Rearranging (TotalSmile)

Chapter 7

Rearranged Chapter 7   "What on earth is going on?" Alyson asked. ------------------   William immediately pulled into a Walmart parking lot. He put the car in  park, turned off the engine and turned to Alyson.    "So what don't you understand?" William asked.   Alyson paused, surprised by his straightforwardness. "Well, first. I want to know why someone just barged in my friend's house and killed her." Alyson eyes moistened on the last word.   "You're crying. In time and with practice, you will learn to control that byRearranging." William said without a trace of emotion.   Alyson stared at him, her mouth agape with disbelief. Did he really really respond so callous and coldly to the death of her best friend?   "Screw you." Alyson muttered.   William ignored her comment and continued, "Those men arrived at your house because they consider your ability to Rearrange dangerous to the world. I think they may have picked something up when you and Charlotte miraculously managed to survive an otherwise fatal car crash with a few  cuts."     So it had been her fault. Her mother had been right, she should have been more discreet about using her skill and maybe Charlotte would still be alive. This was all because she couldn't control her ability.     "Any more questions?" William asked, cutting through Alyson's thoughts.   "You said my father was in a prison?" Alyson asked as she tried to keep her voice steady. Was her father a criminal, a murderer, a serial killer that she wouldn't want to take up as a role model?    "Your father was accused of a crime of which he took no part as he assured me. He stands accused of the killings of thousand of innocent inhabitants of Puerto Ricans. But the man is well acquitted."   "So he's not guilty?" Alyson said with a breath of relief.    "I apologize for my stuttering and horrible sentencing. I must not have explained it very well." said William.    "No, I understand you perfectly fine," Alyson replied, not catching on the Indian boy's sarcasm. "But why do you speak like an Oxford professor, when you're only 13?"   The edge of William's mouth twitched.   "I'm 15 years of age. I will be turning 16 within the next two months." William answered coldly. His disdain shown obviously on his face.   Alyson pauses for a moment, slightly shocked that he was older than he looked."Oops, sorry." Alyson apologized.   "That's a great offense to my character. I speak in this way because it is the proper way my parents raised me."    Alyson's eyes widen as she remembered her mother. "Oh my gosh. Where's my mom?" she had left her She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate and adrenaline rush through her body as a stress response.   William rolled his eyes. "Panic is completely unnecessary. There is nothing you can do about the fact that she was captured."   Alyson almost froze with anger and fear. Fear for he mother and rage towards William for his coldness and lack of feelings. She slowly managed to get her breathing under control and turned to William with rage in her eyes.   "Excuse me, Ice prince, my mother has just been captured and all you can say is 'do not panic'?" Alyson growled.   William nodded. "It is not as if you could do anything to save her right now. Panicking makes things worse. As if you were overreacting in a fire, you may inhale smoke and die of asphyxiation."   Alyson had never been a master at controlling her temper. She had only reined it in after 2 years of anger management classes. But after what had happened yesterday, she was at her breaking point. She lunged forward her hand aiming to William's neck in hope to throttle him.    William quickly reacted; her blocked both her arms and sent a quick blow to both of her arms and her stomach.    Alyson arms went numb and her lungs seized up. She fell back limply into her seat.   "It is not as if I have not warned you about things like this. If you tried to strangle me, I will respond. As I said before, the feeling in your arm and body should return in seconds."   Alyson wheezed as she struggled to regain her breath. Her words came out scratchy and loud.   "What is wrong with you! You're like a stupid robot. My mom has been captured by the same people that killed my friend and you start acting like the son of the ice queen." Alyson tried to sound angry, but with her wheezing she sounded like a ridiculous Donald Duck cartoon.   "You must understand this. Panicking is not the answer. If we decided to search for your mom and father, the trip would be pointless it you were constantly overreacting." William explain in his monotone, diplomatic tone.    Alyson rolled her eyes. "What's with your Oxford accent, ice prince. You sound like an idiot trying to be professional. "   William raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry. Would you prefer if I talked like this?" He readjusted his position; slouching, titling his chin up and drumming his fingers on his thigh. "Is this accent cool?"    Alyson cocked her head to the side in confusion. The way he was talking was familiar, and his posture reminded her of someone she knew. After a couple of second of staring at him, she realized who he resembled. She gasped in shock.   "You're imitating me, William?" Alyson gasped.    William took a long breathy gasp and widened his eyes. "I most certainly am not."  he said sarcastically, copying Alyson even further.   "No need for rudeness." Alyson said with a scowl. "Just talk like a regular teenage boy."    William readjusted his position to his regular. "Is this okay?" he asked in a regular teen's voice.   Alyson nodded, then she remembered something William had mentioned earlier.   "Why would you be in the same prison my father was in?" Alyson asked."You said that's where you met him."   "Well, it's a prison for 'special cases.' Your father's case was special and mine was too. If you haven't picked it up yet, I'm a bit like Sherlock Holmes, you know. I can notice things no one else could notice, like where people would lose things, the places people had visited and what kind of job they had. So my case was considered "special" so the police put me in the same prison as your father after they arrested me for the murder of my parents and 7 other people and labeled me as a junior sociopath." Willian answered with a completely calm face.    Alyson, on the other hand, choked on her saliva and felt the color drain out of her face.    "Wow, do you think you could have given me a bit too much information? Did you really need to mention the "special cases." and junior psychopath?" Alyson asked nonchalantly. Quickly, she made a plan in her head to escape. The door was currently locked and she obviously needed to unlock it. This had to be done quickly, surprise was her only advantage. She slowly pulled herself closer to the car door on her side.jerked her right hand forward, distracting William from the left hand which was stealthy unlocking her car door.    "Are you okay?" William asked.   "Yeah, I'm fine." Alyson lied. She tried to focus on escaping from this crazy psycho while looking unfocused on anything.    The door-lock button * felt a bit stiff so she braced her finger even harder.   "Doesn't that car next to us look funny?" Alyson asked.   When William turned to look, Alyson unlocked the door and tumbled out. She made sure to brace the impact on her shoulder and knees then jumped straight up. She immediately went into a sprint, away from the car.    Behind her, William reacted quickly. He jumped straight through to the door that Alyson had exited from seconds before. He did a front hand spring and rushed after the running girl.    Alyson heard her predator's foot steps behind her and pushed her legs even harder. She Rearranged her legs to the form of a state champion runner but William was still gaining on her. There was a fallen branch ahead of her that looked rather sharp, under one of numerous trees in the parking lot. Alyson reached out her hand and willed the branch to fly into her hand. The branch on twitched pathetically. Alyson grunted in frustration and forced her legs to move faster. She snapped her fingers and wished the branch to her hand like she was in a Harry Potter movie. The branch flew into her hand, and she turned to face her attacker.    Sadly, William had already gained on her and he launched himself on her. He knocked the branch out of her hands. Allyson stepped back but William was already on her and he pinned her arms and legs down.   "What is wrong with you!" William yelled in her face. His breath was warm and  had a faint trace of mint. His face was red from anger an exhaustion. He took a deep breath then continued in a calmer voice. "Do you realize what you just did? Now it looks like I'm trying to assault or rape you or something. What if someone sees us, they're going to call the cops and make it easier for the people that killed your friend to find us." William hissed.   "Yeah, like I want to go with the sociopath that killed his parents!" Allyson yelled before fear began to set in.    "If you had let me finish, I would have explained that I was framed. Do you really think I'd be as heartless as to kill my own parents and slaughter 7 other people?" William said with a sardonic grin.   "I don't know, maybe not showing any reaction to my friend's death might give me a heads up on your sociopathy." Alyson said, whispering now.   "I'm sorry for an apathetic response, but I couldn't overreact like you. Panic leads to more panic." William answered. "I'm going to get off of you. For goodness sake, please do not run." William pleaded.   "Right, yeah." Alyson agreed, nodding. William slowly stepped off of her. She slowly stood up and brushed off her pants. William's face was practically an inch from hers so she took a step back. Then another. And another until she was 15 feet William.    William's eyes were concentrated on her, but she didn't think he suspected anything.   She opened her mouth to speak, "We-" she cut through her own her words by turning around and going into a full-on sprint. Even if William claimed the people that had killed Charlotte were hunting her, she rather risk it on her own than to be found in a gutter, dead next week.    William groaned and sighed in exasperation, he was so sure that she would stay this time and he was annoyed with chasing her.    Then he had an idea, he had no idea how it hadn't come earlier.  "If you leave, you'll never get your father's journal." William said pulling the journal out of his pocket. Alyson stopped in her tracks , spraying rocks and dust up against her shoes.    She could consider that the journal was fake and William was just screwing her over with a journal full of written trash. But she knew that hand-writing was her father's. Years ago, when she was cleaning her mother's office as a punishment for getting in a fight in school, she had found a very dusty letter at the bottom of one of the filing cabinets. She hadn't thought anything of opening it and reading the letter. It was written in the same perfect writing as well. she could even remember what it said.    *Kristin,    I will have to go away on business. If you ever need to call me, call 123-555-7130. I am overjoyed that you have passed the pregnancy test, all of our trying has finally paid off. I can't wait to be back home for you and our child. I'll be back on the 10th.                                            Your number one fan.*   The letter was dated around 8 months before Alyson was born. She never told her mother she had found the letter because she knew it would only cause more tension in the house.   She growled in frustration as she saw the journal in William's hand. He waved the journal for dramatic effect.    "If you run away, you'll never understand. You'll never know your father's secrets to Rearranging." William warned.   Alyson glared at him in silence.    "I need you to make a decision Alyson." William said. "Or I'm leaving with your father's journal."   They continued to stare at each other for a whole minute before Alyson made up her mind. She silently walked past William back to the car. William grinned in triumph and pocketed the journal.     William slid back behind the steering wheel without a word and pulled* the car out of parking onto the freeway. The two exchanged no words throughout the whole 1 hour-drive.   Finally, they arrived at William's destination, another motel. He rented them two rooms.   As he hand her the room key he warned, "Don't run. I am here to protect you."   "Right. The sociopath is definitely here to keep me safe." Alyson replied sarcastically as she snatched the key from William's hand.    She turned to walk away but William held onto her forearm.   "I really wish you would trust me. Your father did."   Alyson just glared at him as she snatched he hand back and wordlessly walked to her room.