We turned onto one of the main roads and I ignored the warm area where the fries rested on my lap. I felt my lower lip tremble. I had no idea what to do. I was never held hostage before by one of them. What better luck could have I gotten?
“What on earth are you doing?” Dante asked me.
I blinked.
“Nothing,” I said simply. I was surprised that he actually talked to me. I assumed that he did it to try and slowly ease the answers out of me, so that he could figure out what was wrong with my brain, why I could see what he was…
“Your position looks…unnatural.”
“What you’re doing to my friends is unnatural,” I threw back, my voice suddenly strong. He didn’t seem surprised by my change of subject. He just started driving down the street, tapping his thumb lightly on the steering wheel.
“It’s for their own good,” he muttered, turning right onto the beltline. I held my breath, trying to figure out the worst possible solution to his words.
I tried focusing on the steady hum of the engine below us, or the everlasting black sky…anything but what was going on now. What would happen to my friends back there? What would be their fate?
“It’s for their own good.”
I shuddered again, like I had many times these past couple of minutes. And I knew for a fact that it wasn’t from the ridiculously cold weather.
I noticed now that Dante seemed more relaxed than before. He kept his eyes more on me than the road, but it didn’t affect his driving at all. I refused to look back at him, even when I felt the pressure of his black eyes studying my face. I pretended to be like paper, to look without expression out of the windshield. However, I did wince inside, because the unsteady current of his stares did affect me in several ways.
“Do you understand who I am?” he asked me, finally.
For some reason, I felt surprised when he started talking again. I guess that I was still into my whole “paper” illusion thing. I raised my eyebrows and looked at him warily for the first time.
“Yes and no.”
He narrowed his eyes in curiosity, and continued drumming his thumbs against the steering wheel. It reminded me of a time bomb.
Tick tock tick tock.
“Explain.”
It was a statement, not a request. I cleared my throat before answering.
“I know that you’re different,” I stated quietly, quiet enough that no one in the car could hear me, besides him of course. “Different than everybody else. I don’t know if you are a certain –,” I hesitated, not really sure what to say, “species or creature.”
“But you know I’m different,” he said, nodding slightly. He cleared his throat loudly. “I’m just curious, but what do you see that makes me different?”
I paused, recollecting my thoughts.
“It’s more of an…intuition,” I explained. “A general knowledge. I get it from looking at people. I knew you were different when I looked at you…how my mind figures it out, I don’t know. It’s more of a feeling, a knowledge, like I said before.”
“Interesting,” he said, his long fingers brushing against his chin in thought.
“Are you going to kill me for that?” I asked, because I couldn’t help it. I might as well know my fate and prepare for it.
He peered at me through the side, as if he was thinking hard.
“Maybe.”
I froze and my eyes widened.
“Just let my friends go and you can have me.”
He narrowed his eyes, and he almost seemed surprised by my willing sacrifice. I knew that my decision was final; I wouldn’t have to spend hours pondering on this. Friends go before me. I didn’t even have to think about it. I wouldn’t let my friends die because of me. Much less by one of them.
His face turned blank, almost calm, with no trace of suspicion or emotion left in it.
“I don’t want to kill you, Ari,” he said quietly. “Or your friends.”
He sounded sincere, but I mentally reminded myself not to buy into it.
I raised my eyebrows, not even convinced. I decided to go along with it, to play along. I didn’t trust him.
“Really? Why did you kidnap me then?”
He laughed out loud, his shoulders shaking gently as he did…it seemed hysterical for him. Me? I was as confused as ever. Maybe he was joking the whole thing.
“I’m not kidnapping you,” he said, as if it were obvious.
“You forced me into the van.”
“It’s for your own good, and you would’ve gotten in either way,” he stated. He leaned back into his seat a little farther. “Besides, if I had wanted to kidnap you, I would have gone the classic way – I like things like that – and duck taped you to your chair, bound your hands, taped your lips shut and all.” His teeth gleamed the way he talked about it. “If you hadn’t noticed, I left the door unlocked, your hands and feet free…you could have jumped out of this car if you wanted to.”
“I would die jumping out anywhere here,” I reminded him. “It’s all highways, high speed limits, and lots of cars.” I gestured out of my window at the bright lights standing out in the dark, the dozens of headlights in front and behind us.
“True,” he murmured in agreement. “But you could have jumped out in the parking lot.”
“You could probably catch me,” I said, eyeing his freakishly long legs. He smiled humorously.
“Probably.”
I suddenly felt strangely comfortable here, talking to this stranger. I wondered if it was one of his illusions, a way to sneak me in the trap. I gulped hard and punched myself inside for letting my guard down so easily.
He seemed to realize that I was still unsure about the whole thing – who wouldn’t be? – and he sighed slowly before talking to me.
“I bet you’re wondering why I’m here,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ve been kind of wondering that since you decided to invite yourself into my little group of friends,” I told him, crossing my arms over my chest.
His lips slightly upturned and he smiled slightly again.
“I know that you see me as different, as a threat undoubtedly,” he began. “But…you see…. I’ve been looking for you for some time.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a threat to me,” I muttered, somehow with a steady voice and a confident spirit.
“It’s going to be hard for you to understand,” he began again. “But I’m not a bad guy. I’m not a threat to you, in fact, I’m protecting you by doing this.”
“By kidnapping me?”
“You’re still into that?” he smirked. “Okay, let’s look at it your way. So I…kidnapped you.”
That sounded a little more realistic. To me, at least.
“So…you kidnapped me, to protect me?” I asked, going along with his story. He somehow detected the doubt in my voice and shrugged.
“I assumed that you wouldn’t have believed me at all…and I had to get you out of there. I still don’t think you believe me, but at least you’re safe,” he added, no humor in his eyes.
“Why would you care about my safety?” I asked him, with a bitter edge in my voice. I didn’t intend on making it that way, but after I let the words out, I myself cringed slightly at the harshness of them.
“Because, believe it or not, you are valuable,” he replied calmly. “So valuable, that others want you.”
I shuddered again at the thought.
“What? There are others?”
He looked up, surprised at me.
“Haven’t you ever met a person like me before?” his voice sounded one hundred percent curious.
“Well, I’ve seen a lot of you…but never in a group, or looking for me specifically,” I explained. “No one ever looked at me like I was valuable. They mostly were just curious.”
He was quiet for a moment, his lips set in a straight line. I watched as his eyes flickered back and forth in thought.
“When was the last time you saw someone like me?” he asked.
I sighed, trying to remember. It had been awhile, for which I was grateful. I had seen several in my life, maybe even a hundred. It was hard to place my thoughts in chronological order, but I did my best.
“Maybe…six months ago,” I said, as a vague estimate. He relaxed an inch.
“Well, that explains things,” he said, more to himself than to me.
I noticed that his foot itched on the gas, and we sped up more. I wondered how fast this van full of teenagers could go. I narrowed my eyes suspiciously.
“In a hurry?” I asked him.
“Actually, yes,” he replied.
I was about to ask him why, when I looked for myself to see where we were. The city lights were starting to get thinner, and I realized now that he was starting to drive towards the countryside of Indiana. The darkness enveloped us more than I thought possible, and after a couple of minutes, the only light around was the one coming from our headlights.
I let myself sink farther back into my seat, and I listened to the conversations in the back of the van. No one seemed to be noticing that we were driving the opposite way than we had originally planned, but then again, he could have implanted another “memory” inside of their minds. Maybe they were expecting to go here. I wondered what his good reason for going this way was.
As I took in the silence, I tried to make the best use of it that I could. My biggest problem was deciding whether or not I should believe him. I do admit, he seemed nicer than I would have thought before, but at the same time, I knew it could be a trick…
My eyes flickered over to him now, studying his face carefully for holes or cracks beneath the surface…marks that showed if there was any trace of evil or darkness inside him.
The first time I looked at him, I had recognized darkness in his face right away. However, when we were having conversation, his mask lifted off and he actually seemed like a normal seventeen or eighteen year old guy. I tried not to think of that too much though, trying to study him by instinct.
My one instinct that could actually see through him still saw a dark side, one that I would not like to deal with. Even sitting here now, after our conversation, the shadows still clung to his face more than it would to an ordinary person. I couldn’t even see his eyes beneath them, except for the glint in the surface, where I could sometimes trace a spark, a slight movement.
Because of that, my final decision was not to trust him, but to instead try and find a way to get out – besides jumping out of the car. (He did have a good point about that by the way, but I still decided to use it as his method to draw me in.) Maybe he was using reverse psychology on me.
I knew that I could get away, if I planned the moment just right. I was mainly worried about the huge group of my friends in the back behind my seat, completely oblivious to what was going on. I realized that together, we could take him down, but how would I even let them when he’s messed with their brains, and with him right there?
He had me trapped. Very well. I huffed in disappointment.
When Dante pulled into a dark, unwelcome driveway, I almost freaked out.
Here I was, almost in a zone you could say, and the vehicle stops. In other words: this is where the bad part begins. I felt my body turn impossibly stiff, as if a rock molded itself around the edge of my body, not allowing me to move at all. I couldn’t even blink.
I felt movement to the left of me, but I was barely aware of it. I was more aware of what was to come. Next.
“You can get out,” he said, speaking to me like I was stupid.
I blinked and looked at him, trembling slightly as I did. I didn’t want to get out.
“I’m not going to force you like you accused me of doing, back at the McDonalds parking lot,” he added, giving me a half smile.
I watched as he readjusted the cap placed securely over his head. He tucked an extra lock of hair underneath it, and got out eagerly. The cold air blew straight into my face as the car door opened.
I shakily undid my seatbelt, and slid out of the passenger door. As I did, the pile of fries that I hadn’t noticed before fell to the ground and scattered all over the passenger seat. I was sure now that the whole package was cold, especially if my body was scared the whole way.
All of my friends were still in the van, though I noticed that Donovan and Cedric had taken our places, now sitting in the front seats. Cedric didn’t even notice the fries, and he smashed half of them with his shoe as he climbed on into my seat.
I knitted my eyebrows together as I watched Donovan put on his seat belt, and shift the gear to reverse…
I was too shocked to respond, or talk for that matter. I watched helplessly as they pulled out of the driveway and drove down an unfamiliar street in whatever unfamiliar town Dante had put us in.
I was now alone, no, abandoned with Dante.
I gulped loudly.
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