Unspoken Connection

7. Home

“I’m all ears whenever you’re ready to tell me what happened,” my aunt spoke as she held my hand.

Her eyes were focused on the traffic ahead, but she would sneak glances at me, checking and offering reassurance.

“I don’t even know,” I started,

“One minute I was looking at the sky, and the next I was on the ground,” I continued, rubbing the back of my head.

“I think they hit me with their car. I-I’m not sure,” I added.

“I just know that I was kidnapped, and they talked about ransoming me off to some mute Asians,” I continued, rambling on as I ran out of air.

I took a deep breath, finally giving my aunt a chance to talk.

“So, are we going to the police station?” she asked.

“Yes, please.”

We made our way to the precinct in our neighborhood.

When we arrived at the precinct, a palpable tension hung in the air, thick and uneasy. The exterior, with its stern gray façade, seemed to reflect the gravity of the place. A mix of subdued voices and echoing footsteps permeated the atmosphere, creating an undercurrent of urgency and purpose.

The entrance, guarded by imposing doors, creaked open, revealing a dimly lit lobby. Fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a sterile glow on the worn linoleum floors. The scent of stale coffee and paper lingered, familiar yet tinged with an aura of seriousness.

Officers moved with purpose, their expressions ranging from focused determination to weary resolve. The low murmur of conversations and occasional ringing phones created a buzz of activity.

Bulletin boards adorned with wanted posters and crime scene photos lined the walls. Familiar faces stood out amid the wanted posters, some from my captors, but one stood out more than the others. It was an aerial shot of Matt walking into a building.

‘Oh no.’

“Auntie, we have to leave right now,” I said as I took my aunt’s hand, pulling her from the building.

“What’s the matter, Rox?” my aunt asked, confused. She added, “Are we not gonna report what happened?”

“I think we’ll be safer if we report it anonymously,” I replied, still hauling a*s to the car.

“Okay, but slow down; you’re gonna make me fall,” Aunt Julia struggled to get her words out.

When we got back to the car, there was a note stuck between the wipers on the windshield.

‘Hurry home.’

The two words sent chills down both our spines, and my aunt, now realizing the gravity of the situation, was losing her cool.

“What the hell have we gotten mixed up in?” she screamed.

“I don’t know,” I replied apologetically.

“Let’s go,” she urged, searching her handbag for the car keys.

A string of curse words left her as she searched.

“Bomboclaat people goodly a try kill we now,” she started.

“Hurry home,” she repeated the words in the message.

“Juss dat mi a go do, guh a mi yaad” [That’s exactly what I’m going to do, go home], she continued her rant under her breath.

Opening the car, we jumped in and headed home.

On the way back home, I felt something tapping against my foot. Bending down to inspect, it seemed like a plastic bag, but it had a bit of weight to it. When I pulled it out, turns out it was just my phone in a ziplock bag. Left me wondering how it ended up in there during all that craziness.

‘I thought I had lost it.’

Tapping my body, I realized I had also lost my keys as well.

‘They must have been left in the bag that I had when I was taken.’

‘How did this get here?’

____

My aunt unceremoniously announced our arrival, honking the horn multiple times after we had parked.

Before entering the house, she scanned the area.

“We can never be too safe,” she whispered as she did it.

“Why are you whispering now?” I asked, trying my best not to laugh at the sight of her sneaking around in the dark.

“You have to be smart, Roxanne,” her voice confident, which made it all even more comical. She was now army-crawling alongside the bushes.

“I honked the horn to make everyone aware of our arrival, thus scaring away any intruders.” She did a mixture of whispering and shouting.

“Auntie, get up. I doubt anyone is there. The sooner we get in, the sooner we can call in and report and put this day behind us.” I said, sighing as I walked past her figure still crawling on the ground.

Walking up to the front door, I waited for her to come open up so I could finally go inside.

I looked back to see her jump up off the ground into a full-on sprint toward the door.

‘Am I the only sane one here?’

Grabbing her keys, she frantically opened the door; there really was no better way to describe what she did.

Instead of calmly trying the keys into the keyhole, she was shoving them in, causing them to rattle and make noise in the empty space. She kept looking around as she did it, making her seem more like the intruder she was wary of instead of the resident she was.

When we finally made it into the house, nothing was awry. After checking the rooms, Aunt Julia was satisfied enough to call it a night.

I got ready for bed and went to shut my window, and that’s when I caught a glimpse of two figures walking toward the neighboring building's shadows. Squinting my eyes, I tried my best to see who they were.

One of them was tapping on their phone screen, then they proceeded to show it to the other who stood beside them. Right before stepping into the darkness of the shadows, both figures turned and looked directly at me. The one who had tapped on the phone screen raised their right arm and offered a slight wave.

‘Is that Matt?’