Chapter 1

The first day of the rest of your life. No pressure.

The sun made its way through Emily's curtains, and penetrated her dreams, and slightly awoke her. She groaned and threw her pillow at her blinds. A temporary fix. If someone could fall asleep in ten seconds flat after throwing a pillow to fend the sun away, Emily would have been in permanent hibernation. But alas, the sun's army of evil rays won the short war. Plus Emily's alarm clock as one of its allies didn't hurt ether.

Nor the fact of that her little brother and sister, who were in the seconded grade, and kindergarten really weren't fighting alongside their sleepy grizzly bear sister. Emily sat up in her bed, and stretched her arms up to the sky, and yawned. Today was going to be one of those days were she wanted to go right back to sleep the seconded she got up. She dressed for school, and slung her backpack over her slumped shoulders. She made her way down the stairs, eyes closed. She'd made a mantel map of the whole house, mostly because she wanted to do some sort of sleep walking till she arrived at school.

Ugh. As her siblings, or rather, little monsters as Emily called them, squirmed, and squealed over the pancakes their mother had made over the special occasion of the first day of school. Now to Emily, the first day of school meant going to kindergarten. THAT was the first day of school. The rest of the years were just repeat sentences to prison. The crime that he entire kid population had managed to commit? Two or three months of care free freedom. Yes, it certainly was one of those horrendous crimes.

Emily didn't remember any trial. So much for anybody is innocent until proven guilty. All the adults just atomically assume that any kid in a pair of ripped skinny jeans and shaggy hair is going to be a murder and spend his or her entire life time in the state prison, and the kid who wears a tie to school is the countries next leader. As if.

Emily finally opened her eyes, and got that shock of light that happens to your eyes when you're in a dark class room, and some evil kid flashes the lights on as soon as humanly possible. She rubbed her eyes, and headed to the front door. Since she was still half asleep, she walked right in to the see thru front door. She plumped to the ground with a thud. "Ughhhhhhhh." She groaned miserly. She lay on the ground for a moment and then decided that the floor was feeling like a pretty god bed, and her throbbing head didn't think twice. "Emily are you all right?" her little brother Zack asked.

"Yea, their only pains that will probably cause me permanent brain damage. Nothing this family isn't used to. The less sane, the better." Emily answered as she started to make her way and sit up properly. Zack tilted his head. "Sane?" he asked, new to this term. Emily rolled her eyes. "I mean the less right in the head we are; the more our family will not have to keep up their jobs of driving us into the loony house. It's like the law Zack. Families have to drive each other insane, so that at Thanksgiving it's extremely awkward. And knowing that your family has the most blackmail on you helps a lot." Emily explained, knowing that Zack wouldn't understand a word of what had just come out of her mouth.

Then again, this was the same kid who believed her when she'd told him that if he put three chicken nuggets and an egg in the microwave, and set the clock for five minutes, a chicken would appear. Emily's parents could just flush their dreams of having a genius in the family down the toilet. "Oh sweetie." Emily's mother cooed. "I'm fine Mom." Emily said standing up and taking a pancake from the pile. "Sit down and eat it dear." Her Mother ordered in a soft tone, but by the time her Mother had finished the sentence,

Emily had all ready sprinted out the door. "I'll eat on the way!" she called back, still sprinting as fast as her bare feet would carry her. Emily stopped running. "I left my shoes." She grumbled to herself. When she'd come back to the house her Mother was holding her tennis in her hands. "Forget something?" her Mother asked with a sly smile. Emily glared, and rolled her eyes. "I'll have to drive you to school, so you won't be late." Her Mother continued while handing Emily her shoes.

Once her Mother had loaded up Emily's siblings, Emily took her place in the front passenger side seat. Once her Mother had made a final check that all her kids were wearing seat belts, she put her keys in the ignition, and pulled out of the drive way. The Elementary school was closer, so the little monsters got dropped off first. The Middle school; were Emily went to school was just about two more minutes up the road from the Elementary. While Emily changed the radio station, her Mother tapped her long fingernail agents the steering wheel. "God is it really necessary for every flipping kid to be at the front of the line! You don't put the backpack in the back of the car, and hug and kiss your mommy good-bye!" Emily's Mother nearly yelled.

Emily couldn't help but slightly smile. Her mother could be such a freak some times. Once they were at a decent part of the longest line in the whole world, her mother said, "Get your butt out." Emily smiled. Her Mother was at exploding point. "Oh oh oh oh oh! Look. The cars are moving! Gotta stay in. Emily annoyed her mother until they were at the front of the line. Emily's mother glared at her. "NOW." She growled. "Yes Mommy dearest." Emily smiled as she got out of the car.

Emily entered the school building, and all most on cue there was a loud 'HONK!' from her Mother's car. There were a few smiles, and a giggle or two, but none of which came from Emily. She trudged to her 1st period class. It was one of the less torturous classes, as the 8th graders who were now in the High school had told her, and the rest of the 7th grade last year thru the schools teacher review gossip. Mrs. Robinson was her reading teacher and she was super laid back, and 99.9% of the time there was no homework. For an 8th grade teacher, she was pretty cool, but to substiutute this practically free work period, the rest of the teachers made it their soul duty to give anybody that had Mrs. Robinson was given ten times more home work than anybody else.

Emily walked in to the room, and the lovely sent of pinecones, and peaches entered her nose. It made her close her eyes and smile for a brief moment. She then walked over to her desk in the front row, which was her seat awaited her. She wasn't placed in the front row because she was one of those troublesome students, it was her own choice. Surprisingly enough, she found it easy to take her school naps in the front row.

All the teachers pay attention to the back row, because the back row people all ways seem to be the chattiest. So it was only common sense to sit in the front.

You're either in the front because you've been bad, or you're pretty darn smart to have figured out that you will go unnoticed from the teacher's eagle eye. "Hey, Emily!" Emily turned her head slowly, recognizing the voice instantly. Her gaze met Rodney Zims face. Nobody called him Rodney though, they all called him Zim. It was mostly an insult, though Rodney took it as the coolest nickname ever, because it was his last name. It was very out dated insult though, it was from the old cartoon show 'Invader Zim' if Rodney ever figured out that he was being called an Alien, he'd be so utterly shocked and disappointed.

"Hey, if it isn't the Zim man." Emily said. It was too early to be mean to someone, even if they had no idea you were trying to be mean to them. She added the "Man" to please Zim. Though she would never understand why boys at her school thought being called "man" made them feel better about themselves, all she knew was that it made Zim strengthens his posture, and flexes his puny muscles. Zim was pretty much skin and bones with a face decorated with tiny orange freckles. He wore his brown hair long and shaggy like surfers.

Uncut or perhaps even uncuteble because of the thickness. Zim had enough hair for at least three girls with shoulder length haircuts. He was a lot cuter than most of the boys at school, but that was his curse. The not so cute boys made up over half of the 8th grade population, and over all Zim was a different kind of character. He was nice, and never got in trouble. You could ask every single boy in the 6th 7th and 8th grade if they've ever had an in school suspension or in shorter terms an ISS, and they would answer with a proud "Yes!" Amongst the Boys it was a badge of honor, and if you acted shocked that he was capable of getting one he would go, and get another one just to prove it.

That's why most of the boys had eleven or at minimum five ISS's because they had to 'prove' themselves over and over again. It was a disgrace to the entire man and boy population. It wasn't proving anything; it only proved that you were an easy peer pressure target, or just plain stupid. It was going to take more than a "If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?" to strengthen all the boys, or rather primates back to sanity. Or any were near it.

Zim took his seat next to Emily, and the butterflies made their presence known as soon as he sat down. "How was your summer?" he asked happily, as if he expected a long discretion on what her summer was like with no detail spared. Instead he got an "It was fine. Same old same old." Zim was a bit disappointed with this reply, but no way was he going to let it show. "Well mine was awesome! We went to the beach in Hawaii, and the moutons in New Zealand than the-"Zim stopped. Emily had already opened a book, and looked like she'd been trying to focus on it for a long time, as soon as Zim had opened his mouth. Zim sighed. Another conversation with Emily gone downhill, lost in the wind.

The day began a little off the mark of a perfect day. Then again, this wasschool, and the best thing you can expect from school is that your school lunch doesn't blink back at you. But a substitute is just plain out unacceptable. "Hello children!" the teacher slapped her wooden pointer on Emily's desk. It looked long, and whippy. The crack that it made when it made contact with the desk made the entire class gasp for air, as if the pointer had sucked it entirely out of them.

It made Emily jump in her seat, and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight up. If that wasn't enough, the cold chill that went up her spine, and then back down repeated like a Yo-Yo. She looked up at the women who she'd just now take the time to look at. But her eyes refused to look at the women up close, so she looked up at were the sub had written her name. The name was in super fancy cursive, and it was killing her eyes. She felt bad for the kids with dyslexia.

If it was hard on her eyes, they must want to shoot bullets thru their eyes. Her name was . Emily made a few notes on their substiutute. Obviously, she wasn't married. "Not surprising." Emily thought. And if you separated the letters in her name and made words, and added an "n" it would be: Ms. Mean-Anger.

Emily fought the urge to laugh, but when she looked back at her substitute teacher, she didn't have to fight that urge much longer. was a bulky woman with green brown eyes, and hair that looked untrimmed, so it was in a very tight bun. "That's Do-'it-your- self plastic surgery for ya." Emily thought. took a step back from Emily, and scanned her cruel looking eyes over the class. "Now Children! Your teacher Mrs. Robinson has suffered a major heart attack. And I shall be your substitute until she is well enough to take on you miserable little Brats!" announced with a large bellow that looked like she had stored in her lungs for five years. "You haven't even known us for 5 minutes. Much less said "Hello, and how was your summer?" The bell hasn't even rung! The school year hasn't even started. And I don't know what you think you're doing whipping that stick thru the air like it's a baton. You can't hit us, unless you want to be in the state prison for oh I don't know, 30, 40 years? But I'm sure you've been there before." Emilyrealized she was talking to herself. "Oh wow, my family really HAS driven to the point of insanity." She thought.

"Now than. I will expect nothing than less than perfect from you all! I find names unimportant, so I shall assignee you all numbers!" staled up to her desk, looking as if she was going to do a body slam on it. Instead, she picked up not card. "This stack of cards has numbers 1-23." She said. Than Zim made a grave error. "Excuse me ? There are 30 kids in this class, not 23." Zim used his most polite voice. It wasn't insulting; it was just a claim statement. Plain and simple, nothing to it. To a normal person it would have been at least.

"Are you back sassing me?" was yelling at poor Zim. "N-no Ma'm." Zim stammered nervously. "Oh, I think you were! Out to the hall with you young man!" glared hard at Zim. The order fell on Zim's deaf ears. He'd never been sent out in to the hall, and he hadn't even planed to. "I said NOW!" yelled again, and to reinforce this, she cracked her long pointer stick on her desk, so hard it scratched it.

Zim jumped from his seat, and ran in to the hallway near in tears. These women had scared him. Threatenedhim with a stick! "Zim." Emily said standing up, and preparing to go out in to the hall and comfort Zim, who was probably crying in to his hands by now. "You, Girl! Sit down!" yelled glaring at Emily. "Okay brain, now would be a good time to be all heroic, and stand up to the teacher, and go help Zim!" Emily told her self. But there was something about the tone in voice that made Emily sit down.

After the period in hell had ended the students emerged from the classroom. Their vision was blurry, and some of them stumbled on their own feet. Emily was the last to leave. When she came out, Zim was sitting on the ground, his face buried in his arms that were wrapped around his knees. Emily bent down next to him. "You okay, Zim?" she asked putting a hand on his shoulder. Zim mumbled something, but it was unrecognizable thru his sniffs, and minor sobs.

"Com'on Zim, I'll walk you to your next class." Emily offered him a hand. Zim looked up in awe. Emily never took any interest in him like this! "O-okay." He managed, taking her hand in his. Emily pulled him up to his feet. Emily pulled out her schedule; she still had it because she hadn't memorized it yet.

"I have Math next, you?" she asked. "Social studies." Zim answered sadly. Emily smiled at him. She knew he liked her; it was way too obvious not to know. They walked with each other, side by side. When they reached Zim's social studies room, Emily left almost immediately as Zim stopped at the door to his classroom. Zim on the other hand, lingered by the doorway biting his lip slightly. He went in to the classroom reluctantly when the bell rang.

Emily walked in to her next class, which was just two doors down from Zims classroom, Social studies. It had the word "social" in it for a reason. Emily entered the room, and a frown formed on to her face in disgust. Casey Alinger was smacking her gum, and all ready her book bag looked like a hurricane, and tornado combined with an earth quake all wrapped up with a volcano explosion had erupted in her bag. None of the students had even needed their book bags at all for the first two periods of the day, but still Alice had managed it. The teacher wasn't in the room, because she's gone to get coffee. Now before I go on let me explain Emily and Alice's history.

Casey and Emily had been BEST FRIENDS. They shared everything together, sat with each other on the bus, had the exact same schedules ever since the 6th grade when they had just been scared little 5th graders entering a whole in dimension of back breaking book bags, and eye stinging home work that took five hours to complete, and another thirty minutes to check over. They had managed to substitute for one another's weaknesses. Emily was a human calculator, and Casey could read the world's biggest dictionary cover to cover. They needed each other to not fail classes, so homework had held them together from the 6th grade right to the middle of the 7th grade year. That's when Casey gave up on the friendship. She knew her math all most as much as Emily did, maybe even better. She'd only been Emily's friend to pass the grade year after year, and when Emily found out about her so-called BFF, she too gave up on the friendship, and now the two we both mortal enemies. Casey made up horrendous lies to try and make Emily look like the bad guy, and Emily stuck to the facts. The complete opposites no longer attracted.

Emily took a seat in the front row, and sighed deeply, and blew a stray piece of her blonde hair away from her face. Casey smiled and her EX best friend. She began to think up new ways to irritate her, and new insults multiplied by the thousands in her head. If Emily had been a mind reader she would have made Casey bite her tong with her own set of insults. Then the teacher came in to the room and smiled brightly at all the students. She introduced herself, a much nicer introduction compared to .

Chapter 2

Smooth and steady may have a soft surface, but if you slide off the path the edges are like daggers.

The rest of Emily's day went rather smoothly, but she could hear voices, screaming at students for acting anything shy from perfect. That woman was loud, and unfortunately, she was proud of it! Since Emily lived so close to the school, she walked home. Emily liked walking home. It gave her an open opportunity to have 5 to at latest 20 minutes to just be by herself. Just her and her thoughts. There was all ways the occasional someone to talk to, but she was more comfortable walking to her house alone. The time she spent alone was all ways guaranteed to have a rude noise to rupture her beloved silence.

When she did come home Charlie, and her sister Katie were running all over the house, trying to fly a kite in doors. Emily smiled, and as her brother ran by her, she ruffled his hair. She almost joined in their fun, but then remembered. "Ugh," she thought with a groan. "While they turn the house upside down, I get to do 5 hours of home work." It really wasn't 5 hours of homework it was just a little less than maybe 30 minutes. Emily went up to her room, and unpacked her first day back from school homework. It was mostly made up of things they learned last year, a review work sheet, and then a study guide to complete, a minor book reports on 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. Emily hadn't even known that there was such a book with such a credulous title, but her teacher claimed it to be a classic.

The book report was due by Friday, two weeks from now, and Emily counted herself lucky that the teacher had been convinced by a boy name Henry, to read the book out loud, at least two chapters a day. Unfortunately, the teacher was not at all a good out loud reader. And that drove Emily crazy. She figured that she would end up just asking if she could go out in to the hall way and read to herself. Hopefully the teacher would get the message. Emily started reading her copy of 'To kill a mocking bird' she'd gotten from the library. After the first few pages she gave up on the book. She didn't like it, and it wasn't getting better.

Instead of throwing it against her wall, she set it down gently on her bed. She worked thru the math rather quickly, and her reading homework was Greek. It was asking her to translate Greek! That evil teacher had assigned her homework on something she knew nothing about! None, zip, zero, zilch. Wait, maybe this teacher was testing her.

Maybe she wanted to see if they knew any Greek, she could call everybody in the class and tell them to use goggle translator, and then maybe they could skip the whole subject entirely. Naw, Emily wasn't much in to lying, most of the other kids in her reading class wouldn't have thought twice.

More than likely the teacher would be so happy they knew Greek, and make them do class work on Greek stuff. That would be the death of all of them all, and poor Zim couldn't afford lying to , he was all ready on her bad side. If there was any different side to her other than the evil, children eater one. Emily put her Greek homework aside. She didn't have any social studies, or science. What a relief that was. Emily glanced at her clock. It was only 8:30, ugh.

The monsters were, and had long since 6 or 7'Oclock been in bed. Emily sighed and went to her closet, and picked out some silky P'J's and put them on. She collapsed on to her bed, and snuggled up under the covers. She fell asleep within 5 minutes, but then shortly afterward, her Mother was shaking her awake. Emily was still half asleep, but she sat up. "Huh. What." Emily was soon as awake as she was going to get at 2 in the morning. "Sweetie." Her Mother began. "Something's gone wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong." Emily's eyes closed, and reopened slowly. "What is so terrible that you woke me up at 2 in the morning?" Emily asked wirily.

She could see her Mothers faces sadden. "Mom, what's wrong?" she asked again. "Your friend Rodney…" she began, but Emily cut her off. "Oh, you mean Zim." Emily said. "And he's not a friend, he's just somebody I know, and bump in to from time to time at school. But what about him?" Her Mother bit her lip, and acted as if she didn't want to say it any more. "Rodney, I mean Zim…. was murdered tonight." Her Mother finished, and paused, as she awaited Emily's reaction. Emily's mouth dropped open.

Her heart stopped for a split seconded, and then began to race double time.

She couldn't believe it. While she was snug in her bed, Zim had been breathing his last breaths, struggling for his own life. On the day that the meanest teacher in the entire world had yelled at him. When she took a breath in it was a wheezing kind of sound, and it hurt to make it happen. The tears turned on. A fast slide show of Zim turned on in her mind. She remembered his smile, his eyes, and the freckles witch looked like they had been splattered painted on to his face.

Things she never took that much interest in, things she didn't have to take interest in. But now Zim was dead, and she had to look back on the things she had secretly noticed, but never really looked at close or long enough to really give a care. Her own guilt began as well. She'd know for a long time that Zim had liked her, and yet she just kept leading him on. Had she? Wouldn't that have made it worse? Zim didn't have many real friend or that were his friend long enough to count.

She had been a friend, but now she didn't think that she should have counted. Friend know when something's not right, they know when you're in trouble, if you're sad, or if you've been murdered. But no, Emily had been sleeping happily in her bed. She was very uneasy right now. She felt like going back to sleep, and never getting of of bed. She'd watched dozens of murder shows n T.V, but now she was in the positions, as so many families, and friends are put in each day. Thou she wasn't aware of it, she was wobbling back and forth.

"H-how?" she managed threw her tears. Her Mother put her arms around Emily's shoulders, and kissed her on the cheek. "I'll tell you in the morning sweaty, right now, I think you're too upset." Emily lay against her Mothers chest, and nodded. Emily crawled back in to her bed, and her Mom, kissed her forehead. "Good night Sweaty." Her Mother said as she left the room. Emily bit her lip as she thought about Zim's mom. She would never again kiss him good night.

Emily didn't go to school the next day. She wasn't expected to go the next day either. She wouldn't learn anything any way, her mind was dead set on Zim. Home didn't help thou. Zim was all over the news, his face on every news channel. Emily figured that Zim would be on one of her murder shows. Unless they found Zims killer she wouldn't watch it. Emily's head had been on the kitchen table ever since breakfast, and if she hadn't gotten tired of the chair, and transferred herself to the sofa, she'd had been there until dinner.

As she lay on the sofa she sighed repeatedly, and listened to music, blasting it into her earphones to the point in which her ears began to ring. What she didn't understand is why she cared so; well, why she took Zims murder so personally. She didn't know him all that well, a friendly hello from time to time, but it felt like someone had stabbed a knife thru her own heart. Who in the world would kill a 14-year-old boy? Zim might have been made fun of, and he was a bit goofy at times. In his entire life he hadn't done anything bad enough to be killed. He never cussed; he even considered 'shut up' go be a 'bad word'.

But was that little queerness enough to set someone to want to kill him? Emily asked herself these questions, as if she knew the answers. She hated trick question badly enough, but to be asking them herself? Pure torture. She played with the lollypop in her mouth, making it do circles, and straight lines. She found it amazing on what little it took to entertain her little mind. Her thoughts were absent, not that she had a lot to think about, only the murder of one of her friends, the evil teacher that was probably going to kill the class off one by one.

When she realized that her lollypop was dwindling to just the stem, she spit it out of her mouth like a cannon, and it ended up across the room. Her Mother, whom was in the kitchen drying dishes from that's days breakfast would have normally told Emily go pick it up, but she knew it wouldn't happen, so she went to go get it herself. "Thanks, Mom." Emily said as her Mother passed her. Her Mother smiled. "You'r welcome dear. Now you've been on that sofa for 3 hours, I think it's time you get up, and walk around. Just to make sure you haven't become paralyzed or something." Emily smiled back at her mom, and rolled her eyes. "I'll take Zack and Katie to the park today, Kay?" Her Mother nodded agreeing. "They'll be really excited, they don't get to see you much these days. ' Her Mother said before leaving.

Zack was the first to sprint in to the house "Hey Mom!" the 2nd grader greeted. Katie the kindergartener skipped in with her pink frilly dress fluffing up behind her. Emily smiled; the monsters weren't too monstrous when they were all dressed up, and cute. She only saw those 2 hours after they'd gotten from school. The covered in peanut butter, and jelly covered monsters. But miraculously they looked all most human, and normal. She got up, and let her siblings know that she was home too.

"Emily!" Katie shirked with pure joy. She ran to her big sister, whose arms were open. Emily picked up Katie, and kissed her cheek. "What are you doing home!" Katie asked breathlessly. Emily shrugged. "All I know is that I'm taking you to the park. Like right now." Katie squalled with anticipation. "Yey!" Zack yelled excitedly. Emily smiled. Her siblings were really loving, and sweet. They were so happy to see her, and their happiness over powered her sulking for her friend. For the moment at least.

The three siblings arrived at the park that was strangely scarce. Normally children would be running this way and that to different areas of the park. But it was dead in the park, and to make it even creepier, the metal gate that normally made the park look so inviting and friendly, made a squeaking sound in the wind, and made the air in the park like a grave yard. Maybe it was just Emily, because Zack and Katie were ecstatic about having the whole park to them. Emily shrugged and pushed the eerie feeling away. She went to a bench and sat down. She than began to think of who might have wanted to kill Zim. That teacher was suspect number one. Then wind blew threw her hair making her hat that she'd worn fly off. She naturally chased after it.

The hat flew behind a bush, and when Emily pushed away the branches it was as if a vacuum cleaner had sucked the air right out of her lungs. There on the ground was with two bullets in her head, and a knife in her heart. Dead. Emily stared breathlessly at her substuite teacher. She began to back away, and then she feels on to her butt. She wanted to scream but she couldn't breathe enough air in to her lungs to supply it.

eyes were still open, and the cruelness in her eyes still sent chills up Emily's spine. She began to back away slowly, forced to do so in a crap walk sort of position since she was still petrified in total shock. Why she was moving slowly, well Emily didn't know she wanted to get away ASAP. When she finally got a hint that realty was still with her, she turned over on her knees, and in a split seconded she was doing an Olympic sprint. She hadn't been gone long, les then three minutes. Her heart was going as fast as the speed of light, and her brain was totally frozen. The only command she could make her legs obey was RUN.

Emily broke out of the trees and underbrush, panting uncontrollably. Her brother and sister were playing tether ball, innocently not knowing what was going on. Emily breathed in, and continued to pant like a dehydrated dog in the process. She walked over to her siblings, still a bit wobbly. It was horrible to know that someone was dead, but to see their body? It wasn't horrible, it was horrific. Though she couldn't stand , she didn't want her dead, she didn't want anybody dead. Nobody deserved to die before their time.

Emily finally managed to get out her cell phone, and with trembling fingers she dialed 911. "Hello, what's your emergency?" a female voice answered. "Um, um um uh uh uh," Emily stumbled on words, trying to pick the best ones. "Is this a prank?" The female voice was a bit angry now. "No! I'm sorry. There's just a, a dead person at the park! I think she was murdered." Emily sputtered out the sentence like word vomit. "Oh dear." The operator on the other end responded. "Okay, I'm tracing your call as we speak; please stay at the crime sceen. Um, what's your name?" The women asked. "Emily, Emily Jerkins." Emily answered in a shaky voice.

Suddenly a cold strong grip clamped on to Emily's shoulder as if in a vice grip. "Hang up the phone." It was a man's voice, cold like black ice, and sharp like a sword. Emily's mouth went dry. "Hello? Hello? Emily are you still there." The man who was holding Emily's shoulder slid the phone out of her hand with ease. Emily was too terrified to clutch it tight enough, barley enough to hold it steady in the first place. The man dropped the phone to the ground, and stomped it in to a million different pieces. He spun Emily around so she was facing him.

He was thin and muscular, and a little stubby beard.

His eyes were cold and fierce. He pulled up the corner of his shirt, which revealed a gun. He was giving her fair warning. Emily gawked at the gun, and the Man put his shirt down. "Get in the black jeep. NOW or there's going to be another shooting. You don't want to make your siblings suffer because of your stupid mistake, right." Emily shook her head furiously. "Than why are you just standing there? You ain't stupid, move your feet." He didn't have to tell Emily twice. She tried to look causel, but for no spacific reason, nobody was around. God she wished somebody was. She opened the back door the jeep, and saw pictures, pictures of murders. She nearly wet her pants when she saw a picture of Zim. Emily couldn't even tell the difference between his freckles, and the blood that was slatted all over his face. She was looking at the picture of the boy, who'd she'd thought had such a strong, and loving heart had just plain out stopped.

Chapter 3

Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Emily sat in the back of the jeep over viewing her life. She figured there wasn't much time to do this when the man shot her, maybe 3 seconds at most. She turned around to see if the man was coming; he was. A little faster then she had expected. She turned back around rather quickly as well. He got in the front seat on the driver's side, and acted as if he had no idea Emily was in the back seat. They were all ready at the stop light when the police cars came zooming in to the park. She could faintly make out her little sister, but she could see she was sobbing uncontrollably.

She turned back around in her seat, and saw a fait smile on the man's face, and it made Emily feel conflicted on if she wanted to cry, or give this man a taste of his own medicine, and murder him for her own sanity. The man drove her to a hotel, and got out of the car. "Out." He ordered. Before Emily had a chance, she was yanked by her arm out of the car. "Ow!" she yelped. The man had yanked her arm so hard it came out of its socket.

He grabbed her arm, and led her in to the hotel entrance. He obviously had a room, because he didn't bother stopping at the front desk. Emily tried to jerk her arm out of the man's grip on her arm, but he just tightened it. "Ow! You're hurting me!" Emily cried out. "Be quiet." The man ordered. "Your mother is going to hear about this behavior, and I don't think she'll be happy." Her Mother? Than Emily got it, this was a public place there were people around, and he was acting like her Father.

They reached the elevators, and the man pulled her inside. The door opened, and he led her in to a room. He loosened his grip on her shoulder, and she sped away in to the room. "Let me out." Emily said saying it a little braver than she really felt. The man smiled cruelly. "If only it was as easy as that. Ask to be let go, and I give in. What kind of parent would I be?" Emily scowled. "You're not my dad." The man chuckled.

"Okay, than what do you call a person who can control you, and lives with you who is an adult?" "Kidnapper. That's what I call it." There was a short pause in the conversation. Then the man began to speak. "Whatever you want to call it, but I wouldn't do anything stupid, a smart girl wouldn't do that." Emily snorted. "Who said I was smart?" she asked rhetorically. "I'm smart enough to act stupid, so don't think you've got me all figured out. You don't know a thing." Emily retorted. The man smiled as if he'd just won the lottery. "I think I know more than you think little girl." "Yea?" Emily challenged. "Like what?" The man kept grinning.

"I'll give you a hint. When you make ballistics jell it can look like a human, you can pass it off as that as well, and only in an optopcey will they figure out its not human flesh." Emily blinked, and her heart began to race once again. "I'm what you call, a murderer/kidnapper/hostage holder." The man finished sounding somewhat proud. Emily bit her lip. "So does that mean..." she began. "Yes Emily, it does mean that. Rodney Zim isn't dead." The man said darkly. Emily felt tempted to punch this evil person. "Then where is he?" Emily asked. "And, why exactly should I tell you that?" the man asked, stepping closer to Emily.

She too stepped back. She didn't want him any were near her. Before she could take in another breath the man was going for a full force tackle in to her. When the man was on top of her it crushed the air in her lungs out. She squirmed, and threw punches at the man like some kind of deranged animal. "G-get off of me!" she yelled, but the man was much too strong. He grabbed her wrists, and pinned her down.

"You'll stop this right now if you know what's good for you." The man growled. Emily glared at the man. "Maybe I don't know what's good for me." The man wasn't smart enough to pin down her legs, and Emily kicked him like a scoccer ball. The man's face went pale and he fell completely on to Emily. She wiggled out from under him, and sped out of the room, running faster than she ever had before. "Wait." The man said weakly. "As if!" Emily yelled back. She came to a stop at the elevators, and pressed the down button several thousand times.

It was taking too long; she could hear the man getting up. She made a quick sprint to the stairs, and ran down them. She was going too fast and she fell down, and tumbled down two flights of stairs before she was able to stop herself. She was like a rag doll in the hands of gravity. Not the best combination. She didn't bother to stop in the bath room; she knew her nose was bleeding from her mega fall. She didn't stop at the front desk, because the man could all ways act like her dad, and say that she was just upset about not be able to go to a party or something.

She wasn't going to take that chance. She had to get away, this hotel wasn't far away from the park, and at least she didn't think it was. She had accidentally fallen asleep on the way hear, but for how long? She didn't have time to think about it. She ran out of the hotel doors, and she found herself far away from the park. This wasn't your average Hotel. She found herself right in the middle of the woods.

There was a gravel path that looked worn, and dead. Emily wouldn't have been surprised if there was a grave yard beside it. She wiped her bloody nose, and in turn her hand was a bloody red when she glanced back at it. She than started to run in to the woods, not her best plan, but it was pretty decent when you have no idea where you are. When she was running she looked once behind her, and she made a direct collision in to a caterpillar nest. She screamed, the nest was as big as twenty thousand spiders webs put together. Emily was scared to death of spiders.

She kept running as the caterpillars web clung to her body while she completely spazzed out, flailing her arms, and kicking while she ran. The stupid wed wouldn't come off. Finally, Emily resorted to jumping in to a small pond. It was shallow, less than three feet deep. The water was worm, but at the same time it was murky from all the mud Emily had forced up. Emily sniffed. This day was just going perfectly.

So far she'd gotten kidnapped, held hostage, fallen down two flights of stairs, gotten trapped in a caterpillars nest, and to top it all off, she was wet and muddy. At least that caterpillar's nest was off of her. She stood up in the pond, and started walking again. She stopped again to look behind her. The man hadn't started to chase after her. Thank god. The blood that had been gushing from her nose was now to a firm dry crust.

Emily wondered how far away from home she was. She must be at least 10 miles away; there were no woods where she lived. Her first priory was too well she guessed find food, but she was in the middle of a forest, and this wasn't a Disney movie, in which she would magically find a bush abundant with fruit or something. Even if this did happen, there was always a chance that the fruit or berries were poises. Though she was in the 8Th grade and knew much about the common posiniouse foods on the planet she wasn't one to take chances, well the running away from the man, and falling down the stairs didn't really count, that was common sense. The air was misty, and the fog began to brew from the moist undergrowth with every step she took. Thunder rattled the trees and rain poured from the sky like tears.

Emily sighed, just her luck. The warm hotel room, even if it was to be shared with her kidnapper, sounded pretty good right about now. Emily normally loved the rain. She would go out in the front yard and just stand there while the rain soaked her nonstop. But when she did this she also had a house to retreat to when it started lightning outside. Or her mothers' voice yelling at her to come in. Oh what she would do right now to be told to come in.

There was a large oak tree, just a few feet ahead of her. It had thick broad branches, perfect to protect her from the rain, but it was also a lightning magnet. If she slept there, as it was getting dark, she'd be brut alive if it were to be struck by lightning; for Emily was a heavy sleeper. Emily decided that she had gotten to this point, and faith had seemed to smile in her favor of getting away from the man, but then again, that had only gotten her in to the woods soaking wet with to human connection. She did a quick sprint, her arm that was still out of its socket thanks to the man pulling it, bounced along as she ran. There was an oval shaped area that was smoothed, and not as damp as the rest of the ground, not that that mattered, Emily herself was soaked. It wasn't as comfortable as Emily would have preferred, but then again, it was a tree, not her warm bed. There were no big blankets to snuggle under. No Mother to come in and kiss your cheek good night. It was going to be a long and uncomfortable night indeed.

Emily began to dream deeply as she slept. She was back at home; her mother was hugging her tightly, while her siblings squished her legs in unbreakable hugs as well. An army truck came in to view, and her Father, who had died missing in action when she was 10, came out smiling. Emily managed to break free from her mothers' arms, and her sibling freed her legs. Emily ran in to her fathers' open and loving arms. Emily wrapped her arms around his neck, and put the side of her head in his neck. Then her dad picked her up, and rocked her in his arms.

Emily jolted awake. Tears fled to her eyes. The dream was sick, pure sick, it was a dream she'd dreamt many times before. Far too many times at that. She sat up, and pulled up her knees up to her chest. Wrapped her arms around her knees and sobbed in to them with her face down. She convinced herself that if her dada hadn't gone missing or hadn't died, she wouldn't be in this situation.

The thunder storm had turned in to a mere drizzle, but Emily found herself sitting in a puddle. Not that it mattered, she was wet too. It was early morning, early enough in which the morning dew was still stuck to the patches of crass that bored over the leaves. Emily sighed to herself. Even if she started walking, she didn't have the slightest clue as to where she was. For as far as she knew, she would be going in the exact opposite direction of her house. Yet still, walking was better than staying one place.

So Emily stood up, and started walking in the direction she'd been running the day before. Emily liked silence, but this forest silence was different. It had a creepy appeal to it, and the occasional chirp from a bird made Emily feel not so lonely. She found herself slowing down, taking time to look around. She saw the woods in a different view then she would have normally. She heard things differently as well. Each ruffle that the leaves made was louder then she would have normally heard them. As she got further in to the forest, she soon became aware of the sound of cars going at least 60miles per hour.

"Oh god, it's a high way!" Emily said to herself, sounding so relived and happy about her discovery. She ran towards the highway, a smile on her face. All she had to do was tell somebody who she was, and perhaps they would have known her from some lost person add. Even though she hadn't been 'missing' for over 48 hours, surely the police were looking for her. She reached the edge of the forest, and her smiling face turned in to a frown. It was an old highway. Barren, and well not as bumper to bumper traffic she would have preferred.

It was one of those highways that used to be used; now it was one of those highways that gets used once a year or so. Emily snorted, this was getting annoying. The universe was giving her false hope, and it was cruel. She kicked the dirt with all her might, stirring up a dust storms worth of dirt, and rocks. Once she was done with her mild temper tantrum, she started walking on the side of the high way. She glared at everything while she stopped her feet in the dirt as she walked. She looked for exits on the highway, but she must have walked at least a good mile with no hope of seeing one.

The sun was rising, and it was rather hot outside. Emily would have taken the thunderstorm over this. She came across an exit, and the road. It had a billboard that looked like it was from the sixties. The advertising wasn't half as attractive as most billboards would be. There was a huge animated baby in diapers crawling, smiling, and holding a rattle. The letters fun looking, but still it was an odd print for a billboard.

Child Orphanage

Walk-in's welcome

3-14 only

Emily scowled. Walk-in's welcome? Emily tried not to think about the fact that a mother or father could just drop off a three year old by the curb. Then again, not every parent loves their kids to death. Emily decided that even if this was a real place then there must be real people, either that or vampires. She did a quick sprint to the curb, and she saw a one story building. It was old, and shaky, and it looked like it had held up for 50 years, and would hold up for 50 more, or die trying.

There were kids out side. Emily blinked and gawked at them. The girls were all in dresses, something that Emily's mother would have to hold her down to put on. The Maryjane's they were wearing kicked up dust as the kids ran around giggling, and smiling. The boys were all in short pants, with knee high socks, and varying about the boy, was different colored ties around his white collared shirt. Emily instantly thought "Privet school field trip." That was the only reason for the kids to be dressed so formally.

Emily looked down at herself; she was so dirty right now. Dried mud was on her pants, and splattered around her shirt. Not exactly the best first impression she would aim for normally. It was either walk in and look dirty, and have a chance at getting home, or be self conches, and keep on walking only to die of starvation, or dehydration. Emily was no genius but she was pretty decent at multiple choice answers. She started walking up to the kids, praying that they would speak English. She tapped one of the girls on the shoulder.

"Um, hi, yea, um, can you like, help me?" Emily asked. The girl smiled reviling the little dimples on her face. Her hair was was red, like really, really red, and cut short. Her two front teeth were missing, so Emily guessed that she was in the first maybe second grade. "Yea! Sure I can! My names Ellie, what's yours?" Ellie said happily. Emily gave the girl a pity smile. "I'm Emily," Emily said, preparing her next question.

"Um, Ellie, who's in charge here?" Emily asked, scanning over the playground worth of kids. ", but she likes to be called ." Ellie answered. "So are these all the kids that are here, I mean are there more?" Emily asked. How many kids cold this small house contain. "Oh lots more." Ellie answered. "Um, Ellie, can I talk to , I need to talk to her." Emily said, not as urgently as she imagines she would. Ellie nodded and grabbed Emily's hand, and ushered her in to the house.

Emily looked over the three dozen kids that were in the house. Some were sitting down, and others were running around. "!" Ellie called; still dragging Emily along. They finally reached a woman, who was delivered a platter of bananas to a little 3 year old. The women turned around, and it was obvious she was , well only because Ellie had said she was. was a slim, very pretty in that fact. Her curly brown hair was to her mid back, and her hazel green eyes shimmered when even the slightest of light hit them.

She clearly wasn't wearing makeup, being in the middle of no man's land she had no real reason. "Ellie, please don't shout." said a bit of sternness in her voice. "Sowwie, . I found somebody walking in hear, and she asked who was in charge." Ellie said a little less happily as she would have normally. nodded and smiled. "I know, Ellie, I saw her coming thru the window." Ellie smiled back at . "Then can I go back outside and play?" Ellie asked eagerly. nodded, but before she let the little girl run off the play, she gave her a hug, and kissed her cheek. Ellie squirmed, and managed to skimpier away.

"So, what is your name?" asked with a smile. "My name is Emily." She said rather quickly. "I need some help, I got lost, um err, kidnapped, and I ran away from the dude who kidnapped me, and I spent a night in the woods, and then I found this place. What exactly is this place?" Emily asked hopefully. "Can't you read dear? The sigh in the front clearly says child orphanage." said briskly. "Yea I know, ages 3 to 14 only." Emily retorted. This woman wasn't focusing on her kidnapped problem. "Indeed, and how old are you?" said plainly. "13." Emily said starting to get annoyed.

"Oh good! That means you can stay!" clapped her hands together. "Whoa! Wait! Noooo, I need to get back home!" Emily shirked, but was already leading her into a room. The room was lined with bunk beds wall to wall, some side by side. There was one girl in the room; she had black hair that dangled lazily past her shoulders. Her bangs were slightly long, nearly covering her eyes. She was thin, perhaps too thin. Her skin was pale, really, really, pale. She didn't have any freckles, not on her face or on her arms.

She looked depressing, and slightly scary. She was sitting on the bottom bunk of one of the many bunk beds in the room. "That's Rachel." introduced. She left the room, and left the two girls alone. Emily bit her lip. "Hi?" she asked seeing if the girl would take any interest in her. Rachel looked sharply in Emily's direction.

It was a cold hard stare that was an unwelcoming look. Emily swallowed hard. "So, um how old are you?" Emily asked walking a bit closer to Rachel. "Nine." Rachel said, sounding annoyed. "Okay, what's your deal? I haven't even done anything yet." Emily said, just as annoyed. She didn't like being judged before that person had a reason to judge. Rachel shrugged, clearly focused on something more important than Emily.

Emily glared at Rachel. "You still haven't answered my question." Emily said lifelessly. Rachel snorted. "Who said I had to?" "I did." Emily challenged. "And since when do I take orders from you?" Rachel asked. Emily shrugged. "Just trying to be friendly." Rachel rolled her eyes. "I have enough friends, oh, and just to let you know, trying to make somebody answer a redickuliouse question is not a good way to make friends." Emily smiled. "You do mean your imaginary friends, right?" Rachel looked hurt, but tried her best to not let it show. "Yea, my imagery friends think you've got mantel issues."

Chapter 4

Great minds think alike, they just don't always get the right answer.

Emily was a bit disappointed in not getting help when she wanted or rather needed it most. These people were so laid back it was insane. At Emily's house; at dinner time everyone was clean, and nice smelling, and everyone acted very pleasant. Her realty check was far over due. The kids hear climbed across the table to get different kinds of food, and it was louderthan 500 cafeteria put together! LOUDER! Emily didn't think that it was possible, but the universe had once again proven her wrong, as it had done so many times before. Oh so very, very wrong indeed.

didn't seem to even care. She was too fixated on holding a novel in one hand, and her fork with the other. Emily sided on trying to enjoy herself, maybe one of the kids would even remotely be found of her. They ALL loved her. Then again this was mostly six year olds, not exactly eighth graders; these kids didn't even take a second glance to point out her flaws. They looked at her once and accepted who she was, inside and out. Emily thought she must have been abducted by aliens, or maybe she had been knocked out, and this was all a dream.

She certainly hoped this was real, their might actually be hope for humanity with kids like these entering the world with such good and pure hearts. Most little kids did have wonderful hearts; most would kiss a Rottweiler that looked blood thirsty, only because they thought that there was nothing bad in the world. Then the routwiller bit them, and they were ruined for life. Not only were they scared for life, but they would learn the hard and painful way that not everybody in the world was nice. It was a good lesson, but people take 'the road less traveled by' for a reason these days. Emily made small talk with her little friend Ellie who seemed to LOVE to talk. The only bad thing was that the kid only knew the world behind the highway, maybe not even that far.

Than anoucend that it was bed time. Emily immediately wanted to take a shower before going to bed in this place. She didn't like to be dirty, well only at her own choosing of course. nodded and directed her to the bath room. There was a super old fashioned shower, and it had a cheap plastic thing going around it, not exactly worthy of being called a shower curtain.

She made sure the door was locked, and slipped into the shower. There was only little kid shampoo, that had conditioner combined in it.

It did a decent job with her rat nest looking hair. She rapped a towel around her body, and went looking for to see if she could barrow some P.J's She passed the room that of course only Rachel was laying down in. In the top bunk above her was some P.J pants and shirt. Emily guessed that had laid them out for her. She smiled to herself. This woman was very nice indeed. She walked over, and pulled the P.J's down.

She went into a small closet and got dressed in them. She came out, and sat on Rachel's bed. "What do you want?" Rachel grumbled as she snuggled under the thin sheets and covers further. Emily shrugged, not exactly looking at Rachel directly. "Why are you the only one in hear?" Emily asked tilting her head. "Get in trouble or something?" Rachel shook her head from beneath the covers. "The other rooms are already overcrowded. So I got this room all to myself, well I used to have it all to myself at least." Rachel sat up in the bed, and hugged her knees.

"So why did your parents drop you off hear?" Rachel asked. Emily shook her head. "They didn't, I got kidnapped. I was just walking on the side of the highway, and then I found this place, and well, it seemed decent, so I thought somebody could help me get back home." Emily sighed. "Unfortunately, that's not exactly what has happened." Rachel nodded. "Do you know why the guy kidnapped you? I mean doesn't that normally happen like when parents get devoiced, and one parent kidnaps the kid, normally it's a family thing, it's really rare that some stranger just snatches a kid off the street." Rachel suggested. "I saw he just murdered one of my teachers, so I think that might have something to do with it..." Emily pondered sarcastically.

Rachel's eyes grew wide, and she blinked.

"M-murder." Rachel blubbered, the words not really sounding right coming out of her mouth. Emily shrugged. "Well, yes, and no. It was just ballistics jell, it's this rubber material that you can form into different shapes. He made a human shape, and I guess painted it to look like a human, in this case my teacher, and…." Emily's voice feel silent. "And?" Rachel asked sounding interested. "My friend Zim…" Emily fought the tears, and she just sniffed. "It's getting late, might as well get to bed." Emily said starting to climb on to the top bunk. Rachel nodded, and snuggled back under the covers.

Emily fell asleep faster then she had ever managed in her life. It felt good to be in a bed again, sleeping some were that was safe, and warm. Emily was up with the sun that morning. It was a strange feeling to just get up and go. She jumped down from the top bunk, and looked over to see if Rachel was still asleep. Rachel wasn't there. Emily shrugged, and walked out of the room.

There were a few kids at the breakfast table, but they weren't eating, they were cleaning. Emily slightly smiled. If these kids were in her neibor hood, they would be titled as having mental issues. But then again these kids grew up differently than the kids in her subdivision. They were much nicer, and more accepting. Ellie was cleaning the table along with a few other boys. They were all already dressed in what Emily guessed was their uniform.

They were still cute as ever, even the little stains of dirt on their cheeks were adorable. Emily walked around in her P.J's. She was looking for Rachel, the only girl at this place with black hair. All so the only girl there who seemed to be annoyed at Emily's arrival. She stepped outside and a cold breeze bit her. The silky P.J's that she was wearing didn't help much. Emily ignored the cold and walked on.

She soon enough found Rachel, who was sitting on a swing. Two ropes were tied to a huge oak tree arm. The thick ropes lead to a small piece of wood, and two holes were drilled into it so the ropes would go through. Making the perfect homemade swing set. Only problem was that Rachel was just sitting there. Emily walked over to Rachel, and gave her a slight push. Rachel; whom wasn't expecting this feel out of the swing.

"Uh-Oh." Emily mumbled to herself. Rachel who was still on the ground, let out a growl. She sprang up, and glared at Emily. "You're a dead girl!" she yelled, and bolted after Emily. Emily smiled for a split seconded, and turned around, and ran for her life. Rachel was hot on her heals, but the uniform that she was wearing really slowed her down. Emily looked back. Rachel was wearing the uniform, but she was wearing some leggings under her skirt.

That was the only thing that set her apart from the rest of the kids. Emily was getting tired of running from a nine year old. She saw a tree just about 20 feet ahead, when she came close enough too it she lifter her hands to the sky, curved her arms. She did a 3-60, and landed on the branch she'd swung from.

Emily congratulated herself for a moment. She certainly was a modern day George of the jungle, or Tarzan. She was too high up, even when Rachel went on her tip-toes. Emily smiled, and swung her feet back in forth, while Rachael continued to try and get too her.

Impressum

Texte: Please, just don't copy it, it's not nice.
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 11.09.2010

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