Hold: Hold & Hide Book 1 (13 page)

I couldn’t wait. 

But I had to.

I waited at the door until it opened, dashed to the bathroom, and came out to Emily’s sister who I assumed was now actually Emily residing in her sister’s body. Again, they were identical twins, but Emily had a lighter complexion and more feminine features. Her sister was rough and tomboy-ish. 

“You realize the differences on your body?” I asked her. 

She scrunched her eyebrows. “Huh?”

“I’ll wait for you out here,” I said, hoping I successfully changed the subject. She’d find out in her own time. I didn’t want to be the bearer of freakish news. 

She went to the bathroom and came back out. 

“My head hurts so bad,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Major migraine.”

“Yeah. I think we can all relate.” I walked a little behind her to secretly analyze her head for any suspicious marks. Nothing. 

We walked to the dining hall, but it was empty, so we turned back and waited in the main hall, but no one came. 

“Are we late or something?” she said. 

“Or early? I flew out of my room as soon as the door opened.”

“Weird.” Emily squeezed her arm, then the other. “I feel like I’ve gained more muscle since being here.”

“Really?”

“Starting to look like my sister.” She laughed. “So, where is everyone? What should we do?”

Another girl appeared beside us.

Emily jumped and laughed. “Wow. You scared me.”

The girl’s eyes darted back and forth, never stopping to land on something. She extended her arms along her sides as straight as possible and tightened her hands into fists. Eyes still darting left and right, she whispered something I couldn’t hear. 

Emily leaned into me. “What’d she say?”

I shrugged. “Should we just stay here or what?”

“Don’t know. I was in my room yesterday for a mess in my room. Maybe they gave everyone directions when we weren’t there.”

The strange girl whispered something again as she loosened her fists and snapped her fingers about twenty times. Emily and I watched her for a few seconds, then turned back to each other. 

“Let’s walk around. It’s not often we get to check things out without someone hovering around us.”

“I don’t know.” 

“What’s the worst they could do to us? Put microchips in our brains? Kill us?”

She contorted her eyebrows. When they went back to their rightful places, she started to speak, but never got a word out. 

“Come on,” I said. “Worst case scenario we will end up in our rooms again, getting served in bed by our guides.”

She smiled. “My guide isn’t a hot guy like yours.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Oh, shut up. You so noticed.”

“Hot isn’t the word I’d use.”

“It’s the word everyone else uses.”

Strange girl nodded and clicked her heels.

“Anyway,” I said. “This is weird.”

“What?” she laughed. 

“Me. Having a normal girly conversation about boys. So unlike me. In fact, I don’t think I ever have before.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes.”

“That’s not a bad thing.”

“Or is it? I read this book in my mind and it was all about....”

She motioned for me to go on. 

“I can’t remember.”

“What did you mean by ‘in your mind?’”

I shook it off. “So, peruse this place with me or what?”

I walked toward the library and turned back to her. Strange girl snapped her fingers centimeters from her eyes and barely noticed us. Perhaps I was on my way to losing my mind too. Perhaps I already had. 

Emily took a step, looked around, took another step, and finally jogged to catch up with me. 

“I don’t know about this,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “What about that girl? What if she tells?”

I read through the rows of books. Mostly history and science books. Emily followed me, but kept focusing on the doorway back to the main hall.

“Now you’re making me nervous,” I said as I noticed a small door between two book shelves. “Look at this.”

“If you go in there, you’re on your own.”

I laughed. “Come on.”

The door creaked open as my hand reached toward it. We glanced at each other. Emily stepped back as I opened the door and looked inside. 

“What’s in there?” she said.  

“Can’t see anything. I’m going in.”

I bent over to scoot inside the small entryway and the door slammed shut. I sat against the wall with my knees to my chest, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. But they didn’t adjust. 

A draft sent a chill down my arms and I swear I heard breathing by my ear. I reached around me, touching the walls and floor, and felt nothing. No one. The breathing grew heavier, sending thick bursts of warm air down my neck. My heart pounded. The hot breath neared my collar bone, but I felt nothing around me except air. Thump. And I could only hear the beat of my own heart.

Thump.

My chest rose and fell like I’d run across the world and back. I stood, but my knees crumpled. I curled up on the floor and wrapped my arms around myself. A coin dropped across the room and rattled until it stopped against the heel of my foot. Something tapped. Another tap. Closer to me. Closer. 

Tap.

Again. 

The lights shot on, blinding me. Another white room. Everything white. Too bright. I closed my eyes. 

Tap. 

I squinted and noticed the walls shifted and tiny blades came out of them. They moved closer, even the ceiling inched toward me. I scrambled for the door, but couldn’t see with the bright lights beaming from the walls and floor. I felt around as the walls moved faster. No door handle. No escape. I shivered as sweat trickled into my ear, then shoved the side of my body against the wall. Again, this time with more force.

I slinked back down and held my throbbing shoulder with one hand and covered my eyes with the other. Lights speckled on the backs of my eyelids as the spikes in front of me touched my feet. I scooted my legs under me and screamed, but sound didn’t come out. The spikes to the left and right grazed my arms. I squeezed myself into a ball as my heart punched my ribs with its bruising palpitations.

The lights turned off. I opened my eyes to be sure. The walls vibrated. Slowly, they still moved, reducing me to a lump of contorted body parts. One arm squished into my lips and the other got stuck behind my back. Twisting, blistering pain. I coughed something up as a few spikes poked into my legs. I couldn’t move. I gave up. 

Do you hear me?
I screamed inside.
I give up!

The box jerked twice, then the bottom opened up and spit me out. My stomach climbed to my throat as I fell into complete darkness. Too much time to think and picture my life in fractured images.
Nothing,
I thought.
I’ve lived almost eighteen years and I have nothing to show for it except good grades. 

A stream of purple light washed away the images and then I saw his face. Our times together. My best friend. 

My back slammed against something and my body flew back into the air, then landed on a soft surface. I reached my hands behind my head and felt a soft netting, like a hammock. 

Short of breath and life and everything left in me, I closed my eyes and panted. Another chance at life and this time ... I wanted to live. 

I got on my hands and knees and crawled around. The darkness provided absolutely no ability to find a way out. I kept crawling, probably in circles, until I gave up and flipped over to my back. 

The netting jostled and loosened. I fell, this time only a foot or two, to a hard surface. The lights shot on. Blinding, mind-splitting lights. Another white room. 

I shut my eyes and covered my face with my arm, then peeked through a tiny hole.

Someone touched my back and lifted me from under my arms. I jerked away and opened my eyes just enough to see Dr. Brainkenridge smiling at me, dressed all in white, beside a dental chair suspended from the ceiling. I dropped my body weight, but the person holding me continued to carry me across the room. My head, tormented by the harsh lighting, seared with so much pain that I didn’t want to scream or yell or go crazy. Even though it took all I had to control myself. I grabbed my face and begged them to let me go. 

Dr. Braikenridge’s voice cut through my panic. “It’s okay, 413, 413, 413. You just need a little visit with the dentist.”

They strapped me into the chair and raised it back to the ceiling, then dropped it and raised it and dropped it again. My hands, secured beside me, kept me from grabbing my head when the surges of pain hit. Thankfully the chair squeaked to a stop.

Dr. Braikenridge wrapped a blindfold around my eyes and opened my mouth. His gloved finger reached inside and tickled the inside of my cheek. Using my tongue, I pushed his finger out of my mouth and spit. He let out a maniacal laugh that bounced off the walls.

“Pliers, please,” he said, shoving his finger back into my mouth and gagging me. 

I coughed a few times.

Cool metal slid into my mouth.

“Don’t worry.” He grabbed my front tooth with the pliers. “This won’t hurt a bit.”

I screamed and screamed and screamed as he yanked. Drool slid down my neck, wetting my shirt and drowning my dreams.

Emily and Blake ate lunch without looking up. Most people in the room did the same. We’d been sobered and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. Every day I woke up and the day before would become a blur of memories. Only pieces remained. I knew, somehow, that I had somehow been transplanted into Audrey’s body. Same with Blake and Emily and their twins. I remembered the history films Josephine made me watch in my room. The butterfly documentaries on blooming into something better than before. I remembered the delicious food and exploring the building with Emily, falling, and waking up in my bed with a headache and major tooth pain. And Red. I remembered Red and that his real name was Vaughn. I hadn’t seen him in a while. 

Emily tapped my shoulder. “See that?”

I looked across the room where her finger pointed. “See what?”

“No.” She pointed in front of us. “Blake.”

“What about him?”

“He’s always got bruises on his neck and wrists. They always seem like they’re new, too.”

Yes, I did see that now. Not sure how I didn’t notice before Emily and that made me feel like a horrible friend. I touched my foot to Blake’s shin. He didn’t look up. I tapped a few times. Still zoned out on his empty plate, he didn’t move. 

“Blake,” I said. 

No response. 

I kicked his leg as hard as I could without being too noticeable. He didn’t flinch. A server took his plate away and he folded his hands on the table. A drop of saliva dropped from the corner of his mouth. I walked over to him and dabbed his face with my napkin. 

“413,” a voice came from the speakers. “Please remain seated.”

I looked up at the ceiling and raised my arms into the air. “I want to stand!” 

“413—”

“I’m standing!” I jerked my fist in the air and suddenly felt ridiculous, so I dropped it back to my side and whispered, “I want to stand.”

Blake didn’t look up. 

I touched his shoulder where a bruise led beneath his shirt and down his back. I lifted his shirt a little. Bruises and half-healed wounds, slash marks and scratches, covered his entire back. He slowly moved his face toward me, but didn’t look up. I bent down and took his hand. 

“What happened to you?” I said. 

He shrugged as two men forced me to the door. I looked over my shoulder at the others. Some of them stared at the tables with blank faces, others looked right at me with wide-eyes and gaping mouths. Why? 

It’s all I could think. Why? 

Sir Anthony met me at the doors, snapped his fingers three times, and said, “It’s time, 413. You’re going to follow me, 413. You’re going to do as I say, 413.”

My stomach stirred with nausea. I swallowed. 

“You will not resist, 413. You will obey, 413. It’s time, 413.”

I think I yawned, but I wasn’t sure.

“She’s resisting again,” someone said. 

“I’ll fix that,” Sir Anthony said. 

And then everything disappeared.