A Perfect World

Chapter 13

“Visiting Hours end in a half hour.” A nurse says, peeking into my room.

“Thank you. We’ll be out of here by then.” Emma says politely.

The nurse nods and vanishes.

“I want out of here. Tonight.” I say once I’m sure she’s gone.

“I can get you out of here easily if you want me to,” Lewis says, leaning against the wall near Emory.

“No offense, dude, but none of us know you well enough to trust you with that,” Jack says, running his fingers through his hair.

“None taken,” Lewis says, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes.

“Let’s use Ayda’s plan,” Matt suggests.

“Fine. Be careful though.” Jack says, defeated. We’d been talking for hours about how to get me out of here, and any time someone suggested it Jack would get irritated, insisting that we needed to come up with a backup plan.

“I’ll go get dressed then,” I say, jumping up out of my bed and grabbing my bag from the chair before anyone could object. I change out of the rough hospital gown, and into my black leather leggings, blue shirt, icy colored leather jacket, a pair of socks, and tan ankle boots, and rush back into the room where my friends are waiting. Claire insists upon redoing my hair, so I humor her, allowing her to re-do my braids.

“We’ll go get the cars,” Emory says, her little brother and best friend following her.

“You guys got new cars already?” I ask, surprised by how quickly they had gotten ahold of them.

“It wasn’t entirely legal, but yes, we got new ones,” Claire says casually, braiding my hair firmly against my scalp.

“You’ve got to stop doing stuff like that, Claire,” I say with a slight grin.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” She replies, finishing the last braid, and combining them into one thicker one.

A phone buzzes and Matt pulls his out of his pocket.

“Let’s go. They’re ready.” He says, tucking it back into his jeans’ pocket.

“Alright! I’m ready to be out of here,” I say loudly and excitedly, “Let’s go.”

We collect our belongings and file out the door. They surround me, shielding me from the view of cameras and anyone else that may recognize me. We get out with minimal difficulty, only one doctor asking us where we were headed. Once into the parking lot, we spread out a little bit more, and I’m grateful for it. It was quite warm, surrounded by 7 people. The air is cool, and refreshing after being in that hospital for so long, even if I was unconscious most of the time. We meet up with two vans, one a soft, silvery-blue color, and the other pale lavender. The front windows roll down, to reveal Emma in the front seat of the purple one, with Jake in shotgun, and Emory at the wheel of the blue one.

“I call shotgun!” I say loudly, running to the passenger side of Emory’s car and jumping in, despite Matt’s protests and complains about how I had gotten it last time.

“Yeah, yeah. Quit your whining, I’ve been in a coma for a month, I get shotgun.” I say, buckling the seatbelt and kicking my feet up onto the dash.

“Ready to go, Hunter?” Emory says with an impressed smile. Hunter was a nickname Emory had given me while she was dating Matt. She used to go hunting with her dad, and she liked to take me with her. I picked up a bow and she taught me the basics, and I got exponentially better from there, earning me the affectionate nickname ‘Hunter’.

“I was born ready, Moore.” Moore is a nickname I had come up with for her, and though it hasn’t been used much, it is used more than often enough.

“Of course you are, little tigress.” She says, ruffling my hair.

“Hey! I’m not little!” I say loudly, desperately combing my hair flat with my fingers.

“Yeah. You are.” She says teasingly.

“Deal with it, Ayda,” Matt says, closing the back door on the driver’s side.

“What’s going on?” Jack asks, finally jumping into the car and closing the door.

“Ree said Ayda is small, and Adya insists she isn’t.”

“Sorry to break it to you, little sis. You’re small.”

“Fine…” I say, pretending to be annoyed and staring out the window. For the next half hour or so we drive through patches of well-populated land and stretches of seemingly uninhabited territory. I fall asleep for a  few minutes at a time, getting jerked awake when we hit a bump and I smack my head against the window. When we finally get to our destination Emory has to shake me awake.

“Come on, Ayda. Let’s go.”

“Mmh… Fine…” I reply, still half asleep as I unbuckle my seatbelt and walk inside with Emory, pulling my bag over my shoulder as we near the house, the one I quickly recognize as mine. I assume the others are already in the house since I didn’t see them anywhere outside. I hear something break inside, which jerks me awake. I dig my knife out from its snug pocket and set my bag down on the ground, flicking my knife open and proceeding cautiously inside. I hear something else shatter from my parents’ bedroom and rush down the hall, peaking carefully around the corner. Claire was standing by the bed, surrounded by shards of glass. There’s glass on the floor by the wall as well, and there are tears of anger streaming down her face. I fold my knife up and tuck it into my pocket, hurrying over to her.

“Claire! Are you okay?” I ask, studying her for injuries.

“No! I’m not, Aydin! Do I look okay?” She shouts, her body shaking. She sits back on the bed and sobs into her hands. I sit next to her and hug her tightly, not asking for any further explanation.

“Mom and Dad are gone, Ayda,” Matt says, clearly doing his best to hold himself together.

“I can bring them back if you’d like,” Lewis says from the corner, a sly grin on his face as he spins a knife around between his fingers, his eyes glittering with satisfaction.

“Lewis. I know you don’t really care. What do you want.” I say, demanding to have an answer.

“Take it easy, Aydin. I’ll give you an answer soon enough,” He says calmly, stepping away from the wall, the knife vanishing as he tosses it at the wall, “First. Do you want me to bring them back?”

“No,” I say instantly, “Their time came, and so did mine. If anything, I want you to take me back.”

“Ah, I can’t do that, sorry honey.” He says with a grin that says the exact opposite, “You get to stay here, so I can gain enough strength to execute my plan. Now, I’ve got to go. Bye!” Then he vanishes.

“That little-” Jack starts.

“Jack! Language!” Matt says loudly, clearly aware of what Jack was going to say next.

“We need to find him. Soon.” I say, standing up and pulling my knife out of my pocket, opening and closing it as I spin it around on my knuckles, thoughts of how to deal with Lewis swirling around inside my skull.