Flashback

Chapter 11 -Ashley-

-Ashley's POV-




I woke up a few hours ago, not knowing where I am or what I'm doing here. After I'm more conscious, I look around me and become aware that I'm in a hospital. When did I get here? I don't remember the last thing that happened to me. After looking around for a minute I find that button you press when you need the nurse. I try moving my hand to reach it but for some reason my hand is too heavy. When I try to move my other hand I realize that it's too numb and I can't even feel it. I have no idea what's going on.
"Hello! Is anyone here?" I ask when I finally find my voice. Nobody answers me. I try again and again but still nothing. I guess it's because of how weak my voice is. I look through the window of the hospital room and see a guy with red hair sleeping on a chair outside my room. The red hair is so familiar but I don't remember where I saw it. The boy slowly starts waking up. I try catching his attention but there is little I can do. He ends up looking my way and he immediately jumps to his feet when he sees I'm awake. He tells me with his hands to wait a little and then disappears. I wait for who knows how long and I start regretting trusting the guy. Where did he go and what's taking him so long? Who is he anyway? I try remembering where I saw him before and then it hits me. He's my cousin. What was his name again? Harry? Larry? Anyway he was the last person I saw before I fainted. Wait. Why did I faint? What happened to me? So many questions running through my head but I have nobody to answer them. My thoughts are interrupted when the boy returns with a nurse and another boy who looks really familiar.
"Welcome back to the world, Taylor! How are you feeling?" The nurse says when she enters the room. The only thing going through my mind now is who the hell is Taylor?
"Come on, Taylor! Answer her!" The red haired boy says. Larry! His name was Larry! But who's the other guy?
"It's okay; she might be a little confused. She received a very bad blow to the head and it might have done some damage to her memory." The nurse says when I only answer them with a moan of pain. Her words remind me of something. A plan! I was supposed to follow a plan. What was it again? I then remember someone beating me up till I couldn't move any more. I can't remember any faces but the last words that person said to me echo in my head.


"Now remember this Ashley! If you betray us, you just had a little taste of what I'm gonna do to you! Do you understand?"


Now I remember my name! It's Ashley! So why are these people calling me Taylor? I try telling them my name is not Taylor, but the stupid nurse interrupts before I talk.
"Do you feel any pain in your hand?" She asks after she inspects my right hand which was in a cast. Now I know why it was so heavy! I nod and she tells me she's going to give me some painkiller for that. She checks the readings of some devices, takes my temperature and blood pressure and whatever else she had to do and then leaves me with the two boys. Before she leaves, Larry stops her and asks about his uncle.
"He'll be here soon. He has some patients to look after and then he'll come." She answers him. After she leaves the two boys turn their eyes to me.
"Okay, can you please get over your confusion and start talking? Your silence is freaking me out!" The other boy says.
"Why don't you get over it and leave me to understand what's going on around me?" I say in a weak voice.
"Who are you anyway?" I add.
"You don't remember us?" Larry asks.
"No, I remember you! You're my cousin. Who is that guy?"
"This is Wren. He's our friend!" I still don't remember him but the name's familiar.
"Can someone please get Sara and Lucas?" I say. I really need my friends! They're the ones who are going to help me through this.
"Who are these people?" Larry asks.
"My friends!" I say.
"I thought your friends were Hannah and Avril!"
"Hannah and Avril?" What the hell is he talking about?
"That's it! I'm gonna get Uncle Aron!"
"Wait! The nurse said he had something to do! He'll come soon!"
"No he has to see her! I'm really worried!" Larry says and then leaves. Wren turns to me then and stares for a while. He sits next to my bed.
"Tell me more about those friends of yours!" He says.
"What do you want me to tell you?"
"How you guys met? Are they your classmates?"
"No. We're more like roommates. We all live together!" I say. He then looks to me like he knew something I didn't! When Larry returns with a doctor, Wren stands and rushes to them before they could enter the room. He talks to them and they all stare at him like he's insane. He then gets out his phone and they all listen to something. It's hard to hear what they're listening to through the glass window but the phone is tilted a little and I could see they're listening to a voice recording. I don't try to concentrate more because it's all giving me a headache. I stare at the ceiling and wait for them to finish. When they finally enter, Larry has a weird look on his face.
"Okay, Taylor. Tell me exactly the last thing you remember!" The doctor says. His nametag says his name is Dr. Summers. Summers! That's my last name! So this means he must be my uncle, the one Larry was talking about. I still don't know why they're calling me Taylor, but I decide to ignore it.
"I was beat up by someone. I don't remember anything else." I say.
"Do you remember his name or face? The place you were at when that happened?"
"The warehouse?" I honestly don't remember the place; I only said the first thing that came to my mind.
"Do you remember how you got to your house after that?"
"I went to my house after that?" I ask. "I thought they were keeping me at their house!"
"Who are they?"
"I don't know! I'm really confused!" I say. I don't know what I'm even talking about!
"Okay, I'll stop pressuring you with these questions. You'll remember eventually. You just need to rest a little and all this confusion will go away. Does your head hurt?" Uncle Aron asks.
"A lot! And I can't feel my left arm."
"That's okay. Take these pills; they'll help with your headache." He says and then takes my left hand. He moves it a little and tells me to try pushing his hand. He does some exercises and gradually the numb feeling goes away and I can finally move my fingers. But with that I start feeling a sharp pain in my shoulder. I ask about it and he says that my shoulder was dislocated and I had a surgery for it. I hadn't noticed the stiches or the bandage on my arm until now.
"Don't move it a lot. Take your medicines and you'll be fine. Now I have to go, but I'll be back later." Uncle Aron says and leaves us.




A few days pass. I'm now 'home' with my 'family'. I can't really call it home because I don't really remember the place. And it's too weird for me to call them my family. I hadn't been here or seen these people since I was seven! Uncle Aron was right, I remembered everything eventually. I was just confused. But I acted like I can't remember much and I think they believed me. It really helps when I get confused with my cousins names and I can't remember who is who. I just blame it on 'amnesia'. I'm in Taylor's room now and I'm lying on the bed. The rest of them are all downstairs. One of my younger cousins, Hayley I think, knocks on my door and I tell her to come in.
"Taylor, we're playing hide and seek and I was wondering if…"
"I can't really join Hayley. I'm too weak to move." I say.
"It's Jenna! And I wasn't gonna ask you to join, I was gonna ask if I could hide in your closet! I won't bother you much I promise." She says, her face getting red like she was too shy to ask me.
"Fine, you can stay here." I say.
"Thanks Taylor!" She says enthusiastically as she closes the door behind her and heads for the closet.
"You don't have to hide in the closet you know! They won't even think you're in here. Come sit with me. I'm really bored here!" I say. She smiles at me and I make room for her to join me on the bed. She talks to me about school and her friends and I listen to her. I've always loved little kids and she's just too adorable!
"Taylor! Can you draw me something?" She asks.
"Okay, why not? Get me a paper and a pencil." I tell her. She goes to the desk in the corner or the room and opens a drawer and gets the items I asked for. She then comes back to the bed and hands them to me. I'm a terrible artist and I know it, but I try anyway. She tells me to draw a jungle. Why? I don't know! I don't even know why she thought I was even capable of drawing that but I try my best. I draw some trees and try to make them as tall as I could so it will look like a jungle. I try drawing some jungle animals. What kinds of animals are in the jungle? I guess tigers? Some birds? Monkeys? I draw them all. The tigers don't look even close to cats and I can't seem to draw their faces right. The bird is a disaster and it looks like it has a wing instead of a beak so I decide one bird was enough and draw a snake instead. How hard can drawing a snake be, right? Turns out it's really hard! For some reason, I decided to draw it around a tree and that was a huge mistake! I just couldn't get it right. My last hope was the monkeys. But who am I kidding? They all look like they're seahorses hanging upside down from ropes in a big garden rather than a jungle! When I'm done with my masterpiece, I hand it over to Jenna and she stares at it for a while!
"What is that?" She asks pointing to the snake. "Is that a paper wrapped around the tree?"
"It was supposed to be a snake!"
"What happened to your drawing? You used to draw better than this!" She says.
"I guess it's because my hand hurts a little!" I say quickly!
"Probably! I hope you get better soon! That art competition aunt Rosie signed us up for is coming soon! You can't lose this year!" What? Art competition? I'm screwed! They're going to figure out I'm not Taylor!
"But I guess you need to rest so maybe she won't make you join this year." She says.
"Yeah, you're right! Speaking of rest! I'm starting to feel a little tired." I say faking a yawn.
"Okay, I'll leave you to rest a little. I think they stopped looking for me anyway. I'll head to my room. Thanks for letting me stay here!" She says as she opens the door and leaves the room, the sad excuse of a jungle in her hand, and then closes the door gently behind her.



A week later I recover completely and I'm now in good condition for interrogation. I say exactly what Jack and Jacob told me. Like they had predicted, they got a doctor to examine me and I recognized him as the doctor they bring when someone is injured in the gang and they don't want the police to investigate. He winks at me which was the sign that Jack told me about. I was allowed to have one person with me and I chose my aunt. I really didn't want to be alone in there and besides, I didn't want them to be suspicious. After the police couldn't prove anything on Mark, Jack and Jacob, they finally stop interrogating me. Uncle Michel was very disappointed when he couldn't put the gang leaders behind bars.


A month after all the drama ended and they were sure Jack wasn't following me; they started sending me to school once it started again. Taylor is supposed to be a senior this year but due to her missing a lot of work she's still a junior. I feel sad that she'll never graduate and I'm gonna be the one taking her place in graduation. I put on the fake glasses that Jack gave me, since Taylor used to wear glasses and I don't really need them, and get out of my room. I head downstairs for breakfast and find my cousins fighting over the Nutella jar like always! After Jason drives me to school, we enter together and all of Taylor's friends who visited me in the past few months greet me. I remember only a few of them but I greet them all back. When I head to my locker and open it I find a note inside the empty locker. Why would someone put a note in here? I open it and read.


"Don't forget our agreement! This Friday in our usual place! Try to find as much information as you could! J.S"


I feel relieved that it's from Jack. Jacob never signs his notes and this note means that Jacob is still out of town and I won't have to face him. Last time, I had trouble sneaking out of the house and I almost got caught so I went a little late and Jacob was furious. He punched me in the stomach and because of it; I hadn't eaten much during the weekend. I was almost sure that I would throw it all up. Anyway after school that day I head out and ride with Jason.
"Why do you look so sad?" He asks.
"I'm not sad."
"Yes you are! Look at the frown on your face!"
"I'm not frowning!" He looks at me and I stare at him.
"Okay fine! It's just that, school was really boring!" I say.
"And what were you expecting? It has always been this boring!" He says.
"Whatever." I was expecting a huge difference between this private school and my old public school, but the only thing that was different was the food. It's still bad but at least it's better than my old school!
When we finally reach home I head to my room and take a quick shower. After I'm done, Taylor's phone rings and I answer.

"Hello!" I say.
"Hi Tay! Are you home yet?" Avril asks in an overly enthusiastic tone.
"Yes! Everything okay?"
"Yeah! Everything's fine! Listen, I'm at Hannah's house now! I was thinking we could have a movie night? I know it's a school night and all but we both really miss hanging with you!" She says.
"Yeah I miss you guys too but there's a problem! I still don't remember the way to Hannah's house and there's nobody to drive me right now. Aunt Rosie is out, my uncles and their wives are still at work, Zack is in collage and Jason is sleeping." I say. 'I also don't want your company!' I say in my head. I really can't face these people. They are Taylor's best friends and they were really close to her, I don't know if I could keep pretending to be their best friend. I also feel guilty that I'm taking her place. She was obviously loved by a lot of people, and none of them know that she's dead. Nobody knows that the girl they see in front of them is her twin. They deserve to know. But if I tell them Jack and Jacob would kill me. Avril's overly cheery voice snaps me back to reality.
"What do you say?" She asks.
"About what?"
"Did you seriously zone out again?"
"Sorry!" I say.
"It's alright, I was telling you we could come over and watch the movie together! Just like old times! It'll be fun!" I don't have any excuse for that so I agree and prepare some popcorn and snacks.


"No! We're so not watching "The Amazing Spiderman" again!" Avril says.
"Yeah! We watched it over ten times!" Hannah adds.
"We did?" I ask. I haven't seen the movie at all, but apparently Taylor watched it.
"You don't remember?" Hannah asks and I curse. I don't want to guilt trip them into watching it with me!
"No I remember! I just never imagined we watched it that many times!" I say quickly.
"Oh yeah! Then what happened to Dr. Connors in the end?" Avril says.
"He became the lizard?" I try.
"He had been the lizard the entire movie! Oh my God! Are you seriously lying to us?"
"That's it! We're watching "The Amazing Spiderman"!" Hannah says, taking the CD out of my hands and inserting it into the DVD.
"Guys! It's fine! We can watch it any other time!" I try stopping Hannah but it's useless. I learned in the few months I spent with the girls that when Hannah wants to do something, nothing can stop her! So I give up, feeling guilty for doing this to them and I sit down next to them with my own bowl of popcorn trying enjoying the movie.


"Girls! It's time to go to bed! You don't wanna stay late like every time! I'm not gonna wake you up!" Aunt Rosie says as she passes my room. We had finished two movies and we were watching the third when suddenly Avril decided we need more popcorn.
"Don't worry about it Rosie! We'll go to bed after this movie." Hannah says.
"You say that every time!" Aunt Rosie says.
"This time we're telling the truth!" Avril says as she returns with our popcorn.
"You also say that all the time! Give me that!" Aunt Rosie says taking the popcorn out of Avril's hands and takes a handful of it.
"Please Aunt Rosie! Just this one movie! And, I promise we'll go to bed after!" I say. I was actually having fun with the girls. Taylor was lucky to have them as her friends.
"Okay fine! Just this one movie!" She says, handing Avril our popcorn and taking another handful of it then leaving us and closing the door gently behind her.
"Thanks, Aunt Rosie!" I say.
"I don't know how you did it! She actually listened to you!" Hannah says.
"I guess it's because you called her Aunt Rosie" Avril adds.
"I always call her Aunt Rosie! What's strange with that?" I say.
"Taylor! You never called her that! You always call her Rosie!"
"I do?" I curse silently. I hope they don't suspect anything. I never knew Taylor called her that! And nobody in the family pointed it out before! I need to be more careful! Anyway, I blame it on amnesia and we go on with the movie. Two movies later, I hear my alarm ringing and I couldn't believe we hadn't realized it was already sunrise!
"Okay, I can hear Rosie coming! Act alive!" Hannah says.
"I really can't! I'm too exhausted!" Avril replies.
"She's gonna kill us!"
"She can't kill someone who's already dead! Look at our faces! We look like zombies!"
"Girls! I hope you're awake!" My aunt says as she opens the door.
"What a surprise! You finally woke up to your alarm! Great! Get ready for school girls!" She adds and then leaves.






"Taylor Summers! Please report to the principal's office!" The secretary's overly annoying voice says through the speakers. Everyone in my class looks at me and I feel uncomfortable under their gazes. When I reach the principal's office I take a deep breath before knocking and entering.
"Taylor, your uncle is here to take you home; he said you have some emergency. He's waiting for you in his car outside." The principal says to me.
"Okay, thank you sir!" I say and then head to the parking lot.
"Hey Uncle Michel!" I say as I climb into the passenger seat. He doesn't answer me. He starts the car and drives away. He takes me through streets I've never seen before, not once looking my way or answering any of my questions. I try asking him where he's taking me but he doesn't say a word.
Finally he stops his car near what looks like a cemetery. He gets out of his car and motions for me to follow him. We walk through the endless rows of tombstones until we reach one that read 'Augustus Summers'. Wait! Is that my father?
"Do you know what today is?" He asks me. I shake my head not even knowing the date.
"This time, eleven years ago, your father and mother were being murdered by your other uncles. The ones we never seem to catch. This time, eleven years ago you, your parents and your sister were on your way to the airport and your uncles stopped your taxi and committed their horrible crime in front of the eyes of their two innocent nieces! I can't believe somebody would be this heartless! I know you remember it all! I know that deep down; you want to avenge your parents just as much as I want to avenge them! I want to put these criminals behind bars! So why aren't you helping me?"
"Uncle, what are you talking about?" I try faking ignorance.
"Don't do that! You're not gonna fool me!"
"I seriously don't know what you're talking about!"
"You do! Don't lie to me! I promise you I won't hurt you if you tell me the truth! I'll protect you! I won't let Jack or Mark get to you! Just tell me why you're doing this! Why are you helping them and not me?"
"Uncle Michel! I don't know where you got that from but that's not true!"
"You're not the Taylor I raised! I'm giving you one more chance to come clean and tell me everything!" Wait, does he know I'm not Taylor? I stay silent and stare at him not knowing what to say.
"Fine! Don't tell me, Ashley!"