by Palvi Sharma
The Ensnared
By Palvi
Copyright© 2012 by Palvi Sharma
All Rights Reserved
This Book is a work of Fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely co-incidental.
Credits:
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Chapter One
On a hot July evening, the Promenade should have been empty and devoid of people, but to Melissa’s surprise, there were people all around her. She could spot families with little kids having picnics on the small patches of lawn under the palm trees and college kids either talking on mobile phones or studying from their thick textbooks.
She crossed her arms as she walked with her best friend Jennifer, who was talking to her about shoes, but Melissa found her thoughts wavering. She knew that Jennifer wouldn’t really notice that she wasn’t paying attention, because Jennifer only liked to talk endlessly.
Melissa nodded and smiled at her, pretending to feign interest before turning to look at the boutique right across the street. Everything was so beautiful on this street. There were two more boutiques alongside the small grocery store, a fast food joint, a small cafe and a movie theatre right across the road from where she was. On her left, was the vast lagoon that spread before her. Every tiny ripple on the water surface shimmered from the lights of the buildings and street lamps. She gazed up at the sky and saw that it was lit up with twinkling stars and the crescent moon.
Everything was so serene, and Melissa should have felt exactly like that, but her thoughts returned to what had happened two months ago. The memory refused to leave her mind and let her enjoy this beautiful evening.
“You are so not wearing that dress!” Jennifer said and Melissa almost jumped.
“What?”
Jennifer frowned at her. “You weren’t paying attention, were you?” she complained. “Anyway, I was telling my roommate Riya the other day that she shouldn’t be wearing that new dress she bought. We’re studying fashion for heaven’s sake, so how could she even consider wearing that awful dress?”
“Maybe...”Melissa started to say, but Jennifer shook her head quickly.
“You should have seen it!” Jennifer said. “There was blue and red and pink and yellow all over it! It was ghastly.”
“Well then it’s a good thing you gave her some fashion advice.” Melissa said and looked towards a group of college kids sitting on a nearby bench. The girl kept giggling about something as her two guy friends told her something. She saw a couple walk towards them and join them.
“So, you’re coming right?” Jennifer asked.
“Hmmm? Coming where?” Melissa asked.
“My party?” Jennifer said and cocked an eyebrow. “I’ve been talking about it for like, forever!”
“I don’t feel like it.” Melissa sighed and stared down at her shoes. It was time she discarded her old sneakers and buy new ones before the sole came off.
“If it’s still about Mark, I think it’s time you got over it already. He’s so not worth it.”
Melissa hugged her handbag. “You don’t understand what’s it like. I left everything for him to come here so we could be in the same school only to find out that he was cheating on me.”
“Screw him!” Jennifer said out loud. A family who was sitting nearby looked up at them as they walked by and Melissa felt her face getting warm.
Jennifer had never been in love like she had been, so obviously her friend wasn’t going to understand how heartbroken she still felt. Her parents had wanted her to go to law school; instead she had fought them on this decision and told them she was going with Mark to a culinary school even though she had no interest in it all. Mark wanted to be a chef and open his own restaurant someday, and that had been enough for her. She would help him with his dream even if it meant going against her parents. They didn’t understand her or her love for Mark. So right after graduation, she had applied to the Culinary school and been admitted to the spring batch alongside Mark. Her parents were furious with her decision, but all she could think of was her future with Mark.
“If you ask me,” Jennifer said, breaking into her thoughts, “he was way too dominating. He won’t even let you go anywhere by yourself. I mean, if Riya hadn’t told me about this place, we would have never even found this.”
Melissa smiled at her but said nothing. Mark had been like that. Ever since they had come here, Mark had taken her to malls and drive-ins, but never for a walk in such a beautiful place like this. She could feel the extra pounds she had put on after the break-up melting away in the July heat. Even now as she thought about all the ice-creams and éclairs she had hogged on, she could feel nothing but contempt at her herself. How could she have let herself go like that?
Jennifer paused suddenly and leaned against the railing. “The lagoon is so beautiful.” she remarked.
“It is.” Melissa said and put her hands on the railing. Her hands were sweaty and her hair hung down in damp tendrils. Her t-shirt was uncomfortably clinging to her, but Melissa could feel nothing but invigorated. She could feel the pain in her heart subsiding as a drop of sweat rolled down her face. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
“Dude, that’s an urban legend!” she heard a boy guffaw.
A gust of cold wind brushed her face and Melissa opened her eyes and blinked.
“Did you feel that too?” Jennifer asked.
“That was weird.” Melissa turned around and saw the group of college kids she had seen earlier. One of the boys looked really serious as he explained something to his friend. The girl who was with him appeared sullen.
The cold wind brushed against her again and Melissa shivered. She turned to look at her friend whose face was contorted in puzzlement. Melissa looked across the road to where she was looking and knew why her friend looked so confused. There were people coming out in large numbers from the shops and theatres and walking away from the street in a hurry. Shops were starting to close down and people were getting into their cars and driving away.
“This is really just absurd.” Jennifer said, watching a car pass them by. “Is there a fire or something?”
Melissa saw a family, who was sitting on a bench, frantically gather their things. She walked over to them and handed them a plastic bag that had dropped from their table. “What’s wrong?” she asked the woman.
The woman looked at her husband as he caught the hands of his two young sons. She saw fear in their eyes and they seemed to be communicating telepathically.
“Nothing’s wrong.” the man said. “We just have an appointment elsewhere and we completely forgot about the time.”
Melissa looked back at the woman who was busy stuffing everything into her tiny bag. “Everyone is in such a hurry all of a sudden. We were wondering if there was an emergency or something.”
“It’s nothing.” the man said. “It’s always so busy on these streets.”
“Yeah but people tend to be busy on the streets rather than running away.” Jennifer added.
The family ignored them and left without another word. Melissa felt a shiver run down
her spine as the wind blew on her.
“I must be coming down with something, because I’m starting to freeze.” Jennifer said. “What’s gotten into everyone?”
Melissa shrugged her shoulders. Even though almost everyone around them were leaving, the group she had spotted earlier, were still there huddled and talking about something.
“I think we should go to.” Jennifer said. “This is just too weird.”
Melissa nodded in agreement and felt her skin crawl with gooseflesh when she heard the low howl of the wind. The streets were empty now, except for a few abandoned cars, the group of people she had seen earlier and them. The buildings behind the shops looked deserted too.
Jennifer took her arm and started to walk faster as the temperatures started to drop lower.
“Did you hear that?” she asked and Melissa looked at her, not understanding at first. Seconds later, the night filled with sounds of approaching motorcycle engines. Melissa saw Jennifer’s mouth drop open.
“Run!” she screamed and both girls started to sprint.
Melissa could feel her heart thudding rapidly and she tried to tell herself that the motorcycles belonged to the cops, but her gut told her otherwise. Something was wrong and something bad was going to happen.
They had barely taken a few steps when they heard a loud crackle.
Jennifer let out a scream and Melissa hugged her. They turned around to see the street lamps going off one by one. The rows of houses across the lagoon were suddenly plunged into darkness and Melissa put her hand on her mouth.
They heard another loud crackle as the street lamps shut off and before Melissa could catch a breath, the last of the lamps went off, leaving the street in complete darkness.
Chapter Two
It took Melissa several seconds to realize that she had been holding her breath. The streets were completely dark and it was so quiet, she could hear Jennifer breathing heavily. She counted to ten in her mind; telling herself that any second now the back-up generators would come back on and everything would be fine. ‘It was only a blackout’ she told herself, ‘and even though the street lamps might not come on, one of the shops in the street was bound to have an inverter’.
She felt a hand on her upper arm and almost screamed before realizing it was only Jennifer.
“Let’s get out of here!” she gasped. “The darkness...I can’t breathe.”
Melissa hugged her friend tight, trying to comfort her but realizing that she too needed comfort. When they were kids and used to have sleepovers, Jennifer had always been the one to create a big fuss whenever the lights would be switched off. Melissa had thought that her friend had overgrown her fears by now, but seeing her best friend trembling in her grip and gasping, proved otherwise.
“It’s going to be okay.” Melissa whispered to her. “We’ll just turn around and walk back. In a few minutes, we’ll be on familiar streets. Or if we’re really lucky, we might find a cab.”
“Call Riya.” Jennifer said. “Have her come pick us up.”
Melissa nodded and then realized that Jennifer couldn’t see her movements. “Okay.” she said and quickly took out her cell phone. She switched it on and frowned. “No service.”
“What?” Jennifer asked and snatched her phone from her fingers. She stared at the screen for some time before pulling out her own. “I don’t have any bars!”
“We have a Plan B.” Melissa told her. “We’ll walk back the way we came and we can use the lights from our cell phones to guide us.”
She saw Jennifer give her a small smile as she pushed a few buttons on her cell phone. “Fine, but we better start walking faster, because my battery is kind of low.”
“We’ll make it.” Melissa said and took Jennifer’s hand. She swallowed when she saw that Jennifer’s hands were freezing cold in her own. She hadn’t wanted to alarm her friend, but why was it getting colder? It was the middle of July for heaven’s sake. She tried to listen for some sounds and heaved a sigh of relief when she heard voices beside them.
“I knew it!” a boy’s voice said. “We should have left when we had the chance!”
“Ooh! Is the little baby scared of the dark?” Another boy teased.
Melissa clenched her hands into fists. Something had happened and all these boys could do was make fun of everything. People were scared. Jennifer was scared. She was terrified. And where were the police to make sure the civilians were safe and able to make their way to their homes? What kind of city was this?
Melissa stopped suddenly when she heard a low metal sound. “What was that?” she whispered to Jennifer.
“I don’t know.” she said but moved her cell phone towards the sound.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
The soft metal sound echoed all around them and Melissa could feel her heart thudding. She squeezed Jennifer’s hand who squeezed back.
“It’s coming from right ahead.” Jennifer said.
Melissa shone her cell phone downwards so that she could see where she was walking. She hoped they would get off the streets soon before the battery went out.
“Hey!” someone called them from behind.
Jennifer let out a small gasp and pulled on Melissa’s arm, signaling her to stop.
A boy came running towards them with a pencil light waving in front of him. “Do you girls have a signal on your cell phones?”
“No.” Melissa said, taking a deep breath. She shaded her eyes as the boy shone his torch on her face.
“That’s weird, don’t you think?” the boy said. “I’m Shane, by the way. I was talking to my brother when the call just disconnected. And then the blackout. How weird is this?”
“We’re making our way back to our college dorms.” Melissa said. “Do you guys know if we can catch a cab here?”
Shane looked at her thoughtfully. “You must be new here. No, this is a pedestrian only street. To catch a cab, you’ll have to take a right from the street corner and then walk for about two blocks.”
“Great!” Melissa said. “But can’t I call a cab...? Oh, no cell phones signal.”
“Hey, if you want, we could walk with you girls and make sure you’re safe.” Shane suggested. “We live in the dorms too.”
“That’s...uh...”Melissa glanced at Jennifer who still looked like a scared mouse. It was dark and scary and did they really want a couple of strangers taking them somewhere?
“Hi.” a girl said. “What’s going on here?”
“I was asking these two girls to join us. They’re new here and don’t know the directions.” Shane explained to the girl.
“Actually, we’re not that lost.” Melissa said quickly.
The girl looked at her thoughtfully and in the dim light, Melissa could suddenly see her break into a smile. “Hey, aren’t you Melissa Torres?”
“Yes? Do I know you?”
“I’m Fiona.” The girl said. “Fiona Beader? My Dad and your dad are friends. We met like six years ago?”
“Oh, yeah.” Melissa said and smiled back at her. “How are you?”
“Standing here in the dark.” Fiona laughed. “Do you go to school here? Which school do you go to?”
“I go to the Fawnstreet Culinary School.” Melissa said. “You?”
“Law school.” Fiona answered. “This is so great, seeing you here.”
“Do you live around here?” Melissa asked.
“No. I moved here like six months ago. We have like so much catching up to do.”
“Can we get out of here first?” Jennifer asked. “My phobia is kicking in. Can we please, get out of here?”
“You know what, we should all stick together.” Fiona suggested. “Rafe here knows the streets; he’ll guide us out of the darkness.”
“Let’s go!” Jennifer said.
Fiona called to her other friends. “Okay, quick introductions. This is Shane, Rafe, Keith and Sara. Guys this is Melissa and...”
“Jennifer.”
“We should walk quickly.” Rafe said and ever
yone started to walk behind him.
Melissa wondered again if it was a good idea to walk with complete strangers, but Fiona wasn’t a stranger, was she? On the other hand, they weren’t really the best of friends either.
Rafe stopped suddenly and waved his pencil light ahead of him. “What the hell is that?”
Melissa came up from behind him and put her cell phone closer to where he was looking. She sucked in a breath as she saw steel netting right before her. She let her cell phone travel upwards and a gasp escaped her throat.
“What’s going on?” Jennifer said in a frightened voice. “Why are we stopping?”
“There’s a fence here.” Melissa said. Shane walked on their right and followed the fence with his torch.