Chapter one: A mother's worst nightmare
1341 Words
“Aaa!”
Kyley’s heart tolled in doom at the sudden high-pitched cry that followed the sound of glass shattering just now. Like a banshee’s cry following a thunder strike, she was left stunned in dread for a moment, feeling as though her worst nightmare was coming to reality.
Almost instinctively, the realization that someone or something had broken into the cabin struck her.
And from the way things seemed, there appeared to be grave danger!
‘ That scream just now, it can’t be~’
Alarmed, Kyley jumped abruptly and dashed thoughtlessly towards Skye’s room, neither minding the fact that she had knocked over the center table while dashing out. Nor did she care about the way she pushed at the door on her way out.
Her heart slammed against her chest, racing just as much as she ran, if not faster.
Her pallor-swept face was an exemplary map of sheer fright, worry, unease, desperation, and distraught. Her expression, terror-stricken: sunken.
Kyley didn’t even mind that Darren, who had reacted even faster than her, was already in front of the door to the other room, as even that wasn’t enough to put her at ease.
The only thing that rang in her mind was, ‘my baby!’
She just had to know for certain that her daughter is safe!
“Skye!?” Having taken charge towards this place immediately he’d heard the loud crash, Darren called out loud in panic as he flung the door to Skye’s room open. However, once he got to see what was happening, his eyes instantly widened and shook in shock at the scene before him.
Inside the unlit rustic-styled room, where Kyley had first stayed in when she’d first met Darren, were three figures clad in dark hoods; one of them had a smaller figure slumped over his shoulder while the other two stood right behind him. Glass shards scattered across the floor near the window where the three figures stood startled at Darren’s sudden appearance in the room.
Darren didn’t mind these figures at first, even though they were obvious intruders. Despite knowing just quite well that she wouldn’t be there, Darren still shot a quick glance over at the cradle in which Skye was supposed to be in.
He just had to make sure first.
This was something that occurred to him out of instinct- which he did within a split-second of doubt, or rather, in hope that the figure slumped over one of these intruders’ shoulder wasn’t his daughter.
But just as hopes were meant to be crushed and defeated, the cradle was empty!
…Realizing they couldn’t afford to dawdle around any longer as they’d been found out, the intruders snapped out of their daze and nimbly leapt out through the broken windowpane right after one another with the swiftness of a seasoned thief.
Seeing this, Darren instinctively sprang into action, hurrying in their pursuit as he leapt after them through the window.
“You bastards!”, he cursed out loud with gritted teeth in anguish while he jumped down the window. His roaring voice echoed through the wilderness, holding so much rage that several birds and rodents were spooked from their nests and hiding holes.
While Darren chased the intruders, Kyley finally arrived at the scene. Her legs buckled and she stumbled backwards once she laid sight on the cradle where she had just put Skye to bed in a few hours ago.
Kyley could still see herself gently placing her little baby in there, but now, she was nowhere to be found!
Plap!
‘ No!... No!’ Kyley fell on her knees, feeling her legs weaken. She clamped a hand over her mouth in disbelief, as if to hold back the wail that suddenly rose and got stuck in her throat. Her ribs tightened against her chest and her heart squeezed in plight, so much that she couldn’t help but reach to clench at it. Terror washed over her whole being as she just stared ahead thoughtlessly with her welling eyes threatening to break into tears.
Her child was gone!
Kyley’s lips quivered at this thought, feeling as though her whole world was crumbling.
‘ No!’ she suddenly sprang up and ran madly towards outside, stumbling down the stairs while almost tripping and falling.
‘ I have to find her! I have to~’ Without a single thought as to what she was doing, Kyley ran outside to follow behind Darren in the pursuit of those intruders who had abducted Skye.
Call it a mother’s instinct or whatever, she needed to find her daughter very fast!
Kyley didn’t know what came over her as she was just acting on a whim. But one thing she knew was, she wouldn’t let those bastards get away with her daughter!
Getting outside, Kyley looked around frantically, in search of Darren. She wiped the tears on her face and focused on finding Skye first.
She had no idea where her mate had gone in pursuit of those intruders. However, it only took her a short moment to figure that out.
With a few sniff of the air, Kyley caught trail of Darren’s scent and she instantly darted in the trail of it.
Of course she could sense Darren’s scent anywhere so long as it still lingered in the air. After all, they’d been mates for three whole years now. Hence this led her as she ran into the woods after Darren and the intruders.
The night was a bit cold, yet humid. Mother Nature herself seemed gloomy, perhaps pitiful of Kyley’s current dilemma.
The silvery half-moon hid behind wispy clouds, offering a faint haze that shaded the wilderness as a fatal terrain, hidden behind tall trees.
Despite knowing this, however, Kyley didn’t stop. She shot into the woods, chasing behind Darren and the intruders.
After a while of running through the woods covered in slight hail at this time of the night, Kyley found Darren standing in the middle of a small clearing, towering over what remained of whom Kyley could make out to be one of the intruders from his dark hooded get-up that was now a bloody mess.
Seeing this, Kyley felt slightly relieved.
“Darren!” she called out as she ran into the clearing towards him.
Sensing her presence, Darren turned around slowly; his face was stern, yet downhearted and full of rage. His fists were tightly clenched beside him, dripping blood and chunks of flesh.
However, Kyley frowned seeing that contrary to her expectation, Darren didn’t have Skye with him. She thought that he’d managed to save Skye from the hands of the intruders, and as such, the reason why he stood in the middle of the clearing and had stopped chasing after the others.
Confused, and feeling a sense of dread slowly rousing in her heart, Kyley opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but Darren beat her to it.
“ They took Skye away, Kyley…” his voice was shaky, grim and defeated as he spoke, and his expression conveyed no less anger, frustration, and let-down at himself. He couldn’t even look Kyley in the eye knowing damn well this was all due to his incompetence. It was all because of him that Skye was kidnapped and was currently in danger.
Everything was his fault.
Kyley, who had been slightly relieved after seeing Darren, couldn’t help but be left in a state of shock and disbelief at his words. She instantly expressed distress, looking at Darren with disbelief evident in her eyes. However, the latter’s expression didn’t manage to convince her otherwise.
“ No! no! no! it can’t be!” Kyley whimpered weakly, looking around as if to deny everything in existence at the moment. She just couldn’t accept any of this to be true!
She wished that this was all a dream right now. And that she’d wake up next to Darren in the morning with Skye in the next room.
That none of this ever happened…
Kyley refused to believe that Skye had been abducted!
- Writer
