Dateless and Deadly

Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

A garage door opened and we drove right inside the building. The space, which was probably one large factory area at one point, was now separated into sections. The one we were in looked like a somewhat larger than normal garage but we did not get a whole view of the place as I’d expected.

The kidnapper killed the engine and reached for the door handle.

“Wait,” I said and he paused, “what’s your name?”

He looked back at me, surprised for a second, then he said, “James,” and left the vehicle.

“Bond?” I asked nobody. My sister was already getting out of the car and the door on my side was being opened by a phantom.

Oh no wait, there was someone there. As I stepped out of the vehicle I spotted a short, middle aged man. He was about three and a half feet tall so I couldn’t see his head above the door frame.

Three other people were crowding around the car trying to catch a glimpse at the new arrivals. One was a surly looking young woman about my age with gorgeous red hair and black eyes. Her skin was so pale it was translucent. “Vampire,” I whispered, stifling my hysterical laughter. She glared at me.

I looked at the man next to her. He was tall. Way taller than me and that’s saying something. He must have been about seven feet and he was no skinny mini. He looked like he could crush a car with his pinky finger. Maybe they were getting magic confused with freakish people? Hey, it had happened before. Isn’t that what the circus is?

The third person looked completely normal. He was a good looking guy about my age again with nice brown hair and warm brown eyes. He was smiling at me in such a welcoming way, if it weren’t for the fact that I had been coerced and kidnapped into being there, I would’ve smiled right back at him. Instead I scowled and his smile faltered for a second before returning full force. I could almost see the cogs working as he made it his mission to loosen me up a little.

Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.

We exited the garage and started walking down a hallway. Smiley was next to me and my sister was walking with James. The redhead was glaring daggers at my sister’s blonde head. I was surprised she couldn’t feel the hostility coming off of her in waves.

Sam and James were deep in discussion. I couldn’t hear them very clearly but every once in a while I heard words like, throw, air, propel, triple back flip etc.

“Hey,” smiley said, “I’m Stephen.” He smiled. “Nice to meet you.” He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

I grasped it very briefly and let go. I didn’t want the craziness to catch.

“So which one are you? Samantha or Cassandra?” he asked clearly not concerned about my unresponsiveness.

“Cassandra,” I said in a short, clipped voice that said, shut up now.

He didn’t understand my not so subtle hints. “Cassandra. Cool. You know, we’ve been looking for you for a long time. With parents like yours, we knew you girls would be something totally awesome. I can’t wait to start testing to see what you can do.” He grinned from ear to ear.

“We’re not lab rats,” I said and I meant it. I had no intention of becoming some sort of science experiment for these wacky people.

His grin faltered a little. “Th-that’s not what I meant.” He actually looked sad behind his smile for a second.

James shot me an angry glare over his shoulder. I gave him the finger.

Stephen recovered quickly. “Don’t worry, the tests don’t hurt. We do them all the time to measure our progress. There’s a war going on, you know? Fort vs. Caine. Good vs. Evil. You know, the usual.”