The Revenge

Chapter 11

"Morning dad!" I greeted him with my eyes still half sleepy allowing only a blurred vision of the surroundings. I rubbed them as I walked off bed and out the room. Dad was standing right in front of me with is arms folded. Couldn't see his expression because my eyelids cut the view but I knew he was pissed off. And I knew why. It was late. But I wasn't feeling well. I told him how I saw the tensed boy last day and learned that it his dad who got injured that day and how he was hooked to machines yesterday. Oh, how painful it would have been! I told him how I felt a wrong and scary thought of something like that happening to- "Stop Evelyn. Stop. You don't need to think so much. You can't control everything anyway." He said cupping my cheeks with his both hands. I could feel him looking into my eyes, to tell me to live in the present instead of worrying so much of the future of which we're not sure of existence even.

I felt a hard pang of pain in my heart as it if were sieved of numerous needles trying to pierce in until I don't let all my tears out. Tears flooded the banks of my eyes as I tried to stop them from falling. "I miss mom." I said as dad pulled me into a hug. I lost it. The dam I tried to build broke. I couldn't help but weep.

"Don't cry Evy." "I am sure mom is in a good condition. We'll get her back safe and sound in no time." "Go freshen yourself up and you'll feel better."

I let go of the hug as he said that and started walking away wiping the wet lines on my face. A feeling of wanting mom back as soon as possible took hold of me. I stopped mid-way and told dad, "I want to help too. Please. I want to help get mom back." Dad's lips parted. A moment of silence. "Okay. We'll take it over. Get ready first. Its already too late to go to school now. We'll talk once you feel better." I sighed and agreed. My sorrow made me lazier than ever. I didn't literally want to brush my teeth because I felt too lazy to raise my hand – hold the heavy brush and rinse my mouth. I didn't want to do anything. But I had to sadly. It felt like I was laboring myself to do it.

After almost one and a half hours of the fight against will, I was ready to start my day although it was eleven. Dad mocked me saying, "Woah! I'm sure you feel like you are going to start your day even though it's eleven." I laughed as I realized that was true. I did feel better after the routine but was in no mood to study. That made me remember that I forgot to text Sally about my absence. Oh shit! I quickly ran to my room and plunged over the bed for my phone and opened Sally's number. As expected, I had eight unread messages from her. 'You could've saved yourself dear. Had you messaged her the moment you woke up' said a voice inside me as my thumb feared to touch them open. My index finger did the job and the screen flashed with sentences written in uppercase. She uses that to speak in a superior way with an emotion of anger.

"EVELYNNN!"

"CANT YOU EVER TELL ME BEFOREHAND YOU'RE NOT COMINGGGGG?!!!?!"

"YOU ALWAYS DO THISS (angry face emoji) (crying face emoji)"

And much more of her feelings I didn't want to read so I just proceeded to reply. 'So sryyyyyyy Sally. I woke up by the time classes alrdy started. I was very much overwhelmed by the happenings lately and not in a mood to go.... (saddened emoji) I promise I'll make it up with an ice-cream for you (ice-cream emoji) (red heart emoji)' And turned the phone off.

Dad called for breakfast. It was omelet to eat with mayonnaise sprinkled with coriander. What a treat to start the morning with! I ate to my fill and satisfied I wanted to go sleep again. I got up slowly and walked towards sink to keep my plate. It is a self-washer since we haven't kept a maid. Not knowing what to do next, I was walking towards my room when dad said to company him as he kept his and set the machine to wash them.

We descended to his office and took a right turn in the end of the corridor instead of the usual left. I was about to ask but then saw, 'LABORATORY' labelled on the room we intended to enter. I was awe-struck at the interior. ?! It was as big as an auditorium equipped with all the modern-day equipments. My jaw dropped on seeing the amount of space it covered. Scientists bustled the place as if we were on the set of a sci-fiction. As we walked past various aisles slabbed with marble shining as the bright lights reflected its surface, we stopped by a table coated with polished white sun mica. I could see the reflection of my face on it. I could not hear what dad and the other scientists were talking. My small brain was busy absorbing the enormity of the place and censored every noise or vision that hindered in the process. I could feel the smoothness of the table as if it had blocked all its pores using several beauty products as I stroked my hand on its surface.

The only thing that pulled me out of it was when dad pushed my jaw close. Wait, I was open-mouthed all this time? "Dad! Why didn't I know such a place existed yet?! Why had you hidden it all this time?"

"Everything has it's time dear."

I looked at him with a shocked-disappointed open-mouthed expression with my hands fisted on my waist. "What holy day is it today?"

He laughed, "Come Evy, I will show you something." He pulled several photos of fingerprints and separated two leaving the rest together. One by one, he took each scan from the bunch and compared with the ones separated captioning "see" every time. I noticed that the isolated pics were same and never matched a scan when compared until, one did. But that one was scanned very poorly, only parts of one's thumb were recorded. I exclaimed my observation and dad agreed. When I enquired about its poor quality and who it belonged to, my ears couldn't believe what they transferred and my brain couldn't believe what it interpreted. My mouth was too flooded by questions that all it could let slip was a, "What?!" "B-But how's that even possible?" "Was that why he was beaten?"

"Well, we don't know." he said as I took my phone and looked for the article. What! Where did it go? 'man beaten by men' 'man beaten by men on twenty-first' 'severely injured man admitted to Dorinks' Nothing I put in the address bar brought that article. "It's gone!" I said looking at dad. Worry arced my brows. No matter how much I scrolled, it was nowhere to be found. I quickly called Sally and told her. She too searched and found it missing. "Is that boy with your mom right now?" "No, he just left." That's when I heard police sirens. I rushed to the periscope and saw the vehicles going towards the street Sally lived. "Do you hear them near your house too?" Wait. They're retreating? I thought as I saw them halt and then proceed to take a U-turn.

"Evelyn, what happened?" Dad enquired from behind and next he got a phone call. I could only stare at him as he got busy before I could answer his question. "Sally, could you-" I stopped short as I heard dad end his phone. "I'll call you soon." I said before cutting.

Dad picked his bag and told me that he was called to the city's police-station. I asked if I could accompany but got denied as usual. I accepted on the condition that he'd tell me everything on returning. I had a strong feeling that they collected the boy as he left their house and returned to the station. I wonder why they took him.