TWISTED // Clato | ✓

Chapter 18: Welcome to the Twenty-First Century

CLOVE'S POV:

The boy--Cato Hadley--takes my card from my hands. 

"It says you've got a skill for throwing knives."

"Huh?" I lean over his shoulder. Sure enough, there it is printed alongside the word "tribute." What's a tribute?

I'm puzzling over the weird situation we're in when the blonde flounces over. "Heey, dude," she says to Cato, completely ignoring me. "So my name's Glimmer. What's yours?"

I hope she didn't make that name up. She must have. I steal a glance at her card which she holds in her hand. Glimmer. Give me a break.

"I'm Cato." He looks at her with a slight interest.

Glimmer steps in front of me like I'm not even there. "Sooo, how you doing?"

"Fine, ever since I woke up in this world," he replies.

I can't stand being near this girl. I slide my card back into my pocket and walk away. The other kids are staring at their cards with interest. What's happening to me? How did I get here? Who am I, really?

Clove Kentwell must have been a girl. Was it my past life or something? I certainly don't remember any of it now. Did I somehow regenerate? I'm so confused. All I know about myself is something I read off a card. That's completely it.

The skinny kid who was next to Glimmer sidles up to me. "Hello."

"Hi." I don't even look at him.

"I'm Marvel."

"Figured that out all on your own, did you?" I don't feel like having a conversation with anyone right now.

"It says here." He thrusts his card in my face. I back up a little.

"You can't trust everything you read."

That shuts him up long enough for me to slip out of the room and into the hallway. I don't know where I am or where I'm going; I just want to get out of here. 

I pass open doorways and rooms where I see people in white coats, but they barely give me a glance. I come to a metal staircase and sprint down it. A door lies open at the end of a corridor. I dash toward it and feel a rush of breeze blow the scents of asphalt and cigarette smoke up my nostrils. 

I'm standing on a cracked, gum-dotted concrete sidewalk beside a busy street. Cars race past me with such speed that their tires send gravel rattling on the road. People rush around me like I'm not even there: short women with curly hair, tall men with shaved chins, teenage girls with long ponytails, noisy boys making it their territory. The hugeness of everything nearly overwhelms me. All around, I'm surrounded by towering, glittering skyscrapers and bustling people. How do they even breathe?

And yet I like it. The rush of giddiness, activity, movement. The wind on my face. The interesting lights flickering on signs and windows.

I'm still standing in front of the Frederick Ward when I feel a hand grip my shoulder. I turn around and find myself face-to-face with Erin.

"Get back in!" she hisses.

Why the rush, I wonder, but I follow her anyway. She half-leads, half-drags me back upstairs and shuts me in the people-filled room which, after the open outdoors, feels like a cage.

Erin slams the door. "Listen, everyone!" she screeches in her high-pitched voice. The chattering kids fall silent instantly. All eyes turn to her.

Erin purses her lips and blinks at us before she begins. "All right, so I've been conferring with the rest of the committee here at the Frederick Ward. We have reached the conclusion that we have no idea where you all are from, and you don't seem to know either, so finally we have concluded that you are aliens which have landed here from outer space."