On the Run: The Texas Files ✔

Chapter 2: The Invitation

I wake up half an hour later from passing out from the vision.

We're not exactly sure how I got this power. A week after my mom died, it happened for the first time. I was eight and still grieving the loss of my mother, who was my best friend.

I was lying in bed, trying to understand how she had died so suddenly. It started as it did just now. Sometimes, I see a scene, an object, or a person. Other times, I get really lucky and I see her talking to me. They have no set pattern, which is irritating because they can come at any time. She's usually really good about not contacting me during school hours.

Today, it was pitch black and I just heard her voice. That can't be good.

When it first happened, I was really afraid. Dad took me to see every doctor under the sun, and all of them chalked it up to stress about my mother dying. I guess word got out, and when I was nine or so, some men in black suits showed up at my door. We don't know who called them because everyone we saw thought I was having a psychotic break.

At first, they just took me in for questioning. It seemed natural. Being nine, I just told them everything I could. They let me go, but then, they started coming to the house more and more often, asking to talk to me about events that I had never seen before. Eventually, they grew very impatient with me. It got so bad, they started torturing me for information.

I've been through unspeakable experiments and agony for something I can't even control. All the scars I have are from them. I do my best to hide them, but it's been getting harder. Sooner rather than later, if they catch me again, they're going to start scarring more noticeable parts of my body, and people will start to ask questions.

I rub my eyes and try to wake myself up. The visions make me very tired, but I have homework to finish. So I finish my literature homework and start on physics and calculus, which go hand in hand.

After about an hour or so, Andrew calls me for dinner right when my father walks in the door. As we eat our grilled chicken, rice, and green beans, my father gives us the third-degree interrogation we get after every first day. He makes sure we're safe. The questions consist of anyone who could be a threat, if anyone recognized me, and so on.

I let him know about Parker. I'll be getting a not-so-legal background check on him soon.

After dinner, Dad does the dishes. Andrew and Noah go into their room to do their homework. I go to mine to finish unpacking.

Unpacking took a lot less time than I thought, so I get back to work. I breeze through the calculus. Andrew had it last year and showed me most of it. Physics is just something I'm good at, so I finish it fairly quickly.

Andrew comes into my room after I finish looking over my notes for history. He sits on my bed.

"You okay?" he asks. "Parker seems a little off to me."

I nod. "It's nothing I can't handle."

I stare at nothing, knowing that this has been one too many times we've had to pack up and leave. It's my fault. I can't just be normal.

He puts his hand on my shoulder. "We don't blame you for this move, Jackie,"

We moved again from New York. We went back to our old city, hoping to get lost in the sea of eight million people. I was recognized by someone from our old school, back before all this even happened. The men in the black suits found me within two months. Noah had to leave his first serious girlfriend and Andrew was finally comfortable enough to make friends again. As for me, I thought we had found a home at last.

But life is unfair that way.

I sighed. "I know, but this can't be all my life is, right? I'll have a home and a regular life soon?"