The Insiders

Chapter 3*

Chapter 3- Sharlene

My house is on fire. I can not see any fire, but somehow I know it is. There is somebody outside too. Once again, it is impossible for me to know this, but I feel as if somebody is telling me this. I look around my room, but I do not see anyone. I run to my window and peek outside. There is no one out there except a single man. He is standing there alone in the middle of the street. He gives off a feeling that gives me goosebumps. As I see the flickering light begin to light up the shadow of the man, I remember my house is on fire and I run into the hallway.
"Mommy!" I hear Riena scream from her bedroom. Without hesitation, I barge into her room. When I come in, it takes me a moment to find her. She is not in bed, she is on her tiptoes staring out her window with a panicky expression.
"There's a man outside watching the house!" She shouts over the sounds of gunshots and explosions coming from outside. I rush over to her side and look outside the window. It is the same man as I was looking at before only now he is watching our front door. Now from the light of the fires, I can see he is dressed all in black, even his glasses are. He has a medallion on the right side of his chest with a green and yellow striped ribbon. Suddenly, he turns his head towards the window Reina and I are in. I quickly grab Riena and dive below the window. I hold her tightly in my arms.
'I know you can hear me Sharlene. Come on out. I won't hurt you.' I panic. What is happening? Tears threaten to come out of my eyes, but I refuse to let them out. I did not hear his voice from here. That is impossible. I hold Reina tighter, though I am not sure if it is for her comfort or for mine. Suddenly, my mother bursts into the room. She looks like a ghost in the moonlight with her brown hair, pale skin. She is noticeably skinny, except for the stomach where my unborn sibling is.
"Girls, what are you doing? Hurry we need to go down to a lower level!" She shouts over the sounds of battle outside. I know she is scared, but she is trying to stay calm. I lift Reina to stand up and I stand up as fast as I can. I grab her hand and we begin to dash down the stairs. We only run down a few stairs before another bomb goes off. We all collapse to the ground. I panic as the blasts forces Reina and I apart.
"Everyone okay?" My mom asks as we slowly sit back up. I nod and look at Reina who nods back. Surprisingly, Reina does not look scared. She looks brave. We duck to the ground for a minute and wait for the shock of the blast to calm. After, we continue down the stairs carefully, but fast. Just as we reach the bottom of the stairs, a third bomb blows up the front hall. I hear Reina scream as we fall to the ground again. Because of how close the blast is, this blast affects us the most. I hit the ground with such force, my nose begins to bleed. My knees burns from the carpet below and I am shaking. I force myself to raise so I am on my hands and knees. I look to Reina to see she is no longer the strong young girl, she is scared. She is sitting up and crying. I look to my mom, to see she is laying on the ground still; she has not moved. I crawl over to her.

"Mom," I shake her. I roll her onto her back. I now see she has a deep cut on her head that is letting out a flow of blood.

"Mommy!" I turn to Reina sharply. She is staring at our mother and appears so scared, it begins to scare me. She stands up and scrambles over to where my mother is laying.

'This will all stop if you come with me.'. I hear the man's voice again. I turn my head to the burning front door. The wind picks up, which blows the fire out for just enough time to see the man is staring right at me. I can not be imagining things, it was actually in my head. There is no way this could have happened twice.

"Mom, wake up!" Reina screams bringing my attention back to my mother. As I stare at my mom, I begin to lose hope that she will open her eyes.

'This will all stop if you come with me.' The voice repeats. I close my eyes and try to block the voice out. I try to wake up from this nightmare, but it does not work. I open my eyes with hope, but nothing has changed.

"Mom?" I whisper as my tears calm down slightly. Suddenly, my mom's eyes begin to open slightly.

'Sharlene, you need to come with me.' I bite my lip and let out a single tear as I realize what I have to do.

"Will it really stop if I come?" I whisper as I stand up on my shaky legs.

'Yes.' I hear the voice. My eyes wander over to my mother, who is now fully concious and trying to relax Reina. Can I really leave them now? They need me. I need them.

'Your family can't come with you.'. I take a deep breath and nod towards the fire at the front of the house. I take one final look at my family. My sister is helping my mom stand up. I take a deep breath as I think about what I am going to do. I am protecting them. I need to do this to protect Reina.

"Reina, I am so sorry." I say, though I do not think she can hear me over the violent sounds around us. I turn my back on my family and stare at the wall of fire. With a gust of wind, a path large enough for me to run through is cleared. Without another thought, I dart towards the fire and the street behind it.

"SHARLENE!" I hear my mom scream after me. I do not stop running though. I can not; if I do I will never start running again. As soon as I am on the other side of the fire, my front door bursts into flames again. Once I am far enough away from my burning house, I slow to a walk. I walk towards the man as calmly as I can. As I approach him, I see he is a middle aged man. That is all I can tell though.

"Thank you for listening Sharlene." He says. I nod as I look around the street. All the houses are burning or have a hole in them. There is not anybody around, but the man and I. I search around looking for other people, but I can not find anyone. I can not find any gunmen.

"Where did the people go who were shooting the guns?" I ask as I continue to search around. As my eyes return to the man in black, I am shocked by the sight of him hanging onto a rope ladder. My eyes follow the ladder to see it is coming out of a black helicopter. I rub my ears to try to clear them, wondering why I did not hear the helicopter. I come to the conclusion that the impact from the explosions must have done temporary damage to my ears. Then how were the man and I talking earlier? How did he hear me from so far away?

"As I said Sharlene," The man smiles. "Once you leave, it will all be over.". A sharp scream from my house causes me to whip my head towards it. Some more tears run down my face as I remind myself, I can not go back.

"Now if you could hang onto the ladder, Miss Fraser." The man asks me gently. I take one final glance at my house before obeying his orders and grabbing onto the ladder. The man grabs onto the ladder below me just as it begins to lift up into the helicopter.

Once we are up in the helicopter, we are greeted by two men with black clothes and glasses who are sitting on a bench. There is also the pilot and co-pilot in the front. The men direct me to sit on a bench on the opposite side of the helicopter from them. When I turn to the bench, my panic returns as I see a two teenage boys and one girl, all with torn up clothes, cuts and burns. I turn my head back to Steve, who gives me an odd smile. I sit, deciding I have no other option. I strap in and try to control my emotions. If I am going to make it through this, I need to be strong. With a little kick, we begin to fly through the air.

"Steve, are we all done for the night?" One man asks the man who was standing outside my house.

"Yes," Steve responds. "Sharlene was our last pick up in the entire project actually." He smiles. Project?

'Now back home where the real fun will begin.' The one man looks at me as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Where?" I ask. The man laughs loudly while the teenagers beside me stare with confused faces. They all act like he never said anything.

'She had no idea does she?' My eyes dart to the teenage girl staring at me.

"An idea about what?" My panic makes my voice shake. The girl looks scared. What is happening?

"Sharlene," Steve grabs my attention. "It's okay. This will all be straightened out when we get there." I look at him questionally, not sure if I should trust him or not. After that, the ride is silent, but my thoughts are not. Why did I come? How are my mom and sister? Where is my dad? What are these voices in my head? Am I crazy? Where are we going?

'Headquarters.' That voice says in my head. Well that really didn't help.