Vitus and Leila

Chapter five: A walk down by the river Thames

"Leila wake up, sweety" Leila stirred as she heard Mary's soft voice calling to her, Mary patted her face softly "You need to drink darling" Martin said caringly. Leila opened her eyes slowly, she was layed on a sofa bench in the coffee shop, her head was in Mary's arms, Martin was stood next to her holding a glass of water. Julie was stood behind them. Mary helped Leila sit up and gave her the glass of water. Leila sipped the cold refreshing liquid and smiled weakly, "thanks guys. She croaked. "Are you hungry?" Julie asked, Leila nodded. Martin and Julie walked off behind the counter and brought her back some freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Leila's favourite. She licked her lips and took a small bite savouring the taste. After she had eaten and had enough the water, Mary, Julie and Martin sat down next to her. "What happened?" Mary asked carefully. "We were surprised when you didn't turn up to work today and now you get here, faint and look dreadful..and is that BLOOD in your hair?" Julie babbled. "Calm down, Julie, one question after the other, the poor girl has just woken up." Mary said soothingly.

Leila smiled. Then she explained everything that had happened in the last twenty four hours. Mary, Julie and Martin listened to her in absolute shock. When Leila was finished explaining, she took another sip of water, "I'm sorry I didn't come in to work today, I didn't even know it was Tuesday, I can come in tomorrow if you like, but I would like to go home now" she said to them quietly. Julie and Mary nodded understandingly. Martin shook his head: "No." He said firmly. "What do you mean, Martin, I send I'm sorry please don't fire me!" Leila cried, tears running down over her cheeks. "Fire you? No, of course not. I meant, no, you're not coming back in tomorrow, you are staying at home this week, whether you like it or not! Have some time to relax, take a walk, order your favourite food. It's up to you what you do, but please don't come back to work until next Tuesday." Leila nodded, she knew that Martin was right, the last few days had been hard on her, she needed to rest and forget about work for a while. "Ok good, I'll just lock up and then we'll walk you home" Martin insisted. "No, no you don't have to do that, I'm fine, it's only a short walk!" Leila argued softly. "We're all taking you home all together, that's what families are for!" Said pete who came out of the kitchen, followed by Johnny and Dimitri.

After all six of them had taken her home, Leila had plugged her phone into the charger, washed the blood out of her hair in the shower, folded down her bed from the wall and gone to sleep. The next morning she didn't wake up until eleven. Leila looked around frantically, "s**t, uni! I'd better call the secretary!" She said out loud and jumped up out of bed. She grabbed her phone and turned it on. She had 24 missed calls from Mary, Martin and Julie. They had told her they had tried to ring her yesterday, but they had not told her to what extent. Leila opened her messages next, there were 16 of them! Most of them were from her three baker brothers, as she liked to call, Johnny, Dimitri and Pete. She opened the newest message, it was from Mary, it read:

'Hi sweetheart, just so you know: there is no need for you to worry about Uni today, I rang them up and told them that you're ill this week. They said you could pick up the course week that you miss, next week.

Take care of yourself, if you need anything please don't hesitate to ask. See you soon, my dear, love Mary.'

Leila smiled and let herself fall back on to her bed carefully protecting her painfull head. They really had taken care of everything and although Leila really loved uni and work, she had to admit that she was happy to have a few days off to collect herself.

A couple of days later Leila felt alot better, her head wasn't hurting at all anymore and she had caught up on sleep, she decided to go out for a walk. It was a beautiful autumn day, the sun shone brightly in the blue sky and the leaves covered the ground with beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red, gold and green. Leila loved autumn, she liked to see the vibrant colours all around and she enjoyed the sense of peace autumn brought with it. She strolled down through the park and watched the swans swimming peacefully in the river Thames. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice "..The captain said the cargo will be here in 2 weeks.." Leila turned around to see where the voice was coming from, her eyes settled on two men who were standing with their backs towards her. Leila waited and watched, the men were talking quieter now, Leila could hardly hear a thing, then just when Leila believed her mind had been playing tricks on her, one of the men turned around to face her. Leila recognised him straight away it was 'Bert' with the rotting teeth from when she was kidnapped! He stared at her, she stared at him. She wanted to run but she couldn't, her feet werem't moving, as if they were glued to the ground.

The other man was a lot larger than Bert and when he looked of Bert's shoulder, he saw Leila staring at them. Laila awoke from her daze, turned around and started running home. "Oi stop!" A deep voice shouted. Leila's tummy flipped, but she kept on running as fast as she could. Within seconds the tall man had caught up with her. He grabbed her arm. "Get off me" she screamed, "I will NOT be kidnapped again!" She shouted and started kicking the large man. The man held her in a tight embrace "What are you talking about?" He asked, "I didn't kidnap you! I have never kidnapped any woman!" Leila wasn't listening she screamed and pushed and kicked. The large man had had enough, in one swift movement he slung the small woman over his shoulder and walked away with her to the next bench "put me down!" Leila screamed and punched the man's muscular back, then she bit into his shoulder. The man chuckled and lowered his voice "If you stop screaming and kicking I'll let you sit on the bench next to me, if you don't I will have to take you somewhere more private." He threatened seriously. Leila stopped and let herself be sat on the bench.

She looked up and couldn't believe her eyes: there in front of her was the massive man from the coffee shop! Leila swallowed and looked down at her hands, her face reddening second by second. "Now tell me, why were you kicking and punching me? Why did you think I was going to kidnap you?" He asked Leila inquisitively. Leila shrugged, she really didn't want to talk to this man, he scared her and all she wanted to do, by now, was go home. "Ok, if you don't want to talk about it that's fine, but I do need to know what you heard back there" the man prodded.

Leila looked up, her breath hitched, she was looking into the iciest blue eyes she had ever seen.