Trapped (7 page)

H
ayden will
sense my distress and he
will
find me. I felt like I floated through the air as they carried me
. Where are they taking me? I closed my eyes and wished for this to be over. I opened my eyes
again and saw a number of spirits
around me. They w
ere young and strong.
I wouldn’t be able to escape
from
them
on my own
. I couldn’t even reach my
Kris
because my hands were bound
. I couldn’t think of how
else
to defend myself. I
certainly
didn’t expect
any help from my father if they turned on me. I closed
my eyes again. I
considered making eye contact with them, but I knew
the light
would only work with one of them
at a time
.
I decided to avoid
eye
contact with any of them
.
I didn’t want them to
know just how much they were hurting me.

When we
finally stopped
moving, they
put me down
on the ground.
I had no idea where we w
ere. I quickly glanced around, t
rying to see anything that
might give me a clue. It appeared to be a park. I believe I saw
benches and a playground in the dista
nce, but the darkness played tricks on me, shadows fluttered everywhere I looked
. S
omeone has
destroyed the park lamps
, which didn’t help
.

I
began to think that maybe I
thought
wrong. Maybe I wasn’t the
bait. Maybe Hayden and Carlos
d
idn’t have any
idea where to look for
me
. The t
hought of being alone with these ghosts
frightened me
.
They were holding my hands behind my back.
M
y father
wasn’t
anywhere
in the crowd. All these s
trange
faces
surrounded me
. I could feel
tears in my eyes but I fought to keep t
hem in.

The air continued to swirl
a
nd my head became dizzy with the motion
. I tried to focus on just one of them but they kept moving. My head fell back and I felt one of them gra
b i
t a
nd push me back up. Their
l
augh
ter shocked me
. They
were enjoying
their power over me. They liked the fact that th
ey could control
me.
Most
living
people would only
have been
able to feel a slight change in temperature or
goose bumps
on their ar
ms.
Sometimes an older ghost would be able to actually move a
living
person, but they wouldn’t b
e able to see or
feel
his presence.
Some spirits have become
frustrated
by not being acknowledged and will usually
start to throw objects and
open doors and windows, j
ust to create a bigger fright, b
ut with me t
hey knew they could hurt me. I c
oul
d feel their power
over me
. If there had been
only one or two
of them
I could have fou
ght back but there were
too
many. I felt consumed with
help
l
ess
ness
.

Again my head fell back. This time
no one lifted it back up. A
cir
cle
was
formed around my body
. I tried to get up but my legs were tied. How did they do that? I couldn’t hold the tears back now. I cried and begged them to let me go.
The circle parted and a
woman appeared in front of me.

“Natalie. I hoped
we would meet
. I have heard so mu
ch about you. My name is Stella and
I am going to keep you here with me for a
while,” she said smiling. S
uddenly my world went black. I could
n’t see anyone. The sounds started
to fade
around me
. I
fought to stay alert but it seemed futile.
I diminished
so
quickly
.
I could not fight
her power over me
any longer
.

I awok
e in the woods. Someone had carried me up to the middle of a tree and t
ied
me to a large branch. I wanted
to scream but
I
quickly
realized
it would be futile. Someone
wrapped
a scarf
tightly
around my mouth
I couldn’t make a sound because the
y tied the scarf
to
o
tight. I tried to shake my hands
out of the ropes but I couldn’t
. I cried
again, mostly out of frustration at the fact that I
had been
so easy for him to catch. How did this happen? I couldn’t hear any voices. I couldn’t sense anyo
ne close by. I couldn’t even feel the
air
swirl around me anymore
. Where are they? W
hat are they going t
o do with me? I
t’s
early
in the
morning now, the sun
started
t
o rise over the woods
as I lay there, trapped
.

Just as I felt
the desperation of my situation
begin to
set in I heard someone
screaming. It
sounded far off
in the distance
bu
t i
t
still
sent shivers through me when I realized the screams
were
not
coming
from a
living human
. One followed
by an
other.
There must be a confrontation
going on
. Hayden
and Carlos must be close. I tried to make myself
believe they were close. I listened for more
sounds
but a
ll I could hear
is
the
wretched screaming and breaking
of
branches.
The breeze began to pick up. The warm air swirled around me.
I could sense a spirit
getting
close
to me
.

“Who are you?”
I whispered.

“Don’t say a word,
”
the familiar voice
immediately
made me smile
.

“How did you find
me?
” I asked as soon as she
removed the scarf
from
around my
mouth
. She didn’t answer as she
went to work on my feet and hands. As so
on as the ropes fell from my limbs we
jumped down
,
out of the tree.

I ran as fast as I could in the opposite direction of the screaming. Beth stayed with me as I
ran.
I began
to speak to her
but
she quickly raised her hand and placed her finger on my lips. I continued to run until I saw th
e city lights ahead. I ran towards
t
he first
alley
I saw and then
slowed my pace. I didn’t want to attract any attention
from the living or the dead
. I had
no idea where in the city
we were. Beth walked
beside me
. I grabbed her hand as I scanned the streets.

“What is going on?”
I gasped.

“Your captives have
been ambushed. Your
brother
made a deal with your friends, the Seekers. They used you Natalie. They dangled you up there in that tree. You were un
conscious, thank God, but you w
ere just hanging there
, from your feet. The trees w
ere full of us. I
ca
n’t believe
how many ghosts
there
really are
in th
is
city.
I was
so afraid fo
r you
r life Natalie
.
Stella sent out
some kind of c
alling
we were all
capable of leaving
the school
grounds. I
flew
in the direction of the cal
l with the others when all of a sudden
a huge
breeze
swept
us up and
in
to the woods. That’s when I
saw you. I didn’t know how I could pos
sibly save you with all of the
spirits surrounding us
,” s
he
said as
squeezed my hand then released it.

“What deal did
my
brother and the Seekers make
Beth
? Are they still out there?” I stopped. I
wanted to go back if Hayden and Carlos were still out there. They
w
ould be looking for me. Hayden
need
s me.

“
From what I could gather,
Luke knew that you
were going to be taken by your father and his crew
as soon as you stepped out of your apartment last night. He
hear
d
about
it from some of the others. Luke
told Hayden
about
this
plan
when he captured
him
shortly
after you
r appearance outside became known to them,
” Beth paused as she waite
d for me to take this in.
I nodded, wanting her to continue quickly.

“Luke told Hayden
he would help him find you if he
promised to release
him. Hay
den knew
that
Car
los arrived
and
that
you would eventually seek him out
. So Hayden
went to him and told him the only way he could catch your fat
her i
s to have you
come out into the open, b
ut he needed help to protect you
. Hayden
hadn’t realized just
how many spirits follow
ed your father
.
H
e also didn
’t know
about
Stella
and that she
is the leader
. He didn’t know that
your father and all
of
his so called followers are under Stella’s control
.”

“Wait. How do you know all this?”
I asked skeptically
, for
Beth is
a ghost that has only ever haunted a school
.

“I hid
in the trees when another one of your Seeker friends arrived
, Clive I believe. Hayden told him everything
,
”
she smirked
.

“So
go back,
what happened after they dangled me fro
m the tree? Why did they do that
?”

“
Stella told
them
to
dangle
you there
,
to
attract the Seekers. She
wanted to know how many of you t
here w
ere
and if you protect each other or
not. Stella is ancient. She’s
been growing her
faction for years. She apparently doesn’t like it when the Seekers take
her favorites, which
Hayden h
as
done repeatedly
.
When she heard
his
only weakness was within he
r grasp
,
she acted swiftly,
she had to have you.”