War of Peace

Chapter Three

Madison

I wake up to complete silence. Everyone is still asleep. I look up at the trees and see Simon, Silas, and Ethan. There's no sign of Kyle and Gianna. I walk around calling their names. It's useless. I realize I've woken everyone up.

"Where's Kyle?" Simon inquires.

"I don't know. I can't find him nor Gianna anywhere."

"Maybe they just left for a walk. Hopefully they'll be back soon," Ethan suggests while pushing his spectacles into place.

I pace the dirt floor, or they're already in the lab. My mind wanders back to my sister, who could also be in a hospital room being tested on like a rat.

Silence lingers and I can feel the nervous tension. I can see everyone better now that it's light out. Ethan is wearing a traditional navy blue suit with a white dress shirt and navy tie. His skin is a rich black. His sweat glimmers across his face. He tries to brush off dirt from his suit but shortly gives up. He adjusts his glasses for the third time this morning.

Simon is wearing a light gray colored suit, something I don't see as often. Although now you could say it's patterned with blotches of dirt. He has bright blonde hair and an icy gray color for eyes. He catches me looking at him, and he gives me a lofty smirk. I roll my eyes and look away.

That's when I see him. I finally get to see him in daylight. He looks even better than he did last night. Despite his wrinkled, dirty suit and messy hair, he still looks exceptionally attractive. He has a few faded freckles perfectly splattered across his cheeks like a watercolor painting. The electric blue color in his eyes makes me tremble with excitement when I see them looking right back at me. Wait, he's looking at me! I turn away and smile back at Simon awkwardly, although it's already a bit too late for that.

I look up and there's not a single cloud in sight. The sun is shining bright but it's still cold and November is approaching fast. The leaves are already turning into pretty auburn colors.

It's the 23rd of October today. I wonder if there will be a point where I will forget what day it is. Hopefully this will all end soon and we can go back to our normal lives. Only, my normal life includes an angry drunk mother. I don't even know who my father is and if I ever find out, I'm moving in with him. Well, if he's an alcoholic, too, maybe not.

I need to clear my head. A walk sounds nice. Maybe I'll find Kyle and Gianna while I'm gone.

"I need to clear my head," I announce. "I'm going for a short walk."

After saying that, it becomes clear to me how much I just want to be alone right now.

"Just be careful," Ethan says, his eyes following me as I begin walking away.

I walk away, thinking about Silas. I slap the side of my face. I need to get him out of my head. I snap into reality and below me is a piece of notebook paper folded up, partly covered in leaves. I wonder what it's doing there and how long it's been there for. Maybe someone accidentally dropped it. I probably shouldn't open it since it's not mine, but my mind craves to find out what's written on it. It's probably just a blank piece of paper that blew into the forest from someone's trash. Even still, I want to know, so I look around to see if anyone is nearby. I don't even hear a rustle of leaves. Just the wind that whirls around me and the chirping birds. Curiously, I pick it up and brush off the dirt and leaves.

Maddie,

Before I even continue reading, I'm shocked that my name is written neatly across the top of the page. How could they know my name and know I was going to pick it up? Maybe Kyle and Gianna are playing a trick on me and that's why they weren't there when I woke up this morning. Surely in the next minute or so they will both jump out from behind a tree and laugh at me. I continue reading, needing to know what it says.