Disclaimer: Yeah. Still applies. Except now I also own Allison, Jacob, and Erin in addition to Jet. So there.
Author's Note: Yup. Here we go. It's a real live chapter where stuff actually happens.
Chapter 2
"So are you going?" I sighed in frustration. Algebra was had enough without being pestered every few minutes. I decided to shut her up for a while.
"All right." Allison smiled at me. "But, lets try to keep a few things in mind. First: If it's lame, I'm leaving."
"But it's a lock-in."
"Don't care. Second: I still don't like you. You're annoying. I'm only going so you'll leave me alone." She pouted and I seriously wanted to slap her. "And third: I am so not joining this dorky 'Sharing' organization, so don't even ask." Allison looked disappointed, but shrugged and left me to my homework. I think they get prizes or something for bringing in new members. I had my own reasons for not joining though. I had lost my best friend, my only friend, to the Sharing. The kids in the orphanage who had joined hung out together. Erin still spoke to me, but it wasn't the same. We didn't go to the mall anymore, or talk about nothing late at night. We had been like sisters before. Now whenever she spoke to me it was to try to convince me to join the club. She had even stopped asking me for help with schoolwork because "the Sharing has a wonderful tutoring program."
I hated, despised them for taking her away. Erin had been the closest thing I'd ever had to family. Now I was completely alone.
"Need help packing?' Or at least I wished I were.
"No Allison. I'll be fine." I gave up the hope that I was going to finish my homework tonight. Oh well, it was Friday anyway. I pushed the rolling swivel chair away from the desk and over to the closet. I pulled out a huge backpack, the kind boy scouts use when they go camping out in the woods.
"You always over pack Sam. It's only one night. Most people actually won't bring anything aside from a blanket that they're not actually planning on using. No one really sleeps at a lock-in. Its lots of fun." She'd been telling me variations of that for hours now and I was getting really fed up with the phrase 'its lots of fun.'
"Do you want me to go or not?" She scowled for a bit, then shrugged and left again. It really wouldn't make a lot of difference to her what I took with me, so I took just about everything. With anyone else that would have been a lot of stuff, but remember that I'm an orphan. We all get spending money, but it's not much. We have to save up for a while before we can get anything really cool. I've mostly gotten clothes and books, a few CDs and a Walkman. I had to save for months to get even a really cheap one, so I figured whatever and saved a few more months. After most of a year I got a really nice one and it's lasted through a lot. I take it just about everywhere. It went into the outside pocket along with my entire CD collection and some extra batteries. In the big pocket I stuffed a variety of clothes (most of them actually) and hygiene products, hairbrush and soap and stuff. You never knew what could happen.
Books were next. Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, my Tolkien books, my Yiktor trilogy, and a few other miscellaneous books all went in on top of the clothes. I'd just started The Vampire Lestat and it was getting really good. All my books were bought used and were well worn but well loved. I used my books to escape from my less than perfect life and my favorites were fantasy and mythology stories, and I didn't mind a good sci-fi so long as it felt a bit like a fantasy story.
Into the other small outside pocket went all the spending money I had left, I took that with me everywhere too, and all my jewelry. That's not as much as it sounds. I had about forty dollars and maybe two or three more in change and only about ten or twelve pieces of jewelry aside from the pendant I was currently wearing. I don't find a whole lot of what I like in that department. I mostly had large clunky pendants in the shapes of dragons and Chinese symbols and such, one pentagram, and one large silver cross. Sometimes I liked to wear those two together to watch people's reactions. I also had a few pairs of earrings and earcuffs and some bracelets.
Next into the bag went a battered journal and sketchbook. They were my heart and soul and were almost never out of my sight. I threw in a few other things that I thought might be useful, cards and a flashlight and stuff. There was just enough room left for a blanket folded on top of the clothes and such inside. I shut it tight, realizing that basically what was left in the room were school supplies and other things that didn't really matter. It was a little odd, but that's just how I am. I pack like this all the time. I was invited to a sleep over when I was little, the girl had invited the entire class, and I'd taken all my clothes and all the toys I'd owned then. When you don't really have much, everything you do have becomes all the more precious to you. That was the only sleep over I've ever been invited to. I've gotten better about it over the years, but not by much. I suppose I'll stop when I move out of the orphanage and can be sure none of the younger children are going through my room while I'm gone.
Allison came for me about an hour later. We walked in silence after the first few minutes. That was mainly because I was ignoring her. It was only about a block to the community center, so we hadn't asked for a ride. We arrived in good time and were let into the building by a guy that looked to be in his mid-twenties, a supervisor I suppose. He eyed my pack curiously but shrugged as if to say it was none of his business. I shoved a lock of my dyed-black hair behind my ear, already regretting coming here.
"Allison," he said with a cheesy grin, "who's your lovely friend?" I suppose it was supposed to make me giggle or something, but it didn't work. He got a glare instead, from both of us, as much it surprised me.
"Don't bother her, Jacob. Her name's Jetsam."
"Jet." I corrected. "Or Sam. Not Jetsam."
"Okay Jet, I need to check you in. Could you follow me to my office for a moment?" I followed him and shrugged off my pack outside the door. Allison gave me a grin and a thumbs-up and walked off to where the party was. I could just barely hear the music and chatter. I didn't really care. I'd decided that I was ditching out first chance I got.
As soon as I shut the door, Jacob grabbed my arms and twisted them behind my back. I must admit this startled me. It wasn't the kind of behavior I would have expected from a smiley guy volunteering in a community organization. He shoved me forward and down so that I was kneeling with my head over a metal tub of sludge. There were things moving around in there, though I couldn't tell what. Then he made a mistake.
Jacob reached behind him for something, I didn't even care what, and I felt the slight shift in his balance. I quickly tucked my chin so my head was against the outside of the tub and kicked him. He lost his balance, and luckily also his grip on my arms, and fell forward. I rolled out of the way just as he crashed face down into the tub. He rolled over spluttering, soaking, and really ticked, and came face to face with a knife.
He may have been really ticked but I was really, really ticked and it showed. I always carry a knife or two with me because I like them and they can come in handy downtown, but I've never actually used them on someone. If he didn't have really good answers to my questions then he'd be the first. I think he could sense that because he sat very still in the sludge and stared at my face with wide eyes.
"What was that all about?" I asked quietly, calmly, like the air before a lightning storm. He gulped a few times before answering, as if weighing his choices.
"It's an initiation for new members."
"Why didn't you ask if I wanted to join first, then? I want no part of the Sharing and only came to get Allison off my back." He decided that didn't need an answer and didn't give one. "What are those things swimming around in there? They look kind of like slugs or leeches, but they're bigger than any I've seen." He looked very worried and for a moment I thought he would refuse to answer my question in spite of the knife. Finally though, Jacob decided that whatever secret he was keeping wasn't worth his life.
"Yeerks."
"Excuse me?"
"Yeerks. Yeerks waiting for hosts."
"Hosts?" My eyes were cold and he was afraid of me. He was afraid I was going to kill him right then and there. So naturally he proceeded to spill everything about the Yeerk invasion that he knew. By the end he had almost forgotten I was there. He sounded proud to be a part of this, but by then I knew it wasn't Jacob but the parasite in his head. My face was no longer filled with anger, but with pity. Jacob might have been a nice guy if it weren't for the Yeerks and there he was trapped inside his body and unable to do anything about the countless people 'inducted' into the Sharing by the one inside of him.
"Stand up." He complied quickly enough, though that may have been because its difficult to be self-righteous when one is sitting in a tub of slime. "Lie face down on the floor." A bit of the fear from before flitted across his face before he did what I said. I stood over him for a while, unsure exactly what I was going to do. Then I bent near his ear with the knife against his throat. "Fight it Jacob. I know you can hear me. Don't give up." Hope shone in the eyes briefly before I hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of my knife and those eyes closed in unconsciousness. I ripped out the phone cord and an extension cord and tied his hands and feet. Then I took his keys, slipped out of his office, locked the door from the outside, slid the keys back under the door, shouldered my bag, and left.
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Author's Note: Read and Review. Please also read and review "Dust in the Wind" by Europa and "Heero's Heart" by Jiana. My muse is still hyperactive.
