Burned Out [Completed]

The New Kid Deals With Me

I jolted awake, immediately trying to scramble away from Nick, only to smash my head against the wall behind my bed.

Wait, what? I remembered everything; running from Nick, the plot twist about my absent dad, and the pain I felt when Nick grabbed me, but I looked around and, sure enough, I was in my room.

I swung my legs out from the covers and onto the cold floor. Could it all have been a dream?

"No," I said to myself. "There is no way I made all of it up. Besides, my ankle is still jacked up!"

But already I could tell the pain wasn't nearly as bad as it was before, just a stiffness that was mildly uncomfortable. Still, I felt it as clearly as when I hit my head on the wall, so no chance of dreaming what had happened.

Having thoroughly convinced myself of my own sanity, I stepped outside my room. My mom was passed out on the couch again, a cigarette still exhaling a lazy plume of smoke from the cluttered ashtray. It was nice to know something was still normal.

Letting out a shaky breath, I leaned over and shook her shoulder. It was time for answers. She let out a tired groan and sat up rubbing her forehead. "Ugh, what time is it?"

"Mom, I need to ask you something." I said. She straightened a little and produced another cigarette from her pocket and raised it to her lips. "It's about Dad."

Her hand stopped. The cigarette wobbled a little between her fingers. The sleep vanished from her eyes as she stared at me, saying nothing.

Her reaction made me want to shout "April fools!" and forget I mentioned anything, but I pushed on. "Why did he leave us?"

"Why do you want to know?" She took a haughty puff from her smoke. "He left, that's all there is to it."

"Come on, Mom. I've never asked about him before." I pleaded. "Just tell me!"

She looked at me, her face full of determination and indecision at the same time.

"Please." I repeated.

Mom's hand dropped to her lap, the cigarette forgotten. "He...he did a lot of things that I don't understand, but he always said it was for our safety."

"What was he hiding? What was he trying to keep us safe from?"

When she looked up at me, something in her eyes melted. "I guess you deserve to know. Your father was an amazing man, don't ever doubt that. He always had his reasons. When I met him he was a professor at Winston College, upstate. He studied ancient cultures like the Greeks and Egyptians.

"After we got married I found out that he had been...working...with some very questionable people. Fanatics is what I called them. He told me they were dangerous and the less I knew about them and his work with them, the better. I was fine with that, I trusted him very much." Her eyes turned dark.

"But then we had you. You should've been his reason to leave those terrible people behind. Instead, he got dragged in even deeper. Whatever they were working on seemed to progress faster once you were born. Everything until that point had seemed theoretical, but there was something about you that they couldn't get enough of. Once your father realized that they wanted you, he seemed to wake up. He'd been going along with their crazy delusions until then, but when it got personal, he stepped out.

"I can still remember what he said to me. He burst through the door like a madman, telling me to pack anything I needed. 'We need to leave immediately,' he said. 'I'm so sorry I let it get this far. I never should have helped them.'"