Cool Girl

31: History Repeated

~Emma's Perspective~

It's Saturday, the second day of our Miami trip and I have been waiting almost thirty minutes for Hazel to meet me at the mall next to our hotel. I try calling her but her phone is switched off. I don't call Daniel because he had a headache and is sleeping it off. So instead I call Sebastian.

"Hey mom." He says, answering the call.

"Hi, Seb. Is Hazel at the hotel?" I ask him.

"No, she left almost an hour ago to meet you." He replies.

"Okay, she isn't here yet. Let me check with Ben. She must be with him then." I say goodbye to Sebastian and call Ben next.

"Hi Mrs. Aaron." He greets me.

"Hi, Ben. Is Hazel with you?" I ask.

"No, I asked her about lunch but she said that she already had plans with you." He replies.

I frown but don't say anything to Ben, "Okay. I'll try calling her again."

When the call disconnects, my heart is pounding as I call the driver escorting me and ask him to bring the car to the entrance of the mall.

As soon as I get to the hotel, I rush to Daniel and wake him up.

"What's wrong?" He asks, sitting up when he reads the worry on my face.

"No one knows where Hazel is." I gulp as tears leak out and his face mirrors my thoughts.

~Hazel's Perspective~

My head is pounding with a headache. My whole body feels heavy from drowsiness and I can't bring myself to open my eyes because the world is spinning. It feels like hours before I finally manage to open my eyes and survey my surroundings.

I know I'm not safe because I remember someone grabbing me from behind and covering my nose with a cloth which means that I'm drugged.

I'm sprawled on the floor and it's chilly. My light jacket does little to protect me from the cold. There are no lights so I have no idea where I am and I'm still too tipsy to try and stand up to search for a light. My first instinct is to check my pocket for my phone but of course it's gone.

All I can deduce is that I'm no longer in Miami because this jacket was more than sufficient there but here it does very little for me.

Unable to keep myself awake much longer, the heaviness takes over my mind and I fall asleep again.

I'm woken up by the sound of a door opening and a flashlight shines across my face making me cover my face with my arm at the harsh light.

"She's awake." A foreign voice says, walking into whatever room I'm in.

I feel loads better than before already. The headache is still very much there but its intensity has decreased significantly and I'm no longer dizzy. The man switches on a light and I squeeze my eyes shut at the sudden brightness. It takes a few minutes of blinking before my eyes adjust to the new lighting.

My eyes first land on the man who is perched on a window-sill across the room from me as he lights a cigarette. My scared heart is pounding in my chest as I slowly sit up and take in the room. It's made out of wood entirely and there's just one door and the window where the man is sitting. Surprisingly there's no glass or bars in the window which makes me frown. I can't just be allowed to escape.

I'm about to ask the man a question when all my queries are answered on their own.

I feel sick to my stomach when Ben's dad walks into the room. This is all my nightmares summed into one. Unable to hold it in anymore, I throw up on the floor right next to me. When I stop heaving, the man with cigarette has not budged but Ben's father is watching me.