Blotted Out - Chapter 3.2

It wasn't really my mother I was worried about... I didn't even know why. I guess I always figured she could take care of herself - and I never was really all that close to her anyway. Besides Johnny, I didn't really have a close bond to anyone.

Plopping down on the chair, I tried to do what I'd seen my mother do before. After many bad and stressful days at the law firm, she'd sit in the kitchen, and just state random facts. Whether it was to calm her down, or keep her sane, I never knew. Maybe she was slowly drifting away into madness, and me and Johnny just never realized it. Whatever it was, I decided to try it out anyway.

"Uh," I muttered, not knowing where to start. "The sky is blue, the grass is green... My name is Magdeline West, and I have a little brother named Johnny." It's weird how all of my thoughts ended on that bright little boy. "He's amazing with these airplanes, like, not real ones - just ones made of paper and stuff. Just this morning, or, yesterday or something, he showed me ones made of tin foil.

I remember when he was first learning to make one from a book I had gotten at the Learning Center, he never could get it right. He always used to defaults away in the trash," I paused tracing lines over the table. "But he never knew I always got them out and kept them in my own room.

I always knew he had potential, and I thought maybe one day he'd grow up to become an astronaut or something. Like, he's got so much talent, and he's only six years old." I chuckled to myself. "He'll be seven this coming August, actually... I never could get a hang of airplanes. There were too many folds, and it took super long to get them to actually fly.

But Johnny, he can make them do more than fly. They could loop around in the air, and do a bunch of amazing tricks. I remember when he made one that you could fly over a pond, and when it landed, it would just float along like a boat..." I leaned back in the chair, laughing again. "It was the funniest thing, all the fishermen watching his little air-boat float right over their heads, and then float on the water - and, you know? The world needs a lot more little boys like Johnny. They need his innocence, his intellect, his one little dimpled smile... They need Johnny. I need Johnny."

Once again, I stood up, looking for an exit. Maybe there was something I had missed before... But of course, there wasn't. I was thorough with everything I did.

A loud clang made me whirl around. Someone, no, two people, one tall, and one short collapsed in a pile on the floor. When the shorter one got up, he ran over to me.

"Johnny!" I ran off the chair and knelt down to his level, embracing him in a hug. I fell onto his shoulder, not wanting his presence gone. "Johnny, I've missed you so much..."

"Maggie," he whimpered, squeezing me tighter. Finally, I looked up at the taller man. Martin only nodded, his expression unreadable.

"Um, what about," I whispered softly, and hoped Martin knew who I was talking about.

"She - she wasn't there." He seemed uncomfortable, and oddly fidgety. I furrowed my brow, and closed my eyes tighter, trying to block everything out. My mother. My mother. Surprisingly, I couldn't think of anything else that she was to me. But it didn't matter what I thought about her; she was gone. After a while, Martin spoke. "I hate to break this up, I really do, but we must keep moving."

I had stopped hugging Johnny by then, and looked back to look at him. Other than a scratch on his forehead, he was fine. Sighing, I turned to him. "I've already checked. There's not a way out, Martin." Martin was already up on the table, looking upward. Following his gaze, I nearly slapped myself. There was a large wheel, like one on submarines. He felt along the ceiling, and finally pulled a latch which was a little further away from the wheel.

"You have to turn the wheel now, Maggie. It'll get us out of here. You climb out, and there'll be a button on the wall to your right. If you press it, the door will stay open without me holding the latch, okay?" The plan seemed far-fetched, but then again, so did everything else that had been going on.

I kissed Johnny on the top of his head, and clambered onto the table. Swinging the backpack over my shoulder, I twisted the wheel. It took a bit of elbow grease, but it was working. Finally, with nothing more than a soft click the wheel slid inside the ceiling, and weak evening light filtered through. "I have to get a boost up," I said as I grabbed the chair, and set it up on the table with me. After I had climbed on top, I was able to get through the opening.

As soon as I was up on solid ground, a pair of hands sent me careening to the far wall Martin had mentioned. I struck my arm against it, shocked. My backpack flew off as I fell to the ground. A hooded person stormed over, and pulled me up by the throat. The other hand glinted silver. They held a small knife up to my throat.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in the burrow hole?"