Doctor's Orders

Your chance of getting kidn*pped is low.  If you're taken, your chance of survival is high.  Not me.  At 21, I have lived through countless attempts. Some are from rival gangs, others from within our inner circle. As the daughter of Stephan Almeida, I am a precious target. They say I am my father's only weakness. This means my life is in danger, 24 hours a day, every day.  When I was five, my beloved uncle Jaco took out a gun on the dinner table.  He gently rested the barrel on my forehead, looking at my father dead in the eye. 'If you want little Melie to live, you will do as I say.' I remember eerie silence that followed. My dad was sitting across the table, completely still, not a single muscle trembling on his face. Still, you could tell he was terrified. His eyes, usually a sky blue color, had darkened. His breathing was steady but heavier.  'What do you think you're doing, Jaco,' he asked. 'Threatening you,' Jaco replied, pushing the cold barrel on my head. His finger rested idly on the trigger. 'You know there is no way you'll come out of this alive,' father hissed. 'Ask me whatever you like but once you return my daughter, I will find you and I will murder you. You will have a slow, agonizing death.' He wouldn't talk like this, at least not in front of me. As far as I was concerned, my dad had a successful business and he could buy me all the toys I wanted. I was living in a bubble and it was time to come out. At five, I had no concept of death, yet my father's terrified look said it all. And the hand holding the gun was that of a trusted family friend.  From that point on, I never really trust anybody outside my father and my sister. Blood is the only bond worth believing in.  Uncle Jaco did take me that night. He walked out of the dining room, clutching me in front. What he did not know was that my father protects me with more than just bullets. He has his guards carry tranquilizer guns for this exact purpose.  You can't even feel the hypodermic needle when it first hits you. This was the beginning of the end for uncle Jaco. As we made our way out of the house, his knees grew weak and he suddenly collapsed on the driveway. The drug had began taking effect.  'What-' he muttered, his throat closing up.  This was the first man that died in front of me. There are different doses of tranquilizers, you see. The ones that they use in zoos only make the animal sleepy. Amp up the quantity and your muscles stop contracting. You can no longer breathe in, your lungs become clogged, there is no longer any oxygen. Mercifully, consciousness fades away.  The last thing I remember is my father rushing to me and wrapping me up in a blanket.  'You are safe now,' he said. 'You are in a little safety burrito.' Then he laughed. But I could see tears of relief running down his face.  *    *   * We drive past the tiny, run-down houses. This is not a nice area anymore. It started slow, as it often does. A black family moves in, their white neighbors move out, that sort of thing.  Eventually, the northeast of the city turned into what it was today. There are entire streets with just abandoned buildings. It's eerie and silent, and unsafe. This is why we never come here.  'It will just be a minute,' Jana chirps in the front seat. I shrug.  It's hard to say no to Jana, even if I am technically her boss. Out of all my bodyguards, I like her best. You can't tell from her soft voice and bubbly personality, but Jana can kill you with her bare hands if she had to.  She had been dealing in the same streets we were crossing today. Unlike most dealers, though, Jana was smart enough to know who the boss is. She never got high on her own supply and mostly just used the money to feed her younger siblings. I think her mom was in and out of prison at that time, or maybe she was a little too into drugs. Or alcohol. Or gambling. Who knows, really, Jana never mentioned her. To her, we were her family.   My dad took her under his wing a couple of years ago. For a 19-year-old, she had been in her fair share of fights. Dad knows talent when he sees it. When he first met her, Jana was just a smart kid that rose up in the ranks. Say what you will about my father (and he has done horrible things, I am sure), but he knows potential when he sees it.  Instead of throwing her in the dealing game, he trained her to fight. It came naturally to Jana - at six foot tall and with the kind of childhood she had, you would expect as much. I'm not saying this just because she's my bodyguard but Jana is way up there, probably an Olympic-level boxer by now. She could compete if she wanted to, for sure. The thing is, once you work for my father, there is really no way out. Even if there was, I know she wouldn't take it.  'You're like my sister,' she would say. 'Your father has raised us both.' And yet, here we were. On the way back from a particularly long day in college, Jana picks me up and announces we are going to her old neighbourhood.  'It's just for a second, ' she smiled. 'You would be in the car and safe, I just have a thing to do. Please, do it as a favour.' Unlike my other guards, Jana was actually my friend. It wasn't more than a few weeks ago that I was crying on her shoulder over some boy. I couldn't say no.  So here we are now, in my cream-colored Tesla, cruising our way through a place that could be a continent away from my life.  'This is my house,' Jana winks as she slows down and finally stops. 'Ain't much, right?' 'This is where your... mom lives?' I feel uneasy asking that. 'Actually, not anymore,' she says. 'It's just my two sisters now. Jasper also moved out a few months ago, I think she went down South.' 'You don't know?' How come I have never asked her that? Jana knows virtually every detail about my life and yet she never talks about her own struggles. What little I know, I have figured out from subtle hints or from things other people have mentioned. I never asked, she never told.  'I learned not to ask, Melie,' Jana smiles.  In her eyes, there is an unfamiliar expression. She has been through a lot, a lot more than me. Sure, I never learned to trust people. But I have my father and he is strong, he can protect me. Jana never had anybody to protect her. Not a dad, not her mom, not her big brother Jasper. Jana couldn't even trust her own blood. Jana could only trust Jana.  'Stay in the car, Mel,' she says as she opens the door. 'I'll just be a minute, I'm sure my sister is overreacting.' 'Jan, you never told me why we're here?' 'I'll explain on the way back.' She tip-toes to the house, dancing her way down to the front door. It doesn't look scary, no matter what they say about this part of town. It's just her home.  I put on my earphones and let myself doze off. It has been a long day after all.  *    *   * Darkness. That is normal, stupid. You're napping in a dark car. Darkness. Is there something going on? We're driving. Is this Jana? Did she drive off without waking me up? Darkness.  I take out a deep breath, forcing myself to wake up. Something is wrong.  'Look who finally woke up,' it's a thick, female voice. Jana? Where is Jana?  I turn around to see a complete stranger behind the wheel.  And she is driving at full speed into the nothingness.