Caged In

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

            Alyce walked back into the attic, drying her hair off with a towel from just getting out of the shower. She sat down on the mattress next to Cam, who was working on Geometry homework. “Impressive”, she said. "Already on problem 5. You must have checked Facebook only what, 7 times?”

            “Shut up”, he said, smiling. He closed his very battered Geometry book and looked up at her. He was getting ready to say something when Alyce spoke up.

            “So I was thinking, not that you care, that I should dye my hair sometime. I don’t know when I would though. But I really don’t like this black hair anymore. Maybe I could replace it with something not so…dark.”

            “Wow. That sounds entirely unlike you”, he replied. He knew that she used to like dark clothing and everything, but she was different now. She liked colors. Bright colors.

            “Hey, a girl can change, can’t she?” Alyce took the towel out of her hair and placed it on the floor next to her feet.

            “I guess she can.” He went back to his Geometry book.

            Alyce stared around the room in silence. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of Cam’s pencil, scratching down answers like a frantic mouse running away from a cat. Alyce could tell he was either nervous about something or he wanted to get Geometry over with. Or both.

            All of a sudden, Cam looked up at Alyce and closed his book once again. “I feel like I need to tell you something.”

            The tone of worry in his voice scared her. “What is it?” Her stomach dropped. What if he wanted her to leave?

            “Well, maybe it’s better demonstrated.”

            “What do you mean by tha-” Alyce’s sentence was cut off by Cameron’s lips colliding with hers. Alyce pulled away as quick as she could. “What was that?! Don’t you think you could have given me a warning?”

            “I just thought-” he stammered in defense.

            “No. You thought wrong. I don’t have feelings for you that way. I have them for someone…else.” Alyce was going to continue when she was interrupted by a knocking sound. She turned her entire body around to see none other than Blake, leaning against the door frame. “Blake!” she exclaimed, dashing towards him and suffocating him with a hug. She let go and looked up at him. “What are you doing here?”

            “Well, I originally came to find you. I saw your name written in the sand. Not many people are named Alyce with a y. And it was Cam’s handwriting. So, I tracked you down only to find you and my brother-”

            “About that”, Alyce said, interrupting only because she didn’t want to hear the word come out of his mouth. “Um…”

            “Yeah, I’m sorry about that Alyce. Honestly. I assumed and I shouldn’t have. I messed everything up.” Cam’s eyes darted from Alyce to Blake.

            “Eh, you always mess everything up”, Blake said.

            “Harsh…but true.”

 “So…” he said, looking at Alyce, “my personal mission was to save you. Now what?”

            “I don’t know. My plan was to stay here before you showed up.” Alyce wondered in the back of her mind if Blake was still mad at her. He didn’t seem like it, which was a huge relief. He just acted kind of creeped out by what he had witnessed. To be honest, Alyce couldn’t blame him. She was still shaking a little from the experience. Nothing like that had ever happened to her in her entire life.

            “Yeah. Anyways,” he said, looking up at Cam, “mind if Alyce and I could talk…alone?”

            “Sure. No problem”, he said, edging out of the room.

            “So…”,Alyce said, scooting away. “How’s everything at the creep hut?” She tugged at her new shirt. Just one of the many things she did when she was nervous or even wondering how the heck she was supposed to feel.

            “Things around there were tense without you.”

            “How in the world did you escape?”

            “I snuck out the back when he was making us do yard work. He turned away for a little bit and I took the opportunity. I feel bad though because I just left Slate and Skye in the dust.”

            Alyce laughed. “Now you know how I felt. Except I left you too.”

            “Yeah.”

            “Oh. And what about the old guy? Has he been acting weird?”

            “Um…yeah. I don’t know how I should tell you this.”

            Alyce was panic stricken. She never liked when people told her stuff like that. It was just a huge build up to everything crashing and burning. It had just happened not even five minutes ago with Cam. She swallowed, trying to collect her thoughts. “Just tell me.”

            Blake paused for a while, which, Alyce learned, never was a good thing. He didn’t look happy at all to tell her, but Alyce knew that he had to. “The guy said…he said that Tessa was dead.”

            Alyce felt like dying right there. Her body felt like it would shut down. What was happening to her? The world faded to black as she hit the floor.