Finding A Lioness

Finding A Lioness

We’re back! And now, without further ado, another story is coming to you………

Finding A Lioness:

I don’t have to summarize the last few stories. Although I could. But if you’re one of the readers of this book then you should already have read my past ones. So, we begin…..

      That night, Claire and Haygan went to bed unaware that there was a man outside and Claire had been right. There he was lurking in the shadows. Creeping, watching, waiting for the opportune moment to strike! And the parents would have no idea until morning when he was long gone. He smirked. They’ll never find me! This is what I’ve been training for my whole life. To do something to help my master. I mustn’t make a mistake now.  Then when all the lights were out and it had been an hour since they had gone to bed the strange man snuck into the house. He chuckled very silently to himself. No one would ever know until it was too late to follow his not-so-easy trail. 

   Claire woke with a start. She thought that she had heard footsteps. Was she imagining? The door creaked shut. No! She wasn’t. She turned on the lights, woke up her newlywed husband, and went to look around the house Haygan close behind her. Finally, she decided that no one was there. “That’s so weird… I could have sworn that I heard something.” “It’s alright. It was probably just a dream.” “Yeah, you’re right. Before we go back to bed though, I want to check on Lioness.” “Ok meet me back in our room.” Haygan walked to their bedroom while Claire walked to where Lioness was. When Claire got to the room, she noticed two things at once. One, the nursery was completely trashed. And two, Lioness was missing!

   “Haygan!” She screamed. “What is it?!” Haygan said while running into the room. “She’s gone! Lioness is gone!” She broke into tears and sank to the floor. “No. No, no, no. She can’t be gone!” Haygan said angrily, his voice breaking on his last word. A single tear rolled down his cheek and onto the carpet. He sank down next to Claire and held her as she sobbed. “What are we doing?!” She suddenly yelled. She stood up and dried her tears. “We have to go after her.” “How? We have no idea who took her and we have no idea where they are or even where they’re going.” “They can’t be far. We have to!” “Fine. Come on pack a bag and quick. We have to go and find a Lioness.” 

        They immediately ran into the room and packed bags for their trip. Then they piled into their car and drove off after the tire marks that were shown in the soft dirt road. Haygan sped ahead and soon enough they saw a black car ahead of them. How did they find me?! The mysterious stranger thought to himself. He jumped at the sound of an arriving phone call. It was his boss! “Boss, what is it that you need of me?” ‘DMITRY!!’ Came the response. “Ye-yes boss…..?” He answered. ‘Where are you?!’ “P-picking up a package for you boss,” Dmitry answered, confident that his boss would be proud. Suddenly Lioness started screaming. ‘Is that a CHILD?!!!!’ “Yes, boss…..” Dmitry said confused over why his boss sounded so angry. ‘We will talk about this when you get back to Russia!’ “Ye-yes boss. Of course boss. See you then.” The call ended. 

       Meanwhile; Back with Claire and Haygan, They were giving the car all it had, but, unfortunately, it just wasn’t as fast as ********************** Haygan yelled. “We can’t catch up!” “It’s ok all we need to do is follow him and see where we all end up.” “You’re right. Ok! I’ll stay on his trail.” They continued on their way but slowed down to the speed limit. Dmitry relaxed. Good. They decided to give up. At least they had some common sense. No one steals back from the Russians! 

          It was a long road trip. One that I do not have time to describe. The moral of it was boring and distracting. Finally, after a number of long hard days, they made it to their destination. “Russia?!” Claire exclaimed when they got to the poll booth. “Wow,” Haygan said breathlessly. “It’s beautiful.” “Yeah, except it makes so much more sense as to why our child was stolen by them.” “Yeah, true.” As they went through the toll booth and were paying they didn’t realize that the guy they were chasing had paid the person manning it. “You have three days in Russia before you get deported back to your country.” Said the woman in a sassy tone. “Only three days?” Asked Haygan. “Yes sir.” She replied. “For what I had to pay it should get us more days here. You don’t understand. Our child has been kidnapped and we followed the abductor here.” “So you’re admitting to stalking someone?” “Did you not just hear him? Our child has been stolen from us!” Claire shouted at the woman. “Ma’am if you don’t lower your voice then I’m going to have to ‘abduct,’” She said, putting air quotes around the word. “One of your days here.” “Ughhh. Fine.” Claire resided with a ********* sigh. “Thanks for your service,” Haygan said in a mocking voice. Then they drove off into Russia to find their only child……

        On their first full day in Russia, they heard some news. “Have you heard that the dictator got a child just of yesterday?” Said some people while others would say something like: “It’s said to be an American child that they will raise as their own.” That’s where she was! The couple decided to go by the mansion of Vladimir Putin. When they got there, the guards blocked their way and wouldn’t let them through. “Please, sir! Our child is in there!” Claire said frantically. “Let them through at once!” Said a very commanding voice. “Of course sir.” The guards said in unison and stepped away.

       Claire and Haygan turned to see the dictator himself! “I’m sorry about them. They obviously don’t know how to treat a person!” He said, directing the last comment to the guards. They flinched in response. “Our apologies.” They said to the couple. “Please, come into my home.” He said escorting them in. “Can I help you with anything to eat or drink?” He asked. “Oh no. We’re fine thank you though,” replied Claire. “Of course My Lady. Please sit.” He indicated to a couple of couches in the living room. They sat. “What has brought you into my humble abode this morning?” “Well, sir, you see we have heard that our child Lioness is here….” Claire said. “Ah yes. That was her name. I am sorry about my imbecile of a servant. Stealing a child from the Americans. I told him to find a child that needed adopted here in Russia. And yet, he defied my wishes like usual. Don’t worry. He has been punished for his crime.” “Thank God!” Haygan exclaimed. “So when do we get our child back?” Claire asked. “Oh, I’m not giving her back.” 

           “But you just said-” “I said,” Cutting her off. “That man has been punished for his crimes against me. He defied me. I never said that I would give your child back. Unfortunately for you, she is already my daughter legally here in Russia. Now thanks to you I know that her name is Lioness. Such an ugly name…. I think that I will call her Anastasia after our late Princess.” “You can’t just do that!” Haygan shouted. “Please sir don’t do this. Don’t you have a heart? You can’t just rip our child away from us. She’s ours!” Claire pleaded tears streaming down her cheeks.” “Young Lady,” The dictator sighed. “I am old. And being as old as I am, I can no longer have children. You must understand this, I need an heir to inherit my throne.” “If you need an heir so much why didn’t you have one in your prime?” Haygan asked. “I did. He died in a hunting accident. Two days passed.” “Oh. I’m really sorry. But you know how it feels to lose a child. Please don’t take away ours.” “I’m sorry I really am. But unlike me, you two can have another child.” 

              “That doesn’t necessarily mean that we will though. We will never forgive ourselves for leaving our child here.” “I’m sorry. There is no more that I can do. I think that you’d better leave now.” he beckoned to some guards. They came and started dragging them away. “No, don’t touch me!” Claire yelled. “We can walk by ourselves.” They stormed out of the mansion, got in their car, and drove back to their hotel in bad spirits. 

         “Let’s call the friend group,” Claire suggested when they got back. “No! This is our problem to deal with and we will. I have a plan….” That night they discussed the plan.  It was to sneak into the mansion unseen and steal back Lioness. When all the details were planned out, they dressed in all black -including ski masks that they had bought earlier that day- and got in the car ready to kidnap their child back.

      When they were within walking distance of the house they turned off the car and walked the rest of the way. They had it all planned out for how they would get past the guards. They were going to climb through one of the windows. (Let’s hope they don’t get caught!) When they got to the house they chose the window to climb through and hoped that the alarms were off. They were. They jumped into the house and looked around. They were in Lioness’ room! What are the chances?! “Quickly grab her!” Claire whisper shouted. Haygan ran up to the crib. Nothing was there. Where was Lioness?! “Hurry up before we get caught!” “I’m afraid it’s too late for that….” Said a chilling yet familiar voice. 

           They turned to see Putin standing in the doorframe. “Where the hell is our daughter?!” Haygan said in a quiet but deadly voice. “She’s safe with her wetnurse. She’ll be fine. I can’t say the same for you two though.” Guards crowded into the room with them. Claire grabbed Haygan’s arm and inched towards the window opposite of the one they had just come in through. Then with unspoken consent, they both jumped through the window to the ground below. Then, they made a run for it! As fast as they could back to their car. 

       “No, no, no! We lost her again!” “Hey, it’s ok Claire. We’ll get her back. I promise you.” “You don’t know that. And don’t just try to cheer me up when our child is still in the hands of that monster.” Claire said angrily. “Hey calm down. I’m just trying to help.” “Yeah? Well, hate to burst your bubble but you’re not!” They looked at each other furiously. “Let’s just get back without getting caught. We have to sneak into the hotel to grab our stuff and then we will have to sleep in the car.” “Fine.” Claire resided with a sigh. 

      They got to the hotel and decided to use the fire stairs outside to get into their room. Once they had gathered all of their belongings, they piled back into their car and drove to a new empty location. Once they were there, Haygan attempted to talk to Claire about what had happened earlier but she immediately turned the other way and ignored him. (All the while acting like she was sleeping.) He gave up and reclined his seat, sighing as he drifted off to sleep. The next morning they had to lay low. They had enough food in the car with them to hold them over for a few days. When Claire did make the attempt to go into town to buy fresh produce, she saw wanted posters everywhere and the police questioning people about her and Haygan. A few times a police car would even drive by where they were hiding out but they were never caught.

      After a day and a half like this, Haygan finally spoke up. “Look, I know that you’re angry with me right now. But we have to get help. We have to get to the U.S Embassy right away and see if they can help us.” “I agree. But how?” Claire said finally talking to him in a complete sentence. “I don’t know that. But what I do know is that we have to drive to Moscow and act normal about it like we are a normal couple.” “Alright. Let’s do it.” Replied Claire, her face determined just like it used to be when she was younger. So, they set on their way. They drove all the way to Moscow and arrived there by nightfall. 

     They then got directions on their phones to the Embassy. When they got there, the Americans welcomed them with open arms. “What’s wrong?” One of the commanding officers asked them when they had gotten all settled in that night. “Our newborn child has been stolen by Putin, he refused to give her back so we tried sneaking in to take her back, and then it all turned out to be a set-up. They knew that we were coming. So we ran. And now we are being looked for by pretty much the entire Russian government and its Citizens.” Claire poured out their whole story. “Well, it is not safe for you two here. I’m afraid that we will have to deport you back to the States. It’s safest and the Russians can’t follow you there.” “What?! No! You can’t do that sir. Our child is still in the hands of the dictator.” Claire said frantically. “I’m sorry ma’am. We will try our best to get your child back. But unfortunately, it really isn’t safe for you here.”

     Claire tried to argue again but the man put up a hand silencing her. She looked over at Haygan who was silent and resided with a burning rage deep inside. “Tomorrow you will go back home.” With that, the man left them alone for the night. “How could you do that?!” Claire shouted at Haygan. “Do what?” Haygan asked in a calm voice. “You didn’t help me out Haygan!” “Well Claire, you’re obviously not thinking straight, it’s dangerous and the officer’s plan is a good plan. They’ll get her back.” “I can’t freaking believe you right now! This is our child that you are talking about. Don’t you love her? You’re a real sorry excuse for a father.” “Hey!” Haygan yelled back his anger levels rising. “That’s not fair! I do love Lioness! There is nothing that we can do, believe it or not! I’m just doing what’s best!” “No Haygan. You’re doing what’s easiest. And I’m done.” “What do you mean?” He said. “You know perfectly well what I mean! When we get back, I want a divorce!” Haygan stumbled back hearing those words come out of her mouth. She looked at him, tears streaming down her cheeks yet she held her demeanor. “It was stupid of us to get married so young. And now I finally realized as everyone else did why it was a mistake.” “You want a divorce? Fine! Have fun living the rest of your life alone!” 

      The next day, they were deported in secret. When they got back to the U.S, Claire went straight to her apartment where she found Katie watching Golden Girls on Hulu. “Claire?!” Katie asked concerned for her friend. (She had no idea what was going on.) Claire sat down and sobbing, told her the entire story. “Oh my gosh Claire, I had no idea I’m so sorry!” Katie held her as she cried. She then called Elli and Mooska over and all girls had a good cry and then a well-deserved girl’s night.

      Meanwhile, over with Haygan, he examined the ring that he had proposed to Claire with. He felt his eyes get wet and sure enough, he started to cry. Not only had he lost his only child but he had lost his wife as well. He didn’t feel like calling the guys. He felt like he needed to be alone. (Which by the way is a really bad idea.) So, he sat in the dark of his room until he eventually cried himself to sleep.

         The next morning both Claire and Haygan headed to the courtroom to sign the papers and make it an official divorce. Claire felt like she wanted it. But sadly, she was not listening to her gut. Haygan on the other hand did not want this to happen at all. But he was trapped. His hands were tied. It was either this or having to live in misery with someone who now seemed to hate him…… Buuuuutttt, that is probably another story. Or is it?….. 😉

The End!

This, my dear readers is where I must leave you. Stay tuned for more stories coming your way. Make sure to read all of the “Or is it” Sequence. It’s worth it. Trust me. 🙂