Ella’s POV
It was a Saturday, a beautiful one at that. The weather was bright and the boys wanted to play. We were at Gabby’s house again but it was her idea to have them brought to her house. It felt like she had gotten attached to the boys as much as we had gotten attached to her daughter.
We were all sprawled out on a mat in her living room, watching the TV and munching popcorn. The show was interesting but I couldn’t enjoy it. I was on edge and I knew the others were too though they were trying to hide it better than I was. We hadn’t seen the man who was spying on Melody after that day that I had seen him at the supermarket but I wasn’t going to be fooled that he wasn’t around us. He was still watching though he had learnt to hide himself from us, I was sure of that.
Nothing had happened while Liam was busy taking the kids home back from school and it had been easy to get laid back but we wouldn’t do that. That was exactly what they were trying to do. It was easy to fool yourself into thinking everything was alright when you no longer see your enemies and that was exactly when the enemies attacked. I wasn’t going to fall for such a cheap trick.
Everyone knew to never let their guards down during a war or a crisis. That was the technique of defeating war 101.
I was glad that Gabby had asked us to come today as I was willing to spend all the free time I’ve got with her to protect Melody.
“Don’t you like the show?” Gabby said, frowning as she stared at me, leaning up and resting her head on her elbow as she turned to look at me.
“Me? I love it.” I lied. I hadn’t been watching the show at all. I had just being staring at the TV with eyes that do not see it. I was that far gone in my mind to remember that a screen was in front of me.
I didn’t know she was watching me or I would have tried to act more like I was watching the show. I sighed, reminding myself that it was Gabby. Of course, she would have been watching me. She loved being a host and making sure that her guests had the best time they could.
She snorted. “Don’t lie to me, Ella. You don’t like the show.” She stated this as a fact.
“Why do you think I don’t like it?”
“You haven’t laughed since we started watching the show.” She explained.
Oops. I didn’t even know the show was meant to be funny. “I don’t usually find everything funny.” I said.
She looked at me like I was weird and I wondered if I had said something wrong. “Everyone loves this show.”
“Well, I’m not everyone.” I said with a shrug.
She nodded. “I always knew you were different.” She picked up the remote from the ground. “This won’t do. Let’s change the channel.”
I reached out, placing my hand on hers to stop her. “Don’t. Let’s keep watching this since you love it. Maybe I would eventually find something to laugh about as we keep watching. You can’t convince me that it’s a good show if you change it.”
She stared at me for some seconds that felt too long for me and then nodded. She smiled as she dropped the remote. “You make a fair point. I promise you will love the show if you can concentrate.”
“I will.” I nodded.
It wouldn’t matter if she changed the channel because I wasn’t going to concentrate still. I wasn’t interested in watching TV while I was planning strategies on how to save her daughter ( my future daughter-in-law) from the unknown evil men who wanted to hurt her.
“Do you want more popcorn?” She asked, standing up from the mat.
“Yes, please.” I said, needing a distraction from my thoughts.
If I had something to munch on and keep me busy, I wouldn’t be engrossed in my thoughts that did nothing good for me at the moment asides making my head bang with how hard I was worrying.
I heard a loud crash and jumped to my feet, thinking Gabby had hurt herself in the kitchen. Liam and Kevin were already up as well. I was about to rush towards the kitchen when Gabby rushed out, looking worried. She hadn’t remembered to bring the bowl of popcorn along.
“Is there a problem? What was that?” She asked as she joined us in the living room.
“I was about to come and ask you that.” I replied.
She frowned and was about to say something when we heard the loud crash again and Melody’s loud cries.
Gabby jumped into action, running towards Melody’s room where the children were playing. Kevin, Liam and I glanced at one another before bursting into action and running after Gabby.
We got the biggest shock of the day when we got to Melody’s room. The kids were nowhere to be found in the room and Gabby was slumped on the ground, sitting down in dismay and looking distraught.
“Where are the kids?” I muttered to myself, scanning the room with my eyes but it was evident that they weren’t there.
“Is it possible for them to have disappeared?” Gabby asked as she turned to look at me, her eyes sunken and red with tears suddenly while her shoulders were slumped.
That was bullshit but I stopped myself from saying it out loud. Gabby was already in a broken state and I didn’t want to send her spiraling down the edge further. Moreover, my kids were also missing and one of us had to be strong as a mother and assess the situation. It was obvious that wasn’t going to be Gabby.
“Is there a way the kids could have gotten out without our knowledge?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. There is a door that leads outside from the kitchen but I already locked it from the back so Melody wouldn’t slip outside through the door. To get out of the house, Melody would have to get out to open it and there was no way she could have done that that we wouldn’t see her in the living room walking past us.”
“Let’s check the kitchen door.” I said to her, pulling her off the floor.
“I locked it from the back.” She argued but she got up.
We moved to the kitchen and the boys burst in from outside through the door that was meant to be locked.
Gabby gasped as she saw them. “How did you get out through here?”
“The door was unlocked.” Nathan said. “Melody said she had something to show us outside and asked us to follow her that there was a way through the kitchen if you hadn’t locked it. We got outside and couldn’t find Melody when we did.”
Neo sighed. “One minute, she was in front of us and the next, we couldn’t see her.”
“I locked the door.” Gabby cried, finding it hard to believe what was happening.
I believed her and also believed the boys. Gabby had locked the door but someone else had opened it so the kids could slip through.
I had a theory. Someone had stayed behind Melody’s bedroom window, watching her secretly and listening to all the conversations that the kids were having. The moment Melody had hinted about going out and finding something in the kitchen but was worried the door might still be locked from outside, the person had rushed to the door to open it.
My worry now was finding out where Melody was. From her screams, she shouldn’t be far off from here.
We heard her scream again and we all rushed outside. I saw a broken lock lying by the door of the kitchen and sighed, making a note to show Gabby later. That was definitely the evidence we needed to prove that someone had purposefully broken the lock of the door to let the kids out. If Gabby hadn’t remembered to lock the door from the back, the lock wouldn’t be lying broken on the ground.
“Isn’t that the lock?” Liam asked, pointing at it as he looked at Kevin.
Kevin sighed as he looked at us. “Are you all thinking what I’m thinking?”
I nodded. The bastards had finally made their moves. This was the first attack on Melody.
Melody screamed again, her voice breaking through the air. I was sure by now everyone would have found out something was wrong in this part of the neighborhood.
I hoped they wouldn’t come rushing towards Gabby’s house though I knew that was highly unlikely the neighbors wouldn’t come here if they thought Gabby needed their help.
I sighed, hoping that no one was around. The less the people here, the easier it would be to handle the situation. The people were no match for the men we were dealing with and they would only be a bother.
“Melody!” Gabby cried, running forward and looking around for traces of her daughter. She was heaving heavily and I felt pity for her.
“Watch over the boys.” I said to Liam.
“Yes,” he nodded and pulled the boys towards himself.
“Stay with Uncle Liam.” I told them as I ran towards Gabby.
I could sense Melody was around here but I couldn’t tell where she was. I checked around the house, searching the verandah, the whole balcony and the garage the kids had been going to get something with Melody but didn’t see her.
“Can you also sense her?” Kevin asked me in a whisper.
I nodded without a word. I was about to go for another search around the house when I heard Gabby gasp loudly. I turned and gasped as well.
There she was. I couldn’t believe the sight. Melody walked out of the garage I had combed thoroughly, looking drained and covered in scratches.
“Melody.” Gabby ran towards her but Melody went down before her mother could reach her, going unconscious.
I watched and ran after Gabby as she cried, scooping her daughter off the ground and ran to the nearest hospital.
I let out a breath as I stared at the garage, hating that Melody had been in there and I couldn’t see her.
One thing was certain. Melody’s enemies were dark witches or wizards or a combination of both. They were the only ones who could make invisibility spell.
I was certain that the bastard has smirked at me in amusement as I searched the garage for her, knowing she was right next to me and I couldn’t see her.
I imagined how scared the girl must have been seeing me walk out of the garage without seeing her and felt rage boil in my insides.
At that moment, I would love nothing more than to tear off the bastard with my teeth and claws, limb by limb.