"I'm a what?!" I say in surprise.
"Listen, I can't help you anymore. We don't trust people like you. I can tell you what you need to do, and I can maybe hook you up with someone who knows more than I do, but there's no way in Hades I'm going to San Fransisco."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What about San Fransisco?"
"Kid, you're the son of a Roman god. Life will probably not be happiness and sunshine, okay?" Lucas slides a piece of paper across the table we're sitting at in a cafe. "Don't get your panties in a wad though. I know a guy," he says.
I look at the paper, on which he had been scribbling for a long while. It has very neat handwriting, telling me to catch the Amtrak train to LA. Once there, I was to take a greyhound and get off in San Fransisco. If - if - it all went to plan. I picked up the piece of paper, and underneath I found an envelope, holding several twenty dollar bills and a ticket for the train. I needed to be at the station by two. When I looked up, Lucas was gone.
That day, time seems to move slowly. I go to the downtown bookstore, look around at the station. Finally, the intercom announces that the train to LA is leaving in five minutes. I stand up from where I'm sitting and walk over to the area where I'm supposed to line up. I'm twitching all over. I', paranoid that something would come at me, and I'm still terrified for Boots. I can't forgive myself if something happened to her. The checker takes my ticket, looks at my bag, and motions to go ahead.
I'm bored out of my mind on the ride. I mean, I find it hard to focus sitting in classes, so imagine sitting still for seven hours straight. When the train pulls up at the station, I'm relieved that I might be able to do something. When I get off at the station, I glance at a map that says the greyhound station is four blocks away. I exit the train station and head in the direction of the greyhound pickup site.
***
After the greyhound arrives in San Fransisco, I am itching to have something to do. I want to run, jump, something, anything but this boredom. I notice something scrawled in messy handwriting on the back of the greyhound ticket. It reads:
GREGOR
MEET T. AND A. AT THE LEGION OF HONOR, IN FRONT. THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE
LUCAS
Oh dear. More people to confuse me.
YOU ARE READING
Falling Farther
FanfictionWhen Gregor sees the shadow of a creature on the cave wall, he believes that it's just another rat. But when he flips on his flashlight, his life is turned upside down.
