captive (Thia)

One of the younger boys was starting to shiver and sniffle. He was one of the Jeckalson boys. His twin brother was here too. Young, but not younger than me. I was the youngest here. The twins' older sister was the oldest here, and the kindest and gentlest it seemed. When they shoved me in here, she was the first to come to me and untie my hands. I made as good as I could on my promise. I didn't stop fighting as long as I had the strength but I think at one point, I fought too hard and became too tired. I woke and they were letting me out and taking me here with the other children, and with her.

"Its O.K." she said, softly, removing the rope from my wrists. "You're alright now. My names Rowan. Rowan Jeckalson."

She was a tall girl. She looked to be about four years older than me, with a short bob of black heir, light grey eyes and a kind smile. All the jeckalsons had grey eyes, but most had blonde hair. I'd met one once, back in England. A boy nearer my age. He'd been dark haired too but the twins were both blonde and apparently, they had another sister who was blonde. I didn't know exactly how many there were in the family.

"I'm Thia. My Name's…"

"We know who you are." Rowan said. "How could you not be?"

She stroked my check, around my eyes, my ears.

"She doesn't really look like him." one of her brothers had said.

"Of course, she doesn't." the other one said. "She was raised by human's, duh brain. She has his ears, though."

That had made me laugh a bit. My ears were tall and pointy and dark like my fathers, it was true but it was still funny to hear people say it.

"Perhaps she favours her mother." Their sister said.

"I'm told I have her eyes." I told them.

"Perhaps you do. You have very pretty eyes."

That had been hours ago now. It was rather cold in the room and dark. There were no lights, no source of heat, only a little window, where a light breeze was coming through. It wasn't too bad though. There were other children here, of varying ages. When I first heard of the kidnapping, I didn't think much of it.

Now I see that they were being clever with who they took. Each one here had rich, powerful, or famous parents. Sometimes they took more than one from each family, like the Jeckalsons, whose father was a doctor. A very respected doctor. The point was, these children each had families that would be sure to pay to get them back. I took that as a good sign. They wouldn't harm us if they thought they were getting a reword.

My father wouldn't pay for me unless he had too. He'd try to fight to get me back first, I knew. He'd come here and try to rescue me and all these other children; and bring those two men, the tall one and the fat one, bring them both to justice.

The thought made me smile but while I was sat there waiting for him, I had a lot of time to think about how he would do it and what he might do if he failed. He might pretend to pay them and set a trap. He might demand to see me before he gave them the money. And once he did, he'd spring the trap and all the guys would rush in and maybe Jay would be with them. But what if he couldn't stop them. What if the guys didn't make it back in time. I had to keep reminding myself, there were two of them and only one of him. If they caught him, would they throw him in here with me, or would they keep him somewhere else, away from the children. Maybe they wouldn't keep him at all. I shook the thought out of my head. That couldn't be possible. If they were smart enough to keep children with a rich family, surely, they were smart enough to keep a man such as my father alive.

It turned out I was right. I never saw them but I could hear them through the doors. The others could hear it too, Rowan and the twins. My father's voice was unmistakable.

"I want my child back!" He shouted. "You could let me see her at least."

I heard the two men whisper to each other, unclear words that I couldn't understand.

"We should kill him." one of them said at last. "He won't bother us any more if he's dead."

"No!" I cried.

Weather they heard me or not I don't know but the other man seemed to agree with me.

"He's more valuable to us alive."

They stopped talking for a while, but I did hear movement.

"Tell me where she is if nothing else." Father said.

"I'm here!" I started banging on the door, fighting to get out, to see my father. "Daddy, I'm in here."

I felt Rowan's hand on my shoulder. "There's nothing to be done." She told me. "You'll only be wasting energy."

I looked up at her. "But, he's my father."

She smiled her kind smile. "I shouldn't worry, we can't do anything from here but now that they've got the princess and the commander, there'll be riots all over the city." She put a reassuring arm around me as I began to weep. "Hush now. We won't stay here forever, I promise you that."