N.O.W

Taken

Amber was playing some loud metal music as we squealed out of the parking lot. She pressed down harder on the gas and the car responded with a roar and then the school was in the distance behind us. I looked back at Sam, who had laid down on the back seat and was panting hard; even with the two AC fans blowing his face. He looked happy and excited for whatever we wanted to do. Well whatever Amber had planned for us.

“I have to go by my house and you and Sam have to come in. We need to find something that will fit your lanky body.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why do I need to change?”

She laughed and continued to floor the car’s gas petal and speed through town.

“There’s some really nice walking paths behind my house, I thought we’d check out. You can keep your clothes on if you want but your mom might get suspicious if they’re dirty. Sam’s a dog, dogs get dirty.”

From the back seat, Sam barked as Amber made a hard left and peeled into a richly neighborhood with luxury houses that were two times the size of my own. She pulled into the driveway of a mansion with a chandelier hanging over the front entrance. As she got out of the car, leaving the door open a moment longer for Sam to jump out. She slammed the door shut, just as I was getting out.

“Your house is enormous. Who even lives here? Just your family?”

She flipped through the keys on her keychain until she found the right one and unlocked the house. “Yeah, just me and folks. But this is actually a work house. They just come when the work brings them here. You should see the house, my dad just brought in Paris.”

Walking into the foyer with a staircase on either side, both leading to the upstairs. I wasn’t sure I needed to see the house in Paris. Her dad had class. All three of us headed upstairs and Amber led the way to her room which was located at the back of a long hallway with multiple doors. When she kicked the door open, music begun to play from stereos all throughout the house, three located around her room. I hadn’t noticed until now that she had been fiddling with a Bluetooth IPad that I guessed was the cause of the sudden music. She threw the pad onto her bed and went straight for her closet as she begun to undress.

“I wouldn’t peg you for the outdoorsy type, Amber. You seem more like a pedicure and getting her hair done type.”

Amber turned as she was slipping into a pair of rough looking jeans, she frowned at me.

“I take offense to that, Sam. Just because I like looking fabulous doesn’t mean this girl doesn’t like getting dirty once in a while.”

She found some jeans, boots, a long sleeve undershirt made of soft cotton and a matching vest with pockets. Amber seemed to have one of everything that we needed and in my size. She was skinny where I was stocky. We were both tall but I had more muscle than she.

“Do you have a bathroom, I can change in?”

“I’m not going to look, girl. Just get dressed.”

I looked down at Sam by my feet, he returned my glance with a wag as I started to undress. Amber was stuffing some things into a small duffel bag and was talking about how we could go downstairs and raid the fridge for waters and maybe some snacks. I had my shirt off and was working on pulling the jeans over my butt when I heard the bag hit the floor. I looked up and Amber’s hand was over her mouth.

“Sam…” I blinked and saw she was pointing at my scars, which I had dozens of. Criss-crossed all over my stomach, arms and back. I blushed and realized I would have to tell her sooner or later but now I didn’t know how. So I sat down on the bed and put my hand on Sam’s head.

“What happened?” she sat cross legged in front of me on the carpet. So I told her, of how I normally am at home and how being at school is different. And that Sam is my service dog for my condition.

“But somehow I’m getting better. My head didn’t hurt when I woke up this morning.” I didn’t tell her about the visions.

She thought about it for a second as if she knew something that she wasn’t telling me but her smile returned and she helped me back to my feet. “Let’s go walk, I’m sure Sam is going to love it as well.”

We went downstairs, raided the fridge for frosty waters and some granola bars, Amber found some treats that her Father kept for some of the neighborhood dogs and brought those along. We walked outside the back door and into the open backyard. There was a huge pool with a slide and a rock ledge waterfall. The waterfall wasn’t on so the water was crystal clear without distortion. Sam bounded ahead, his service jacket bouncing along with him. I tried to leave his jacket with the rest of our clothes but he whined when I tried to take it off him. Amber and I walked side by side, while Sam ran ahead but would double back to check on us.

“So what’s back here?”

Amber grinned evilly. “I was trying to save it but there’s a creepy old house back here that I’ve been wanting to check out but I’ve been too afraid to go alone.”

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “I don’t feel like being eaten by cannibals or getting kidn*pped by some weird old dude.”

“Oh Sam, when was the last time you’ve heard anything ever bad happen in this town? It’s literally been years. No murders, no k********g, no new drugs, sadly. But nothing happens here. We’ll be fine.”

We kept walking down the path. It was twisting but it kept pretty straight back into the deeper part of the woods. The trees grew high and vines fell down from their branches. Amber stayed close to me and as the forest grew spookier, Sam stopped running ahead and walked in front of us. I tilted my head back to look at the sky. It was still light out, so school was probably still in cession. Sam barked and stopped as I almost tripped over him and Amber grabbed my arm to keep me from falling over. I looked ahead and there was the house. It was white, well if you could call it that. It was pale white and the paint was chipped and peeling like flesh on bone. The stairs to the front door were bent and turning sideways, the left side of the second step was broken off. It was a two story house and the second story windows facing out were broken and the frames were hanging on the outside. Bushes surrounded the front towards the stairs and ivy crawled along the banisters around the patio. Where we stood was once a front yard and the grass grew wild, almost to our waists. I looked at Amber and she almost as scared as I felt. Sam seemed at ease, so I knew nobody was around. I took her hand and smiled.

“Well let’s go take a look.”

Sam wagged his tail and started his way into the wild grass. Amber followed me as we made our way to the steps. Sam easily hopped over them and onto the patio and watched us make our way up. The stairs held up under our combined weight except for an occasional squeak. Sam nosed his way and opened the front door. Inside was dilapidated. The stairs leading up to the second floor were broken and there was no other way up. To the left was the kitchen or what was left of it, with the grass growing through the floorboards and an old stove that had mold growing over the top. Cabinets had been smashed and the counters pulled up and laid on the floor or leading up against the smashed cabinets. To the right was a living room but empty, pale yellow paint peeling off the walls to reveal white sheetrock. And straight ahead was a wall and a door that led outside to the back. Amber released my hand and that’s when I felt it. A nagging sense and as I took a heavy breath to release the feeling, the vision took hold. It was stronger than the last and I couldn’t shake it off.

I stood back, behind myself and the others were there in the house. They spread out into different parts of the house. One easily jumped and landed on the ledge that was the second floor and started moving around up there. I watched, I saw my head turn as if shouting instructions as loud noises came from upstairs. The girl that reminded me of Amber, walked up beside me then walked to the far wall that was straight ahead and whispered something. I followed and placed my hand on the other side of the wall. There were words exchanged and then the wall opened and revealed….

“Sam!”

I jerked back my hand, the noises in my vision were here too. The wall had opened to reveal several types of holdings for weapons but they were all empty. The noise, Amber, I and Sam were hearing was a blaring alarm and crashing sounds from above meant someone was in here with us and had possibly been awakened by the alarm. We ran out the front door back the way we came but men in dark uniforms and bulletproof vests were coming our way. The closest one grabbed Amber and she screamed before a black bag was placed over her head. She struggled and I ran left, running straight into another man. I fought and slammed my hand up into his throat. He choked and dropped but another came to his rescue and grabbed my arm, cracking the butt of his g*n into my temple. I fell hard onto the ground. I wasn’t a fighter but I don’t know how I even pulled off that move. I was grabbed roughly and pulled to my feet. My head lolled and I tried to shake away the pain but it just made the dizziness worse.

“Don’t hurt him…” I whispered, looking for Sam. I heard a gruff “Shut up.” The last thing I saw before the man put a black bag over my head was Sam, looking out from the tall grass, with his blue eyes, determined.

Sam ran the 10, 15 miles back to the city. He didn’t know how many, but he ran the entire way. His service jacket was filthy but all he could think about was his Sam. When the girls were turned ready to leave Amber’s house, he had torn a piece of Sam’s shirt and muzzled it into his jacket, just in case. Now he was glad he had. His paws hurt from running on the concrete and had to move to the grass once his nose had led him to Malakai’s house. Sam’s marital art teacher from school. He knew he would help. He had to. Sam ran up to the door to the house and began barking and clawing at the door, leaving deep marks. He barked non-stop, his throat began to hurt. But then his ears lifted as he heard the unlocking noise of the door and it opened to Malakai’s face.

“Hello?” he asked sleepily then looked down at the dog. “Huh?”

Sam dug into his service jacket and pulled out the piece of fabric from the girl’s shirt. He growled and barked and dug with his claws at the piece. Then he looked up at Malakai and bared his fangs. Malakai seemed shocked as he looked at the animal then picked up the shirt piece and smelled it. His eyes said it all. He knew what had happened. He patted Sam’s head then let the dog inside before sighing.

“Ginger isn’t going to be happy.”