After Dusk

Chapter Three

I pack as many of my belongings as I can into my old duffel bag. My plan is to meet Mckenzi and if she can help me, great! But if she can't I'll go in search of someone who can. I don't have it all completely figured out. All I know is that I can't stay here.

Mrs. Clark will surely tell my parents, or the police, either one and then nothing will be the same. They'll call me crazy. Becky won't want to be my friend anymore. Josh will break up with me. I'll be the town freak just like Adam was. Tears fill my eyes as I remember what had happened to my friend.

About a year ago, Adam and I were sitting next to each other in history. Like usual, he'd fallen asleep about halfway through the class. Every so often I'd hear him mutter something like, "Who are you?" or "Where am I?"

Suddenly, he'd jerked awake seeming confused. He'd turned toward me, causing me to gasp in wonder. I remember him looking so . . . different. His hair had gone from white-blond to a dirty-blond with the occasional streak of light brown. His scrawny build had become very muscular and his skin even more tanned. The change in his eyes wasn't as drastic as the other changes, but the change from light blue to a soft grey had still been screamingly noticeable.

He'd seemed so afraid, yet somehow stronger. He'd seemed changed, somehow, like his entire life had been turned upside down and everything inside of him had been rewritten.

He'd run from the classroom moments after looking at me. That was the last time I saw him.

Rumors spread through the school about Adam going crazy before running away in the middle of the night but I'd never believed the stories. I'd seen him after he'd changed. He wasn't crazy, just different.

I shake my head as if to shake the memory from my mind. If I'm going to go, I need to do it now. As I walk past my mirror, I pause. After a moment's hesitation, I grab all of the pictures of friends and family that I've taped there and shove them haphazardly into my bag. Wherever I'm going, I want to remember the ones I love.

After sliding open my window, I swing a leg out, glancing back into my room. My eyes sweep over everything, landing the note sitting on my bed. In that note I'd told my parents and Dawn that I loved them and not to come looking for me. My heart had broken a little more with every word I'd written, but it had to be done. I need to leave until I figure out what's going on with me. Then I'll come back and be with my family again. Tears begin to sting my eyes; my bottom lip begins to tremble. Hiking the strap of my bag farther up my shoulder, I jump out of the window.

Landing on the ground in a crouch, I wince as pain shoots up my ankles. It hadn't been the best landing. I shake it off. Before I lose my nerve, I run over to where I'd parked my car, a black Impala that my dad had handed down to me. It was his baby. Slipping in behind the wheel, I throw my bag onto the passenger seat. I stick the key in the ignition and grimace as the rumble of the motor marrs the silence of the should-be-night. Still the night sky is filled with sunlight as if it were day. I make a mental note to ask Mckenzi if she knows what's going on.

As I drive away, I watch my house fade into the distance in the rearview mirror. Tears once again roll down my face and don't stop flowing until I reach the Winterwood Diner where I'd asked Mckenzi to meet me. The parking lot is nearly empty when I arrive due to the late hour, but there are a few stragglers around. I park near to the doors but don't move to get out. I can't.

Laying my head on the steering wheel, I sob into my arm almost hysterically. Why? Why did this have to happen to me? What did I ever do to deserve being ripped from my life and placed in a nearly foreign body? Half of me still questions what I'm even doing here. Why am I taking a chance on some stranger, when I could just ignore the changes; dye my hair back, get colored contacts and pretend that I don't feel like an entirely different person? I know the answer to that, though. I'd never be able to move on without knowing what happened. I'm entirely too curious to leave things alone.