The Migrated Hope

Chapter 1

The last thing April remembered before she had landed in that room, was her walking towards home after school. She had just come out of the school gate when she heard tires screeching behind her. Before she realized anything, everything had gotten dark. And blank. She tried remembering further more- the image of the van, the faces of people who had held her hands so tight that she had gotten bruises, their celebratory conversations in the van, but she couldn't. Her head was hurting. She looked around the room, to see if she could recognize the place. But she couldn't. She examined herself- to see if she is handcuffed or if a bomb is attached to her stomach, or if her legs had been tied. When neither of those were found, she let out a brief breath of sigh. Her 16th birthday was around the week and she thought probably it is one among the surprises that her best friend Lily had planned. If it was not Lily, she was certain that it could be the doing of her siblings Stacy and Rick who always found joy in scaring her to death. But another part of her mind said that neither her siblings nor her best friend was involved. She didn't know what to do. She stood up, realized that the room was a really big one. It wasn't the kind of room their entire family could afford, let alone her siblings. 

The room was fully furnished with premium furniture made in Germany. The flooring was of teak wood. A flower vase made out of glass was placed on the table near the television, some beautiful urns placed on separate stands on either side of the door, a few wine glasses placed on the dining table. Beside the glasses was a big bowl full of fresh fruits. In the refrigerator, there were beverages and also some food. The room was luminous and filled with fragrance of sandalwood . If she were truly kidnapped, why would all these facilities be? For once, she thought she had had a wrong perception of kidnap all the while. She went near the door, as she felt the smooth, artistic urns and tried opening the door. It was locked. She banged the door a number of times. Her own voice seemed to echo. She started to get a little furious. She also realized that there was not a single window in the room, so she couldn't see anything outside which could help in locating herself. She rushed to the table opposite to the T.V, hoping to see a mobile phone so that she could call her parents, or maybe her best friend, or maybe her sister, or even the police. There was no mobile phone. Just a few thick diaries and a number of sheets which had writings in a language she wouldn't understand were on the table. 

Now, it had started to make sense. When you have everything you need to survive at the moment but do not know about where you are, when you have access to everything within but absolutely no access to anything outside, is when you start feeling alienated. She wondered if people had realized that she had been lost. She wondered if her life was valuable at least to one person, at least to her best friend. She hoped it was. Tears started to roll down her eyes. Memories of the little misunderstandings that she and Lily had had came into her mind. She remembered the first time they both had talked when they were in 3rd grade. She remembered how moody and short-tempered Lily was, but that had never affected their friendship. Both of them had cared immensely for each other. She hoped Lily would come and help her. Only she could. She wiped her tears and went to the table again, hoping she would find something that could help to locate herself. As she nervously flicked the pages of one of the diaries, a visiting card fell.

"Jonathan Scott. Social Service Enthusiast. +44 1632 960779" was printed on the card alongside a picture of a man. The man looked familiar to April. She tried remembering who it was and where she had seen him before. After spending minutes staring at the photo, it had rung in her mind. A chill was sent to her spine as she recollected the incident that had happened five and a half months ago. She had slapped Richard, for spreading rumors about her family which had made her feel insulted and embarrassed in front of everyone, especially Lily. People had made her their subject of humor and entertainment ever since, which she couldn't tolerate anymore before deciding to slap him as hard as she possibly could. After the incident, Richard had stopped coming to school. Lily had showed a picture of Richard's father nervously mentioning a number of times that he was a powerful man, but had referred to him as Mr. Scott. Out of fear, she threw away the card that she had in her hand. Jonathan Scott, it had read.