--Six time award winning novel by June D. Silver-
"Hidden truths are unspoken lies"
As a straight A student, Finnley never got himself into trouble. He goes to school, runs track, hangs out with his two best friends Cristian and Emma and studies; a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
- Friday, April 29th, 2016 -
– 3 months after the disappearance –
It's all one big blur after I threw up, took painkillers and fell asleep in the backseat of his car. I remember him cursing over it. Over the fact he didn't notice I still didn't fully recover, blaming himself for dragging me all the way out here. I wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, but I couldn't get the words out. I think he gave me a little more than I'm supposed to take, but he was panicking and I wasn't clear-minded enough to notice the fact he gave me three instead of two painkillers. I took three once before, somewhere in the first week after Jaimie beat me up, and I had been in a weird state for hours, like I was high out of my mind. Somewhat similar to the time I smoked a spliff with Stan, that night we had sex for the first time. The bad feeling of not being able to even lift a finger, let alone move on my own.
I don't think he took me home straight away. Because I remember a very vague moment of laying in the car, engine still running, but no Stan behind the wheel. The door to the driver's seat was open and I vaguely recall hearing him argue with someone that sounded a little like Nathan.
But I figured my mind was playing tricks with me. Because I didn't recognize the place we were at, the buildings I could see had been moving around a little and rays of light blended it with one another, dancing like the wind. I was hallucinating again, but since the pain was gone and I only felt sleepy, I didn't mind.
I fell back asleep, probably with a grin on my face because of the beautiful colours I was watching.
It's a weird dream, because I felt like I was flying, before it turned into a bit of a nightmare. Finnley was a couple of meters away from me, calling out for help while someone was dragging him away from me, while I was in between Nathan and Stan, both pulling on one of my arms, telling me not to listen to the other and come with them.
Stan got pissed because I was letting Nathan touch my arm and I was shouting at them to let me go because I needed to help Finnley. Little to no avail, because soon Finnley disappeared into thin air and I was back in a car that was driving, while the backseat was a little less comfortable than it was before. It felt a bit like I was on a boat out on the ocean, gently swaying to and fro.
At that moment, I wasn't even aware if I was awake or asleep, but somewhere along the ride, I must have actually fallen asleep because the first thing I remember, that didn't feel like I was hallucinating, was Nathan waking me up.
That's where I got confused. I don't remember a lot from the night, and even less about the ride back to our town.
Why is Nathan waking me up? Where is Stan?
"Cris, we're home." He gently pushes my shoulder, leaning over me while I'm in the backseat of what I guess is his car. "Wake up."
I'm to dazed to do much, but I want to bolt out of the car and run as far away from him as possible.
