Chapter 3
Now, if someone jumped out of my closet at me wielding a pair of my pants and then charged for my window but tripped in the process, I'd probably scream something like: "WTF? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY- WHO- MOOOMMMMM! SECURITY!" and call the police after banging the intruder on the head several times with a lamp. As it were, the boy standing near me did none of these things, though he seemed sufficiently surprised, so I'm guessing this wasn't a regular occurrence for him. If it were, I'd be really freaked out. Not that I wasn't freaked out; I was just freaked out for entirely different reasons.
As I said, he didn't scream or call the police or attack me with a lighting device. Instead, he started laughing at me. And I don't know if that's a trait common among possible abductors, but it's certainly not what I would have done in his case.
"What are you laughing at?" I muttered a little huffily, glaring up at him after I'd established that he wasn't likely to kill me.
"What were you going to do, strangle me with a pair of pants?" He had a nice voice: warm, easygoing, and a little melodic. It made me want to laugh with him. He had a nice smile, too. Except, you know, since he was probably a felon and all. "I can see it now, 'Young Man Attacked: Death by Dolce.'"
I smothered a laugh and stood up, trying not to step on the clothes. "Um, sorry, this is really awkward... I'm not sure how I got here." I looked up into is bright eyes. He raised a dark brown eyebrow at me. It struck me that the expression was extremely familiar. My blood went cold. Oh.
Images flashed behind my eyes: the studio, the shadows, the car, the dark haired guy... Images that I'd suppressed subconsciously, knowing that I couldn't handle them alone in the dark.
The boy's light expression faded a little, and he looked suspicious. "Listen... You're really not supposed to be in here. Well, obviously." He held up a hand to hold my protest midsentence. "I know, you aren't sure how you got in there, but I think I have a pretty good idea... Wait here." I watched annoyed as the boy brushed past me out of the room. He leaned back in around the doorframe. "Oh, and I mean that. Really. Don't wander around. Mel might think you're an intruder and take you into custody or something." I tried to ignore the irony in my being mistaken for an intruder.
"Go ahead. Don't bother to give me an explanation. I have no clue what's going on around here anyways." I sighed and sat down on the bed and looked around. The walls were a nice pale green, the carpet a soft moss, the furniture a deep chocolate brown. Like that guy's eyes... *Haha, wow you hit your head HARD, Ala.*
I picked up a framed picture on the bedside table. In it, the occupant of this bedroom stood grinning, maybe five years younger, holding a fish almost larger than he was. On his right was an older smiling brown-haired man (presumably his father) holding the other half of the fish, and on his left, a younger version of an all-too-familiar dark eyed boy. Huh. Were they friends? Relatives? Their features weren't really the same; the younger guy I'd just met was softer, lighter, warmer. More of a friendly spirit. Dark Eyes was... darker, for lack of a better word. Unsettling, sharper. I squinted at the smudged note written in the bottom left corner of the picture. 'Lake Sommet, <illegible date>, Jasen, Zaled... <more writing smudged by water>.'
I yawned and placed the picture back on the nightstand. A fresh breeze blew through the open window, and I curled up on the warm green bedspread like a cat. So... tired...
****************************************************<Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............>*********************************************************
"Hey, banana, wake up!" I was rudely shaken awake from a lovely dream about dancing paintbrushes and a talking sundress.
"What? No school.. Sunday.." I made to lie back down on my green comforter... Wait. My bed had a blue and white design. I sat up.
"She lives! Wonderful, now could you please take a nap over here where no one will see you..." Dark Eyes was back, and so was Mr. Sweatpants. Or Jasen and Zale, not necessarily in that order. And they were wearing tuxes? Weird.
"Wait, why do you want me to go back in there? I just got out," I protested. I fought the post-nap grogginess clouding my brain. Before I could say anything else, Dark Eyes had lifted me forcibly off the bed and was carrying me over to the closet.
"I'm sorry, there are some people here, and they can't see you. It's just for a bit. We'll come back for you in an hour or so-"
"WHAT? I am NOT staying in there for an hour! I don't even know you, and wait, how did I end up here anyways?"
"No talky, shhh, zip, just- I'll explain later but you reallllly need to hide for a bit."
"NO." I flailed my legs around and he dropped me. "Well? I refuse to be locked up in a closet by complete strangers who might have possibly kidnapped me and- OH MY GOD you DID-"
"Shhh! Listen, I didn't kidnap you or whatever, seriously. I'll explain, but we really need to go right now and you really need to hide somewhere-"
"JAAASSSSEEEEENNNN!" called a female voice from downstairs. "LINA'S HERE! Come down and greet the family!"
I turned to Dark Eyes and narrowed my eyes at him. "If you don't tell me what's going on, /Jasen/, I'm going to run down there and tell mommy what happened." I fake-pouted up at him and he glared at me.
"I'm Zale. That's Jasen. And we can't let you do that, I'm afraid."
"Actually," said Jasen, speaking up for the first time in a while, "I go by Jase. Not Jay-see, Jase. Rhymes with 'chase.'"
I glared at him. "I get it. And as fun as this had been," I crossed my arms, "I really need to go home now. And you both owe me an explanation. If you try to stop me from leaving, I'll scream." We all stared each other down, eyes guarded and determined.
"JAAASSSEEEEE! ZAAAALLLLLLEEEE!"
The two boys rolled their eyes. "COMING MOOOMMMM!" I snorted a laugh.
They shared a look and came to an unspoken agreement, then turned towards me.
"I'm really sorry," whispered Jase quickly as they came towards me.
"Wait, sorry for what? What are you doing?"
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next chapter out soon! I again chopped it off of this one cuz it was wayyyyyy to long ☺ but I'll update in a bit after I finish some hw cuz I rock like that
read, comment, vote, enjoy!
-C
