Can't Trust Summer

(17) Hosting Hostages

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Anna felt groggy when she woke up that morning. Her head was throbbing, and she felt like she was seeing two of everything. She had been dealing with so many things at once that it was just taking a toll on her. Preparing for the upcoming school year had been one of her main priorities, while also trying to stay under the radar from Void Knight and his crew. They hadn't been spotted in days and that left the Rangers on high alert. They wanted to be prepared for anything that might go down.

Anna's feet drug across the floor as she exited her room. She contemplated canceling her afternoon with Javi just to catch up on some of the stuff she had fallen behind on doing, but she also knew that once school started - she just would not see him that often. She scratched the top of her head as she flung the refrigerator door open and grabbed the first drink she saw, and started chugging it.

She felt like she was dragging as she moved about the kitchen to take her medicine and make some breakfast before getting ready for the day. She was already out of routine, which meant she was bound for a bad day, but she pushed on as she tried to give her medicine time to actually help.

After eating, and attempting to make herself at least look a little decent, she grabbed her phone and strutted out of the door. The warmth of the air gave her a little push to feel more awake as she started down the sidewalk. She was supposed to be meeting Javi at the treehouse. Their favorite spot - just so they could sit and talk like they usually did. Sometimes Anna would work on her writing, and Javi would work on his music, but most of the time... they would just talk. About life, each other, and everything in between.

Stopping to take three steps back, Anna laughed at herself. She hadn't realized that she had been counting the steps in sets of threes and when she landed on an even one, it made her feel uncomfortable - so she had to start all over just to land on an odd number.

She stopped just at the end of the sidewalk where it turned into grass that had been worn down almost to the dirt as it started to turn into the path that led into the woods. She had walked that path a hundred or more times, never stopping once or thinking twice about heading in that direction. It was pure muscle memory for her at this point, and sometimes she had to remind herself to go to the treehouse instead of straight to the park like she was used to doing.

Anna skipped through the dirt, humming along to a tune that suddenly popped into her head as she headed to the treehouse. She knew she'd be the first one there, Javi usually was always running later - but Anna didn't always mind that.

When she reached their spot, something about the air felt odd to her. She shrugged it off as she sat down at the bottom of the treehouse and waited for Javi. Every few seconds, she would hear the sound of something clicking or the sound of a twig snapping - but with the lack of sleep she had gotten lately, she brushed it off and hyper fixated on the leaves blowing in the wind.

She thought she could ignore the sounds but they sounded like they were getting closer to her, and it pulled her right out of the fixation.

"Javi?" she called out.

Nothing. Nothing but silence.

"Javi?" she called out again, "If you're trying to scare me this isn't funny nor a good place to do it."

Silence still floated around.

Anna pushed herself up from the ground and took a step out to look around her. There was nothing unusual. She crossed her arms, fully prepared to make Javi feel bad simply by pouting when he jumped out.

"Your little ranger friends aren't here to help you now!" They grabbed her by the arm from behind and pulled her closer to them. Anna spun around so quickly that she only had a few seconds to react before a bright light surrounded them.