Sparks

Chapter 6

There's a large building looming in the distance. It's the only thing around for miles. It would appear that we are deep inside rural Kansas. Despite the snacks, my misgivings are quickly returning. This completely looks like I'm about to get murdered... no. I made my choice long ago.

Even though we can see the building, it's still another fifteen minutes before we get there. The purple of twilight is beginning to loom and Jacob is dozing in the front seat. Eventually, we arrive. Carrie carefully pulls into a garage and turns off the engine.

"Welcome home, everybody." She shakes Jacob awake.

"Hnn?" he mutters. "We back?"

"Yeah." Carrie opens the door and climbs out after unlocking all the doors. I slowly exit as well. Jacob stumbles out the passenger side and sleepily asks,

"So where is this nugget going to be sleeping? I forgot." I furrow my brows.

"Excuse me, I am eighteen." Carrie snorts.

"And that is why you don't call people 'nuggets', Jacob. And all the squad bases have ten bedrooms built in. Daft idiot."

"Yeah, but..." He yawns. "Which one, though?" Carrie sighs.

"Probably the one next to ours?" I slowly walk towards the trunk as they have a half-hearted argument. I push open the trunk and pull out my suitcase. It slams to the floor as the trunk closing generates a long and drawn-out squeak, drawing the pair's attention. I take a deep breath. They seem like the type to want me to take initiative...

"Wherever I'm sleeping, I'd like to get there soon enough that I can unpack a bit before going to bed." Carrie grins and nods in agreement.

"Sounds fair. Follow me." She grabs Jacob by the sleeve and roughly tugs him along. The door opens at her approach and as we step inside I marvel at the unfamiliar environment. We seem to be in some sort of insulated mudroom. There's several pairs of shoes, some stacked neatly on organizer and others thrown into a pile. Past the mudroom is the kitchen with a very clean stove and a rather worse-for-wear microwave. There are, for some reason, stairs in the kitchen going both up and down. Carrie leads the three of us up the stairs where there's a long hallway with about ten doors.

"Alright, the doors with nametags have already been chosen. Just choose a room, they're all the same. We'll put your name on the door tomorrow." I nod and begin looking at doors. The two at the end of the hallway have names on them already and eventually I make a selection: the middle door on the right side. I glance at Carrie for affirmation and she nods.

"Well, if you've got that covered I'll be going to bed now." I nod.

"Okay, thanks for your help." Jacob yawns and shoots me some pathetic finger guns before stumbling back to his room. With all distractions gone, I turn my focus back to my new room. Upon opening the handle I find a relatively large sort of suite. There's a living area with a small gray couch and an easy chair. There are two doors on the back wall so I slowly step inside and close the door before leaving my suitcase and going to check out the doors. The door on the left is a bathroom. There's nothing particularly interesting about that room so I close the door. The other door holds the bedroom and I walk inside to take a closer look. The bed looks kind of plain but decent. Out of habit, I pull up the corners of the sheets and lift the mattress to check for bedbugs. My mom ingrained that in me when I was younger and I have surely not forgotten it yet. To the left of the bed is a wardrobe. I stare in fascination as I have only previously had in-wall closets. The wardrobe doors creak open to reveal a lot of dust. I sigh and subsequently sneeze. "You'd think they'd at least dust the wardrobe," I mutter. Regardless. I quickly walk back to my suitcase and drag it to the bottom of the wardrobe. Item after item is pulled out and stored in drawers or hanging up. Thankfully there's some hangers already on the rack as I totally forgot to bring any. Finally after half an hour of work I sit back with a triumphant grin. Not only are all the clothes in my closet, but they are sorted by size, type, and color.

Now it's really official.

My grin vanishes off my face. That's right. I really don't live at home anymore. It's strange, because home is supposed to be wherever you're living and where all your stuff is. However, home for me is still home. This place isn't home and I'm not sure it will ever be.

With that final somber thought, I stumble over to my bed. There are sheets on it and that's good enough for me. I carelessly undress until I'm only in a t-shirt and panties, then crawl under the covers. Tears fill my eyes once I'm safely hidden. It's a childhood instinct to hide under my covers. If I hide under the covers the demons can't get me, except this time the demons are real. And these demons wouldn't be deterred by a few thin layers of fabric.

What have I gotten myself into?

This is a mess. I left my family behind and travelled four hours cross country with two stalkers because I had a gut feeling that my family would get hurt. Now I'm several hundred miles away from home, about to be trained to be a vigilante, and all I want is to call my mom and say 'please come get me, I'm scared.' A singular tear escapes my eye and that breakage of water tension releases the floodgates. As quietly as I can, I grasp my pillow tightly, curl up into a fetal position around it, and sob. What did I get myself into this time?

I've made a huge mistake.

--

Funnily enough, my eyes are still a bit red when I wake up the next morning. I'm also severely dehydrated. I stumble to the bathroom sink and drink some cold water from my cupped hands, then splash the rest on my face. Ahh... there's no wake-up call like bitterly cold water on the face at 5am...

I don't have the energy to plan an entire outfit so I simply put on some black leggings and my standard pastel yellow button-down. While I generally consider shoes unnecessary while in a house, I don't know the floors here yet so I slip on a pair of sandals. I quietly walk downstairs a level and as I descend the smell of eggs grows stronger. When I turn the corner finally into the kitchen I see Jacob wearing an apron that says 'Kiss the Cook' and then scribbled letters underneath that add, 'and I will bite you'. I grin. Even though I've only known him for like a week... classic Jacob.

"Hello," I quietly greet him. He turns around abruptly, almost spilling a spatula full of scrambled egg.

"Oh hello there." Jacob grins. "Sorry, you startled me." I smile shyly.

"Where's Carrie?"

"Off doing something with the basement." Right on cue, she walks into the room. Her eyes land on me, Jason's eggs, and finally his apron. She scowls.

"I thought I threw that away." Jacob grins.

"Didn't hide it hard enough. Honestly, it was kind of pathetic."

"That apron? I agree."

"No," Jacob sighs. "Your way of throwing it out." At this point you can almost see steam coming out of Carrie's ears. She takes a deep breath and then slowly exhales before unceremoniously scooping some eggs onto her plate and sitting at the table. I follow Carrie's lead and sit across from her.

"So, do you know how to cook?" she asks.

Completely confounded by the sudden change in topic, I reply, "What?"

"Do you know how to cook. You know, make meals." I nod in understanding.

"Yes, I do actually. Though I generally kind of take a while, I can be a bit of a perfectionist." She nods.

"Good. Glad I won't have to teach you."

"Did you teach Jacob?" I query.

She makes a bit of a face. "Actually, he kind of taught me."

The both of them regale me with stories of their early partnership and try and one-up each other. I grin for a bit and just like last night with the snacks some of my apprehension melts away.

... but who knows for how long?

Somebody's having second thoughts... hopefully you're still committed to voting?