Someone eventually heard my rabid screaming, rushing to my side and shaking my shoulders, asking me what was wrong. It took me a minute to choke out "Friends... boyfriend... kidnapped... van... Oh my God." Though my words were broken, the woman that kneeled beside me got the gist of what happened, face flashing with disbelief.
"Okay, honey, what's your name?" the woman asked, and I stammered out my name, the woman giving me a soothing smile that did nothing to help my nerves. "Culver, I'm Anne. Did you say your friends were kidnapped? Have you called the police yet?"
"N-Not yet," I said, fumbling for my phone, but my hands were shaking so much I dropped it onto the ground, the screen shattering. My reflection stared back at me in disjointed shards of glass, and I could see the terror etched deep into my face.
Milo... Lark... Milo... Milo, Milo, Milo. Oh my God. No, no, no, this can't be happening. No, I can't, I can't. Please, no, no, no.
Oh God, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Milo, Milo, Milo. Don't leave me, don't leave me.
"It's okay honey, you'll be okay. Just sit here, I'll call them," Anne said, rubbing my shoulders before taking out her own phone and dialling triple zero. She put the phone on loud speaker, looking at me for answers to the operator's questions.
"What's your name, sir?" the operator asked, voice a little crackly through the phone.
"Olivia Larsen," I said quickly, voice fractured. "I need to speak to Deputy Police Commissioner Olivia Larsen."
"Sir, before delegating to the appropriate agencies, we need to get information on-"
"Her daughter was taken, I know her," I said, the operator's line crackling as he paused, inhaling sharply, recognising what has happened.
There was some more crackling, before the operator spoke again.
"I'll patch you through to her straight away."
***
Gia sat next to me with her arms around my shoulders, face betraying nothing, though I could feel her shaking a little against my back. The fact that Gia was bare-faced at the moment said even more than the slight tremor to her body; she never left the house without going all-out with her make up and outfit, so she must have been frazzled and left the house as soon as she was called. Geoff was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the police station in a daze. Olivia Larsen's - Lark's mother's - body was taught, rage simmering beneath her crisp suit, seeping out in the way she snapped the pen in her hand.
"They looked like the same men that attacked Black Dove?" Olivia said slowly, steel in her voice.
"Yes," I replied, voice hoarse, but deafening in the rigid silence that sat in the room. Apart from Olivia, the GoGos and I, there were the other members of the police task force dedicated to the avian murders, who were listening in with their expressions guarded yet fierce.
"How do you know that?" Olivia questioned. The ice in her voice was biting, but I was already numb from what had happened just an hour earlier. My hands were trembling, my wings tucked inside my back burning with fear.
"Lark showed me Black Dove's video," I lied, voice reedy and thin. Olivia's eyes narrowed at my flimsy answer, likely wondering why Lark had shown me such a confidential video, but didn't probe any further - how I recognised the men didn't matter, not when Lark and Milo were missing.
Milo. Oh God.
"And you're sure it was the same men?"
"Yes."
YOU ARE READING
Swooped | ✓
Fantasy[BxB] Life was pretty average for Culver Fleet, an 18-year-old certified couch potato slash pothead. He has spent every waking breath dodging responsibilities, until one fateful day he is swooped by a magpie and is... changed. He thought he just cau...
