Lacunae

Chapter 11

"Wait!" Zack suddenly shouted from the back seat. "It's not like I'm deaf and blind, I heard and saw everything. And you think you can just bring me wherever you want to go at this point?"

Kevin ignored him, clearly expecting me to answer on my own.

"It's too dangerous Zack, we have to go somewhere far." I told him as I looked at the passing view of the closing garage behind us.

"Exactly! So we should be going to the police or something. Or wait for your grandma as he is saying!" He started panicking as we drove further away from the house. "Your grandma seems to know something, as I heard!"

I turned my head towards him and shouted, "Because I can't bring myself to endanger my grandmother for the sake of you or me!"

He was suddenly taken aback.

"The man at the mansion, he was planning to take you away, that still confuses you? He was there to kidnap you, you asshole. And he was there to kill me. And I know, somehow, I know, that you being taken away is connected to your mom leaving and obviously me being targeted too is connected to my grandmother." I leveled back my voice. "You're worried for your mom aren't you, well I'm worried for my grandmother. She's the only family I have left."

Zack stopped talking for a while and leaned back on the backseat. Nobody was speaking the car for what seemed like the longest time until he came close to us again and broke the silence, "What exactly are you Valarie?"

"You don't need to know."

"Bullshit! It's about time you tell me the truth!" He slammed his hands at the back of the front seat and screamed. "The both of you, what are you? The things you do, these are all things that people our age don't do. What the hell are you? Give me something to trust you with damn it!"

Kevin turned his head, he was passing a message to me and we both know that Zack has the right to know. He was probably very scared and confused and then suddenly he has to entrust his life to people almost the same age as he is. But disclosing our identity to a civilian is an act punishable by law. So I gave him half the truth.

"We were trained together when we were young that's why we know how to fight. We work for an organization that we cannot disclose to a civilian. That's all you can know."

"And is this organization legal?"

"Among other things, yes." I said, my eyes strained at the reflection of our house getting further away from us.

"That doesn't make sense." Zack complained but his tone calming down.

"From this moment on, you should stop asking questions because a lot will not make sense at this point." Kevin was the one who spoke this time.

I didn't hear a response from the back after Kevin spoke so I looked over to Zack through the rearview mirror. Our eyes met and he was still confused but apparently Kevin's words had put more weight on him than mine because he took a deep breath and looked away quietly.

Sighing in relief, I looked back out the window into the dark and drowned in my own thoughts.

Kevin broke the silence and asked. "So where are we going? You're the rogue, do you have any hidden undergrounds to go to?"

From his tone oozing with sarcasm, I know that even though he relented with my decision, he wasn't happy about it. I gave him a look and he returned it but when he saw my face, he rolled his eyes in annoyance and looked away.

I took that as my cue to answer, "Alaska."

His head snapped at me at the same time Zack perked up from his seat and they chorused a "What?"