Trapped

"Introducing my mom"

The next few days were pretty uneventful and boring. Everyone had to work, so we didn't have time to study or train, and I was mostly alone and didn't have much else to do besides play on my phone and hang out in my room. Thankfully, I found a few addicting games to obsess over during that time. '5pm' my phone read as I looked up at the time. "Danny, Tara, and Zane should be getting home any minute now," I thought to myself as I jumped out of bed and put my phone in my pocket. I always loved it when they would get back home, I love being around them all in general. It's a bit strange in a way, going from being trapped with Michael to kidnapped to loving the people who kidnapped me. Feeling a sense of peace where most people wouldn't have. Then again, I'm so used to chaos that maybe that is where my greatest peace is found, in its own way. This house is filled with people with different personalities, who all join together for their job to fight or kill or capture monsters and creatures that most of the world doesn't know exists, while pretending to be completely normal to the outside world, and are hiding a girl they kidnapped from the people who some how have control over both the world of monsters and the normal world so that she isn't killed for knowing a secret that was found out on accident, and let's not even begin to get into the two brothers who unwillingly keep that secret and have made their dislike for her very known and clear. To somehow find peace in this reality, it is strange, to say the least. Considering where I came from, though, maybe it isn't as odd as I feel it is. The one thing that may possibly lead to my death in the end, anyway, is also the one thing that has saved me, for now anyway. It may only be temporary, but I will take it.

I make my way down stairs and see all three of them walking into the kitchen having a conversation just as I reach the bottom of the stairs. "The Queen has granted us with her presence!" Danny said dramatically as he raised his hands and pretended to bow a few times over. I laughed and playfully shoved him, which caused him to break character and start chuckling as well. Tara walks up to me, giggling, and gives me a big hug. "I missed you," She said as she dragged out the words. "I missed you too," I replied in the same tone. She pulled away and sat her keys down on the counter. "Do you guys have anything planned tonight?" I asked curiously, hoping we could all hang out. "Why, do you want to watch a movie together?" Zane finally joined in with a laugh. I gave him a joking glare for being able to read my mind so easily once again, and not wanting to give him the satisfaction of admitting his guess was dead on, I unconvincingly dragged out saying the word, "maybe", as a smirk etched it's way onto my lips. "Yes, we can watch a movie." He willingly gave in. "Yes!" I exclaimed excitedly. I looked over to Danny and Tara awaiting their replies to see if they could join. "Sorry Alethia, we have to drive an hour away tonight to go see our parents. We will watch a movie together this weekend though, okay?" Tara explained. I let my expression fall into a fake pout at her answer. "Okay," I said, defeated. "Oh, you big baby." Danny joked as her rustled my hair with his hand, causing my smile to come back. "We gotta go pack some stuff, but we will definitely watch a movie together this weekend." Danny confirmed Tara's plans. We had all gotten in the habit of watching movies when they would get home from work, and I found it very enjoyable to laugh or cry and just feel different emotions all together as a group as we watched different movies together. It became something we all quickly bonded over before any of us knew it. Tara and Danny waved to me as they made their way up stairs. "I guess it's just us tonight then." Zane commented plainly as he walked closer to me. His movement sent the heavenly scent of his cologne straight in my direction, and I instantly felt my heart begin to speed up. "Yeah, just us, I guess." I said nervously as I forced a laugh, trying to pretend my heart wasn't attempting to break out of my chest. He tilted his head to the side in a quick nod to tell me to come sit down with him. I did as he wanted and made my way to the couch first, finding my usual spot on the right near an end table. The couch was plenty big for all of us since it was a large sectional, and it even left us all with plenty of space, which was nice. Zane walked around right behind me as I sat down, and he chose to sit directly next to me. As he sat down, the couch pulled me into him some, causing our thighs to connect for a moment before I quickly readjusted my position. The contact caused my heart to skip a beat suddenly and sink straight into my stomach. It's strange because when we're all together as a group, I don't feel so nervous around him, but when we're alone, my body seems to react without my minds consent. I was also beginning to notice that Zane seemed to find any reason he could to touch me or get close to me or just any contact he could find a way to have with me more often. Even more so when we're alone. It makes me anxious but I find myself looking forward to those quick moments where our skin connects, like when he pretends to accidentally brush his hand again mine every chance he gets, or those moments when he finds any reason to get close to me and I can smell his attractive scent. I don't quite understand why he does those things though, maybe he enjoys seeing me get flustered or is just toying with me, I don't know, but theres something about it that I enjoy as well so I can't complain much. "Oh, the remote." Zane commented as he once again took his opportunity to get closer to me and cause us to touch again by reaching over me to the end table with his left arm and keeping his right arm on the back of the couch just behind me. I held my breath as his body was just inches from me. Not including our thighs, of course, which were touching again from the weight of his leg, pulling the couch down and causing my leg to lean into it. It was only a quick moment just like every other time, but it was hard to keep my breath steady as that strange feeling in my stomach causes the feeling of flipping to happen when he did things like that to me. He picked a comedy, and we stayed next to each other, laughing and pointing out funny little things the other one didn't get or didn't notice and made jokes of our own. Zane loved to joke constantly or act silly. Him and Danny were both quick to make jokes and play out characters and do anything and everything they could to keep everyone laughing. At one point in the movie the main character was talking to a friend and said, "introducing my mom", after the mom did something embarrassing, and Zane looked deep in thought for a few minutes. "Hey, you said before that you haven't spoken to your mom in a couple of years, right?" He asked in a whisper, trying not to fully interrupt the movie. I nodded. "Yeah, Michael made me cut my family out completely." I replied, trying not to think too deeply about it. "Do you still know her number or anything?" He continued on. "Yes, I've had her number memorized by heart since I was thirteen. Assuming she hasn't changed it since we last spoke anyway." I answered, unsure of where he was going with this conversation. "Well, you have a phone now. You could always try to call her." He said nonchalantly. I looked at him, confused for a moment. "What do you mean? Aren't you worried about me giving away the secret and everything?" I asked. "If we were still worried about that, then we wouldn't have given you a phone." He started to explain," but I was thinking, if your mom hasn't been in contact with you for a couple years then there shouldn't be any questions like, where have you been recently or anything, so as long as I can trust you to keep everything a secret, then I don't see why you couldn't call your mom to talk to her. You know, maybe tell her that you moved in with friends and aren't with Michael anymore if the question comes up. For your sake, though, just as much as ours, can I trust you to keep everything here a secret?." He questioned. I was in shock over the conversation and excited at the thought of talking to my mom again. Calling her hadn't even crossed my mind until now, honestly, since it's been so long since we last spoke. "Of course you can, Zane." I said with a reassuring smile. "Then feel free to try calling her some time, I won't try to stop you." He finished with a smile as we both turned our full attention back to the movie. Thoughts raced through my mind about what I would tell her when I call her and just how excited and happy I felt that I would get to talk to her again after all this time of Michael not allowing it. Nearing the end of the movie, Ty got home and headed straight to the kitchen to start cooking since it was his turn to cook and blayke's turn to clean up. It was nice having them both there to finish out watching the movie with us, even though they had no idea what was going on since they weren't here to follow along with the storyline. After the movie ended, I told Zane that I wanted to go change into some pajamas since it was now 7 pm and we were all going to have a late dinner. So I headed to my room and found a comfortable t-shirt and some soft pajama shorts. Spring had shown us another beautiful day, so it was warm enough to start wearing shorts to sleep half the time now. I went to grab my phone and was about to walk back out, but just before I did, Zanes words from earlier entered my mind. "Dinner won't be ready for a while, so I have time to call her." I thought to myself. I felt my nerves starting hit my stomach with anxiety as I walked over to lean on my window sill. There was just enough space for me to sit without sliding off the edge as long as I kept my legs extended with my feet on the ground. I had hoped that being able to see the moon and stars would help calm my nerves some, but currently, it didn't seem to help at all. Pulling my phone up, I slowly force myself to dial the number. With a deep inhale and exhale, I pressed call and held the phone to my ear. I had no idea what I was going to say to her, but I planned on first explaining to her how awful Michael was and how that's why I had to cut contact. She wasn't aware of his abuse, and I never gave her a reason why I suddenly stopped talking to her. "Hello?" The voice on the other end asked skeptically. It was her voice, clear as day. "Mom, it's me, Alethia, your daughter." I said hopeful. There was a painfully heavy silence on the other end of the phone for a long second before she spoke again. What she said next, without warning, made my heart shatter into a million tiny pieces, and it all began with her ever so coldly replying with, "I don't have a daughter."