“Men can be sexually assaulted just like women can.”
“And she’s not going to do that. She can’t make him do anything, and when he’s in that trance he’s not going to be able to fulfill any of those needs for her.”
“And why should I believe you?”
“What other choice do you have? You going to take her on by yourself? Fight for your man?” He laughed.
“I would fight for my friend.” I certainly wasn’t going to leave Kelby in the clutches of that woman.
“And you would lose.”
“I thought I was gifted.” I had my breathing under control. I could do this.
“You are. But your gifts aren’t the kind that are going to help you against a creature like that.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Sit back and let her play with him?”
“No one said that.”
“Okay…”
“But you are going to have to trust me.”
“Great. Exactly what Kelby warned me not to do.”
“I’m disappointed you’d believe him. After everything we’ve been through.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore. Who to trust.”
“I can’t help you with the first part, but I can with the second.”
“Okay. Who can I trust?”
“Yourself. It’s that simple.”
Part 7
Noah
14 Noah
What the hell just happened? I blinked over and over, sure I was seeing things wrong. But no. I was standing on the grass outside my high school. At least it looked just like my high school. The details were all the same. The two stone benches set perpendicular to each other. The same trees that looked like they were bending over to touch each other.
I looked down. I was still dressed in the borrowed black jumpsuit. At least I knew not everything had been a weird dream. But where was Rachel? We’d been together just a second ago. Was she okay? Was she in danger? Where was she? Why weren’t we together? I glanced all around me, searching for her. I was alone on the grass aside from a squirrel hurrying toward the trees.
In the distance I heard talking, the sound of cars, and then a louder noise, like a rumble. I walked around toward the front of the school just as several yellow school buses rolled into the circle. Off in the distance I saw more cars pulling into the student lot. The numbers on my watch had stopped, but by the looks of things, it was the beginning of the school day. Even after several years, I’d never forget the sounds and flurry of mornings like that. But it had been years. And not only did I have no memory of heading back to St. Louis, I had no memory of returning to Earth. Why was I here?
“So where are we exactly?”
I jumped as someone patted me on the back. I turned and came face to face with Dale. “Dale? What’s going on? What are we doing here?”
“Hey, answer me first. Where is here? It looks like a school on Earth.” He was wearing a jumpsuit as well, and an expression of puzzlement that I was sure matched mine.
“It’s my old high school. At least it looks just like it.” Now that I was around the front I could see the name spelled out over the doorway. It was the same. Along with the mural of the school mascot—the Cougar.
“And why are we here?” He took a seat on one of the half walls that was covered in so and so loves so and so etchings. I’d have thought one day they’d fix that.
“How am I supposed to know?” I looked down again at the watch. I hovered over a bunch of options, but nothing happened. I tried to contact Angie. Nothing. It was as if it was out of range and couldn’t work.
“I assumed you did.” He leaned back on his hands. “You’re disappointing me.”
“Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be on North Star?” I tried to remember what had happened right before I ended up at the school. Rachel and I had been facing those mirror people. That’s all I could remember.
“Telton was worried so he and Carl set something up so I was tagged to you. I don’t really get it. They gave me this.” He held up his wrist to show off a watch. “I guess it’s connected with yours?”
“Do you know where Rachel is?” As relieved as I was to find someone who’d been in space with me, above all else I had to find her.
“No. Again, shouldn’t you know the answer to that?” He studied his watch. “And fantastic. My watch is busted now. Think they’ll give me a new one?”
“It’s not busted. Unless mine is broken too. I think there’s something preventing them from working here. I don’t get what happened. One minute we were dealing with these mirror people and the next thing I knew I was here.”
“Mirror people?” Dale raised an eyebrow. “What kind of mate is Caspian supposed to have?”
“This isn’t Caspian’s starmate I’m talking about. We didn’t even get that far.” We’d barely gotten anywhere at all.
“So who are these mirror people then?”
“These weird people who boarded our ship. They wanted us to stop looking for Caspian’s starmate.”
“And you wouldn’t listen? Is this because you pissed them off?”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t even remember what happened.
A bell rang from inside the school.
“I guess school is starting.” Dale stood up. “I forgot how annoying those bells are.”
A crowd of students passed right by us. None of them gave us a single glance.
“But why are we here? Why would they send me back to my high school? If it was the mirror people who sent us.”
“Who else would send us? If you were like me, high school was hell. Maybe this is punishment.”
“Maybe…” Most of high school wasn’t hell, but everything had changed toward the end.
Dale rubbed his chin. “Or maybe we aren’t really where you think we are? Like it’s set up to look like your old school, but it’s really full of alien monsters.”
Normally I’d have laughed Dale off for such a ridiculous suggestion, but considering we’d left Earth on a spaceship, it was entirely possible, and maybe even more plausible. My whole threshold for what I viewed as reality was forever changed. The strangest part was how come I couldn’t remember getting there? Wouldn’t I have remembered returning to Earth?
“Come on. We’re going to be late.” A girl crossed right in front of us, dragging her friend toward the school. There was something about those girls. I knew them. They’d been in my chemistry class junior year. They disappeared through the front doors of the school.
“Why were you staring at those girls?” Dale nudged me. “I thought you were all about Rachel.”
“I am.” I stared at the doors they’d disappeared through. “But I know them. We went to school together.”
“Maybe we should go inside.” Dale started toward the doors.
I pulled back on his shoulder. “What? Aren’t you the one who said there may be alien monsters inside?”
“Yeah, but what else are we going to do? Maybe facing them will get us out of here? Who the hell knows. I’m starting to think I should have refused this assignment. I keep getting the short end of the stick. First, I got used as bait for angry aliens, now I’m probably going to have to face monsters—in a high school. I don’t even want to know what my next assignment will be. Probably babysitting vicious alien babies.”
A few more students ran in before the entrance area fell silent.
“We have to get out of here. I’m worried about Rachel.”
“I’m worried about us.” Dale rubbed the back of his neck. “Neither of us really remember getting here. We may be about to face monsters. I get you care about Rachel. And I understand. She’s a cool girl, but right now I think the focus has to be on us.”
“Yet you are the one suggesting we walk straight into the school.” I pointed to the doors. “Unarmed and completely unsure of what we’re about to face.”
“If we had cool space weapons I’d suggest we bring them, but I forgot mine. Oh, wait. That’
s right. They never gave me any.”
“No one gave me weapons either.”
“Well, we couldn’t bring them in anyway.” He pointed to a white sign in front of the school. “It’s a weapon free zone.”
Except when it wasn’t. My stomach dropped. I couldn’t go in there. If anything the passage of time had made my apprehension about the school worse. “I hate this place.” It was full of so many bad memories. Seeing it again was definitely a punishment. Something about Dale’s earlier words rang true.
“Isn’t it weird that no one is late?” Dale looked around. “I mean besides those few stragglers a few minutes ago. I don’t know about your school, but there were tons of people running in after the first bell at mine.”
The second bell rang, as if on cue. “I wouldn’t know. I always got in before the second bell.”
“Hmm.” Dale rubbed his chin again.
“What?” I looked at him.
“Nothing. Just thinking.” He walked away from the school and glanced out at the parking lot. “No one pulling in either. It’s like everything stopped.”
“School did start. Maybe no one wants detention.”
“Maybe.” He joined me by the half wall again. “I really think we’re supposed to go in.”
“Are you in on this? Is this all one big joke? Or a game? Is Telton mad I’m with Rachel?” I probably would have believed anything at that point. Part of me was waiting for him to pull off his human head and reveal himself to be something else entirely. Like at the end of a Scooby Doo episode.
“Oh yeah. I’d willingly participate if it was?” Dale scowled.
“Considering how dangerous life is right now I wouldn’t exactly blame you.”
“I’m your friend. Like it or not.”
“I’m glad you’re my friend.” I wasn’t looking to start a fight. “You really think we need to go in?”
“I don’t know how else we are getting out of here. Unless you want to try to steal a car.”
“Do you know how to do that?” I narrowed my eyes. “Plus, where would we go? I think we both agree this likely isn’t actually Earth.”
“I say we go in. If we run into crazy monster things right away we leave and teach ourselves to hotwire a car.”
“Good plan.” I couldn’t believe I was actually uttering those words to Dale.
15 Noah
I hesitated in the doorway far longer than I should have. I just couldn’t get my legs to move. Dale held the door open, and I stepped back.
“I get this is hard, man. But we don’t have another choice.” Dale sounded uncharacteristically understanding. It made me suspicious.
“You’re really Dale, right? Not that you’d tell me if you weren’t.”
“It’s me. I’m trying to be less of a jerk for a few minutes. I know what happened here. You know with your brother.” He sounded genuine, and he knew what my brother’s death did to me. He never asked me questions about the nightmares, and that was one of the reasons he made the perfect roommate.
“Yeah. Okay.” I looked down. I didn’t want to do this, but Dale was right. I had no other options. The sooner I got out of this, the sooner I could find Rachel. At least I hoped so. I still didn’t quite understand what was going on.
I stepped inside. Dale followed. He released the door, and it slammed shut behind us.
I stood in the lobby, taking in the busy walls and worn vinyl tile floors.
“Aren’t those the same girls from before?” Dale pointed to where two girls walked down the hall. “Because they look just like them, but they should have been way ahead of us. I guess they stopped.”
“I guess so.” I didn’t know what to think anymore. I glanced around at the posters on the walls. There was one advertising the upcoming play Our Town. That had been the one the drama club did spring of my senior year. I only remembered because Joseph had been cast as George.
A few teachers walked down the hall toward us. I looked around for a place to hide, but they were next to us too quickly. I prepared to be yelled at or questioned about our strange clothes, but they didn’t even glance our way. They kept walking and talking as if we weren’t even there.
“Mr. Burr?” I hurried down the hall to get a better look. He didn’t acknowledge me. I was pretty sure we weren’t visible to anyone there. But I had gotten a good look at him, and yes it was Mr. Burr, my band teacher. But he’d died six months after I graduated. Weird. Just like with the girls I recognized before. It was as if this was my school during my senior year. I took a closer look at the advertisement for the play. It only listed the dates as May 5-6. No year.
“You know that guy?” Dale pointed in the direction where the teachers had gone.
“My band teacher. But he’s dead.”
“Yeah, we’re not on Earth. At least not in present time.”
“Which makes absolutely no sense.” None of this did. “How can my high school of the past be recreated?”
“You are asking this after spending time in space, visiting an alien planet, and meeting people with mirror eyes?”
“Yes. Because this was designed for me. That makes it completely different.”
“True. This is because of you.”
“I never said it’s because of me. I said it was designed for me.”
“Still this is all your fault. I never thought I’d hear you admit that.”
“Thanks for keeping it real, Dale.”
“No problem.”
“Where to?” Dale asked.
“I have no idea.”
“You need to have one. We’ve already established this is all about you.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I get it. Do you think we’re stuck in a simulator? Are there aliens watching us right now?”
“Now you sound like me.”
“Scary, huh?” All of it was scary. I was done believing I was going to wake up from a dream, but this really was starting to feel like a nightmare.
“Not scary. I’m just feeling redeemed.” For once I appreciated Dale’s ability to make light of serious conversations.
“Want to see my locker?” That was a destination. The whole stuck in a simulator thing was sounding more and more realistic. Plus this had to tie in to the mirror people. Maybe they could project what they saw inside me? But that meant the memory I was stuck in was bad. Really, really bad.
Going to my locker was safer than other places. Nothing had happened there that day. I headed toward the west staircase. I’d never go down the east set again. We walked down the hall and reached the stairs, but it wasn’t right. Everything was reversed. “These are the wrong stairs. Let’s turn around.”
Dale shrugged and followed me as I went back the way we came. We hit the stairs again. The east stairs. “Am I crazy or did we go the opposite direction this time?”
“We did. And I know why you’re flipping out. We’ve passed the same overflowing garbage can twice now. We seem to keep ending up in the same spot.” Dale glanced over his shoulder. “Maybe it’s because we’re supposed to go this way?”
“I can’t go down those stairs.” There was no way I could even make it to the landing.
“I’m guessing this goes beyond a preference of stairwells. Does this have something to do with your brother?”
“It has everything to do with his brother.” A female voice came from right behind me. I turned to find the girl with the mirror eyes. She had her sunglasses on, but I couldn’t miss that silver striped suit.
“What am I doing here? What did you do with Rachel?” As much as I disliked the woman, she was my chance at answers.
“Rachel will be fine.” She reached out for me.
I stepped back. “Will be fine? Does that mean she isn’t fine now?” Panic seized me.
“She is strong on her own. She will find her way and persevere. All she has to do is figure out what the right decision is.”
“No one said she isn’t strong, but she shouldn’t be on her own. She should be with me.
”
“She has to be on her own until you’re ready.”
“Ready?” I narrowed my eyes. “Ready for what?”
“I already told you about the storm. We need you strong. You and Rachel have the potential to be incredibly strong together, but not unless you are strong as an individual first.” She leaned up against the lockers. “I’m Janda, and I am not the enemy.”
“I don’t care what your name is. I want to be with Rachel.”
“You aren’t ready. You need to be stronger.”
I gritted my teeth. “I am strong.”
“No, you’re not.” She shook her head.
Dale laughed. “See, all that gym time did nothing.” So the old Dale was still in there. It was almost reassuring.
Janda spun to look at Dale. “This doesn’t concern you. I don’t understand how you are here.”
“It’s called advanced technology. Ever hear of it?” Dale held up his arm to show off the watch.
“Give me that.” She reached for his wrist.
He pulled his arm away. “Nuh uh. Get your own.”
“I can put you back in your worst memory. Be careful how much you push me.” She removed her sunglasses.
He recoiled. “Nope. Forget that. Carry on. Please put those glasses back on.”
“The glasses stay off.”
“And this is my worst memory.” I’d already figured it out, but now I had to find a way out of it. That’s why I kept winding up at the east stairs. “This is the day my world fell apart. That’s what this simulation is.”
She gripped her sunglasses in her hand. “I’m not doing this as punishment.”
“Then why are you doing it?” I tried to avoid her eyes. I didn’t want to see the fear I knew would be reflected back.
“Because you need to be stronger. I’ve been over this.”
“How does reliving the worst hell of my life make me stronger?” Anger brewed inside of me. “It makes me weaker.”
“You need to let go.” She gripped my wrists. She was surprisingly strong.
“Why do you care?” Dale looked down at the floor. “I mean really? Why do you care what Noah can do or not do?”
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