Crazy Files

by Yvi Valentin

  “You feel betrayed, I know,” she began.

  I didn’t know what to say. I wanted answers. I was hurt and completely at the mercy of my captors. She stared at me for a while as if she was looking for something.

  “I guess you’ve met my son,” Dr. Robins said. It was in that instant I knew she was talking about Andy. Andy was the bad guy; he earned my trust only to betray me. There was a lot of that going on. “I can tell by your thoughts you have.”

  “Stay out of my head!” I snapped.

  “Now Aimee, there’s no reason for you to raise your voice. Maybe I should bring Andy in here, I can tell you have a little crush on him so you’ll probably respond better to him.” She turned to the men who were still standing there watching what was taking place between me and the so called doctor and demanded, “Bring Andy in here.”

  The men nodded and left the room. It was in that moment I realized how uncomfortable I was. The ropes were too tight on my wrists, the post was digging into my back and my butt hurt from sitting for who knows how long on the concrete floor. I wriggled around trying to get a little more comfortable, but realized there was no way it was going to happen while I was tied up. It wasn’t long before Andy walked through the door. I couldn’t bear to look at him.

  “Aimee, I know you’re hurt…and mad,” Andy started, “but you need to see this from my point of view. I’m doing this for your own good.”

  “I’ll be upstairs if you need me,” said Dr. Robins as she walked out of the room.

  “For my own good!?” I yelled. “You think having me kidnapped was good for me!? You must be out of your mind! In what way is this good for me?”

  “You weren’t going to come with me on your own and I knew time was running out, so I figured I would have you brought here to protect you,” he defensively explained. “I knew you would be mad, but I think it’s better than letting you stay in serious danger. I’m sorry Aimee.” I was instantly confused. I thought Andy was the bad guy, but maybe he wasn’t. I remembered Andy could read my mind and was probably doing it at the moment, so I focused on everything around me. “We’re not the bad guys Aimee. I know it may not seem like it right now, but you have to believe me. If we hadn’t brought you here, Evan and his people would have done the same thing.”

  “If you’re the good guys, why am I tied up in this dungeon?”

  “I knew you were struggling with all of this and I didn’t want you to run away without knowing the truth.”

  “Then untie me and start explaining.”

  “I will if you promise not to run away.”

  “I promise but you have to give me some answers Andy.”

  “Alright, I will,” he said as he started to untie my hands.

  “Thanks,” I said as Andy helped me up. I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting down again, so I walked around to stretch my legs. I turned to look at what was behind me from where I was sitting moments before and saw a wall filled with all sorts of weapons. There were knives, swords, guns, grenades, boxes filled with all kinds of bullets and so on. I stopped dead in my tracks, horrified by what I saw.

  “Those are to use in our battles,” Andy said, clearly reading my mind.

  “So…this room is to hold people from the other side?” I asked, still unsure of which side he was really on.

  “Yes, we capture some of their soldiers and try to get them to tell us what the leaders are planning to do next.”

  “Oh.” It was all I could say.

  “Do you want anything? Are you hungry?” His concern for me really had me confused. I wondered what was really going on here.

  “I’m more thirsty than hungry. Am I allowed to leave this dungeon?”

  “Yeah, I’ll take you upstairs and see what we have to drink,” he answered. He grabbed my hand and led me into the kitchen. The light streaming in from the windows blinded me in contrast to the dim lighting in the basement. “We have apple juice, lemonade and water, which do you prefer?”

  “Water is fine,” I replied. He took out a glass and pitcher of purified water. I served myself and drank the entire glass in a few seconds.

  “I didn’t realize it was an extreme thirst,” he said in an attempt to ease the tension.

  “Yeah.”

  “Sit down and I’ll give you all the answers you want.”

  “I’d rather stand.” I still wasn’t comfortable with everything. Maybe Andy was one of the good guys, or maybe he was just pretending to be. I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on what was going on. “So I know I’m supposedly in danger and need to be involved in some sort of war…and we can’t forget about these abilities I apparently have.”

  “Well, you already saw what I can do. With enough practice you’ll be able to do it too, but some people have abilities that most don’t.”

  “Like how you can control people’s dreams, I bet most people can’t do that.”

  “Right and it seems like in time and with enough practice, you’ll be able to see the future.” Andy put his hand on top of mine and my hand twitched. I could feel the familiar energy coursing through my body and instantly relaxed. It was as if he wanted to have constant contact with me and I didn’t mind at all despite my confusion.

  “See the future? How can you tell I’ll be able to do that?”

  “My mom said that when she read your mind at her office, she noticed you had a feeling about things to come. Most of us don’t have instincts like that.”

  “I thought it was just common sense.”

  “Most people do have instincts, but they can’t predict what’s going to happen as accurately as you have.”

  “Oh, what about the other stuff? Like that fireball you showed me.”

  “I can teach you how to do that,” he said as he inched closer to me. “We can manipulate any kind of energy or element, but most people are strong at manipulating only one element so they don’t bother trying to strengthen their abilities with the others.”

  “Is that what you’ll be teaching me first?” I asked. It was all very different, but I was interested in learning more and learning how to do these things. “Will I be able to read minds too? Or is that one of your special abilities that you happen to share with your mom?”

  “We all can read minds. I’ll teach you how to do that too.”

  “So do you know anything about the things I’ve been seeing? I mean, do you know what these things are? Or why I’ve been seeing them?”

  “Aimee, there’s a whole other world you still don’t know about, it’s the world we belong to,” he paused to gauge my reaction and I raised an eyebrow waiting for him to continue. “The static looking stuff you see everywhere is the veil or doorway between our world and the world we’re in right now.”

  “Wait, another world?” I asked. “There’s another world…and I belong there? Like a parallel universe? I don’t understand.” The abilities I maybe could have wrapped my head around, but an entire other world I somehow belonged to? I couldn’t understand it…not yet at least.

  “I know it’s hard to understand right now, but in time it’ll all make sense.” Just then, there was a knock on the door. Andy stood up about to go see who was there.

  “Andy, no!” I cried.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I have a really bad feeling about this.” I said as I grabbed his arm to keep him from going into the next room. Seconds passed before I heard a loud bang. I jumped back in horror.

  “Where’s the girl?” yelled a man.

  “Out the back door,” Andy whispered. I had no time to decide whether or not I trusted Andy, he grabbed my hand and we rushed out the door as quietly as possible. I noticed a garden and wished there was time for me to admire its beauty. He led me to a shed where he grabbed a backpack and went as quickly as possible out the gate. We made it to the sidewalk and tried to act like a normal couple walking down the street. “Just act natural, don’t show any fear. We don’t know who else out here is after you.”

  “Whe
re are we going? And why did you need to grab a backpack? There were so many of them in that shed.”

  “These backpacks are for emergencies, like the one we’re in now. If we ever need to leave in a hurry, we each have a bag filled with weapons, food and money. There’s enough in here for both of us.” He answered my question before I asked it. I didn’t mind him reading my thoughts as much.

  “So where will we go?” I asked again.

  “We have plenty of safe houses around the city. We just have to make sure we’re not being followed.” Andy looked around to see if that was the case. I tried looking too, but gave up when I realized I had no idea who to look for. “Just trust your instincts Aimee.”

  “Who’s after me now?” I asked.

  “I didn’t get a look at them, but my guess is that this is all because of Evan,” he said. “Let’s turn up here, we’re being followed.”

  “No Andy,” I said, pulling him back. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Andy looked all around us and said, “His people are in every direction, we’re going to have to run past one of the groups.”

  “Just tell me when and where to run and I’ll do it.”

  “Okay, take my hand, and we’re going to start running across the street…right now.”

  I grabbed Andy’s hand and we sprinted across the street, hardly paying attention to any of the traffic. We were lucky we didn’t get hit by a car. By the time we crossed the street, the men were in a full on chase after us. We turned down random streets hoping to lose our tail, but failed. It seemed like there were more and more people joining in on the chase. We turned down an alley, into an open door and found ourselves in the bar where we met.

  “Do you think we’ll be safe in here?” I asked, trying to catch my breath. I looked out the window and saw one of the men who was chasing us peer into the bar. “We need to get out of here.” We headed towards the door we came in from, Andy walked in front of me to make sure the coast was clear. My arm was grabbed and I was immediately pulled backwards. “Andy, help!” I yelled as I tried to break free.

  “Aimee!” he yelled back. “Move to the side.” I saw a ball of electricity in his hand as he chased after me.

  “I’m trying!” I cried. The harder I tried fighting off the man who held on to me the tighter his grip became. “I can’t move, Andy!”

  “Then duck your head!” He yelled in desperation as I was about to be pulled out of the door. I ducked my head as Andy was about to throw the ball at the man with a tight grip on me but nothing happened. I was out of the bar and forced into the back of a car.

  “You’re a hard person to get a hold of.” It was Evan and I was screwed.

  Chapter 6

  I was pulled out of a car at what seemed to be a farm. I didn’t know of any farms in Chicago. I was taken into a little farmhouse and locked into a small bedroom. At least I wasn’t tied to a post in a dungeon. I sat on the bed and took in my new surroundings. It was a small room with pink flower wallpaper and delicate white curtains lined with lace. The bed was small with blue and pink floral print sheets. It seemed like someone’s grandma had once lived here.

  The door opened and in walked Evan. “Long time no see,” he smiled. “How are you doing?” he laughed. “I’m just kidding; I know you’re not doing so hot.”

  “What do you want with me?” I asked. I started to think it was Evan who was the bad guy and not Andy, but I still wasn’t too sure. Andy did tell me to trust my instincts, and they told me that Evan was a horrible person. I wished I had trusted Andy more and left with him when he first asked.

  “You and Andy were always the perfect couple,” Evan said, obviously reading my thoughts.

  “What do you mean?” I was confused. “I haven’t known Andy for long enough to be in a relationship with him.”

  “Obviously your precious Andy hasn’t told you everything.” It was obvious he was jealous of whatever he thought was going on between me and Andy.

  “Well he was starting to when you and your posse decided to hunt me down,” I snapped. “So why don’t you fill me in?”

  “Why don’t you tell me what your beloved Andy already told you,” he said. His jealously was even more apparent. The question was why? Could it really have been because of whatever relationship Evan thought I had with Andy?

  “Why don’t you just read my mind and find out.” I was tired of everything. All I wanted were answers and no one was giving them to me. I was in no mood to deal with Evan’s immaturity.

  Evan was staring at me. I assumed he was trying to find whatever he wanted in my mind. I stared back at him, hoping he would be done quickly. He stopped and said, “Wow, Andy hardly told you anything. I’m surprised.”

  “Then fill me in.” I had such a bad attitude, but could anyone blame me? I ran away from a man who I thought was going to hurt me and passed out only to be taken to my apartment where the same man was waiting for me to wake up. Then, I was told I had abilities that would be useful in a war and I was in danger because of it. And on top of that, I got kidnapped twice in who knows how much time had passed. Who wouldn’t have a bad attitude after going through all of that?

  Evan seemed to be deep in thought. I knew he was thinking about how much to tell me. “You just read my mind Aimee.” Evan was stunned. “I’m impressed; most people wouldn’t be able to do that without being taught first. This is good; it means you’ll be able to do everything else with little or no training.”

  “Well alert the press.” I tried to come across as if I didn’t care, but if Evan was reading my mind, he knew I was excited about it. At the same time I was shocked. I had no clue how I did it or if I could do it again. “So are you going to give me some answers or are you just going to sit there hoping you can convince me to fight on your side?” I thought I might have read his mind again. Or maybe it was just in my head.

  “No, you read my mind again,” he said casually. “You’re getting better at this.”

  “Stop changing the subject and answer the questions you already know I have!” I yelled.

  His eyes widened as if he wasn’t expecting me to raise my voice. “Alright, there’s no reason to get bitchy about it. I’ll tell you. Where should we start?”

  “The beginning is always the best place to start.”

  “As much as I hate to say this, Andy was right. The things you have been seeing are part of our world.”

  “Gee, thanks, I had no idea. Andy didn’t tell me that before. Why don’t you tell me what this world of ours is?”

  “I’m not going to tell you anything if you’re going to keep being a bitch!” he snapped.

  “Fine, then don’t tell me anything and let me go.”

  Evan laughed. “You’re not going to be leaving here that easily.”

  I rolled my eyes at him. I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy either. I calmed down a bit and said, “Alright, I’m listening. Tell me everything I need to know.”

  “That’s better. Let’s start with this world I know you have tons of questions about.”

  “Yes, do tell.” I felt like I was being fake, but I didn’t think I was going to get any answers by being such a bitch to him the entire time.

  “The first thing you need to know about this world is that we can come in and out as we please,” Evan started, “the static you’ve been seeing lately is the doorway between our world and the one we’re in now.”

  “I already know that, Andy told me not long before you organized my kidnapping. So, what is this world and how do I fit in?”

  “You’re one of us Aimee, you’re a star child.”

  “A star child?” I asked. “What’s that? And how do you know I am one?”

  “I know this will be hard to believe, but I’ve known you for a very long time and that’s how I know you’re a star child.”

  “This is crazy,” I said as I started to feel weak. “I can’t be a star child, they don’t exist. It can’t be real.” I felt myself getting weaker. It wa
s as if someone was taking away my energy bit by bit. Everything was all too much for me to handle. My vision got blurry and I felt myself fall on the bed. I wished I didn’t pass out so much.

  “Aimee,” I heard a voice call out.

  “Andy?” I asked. “Is that you? Am I dreaming?”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “But how did you know I was sleeping?”

  “You were right before, I pulled your energy from you. I needed to know you were alright.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible.”

  “Now you know. Do you have any idea where you are right now?”

  “Evan has me at some sort of farmhouse, I’m not sure where exactly I am,” I answered. “Andy, I read his mind! I’m not exactly sure how I did it, but I did.”

  “Aimee, that’s great!” Andy exclaimed while giving me a hug. “Most of us don’t pick up on these things so fast and without any training.”

  “That’s what Evan said. He also told me I’m a star child and he’s known me for a long time. How is that possible?”

  “He’s right. One of Evan’s abilities is to erase people’s memories and a long time ago, he did it to you.”

  “Why would he erase my memory?” It was all so much to take in. It was confusing and I wasn’t sure what to do with the information.

  “Evan has always been jealous of my relationship with you.”

  “Yeah, I got that impression.”

  “So, he figured that to get you away from me, he could wipe your memory and put in new ones in which you were in love with him,” he said. “Evan eventually did erase your memory, but you somehow managed to escape before he could place the new memories. I spent so much time looking for you after that and managed to find you in Chicago, but by the time I found you, Evan was close and I had to act fast. I waited for the right moment to reintroduce you into this whole world, but then you went to see my mom and told her about everything you had been seeing, I knew the moment was right. By then, Evan was already closing in and you know the rest from there.”