Ch. 10: The Missing Journal Part 3

"Run, Rose!" 

Valentin exclaimed as he grabbed the man's arms full of force. Rosaline's knees froze, but as soon as she regained a grip on herself, she headed straight to the front door. It wasn't long until she heard him screaming. 

"Val...?" She stopped and turned around.

Through the open door, she could see him inside the living room, locking the man’s arms to stop him from going near or getting a single hair out of her, yet Valentin was only five feet tall back then, so paled in comparison with the man who had become an adult and fully broad shouldered. No doubt that the man could easily shove him, and yes, he did it. He did it twice. Valentin's body was thrown several feet until finally ... she saw him there.... lying helplessly on the floor. 

“Stop it!” Rosaline stepped onto the wooden floor. Tears welled up in her eyes. Before she could reach him, Valentin had managed to stop her from entering the house. 

"Don't! Don’t come near here, Rose! Stay out!”

With the energy he had left, and whilst he involuntary lied down on the wooden floor, Valentin held the man's left foot with his fullest force. "Run!" He ordered. He kept his grip, even though the man was shoving him away.  Valentin's body was being dragged above the floor as the man hobbled toward her until finally..."What do you think you're doing?!" The man's foot struck hard against Valentin's face.

“Stop it! Leave him alone!" 

Rosaline pounded her fist over the man's shoulders, trying to stop him from hurting Valentin. Her actions annoyed the man very much, though it was like swatting a fly as she flew outside and landed harshly on the wild grass in front of the door.

"Rose!"

Seeing her being thrown quite far, Valentin grabbed the man’s foot again.

Outside, touching her back from feeling a sore, Rosaline stood. 

"Run, Rose! I said run!"

Ch. 10: The Missing Journal Part 2

"Hey!Open up!"

"You'll be sorry for this doing this!"

"Val?" whispered Rosaline behind him with a trembling voice.

She was lowering her body to avoid the man's attention. Shivering and cold, she couldn't even move her ankles or to help him to open the door. "Is he still there?" 

Valentin didn't answer. He kept banging on the door and shouting out loud, grabbed the door handle and pulled it hard -- even kicking it harshly, to get nothing more than his body stumbling backward with a pain pulsing on his toes.

"Aargh!" He shouted.

"If I just -can -break this!"

Crashing his body against the thick metal door, his fist pounded on its glass layer, hoping that once it got broken, he could reach the knob handle and turn it around, but "Ouch!" He groaned. All he could get was another pain on his right arm. 

"Are you okay?" Rosaline reached out to him. "Your hands... they're hurt."

"It's okay."  Valentin took his arms back. Rosaline was blowing air into his fist.  "It's nothing. I'm okay."
 
"No. You should stop doing this! Don't you remember that Dad had made it so one else could break it? You'll only get yourself hurts."

 "I know." He grunted, pulling his hand away from her. He didn't need to be told again of how his father had designed the isolated room so well that he often called it a bunker, a place to hide from war or catastrophe. "Still- if I just can-"

"Hey! Let us go-" Valentin turned away and ran to the door, yelling out loud and shouting some of the words he had not spoken before or of which his mother had forbidden him to say. However, Rosaline was right. Even the room was designed to be a soundproof that no one -- not even the man-- could possibly hear them. Sweating a lot from all of his efforts, his body crumpled onto the floor, pressing his forehead against the thick metal door.

"Val..." Rosaline reached out to him. The tips of her fingers were only few inches away, but  this time... she hesitated. She pulled her shivering hand and turned her face away, trying to hide her fears or for dropping her tears.

 "I'm sorry." She cried quietly.

Ch. 10: The Missing Journal Part 1

It felt like being trapped in an apparent death, until a cold, light drop fell on his cheek -- a haze in the night that woke him up. Moving his body, he felt stiff and there was no strength left  even to open his eyes.

"Whaa--t" He tried to speak. No words came out of his mouth. There were only gasps and dark vision encircling him. He had not a slightest idea of what had happened or how it did. The next thing he knew, his forehead throbbed. The pain in his stomach was killing him.


How could he have ended up in such a state? The last time he recalled of being in so much pain was ... when he opened his eyes and found himself being tide to a chair. The blood poured out of his mouth. It felt a lot worse when he bowed down to open a sack and  then the green colored air surrounded him.

“Val?” Rosaline's voice was heard.


Her fingers ran gently through his forelock. He could feel her breathing, soft and tender.  Her skin felt cold and even though her hands were shaking, his depression, anger and fear fell quietly within seconds. There was serenity as he found himself less battling to get his feet back on the ground. 

"Are you okay?"

His cheek became wet  with the fallen of another drop. It streamed down onto his mouth, went inside through the corner of his lips --  tugging  at the tip of his tongue. It tasted salty, like sea water or tears. He knew then that it was  her tears as he heard her sobbing. Why was she crying?

Opening his eyes, all he could see was a blur while everything around him veiled in the dark vision. Strangely though, his head wasn't throbbing, the feeling of nausea had  already stopped, it felt a lot better, and soon... a song was heard. 

He knew the song. It was a song his mother used to sing to them, even though it wasn't his mother that night. It was her... Her light and mellow voice, accompanied by tremors at  the end of each of her lines -- hoarsely, only the remainders of what's left after all the screaming and horror.

“Everything is going to be okay, right?” She whispered  while she's holding his hand. Her fingers were cold. He knew he must get up  to check up on her. 

Getting clearer vision, he had finally recognized his surroundings. They were still there... inside the basement. She should have run, but she stayed with him instead. She held him on her lap and that's why he felt so comfortable around  his head, but not on his feet as they  directly hit the floor. Still, he enjoyed sleeping on her lap. It felt like being a five year old boy again. Her warmth was so much like his mom's. Her tenderness melted him, and the song... the song had been and would always be the song he would never forget. 


Closing his eyes, he  had not moved his body an inch. He wanted to be that way, to be touched, to be loved, and to feel those feelings he had never felt before--  until a harsh jolt pushed him down, and she was taken away from him.

"Valentin, help!!!”

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