The Middle Realm

by Alessia Mattei

  “Who knows, but you realize it now. Better late than never,” Emma said, “Sometimes in order to understand someone, you need to look at things from their perspective. Try to see what they’re seeing. Trust me, it really helps shed light on problems when you look at them from a different angle”

  Wow. All my life I’ve focused on one perspective, and that was my own. I really need to learn to look at things through others’ eyes. Doing so will open a passageway to new solutions. I always knew that Emma is intelligent, but I’ve never known her to be so wise. I like this new Emma a lot.

  “I better get back to Alexander,” Emma said. As she is getting out of the car, the garage door went up. The lights turned on and I saw my dads Benz pulling in. Once the car is in the garage, the door went down. My parents got out of the car and walked over to Emma.

  “Savannah, what are you doing in here? It’s dark,” she said.

  “I had to get something out of my car. How was dinner with Dr. and Mrs. Johnson?” she asked.

  “It was nice to see them,” my mom said. “They send their deepest condolences to Emma’s family. They feel so bad about what happened”

  Dr. and Mrs. Johnson were my parent’s closest friends. They had never had children of their own and my sister and I were like the children they never had. They were the ones who babysat us and were always a part of our lives.

  “Not to change the subject Emma, but did you pick up the cat food like we asked you to?” my dad asked.

  The reason he asked is that he was hoping that it’s been taken care of because he has had a long day and didn’t feel like going out. It isn’t real late, but it is dark already. Besides, if Boo had none of his food he would start eating the dog’s food and the dogs would not be happy about it. Chaos would erupt. My dad just wanted to keep the peace.

  “I forgot. I’m so sorry,” Emma, said, “I’ll go right now”

  “Honey, it’s too late. Boo Bradley will be fine until tomorrow,” my mom said.

  “No, I promised to take care of it and I will. I’ll just hit one of those 24hour stores. It’s not that late. I’ll be fine,” Emma said.

  “Take Alexander with you,” my dad said.

  “It’s fine. I’m a big girl. I can do it myself,” Emma said, ”I won’t be gone long at all”

  Emma went into the house to change her shoes and grab her purse. I followed her. She is not going to go alone. I tried to convince her to bring Alexander, but no. She refused. Finally I said I would go with her and she agreed. Good, because she couldn’t stop me anyway. Before she left, she kissed Alexander. He felt bad that she wouldn’t let him go with her. She told him he had to stop Boo Radley from eating the dog food. We never ran out of dog food. For some reason, we never bought enough cat food.

  Emma and I went down the stairs and into the garage. Alexander is now walking down the stairs to join my parents in the living room. Arianna is probably spending the night at her boyfriend’s house. I’m sure she told my parents she was staying with one of her friends. Once inside the garage, Emma unlocked the car with the press of a button. She opened the door and got in as I slid effortlessly into the passenger side. She pulled out of the garage and stopped when she got to the end of the driveway. She looked in both directions. When it was clear, she made a right and we drove through the subdivision until we came to the main street that took us to the entrance of the subdivision. We made another right onto the main road. Emma pressed the button that turned on the satellite radio. I offered to flip through the channels so she could focus on driving. I ’m happy I could at least turn the knob. I went through many stations until we found one. It was the station that played Alternative rock. We hit in the middle of a song by some bad we never heard of. Then a song we both loved started playing, “I‘m not Okay” by My Chemical Romance. This should be our theme song. It says it all. Emma is the one who turned the volume up and started singing. I joined her. We were huge My Chemical Romance fans in high school and sang this song out loud every time we heard it on the radio or when we listened to the album. We were made fun of for liking the band. I know I’ve said it many times but it felt good to be doing something so familiar. I felt alive, again. When the song was over, we laughed. We reminisced about the concerts and shows we had been to and how we managed to sneak backstage more than a couple times. We reminisced about high school. I don’t know why Emma took a longer route to get to the nearest Wal-Mart, but I didn’t mind. It meant I got to spend time with my best friend.

  Ch. 44

  Once we got to the store, Emma parked the car and turned off the radio. I told her to park closer to the entrance, but she wouldn’t. She wanted to keep my car away from others so it wouldn’t get scratched or dented. She grabbed her purse. She also grabbed her phone, which was sitting in the cup holder. I really didn’t like the fact that she is doing this by herself. Alexander could have gone with her, but no. She couldn’t have that. I am really getting nervous. I looked around. There are some seedy-looking people -- which is weird, because this is a wealthier area.

  “Emma, go back to the car. I really don’t think you should be here. The stupid cat can wait. Let’s go home,” I said.

  She shook her head. Emma is not about to listen to me.

  “You shouldn’t be here. Get back in that car right now,” I demanded her.

  What happened next is one of my worst nightmares come true. Two men in there 30s walked up to Emma. They had on worn-out jeans and hoodies. They looked dirty and angry. They didn’t look like they were from around here. The tall one spoke to Emma. She stood still out of fear.

  “Hey, girly. What are you doing out here all alone at night?” the tall one asked.

  Emma didn’t say anything. Since she is only five, ten feet from her car, she pressed the button on the remote to unlock it. At the sound of the car unlocking, the two men immediately knew which car is hers. It is quite obvious, since it is the closest, and there weren’t many other cars in the parking lot. This is not good.

  “Wow, honey. You got one hell of a car. Did Daddy buy it for you?” he said, referring to my red Camaro.

  “Emma, run to the car,” I told her. She is close enough. She took off toward the car, but the two men got to her first. They knocked her down. She hit the ground hard. As she fell she dropped her keys and cell phone. I could have sworn I heard bone breaking. One of the men, the shorter one picked up the phone.

  “Hey, look. It’s one of those fancy iPhones,” he said. The tall man took the phone out the short mans hand, placed it under his foot and stepped on it, the cracking of the screen echoed off the cement.

  “Why did you do that?” asked the short man, shocked by what just happened.

  “She’ll try to call for help. We can’t take a chance. Also, something with a satellite being able to pick up her location,” he said.

  As the two idiots argued, I tried to comfort Emma. She is holding her arm. The sound of breaking bone I heard earlier was Emma’s arm. As I got a better look at her, the palms of her hands were scraped. She began to cry.

  “Emma, you’ll be okay,” I said to her. It’s all I could think to say. I had to try to help her. I can’t leave her here. I could have tried to use the phone, but I can’t use a touch screen phone. It’s too late for that anyway. As I was trying to think of something I could do, one of the men kicked her in the ribs. He kicked her hard. By now, I was so angry I pushed him as hard as I could. It didn’t do much excepts piss him off and cause him to beat on his friend. So that is pointless.

  After the two men fought with each other, they decided they should leave. The short man picked Emma up while the tall one opened the trunk. He lowered her in gently. Why they would be gentle with her as they put her in the trunk after kicking her is beyond me. They closed the trunk then got into the car. They noted that it is fully loaded, a bonus. As Emma lay afraid and in pain in the darkened trunk, I appeared to her. She would not be happy about me leaving for a short time, but I needed help. I told her I would be back w
ith the rest of the group, that we would do everything we could to save her.

  “Emma, I hate to leave you, but I need to go for help. I won’t be long. Please try to hold on,” I said.

  “I don’t want to die. Savannah, please hurry. I’m scared,” Emma said.

  “You’re not dying tonight. You still have a full life to live. There is no way it’s ending right here and right now,” I said. I exited from the trunk of my car.

  I took off running through the night to get back to my house. As I ran I looked for a portal. Go figure, when I need one I can never find one. When I don’t need one there are plenty. It didn’t really matter that I didn’t find one because I was back at my house in no time. I ran through the front door calling out for my friends. Edgar is the first to meet me at the foot of the stairs. The others were behind him wondering what’s happening.

  “Edgar, Savannah has been kidnapped by two men. They knocked her down and then kicked her really hard in the ribs. Then they put her in the trunk. I don’t know where they’re taking her. We have to do something. What if they rape her and then kill her,” I said.

  “Did anyone else see what happened?” Edgar asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. All I know is that we can’t wait to see if anyone saw anything. We have to do something now. Her life is in danger,” I said.

  “Did they have any weapons?” he asked.

  Why does he have to ask so many questions? Emma’s life is in danger. We need to do something other than stand here and play twenty questions.

  “No, I didn’t see any. Edgar, we have to try to do something now. We can’t wait,” I said.

  “Savannah, we’re ghosts. We can only do so much,” He said.

  I hadn’t even noticed that Camille and Whitney had come down the stairs until they were standing next to me and Camille had her hand on my shoulder. I had also noticed Griffin sitting at the top of the stairs. Willow was sitting next to him.

  “Edgar, we have to try to do something. We can’t just leave her,” Camille said.

  “Come on, Edgar. We have to try. Who knows, maybe we can help her. If not, at least we know we tried,” William said. Whitney nodded in agreement.

  The whole group wanted to help. Even Edgar, but he is reluctant. I know he wanted to, but he was afraid we could be seen. It took some reasoning, but he did agree.

  “We’ll do what we can,” he said, “Griffin, stay here and see if you can tell Savannah’s parents what happened. Try leaving a message for them somehow. Do what you can”

  Griffin nodded and went into the kitchen to figure out a way to leave a message for my parents and Alexander. I followed him. I had to ask him if he knows where Patrick is. I hadn’t seen him yet, so he must not be back.

  “Griffin, Patrick hasn’t come back, I take it,” I asked.

  “No, he hasn’t,” Griffin, said, “You guys must have had a bad fight. I’m sure he’ll be back. When he gets here I’ll tell him to go find you. Do you know where you’ll be?”

  “No, I have no idea. Who knows where they’re taking Emma. Which is why we have to leave now so we can catch up with them,” I said, “just try to get a message across to my parents to call the police,” I said.

  “I’ll do my best,” Griffin said.

  “Thanks,” I told Griffin.

  I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. My parents and Alexander were watching television and talking. They are blissfully unaware about what is going on around them. Hopefully soon they would find out. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw William fly out the front door. He was in a hurry. I really hope he isn’t leaving without the rest of us. I went to find Edgar. He should know what is going on. I found him in my old room.

  “Edgar, I just saw William leave. He looks like he is in a hurry. What’s going on,” I asked.

  “He’s looking for a car for us to borrow. There has to be a spirit with a car around here somewhere. Don’t worry. As soon as he gets back, we’ll be on our way,” Edgar said. “Savannah, don’t worry. We’ll do all we can to save Emma, just try to stay positive,”

  It’s hard to stay positive when everything looks so bleak. At first I felt somewhat hopeful, that we did have a chance to save Emma. Now I’m beginning to feel doubtful. What if we aren’t able to get to her in time? I can’t believe this happened. You hear about stuff like this on the news all the time. You never think it could happen to you or somebody you know.

  William soon came back. It didn’t take him long. Thank god. Now we hopefully can be on our way.

  “You found a car?” Edgar asked.

  “Even better, I found two cars. When I told the owners what happened, they felt bad. They said that if we needed help, they’d help us,” William said.

  “Good job, William,” Edgar said patting William on the back, “Everyone, we’re leaving now. Griffin, you know what to do,”

  Ch. 45

  With that, everyone went outside. Waiting in front of the house was a teal Chevy Bel Air and a black Mustang. Edgar, Camille and I got into the Bel Air and Whitney and William got into the Mustang. We were soon taking the same route Emma and I had taken earlier.

  Meanwhile, back at the house, Griffin was trying, emphasis on the word trying, to get the attention of my parents and Alexander. First, he went to the refrigerator and arranged the letter magnets to read out ‘help, Savannah’. Unfortunately there were not enough a’s and n’s to successfully spell out his message. Next he tried using the dry erase board. That worked relatively well, until he realized he spelled ‘Savannah’ wrong. We don’t have an eraser for the dry erase board anymore. We lost it and never bothered replacing it since the side of your hand works just as well at erasing. Being a ghost, Griffin had no hand to erase the writing, so he took the board and threw it behind the fridge. The sound of the board hitting the floor caused my dad to go into the kitchen to see what caused the noise. Griffin immediately regretted throwing the dry erase board. As Griffin stood there scared to death, my dad searched for the source of the noise. Griffin soon spotted a pen and paper on the counter. As he was making his way to it, my mom called from the living room to see if my dad found anything.

  “Honey, is everything okay in there? Did you find what fell?” she asked.

  “No,” my dad said.

  “Was it Boo or one of the dogs?” She asked again.

  “No, none of the animals are down here, they’re all upstairs in Savannah’s room,” he said, “It’s probably nothing,”

  My dad then turned out the light and went to join my mom and Alexander in the living room. Griffin isn’t happy. He is determined to get his message across. In the large dark kitchen, Griffin walked back to the counter where the paper and pen were sitting. He sat on one of the stools. He pulled the paper toward him; along the top were pictures of dolphins. It is the kind of stationary charities sent as a thank you for donating. He picked up the pen and began to write.

  “Savannah is in danger and needs your help. Call the police.”

  After Griffin wrote his message, he took the pad of paper and placed it in the middle of the kitchen table. He then started to make more noise to get everyone into the kitchen. He started slamming cabinets and drawers and banging the pots hanging above the island in the middle of the kitchen. My dad again went back into the kitchen and turned on the light. Everything had stopped.

  “Boo Radley, if that’s you making all that noise, you better stop right now or you’ll be down to eight lives,” he said angrily, “stupid cat”.

  I couldn’t believe my dad thought it was Boo making all that noise. One cat cannot possibly slam cupboard doors and drawers at the same time. Nor could he get to the pots and pans hanging above the island. Griffin would have to resort to doing something he really felt bad about doing. That would be breaking stuff. He didn’t want to break stuff that belonged to other people, but he had no choice. If it got them in the kitchen and they saw the note he had written, then it would be worth it.

  His first victim would b
e an innocent bottle of wine sitting on the counter next to the refrigerator. He knocked it over and it crashed to the floor with a loud bang. The deep red wine stained the black and white tile floor. It almost looked like blood. Next Griffin opened up the cupboard and knocked stacks of dishes and bowls onto the floor. The last victim was a vintage cookie jar. Everyone came into the kitchen. Sam, the black lab, is with them. He is growling, ready to protect everyone. That is until he saw that it was Griffin who had caused the trouble. He liked Griffin he decided.

  “Oh my god, my kitchen,” my mom gasped as she stared at the mess.

  “That’s it. That damn cat is out of here,” my dad said.

  “Carl, there is no way Boo Radley could have done all this. The cookie jar is too heavy for him to move. All the stuff that fell was on the highest shelf in the cupboard. Look, nothing on the two lower shelves has been touched. If it was Boo Radley, then everything would have fallen,” my mom said.

  “I’m sure he knocked down the wine. Great, now it’s probably going to stain the tiles,” he said.

  “You’re overreacting,” she said.

  Griffin stood by the table waiting for someone to see the note. Nobody went near the table; they were all busy cleaning up around the cupboard. Griffin then realized he should have left the note on the counter where someone surely would have seen it. As they were cleaning, Sam walked around the kitchen. He went up to Griffin with his tail wagging. He started to bark.

  “Sam, shut up. I don’t feel like listening to you right now,” my dad said.

  Sam stopped barking. He just wanted to play. He put his paws up on the table. He then grabbed the note and ran off with it. Griffin was not happy. There were other things the dog could have grabbed, the newspaper, and the magazine, that thing that holds the napkins. But no, he grabbed the note. Griffin ran after him. Alexander, having a dog of his own, was suspicious at Sam’s running out of the room so suddenly. He suspected the dog had something he shouldn’t.