Witness Protection ✔

Going dark

"Nat, Nathalia, wake up."

She heard Darius call to her but her body saw no reason to wake up at all. Without opening her eyes she knew it was the middle of the night. Her eyes felt too heavy and wouldn't move, no matter how hard she tried.

"Nat, wake. Up."

This time her sheets were pulled away from her body and a wave of cold air hit her. With a gasp, she sat up and tried to look around, but it was pitch dark and the only thing she saw was Darius's dark outline.

"What?" she grumbled confusedly. Rubbing her eyes did nothing to get rid of her tiredness.

"I need you to listen to me very carefully, alright?" he whispered. "I need you to pack a bag. Pack only your absolute necessities and then meet me at the front door. I'm giving you five minutes to do so and the most important thing is that you. Do. Not. Turn on any lights. Tell me you understand Nat, this is important."

It was a lot of information at once, but his pressing tone dispelled the fog from her brain and made her alert.

"Darius, what's going on? Why do--"

"Nat, tell me you understand. I'll explain later."

"I understand," she whispered back.

She supposed she just had to trust him.

Getting out of her bed she felt around for the large bag she had stowed away under her bed. Darius had left her room to do whatever but he'd told her to meet him at the front door.

Next, were the things she needed to pack. She made her way to her closet and grabbed a handful of underwear and bras. The problems started when she opened her closet door and she realized she had no idea what clothes she was grabbing. But she only had five minutes, now 4 probably.

She grabbed some random jeans and shirts and dug around for at least one sweater.

She made her way to the bathroom and just shoved everything of hers she could find into the overstuffed bag.

It was filled to the brim, but it didn't matter. She was sure she had all the things she needed.

Wait, I can bring more things if I change right now.

She quickly moved back to her bedroom and grabbed some underwear, jeans, and a shirt that were left over in her closet and put them on. She still couldn't quite see what she'd grabbed so she just hoped she didn't look like an absolute clown. Last, she grabbed a pair of sneakers and a jacket and put those on as well. She was ready for whatever was to come.

After double-checking everything, she went downstairs where Darius was waiting for her. He eyed her bag and nodded before opening the door and gesturing for her to go through.

The moonlight shone perfectly into the hallway and illuminated something she hadn't noticed before.

Darius's phone, with all the contents taken apart and smashed. Next to the phone were all the house keys, indicating they probably weren't going to come back to this house.

She briefly wondered what was going to happen to all her stuff before her mind drifted to their poor neighbors. They were invited to their Easter brunch tomorrow, but now they were leaving without saying goodbye. She just hoped Trudy would forgive her.

She briefly considered asking Darius if she could drop off the cinnamon rolls at the neighbor's place, but whatever kept him busy seemed to be serious and so she let the idea go. Knowing their perfect little cinnamon rolls would go uneaten made her chest burn.

Wherever they were going, she just hoped it wasn't an apartment. She had grown quite fond of the little garden and hadn't even got the chance to try any of the fruits she was growing. Despite this, she was proud of what she had accomplished with it and would leave with her head held high.