The Waking

Chapter V

Chapter V

     Zzzt. Zzzt. Zzzt. My phone vibrated on the wooden bedside table. I opened my eyes a crack, and rubbed them vigorously. I reached up from my spot on the floor, and smashed my hand into the handle of the drawer. I pulled my sweater into my mouth and bit down, to avoid screaming in pain and surprise. I was definitely awake.

     ZZZT. ZZZT. ZZZT. My phone buzzed again, more urgently this time. I reached for the bedside table, slower and more cautiously this time. I picked it up slowly, and yanked it back towards me. I turned the screen on to turn off the alarm, and was blinded by the full brightness of the screen. I quickly swiped up from the bottom of the screen, revealing the Control Center, and dimmed the screen all the way down. With a few more swipes and taps, I turned off the alarm, and turned off the phone.

     I stood up, and slipped my bag onto my shoulder. The digital clock on the bedside table read 5:02. I slowly walked to the door, and cautiously turned the doorknob, careful not to wake Brianna, who was still fast asleep in the blue sheeted bed. I slipped through the door, and ran right into Quinn. I had no idea how hard pure muscle was, until I ran face-first into Quinn's massive chest.

     "Argh!" I moaned, clutching my nose. "How long've you been there?"

     "Shush." He whispered, for the second time in 12 hours. "And to answer your question... A while."

     He smirked, and headed down the hall, to the stairs. I shook my head, and started after him. He tiptoed to the kitchen counter, where he picked up a set of truck keys, and beckoned for me to follow him. We walked silently to the back door, where we slipped soundlessly out of the house. Once outside, Quinn turned to me.

     "We're leaving." He said. "Toss your stuff in the truck, and go say goodbye to Brianna."

     Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?

     "Hold on just a second," I said, backing away from him, "you expect me to just let everything drop? I'm not going anywhere with you. Not until you tell me why, and where the hell we're going."

     I dropped my bag onto the ground, to prove my point.

     "You need to be trained if you want to get your dad back." He said.

     Oh. That.

     "I'll take you somewhere where we won't be found by accident. I'll teach you what you need to know, and you can leave at any time. Once you're strong enough, you'll face Nevaeh and get your dad back."

     I nodded. What he was saying made a ton of sense, and I had calmed down enough to consider his offer.

     "You seem to know a lot more about being a Dart than I do," I started carefully, "I'll learn whatever you teach me... I only have one condition."

     He scoffed.

     "And what might that be?"

     I took a breath.

     "Brianna comes with us."

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     A while later, the three of us were bouncing along a gravel road in Quinn's red '95 Chevy. The radio was permanently stuck on an old country station, and once we were out of the city, all that was emitted from the speakers was static. Quinn reached to the dashboard and turned off the radio, and for the next few hundred miles, we rode in silence.

     Brianna was curled up in the backseat, sleeping. At first, she had been confused as to why we had to leave. That made two of us. However, after a few minutes of explaining from Quinn, she went to her room to pack her bags. The three of us loaded the box of the truck with our bags and a cooler full of food quickly and silently. We set off at 5:30. It was now nearly 8, and I was getting hungry. I tapped Quinn on the shoulder, and whispered: