She took a step back, wondering if the sun would burn the two alive. Their gray pallor was unsettling, along with her mother’s dreadful expression. “You’re growing inside me,” her mother said all of a sudden, in a sad, weary voice.
Donna felt confused again, like she was trying to put a puzzle together but all the pieces were missing. “I’m not inside you,” Donna answered, feeling afraid.
The thing that looked like her mother didn’t seem to hear her, she looked down and touched her stomach lightly with her left hand. “Growing inside me.”
Donna heard the sound of a dog barking from some place far away beyond the forest. She started backing up slowly away from the ghosts, feeling at any moment they would try to take her. The boy, troubled now like his mom, looked up at Donna with concerned eyes and stepped toward her. Donna felt a wave of panic. He was going to take her! She turned around toward the water and started to run …
Donna woke up.
Her body completely turned into electricity and became ghost like. She felt herself fall through her bed and hit the floor underneath it. She waited completely still in her changed form, the bed covering her, realizing with the horrid revelation that Smoky was barking not at her but at her door. She felt so afraid, unsure if she could really be awake right now. She stayed underneath for a couple of minutes, feeling hot, and way too alive. Her vision had changed back to the blue and black sight, like she was in a photo developing room again. After what felt like ten minutes, she got up and reached to open the door, feeling her hand’s brightness grow dimmer and more transparent, allowing her to turn the handle.
Smoky dove out of her room in an instant, down the stairs, toward the front door where someone was knocking. Donna felt her body pulse as if her heart were her whole body again, only it was pulsing so fast and she felt so wound up and energized that she feared she might explode.
It had to be past midnight. Who would be knocking at her door right now? Donna felt herself get lighter and lighter and more electric again till she was no longer glowing transparently. She was now so bright and alive she couldn’t even make out the shape of her hands. The knocking stopped, but Smoky was still barking. The person was still out there.
The killers Paul was talking about! Donna panicked. They’ve come for me!
* * *
The Soldier
He walked slowly through the forest, taking his time. His older brother had been too heated up to do anything tonight. Instead the younger sibling was stuck having to be the one to bring in Paul Cohen.
He approached his house, deciding the best way would be to crawl through the window, onto the ceiling, and bag Paul before he had time to make a sound. Should be simple enough, but if the guy really was the super hacker causing them so much trouble then he might have some tricks up his sleeve.
The night was dark and starless and starting to get chilly. He walked up to the house, listening to the sounds of the wind and owls to detect any threat nearby. Then, like an animal, he crawled up the house, sticking to the walls, feeling the roughness of the bricks and dirt underneath his hands. The air tasted cool and farm-like, even though there were barely any farms left here. He pressed his ear against the wall and listened, hearing the sounds of radios underneath the house being turned off.
He pulled open the locked window and crawled up Paul’s bedroom wall onto his ceiling. The room was small and childlike with blue striped walls and an outer-space decorated ceiling. The stars were sticking to his hands as he climbed over the bed and saw what looked like a body sleeping. He looked down at the body and knew something was wrong; there was not the slightest bit of movement, and he couldn’t hear any breathing.
He flipped down, onto his feet, next to Paul’s bed, doing his best not to make a sound but feeling the floor underneath him shake a little. Great … He lifted up the astronaut covers and saw pillows stuffed underneath. Paul must have known they were coming for him. Good, maybe this will be a little more interesting.
He heard movement in the hallway and opened the door slightly and saw Paul’s mother heading toward one of the rooms; the sound of a toilet flushing coming from where she’d exited. He waited until she’d entered the next room, then heard more movement downstairs, and followed the sound, making sure he was sticking to the wall. Even if Paul had any weapons ready, he’d still be able to take him by surprise. After all, alerting Paul’s mother to her son being taken in the middle of the night would complicate things.
Near the small kitchen was a door with sound coming from underneath it, so he figured the room was a basement. He opened the door from the wall above, entered, and kept to the ceiling as he moved across the dark room. Despite the darkness, he could see perfectly, his senses alive and ready to catch his prey. He smelled the deodorant of a teenage boy nearby, underneath him. Sensing already that there would be no fun to this game, boredom overtook him. Still, sticking to procedure, he jumped ten feet down, landing right behind Paul, who was sitting in a chair waiting.
He moved his hand quickly, his movement making enough wind that it spun Paul’s chair around to face him. Paul kept his eyes to the ground, acting unmoved as he faced his kidnapper. Paul didn’t look afraid of him, but he could hear Paul’s heart beating and smell the sweat around his palms, down his back, and on his forehead. His wrists were tense as his hands were clutching his chair tightly, more out of fear, it seemed, than with the ability to struggle.
Bored, and not feeling the need to scare the boy beyond his current state, he pulled out his tranquilizer and shot Paul in the neck where it would put him out right away. Getting this guy was easier than taking a baby kitten from its mother. Even then you’d be ready to feel the tiny animal dig its claws into you before it gave in to its fate of a new beginning. Taking this guy was nothing; his level one training modules were even harder than this.
He watched Paul’s eyes flutter shut and his hands let go of their grip. He picked him up, flung him over his back, and headed out the smaller window that was at the top of the basement wall. The feeling of dissatisfaction bore into him. He couldn’t help agreeing with Lynn. All these numerous pre-mission jobs were getting tiresome. He hungered for more …
* * *
Donna
Donna moved down the stairs, still glowing brightly. Her dog barked even louder now. The noise was troubling. She moved toward her kitchen, looking at everything through her strange sight as if she were looking at it all for the first time. Everything was in dark colors of black and blue, with the exception of Smoky, who was a deep green color.
Her eyes, despite her fear, seemed to be pulled to the riming of the walls around the house. Inside them were tiny bits of little lightning particles, again reminding her of millions of ants. They seemed to be alive, forming a shivering line and moving weakly as if needing to be turned on. As she stepped into the kitchen, the lights seemed to move and wind inside different fixtures. The fridge seemed to be the one place that the lines of light particles wanted to go to, where they could shine and live without weakness compared to the rest of the fixtures.
The knocking stopped abruptly, causing Donna’s heart in her body to beat so uncontrollably that she felt like she was going to explode. Smoky moved more toward the other window, barking still, so she knew the person must be leaving. As afraid as she was, she knew this was her chance to see who was out there.
Frozen by the wall near her kitchen door, she had to make a decision. She could wait for the killer to come back, though she feared he might not need to, for right now she was surely going to drown in her own raw compulsions, or she could look out and know her assassin’s face or whatever it would appear to be through her altered sight. Before she was able to fully think it through, she poked her head through her kitchen wall, so she was half outside and half inside.
In the distance, a man of a dark green shade much like her dog walked toward the main road. He had a watch on his wrist that glowed like the electric streams in her house, like her, only this glowing was callin
g to her. In his pocket, too, she saw something about as big as his palm glowing and calling out to her in the same way.
His arms as he moved toward the road were a deeper green, but more scrambled looking than the rest of his shape. Then, even as he got further away, she recognized the shape of his slumped, depressed body, and suddenly her own body felt less hot and alive. She returned to a less transparent version of herself as her heart slowed.
Her vision changed next, and everything once again looked as it should outside. “Spencer!” she called out to him without thinking, her voice still holding bits of the panic she had been mired in before. He turned around and she jumped back through the wall, completely inside, rushing over to the sink in fear he’d run off.
Her hands, opaque and growing more normal by the second, took hold of the faucet, and she let the water spill out and refill her. The moment they felt whole, she splashed her face, feeling the familiar dense feeling of a regular human body. Then she was out the door, letting Smoky run up to Spencer, stopping him from leaving.
As she approached slowly, Smoky barked until he was able to smell Spencer fully. After a minute he started licking at him, excited that one of his owner’s friends had come home. Spencer scratched behind Smoky’s ears. Satisfied, Smoky trotted back to the porch, leaving Spencer and Donna alone. Awkwardness seemed to take his place.
“I, um, could have sworn I heard you yell my name outside,” Spencer started, looking at her a little afraid.
Donna bit her lip, and looked at the ground. What was she supposed to say? Yeah, well, that’s because I was halfway outside … That would make him feel comfortable being around her. “What, um, are you doing here?” she asked, ignoring his question, unable to fully look into his eyes.
He shrugged, looking at the ground now. “I was going to call but then decided it would be best if I say this face to face, and I couldn’t wait any longer.”
She nodded, still not understanding, but not knowing what to say. She looked down at her own ensemble; all she was wearing was a baggy shirt and shorts. The cold air blowing all around her went through her clothes, making her wish she had more on. A bra, for example. At least I’m not naked like all the other times I turned, she told herself, trying to feel less vulnerable, but with no success. Spencer looked at her strangely, and she realized she was staring down at her clothes. Snap out of it, Donna! she ordered herself. “What is it you came to say, Spencer?” she asked him.
“I wanted,” he stopped and took a breath, looking up at her. “I wanted to say thank you, and I’m sorry.”
She looked at him confused, still out of it from her dream, and her recent terror.
“I only was thinking of myself and my mom after the accident. I forgot,that you’re my friend, the girl who first invited me to play manhunt with her. I forgot you were you.”
She nodded again, still not able to speak, only half absorbing his words. She tried to imagine everything from his eyes: seeing her turn, her body burning him as he rushed to save her, him being afraid for himself and his mom. Not that she really understood that whole thing. She took a deep breath and looked back up at him. “You saved my life that day of the accident, Spencer,” she said slowly, tears coming to her eyes. She didn’t know exactly what would have happened had he and Rebecca just left her there in the street and run away, to have someone find her there, in her glowing form. It had been the first time she had ever changed, and she’d felt so weak and scared then.
“Then I ran,” he said looking at the ground, ashamed.
She walked closer to him slowly, praying that when he looked back up at her she wouldn’t see fear in his eyes. “You saved me,” she said again, not able to say anything else.
His eyes met hers, and she felt more and more tears come from her, and then he began to wrap his arms around her very slowly. He hugged her, and she cried into his shirt and hugged him back. He pulled away from her after a moment and looked into her eyes. She saw the look, not as much fear, this time, but more like caution and puzzlement.
“Donna,” he hesitated. “What are you?”
She felt so small and tiny at that moment. She wiped her tears on her shirt and looked to the ground, feeling as if he was looking at some human with an extra eye or something. She looked back up at him, the new season’s coldness surrounding her. “I don’t know,” she answered, feeling ashamed. Hearing her words made her feel alone again, but a different kind of loneliness this time. It was like this town she’d grown up in only contained the two of them at the moment. She was still alone, but now she and Spencer were alone together. Maybe alone wasn’t the right word anymore. They were … abandoned.
* * *
Rebecca
It was 12:30 at night and Rebecca sat on her bed crying. Like a child, she hugged her pillow and felt afraid and depressed. She’d tried Paul from her cell phone ten times, and from her home phone five times. He was gone, they had taken him.
Would she ever see him again? Kiss him again? More tears flushed through her eyes and she couldn’t stand it any longer. She grabbed her cell phone and started to call his home phone but hung up after one ring. If she were the one to alarm his mom he wasn’t there, then she’d have to think of a reason why she knew that. Becoming a target wasn’t going to help Paul.
She remembered his words, his voice, his touch … and started dialing Donna’s number instead. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had to do something.
* * *
Donna
Donna waited for Spencer and Rebecca. Rebecca called and said she wanted to come over. She sounded pretty urgent, like she was in trouble, so Spencer had gone to meet her halfway.
Rebecca’s coming here … Rebecca and Spencer will be alone in my house with me, by choice. The three of us together … The last time they were alone together was right before the accident. The last time Donna was truly happy and normal, they had been together.
Donna knew she should have been happy, relieved, on the verge of crying again with tears of joy, but Spencer had said Rebecca had sounded worried. This filled Donna’s head with the last second she had seen Spencer and Rebecca, when they were all alone, after the accident. Running away from her …
Donna went upstairs and got dressed; this night had gone from scary to emotional and now back to eerie. Why could Donna not shake the feeling of her dream, or Paul’s words? Why did she feel like something terrible was going to happen tonight, like this was the calm before the storm?
She was now fully awake and knew that even after Spencer and Rebecca left there was no way she’d get another wink of sleep. She brushed her tangled hair back into a ponytail and felt Smoky at her feet, loyal and ready to comfort her as always.
She petted his soft fur, wishing she could shrug off the spooky feeling once and for all. She actually thought about calling Ryan. She knew it was pathetic, that he’d think she was insane to call him out of the blue. As if she even had the right to call him in the first place, to say she was afraid some monster was coming to get her. Yet in her fickle mind she wanted the feeling of strong arms around her keeping her safe. Not just any strong arms, but his. Down to her core all she wanted was for him to tell her it was all going to be okay.
He’d think I was crazy. He’d look at me with the same look Spencer used to give me, she told herself, heading downstairs. She thought about her dream, which would have been nice if it wasn’t for the end of it, which had turned it into a nightmare.
She downed five glasses of water and began filling another, not satisfied, when she heard the doorbell. She checked through the window this time, knowing it was Spencer and Rebecca but wanting to make sure. She felt her heartbeat quicken and after seeing them, she let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
She opened the door and let Smoky do his barking and licking routine. Donna’s eyes went to Rebecca right away; she looked terrible. Worse than terrible, she looked like she was dying. Her tiny body had never looked so breakable. Her frag
ile pale skin was almost green looking. Her eyes were baggy and bloodshot like she’d been crying for days. Donna had to fight the reflex not to go over and hug her. Spencer looked worried too, but Donna wondered if it was more because of their friend’s appearance than him knowing the reason why. “What’s going on?” she asked them as they walked inside.
“They have Paul,” Rebecca whispered, a tear escaping from her eye that she quickly wiped away.
Donna got goose bumps at hearing Paul’s name, but couldn’t comprehend what Rebecca meant. Donna tried to ask, “Rebecca, what are you—”
“Paul was taken,” she interrupted, her voice a little louder, but still shaky. Spencer held Rebecca then, guiding her to the kitchen table like she was a china doll. He sat down too, as if to brace himself to hear more. Donna stayed very still, letting each of Rebecca’s words sink in as if each word had a story behind it. A story she didn’t want to read. Paul. Was. Taken … They. Have. Paul.
“Rebecca,” Spencer started, bringing Donna back to the nightmare she was clearly still trapped in. He spoke to Rebecca clearly and gently. “Who has Paul?”
Rebecca looked at them, pausing for a moment. As if she didn’t truly believe the answer she was about to give. As if it frightened her enough to make her shake. As if her worst fear had come to life. “The government.”
“The … ?” Spencer stopped himself from making a quick remark. His silence seemed just as bad as Rebecca’s words. Right now Spencer had to be the brave one, the man of the group. Donna didn’t know if she could even speak anymore. She was lost, lost in Rebecca’s words, still unable to accept them, afraid to hear more.
“The government?” Spencer repeated.
Rebecca nodded like the words hurt.
“The government took Paul Cohen?” he tried again. “Why would—”
“Paul hacked into a government branch a year ago. A secret one, one that had a base nearby,” she interrupted him, able to speak without crying or shaking. As weak as she was, her words seemed to demand attention.