Hiding From the Unknown

Part 9

Embyr

I shreiked, as I was dragged across the ground and pulled out the door by the man with the ghost tattoo.
"Let me go, you freak!"

"Hmmm, how about no?"

I turned to Aiden, looking him in the eyes.
"How could you do this to Chloe? You're her stepbrother! She counted on you!"

"Ha! Stepbrother. I'm surprised she fell for that dumb story. As if I was her stepbrother. It's not even possible to not know your mother remarried three years ago, and that she didn't tell you. Did she really think that would happen?"

"You make me feel sick. You took advantage of her sadness, and you deceived her."

"Not my problem she's a dumb girl.

I rolled my eyes, looking away from his face, trying to process that someone could possibly be that cruel.

Ghost Man tightened his grip around my arm.
"Let me go!"
I heard laughs and felt my cheek being slapped.
"We're never letting you go."

My cheek stung from the sudden pain of his palm colliding with my skin. Yanking my arm away from his, I kicked him on his right leg, which distracted him long enough to let me pull out my eyebrow piercing, and throw it as far as I could, so that it reached the porch. I tried to jump up, and run away, but it was impossible. He recovered almost instantly, and proceeded to grab both my arms in one hand, and drag me further, across the bumpy pavement. My forehead burned unbearably, as the aftereffect of pulling out my piercing took effect. Hopefully Chloe saw it, and realized it was a clue.
"My eyebrow. Augh."
"Shut the heck up! We're here!"

I craned my neck, trying to look behind me, while squeezing my right eye shut, and cupping my wound.
"Here. It goes in her left knee, Ryder."

"I know, Lenn! I'm not an idiot!"

"Okay, just letting you know!"

My whole body shook, half in pain, and half in fear.
"What are you going to stick in my knee?"

"Nothing, don't worry."

"Don't freaking worry? What the heck is wrong with you? Are you crazy? You kidnap me, drag me across the pavement, talk in riddles, threaten to stick something in my knee, and expect me to be freaking okay with all of this? Are you kidding me, right now?"

"Geez. Punk girl's got sass."

"I. Am. Not. Freaking. Punk."

"Stop saying freaking, and we should be fine. It's really getting old."

I felt anger build up inside of me, as I tried to contain myself from doing something drastic.

"Say that you'll join the death attacks." He smirked at me, waiting for me to say it.

"I will never."

I closed my eyes, refusing to look at them any longer. They were a disgrace to the human race. I suddenly felt a sharp pain through my leg, and my eyes snapped open. I cried out, feeling weak, and unable to do anything. Enduring the pain, I looked down at my leg. There was now a red square in the center of my kneecap. My mind immediately went fuzzy. I was unable to think anything. There was only one thought that swept through my mind now.

Kill Everyone.

Chloe

Monster was hovering over me, holding a bottle of water to my mouth. I was lying on a soft, green bed, next to a small window, through which I could see down into Tapen Valley.

"Oh, my god, Chloe, thank god you're awake. I thought you were in a coma, and was so scared.

"Why on Earth would I be in a coma?"

"You've been unresponsive for a day and a half, Chlo."

A day and a half.

"That's impossible, Monster."

"Very possible. You were so overcome by the death of Aiden, that you passed out, and when you eventually opened your eyes, you didn't get up. You didn't do anything, just laid there, and blinked, only closing your eyes when it was time to sleep. You didn't even eat or drink anything, until about an hour ago, when I got you to drink a little bit of water, but that's it."

"Wow."

"Yeah, wow."

"Oh, and one more thing. Aiden's alive. And he kidnapped Embyr."

"What?!"

Aiden, my stepbrother, Aiden, kidnapped the girl who was practically my sister. Sure, I had only known her for a day, but as I took the tour of the cottage, after becoming conscious again, I had learned so much about her, and we were practically the same person. We even thought alike. And that one person was gone from my life, and it was all because of my stepbrother, whom I trusted.

"Why would he do something like that, Monster?"

"We found out that he was actually working for Mr.Avario, that man you told us about."

Of course! Everything made sense now. When I had been eating the dried blueberries that first time, I was scared by a squirrel. It was probably a camera and tracker, that followed me, to find my location, and Aiden had found me, by using that tracker. It was obvious that Avario wanted to capture me, and that was the only way, to send someone I trusted. When we had been attacked in the village, he hadn't been pretending to be dead, he had been ignored, because the soldiers had known he was on their side. When we had seen the four men, he told me that they were probably sent by 'that Avario guy,' but I had never told him about Mr. Avario before that. The GPS tracker was most likely how he had found Sumners Park from the middle of nowhere, and had used it to send our location the soldiers. Lastly, he had given me the revolver, and taken my knife away, but I later realized that the gun was not loaded, so not only had he given me a useless weapon, but he had taken away my other one, which was my only tool I could have used for self defense.

Aiden Sumners had been lying to me the entire time.