“I can’t believe Tanner actually remembered my birthday. I mean he didn’t wrap this at all but it’s more effort than he has put in any other year.” The booming feminine voice said.
Bryce tried to call out to the feminine voice but his voice had turned hoarse a day ago from screaming for someone to help him. He was supposed to be saved. This was supposed to be salvation. He had spent months at a government facility in a small room the size of a prison cell sleeping on a cot.
He would spend his days reading books on the small tablet that was provided in the room. Bryce had started to lose track of time he had been in the facility for so long. He knew from his allotted time outside that some people had been in here much longer than him. He wasn’t sure if it was merely by some kind of lottery or if someone had requested him.
The transportation officer wouldn’t tell him anything other than they would be there soon. However where they were going and who he was being taken to was not worth a response.
Bryce was shocked when it turned out to be some teenage boy. He didn’t recognize the boy at all. A thousand horrible thoughts raced through Bryce’s head as the boy took him home. However, as soon as they arrived at his home the boy pulled out a shoebox from underneath his bed and tossed him inside of it.
The boy didn’t say anything or answer any of Bryce’s pleas for help or answers. He heard tape being applied around the box. For two days Bryce was bounced around in a truck and then his box was thrown onto a plane before he found his way back onto a truck.
So when he heard a feminine voice pick up the shoebox he was in he felt elated. So when she carried him up some stairs and then tossed the shoebox he was in onto something he felt sick. Bryce was unsure where he was but he realized he was in some kind of apartment as he heard two voices speak. One from a Mia and another from a Hannah. Bryce wished he had saved his voice as now that he was so close to getting some kind of help but didn’t have a voice to call out any longer.
Bryce finally felt the shoebox he was in lifted up. The tape being ripped off the box sounded painfully loud to his miniature ears causing him to cover them up. The lid was slid back revealing the face of a young woman. The bright light caused visceral pain that blinded him.
“Oh my god. I can’t believe Tanner got me a person.” The girl’s voice was shrill as she held the box at an angle causing Bryce to crash into the rear wall of the box. She snapped her gum and smacked her lips as her eyes narrowed on Bryce.
“Please, I’m not sure exactly what is going on. Can I get some water?” Bryce said with his hoarse voice.
“Wait, Mr. Wexler is that you? That is you, isn’t it? It’s me, Mia Lawson.” As Bryce’s started to adjust to the light he felt a level of sickness he hadn’t felt since this ordeal began.
“Let’s see what this says,” Mia said as she pulled out a folded packet of papers that Bryce had been sitting on. As her eyes read over the papers she smiled.
“Why are you here? Where am I?” Bryce said confused as to why he was looking up at one of his students from the fall. “How long was I….” Bryce thought to himself struggling to remember how long he had been in that facility.
“So these papers say I’m your guardian Wexie. You don’t mind if I call you Wexie do you?” Mia said with a laugh. “This is too funny. Like how did Tanner even get ahold of you? Do you remember what you told me last fall? I remember it vividly. You said that I wasn’t going to amount to anything. That money couldn’t replace hard work and you’d give me the grade I earned, a D.” Mia said with a smirk as she looked down at her former high school teacher with a terrified look on his face.
“Puh-please Mia.” Bryce managed to say with his hoarse, cracking voice. “Water…” Bryce sputtered out
“Funny how I’m not going to amount to anything yet here I am in college, pledged to a Sorority, having the time of my life, and you, you belong to me now Wexie. This I believe is something you taught me, what was it again? Oh yeah, Irony.” Mia said with laugh as she reached into the shoebox grasping her former English teacher.
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