Chapter 5

A distant hum of voices pulled Elena from the depths of unconsciousness. Pain struck her whole body, particularly her lower back and private parts. She stayed still, observing the surroundings cautiously. 

"Is she alive? She's still breathing, right?" A woman's voice, high-pitched and seemingly concerned, echoed in Elena's ears.

"Mom, are you seriously going to take her with us? What if she turns out to be a serial killer?" Another voice, male, younger and more skeptical, chimed in. 

"Are you stupid, Richie? She looks like the victim!" 

"Lara, ever heard of the saying 'don't judge the book by its cover'? What if this is just her ploy to catch more victims?"

"Can you guys lower your voices? You're waking her up!" An elderly woman's voice scolded the two. 

Elena stirred awake. Her eyelids fluttered. Her body tensed before she could even register why, instincts screaming danger. There are strangers in her space again. Their conversation did not register in her mind, but the realization of people she didn't know made her remember what she went through, memories crashing over her like ice water, jolting her fully awake. 

Her breath hitched. Her vision was unfocused and the stares she got reminded her of those awful pairs of vampiric eyes. 

"Hi, sweetie. How are you feeling?"

Elena flinched violently, scrambling back against the car seat. The woman seated beside her had soft, kind eyes, but Elena's terror was still fresh, her fear still hadn't subsided. Her pulse thundered in her ears, blocking the concern in the woman's voice. 

"It's okay, sweetheart," the woman soothed gently. Her hands were on her front, showing Elena that she wasn't harmful. "We're not dangerous. We're just a traveling family. We saw you unconscious by the road, so we picked you up."

Elena's fingers dug into the fabric of her clothes. Her mind screamed at her to run, but her body refused to obey. However, realizing something, she paused. Her head slowly tilted down, and there she saw her body was covered in clothes—no, rather a blanket wrapped in her. 

The woman noticed where she was looking and she smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that. We're actually returning from camping, and all our clean clothes were used. Having you wear them didn't seem right, so I used the blanket instead."

The girl sitting on the floor of the camper van nodded her head repeatedly. She gave Elena a pitiful look, but her smile was reassuring. The boy who looked younger than the girl was sitting at the front, his head peeking out from the seat's headrest, looking at Elena with suspicion. The one driving must be the father, glancing in the rearview mirror from time to time, checking on them. 

"We're heading to Morsville. We can drop you anywhere you want," the mother of the family said, pulling Elena away from her reverie. 

"Let's drop her at the nearest police station!" Richie suggested. 

"Right. We'll do that," the mother agreed, her voice steady and reassuring. She opened a box of leftover pizza and gave it to Elena, along with an unopened bottle of water. "You should eat while we travel. You don't look good, sweetie. You should regain your strength as much as you can. You've got a long way to go."

Elena stared at the woman. She wasn't asking what happened to her, or where she came from. No one in her family ever dared to ask her, and she was grateful for that. Her tense body was slightly relaxed. She took the box of pizza with a few slices in, and the bottled water. Then, she ate in silence. 

The family chattered softly. A mellow song playing in the stereo. The smell of pizza in the air, and the fresh breeze of the forest passing through the van's opened window. 

Elena closed her eyes and breathed in calmly. She gathered herself and began pondering what would happen to her or how she would explain everything to her family. She worried that they were frantically looking for her, and she felt sorry for destroying the celebration of her sister's recovery. She wanted to go home so badly. 

The camper van finally pulled up to the police station. The mother, whose name Elena learned was Sarah, offered to help her inside, but Elena shook her head. She bowed at her lightly, still not speaking. 

Sarah squeezed Elena's hands together tightly, before hopping back to the van. They left, and Elena courageously took a step toward the police station, preparing herself to tell everything that happened to her last night. 

As soon as she entered, her hands began trembling again. She hugged the blanket tightly around her, as she approached the desk wobbly. 

The male officer behind the desk observed her. Elena sat on the chair in front of the desk and muttered shakily, "H–help me."

Her trembling voice caught the officer's attention and attended to her properly. She reported everything—the abduction, the monsters in the forest, the horrors she had witnessed—bit by bit, but no one believed her. 

"I'm telling you the truth!" Elena cried in a desperate voice. She clutched the officer's sleeve and shook it, as though it would magically convince the officer to believe her. "There are monsters in that forest! I was kidnapped! There are vampires and werewolves out there! You have to believe me!"

Officer Jennings let out a slow sigh, exchanging a glance with his colleague. He wore an exhausted and skeptical expression. He was even a bit annoyed at the woman. 

"Okay, miss. We heard you," Jennings pinched the bridge of his nose. "Calm down. Let's contact your family first. Here," he slid a notepad and pen across the desk. "Write their contact information, and we'll call them."

Elena's fingers curled into fists. She wanted to scream, to shake them until they listened, but what good would that do? Swallowing the lump in her throat, she scribbled down her parents' number with a shaky hand. 

The officer took the paper and walked away, muttering something under his breath as he shook his head.