Today I woke up without an alarm. I felt well rested, but I had a feeling that was going to change. After getting up and getting dressed, I noticed how the sun shone through my window, so I opened it, feeling just how hot and nice it was outside, despite it being early December now.
As I got down the stairs and went straight into the kitchen, I saw Will and Sarah in T-shirts, drinking coffee and tea. "Why is it so hot today?" I asked them, starting to become a little more conversational, but all I got were confused shrugs in turn.
"Do you want to eat something?" Sarah asked. Before I could answer, she moved to open up the cupboards, shuffling through them. "I'll make you cereal."
"Thanks." I said out of decency. After I had breakfast, I went outside and spotted the black, lifted truck just sitting peacefully. But it was so big and ominous-looking. I was pretty sure it didn't come out of the factory with road armor on it. Did the military tune it? I didn't think pickups were usually this tall, either.
Looking away from the parts that were tuned, my jaw dropped from the horrendous sight.
The truck was even filthier than last night.
Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Will. He was carrying a bucket of water, soap, sponge and a hose. Half of the things were already in the bucket of water. He put the bucket down and I said, "I've never, ever, seen a truck this filthy."
He looked over the truck, but didn't seem to particularly interest in its cleanliness. I guess that was fine, since it wasn't his truck anyway. "Yeah, Ironhide needs a good bath."
"Ironhide?" I asked. He froze, as if I just said the devil's name. Who knows, maybe I did?
"I never pictured you naming your cars, Will." I told him earnestly.
He quickly changed the subject, and I could see he was very uncomfortable. I wondered why. It's okay to name your car if you like it. "Everything you need is in the bucket. You sure you can manage?"
"I'll be fine." I told him with a nod.
"If anything hurts, take a pause."
"I know." I said as Will gave a single nod and went back into the house. I went towards the truck and eyed it. There was a lot of stuff to be washed off this thing. There was just so much caked mud on it.
I took the end of the hose and turned it on, adjusting the end of it and pointed it towards the truck. The water was freezing cold, but I let it sprinkle over the truck. At first, I thought the truck shook a bit, kind of like a shiver, but that must have been the heat of today's morning sun playing with my eyes.
Once I went over it completely with the hose, I sealed the cap and searched inside the bucket for some brushes. I took a hard brush and went towards the truck, the bucket water not as cold anymore, as it was standing in the sun for some time.
Which made me wonder, how long was I washing the truck, and how long would I be washing it? I'd probably need an entire day just to get the exterior to look acceptable. But it was better than wasting this day completely.
I went to the passenger door and started scrubbing it with the hard brush. Somehow, the brush didn't leave any scratch marks behind, and in the event that it did, they faded very quickly. Maybe the brush wasn't as rough as I thought it was. Either it was that, or the truck had some really good paint and coating on it.
I managed to get all the four doors cleaned, and because I broke a sweat, what with washing it and standing in the sun for hours, I wiped my forehead with my forearm. It was time to clean the trunk of the truck, so I went to the trunk door and pressed a button, which lowered the door to a horizontal level. The trunk was full of more mud, leaves, rocks and dead bugs.
Grabbing the hose again, I let the water splash all over the trunk for a few minutes until it was all dripping out of the lowered trunk door.
The trunk was clean, at the very least, and that was good. As I went to grab the trunk door to put it back in its place, I noticed how the metal was oddly warm. It must have been like that because of the sun. I went to the rear window of the truck and turned the hose on again, as the mud obediently slid down the window and out of the trunk. Then, I closed the trunk door, letting it click into place.
The back was clean, so were the doors, now the last part, the front. I took the bucket and moved to the front of the car and the first thing I noticed was 'Road Armor' written in white on the matte black bumper. It made the truck look so much buffer and tougher.
But that wasn't the biggest of my worries. The problem was the branches that were stuck in the grille and the caked mud all around it. Instead of the bumper being black, it was brown, from all the mud. I took some various brushes and started scrubbing the mud off. The thick branches could somewhat easily be plucked out of the grille and undercarriage, but there was, without doubt, a lot of green leaves in the undercarriage that need to be plucked out, as well. Well, I wouldn't be doing the military a full-on detailing job.
"You doing okay?" Will said from behind me, startling me. I jumped up a little in surprise. "Oh, sorry." He said with a smile as we both stood in front of the front bumper.
"Let me ask you something, Will." I said, pulling out a big branch from underneath the road armor and pointing it towards him. "Do you park your car in a tree sometimes?"
He seemed so confused. "Uh, maybe?"
"Look at this." I handed him the branch, but he threw it away just as easily. I returned to work on the mud, but trying to get it off was so difficult, I had to use my fingers to scrub it off.
"Do you want some water or something? Maybe you should go inside, to get some shade. I wouldn't want you to get a heatstroke." Will offered, but I politely declined. After that, he went back into the house and left me to continue my handiwork.
I finally resorted to using my fingernails to get the mud off, and when it finally did, I thought the truck moved away from me, ever so slightly. Maybe the handbrake wasn't pulled on. But this was just a small part of the mud. I had a whole bumper and undercarriage to take care of!
So, my uncle named his truck. Or the military's truck, whatever. "Good thing you don't live up to your name, Ironhide, otherwise, you'd be rusting from this crud." I spoke to myself, before slapping my forehead lightly. "Nice, Mel, you're talking to a truck. You should be in a madhouse."
As I got the branches out, I couldn't help but notice in the sudden change of lighting. The skies were changing colors now, going towards a faint orange. I moved towards the undercarriage of the truck, eyeing it over. I still had time, and working on the truck took my depressive thoughts away. I laid down on the ground and went under the truck, trying to get the mud off from under it. I was nearly done when something silver caught my attention.
I looked into what this could have been. Once the mud was off, everything was clearer. I didn't know two things about cars, but were cars supposed to have that many wires underneath? There seemed to be thousands of them.
That's when I got a better look at that silver something that was apparently jabbed into a wire. I looked as to what it was, but because I was a very curious being by nature, I decided to get it out.
There was a piece of shrapnel jabbed into a thick wire. I enveloped my fingers around it, and pulled it. It didn't seem to want to go. I pulled it out roughly and the sharp edges of the shrapnel managed to cut the inside of my hand, enough for it to bleed. I hissed, at the sudden burning pain that erupted from my hand, but then some kind of odd, glittery blue liquid started dripping from the wire and straight onto my hand. The car honked all of a sudden, and I jumped from being startled, hitting my head on the undercarriage.
I growled and got out from the undercarriage as uncle came looking my way.
I stood up and looked at him, as he was only a few feet away from me.
"Wow, Melissa, you did an amazing job at the truck." He chuckled and moved in closer, as if to inspect the paint. "It's so clean." I clutched my hand so that Will wouldn't see the wound. I'd take care of it later. "What are you hiding?" He asked, taking my hands into his as he opened my palms, revealing my bloody right hand. He called for Sarah to get some bandages and alcohol. "What happened?" He asked me, seriously, yet worryingly as we stood next to the truck.
Sarah came and disinfected my hand with alcohol, and then gently bandaged my hand. Upon hearing Annabelle crying, she went back inside the house.
I showed Will the piece of shrapnel that I held in my left hand, which he took carefully. He inspected it with a careful eye.
"Where did you find this?" He asked.
"It was in the undercarriage, stuck in a wire and I decided to get it out. When I did, I cut myself and some weird, blue liquid spilled over my hand and then the truck just honked all of a sudden. I slammed my head on its undercarriage." I said, rubbing my head. "I think it spilled wiper fluid or something." Although wiper fluid wasn't as blue as the liquid the truck spilled.
Out of the blue, Will hit the hood of the truck with his fist and glared at it, deadly.
"Don't hurt the truck!" I quickly told him.
"Let's go inside." He kept glaring at the truck, regardless of what I said. As I went back into the house and straight up the stairs to have a shower, I kept wondering, what was that liquid that got spilled over my hand? I hope the alcohol Sarah used destroyed it, for I wouldn't want wiper fluid in my bloodstream. The blue liquid was fairly warm, which was odd. Was wiper fluid supposed to be warm?
I exited the shower and by the time I got out, the sun had already set. I dressed in my pajamas and looked out the window. I found the truck sitting in the same spot in the driveway. I wanted to look at the clean truck, so I went downstairs and saw Will and Sarah watching TV in the living room.
"Where are you going?" Uncle asked from the couch as I headed for the door.
"I want to admire my handiwork. I didn't have the chance, since the shrapnel cut my hand." I showed him bandaged my hand. Uncle shook his head and sighed.
"Okay, but don't be too long. It's getting cold outside." I nodded and went outside. I had my comfortable boots on in no time and I walked towards the truck.
As I was approaching it, I could see the moonlight gently reflecting on the truck's black paint. Damn, it was pristine. I circled around it, letting my artist side kick in. My eyes adjusted to the lack of light pretty quickly as I looked over the truck. It was bizarre how almost proudly the truck wore the 'Road Armor' on the front bumper. I went around towards the back, trying to take in every detail. I noticed how the midnight black paint glistened, reflecting the scintillating stars on the country night sky.
It was almost ridiculous how big the truck was. It definitely had some custom mods done to it, or so it seemed like to me. It had a GMC logo on the front and at least I knew the make of the truck. The model would be harder to figure out, since there weren't any model designations on the vehicle to indicate the name.
I went towards the doors and I noticed the silver smokestacks rising proudly from the trunk. They did look awfully good on the truck. As I went to the trunk door, there was a strange symbol on it and it was big. The truck looked almost proud wearing it.
Funny thing is, I haven't noticed it while washing the truck.
I touched the symbol and slid my hand around it, it was embossed and it looked... complicated. Like a robotic face of some sort, but it was really neat. The truck was warm, but I was sure as hell it didn't have its engine on for the whole day. I rubbed my forehead and yawned, declaring it was time for bed for me.
I got back up to my room and got in the bed. I think it was… Thursday? Who knew. I closed my eyes as I went into the land of dreams.
Or in my case… Land of nightmares.
I was in my house, with my parents. We were watching TV together in the living room, and Buddy resting peacefully in my lap. Suddenly he leaped from my lap and barked at me. Then he turned to the door and barked at it. Then he started growling at the door. Suddenly, my dad shoved me in the bathroom and I was in the dark again. The house was shaking unnaturally and I heard desperate cries as something in the bathroom touched me.
My heartbeat was going wild. I looked back, but saw nothing in the pure blackness. I was petrified, as whatever shadow that touched me before, now took me by the neck and I struggled to breathe. I felt the breath from my lungs escape with a shriek. Whoever it was, left my throat and I had the horrible feeling of falling into a hole as the ceiling collapsed on me.
I woke up panting heavily, my heart racing so fast I heard the beats thrumming in my ears. Uncle Will was by my side, sitting on my bed. He took my head in his hands and cradled me to his chest. I hugged him tightly, afraid that if he left, I'd be grabbed in the dark again. I'd fall.
I sobbed into his shirt until I finally calmed down. His scent was like haven.
"You want to talk about it?" He gently said, hugging me.
I shook my head, my whole body shaking, as I hugged him back. I managed to wipe away the tears. That horrible feeling of crying in front of anyone got the best of me, and I forced myself to let go of my uncle.
"I'll be fine." I said and leaned back into the bed. He hesitated leaving, but after my assurance that I would be alright, he left.
But, I had no intention of sleeping after a nightmare like this, so the rest of the hours until sunrise were spent with my deep thoughts. Luckily, if there was any luck in this, the sun rose quicker than I expected, so I got up and dressed myself. I went down to the kitchen and glanced at the clock, which showed that the time was around seven in the morning. After having breakfast, I got to the living room and saw Will and Sarah playing with Annabelle, kissing her on the cheeks and cooing. A pang of pain struck my heart, as Will got up and dragged me to the living room to join them. Sometimes I felt like I was their child now. Other times, I felt like a person who they were forced to take care of.
"I don't think I told you, but Sarah and I enrolled you into high school yesterday. Today's your first day." He said. I looked at him blankly. Apparently, he didn't tell me that yesterday while I was cleaning the truck. "I can drive you to it, I pass it on my way to the base."
I couldn't argue, I needed the education. I couldn't be a dumb, orphan dropout. "Okay, so at what do we leave the house?"
"We set up in 20." He said, but I couldn't shake the funny thought of his military language. At least it seemed like that to me. Maybe this was just the way he used to speak, because he did spend half his life in the military, and after all, we were a military family.
I nodded and got up, taking a backpack and a couple of notebooks that were on the table in which I used to draw. I took a pencil case, that had always been there, ever since I started coming here from when I was a kid.
Shoving it all in the backpack, I went downstairs and wished Sarah a nice day as I got outside and into the truck. Will and I put our seatbelts on and began driving, as I stared at the interior of the car. It was all black and it actually suited the truck perfectly. After about 15 minutes of driving and talking about what I had to do once I got into the school, uncle pulled up in the school parking lot. I unclicked the seatbelt and started to get out of the car, until Will's voice stopped me.
"Mel, here." I turned around and saw a cellphone in his hand. I looked at him. "It's for you." I looked at him, but shook my head.
"Will, I can't possibly take this." I replied humbly.
"Take it, and if you need any help, you have mine and Sarah's phone number in it." He gave me a look and I just had to take it. I smiled at him and hugged him, despite myself.
"Thank you, you didn't have to do this." I said. "I'll repay you." It was the least I could do.
He gave a soft smile. "Nonsense. It's our gift to you."
"Thanks, again." I tried smiling for real, but it just wouldn't work.
"Off you get." He said as I got out of the truck, already memorizing the distance between it and the ground. I closed the door, waved my uncle goodbye as he went into reverse and continued his way towards, what I presumed was, the military base not too far away from here.
I sighed. "Let's see what's waiting for me inside." I said to myself and got inside the school.
It was a high school like any other, except for the fact that it was small compared to my old one. I found some students in the hallway and asked them to direct me to the principal's office, which they gladly did. I was being very kind with the woman, who was the principle, as she directed me to my first class and I got a paper from her with my schedule, listing all the sorts of classes I'd be having throughout the semester. Most were the same as from my old high school, until I came across a subject called astronomy. Seriously? Astronomy? I didn't know two things about astronomy, stars or constellations. They were nice to look at, sure, but I didn't see how studying them was important.
My first class of the day was English at 8 in the morning, sharp. So, I got into my classroom and the teacher noticed me as a new addition, but did nothing to introduce me to the rest of the class, and I was perfectly fine with that. She started to explain to the class what we were doing today, and it turned out we would be talking about Hamlet.
Hey, wasn't Lion King based off Hamlet? I think it was.
Every time the teacher asked a question, some of the nerdier students responded and the answers were true to the Lion King story, up to a certain point, of course. Later, as the class progressed, I was the first to respond and my response was always correct. The professor was pretty impressed and I got glances from all the other classmates. I smiled in return, trying to look approachable. As long as they knew nothing about my past, things were fine. The bell rang and everyone packed up their stuff and went to their second class. I glanced at the schedule paper I got, and proceeded to my next class.
The rest of the day was spent listening to other classes and meeting a few new people, until I finally got to the astrology class. I sat down on an empty chair and soon enough, there was a boy who sat next to me. We looked at each other and I took my hand out, giving him a smile. All of my smiles were fake, for I couldn't smile for the sake of me.
"I'm Melissa Lennox." He saw the hand and took the hint, taking his hand out and meeting mine as he told me his name.
"Robbie Jenkins." He said and we shook our hands. "You're new here, right?" I nodded. "Well good luck, 'cause astronomy is pretty boring." He said.
"Oh yeah? How so?" I replied, and in no time, he and I were talking about some constellations and the teacher came in. Robbie managed to introduce me to some constellations before the teacher started to speak of them. It kind of gave me a feeling like Robbie had studied this before. At the end of the class, the professor gave us homework, to look for some constellations tonight because there was a clear sky, or something. I managed to get Robbie's number, in case I needed help finding the constellations. A wave of relief washed over me once I left the school. After the throng of students went away, the parking lot came into view, and that's when I spotted my uncle's military truck, parked properly the school's parking lot.
I didn't see the driver inside, so I looked around, but still I didn't see my uncle. I went around the vehicle and looked at the license plate. 4PCI382. Yup, definitely his truck. I stood up and went for my phone, which was in my pocket. I moved around the vehicle again, looking through the windows of the lifted truck with difficulty, because the windows were tinted to the extreme, but Will was nowhere to be found. I was about to call my uncle to ask him where he was, until a gruff voice behind me started speaking to me.
"Are you done staring, kid?" I turned around, only to see a tall, older man that was less than pleased with me. I grew very uncomfortable as I eyed him.
"Who are you?" He was in his 30's, wearing an unzipped, black leather jacket and a dark grey shirt underneath with symbols and numbers on it in black. Despite myself, I though the shirt looked nice on him and that it was stylish.
Being an artist sharpened my point of view and I saw things other people usually didn't. Like, that dog-tag around his neck, going under his shirt that gave barely visible outlines.
"I'm your ride." He said, crossing his arms. "Your uncle sent me here."
I didn't speak to strangers, so I looked at him suspiciously. "You expect me to believe that?" I glared at the stranger. I never saw this guy in my life and he expected me to just up and go with him somewhere? Hell no.
"Go ahead and spend more of my time by calling him." He snorted, noticing the phone in my hand. The he looked around for something in the distance, ignoring me, as he leaned against my uncle's truck.
"Yeah, I think I will." I said and turned around, looking through my contacts, which only held two names and picking Will's number, I called him. A couple of rings later, he picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Will, it's me."
"Oh, hey Mel. What's up?"
"Did you send someone to pick me up?" I asked lowly.
There was a short pause at the end of his line. "Is no one there?"
"No, no, there is. Or, at least, he claims to be." I turned around to look back at the man. I noticed he had black jeans and black boots. A really nice look.
Snap out of it, Mel!
"Is his name Ron Hide?" Will asked, though I could almost hear him smiling behind the phone.
"What's your name?" I took the phone away from my ear and spoke to the strange guy in front of me.
"Ron." He gruffly said.
"Full name." I narrowed my eyes at him.
He snorted. "Ron Hide, come on, kid, I ain't got all day."
I returned the phone to my ear and spoke to my uncle. "That's what he says."
He chuckled. "You can trust him." He easily said.
"Are you sure?" I asked my uncle quietly. This Ron guy seemed off.
"Yes, Mel."
"You owe me an explanation when I get home." I hung up and went towards the truck, after Will said that he would explain to me who this weird guy Ron was. I got into the truck and closed the door. Putting the seatbelt around me, I looked at the man beside me. He put the truck in drive and went to drive towards the house. I looked at him warily, though he didn't pay the slightest bit of attention towards me.
We were driving in silence, and not even the radio was turned on. I kept staring at him, taking in all of his facial details. Like the straight bridge of his nose, the strong jaw line, a stubborn look...
"I still don't trust you." I said to him, all of a sudden. I didn't even know why I said that. He rolled his eyes at me in return, not even caring to look at me or acknowledge my words.
He had short black hair, military cut, and when he did glance at me, he had piercing blue eyes. It was so strange.
"What are you staring at?" He asked me in his baritone voice. At first I was a bit shocked by his audacity.
"I'm staring at you." I said, just as coldly. I didn't even know why I just couldn't shut up and mind my own business. God knows he was driving and seemed aggressive. I don't know why I was poking the bear.
He snorted and kept being concentrated on the road. Soon we got on my uncle's driveway and I was so glad I got to leave this guy's presence. He was making me nervous and really uncomfortable. Dealing with a stone cold exterior and gruff voice was so not my cup of tea.
I decided the best thing to do was to just get out of the truck, thank the man for driving me and doing my uncle a favor, and to go and study a bit. I might as well hang out with that Robbie from my class this weekend. Or perhaps I could check out some constellations tonight? That sounded like a good plan.
"Thanks for the drive, Ron." I said lowly while I was exiting the truck.
He didn't reply.
I went into the house, and as I was about to go upstairs to my room, I noticed that Ron got into the house as well. I can't deny him entrance to the house, I mean, he's Will's friend. My word meant nothing to Ron, that I knew already, thanks to his rude disposition. So, I got to my room and just as I put my backpack on the table, my right hand started tingling oddly. And it started tingling from the same place that I got cut yesterday and had that weird blue, glittery liquid spill into it. The feeling suddenly intensified tenfold and I started to feel dizzy. Not only that, but I started feeling cold and hot at the same time. My vision started swaying, and so did my body with it. "H-eey!" I yelled through the house for help. "He-eeelp..." I didn't even know if somebody could hear me, but I got so lightheaded I grabbed the doorsill, feeling I was going to fall really quickly. My vision got eaten away by darkness as my ears thrummed. "Help..." I tried to tell someone to help me, but my voice died halfway.
My body fell down to the floor as I was trying to breathe as calmly as I could, but I was so panicked on the inside. My eyes closed and my torso fell down on the ground. I felt someone lift me up and take me to my bed. Whoever they were, they were strong.
Who's arms was I in?
The blackness took me in, leaving my question unanswered.