5

421 20 6

by smidgen_

by smidgen_

Song I listened to while writing this chapter: Say Something: A Great Big World and Cristina Aguilera

+EDITED+

Aleks

I yell out in pain as a natural reaction to having a burning substance sprayed into your eyes and immediately pinpoint it as pepper spray. At first I begin thinking that the girl in front of me actually wasn't Teagan at all and was just a random girl whose face I just tried to touch, but her shaky voice was enough confirmation that she was in fact the one we've been searching for.

"Stay away from me," she says with a trembling voice. She takes several slow steps away from me, still holding the spray in front of her.

My heart drops into my stomach. "What?"

Her eyes dart from side to side before landing on me again. "You know very well why."

My eyebrows furrow and I step toward her, hand stretched out to grab her wrist. This turned out to be a wrong move on my part because as soon as my fingers grazed her hand she burst into tears and jerks her hand away. A pang jolts in my chest as I pull back my arm from her sobbing body. She then raises her head and looks me straight in the eyes, tears streaking her cheeks. Her eyebrows furrow almost as if she was confused as to why I backed away. Something obviously wasn't right. They had to have done something to make her act this way, but I had no idea how to figure out what had happened without her bursting into hysterics again.

Teagan's eyes widen as if she'd just remembered something. Her hands clamp over her ears and she drops the pepper spray on her descent to the ground. Soft cries leave her mouth as she rocks back and forth on her knees. All I wanted to do was to sit down next to her and tell her everything would be alright, that I'd take her back to the Creature House and we'd take care of everything. But I couldn't. At least not with her possibly carrying more weapons other than the pepper spray with her. I hated thinking of her as someone who could seriously injure me, but it was necessary. I cautiously approach her shaking figure and lightly pull her to her feet. She cries even louder and begins struggling against me, eventually giving up when she realizes that I'm not letting go.

"Teagan, please stand still," I whisper into her ear. She stops thrashing around but her shoulders are still shaking from the sobs that continue to enter the air. I begin patting her down to make sure she had no other weapons and to confiscate them if she did.

My actions reveal a handgun tucked in her boots, which I stuff into my hoodie pocket after unloading it, and I then pick up the can of pepper spray and safely secure it inside of one of my jean's front pockets.

Teagan reluctantly follows me to my now even more beat up car. I only keep one hand on her arm to guide her, not wanting to frighten her even more. She slides into the backseat, scooting to the opposite side of the driver's seat and pulling her knees up to her chest. I stare at her with hurt surely filling my eyes. I was probably freaking her out with the staring but I couldn't stop. The first thing we needed to do was get those contacts out of her eyes. I couldn't bear looking at her and not seeing the same bright blue eyes I'd gotten so used to during her time at the Creature House. I clear my throat and avert my eyes to the ground before shutting the door and getting into the driver's seat.

The ride back top the house is eerily silent save for the small whimpers Teagan emits every so often. Eventually, when we're only a few minutes from the house, I softly say, "you don't have to be afraid." This statement seems to suppress her crying as she suddenly becomes silent.

I pull up to the gates, enter in the code- which was still 'honeycomb' because Zander still forgets it and we kept it to piss her off- and I roll up in front of the house. The sky is already a deep blue, not exactly black which meant I could still see without a flashlight, but just a really deep blue. Wow, Aleks, you're so good at describing things.

Jordan is standing on the front steps with a relieved expression on his face. I exit the car after removing the keys and hold up my index finger, signalling for him not to start yelling at me yet. I pull oprn the back door closest to Teagan and crouch down so I'm eye-level with her. I hold out my hand for her to grab, which she eyes before pushing it away and stepping outside herself. I look over at Jordan, who now has a shocked expression on his face.

Teagan stands stick-still beside me with her hands intertwined in front of her. I place my hand in the middle of her back and lead her to Jordan. He steps out of the way so we can go inside. Teagan's still shaking and one quick glance at her face tells me that she's also silently crying.

"Take her to her room. I'll get Monica down in a minute." Jordan says as he passes me on his way up the stairs. Teagan allows me to lead her about halfway down the hallway her room is located in before she jerks back her elbow and jabs my abdomen, knocking all the breath from my lungs. She then bolts away from me and stands at the end of the hall. At the exact moment she bolts down the hallway, Monica appears with Jordan standing beside her.

"Monica, do you have any anesthesia?" I lowly ask her, keeping my eyes on Teagan the whole time.

Monica nods and skitters back up the stairs only to return a minute later holding a needle syringe filled with a clear liquid. When Teagan sees the needle she goes completely ballistic. I'm not talking about the way a young child might cry when they're at the doctor's office getting a flu shot. No, I mean she started bawling and uttering inhuman sounds as she backed herself flat against the wall. She grasped her head once again and lets out a scream that gives me chills. "Do you want to?" Monica asks me with a small voice.

I quickly shake my head, recalling how Teagan acted when I just tried to touch her arm. Imagine what she'd do if I came at her with a needle that she was already freaked out about.

Monica slowly approaches Teagan and begins muttering words to her that seem to slightly calm her down. Or at least she's stopped screaming. By now the noise has attracted an audience behind us. Basically every person in the house was now behind us muttering things like "Is that her?" and "Oh my god, what happened?" I lean close to Jordan and quietly say, "She looks so normal on the outside, but on the inside she's like a broken toy." I shake my head, "I just don't understand it."

Jordan nods, "Me neither, Aleks."

I see the needle enter Teagan's arm and after a few more protests leave her mouth, her head falls back against the wall and she's silent.

So much had happened tonight that I hadn't had time to fully think about what was going on. Images of Teagan screeching at my touch, her thrashing against the wall like a wild animal, and her crying because she was afraid of me filled my mind. My stomach began churning and I lean against Jordan for support. He firmly grasps my shoulder to keep me upright as my vision begins to blur and my legs become jello. My body lurches forward, away from Jordan and the others, and my stomach empties itself of everything in it. Someone calls my name, but my head's spinning so much that I don't even dare to turn my head to see who it was. Just as someone kneels down next to my sprawled out body, I groan and then black out, causing my head to loll to the side.

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A.N

Hola mi amigos! I didn't update when i said I would over break.... woopsy.But my mom let me stay home today bc both of our alarms went off late so she was like "screw it, do you wanna stay home or nah?" and 1 mug of coffee, 1 pancake, and 1 weird-ass smoothie I made later, chapter 5 was born.

Have a faboolus day, pineapple family!