The Return

wooden door. The roof was terracotta tiles.

  It was such a plain looking house that needed a paint job. No one could ever guess that inside lived a kidnapper and from what the media had labeled him- a pedophile.

  He was going to kill her. Jardin Grover- a man who had been like a father to her, was going to kill her because he couldn't afford to take care of her anymore.

  She tore through the tape and tossed it aside. There was more tape on the door as the lock was broken. Using her nails, she kept ripping at it. She hated him! She hated the man who had been drugging her. She hated the man who was going to kill her rather than let her return to her real family.

  She hated the man who had imprisoned another girl in the house.

  She pushed the door open with her shoulder and walked in. Wasting no time, she rushed to the passage between two rooms where she had seen the girl.

  "Are you here? I've come back," she announced.

  The house was too dark for her to discern the presence of another being. Rushika put out her hands in front of her and felt for the light switch.

  "Are you still in here?" She called out.

  There was no reply. Just the heavy silence and the darkness. Her fingers finally touched plastic and she pushed on the switch. There was a click, but no light came on.

  "Oh, no." Something about being alone in the house, in the dark, was scaring her. For years she had only known the world in a room. That room belonged to this house, but she had never explored it except for the day she had been searching for the keys.

  She had to calm down. Taking deep breaths, she cleared her mind, just as her therapist had advised.

  There had to be a flashlight somewhere. Matches even. Jardin was trying to burn down the house, so he must have a lighter or matches somewhere around.

  Her breath sounded ragged to her own ears as she navigated around the house, using only the moonlight from the windows. It was in the kitchen that she found a gas lighter. She pushed on the button and a tiny flame shot up. Not enough to illuminate the room, but enough for her to look for some candles in the drawer.

  After spending minutes rummaging through the doors, all Rushika could find was a small coin, three bread clips and a small sachet of seasoning from an instant noodles packet. She left the kitchen and went down the passage and thought she saw a movement at the end.

  She held her breath. Was it her?

  Waving the gas lighter in front of her, she called out again, but received no reply.

  "I'm coming," she said and turned to the nearest door on the right. Pushing it open, she stepped inside and put a hand over her nose. The stench, that hit her nostrils, was putrid.

  It's as if something died in here.

  Rushika felt for the light switch again and found it on the right. Again, the lights didn't come on, but she did spot a lantern on the small table by the bed. Lighting it up, she held it up and looked around the room.

  The room was small, with light pink curtains on the large window, a dirty teal carpet on the wood floors and chipped sky blue paint on the walls. She had never been here before, but considering it was larger than the room she had been locked away in, she supposed this may have been Jardin's room.

  The bed was in a disheveled state, the covers were thrown off and the pillows had cotton coming out of it. Everywhere around the room, she saw small yellow stickers with numbers on them. Whether Jardin had numbered the items himself or the police had done it, she didn't know.

  She never knew Jardin after all.

  In front of her was the wardrobe made of dark wood which was wide open. There were no clothes there, just cards with numbers on it.

  In the corner, on the floor were more cards with numbers on them and Rushika swallowed. Was that where Jardin had died?

  Suddenly, she didn't want to be in this room anymore. It was getting harder to breathe. With the lantern in her hand, she started to leave, when a movement caught her eye.

  Another shadow. A moving shadow.

  She turned, expecting to see the girl she had come for, hiding out of fear. Instead, she saw something white sticking out from between the wooden planks on the floor. Rushika came closer to the wardrobe and dropped to her knees.

  Putting the lantern beside her, she touched the edge of the white paper, gingerly, before pulling it out with her nails.

  It was a picture. Of a girl. The girl.

  Rushika had hardly seen the girl's features. She had long dark hair, was sickly thin with hollow cheeks, but the girl in the picture had to be her.

  Sitting on the floor, she studied the picture in her hand. In it, the girl was lying on the mattress and appeared to be sick. Her dark hair was thin and the small pink frock barely covered her legs. She looked frightened and even in the picture, seemed to be screaming for help.

  Rushika looked down at the plank and saw that there were large spaces around it, compared to the others. Slipping her fingers in, she pulled and felt the plank rise. When she saw more photographs inside, she almost dropped the plank back.

  Her mouth dropped open as she pulled out the photographs. There was a girl with dark hair and pale skin, featured in all of them. When she turned them, on the back she found a name written: Mia.

  Rushika let out a breath as she sifted through the photographs. There were three photos of Mia at the age of ten. Three more when she was eleven. Four when she was twelve and by the time Mia had turned eighteen, the number of photographs had increased to two dozen.

  In all the pictures, Mia was sitting on a mattress and staring up at the camera. Her eyes looked darker in every picture, her skin paler and it was obvious that she had lost a lot of weight until her bones were sticking out.

  Rushika dropped the photos and put her hands on her mouth to stifle a scream. Jardin was a horrible man. How could she ever have thought of him to be her savior, her guardian?

  Rising to her feet, she was flooded with guilt at not saving the girl before, for not accepting her real family because she had held a dim hope that Jardin would come back for her and take care of her. How could she have been so foolish?

  Rushika stared at the scattered photographs on the floor of the girl. Mia- that was her name. She was around here somewhere, lost and probably terrified.

  "Mia!" she called out. "I'm here. I've come to save you."

  She rushed out the room with the lantern in her hand.

  "Where are you?"

  The passageway. That was where she had seen her first. Turning around, Rushika caught her breath when she saw another moving shadow and then saw a dark figure of a girl, standing before her.

  "Mia?" she crept closer and raised her lantern. "I've come back. I promised I would. It took me a long time, but I'm here. And I'm sorry."

  Mia didn't move and it was when Rushika came closer, that she suddenly felt her breath leave her. In front of her was a full length mirror. The girl staring back at her, was her. Blinking, she looked at her reflection. Looked at her own dark hair, her wide brown eyes and pale skin. The only thing colorful about her image was the pink jacket she had thrown over her white pajamas.

  She felt the lantern slip from her fingers and roll on the floor.

  Had it been her all this time?

  She remembered what her mother had told her. About how Jardin had been drugging her. About how there had been gasoline fumes all over the house.

  She had been hallucinating all this time.

  Rushika remembered that fateful day. She had been searching for the drugs, not a way out. She had crossed the passage and seen a stack of letters on a small table. The envelope had Jardin's name on it. That's how she had known his name. Subconsciously, she had retained that information and used a different medium to tell her what she needed to know.

  Her mind had screamed for her to escape, but she had been too preoccupied, searching for drugs.

  Rushika felt tears in her eyes. Her subconscious mind had saved her that day. Maybe Jardin had shown her a picture of Mia
as well, which was why she had seen her. Or maybe, when she had been young and brought in, she must have seen Mia then.

  Putting a hand to her forehead, Rushika started to sob. Then wiping her tears, she stared at herself in the mirror. It was time to go now. It was time to go home.

  She bent down to pick up the lantern, and when she looked back in the mirror, she didn't see pajama-clad legs. but bare pale legs. Rushika swallowed and looked up slowly. The girl before her was not wearing pajamas or a jacket over it. Her hair was not neatly combed and her skin was not pale.

  Rushika straightened and gasped. The girl before her was dressed in a pale pink, tattered dress. Her hair was tousled and her skin had blue veins sticking out of them. Her lips were blue, her nose was twisted and her eyes were hollow.

  "Mia?"

  The being before her, opened her mouth and screamed.

  Rushika put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. "Stop!"

  When she removed her hands, Mia had stopped screaming and was no longer standing before her. Turning, Rushika saw a shadow move.

  "Mia!"

  But the girl didn't listen. The front door opened, and she moved swiftly out. When the door slammed close, Rushika felt her panic rising.

  "Mia, stop!" She bent over to pick up the lantern and realized she couldn't grab it. The lantern was rolling back and forth on the floor, but her fingers were unable to grasp it. And when she pushed forward, her skin touched cool glass.

  Rushika stood straight and felt her breath caught in her throat. Putting her hands forward, she felt a barrier of cool glass