THIRTY-SIX

DYLAN'S POV

It was easy to tell that Anisha was both emotionally and physically exhausted. She looked drained. Only heaven knows how many days had passed since our near-rescue. This had gotten even nastier after Eden ordered for my watch to be taken away from me. We no longer had an idea of what the time was; it was all guess-work.

At night, after we were given some lousy food, Anisha immediately fell asleep. Liam was the only one who was getting good, proper food. That mad man Eden really went out of his way to ensure that the child was well fed. We had not seen or heard from him since the day the police came for us. It was only Terror who stayed with us. There was not even a slight chance of escape. The place was heavily guarded; a lot men dressed in black and heavily armed, constantly came in to peek at us. It was as if they were reminding us of their presence, and thus making sure that we did nothing to try and escape.

I was admiring Anisha, looking at her lovely face, when she suddenly opened her eyes.

"Oh, you're …you're looking at me. Why?" she seemed to be very embarrassed.

I smiled and also felt embarrassed. "Nothing, I was just looking at you because you're very beautiful"

"you think so?", she asked with a faint smile, while she looked at her fingers.

"It's the truth", I told her.

"Let me stand up and stretch myself for a while, and then you can get some rest on the couch." She stood up to stretch herself.

"No… that's not necessary." I told her, not really meaning it. I was very exhausted and I needed proper sleep, but I felt it was not appropriate for me to sleep on the couch while the lady stood.

"Let's make a plan," she suddenly said, sitting up. "Let's call Eden and say Liam is seriously sick and dying. Then you say you have to go with him to the hospital no matter what! Since he seems to love Liam so much, he will agree to it!"

"He would never agree to that", I said. "There is no way Eden will ever allow us, worse me, to leave this place where he is holding us captive. But like you said, we have to use Liam. That lunatic cares a lot about Liam."

Just then, an idea struck me. I smiled at the thought.

"Yes? You're smiling. Tell me", Anisha urged.

"Your idea might work," I told her.

"Which one?"

"The one about us lying that Liam is seriously sick. That will be our ticket out of this horrible place. This time we have to leave. We have stayed here too long already."

"Indeed we have stayed too long. I feel for Ms Meyerton. I wonder how she feels, with Valentina in prison, and myself missing. She is far away from us, back in Hallowcave. I guess it would have been better for her if she was here in Lakeworld. What's worse, I am a suspect in a murder case", she looked up and laughed a little.

"I wonder where we are! Although I am sure that someone is looking for us, I am surprised that they have taken this long to find us!" I sighed.

"They almost found us! From what happened that day, I believe this place looks dirty and dusty on the ground floor. And we must be two floors down, I tell you," her voice trailed off painfully. "I'm grateful that I get to be kidnapped together with you, doctor Dylan de Milo. If it was just me and Liam, I doubt if the police would have put as much effort as I believe they are putting now. I mean, who would care about some poor child minder?"

"Don't say that, Anisha! We are all important and the police is there to ensure the safety of everyone, regardless of who they are."

"You think so?", she faced the floor and did not say anything more. "I guess if it was just me and Liam, they were probably going to look for us for the sake of Liam. His parents are prominent business people. But if it was me on my own…I really believe that by now everyone would have given up on the search!"

"Ok enough of that, Anisha. May I never hear you ever again talking down upon yourself. You're an intelligent, beautiful and kind girl. You may be an orphan yes, but is it your fault? You deserve to be treated like any other person in the world, to be shown love and kindness. Don't ever call yourself names in my presence; or even in my absence! You are worth more, much more than you make yourself worth."

She looked at me and her eyes immediately welled up. A tear rolled down. And another. And another.

"N..no-one has h..has ever s..sp…spoken to me so kindly", she cried.

I brought her close to me and hugged her.

"Ms Meyerton is very old and is far away from me. My only sister and friend, Valentina, in behind bars. Ma'am Larissa la Martina was very good to me; she treated me like family. Now she is dead. I feel so lost and all alone." Huge drops of tears fell off her cheeks.

"Oh Anisha, please don't cry!", I hugged her and said, "I understand how you...." I had hardly finished my sentence when she pulled herself away from me and roughly cut in with:

"You understand!!? What do you understand? You are Dylan de Milo, for crying out loud!! You have always got anything and everything that you ever wanted!! Your family is out there, doing anything and everything to find you!! And me? And Liam? Who is looking for me? Who wants me? Who do I have? Even if I were to vanish from the face of the earth, who would notice!? I….."

"I would." I said calmly and truthfully.

"What did you say?", she turned to look at me, her eyes full of tears. She blinked several times and the tears rolled down freely.

"I would notice if you were to disappear." I meant every word that I spoke.

"You would?" she seemed to smile through her tears.

"I would. Because one day, when you disappeared from the children's home, I noticed."

"You did?" she made a sound which sounded like she was laughing and crying at the same time. "You noticed when the orphanage was closed? You missed me?" she came closer to me and held my shoulder with one hand.

I looked into her eyes and I said, "Anisha, when the orphanage closed, it closed with a part of me. Something died in me." I continued to stare in her eyes.

"Then why didn't you look for me? You could have looked for me, Dylan!"

"But I was just a young child then. I had nothing to my name. If it was now, I would have gone all out. I searched for you, and someone informed me that you left Lakeworld. The word was that you were adopted by some people who took you to a far away land. But still, I searched. Someone made me belief that you were dead, but still I looked for you. You did not have any social media account. I searched under your name and I even went on to search under that number that they used for you at Olga, 0028. I'm sorry Anisha, that at that time I let you down. But believe me, I looked for you. And trust me, I wont ever let you down again."

I tried to hug her but she moved away a bit and dried her tears. She smiled a sad but still beautiful smile and said "I'm very sorry Dylan. I shouldn't blame you for anything. The truth is, I'm failing to handle my emotions. Things have been too hectic for me, I am sorry. First I just found ma'am Larissa dead, and I met the men who wanted Liam and I dead; I had to run away and when I thought I could trust Eden, he turns out to be someone else who I don't even know. I was shocked and terrified to find out that all this while I thought I knew Eden, yet he was a wolf in sheep skin! My sister Valentina is in prison because of me, and Liam almost died in my arms. Now I am stuck here in an old building and I have no idea where we are. It's too much for me to handle. I am failing to handle it…." She broke into tears. I held her and allowed her to cry on my shoulder. The baby woke up and his eyes fixed on Anisha. He too broke into a loud cry.

"Shh, Liam little man, don't cry. We will get out of here!", I tried to calm both of them down.

"Do you think we are going to get through this?" she asked me after a long time of crying her pain out.

"We have to." I told her. "We still have a lot to explore. We're still young. Our lives await us outside of this old building."

The beautiful woman dried off her tears using her palm.

"Listen Anisha," I began to talk seriously. "This is our only chance. We will carry out our plan now. Liam is already looking sad, so we can use the chance to say he is dying. So I need you to act very scared, make everyone believe that the child is dying."

"What's the plan? Do you think he will allow us to go to the hospital?", she asked.

"No. I have another plan. Let's try it. So you need to make a loud scream now and I know that Toast or Terror will come in running. Let me hold Liam and I will also look desperate as I announce that the child is dying. Sorry Liam, but we have to do this", I patted the little man's back.

"Let's do it then", Anisha smiled.

Once again, her beauty struck me. It felt like I was seeing her for the first time. It always felt that way. She was beautiful when she smiled, beautiful when she cried, and even in her distress, she still looked like an angel, a dream, a character in a fairytale or a painting painted to perfection by a master artist! She looked too good to be real. I swallowed hard and focused on our plan.