Captive (Story Fragment)

I panicked. My head felt heavy and my feet were numb. "What was I going to do now?", I thought to myself as an appalling sensation tingled down my body giving me goosebumps. After all I was only five years old. A five year old who was now lost in this gigantic mall.

My dad and I were looking for new clothes for me. I had begged my parents for days to get me the bubblegum pink, woollen sweater that had a crown-shaped cloth patch stitched on it. My parents looked for the sweater all over the mall, going to different sections of the mall to look for it. When my dad finally found the sweater, it was a "Eureka" moment for me. The sweater in hand, my dad asked me to get my mom so that we could purchase the items and head home. With a doubtful look on his face and a stern voice, my dad asked me "Are you sure you know where your mom is?" With great confidence, I assured him that I knew the way and that I could go alone.

My mom was in the kids section on the first floor. I walked through the aisles of cloth racks and mannequins, meticulously revising the directions. "Left then right then straight and then the escalator to the first floor." I kept repeating those lines to myself like a prayer to god. As I walked further and further into the jungle of clothes, I turned around to see my dad had disappeared. The first blow of panic struck me. I had walked too far from my dad and not even close to my mom. There was no turning back. Unfortunately for me, I had forgotten the directions. The Second blow of panic hit me right after the realisation. My brain went blank. I didn't know where I was or which way I way I should be headed. "Should I go back to my dad or should I try and find my mom?" This question circled my head for minutes that felt like an eternity. Finally, I decided to follow the path from where I had come and go back to my dad and so I did, with a clenched fist and a heart that pounded so fast, I couldn't breathe. The place started to seem familiar and a sense of relief was just creeping in when fate decided, it wasn't done playing with me. My dad was gone. No where to be seen. The last blow of panic hit me really hard, so much so that I froze in place as streams of tears flowed down my cheeks like a river. I was lost.

"Maa! Baba!" I kept on shouting or at least I thought that I was shouting because all that came out was a cracked voice unable to be heard. My eyes were red for have been crying for an hour now.