Ch. 4 We make a plan

The phone rung until someone picked it up.

"Hello?" His somewhat deeper voice helped lift the burden off of my heart a little.

"Adam!"

"Althy! Hey! How was Italy?" I could just imagine the smile that was spreading onto his lips right now.

"It was amazing! But, I missed you."

"I missed you too, bud, but you totally broke our record." The last part of his statement made me smile. "Our record" was all of the days we've haven't not talked to each other. You see, ever since I was in first grade and Adam was in third, we have been best friends. In first grade, I was always being bullied at recess by Thomas Williamson, a bully in elementary school. One time, he actually hit me and Adam saw while he was playing kick ball. He ran over and got in a fight with him. We both went to the nurse's office with a black eye each. After that, we decided to hang out because we discovered that we had a lot in common, like with our taste of music, books and movies.

"Well, sorry that I couldn't bring my laptop. Besides, my stupid phone wasn't working either."

"Excuses, excuses." He repiled with sarcasm.

"Look, I'll make up those six days if you meet me by the treehouse in an hour." I found my voice had gone down a couple of decibels.

"You sound pretty serious," He paused, "I'll bring the popcorn."

Our treehouse was built when I was nine and Adam was eleven; we built it together. We're a pretty good team, you know. We built it as an escape from school and our annoying siblings; it was a place to have adventures, or better yet, a place to do homework. This treehouse holds so many memories of us and now, another one is added to the collection.

"Are you sure you're going to do this?" Adam questioned, eating a handful of popcorn.

"I've never been more sure in my life." I was lying on my belly with a map sprawled out in front of me. Some Sour Patch kids were covering the map. I ate one that was on Florida.

"Alright, but just one thing." I looked up at his brown eyes.

"What?"

"I get to come with." I shook my head.

" Adam-" I started to protest.

"Althy, please!" His eyes were pleading to me, "This is my last summer of not having to worry about college and I want it to go out with a bang. Except for my internship in New York, it's been pretty boring." I bit my lip, weighing his words in my head. He could in a lot of trouble or worse, he could be in a lot of danger. A sigh escaped my lips.

"Fine, but you do understand that on this mission, you could be in a lot of trouble and or danger?"

"Trouble and danger are my two best friends." He grinned his boyish grin and I rolled my eyes; just managing a small smile.

"Okay, we leave at four A.M."Adam groaned.

"Four A.M?" I ate some popcorn and rolled up my map.

"You heard me."

"Don't you think that's a little too early?" I rolled my eyes; if there was one thing that Adam could never miss, it was his sleep.

"Dusk is too early, Adam. Besides, we need to get out of here unseen and unheard." I put the bag of Sour Patch kids into my back pack and zipped it up.

"So, we're sorta, running away?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You got it." He nodded and put the popcorn away. I climbed down the ladder and waited for Adam, but one thing I couldn't wait for was to hit the road.

"We're really going to take your dad's corvette?" Adam grinned and twirled the key ring around his pointer finger. Here we were at four in the morning in Adam's garage, staring at the red sports car.

"Yup!" He eagerly walked over to the driver's door and opened it, getting in. I walked over to the passenger's side and got in also.

"We're supposed to be inconspicuous Adam, and a bright red corvette doesn't help," I looked over at him, just to see him put the key into the ignition anyway. He revved the machine and pulled out of the driveway.

"Well, if you want to get her back, and quick, a corvette is the way to go." I groaned mentally; Adam did have his moments of wisdom, but I would never admit that to his face.

Ch. 5 A guy hits on me...literally.

It's too bad that it was raining as we drove becuase I could sort of tell through the gray skies that the scenery was really pretty. I think that I forgot to mention that ever since I returned from Italy, I've been having dreams. They were foggy glimpses of what I believe is going to happen when we save Lacey. Like I said before, I couldn't see too well, but I could hear people's voices. I recognized Adam and my voice, but I didn't with the two other voices. One voice was of another girl; her voice sounded smart and strong. The other voice sounded deep and menacing, even though it had an air of lightness in it. Wait, that doesn't make any sense, doesn't it?

I looked out the windshield; it had gotten foggier since we left. It was the afternoon and we were still making our way to our destination. I dug through my back pack and pulled out a map. I had just seen a sign saying that we had just left Pennsylvania now. I sighed and put the map away, we still had a while to go. Adam pulled off of the highway and drove down a ramp that led us into a small city. I looked at him.

"What are you doing?" He drove into a gas station.

"The car needs some gas." He stopped at a pump and got out of the car. I ran into the convenience store. It was small, just like the town. It had a few stragglers in it; two adults getting their coffee and child pleading to his mother to get him a Hershey bar. I sighed and walked over to the candy section, grabbing a bag of Sour Patch Kids. I grabbed a bottle of Coca-Cola for Adam, and a bottle of apple juice for me. I walked up to the cashier and made eye contact with him, even though it looked like he had only one eye. I shrugged the thought off; it was probably just my imagination. I placed my stuff on the counter.

"You are pretty," He said and smiled. Boy, he had gross teeth. Has he ever heard of a toothbrush?

"Thanks." I was only able to plaster a little smile on my face because of the level of disgust I had for him. He finally rang up my stuff.

"Ah, juice expired," He spoke really weirdly too, maybe he wasn't my age. "I'll get you another." He climbed out from behind the counter and walked towards the back. I didn't follow him.

"Follow." I sighed and followed him back. He was standing in front of a door which I think led to the back of the store.. But, the weird thing was is that he wasn't going in and just kept on looking at me.

"You pretty, very pretty, Althea." My eyes widened. How did he know my name? "Master said that if I caught you, I can keep you." He caressed my cheek with his dirty, chubby finger. I slapped his hand away.

"Ugh! Don't touch me!" I screamed.

"Feisty," He murmured and grinned, "I like feisty." Suddenly he reached put his arms out to me, to grab me, but I moved out of the way; feeling my bow appear in my hand. I looked down at my hand, but that was a big mistake. The next thing I knew, I felt an impact against my cheek, making me fly against the wall. I saw the guy walking towards me, his two eyes clearly one now. Cyclops, I thought. He cracked his knuckles.

"And I am going to catch you, Althea." He then charged at me and I started to load my bow, but I didn't have to. A couple of inches away from me, I saw the cyclops get electrocuted by a random lightining bolt. I looked towards my left, seeing Adam with a hand outstretched to the unconscious cyclops. I looked at him, shocked.

"D-did you do that?" He shrugged; I guess he was a little shocked too.

"I think I did." There was a pause in between us.

"Well," I said, "That was totally wicked!" I ran over and hugged him. He hugged me back.

"Thanks, Althy." He murmured into my hair.