarding her pretend food.

I laughed at the whole thing and said, “Okay, you can keep your bacon.”

Rose smiles at me and says, “I love your laugh.”

“Thanks Rose, but could you maybe just love me as a friend,” I asked her.

“I guess I can try. But it’s hard. I’m a lesbian and I love everything about you. You’re like the perfect woman,” she tells me.

I sit back, leaning against my seat and say, “I don’t think I’m perfect in anyway. You just need to find yourself another lesbian that is perfect for you.”

“So, are you going to tell me what that was that happened yesterday? When we were out for lunch yesterday you saw something and then you warned me about it. What did you see?” Rose asks me, changing the subject.

I had hoped she would drop that and I would never have to tell her about it. But here it is. I sigh and open my mouth to tell her.

Shelley comes back with our food and places it down on the table in front of us. “Here you are. I hope you enjoy your meals,” she says, smiling then walks away.

“This isn’t over just because we got our food. I still want an answer from you,” she tells me.

I pick up my knife and fork and start cutting my waffle. It looks delicious. “Ever since a young age I’ve gotten visions of things that will happen. Sometimes I can change them but I never know when or where they’re going to take place. It could be a long time or it could be really soon. I sometimes get feelings of doom as if it is close to happening or it has already happened. But I can’t control the visions, they come on at random and no one else in my family has ever had this ability so there was no one to teach me about it. Yesterday at lunch I had a vision of a man jumping up onto the stage at the club and tried to molest me, then you came over to stop him and he shoved you up against the wall, you hit the wall so hard and fast you went unconscious. Then Angelia came over trying to help me and he shoved her off the stage, she hit the ground fast and snapped her neck. Then Dalia came out and shot the man in the head after he stuck his hand up my skirt. I broke from the vision after he collapsed onto me, bleeding out. It was horrible and I didn’t want that to happen to you guys. That’s why I told you not to help me and to stop anyone else from helping me. I didn’t like seeing that at all.” I told her, then took a piece of waffle and shoved it in my mouth.

Rose stares over at me, looking shocked. “That’s horrible. I’m glad I listened to you. Seeing that man dead was bad enough. I couldn’t even imagine having to see what you saw Annabelle,” she told me, picking up a piece of bacon then putting it into her mouth.

“It’s definitely not something you would want to see unless you’re a sick and twisted person. I’m glad that you listened too. This waffle is so good,” I tell her, putting some more into my mouth.

“I love this bacon, it’s so crunchy. So, is that what happened the night you were taken? Did you have a vision of your parents being murdered?” She asked me while chewing her food.

“I did, yes. And I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. It’s not something I was able to stop. But it helped me to protect my brother and sister. I could tell that, that vision was happening as I was seeing it,” I told her, feeling sad about it.

“When I think about getting visions of the future it sounds awesome but seeing stuff like that is just awful.” Rose says to me, looking sad.

Shelley walks up to our table and says, “How’s everything going over here? Is the food to your liking?”

We both smile at her and say, “We love it, thanks.”

“Good. Let me know if you need anything,” she says, smiling back at us then taking her leave.

I eat some more of my waffle and look over at Rose. “Can we talk about something else now?”

“We can, but what would you like to talk about?” she asks me, picking up her fork and cutting her egg into bite sized pieces.

“What are you going to do when you get out of here? Do you have family you can go with?” I asked her.

She shoves some egg into her mouth and cheese it up before answering me. “I have an aunt in my mother’s side that lives in the same area as my parents did so I might be able to go with her. She’s single and doesn’t have any kids of her own. She always loved spending time with me. And she would spoil me going out shopping because she makes a lot of money and doesn’t have anyone to give it to. She’s really nice. She must be really sad right now.”

“I’m glad you have someone back home that you can be with. Both my brother and sister are under aged so they wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves and would have to go with someone. I don’t even know where to start looking. We have relatives but none of them are close to us,” I tell her while eating my waffle.

“We’ll figure it out once it comes to that. And you have Daniel to help you out. He seems to really love you, I’m happy for you Annabelle. Even though I can’t have you. I’m glad that you found someone that’s right for you.” Roses tells me honestly.

I smile, thinking about Daniel. “He is pretty amazing. I actually had a vision about him a week before I met him,” I told her.

She looks at me curiously and says, “Really? What was it about?”

“He was sitting in front of me telling me that he had to save me from this and he really wanted to do it for me. I was feeling really down and hopeless then I had that vision and I became hopeful again. I didn’t know when I would see him so I just kept doing what I needed to do till I could meet him. I met him for the first time on my first day out. We met at the café across from the place where we’re being held as prisoners,” I told her. I put my fork down and take a big drink of my juice, realizing that I’m incredibly thirsty.

“That’s amazing. Your ability must’ve been searching for an answer to bring up your spirits,” Rose told me, smiling at me.

“That’s quite possible, but since I don’t know anything about my ability I have no way of knowing,” I tell her then finish off my food.

Rose finished her food and downed her drink. “Shelley,” she called out, waving her over.

Shelley comes over to our table and says, “How can I help?”

“We’re all finished here so if we could get the bills that would be greatly appreciated.” Rose tells her.

“Two separate bills then?” she asks us.

“Yes, we’re paying separately,” I told her.

“Alright, I can do that for you. I’ll be right back.” She turns around and heads to the counter. Then she comes back with two slips of paper and hands one to each of us. “How will you be paying? She asks.

“Cash,” we both tell her.

I pull up my bag and take out 20 dollars telling her, “keep the change.”

Rose does the same thing.

Shelley takes the money and thanks us. “May the two of you have a lovely day.” She tells us with a smile then turns around after taking our plates and heads to the kitchen.

Rose and I stand up, gather our things and leave the restaurant.

Once outside I turn to Rose and say, “Where to now? We’ve still got time to kill and I don’t really feel like going back to the park as we’ve already been there today.”

“How about we go to the mall and do some shopping. Maybe buy a new outfit for tomorrow,” she says, smiling at me.

I open my bag and look to see how much money I have left. “I think I can do that,” I tell her. “But I might not be able to buy lunch afterwards. Though I should be okay till we get supper tonight.”

“Perfect, then we have a plan. We’ll spend the rest of our time out roaming the mall, buy a new outfit then head back,” Rose tells me confidently.

I started walking towards the mall which was further up the street.

Rose followed me, trying to keep up. “Could you maybe walk a bit slower so I can walk beside you?” She asks me.

I walk a little slower to keep with her pace and say, “I can do that for now. But tomorrow you better keep up with me or you’ll be left behind.”

She jabs at my side, saying, “That’s not even funny.”

“Okay, I’m sorry. I wouldn’t actually leave you behind. But you’d have to catch up to me,” I told her.