The Book

I blacked out after I got hit with whatever it was. I woke up groggily and heard voices mumbling around me. I kept my eyes shut and listened. It sounded like Dr.Martinez, but I couldn't be sure. "They need fast healing and flight. Both of them. I need it done NOW. Got it?" An unfamiliar voice replied. "Okay. I can have it done in six hours." "It better be."

I heard footsteps coming towards me. I kept my eyes shut. I did a quick inventory. Lets see, toes? Yep all there. Fingers? Good. Anything missing? Nope. The footsteps were now right beside whatever I was laying on. I opened my eyes now. I looked up to see someone standing over me. "Hello May." "Who are you?" "I'm Dr.Carr." "Where's Jake?" "Oh, don't worry. Jake is fine. He's in another room down the hall." "Take me to him." "I can't do that."

Remember that whole hating authority thing? Yeah..

So, I was gonna get up and go find Jake for myself. But when I tried to get up, I found that I was strapped down. "Oh, did I forget to mention that?" "Yeah I think you did." I could feel my body going into fight or flight mode."When the plane crashed you sustained some injuries. You can't feel them because you're on heavy meds right now."

He's lying to me. I know it. The plane never crashed. I decided that if lying was his game, why not play along?

"Whoa, the plane crashed?" "Yeah you and Jake blacked out. I'm going to be operating on your hand soon. I'm going to put you under now." He turned around and picked up a syringe. "Ready May?" "No! You lying son of a-" I didn't get to finish. By then the Dr. had already plunged the syringe into my arm and I was slipping.

Man, those meds act fast. I had about three seconds before I was out. I used them and all I had left in me to bend the arm he had just injected, and elbow him in the gut. "You lying bitch." I spat. Suddenly I was surrounded by darkness. One last thought crossed my mind before I couldn't even think anymore. 'I hope Jake is okay.'


I woke up feeling hungover and like I hadn't moved in days. I kept my eyes shut for few seconds. When I opened them I saw that I was in a different room and I wasn't tied down. Jake was sitting up resting his head on his arms in a chair on the other side of the room. He was staring at the floor.

I sat up. Jake looked up at the noise. A smile crossed his face. "May!" "Hey Jake. How long you been awake?" "A while. The meds didn't act as well on me." "They tell you the plane crash lie too?" "Yeah. I didn't believe it but I couldn't do anything. Before I could even speak there was a syringe in my arm." "Same.I managed to hit the doc first though." "Oh May, you are crazy."


I stood up and stretched. I knew I had been laying still for hours. I had a funny feeling in my back. Everything looked really clear for some reason. Jake had a shocked look on his face. "What?" "T-t-they did it to you too." "Huh?" In response Jake stood up. Then he stretched out his wings.

I'll admit I was a little taken aback. "Whoa what the.." "You got em too." "Whoa.." I touched my back. He was right. "How do I use them?" "I don't know. I just figured out how to stretch them out and retract them." "Maybe they're connected to our nerves like a normal part of us." I tried to stretch out my wings. Nothing. I tried again. There. My wings were huge. I had a wingspan of like ten feet.

I have to admit, as much as I hate that they modified us, I'm loving the wings. I've always wanted to fly. I looked over at Jake. His wingspan matched mine. His wings were beautiful. They were black with streaks so dark they looked blue. I looked at mine. They were a pretty shade of brown with red streaks. At least these lab freaks have good color taste. I thought about how I'm going to look to people now. Like five foot eight, not even a hundred pounds,long blonde hair, and huge beautiful wings. I can live with that. I looked over at a wall. I saw red outlines headed towards the entrance. I thought I was seeing things. Surely enough within a few seconds Dr.Martinez and Dr.Carr entered the room.


"So, I see you have found your wings. Like the color? I picked them out myself." I looked over at Jake, then back at Dr.Martinez. "Uhm..Yeah. I like the wings and the colors are perfect and all but..Why do we need wings? And why did you have to lie and tie us down to give them to us?" "You have a big mission ahead of you. Flying will come in handy. Trust me." "Trust you? You knocked us out, lied to us about a plane crash, and sewed wings to our backs! How can I trust you?" I was practically spitting blood with every word. Jake folded in his wings and took my hand. Dr.Martinez was having a hard time coming up with an answer. "Because we did it so you'll both survive."

Dr.Carr spoke up now. "Uhm..The wings aren't all. May, you have the heat vision. I'm guessing you saw red outlines through the wall. That was our heat footprint. You also have the strength of about ten people,give or take. Jake you have the strength of about twenty people, X-ray vision and can blend into pretty much anything. You both heal fifty times faster now. Wait.. Actually no that's not it. May, you also have night vision. And, you both have 2000/20 vision. What most people see at twenty feet away, you see at two thousand feet away."


I'll admit, even I was speechless for once. Only for a minute though. I found something to say though.

"You made us into freaks." "We made you into miracles." "Miracles?! We are complete freaks! I can never be normal again because of this! Flying and heat vision and all that other crap isn't normal!" "Whatever. Lets talk about your mission." "We'll talk when I'm good and ready." "We'll talk now May." Jake was tense as he spoke. It was clear he wanted to get this over with.

We all sat in the chairs spread around the room.. Dr.Martinez spoke first. "Well, the book is part of your mission, but that's mostly our job. You just had to bring it to us.You will still be helping us regarding the book, but only minimally." "Mhmm.. So what exactly is our mission?" "To prevent the end of the human race." "What?!" "Just stay with me now. You and Jake are preventing an apocalypses. The end is coming. You have to stop it. Evil wants to kill off the innocent and good guys."Uh-huh. You expect us to do this alone?" "My god no. You will have a small team of genetically improved people like yourself at your side." "Okaaayy. Wait! Is THAT what was behind the door back in London?!" "Yes.Here I'll call the boss and have them brought here." "Yeah, whatever."


She dug around in her pocket for a minute before pulling out her cell phone. Obviously a disposable.

She dialed and waited for an answer. "Hey, boss? Yeah. We're ready for the gang now. Okay. Bye." She hung up and turned to me and Jake again. "Your partners have been trained and know what they are up against. they will prove very handy. They should be here any minute." Just as she said that I began to see faint red outlines in the walls again. Four this time. Noticing my reaction Jake spoke. "Uhm.. I think they ARE here." I nodded. As if on que,four people entered the room.


One was about average height,brown hair and brown eyes. She looked like a normal thirteen year old. I wondered to myself what she could do. One of the others looked to be about seven. She had very straight blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes. She kinda reminded me of myself. She had wings too. hers were slightly outstretched. I'm guessing she had a wingspan of about eight feet. She was ADORABLE. One of the others was a tall guy. He looked about thirteen. He looked pretty much normal. He had brown hair and green eyes. The other boy looked to be about nine. He had jet black hair and brown eyes. He looked completely normal to me. What the heck can these kids do?


We all sat in silence. Sort of studying each other for a minute.


Dr.Carr finally spoke. " So, May, Jake, this is your new team." He walked over to the older girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "This is Victoria. Victoria, this is May, and this is Jake." She spoke in a very angelic tone.Her voice was higher then most girls'. "Hello. It's nice to meet you." "Hi. What exactly can you do?" "Well, it's kinda hard to explain. I'll have to show you if that's okay." "Okay." I watched as Victoria took the red sweatshirt she was wearing off to reveal her yellow t-shirt. She had wings. Hers were different though. Hers were more, fairy like. "So..You're a fairy?" "Kinda. I fly like one. I have extreme vision like you do. I can change people's emotions to whatever I want." "Oh. that's really cool." "Oh yeah,I'm thirteen, and call me Tori." "Okay. welcome aboard Tori." She nodded and took a few steps back.

Dr.Carr walked over and put his hand on the shoulder of the younger girl. "This is Allison. She's a little young, but she can handle it." "Hi Allison. What can you do?" "Hi. Call me Alley. I can fly obviously. I have extreme vision as well. I can hack almost anything and make a bomb out of absolutely anything. You need an explosion or pass code, I'm your kid. I'm eight years old."

So my thought at this point. I've got a thirteen year old fairy and an eight year old pyromaniac. Isn't being fourteen supposed to be fun? I wonder what the others do..

"Nice to meet you Alley." I looked over at the younger boy. "What's your name?" "I'm Aaron. I don't fly per say. I hover. I also have extreme vision. I can lift up to two hundred times my weight. I can read faces well enough that I practically read minds. I'm ten." "What do you mean you 'Hover'?" "Well, I don't fly, I just have the ability to defy gravity. That allows me to fly. Just the same, I travel as high and fast as the rest of you do." "Oh. Okay. Me and Jake looked over at the last person. He looked up,feeling the eyes on him. "Hi. I'm Avinion. Call me Avi. I got wings like you, the same vision. I can root through anyone's thoughts. I can break an arm with one finger and make fire with anything. I'm twelve." "Oh. That's awesome." "Eh."

So me and Jake are the oldest. At least there won't be anyone older trying to boss us around. I guess that means we're the leaders. This is gonna get pretty interesting. At least I'll be in charge.

"So, Dr.Martinez, what do we do from here?" "Well first, I'm gonna need the book. It's going under the heaviest security available." Me and Jake exchanged a look. Another one of our unspoken conversations. I nodded and Jake got the book out of the backpack and handed it over. Dr.Martinez set it on her lap and folded her hands on top. "Now what doc?" "Well Dr.Carr is gonna go lock this up in a high security, round the clock monitored room. You will be headed out soon. We will keep in contact, but for the most part after I'm done explaining, you're on your own." "Okay." "So,people want this book.As you well know, this book is very dangerous. You have to keep it safe." "How?"

"First, there are people you need to either kill or bring to us. They are people we sent to try this before, but they're making things worse. They are just normal people but I'll warn you, they have some really high-tech equipment. They will probably run from you, but you need to track them down.They may also try to get the book, stop them before that point. Once they are all eliminated, you have to save the human race. There are a few organizations that are trying to help the apocalypses on it's way. They sell technology that is hurting the human race. We don't know which are the good guys and which are the bad guys. We need you to find that out, then take down the bad guys. We'll be in touch. You'll figure out how later. Jake make sure your watch always has battery. It has tools that you may find helpful." "How long do we have to accomplish this?" "Three years." "Crap." "You guys can do it." "Suurree. And why exactly should we? We could just find some island somewhere and forget this ever happened." "Because you don't have a choice anymore. You know too much. We'd have to kill you." "Oh really?We'll see who doesn't have a choice anymore."

I stood up and sprinted out of the room, down the hall and found the nearest window. I threw it open and jumped out.

I didn't know how to fly yet, but now was as good a time as any to learn. I never hit the ground, I took to the sky. Next thing I knew I was two hundred feet up and getting higher by the second. I could see Jake standing in the hall, staring at me through the window.He had a look of awe on his face. I saw Dr.Martinez come up behind him. She said something and Jake hit the sky.

I was a few thousand feet up now. I quit moving and just hovered in place, waiting for Jake to catch up. He was at my side in about thirty seconds. "May! Are you nuts?!? They could've shot you on the spot!" "So? It's better then saving the human race. Let someone else have the job." "C'mon. We can do it. We have three years. You can't run from fate. Lets go back to Dr.Martinez now." "I'm not going back."

"Yes you are."

I hadn't even heard Tori fly up behind me. I turned to face her. "Oh really? Why on Earth would I do that?" "You don't have anything better to do with your life anymore." I could feel something in my brain. Tori was changing my emotions. "Tori stop that." "What are you talking about?" "I know you're messing with my head, cut it out." "Fine. But you'll come back.You can't run from this." "Whatever."

With that Tori folded in her wings and began to drop like a rock. before I could count to ten she was ten feet from the ground. She snapped her wings out to slow her down. Tori landed lightly on her feet. Dr.Martinez came out and talked to her for a minute. They went back into the building together.Jeez,she just joined the team and Tori is already trying to control me. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

That left just me and Jake. "May, please." I looked down. We were really high up. Hmm. 'May go back.' 'Shut up voice.' I floated in place for a little while longer before I made a decision. I turned to face Jake again. I stayed there for a minute, then folded in my wings.

He had a look of terror on his face as he did the same.I had a few second head start. I waited until I was twenty feet off the ground and snapped my wings out, as I had seen Tori do. I landed so lightly on the ground that I couldn't hear myself land. I heard a soft thud a few feet away. I turned to see that Jake had just landed. I grinned. He had this look on his face that meant he wasn't nearly as amused as I was. He tromped over to me and grabbed my hand. I laughed and poked his nose. He lightened up a little and we headed in.

We walked together back to the room where everyone was. They all had worried looks on their faces. "Okay I'm in." Their faces all brightened up. "When are we leaving?" "Whenever you want, it's all you guys now" "I want a weapon.Nothing fancy, just SOMETHING." "Done." Dr.Martinez snapped a finger and Dr.Carr stood up.He took the book and disappeared. A few moments later he returned. The book was gone, but he had something else in his hand. He tossed it to me. It was a gun. It was in a holster that would wrap around my waist. I took it out of the holster. A pistol. Hmm.

I liked it, it was small and light weight, but still deadly. "Thanks, it's perfect." "I thought you might like it." I placed it gently back in the holster and strapped it in. After staring at it for a minute, I snapped the holster onto my hip and put my shirt over it. "Noticeable?" Jake smiled. "Not at all. Lets make it clear though May, the gun is an absolute last resort." "Uh-huh. I know." "Good. And if you shoot me, I'll laugh and live just long enough to shoot you back." "Why would I shoot you Jake?" "I dunno, just don't get any ideas." "Okay."

I turned back to Dr.Martinez. "Where should these people be?" "Jake's watch has names and addresses programmed." "Okay.-You guys wanna leave now? The sooner we start the sooner we finish." I watched as everyone exchanged looks of question. Nods were exchanged and they all turned back to me. Tori spoke. "You got it May. Lets go." "Great.Jake, the first address?" "Lets see.." We all watched as he touched the watch's screen, opening and closing files until he finally found the right one. "Chick's name is Lauren. Says she lives in Washington state." "Okay. Ready team?" Everyone exchanged a nervous glance before standing up. Avi stood up first. The kid must be happy to finally go somewhere. I imagine these kids have never been outside the vicinity of the training center. The next to stand up was Tori. Then Alley, and Aaron last.

Dr.Martinez spoke up. "Wait. Before you leave, I must warn you. This is very dangerous. These people are trained, armed and will kill anyone without blinking an eye if it means their own survival. And if you fail us, you will be eliminated just as they are being. So get things done right." I nodded and took Jake's hand. I snapped and pointed towards the door. I began to walk out and my crew followed.

I decided I like having a crew.

So lets recap whats happened in the past few days. My sister died, the rest of my family was killed, Jake's family was killed, we ended up on the run together, we had a night in London, and now we're mutants saving the world from apocalypse with a group of other mutants. And in all this, I still don't know where me and Jake stand. I am soo loving being fourteen. I'm way too sarcastic. On the bright side, I did always wish to be able to fly. Be careful what you wish for kids,you just might get it. Let this be a lesson to you.

We all stayed silent as we rounded the corner of the long hallway. We came finally came to the window me, Jake and Tori had gone out before. I stopped. My crew all looked at me with confused looks. Jake raised an eyebrow in question. "I wanna use the front door for once." "Why?" "That way if we ever need to get back here, we know what the building looks like." Everyone shrugged. "Okay May, lead the way." Jake sounded unsure.

So, we started walking again. That's about when I realized something, none of us knew where the front door was. I just kept walking. I used my new sense of direction. As we passed doors I could hear soft groans and the occasional sound of a drill. I don't think I even want to know what was behind those doors. Probably more mutation experiments. These people are sick. Who would do this? Where do they get people that volunteer for this stuff?

I glanced back to look at my crew for a second. Tori was smiling, Avi looked bored, and the rest looked off into the distance. They appeared to be thinking pretty hard about something. I wonder what.

I kept thinking as I absentmindedly made turns. The same thoughts. Where do me and Jake stand? Who are these kids? Did they volunteer for this? Do they know who they really are? Are they really ready for this? Am I ready for this? Will any of us live? The answers to these questions, well, I guess I'll find out. A thought crossed my mind then and it kinda hurt.'What if these kids went through the same thing as Jake and I?' Jake and I at least had each other. These kids would've been alone and scared. And they were so young! This made me mad to think about.

Something snapped me out of my absentminded trance suddenly. I came to a halt apparently out of nowhere. I blinked and everything came out of the blurry haze it was a minute ago.

"Uhm.. I think this is it?" Jake looked at me. "Ready for this?" "No, but I wanna get it over with so I can have a normal life again." "Ha. We can never have a normal life again.I mean, we have wings." "You know what I mean. Lets go." "Whatever you say."

I turned to my left and saw the door. I swallowed and hesitated. Jake squeezed my hand comfortingly. I looked at the floor and back up again. I dropped whatever fears I had and headed for the door. I put my hand on the knob, only to receive a slight shock. It hurt a little, but I didn't show it on my face. I just turned the handle and we all strode out,ready to face whatever came next.

Good Morning, Sunshine

All I could think was 'This can't be happening.' I walked in to wake her. She was laying perfectly still in bed, barely breathing. There was a book open next to her. When Abby saw me, she whispered something. It sounded like 'Burn the book.'I didn't know what to do. After she spoke, she died. I panicked. I mean I had just watched her die. What was I supposed to do? I froze. It took a minute for the full impact of what had just happened to hit me. And believe me, when it hit me, it hit me like a bullet train. I fell to my knees,not daring to make a sound. I didn't want to wake my parents. My eyes were watering, but I blinked back the tears. I thought to myself 'Be strong May.'

For a minute all I could do was sit there. Then I thought, 'Wait, she said burn the book, what was that supposed to mean?' I raised my head and for the first time, dared to look towards Abby. I saw the book open next to her. I knew what I had to do now. I got to my feet, being careful not to make a sound. By the time I was on my feet the room was spinning. My mind was rushing. I kept thinking over and over 'This can't be happening, this can't be happening.' But it was. I just couldn't believe it. I closed my eyes. I squeezed them shut, determined to open them and find this was all a dream. When I opened my eyes, I saw that, to my disappointment, nothing had changed. Abby was still dead, and the book was still there, open where my sister took her last, agonizing breaths. My parents would be up soon, then all chances of getting the book were lost for good. If I was to get the book, I had to hurry. I shuffled quietly over to Abby's bedside. Once I was there I snuck a quick glance at the book, and I noticed something. There were vines growing out of the book. Lots of them. They were covered in sharp deadly looking spikes. How I didn't notice before, I will never know. I guess I was in shock, I mean if you read the beginning of this, you can see why I was a little unobservant at the time. If you don't get that then seriously, reread it. I mean, I had watched my sister die.

Anyway, I didn't really have time to hesitate so I shoved the vines in and slammed the book closed. Once I had the book I tip-toed back to my room, taking care to shut Abby's door on the way out. After I had set the book down in my room I closed the door with a click.
I heard my parents stirring downstairs, and knew they would be up to wake me and Abby soon. I shoved the book behind my desk and hopped into bed, shutting off my lamp somewhere in between those two. I had all of two seconds to settle in before I heard heavy footsteps in the hall. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing so my parents would think I was asleep. I heard footsteps just outside my bedroom door. My heart was racing. I struggled to keep up the act. My door opened with a light squeaking sound. I heard my mom tiptoe to my bed side. She put a hand on my back and shook me lightly. "Wake up May." She said with a gentle tone. "It's time to get ready for school." I groaned and stretched, pretending she had just woke me up. "Hi mom." I spoke tiredly. "Good morning honey. Get up and dressed okay?" I blinked a few times and smiled. " Okay."

Just as I had finished talking I heard my dad's voice. "Um Linda..!" My mom replied calmly, having no idea what was going on. "Yes dear?" "Um... you might want to come here for a minute, there's something wrong with Abby. Um.. come quickly." "On my way." My mom looked at me and nodded, in a dismissive sort of way. She stood up and hurried out of my room, shutting the door behind her. I heard her voice down the hall a few moments later. "OH MY GOD!!" My dad spoke next, trying to calm her. "Shh.. May is just a few doors down. We don't want her to hear about this until Abby's body is gone. We'll say that Abby is staying home sick, and tell her when she gets home from school." I had to listen at the door to hear my dad's part. "Okay I'll tell her she's walking to school by herself today." "I'll make sure someone comes to get Abby."

I heard my mom's footsteps in the hall so I rushed over to my closet and pretended I was trying to pick out an outfit. I was looking at my jeans, deciding on a color when my mom walked in. I turned around gingerly. "Hey mom, what's up?" My mom's eyes were sunk, but her mouth wore a giant, fake grin. I hate when adults try to pretend everything's okay. I wish they would just tell us the truth instead of lying to us. I mean really, who do they think they're fooling? She spoke in a voice so cheery it made me want to vomit. "May, your sister is sick, so you'll be walking to school by yourself today." "Okay mom. Which color? Red, blue or purple?" "Oh, definitely blue. It brings out your eyes." "Okay, thanks mom. Be down in a few."

My mom nodded and went downstairs. Once I was sure she was gone I retrieved the book from behind my desk. I read the spine. It said 'The book of death.' Sounded like a good read. I knew it wasn't though. Obviously,like, read the last few pages. I'm not going to write this all down if you're not going to pay that close attention to it.

I slipped the book into my backpack. I went back to my closet and grabbed my blue skinny jeans and a blue T-shirt. Normally I don't really care if my outfits match, but today just seems like a good day to look good. I go over to my vanity and look in the mirror. My hair is disheveled, my eyes puffy. I straightened my hair, which makes it look a little better. Then I throw it up into a side ponytail and tied a blue ribbon in it. as much as I hate to admit it, I looked pretty good. I was a pretty lucky child. Both my parents were doctors. Money was never really a problem, but on any normal day you wouldn't have guessed it by looking at me. My usual outfit consists of whatever T-shirt happens to be clean, and whatever jeans aren't dirt stained. For shoes I would normally just wear whatever shoes I could find. Today after I was dressed and my hair was done I put on some eyeliner. Jet black, as always. I put on my blue and black plaid converse. Normally my shoes don't match whatsoever. Heck, half the time they don't even match each other.

I collected my phone and chap stick and set them gently in my right pocket, chap stick towards the inside, phone towards the outside. That's how it always was. Everyday in the same place. I'll admit I was literally addicted to a certain brand of chap stick I used, but it's not like anything bad came out of it, I just felt weird without it. Another addiction of mine was gum. I couldn't really focus unless I had gum in my mouth. A habit I would soon have to break. I was supposed to be getting braces in the next few months. I was thinking that when I got my braces I would get it so it was a rainbow across my teeth. Then it would always match and it would be just plain awesome. So anyway, I had a few odd addictions, nothing harmful. Expensive, yes, hurtful in anyway whatsoever, nah.

Once I was dressed I brushed my teeth and stuck a piece of gum in my mouth. I walked down the stairs as quietly as I could so that I could try to catch some of my parents' conversation over their morning coffee. I'll admit, I have a total lack of respect for authority. Matter of fact, I loathe it. I pretty much do what I want because people have given up on disciplining me. If my parents dared tell me to do anything they got a stream of disrespect and foul language that made it easier to just do whatever it was themselves.

Once I had reached the base of the steps I ducked behind the wall separating the kitchen and living room. I put my ear to the wall and listened. I heard my mom's voice first. " Oh man, Abby was only fifteen. I just can't believe it. And May is gonna be devastated." "Yeah I know. How are we gonna tell her?" "I don't know. I guess we'll figure it out when the time comes. For now just keep her in the dark until Abby is out of the house." My mom yawned and stood up for more coffee. I stood up and walked back over to the bottom step silently. Then I jumped from the bottom step to the ground to make it clear I was there. My parents fell silent instantaneously. They both looked in my direction.

"Hey mom, hey dad." My dad smiled a huge fake grin and kicked my mom under the table. She perked up and smiled too. My dad spoke to me for the first time that morning. "Hey honey. Do you need anything?" "What? Oh, no just wanted to see if you needed me to pick anything up on the way home from school." My mom piped up. "Oh, no. We don't need anything. Thank you for the offer though." The fake happiness in her voice made me sick to my stomach. "Okay, well I'm off to school now. See ya this afternoon." The tenderness in my voice was almost as bad as my mother's. Gag. I didn't walk away just yet. I was waiting for some sort of response. I figured I wouldn't get one though. So, for about a minute we all stood there. Grinning at each other, waiting for somebody to do something. Of course nobody did so I tilted my head, nodded,turned on my heel and headed back up the stairs to get my backpack. I closed the door behind me when I got to my room. I walked over to my backpack and picked it up. I took one last look at the book and threw my backpack on my back. I turned my back for a few seconds to get a hair tie.

So, just as I'm thinking to myself how dangerous this book probably is, there's a rapping on my window. I knew at that point it couldn't be anything good. I ran. I didn't even look out the window, just ran. I only stopped to grab a pocketknife on the way out. I bolted down the stairs and sprinted out the door. My parents didn't even seem to notice as I passed them. They were encased in some kind of trance. The way my neighborhood is set up, everyone shares a backyard, it's just a giant forest, the forest covered about five acres of land. I ran as fast as I could. Ducking under low branches and hurdling over fallen trees. I didn't feel I was being followed, but I kept running just in case. I couldn't feel my legs, yet I kept going. I didn't feel I had a choice. I heard a sound that brought me to a stop. I recognized the sound instantly and it sent a chill down my spine.
It was my mother, screaming.

Running

I knew I was alone now. My mom was dead, my sister was dead, my dad sure to follow. I had nothing left to do but run. My only relief being that now, I had nobody to tell me what to do. I was slowing down now. I had only run about a mile. I was so thankful that I has taken up track the year before. I thought about how hard the journey ahead must be when all of a sudden, a voice popped into my head. 'May, run until you can't run anymore, then keep running.' I stopped dead in my tracks.

The voice in my head, it wasn't my voice. Or anyone I knew for that matter. Great, just great. I'm alone, running for my life, AND there's a voice in my head. This day couldn't get any better.

'May I said run. Listen to me and I'll help you survive.' Okay mysterious voice in my head, whatever you say. I started running again. Going faster now than I ever had before.

So let me sum this up for you. A 14 year old girl. Her family is all dead or soon to be. She has an evil book that she must figure out what to do with and a voice in her head. Do you think this gets any better? No? Yeah, neither did I. So, I'm running really fast and what happens? That's right, I trip. A time when I don't really have time, and I trip. Typical me. I got up quickly only to fall back to the ground. Great, now my ankle is hurt. That's just wonderful. So lets look at my options here. Lets see, I can lay here and die, I can get up and run despite the pain, or i can haul myself into a tree for a bit. Hmm.. They all just sound so tempting. Chime in any time now voice. No? Did anyone else besides me see that coming? Of course.

So I lay down and watched birds flying above me. Looking at the patterns and the way they fly, I realized just how graceful they are. Like a ballet in the sky. 'May get in a tree. Now.' Mkay voice, whatever you say. So I pulled myself up into the nearest tree. It wasn't until this point that I realized just how much pain I was in. My head throbbed, my knees ached and I could barely walk. I got about thirty feet up and decided to stop. 'Go higher.' You have got to be kidding me. 'I don't kid. Higher and closer to the trunk.The leaves are thicker there.' Who are you? 'It will all be answered in time.' Why are you keeping me alive? 'We will talk about this later.Get higher now.' You're the boss I guess.
I got back to my feet and scaled the tree once more. Slowly making my way closer to the trunk as I went. This time the voice spoke with a sense of urgency. 'Get down, NOW!' I ducked just in time to see it. A strange and unfamiliar creature flew overhead. It had the mane and head of a lion, the body of a panther and a wingspan of about eight feet across. I had never seen one before. All I could do was watch. Looking closer I noticed it's eyes scanning the forest floor. My breath came up short. I realized the creature, (which I decided to call a Lanther until I knew what it really was), in fact was looking for something. It was looking for me. I found myself frozen in place. I watched as the Lanther flew overhead. I was almost sure it would see me. It stopped for a minute directly above me. I held my breath. The Lanther shook it's head, causing it's fiery mane to go in all directions. The beast moved on. Not looking back at all, just scanning the ground as it was before.

Although I was sure I was safe, I stayed completely still until the Lanther was out of sight. once it was out of sight, I sat up. My ankle had almost stopped hurting now. I decided to rest for a while and drop all the extra weight of my school work. Not like I was ever going back. Nobody who could make me was left alive, and I certainly wasn't going voluntarily. Not with this stupid cursed book. I unzipped the small pocket in my backpack. The contents included my gum, pens, pencils and some other miscellaneous things. I decided to keep the gum. Nothing else in that pocket I really needed. I took the pocket knife from my jeans pocket, where I has stashed it in my hurry to get out of the house, and put it into the small pocket in my backpack. Next I unzipped the main pocket of my backpack. I took out my folders and papers and set them in the pile next to me that already included my pens, pencils and other misc. things from the small pocket. Left in my backpack I had my planner, my knife,my calculator and the book. Lets see, I don't really think that my day planner is that important anymore and I don't think that I'll need my calculator where I'm headed, wherever that may be. So, I added my planner and calculator to the pile now. Only question left is what to do with the pile? Chime in any time now voice. No? Of course not.

I checked my phone. The clock read 10:45. Approximately four hours since I found Abby. My phone was also showing that I had a new text from Jake. Jake has lived five houses down from me for about four years. We were pretty close friends. His text said 'Hey, heard the commotion at ur house this morning and now cops r there. What's going on?' How sweet, he noticed something was up. Wait, the police were there? UUHHHGG!!! How did they find out so quickly? Voice? Great, the stupid voice helps when I might've been fine on my own, yet when I'm completely stuck, with no idea what to do next and the voice remains quiet in whatever corner of my mind it's coming from. Yeah, love you too voice. So, I decided I'll respond to Jake and tell him to meet me at our secret hideaway.

About a year ago my parents started arguing, a lot and I was afraid they were going to get a divorce. They just kept yelling and yelling. I had asked them to stop to no avail. Part of the reason I loathe authority. So, when all this trouble at home was going on, Jake was there to comfort me. We started hanging out in a little area of the forest about a mile and a half into the forest. It had many trees that were easy to climb, so we could sit at the bottom together, or in our separate trees up high. It was a nice isolated little place. We`went there a lot. We would talk a lot, but some days we would just sit in silence. It was nice and helped me forget my troubles from home.

I texted Jake back. 'Hey, a whole lot happened to much to type just meet me at the hideaway ASAP. It's kinda life or death. (Mine in specific.) Just please HURRY.'

I put my phone back into the front pocket on my jeans. I put my chap stick in the small pocket of my backpack, zipped it up and started to climb down the tree. My ankle was feeling fine at this point so climbing down was no problem. It took me about two minutes to reach the bottom. Right when I had gotten on my feet I got a text from Jake. 'Kk meet ya there in 20 min. Sit tight.' I put my phone in the small pocket of my backpack. Taking a breath, I put one foot forward and got ready to run. Breathing out I took off running. The wind blew through my hair. Once again I was running, jumping over fallen trees and ducking under branches.

I ran for the two miles it took to get back to the hideaway in about twenty-five minutes. When I got there Jake was waiting for me, leaning up against a tree. It filled me with joy to see something familiar. I had been on my own no more than five hours and already felt too alone. i ran up to Jake and threw my arms around him. The force of my hug had knocked Jake off balance and he stumbled back a few steps before returning my hug. For a minute nobody spoke.

The Hide Away

My eyes were beginning to fog from the tears building up so I let go to wipe my eyes. When I did Jake let go and sat down. Still not saying a word he patted the ground next to him, signalling for me to sit down. I did and he wrapped his arms around me, in a comforting way. At this point I was crying my eyes out. My face was red and splotchy and I could barely breathe. Jake rubbed my back in an attempt to get me to calm down. The tears came a little slower now. I managed to breathe normally now and my throat opened up again. I could speak now, but I couldn't figure out what to say.

We sat in silence for a few more moments, and finally Jake broke the silence." So, what's going on?" My voice shook as I tried to gather a response that didn't sound insane. "Well this morning I went in to wake Abby and found her laying still in her bed. A book was open next to her. She looked at me and said 'Burn the book.' And then, she died. Right there in front of my eyes, she died. I panicked. I knew my parents would be up soon so I grabbed the book and hid it behind my desk. My mom came in to wake me. I pretended not to know. My parents weren't even going to tell me. Then as I was about to leave for school, I heard a tap on my window. So I ran to the forest. I hurt my ankle but kept running. Then I had a voice in my head. I didn't recognize the voice at all.But, for some reason I felt I should listen to it. It told me to get in a tree so I did. When I got into the tree, a weird creature flew above looking for me. I call it a Lanther. Then I got your text." I choked the words out in between sobs.

The whole time I was talking Jake didn't say a word. Just sat and listened. Nodding every once in a while to show he was still listening. He thought for a minute before speaking. "So, that's how Abby died... What about your parents? The police said they found them dead too. They suspect it was you. They're looking everywhere for you."

This was too much to handle. I buried my face in Jake's shirt. I busted out crying.Again. I couldn't help it. I woke up this morning and I was one of two daughters of two rich doctors in a nice house with good friends and everything I could ever want. It's only five hours later and I'm the last remaining member of a family, carrying around a cursed killer book and the only friend I have left Is Jake and I guess I don't have a house anymore.

I was crying so hard my throat began to close. Jake's shirt was now soaked with tears. He didn't mind though. He just sat with his arms around me, trying to help. Eventually I cried myself out. I finally went silent. By then, I was tired and honestly didn't know what to say anymore.

After waiting a few seconds to see if I was going to say anything, Jake spoke. "It wasn't you was it?" I looked up. "Okay really? Of course it wasn't me! I can't believe you would even ask that!..." I was about to go off on him, but he covered my mouth with his hand. "Chill out, I was kidding." "Not funny." "Actually,..." I gave him the evil eye and he didn't bother to finish his sentence.

"What should we do May?" I thought for a moment, trying to look for a response. I found nothing. "If I knew what to do I wouldn't have had you come here." "So no idea huh?" "Pretty much. If it weren't for the voice in my head I wouldn't have made it this far." I checked my phone. Noon. "We've been here over an hour. We should get moving. I don't know where we should go, but we can't stay here long." "Good call." "Where to?" "How about we walk to town in the morning and find a small restaurant or something and figure it out from there?" "Okay, but what'll we do until then?" "Just chill in the forest I guess. I'll go home when the bus would normally drop me off, eat dinner, then come back out here for a bit." "Okay. What should we do until then?" "First, we should make sure nobody can track us. Gimme your phone."

I handed over my phone and watched as he took the SIM card out and snapped it half, then in half again. "I'll shred it when I go home. I'll do the same with mine tomorrow morning. I need it now in case my mom calls." I kept watching as he took the back of my phone and broke it in half, then slid they keyboard out. I turned away now. I loved my phone and didn't want to watch what I knew was coming. I know it sounds superficial, but that phone was like my baby. Once I heard 5 snaps, I turned back. One snap broke the texting keyboard off, one broke the number keypad off, one broke the rest in half, and the other two broke the keyboards in half. "What are you gonna do with the pieces?" Jake didn't respond, just begun to dig a small hole. Great, My phone was gone and now he was burying it. Could this day get any worse? I didn't fight it though. I knew it was for the best. I just hated that now, I had no contact with the outside world. As far as they knew I was dead. I guess that's the point. I still didn't like it.

"Now what?" Jake looked thoughtful for a second. He smiled and pointed up. "Race ya to the top of that tree." "You're on." Then just like five year olds, we both hopped up and ran towards the tree, getting ourselves up to the top as quickly as we could. I won. Once at the top I sat for a minute on a branch, but I got bored. I hung upside-down from my knees and took my hands off. I heard Jake's voice coming from the branch beside mine. "Are you insane? Get back up here." He was trying not to laugh. I could tell by the tone in his voice. I pretended to be thinking for a second then shrugged. I put my hands back on the branch and let my feet drop. Laughing, I swung by my hands on the branch. "Seriously May, cut that out." He was laughing. I looked up, giving a devious grin. I steadied myself on the branch. Once I was done swinging I let go, dropping onto the branch three feet below me. The look on Jake's face was priceless. Once he saw I was fine he busted out laughing. When he was done laughing he did the same so we were now on the same branch. He smiled. "Tag, you're it." He poked my arm and swung down to a lower branch. He descended the tree and ran.

For the rest of the afternoon we ran around in the forest, acting childish, but having fun. At 3:00 Jake's phone beeped, signaling the end of our afternoon in the forest. We met back at the hideaway. "I'll be back at about five." "Okay. See ya then." Jake smiled and gave me a hug. "Bye May." "Bye Jake." He walked away, throwing a smile over his shoulder.

Once he was out of sight I started to climb back up the tallest tree. I don't really know why, I just wanted to see how high I would let myself go I guess. I got about eighty feet up before I stopped. I decided it probably wasn't good to be this high with the Lanther still lurking in the skies. I didn't know if the Lanther was still there or not, but better safe then sorry. I lowered myself down to about thirty feet. Oh crap. I left my backpack at the base of the tree. I sighed and began to lower myself down. By the time I finally got back down, an hour had passed. I picked up my backpack and threw it on my back.
I started to ascend the tree again. I heard a strange noise from behind me. I turned on my heels. phew, just a squirrel. Scared the daylights out of me. I heard another noise just off to my right. I turned to see Ashlee standing behind me.

"Ashlee, what are you doing here?" "Eh just wanted to see if you were okay." "How'd you know I'd be here?" "Oh please, everyone knows you and Jake come here a lot." "Okay. Why do you care if I'm okay? Everyone thinks I'm a killer." "Nah. Most people figure it wasn't you because you would never do something like that." "Well, what do you think?" "I don't think you did it." I let out breath. "Sit down, I'll tell you what happened." I explained what happened. Ashlee just sad and listened, nodding occasionally. Once I has finished explaining what happened, Ashlee was speechless. After she coordinated herself, she said "Uh-huh. Why you?" "Dunno"

'Don't trust her. Pretend you do, but don't.' Thank you. It was the voice again. Finally, I've been needing to hear from you. 'About time you speak voice. Why can't I trust Ashlee? She's been my friend for like, ever.' 'She's playing you, she wants to lead you into their trap. Just stay here and wait for Jake. He should be here any minute.' 'Okay.'

So, Ashlee starts to go on and on about what the police say happened. I smile and pretend to be listening, really I'm just thinking to myself how much of a traitor she is. 'Don't feed me this crap. You're just going to kill me later. Mhmm, yeah you came to help me alright. I wonder what Jake would say if I killed her here. I have a knife. Hmm. Nah, I'll at least wait for Jake to get here.'

"...and I came to help." "Mhmm, and how can you help me?" "Well I took a survival course once. I can help you survive." "Hmm. Okay, tell ya what. Go home and think. If tomorrow you still want to help me, meet me here at noon. Okay?" "Deal. See ya at noon tomorrow." And with that she was off. She skipped away with a smile on her face.

Just when Ashlee disappeared from the forest, Jake came into the clearing. He was holding a brown paper bag.

He smiled and waved when he saw me. When he got to where I sat, he helped me up, and we walked back to the hideaway together. We sat on the ground, and he handed me the paper bag. I opened it up to find a sandwich and a cookie. "Thought you might be hungry." "I am. Thank you." "Eh no problem. Wouldn't want you to starve to death." We both laughed for a minute."Ashlee stopped by." "No way. Why?" "Well she was feeding me some bull crap story about how she wanted to help me, and that she was on my side. Right before she started talking the voice told me not to trust her. To pretend I trust her, but to not." "Oh,I see." "Yeah. So I told her to go home and think about it for the night, and that if she still wanted to help me tomorrow to meet me here at noon." "So, she'll be here at noon and we shouldn't be around when she gets here?" "Yep. What should we do? Where should we go?" " Well, I'll meet you here at eight. And we can get an early start into town. Sound good?" "Okay." I began to eat my sandwich. I took small bites so it would last longer. Once I was done eating, I folded up the bag and put it in my backpack.

I set my backpack on my back. "What now?" "Well, we should find a place for you to stay for the night while I'm gone." "Take to the trees?" "Exactly what I was thinking." We both looked around. I pointed to a tree directly to my right. It was perfect. It was tall and had lots of leaves to hide in. He nodded and we both stood up and walked towards it. Once at the base he gestured for me to go first, so I got onto the lowest branch and began to climb. Jake was following closely at my heels. I stopped about fifty feet up. I sat down and waited for Jake, who took only a few seconds to reach the branch from where he was. Once Jake had reached the branch where I was waiting he came and sat next to me. He turned so that he was facing me, leaning on the tree trunk. "I can only stay until the sun sets." I groaned. I sat closer and leaned against Jake and he wrapped his arms around me.

For a couple minutes we just sat in silence, both of us thinking. Jake finally broke the silence. "So I guess we're in this one together huh?" I responded with a nod and looked up at his face. He looked thoughtful for a second, then a humored expression crossed his face. "Think we'll survive?" I froze. How could I respond to that? I just shrugged and moved up closer to him. Death. It was a scary thought. I didn't want to think about the possibility of one of us dying. Especially being how possible it was.

I looked up and noticed the sun was setting. I pointed towards the horizon and Jake looked in that direction. He nodded. "I guess I'll see you here bright and early tomorrow then." "Bye Jake. See ya then." He nodded and with that he jumped down to the branch below us. I watched until he was out of sight. Once he was gone I leaned back against the tree. 'So voice, what now?'

I was shocked to actually get a reply. The voice almost never answered when I asked it to. I heard it though. 'Get some sleep. You'll have many sleepless nights ahead of you.' I yawned and curled up to go to sleep. 'Voice? Who are you and why are you helping me?' 'Just go to sleep. All will be answered in time.' Gee, thanks voice.' It seems that the only thing the voice will tell me is that everything will be answered in time. My first day on the run comes to a close and I drift off to sleep.

Running For My Life and Others'

I woke up around dawn. I yawned and looked up to see that Jake was there and I was leaning on him as I had been before he left the day before. But, when did he get here?

"Morning May." "Good morning Jake. When did you get here?" "I came after my mom thought I was asleep. I snuck out. My phone is in pieces in the garbage at home. I didn't want you to be alone in the dark." "Thanks. I slept surprisingly well." "I noticed. I watched you sleep most the night.You talk in your sleep by the way." "Did I say anything embarrassing?" "Not really. You said Abby a few times and my name once. I think you were dreaming about what was going on." I let out a nervous giggle and hugged him.

After giving me a few minutes to really wake up Jake released his hold on me to let me know it was back to staying alive. "Here, I brought this for you." He handed me one of his jackets. It was a pretty shade of blue. "Just in case it gets cold or somethin'." "Thanks." I took the jacket from him and slipped it on. I felt a little better. "To town with us?" "Lead the way."

I grabbed my backpack and we climbed down and met at the bottom of the tree. He held out his hand. I took it and we began to walk out of the forest the way I had come in. "We can't go out near either of our houses. Police probably have them both surrounded." "We're not. We're headed towards the neighbors three houses down from me in the other direction. We can go through their backyard and nobody'll see us." "Good thinking."

We walked for a few minutes in silence before reaching the edge of the woods. We paused there. "You ready for this May?" "Ready as I'll ever be." I smiled and we walked out of the woods. We ran as fast as we could until we reached the end of the street, out of sight of the police who, as I had guessed, has both our houses surrounded. We stopped when we reached an old looking grey house. It's paint was chipping and the wood was rotting. The gate was open. We walked into their backyard. They had a tall privacy fence and on the other side was the highway. Jake helped me up over the fence. Once I was on the other side, he hopped over. It seemed almost effortless for him.

He stood beside me for a second before offering me his hand again. Hand in hand, we began to follow the highway into town. Did I ever mention that we lived in the middle of no where? I didn't? Oh, well I meant to. We live in a small place in the middle of no where. There was nobody on the highway. Literally. We could walk along the highway forever and almost nobody would notice. That means that where we lived, everybody knew everyone. Everyone knew us, and they were all looking for us. Town on the other hand was another story. We went into town to get everything we needed. That place has over two hundred stores, a hundred restaurants and a thousand people. Still not many, but enough that we can walk the streets without anyone turning us in.

We walked in silence, both of us thinking. The same thoughts swirled around in my head over and over. 'How long will this last? Will I ever be safe? Will Jake ever be safe again? Can things ever go back to normal? Will I spend the rest of my life running? What's going on between me and Jake?' I thought about these for a while and came up with answers. How long will this last? Forever. Will I ever be safe? Nope, not a chance. Will Jake ever be safe again? Sad to say, I don't think so. Not while I'm alive. Can things ever go back to normal? Please, what do you think? I highly doubt it. Will I spend the rest of my life running? I hate to say it, but I think so. I'm just glad I'm not running alone. What's going on with me and Jake? I don't know. I guess the thought that either one of us could be dead any second really brings people closer. I don't know if it's love, or just that the only people we have left is each other. While answering these questions, another question popped up. Will we survive? No. I don't think both of us will. I think at least one of is gonna die. I'm just hoping it will be me.

We had been walking for two hours now. We had walked twelve miles. Eight more to go. I guessed by looking at the position of the sun that it was about ten. Ashlee still wouldn't be at the forest expecting to find me for two more hours. By then we'll have disappeared without a trace. Dropped off the radar. I was starting to get tired and I guess Jake could tell. He scooped me up in his arms and started carrying me. "Thanks." "You're welcome." I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck to help keep myself balanced and leaned against him. He carried me for about a mile before I spoke. "You can put me down now. I'm sure you're tired enough." He nodded and came to a stop. He set me down gently, making sure I had my balance before he let go. He took my hand again and we walked on in silence. I guess neither of us really knew what to say. I mean what could we say? 'Hey we're about to die, so what's up?' I mean really.

Seven miles.

I finally decided I couldn't bear the silence anymore. "What's up?" Jake looked at me funny before responding. "What do you think?" "Ha, yeah. Good point." "You feelin' alright?" "Well, lemme see. My family is dead, I'm running from who knows what and I've got a cursed book. So, yeah, I'm feelin perfectly fine." I couldn't help laughing at that point. I mean we can either laugh or cry, right? Ha. Jake laughed right along with me even though we both knew it wasn't funny. "Yeah, you have a point May." "Just sayin'."

We now had four miles left to go. Only four miles until we would be sitting in some coffee shop trying to figure out how to save ourselves. Can't wait. I really should cut down on the sarcasm.

We both fell silent again. 'So.... Voice, got anything to say? Now would be a great time to explain everything' 'Okay May. To start off, that book you have is cursed.' 'Well naw, really?' 'Yeah.. There's only one way to destroy it.' 'What is it?' 'It will all be clear in time' 'Can you ever give me a straight answer?' 'No.' 'Who the heck are you anyway?' 'It will ALL be clear in time. Just stay alive, and keep Jake alive.' 'I want answers.' 'Don't we all?' 'Don't change the subject' 'All will be clear in time.' 'Forget it, just shut up. Talk to me when you have something useful to say.' 'Okay. Duck.' 'Duck?' 'DUCK!'

"Jake duck!" I screamed. He didn't question me, just did as he was told. We ducked in time to see a large bird swoop over our heads. It had razor sharp talons, large enough I could see them from here. If we hadn't ducked we would've lost our heads. Literally. The large bird flew on. It seemed like it had a place to go and would take down anything that got in it's way, but wouldn't waste extra time on it.

'Thanks voice.' 'Mhmm.' Jake got to his feet. "Are you okay May?" I just stayed where I was, crouched down beside where he stood. "May?" I blinked a few times and shook my head. So close to death. I finally answered. "I'm fine." Jake offered me a hand and helped me up. "Three more miles to go Jake." We began to walk again, faster this time.

we finally made it into town around 11:30. We looked around before deciding on a small out of the way coffee shop. We went inside and looked around, just to make sure nobody had followed us and that nobody we knew was here. seeing nobody we knew or anyone that looked shady, we sat at a table in the back of the restaurant.

Once we sat down I set my backpack on the table. "We should go through this and make sure I'm not carrying around anything useless." I dumped the contents of my back pack onto the table. I immediately picked up the book and stuck it back in. "I think that this is pretty useful." "Ha, yeah it better be." Next I picked up my knife and stuck it back in the front pocket. I picked up the gum and examined it for a minute before opening the pack. Two pieces left. I took them out and slid one to Jake before sticking a piece in my mouth. I left the wrapper and empty pack on the table. "That's it." Jake looked up from the table now, clearly unsure what to say. After a few moments in silence he spoke. "So, where do we go from here?" "Where can we go?" "I don't know." "AHGG! I hate this. Why me out of ALL the people on Earth?!" I crossed my arms on the table and rested my head on top. I couldn't help it. I began to bawl my eyes out. I could hear Jake get up. He came around the table and sat next to me. He rubbed my back and tried to calm me down. "It's okay. We'll be fine." "No we won't" "You don't know that." "Oh please. We both know one of us is gonna die." "Don't say that." At that point I was crying so hard my throat closed up. I couldn't speak anyway.

'Look at the doorway.' My head snapped up and turned automatically towards the door. I saw a man standing there. He looked old. Maybe sixty. He looked at me. We locked gazes for a second before he gave a big grin. you have got to be kidding me. How did they find us? Uhg. Time to run again. I tapped Jake's leg. That was our sign for, we need to get out of here. We had made it up when we were younger, just playing around. All I could do now was hope he remembered what it meant. He looked at me and nodded. He stood up and waited for me to follow.

He remembered. Phew, I was so afraid he would've forgotten. I stood up and took Jake's hand. We walked towards the door, throwing a grin over my shoulder to the old man. I knew he wouldn't follow us, he wouldn't wanna stand out. I made a mental note to remember what he looked like in case we ever ran into him again.

"That was close. I was so afraid you wouldn't remember what that meant." "Why wouldn't I? I always told you I'd remember just in case." "We were like ten." "So?""I dunno, where the heck do we go now?" "We need to get out of the country." "How can we do that?" "Jake reached in his pocket and pulled out a credit card. "My parents have kept a Swiss bank account filled for me just in case." "Why Swiss account?" "Because those can't be tracked in any way." "Smart. How much ya got?" "I figure about three thousand by now." "Perfect. Plane tickets cost about two hundred each, so we'll still have plenty left over." "Mhmm. What country?" "I dunno lets just get to the airport." "Mkay."

We were now at the edge of town again. Jake held his free arm up and hailed a taxi. We both made sure our hoods were up before it pulled over. We figured we were both in the news by now and the cab driver might recognize us. A cab finally pulled over. Jake opened the door for the back seat and I hopped in. Jake followed, shutting the door behind himself. The cab driver was a man around his mid thirties. "Where ya guys headed today?" Jake responded before I could. "The airport." "Where's your luggage then? " "We're just picking up friends." "Oh, okay." The driver pressed down on the gas and we started going. I leaned against Jake and watched out the window as town disappeared.

It was only twenty minutes before I passed out. We had an hour drive. I fell asleep leaning against Jake , him stroking my shoulder. It was pretty peaceful. Ya know...being that we were running for our lives and all. Jake wake me up at the airport. "May. We're here, time to get up." His tone was so gentle that I woke up half expecting to see the trees of our forest surrounding me. I was disappointed when I woke up only to see we were at the airport, getting ready to flee the country. "Uhhgg." "What is it?" "I was SOO hoping it was a dream." Jake let out a chuckle before opening the door of the cab. We got out, and Jake payed the driver.

"Where are we going?" "I don't know May." "Where can we go?" "Where's safe?" "If only I knew." we walked. This time with a few steps of distance between us. I didn't feel like being social right that moment. The silence was killing me, but I really didn't know what to say. I let my mind wonder, thinking about what's going on. 'Paris.' 'What?' 'Paris. Go to Paris.' 'Why Paris?' 'For god's sake May, would you just do it without questioning me for once?' 'Why should I?' 'Look, if I'm gonna help you and Jake live, I need you to do what I say.' 'I despise that. It sounds like authority. You know I HATE authority.' 'It's that or die.' 'I can't decide.' 'Quit being stupid. You may be okay with yourself dying, but I KNOW you want Jake to live. Go to the plane and get your butt to Paris.' 'I hate you.' 'Whatever, just do it.' 'No.' 'May stop. You're gonna die!' 'That's nice. Talk all you want voice. I'm done listening.' 'You're gonna wind up in Paris anyway.' 'No I won't.' 'Yes you will, you can't avoid this.' 'Watch me.'

We were almost at the ticket counter now so I slowed down to wait for Jake. "Where to May?" Looking up at the available flights I answered without thinking. "London."

London?

Why did I say London?

I don't know. Somebody was telling me what to do and I didn't like it, I guess.

"London?" "Yes."

Jake shrugged and we walked up to the ticketing counter. "We would like two tickets to London please. Leaving as soon as possible." "Coach or first class?" "Whichever." "Okay. I have you booked on the 2:00 flight leaving in ten minutes for London. Aren't you a little young to be traveling alone together?" "We're eighteen." I lied. She eyed us suspiciously then shook her head. "Whatever, enjoy your flight." Jake grabbed our tickets and we headed to the gate. We weaved through crowds of people. Avoiding large groups of people and any security. Wouldn't want them to recognize us. If they did, we'd be screwed. We finally got to the gate just in time to board.

Once we had boarded the plane I set my backpack at my feet. As we prepared for take off I took out the book. We had to toss the knife before security, but we'll get a new one in London. I stared at the cover for a minute, then looked over at Jake. He had been watching me. Our eyes met now. He shook his head. "If that killed your sister, what makes you think it's safe to read? Don't read it." "Watch me." I opened up to the first page. The first line was. 'Read as you want, just know if you shall read the last two chapters a horrible fate will meet you.' I couldn't help but laugh. Stupid Abby. She never could read through a book without finishing it. What a shame that good habits caused her demise. Jake was watching me closely now.

I smiled at him and he looked at me suspiciously. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, laughed, and went back to reading. The next few lines read, 'You have been warned. Should you be holding this book it means you are in danger. You hold the very key to world domination. Either you want to use it, or protect it. Protectors be warned, you are in grave danger.'

The plane was level now. I read for I don't know how long. Suddenly I looked up and the plane was falling. Twisting and spiraling in the air. Almost gracefully. Like a bird, soaring above the clouds. I looked around and didn't see Jake. I looked over to the emergency exit and there he was. screaming my name. "MAY! GET OUT OF HERE, IT'S GOING DOWN!" I was confused. I slammed the book on my lap shut. I ran and jumped out the door just before the plane hit the ground. Oh no. Jake! "JAKE!!" No answer. He didn't make it. I have to travel this world alone. Just me and the clothes on my back, and not to mention this stupid book. 'Voice? Are you there?' 'I told you to go to Paris and you didn't listen. You're on your own.' This can't be happening. I can't be alone. The voice's last words echoed in my head. 'You're on your own.' I heard a gunshot in the distance.

My eyes flew open. I was shaking and sweating. Jake rubbed my arm. It was just a dream. I hyperventilated. My heart was racing. I just couldn't seem to get it into my head that it was just a dream. I sat there in silence shaking and hyperventilating. Jake just kept rubbing my arm. "May it's okay. It was just a dream." I couldn't snap out of it. For some reason, my mind just couldn't accept that it was a dream. All I could do was sit there trembling.

I finally snapped out of it about ten minutes later. That's when I looked at the book in my lap and realized something. I didn't remember a thing I had just read. I sighed and put the book away. No way I was going to read it now. Jake appeared to be watching my every move intently, as if he was i don't know, studying me. It was strange. "how long till we reach London?" I asked, trying to break the silence. "About two more hours." "You should sleep. You've been up for almost two days straight." "I'm fine." "Just get some rest. We're on a plane. I'll be fine." "Okay.Just watch yourself, you don't know who else is on this flight." "Yeah, okay." And with that Jake closed his eyes and passed out. It only took him about two seconds to fall asleep.

For some of the flight I went back and forth between watching Jake sleep and looking out the window. We were pretty high up. I wished I had wings. It'd be pretty cool to be able to fly this high whenever I wanted. I looked back over at Jake. He looked so... I guess innocent in his sleep. Like he hadn't been put through hell in the past couple of days. I decided now would be a good time to read the book. I mean Jake wasn't awake to stop me. Ha.

I got the book out of the bag and opened up to the first page. I reread what I had forgotten,it just said not to read the last two chapters and that I am now in grave danger, like a hadn't already figured THAT out. I read on and the book told me about the people who would try to get this book. It told me their strengths and weaknesses. Pretty scary stuff. I was only two pages in. Only about a thousand more to go. I was also told about the people on my side and where I could find them. Oh great. The book told me about the first person to find. His name is Dr. Carr. And of course where was he located? Certainly not London. Paris. Should've listened to the voice.Uhhg. I wanted to scream. It said that he could explain a lot and he would give us all the details we needed and that he would help us. Something else on that page caught my eye though. His address. It said his work address was a genetic engineering place. Hmm.. does that have anything to do with us? Maybe, maybe not. I looked to see if any were located in London. Bingo. Dr.Martinez. She works at a science lab in London. I decided we would go there first.

I heard Jake stirring next to me and I quickly put the book away. By the time he opened his eyes the book was away and I was looking out the window as if nothing had happened. I looked over at him, pretending to have just noticed he was awake. " Hiya." Jake responded slowly and tiredly, as expected since he just woke up. "Hi May. How long till we land?" My voice sounded so cheery it was sickening. "Oh about ten minutes." "Mkay. Whaddo we do when we get off the plane?" "Keep up." "Wha?" "I'm headed somewhere. All you have to do is keep up and don't ask questions. Mkay?" "Okaaaayy." He spoke with a hint of confusion in his voice. I smiled at him. "Think we'll make it through this alive?" He chuckled softly before replying. "Ha.. No. I highly doubt it." "Ouch honesty. I was kinda hoping you'd lie to me." "Okay, in that case. Oh yes, we'll both be fine and we can go home when it's over." His tone was so cheery it was almost girly. "That was waayy overkill." "Well, what do you expect?" "I don't know."

The flight attendant's voice came over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now approaching our stop in London. Please fasten your seat belts for landing." I fastened my seat belt and looked at Jake. He had done the same. We both just stared at each other for a minute. After a long silent pause I dropped my gaze to the floor.

The plane was touching down now. I felt the plane wheels touch, and heard the noise they made against the asphalt. The plane slowed down gradually and eventually came to a stop. Everyone except me and Jake got up and started collecting their stuff. I just kept staring at the floor. Jake stood up and put a hand on my shoulder. "It's time." He said. With that I stood up and grabbed my backpack. Jake took it from me and threw it on his back. "Allow me." We walked to the front of the plane and down the narrow ladder to the ground. I stopped at the bottom and looked up. I saw wide open blue sky. It was beautiful. I wished at this moment more then ever that I could fly. I would just soar up and leave all my problems on the ground. But of course, I can't.

Jake took my arm and instantly I was back to reality. Ya know, the place where my family was all dead and I had to figure out how to keep me and Jake alive and do something with this book? I officially hate my life.

We started walking towards the back door of the airport. We paused just outside and Jake spoke. "You ready for this?" "I don't really have a choice now do I?" "I'm trying to be optimistic." "Yeah, whatever. Lets go."

We entered the airport. We went through customs with no issues and exited the airport as soon as we could. I was getting claustrophobic. Once outside I looked around. I hadn't thought things out this far. Suddenly I knew what to do. I don't know how. I just knew suddenly, it was like instinct. I turned and walked down the street. I had no idea where I was yet I knew exactly what to do. To say it was creepy was an understatement.

Jake just followed a few steps behind me. He didn't question me, just studied me. He'd been doing that a lot lately. I don't really get why. I don't exactly have time to worry about that right now though.

We came to an intersection and I paused. Almost immediately that same instinct took over. I turned left and started walking again. We were almost there. I could feel it. I felt the urge to look back and check on Jake. I managed to ignore the urge and just keep walking. Once I was in front of a tall skyscraper I stopped. I looked at it for a second. It had windows that were tinted so darkly that you couldn't see inside and what appeared to be an iron frame. The few buildings it had around it were small rundown little places. "I guess this is it." Jake caught up to me in a few steps and wrapped his arm around my waist. "You ready?" He asked. "I think so. Lets go."

We approached the door with some caution. Once we were there Jake used his free hand to open it, the other keeping a secure grip around my waist. I was scared. My heart was racing. For all I knew opening that door could've meant death. But it hasn't, yet.

We walked in to see a small lobby. There were three chairs lined up against one wall. Next to them was a small side table with plastic flowers on it. Uhg. I HATE fake flowers. They're so...fake. They don't have the smell or the beauty.

On the other side of the lobby there was a reception desk with a lady sitting behind it. The lobby pretty much looked like your average doctor's office. We walked up to the counter and I spoke with the lady. "Hi. We're looking for Dr. Martinez." "Her office if on floor nine. Let me call up and see if she's in." "Okay." We stood there and watched while the secretary picked up the phone and dialed. I watched as her fingers hit the keys, memorizing the number. 9265374951. I made a mental not to remember that in case I ever needed it. Jake was watching her just as intently as I was. Probably doing the same thing.When she was done dialing we both stayed perfectly still and listened to the conversation. "Hi, yes Dr. Martinez? We have two kids here that need to see you. Uh-huh. Okay, I'll send them right up. You're welcome. Bye."

The lady turned back to us and spoke." Okay, her office is on the ninth floor room 912. Elevators are down the hall to your right." "Thank you." I said. We headed off down the hall.

So, here I am. In London with Jake, waiting for an elevator. The only moments of time we have to talk, and I have nothing to say. That's why I'm glad when Jake speaks up. "How ya feelin?" "Uhm.. Okay I guess. Considering the circumstances. When we get up there let me do the talking. Okay?" "Okay. Whatever you say." He finally released the death grip he had on me and took my hand. We waited in silence for a moment before the elevator arrived. The door opened and we stepped in. I pressed the nine button and the doors shut. I leaned up against the metal back of the elevator. It was a very small, closed in space. Just as claustrophobia was starting to kick in, the doors opened. I stepped forward and Jake, still clutching my hand, followed behind me. I kept walking until I saw it. Room number 912.

I let go of Jake's hand and watched as he stuck it in his jacket pocket. I knocked on the door. "Come in." I opened the door slowly. I walked in to find a lab. A lady, in her mid-twenties was sitting at a station looking at something through a microscope. Hearing our footsteps she stood up to greet us. "Hi. I'm Dr.Martinez. How can I help you?" I looked at Jake and he nodded. "Uhm. I'm May and this is Jake. My sister read a book and died. It's called the book of death. Now it says I'm supposed to protect it or something. It said you would help us." "Ah yes. 'The Book Of Death'. I do recall. What do you need to know?" "Well, everything. I know nothing. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, who I'm guarding the book from, why or ANYTHING." "Okay. Come, we'll talk in here."

We followed her down a long hallway into a small conference room. We sat down and immediately I started asking questions. "Why us?" "You were the chosen one and you chose Jake to bring with you." "Why was I chosen?" "You're a bright girl who can think on her toes, run fast and fight." "Why am I guarding the book?" "Because it holds evil so devastating that if it fell into the wrong hands, it could change life as we know it. That's not your main job though.We did that so we would know it was truly the chosen one, and that you are capable enough to even survive. Once you deliver the book to Paris it's not as much of your problem anymore. You have much bigger things on your plate." "Oh? Like what?" "The survival of the human race. 2012 is near and we need you to help us ensure survival." "Who's us?" "We call ourselves SHFFG. Saving Humans For Future Generations." "Okay... And why on Earth should I believe you?" "What other options do you have?"

Have I mentioned how I hate adults being right? If not, I have now. I couldn't let that control me now though. Whether I liked it or not, she was right and we needed her help. I think I hate this chick already.

I spoke through gritted teeth. "So,Where do we go from here?" "I'll get my supplies and have my plane take us to Paris.Jake finally spoke. I had almost forgotten he was there. "When?" Dr.Martinez looked shocked to hear the dead tone in his voice. She drew back a little and blinked a few times before she responded. "As soon as you want." "I need sleep. Is there anyway we could stay in London for a night and leave tomorrow?" "If that's what you want." "We need money." Dr.Martinez pulled out a wallet and handed it to Jake. It was small and black. He looked at her and opened it up. Inside was about fifty dollars and two credit cards. One with his name on it, and one with mine. "That should do." "Each account had about ten thousand dollars. It sounds like a lot but it has to hold you for a while so spend wisely." "Thanks." Said Jake as he stuck the wallet in his back pocket. I finally found something to say. "Do you have anywhere we can stay tonight? Or are we getting a hotel?" "We have somewhere you can stay. When you're ready just come back here and I'll lead you to it." "Okay. We're gonna get some clean clothes and food. Okay?" "Okay. It's about five now. Just be back by midnight." "Will do."

We stood up and walked back out to the elevator and I pushed the call button. Jake looked at me for a second. "Hey May," "What?" "You up for a night on the town?" I smiled. "Sounds perfect." In other words, sure, it sounds like a way to pretend that I didn't have huge responsibility and a dead family.

The elevator arrived then and we both stepped in, smiles on our faces. Neither one of us talked on the way down, or on our way out of the lobby. Once we were outside we looked around. No normal stores in sight.

I shrugged and started walking right. Jake caught up and took my hand again. We walked for about ten minutes before coming across some normal stores. I spotted some boutique and we headed in. It was perfect. It had jeans t-shirts and jackets. Just what I wanted. We looked around for a bit before deciding on what we liked. I got a grey T-shirt with a rose on it and some skinny jeans. Jake got a black shirt with a skull in the corner and black jeans. I made sure to get a new knife while we were there too. After we had paid Jake waited outside while I changed in the fitting room. When I was done I put my old clothes in my backpack and Jake went to change.I slipped the jacket Jake had given me on over my new clothes. I was thinking how much I like this jacket when Jake walked out.

"Hey Jake. Looks good." "You too." "Here put your old clothes in here." I said tossing the bag at him. He put his old clothes in and slipped on his own jacket. Black. Of course. Jake always wore colors according to his mood. He didn't know it though, it was a subconscious thing. When all was said and done, I wore a blue jacket, grey shirt, skinny jeans and blue and black plaid converse. Jake wore a black shirt, black jeans, a black jacket and black shoes.

I took my backpack from Jake and put it on my back. He offered me his hand again and I took it. We started walking down the street when I had an idea. I spoke absentmindedly. "Stonehenge." "Wha?" "We should go see Stonehenge while we're here. I've always wanted to go." "That sounds fun. We'll catch a bus." "Yay."

We found a bus station after a couple minutes of walking. We caught the next bus. They had the double decker buses. It was pretty cool. We rode on the top level. The wind in my hair felt good. I took the ribbon out and tied it to my wrist. Then I took out the hair tie and wore it as a bracelet. My hair flew back. it felt amazing. I've always loved the breeze in my hair when I walked. That's why I grew it out longer. I was enjoying myself. I looked over to see that even Jake was smiling. Probably because I was happy. Jake seemed happiest when I was. I leaned back and sat on Jake's lap. It was about an hour by bus. I fell asleep on his lap.

It was a lot of fun considering that I was running for my life. Maybe this night out on the town will be fun despite the danger I'm in. I had a very weird dream. I dreamt I was a bird. I was flying. I was looking down at the people. I couldn't really see anything, I was to high up. Suddenly, something moved beside me. I looked over to see Jake flying beside me. He smiled and flew closer to me. we landed on the roof of a tall building. We kissed, then went inside.

I woke up then. I woke up to Jake saying my name. We had arrived at Stonehenge. I was still really tired. Sensing that, Jake picked me up and carried me down the stairs of the bus. Once we were off the bus he set me down and took my hand. "Stonehenge. I can't believe I'm here. I've always wanted to come here. It just sucks that this is the only way I could." "Yeah. But lets not talk about that now. We're in London with a night to do what we want. C'mon." He led me towards the stone monument. We walked around and I read all the signs. It was beautiful. We had a good time laughing at the other tourists and their children. Some were all excited and some were bored out of their skulls.

"I'm about done here. You?" Jake sounded tired, but upbeat when he replied. "Yeah. Lets head back to town." We went to the bus stop and waited for the next bus to come. It came in about ten minutes time. We got on and walked back up to the same place we had sat on the way there. I leaned against Jake and he rubbed my back. I fell asleep again. It was weird, I had the same dream I had earlier that day.

I woke up curled up on a bench. A plain white bench in front of some coffee shop. I looked around. No Jake. I started to panic. I was looking around frantically, looking for something, ANYTHING, familiar. Just when I was about to completely lose it, Jake walks out of the coffee shop, two cups in hand. He came and sat next to me like nothing had happened. He handed one of the cups to me. "You had me really worried." "Heh. Yeah, maybe leaving you on a bench was a bad idea.I didn't want to wake you. I was only gone for a minute though.I'm sorry." "It's okay." I sniffed the cup, trying to figure out what it was. I drew up blank. "What is it?" "Coffee." "Ooh yay! I love coffee." "Yeah, I know." "Thanks." "Uh-huh."

We walked around for a bit, drinking our coffee. Once I had finished my coffee Jake looked at me and smiled. "Dinner?" "Sounds great." I said, returning his smile. "Where to?" "Where do you want to go?" "Uhm.. I don't know. What's nearby?" "There's a McDonald's and some steak house." "Steak house it is. I need protein to keep me going." "Okay." Jake led me around a corner to a little out of the way steak house. It reminded me of a restaurant I had gone to while I was on vacation in Wyoming.

I turned twelve in Wyoming. I remember that on my actual birthday my parents let me pick what we did that day. We went horseback riding in the mountains and rock wall climbing. It was sad to think of my family now, but I kept a smile on my face. I was having a good evening.

Once we were seated, The hostess handed us our menus. I looked it over and decided on the six ounce steak. Jake got the same. While we were waiting for our food, we talked about our memories. Memories of our family, vacations we took and our past pets. "I remember my birthday in Wyoming." "Yeah, you've told me that story before. I remember when my dad took me fishing one time. I ended up having to go to the hospital. I got a hook through my finger." "Ha. That is so you. One time, me and Abby went fishing with our dad. It was funny because we had to cut our own bait. Abby couldn't do it because she was squeamish. I cut the bait and stuck it on the hook myself." Thinking about my family made my eyes start to water. I tilted my head back a little. Not enough that Jake would notice, just enough to help keep the tears back. I was still blinking back tears when our food arrived. I was trying reeaalllyy hard to be lady-like. It took everything I had not to just shove the whole steak in my mouth. The tears quit coming, but not before one rolled down my cheek.

"May? Are you okay?" It took a minute before I could respond. "Yeah, I'm fine." "Ya sure?" "Yeah, just remembering my family." "Oh. I see. I miss my family too. We'll get by though." "Yeah, well at least your family might still be alive. I KNOW mine's dead. There's a small chance yours might still be alive." "I watched the news on the plane. They're dead. But it's okay. I was never going to see them again anyway. We'll survive, but even if they were alive, we would never be able to go back home to our families. We'll be doing whatever you were chosen for until we die. Whether it be of natural causes or whatever is after us."

The waitress came by then with the check. It must have been an interesting picture to her. I was looking down at the table almost in tears and Jake was sitting there staring at me straight-faced. I couldn't help but think how this must look like a bad date. Looking back on it now, it's kinda funny.

Jake paid the check and stood up. He came to my side of the table and sat down again. "I'm sorry if I upset you. You know I didn't do it on purpose." "It's okay. You're right. I just didn't want to admit the truth to myself. I needed to hear it though. I'm sorry about your family." "Not like it's your fault." "Yes it is. If I had just never texted you back You never would've known. And if you never knew you'd never have come and if you'd never have come your family would be alive." "It's not your fault. You were chosen. And I'm glad you picked me to come with you. I can protect you this way." "Your life is in danger now though." "I'd rather be in danger with you then you be in danger yourself." "You're just saying that to make me feel better." "Why would I do that?" "Because I'm the one who needs to be stable now, not you. If you wanted you could just break down, find some little island and drop off the grid. I couldn't." "That would be sooo boring. C'mon. It's only like eight, lets go see the city."

We stood up and Jake took my hand.I grabbed the backpack off the seat next to me. Once we were outside I looked around. "This way May." Jake led me down the street. I noticed a lot of buses and cars on the street. "Look up." I looked up and immediately I saw what he meant. A hundred foot tall Ferris wheel.The London Eye. He tugged on my hand a little and we walked to the ticketing counter. "Two tickets please." " That'll be ten dollars." Jake handed over the money and we got our tickets. Fortunately, there wasn't much of a line. Once we had sat down, the Ferris wheel moved up,just enough that the next car could fill.

Have I ever mentioned how afraid of heights I am? No? Huh. I am only afraid of heights while I'm moving. About when we hit sixty feet I started getting scared. I had a death grip on Jake's hand. He was just smiling and looking out at the town. We stopped for a few minutes at the very top. I felt like I was on top of the world. We had a beautiful ariel view of London,lit up in the night. I released my grip on Jake's hand enough that I wouldn't hurt him. He let go of my hand and put his arm around my shoulders. We both sat in silence the rest of the way down. It was magical. Just me and Jake, staring out into the night. It was around ten now, so we decided to head back to the science lab for the night.

Jake let me take the lead because he had no idea where to go. I knew the address so I just followed house numbers until we reached it. Outside the door I paused and looked at Jake. He smiled and took the lead again. We strode into the lobby and over to the elevator. The elevator took what felt like forever. Jake pushed the nine button and leaned against the metal back as the doors shut. I sat down. I was really tired. It had been a good day, compared to yesterday, and I was beat. I heard the doors open, but I was too exhausted to get up so I just stayed sitting. Next thing I knew Jake scooped me up, without a word, and carried me to room 912.

Jake managed to knock on the door while still holding me. I was half asleep at this point. I heard the door open. I felt a little more awake at the feeling of someone else's presence. I heard Dr.Martinez speak. "Welcome back. Did you guys have fun?" "Yeah. May's practically falling asleep here though. Where are we gonna sleep?" "Follow me. You got her or ya wanna put her down before we go?" "I got her. I think she's to tired to walk herself anyway." "Okay. Right this way."

I opened my eyes slightly as Jake started following Dr.Martinez down a long, quiet hallway. The lab was mostly dark, except for where Dr.Martinez worked. The hallway was lit, but it still had an eerie feeling to it. It was a long walk but we eventually arrived at a smaller building. It had many rooms. Dr.Martinez spoke as we passed a room. "Jake, this'll be your room. I'll lead you to May's so she doesn't have to walk." "Kk."

We didn't walk far, it was just around the corner. "Here it is. You can go in and set her down." Jake nodded. At this point my eyes couldn't stay open much longer. Jake entered the room. It was small. It had a main room with a bed and T.V. and a small bathroom off to the side. It was like a small hotel room, except without a lock. Jake set me on the bed and waited until I settled in. Once I had settled, he kissed me on the cheek and started to walk out. "G'night May." I was so tired my speech was slurring. "G'night." I didn't even hear the door shut. I had already passed out.

I had the same weird dream again. What does it mean? Is it a sign? Does it mean we're gonna live? Does it mean that we're gonna die? I woke up thinking how weird it was, when things got even weirder.

I woke up to see Jake sitting in a chair across the room from me. He was just staring at me. How long had he been there? I looked around, trying to find a clock. "Eight. Dr.Martinez gave me a watch." "Thanks....Why are you in here?" "I heard you talking in your sleep. I got worried. Came to make sure You were okay." "Oh. I was just having a weird dream. Thanks though." "Yeah. Anyway, the doc said we gotta be ready to go by nine. So I'll go get our stuff while You get ready." "Okay."

I stayed in bed until after he had left the room. I sat up and looked around. This is the first time I had ever really noticed the room. It was a pale blue with tan carpet. Uhg. I had passed out in my clothes last night so I didn't have much getting ready to do. I figured my hair was probably a hot mess. I took the ribbon out and set it in front of me while I took the hair tie out.I combed my hair with my fingers. I braided a few clumps of hair then put it all into a ponytail. It probably looked good, but I didn't have a mirror and didn't particularly care. The only reason i bothered with a few braids is so it wouldn't get too tangled. I laid back down and waited for Jake to come back. After a couple of minutes I heard a light knock at the door. I sat up. "Come on in." It was Jake. He came in, the backpack on his back.

"G'mornin' May." "Morning Jake." I sat up and threw the covers aside. I sat so my feet were dangling off the side. "What time is it?" Jake glanced down at his watch. "Eight forty-five. Dr.Martinez said she'd meet us here in fifteen minutes." "Okay." Jake went and sat in the same chair across the room as he did earlier.

"How long had you been in here before I woke up today?" "Eh, only like an hour." "Oh, okay. You sleep well?" "Eh, not really." "Oh." "Yeah, I just couldn't get to sleep then when I finally did I kept waking up." "Oh. I didn't wake you up did I?" "Nah. I had already been awake for a while." "What did I say?" "Uhm, I couldn't really understand. It sounded like my name, but I can't be positive." "Oh, okay."

I crossed the room and sat down on Jake's lap. He responded by wrapping his arms around me. "What do you think is gonna happen today?" "I dunno. I guess we'll find out huh?" "Ha ha. Yeah guess so." "Ya worried?" "Eh, not really. I would be if I was at it alone, so it's a good thing you're here Jake. Ha." "Yeah, me either."

Dr.Martinez walked in then, holding a briefcase in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. "Good morning you two." She had an awkward look on her face. I responded first. "Good morning Dr.Martinez. How are you?" "I'm fine. It's time to go now." "Okay, lead the way. I hopped up. Jake got up after me and grabbed my hand. Dr.Martinez nodded and we followed her out of the room, and down the hall.

"Where are we going?" I had to know. "Oh, the plane is waiting on the roof." Me and Jake exchanged a look and I said what we were both thinking. "Whaaaa?" "Heh. We are taking a private aircraft to Paris. It's waiting for us on the roof." "Oh, okay. Making sure I heard you right..."

Suddenly I heard a faint sound. I fell silent. Jake shot me an alarmed look. "Maay..." "SHHH." He shot me another look, this time a questioning look. Realizing which way the sound was coming from I cocked my head to the right. I stopped walking. I was in front of a large,metal door. I looked at the knob. Pass code locked. Jake looked at me then tilted his head. His face got a look of understanding on it.Finally.Took him long enough. He turned to look at Dr.Martinez. "What's back there?" "Oh, that, erm....Nothing. I'll explain later...Uhm...C'mon..We're gonna be late." "Uh-huh. Okay..."

I looked at Jake and he shrugged. We continued walking down the hall. We reached the elevator and stood in an awkward silence while we waited for it to come. It finally came and we stepped inside. Dr.Martinez pushed the button. We all avoided eye contact as the doors closed and it started to move upwards. I focused on my shoes, Jake focused on some spot on the wall and Dr.Martinez focused on the ceiling. Can you say awkward? I can. It felt like the LONGEST elevator ride of my life. Like, seriously.

When we FINALLY reached the roof, we stepped out to see a small plane sitting on a small helipad. I got a little panicked. Me and small enclosed spaces don't mix. This plane was TINY. You could practically see the rubber bands. I groaned. "It's times like these when I wish I could fly." Dr.Martinez looked at me and laughed. I didn't get what was so funny,but I went with it. "Eh-heh.. Yeah.."

With almost no warning the door of the plane swung open. A short, pasty man stepped out. He walked over to where we stood near the door. "Hello. I'm Rodrigo, your pilot for today." He extended out his hand and Jake shook it.

Dr.Martinez spoke to the man in what I figured out was Spanish for a minute, probably assuming that Jake and I wouldn't understand. Translated it went something like this: Dr.Martinez-"Yeah we need to take these two to the french lab. They have the book. We need to get them flying. They need training. Get us there as quick as you can. Okay?" Rodrigo-"Uhm.. Okay. I can have you there in an hour. That's as quick as I can go... Wait...Training??" Dr Martinez- "Uhm, just get us there. It's on a need to know basis. I guess you don't need to know. Take it up with the boss."

Jake and I exchanged a look. Good, I was afraid he wouldn't remember what we learned in Spanish. We both nodded and looked back over at Rodrigo and Dr.Martinez. We pretended to be confused. Dr.Martinez shook her head. "Just giving him instructions so he better understands." "Oh,okay. Are we getting on now?" I was so surprised you couldn't hear the sarcasm in my voice. She had a look of relief on her face when she responded. "We sure are. Right this way." We followed her up the steps and onto the plane. She gestured toward some seats in the back. "You guys can sit here." We nodded and sat down. I got the window seat again. Jake sat next to me, of course. Dr.Martinez and Rodrigo headed to the cockpit.

I heard the engine start. I could feel the plane lift off and leave the helipad. As it did, I looked out the window and down at London. I took a mental picture. I wanted to remember my day here. It was fun. I glanced over at Jake and saw he was focused in the same direction. I figured he was doing the same thing I was. After a minute I realized he wasn't looking out the window, he was looking at me.

I turned my gaze back out the window. I was surprised by how high we had gotten in so little time. We were leveling out now at around ten thousand feet. I heard a voice coming over the intercom. "Hey, if you guys want, there's soda in a mini fridge towards the front." I called out. "K, thanks Dr.Martinez!" I looked at Jake and shrugged. I stood up and went to the fridge. "Want anything?" "Yeah, I'll take a sprite." "Kk." I got out two sprites and headed back to our seats. I handed a can to Jake and plopped down in my seat. I put my feet up on the seat in front of me and opened my soda. I took a sip. It was cold and refreshing. I looked over to see that Jake had done the same.

I just didn't get that boy anymore. I mean, we had been friends for a really long time. My family dies, his family dies and we're on the run together from who knows what. What are we now? I still don't know. It was nice having him with me though. I can't imagine going on this journey alone. It would be scary. I just know I have to keep him safe if it means my life. He's more likely to carry on and finish whatever our big goal is. I also know he's thinking the same about me. Sigh. It's hard to protect someone who's trying to protect you. It really is. It's sad when you start looking at your own life as expendable. Oh well,I'll get by.

I set my soda down in the little cup holder on the arm rest, and curled up in my chair. Jake put the other armrest up so I could lean against him. I rested my head on his chest. I listened to his heartbeat for a minute while we sat in silence. It was a smooth steady beat,very soothing. The silence was starting to make me uncomfortable. After a few moments I couldn't take it anymore. "Hi." "Hi?" "Heh, it was too quiet." "Oh. okay. What do ya wanna talk about?" I shrugged. What COULD we talk about? Jake let out a small laugh. "How ya feelin?" "Eh I'm feeling fine.You?" "Fine. I'm just wondering what's gonna happen next." "Yeah."

We spent the rest of the plane ride joking about what might happen in Paris."Maybe we'll find out this was all a joke." "Maybe dinosaurs are gonna eat us." "Maybe we'll die." "Possibly."

Dr.Martinez came over the intercom just then. "We're getting ready to land guys so go ahead and get rid of your sodas and sit up." "Okay."

When I turn to look out the window for a second, I hear a soft sound behind me.When I turned back to see what happened, it hit me.

Literally.

Impressum

Texte: Alexis Sapp
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.05.2012

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