Authors Note: Kay, this is where I stray from the traditional storyline, so consider yourself warned. Also, this is where I did the majority of the revision (with the exception of combining the chapters). Thanks and read on!
Saving Grace – Chapter 3 - Escape
A girl with curly auburn hair ran down a trail. She hopped over stones and large branches that blocked her path while waving to the people she passed by. Although her parents told her numerous times to not make any kind of contact with anyone she didn't know she couldn't help it. Janie just enjoyed being friendly. It was an innate ability she'd had since she could remember. Goodness knew she didn't get it from her parents. They didn't talk to anyone, and they didn't let Janie talk to anyone either.
"Ah well," Janie thought, "what they don't know won't hurt me."
She ran as fast as she could, enjoying the wind blow against her face. The sun was setting and the summer was quickly fading into autumn. The cool California evening was setting in, and she looked at the horizon as the last rays of sunlight started to turn to purple. It was her last run before school started the next day, and she dreaded returning to her school, St. Cecilia's Academy for Young Women. While it wasn't a boarding school, it was a prep-school and perfection was demanded in every aspect of life. Grades, appearance, and etiquette all mattered, and Janie felt smothered.
This was probably why she spent more time in the Headmistress' office and detention hall than anyone else she knew of. It wasn't that Janie was a bad person, in fact, she was very kind. She stood up for anyone wrongfully accused and often argued with the elite group at school, challenging their "I'm right because I'm rich" attitudes and constantly shifting paradigms.
The fact that she ran the only successful gambling ring on campus didn't really hurt her image of being a good person. "It adds character." She often told her few friends. Of course, she used the term "friends" liberally. She felt it in her gut that her parents were going to move again soon. The McKenzie's were notorious for not living in a single place for too long. They had finally settled in the town of Eureka. The entire area was filled with beautiful redwood trees, sequoias, trees big enough to drive cars through. It was the one place that Janie actually considered home.
"Three years and counting." Janie thought to herself as she approached their house at the end of the street. She knew her residence here couldn't last. And that was why she never bothered with very solid friendships. She loved being friendly, but it never went past that stage really.
Janie stopped running and cooled down into a brisk walk. "Except for one person." She said and smiled to herself. Eric, her boyfriend, was always there, even when she had first moved there when she was thirteen. Janie had gotten lost in the wood behind her house and he found her.
His first words to her were, "You must be the new girl." It had taken him many weeks to get Janie to speak with him, and when she finally did, Eric invited her to a picnic in the wood. Of course she couldn't go, as her parents didn't want her out of their sight, so Eric agreed to a picnic in her backyard. They had been together ever since.
Janie smiled at the memory and continued to walk down her street.
As she drew nearer to her house, she noticed something peculiar: a cat. While the cat didn't exactly appear abnormal, it was strange nonetheless. The thing was, was that Janie's father hated animals. It seemed all of the animals in the area knew it, because none ever came near their house. No bears, coyotes, and not even gophers, and their neighbor's yards were infested with those. Her father simply hated animals, and animals simply stayed away. Until that day in any case.
Janie stopped in her tracks and addressed the cat. "Hey!" She called. The cat turned to look at her and its eyes widened in surprise. Yet it didn't run away. Janie was intrigued by this.
"Cat, you'd better go before my parents see you." She warned. The cat regarded this comment by rolling its eyes and swished its tail.
"Look," she said, approaching the cat and kneeling down, "You're probably new around here, so I'll go easy on you. My dad hates animals, especially cats, and it'd be a pity if he found out the many ways to skin a cat using a pretty one like yourself... so scat!"
The cat tilted its head, as if considering what Janie had said and then stood and walked slowly away in the direction of Eric's house.
Janie remained kneeling, baffled by the cat's reaction. She watched it disappear behind some bushes and Janie stood up, and walked down the path into her house.
Janie looked up at the clock. It read 7:15. "Darn it," she thought, "late again. Let me see, fifteen minutes means two days restriction. Oh well." Restriction for Janie meant no television or radio. Television wasn't so bad, Janie never watched it anyway. All that was on was some show called Dawson's Creek, and MTV was too retarded, even for the masses. The radio, on the other hand, was Janie's life source. She lived for music, and deprivation from the radio was like a lack of oxygen. The only thing that held her over was Eric's CD player. Luckily, her parents didn't know about it yet.
Janie stepped into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. She walked up the stairs and paused at the door of her father's study. Her father loved books. Sometimes it seemed like he loved books more than he loved Janie, or even her mom. Janie pushed that thought aside and entered the study.
"Good evening, Jane." Her father, Ted McKenzie said firmly. "I don't suppose you know what time it is by chance, would you?" He asked, not lifting his eyes from his book.
"I know I'm late and I'm really very sorry, but I wanted to get in as much running as possible," She explained as she fiddled with the pens on Ted's desk. "School starts tomorrow," she continued, "and I won't have as much time as before."
"I understand, Jane," her father said, "but a girl your age should take precaution when outside and alone. When I ask you to be inside at a certain time, it is expected that you be there promptly. Not fifteen minutes late. Two days restriction. Go set the table for your mother."
"Yes sir." She responded obediently. She had learned years ago that it was best to simply accept the punishment instead of arguing over it. Arguing usually meant the punishment would be extended.
Later on, when the table was set and Janie's mom, Genevieve, Ted, and Janie sat at the table silently eating their supper. It was potato soup, again. Janie's mom habitually sank into cooking patterns, where she would make the same thing every other night for two weeks. Janie was starting to despise the taste of potato soup, but knew better than to complain. At least she was eating. Janie had gone to bed hungry numerous times for complaining about the food and it was nothing she wanted to make a habit of. Janie loved food almost as much as she loved music.
The sounds of their silverware hitting their china reverberated through the dining room. Janie could hear the grandfather clock in the hallway tick and strike the new minutes. She looked at her mom, who was staring tightlipped into her bowl. Then she looked at her dad, who was reading their newspaper. Janie sighed and tried to think of something interesting to say. The cat might make for interesting conversation. Perhaps Janie would be rewarded for getting rid of it. Without any options, it seemed like the only thing worth talking about. So she did.
"I, uh, saw a cat in the driveway today." Janie said, looking down at her bowl momentarily.
"Oh?" Her mom asked.
"Yeah," Janie continued, "It was pretty weird. It looked like it understood exactly what I was saying. And when I told it to leave, it left." The grandfather clock stopped ticking, her mother's spoon clattered into her bowl, and Janie looked up at her parents.
Ted rose abruptly from his seat and drew something from his pocket. Genevieve looked at him. They nodded at each other and Genevieve stood. She looked directly at Janie and said, "Jane, go get a backpack and put whatever you need in it as quickly as you can. We're leaving."
Janie sat in shock. What had just happened? One minute she was talking about a cat, and the next minute her parents were acting psycho. Had cloned freaks taken over their bodies?
"Janie, go now." Ted ordered. His tone was so fierce that Janie jumped out of her seat and ran up the stairs.
Ted and Genevieve looked at each other and said nothing. Genevieve reached out and grabbed Ted's hand. Ted grabbed it and kissed her hand, looked at her tenderly for a moment, and then went to the window in the front room and went about making adjustments to the security he had put in place when they had first moved in.
Meanwhile, Janie was in a flurry in her room. She grabbed her backpack full of school supplies that sat ready by her door and dumped it out. Racing sheets and statistics flew everywhere. She looked around the room and tried to breathe calmly.
"What do I take?" She thought. "What do I take?"
She grabbed her picture of Eric and her at their first picnic. The necklace with a four-leaf clover that she'd had since before she could remember. Her favorite book, The Princess Bride, Eric's CD player. Janie stuffed a pair of underwear and socks in her backpack and went to reach for her pajamas when she heard a crash come from downstairs.
Janie flew down the stairs as fast as she could and heard yelling coming from the kitchen. When she entered it, she saw her father standing with a stick pointed at an old lady Janie had never seen before. The old lady had a stick pointed at Ted and was wearing an out of fashion pointed hat. Genevieve was standing behind Ted, looking very confused and utterly stressed out.
The old lady did not turn to acknowledge Janie's presence, but simply kept talking to Ted, keeping her stick trained on him.
"You mustn't keep running, Theodore." The old lady spoke as if addressing a ten year old. "She deserves to know. They both do."
Janie's dad lowered his stick and looked at his feet. Janie could only stand with her mouth open. "Dad?" she asked, breathing heavily still. What was the old bat talking about?
Ted glared at McGonagall, "Don't call me that. Please." Then he turned and looked at Janie. "I'm not your father."
Janie's heart stopped beating. She laughed nervously and looked at her mom. "Mom?" she asked, begging for some kind of sense.
Genevieve looked at her, shrugged, and shook her head. "That's not me either, dear. Sorry about this. But we're not really your parents."
Janie gasped for air. It seemed the walls were closing in on her. "Not my parents?" She thought; her brain spinning. Janie backed out of the kitchen slowly. She had entered the Twilight Zone, she knew it, and she was going to wake up, it would be morning, and she would go to school, and make a whole lot of money on the upcoming world-series.
She kept backing up and she heard her dad- no, the man she thought was her dad say, "We'll leave right now. As long as the Deatheaters don't know about us, we'll be fine."
"They already know." Janie heard from behind her. She turned around and almost screamed. A middle-aged man with haggard looking clothes was standing less than four inches behind her. He looked directly into Janie's eyes and she saw anger, grief, and worry. The man broke eye contact and looked into the kitchen. "Minerva, they're here. A lot of them. They're coming from the front." Janie could see shadows moving on the front room walls. People were in her front yard. Her parents were not her parents. The room started spinning.
Ted looked at McGonagall and said, "They're going to kill her. You have to take her. We'll stall them for as long as we can."
McGonagall nodded solemnly. She looked over at the man standing by Janie, "Remus." the old lady said.
Without waiting for an order, Remus, or whatever his name was, grabbed Janie's arm and started pulling her towards the back of her home. Janie, who was still in a great deal of shock, allowed herself to be pulled for about three feet before turning back to her parents and sobbing, "Mom? Dad? Why?" A lump was forming in the back of her throat and Janie couldn't talk anymore.
Ted looked at Janie. He had no words left to say. Genevieve took a wand out of her pocket, and Ted hugged his wife one last time before going to their deaths.
Janie continued along her path with the two people whom she had never met before. As the old lady, McGonagall, opened the McKenzie's back door the front door exploded and Janie screamed, or at least tried to.
Janie watched as her parents jumped apart and rolled out of the line of fire. Then Remus pulled her out the backdoor, into the shadow of night. When Janie's brain finally caught up with her, she was running into the woods with Remus. The old lady had disappeared, but that damn cat was there again. Janie's ears rang with adrenaline. Her shoulders shook as she struggled for breathe and sobbed involuntarily at the same time. Her vision became cloudy. The cat stopped, and so did Remus. Janie gasped for air and her vision adjusted to the night sky.
Remus put his finger up to his lips and took what looked to Janie like a silver blanket out of his small rucksack. The cat jumped onto Remus' shoulder and Remus wrapped the silver thing around the three of them. Janie tried to quiet her breathing. Twigs nearby snapped and she could hear the sound of footsteps all around them. Janie chewed on her nails. There were people running all through hers and Eric's woods. Remus tensed and Janie could hear people shouting. The cat jumped off of Remus' shoulder and crept slowly along the floor of the woods, seeming to stalk anything that moved. It swished its tail twice and Remus removed the cloak from himself and Janie. Once again he pulled her hand and they began running into the darkness.
They had been running for what seemed like ten minutes when a twig snapped and Remus threw Janie to the ground and took out his wand. He quickly said, "Expelliarmus" and a yellow light shot out of his wand and hit someone by a tree a few meters away. The person flew back against the tree and rolled onto the ground. "Stupefy," Remus muttered quickly after, and the person, whoever it was, didn't move anymore.
Janie stared at the person's prone body as Remus grabbed her hand and pulled her up. Janie snatched her hand away and her eyes grew wide. She looked at the masked person and gasped. "Is he dead?" She asked Remus shrilly. "Did you kill him?"
"No." He replied, holding up his hand in an attempt to calm her down, "Merely stupefied. It'll wear off within a few minutes. We must go."
He reached down and offered her hand. Janie shrank away from it, as if repulsed. Remus could have slapped himself. The child was terrified of him, and she shook as she stood. She even looked like she was getting ready to run away. And she tried. However Remus grabbed her arm before she was able to break away, and he held on tight. Janie tried to wrench away from him and struggled hard. Her vision grew cloudy and the moonlight faded away and Janie's her vision blackened. She started to fall back to the ground when she felt something catch her, and then she felt she was being carried. She fought to regain her vision. When she opened her eyes, she gasped, for she saw a close up of Remus' face. It was scarred with scratches and what looked like lacerations.
Remus looked down at her and whispered, "Can you run?"
Wordlessly, Janie nodded, understanding that they were falling behind and that was indeed a very bad thing. He set her back upon her feet and then turned to start running again, never letting go of her arm.
"Quickly." He ordered.
And Janie ran faster than she had run before, and knew that if she slowed, she would certainly end up dead.
Twenty minutes later, they finally stopped running. They had entered a large field and were walking quickly to the center of it. Janie could no longer see the cat that was leading them, but she heard the breaking of the grass below the cat's feet. They had almost reached the middle of the field when Janie finally found her voice again. She stopped dead in her tracks.
"Time out." She said, and then fell on her hands and knees and retched into the dirt. When there was nothing left in her, she looked up with watery eyes and wiped her mouth. Remus looked at her, concerned. "Are you alright?" he asked. Janie noticed he had an extremely English accent. She'd been so busy finding out her parents were frauds that she didn't even think about it before.
"What the hell is going on?" She asked weakly.
"I'm afraid we haven't time to explain." Remus said.
"Who is 'we'?" She persisted.
The cat who had been leading them walked in front of Janie and stretched out. The cat became taller and its front paws became hands and back legs became shrouded by a dark green skirt. Janie's mouth hung wide open.
"We," McGonagall said sternly, "are Professors McGonagall and Remus Lupin. Please don't ask any more questions for a few moments."
Janie's mouth still hung open as she fumbled back onto her feet. The lady was the cat, or the cat was the lady. Which ever it was, Janie was in shock.
Remus held a toothbrush out to Janie, and she looked at it skeptically.
"Grab onto it." He said. Janie reluctantly touched to bottom tip of the toothbrush and McGonagall touched the mid-point of it. They stood there for a few seconds, and Janie sighed skeptically and said, "Well, this has been intriguing, but I really must be -"
Before Janie had realized it, a tingling sensation started in her stomach and she felt herself being pulled toward the toothbrush. She opened her eyes a few moments later. "-getting home." She finished. Janie found herself looking up at the stars on her back. She sat up and looked around. McGonagall and Remus were still standing and Remus was walking towards her to give her a hand up. She stood up without his help.
They were no longer in a field, but in a parking lot in front of a shut down Denny's Restaurant. It looked as if it had been deserted for years. Remus and Professor McGonagall walked directly towards it. Before reaching the door, McGonagall turned around and gently said, "Whatever you do, dear, don't say anything to anyone." Remus opened the door for McGonagall and whispered to Janie, "Just try to look like you belong." Janie nodded and entered into the abandoned building, waiting for the last piece of her life to fall out of place: her sanity.
As she walked through the door of the old Denny's, the smell of burning wood tickled her nose and she sneezed. Professor McGonagall and Remus whipped around with their wands drawn, and Janie chuckled nervously and looked down, quietly muttering "Sorry."
They turned around and kept walking. Janie saw a few people sitting around a table. They stopped talking and turned around to stare at the three of them. Janie smiled out of habit and waved slightly. One of them, a tough looking biker with tattoos up his arms glared intently at her and then smiled back suddenly, raising his glass towards her. Then the entire table resumed talking, as if nothing had happened. Janie almost laughed, but found herself short of breath due to the running and smoke that assaulted her lungs.
She kept close behind Remus and looked around in wonder. The interior of the Denny's looked nothing like a traditional Denny's did. The walls were painted black, as well as the windows, and a huge fireplace in one of the walls. The oddest thing that Janie saw, however, was a broom that was sweeping the floor by itself. It seemed to be dancing with a small dustpan accompanying it. She stared at it for a good minute in bewilderment before Remus nudged her and motioned for her to sit down at a table with him.
She plopped down in her seat across from Remus and stared at the wooden table. Her eyes wandered listlessly across it and came to rest on Remus' eyes. He was sitting back in his seat with one arm across his chest and his other hand covering his mouth. He seemed to be looking very closely at Janie, scrutinizing her every characteristic.
"Erm..." Janie started, trying to think of something to say. "Sorry I passed out on you back there. That doesn't usually happen." Remus snapped out of his reverie and nodded, still distracted.
Professor McGonagall reappeared from out of what Janie supposed was the kitchen door. She quickly walked over to the table and Remus stood up and pulled out a chair for her to sit in. "Thank you, Remus. Now," she said, speaking directly to Janie, "I know you have questions."
"Damn right I do." Janie interjected.
"However," McGonagall continued as if Janie had said nothing, "we cannot speak openly here. We must make one more trip to a secure location."
Janie sat straight-up in her seat in protestation. "Wait just one gosh damn minute here." Remus motioned for her to quiet down, and she lowered her voice to a loud whisper. "I am not going anywhere with anyone until I get some freaking answers!"
"We will give you answers, but not yet, now we must go." Professor McGonagall said, getting up and moving to grasp Janie's arm.
Janie moved away from her and growled, "You touch me and I scream rape."
Remus' jaw dropped and Professor McGonagall clenched her jaw. Grudgingly, she sat back down. "We will give you a few answers. You leave us no choice."
Janie continued in a whisper. "Indulge me. Who are you? And I mean more than just names. Who sent you, and why me? And who were those people we were running from? And," Janie's voice cracked, "who are my real parents."
Remus glanced at Minerva before he spoke, very quietly. "We were sent by a man named Albus Dumbledore. He is the headmaster of a school named Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Have you heard of it?"
Janie nodded and said, "Why yes, of course I have. I just read about it in my catalog of the top ten schools for sorcery and the occult."
"Really?" Remus asked, intrigued.
"No." Janie deadpanned. "My parents, I mean, the McKenzie's, or whoever they were left a lot out about everything, apparently."
"Well," Remus continued, "He sent us to rescue you from what would have been your death. The people we were running from and consequently dueling are known as, ahem," Remus lowered his voice considerably, "Deatheaters. And they want to kill you because of who you're related to."
Janie sat with her eyes wide, just waiting for him to say "just kidding" or something like that. "And who is it that I am actually related to?" She asked, hoping she'd get an actual answer.
"We've answered enough questions for right now, dear." McGonagall said, standing up once more. Janie crossed her arms and shook her head in frustration. "I'm afraid we must be going." McGonagall continued, "We cannot linger for very long." Remus nodded in agreement and then stood up himself.
Janie still sat and looked at the table again. "If I can't trust the people that are in this restaurant, or whatever it is, and I can't trust my par- I mean, the McKenzie's, or whoever they are, and I can't trust whoever was trying to kill me," She looked at both of them. "Why should I trust you?"
Remus knelt down beside her seat in a fatherly manner. "Because you must. And I promise you will get more answers when we get to where we're going." Janie considered this. Slowly, she asked "What are the odds of me living if I stay here?" She asked.
Remus answered, "Zero to five percent."
She considered this, ringing her hands. Then she asked, "And what are the odds of me living if I go with you?"
Remus answered once more, "Eighty to ninety percent.
Janie sat for a moment and chewed on one of her nails. It was a new habit she had acquired within the last hour. She stood. "I like those odds better."
McGonagall smiled at the exchange, and than said, "There's a fireplace we can use in the kitchen. We have to be fast."
She turned and started to walk to the kitchen. Janie looked at Remus confused. "We're using a fireplace in a kitchen? I thought we were leaving."
"We are." Remus said, "But we are leaving via the fireplace. It's a way that wizards and witches get around. I'll explain more in a bit. Just do as we say."
Janie nodded, frustrated. She was getting more of those answers lately; cryptic and unhelpful.
McGonagall stepped up to the medium sized fireplace and said, "Make it fast." Remus nodded and McGonagall stepped into the fireplace. Janie's eyes widened as she saw that the flames did not singe her robes or hurt the old lady at all.
McGonagall called out, "Bob's Bakery!" and threw a pile of dust onto the fire, then was gone. If Janie had been chewing gum, she would have swallowed it then, or perhaps choked on it. Fortunately, she was not chewing gum, and instead only dropped her jaw. She looked over at Remus.
"You have got to be kidding me." She said.
"Nope, now go on. Just do what she did." Remus said, pointing to the fireplace.
Janie took a deep breath and stepped into the fireplace. Her tennis shoes felt warm, but the fire didn't hurt or burn her. She grabbed a handful of dust from the dish McGonagall had, and looked at Remus again. He nodded, and said, "Just say it clearly. 'Bob's Bakery'."
Janie looked down at the flames and said uncertainly, "Bob's Bakery." She threw the powder down and before she closed her eyes, was spinning in circles and growing incredibly dizzy. She could see dark spots in the corners of her eyes and they grew larger as she kept spinning. Soon all Janie could see was darkness and she knew nothing else.