Monster

Chapter Sixteen--Alex and I

"Then I saw you strapped up to the table," I explained to Alex on how I had come to rescue him. He laughed and scratched the back of his midnight hair.

"Wow, Drew. That's quite extravagant, especially the knife part," he glanced at me from across the car. I sighed.

"I know Dr. Nile does some crappy things, Alex. I didn't want him turning you into a frog or anything," I rolled my eyes at his surprise that I would save him. Then I remembered something: my hallucination. The one with the boy, whom I had kissed.

"Alex, did I even promise to marry anyone when I was a kid?" I asked, keeping my eye on the Highway. He stiffened in the seat next to me.

"What?" I shot him a glance; his face had turned a bright red and he was biting his lip.

"Yea," he coughed out.

"Okay, can you tell me who?" I was getting impatient.

"Well, this kid...his name was Alex."

I froze, my hands gripped tightly around the steering wheel. For a moment, I picked over the memory/hallucination. The boy had looked like Alex! How had I not seen it before?

"Oh," was all I could mutter out in the awkward silence. Alex was sitting deathly still, staring straight ahead.

"I'm sorry I don't remember, Alex," I said to him after a few minutes. He looked down, then at me.

"It's not your fault. I would have escaped with you...but you said that you wanted your memories gone."

I had wanted my memories gone? Well, it must have been a pretty horrible time for me to want that THAT bad.

"Dr. Nile did terrible things to you, Drew. He did most of his experiments on you--the rest of us were lucky. You almost died every week, and I took care of you. You started becoming immune to the horrible things he was doing, so that eventually you were the strongest one of us."

I just nodded. Maybe it was a good thing that my memories were gone.

The road was dark now, and we were one of the few cars driving at this hour--12:05. I could see the bright New York lights ahead through the dense trees, but it would be at least another hour.

"Alex, can we stop for the night? I'm a bit tired," I mumbled to him. He nodded, yawning at the same time.

I pulled off of the Highway and down a few roads in a small town named Benson. From what I could see in the dark, it was quaint and had one hotel: Holiday Inn.

I pulled into the parking lot and grabbed my suit-case that had been in the car from the airport--poor Charlie, who was probably still in jail. Or maybe he was looking for me. Either way, he was pissed.

The Holiday Inn was brightly lit and had some nice modern granite floors with leather couches in the lobby. Alex and I decided we just needed one room, and we headed up to floor three.

"Um, kids?" the front desk lady asked us as we were nearing the elevator. I turned around.

"Yes?" I smiled brightly, hoping we weren't in trouble. I mean, we were both barefoot, but I had lent Alex my hoodie.

"Where are your parents?" I groaned.

"They're going to meet us here in a few days," I lied. We would be out of here by sun-up. She nodded suspiciously. I sighed and hopped into the elevator, shooting a glance at Alex.

Once we were in our room, a new problem came about: there was one bed and the couch did not fold out.

One of us could sleep on the floor, but we were bruised and sore from our previous concrete mattresses. I looked at Alex, who was nervously looking at me. I smiled.