I woke up with a start from the frightening dream. Black dots danced in my eyes and it was hard to focus on one thing, Plus I had a headache and my entire body felt like it was falling apart. Limb by sore limb.
Then I realized the nightmare wasn’t even close to being finished as the memories of what happened before I blacked out came rushing back into me. The pain that reality brought was greater than that of when I was in the dream because I could actually feel and see everything that was actually happening to me.
I had read about things like this and never in a million years dreamed it would happen to me. It all started when Liz was murdered which felt like a million years ago but in reality it hadn’t been that long. I didn’t want to think about any of it so instead I focused on the intense pain coursing through my body.
“Someone’s awake!” Nina said in a singsong voice. In response I just forced my eyes shut even harder in effort to make this nightmare go away. “Oh come on sweetie, don’t you wanna know why I’m here?” She asked
I ignored her but that didn’t send her away. “My dearest Jen, I come bearing the gift of a headache reliever and a field trip.”
“How should I trust that the medicine isn’t drugged with some other substance?” I asked with my eyes still shut.
“You shouldn’t.” She said, “I’m glad you don’t, that means you’re smarter than I had originally hoped. I need you dear. For god’s sake, I’m your biological mother! That should mean something!” She said becoming frustrated.
“You didn’t raise me! You mean nothing to me! You have ruined everything good in my life! You took away my sister and now you’re killing my parents! My real parents, not you and your sick delusion that you are my mother.” I spat at her, opening up my eyes finally. She just smiled at finally making me talk to her. I let her win, which frustrated me even more. I can’t win with her.
“Maybe we should take that field trip now.” Was all she said before transferring me to a wheelchair and taking me out of the room. “You see, I’m supplying you with a gift right now. I shouldn’t because of the way you just talked to me, but I choose to ignore it for now. We’ll deal with your attitude later.” I just ignored her, I was too preoccupied with making mental notes of where we were going and how we were getting there. The walls in the place were all pure white and the hallways were made like a maze. They twisted and turned and all looked the same. Right, right, right, left, straight, left, left, left, right, straight…they were getting all jumbled up in my confused brain.
Finally we stopped at a bland looking door and she twisted the nob, rolled me in and then shut the door behind her quickly.
“Jen!” my mother yelled and I snapped to attention. I quickly wheeled over to her and moved awkwardly so I could embrace her. We held onto each other and didn’t want to let go, but eventually we did.
“What happened to dad? Is he okay?” I asked confused that only she was there.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen him since she took us.” She said staring at the ground. “How are you? Are you okay? Has she hurt you at all?” She asked.
“Not Nina specifically. There’s a group of people working for her, including Grant.” Then the painful memory that Mel was also a part of that group popped into my thoughts and it took all I had not to break down and start uncontrollably sobbing. “Mom, it’s… it’s so awful. Mel, Sara, Grant; they’re all a part of this. They all had something to do with Liz’s murder.”
“Oh, honey. I…I don’t know what to say.” She said with a sympathetic frown on her face.
“It’s all my fault she was murdered. If it weren’t for me, Mel and Sara and Grant never would have been around her.” I cried, not just little sobs. I mean big, ugly tears that sent snot rolling down your face.
After a while I calmed down. But my mom just stared at me, blank faced with nothing to say. Then she opened her mouth, closed it, turned away and closed her eyes.
“Jennifer, I…I don’t know how to tell you this.” She said, without looking at me.
Just then the door burst open, and Nina came running in before my mom could say anything else.
“I think that’s enough of a reward for today. Say goodbye Jen.” She said and then wheeled me out without giving me the chance to say goodbye.
“Why’d you do that? She was about to tell me something, it looked important.” I said to her, trying to hold back tears because I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see my mother again.
“There is a lot that you don’t know. And the only person who gets to determine when you find out is me. Not that god forsaken woman in there who stole my daughter from me.” That’s what was confusing about Nina. Sometimes she referred to herself as my mother. She acted like she cared, she acted like she never wanted to give me away. Like I was never not wanted by her. But, that’s all that it was. An act. I meant nothing to her. Unless it counts that I am her ticket to being rich off my parents’ insurance money. So other times I was just a pawn in this game she was playing. And I had to give her some credit, she was good at the game.
“So tell me! I deserve some sliver of the truth!” I demanded.
“All in due time, dear.” And she didn’t say another word. We just wheeled in silence to my prison. The room where Sara or Grant could possibly be waiting to hit and torture me again.
When we arrived to my room, though, no one was in there. Nina simply rolled me in and then left. I guess there was nothing to say, but I wanted, no I needed, her to say something. I needed her to tell me something about what happened to my little sister. I needed to know where my father was. I needed to know if he was okay. And I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to Ashton. I needed to know where he was and if he was okay. I needed to know if Nina was the one who kidnapped his family. I just wanted answers.
Instead though, I got silence. I had nothing but the voices whispering what-if’s in my brain. All I wanted was an escape from the hell that I was in, because I couldn’t think of anything but the negative answers to all the questions I wanted answers to.
She was the one who personally killed Liz, my father was in a six foot hole that she dug herself, Ashton was not okay because he was in another room, being tortured by another one of my friends, and Nina was the one who kidnapped his family. Those were the only answers that I had and I imagined up all of them. I was completely oblivious to the real answers.
Finally, after many torturous hours, or maybe they were just minutes, I fell asleep. A dreamless sleep, but a sleep none-the-less.
A/N: There you go! I know where I'm going with this. Any guesses about what Jen's mom was going to tell her before Nina interrupted? Let me know what you think! <3 Until next time! -Emily
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White Liars
Mystery / ThrillerJennifer Habbay had everything going for her. She was the head cheerleader, president of student counsel, and had amazing grades. She had the dream boyfriend and a group of friends that she can almost trust with everything. Almost being the key. Whe...
