Chapter 10

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I looked outside the classroom window, where another flash of light streaked across the sky. Seconds later the thunder crashed, making me jump a little in my seat. I heard murmurs of the other students in the class, and the teacher assuring them, everyone soon settling again.

I frowned, trying to turn my attention back to my work, but another crash near us had me jumping a little again.

Of all the things I didn't like most in the world (besides the obvious) was storms. And this one just happened to roll in near the end of the day, making everything outside dark and dreary. And it had put me a little on edge.

It was the next Tuesday, and Serah was taking all the information we'd thrown at her pretty well. Almost too well, I thought, but then again, it probably helped her knowing she wasn't crazy, and what she had seen was real.

She also understood why I'd lied to her that first night. She thought it was sweet that I would go to such lengths to protect Donnie and his brothers, but also scolded me a little, which I think I deserved. I know it wasn't nice to feel like you were going crazy. I honestly felt like that the first time I'd opened my eyes to see Ithiell above me that first day...

I was also surprised how quickly she had taken to the turtles. She had a billion questions, most of all for Donnie. Raph had tried to avoid her as much as possible, thankfully him and Rachel took off to wherever they went together, so she had focused more my poor boyfriend.

I was almost surprised when I heard the bell ring, signalling the end of the day, and all the other students in my class started to file out as our teacher tried to give us homework, but no one else seemed to be listening. I heard him sigh as I packed my books up, hearing another thunderous crash and cringing as I left the room.

I looked around, ducking into the girls bathrooms and making sure no one else was around, putting my books on the sink and pulling out a small earpiece from my pocket. I put it in my ear, tapping it and feeling the mouth piece extend down and resting at the side of my cheek, smiling a little as I moved my watch phone up.

My real phone was toast, so Donnie was going to try and fix it for me. Meanwhile, he'd made this earpiece that connected to my watch phone so I could call people. Well, mainly him.

I tapped my watch, seeing the screen go fuzzy for a moment, before a familiar face appeared.

"Hello beautiful" He said, and I couldn't help but blush a little "Is everything all right?"

I nodded "Yeah, everything's fine. I just wanted to let you know that I might be a little late"

I heard another crash, making me cringe.

"Yeah, we can hear that down here too" He said, frowning at me.

"Yeah, I might just wait til it passes to come to you, is that all right?"

I saw him smile then "Take your time, we'll be here"

"Thanks hun" I now saw him look a little shy "I'll see you soon, love you"

"Love you too" The screen went blank, and I moved my arm down, the other hand coming up to tap the little earpiece, feeling the little mouth piece on it retract and taking it out of my ear.

I shoved it in my pocked as two girls came into the bathrooms, giggling and saying something about boys, giving me dirty looks as I ducked around and past them and out the door.

I went to my locker, opening it and throwing my books in and moving things around so I could grab what I needed as well as straighten up the mess inside.

"Hey girly" I shut my locker, seeing none other than Serah there, a happy gleam in her eyes.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked as I leaned on the locker, watching people go by.

"You going to see your boooooooyfrieend later?" She cooed, and I shook my head, sighing.

"Ser, I-"

"Well?"

"Yes, but-"

She giggled, hugging me again.

Another crash made me jump, and she pulled away, frowning a little.

"I might wait for the storm to pass before going anywhere" I finally said, seeing another flash of light from outside.

"Oh my dear, what are you going to do in this horrible school until then?" She waved her hand around.

"Uh, avoid the storm"

"Hey, there you two are!"

We both looked around to see Kristiana come up to us, a big smile across her face.

"Hey gorgeous!" She gave her a big hug, which Kristiana only half returned.

"I'm glad I caught you girls" She looked from me to Serah "I really want to apologise"

"For what?" I asked, leaning back on the locker, slipping my bag to the floor.

"For that blunder of a party I asked you to come to on Friday, what a horrible waste" She sighed, running a hand through her loose hair.

"Oh, that? Wasn't even your party, don't worry about it" Serah dismissed her, but Kristiana put a hand on my arm.

"I really want to make it up to you girls, and maybe Rachel too" She looked almost sad.

"You don't have to do that, I mean... it happens. It was Matt's friends party, wasn't it?" I tried to put on my most reassuring smile. She shook her head.

"No, that was horrible. And I heard what Devin did to you-" She stopped, looking over at Serah.

"Yeah, and the next time I see that prick he's gonna get a boot in the dangly bits" Serah growled a little.

"Girls you-"

Kristiana shook her head "No, I want to make it up to you. Please let me"

I sighed, finally giving in "All right, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, since this storm isn't going away soon" She said as another thunderous crash was heard, and I jumped a little "I wanted to invite you to a... well kind of a club meeting I go to every now and then"

"Club?" Serah perked up a little.

"Well, not really a club. But a place to go meet up, play some games, talk to other people our age. There's a meeting about to start now actually"

"Any cute boys?" Serah asked.

"Plenty" Kristiana giggled "And it's a place when you can come talk to people about your problems. You become a member, and then you get to support others. It's pretty cool"

Maybe it was the storm, or the fact so much had happened in the last couple of weeks, but I didn't pick up on the obvious warning signs. I should have known...

"Yeah, why not? Something to do before I go see... someone" I stopped myself, hearing Serah giggle.

"You mean Dooonnnie?" She asked as we all started to walk, linking her arm through mine.

"Donnie? Who's Donnie?" Kristiana asked, moving her bag up a little and straightening her skirt.

"Only her boooyyyfriend" Serah cooed, and I rolled my eyes, also hoping she didn't say too much. I knew it would get really bad, really fast if she did.

"Oh? So did Jade let you meet him finally?"

Serah nodded "Oh yes she did, caught them out on Friday night having a smooch actually"

"Is that where you went on Friday?" Kristiana turned to me, and I nodded, feeling a little embarrassed.

"Well, yeah. He uh... was worried-"

"It was so cute! I know now why she keeps him a secret!"

"Why's that?" Kristiana laughed.

"So girls like me don't try and steal him!" She giggled, yanking my arm a little.

"My arm is attached you know" I muttered, not liking this conversation at all.

"So he's cute huh?"

"Oh yeah, he's tall, and wears glasses..."

I shot Serah a warning look, hoping she knew when to stop. I couldn't go through all that again with Kristiana...

"Oh really. Better than Matt?"

"Oh, much much better. He's such a hottie!"

I don't know why, but I felt a little jealous, as well as protective of Donnie then. I had this horrible feeling Serah would try and hit on Donnie...

"Hey, he's my hottie" I said a little too harshly, catching an almost hurt look from Serah.

"Jade, hunny, I didn't-"

"Here we are!" Kristiana announced, and we turned to see one of the larger classrooms had been turned into almost a recreational area. Chairs were against the walls, and there were drinks and bowls of what looked like chips and lollies on some of the tables stuck in the middle of the room. Lots of people were already there, sitting or eating or just standing around having a chat. I saw two girls at the chalk board, drawing something with the coloured chalks they had.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Kristiana grinned "I became a member recently, it's fantastic!"

But her words went out the door when I saw the large banner draped loosely over one of the windows. My feet froze, and my heart stopped.

The Sharing.

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I didn't have any choice but to go in, my every instinct telling me to run at the first opportunity.

I fought to keep a smile on my face as Kristiana introduced us to some of the other 'members', my mind trying to plan ways to escape, to save my family, to keep Donnie safe...

Kristiana. I would have never picked, in a million years, that she was... one of them.

I felt guilt well up in my stomach, wondering if I had been a better friend, could I have helped her? Stopped her from joining the sharing, stopped her from... from...

"Jade, what's wrong?"

My whole body jolted, and I straightened up, looking up at Kristiana.

"Oh, what?"

"The look on your face... is something wrong?"

"Oh, just..." I cringed as another roll of thunder, thankfully further away this time "The storm"

Perfectly timed.

"Oh, well" She took my shoulders, looking into my eyes. Inside I felt sick, knowing it wasn't actually her staring back at me...

"If you ever need to talk about anything, you can always come here, I mean, I'm a member so I've been trained to help others"

"Oh no, I uh... it's all right" I fumbled for the words, both wanting to run, as well as grab Kristiana and yank that ugly little Yeerk out of her head "I just uh... just the storm, I'm good"

"Well, if you ever need anything, I'm here" She smiled sweetly, patting my back a little, before going over to where Serah was talking to a very tall and lanky boy with dark features.

I looked outside, then towards the door. There was an older guy there, his arms folded near the door, talking to two younger girls. He almost looked like Tom...

Part of me wanted to leave, but I knew I couldn't leave Serah here. It was just too risky, especially after telling her about the turtles. If she was taken by the Yeerks now...

I shook my head at the thought, trying calm the panic and the butterflies in my stomach.

The Sharing was a voluntary thing. You had to want to become a member, for them to take you. And from what I'd seen in the past, they didn't take people without them accepting. And it took a while for them to take people...

My reasoning didn't work.

I needed to get out of here, and now.

I went over to Serah, now just talking to Kristiana.

"Hey uh, want to get out of here while the storm is further away?" I asked her, taking her arm and trying to force a smile for Kristiana.

"But I'm having fun here" She grinned happily at me "Tony just offered to get me a drink, did you see him?"

"Oh hes great fun!" Kristiana chimed in, looking over at what I guessed was Tony at the table "Hey Tony, one more drink yeah?"

He gave her a thumbs up, and she turned back to me.

"Well, I just don't want the storm to come back and be like, stuck here all night"

"Oh don't worry, this meeting will be finished soon enough" Kristiana insisted, and I could feel my panic rising.

Something was very, very wrong.

I looked around, seeing a guy I knew from my photography class, Jerermy I think his name was, slouched on one of the chairs. It looked like he'd fallen asleep. One of the other boys was trying to shake him awake, and I heard someone else laugh.

"Jer needs to stop studying so hard" Serah muttered, shaking her head.

"Maybe just open a window" Marie, a girl I knew from one of my classes, suggested.

"Good idea" Kristiana moved away from us, going to open a window not far from where Jeremy was passed out.

At that moment Tony came back, handing Serah and I the drinks.

"What's this?"

"Just coke. Don't want you falling asleep like him" He jabbed his thumb over at the unconscious Jeremy.

"Who could fall asleep with mister tall dark and handsome in front of them?" Serah flirted, and soon they were both flirting back and forth, touching and little looks and smiles. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, going to take a sip of my drink as I moved away.

I knew I had to-

"Whoa!" I turned to see one of the boys catch Marie, who looked to have passed out.

"What in the world is going on?" Someone else muttered, as I heard a thud near me.

I looked over to see another guy had fallen, looking around and realising everyone seemed to be fighting some invisible battle I couldn't see.

It hit me then, and I looked down at my drink.

Drugged! We'd all been drugged!

I dropped my drink, heading straight to the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" The guy standing there said, his dark eyes glaring at me.

"Uh... bathroom!" I said, going to go around him, but he pushed me back, shutting the door.

"Hold it!"

"Hey man, what the hell?" Another guy, Warren I think, stepped up beside me "Can't you see something aint right? We gotta get out of here!"

He pushed the red haired guy at the door, and I had to duck as the older guy swung a punch, connecting with Warren's face, knocking him down.

I started to feel lightheaded, looking around and seeing other people dropping.

"Everything will be clear soon" Came Kristiana's voice, as I saw Serah start to sway.

Dammit! They had planned this from the start!

I felt the room start to spin, trying to keep on my feet as I saw Tony catch Serah as she fell.

Gotta get out of here...

The door was a no go, and I looked over at...

I only had one chance. If they caught me...it was over.

I didn't want to leave Serah, but there was no way I could take her with me now...

I was the bigger risk. They caught me... they would know everything. The locations... the people... not even Erik would be safe...

I fought to move my feet, forcing myself to run at the window, barely avoiding Kristiana as she made a grab at me.

Unfortunately I missed the window, crashing hard into the glass beside it, feeling myself falling from the third floor.

I hit the ground hard, pain shooting up my side and going all through my body. I looked around, seeing I'd landed on the grass, painfully looking around and seeing a stretch of bushes. Rain was starting to fall heavily again, and the sky grumbled. In seconds I was soaked.

With blurry eyes, I managed to crawl towards that, feeling like I'd broken my arm, pain shooting through it each time I tried to move. I heard shouts from above me, knowing I had to be quick.

I finally reached them, managing to nestle myself in between some of them, my head spinning, the only thing keeping even mildly awake was the intense pain now going through my body.

Whatever they'd drugged us with, it was powerful.

"Where'd she go?!" Came the shout.

"We can't loose her! Find her now!" Another shout, and I pulled myself further into the bushes, feeling the branches scrape at my skin. There was no way I'd be able to fend off any kind of attack. I couldn't even focus enough to shift!

I needed help...

With alot of effort, I moved my arm up, the other arm groaning in protest as I grabbed my watch phone, tapping it three times, seeing two little sections open up. I grabbed them, twisting them around and squeezing them tight, until they locked back into place. I could see the watch was now flashing a bright blue. Emergency beacon. Something Donnie had insisted on putting into the device, and I was glad he did.

I fought to keep myself conscious, knowing they were nearby and hoping they wouldn't look here. If they did, there was nothing I could do to stop them.

I just hoped the turtles would be able to get here before they found me...

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Will she be saved? Will she be Yeerked?

What will happen?!

Feel free to leave your thoughts, and maybe even vote! :D

And as always, Constructive Criticism appreciated :D