p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"stronguspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"HELLOOOOO LOVELY GRASSHOPPERS! (Yes I kept my intro) So I am finally back! With more insanity from the bizzar dreams that I oh so enjoy having! Thank you so much if you took the time to read my author's note before this. If not, that's fine too. I'm just glad to finally be giving some new content to you with big plans for the future. :3 Now I may not be as wild in my intros anymore because the friend I had started writing stories with has now moved on with her life, and it goes a direction that mine does not follow. So I don't have that person to rial me up to say the dumbest tings I can think of. But I guarantee there will be days that that side of me will come out anyway. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADUE, ENJOY THIS CHAPTER AS MORE ARE BEING MADE! (Don't forget to follow and review. :3)/span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt;"On the Run/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"It all begins in my home. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My mom and I are preparing to go into town for some last minute Christmas shopping. The only problem is the fact that I'm almost never allowed outside. The danger is normally too great for me to even set foot outside my door. Here's why./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My hair reaches mid-back, and is blacker than black. I leave it down and natural most of the time, but my bangs are /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"always/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" down and covering the right half of my face. They are always down, because wearing an eyepatch everywhere is too suspicious. Now, my left eye is a natural hazel that sometimes changes to more of a brown, or more of a green color depending on contrast of other colors. But my right eye is the problem. My right eye is a royal purple color. So unnatural that not even contact lenses or any other means of artificial coloring is impossible to match it. The reason for it's coloring is the powers and pure kinetic energy my body possesses. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Anyone who has even heard false rumors of this power and its very existence is on the seeking out the vessel that contains this power. They seek it to have it as their own. They wish to kidnap me so they can have it all for themselves, even if it means cutting my eye out and leaving me for dead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Knowing this, I always protect myself in thick crowds and by making sure I blend into the masses. Since I rarely leave my house though, because if I have to fight back, for whatever reason, the results will be nothing short of total calamity./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"But today is a very special day. With the crowds doubled in size due to Christmas sales and last minute shoppers for the season, the chances of safety and low suspicion rates make it the perfect time for me to leave the house, and have the best chances of being undetected for another day./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"It has been a very long day of sifting through crowds and store after store. All has been quiet and smooth sailing. No one has noticed anything odd about me, and there have been no signs of anyone watching or following. A good day indeed. Everything is going just as I had hoped. Now there is just one last stop my mom and I need to make before heading home: the Dollarama./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My mom parks in the last spot nearest the entrance to the store. Then we both hop out of the van and make our way to the doors. I step inside first, and a small tingle runs down my back. For a moment I am confused, but I shrug it off. It was probably just one of those random chills I get from time to time. It is chilly outside after all./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Once inside, we begin to browse through the aisles. We slowly make our way to the back area, and I spy a bit of a clearing at the end of my aisle. These shelves are in the back left corner of the store, and that whole quarter is made up of smaller shelves that are low enough to see the tops of people's heads. The other three quarters of the store are made up of shelves that reach the ceiling. But this area, in particular, I know very well. It's my favorite place in the whole store. It has shelves containing knickknacks, fake jewels and other small craft-work items. As I turn into the last aisle before my destination, an average person slips past me into the next aisle over. Without any concern, I continue on. Then I see the colorful yarn I has been searching for. I glance back at my mom and let her know I'm breaking off to look at the yarn and medieval styled trinkets. With a distracted "Yep, be careful." from her, I trot over to the yarn. Yes… my favorite place in the whole store. I'm always captivated by the medieval fashioned items and the different kinds of yarn this section has./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I browse over several different things in a short time. My way of shopping has always been very quick and to the point, rarely wandering unless I need to kill time. Even then I get bored of it easily. But as I'm briefly looking things over, feeling yarns and inspecting jewels, I sense a sudden increase of presences within a small radius of my position. This causes a red flag to fly in my mind. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"That chill I had when I first entered the store, and that person that passed me in the aisle that was all /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"too/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" average were two signs that I had stupidly chosen to ignore./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I bolt./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Out of no-where and without any bodily signs for warning, I explode into a full on mad-dash to anywhere but here. My predators hesitate for a long time due to my unexpected change of relaxed and unaware, to knowing exactly what is happening and making a move. My body had given nothing away, giving me a full advantage that I so desperately need. They almost had me surrounded!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"In a few seconds, I am back in the very tall aisles that reach far above my head. This makes for the easiest, but most dangerous place for me to escape. Because the aisles are so tall, my pursuers will have to check each aisle individually. This makes hiding easier, but also makes it easy to trap me. If both ends of an aisle are blocked, and they know I am there, then I will have to fight. But with my current advantage, I begin to skip aisles, zig-zag, cut through, and even hide behind some of the shoppers when need-be. Sometimes, I even lay down on empty shelves so that my pursuers will pass the aisle, and I can crawl out to backtrack. The whole store is now a maze. And the one thought on my mind is finding my mother, then getting OUT! But where? Where the heck would she even be right now?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The yarn! My mother loves yarn more than I do, and she takes ten times longer to look and shop than I ever would! She has to be at the yarn section! Of course….. the most open spaced area of the whole store and she has to be there. Risky, but I take the chance. Her safety is on me in this situation, therefore I need to be the one to handle it. I begin to book it towards the yarn section, praying that I get to her before these people do - whoever the heck they are. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"So far, I have been able to confirm 3 people are after me. But my trained senses tell me that there is more - there's always more. 3 people is okay for me to handle, but when the numbers hit 5 or more, then there is a problem. My senses are saying there is 5 for certain, whether there is more or not, I can't tell at this time./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"As I hit the final aisle in my path, I catch a glimpse through a shelf at eye level. In the next aisle over to my left, there stands a male around my age perhaps. His hair is striking silver tone, and a bit spiky. He stands there as though frozen, wearing a blue and black clad outfit that could be on an Avengers movie, yet it's personalized. A strange symbol, that I can't quite make out, is sewn to the shoulder of his clothes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"An unknown faction? A new one perhaps? Are they the ones who are after me now? Tagged./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I mentally put a tag on the boy, saving the soul image of him in my mind for later. If any of the others have similar clothing or that same symbol, then the threat he poses will be confirmed instantly. Even though this is what goes through my head first, I can't help but get an uneasy feeling. Something about labeling him as a threat feels wrong. Even with that one glimpse, he looked familiar, like a kind-hearted friend I once knew, but can't remember. Maybe he was someone I made up in my head in a dream… but I feel like I should know him. Why..?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Pushing those useless thoughts out of my mind, I return to focus on my main task: finding my mother. I skid around the corner of the last aisle, and begin to stand on my tip toes as I go through each aisle. I search and search over-top of the shelves, hoping that I spy those dark brown, poofy, curled bangs that are completely unique to my mother's hairstyle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"After a few moments of desperate searching, I find myself in the very back corner, having gleaned nothing. I stop to catch my breath, and panic begins to set in. It was /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" job to make sure we got home safe. It was /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"job to keep her safe while shopping. It was /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" job to stay by her side. It was /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"MY JOB!/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The very thought of strangers holding my mother hostage, doing whatever they want to her, knowing that I can't do anything about it without a lead - it melts my mind. All of my resolve and sanity seem to crumble away, and I'm struggling to think straight. Just then I sense an imposing figure loom behind me. The sudden realization of danger has my mind snap back to reality, resolve returning. My body freezes, forgetting it's panic and transforms to fight mode./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Get her already! Don't give her time to react!" A voice shouts from a high and distant area. At the same time, the figure behind me, and I myself, leap into the air. The figure lands on the floor in a belly flop, while I land gracefully behind them. I had pushed them to the floor in mid-air when I did a back-flip over-top of them. The second my feet touch the floor, I'm off again. In seconds, four more people come to block of my back and flanks, all crouched and hiding in the aisles around me. '/spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"So there's more than just 5. There's 6 and that random boy from earlier. Things just keep getting better and better, now don't they?'/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I grumble in my head. When I reach the small clearing where all the aisles open up to, I spot the two coming from each of my flanks. To avoid facing either of them, I leap onto the top of a shelf, and slide on my side across the top before sliding off and landing on the other side. Without missing a beat, I start charging back to the other back corner, where I had seen that boy. He must have my mother! In seconds, I reach the tall-shelved aisles./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"A deadly serious look masks my face as I run. My body leans forward, legs stretching to maximum strides, and my arms fall into position like a sprinting track runner. My hair whips behind me, and my bangs fly up and out of my face. The entire right side of my face is now exposed, my purple eye burning in rage. My brows are scrunched down low in a death glare, eyes sharp and piercing. I explode around the aisle corner, and have to jump over a low shelf that should be back with the yarn. My hip skims the top of the shelf, but I clear it with ease. Once it's cleared, I screech to a halt. I'm almost to the back corner now. I'm about to begin my charge once more, when I catch a small flicker of sliver in my peripheral vision./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The next moment, strong arms wrap around me, pinning my arms to my sides. As I'm lifted off the floor in a bear-hug, a war-cry of rage tears its way up my throat. The grip on me tightens to the point where my back cracks. It doesn't crack enough to hurt, but it more like when you stretch really far and a few places snap. I scream again as my lungs begin to feel suffocated with lack of rib-cage space. The tight grip isn't enough to hurt me, but it's enough to tell me not to try anything or there will be great consequences. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"But at the same time, oddly enough, this grip doesn't feel threatening at all. In fact, warmth seems to flood from the person who caught me. The heat spreads across my entire back. Again my brain seems to be grasping for a memory of some sort. A memory that I don't seem to have. The bear-hug feels like something I had felt in a past life - like a dream I can't remember having. It feels strange, but like I could sink into it, forget all of what is happening, and just rest peacefully. This makes me angry because I can't understand why I feel this way, and I have bigger problems than to be hung up on this!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My rage then flares to near full detonation when I feel a quick prick on the back of my neck. I don't need to see the needle to know that I was just drugged with something. Since I'm needed alive in order to get my powers, there is only two things I could have been drugged with. A Stimulate, or Tranquilizer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The Stimulate is like a semi-sedation. It will put me into a dazed, unaware state that will come off as "asleep with your eyes open" sort of condition. It can make people loopy and unable to control their actions as well. The tranquilizer will render me completely unconscious within 5 to 10 minutes for a certain period of time. For how long is impossible to tell considering what kind, what strength, and size of the dosage that is used./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Either way, whatever they used enrages me. I roar and begin to struggle, twisting and wiggling in all attempts to get out of this grip without having to fight. Still I cannot shake the feeling that I shouldn't hurt this person, no matter how frustrating it is. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Stop it or they will do more than just tranquilize you!" A young male's voice hisses next to my ear. I'm stunned to limpness by the voice. It's so familiar, and they tone suggested the warning from a friend, not someone who meant to hurt me. But it also was quiet enough to tell me that he shouldn't have said anything to me at all. He's obviously risking his own neck by being the one to pin me down. '/spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This warning, the tone of voice, all of it he's doing for me. I don't get it! Why!?'/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I think in annoyance. But in this same aggravating way, this whole time I've felt like I've been fighting against a friend, not an enemy. It has to have been that silver-haired boy from earlier that has caught me. The vibes I got from that boy are the same as what I'm getting now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This entire time, this boy has come off as a warm and welcoming friend I should know. But my brain seems to shut down all attempts to remember, and replaces those trains of thought with skull-splitting headaches - enough to make me see stars. So what the heck is going on!?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"In a moment after I calm down, the amount of people within my sensory rage lows drastically, and I am plopped down in the corner. I spy my mother a couple feet away from me, sitting on the floor in a daydream state. She's been injected with a stimulate. Crap it!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Now it's just me, my mother, and my captor. Remembering that he is still there, I whip my head around to the right to get a good look at him. When I see his face, his features render me motionless. How can he be so familiar? He pulls a small laptop out of a bag he has on the floor, then sits down next to me. He opens it up, and turns it on. With it just being the three of us, I am able to relax a small bit. But the looming knowledge that I am captured with my mother, and am tranquilized keeps my body ready. The whole fact that I will be completely unconscious within the next 10 minutes terrifies me. I won't know what is happening, where I'll be taken, or anything that they might do to me. The thoughts that pass through my mind make me curl into myself. I want to disappear. But somehow, this boy's presence chases away all of those thoughts the longer I look at him. /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""What the frig is happening to me right now!? I don't even know this guy, and he's doing this to me! There must have been something else in the tranquilizer fluid!"/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I attempt to rationalize my odd feelings./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""I'm 20." He states briefly, referring back to when I had assumed his age at the beginning of this shenanigan./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Uh….19…." I answer dumbly as my vision blurs slightly. The room tilts a little, my head starting to bob. The tranquilizer is kicking in already? So soon?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""It's okay. Don't fight, and get some rest." He says softly as he types in some sort of codes. Surveillance camera screens pop up, and I assume he must be the eyes of this group he's in. Aside from that, this is when I notice how closely he has sat down next to me. He bumps shoulders with me suggestively without removing his gaze from the laptop. "Just get some sleep. I won't let anything happen to you…alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"His voice….is so familiar….and kind…where did I hear that before? That /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""just get some sleep. I won't let anyone hurt you…"/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" Where did I hear it? Everything seems so familiar and warm…. so pleasant and safe, like how one would feel when comforted by a lover after a nightmare. All of the signals my body is giving are ones telling me to trust him - let him take care of everything. I get the urge to relinquish everything to him and just sleep. For the first time in 13 years, I feel perfectly safe. And it's all because he is here./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This has to be because of the tranquilizer. But against my own will, and probably through my own stupidity, I take him up on his offer with the shoulder bump earlier. I relax and rest my head on his shoulder. My head fits perfectly in the crook of his neck. Such a natural motion, and yet again familiar - comforting. Not knowing why, but letting my body take over, I rub my cheek against his unusually silky hair one time before I link my arm in his. I close my eyes with as tired sigh, snuggle into him, and let myself fall to sleep./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"His warmth seems to reach my whole body and soul, lulling me into the abyss of like an embrace from the love of your life. So safe…. It feels so warm and safe…./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""I will get your memories back….I'll keep you safe…and this time, no one will mess that up for me." I vaguely hear him murmur something to himself before slumber fully embraces me, and my consciousness leaves me entirely./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"stronguspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Well that one was an interesting one! Extra long too, might I add. I hope you enjoyed that just as much as I did. I'm very surprised the word count is as high as it is! I didn't think it was this long! But that is alright. This may actually be my longest dream in my dream book so far. If it is, then WOOOHOOO! This year, I will be doing much better with posting consistently. I guarantee it! So don't hesitate and jump right over to the next mini-adventure!/span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"stronguspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"See you next Chapter! In Cyrus' Dream Book!/span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt;"On the Run/span/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"It all begins in my home. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My mom and I are preparing to go into town for some last minute Christmas shopping. The only problem is the fact that I'm almost never allowed outside. The danger is normally too great for me to even set foot outside my door. Here's why./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My hair reaches mid-back, and is blacker than black. I leave it down and natural most of the time, but my bangs are /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"always/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" down and covering the right half of my face. They are always down, because wearing an eyepatch everywhere is too suspicious. Now, my left eye is a natural hazel that sometimes changes to more of a brown, or more of a green color depending on contrast of other colors. But my right eye is the problem. My right eye is a royal purple color. So unnatural that not even contact lenses or any other means of artificial coloring is impossible to match it. The reason for it's coloring is the powers and pure kinetic energy my body possesses. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Anyone who has even heard false rumors of this power and its very existence is on the seeking out the vessel that contains this power. They seek it to have it as their own. They wish to kidnap me so they can have it all for themselves, even if it means cutting my eye out and leaving me for dead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Knowing this, I always protect myself in thick crowds and by making sure I blend into the masses. Since I rarely leave my house though, because if I have to fight back, for whatever reason, the results will be nothing short of total calamity./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"But today is a very special day. With the crowds doubled in size due to Christmas sales and last minute shoppers for the season, the chances of safety and low suspicion rates make it the perfect time for me to leave the house, and have the best chances of being undetected for another day./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"It has been a very long day of sifting through crowds and store after store. All has been quiet and smooth sailing. No one has noticed anything odd about me, and there have been no signs of anyone watching or following. A good day indeed. Everything is going just as I had hoped. Now there is just one last stop my mom and I need to make before heading home: the Dollarama./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My mom parks in the last spot nearest the entrance to the store. Then we both hop out of the van and make our way to the doors. I step inside first, and a small tingle runs down my back. For a moment I am confused, but I shrug it off. It was probably just one of those random chills I get from time to time. It is chilly outside after all./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Once inside, we begin to browse through the aisles. We slowly make our way to the back area, and I spy a bit of a clearing at the end of my aisle. These shelves are in the back left corner of the store, and that whole quarter is made up of smaller shelves that are low enough to see the tops of people's heads. The other three quarters of the store are made up of shelves that reach the ceiling. But this area, in particular, I know very well. It's my favorite place in the whole store. It has shelves containing knickknacks, fake jewels and other small craft-work items. As I turn into the last aisle before my destination, an average person slips past me into the next aisle over. Without any concern, I continue on. Then I see the colorful yarn I has been searching for. I glance back at my mom and let her know I'm breaking off to look at the yarn and medieval styled trinkets. With a distracted "Yep, be careful." from her, I trot over to the yarn. Yes… my favorite place in the whole store. I'm always captivated by the medieval fashioned items and the different kinds of yarn this section has./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I browse over several different things in a short time. My way of shopping has always been very quick and to the point, rarely wandering unless I need to kill time. Even then I get bored of it easily. But as I'm briefly looking things over, feeling yarns and inspecting jewels, I sense a sudden increase of presences within a small radius of my position. This causes a red flag to fly in my mind. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"That chill I had when I first entered the store, and that person that passed me in the aisle that was all /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"too/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" average were two signs that I had stupidly chosen to ignore./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I bolt./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Out of no-where and without any bodily signs for warning, I explode into a full on mad-dash to anywhere but here. My predators hesitate for a long time due to my unexpected change of relaxed and unaware, to knowing exactly what is happening and making a move. My body had given nothing away, giving me a full advantage that I so desperately need. They almost had me surrounded!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"In a few seconds, I am back in the very tall aisles that reach far above my head. This makes for the easiest, but most dangerous place for me to escape. Because the aisles are so tall, my pursuers will have to check each aisle individually. This makes hiding easier, but also makes it easy to trap me. If both ends of an aisle are blocked, and they know I am there, then I will have to fight. But with my current advantage, I begin to skip aisles, zig-zag, cut through, and even hide behind some of the shoppers when need-be. Sometimes, I even lay down on empty shelves so that my pursuers will pass the aisle, and I can crawl out to backtrack. The whole store is now a maze. And the one thought on my mind is finding my mother, then getting OUT! But where? Where the heck would she even be right now?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The yarn! My mother loves yarn more than I do, and she takes ten times longer to look and shop than I ever would! She has to be at the yarn section! Of course….. the most open spaced area of the whole store and she has to be there. Risky, but I take the chance. Her safety is on me in this situation, therefore I need to be the one to handle it. I begin to book it towards the yarn section, praying that I get to her before these people do - whoever the heck they are. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"So far, I have been able to confirm 3 people are after me. But my trained senses tell me that there is more - there's always more. 3 people is okay for me to handle, but when the numbers hit 5 or more, then there is a problem. My senses are saying there is 5 for certain, whether there is more or not, I can't tell at this time./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"As I hit the final aisle in my path, I catch a glimpse through a shelf at eye level. In the next aisle over to my left, there stands a male around my age perhaps. His hair is striking silver tone, and a bit spiky. He stands there as though frozen, wearing a blue and black clad outfit that could be on an Avengers movie, yet it's personalized. A strange symbol, that I can't quite make out, is sewn to the shoulder of his clothes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"An unknown faction? A new one perhaps? Are they the ones who are after me now? Tagged./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"I mentally put a tag on the boy, saving the soul image of him in my mind for later. If any of the others have similar clothing or that same symbol, then the threat he poses will be confirmed instantly. Even though this is what goes through my head first, I can't help but get an uneasy feeling. Something about labeling him as a threat feels wrong. Even with that one glimpse, he looked familiar, like a kind-hearted friend I once knew, but can't remember. Maybe he was someone I made up in my head in a dream… but I feel like I should know him. Why..?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Pushing those useless thoughts out of my mind, I return to focus on my main task: finding my mother. I skid around the corner of the last aisle, and begin to stand on my tip toes as I go through each aisle. I search and search over-top of the shelves, hoping that I spy those dark brown, poofy, curled bangs that are completely unique to my mother's hairstyle./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"After a few moments of desperate searching, I find myself in the very back corner, having gleaned nothing. I stop to catch my breath, and panic begins to set in. It was /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" job to make sure we got home safe. It was /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my /span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"job to keep her safe while shopping. It was /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"my/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" job to stay by her side. It was /spanstrongemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"MY JOB!/span/em/strongspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The very thought of strangers holding my mother hostage, doing whatever they want to her, knowing that I can't do anything about it without a lead - it melts my mind. All of my resolve and sanity seem to crumble away, and I'm struggling to think straight. Just then I sense an imposing figure loom behind me. The sudden realization of danger has my mind snap back to reality, resolve returning. My body freezes, forgetting it's panic and transforms to fight mode./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Get her already! Don't give her time to react!" A voice shouts from a high and distant area. At the same time, the figure behind me, and I myself, leap into the air. The figure lands on the floor in a belly flop, while I land gracefully behind them. I had pushed them to the floor in mid-air when I did a back-flip over-top of them. The second my feet touch the floor, I'm off again. In seconds, four more people come to block of my back and flanks, all crouched and hiding in the aisles around me. '/spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"So there's more than just 5. There's 6 and that random boy from earlier. Things just keep getting better and better, now don't they?'/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I grumble in my head. When I reach the small clearing where all the aisles open up to, I spot the two coming from each of my flanks. To avoid facing either of them, I leap onto the top of a shelf, and slide on my side across the top before sliding off and landing on the other side. Without missing a beat, I start charging back to the other back corner, where I had seen that boy. He must have my mother! In seconds, I reach the tall-shelved aisles./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"A deadly serious look masks my face as I run. My body leans forward, legs stretching to maximum strides, and my arms fall into position like a sprinting track runner. My hair whips behind me, and my bangs fly up and out of my face. The entire right side of my face is now exposed, my purple eye burning in rage. My brows are scrunched down low in a death glare, eyes sharp and piercing. I explode around the aisle corner, and have to jump over a low shelf that should be back with the yarn. My hip skims the top of the shelf, but I clear it with ease. Once it's cleared, I screech to a halt. I'm almost to the back corner now. I'm about to begin my charge once more, when I catch a small flicker of sliver in my peripheral vision./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The next moment, strong arms wrap around me, pinning my arms to my sides. As I'm lifted off the floor in a bear-hug, a war-cry of rage tears its way up my throat. The grip on me tightens to the point where my back cracks. It doesn't crack enough to hurt, but it more like when you stretch really far and a few places snap. I scream again as my lungs begin to feel suffocated with lack of rib-cage space. The tight grip isn't enough to hurt me, but it's enough to tell me not to try anything or there will be great consequences. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"But at the same time, oddly enough, this grip doesn't feel threatening at all. In fact, warmth seems to flood from the person who caught me. The heat spreads across my entire back. Again my brain seems to be grasping for a memory of some sort. A memory that I don't seem to have. The bear-hug feels like something I had felt in a past life - like a dream I can't remember having. It feels strange, but like I could sink into it, forget all of what is happening, and just rest peacefully. This makes me angry because I can't understand why I feel this way, and I have bigger problems than to be hung up on this!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"My rage then flares to near full detonation when I feel a quick prick on the back of my neck. I don't need to see the needle to know that I was just drugged with something. Since I'm needed alive in order to get my powers, there is only two things I could have been drugged with. A Stimulate, or Tranquilizer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"The Stimulate is like a semi-sedation. It will put me into a dazed, unaware state that will come off as "asleep with your eyes open" sort of condition. It can make people loopy and unable to control their actions as well. The tranquilizer will render me completely unconscious within 5 to 10 minutes for a certain period of time. For how long is impossible to tell considering what kind, what strength, and size of the dosage that is used./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Either way, whatever they used enrages me. I roar and begin to struggle, twisting and wiggling in all attempts to get out of this grip without having to fight. Still I cannot shake the feeling that I shouldn't hurt this person, no matter how frustrating it is. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Stop it or they will do more than just tranquilize you!" A young male's voice hisses next to my ear. I'm stunned to limpness by the voice. It's so familiar, and they tone suggested the warning from a friend, not someone who meant to hurt me. But it also was quiet enough to tell me that he shouldn't have said anything to me at all. He's obviously risking his own neck by being the one to pin me down. '/spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This warning, the tone of voice, all of it he's doing for me. I don't get it! Why!?'/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I think in annoyance. But in this same aggravating way, this whole time I've felt like I've been fighting against a friend, not an enemy. It has to have been that silver-haired boy from earlier that has caught me. The vibes I got from that boy are the same as what I'm getting now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This entire time, this boy has come off as a warm and welcoming friend I should know. But my brain seems to shut down all attempts to remember, and replaces those trains of thought with skull-splitting headaches - enough to make me see stars. So what the heck is going on!?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"In a moment after I calm down, the amount of people within my sensory rage lows drastically, and I am plopped down in the corner. I spy my mother a couple feet away from me, sitting on the floor in a daydream state. She's been injected with a stimulate. Crap it!/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Now it's just me, my mother, and my captor. Remembering that he is still there, I whip my head around to the right to get a good look at him. When I see his face, his features render me motionless. How can he be so familiar? He pulls a small laptop out of a bag he has on the floor, then sits down next to me. He opens it up, and turns it on. With it just being the three of us, I am able to relax a small bit. But the looming knowledge that I am captured with my mother, and am tranquilized keeps my body ready. The whole fact that I will be completely unconscious within the next 10 minutes terrifies me. I won't know what is happening, where I'll be taken, or anything that they might do to me. The thoughts that pass through my mind make me curl into myself. I want to disappear. But somehow, this boy's presence chases away all of those thoughts the longer I look at him. /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""What the frig is happening to me right now!? I don't even know this guy, and he's doing this to me! There must have been something else in the tranquilizer fluid!"/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" I attempt to rationalize my odd feelings./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""I'm 20." He states briefly, referring back to when I had assumed his age at the beginning of this shenanigan./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""Uh….19…." I answer dumbly as my vision blurs slightly. The room tilts a little, my head starting to bob. The tranquilizer is kicking in already? So soon?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""It's okay. Don't fight, and get some rest." He says softly as he types in some sort of codes. Surveillance camera screens pop up, and I assume he must be the eyes of this group he's in. Aside from that, this is when I notice how closely he has sat down next to me. He bumps shoulders with me suggestively without removing his gaze from the laptop. "Just get some sleep. I won't let anything happen to you…alright?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"His voice….is so familiar….and kind…where did I hear that before? That /spanemspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""just get some sleep. I won't let anyone hurt you…"/span/emspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" Where did I hear it? Everything seems so familiar and warm…. so pleasant and safe, like how one would feel when comforted by a lover after a nightmare. All of the signals my body is giving are ones telling me to trust him - let him take care of everything. I get the urge to relinquish everything to him and just sleep. For the first time in 13 years, I feel perfectly safe. And it's all because he is here./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"This has to be because of the tranquilizer. But against my own will, and probably through my own stupidity, I take him up on his offer with the shoulder bump earlier. I relax and rest my head on his shoulder. My head fits perfectly in the crook of his neck. Such a natural motion, and yet again familiar - comforting. Not knowing why, but letting my body take over, I rub my cheek against his unusually silky hair one time before I link my arm in his. I close my eyes with as tired sigh, snuggle into him, and let myself fall to sleep./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"His warmth seems to reach my whole body and soul, lulling me into the abyss of like an embrace from the love of your life. So safe…. It feels so warm and safe…./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;""I will get your memories back….I'll keep you safe…and this time, no one will mess that up for me." I vaguely hear him murmur something to himself before slumber fully embraces me, and my consciousness leaves me entirely./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"stronguspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"Well that one was an interesting one! Extra long too, might I add. I hope you enjoyed that just as much as I did. I'm very surprised the word count is as high as it is! I didn't think it was this long! But that is alright. This may actually be my longest dream in my dream book so far. If it is, then WOOOHOOO! This year, I will be doing much better with posting consistently. I guarantee it! So don't hesitate and jump right over to the next mini-adventure!/span/u/strongu/u/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 21pt;"stronguspan style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;"See you next Chapter! In Cyrus' Dream Book!/span/u/strongu/u/p