Thank you NoelAnderson, Super8-Lover, siriusly cool48, rau, annoyingnicegirl, Waiting, and Keyblade Master Timaeus for reviewing chapter 6!
"You have got to be kidding me!" Cary shouted tossing his cards onto the table.
Alice just smiled still showing her cards to the boys around the table, and then grabbed the remaining pocket change, buttons, and other bits of junk they could find to use for bets.
"I mean come on! Is your Dad a gambler or something? Honestly I don't know how you've been able to beat me 9 out of 15 times!" He groaned and dropped his head on the table.
"Nope." She continued to smirk.
"Are you sure?" Preston asked next to her. "The probability of you managing to beat us on your first time playing poker is very, very unlikely." He amplified 'very', and beat his hand on the table with the repeated word.
Alice laughed at them before speaking in the most convincing tone she could assemble. "This is my first time; I honestly never knew how to play until a couple of hours ago when you guys taught me!"
The response she got was a deep sigh from her left. "Okay, sure." Martin mumbled. Alice slapped him on the arm.
"I'm telling the truth! I'm just lucky!"
Martin sighed again rubbing his arm and giving Alice a small glare. "Fine, Cary deal out the cards."
Cary slowly picked up his head and gathered every one's cards. He took his time to snarl at her.
"You better watch it; I am going to win this one."
Alice started playing round 16. She actually never played the card game before, but her Dad has. He wasn't a serious gambler; occasionally he would invite guys from work and the bar over to the house to play a game or two. On those nights she remained trapping herself in her bedroom or remained away from home until late at night. She always tried to be as invisible as possible when her Dad and his friends were drunk.
"It's a good thing Charles and Joe aren't playing." Cary brought up, studying his cards, sitting on the stolen metal stand to the second cot with Martin. Charles had the mattress part of the cot pulled up to a corner of the room, and gave the appearance of being in a deep sleep, but Alice was completely unsure about it by the way he moved every so often.
She looked away from Charles to Cary. "Why?"
"In the end it always turns into a competition between them, and it's not much fun to play when they get competitive." Martin said as he looked up from his hand.
"Happens every time," Cary said before he burst into laughter. "Hey do you remember that time we got half the class to play cards with us during English? Oh that was awesome!"
The three of them broke into an excited conversation about the memory, and Alice drifted her attention away from the boys by her. She started to wonder about what had been mainly troubling her mind, for most of the time she had been playing cards, she was watching Joe. He was still sleeping on a cot on the other side of the room, but as she watched him, she saw that every once in a while he would jerk or twitch in his sleep.
Cary's voice brought her back to the table. "That was the first time Joe got detention too, his Dad was so mad when he picked him up from school."
"Oh, I remember! We all thought he was going to kill him in the parking lot!"
"No Preston, only you thought that."
"Shut up Cary!"
Alice looked at her cards and placed them on the table.
Groans and unhappy faces surrounded her, giving Cary a chance to shout out at her. "What! How Alice, how!"
"Like I said, I'm lucky."
"Bull."
"Yeah, um, Alice I'm having a hard time believing you also."
"Just like when you said you believed the suit guy." Cary directed this to Preston.
"I, well," He stammered avoiding every one's eyes. "It's Charles' fault!"
"It is not!"
"He would have dislocated my shoulder or something if I didn't go on his side, you know how he is!"
"Yes we know how he is, but you could have stood up to him, look at us," Cary pointed his finger around the table to Alice, Martin, and himself. "We pushed him aside and were fine! Gosh Preston, gain some guts."
"I'm sorry guys!"
"Yeah sure, whatever."
Alice could see the frustration grow on Preston's face before he spoke up.
"Why are you shouting at me for going on Charles' side? What about Martin!" He pointed towards him. "He was the one who ratted to Charles about Joe and-" Preston stopped talking, his eyes shooting to Alice, then quickly away. Now she knew that she really was missing something.
"What are you talking about?" Alice asked.
Preston fidgeted. "Nothing."
"Good going." Cary elbowed him in the ribs.
The uncomfortable atmosphere started to grow, and Alice opened her mouth to say something once more, when the door opened.
The men in green were back. They said it was dinner. Alice watched Preston leave the table and wake up Charles. Cary stood and started to walk to Joe when Alice stopped him.
"I'll get him, you guys go." All but Charles nodded and left the room with a few of the men.
She was nervous as she crossed the room to Joe. She had a guess of what he saw while he slept, and hoped more than anything that she would be far away from that guess. She leaned over the boy, pushing her fallen golden hair behind her ear. A deep breath was all she was able to do for herself as she reached out a hand and placed it on Joe's shoulder.
"Joe" She said it as a whisper. He remained still. Alice heard an impatient sigh escape from one of the men at the door. She moved her lips closer to his ear. "Joe, it's time to wake up."
His eyes flicked open in wonder, searching everything before him until his eyes found Alice. His burning questions, surprise, and fear reflected from them. With that look, she knew what was wrong, what he saw, and what he needed. He took a few steady breaths before making a sound, but Alice stopped him.
"You don't have to talk about it." She knew she would not want to talk about it, and she didn't. Some of it she told Joe, but not all, she didn't want to. "Come on" Alice grabbed his hand and led him out of the room.
The cafeteria was the same for dinner as it was for lunch, bleak, lonely, and colorless. It had the same people as before, in the same places, with the same emotionless expressions. Alice pushed around the food on her tray. It looked like the same frozen meatloaf her father would get when he came home late from work, it made her uneasy. Across from her Joe did the same thing with his food. The rest of the boys were eating and holding a quite conversation with each other. Alice looked back to Joe from his friends to see if she could make eye contact to him, as he remained transfixed to look down on his tray for most of the dinner, but as she did so, something different caught her eye.
A man sitting two tables behind Joe was looking at her. She found it strange. Alice stayed sitting for several minutes watching the man, who looked like he wanted to say something to her, then she stood up. Every pair of eyes in the room followed her as she walked to the man. She sat down at his table, and he didn't say anything but look at her. She realized that maybe this was another thing that wasn't fully thought through. A hand was on her shoulder and her name was said, but she just shrugged off the concerned Joe. He sat down beside her, and then the man talked.
"How old are the both of you?"
Alice answered first. "14."
"13." Joe said fidgety.
Across from them he gave a small chuckle. "You certainly are young ones to be here, that's for sure. Haven't seen anyone you're ages in years."
As he said it Alice could see the years he lived written on his face, the wrinkles, the tired eyes, and even the grayed hair.
"Excuse me, but how long have you been here." It was Joe who asked the question.
Sadness filled the eyes of the old man, yet he smiled. "The year is 1979, correct?" They nodded at him. "Then I've been in here for 34 years."
Something heavy felt like it was placed on Alice's shoulders.
"What?" Charles seemed to be eavesdropping, for he stormed over to the table, and slapped his palms to the table. "You're not really telling the truth are you? There is no way on this planet that you have been stuck in this hell of a building for all that time!" His frustration shattered the friendly manner the man was holding.
"Yes, I believe that's true."
Charles flopped down onto one of the seats. "We need to find a way out of here."
"Don't worry about that too much; you guys should be out of here soon."
"Wait a minute," Cary joined the table, with Martin and Preston following. "What did you say?"
The man moved his eyes around the table to all of them, with the smallest of smiles. "School starts soon doesn't it, you all have friends, family, and it would be strange if you start missing school, wouldn't it? They have always been weird about that, the people that run this prison, they don't want you missing an education, or a second chance to start over, in a way. You six aren't the first ones in here, I've seen kids come through here for knowing government secrets, witnessing terrorist attacks, shoot, even my children for crying out loud!"
"Your children!" Alice didn't mean to shout it, but she did. "What happened?"
"You don't want to hear an old man's story."
"Please?" She said it as sincere as she could, and he told his story.
Alice sat on the edge of the cot Joe previously slept on. Her mind running with the things she heard only an hour ago. All of the trials the old man went through, how his simple fault brought his family here, only for them to leave him behind and never know anything of their lives beyond cement walls encasing him. His hopes that his children were able to grow up without any troubles, his wife remarried and is happy, and mostly that they forgave him. These things continued to conflict with her, as with the others she noticed, for the room was muted. It wasn't long before Charles took the initiative to bring up something else that the man said.
"Only a couple weeks."
"Dude, what?" Martin asked.
"It's only a couple weeks until school starts."
Preston took his turn to speak. "No, more than just a couple weeks, almost two months."
Cary rolled his eyes. "It sounds better when you say weeks, okay?
"Will you guys stop?" Charles was obviously irritated. "Think about it, if that man out there is right, we will be out of here soon. We can go home finally." Almost the instant he stopped talking the room lightened up, and there was a sense of joy. It was as if there was never a complication for them being in the prison like building in the first place. The boys playful teasing and familiar bickering came back. It all was the same, excepted for one of them. Joe slowly walked to the cot and sat down next to her.
"Um, Alice? I don't know if, uh-" He was nervous. "-if this is happening to you, because it is to me, and I know you said that I don't have to talk about it, but I feel like I need to, well, are your nightmares not just nightmares? More like," He continued to struggle for words. "Like you're being haunted?"
Alllllright! So, I'm really sorry for not updating this sooner! Silly life got in the way!
Ok, First- I really like writing this story, so I won't quit on it, I'll write it until the end!
Second- I have no idea what kind of Super 8 story everyone wants out there, so I'm writing a story that I would want to read, and that means this story will get a little dark. All of the stories I write end up like that, haha I don't really know why! I hope you won't have a problem with that!
Third- If I'm not updating fast enough... TELL ME! Please! Review, PM, or whatever so I will be pressured to update!
I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER!