Tanner's Story: The Before

Finding out the Truth

I stared at the girl in front of me. She was wearing short sleeved silk pajamas. The PJ pants went down to a little above the knees. They were like the ones Tara and Q made me buy. However, unlike mine(which had race cars on them, don't judge I was 7) they had little flowers on them and were pink.

"Are you going to let me in," she said awkwardly.

"Right, sorry, it's just...how did you find my room," I said as I stepped aside to let her in.

She smiled at me as she walked in, "I heard Tara mention it was near Bryan and Zeus's room." She turned and examined "my room."

"Yep, just what I suspected. It looks just like mine," she said comically.

I laughed while shutting the door. "So what do you want to that couldn't have waiting until morning."

Instead of answering she sat down on the couch and drew her knees to her chest. I didn't know what else to say so I just sat down on the opposite end of the couch. We sat there for a good ten minutes in silence before McKenna whispered, "How'd they get you."

I hesitated before asking, "Elgen?" She nodded wordlessly. "I was walking home from...a gathering." I stopped myself from saying takeoff. It was to hard to think about. "I was with my brothers, my older brother's friends, my own friend, and my parents. The headache I had got really bad before I passed out. I don't know what happened to my family and friends."

She looked at be before responding, "I was at home. My parents weren't home. They had to run to the neighbors house real quick. The people came into my house and grabbed me. My head started to hurt really bad so I couldn't struggle very much. As they dragged me out the back door and into the car I saw my parents get home. I couldn't even cry out to them."

McKenna started to cry a little until she was full out sobbing. Seeing her cry broke mask I had been struggling to keep up since returning to my room. I started to sob right along with her. We kept going for what felt like forever, but was really only 30 minutes.

After our tears dried and we calmed down a bit she asked, "Do you trust him. Doctor Hatch I mean."

I thought for a moment and realized that despite all his kindness, I didn't. There was something evil lurking beneath the surface. "No I don't. There is something off about him, something evil."

"I felt that too," she said nodding. "Who knows maybe we have the force, with our ability to sense evil people." We laughed.

"You've watched Star Wars?" I asked.

"Only the first movie, New Hope I think, and some mini-series."

I laughed, "Me too." I yawned and glanced at the time and started. It was just past 10 o'clock. The Chinese girl followed my gaze and smiled tiredly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stay so late. I should be heading back to my room."

"It was nice talking to you," I said truthfully as we walked to the door.

She smiled again and paused before waking out the now open door. "Tanner, be careful. I don't understand practically anything right now and I would rather not loose my only real friend. Also I'm sure your family and friends are just fine."

"Thanks, good night." "Night," she said back as disappeared down the hall.

As I turned the lights off I lay down I bed and thought to myself, "when did the world get to be so complicated."  After that I closed my eyes and tried not to dream.
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The following morning I woke with a start and a racing heart. I had a terrible nightmare.
        I was standing on a cliff with my brothers and parents. I looked around not understanding what was going on.
        "Ummm guys what's going on."
My mom put a hand on my shoulder. Her fingernails digging into my skin in an iron like grip.  I squirmed trying to get out of it, "Watch my son and remember this is all your fault," she said.
         "What is, where are we, what is going on?!?" As I yelled the last question three planes took off from out of no where and flew in front of the cliff. They just stayed there for a long moment before they started to free fall to the ground.
              I cried out trying even harder to get out of my mothers grip as she and the rest of my family just remain completely stoic. Even little Thomas.
            Suddenly we were no longer on the cliff but in the plane itself, nose diving to the ground. None of the other passengers screamed, only looked at me and said in unison, "This is all your fault."
             A second before the plane hit the ground I was transported to someplace solid. I opened my eyes-I hadn't even realized that I closed them- and looked around.
             My family was sitting in four different chairs. Their heads were bent and their arms were strapped to the chairs. They weren't moving.
             "Mom, dad, Mark, Tommy," I said tentatively before slowly walking toward them.
            "As I finished saying Tom's name they all raise their heads and smile at me. I freeze. Their eyes were all gouged out and they had no teeth. On each of their dirty, grimy faces there are several bugs crawling on them.
                                   I SCREAMED