Minds: Book One

Chapter Three

        That night I have a dream.
        I'm in a room that almost looks like a hospital but it certainly doesn't smell like one. It has a horrible smell. I sit up on a metal table and see a little girl sitting in a chair across the room. It is  Alice’s sister. I make a move to get down from the table but wires hold me in place. I look down at my arms and they were covered in deep cuts. I begin to say something to Alice’s sister but someone comes into the room and yanks her down to the ground by her curly blonde hair. The man kicks her in her side a few times before ripping her up by her hair. He drags her out of the room as she is screaming, “Isaac save my sister! Don’t let them get her again! PLEASE ISAAC PLEASE!” Then she is gone.

        I shoot up in bed drenched in sweat. I put my head between my knees. I look over at Alice who is still fast asleep. I lay back down this time facing her. She looks so beautiful even when she is sleeping. Some of her hair covers her face. I gently moved the hair from her face and she stirrs a little. After a while of just staring at her, I manage to fall back asleep.

        I woke up to Alice shaking me awake. Isaac we have to leave now! I sat up in bed and saw her throwing my stuff back into my bag and throwing some of her things into another bag. I began to ask what she was doing but she over to me and put her tiny cold hand over my mouth. I raise my eyebrows at her. You have to be quiet. They are close so we have to go now. Not later, now. I swallow the lump that appeared in my throat. I just nod my head and grab a change of clothes from my bag. I'm about to leave the room to change but Alice stops me. No time for modesty just change in here while I finish packing so we can leave. I raise my eyebrows at her and she rolls her eyes. Just do it, I won’t look. I quickly change and she finishes packing. She grabs my hand and pulls me down the stairs and we slip out the back door.
        We both run to the SUV quickly and quietly. Before we get into the SUV she pulls a gun out of the waist band of her jeans and slowly opens the door. She points the gun into the back, climbs over the front seats and points it in the very back then climbs back into the front seat motioning for me to get in. She starts the vehicle, backs out of the driveway quickly, and speeds away from the house.
        “How did you know that they were almost here?” She looks at me and shakes her head.
        “We will talk about that later,” she says in a tense voice. She talks to me again but this time in my head. There is another car waiting for us down the road I’m not going to stop this car so roll down your window and jump out of it when I say so. I look over at her with a shocked look on my face. She wants me to jump out of the window in a moving vehicle? Is she crazy? Just trust me on this I’m going to make it look like we crashed. I just want to make sure there isn’t a tracking device on this car. All I can do is nod in response. 
        I roll down my window at the same time she does. She speeds down the road and when she turns the corner I see the other car that is waiting for us. She doesn't slow down. She looks over at me. NOW! Just then I launch myself out of the window and land hard on the gravel and roll a few times. A second later I hear Alice hit the ground also, a little more gracefully than I did. I look down at my hands and knees, they're covered in blood. Alice sprints over to me and helps me up, pulling me towards the car. She basically throws me into the passenger seat. When she gets into the car she speeds away. After a couple minutes she finally slows down and takes a deep breath.
        “Are your hands and knees okay?” she asks me with a surprising steady voice. I look at my hands and knees which are still bleeding.
        “Yeah they just hurt.” She pulls over on the side of the road and turns on the light in the car to look at my hands and knees. She reaches over me and pulls a first aid kit out of the glove box.
        “This is going to hurt,” she says as she cleans my wounds. I bite down on the end of my shirt so I don't yell out. After she finishes cleaning my hands and knees she puts bandages on them and gives me a shy smile before throwing away the wipes. She drives away but not as fast this time.
        “Thank you,” I say to her after I let out a deep breath. She just nods her head.
        “Try to go back to sleep. It will be a while before we get to the next place.” I nod and after about ten minutes of trying I finally manage to fall back asleep.

        “Isaac wake up.” Alice’s voice was gentle and when I open my eyes her face was only inches away from mine. Her little hand was cold on the side of my face. She gently slaps my face.             “We are here come on.” She backs away from my face so I can sit up. When I look around all I see are houses. They are all in perfect shape unlike the last house that we stayed at. All of the houses have expensive cars in the drive-ways.
        “Where are we?” I get out of the car and look around.
        “Our next stop,” she said in a cold voice. I tried to read her mind but she just glared at me. I followed her up the drive-way to the front door. This time she didn’t knock, she just pulled out a key and unlocked the door. She looked back at me and walked in.
        She just stood in the living room not moving. There wasn’t anyone in the house. I looked at the pictures that hung on the walls. The first picture I saw was a young girl about six years old with straight blonde hair sitting on a woman’s lap. The next picture I saw was a school picture of the same girl just a couple years older. This time it was clear who was in the picture.
        It was Alice.
        “This was my old house that I lived in before, IT happened.” She was sitting on the couch now with her head between her knees. She was thinking about her sister on that metal table again, this time all of the color was drained from her face. I walked over and sat down in front of her on the coffee table.
        She looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “She was the last good thing I had in my life.” Her voice was shaky. I wiped a tear from her cheek. “They took my parents too.” She was thinking about the lady that was in the picture on a metal table with wires coming out of her head and arms and a man on another table next to her in the same condition.
        “ROIM is sick and twisted.” This time her voice was stern and strong. “And I won’t let them get you,” she added before wiping away more tears that had fallen down on her cheeks.