Stricken

Chapter 2

    Chapter 2

“Watch it,” I hiss inwardly as Lijah prods my back. The two lead me along a dusty trail. Viva trots timidly next to me, her arms crossed and her face still concerned. The air smells dry and icy… is it Autumn or Winter? The trees are laced with orange leaves. Maybe it’s the end of Autumn…

“Kyler…” Viva pipes up, her voice splitting through the silence like lightning. “You really don’t remember who anyone is?” Her breath fogs up into the air.

I run my fingers through my hair. “No, I don’t.” The words ring out of my throat like it was programmed into me. My heart is sinking further and further as we near “campus”. How many people are there, and how many friends do I have? Do I have a girlfriend? I consider asking Lijah, but his face is stone cold as he power walks along. I flit my gaze over to Vita, but she probably would get upset and go all, “Wah, you can’t remember the girl you love?” She strikes me as that kind of person.

I can feel the skin on my back stiffening as the blood dries up. The dirty feeling makes me edgy, and my whole body still throbs. I wrap my arms around my bare chest. My eyes settle onto the back of Lijah’s jacket again. What were these for? Were we some sort of sports team? The dragon curled around the sort irks me a little bit, like there is a deeper meaning in the embroidered design. Vita trips a little bit, over a tree root, but tries to play it off like no one had seen. I crack a smile as she looks at me sheepishly. She hits me over the head again, this time not apologizing. 

“What, is this something you usually do?” I say irritably. She quickly looks away and keeps walking in silence. Lijah shoots me a look, to which I snort. 

“Look, we just weren’t anticipating this, okay?” Lijah kicks a rock. It bounces off of a tree and clatters into a river. “I just…I dunno, man.” He grows silent again, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and lowering his head. His shoes scuff against the hard ground.

After a silence that seems to last forever and a day, Lijah stops in front of a river. It seems to be about waist-deep, easy to wade across. But Lijah doesn’t seem like he’s about to just step in- he’s preparing to dive. I look at him in pure astonishment, my turquoise eyes widening. Vita doesn’t look fazed either, taking off her moccasins and shoving them into the waist of her pants. Lijah looks at me expectantly, then sighs when I don’t move at all. He saunters around me, placing his hands on my shoulders. 

“This may sting,” he warns. “Oh- and hold your breath.”

Before I can even take a breath, I am plunged under the surface of the icy cold water. I thrash against his strong grip, but he still glides through the water like a hot knife through butter. He diver even deeper towards a pit in the side of the river that looks pitch black. Is he trying to kill me? I can’t remember anything, I’m worthless to him? Bubbles cascade from my mouth as I try to scream. I can’t see anything at this point. I can feel the three distinct lines running through my back filling up with chilly water and stinging like fire. My head feels as if it is filled with helium.

Suddenly, I am ripped out of the ice water and thrown across a wooden floor. My body squeaks and squelches across the surface. I strike against an iron bench, yelping in pain as I come to a painfully abrupt stop. I can feel heat emanating from somewhere, and look up to find a wood stove right next to my head. I quickly pull myself up, shuddering at the chill from the river water. Looking around, I find Vita and Lijah standing by a doorway already, looking not even a little bit wet. I shrug my shoulders and give them a “what am I supposed to do here?” look.

“The button in that panel, right there in the wall. Push it.” Vita offers. I follow her instructions, finding a bright silver panel on the beige wall. Quickly, I press the flashing blue button. From nowhere, a laser light beams over my body and I feel heat blanket over me. When the vivid light beam reaches my feet, I am no longer wet. Lijah just turns his head towards me and cracks a smile as he sees my amazement. 

“It was your idea. The camp had a low budget, though, so sometimes it malfunctions and freezes the water onto your skin.” He smirks towards the end of the statement. I can tell that he is really bothered by my memory loss, and I can’t help but feel a little bad. Whatever I was doing was probably dumb, and it was probably my fault. I step away from the panel, over to the doorframe. 

“Can we get a shirt for me now?” I ask Lijah. He and the girl exchange looks, almost like I was crazy.

“We have to go talk to Silus about what happened.” Vita says very matter-of-factly. “We also have to fetch Cal.”

“Cal?”

Lijah slaps his palm over his face, sighing, slowly dragging it down his face. He looks as if he’s about to say something, but he just opens his arms. 

“Bring it in, man.” he murmurs, giving me a quick hug and slapping me on the back like guys do. As soon as he lets me go, I look around quickly.

“Who is Cal? Is he on our team too?” I inquire quickly. My displease is clear. Another person to disappoint? That’s just the cherry on top of my day. I jump a little as I feel my phone vibrate quickly in my back pocket. I had forgotten about that thing. I take it out, questioning for a second how it’s not broken from the water. I brush the idea off and examine the illuminated screen. I drop my jaw as I notice the perfect timing.

One new voice message from: Cal

“What’s my password?” I ask Lijah.

“I changed it to ‘Lijah’ yesterday,” he laughs.

I quickly type Lijah into the phone and open the message, bringing the phone closer to my face.

“Hey, where are you? You weren’t in the Quarters so I assumed you went out… Voice me back.”