The Chase

Shaun

"No mom listen. Just listen. Mom" I groan internally at my mother. She is causing me a headache and my dad is not doing anything to help. She wants to know everything. Right from the second I walked into the room until the second I walked out. Not gonna happen.

"How can they endanger the lives of school children? I should file a complaint." She says.
I just sit there and look at her with raised eyebrows. I've explained, maybe three or four times, that the fire was fake. Yeah, sure, it could've harmed me but here I am. Still alive and well. Sitting on my living room couch. Only largely irritated with a headache.

"No honey. It was part of the tests. We can't do anything about that now." My dad says to my mom. Now you decide to say something? Its been forty minutes of interrogation but oh no, dear old dad decides to something only now.

I sigh in frustration and fall back on the couch. I hate it when my dad allows for my mom to be overprotective. I don't know why he does it. It's irritating. It only becomes worse my my dad plays the role of overprotective dad. In which case, he is doing now.

"But you're right," he continues saying to my mother "they shouldn't do that to kids."
This time I groan out loud. I sit up straight and look at both of them. They are situated on the opposite couch, holding hands, which disturbs me slightly.

"Look. I'm still here. In one piece. Nothing has happened to me. I'm fine." I say.
"We know, sweetie," My mom says. I also hate it when she calls me sweetie. It makes me feel like a three year old. "Its just, I can't help but to feel concerned for you. I don't want to see my only child getting hurt."

"I know mom." I say and lay down amongst the pillows again. Such comfortable pillows. I close my eyes in hoping my mother will go away if I pretend to fall asleep. Not likely though. The silence stretches on. After a while I open one eye just out of pure curiosity to see if they are sitting on the couch opposite me.

Sure enough, they are in exactly the same places they were five minutes ago. I look at my moms face and almost jump of the couch. She is staring at me. And its creepy. She must have realized I don't enjoy people watching me sleep. She stands up and pulls my dad with her.

"Do you want something to eat?" She ask me before she exits the room.
"Uh yeah sure. Thanks." I reply and she walks out of the room, my dad trailing behind her.

I close my eyes again and rub my temples. A few minutes later my mom comes into the living room with pie. She likes to bake, especially when she is nervous, which means that for the past week we had freshly baked pie and bread and the occasional cake.

This particular piece of pie was blueberry. My favourite. I wolfed it down under a minute. My mom is staring a t me again, only this time with disgust.

"What?" I ask.
"I didn't raise a pig. I'm sure you can eat slower than that. And make less of mess." She gesture towards my face which is covers in crumbs.
"Sorry." I mutter and stand up to go put my plate in the sink, while wiping my face clean.

I walk back into the living room to find my mom string out the window with a horrified expression on her face. I quickly walk over to her and look out the window. Outside is a van parked in the driveway.

The doorbell rings sharply throughout the house. I walk over to the door only to find my dad already talking to two men, both wearing suits and sunglasses. Who wears sunglasses in this weather?

I join my dad at the door and my mom follows. The man on the right clears his throat and looks at my parents.
"Good afternoon. We are from The Chase headquarters. We are here to inform you that you're son has been chosen for The Chase. We are sorry to tell you that he will be going with us today. We leave in five minutes." And with that he and his buddy turns around and walks back to the van.

I can't process anything. I turn around and look at my mother, who has passed out, and my dad who is trying to wake her up, but it seems robotic. It doesn't feel like I'm controlling my body. I only observe.

My dad has given up on trying to wake my mother who obviously is not going to wake up anytime soon. Instead he is now breathing deeply. I just stand there.

My dad looks up at me and I'm starting to see double and feels wobbly on my feet. Two of him hugs me tightly for what feels like forever. He let's go.

I look at my mom again. I don't realize what I'm saying only until after I said it. "When she wakes up, tell her I love her and I will miss her. I love you too dad."

The two men appear again but they look like four to me.
"We have to leave." multiple voices echo. I give one final look to my dad as the two men half push half lead me outside. It' raining but I can't feel it.

I numbly climb into the van. The men follow and we drive off.