CHAPTER 1. Run
Given the circumstances, I wasn’t sure which way to turn. My twin sister, Alison, trailed along behind me, looking for a place to hide from the things that lurked in the bushes and rose above our head. I wasn’t even exactly sure what I was going to do with all these distractions. People looked at us as if we were crazy, as we stood in the middle of the sidewalk looking around frantically. No place was good enough. Finally Alison shook my shoulder and pointed to an alley. Bad idea. I shook my head at her. That would be even worse than the middle of the street. We couldn’t talk. If we were heard, it would hear us without seeing us. If we moved too much or if we ran, it would certainly catch us.
Suddenly we collapsed into darkness and I could hear my sister’s thoughts as we fell.
Liam looked out his window, watching the rain drizzle down the glass on the outside. He heard the shuffling of someone…somewhere. He looked down from his window. Seth? No way, he thought. He didn’t open the window, not wanting to get soaked by the downpour of rain that fell from the clouds. He pointed to the right indicating that Seth should go that way. Seth nodded, dripping water from his dark blonde hair as he did so. Liam walked out of his room, curious of Seth’s sudden reappearance. Seth had been gone for a long amount of time. Ever since January and there was no trace of him in this town. His parents went missing too. The only thing was, there was some connection between him and Liam that neither of them could place.
They both could sense each others’ feelings. When Seth went missing, Liam could feel his anxiousness and his fear. Liam also knew Seth tried to hide his feelings from the world beyond his head. But somehow Liam could hear them so clearly in his.
“What are you doing?!” Liam said when he met Seth by the back door. Seth wore a wind breaker and shorts. You have got to be kidding me, thought Liam. Seth grinned and then choked on the rain that escaped into his mouth. Liam laughed. Well, at least I know it’s the real Seth.
“Come on. There’s a party at Melody’s house,” Seth’s feelings were full of adrenaline like he had just jumped off some really tall height. Probably did, thought Liam as he shook his head.
"Are you kidding me? I haven't seen you in...um...let me think, years! And you want to just go out and..party as soon as you get back?!"
“What’s your deal?” Seth questioned.
“I’m not like that anymore,” Liam replied, waiting for Seth to argue but, surprisingly, did not find an argument.
“Okay. Well, then, what do you want to do all night without a party?” Seth looked like it was unbelievable that Liam had passed his phase of trouble making.
“I don’t know,” Liam shrugged. Seth still dripped rain from his head, down the 6 feet 4 inches of his tall form. The shorts he wore clung to his legs and the wind breaker floppily laid against his chest.
“Where did you go all this time? I have a lot of questions,” Liam said. Liam looked back around his house and listened for the sounds of anyone approaching.
“No one can know I’m here,” Seth said. Liam grabbed his jacket and put the hood up and walked out into the rain. At first, there was no sensation. No pounding of rain on his head. No shivers down his spine. Suddenly, it all came to him like a blast of feelings all at the same time.
“Cool huh?” Seth said.
“What was that and how did you do it?” Liam accused Seth.
“Hey! I didn’t do it! It happened to me a long time ago. You’ll get used to it. My parents say it’s something that will happen to only me and you,” Seth explained. He caught more rain in his mouth and choked again.
“Whatever,” Liam said and started walking again, apparently not in the mood for chit-chat.
“Hey. I know I’ve been gone for well…forever but I promise I will tell you everything! So lighten up okay?” Seth realized where they were going. Back to the place where it all started. The oak tree that was said to be planted over a thousand years ago with weird symbols all over it. It didn’t matter anymore. It was over and there was nothing they could do about it.
I woke up in the middle of the street, right where we had fallen. Many people looked at us with foreheads creased in nervousness and anticipation for us to open our eyes and say everything was okay. Everyone broke into noise when they saw me opening my eyes.
“Oh! I’ve called an ambulance,” One woman said with her small child hiding behind her leg said.
“It’s okay,” Someone else said
“Someone lift her up,” In the background, somebody sounded concerned.
“No just let her lay there,” Someone said.
“Everybody calm down!” Another said, impatiently. I closed my eyes once more and tried to tune all the sounds out of my head. Pretty soon I could hear my sister’s thoughts again. I jumped when I heard someone else’s when I closed my eyes.
“Hello?” I thought, trying to talk to Alison through our minds. Weird.
“Wow! Is that you Ara?” Alison thought, using my nickname for Arabelle.
“Yeah, didn’t you notice we could do this when we blacked out?” Alison looked at me and shook her head.
“Well…this is new,” I said out loud. Everybody looked at me with faces of confusion.
“Never mind, go on with your business,” I stood up and pulled Alison with me. I started to walk off. Everybody who was helping us watched us leave, frozen with disbelief. Maybe we should stay and wait for the ambulance, I thought. I heard that, Alison said through her thoughts too.
“We shouldn’t get into the habit to talk like that to eachother or we would be the silent freaks of the entire high school,” I explained aloud.
“Okay. And fine, let’s go back,” We turned around to see that all the people were still standing frozen. Everybody shook their heads and asked us what we were doing.
“We’re going to set things straight with the ambulance,” I replied to all of their many questions.
The ambulance arrived soon after our indecision with much confusion as to why they were sent out here.
“We just wanted more people to join the party,” I said sarcastically. “I’m just kidding. We did have an emergency but we’re fine now,” I concluded.
“What was the emergency?” One man with big glasses and a bushy mustache that came with the ambulance asked. By his big white coat I guessed he was the doctor.
“We got knocked out or something and then all the people called 911 because people always do that when they think someone is badly hurt,” Alison said. Wow. I didn’t think she had that much in her. Maybe it would be better if I couldn’t read your mind because by the way I heard that! Alison thought to me with a mad tone behind it.
“Something’s wrong,” I said suddenly. The trees behind all of the people and the ambulance were shaking. The screech of a car stopped on the other side of the street. Black windows. Black car. The shaking stopped. All of my observations were interrupted as Alison nearly yelled my name to get my attention.
“Ara!” She said loudly.
“What?!” I replied.
“Look!” Maybe a million eyes rose out of the bushes, each one different in one way or another.
“Maybe we should take a look at you two…” The doctor said. Unsure of our behavior. Could nobody see what we were seeing?! Is it possible that the “things” we have been seeing all our lives were just our imagination or some impossibility we thought up? No. It’s not. It couldn’t be. I know I’m not imagining all this. Alison thought.
“No. It’s fine but we have to go immediately,” I waved good-bye to everyone on the sidewalk and ran away from the ambulance with its lights still creating the illusion of a red and blue sidewalk.
“What are we doing here?” Seth asked. They walked through the overgrowth and the branches that blocked their way. Everything was lit by slivers of light breaking through the trees. Something rustled behind the leaves but Liam didn’t look or flinch. He kept sturdily walking through the trees, not talking to Seth.
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