Chapter 4: At Gunpoint

{Adaira POV}

"Don't come out of here, okay, love?" The woman with the long dirty blonde hair shuffled me into the tiny wardrobe. "No matter what you hear, don't come out." Her hand prodded my cheeks for a beat second before she flashed me a smile.

I wonder if the younger me had noticed how sad, bitter, and fake that smile was. But if she'd noticed, she'd not let it show before the woman kissed her goodbye and shut the wardrobe door, leaving me all alone in a dark tiny wardrobe.

My tiny self curled up in it, hands clasped together in anticipation for her parents to find her just like they always did when they played hide and seek.

But if they come, I never know. Because I was waking up to the faint sound of a gunshot and the little whimper of a woman who'd forever etched in my brain how painful and regretful it was.

I gasped the moment my eyes slid open, tears making their traitorous way down my cheeks.

This is one of the millions of times I have had a dream like this...a dream I always like to refer to as a flashback of my childhood. But none of those dreams had been as intense as this one where I had seen someone who looked painfully like me and heard the echo of a gunshot and the painful whimper of a woman in pain.

My chest constricted in pain, swallowing me in a thick blanket of sweat like the ocean water would do after skinny diving for a few minutes. And I clutched my chest, groaning, and reveling in the familiar pain that's always brought about by the pain.

The first time I had this dream, I had no idea how it's come to be. Was it me in the dream? Was that my parents in there? Was that my mom who'd made me scramble into the wardrobe while she flashed me that sweet and reassuring smile? I had been curious and I was always eager to go to bed just so I could see those faces till I could figure out who they were and why they were appearing in my dreams.

After all, I was told at the orphanage that my parents got into an accident that took their lives. And nothing was left of them...not even their pictures that I could at least hold on to.

The remaining part of them was me who couldn't, for the love of her parents, even remember the face of the loving parents they had claimed she had.

Since then, I have reveled in those dreams and reveled in the fact that I also had some loving family who smiled beautifully at me. I wasn't some orphan who got dumped in the orphanage because her parents did not want her. I was an orphan who, after an unfortunate event took her parents away found herself at the orphanage.

That was my parents in my dream. No doubt!

But today, another reality hit me in the face. The smile shoveled my way when I was being shoved into the wardrobe was anything but beautiful. It was bitter, fake, and full of sadness and the intense pain that held me in a chokehold had nothing to do with me missing my parents but the fact that my mom, even though had promised to come back for me, had not.

What happened? I know it wasn't the time of the accident. Because according to the orphanage director, I was with them in the car when the accident happened. But my mom who was in the backseat with me had covered me with her body, taking all my pain and saving my life.

Where then had my mom gone to in my dream? Where was the gunshot coming from? And who was whimpering so painfully in the background?

And most importantly, why had that smile been fake and bitter?

I know...even if no one tells me anything, that these seeds of questions that are grooming in my mind will wither away because no one was there to water the seed and groom it into a full-blown flower.

Never! I will never have my answer. Because no one knows much more than I do.

As if that's not painful and sad enough.

Slowly, with my palm on my chest, I pulled myself to a sitting position, rubbing my chest up and down to even my breath and ease the pain in it.

"Take a deep breath, Adaira."

God bless me, I had paid some attention in Doc. Fisher's class before I dropped the course and told him to fuck off because I wouldn't be going into a panic frenzy so I don't need to calm myself or people around me who might have gone into their panic shitty mode.

As my breath even, I made a mental note to flash the man an appreciative smile whenever I met him.

And that's when it all came crashing into me like a storm of wind, almost winding me up from where I sat.

Where I sat? I quickly closed my eyes, mentally hoping, praying that whatever had happened, I had been taken by Tora and I was now sitting in the hospital bed waiting for the doctor to assess me.

But maybe praying couldn't do it, nor could hoping for some kind of miracle take away my dilemma when I opened my eyes to assess my surroundings.

It wasn't a hospital, and so help me, I wasn't in some hospital gown but was tucked in a white garment that left my legs skin bar.

I furrowed my brows, my eyes taking in the large bed covered in a thick brown duvet that housed my petite body.

My eyes moved across the room, darting past the rake of shoes that was trapped in glass shoe racks to the opened door that was filled with different types of designer clothes.

I could not go into a full-blown panic again, so I held my breath, keeping my eyes busy on my new surroundings.

The room was large...larger than any room I've ever stayed or will ever stay if you do not consider me being here against my will.

The room was painted in a thick dark brown that seemed to match the duvet on the bed and the double-seater couch that was situated at the foot of the bed. A moderate size desk sat a few steps away from the nightstand, and a rich colorful chair that had its back turned to me sat beside it. And a blue and white book that seems to be twice the size of the many medical books I once saw in Doc. Fisher's office.

And that's it! Nothing in the room gave me any clue about my surroundings, if not for the fact that I knew that I was dead and was now in heaven where I'd gotten the special treatment by being in the largest and most beautiful room ever. Because whoever the judge of my life had been considerate enough not to judge me based on my misdemeanor of fraternizing with the enemy which caused my early death.

"Thanks fuck!"

Prodding my forehead with my fingers, I slowly set my foot on the tiled floor that sent sparkles of warmth to my body and I took in a sharp breath, reveling in the abstract heater that might have been shoved into the ground.

Oh god! Heaven is great. And you know what's great about heaven again? I might get to see my parents who might be able to explain my dreams to me.

With a large smile plastered on my lips, I made my way towards the second door and pulled it open.

And the moment I stepped out of the room, and closed the door behind me, something clicked against my ear... a click that did not come from the door because I was sure I felt a cold metal against the side of my head.

I couldn't fight against a full-body shudder and not even the clatter of my teeth could be healed with the warm breeze slithering through the opened window.

Perhaps, the judge of my life wasn't really that considerate.

Fraternising with the City's enemy couldn't be easily ignored.

And here I was, at gunpoint, waiting for that one click to the head that'll take my life... again?