Lost Truths

Gone

I sat back down next to Caleb. He could see that I was bothered and put his hand on my knee in a friendly gesture. I gave him a half hearted smile.

"You good?" he asked softly.

I only nodded in response.

He let it go and looked to the front, where Jeanine and her associates had gathered once more. Jeanine said something quietly to Mr. Holmes, to which he looked outraged at.

"You most certainly will not!" he exclaimed.

She turned her back to him. "Thank you all for participating. Just one more thing and I will leave you all to what you all were doing."

She nodded to her colleagues and they pushed a red button. That was never a good thing.

A strange fog filled the room, the same fog I saw in my dream.

I held my breath as soon as Sara fell out of her chair unconscious. The fog was knocking all the students and Mr. Holmes out. Jeanine and her associates had gas masks on.

Caleb and I met eyes through the fog. I reached out my hand and he took it. I held onto his hand like my life depended on it.

He fell first, hitting the ground hard, but still not letting go of my hand. When I finally ran out of air, I took a deep breath and dropped to my knees as the fog clouded my brain. My vision swam in and out of focus until I fell completely, letting myself be overwhelmed by the darkness.

"Everything is going to change. Everything is going to change. Everything is going to change."

That's all I heard until I woke up. I was in the backseat of a car that was driving along the road. Caleb was next to me, slowly coming to.

Jeanine Matthews was in the passenger seat. She glanced in the rearview mirror and smiled when she saw me glaring at her.

"What the absolute heck? I'm sorry if I made you mad, but kidnapping two teenagers is not the way to handle things," I said as calmly as I could muster.

"Kidnapped? Who said something about kidnapped?" Caleb asked, still a bit groggy.

"Jeanine kidnapped us," I replied matter of factly.

"I did not kidnap you two. Nicholas knows where you both are and besides, anyone who comes asking will be told the two of you had an unpleasant reaction to the test and are both in a hospital abroad," Jeanine broke in.

I had nothing to say at this. She kidnapped us and has a whole cover story worked out too.

The rest of the car ride was in silence until we neared a glowing blue circle suspended in midair. A few roads ago, the car had turned off the main road and we had been travelling through a thick forest ever since.

The car drove right through the circle and both Caleb and I were thrown backward with a jolt.

"What was that?" I demanded.

"Ari? Ari look out the window," Caleb said, staring outside.

I looked out the window to see not the forest we had been travelling in, but a city. It had broken down old buildings and people walking n around everywhere. Each person either had gray, black, blue, red, or white and black clothing. They seemed to be color coded. Each person wearing black belonged to the group of people wearing black, same for gray, blue, and so on.

One thing was for sure. We weren't in our small town anymore. I came to the conclusion that the blue circle must have been a portal. Even though it seemed impossible, it had somehow transported us into a whole new world.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto," I joked, trying to lighten the mood.