“Cambree?” Lexi’s heart sank.
“Hi, Lexi, guess what? Jill is going to let me go with her to Paris this summer. Isn’t that awesome? We are going to have so much fun. If you cross your fingers and ask nicely, I bet she’ll let you go too.”
This was not Cambree, at least not the Cambree that Lexi knew. Cambree was not bubbly and happy, and she definitely did not go with anyone to Paris. Instead, Cambree would have gone and then bragged about how beautiful it was and how all the French artists wanted to paint her in front of the Eiffel Tower.
“Sure,” Jill said with a smile. “You can go with us, Lexi. It will be so much fun. Come here, I want to tell you a secret.”
“Ohhh,” all the other girls said in excited jealousy.
“No, thanks,” Lexi answered. She took a step back and bumped into someone. Standing behind her was Tyler, Jayson, Randy, Aiden, Gage, Michael, Javier…all of the boys in her class were blocking her escape. Lexi hadn’t heard them sneak up behind her.
“I am your friend,” Jill said with a curled smirk.
“Jill is our friend,” the rest of the auditorium said in a monotone unity.
Lexi pulled away. “You are no friend. You are a monster.”
“Bring her to me,” Jill ordered firmly. Jill was no longer smiling. She was pursing her lips and glaring. “Bring her to me now.”
Lexi attempted to move, but Tyler and Gage grabbed her by the elbows and would not let her go. They squeezed her arms firmly.
“Tyler, please let me go.”
Tyler smiled, but did not look at her. “Jill is our friend,” he chanted in unison with the others.
Lexi struggled and kicked, but could not free herself from their grasp. She pleaded with Tyler to help her, but it was to no avail. Tyler and Gage placed Lexi directly in front of Jill.
“No!” she screamed, but Jill placed a hand over her mouth.
Jill’s little hands were surprisingly strong. Lexi could not believe how strong they were. She could not move. Lexi watched in horror as Jill’s icy blue eyes turned golden yellow. Lexi could not look away. Her mind told her to close her eyes, but the command registered no results. She felt her body going numb. She felt nothing.
“Jill is your friend,” a voice in her head echoed. “Your mind is not your own. Jill is your friend.”
Lexi could feel her mouth start to move. “Jill is my—”
There was a loud ringing as the morning bell went off. Everyone, even Jill, lifted their heads.
Lexi felt groggy, but recognized the opportunity. With a sudden surge of strength, she lifted her foot and brought it crashing down on Jill’s Dolce & Gabbana sandals. Jill shouted in agony as she hopped around.
“Jill!” Every student rushed to Jill’s aid, allowing Lexi to break free. She pushed past the others and slipped behind the large backdrop of the stage.
“Get her!” Jill ordered.
Lexi ran up the stairs to the drama room. Thankfully, it was unlocked. She slammed it shut and could hear her pursuers coming. Grabbing a desk chair, Lexi shoved it under the door handle in an attempt to barricade the door and hopefully buy herself some time to escape. Where to go? Where to go?
There was only one other option: the door at the rear of the room. She opened it hoping for a magical door that would take her home but willing to settle for a hallway that led to an exit. It was the costume closet.
Dead end.
The door jiggled. Lexi hunted the closet for a way out, a hiding spot, anything! It was filled with mannequins, props, and all the costumes from the various plays throughout the years. There was a small window on one side. Can I fit through there? Can I even reach it? It’s awfully high. She pulled a desk over. When she heard the barricaded door in the other room crash open, she said aloud, “Must hurry. Must hurry.”
The window was too high. She managed to push it open with a broom, but after two attempts, Lexi knew she would never make it out in time.
“Find her! Now!”
Plan B, she thought. Okay, what’s plan B?
“Hurry up and find her!” Jill screamed.
Think Lexi, think. She closed her eyes and tried to think clearly. What Aiden Mercer told her came back, “Lexi, did you know chameleons can show pink, blue, red, orange, green…”
“Chameleon,” she whispered. She stole Red Riding Hood’s hood and stood next to a mannequin dressed in a long flowing gown and a crown. Lexi looked like a peasant bowing before a queen. She kept her head down and did not move.
When Jill and the others entered the costume closet, they did a quick survey of the room. Randy hopped on the desk and looked out the open window. “Jill, I think she went this way.”
“Well, don’t just stand there. Find her. Bring her to me.”
Everyone scampered out of the costume closet. Lexi waited until they left before she tossed the red robe off. She was not sure she could fit through the window, so she carefully made her way back to the auditorium. It was empty. Her backpack was on the floor where she left it. She grabbed it and sprinted to the exit. Once outside, she ran a solid mile without looking back.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Getting Even
“I have had dreams and I have had nightmares,
but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams.”
-Jonas Salk
Lexi stopped only when she was certain there was no one following her. She did not know where to go, but she did know what to do. Jill had some sort of mind control over everyone, and that nearly included her. Lexi had seen her grandmother hypnotize hundreds of people, but she never saw anything like that.
She had to talk to her grandmother. I will convince her somehow. I will tell her the truth, she thought. I will tell her everything. She will believe me.
First, there was something Lexi needed to do. She found a picnic table in the park and sat her backpack on it. She removed a small pillow and an old tape recorder. She had to protect herself from Jill’s mind powers and she hoped autohypnosis would save her. She pressed the record button and spoke slowly and calmly.
When she was done, she rewound the tape and pressed play. Lexi laid her head on the pillow and stared at the puffy clouds in the beautiful blue sky. Initially, there was background static, but then Lexi’s voice came across the speaker of the recorder.
“You feel relaxed. You are calm. You are slowly slipping into a deep slumber. There is a cool stream in the middle of a lush valley. The bubbling from the brook is relaxing. You can feel serenity bathing you. You are slowly slipping, slipping, slipping into a deep slumber…”
Lexi had never hypnotized herself, but she had read about it thoroughly. Her grandmother had hypnotized her many times, and Lexi knew she would easily succumb to her hypnotic will.
When she entered the house, Lexi immediately yelled for her grandmother. Her grandmother hated when Lexi would yell, but this was an emergency. After all, Lexi had nearly been turned into a mindless zombie earlier today. She placed her fingers in her ears and wiggled them when she heard the angry bug chatter. It was becoming so frequent that Lexi was almost surprised when she didn’t hear it.
There was no answer.
“Grandma!” Lexi yelled.
“Back here.”
Lexi jogged to her grandmother’s office. Sitting at her desk was her grandmother, looking as happy as ever.
“Grandma, something very, very bad is happening.”
“Well, if there is something wrong, I bet I know someone who can fix it.”
Lexi nodded. “Good because we are gonna need all the help we can get. We need to call the police.”
Her grandmother shook her head. “We don’t need the police. The only person we need is Jill.”
Lexi’s mouth dropped open. “What?” She could not believe her ears. “What did you say?”
“Jill is our friend. Jill will take care of it.”
Lexi took a step back, her mouth was agape and her head shook in defiance. “No, not you.”
“Jill will take care of everything. Right Jill?”
A voice from behind Lexi said, “That’s right.”
Lexi spun around. Standing behind her was her small, skinny, blond nemesis.
“Hello, Lexi.”
A streak of anger coursed through Lexi’s body. “What did you do to her?” Lexi’s hands formed fists in preparation to pummel Jill.
With that arrogant smile Lexi hated so much, Jill replied, “Same thing I’m going to do to you.”
Lexi yelled as she charged Jill, her fist raised and ready to land on that pretty, little face.
A large individual stepped in front of Jill. He completely surprised Lexi and halted her progress. By the time she’d processed that he was with Jill, one of his hands was around her neck and the other one held both of her arms behind her back. Lexi was a tall girl for her age, and quite strong—she had to be if she wanted to muscle for rebounds—but she could not get loose no matter how hard she tried.
With that glimmering smirk, Jill stepped forward. Her icy blue eyes turned beady red once more and focused intently on Lexi.
“Let go of me!” Lexi protested.
Jill leaned closer, her eyes widened, and changed to their hypnotic golden tint.
Lexi continued to squirm in her captor’s arms. “Get away from me, you bug-eyed creep.”
“Why isn’t it working?” the man restraining Lexi asked.
“I don’t know,” Jill answered. “I had her this morning.”
“You had nothing!” Lexi struggled to get loose, but knew she could not. She did, however, manage to step on Jill’s foot again.
“Ouch!” Jill hopped on one foot once more.
“Jill, you said you could control all of them. What is going on?” the man demanded.
Limping back toward them, Jill answered, “I can control them. I can control all of them. I just need a little more time with this one. Bring her. We’ll do it on the ship.”
“Ship? Are you an…” A mask without eyeholes was placed over Lexi’s head. There was a smell, pungent and powerful. She suddenly felt very sleepy.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jack & Jill
“Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects,
and discovering other people’s weaknesses.”
-William Hazlitt
She was groggy. Her feet barely held her as she was marched over rough, unlevel terrain. She couldn’t see, but Lexi heard the sound of—of—llamas? They were distant, but she remembered that Mr. Drysdale owned llamas, the only llama farmer in town. Drysdale’s farm is thirty minutes away from my house. When she stumbled, she heard the crack of what she believed was a corn stalk. A moment later, she was being pushed up a ramp, down a hallway, and past some beeping electronic devices. And all the while, she heard the ever chirping of bugs.
I hate bugs.
Jack removed her ski mask and shoved her into a holding cell. He chuckled when she hit her head on the floor. Jack pressed a button on the wall, and rows of green electric bars rose from the floor, locking her in the cell. When the bars came up, the binders that held Lexi’s hands like police cuffs disappeared.
Lexi rubbed her forehead. A bump was already starting to form. “Ouch.”
“We’ll call it even,” he said, holding up his injured arm, wrapped in a bandage.
“That’s what you get for being in the girl’s bathroom, jerk,” Lexi shot back.
“Get comfortable,” Jack growled. “You’re gonna be here awhile.” He left the holding cells laughing as he went.
She looked around. Sterile white walls, a bench at the rear, and only one exit. Glowing green bars blocked her escape. She approached them and cautiously raised her hand.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice in the holding cell next to her said.
Lexi pulled her hand back. She could not see her fellow prisoner, but his voice sounded familiar. “Petr, is that you?”
“Yep.”
“What are you doing here?” Lexi inquired.
“Jill doesn’t trust me.”
“What do you mean Jill doesn’t trust you? You know Jill?”
“I’ve known Jill for a very long time, Lexi. She figured out I was trying to help you and here I am.”
Confused, Lexi asked, “Help me? How did you try to help me?”
Petr laughed. “Had any weird dreams lately?”
Lexi’s jaw dropped. She was afraid to respond.
“I could see your dreams, Lexi. You are very strong and there are few like you. What you were seeing was the future. I implanted myself as your guide. I was going to show you how to change it, prevent it from coming true, but Jill caught me and charged me with treason.”
“Treason? You’re one of them? You’re a monster.” The reality hit her with a wave of nausea and confusion.
“Yes, I am one of them, but I’m no monster. Was Hitler a monster?”
In a disgusted voice, Lexi answered, “Of course, he was.”
“Hitler was a human. Are all humans like Hitler?”
“Of course not, but I see your point, Petr.”
“Jill is a monster, Lexi, and she must be stopped, but I failed and now my failure has doomed us both.”
Lexi reflected on Petr’s response. Now was not the time to lose allies, and something inside of her promised that Petr was on her side. “What are they going to do to us?”
“Torture us.”
The bluntness of his response sent shivers across her body. “Well, then my plan had better work because I don’t want to be tortured.”
“You have a plan?” Petr sounded excited.
“Kind of.”
“You kind of have a plan?”
“Yes, do you want to hear it or not?”
Petr chuckled. “Let’s hear it.”
A thought crossed her mind. “Before I tell you, I have to ask you a question. Are you a giant insect too?”
“You can see us?” Petr asked in disbelief. “I knew you could hear us, but no human has ever been able to see us.”
“That’s why it sounded like crickets whenever you or Jill were around.” Lexi was nodding at her own enlightenment.
“That’s amazing. I knew you were special the moment I met you. We have to stop them. My species is faster, stronger, and more technologically advanced. We’ve been here for many, many years, and tonight Jack and Jill will fly us to my home world and report what they have found.”
“What do you mean ‘what they have they found?’”
“That Earth is ripe for invasion. That humans can easily be manipulated with mind control and blinded by materialistic items. More importantly, that your kind will make excellent slaves for our mines. We’ve been here long enough we know all of earth’s defenses and how to infiltrate the various governments. Jill has been able to control your strongest, your weakest, your overeducated, your undereducated, your oldest, your youngest, all of you. Teenagers were her last test, Lexi. Somehow, you broke the cycle and if we don’t stop her, my species will use their powers of telepathy to conquer Earth without a single shot fired.”
Lexi thought about this for a moment. “So, they have not been in contact with your home planet?”
“No. In order to communicate, they would have to send a very strong signal, and that would be detected by your military. We could not risk it. Instead, they will fly home, deliver their findings, and the invasion will soon follow.”
“That’s good,” Lexi answered with a grin. Her plan might actually work. Her excitement waned when she thought of her ally if she failed. “What will they do to you, Petr?”
“I disobeyed an order. I was in charge of recording our findings. Almost immediately, I started to see how humans treat each other. Some of your kind are ruthless and evil, but the vast majority are sincere and caring and willing to help each other no matter the cost. That is nothing like my species. We don’t even have hospitals, Lexi. If you are sick, you are considered weak. We do not help each other. We are a survival-o
f-the-strongest species. We relish others’ defeats. We fight constantly for our own self-interests and personal advancement.
“After I saw the way humans interact, I thought, perhaps I can show how your species works together and maybe change ours for the better, but Jack and Jill…well, they didn’t agree. I knew you were different, Lexi. Everyone succumbs to her will, but you resisted. And when I tried to help you, Jack caught me and here I am. So, I hope your plan is better than mine.”
Lexi smiled at the compliment.
“But now, all I have done is get you imprisoned too. My punishment will be swift, but you, Lexi, they will do horrible, horrible experiments on you. I’m so very sorry for the fate you will soon receive.”
Lexi found Peter’s story to be full of sadness, but it also gave her the desire to fight. “Petr, don’t give up on me yet. If I can get you out of here, would you return to your planet and tell them the humans are too technologically advanced to be defeated? Tell them that the humans are a kind and loving species and that we immediately detected your presence and could not be controlled. Could you do that?”
“Um, I guess I could, but how will you get yourself out, let alone me, and how will you deal with Jack and Jill. Jill is extremely talented, Lexi. Not one of your species has been able to withstand her mind control,” Petr said.
With a grin, Lexi answered, “I did. Leave everything to me. I need to know, Petr, can I trust you?” Lexi rummaged through her backpack until she found the old brass pocket watch.
“Yes.”
The door to the holding cells opened and in walked Jack and Jill. “Bring her,” Jill ordered.
Jack pressed the button on the wall of the holding cell. The green prison bars disappeared and her handcuffs reappeared. Jack grabbed her firmly by the arm. He led her down a long corridor into a room full of lights and buttons that Lexi suspected was the control room. There were two chairs at the front of the room and a third chair at the rear. Lexi wondered if this was Petr’s chair.
Jack shoved her into a seat and locked her in place. “There, now do it.” He crossed his arms and stared angrily at Jill.
Jill returned the icy glare. “If you had killed her in the alleyway like I ordered, she wouldn’t be here now.” She pushed him aside and approached Lexi. Jill was very upset. Her eyes squinted and changed color. Jill was directly in front of Lexi, an inch apart.