No Title Yet ~ Chapter 10

Mikey had a presentiment that something was going to happen, as Ari was leaving the school that day. He was aware that Ari was following Ariana to the hospital, so that Ari could see Ariana’s husband, but he still sensed that something was not right. He planned on going over to Ari’s house and waiting for her there, but his cell phone interrupted his thinking. He removed the phone from the front pocket of his pants, and glanced at the screen. He saw that it was his wife and answered the phone.

“Mike, I am stuck at work for a little bit, I need you to take Sophia to the dentist,” she said.

He told his wife that he would do it, and told her that he loved her, and then hung up the phone. He sighed as he got into his car, and drove home to go and pick up his teenage daughter. He took her into the dentist’s and signed her in, then began pacing back and forth in the waiting room. It was only a few minutes before a very confused Sophia went back into the treatment room. Mikey stayed in the waiting room and continued pondering what it was that could happen to Ari. He contemplated what was possible and what was probable. Nothing seemed to fit.

Sophia came out of the treatment room, twenty-seven minutes later, and Mikey told her that they had to leave quickly, when she began to ask him if they could go to the mall, and shop for a new outfit.

“But Dad…” Sophia began to whine.

“Don’t ‘But Dad,’ me Sophia. If I do not get to Aunt Ari’s house immediately, she… she… something bad might happen to her,” he told her as they were leaving the parking lot.

“How do you know that dad?” the befuddled Sophia asked.

“I don’t know. I just have this presentiment that it is, and I just want to make sure that it is not,” he explained.

When he saw Sophia open her mouth as if to question what it was that he was talking about, he held up a finger, and began to speak again.

“Don’t ask me to explain. I don’t know how or why it is that I have this feeling, but it is there and I am going to act upon it. I don’t want anything bad to happen to your Aunt Ari, or her baby,”

He did not realize that he had said something wrong until Sophia opened her mouth in surprise. When she did that Mikey cursed under his breath.

“Aunt Ari is pregnant? When did this happen? Is it Uncle Anthony’s baby? Or is it someone else’s? How far along is she? Is she going to have a shower? Does she know if it is a boy or a girl? What is she going to name it? Or is there more than one? I have got to tell everyone, that I am going to have a new cousin soon,” she quickly asked, then took out her phone, and began composing a text to all of her friends.

Mikey took the phone out of her hands, and began to talk before she could respond to his act.

“Yes, she is pregnant. I was just told today, along with only a few other people. Yes, it is Uncle Anthony’s. She is about nine weeks along, give or take a couple of days. She doesn’t know the gender yet, or if there is more than one, but as far as she is aware, there is only one. Let her tell people, it is her surprise to tell. And I know some of the names that she is pondering. BUT I will only tell you if you swear that the only person you are to talk to about Aunt Ari is me, well and her. Do you promise?” he answered, all of his daughter’s questions.

“I promise dad. Now can I have my phone back?” she sincerely replied. He handed her the phone, and gave her a look that said, ‘if you even think about it, I will take the phone and throw it against the wall as hard as I can’.

“She is thinking either Karin Sue, Kendall Grace, or Caroline Michelle for a girl. And either Kaden Scott, Aiden Michael, or Braden Anthony for a boy,” he stated. When he saw her mouth about to open, he added,

“And no more questions. You will have to talk to her.”

Sophia immediately erased the message that she had been about to send a few minutes prior. Then she began texting her boyfriend about the dance that was in a couple of months.

Mikey’s heart sank when he pulled into Ari’s driveway. There was very blatant evidence that something was wrong. The front porch had mail strewn all over it, something that would happen to normally. The front door had streaked handprints about the size of a woman’s hand. But the thing that bothered Mikey the most was that the front door was wide open, but Coco and Lucky were nowhere to be found. One thing that Ari had been doing ever since she lost Anthony was shut and lock the front door while she was home, and before she left. The only time that it was open for fresh air to come through the screen door was when both dogs were inside and it was broad daylight, or when she had guests over. Mikey decided to investigate what had happened. He stepped out of the car, and almost shut the door, but paused, and instead, he turned to Sophia, and instructed her.

“Sophia, you stay here. And if anything happens, or you hear me scream: call the police, and hide in here. Don’t get out to go into the house, until I give you the all clear sign. Got it?”

“I got it dad. Be careful. I love you,” she replied, briefly looking up from her phone.

Mikey nodded his head, and walked around the car door silently. He snuck onto the front porch, and peered through the screen door. There were no more signs of a struggle of any sort, in the places that he was able to see. He carefully opened the door and snuck in. He guided it shut, still holding the handle. He had the door completely shut before he quietly released the door handle from his grip. He began to creep towards the dining room. There was nothing out of order in there, and Ari was nowhere to be found in the room. The next room that Mikey crept into was the laundry room. The only evidence that anyone had even been in here in the past few days, were the small stack of folded clothes in a basket on the floor, and the small pile of dirty clothes sitting next to the basket filled with the clean clothes. He opened the washer, and peered in. To his relief all that was in there was a set of sheets that were waiting to be put into the dryer. He shut the lid quietly, and peered into the window of the dryer. It was empty. The next place that he went was the small living room. The only thing in the room that was out of its normal spot was the daily newspaper, which had always sat on the end table by Anthony’s favorite chair. The family room was directly connected to the living room. Relatively the same size, this room was almost empty, and it was apparent that Ari had been slowly purchasing toys for the baby. Mikey slightly grinned, at the thought of Ari being a mother, and him getting a ‘grandchild’ that he would actually get to see more than just on special occasions and holidays. He then went back into the living room, so he could go into the kitchen. The second that he glanced into the kitchen, he was positive that his presentiment had been correct.

There were definite signs of a struggle here. The barstools were lying on the ground. There was silverware all over the floor, and there were red spots all over the floor. Upon closer inspection, Mikey realized that they were actually drops of blood. He then became terrified because he saw a bloody knife, partially obscured by the oven. He quickly assessed the blood spots and noticed that they formed a trail. Mikey stood up and grabbed a knife from the discombobulated holder. He grabbed the longest one that he could find, and was able to conceal. Then he began to follow the trail of blood.

It went directly from the kitchen to the stairs. Mikey silently went up the stairs listening as he walked. He did not have to look at the blood trail, once he got halfway up the stairs. He heard a man grunting, and the faint muffled yells of Ari. Mikey knew at that moment that he needed to do something, so he got his cell phone out of his pocket, and quickly texted Sophia.  He told her to call 911 and he was not sure if an ambulance was needed, but he thought that it might be safe to send one.

After returning the phone to his front pocket, he continued to creep up the stairs. He listened to the noises, and he tried to figure out what room Ari was in. Looking at the trail of blood on the floor, he realized that it was in the room at the end of the upstairs hallway that she was located. He silently yet quickly went to the closed door. Placing his hand on the door handle, he heard a bang. He used that to quickly open the door, while he silently slid into the room, shutting the door as soon as he was in the room. Thankful that the door was unlocked, so he did not have to worry about breaking it, or causing Ari to get hurt, more than she was, he slid to the side, so that he was behind a coat rack.

The sight inside the room filled Mikey with pure rage. The disorder and destruction was not the cause, neither was the blood that was on the floor, and speckled on the wall, it was the man in the room, and what he was doing to Ari that infuriated Mikey. Ari had been tied down to the bed, with ropes and duct tape. Her hands were attached to the headboard, and her mouth was taped shut. Her legs were spread apart, each foot attached to the posts on the end of the footboard. The view that Mikey was looking from, he was able to tell that Ari had been the one whose blood was spread all over the house. From what he could see it looked like she had a pretty deep puncture wound just below her collarbone. The man that had bound Ari looked strangely familiar to Mikey, as if he was a person that Mikey had seen a few times before. But Mikey, knew that it would not matter if it was his own son that was standing in front of him, he still would have punched him in the chin as hard as he could. For this oddly familiar man had not only bound and injured Ari, but had completely stripped her and was getting ready to have his way with her.

When Mikey came from behind the coat rack, the man did not notice him. However, Ari saw Mikey, and he put his finger up to his mouth, silently telling her to remain quiet. She understood, and silently thanked god, that she was going to finally be rescued. Mikey walked up right behind the man, and he tapped him on the shoulder, and yelled at him.

“HEY! LEAVE ARI ALONE, YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!!”

With the delivery of the insult, Mikey did a gorgeous right hook, which hit the man square in the jaw, and knocked him out. Once Mikey was sure that the man was out cold, he took the knife that he had previously concealed in his shirt, and cut the bonds on Ari. Then he carefully removed the duct tape on her mouth. When the tape was almost entirely off, Ari opened her mouth revealing a pair of socks. Mikey ripped off the tape in a quick motion and then removed the socks, so that Ari was more comfortable. With her mouth clear, and her limbs moveable, Ari normally would have covered her exposed body, but she was overcome with emotion, that all she did was curl into a ball, and begin bawling.

Mikey gathered Ari up in his arms, and held her against him, as he rocked her side-to-side, murmuring words of comfort. He ignored Ari’s lack of clothing because he was so concentrated on comforting her, until he felt her shivering. Then he picked her up off of the bed, and carried her to a nearby chair with a blanket neatly folded, and tossed over the back. He gently set her on her feet, and then took the blanket, and wrapped it around her. She was still sobbing hysterically, so Mikey gathered her in his arms again, and this time let her sob into his shoulder. Almost five minutes had elapsed, before Mikey heard the sirens of the incoming emergency vehicles. The sound of the front door closely followed. Mikey was surprised when Sophia was the first person into the room. Sophia looked at the two people in front of her, and the mess, and was unable to control herself. She began to cry as she ran to her dad, and Ari.

“ Oh, I am so glad that you two are alive. Is the baby okay, Aunt Ari?”

Bewildered, Ari looked at Sophia, and managed to respond.

“I don’t know, but I hope so,”

Ari paused, the possibility that she could lose her last possible connection that she had with Anthony, made her cry even harder. Mikey was thankful when the medical team came into the room, and began treating Ari’s wound, then transported her out of the room on a stretcher. They were taking Ari to the ambulance to rush her to the hospital to treat the wound just below her collar bone, give her a physical examination for documentation, and to get an ultrasound of the baby to ensure that it was still safe and healthy. Mikey wanted to follow the medics to the hospital, but the police stopped him. Sophia looked at her dad and nodded her head.

“ Dad, I will go. I will give you the official report when we get it. I don’t need to sign a statement, since I just walked in her mere minutes before the emergency officials. Not to mention, Aunt Ari really is all alone in the world right now,” she said.

Mikey nodded, and gave Sophia a hug. Then he let his daughter follow after the medics. She was just walking down the stairs, when Mikey remembered Inari. He darted into the hallway, and yelled after his daughter.

“Sophia, call Inari Ibaro. Aunt Ari will want her by her side.”

Sophia gave her dad a thumbs-up, showing him that she understood what he wanted and would complete the task as soon as possible. Before Sophia left the house she grabbed Ari’s purse, which was sitting on the floor by the front door. Sophia convinced the medic to let her in the back next to Ari, by smiling and with some very convincing lies. When Sophia sat on the small bench next to the stretcher, and took Ari’s hand, holding it in both of hers. Ari tried to turn her head, so she could glance over at Sophia, but the neck brace that she was wearing prohibited that movement. Instead Ari settled for only speaking to Sophia.

“Sophia, thank you so much for coming with me. I am so thankful that you and your dad came to my house when you did. Your dad probably saved my life, and you are saving the little bit of my sanity that is left, I truthfully do not know where I would be without you guys here with me, helping me, and caring about me.”

The rest of the trip was almost silent; the only noises were that from the numerous machines in the ambulance.

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Mikey watched as the police put handcuffs on the man, who was still knocked out. Then two male officers lifted him, and carried him out to the police car. There was another male officer whom was collecting evidence, and photographing the bedroom. Mikey told him that once he was finished there, that he should go into the kitchen because that was full of evidence. The man gave Mikey a funny look, but nodded, and then left the room. When Mikey turned to look back out the window, there was a stout woman officer standing in front of him.

“Sir, we need you to come to the station, so we can get your statement, and then get it printed off and signed. Once we obtain the signed statement, we will need you to leave your phone number, so that we can contact you if need be. Once all of that is completed you will be able to go to the hospital,” she informed him, with a voice that was so high pitched that Mikey had trouble not bursting into laughter.

Mikey nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak, and went out of the room, walking down the stairs, out the door, and getting into his car. He went to the station, where he gave his statement and signed it. The entire process took only about an hour, but to him it felt like days. Once he was cleared. He proceeded to the hospital.