Chapter 23 You can move to my house
Constantly jolt made Natalie slowly wake up. She felt herself like a dice rolling in a small box.
Natalie's hands were tied tightly behind her back and she had no idea where she was right now. It was a narrow space, and Natalie couldn't even stretch her legs out straight. At this time, she had to curl up like a fetus.
Natalie was still dazed by the effect of the overpowering drug.
She remember that she was on the way from her house to the backstreet when she told Luke on the phone in terror that someone was following her.
The next second, a man hijacked her from behind and covered her mouth with his hand. The man was so tall and strong that Natalie couldn't struggle to free herself at all. Soon, Natalie went faint.
Her phone seemed to fall to the ground at that time.
Half-conscious, Natalie felt that she was in a car now.
It might be an old car with a bad shock-absorbing. The car bumped along the road, which made the loose chassis of the car rattling.
Natalie tied her best to open her eyes but she didn't even see a trace of light. All around was in total darkness, Natalie almost doubted that she was blind.
It was so dark and so stuffy.
Natalie suddenly realized that perhaps she was in a closed trunk.
Natalie's heart pounded.
Instead of the fear of the unknown, the psychological fears caused by the darkness were more frightening.
She then had some stress reactions in this situation.
Natalie soon began to feel shaky, and sweaty, with her heart beating quickly.
Natalie flattened her face against the rough underlay with an empty stomach. The jolting motion of the car was making her feel sick and dizzy. She curled up and felt shivery in a cold sweat.
If she stayed in darkness one more second, she might either suffocate or "Luke...Luke..."
Natalie wanted to call help, but she was so weak now that she even could not say anything. She didn't know if there was voice from her mouth.
Weakness and nervousness of fear from dark almost overwhelmed Natalie, she thought she was dying..
The clouds had spread and covered the entire sky in Alcomara's evening. A chill wind blew. The raw weather made people feel distracted and upset.
All the ways to the Clovervale Residence were locked down with yellow cordons.
Several polices were checking all the passing cars.
Luke stood by the sidewalk and held Natalie's phone in his hand with a frown. Under the dim light, half of Luke's face was covered by shadow. The coldness in his eyes looked very treacherous at night.
As Natalie was telling him that someone followed her, her phone fell to the ground and Luke received a dial tone.
Luke immediately called the police and went to the Clovervale Residence.
But he only found Natalie's phone on the ground.
Natalie went out through the north gate since there was close to the backstreet. However, it was a quiet and devious road and a blind area for monitoring. Police checked all the monitors around and didn't see any suspects showing up at that time. They deduced that Natalie was taken away by a car. Therefore, polices quickly locked down all the roads and checked the passing cars.
However, an hour had passed and there was no clue found.
Mark and Charlie crossed the street in a hurry. After running over from the other place, they were panting for breath. They shook their heads , and then they said to Luke, "Nothing found over there."
Luke looked still calm but a trace of chilling light showed in his eyes.
"Don't worry! As I knew, nobody bears grudges against Dr. Moore, so it's probably not revenge!" Charlie analyzed calmly with a serious look, "Therefore, Dr. Moore will be safe at least for now if the kidnapper wants the money!"
However, Mark was obviously a bit flustered at this moment. He said without thinking, "What if what the kidnapper wants is Dr. Moore?"
Charlie stared at Mark angrily and said in a low voice, "Shut up!"
Luke lowered his head and looked at the ground with his eyes narrowed. A wisp of hair fell on his forehead and covered his eyes.
Luke was still in silence with a gloomy face.
A person wouldn't disappear without a trace. All the roads were locked down but Natalie still couldn't be found, which meant that Natalie was still in this area. Once the kidnapper knew that the roads were locked down, he wouldn't drive the car on the road.
But they found nothing so far and didn't even receive a call from the kidnapper. What exactly did the kidnapper want?
Suddenly, Luke received a message.
"The abandoned car park on the Fifth Road. It's just a warning this time!"
A thought flitted through Luke's mind. He suddenly raised his head and walked to his car while speaking to Mark and Charlie.
"You stay here to keep in touch with the police! If the kidnapper calls to ask for money, just give him no matter how much he wants. I only want Natalie back safely."
Then, Luck got into the car and slammed the door.
Luke drove off at a furious pace on the empty road, heading to the abandoned car park on Fifth Road.
When Luck saw the word 'warning' in the message, he had known everything.
Natalie was kidnapped but he received the message.
It meant that the whole thing was actually aimed at him, not Natalie.
Luke then felt relaxed. Since the kidnapper was meant to warn him this time, Natalie wouldn't be hurt this time.
Luke was now driving on Fifth Road.
He had driven through this way yesterday when he went to the beach with Natalie.
The road was divided in front. If Luke took the right fork, he would be on the way to Raine's house, but the navigation informed Luke to take the left fork.
Luke thought for a while and then, he suddenly took the right fork in the last hundred meters.
Three minutes later.
Luke's car stopped in front of the abandoned car park.
He opened the door and got out of the car, with Fourteen following nimbly behind.
It was an abandoned car park that covered an area of 10 thousand square meters with thousands of scraped cars everywhere.
There was dead silence at night. The wind blew and the weeds waved, making a ghostly sound.
It was very dark at night. The moon glimmered faintly through the mists. The dim moonlight fell on the car park and made it look more like a graveyard.
Luke couldn't help but feel glad that he made a detour and took Fourteen with him.
"Natalie!"
Luke immediately shone the flashlight around the car park and called Natalie's name loudly, "Natalie!"
As a well-trained army dog, Fourteen had helped Luke to execute many rescues.
Before Luke gave an instruction, Fourteen had already begun to sniff around, following the scent left on Natalie's phone.
With a calm look, Luke looked for Natalie with his usual aplomb.
But, his eyes were now glinting restlessly.
Luke didn't know what was wrong with him and why he would be so anxious now. He could never be like this until he met Natalie.
The time passed by, but Luke still didn't find Natalie.
Luke couldn't help but feel more anxious when he thought of Natalie's smile when they were together yesterday.
He never thought that he would meet a girl who pulled at his heart one day.
Although Natalie always pouted and complained to him about his mistakes, Luke never got mad at her.
Natalie was so young, so unworldly, but full of love. Maybe Natalie sometimes would be a bit stubborn, but she was still a reasonable sort of person when it came to something serious.
When Natalie knew that Fourteen was Luke's army dog, she still asked Luke to get Fourteen out of the cage, though she was afraid of dogs.
Luke also remembered that day when Natalie got angry. Natalie went out of the car with rage, but when she thought of the long ride Luke had driven, she still turned back and gave Luke a bottle of juice while reminding Luke softly not to drive the car with tiredness.
Natalie was pure and so was her love.
She liked crying but preferred to hold back her tears.
Not long ago, Natalie claimed that she had nothing to do with Luke in anger, but after she heard Luke playing the piano, Natalie didn't feel angry at once and looked at Luke with her bright eyes surprisingly. "Wow! Luke! You can play the piano!"
A
t that time, she looked pleasantly surprised with admiration in her eyes.
"How is your hand?"
"Don't spoil him!"
"Yeah! You are not wearing clothes."
"Can you just make it clear? Do you want me to check on you or not?"
"I'm afraid that you may feel uncomfortable when wearing this."
...
Luke suddenly realized that he had remembered all the days he spent with Natalie.
But now, he lost her and couldn't find her,
Luke was getting anxious. He landed a punch on a scaped car next to him with a bang.
At this time, He could hear Fourteen barking toward a car in a distance.
Luke immediately looked in the direction of Fourteen and rushed over.
It was an old modified car, stopping in an inconspicuous corner. Fourteen raised his front legs, trying to jump up to the trunk of the car.
Luke understood Fourteen's meaning at once. He broke the window of the car to open the door and put down the interior panels of the trunk. Then, he shone the flashlight into the trunk. A trace of joy showed in his eyes.
He finally found Natalie.
Natalie was now lying on the trunk with her whole body curled up. Her face was very pale and her hair was damp with cold sweat, sticking to her forehead. Natalie's eyes were closed and clearly, she was in a coma.
"Natalie! Natalie!"
Natalie had a long, long dream.
In the dream, she was a little girl who was only five years old. Her mother took her into a villa and told her to wait outside. It was her father's villa.
Natalie waited in front of the villa quietly until a strange man came back. Natalie knew that this was the man she should call father. Her father sat on the sofa and silenced for a long while, then finally, he told a maid to prepare a room for Natalie.
Her father was a gentleman with a graceful demeanor. However, her father agrued with his wife furiously on the first night Natalie had lived in the villa.
Obviously, her father's wife, the hostess of this villa didn't allow Natalie, the kid of her husband's mistress, to stay in the villa.
"Let her go! Or I will die in front of you now!" That elegant woman said in the quarrel.
Natalie hid at the bottom of the stairs, whimpering in pain.
She didn't want to live there with her so-called father. She missed her own mother so much but her mother never showed up after that day.
Natalie still stayed in the villa after that night.
She didn't know how her father got his wife's permission to let her stay, but since then, her father was so busy at work that he barely came back home.
And Natalie then was stuck with a miserable existence for a long time.
Every night, that woman hurled abuse at Natalie in the grossest terms and whipped Natalie with resentment, then locked Natalie in a room so that she wouldn't get annoyed by Natalie's appearance. The maid would deliver the food and water to Natalie every day.
With a red palm print on her pale face and bruises all over her body, Natalie, a five-year girl, could only cry in an uncontrolled, hopeless way in the big but empty room.
Hiding in the corner behind the curtain, Natalie curled up and wrapped her arms tightly around her body.
It was a bit easier for Natalie to spend a hard time during the daytime. However, soon the rainy season in Athana came.
Lighting flashed and thunder rumbled at night. The wind was howling outside while rain drove against the window.
No light was turned on in Natalie's room and there was only darkness.
Lightning swept across the sky, accompanied by a deafening thunderclap. The horrific and gruesome darkness descended on Natalie.
As a five-year little girl, Natalie failed to turn on the light in the room due to her tiny body and she also couldn't open to door. She was so scared that she kept knocking on the door and crying.
Then, that woman came over.
That woman looked pretty, but as soon as she saw Natalie, her face distorted with fury and pain.
She seized Natalie by the hair and hit Natalie violently.
Meanwhile, that woman cursed, "Go the hell! Little bitch, you should die with your mother!"
Then, Natalie dared not to cry anymore, though she was still scared at night.
The fear soon reduced Natalie to a nervous wreck. A few days later, Natalie had a fever and almost died in the room.
Since then, Natalie was afraid of darkness.
Natalie felt like she had come back to that night when she was five years old.
She fainted on the ground before the door with a high fever. Every bone in her body hurt so much.
She wished that someone could open the door and saved her.
But no one came.
Natalie's eyes slowly closed and her vision blurred.
Suddenly, the door was pushed open and bright sunlight came in and wiped out the darkness.
"Natalie!"
Natalie heard that someone was calling her name in an anxious but soft voice.
Natalie managed to open her eyes.
Then next second, she saw a man running toward her from the light.
"Luke..."
Natalie murmured with a frown. Then, she slowly woke up from a coma. A crystal chandelier lit the room. Natalie got a shock. She immediately sat up.
She was now no longer in the black trunk.
Instead, she was in a bright room.
Natalie sat on the bed and gasped in panic while looking around with confusion.
She felt that she had been here before.
It seemed that she was in Ward No.901 of the hospital, where Luke used to live in.
Hearing Natalie's murmur, Luke, who was standing beside the window, turned around and went to sit on the bed.
They looked at each other in silence.
Then, Luke bent to move closer and looked straight at Natalie while saying softly, "Do you feel better now?"
Natalie then was sure that she was safe now when hearing Luke's voice.
Natalie, whose nerves were constantly on edge, calmed down finally.
She looked directly at Luke and couldn't help but feel wronged.
Her emotions suddenly spilled over.
Tears poured down her cheeks and Natalie wanted to say something, but when she opened her mouth, she choked with sobs out of control.
She threw herself into Luke, wrapping her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.
Feeling Natalie's taut, shallow breathing and hearing her cries, Luke felt heartbroken. He paused a second and hugged Natalie tightly.
He caressed Natslie's hair gently while giving her a comforting pat on her back with his hand.
Luke never comforted anyone else with such unaccustomed gentleness.
With her face pressing against Luke's neck, Natalie knew that she now looked bad, but she just couldn't stop crying. Her tears even wetted Luke's shirt.
Natalie felt that only did she hug Luke could ease her fear of the darkness.
Feeling the warmth from Luke's hand, Natalie finally cried out loudly as a child.
She felt so grieved as if she wanted to give full vent to her sorrow and despair.
Luke didn't say anything and just hugged Natalie tightly.
Natalie cried for a long time and her voice even became husky until she was tired.
Natalie's sobs turned to sniffs.
After Natalie calmed down, Luke lowered his head and whispered near Natalie's ear softly, "That's okay! I'm here now!"
Natalie made no answer.
Then, Luke's gentle voice sounded again.
"If you are still afraid," Luke paused, then continued to say with a serious look, "you can move to my house."