You were sitting in your living room, drinking tea. You were reading a book while music blared in your ears. You rocked your head back and forth to the beat. You blinked tiredly, it was about midnight. You memorized the page number and put it to the side. You turned off your music and stretched while getting up.
You walked to your room and jumped as thunder roared. You rolled your eyes at your own fear. You opened your door, yawning. You crawled into bed, not bothering to put on your pajamas. You mentally facepalmed yourself as you noticed your light was still on. You reluctantly pulled yourself out of bed. Right before you reached your switch, thunder clapped and your power went out.
You jump, growling. You'd check it out in the morning. You felt your way back to your bed and crawled under the covers. You blinked tiredly and turned over a few times, unable to get comfortable. You finally found a nice spot and started drifting off to sleep. Reality and fantasy blended and things became fuzzy. It was so peaceful.
CRASH!
Your eyes shot open. You were out of bed in less than a second. You grabbed your bat from behind your door. You waited a second, your hand on the knob. You were gripping it tight enough that your knuckles turned white. You swallowed, nervous. Thunder clapped and you threw your door open. You couldn't see a thing.
You cursed quietly and started walking. You held a hand out in front of you, walking slowly. Lightning cracked and for a split second you could see a shadow. You stopped breathing.
Someone was in your house.
You moved cautiously. You looked around the corner hoping for a glimpse of them. All you saw was darkness. You took a few deep breaths, counting to three. You stepped out of your cover, moving to where you saw the shadow, or so you thought.
Lightning flashed again. No one was there but your window was shattered. You swallowed, releasing a shaky breath. You stepped back and your heart stopped momentarily. You ran forward and turned around. You went to swing your bat but it was caught.
You tried to pull it back but their grip was strong. They pulled you forward. You stumbled, unable to catch yourself on anything. You hit your head on your TV stand. You screamed out in pain putting your hand to your head. You were dizzy for a few seconds and pain shredded through you. Soon, you felt a warm liquid flow onto your hand.
Two arms wrapped around your waist and pulled you up. You tried to fight back, wincing at the throbbing pain in your skull. Tears streamed down your cheeks. The stranger grabbed your hands and threw you to the ground. You landed head first and screamed again, more tears ran down your face, blinding your vision.
The stranger crawled on top of you, pinning you. You struggled fiercely. They barely moved. They shoved your face into the carpet with their forearm.
You winced making a slight noise. "Please..." You murmured. Tears streamed down your cheeks into the floor.
The stranger moved their hands but stayed on you. They leaned against your back, laying an arm in front of you. They lifted your chin and put a cloth against your mouth and nose. You struggled again, trying to break free. They hit you in the back of the head with their knuckles. You made a choking cry. Reluctantly, knowing you couldn't get free, you breathed.
Everything stayed for a second before going black.
You wake up to the bitter cold. It's bright. You try to cover your eyes but your hands are tied behind your back, underneath you. You quickly move your head and immediately regret it as pain shoots through your skull. You can feel something scratchy against your head. You look down to see that your feet are tied too.
You look to your side seeing a figure in a yellow sweatshirt. The hood is over their head and they have a black ski mask with red sewn eyes and a red stitched mouth. They have black skinny jeans, brown combat boots, and black gloves. He has his hands in his lap and his legs are crossed.
You swallow, keeping your mouth shut. It doesn't do you much good. As if he senses you staring at him, he looks over. You freeze. He gets up and lifts up your hair. He nods slowly, leaning you up. He begins unwrapping what you believe are bandages. Throwing them to the floor, he takes out a new bundle. He begins rewrapping your head, sighing.
You wince as he leans you back down. He begins pacing, you watch quietly. He looks at you again, you can only guess he's glaring. He turns his attention back to pacing. He seems on edge. Looking outside he puts a hand to the mouth on his mask.
He paces for another few minutes before you hear honking. He quickly leans over the couch looking out the window. He leans back and picks you up. Throwing you over his shoulder he runs outside. Your head throbs as he jolts forward. Quickly, he opens a car door and shoves you in. You gasp as you hit someone and they begin securing you. The other man gets in and slams the car door.
"Go!" He yells. His voice is deep.
The one in the front slams his foot down on the pedal. Your head slams into the back of the seat. You yelp in pain. You can hear sirens in the distance. The one in yellow leaned forward.
"What took you so f*cking long?!" He asks, heat in his voice.
The one driving barely looks back. From what you can see he's in a somewhat tanish orange hoodless jacket, a white mask with black eyes, lips, and two raised eyebrows. Dark brown, almost black, messy hair and sideburns. And blue jeans and black combat boots. He growls and presses the pedal further down. "You try stealing a car and losing the cops, Brian!" The masked man says.
Brian growls. "I told you not to call me by my real name."
"I know, I just don't really give a sh*t, Hoodie."
You look at the two, confused. You can tell there's some hidden tension between the two. The boy next to you quickly pipes up.
"Shut it b-b-both of you! You can argue later." He says, twitching. You look over at him, swallowing.
He has what looks like a human muzzle, a pair of orange goggles and dark brown hair. He's in a brown hoodie with darker brown stripes on the arms and a navy blue hood. He's in a pair of blue jeans and black converse. He has a pair of black gloves on and hatchets at his sides.
You look at the other two for weapons and discover pistols at their waists.
They both nod as the twitching boy speaks. The one driving seems more reluctant and angry. You look at all of them, scared out of your mind. Swallowing a few times you look at the one who you think is in charge. Turning towards the twitching boy, you wince.
"Why did you take me?" You ask quietly.
He turns to you and blinks a few times before making an "oh" shape with his mouth. "Sorry" he says. "I didn't quite hear what you said at first. We've been given a test by our master to capture and train our own proxies. We find one person study them for a week, if they check out, we study them for a year, then we capture them. Hoodie was the first to because he started studying you and kept studying you before me or Masky even chose our first person to study." The boy finishes. You suspect that Masky is the one driving.
You nod slowly. Leaning back, you try to relax, knowing you're not going to die but you're still horribly frightened. So Hoodie was to be, what? Your master? Your teacher? Your mentor? You didn't know and were too far confused to comprehend it.
Hoodie leans forward gripping the seat in front of him. "Remember Masky, as soon as we lose the police you and Toby are to leave the car."
Masky nods, snarling. There was definitely some bad blood between those two. You move your hands trying to loosen what you guessed was rope. You stopped stiff as someone grabbed your wrists. You quickly looked to see Hoodie's arm reaching behind you. You swallowed, your throat dry and your mouth sticky.
He growled, letting go. "I will untie you later."
You leaned forward. This was starting to be the worst day of your life. You were scared sh*tless. Shaking, you leaned up. The nausea was overwhelming though you doubted you were about to throw up.
Toby lightly pulled you up. As you looked over at him you saw a small smile on his face. He began patting your shoulder. It was nice that he was trying to comfort you but he wasn't really helping. Realizing that you were in the exact same mood he stopped and leaned against the window.
The sirens started to become distant. Masky pulls the car over. He, Toby, and Hoodie all got out of the car, Hoodie pulls you out. Untying you, he throws you into the passenger seat. You're tempted to get out but the odds of escaping were small. Hoodie jumps into the drivers side and slams the door. The other two wave and start to sprint north west of the sirens.
Hoodie begins driving, just a little slower than Masky. Rubbing your wrists, you notice you have minor rope burn. Glancing over at Hoodie, you hear him talking to himself.
"What's going on?" You asks nervously.
He taps his fingers on the wheel. "We need to crash the car in the next town."
Your eyes widen. "What?!" You exclaim, looking at him.
He shrugs. "The police will be looking for this car."
Staying quiet, you gawk. He was right but you were still surprised. You looked forward, tempted to jump out of the car. As if reading your mind, Hoodie takes out his gun placing it on his lap.
"If you so much as touch that handle, I'll blow your brains all over this car." He says in a sinister tone.
You stiffen. Shoving your hands under your legs you lean back. Hoodie makes an appreciative grunt.
The sirens soon disappeared, leaving the the hum of the car as the only noise. The car was molten hot. The A/C was on but it didn't work. Hoodie had rolled up his sleeves, revealing pail skin.
You pushed your hair back and felt beads of sweat trickle down your back. You glance at Hoodie. He still had that mask on.
"How are you not dying?" You ask while wiping at your head with your shirt.
Shrugging he roles up his mask. His cheeks are a bright red. You look at him for a second, raising your eyebrows.
"It's not that bad..." He says. His voice sounds a little younger and less menacing.
Leaning back, you begin rolling up your pant legs. Though he wasn't looking directly at you it was easy to tell he was watching your every move. You began rolling your window down. That pistol was immediately at your temple. The car was completely stopped.
"Role that f*cking window up, right now." He says calmly.
You began shaking. Fumbling with the switch, you rolled it back up.
"Hands under your legs."
You did as he said. He pulled the gun down. Everything in that moment had lasted a thousand years. The car started down the rode again. Starring outside you watched the clouds. You leaned your head against the window.
"Where are we going?" You asked after some time.
Hoodie was silent for a moment. You waited his response quietly. "Georgia... Into the swamps."
"Do you just plan on driving?"
"We'll probably do more walking than driving. I don't carry money on me."
You sigh. Georgia was a long ways from where you lived in Utah. This was going to be a long ride. Frustrated, you closed your eyes, hoping that sleep would take you.
