Soledad: Innocent Imperilment

If only morning could come slower....

The sun was Soledad's alarm clock, this morning. It peeked through the home-made cotton curtains hanging over the tiny window near the ceiling and grazed over her young face, immediately waking her up and making her squint in the bright sunlight.

She sat up and yawned, looked down next to her. Soledad had just realized that her husband wasn't there. She shivered; It was freezing, their house had no heat. In fact, they were lucky to even have a house.

It was just 2 stories and nothing special. 2 bedrooms, kitchen that doubled as a dining room, a rather small living room, a W.C. and bathroom. They had moved in here almost two years ago with their newborn daughter, Falina. Currently they had two children. Falina, who was now 1 and a half and Zacharias, who had just turned 3 months.

Soledad went downstairs to try and find her husband, Elliott.

She found him in the kitchen, washing last night's dinner plates and utensils. There were still some remnants of a small party held a few days ago, for Soledad's 16th birthday. She kissed Elliott on the cheek.

"How are you this morning?"

"Good now that you're awake, love." He responded in a dry, tired voice.

"What time is it?" Soledad inquired, taking a bite out of a mackintosh apple, one of the 5 in a basket on the counter next to the sink.

"Almost 8:30. You'd better start to get ready. I let you sleep in later."

"Thank you for that, I needed sleep, I stayed at work 'till nearly 1 o' clock in the mornin' yesterday."

"Exactly. I don't want you doing that tonight, alright?"

"Fine with me. Is there any toast left for the children?"

"Yes, I'll butter it now so Falina can eat it. For Zacharias I'll give him some oatmeal. Could you rise them, now?"

"Mhmm."

Soledad went back upstairs and knocked softly on her children's door before pushing it open. She lifted Zacharias tenderly from his crib and whispered his siter's name.

"Falina...Falina, wake up, love! The sun has come to see you!" Soledad hovered over Falina's sleeping body and poked her in the side. Falina rolled over as if to ignore her mother.

"Wake up, Falina. Come on." Soledad said a little louder. She pulled the blanket from Falina and Falina opened her eyes, squinting in the bright sunlight. Soledad nudged her slightly and, after a few moments, she opened her eyes fully and sat up, stretching and yawning.

She got the children downstairs and set them down to eat as Elliott placed plates and bowls in front of them.

Soledad walked out the door, which was in the kitchen, and onto their porch. She walked off it and walked to the left some. She came to a barrell full of water, cupped some in her hands and splashed it over her face, sweeping her long, dirty blonde hair back from her forehead. She was still in her white nightdress. She was needed at work at 9:30. She had a little less than an hour.

At 9:00 she was dressed in her work clothes and ready to leave. She would have to walk to work; There were no cars in late 1800s Nottingham, England. They could not use a horse and buggy either; they couldn't afford one, there wasn't even one in their whole little town, there wasn't a horse and buggy for miles.

She worked at a small children's hospital for the families who couldn't afford their children's medicine, shots, et c. She was a secretary and helped people at the front desk.

She had a good day at the office today. Not that many people came, so she could chat with her friend Elizabeth, Lizzie, for short, who was a secretary there, too.

For lunch the office ordered from a deli two blocks away. Soledad got her usual ham and cheese sandwich listened to the phonograph in the office. It was playing a slow tune, a love song. The woman singing had a beautiful voice. Soledad had never thought about going into singing as a career, yet she didn't have such a bad voice.

Soledad was often loved by most in the town. She was a petite woman, with light green eyes and her long, dirty blonde hair. She had an oval-shaped face with smooth, olive skin. She sometimes babysat other people's children for some extra money. She was nice and had a dry sense of a humor that brought up people's spirits, got their minds away from poverty. She was basically thought to be a nice, wholesome, ordinary person.

After work, at 8:00, she bid her co-workers goodbye and and headed home. She had borrowed Lizzie's wool khaki cloak to keep warm. She took off her high-heels; She had got tired of walking in them all day, and continued on in her bare feet on the dirt path. She was a good way away from the hospital and decided to take a short cut and walked off the path. She came upon some ranch homes that looked pretty deserted and walked along the road there. She was about halfway down the road when she sensed a feeling that someone else was there. She'd had a bad feeling about taking this road. It was dark, and there weren't that many people here. She didn't know what could have been waiting for her. Oh, how stupid of her, she should've went along her usual path home.

Or maybe she was just over reacting. It could've just been an animal. It didn't HAVE to be a murderer, a raper, a crook or the such.
All right, NOW she was over reacting. It was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Then why was she acting so jumpy?

She heard a slight rustle and turned on her heel, almost tripping over her own feet, to see what was going on. She heard a step behind her and before she could say anything, someone had clapped a hand voer her mouth and pulled her into a near alleway.

She kicked, punched, struggled as much as possible, tried to scream, but nothing would work. She saw another figure loom out of the darkness and hold a knife up to her throat. She felt her eyes grow as large as saucers as the sharp blade glinted in the light of the full moon.

"Struggle any longer and I will slit your throat, understood?" The man hissed into her face. She felt spit fly over her.

She stopped struggling.

The person holding her took a rope and tied it around her midrif and a pole, took another rope and tied it around her mouth, one more and knotted it at her ankles.

Both of the men were wearing all black. The one that was formerly holding her from behind had an angular jaw and dark eyebrows and hair. His chin hung low and he seemed to have an odd habit of licking his chapped lips. The other man was extremely skinny, too thin to be allowed, it seemed. He also had dark hair. He had a bristly beard growing around his terrifying, anorexic features.

  "All right, now you're gonna listen and you'll listen good, understand?" The bearded man whispered fiercly.

  "I'm Johnathon and this is Gerald. We are sent here on business far more dangerous than your pretty little head could comprehend. Now, about your cousin...

  "Nearly a week ago the king's son was murdered, did you not hear of that? He was murdered by YOUR cousin, James. James ALSO stole some very valuable, and, I might add, expensive items of the king's. You are aware of your cousin's whearabouts, I presume?"