The Contractors

Chapter 3- Nightmares & Hawaii

Kelsie's POV

"Wake up Kelsie!" a voice shouted in my ear. "Wake up already. Come ooon!!!" I opened one eye and glanced at my clock.

"It's not even eight yet. Why are you waking me up?"

"We need to get our chores done early because your gonna go explore the woods with me today. And we're all going out later this afternoon since it's a special day."

I bit my lip. "What's special about today?" Lucas's face fell. "You forgot?"

"Of course not silly," I laughed. "How could I possibly forget your birthday?" Sitting up I pointed across my room, "Go look in my top left desk drawer. There's something there for you."

He eyed me suspiciously, hesitating to move. Can't blame him for not trusting me. Last year I told him the same thing, only it was the bottom left door. As soon as he opened it he was surprised all right- by a face full of whipped cream. I remember rolling on the floor, howling in laughter. It was my revenge for him putting purple dye in shampoo. My hair hair was purple for three weeks. I spoke up, "Don't worry. This time there's no prank." Walking over to the drawer he cautiously grabbed the handle before jumping back and pulling it open. He looked genuinely surprised when nothing happened, and I couldn't help but snicker. I would get him later, when he wasn't expecting it. We always pranked each other on our birthdays. Heck, we even teamed up to pull pranks on our parents. Once we got our dad to help us with a prank, and mom went ballistic. Our dad slept on the couch for nearly a month, but it was sooo worth it. And what made it more hilarious was our dad thought it was worth it too.

Lucas grabbed the small wrapped box in the door. "Can I open it?" I nodded. When he saw what was inside his face lit up like a christmas tree. "You got me an autographed baseball card!?" he shrieked. "Your the best sister ever!" After hugging him I said, "Alright, let me get ready then we can do our chores and celebrate your birthday all day." Glancing out the window I noticed the sky getting dark.

"It's too bad we can't go." I looked back at Lucas, his face now dull and devoid of emotion.

"Wait what? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You know," his monotone voice replied. "I'm dead. How could you forget that? It happened right in front of your eyes. You left us behind. Abandoned us"

"No. No I only did what dad told me to do. I didn't mean to abandon you." I whispered. My heart felt frozen in my chest as I stared at his lifeless eyes. My brothers eyes. He opened his mouth again but it wasn't his voice that came out. "Wake up Kelsie." It was something dark, angry, demonic even.

"Wake up Kelsie." A pair of hands shook my shoulders. I sat up breathing heavily, my chest constricted.

"You okay Kelsie?" Mia looked at me with concern written on her face.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." I replied, glancing around, remembering where I was. It was just a dream.

"Okaay. Well we're almost to our destination. The pilot said we got about fifteen minutes left before we land."

"Thanks."

"No problem." Mia got up and went back to her brothers. I swiped my hand down my face. I haven't had that dream in a while. While I know technically it wasn't my fault my family died, I can't help but wonder if I made the wrong choice. Wonder if I had stayed to help then maybe we all might have gotten away alive. Of course the opposite could have been true as well. Staying could have meant I died with them. But at least I wouldn't be all alone. I miss them. I miss them so very much. It's painful. When I closed my eyes again, an image of the white tiger appeared, making me think back to when I was in the forest yesterday. For some reason I felt like I'd seen that tiger before. I couldn't explain why though. There was something odd but I can't put my finger on it.

Once the plane landed, we grabbed our bags and practically ran down the steps. It felt good to be able to stretch. At a quick glance I could see three helicopters nearby on another runway and the old control tower. But there was nothing else, no cars and no people. How odd. I would have thought there'd be someone here to greet us. Oh wait, never mind. The door to the control tower opened and three men came walking towards us. Well, past us actually. They went straight to the pilots of our plane. After talking with them for a minute, the three men headed for the helicopters. One of them stopped, looked at us and said "Follow us. We'll be taking you to your next destination. And keep your mouths shut. We don't like noisy people." Muttering under his breath he added, "Or kids."

I grimaced. Well this should be fun. One hour later and we're completely surrounded by water with no land in sight. This is beyond boring. When we tried to have a conversation earlier, the pilot shushed us. A dot appeared on the horizon against the water in the direction we're headed. As we got closer I realized it was a carrier ship. One by one the helicopters landed and we all got off, then walked over to the big, burly man on the deck wearing a military uniform. He waited until the helicopters took off before speaking.

"Come below deck and we'll get you guys situated. This will be your home for the next two days while we head to the islands of Hawaii." Opening the door he led us to a lower deck, stopping in front of a closed door. Mia was in front and he motioned for her to open the door so she did. The room was a little on the large side and had nine bunks along the walls.

"Welcome to your living quarters." We went inside picking which bunk to sleep in.

He continued, "You are not to wander on this ship. Meals will be brought to you and the bathrooms are to the left of this room. I would suggest sleeping as much as possible. Your gonna need it. And it may be the last time you get to sleep as long as you want in a long time." This was amusing him, the confused looks on our faces. It was irritating to see the smirk on his face.

"Well, I'll be on my way now. Have fun." he said walking out. We unanimously agreed to sleep the two days away. That man clearly knows something we don't, and if he says we're gonna need sleep then we'll sleep.

One of the boys spoke up. "This is ridiculous. Other than the location of where we're going we still don't know any more than we did back at home."

Mia looked around at all of us and smiled. "Look at the bright side, at least you can say you've been to Hawaii."