The Pretender

Hey guys(: This is the first story I'm uploading and I'm extremely excited!

Sorry for the long wait for me to update. -_-" I was playing around with the formats and somehow the whole story got deleted (sorry, again D:) but I had it all saved somewhere else (thank God! :D) and everything's working out great. So, thanks again for sticking around and I hope you enjoy my story(: 

- sockpuppy 

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The Pretender

Prologue

“Get up!”

             A violent shake sends my eyes flying open. I was about to scream when a hand cupped over my mouth, stopping me.

“Don’t even dare think about it.” One look at my sister’s firm glare shuts my mouth. I push her hand away from my face and sit up, suddenly aware of the commotion going on outside. Sirens wailed loudly in the streets. Dozens of police cruisers surrounded our neighborhood block, closing off the area. Flashing red, white and blue lights lit up the gloom of the early morning hours and forced their way through my shutters.

“The police are here,” Carmen said, quickly getting off my bed. She scrambles to my closet and pulls out my overnight duffle bag from underneath the wreckage of unfolded shirts.

“No kidding,” I replied.  I tried to flatten out my frizzed hair with no luck. My eyes caught sight of the glowing numbers on the clock. It’s two thirty. “So, uh, why am I up so early?” 

Carmen’s silhouetted figure frantically moved around my room, grabbing clothes and dumping them into the bag. “Sometimes, I just wonder if you’re really a girl—this room’s a wreck.” She dashed from one side of the dark room to the other, shaking her head with disapproval. “Anyway, forget about it. You need to get out of here. Now. Get some jeans on, hurry.”

The urgency in her voice startled me. I raised an eyebrow at her even though I knew she couldn’t see me.  

“What’s going on?” I muttered, yawning and doing as I was told. Carmen shoved the bag into my arms and slipped a thick wad of cash into my hands. My eyes grew wide. “You robbed an ATM?!”

“No, brainless,” she said. “This is your money, actually. I withdrew all of it from your bank account. You can’t afford to use your card right now.”

Carmen grabbed me and towed me out of my room before I could even respond. In the kitchen, she threw some chips, a whole loaf of bread and a jar of Nutella into the bag. I gave her a look. 

“You’ll thank me later, trust me.” Carmen smiled encouragingly.

We burst through the back door leading to the garage. The sudden drop in temperature made me shiver.

“Get in, hurry!” my sister ordered.

God only knew how confused I was but before I could even utter a question, I found myself on the driver’s seat, buckling my seatbelt like a robot while Carmen tossed the orange duffle bag behind me.

“They’ll be here any second, Jordan,” Carmen said breathlessly. “You need to get away. You can’t let them catch you. Go away as far as you can, do you understand me? Don’t let anyone recognize you—trust me, they’ll do anything to get you. And I can’t stress this to you enough. Whatever you do, don’t come back here.” She paused and swallowed as if trying to stifle a sob. Her breath sounded louder than the groaning radiator. “It’s not sure how long till we see you again, little sis.”

It was as if I had really just woken up because I stared at her, disoriented, eyebrows creased with alarm. “Carmen, what’s going on? Who’s ‘they’?”  My head ached with confusion and I suddenly felt sick to the bone. “Do Mom and Dad know about this?”          

                Without warning, there was a loud crash as the front door was rammed open. Heavy boots pounded against the hardwood floor as dozens of what I guessed were police officers stormed into the living room. Weapons clicked ready and shouts of warning flooded into the garage. Great. They were armed, too.

                “You gotta go!” Carmen hissed, lifting the garage gate and revealing an empty street. I was surprised that no one was guarding the back.

                “What?” I screamed. “Where? Where the hell do you want me to go? What’s going on? Carmen, tell me!” I looked pleadingly at her through my window. My hands were shaking and I was in the verge of tears.

                “Just go!” Carmen yelled back. “Please, just trust me!” 

                I didn’t know what got into me. I should have protested, I should have screamed at her even more for making me run away. But I didn’t. I turned the ignition on and drove away.

As I turned the corner, I looked to the rearview mirror just in time to see two burly men grab my sister and drag her inside.  

They didn’t see me.