Hold: Hold & Hide Book 1 (14 page)

I opened my eyes. Rays of sun weaved in and out of the tree branches above me. Birds fluttered from treetop to treetop while singing a beautiful tune. The warmth on my face soothed me. An almost forgotten feeling. 

Peace. 

I stayed there, my head supported by a hill of grass and my body outstretched. Alone in the woods. My favorite place to be. Blake would show up soon. He always knew when to find me hiding away. 

I relaxed, soaking in the sun and inhaling the sweet scent of moss and flowers and dirt. Such wonder all around me. I turned my head to a patch of wild flowers a few feet to my right, but when I tried to pick one my arm didn’t move. I tried again and again, but none of my body parts functioned. Paralyzed. 

I held my breath and pushed with everything I had. Still no movement. Blake would come for me. He would. 

I tried to rest as the sun descended further and further toward the horizon, but when the woods turned black and only nightly shadows remained, my body still didn’t move when I begged it to. 

Those same tree branches creaked and swayed in the moonlight, casting a ghostly shadow over me. The wind hissed and hummed as it clawed through leaves and grass. Coyotes howled in the background to the tune of crickets chirping under rocks. 

A deep and intense boom startled the woods and kicked my pulse into an erratic beat. Even the crickets stopped talking for a few seconds, but quickly resumed their conversations.

“Stand up!” Red hovered over me. “Now!”

“I can’t move my legs or arms.”

He looked behind him, then down at me. I started to speak, but he picked me up and sprinted through the woods away from the worn path. Every so often he’d look over his shoulder, then run faster. I held his neck as my legs flopped in the air.

He slowed to a walk. “They’re coming for you, Claire.”

“Who? Why?”

“She’s coming.”

“What? Who?”

A branch snapped behind me. Red’s eyelids lifted and he shoved something into my stomach. 

“Take it.” His eyes were fixed behind me. “Take it and run. Now!”

I wrapped my fingers around the gun in my hand. The gun I had no idea how to use. And I definitely didn’t want to use it either. I pushed it back to him. He took my hands, forced me to hold it, and yelled, “Run!” in the same tone Father used to discipline me. 

Gun in hand, I ran as fast as I could until something sharp sunk into my heel. I stopped and pulled out a thorn, then looked around. The trees swayed back and forth as though motioning for me to keep going, but I saw nothing, heard no threats or followers. Exhausted from the run, I sat down on a fallen tree and rubbed my feet.

A gust of wind almost knocked me over. I rebalanced myself on the branch, then stood when something cracked next to me. A slight breeze rustled the bush next to me and a voice whispered, “Kill her or you will die.”

My lips moved, responded to the voice, but I couldn’t hear myself.

“Good,” the voice said. “She’s here.”

Audrey stepped out in front of me. Her pallid face glowed in the nighttime hues. My face. She looked like me. I felt my hands and legs. I was Audrey. She was me.

That’s right.

She lifted a gun and pointed it at my face. I stared into it. If she killed me, she’d kill her own body. Then what? Would I continue living in some way? Would my mind die with her body? Would we both die?

“Kill her,” a voice whispered in my ear. 

I turned the gun in my hand and looked at Audrey. “What are you waiting for?”

Her finger tightened around the trigger. I ducked and ran behind her. She shot at me and the bullet hit a tree a few inches from my head. I turned as she began running full speed, gun aimed right at me. Another bullet ricocheted off of a tree to my left. Turning a sharp corner, I tried to lose her, but she gained on me. Each time she fired at me, she missed. Thankfully she wasn’t skilled with guns and most seemed to go higher than my head. I picked up speed, but didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. She had my legs and I was a runner. Trying to outrun her with her princess legs and pretty feet wasn’t exactly a recipe for success. 

“Kill her,” a voice whispered. “It won’t be over until one of you dies.”

“I refuse to kill,” I whispered back, then tossed my gun into a bush and continued running, hoping the darkness would swallow me up and she’d lose me. 

My legs weakened and a muscle cramp squeezed my side. I slowed to a jog and pressed my hand into my body to prevent a full on debilitating muscle spasm, but it was too late. I hunched over as she pummeled me. 

We fell to the ground. She rolled on top of me, pinned me down with her elbow against my neck, and touched the cold gun to my forehead, right between my eyes. 

“Audrey, don’t...”

Her finger looped around the trigger again, but I smacked the gun out of her hand and rolled from under her. She jumped on my back and ripped my hair. I flung backward and she fell off of me. I turned and faced her. She stood. The wind picked up again, violently whipping our hair. She looked like a ghost as her white dress swayed around her in the dense fog. I’m sure I did too.

She clasped her hands behind her back and smiled. An odd smile that unnerved me since it was coming from my own face. I took the opportunity to run again. As fast as humanly possible. 

Sweat covered my chest and ran down the sides of my face, although the nighttime air was cool and crisp. I hopped over fallen branches and climbed through thorny bushes. She didn’t know the shortcuts that I knew. There was no way she’d find me if I moved fast enough. So I ran until my legs and arms burned and my stomach cramp returned with a vengeance. I lost Audrey somewhere. Didn’t see the slightest sign of her evil smile. 

What did they do to her?

I gathered more energy and jogged away, holding my side to avoid another intense cramp. I knew the way to our hideout while blindfolded. Blake and I tested each other once and we both made it without using our eyes. So, technically, finding it in the darkness shouldn’t had been difficult, except I had no idea where I was. Everything looked different. Trees stood burned and blackened, lifeless and hollow. Dead branches crunched under my feet where flowers once bloomed. I had to be in the right place. I knew it so well, but this....

The wind whistled and combed whatever grass was left. 

A figure, close to the ground, moved from behind one tree to another. 

I stood, quietly moved behind a tree, and peeked around the side to see what or who it was. 

It hopped behind another tree. Some kind of animal. 

A pine tree caught my eye. If I made it there I could climb and hide. I took one step at a time, holding on to the trees for support. Steady, quiet, steady ... a branch cracked in my hand and crumbled into pieces. I froze in place, waited a second, then looked around the tree. 

A strange animal, like a bear mixed with a lion, growled at me. It’s slobber-covered fangs shined. I held out my hands and stepped backward, trying not to look into its purple glowing eyes. It leapt toward my face and licked its teeth. I fell backward as my heart flung against my chest and my head landed on a hard surface. The beastly thing charged at me again. I closed my eyes, prepared for the end, and listened to the crickets as they serenaded me. A drop of slobber landed on my face and the warmth of the animal hovered over me. I opened my eyes one last time. 

A powerful gust of air pushed him back. He grabbed his face and dug his claws into his eyes as his body twisted in the wind and turned into a funnel cloud, absorbing every last inch of the animal. I held the back of my head where it stung and I felt blood. 

The funnel cloud picked up momentum, climbing higher and grabbing branches, then tossing them back to the ground. The force intensified so much that it tugged my dress and hair toward it. I ran to the pine tree, grabbed the first branch, and lifted myself. But … a tree wouldn’t be the best place to hide from a tornado. 

I landed back on the ground, looked back and forth, and saw no place to hide. So I did what I always did. I ran like crazy. The twister picked up speed and height as it came toward me and ripped apart everything in its place.

My foot sunk into a sharp object and sent excruciating pain up my leg. I limped as far as I could until my knees gave up and I fell sideways into a bush.

My head. 

I grabbed my hair and pulled. It relieved some of the pain, oddly enough. The tornado stopped in place about twenty feet from me. I exhaled and closed my eyes, but it picked up again and glowed purple. Branches and plants twirled up into the dark cloud, then flew back out. I grabbed the bush with both hands and tensed my body. If the tornado had eyes, I was looking right at them. 

“You can take my body,” I screamed. “But you can’t take my heart.”

A dream. Was it a dream? A nightmare? I woke to a white ceiling. White walls. My room?

     My shoulders, back, legs, arms, and well, pretty much every inch of my body ached. A dull tenderness radiated through me, but my head hurt most of all. Throbbing in some places, searing in others. The white room and the sunny day sure didn’t help. 

I blinked a few times, forcing my eyes open. It wasn’t sun at all. Endless rows of fluorescent lights made the room horrendously bright. 

“I just want to be done,” I moaned. “I want to go home.”

“You have potential,” Red said. 

I sat up. Red reached out his hand to help me. The unfamiliar white room was the size of our lunch hall and had nothing in it except the bed I was on and Red. No windows. No doors. 

“I told you I’d take care of you,” he said, still holding my hand. 

“Take care of what?” 

He smiled and an opening appeared in the wall behind him. 

Audrey stepped inside with five other men. Confused, I sorted through pieces of memories until I found a vague memory of falling on the bathroom floor after realizing I was trapped in Audrey’s once manicured body. 

It was me across the room. Not Audrey.

“What’s going on?” I said to Red. 

“Stand up.” He helped me stand, but my body was so weak. 

I leaned back into the bed and used it to support my back. The men positioned Audrey in front of me. 

Sir Anthony’s voice came over a speaker. “413, you won’t be able to resist forever. Now, this is your final test.”

Red handed me a gun. Another man handed Audrey a gun. 

“First person to shoot,” Sir Anthony said, “wins.”

Audrey’s face stared at mine without emotion. She grasped the gun and pointed it at me. I held mine at my side, aimed toward the ground. 

“Who wants to live a full life?” Sir Anthony said. “And who wants to die now?”

“Wait,” another voice came through the speaker. “I have an idea.”

“Please wait, girls,” Sir Anthony said. 

A minute or two passed. Audrey still had her gun aimed at my head. 

“I’m not killing my sister. Or myself. However this works,” I said to the ceiling, hoping they saw me. “I’m not doing it.”

“Oh, such resistance, little one,” Sir Anthony said. “With a little more time you’ll understand. You’ll be just like everyone else.”

“I don’t want more time if it’s in this horrid place.”

“Yes,” he said. “You do.”

Brayden walked into the room and stood to my right so that Audrey, Brayden, and I formed a triangle. 

“301, 301, 301. Please aim your pistol at 201.” Audrey aimed at Brayden. “Okay, great. Now, 201, 201, 201, aim your pistol at 413.”

Brayden didn’t move.

“Wait. 201?” I said. “Blake?”

Oh, right. I rubbed my head. Blake looked like Brayden now.

“201, aim your pistol at 413.”

He turned to me. The deep circles under his eyes saddened me. He didn’t look like himself ... or Brayden. 

“I won’t do it,” he said, looking at me.

I sighed. He understood. He wasn’t completely lost like Audrey. A piece of my home, my heart, was still alive. I wasn’t alone. 

I lifted my chin. 

“Okay, fine,” Sir Anthony said. “Have it your way.”

One of the men took the guns from Audrey and Blake, then the other four turned toward Audrey and Blake and aimed their guns. Two of them at Audrey and two at Blake. My stomach sank and my heart rate picked up. I dropped the gun from my trembling hands.