The Cracks in the Crystal Ball

5. The Savoir

"Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are.
I had to find you, Tell you I need you, Tell you I set you apart" -The Scientist~ Coldplay

"I really hope he didn't see us Crys."
"Amy he didn't just see us, I think... I think he knows us." 
She brushed me off and said how the heck could he know us, we'd never met him.
"Maybe you haven't, but I have..." I said quietly, remembering the day, the day that I didn't tell anyone about. I ran out of Amy's room so fast that she didn't even have time to react. I zigzagged down the beige hallway towards my room and flung myself upon the bed, was this my fault? It must have been. If I hadn't looked at him, just like Amy had said, maybe none of this would have happened. His image was imprinted into my eyes, my thoughts, everywhere I looked I saw him. I saw him on the ceiling where I looked, on the walls as I sat up when I heard a sudden commotion, and right in front of me, just hovering in the air. His eyes, the exact same as Amy's and his hair had the same striking resemblance. I'd always wondered why it was me who'd had to take after my mothers looks, why I had to take that burden. Me and Amy were polar opposites in physical characteristics, but mentally we had always been so similar. Maybe he was-
My train of thought was interrupted by Mr. Stevens bursting through my door and demanding where I'd hidden his keys. I denied it instantly, of course I hadn't bloody touched his keys, why would I? He stormed over to me.
"You ungrateful.... spiteful.... worthless piece... Of SHIT!" He screamed, hitting me hard with each word. With each one I flinched more and more until the last, by far the hardest. With that one I fell down into the bed, my head hitting the headboard on my way down. As I lay thinking about what my life used to be I slipped peacefully into a deep sleep.
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Dream/ flashback
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He sat across from me with his hand on my leg. The bright, white, spinning room had me utterly discombobulated for a moment, then it all returned to normal. His face rippled into clarity, and I recognised him... It was the guy from earlier, but he looked younger, less stressed in a way. I surveyed the four white walls, searching for a mark or blemish, anything to make this less weird. I concluded that there was nothing, no distractions. I looked down at my small hands and fiddled with a plastic ring I'd gotten from a magazine earlier in the day. It had a picture of Cinderella in the centre and I looked at every few minutes wishing I could be like her, without the sisters of course. My short blonde hair fell forward into my face and I shifted my position so that I was sitting crossed legged on the massive chair. Well, it was normal size but my tiny frame would have easily fitted twice.
"Crystal, Crystal Hunter," He said quietly. "Such a beautiful name, to fit a beautiful little girl... Even a princess"
With the last few words he pointed at my ring and smiled a half smile at me.
His phone buzzed loudly on the white desk to the side of him, he glanced over with an inquisitive look, but when he turned back to me his eyes were wild and fiery. Then he rose quickly, knocking the cream arm chair over, and lunging forwards towards me. He grabbed hold of my collar in both hands and shook me. I pleaded helplessly for him to stop. Then all of a sudden the violence ended, in a abrupt motion he released my shirt and fell back into his chair. The smile returned but this time it was cruel and malicious. He held my eyes as he muttered some kind of obscenity under his breath. Determined to hold his gaze I lent forward and placed one elbow on my knee. He broke eye contact first, saying, what I think I heard right, "it's a shame that you turned out this way."
His face shifted to a melancholy expression as he looked at the buzzing phone once more.
"We're done here," he said, rising slowly from his chair. As he reached the door, when he thought he was out of earshot he said "Candidate 4 is defective. Sedate her. Now."
I didn't even notice the people wrapped up in blue and green scrubs run in, I felt a quick prick in my arm, followed by a wide spread tingling.
Then it all goes black
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A sharp shooting pain stabbed through my brain and a stupidly quick pace. My eyes snapped open as I felt hands pressing down on my chest, and then over my mouth to stop the piercing screams that were apparently coming from my own mouth. My eyes saw faces, two of them. Shrouded by the haze left from my sleep all I could make out was one female and the other male... No, not just any female. Amy.
But the boy... That's right, Amy's boyfriend Casper. It was Amy who had her hand over my mouth, and as she watched the panic slowly fade from my distressed eyes, she lifted her hand. Casper released his grip too, his hands had been on my shoulders, holding me down in case I lashed out. I sat up, blinking away the last remaining flecks of sleep from my tired eyes. I glanced at the window to try and get a concept of time. It was dark outside, had to be around midnight, or even later. I looked back at Casper and blinked blindly at him. I couldn't see what Amy saw in him, his curly brown hair flopped down over his green eyes, and his defined cheek and jaw bones were heightened by the dim, yellow lamp light that was cast across the room in jagged lines, but apart from physical appearances he really wasn't anything special, to be quite honest he was a bit of a jerk. He'd always hit on me, even when he was dating my sister, I used to tell her but she would just say 'he's just joking Crys' and follow up with her cute giggle that made me feel impeccably idiotic.
"What are you-" I began before Amy cut me off.
"We need to leave... Now." The urgency in her voice was unmistakable.
She must have noticed the perplexed expression on my face because she followed up with: "I'll explain later, I promise."
Her eyes drifted over to the floor where a case had been half packed, my case, with my stuff. I felt a flutter of embarrassment as I saw a few pairs of underwear draped over the side, it was no secret that I was slightly underdeveloped for my age... But I didn't want Casper to know that.
My eyes fell to his gaze briefly before Amy hauled me off the bed and began grabbing my things from various draws and sides and chucking them into the case. As she reached for my memory box, that appeared to be just an old shoe box, I lunged in front of her, snatching it from her grasp. She looked at me with a concerned expression before shaking it off and turning round to face another pile of belongings.
After we'd finished packing, I crept downstairs with my case, so heavy that Casper had to help me carry it. With each floorboard creek or cough or rattle, I flinched, not wanting to even think about what would happen if we were caught. Casper placed my case softly on the floor and beckoned Amy down, when she reached the landing she mouthed "Let's go." And slowly opened the door.
The moonlit street glimmered softly under the stars, a reflection of the night sky was projected across the street. I glanced over at the car that had been following us previously, parked, lights off; there was no one in sight. Casper took the lead and led us down the street, towards the alley that I always walked through on the way home from school. The silence was broken when Casper's phone sounded- I could tell it was Casper's because he had the 'Harry Potter Theme' as his ringtone- causing me to jerk round towards the sound. He answered the call and quietly said "We're here."
We stood in the freezing cold in silence for approximately five minutes, before a silver Mercedes pulled up slowly in front of us. I felt a chill creep up my spine, as if it had spindly legs and was making an effort to make each one touch my back fully before the next made contact, and the hairs on my arms stood up with  absolute fear. Casper leant forwards towards the drivers side window and tapped it twice with his fist. The window slowly rolled down and a hand clasping a set of keys was extended from the car. The hand was smooth and youthful-looking, I took it to be a females. There was a wedding ring on her ring finger and her nails were painted a dark shade of red. She had unusual scars that began on the back of her hand, and I imagined travelled up her arms, but the disappeared into the darkness.
They keys had a small heart shaped picture key ring, but it was too dark to make out the photo. Casper seized the keys and made his way to the back of the car. He opened the door for me and Amy to get in. Reluctantly we stepped closer to the car, and immersed ourselves in the shadows.