“Are you sure I got it all?” Miley asked. She was waving her arms above her head as she ducked under another large flat leaf in an effort to ward off an invisible attack. Then she held her hand over head to protect her waist length blonde hair from the shoulder high grass and bushes they were walking through. She had just stepped into a cobweb. Gross! Worse, now she couldn’t shake the feeling a spider was crawling on her somewhere. 

”Huh, Eric did I?” she asked still patting at herself. When her brother still hadn’t said anything she shouted, “Would you turn around and look for a sec? I could have a huge poisonous spider crawling all over me right now!” 

Sticks up my butt and she’s exhausting, he thought to himself. Eric wasn’t sure how much longer his eyes would stay in his head he had been rolling them so much. But in response to his little brat of a sister he only huffed loudly, gave a quick glance over his shoulder in her direction and said in a loud whisper, “You’re fine now come on. And, stop making all that damn noise. Anyone could be around here and we wouldn’t see them until they were on top of us.” 

“Don’t say the d word. You make it sound like we’re in an action movie or something. You have that big knife chopper thing you just had to bring. Nobody would try anything with you waving that thing around.” Miley whispered back to him. Eric turned to Miley, “This thing is called a machete and it’s actually pretty small. It’s only good for cutting this grass away so we can get through. We have to keep quiet and keep our guard up. We don’t know where we are. Just work with me and stop giving me, shit. We don’t exactly have a map of this place.” 

“Uh, yeah we do and you’re not allowed to curse!” Miley’s voice came out at full volume before she slapped her hand over her mouth. At Eric’s harsh glare she silently mouthed “Sorry”. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out a glossy pamphlet and handed it to her older brother. The vibrant colors belied the signs of age and wear at the corners. It showed an attractive family racing into a beautiful park filled with flowers. At the top in bright red lettering it read, Amaranthine Gardens: Year-round fun in the sun for the entire family! 

Eric was stone faced as he looked at the flyer in his hand. Beautiful gardens of all colors, hedge mazes, rides and smiling faces gleamed on the glossy paper. He shook his head and pushed it back at her. “Take a look around, Sticks. Does this place look anything like that brochure anymore?” 

Miley opened the folded brochure and held it up as realization flooded her eyes. She turned around in a circle trying to catch her bearings. It was true. The dense bush they were in now looked nothing like professionally curated pictures on the brochure. The gates before them were dull and cracked. The fountains were bone dry and filled with gravel. The well-manicured lawns and pristine structures in the pictures throughout the pamphlet bared no resemblance to the overgrown wasteland they could see in the distance. They had just trudged through the dense marshland that she now realized was the parking lot for an hour. No this was not the same place. 

“What happened here?“ she whispered. The grass at the entrance of the compound looked almost as tall as Eric’s 6 ft 2 inches. It was certainly well over her head at 5’8. Just ahead a sign peaked above the hedges. It read, “Main Park Entrance”. Eric just shook his head. He had no idea. Did grass really grow this high this fast? He used to cut the grass at their home before the move. It should take at least a few more years to get this high right? He silently pointed and headed towards the entrance sign as these thoughts churned in his mind. Just past the sign the narrow foot path they had been following grew impossibly dark for it to be high noon. 

“I don’t think this is such a great idea.” Miley had a trepidatious look on her face. Her feet slowed as though she planned to stop. “Nope” was all Eric said. “Come On, Eric”, she whined but increased her pace. “Nothing’s going on because I’m not having this conversation with you again.” He refused to look back at her. He knew that she knew the power of that puppy dog look she used. But, he also knew that she knew he knew and he wouldn’t let her get away with it. He wouldn’t leave her out here but he couldn’t let her manipulate him, not right now. Not with so many unknowns out there. She wasn’t taking this seriously enough. This place felt dangerous to Eric and he knew it deep down in his bones. He didn’t want to frighten her, but she was pushing him. 

Tired of the silent treatment, Miley stops and crosses her arms over her chest, “I’m just saying maybe we should think about this plan a little more, maybe there’s another way.” Eric, at his temper’s limit turned to fully face his sister. He looked at her and thought, Fine, I’d rather see her scared than dead. “Sticks, for the last time. We’re stuck in a foreign country, Jack’s missing, and the police won’t take our case seriously. We almost got taken to the orphanage when they found out Mom’s dead.” Eric was shouting now, ”Guess what will happen at the orphanage? I’m 16 and you’re 13. They’ll split us up and I won’t be able to protect you in there if we even go to the same facility. We need him. We need Jack. He’s the only one who can get our passports from vault at the bank and enough money to get home. Besides”, his voice broke, “don’t you want to know what happened him?” 

Miley hung her head. There’s a long pause between them. “No,” she says just above a whisper. Eric flinches like he had been slapped. He didn’t know how to process that response. 

“It’s his fault we all came to this country,” she went on. “He didn’t need to drag us here on his big job. We were doing ok and Mom was… Mom was just fine when we were back in Florida. But we packed everything and left everyone we knew because it was a big adventure. But Now… she’s...she’s” Miley tried to hold back the tears but a single stream betrayed her efforts. Her body started to shake when Eric wrapped her in his arms. 

He hated seeing his little sister cry. He was only 3 years older than her and even when she was a baby and he was a toddler he’d try to take care of her. She’d cry and he’d throw every toy he could find in the crib. When his mother asked him why he said toys make her feel better. Now that they were 16 and 13 not much had changed. He hated making her cry, but they were talking about Jack. 

Jack could walk on water. He’d know how to solve everything. He had always been their solid big brother, the man of the house after their so-called Dad split. Sure Jack carted them all to the other...Continue Reading