Lockdown

Chapter 17

"So we have to find his dad?" I ask. "My guess is he's not home at the moment, he probably would have answered" Wendall says. After a pause, I decide to comment something. "I'm surprised by you." Wendall looks taken aback. "How?" "You've been really.... Participant in this. Usually you're the funny one." Wendall considers this for a moment. He considers it for enough time that I think I may have offended him. "My best friend is in a coma, and another is missing. I need to do something or i'll go crazy." I nod, noticing the fact how he did not mention Lace or me. "So, I think that we should go to the police. If James was actually taken by this man, he probably isn't going to surrender to two teenagers. They can handle this." Wendall says. I wanted to argue with him, but i knew he was right. "So what do we do now?" I ask. "The police station is about five miles from here, we can walk it." I'm silent. All of this excitement was going to be for nothing, the cops were going to handle it. It was relieving but also frustrating at the same time. "You realize that if we go back to that house, we may very well get caught also, right?" He asks. I nod, but something just wasn't right. The dreams i had, the insomnia that was cured a few days later. None of this was fitting together. I stopped walking. Wendall looked back at me. "I need to know something else." I say shortly and start running back to Hickory's house. 

"Wait" Wendall yells after me. I can't have him running after me, i doubt Hickory would want that. I run down the street, we had been walking for about twenty minutes. I decided i needed to double my speed, i had an idea. As I ran, I went over what i was going to say in my head. I could see the house now. Wendall wasn't behind me, I turned around to see him hailing a cab. I couldn't blame him, it was cold and it was starting to rain. I knocked on the door. It was open, and when no one came to the door, I opened it myself. I walked through the house. It was huge. 

The walls were covered with paintings, a large white couch was faced in front of a large flat screen. Behind the couch was the piano Hickory was playing earlier. A hallway branched off behind the piano, and I started walking down it. I couldn't hear anything or anyone, and it was starting to creep me out. The hallway had tile so polished that I could see my reflection. I stopped walking to examine myself. I looked completely different then I did two months ago. My hair was messed up and my clothes were wrinkled or ripped in places. Bags under my eyes looked like bruises and stood out against my pale white skin. 

I shook it off and kept walking. I still couldn't hear anything except for my own footsteps. The hallway was long and I couldn't see the ending point. It progressively got darker. I heard a thump. Like metal hitting metal, and then metal hitting the ground. I followed the sound, and started running. I stopped at the second metal thud. It was coming from a point from the left. I continued running in the dark, and finally reached the end of the hall to meet another one. One going right. I heard another metal clang, and I knew it came from the left. The left was only a wall. 

I walked to the wall and placed a hand on it. I pushed, thinking that maybe there was a secret wall. I took a moment to realize what I did and started laughing. Could i be more stupid? I sighed and leaned against the wall. No, I couldn't do this. I couldn't give up, I needed to do this. For Lace. For Wes. For Wendall. For James. I got up and kicked the wall. Maybe if I got my anger out, I could continue to do this. I really didn't want to walk down the hall going right. I could have sworn I heard it from the left. 

I kicked the wall again. It felt good, it felt like the only real thing I had felt in a while. I kicked again. How could this be so unfair, how could James just be gone? Taken? And why? To fulfill the wants of some crazy psychopath who thinks he's different? Who was this person anyways? I kick again, and started to punch. The wall was softer than i expected it to feel under my bare fist. I punched again. None of this should have happened. Maybe if I just had everyone stay in the classroom none of this would have happened. I brought up everything in my life and took it out on the white plaster wall. 

It broke under my fist. The wall crumbled, easier than a full wall would have. I had created a hole in a stranger's home. I couldn't believe myself. But I didn't have any more time to question my sanity, because the hole got bigger. Someone else was breaking down the wall on the other side. Hickory's face was visible on the other side. "Hello." He said simply. The wall then took the time to loudly crumbled to the ground. He was now fully visible, and so was the room Hickory was in. 

"What the hell?" I mutter. Hickory sighed and pulled me through the wall. Knives lined the wall, racks of arrows and weights surrounded the middle of the room. The middle on the room had a huge red target painted on the ground. Rafters hung from the ceiling, and someone was flipping around them. "This is our training room, Jason?" Hickory called. Jason swung down from the rafters and landed on one of many bars and boxes stacked in piles and protruding from the walls. I was speechless. "Who is this?" Jason asks in an Australian accent. "She just punched through the wall, do you you need to know?" Hickory asks. "She is in our secret room, and punched through what was hiding it, do you not need to know?" Jason asks, sounding angry. "She is a girl who is trying to find my little brother, as we are." And suddenly a knife whirled passed Jason and landed in what was left of the wall next to my head. I was too shocked to move. "Not even a flinch." I took the knife out of the wall. "Throw it." Hickory said. "What?" I ask. "Throw the knife, see what you can do." He pointed the opposite wall with a few targets. I hesitated. "Well, come on." Jason says. Hickory said nothing. I looked at the target closest to me, and when I expected the knife to bounce off of it, it sunk right into the fabric. 

Jason was silent. Hickory walked across the floor and took it out of the target. He threw it at Jason, who moved out of the way and caught the end of it like it was as simple as picking up a pencil. "This is not enough Hickory. You know that we are going against your father." "Yes, but it will help." He says simply. "You mean your father actually kidnapped your own brother thinking he was special?" I ask, unbelieving. Jason chuckled. "Aren't we all special?" Hickory rolled his eyes. "No. He doesn't believe that. He wants James to be different. When he wasn't what he thinks is 'special' he put him through test after test. James is being tortured along with many others. This man is not our father, only someone who we were given to when we were younger." Hickory says. I take a moment to process. "In other words, his father is insane." Jason says. "yes, but he is insane with a huge amount of power." 

Hey! Thanks for reading. Do you like this turn of events, how the story is wrapping up? Don't forget to comment and vote! Thanks.