The Arena: The Awakening (1) by James Robert Scott

air conditioning and was really warm. He tossed and turned all night worrying about what he would actually do if he did find Laura the next day. Would he bring her in or would he let her go? Would she even remember him? It wasn’t a good set of questions to be mulling over. The night dragged on with Hank only getting minimal sleep before it was 6 am and time to get up.
    After getting showered, shaved and ready to go, Hank remembered that he hadn’t spoken to his boss in a couple of days, so he needed to update him with what was going on. He went downstairs in the building to the hot-desking area and sent a message to him explaining what he had found out and why he was back in DC. When he had finished, he walked across the street to a diner to grab some hot food and coffee. He was in a more positive mood by the end of his meal. He felt almost recharged and it wasn’t long before he was on the road to the minivan owner's address in Alexandria.
    It wasn’t a bad drive to get there. It was familiar to Hank, as he had lived in the Annapolis area for a while with Laura and visited Alexandria frequently when they went out for drives on the weekend. Before long, he was sitting opposite the address looking at the house. It was actually quite a nice place. It was a colonial-style bungalow with nice grounds. The garden was well kept, with a mixture of lawn and flowers blooming in the warm sunshine. Parked on the driveway was the minivan. It was still only 8.30 am, so he didn’t want to go into the house that early as they may not actually be awake yet. He watched the house for any signs of movement but there was nothing. He gave it another half an hour before walking over to the property. He figured 9am was a decent time to be knocking on a door. What he wasn’t aware of, was that the occupants had been up for quite some time and he would have no idea of the conversation that was going on at that very moment.
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 16
    Restless Answers
     
    It wasn’t the most peaceful night for Mia. She had lay there all night willing parts of herself to move. Time after time she repeatedly moved her arms and legs. After a few hours of perseverance, she found she could control the functions of them, as well as move her head freely. She was almost back! The only thing left for her to do was speak. She was cautious with this step though. She didn’t want to make any noise and risk waking Kyle.
    She whispered “Hello” over and over again.
    She then tried “Help” over and over until she was confident that she could control her throat and mouth.
    It had taken all night but finally, she was up and out of bed walking around the room in her nightshirt.
    She was planning how to play it with Kyle in the morning. She knew she needed to get the maximum amount of information out of him as possible to start piecing her life back together. In her head, she decided that it was best to keep the element of surprise and play along in her usual state to see what happened. It wasn’t long before she heard the door of Kyle’s room opening, so she quickly dove back into bed and under the covers. She could hear him going through his usual morning ritual getting everything ready. She could hear the kettle boiling and then his footsteps walking along the corridor to her room.
    As he entered, he said “Morning” in a soft voice and set about getting her up and ready for the day.
    She found it hard to play limp as she could move all her body now, but she carried on playing along. Before long, he had loaded her into her chair and was wheeling her into the dining room for breakfast.
    As they sat there with Kyle spoon-feeding her the mushy breakfast he had prepared, Mia decided to test the water to see how much attention he was paying to her. She twitched her arm to see if he noticed, but he didn’t and just carried on.
    She did it again and this time, he sat back and looked at her and said “Are you alright Mia?”
    He started to stand up and