The Rhyklen Project

Chapter 3

I sat there, just staring.  Staring at my dad and at the menacing man standing in the doorway to my bedroom.

Finally, I opened my mouth.

"So what you're saying is that I'm adopted, from the government, you have no idea where I actually came from, and now the government came to take me back and I'm supposed to willingly leave my family for no particular reason other than they said so?  What the fuck?"

I was about to keep going when I turned and looked at my dad.  He looked so sad and small.  I was disappointing him and hurting him.  I lifted my head to look at the man I assumed was agent Haldry.  He must have read the confusion in my eyes, because he said, "The best way is to just accept it."

He was right.  If I made this into a big deal, I would only hurt my father.  Turning to my dad, I nodded.  Looking into his saddened eyes, I tried not to cry as I leaned in to hug him.  Right before I leaned back away, I heard his whisper, "Don't believe everything they tell you."

I stood up, acting like I didn't hear him for the sake of agent Haldry.

I looked at the agent and said with a pissed tone, "Can I at least get dressed?"  He nodded, and he and my dad exited my room, closing the door behind them.

I was alone.

Letting out a puff of breath, I sunk down to the floor and rested my back on my bed.  Maybe if I just got under the covers and closed my eyes I would wake up and it would all be a dream.

But that never works.

I tried to be as stoic as possible as I changed.  I had no idea what to wear, but I decided that I might as well put on my favorite outfit.  I slid into my dark blue skinny jeans and pulled on my dark purple shirt with silver ribbons.  I ran a brush through my wavy dark hair and pulled it up into a pony tail.  Looking into my mirror, I applied my eyeliner and lip gloss.  I didn't wear much makeup, but it couldn't hurt to look nice.  I was about to walk out of my room when I remembered one last thing.

Grabbing a pencil off the edge of my nightstand and ripping a page out of an old notebook, I scribbled a letter to my parents.

“Mom and Dad.  I’ll miss you guys.  I don’t know where I’m going, but I promise I’ll come back.  Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.  I’ll never be mad at you for what you did or didn’t tell me.

Love,

Gina”

I gently placed the note on top of my pillow and walked towards the door.  For possibly the last time, I looked over my room, said a silent goodbye, and walked out the door.

Walking down the stairs, I counted how many were left until the bottom floor.  Nine… Ten… Eleven… Floor.  There was agent Haldry, flanked by two more menacing looking men in all black.  They too wore sunglasses that shaded their eyes.

I went to hug my mom, but inside I wanted to turn around and punch the agents in the face.  Who were they to take me away from my family?  I wanted to push back, to do something, but I knew it was a dead end.

Instead, I hugged my mom tight.  As I pulled away, she whispered in my ear, "Stay strong."

---

I turned to face the agents and stood straight.  Agent Haldry nodded, then turned to walk out the door.

I went to follow him, and the other two agents filed behind me.  They seemed to be keeping a close eye on me, though I couldn't figure out why on earth I would be any sort of a threat to them.

It was still pretty dark out, and the moon was struggling to shine through the thin clouds that covered the sky.  When we reached my driveway, I could barely see the huge black SUV they had driven here.  The soft moonlight reflected off of the doors of the car.

As we moved closer, I started freaking out.

What if these guys were just pretending to be from the government?

What if they were the bad guys?

What if they were going to kill me and rob my parents?

But then again, why had my parents trusted them so easily?  My parents were skeptical of everyone, so these guys must have shown them a badge or something.  God I should have asked to see it.

Agent Haldry got shotgun, agent number one walked around the car and got in the drivers seat, and agent number two roughly shoved me into the vehicle, then followed me in.  What I saw shocked me.

There were two other kids in the car.

They sat next to each other in the back seat, and the agent pushed me to sit next to them.  

Furthest away from me was a boy that looked to be about my age or little older.  He had a mess of dark hair.  I could see that his eyes were closed, and he was leaning against the window, possibly sleeping.  There was something in his hand that caught the light for a second, and I realized it was a small iPod.

As I sat down, I looked over to the boy sitting closer to me.  He appeared to be older than me, but I didn't think he would be over seventeen.  By contrast, he seemed to have neat light hair that was cut short.  His eyes flicked back and forth between me, the agents, and the door.  It made me sort of uncomfortable.  Were these guys juvenile delinquents or something?

I was nervous and tense, so I sat up straight with my ponytail just brushing the back of the nice leather seat.  As we pulled out, I looked at my house in the moonlight.  I got flashbacks of me playing on the front lawn with my father as a child, and screaming with my friends having a snowball fight.  I made a quiet promise, to myself or the house I'm not sure, that I would return.  As we drove down the road, I strained my neck to see the house I grew up in growing smaller and smaller.

Stop.  I couldn't cry.  I would come back.

As we kept driving further and further away, the roads and sights became less familiar, until I recognized absolutely nothing.