Serenade by Heather McKenzie

Author:Heather McKenzie [McKenzie, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Young Adult Fiction, Mysteries & Detective Stories, Romance, Contemporary, Thrillers & Suspense
ISBN: 9781634222204
Google: 0e5hvgAACAAJ
Amazon: B01N5XBFEK
Publisher: Clean Teen Publishing
Published: 2017-04-16T23:00:00+00:00

She had been gone for twenty-five hours. The morning ticked away in the hot, airless room, the tension thicker than the reinforced steel walls.

“They’ve sent a video,” said Old Carl to the group of us gathered in the security office. “I’ll put it up on the screen.” His withered hands seemed remarkably steady as they moved the mouse, bringing the screen to life. As we all watched, a shaky lens brought the ground into focus. The light was dim, and there was rustling and sniffling, and then Kaya’s face appeared. I nearly jumped out of my skin. There were tears pouring from her eyes as she stared past the camera. She appeared to be lying down on a blanket, unrestrained, shaking but not moving. I got a chill so violent my teeth began to throb.

“Looks like they’ve drugged her with something,” Davis said gently, his hand moving to my shoulder.

Henry said nothing. He didn’t even flinch. In fact, he seemed calmer than Old Carl as the video showed a man’s dirty hand move to his daughter’s neck. Staring numbly at the screen, he reacted like he was watching a television ad for dish soap. Stephan, however, looked like he might pass out any second. His nose was fire-engine red and tears were threatening to pour. When a bloodcurdling scream erupted past Kaya’s lips, he yelped, and everyone in the room froze.

‘Stop, please stop…’ my girl was begging her captors, tears spilling from her eyes. I put my head in my hands. I had never cried in my life, not even allowing a bit of dampness to cloud my eyes, but watching this brought on the tears. Stephan started to sob. We couldn’t tell what was happening to her, but every horrific scenario imaginable flashed through all our minds. Whatever happened while this was filmed, it had been painful.

I would kill them all.

She screamed again. It was the most heartbreaking, gut wrenching sound I’d ever heard. Everyone in the room, even Old Carl, shifted uneasily— only Henry seemed unfazed.

Then the camera panned out and gave us the briefest glimpse of a man crouched at Kaya’s feet. When the frame re-focused, the camera was pointed at the ground, but the dirt had been replaced with white, sparkly snow speckled with red. A muffled voice boomed through the speakers.

“As I’m sure you are well aware, we have Kaya Lowen,” said a man whose face was kept safely hidden, “and we have no problem torturing her every time we hear your helicopters. In fact, we rather enjoy it.”

A knife came into view, the blade of it dripping with what could only be blood. I thought I might be sick.

“Wait,” said Davis, leaping out of his chair. “Carl, rewind it a bit, to where we see the glimpse of a man by her feet.”

Carl backed up the video.

“Zoom in a bit,” Davis said, leaning forward eagerly.

“You can’t see his face; he is wearing a hood,” Old Carl said with snark in his tone.

“No, zoom in on her feet, yes… there—stop,” he said, moving closer to the screen.

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