The Living Game

(18) Kidnapped

After what seemed like ages, Alek and I remembered Jace and got up from the forest floor. I was feeling a bit awkward after what had happened but Alek was still smiling and being nice to me. When we stood up, he kissed me again, hesitantly.

It was almost like he was asking permission to kiss me before he did. And then he kissed me sweetly, gently and I immediately wanted more. He pulled away too soon and we started in the direction of my house.

It was really easy to like him when he was being nice. It almost made it hard to imagine why I hadn't liked him in the first place. As we ran through the forest, he subtly moved closer, taking my hand. It was almost knee-jerking to pull away from him but I stopped myself, letting a smile show.

When we got back to my house, we were still holding hands. I thought about pulling my hand away so that Jace wouldn't see but then decided that he could handle it. As soon as we got to the house, we could tell something was wrong.

Alek rushed inside, pulling me along behind him. Kiera and Theo were sitting at the kitchen table. Theo looked like he was in shock and Kiera was crying. I looked around for Jace but didn't see him. He must have been upstairs.

"Kiera, what's the matter?" I walked over, putting my hand on her back. I looked from her to Theo.

Alek stood very still, his face a mask.

"I'm so sorry Genesis. I don't know how it happened." She started crying to hard to talk and I let her compose herself.

How what happened? I looked over at Alek, as if he could explain what was going on but he and Theo were staring intently at each other.

"I was watching Jace and Theo came over and we were just talking in the kitchen." She sobbed. "One minute he was playing with his toys and the next minute he was gone. Just gone."

"Gone?" My voice was hard and flat.

I took off running, upstairs. Alek was on my heels, trying to calm me down.

His room was empty and dark. I looked in his closet and under his bed. No sign of him. I looked in my room, in the bathroom, in the spare bedroom. He wasn't anywhere. I looked in the living room, checked the basement. He wasn't there. I started upstairs again but Alek grabbed hold of.

"Let go of me Alek! I have to find him!" I screamed, trying to shove him away from me.

I heard Kiera start to sob again from the kitchen and this annoyed me for some reason. My baby was lost and she was just sitting in the kitchen crying like a child. 

Alek slapped me. He actually pulled back his hand and slapped me across the face. As soon as he'd done it, I went still, stopped fighting him. I felt the panic that had bubbled in my chest recede some so that I could think straight again. "Thanks for that." I muttered.

Alek lead me back out to the kitchen, where he started asking Kiera and Theo questions. Had they heard anything? Seen anything? There wasn't a note, the door hadn't been opened? No windows opened?

They said they hadn't heard or seen anything.

Alek took a deep breath. "Come on." He said, grabbing Theo and Kiera and I and leading us out the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked. 

He looked down at me. "To my house."

~

Eliza and Jamie were waiting for us in the kitchen when we got there. Alek explained what was going on and they nodded. Eliza ordered Jamie to call the police and report a missing child and then she sat down and started to write down places we thought he might have gone.