The Factory

Luckily we were able to catch up with few of the early customers who had been waiting for us or just arrived from the time the store was open and ready for sales.

"I have been waiting for you Lyla. You are not usually this late."

"Sorry about that Mrs. Hopkins, we had something to sort out."

"Oh that's ok. I just need a gallon of milk, a bottle of ketchup, some chocolates and few other things. My grandson is coming to spend sometime with me and I need to stock up."

"That's ok Mrs. Hopkins , I am help you out."

"Oh that would really be lovely Lyla, thank you!"

"You are welcome Mrs. Hopkins."

I could see the excitement written all over the face of the old lady. She was really overjoyed that her grandson was coming to spend some time with her. I led her to the counters with a big basket and we picked all the things she needed.

"Here you go Mrs. Hopkins. That would be 103 dollars."

"Oh ok, here is my card."

She handed over her debit card to me and I swapped it on the machine. It beeped to indicate a successful transaction, then I handed over the card back to Mrs. Hopkins with the receipt of the things she purchased.

"Here you go Mrs. Hopkins. Do have a lovely day." I said with a smile. The old lady took the card and receipt from me with a cheerful expression of gratitude.

"Thank you so much Lyla. Sam is really lucky to have you here. I see the chemistry between you are Drake. He is a fine young man."

Mrs. Hopkins left me smiling at her words, I was lucky truly, it had been over three months of living in Roseville and I could say that I was having the best experience of my life and nothing could go wrong. Or so I thought!

"Hello Mrs. Hopkins, hope you got all you came for."

"Hi Drake. Lyla was really helpful, I better be going now. My grandson is coming today!"

"Ok Mrs. Hopkins, see you later."

Drake was coming in from the door, he had gone to purchase petrol for the car and met the old lady just as she was about to step out through the door. Her hands were occupied with the bags containing the items she came to purchase from the store.

Hearing the sound of the bell above the door, I raised my face to see Drake speaking with Mrs. Hopkins, they seemed to have known themselves for a very long time.

"Mrs. Hopkins, she seems to be fond of you." I said as Drake approached and joined me at the counter.

"Oh yeah, she used to be friends with Sam's wife before she died of cancer."

"Oh." I said silently. I had never really thought about asking about Sam's wife. I guess maybe after hearing about the death of his daughter, I just didn't think to ask about any other family member since Drake mentioned that he lived alone and had no visitors.

The rest of the day at the store wasn't as busy as the busiest days we had; customers came in after lengthy intervals, but that really didn't matter, the thought of going to meet Jason was the only thing on my mind.

I kept on looking at the clock hanging on the wall above and hoping that the time go faster so that we could go meet Jason. I wasn't sure how everything was going to turn out but I hoped that it went well.

At exactly six pm, the clock dinged and I looked up immediately. I had stopped looking at the time for over two hours and didn't know that it was six.

 I looked at the door to be sure no person was coming in and when I was that there was no one at the door or close by, I rushed and turned the close sign to the door. I started putting things in order preparing to close for the day.

Drake helped me to send back some of the items on the counter to the shelves and soon we were done and ready to move. It was about ten minutes past six and we still had enough time to get to the factory. Th distance from the store to the house was about fifteen minutes, that meant that we needed about thirty minutes to get to the factory.

We first arrived at the house and I rushed up to pick the burner phone, my father's phone and the envelopes with the letters inside. Then I came down immediately and entered the car with Drake inside waiting for me.

"You are ready?"

"Yeah." I said slowly with a sigh, my voice a little louder than a whisper.

Drake exhaled and then turned the ignition on. We were on our way to the factory in no time. Luckily, the road leading to the factory was a bit lonely and there were only few cars on the way. It seemed not to be in so much use and there were few houses around and grades sprouting from different parts of the road. Just like the factory, the road seemed abandoned too.

Soon we arrived at the factory, from the inscription on the large board, it used to be a textile manufacturing factory. There were bushes everywhere, the gate was rusty and the paints on the walls seemed to have been destroyed by rain.

We were very careful not to Pack so close to the factory for fear that Jason could sight us from afar and get scared. We quietly walked towards the gate of the factory. It was wide open, the factory was really quiet, with a lot of equipments littered all over the place, there were pieces of shredded cloths on the floor.

There was a large door leading to the main entrance of the factory, it seemed locked, I could sense that someone used the door regularly from the footprints on the floor and the way the entrance appeared.

On a second thought I signaled to Drake and we decided to go through the back hopeful that there was a way to access the main building of the factory through the back.

We got to the back, but there was no door, just three windows that were were shut from the inside.

"Hold on." Drake send, then he picked up a stick and gently hit the glass of one of the windows making it crack. He hit his fist on the cracked area and made a small opening. Then he carefully removed the broken glasses and kept them on the floor. Putting his hand inside through the space, he opened the window from the inside.

"Come on." Drake jumped into the building through the window and signaled to me to follow suit. I looked around to be sure that no one was around then I jumped inside too.

The inside of the building was really dark and as much as we wanted to make use of our flashlights, we didn't want to alert Jason.

I could see the machines used to produce textiles positioned in several areas of the long hall, there were few tables and chairs with a lot of textiles littered all over.

We continued to walk quietly through the hall in search of a door or hallway but the large hall seemed endless.

Searching for a while for a door or hallway seemed to be fruitless and frustrating. There was just darkness on our parts. We were almost tiptoeing just to make sure we didn't make any noise. 'Sure this isn't a trap?' I asked myself becoming very suspicious of the whole situation.

"Drake!!!" I screamed as a huge creature appeared from nowhere and dragged Drake by his legs running away with him through the paths in front of me. I couldn't help him as he screamed while trying to hold on to something but the creature was really fast.

I ran towards the direction the creature dragged Drake to but it seemed really dark. I had to enhance my vision groping as I walked. I walked on egg shells knowing that the creature could still be lurking around.

I feared for Drake's safety, my heartbeat increased as I paced in the quiet in search of him, the darkness surrounding me wasn't really helpful but I wasn't ready to give up just yet.

For over five minutes I searched for Drake scouring in the darkness for anywhere he could be. I looked up, down and sideways for him but I couldn't find him. I stood at a spot, tears were almost pouring down my eyes. Just as I was about to give up, there in front of me and almost hidden below at a corner was a small door which seemed to be leading to an underground compartment.

I quickly got up and walked down the pavement where the door was. I grabbed the knob and twisted gently moving away as the door opened. There were stairs down the door leading to a hallway, I walked down the stairs until I got to a room, the underground compartment was lighted with bulbs hanging from wires at different angles.

"Drake!" I tried to rush towards him but he muffled some words to me. His hands were strapped up to the roof, his mouth covered with a piece of cloth and his legs were dangling.

I tried to approach him again but he muffled the words which seemed to be 'It's a trap!'