The Purity Project

Chapter 6

Halona opened her eyes and blinked in the morning sunlight. She looked around and started to panic. Where was she? The events of last night slowly came back to her and she relaxed. She looked at the time. It was seven o'clock. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Lorenzo's bed was empty. She tied her hair up in a bun and put a pin through it. It was messy, but it would have to do. She slipped on her shoes and opened his window. She climbed down the tree and landed on the grass, her muscles aching from all the running last night. She glanced back up at Lorenzo's room and considered telling him that she was leaving.

"What do I care? I only met him yesterday," Halona said to herself. She walked to the main road and stopped to figure out where her house was from here. She crossed the street and put her hood on, walking briskly past dozens of houses.

Halona climbed up the tree and into her bedroom window. She rushed to her closet and put on her clothes. She had five minutes before her parents would walk into her room. She slipped on her jacket and opened her door. Halona found herself face to face with her very angry parents.

"Halona! Where have you been?" Mrs.Murray shouted.

"What do you mean?" Halona asked, trying to act innocent. It didn't work.

"Don't play dumb! We know you weren't in your room for the past couple hours," Mr. Murray snapped.

"I was at the park," Halona surprised herself with the lie. Then again, she had been lying her whole life about Braden. Thinking about her friend made her frown.

"What were you doing there?" Mrs. Murray asked, sounding concerned.

"I was sketching. I wanted to sketch the night sky," Halona replied, crossing her fingers behind her back and hoping they would believe her.

"We know that you love art, but it's no excuse for you to disappear in the middle of the night. The city isn't safe for a fifteen year old girl," Mr. Murray said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I know. I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Halona hugged her parents. She was lucky that they didn't know she was out before 5:00 a.m., when curfew ends. She felt guilty about tricking them, but she couldn't trust them with the truth. They would probably just ground her, and that wouldn't help Braden at all.

"We love you sweetie. Now get to school." Mrs. Murray kissed Halona on the forehead.

                                                                                          ...

Halona walked home from school alone, like she always did. She usually fantasized about art, but her mind was full of the memories of Braden being kidnapped, or whatever you would call it. She knew that the men weren't with the police because they would have announced it.

"Maybe they were federal agents," she muttered.

"Federal agents? I highly doubt it," a familiar voice came from behind her. Lorenzo.

"Lorenzo! What are you doing here?" Halona exclaimed.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay. You left my house without saying goodbye," Lorenzo said. He was frowning, and he looked genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine, okay! Now just leave me alone. I don't need your help." Halona started to walk faster, but Lorenzo caught up with her.

"Help? Help with what? Are you planning something?" Lorenzo looked at her skeptically.

"Ugh! What's it going to take for you to leave me alone?" Halona snapped. All her feelings of gratitude toward him melted away, and she wished that he would just disappear.

"Why do you hate me so much? I saved you last night!" Lorenzo shouted, his voice rising in anger.

"You followed me and spied on my friend and I. For all I know, you could have led those guys straight to us!" Halona said angrily.

"Oh, so now it's my fault? Maybe your friend shouldn't have been doing something illegal in the first place! If it's anyone's fault, it's his!" Lorenzo snapped.

 This made Halona's blood boil. "Shut up! I never asked for you to come barging into my life. You have a ton of friends at school, and you have so many siblings that love and care about you. So why do you need me?" Halona stopped walking and glared at him. She watched as a look of hurt flashed across his eyes.

"Is that what you think? That I have a perfect life? Well, I don't. My parents don't care about me. My siblings treat me like garbage. If I died, nobody would even notice!" Lorenzo looked down at his feet.

"Was that supposed to make me feel sorry for you? You're complaining because you don't get the attention you want! You're such a baby!" Halona replied with pure venom. She felt a pang of guilt, but she forced it away.

"Halona-"

"Go away! I don't want you here!" Halona started walking away.

"Halona! Would you shut up and look?" Lorenzo shouted. He pointed to the building on their right.

"What? That's just the sewage plant." Halona scanned the parking lot for something interesting.

"No, over there. Doesn't that car look familiar?" Lorenzo pointed at a white van at the edge of the parking lot.

"No way! That's the car that chased us!" Halona exclaimed. She started to frown. "Does that mean that Braden is in there?"

"I don't know, but it's a pretty big coincidence," Lorenzo replied. He stared at the building.

"We should check it out!" Halona started to run toward the entrance of the sewage plant. Something made her jerk back.

"Halona, no!" Lorenzo had grabbed her arm to stop her. "We can't just walk in. That place is heavily guarded. If Braden really is in there, then something really weird must be going on, and it could be dangerous!"

"Lorenzo please! He's my friend, and he needs my help! You don't have to go in, but I can't just stand around when he could be in there being tortured, or worse!" Halona pleaded with Lorenzo. She felt like crying, but she held back the tears. The last thing she needed was for Lorenzo to think she was some helpless little girl.

"You're crazy if you think I'll let you go in there by yourself." Lorenzo sighed. He looked into Halona's eyes, and she forced herself to not look away. "I'm probably going to regret this, but I'll help. I'll sneak out at midnight and meet you here, okay? If somebody spots us, they won't be able to tell who we are in the dark."

"Fine," Halona replied. She watched as Lorenzo walked away.

"Lorenzo, wait! I'm sorry for what I said earlier," she called out to him.

"Nah, it's fine. The funny thing is, you were right. See you at midnight." Lorenzo winked and walked away.

"Yeah. See you." Halona smiled. Her heart was fluttering with hope. By this time tomorrow, she would be with Braden again.