Roomscapes I - survive

Chapter 28 ~ Fear landscapes and fake moms

  ** VAL’S POV**

I felt hot and nervous as Parker was asked to walk to the center of the room. There, they injected him with an orange liquid and I watched as he blinked a few times and a whole scenario was shown before everyone’s eyes.

Parker’s fear landscape.

  ** PARKER’S POV **

I didn’t know what to do, so I just stood there. I was in a room nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. It was dark, but seconds later it lit up and I was standing there, frozen, in the middle of my room. I remembered it perfectly now, like I had never forgotten it in the first place. It was the weirdest shade of blue that I had grown to love so much and it was covered in trophies and soccer balls. I smiled and plopped down on my bed, looking around, taking in every detail as if I would never see it again, which was probably the case. I laid there for quite a while, looking at my trophies and smiling at the old scent of my familiar room. I was looking around when I found a metal thing on my nightstand and got up to grab it. It looked like—my phone! I smiled and took it, plopping down on my bed once again to look through instagram and text my friends. I opened the app and looked through it, finding crazy selfies of all my friends, including Val and Nicole. They were together making weird faces in one of their houses. I liked it, laughing, and read below: Bestiesssssssssss…but first… let me take a #selfie!! I laughed even harder at the stupid yet funny things people posted and was about to keep looking down when my mother called me from downstairs, “Parker!! Come honey!” I smiled at the thought of seeing my mom again and left my phone on my bed without turning it off, probably one of my mistakes…

I opened the door to my room and smiled. I remember this. I remember home. I walked down the hallway and peeked into my sister’s room. “This dress? No… it looks ugly… let’s see…” she was playing with her Barbie dolls and I smirked a little too loud, but luckily enough she didn’t hear me. I walked the other way to where the stairs were and started to go down when a hand grabbed me, making me fall rather silently, and covered my mouth.

  ** VAL’S POV **

“Oh lord…” my eyes were glued to the screen where a hand had grabbed Parker’s ankle, making him fall to cover his mouth and pull him into who knows where. I bit my lip and kept watching, hoping for the best. “Shh…” the voice said, still covering his mouth, “I heard that, too.” My eyes went wide at the same time as Parker’s. I had seen her before, after school or something… but I remembered her… it was his mother, I was sure.

  ** PARKER’S POV **

It was my mom. She still covered my mouth in case I would scream, which I was sure planning on doing. “Mom…” I whispered as she gently moved her hand away from my mouth and cleaned it on her pants, “Listen… listen Parker…” I hadn’t noticed we were in a tiny square room—if it could even be called that—that was hidden all these years in the wall. A panic room, I guessed. “I heard that, too… that isn’t your mother…” it took me a second to realize what she was talking about and when I did I involuntarily gasped. “Shh… don’t worry,   there’s an escape route…” she guided me through the tiny room into a vent, “You go, I stay.” I shook my head violently and gathered all the air I could find in my lungs, “No… no, no, no, no, no mom… what if they find you?” I ask, my eyes wide, “They’re not here for me… if they were I would’ve solved this already… they’re here for you, son… and you have to leave now, before they find you… they’re not clever enough to look in the vents first, before looking in your room and basically everywhere in the house, so you’ll have at least an hour or two to escape, and I’ll buy you some more time.” She tugged at her hair before brushing it back and looking frantically around for something I wished I could help her find. “Here…” her eyes lit up and she grabbed a black backpack of some kind and handed it to me, “You have food and water and things you’ll need, and also a disguise…” then she seemed to remember something and cursed under her breath, “Sorry, I forgot to pack the disguise… I’m an idiot…” she rubbed her temples, trying to think of something. That’s when we heard footsteps, “Parker… honey… I called you!!”  my fake mom was calling from downstairs as horror threw up on my real mom’s expression, “Hurry up… forget the costume, and go…” she turned to leave but then looked at me one more time before rushing over and kissing my forehead, “I love you, ok? But you have to remember to be brave and to not go near anyone from the government… they chose you, Parker…” and she let a tear out as she closed the vent, leaving me speechless as the left the room to her certain death. “I love you too mommy…” and I started crawling away from danger, probably getting myself into more of it as I let a couple of tears escape, remembering the seconds I thought I was back home. And that’s when it hit me. My phone… I left it open… SHIT… that meant… that meant they were going to find out about Val and Nicole… or any of my other friends like Cameron and Matthew… Shit… I decided the best to do was crawl to my room vent and grab my phone rather quickly. I nodded at my own idea and crawled swiftly but soundless, looking throw every vent before proceeding to move. I’m almost there; I already passed the kitchen and the games room. I saw another opening. “What?” I asked myself, confused. That’s when I realized I was in my sister’s room, and she was playing with the Barbie dolls when someone came in, two men, and I tensed up, clenched fists on my sides. “If you hurt her…” I whispered so softly I doubted I even heard myself say it. “Hello, princess…” a man said to my sister, who had stopped playing and was now looking at him with wondering eyes, “Do you know where your big brother is?” she was three, and I was scared they would trick her into saying where I was—if she even knew—but I was even more scared that she would tell them she didn’t know and they would hurt her… I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed she would come up with something, act innocent even though she already was, or tell them where I am, if it comes to that… I didn’t care as long as she was safe, “I don’t know… in his room? Where’s mommy? Mommy knows…” No…no, no, no, no… my eyes widened when I saw the man nod towards the other, and then they took my sister, who started to tear up, “Where are you taking me?” she asked through tears that had formed on her shiny eyes, “With your mommy… we need to ask her some questions… now shut up and stop crying…” the man holding her said, and they left the room, leaving me with my eyes glossy and my heart pounding out of my chest. I kept crawling, hoping to make it in time to wherever I was going. I guess I’d just see where I ended up…

Minutes had passed since I saw them take my sister away, and the emptiness and anger in my heart were preventing me from thinking straight. But then I heard a scream. “Please!! No!!!” and a gunshot. I bit my tongue to stop myself from crying, and when I noticed it didn’t seem to be working I bit harder on the side of my cheek. I decided to man up and keep crawling faster until I found out where the scream came from. Obvious enough, it was from my room. And as soon as I saw it my face turned red, and I looked at the scene before my eyes. My mother was lying on the floor with blood all over her and my sister was beside her, not a single hint of blood on her. Was she dead? A man interrupted my thoughts… “Hey man… look, check this out…” he was talking to another guy who seemed to be inspecting his gun, “Yea?” the dude said, way too calm. Something about him made me want to punch him even harder than I already wanted to punch him, which was pretty hard. I stared with gritted teeth as one of them took my phone and started looking through it, “These kids… they should be in, too…” a man said, chuckling, “let’s take it to the boss…” the other agreed and I cursed at myself for not getting my phone in time. “Want to finish the girl up? Or leave her beat up like this?” a man asked and I tensed up, not being able to breath. I had caused my friends to be in danger, my mom to die, my sister to get beat up, and in return of what? My life? I couldn’t help it, I started sobbing silently, hoping the men wouldn’t hear me. “Eh, leave her…we couldn’t find the brat… we can’t go back to boss without the damn kid, man…” one of them said. “Well… I don’t know…” was the other’s reply. I was shaking violently, they simply acted as if it wasn’t a big deal… they didn’t care they just killed my mother and beat up my sister…they were monsters. “I suggest we just go look around the house one more time…” the one without the gun said, “I need to get more bullets in this crappy thing… let me go get’em…” and with that, he left the other one in the room, pacing back and forth. I waited until I heard the click of the wooden front door and rubbed my eyes, you have to do this… I said to myself, squeezing my eyes shut and opening them again. “Ok…” I simply whispered. I was going to do it. So I opened the vent silently, waited until he looked the other way, and jumped.

  ** VAL’S POV **

“Oh my god!” I screamed, looking away from the screen, my hands covering my horrified face. I looked at Cameron for some sort of reassurance, but he just looked at the screen with wide eyes as the man beat up Parker and he just stood there, on the ground, his face bloody, smiling.

  ** CAMERON’S POV **

Val was looking at me; I could feel the burn of her terrified look sinking into me. But I didn’t have the courage to look back at her. I knew she would be waiting for reassurance but I had none. I was just as surprised and disgusted and horrified and worried as she was. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find it in me to look at her, I was too—scared. Not scared of her, but scared of what she would see in my eyes when she looked in them. It would be fear. Not fear for Parker, not fear for the person to Parker’s right, but fear because I knew I would be facing my biggest one right in front of her eyes and would most likely fail. Fear because one of us had to die. Me, for not trying, or her, if I tried and failed. I knew what I was going to do, I was going to fail, fail for her… but I was still scared I accidentally tried. I was scared I would let my pride get the best of me and force me to try. I knew there were three ways this could end. I tried and failed, making her die; I tried and won, saving both of us; or I didn’t bother to try, killing myself. The bad part is I couldn’t even try unless I knew I was going to get through it, something we all knew wasn’t going to happen. What then? I was too busy thinking about my future I hadn’t noticed Parker had finished. He looked awful. He was sweating and his eyes were wide in fear as the truth kicked in.

 He had tried.

He had failed.

Sorry for the typos I didn't edit because I felt like I needed to update NOW or NEVER ya know... yep anyway I'm sad because ppl seemed to stop reading after chapter 25? :( It will get better I promise and thanks for all of you who read I'm fangirling over you guys (don't tell me that doesn'y make sense OKAY? Okay. (fangirl moment)) thanks again and LOVE ALL OF YOU NO MATTER HOW STALKERISH AND CREEPY THAT SOUNDS!!! Hehe...