The Four - Chapter One

In a west coast city called Sterling Harbor, there lived a girl named Annette Ellis. Annette seemed like an average twelve-year-old girl with brown hair always kept in a single French braid, light brown eyes, and a well rounded nose and mouth. But as many discover along the course of life, many things are not quite as they seem. This was certainly true in Annette’s case, for she was quite advanced for her age. But other than that, she lived a fairly unremarkable life.

In that particular moment, Annette was strapping on her beige backpack. She was planning on taking a stroll to a nearby library, something she did often, as she loved to read. In one swift movement, she snatched her treasured library card off of her desk, slipped it in her pocket, and was ready to go. She was dressed in a well-made brown sweater that she had even knit herself, her special golden locket that had a picture of her and her parents inside, slim-fit khakis, and her favorite dark wash canvas sneakers with faded doodles on the rubber toes. Out the door of her apartment she went, softly humming to herself.

On the crowded street called Harbor Front Way, quite possibly the busiest street in all of Sterling Harbor, things were looking pretty strange. Of course, on a busy street, things were always bound to look at least a little strange, but Annette thought this was a bit stranger than usual. There was a black van parked directly in front of her apartment with the words “Glass House” and a little magnifying glass logo printed on it. Annette slowed her pace to examine it. She wondered what it was doing in front of her apartment, but having not come up with an answer, didn’t linger on the subject, as there were many other things to think about. One of those things was the two peculiar men a few yards in front of her. They were dressed in reflective sunglasses—which Annette deemed odd because it was cloudy outside—and nice silver suits—almost too nice, Annette thought, for the suits were perfectly pressed and didn’t have any noticeable sign of wear. When light hit them, they seemed to shimmer with a faint, oily rainbow effect that reminded Annette of a polished shard of glass. The men seemed to be in some kind of argument.

“Are you sure this is the right coordinate, Stryker? We don’t have time for another dead end, thanks to your lousy map reading,” the taller one said in a gruff sounding voice, motioning to the apartment. He had black hair that was slicked back tightly and eyebrows that were so well pruned and thin that they reminded Annette of needles.

“Course. That’s what the Doctor said. He’s never wrong, you should know that by now,” replied the second one, a shorter and rounder man that had bushy brown eyebrows and hair that clearly hadn’t been combed recently. Annette was under the impression that he was much clumsier than his stern friend.

She was approaching the men and began to step to the side to avoid collision, but the shorter man suddenly slid right in front of her. He grinned, which was an unsettling sight indeed. His lips were noticeably puffy and when he smirked, he resembled a puffer fish.

“If you would excuse me, sir,” Annette said, and tried to step around him.

The man just chuckled and said, “Oh, no, pumpkin, you’re coming with us, aren’t you?”

Coming with us? Were they actually trying to kidnap her? Annette just shook her head and tried to continue on her way, but it seemed the men were serious.

“Now if you would just be a good girl and get in the van,” said the tall man, his lips tight.

“No thank you, I’d rather not,” Annette said, scanning the two men. They had stepped closer to her, nearly pinning her against the side of the Glass House van—and Annette suspected that the black van was theirs—and although the street was bustling with people going to and fro, no one seemed to take any notice of the men potentially kidnapping her. She wondered if the men were specifically interested in kidnapping her, or if just any girl passing by would do. Well, the van had been parked in front of her apartment, but the answer was not yet clear. Annette figured she would find out soon, whether she wanted to or not. Again, she tried to walk past the men, but they didn’t allow it.

“Let me rephrase that,” said the taller man. “You’re coming with us. You can either take the easy way, or the hard way.”

“Ooh, the hard way is quite fun,” said the shorter man, grinning again. “For us, anyway. You might find it enjoyable too—that is, if you like vipers.” At the word ‘vipers,’ his grin got bigger. “It’s a rather good thing I brought William Snakesphere, now isn’t it, Webb.”

The tall man, apparently named Webb, said, “I suppose. Now will you please hurry up and find the keys for the van? Last time I saw them, you were stuffing them in your pockets.”

Annette’s eyes widened and she took a couple of deep breaths. She figured that there was probably a 50/50 chance the snake was just a threat, but it still made her nervous. If there were any chance of getting out of this—which there hopefully was—she had better calm down and think. There was a slight gap between the men. Annette contemplated trying to squeeze through and bolt away, but the plan seemed unlikely to succeed, for the men were actively closing the gap as she thought. Her heart raced. Should she yell for help? No, the men might gag her or do something even worse than this William Snakesphere.

“Stryker, open the door. I’ll watch the girl. And for once, please do try to follow instructions properly,” said Webb, in a cold, down to business voice. He stepped even closer to Annette and put his cold, clammy hands on her shoulders, holding her against the van.

So this Stryker can be rather careless, Annette thought, trying to subtly squirm free from Webb’s grip, which he responded to with a sharp eyebrow raise, making her quickly stand still. Still scanning the men, she tried to use this information to form a plan, but to her distress, none came. Usually, she could effortlessly come up with a plan. So why not now? Annette clearly had no time to reflect on this, for Stryker was propping open the door and rooting around for something—something that hopefully wasn’t a reptile—in the van. If she was going to escape, it was going to have to be now. She scrambled to form anything even resembling a plan. The only thing that occurred to her was to run, which was out of the question given that she was being pinned against the van.

A blur of neon pink slammed into the scene. Annette was thrust away from the van, and ended up sprawled against the concrete a few yards away. She rubbed her head and sat up. Webb was now on the ground next to the van, struggling with a young woman wearing black boots and a neon pink jumpsuit. Apparently, she had knocked Webb down; she had come in so fast that she appeared only as a pink flash, at first. Annette lost no time in getting up and surveyed the situation from a reasonably safe distance. Stryker was presumably still lost somewhere inside the van, unaware of the chaos happening outside. Webb and the mysterious woman were still engaged in a struggle on the ground. It seemed the woman was winning; she almost had him pinned down.

It was at that moment the woman looked up at Annette. Her red hair, which had been put up in a braided bun, had come loose and messy tendrils stuck out in many places. “Run,” she said, in between grunts and deep breaths. “Go to the Fisher’s Footpath bridge. You’ll be safe there, trust me.”

There was something in her voice and expression that Annette felt she could trust. Perhaps it was the desperate look in her eyes, or the fact that she just saved Annette from being kidnapped, or both. Whatever it was, Annette decided to follow her instructions. She nodded at the stranger—who had completely pinned Webb down by then—and broke into a jog. Practically everyone who lived in Sterling Harbor knew what the Fisher’s Footpath Bridge was, a smaller walking bridge on the Argent river, a river that flowed into the ocean. It overlooked the sea, and true to its name was a popular fishing spot. There were usually a few people there, either aspiring fishers, people hiking on a trail that required the crossing of the river, or folks wanting to enjoy the view. Annette couldn’t imagine why the woman wanted her to go there, but she decided to find out. Besides, nearly anywhere was safer than around those kidnappers. The library would have to wait.

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