Chapter 1 – Running Away
I woke, suddenly, to the smell of food.
Crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, toast with melted butter, pancakes piled high with maple syrup. Yum. My mother must have been cooking breakfast. I loved my moms cooking; it always tasted differently to anyone else's.
Cracks of light shone through gaps in the curtains and danced across the wall. The clock read 08:12. I was going to be late for work if I didn't get up soon.
I crawled from my warm bed and pulled on an old checked shirt and jeans before I ambled down stairs to the kitchen.
"Morning Ian, honey," my mom smiled at me. She had a lovely smile that lit up the room, you couldn't help smiling back.
"Hey, Mom," I grinned. "Got any of those yummy pancakes left?"
My mom laughed lightly. "How 'd you know I'd made pancakes?" she asked as she piled up my plate.
"I always know when there's food around, Mom," I took my plate and began shovelling it down. "Kyle up yet?" I already guessed he was still in bed.
"No, lazy slug. But he better get up soon or he'll be late for his job interview and date with Jodi." Mom rolled her eyes.
I got up from the table and yelled up the stairs, "Kyle! Get up or you're gonna be late!"
"Your father's out mowing the lawn," Mom said as she sipped her coffee. Always black. No milk. No sugar.
"I better get off to work now," I sighed as I got up and grabbed my tattered converse trainers by the door. " See you later, Mom."
"Bye Honey."
I jogged out of the door and down to my car. It was old, one of the windows was chipped and the door didn't shut properly.
"Bye Dad!" I called over the purr of the lawn mower.
He waved, "Bye son!"
I jumped into the car and started the engine. It made an irritating chugging noise I could never get used to. I turned on the radio. It was the news. It seemed that the news was very muddled and mixed up over that last week. Criminals were turning themselves in. Very odd.
I'd graduated from high school last year and I was going to college next year to study mechanics. At that moment I was working in a small café in town. My brother, Kyle, had graduated college earlier that year and was going for a job interview that day.
I parked around the back of the café and quickly scrambled up the steps into the building. I was only a couple of minutes late but for my boss it was a couple too many.
The day was slow. It seemed to drag on forever. The shifts were filled with customers ordering either the most confusing meals or taking their time and hating the dish when it eventually arrived.
I was relieved and confused when Kyle ran though the door and grabbed my arm.
"We have to leave. Now!" Kyle hissed in my ear. He looked like he'd been running and kept looking around as if someone was watching him.
"Why?" I asked him as I tried to free my arm from his tight grip.
"Something is wrong!" He mumbled. "I'll tell you in the car!"
"Kyle, I'm working."
"This is more important!" Kyle growled. I didn't want to make him angry so I followed him out into his car.
"What is it?" I grumbled.
"Today, at my job interview, the man who was doing the interview acted slightly… strange."
"How?" I asked sarcastically.
"The interview was going fine and then he asked me if I could lie on the sofa. So I was like why? And he said it was something to do with a test they give all the employees. So I went and lay on the couch and he took out a drug. It was one of those things to knock you out! So I just lay there and then he took out a scalpel and a strange metal pot thingy. He hadn't noticed me looking but then he came over and saw me. He was said "don't worry, everything is going to be fine". That was when the light caught his eyes! They were silver and reflected back at me!" Kyle was shaking, his words coming out in a jumble.
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I punched him in the face," He laughed without humour.
I flinched. "That is odd… although it may just be nothing, just a crazy person right…?"
"Another strange thing was that on the back of his neck, he had a scar. It looked fresh."
I changed the subject only because the silence was making me shiver. "Have you heard from Jodi?"
Kyle looked away. "She texted me." He took out his phone. "'Hello Kyle. This is your girlfriend Jodi. Could you come to my mother and father's house please? A lot of our friends are coming for a gathering. Bye.' She always uses text language … and she would never ask me that…"
That was when my phone started to ring. I took it out with sweaty hands. "Hello?"
"Hello, Iain. This is Jill, Your mother. Your father and I want you and your brother to come home now, please."
"Eh… Mom, I'm at work. You know that…"
"Yes. You are at work –
I never heard the end of that call because I threw my phone out of the window. It smashed into pieces.
Just then a man walked past the car, his eyes were silver and reflective.
"Kyle?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's go now."