Prologue:
11:25AM
August 7, 2005
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow at school!" She called back to me as she gently glided up her walkway to her dark-brown, oak wooded front door. Anna's house wasn't all that big, but it was big enough for her two sisters, her mom, and herself. I loved her family like my own. I honestly would have moved in with them if Anna truly wanted me to. It wasn't like my family provided the care for me like Anna's did. But at that moment, all Anna wanted from me was a promising wave good-bye.
As I waved back to her, she smiled with friendship glistening in her eyes. I knew that she must have been cold. It was almost 40 degrees outside today. It was one of the coldest days Stillwater, Oklahoma has ever seen. I smiled back, and started to ease on the gas pedal when I saw her trip. I immediately pushed on the brakes to look at her. She didn't get up at first, so I yelled, "Are you okay?" while leaning over and saying it out of the passenger window. I suddenly felt a weird feeling. Like I to keep her safe at all cost. I didn't know where it came from, but I do know that I felt that something was wrong. Really wrong. And for some reason, I decided to pass the feeling over.
"I'm fine! I just…tripped. That's all." She laughed back as she finally started picking herself up. She grabbed her duffel bag; it contained her clothes from spending the night at my house.
"Okay! You be careful now as you're walking those last few steps to your front door!" I teased. We both laughed as she waved good-bye to me again. I started backing out of Anna's driveway again, slowly, making sure she was in the house before I left; I always did that. I got to the end of her slightly slanted driveway and waited as she attempted to open the door. It didn't open for her, so she rang to doorbell. When nothing happened, she put her bag down and rang it again. I yelled, "Hey, do you just want to come back to my place for the day, or wait until they get back or something? I mean, their car's not even here!"
Anna's mom's car wasn't there. But Anna's mom and her sisters had gone to a volunteer project thing that she really didn't want to go to. Her mom had offered for her to spend the night at my house to get her out of it. Anna's mom had told me that they would all be back by about ten o'clock. Anna knew that and called back, "Nah! I'll just wait for them! I mean, they should be here soon; it's almost 11:30! But you can wait out here with me until they get here!" She added a smile to that last sarcastic part. I had to giggle at that.
"Maybe you could try to garage!" I suggested after thinking about it for a second.
"Good idea!" she smiled back. But just as she started turning, I saw her hesitate. The window right next to the door was tall and had a white curtain in it. I saw the curtain move back and someone looked out. I guessed that was what she was looking at. I figured it was just her mom or someone checking to make sure they knew who was at the door, and they really did park the car in the garage. I saw the door open, so I started focusing on my driving. I turned my head around and finished backing out of her long driveway, then turned out into the street. When I looked back at the house, Anna wasn't there anymore. She had gotten into the house safely.
But I still felt like something wasn't right. I felt like there was something I should have been doing, other than just sitting in front of Anna's house. And that something included Anna's life in some way. But I still couldn't pinpoint where the feeling was coming from or what it meant. So I decided to spend a moment just looking out of the passenger window at her bright blue home.
I started to remember how she had always complained about the color. They had moved into that one-story, three bedroom house just four years before when we were both 13 years old. I agreed with her when I first saw it, too. I hated the color. I had helped them move in, and then got to help splatter paint all over Anna's bedroom walls. It was a new look she had been going for. But she soon realized that she only liked the feeling of painting a wall that actually belonged to her family. Now she hated the multi-colored splatters that covered her bedroom. That had been the first house that they owned, and she wanted to paint her room again, but she was unfortunate in the department of persuading her parents.
Anna and I had been best friends since the 3rd grade, when she moved to Stillwater, Oklahoma. We had been inseparable since. But she's also been moving from house to house since then. But we didn't let that get us down. On the weekends it was either her house or mine, but we were never alone. I couldn't bear to leave her alone with her two bossy older sisters, and she couldn't bear to leave me alone with my three annoying older brothers.
Then I remembered how we made a pact in the 5th grade, that we would be friends forever, no matter what. And even after we graduated high school, we would go to the same college and live in the same dorm and everything. We were young then, but we still felt the same way now as seniors in high school. Well, we were almost seniors. We had two weeks left of summer, and we were the most exited we had ever been. Plus, to top it off, Anna's birthday was coming up. She was going to be 18 years old on September 21st. I don't turn 18 until December 15th, so she was a little older than me. But we were like sisters, and age didn't matter to us.
All of a sudden, I flashed back and noticed Anna's duffel bag still sitting in front of her house and the door was closed. I shook my head and laughed as I reached for my cell phone. I figured she had just left it outside on accident. I hit her speed dial button and the phone began to ring. Nothing happened, so I guessed that she had her cell phone in her bag. I called her house phone and nobody picked up. I thought that was really weird but I went along with it. I was about to get out of the car to go return the bag myself. Then I saw the door open and Anna's mom ran out to the bag. She didn't look so good. Actually, she looked horrible. Her face was stained with tears, and her eyes were deep as if she hadn't gotten any sleep in the past couple of days. I couldn't see who they were, but I saw two figures standing in the shadow of the open doorway. It almost looked like one of them was struggling while the other held them still, but Anna's mom ran back into the house in a flash before I had a chance to ask her what was wrong. I sat for a moment, confused. Then I saw the curtain beside the door move aside again, and a shape appeared behind the window. It took me a second to make out the face of a man.
He had short, light-brown hair, and a clean-shaven face. His eyes were in perfect symmetry on his face, and a beautiful shade of green. They were looking outside with a fierce glare. His face was a little long, and his cheeks rounded in a slightly adorable way. His lips were smooth and pink. Then I noticed that he was looking at me the whole time.
He only stood there for a moment before returning behind the safety of the curtain. I quickly realized that I had never seen this man before in my life. And Anna had never mentioned anything about knowing anyone like that. He might have only been there for a single moment, but I'll never forget his face.
All of a sudden, I was screaming. I was in my house, in my pajamas, watching the news. The date on the TV said August 8th. It was the next day. I didn't understand any of it, but the news showed an irreplaceable sight. The four people whose faces they were showing had me frozen with fear. I couldn't think of anything else to do, but scream, as they posted the time of death right next to Anna's 11th grade picture…11:35 AM. I closed my eyes and tried to wake up from this dream. Luckily for me, consciousness is always on my side.
Ch. 17:42AM
September 17, 2005
I awoke in an unfamiliar bed that lay in an unfamiliar room. It took me a mere second to realize that I was sweating profusely. I've got to stop dreaming about that. I can't let Anna's face haunt me forever. I rubbed my eyes and looked around the room.
I had to look around for quite a while before remembering where exactly I was. Which, at the moment, was somewhere in New Mexico, just south of Santa Fe. I think the town is called Madrid.
I remembered renting a motel room last night to give myself a rest. I'd had barely any sleep in the past 48 hours. But then again, it was better than the two whole weeks before, when I'd gotten only16 hours of sleep altogether.
I wiped my forehead and brought my legs over the edge of the bed. I remembered a song I used to sing with Anna all the time and had to take a moment to fight back the single tear that threatened my inner strength. Like in the song, I cradled my head in my hands and took a deep breath.
I sat for a moment with my face still in my hands. I was looking between my fingers at the room as my elbows jabbed at my thin legs. I was running short on food lately, and was starving. I was being forced to sink as low as scrapping some fruit off of street vendors and such. I didn't like the way I had been living the past month, but I was on a mission, and nothing was going to stop me from carrying out my goal.
I stared at the small dresser that was set up next to the bed. I pulled my face out of my hands and blinked in slight shock at the ipod that I had placed there the night before. I couldn't believe that it was still there. Not that I wanted it stolen or anything, but I was just impressed that the manager to the motel had come in the bedroom last night and never took it while I was sleeping. At least he thought I was sleeping.
I never really sleep anymore. I close my eyes and drift into a semi-sub-consciousness in which I could keep a look out on my surroundings while I got some form of rest. I know for a fact that someone was in my room last night. But I lock my door out of force of habit, and the manager was the absolute, only other person here last night that had any keys to the rooms. I remembered that because last night when I got here, I noticed the big chain of keys that he had had in his pocket. I had asked him if there were any other keys to the rooms here, and for some reason, he broke out into a sob story about his wife leaving him. I had to listen to four flights of stairs of this guy telling me how his wife took the other set of keys when she ran away with the bellboy, and now he runs the motel all by himself, with no help. The trip to my room took four flights only because he was placing me in the attic room; he claimed it was the best room he had for my last 10 dollars.
I picked up my ipod and scrolled down to one of my favorite songs. It was a Three Days Grace song called 'Pain'. I had been favoring songs like that since the incident. Actually, I had been favoring a lot of weird stuff since the incident. For example, I dyed my long hair black last week, and am now in love with it. I used to hate people who dyed their hair, especially when they dyed it black. I also noticed my liking for horror movies, when I used to almost pee myself when somebody just spoke of one. But these changes were the least of my worries. Right now, I was looking for somebody.
I was looking for somebody who had a clean-shaven face, and beautiful green eyes. I had started looking for him two weeks after Anna's death. It was about a week after her funeral, and I was depressed. School had just started, but I had decided not to go. I was been filling my car up with gas, and when I went in to pay, I saw him leaving. He walked right passed me and it took me a minute to realize whom he was. Then I flashed back to that scene where I was sitting in the car, and he glanced for a mere second out the window. But it was enough to remember then, and this glance was enough to remember now. I quickly paid for my gas, and got into my car. Luckily, he hadn't left yet when I came out. But he was leaving as I got into my car, so I followed his black BMW all the way out of town. I guess you can get rich quickly in the criminal career.
It was about an hour later that I realized that I wasn't going to lose this guy. I was going to follow him until I caught him. Retribution was my only hope. I couldn't live without knowing that he was no longer walking this earth freely. I didn't want to kill him. That would have been letting him off easily. I wanted to see him rot in jail for his crimes against Anna. I wanted to see him suffer. But if I couldn't put him in jail, the least I could do is find him. I wanted to find him and just ask him a simple question. I was thinking that hopefully it would cause a ripple effect on his guilty conscience and he would cave. I just wanted to ask him why. But right now that wasn't so easy.
He'd made a u-turn somewhere around Edmond, and started heading towards Stillwater again. I decided that I would grab some clothes from my house, along with other needed supplies, when he had stopped for the night at a motel. The next morning I was supposed to confront him, if I'd gotten there on time. But he'd already gotten up and I again had to follow him. But this time he led me straight through Texas and into New Mexico. Unfortunately, I lost him somewhere in Clovis. Now I'm just picking up on his trail. I'm determined to find him again.
I put my headphones on and started listening to my music as I walked over to the single backpack that I had been carrying around. It was small enough for me to take around everywhere, and still big enough for me to fit eight outfits and a bikini in it. I started to pull out a simple outfit I could throw on so I could get the heck out of there. I pulled out my 'Jesus is my homedawg' t-shirt and smelled it. It smelled good enough for me. I only slept in a spaghetti-strap, so I just put the shirt on over it. The light brown background on the t-shirt almost blended with the color of my skin. I reached down to pull out a pair of pants when I noticed what was missing all along. I noticed what should have been, but wasn't, hanging from my neck. I felt for it around my neck to double check, and only touched bare skin. That son of a… I knew what the manager took from me.
I threw my pajama shorts into the backpack after I quickly put on my only pair of Mudd jeans. I checked my ears for my earrings, and they were still there. Next, I checked my watch, which was right where I left it. Then, I felt for my anklet. It, too, was present. Thank God. But I didn't care too much about all of that. What I cared about most was the one thing that was missing. And I was eager to get it back.
I checked around the room and thought about anything else I had brought with me. There was nothing left behind as I dashed down the four flights of stairs, amazed at how easily I was flying through them. I jumped over the very last three steps, and swiftly caught my breath as I slowly made my way over to the front desk.
Sure enough, Mr. Fantaski was sitting behind his counter, busy in a magazine. Mr. Fantaski was a plump man who you could tell definitely had a taste for fattening foods. He was almost completely bald, with the exception of a thin layer on either side of his head of gray hair. He was circling stuff, so I assumed he was shopping or something. He heard the sound of my drop and looked up for a brief moment, then got back to his magazine. He didn't look up again until I was standing right over him at the fairly small front desk. It wasn't decorated except for a bowl of oranges he kept at his end. They were more for him than for the customers.
As his round face looked up at me, I saw his calm brown eyes sparkle. But I didn't waste any time studying this man. I swiftly grabbed his tie and pulled his face close to mine so I could make my point crystal clear. "Where is it?" I tried as hard as I could to keep myself from yelling.
"What are you talking about?" he yelped in fear. His magazine was still held tight in his hands.
"You know darn well what I'm talking about!" I sort of got upset, but I was trying to save my energy for the rest of today.
"I swear, I really don't, and you're wrinkling my tie!" he struggled, not taking his eyes off of me. I looked down to get his face out of my mind for just a second so that I could cool down before answering back. Finally I was calm enough and looked at his fear-filled face.
"Oh, believe me. Your tie is the least of your worries right now, because I am missing a chain. And on that chain was a pair of dog tags. Now, those tags are very special to me, but they were stolen last night. I want them back. And as far as I know, you are the only person here with access to keys to the rooms. Or was I mistaken?" I was as calm as I was ever going to get in this particular situation. Unfortunately for Mr. Fantaski, my maximum level of calm wasn't very high.
"I swear, I did not take anything from you! I didn't even go into the rooms last night!" Mr. Fantaski's voice almost sounded as if he were pleading for his life. Of course, I wouldn't have blamed him at that moment. I was being pretty rough with his Superman tie.
"Well then where are my tags, and who took them?" I yelled back. I was definitely at a breaking point.
"Well, there was another person here last night. A man. Maybe he snuck into your room last night and took them." Mr. Fantaski said hopefully with a forced smile of innocence on his face. I gave him a look of suspicion. A man?
"What man? What was his name?" I asked simply, my voice much lower than before.
"I don't know. I don't even know your name! He came in last night. Said he needed a place to stay, so you know me. I offered him a room and gave him a key and then I came down here and went to sleep." Mr. Fantaski spoke quickly, but as if he was sure he'd just found the culprit. I stood there, just holding his tie, lost in thought about whether this story was believable or not. I concluded that I didn't even care. I just wanted my tags back.
"Where is this man? Has he left yet?" I finally asked.
"No," Mr. Fantaski answered, but then paused. "But he's right behind you."
It no longer amazed me how quickly my body could make a 180-degree turn. I was still holding on to Mr. Fantaski's tie and I heard the yelp from his pain as I jerked him forward, ramming him into his desk. I looked up at this simple man who was now standing before me.
Well hello gorgeous…. His face seemed almost familiar in a way, but I knew this was no man that I had ever seen before.He was young. I guessed he was just a few years older than me, though. He was a few inches taller than me, but I didn't mind looking up into his face. His hair had the popular style of short and thick. It was an off shade of blonde, and it was styled in a spiky sort of way. It looked as if he ran gelled fingers up it, rather than touching it with a comb. His eyes were a deep shade of blue with a few spots of green mixed in. He had a little bit of a scruff on his face, but that was okay with me. He was wearing a Patriots jacket, and some Levi jeans. I just stood there in awe at the fact that this man was in a crappy motel like the one we were standing.
"Is everything alright here?" He asked, his English accent sharp. I let go of Mr. Fantaski's tie, and he fell back into his chair and took a deep breath, smoothing the tie out. I didn't say anything, but Mr. Fantaski just as quickly jumped up and came around the desk.
"As a matter of fact, there is!" he shouted, throwing his finger at the man as if he was trying to make him disappear in a magic show. The man's eyes widened for a brief moment then went calm again. "We do not welcome thieves here at the Fantaski motel!" Mr. Fantaski was now standing in front of me, yelling while using weird hand motions. The man now looked confused.
"I beg your pardon?" the man's eyes shot up and down Mr. Fantaski in one swift motion. But now he was looking Mr. Fantaski straight in the eye.
"I know what you took last night! Especially from a little girl! How can you live with yourself?" Mr. Fantaski still yelled.
"Hey! I'm not a little girl!" I said defensively. The man no longer looked confused, but shocked.
He took a deep breath and said, "I honestly have not the slightest clue what you're talking about."
Then he looked at me for only the second time and I noticed something. It was small, slightly invisible, and barely detectable, but definitely unmistakable. And everything hit me at once. It momentarily sent me back to the moment in time when I first saw this man's face through a window. When the man looked at me just now, he had blinked. And when he did, I saw the shade of dark blue in his eye shift on his contact, leaving the true nature of his eye color unprotected. And I saw those same beautiful deep green eyes once again.
My mind began to race as I swiftly began seeing other irreplaceable flaws. I saw that his blonde hair came to a stop just barely at his roots. The roots of his hair were undoubtedly brown. I noticed that the jacket he was wearing was way too light for New Mexico's autumn, but just heavy enough for a place like Oklahoma. And then, I saw the glisten of a chain at the top of his Levi jeans' pocket. My tags! But that wasn't the worst thing I saw.
I saw a hidden weapon, tucked into his pants, just beyond the edge of his hip. His jacket was supposed to be covering the gun, but I was too big of an observer to miss it. And this changed everything. I couldn't believe I was so stupid as to not think of what he might have been bringing with him. I knew I couldn't go up against a weapon of that kind of force. I knew there was only one thing to do if he was now after me. I had to run.
I quickly realized that he was still looking at me after I'd done my inspection, and I didn't like the look on his face. He was glaring at me suspiciously. Mr. Fantaski had just stopped yelling at the man as I mumbled the words, "Actually, Mr. Fantaski, I think I'm just going to go. I probably just left them on the…bike, that's all. I'm sorry I troubled you. Thanks for everything, though." I spoke soft and slowly, without taking my eyes off of this guy. But it was loud enough for Mr. Fantaski to hear as I slowly edged towards the front doors to the motel. The man was now looking at me knowingly as I drifted away from his grasp.
I didn't turn around towards the doors once, except to open them, for fear of turning my back on this man. And when I did open the doors, I did it with haste and skill. I turned around, grabbed the handles, flung one of the doors open and took one last look at the two men, standing in the lobby. Shock and confusion was covering their faces. Mr. Fantaski was more confused, and the man was more shocked, but both looks were equally terrifying for me. As I turned to walk out the door I heard Mr. Fantaski starting to apologize sincerely to the man. I didn't hear the man reply in any way, but I did hear footsteps gradually drifting towards the door. I still had only one thing on my mind at that point. RUN!
I honestly didn't have a bike. I had a car, but that wasn't going to be any good at this point, because it still had a license plate from Oklahoma on it, and I knew that the man would figure that out immediately. So I shot down the stairs that led up to the front doors to the motel, and I ran to my car, which was conveniently parked right out front, in a small parking lot. I yanked my keys from the side pocket of my backpack, and unlocked it. In one swift motion, I opened the door, threw in my cell phone that I had grabbed with my keys, closed the door and locked it.
My cell phone was the last thing that kept me connected to anyone else in this society, and I did not want him to have control over anything that he could track me with. The only thing I used the phone for was to call my mom, but he could get her number from the phone anyways. I delete all received and sent phone call numbers every night before bed. Plus, I don't have any names or numbers listed, either. I learned that lesson the hard way after a girl got a hold of my cell phone at the beginning of September, and started copying the numbers down into her cell phone. My mom started getting weird phone calls from a girl who claimed to be her daughter. I laughed when she told me. I was almost disappointed to have to leave my cell phone behind. But I could always contact my mother from a payphone. And nobody would be able to track that down. To be honest, I was kind of thankful for the fact that she would not be able to track me down from my cell phone service. I hoped she would never have to see me like that. As far as my brothers were concerned, I was away at a private school. My mom thought it would be believable after Anna's death and me not wanting to go to public school anymore. So every time I call them, I have to come up with some story about how I'm doing great and making friends and everything's cool.
But my mother knows the truth about my where a bouts. I never had a dad, so it was up to her to make decisions for me. And my mom had a similar experience when she was a much younger child and couldn't do anything to help. She had always wondered what would have happened if she had gone after the lady who took away her best friend. So she let me go. Well, she kind of had to because I had left without telling anybody and she didn't find out until I called her from Edmond, Oklahoma. That's almost two hours from Stillwater, and she didn't want to bother to come get me. So she made up a story to tell everyone else about where I am, and her and I keep in touch. I love my family like crazy, and I miss them everyday, but for now, that wasn't really on my mind.
Right now I was thinking of a way to get out of this. A way to get away from this man for now. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that he was coming after me. This whole time, I thought he was the one being chased. But why now? It was bothering me extremely as I ran down the street. Maybe he was on to me the whole time…I pondered the thought, but only for a second. Then I got back to what I was doing. I never turned around to look back, but the windows on the buildings were helping me with reflections. He wasn't out of the motel yet, but I saw the door just about to open when I took a sharp left. Now I knew he was following me. And now I knew I was in danger.