Kidnapped

Escape

Five. Four. Three.

I heft up the bag over my shoulder and move to the opening.

Two. One.

At one the sound of gunfire and more bombs startup. I inhale and run out of the tent.

Run toward the right and into the woods. I kept that in mind and took the right and started running into the woods. From the corner of my eye, I could see other people running away from the woods and to the left. I hesitated for a second thinking 'What if Mena was tricking me?' But then I heard them.

The voices, the chaos, the fear and anger, the confusion, they were all back. I heard them. I felt them. My powers were all back just like Mena had said.
Run toward the right and into the woods.
I keep going.

"STOP HER!" Someone yelled out. The voice was new among the voices that I had gotten used to. Assuming that they were talking about me I accelerate and use my renewed senses to my advantage. A high whistle sound came and I duck to the left, before returning to the right. The ground exploded, but I kept on moving. "NO! DO NOT HURT HER! CATCH HER!"

The next noise I hear is loud and clear: a gun firing and a body crashing to the ground.

The woods get more and more complicated as I run, and I realize that I'm going up a rocky slope. But my body moves on its own, dodging uneven ledges and rocks. The air gets a little uneven as I get higher and higher, but my lungs are clearing from the smell that seemed to clutch on them. The fear mixes in with unease when I reach the top of the slope. My body starts to shake and it's not from the cold air rushing at my face.

Autopilot turns on and I watch myself run to the right on the slope, keeping my balance, and then stop abruptly. A cave. I found a cave. I blink and move inside.

The cave is huge. My in-tune ears catch the echo of my boots as I walk inside. I look around. It was certainly warmer in here than it was outside. There were rocks of all kinds lying around. I walked in deeper and sat down with my back against the wall. Finally, I let out a breath, pull off the bag from my aching shoulders, and set it in front of me. I stare at it for a moment, before lying down with my head against it and watching the entrance to the cave.

********************
I fall asleep sometime later. Before that, though I stayed awake, guarding the entrance and waiting for the attackers to find me. The sounds of fighting had drifted but it was still going on. After a few hours of waiting to be re-taken, I drifted off to sleep and the shouts of the two different groups faded away too.

I dream of my mother. She and I are home, sitting at the table in the kitchen.

The table has three chairs around it. Two of them are marked and named: Reader and Talea. The third chair is empty and clean. It hasn't been sat on since September 1, 1998, since the day I was born. The person it was meant for wasn't there that day back in fifth grade when I got the genius idea of naming furniture. He wasn't there when we carved in hearts.

My mom sits on Talea and I sit on Reader across her. But she's not facing me. She sits, staring at the table. I stare at her, waiting for her to look up at me. But she doesn't. After a while, her shoulders start to shake and I'm scared. I jump out of my chair and maneuver around the nameless chair to my mom.

"Mom?" I whisper, but it sounds wrong and loud. The house was too quiet. "Mom, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" I try to put my hand on her shoulder. There is a chill a second before my hand passes right through her shoulders. "Mom?" I pause. She looks up at that exact moment and I see her tear-stained face. Her nose is slightly red and her eyes were puffy, the light greens holding back more tears.
"I should have taken better care of you, honey," mom murmurs, her voice just as watery as her eyes. "I'm sorry."

But she's not looking at me as she says this. "Mom." I try to touch her again, but again I pass through her. "Mom!" A kettle on the stove catches her attention but other than that my Mom shows no signs of hearing me. She gets up and takes the kettle off the stove. I follow her. "Mom, I'm right here. Please, look at me."

"She won't," a voice said from behind me, "look at you or answer you, I mean." I turn around to see a dark figure walk into my kitchen. I cover my mom with my body.

"Who are you?" I ask and my hand blazes for the first time since the week that I have been gone. "What do you want?"

In seconds the figure is in my face. "Seriously?" Up close the voice sounds familiar. My senses work faster than before and I instantly know who it is. "Are you going to blast me or something?"

"Jeremy?"

He sighs. "I'm getting tired of establishing this obvious information, Geneva." He stares at my hand and unease passes through his features. "Mind putting that down? I'm kind of not in the mood to get fried today."

I glance over at my mom, who was making tea now and shake my head. Jeremy disappears and then reappears behind me. He swipes his hand through my mom's waist and she disappears in a blink. "Hey!" I move at Jeremy, my hand still on fire. "What did you do?"

He disappears and reappears behind me. I turn around too slow and an invisible force pushes me back against the counters. The kitchen stretches out in front of me. Jeremy starts to disappear. I pull away from the force and blast the air in front of me.

A hiss. "This is a dream, Geneva!" He reappears. Jeremy holds his hand up and the kitchen returns back to normal. "Stop. Please. Your mom's not really here."

I glared at him, but drop my hand. Jeremy visibly relaxes. In fact, he makes a big show of sighing and sits down on the nameless chair. I fight to keep my voice controlled as I tell him, "Get off that chair or the fire makes a comeback."

Jeremy takes his time getting off the chair and then he sits down on Reader. I take Talea and look around the kitchen as I question him. "How did you know about me? My powers?" I knew I should have asked him this question the second he hacked into my laptop that night, but I figured asking right now wouldn't matter. The guy was starting to worry me a lot. "And why aren't you running away?"

Jeremy raises a dark eyebrow at me, when I finally look back into his caramel eyes. "I'll tell you that when you tell me where you are right now." I stare at him. "You haven't left a wall open for me, and if we don't find you soon, someone way worse will."

Glancing down, I don't answer him and try to think things through. The KCs camp was attacked and I barely got out alive. I wouldn't be sleeping in a somewhat secure cave right now if it wasn't for Mena, even if she was with the people who took me by force. For whatever reason whenever I asked Jeremy who he is, who he really is, he always ignored the question and tried to order me around. I glance up at him and shake my head. "No."

Jeremy stares at me for a long time and I get the feeling that he is trying to read my mind. But my mind is locked tight for this exact reason. I couldn't easily read his mind either, but there were cracks in it that I could push against. If I really wanted to, I could be in his mind in seconds. "Stop trying to read me." I didn't like the feeling of someone digging through my head, which makes me sound like a hypocrite, but it's not like I break into other people's minds. Plus Jeremy was trying to force his way into my thoughts. The voices just come to me.

He stands up and Reader topples backwards. "You are in danger, Geneva! For once in your life listen to me. I'm just trying to keep you safe, okay?" He starts towards me and I force myself to wake up.

********************

My eyes snap open to see the ceiling of the cave. For a few moments, I don't move from my sleeping position and keep on staring up at the ceiling to calm myself down. After a few minutes, I start to feel very uncomfortable so, I sit up and look outside.

It was dark out. The light flurries from this morning have gotten worse, almost like a tiny blizzard had started. The coat Mena gave blocked out most of the cold air and the boots kept my feet nice and warm. I was alright, I wasn't as cold as I should be, and I was safe. At least for now. I pull my bag closer and tugged on the coat.

For the rest of the night, I lean back against the bag and watch the small storm with my senses on high alert for any attackers.