Hated

by Fournier, C

  “Yeah I know it’s been a while,” she replied giggling. “But I guessed shorter than this for the condition you were in just a couple minutes ago.” I raised an eyebrow and waited for Sandy to respond. She shrugged her shoulders before she answered my silent question.

  “You were near death at one point,” she replied looking down at her hands.

  “Do you know what the cause of all this commotion is?” I asked tilting my head to the side. She nodded but glanced from side to side. My father had left a little while ago with Devin the doctor to discuss stuff out of my earshot.

  Sandy came up close to my ear and whispered, “They say it might be poison, but no one’s a hundred percent sure. They also say that they got most of the poison and that you’ll have to stay under surveillance for a few days. Oh and one more thing…” she backed up so that she was sitting back in her seat. “You might feel sick for a little while.” And with that she got up and left.

  I thought about everything she told me and about everything that has happened. Was Darcy behind this or was it an attack on my life by someone else? Questions swarmed and bubbled in my head, making me feel nauseated. Or was that the leftover bits from the poison, whichever it was I had just enough time to find the bowl they left beside me before I threw up.

  Chapter 2

  Stephanie Wilson

  Alberta 12:30 pm Tuesday September 2nd 2025

  Working on the farm isn’t too bad; it’s actually kind of fun. My brothers and I moved in with our grandparents on their farm in Alberta. We do a lot of the work around here but we don’t mind. With harvesting season just around the corner we have a lot more work to do.

  Anyway we have a pretty good set of crops this year, so we might make a good profit. Hopefully better then last year, because last year we didn’t make as much because of the drought that made our crops wither away to nothing, but we survived, barley. I finished my inspection of the corn crops and walked back to the tractor. I have to pick up my brothers along the way back to the farm.

  I am the oldest. I had just turned 13 today. My brother Kevin is the second oldest, he’s 10 and he’s the first one I have to pick up. Kevin is inspecting the beans today, making sure that no bugs or animals are eating them, and making sure they have enough water. I slow the tractor down and honk at him. His head pops up from where he had been laying in the grass under an old oak tree. He jogged over to me and hopped on trailer that was attached to the tractor.

  I looked back at him and he smiled sheepishly at me and waved. I just rolled my eyes and got the tractor moving to make our next stop at the cabbage, tomato and carrot, and zucchini gardens. My two brothers Anthony and Andrew are the youngest of us. They are both seven, so they worked in these smaller gardens. I pulled up to the gardens and honked the horn on the tractor. Two identical faces popped out of two different areas.

  “Hey Stephanie!” they said together as they ran across and hopped into the trailer. “Hey Kevin!” they were covered in mud.

  “Baths for the both of you when we get back to the farm,” I told them starting up the tractor again.

  “Awwww,” Andrew complained.

  “Do we have to?” Anthony whined.

  “Yes, now get on,” I called to them as I started to slowly move away. They jumped on and I sped back to the house. Everyone was laughing and giggling as I hit bump after bump. By the time I got back to the house we were all rolling with laughter.

  “What are all you guys laughing about?” my grandma asked as we walked in the front door still laughing, my brothers just pointed to me. My grandmother smiled and shook her head.

  “I should’ve known,” my grandma replied. “Now come on lunch is ready.”

  Our lunch was a very delicious one of spaghetti and meatballs with our grandma’s homemade tomato sauce. Grandpa came in half way through and joined us at the table. We all talked about the farm, the crops and the weather. The clouds were starting to close in on us and the wind was getting faster and faster.

  My brothers and I went out to the barn to work on some of the chores out there. Kevin mucked out the stalls and I fed the animals and made sure they had water. After they had a bath Anthony brushed the horses and cows and Andrew cleaned the hall and sorted out the equipment room. All the animals were twitchy and anxious probably because there was suppose to be a storm tonight.

  Our border collie, Shep, always tags along when we do these chores, but today he was right on our heels. Either that or he was hiding underneath something.

  “Dang it, Shep, stop that,” I said as turned around and tripped over him. I went into my horse; Draco’s, stall and made sure he had food and water. Something was scaring him because he kept shaking and stomping his feet.

  “Hey easy boy, easy,” I said to him gently rubbing his muzzle. “Hey guys I don’t think that this storm is going to be any regular storm.”

  “What was your first clue?” Kevin asked and I rolled my eyes. “So we are going to have a bad storm so what?”

  “Well the winds are pretty strong,” Andrew said from the equipment room.

  “And it is rather warm outside,” Anthony finished.

  “Wait are you guys saying that we might get a tornado?” Kevin asked. The three of us just shrugged because at this time anything is possible. But we still have to bring in some of the food that is ready to harvest. As soon as we finished the chores in the barn we went our separate ways to get the food that was ready to harvest. I started picking some of the corn in the corn field.

  I only did a small fraction of the corn field before I had to head in because the wind was very strong. Kevin had brought back some of the beans from his spot in the bean patch, and Anthony and Andrew had picked the vegetable patch clean before they had to come in. We put all the food that we got in the cellar which was underneath the house, but we had to go outside to get to the door. While I was down there I saw a tornado disaster kit that I had never noticed before. Why now did I notice it?

  Our grandparents looked worried and said to put the animals down in the storage area below the barn, along with plenty of food and water. My brothers and I set to it; we put all the barn animals in the storage area below the barn with food and water. Then we went back to the house. We had our dinner in complete silence, except for the panting of Shep who was cowering under the table and the tick of the clock on the wall in the kitchen.

  We were all waiting for something, but I didn’t know what. Then we heard it, that one sound that will change a person’s life. It was like the sound of a low volume alarm mixed with high pitched screams. Grandma looked out the window and grandpa looked out the front door. Anthony and Andrew went with grandma and Kevin and I went with grandpa. We looked out the front door and watched it descend. The clouds spiralled round and round and lightning lashed out like whips slicing the sky. The clouds in the sky had a greenish hue to them.

  Our grandparents rushed us to the cellar and locked the door behind them. I counted to make sure that everyone was there, but wait…Andrew was missing and so was Shep. I ran up the steps two at a time ignoring my grandparent’s pleas to let them get Andrew. I unlatched the door and it flung open nearly knocking me down the stairs. I grabbed the railing and hulled myself back up. I ran through the door and was met by a wall of dust and dirt.

  I coughed and sputtered and tried to open my eyes. I searched and searched but I couldn’t see him. I called his name and Shep’s still nothing. I went upstairs and I heard whimpering coming from my grandparent’s bedroom. I opened the door and searched the room and found them under the bed.

  “Andrew come on we have to go now,” I told him over the sound of the wind.

  “I’m not leaving without Shep,” he replied holding the dog tighter. I reached in and grabbed Shep’s collar and yanked. He yelped and struggled but I had years of hard labour behind me and I won. As soon as Shep was out Andrew came out too, and we were on our way down stairs. Shep ran for the open door to the cellar and Andrew followed. Debris was flying every which
way I had to duck and roll most of the way. As soon as I got to the door and saw everyone I stood there for a second and smiled. Then I turned to shut the door.

  I guess that was a second too long because I felt a ripping pain in my leg and fell down the stairs. Kevin ran up and caught me just before I went down too many more stairs, but the impact of me made him fall back. Grandpa went up and latched the door closed with some effort because the wind kept pushing back.

  Grandma came over with a lantern and looked at my leg. There was the fork part of the pitch fork imbedded in my leg! I felt a wave of nausea come over me and I looked around for something else to focus on. I saw that there were several lanterns around the room; some were hanging while others were on the ground. I felt something shift beneath me and I looked to see Kevin sitting up behind me. Then I realized I was sitting on his lap.

  “Are you okay?” Kevin asked, I pointed to my leg. “Wow.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked Kevin he shrugged.

  “Just bruised my butt,” Kevin replied and I laughed.

  “Stephanie I’m going to have to take it out,” our grandma said after finishing her examination of the wound. I swallowed hard and nodded. Kevin turned me so that my face was against his neck. Anthony, Andrew and Kevin all talked to me as our grandma was taking the fork out of my leg. I ground my teeth and tried not to cry out, but it was very difficult.

  By the time she was done I had tear tracks running through the dirt on my face, tears in my eyes and my entire body was shaking. Grandma put some cream on the wound (which stung like I just got hot metal placed on my leg) then she bandaged up my leg. I was panting as grandpa picked me up and laid me down on a makeshift bed. I winced when my leg hit the bed.

  “Rest, we will wake you when something happens,” grandpa said. I nodded and closed my eyes letting sleep take me over. When I awoke bright lights blinded me. I blinked and looked around I saw my brothers and grandparents, but where were we? I blinked some more and saw that we were in a hospital and I was in a bed. I felt uncomfortable, bruised and sore.

  “Are you okay?” Andrew asked. I nodded, then yawned and stretch out the kink in my back. “They said that the pitch fork took a bit out of your leg but that you were very lucky that it didn’t completely take off your leg.” My eyes widened in shock of this little tidbit of information that I did not know about.

  “You’re going to have to go into therapy for your leg but you have recovered quite quickly as is, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” the nurse said as she entered the room. But the only way we could afford that is if we sold the farm. And I had a bad feeling that that was exactly what they were going to do.

  Chapter 3

  Stephanie Wilson

  Boston Harbour 10:39 pm Saturday August 22nd 2026

  “Are you sure that this is the right place?” Angie whispered from behind me. Angie’s hands were at the ready in case she had to pull her gun that she hid in the front of her pants. I looked around the corner of the building as a dark car pulled up to the building across the street that we were spying on. I waited and watched as a couple of guys in suits got out of the car and entered the building. This was the third car in the last hour and a half.

  “Yeah I’m sure,” I replied quietly. I pulled my mask back up, quickly snuck around the corner and ducked behind a large garbage can. Angie and I were trying to get proof of some shady dealings that were going down at the pier today. From what we’ve heard it was supposed to be illegal human trafficking. A big shipment of them was supposed to come in today. I had a vague idea what they were going to do with them and I didn’t like it one bit.

  I motioned for Angie to follow me and set off toward the building that I had just seen the guys enter. I couldn’t hear Angie behind me but I knew that she was. We had done a couple of raids before but they were just small things, this was the big time. We could not screw up or it could be our lives on the line along with the people in the shipment.

  I ducked under a broken window to avoid being seen but to also get a good view of what was going on, on the inside of the warehouse. I felt another presence behind me but I knew that it was just Angie. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Angie standing beside the window that I was crouched under. I quietly inched my way to the doorway, and then peeked around the corner. No one was there but I could hear faint voices coming from further down the hallway, most of the voices were male.

  I pulled my gun out of my waist band and slowly stood up. I took the safety of and quickly went around the corner of the door. I had my gun up just in case someone came around any of the wooden crates. Most of the crates were stacked almost to the ceiling. Some were even covered with a thin white cloth to protect it from the dust. I waited until I saw Angie beside me. I looked to her and gave her a quick half smile before continuing down the hallway of crates.

  The voices were growing louder as the lights glared down at us like angry eyes. I started to hear the frantic cries of women but not in any language that I understood. Also strangely there were the frantic voices of some men too, but again I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I was starting to get a bit agitated and as I looked to Angie I could tell that she was getting pretty jumpy too.

  I looked around and found a ladder that was leaning up against a tall stack of crates. We would probably be able to see better from up there. I would like to know exactly what we were up against. I cleared my throat and Angie looked at me. I motioned with my eyes to the ladder. She looked to it and then nodded. I walked quickly over to one side of the ladder and then Angie came over to the other side. I scurried up the ladder quietly and waited until Angie had come up before I moved to the other end of the crate. I quickly laid down on my stomach and looked down on the crowd of people. They were all standing in a surprisingly open area. A rusted metal crate was open and I could see some people that were still inside it, along with blankets and a couple bottles of water. However down by the crowd of people was a gruesome sight.

  Young men ranging from the ages of 12 to 19 were being beaten to one side of the crowd. I squinted to try to see why they weren’t fighting back. I noticed something on their wrists that glinted when they moved a certain way. Handcuffs? Oh shit, this was not looking good. The other side of the crowd was not any better. Young women ranging from the ages of 14 to 21 were being forced to do things that are way too explicit for me to repeat anywhere.

  I pulled my eyes away from them with some difficulty and tried to find the ring leader to this whole horror circus. I glanced around until I found a group of men in a small huddle. They were all wearing nice suits and all of them held briefcases, except for one of them. I would bet my money that that was the ring leader, well that is if I had any money. My brothers and I were living on the street. I had to work a couple different jobs just to pay for food and clothes. Right now I’m working at the library part-time…it doesn’t pay much…

  I nudged Angie who was staring at everything in horror. She jumped a little and then turned to look at me. Tears were shining in her eyes but she wouldn’t cry, she couldn’t or else this whole mission would be blown. I stared at her hard then pointed to the guy who was now receiving a briefcase which was most likely full of money. I watched Angie’s expression harden, before she nodded. We both slid back to the ladder and started to climb down.

  Angie went down first then I started to follow but a sound stopped me. It was loud and annoying and it was coming from right below me. I looked down and saw Angie start to panic. Oh shit, was that her phone going off?!? Then the sound stopped and the whole room was quiet. Oh this was not good. I got down from the ladder just as some security guy came around the corner, I patted myself down but I couldn’t find my gun. Oh, double shit.

  “Run!” I screamed and both Angie and I took off. We ran down several different rows of crates before we got separated. There were three guys on my ass now I ran around a corner and bumped into another guard that I hadn’t seen coming. I could see the door just behind him. So I
tried with all of my might to get away from him but he was a lot stronger than I was.

  He dragged me back to the centre where all those other people were. Angie was already there and she had a split lip. She looked up as I approached tears were falling down her face. Maybe we took too big of a risk trying to do this. The guy who had grabbed me cuffed me then threw me down beside Angie. I grunted as I hit the ground hard.

  Angie tried to help me up but she was handcuffed too, so she wasn’t much help. I got myself into a sitting position just as the ring leader came over to us. I glared up at him as he looked us over. He had black hair and dark eyes that were flat and menacing. He was dressed in a black suit with a dark red tie. He snapped his fingers and both Angie and I were painfully yanked to our feet. He circled us twice before he spoke.

  “Hmmm…take the blonde but leave the brown haired girl behind with the other undesirables,” the man commented then turned around and went to finish his business deals I supposed. But I wasn’t done fighting back yet. I started to struggle in my captors grasp but he pushed me away, and while I was off balance someone hit me and everything went black. I awoke to the smell of gasoline and a pounding headache. I tried to move my hands but they were still cuffed behind me. I looked around and saw a bunch of other bodies almost all of them looked dead. One of them looked alive and it was the guy that was trying to sit up.

  I was sore but I had to get moving. My vision was still a bit blurry but stuff was starting to come into focus. A lot of the crates were missing and so was Angie along with the other trafficked people. I used my head and shoulders to push myself up on to my knees. I might be able to save one other person even if the mission did fail. I pulled my hands around my feet so that my hands were now handcuffed in the front.

  I tried to stand up but my knees gave out underneath me and I landed on something sharp. I groaned and reached under my knee to see what I had landed on. I held the thing up to my face and saw that it was a key. Not just any key but a handcuff key. I smiled and used my teeth to put the key in the lock to take the handcuffs off my hands. Once I had the handcuffs off, I had an easier time getting up. Then I smelled something funny.