Status: Finished; working on the sequel
In The Dark
Chapter Ten
“Wasn’t that awesome?”
I turn my head towards him slowly and deliberately, in bewilderment, then back to the front, and start bawling all over again. Except this time, I’m breathing so hard that it sounds as if I’m yelling. Add in the fact that I’m still shaking hard enough to be classified as having a seizure, and you’ll see that I’m a total mess.
Nick takes off his seat belt and comes over to me. The seat, as I mentioned earlier, is huge, so he is able to sit next to me and he hugs me awkwardly, as if he’s never hugged anyone before.
He’s saying something, but I’m so discombobulated that I can’t make out one word. He doesn’t let go until I’ve stopped crying. However, I’m still shaking and quaking so it is not much better.
He laughs a little, and then stops himself. “Are you okay?”
I don’t trust my voice right now, so instead, I dig my nails into his arms.
“Ow! Ow! Okay! I get it, you’re not okay! Let go!”
I release him slowly, making sure he feels how freaked I am for a little bit longer. He opens the door and gets out, then takes my hand and pulls me out too. My knees are so wobbly that I start to fall, but he catches me and sits me down on the ground.
“Do not move until you stop shaking. I don’t need any more accidents from you.”
My jaw drops at this. “Excuse me,” I say indignantly, “I’m not always causing accidents! Who do you think you are?”
He crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow at me. “I think that I’m the person who’s had to either catch you, save you from some freak, or comfort you constantly since we met at the park. I think I deserve a break from your stubbornness. Don’t you?” He walks off to the trailer before I can say anything.
I drop my head in my hands. How did this happen? I’m not kidding, if I don’t get some answers soon, something bad is going to happen to all of these people.
I lie back on the floor, which is actually white marble, close my eyes, and listen. I hear nothing for a long time, but then there is a puff of air from somewhere towards the back of the trailer, and then voices follow. Loud voices. It reminds me of the school cafeteria or the gym. Everyone is talking at once; no one is giving anyone else any consideration. It makes an annoying buzzing sound to the person actually listening to it.
Footsteps on the floor make it to my ears. I hear Lana instantly. “What did you do to Kyra?” She sounds terrified, and is at my side in seconds. I open my eyes and look up at her scared face. I try to sit up, and she helps me.
I’m still shaking, but thankfully, it is a lot better than before. I give Lana a small smile to let her know I’m okay. “Help me up.” She puts my arm over her shoulder and I lean on her, standing as if for the first time. I lean on her shoulder for support.
Everyone has gathered around us now, wanting to know what happened. I tell them everything that happened in as brief a way as possible, leaving out the drama between Nick and I of course.
Ryan, who moved to stand right in front of me, looks as furious as Nick did then when I tell about the man at the gas station. When I’m finished, they all look plain dumfounded.
Nick chooses this time to come from the trailer. He tries to help me and take the burden away from Lana, but she holds onto me as if I’m a wounded animal that only she knows how to help, glaring at him. He rolls his eyes and starts walking. “Come on people, let’s go.”
We walk through several hallways, and before long, I can walk on my own again. I’ve brought my oversized bag of jellybeans along, and am having it passed up and down the line of kids.
Finally, though, the bag is empty, and not soon enough, as some of the younger kids were starting to fight over them. Nick comes to stop at a big metal door. It has a hand scanner on it. Nick reaches back and takes my hand, and instead of placing it on the scanner, he places it in the middle of the surface of the door, and a red line of light scans my hand there instead.
“False scanner,” he explains at my look of confusion. “If someone were to use that one, they’d set off an immediate alarm. Just for extra security.”
We go through three more of these doors, before he finally seems to relax, as if he was afraid we wouldn’t make it here.
Here, he takes my arm, tightening his grip when I struggle, and leads me into a white room filled with people. They all gasp when they see us. Nick releases my arm and I grab onto Lana, scared.
All of them are wearing white lab coats. Just like those creepy stalker guys from before. They start to come toward me, and I back up, pulling Lana with me. She’s obviously confused, but she doesn’t resist. Nick seems to read my mind.
He steps over to me and takes my arm, gentle this time, and turns to the people. “Wait guys. I forgot, Loli has met the other scientists, and would appreciate it if you stayed a few feet away.”
They all seem to know what he’s talking about instantly, because they back up a little, and take off their coats, revealing normal clothing underneath. A woman who looks to be in her mid-thirties steps forward.
She is pure African from the look of it. She has braided, short black hair and big brown eyes on top of very dark brown skin. Her eyes are excited and cautious at the same time, and she’s smiling happily.
She hugs me, holding me gently but firmly. “Loli…” She does, in fact, have a very strong accent. “We knew you’d be back. I knew you’d survive.”
I look at Nick in confusion. He smiles at me softly. The woman pulls back and studies me. “Oh my goodness you’ve really grown! The last time I saw you, you were only as big as a watermelon. But you’re taller than me now.” She laughs and hugs me again. I stiffen, not hugging her back, and she pulls away again, frowning.
I match her frown. She takes a step back, looking like she is about to cry. “You don’t remember me do you?”
I shake my head with no hesitation.
She blinks a few times, and then says, “I’m your aunt. Your aunt Jayla. I’m your real aunt. By blood.”
I do not move a muscle, keeping my face blank.
“What are you talking about? I don’t even know who my parents are. Why should I believe that you’re my aunt?”
“Kyra,” Nick tries to say something but I don’t listen. I pull Lana over, none too gentle, and hold her in front of me.
“Why aren’t you hugging Lana? She’s my twin; you should be happy to see her too.”
She looks at Lana as if she doesn’t believe what she’s seeing. She covers her mouth with her hands and the tears start flowing freely from her eyes.
“No… It can’t be. We were… I was… so sure…” She shakes her head at Lana and whispers, “We thought you were dead.”
Lana grips my hand tighter. “What do you mean?” She sounds scared.
“You got very sick. The doctors told us that you had died at the hospital. Right after the…
accident. They wouldn’t let us see you. They said that your body was too… damaged. But you are alive? You’re alive!”
She lunges to hug Lana, with a lot more enthusiasm than she hugged me, and I find myself getting jealous. Even though I don’t know if she is my aunt or not. Then I remember the look Nick had when he saw Lana that day at the park. He, too, looked like he couldn’t believe he was seeing her.
Suddenly, she pulls away from Lana and pierces Nick with a glare so red hot that I’m going to have to remember it for future use.
“You didn’t explain anything to them did you? You were supposed to. Then we could have avoided all of this confusion.”
I turn to Nick, but he’s avoiding my gaze. “Well we had our own set of problems along the way. I didn’t have time to tell her.”
This earns me a look of concern from Ryan, but I just continue to stare at Nick. When he finally looks at me, I put as much hurt and anger into my expression as possible.
Instantly, as if someone flicked a switch, all of the kids go forward to talk to the people, and Lana starts talking excitedly to our “aunt” so I’m able to sneak away quickly and discreetly.
I run down the hallway to another door and place my hand in the middle like Nick showed me. It slides open to reveal what looks to be some kind of high tech elevator. It’s all decked out in chrome and buttons run from the ceiling to the floor on one side.
I step in, fully alert, watching for some alarm to sound, but nothing goes off. The door slides closed again and I turn to look at the buttons. They’re all labeled with different letters. My eyes zero in on the one that has an ‘F’ and an ‘R’ on it. I press it without hesitation.
The elevator does not move. I press it again. Still nothing. The door slides open. I’m not at the same place as before.
I step out and the door sides closed again. I’m in a room that’s lined with file cabinets, each one a different color. The cabinets are actually stacked on top of each other, taking up every inch of space.
I go up to one, a green one, and open the top drawer. I pull out a piece of paper from the N folder. Here is what it says:
Nicholas Parker
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Nicholas Parker is wanted in five states for the following crimes: first degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, arson, forgery, stalking, assault, larceny, perjury, and wire fraud.
Reward for his capture is 100,000 dollars. If he is spotted or captured, please call the number below.
910-855-6787-4568
I stare at the paper, fear hitting me hard and quick. Is this for real? The guy who has been the nicest to me… [Beside the not telling me things] is actually some sort of master criminal?
This does not make any sense. I fold the paper and put it in my pocket, then back in the elevator. I scan the rows of buttons again, and press the on that has my initials on it, just out of curiosity. The stillness of the elevator is creepy, but when the door opens again, I feel like I’m in some time machine.
I’m in a hallway. The walls are covered in pictures of… me? Really. Scattered in different places all over the wall, are pictures of me at different ages. From a chubby baby, to what looks like what looks to be ten. They’re not even in order.
I smile looking at a picture of me as a baby, sitting in my highchair eating ravioli, with most of it on my face and some in my hair. I remember when some of these pictures were taken. Right ant the end of the hall, next to the door, is an oversized picture that I’ve never seen before.
It was taken at the hospital. Right after I was born, from the looks of it, I’m in the arms of an African American woman who is in the hospital bed, and then there is a man hugging us both. They both look so familiar, but I can’t figure out who they are.
I turn to the door and search for a handle. There is not one. Instead, there is a small scan screen. I place my index finger on it, and it scans fast. A soft click sounds and the door slides open…
Oh. My. Gosh.
I’m standing in a room the size of a football field. Literally. The walls are a pale yellow, and the floor is chocolate brown. There’s a movie theater sized TV at the end of the room, and as I walk toward it, I see that it’s fully stocked.
There’s all of the latest video game consoles, and what looks to be every movie ever made.
This place is divided like an apartment [ if a fancy one], with separate rooms, divided by walls, which is completely unexpected. I thought they’d have separate spaces, but not all of these divisions. This is like a real house.
There’s another door on the side, and I go over to it. It automatically slides open as I approach it. It’s a whole separate room of suits. Like the one I am wearing. Except that, all of these come in different styles and colors.
Silver, aquamarine, black, coral, purple, pink [ I hate pink.] and more in white. I pick one out, grateful for the change. It’s black, with a turquoise belt. [If I sound like some fashion crazy girl, just know now that I’m not. I just need a change.]
I’m about to change into it, when I hear the door to the room slide open, and Nick’s voice. He sounds panicky, and a little bit annoyed.
I step out of the closet and find myself face to face with him. His face turns from shocked, to relieved, to angry. My first instinct is to shove him, which I do, which sends him flying backward.
“What the-what in the world are you doing?”
I make a run for the elevator, but he’s faster and blocks my way. I jump back as if he’s toxic. He starts to come forward, but stops when he sees how tense I am. I’m still determined not to show him my fear though, but I can tell that some is leaking out.
“What are you so scared about? Everyone has been going crazy looking for you. Especially Lana and your aunt Jayla.”
I take out the paper that I found earlier and hold it out to him, letting it go as soon as he reaches for it. It flutters to his feet, and he picks it up, reading it.
When he’s finished, he tears it up into shreds, and then runs a hand over his face with a sigh. “You weren’t supposed to ever see that,” he says at last.
I clench my fists at my sides, angry. “Oh! So that was just another thing you added to your list of things that you weren’t going to tell me wasn’t it? I can’t believe that I thought you were someone I could trust.” I practically spit the last thing at him.
I make another run for it, but this time he catches me by the shoulders and holds me still. I try to struggle and break free, but his grip is like iron, and just tightens on my shoulders. He gives me a firm shake, stilling me.
“Listen to me Kyra. The stuff on that paper is a lie. I’m not any of those things. Do I look like a murderer? The cops just thought I did that stuff too, because of the people I was found with. They did all that stuff; but blamed it on me. I am just as innocent as you are.”
His eyes are pleading. I still don’t believe one word that comes out of his mouth. I jerk away and take a few steps back, until I’m out of his reach. “Get out of my room.”
He flinches as if I screamed this, and scratches his head. “Yeah… um, about that…” He looks down and squeezes his eyes shut, pointing to the bedrooms behind me.
“I’m supposed to stay here with you.”
I turn my head towards him slowly and deliberately, in bewilderment, then back to the front, and start bawling all over again. Except this time, I’m breathing so hard that it sounds as if I’m yelling. Add in the fact that I’m still shaking hard enough to be classified as having a seizure, and you’ll see that I’m a total mess.
Nick takes off his seat belt and comes over to me. The seat, as I mentioned earlier, is huge, so he is able to sit next to me and he hugs me awkwardly, as if he’s never hugged anyone before.
He’s saying something, but I’m so discombobulated that I can’t make out one word. He doesn’t let go until I’ve stopped crying. However, I’m still shaking and quaking so it is not much better.
He laughs a little, and then stops himself. “Are you okay?”
I don’t trust my voice right now, so instead, I dig my nails into his arms.
“Ow! Ow! Okay! I get it, you’re not okay! Let go!”
I release him slowly, making sure he feels how freaked I am for a little bit longer. He opens the door and gets out, then takes my hand and pulls me out too. My knees are so wobbly that I start to fall, but he catches me and sits me down on the ground.
“Do not move until you stop shaking. I don’t need any more accidents from you.”
My jaw drops at this. “Excuse me,” I say indignantly, “I’m not always causing accidents! Who do you think you are?”
He crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow at me. “I think that I’m the person who’s had to either catch you, save you from some freak, or comfort you constantly since we met at the park. I think I deserve a break from your stubbornness. Don’t you?” He walks off to the trailer before I can say anything.
I drop my head in my hands. How did this happen? I’m not kidding, if I don’t get some answers soon, something bad is going to happen to all of these people.
I lie back on the floor, which is actually white marble, close my eyes, and listen. I hear nothing for a long time, but then there is a puff of air from somewhere towards the back of the trailer, and then voices follow. Loud voices. It reminds me of the school cafeteria or the gym. Everyone is talking at once; no one is giving anyone else any consideration. It makes an annoying buzzing sound to the person actually listening to it.
Footsteps on the floor make it to my ears. I hear Lana instantly. “What did you do to Kyra?” She sounds terrified, and is at my side in seconds. I open my eyes and look up at her scared face. I try to sit up, and she helps me.
I’m still shaking, but thankfully, it is a lot better than before. I give Lana a small smile to let her know I’m okay. “Help me up.” She puts my arm over her shoulder and I lean on her, standing as if for the first time. I lean on her shoulder for support.
Everyone has gathered around us now, wanting to know what happened. I tell them everything that happened in as brief a way as possible, leaving out the drama between Nick and I of course.
Ryan, who moved to stand right in front of me, looks as furious as Nick did then when I tell about the man at the gas station. When I’m finished, they all look plain dumfounded.
Nick chooses this time to come from the trailer. He tries to help me and take the burden away from Lana, but she holds onto me as if I’m a wounded animal that only she knows how to help, glaring at him. He rolls his eyes and starts walking. “Come on people, let’s go.”
We walk through several hallways, and before long, I can walk on my own again. I’ve brought my oversized bag of jellybeans along, and am having it passed up and down the line of kids.
Finally, though, the bag is empty, and not soon enough, as some of the younger kids were starting to fight over them. Nick comes to stop at a big metal door. It has a hand scanner on it. Nick reaches back and takes my hand, and instead of placing it on the scanner, he places it in the middle of the surface of the door, and a red line of light scans my hand there instead.
“False scanner,” he explains at my look of confusion. “If someone were to use that one, they’d set off an immediate alarm. Just for extra security.”
We go through three more of these doors, before he finally seems to relax, as if he was afraid we wouldn’t make it here.
Here, he takes my arm, tightening his grip when I struggle, and leads me into a white room filled with people. They all gasp when they see us. Nick releases my arm and I grab onto Lana, scared.
All of them are wearing white lab coats. Just like those creepy stalker guys from before. They start to come toward me, and I back up, pulling Lana with me. She’s obviously confused, but she doesn’t resist. Nick seems to read my mind.
He steps over to me and takes my arm, gentle this time, and turns to the people. “Wait guys. I forgot, Loli has met the other scientists, and would appreciate it if you stayed a few feet away.”
They all seem to know what he’s talking about instantly, because they back up a little, and take off their coats, revealing normal clothing underneath. A woman who looks to be in her mid-thirties steps forward.
She is pure African from the look of it. She has braided, short black hair and big brown eyes on top of very dark brown skin. Her eyes are excited and cautious at the same time, and she’s smiling happily.
She hugs me, holding me gently but firmly. “Loli…” She does, in fact, have a very strong accent. “We knew you’d be back. I knew you’d survive.”
I look at Nick in confusion. He smiles at me softly. The woman pulls back and studies me. “Oh my goodness you’ve really grown! The last time I saw you, you were only as big as a watermelon. But you’re taller than me now.” She laughs and hugs me again. I stiffen, not hugging her back, and she pulls away again, frowning.
I match her frown. She takes a step back, looking like she is about to cry. “You don’t remember me do you?”
I shake my head with no hesitation.
She blinks a few times, and then says, “I’m your aunt. Your aunt Jayla. I’m your real aunt. By blood.”
I do not move a muscle, keeping my face blank.
“What are you talking about? I don’t even know who my parents are. Why should I believe that you’re my aunt?”
“Kyra,” Nick tries to say something but I don’t listen. I pull Lana over, none too gentle, and hold her in front of me.
“Why aren’t you hugging Lana? She’s my twin; you should be happy to see her too.”
She looks at Lana as if she doesn’t believe what she’s seeing. She covers her mouth with her hands and the tears start flowing freely from her eyes.
“No… It can’t be. We were… I was… so sure…” She shakes her head at Lana and whispers, “We thought you were dead.”
Lana grips my hand tighter. “What do you mean?” She sounds scared.
“You got very sick. The doctors told us that you had died at the hospital. Right after the…
accident. They wouldn’t let us see you. They said that your body was too… damaged. But you are alive? You’re alive!”
She lunges to hug Lana, with a lot more enthusiasm than she hugged me, and I find myself getting jealous. Even though I don’t know if she is my aunt or not. Then I remember the look Nick had when he saw Lana that day at the park. He, too, looked like he couldn’t believe he was seeing her.
Suddenly, she pulls away from Lana and pierces Nick with a glare so red hot that I’m going to have to remember it for future use.
“You didn’t explain anything to them did you? You were supposed to. Then we could have avoided all of this confusion.”
I turn to Nick, but he’s avoiding my gaze. “Well we had our own set of problems along the way. I didn’t have time to tell her.”
This earns me a look of concern from Ryan, but I just continue to stare at Nick. When he finally looks at me, I put as much hurt and anger into my expression as possible.
Instantly, as if someone flicked a switch, all of the kids go forward to talk to the people, and Lana starts talking excitedly to our “aunt” so I’m able to sneak away quickly and discreetly.
I run down the hallway to another door and place my hand in the middle like Nick showed me. It slides open to reveal what looks to be some kind of high tech elevator. It’s all decked out in chrome and buttons run from the ceiling to the floor on one side.
I step in, fully alert, watching for some alarm to sound, but nothing goes off. The door slides closed again and I turn to look at the buttons. They’re all labeled with different letters. My eyes zero in on the one that has an ‘F’ and an ‘R’ on it. I press it without hesitation.
The elevator does not move. I press it again. Still nothing. The door slides open. I’m not at the same place as before.
I step out and the door sides closed again. I’m in a room that’s lined with file cabinets, each one a different color. The cabinets are actually stacked on top of each other, taking up every inch of space.
I go up to one, a green one, and open the top drawer. I pull out a piece of paper from the N folder. Here is what it says:
Nicholas Parker
Age: 20
Gender: Male
Nicholas Parker is wanted in five states for the following crimes: first degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, arson, forgery, stalking, assault, larceny, perjury, and wire fraud.
Reward for his capture is 100,000 dollars. If he is spotted or captured, please call the number below.
910-855-6787-4568
I stare at the paper, fear hitting me hard and quick. Is this for real? The guy who has been the nicest to me… [Beside the not telling me things] is actually some sort of master criminal?
This does not make any sense. I fold the paper and put it in my pocket, then back in the elevator. I scan the rows of buttons again, and press the on that has my initials on it, just out of curiosity. The stillness of the elevator is creepy, but when the door opens again, I feel like I’m in some time machine.
I’m in a hallway. The walls are covered in pictures of… me? Really. Scattered in different places all over the wall, are pictures of me at different ages. From a chubby baby, to what looks like what looks to be ten. They’re not even in order.
I smile looking at a picture of me as a baby, sitting in my highchair eating ravioli, with most of it on my face and some in my hair. I remember when some of these pictures were taken. Right ant the end of the hall, next to the door, is an oversized picture that I’ve never seen before.
It was taken at the hospital. Right after I was born, from the looks of it, I’m in the arms of an African American woman who is in the hospital bed, and then there is a man hugging us both. They both look so familiar, but I can’t figure out who they are.
I turn to the door and search for a handle. There is not one. Instead, there is a small scan screen. I place my index finger on it, and it scans fast. A soft click sounds and the door slides open…
Oh. My. Gosh.
I’m standing in a room the size of a football field. Literally. The walls are a pale yellow, and the floor is chocolate brown. There’s a movie theater sized TV at the end of the room, and as I walk toward it, I see that it’s fully stocked.
There’s all of the latest video game consoles, and what looks to be every movie ever made.
This place is divided like an apartment [ if a fancy one], with separate rooms, divided by walls, which is completely unexpected. I thought they’d have separate spaces, but not all of these divisions. This is like a real house.
There’s another door on the side, and I go over to it. It automatically slides open as I approach it. It’s a whole separate room of suits. Like the one I am wearing. Except that, all of these come in different styles and colors.
Silver, aquamarine, black, coral, purple, pink [ I hate pink.] and more in white. I pick one out, grateful for the change. It’s black, with a turquoise belt. [If I sound like some fashion crazy girl, just know now that I’m not. I just need a change.]
I’m about to change into it, when I hear the door to the room slide open, and Nick’s voice. He sounds panicky, and a little bit annoyed.
I step out of the closet and find myself face to face with him. His face turns from shocked, to relieved, to angry. My first instinct is to shove him, which I do, which sends him flying backward.
“What the-what in the world are you doing?”
I make a run for the elevator, but he’s faster and blocks my way. I jump back as if he’s toxic. He starts to come forward, but stops when he sees how tense I am. I’m still determined not to show him my fear though, but I can tell that some is leaking out.
“What are you so scared about? Everyone has been going crazy looking for you. Especially Lana and your aunt Jayla.”
I take out the paper that I found earlier and hold it out to him, letting it go as soon as he reaches for it. It flutters to his feet, and he picks it up, reading it.
When he’s finished, he tears it up into shreds, and then runs a hand over his face with a sigh. “You weren’t supposed to ever see that,” he says at last.
I clench my fists at my sides, angry. “Oh! So that was just another thing you added to your list of things that you weren’t going to tell me wasn’t it? I can’t believe that I thought you were someone I could trust.” I practically spit the last thing at him.
I make another run for it, but this time he catches me by the shoulders and holds me still. I try to struggle and break free, but his grip is like iron, and just tightens on my shoulders. He gives me a firm shake, stilling me.
“Listen to me Kyra. The stuff on that paper is a lie. I’m not any of those things. Do I look like a murderer? The cops just thought I did that stuff too, because of the people I was found with. They did all that stuff; but blamed it on me. I am just as innocent as you are.”
His eyes are pleading. I still don’t believe one word that comes out of his mouth. I jerk away and take a few steps back, until I’m out of his reach. “Get out of my room.”
He flinches as if I screamed this, and scratches his head. “Yeah… um, about that…” He looks down and squeezes his eyes shut, pointing to the bedrooms behind me.
“I’m supposed to stay here with you.”