by B L Teschner
The wrinkles deepened around her eyes as her expression matched mine. “Yes. You’re a smart girl, Millie. It’s good to know you’ve paid attention in your history class.” She palmed the key that was hanging around her neck beside the whistle and leaned forward, sliding it into the lock and twisting it open. When she stood back up she placed her bony fingers on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Millie. We’re going to fix you up nicely. I promise.”
Seventeen
Connor
My heart had been thudding in my chest since I had watched them take Millie away. They took my last friend. Millie had told me to run as fast as I could to get away from this terrible place, and I was determined to do so. After some time spent hiding and with her voice of encouragement in my head, I gathered the strength to come out from my hideout and rush to the front door, careful to avoid the metal detector so I wouldn’t set it off and alert everyone to my plan. I took the keys from my pocket and tried to slide one into the lock with my shaking hand. When they dropped to the tiled floor with a scattered ting, I sucked in a breath and looked around, hoping that no one had heard it. I was still in the clear. Scrambling for the keys, I stuck another into the keyhole and turned it, freeing the lock from its home.
A blast of light hit my face; it felt wonderful to be in the sunshine again. I hurried down the concrete stairs that were stained dark from the rain. Millie’s voice urged me to run, and I listened to the memory of her instructions telling me to go in the direction of the cemetery. As I ran, my mind thought up scenarios of what would happen to me if I were caught. We’d seen kids try to run for it before, and they were always caught. How would I be any different? Would I even make it that far? It didn’t matter; I still had to try. My life depended on it.
I made it to the edge of the cemetery and looked back over my shoulder as I continued to run. My resolve heightened as I spotted Steven running across the lawn in my direction. Run Connor, run! I’m Connor Knight! I repeated Millie’s words in my head. I’m as strong as my name says I am! My legs grew heavier as they carried me into the golden fields of tall swaying grass; I was already so tired. Breathing was hard. I could see the line of trees in the distance, begging me to make it to them so they could conceal me from my hunter. Should I hide in the grass like Millie told me? No, I couldn’t do that. Steven was too close; he would be able to tell where the dent in the grass was that my body would surely make. And then, something amazing happened! I got a second wind! My legs felt powerful and longer than ever before, and I moved effortlessly toward my destination. I’m going to make it! I’m actually going to make it!
That was when I heard the familiar clicks behind me. Something connected with my back, and I felt a bolt of electricity surge throughout my body as if I had stuck my finger in an electrical socket. My muscles ceased; my joints locked into place. I fell face-down in the damp field, my mind incapacitated and my legs rendered useless.
Steven towered over me and holstered his taser gun as I turned my head to the side and looked up at him. “Whew!” he hollered. He bent over and rolled me onto my back. “You are a fast little guy! I almost didn’t catch up with ya! Luckily I’m faster though, for as big as I am. No one’s ever outrun me yet.”
In one smooth motion he scooped me up and spun around. I laid lifeless in his arms with my head hanging back and my eyes staring up at the bright blue sky. It was a beautiful day; the sunlight felt so good on my face.
“Please let me go,” I begged in a whisper.
“And let you light this field on fire?” he laughed. “That would be irresponsible on my part, letting a little pyromaniac such as yourself walk free. Nope, we’re gonna erase any and all of your fascination with fire. You’ll want nothing to do with it when we’re done with you.” I began to sob as my eyes still tried to regain their focus. “None of that, now,” he sighed. He looked down at me and continued to push through the tall yellow grass that was moving calmly in the light breeze. “Don’t you worry, little guy,” he assured me gently. “We’re gonna fix you up real nice. I promise.”
* * *
Millie
I’d never felt more rested in my life. I threw back the covers with a smile and stood up, stretching my arms above my head. “Good morning,” I greeted Sammy in the bed beside me. Like usual, her nose was buried in a book.
“Good morning,” she chirped, dropping the book a tad so I could see her pretty smile. “Sleep well?”
“Like the dead.”
After a shower, I headed over to the cafeteria to get some food and find my usual table and group. There they were, my best friends from The Sinner Program.
Toby smiled at my approach. “You look radiant today.”
“Thanks,” I blushed, sitting down beside him with my tray. “I don’t know what it was about last night, but it was the best sleep I’ve ever had.”
“Me too,” Connor agreed across from me.
My focus went to Layla beside him. Her face was bare compared to the loads of makeup she usually wore. “Wow, Layla,” I smiled. “You look so different.”
She lifted a fork full of scrambled eggs in front of her mouth and smiled. “Yeah, I’m going for a more natural look.”
“I like how you looked before,” Dwayne divulged around a bite of food.
Her eyebrows, which were now much softer, drew closer together. “What? You used to make fun of me for how much makeup I wore.”
“Nah, I was just hassling you, that was all.”
She nudged his shoulder with a smile. “Well don’t change; I like it when you hassle me.”
Their eyes met for a split second, which didn’t go unnoticed by Toby and me. We looked at each other and smiled at the thought of Layla and Dwayne forming a romance after the program was over. Layla was a changed girl, after all. I was sure she would be a one-man woman from then on out.
“Have you lost weight?” I asked Dwayne, suddenly realizing he had seemed to slim down right in front of our very eyes.
“Yes, ma’am. I don’t know how much, but I had to tighten my belt on these pants. It’s probably the fantastic food they offer here at the program. I can’t wait until my parents see me.”
“I just can’t wait to go home in general,” Connor said, digging into a pancake he had already polished off half of. “I miss my dad and stepmom.”
“Yeah I miss my parents, too,” Toby agreed. With a smile, he leaned across the table in Connor’s direction. “Hey, give us a call in a few years when you graduate from the firefighting academy, or whatever they call it.”
Connor’s face twisted with confusion. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“You know,” he explained as he returned to his previous position, “because you want to be a firefighter when you grow up.”
Connor scoffed and put another bite of pancake in his mouth. “No I don’t.”
The four of us exchanged glances as Connor continued to eat. “Really?” I asked. “Wasn’t that your dream job? I remember you talking about it…”
“Nope. I want to be a lawyer when I grow up.”
My eyebrows lifted for a moment, but I shrugged it off. He was young; kids changed their minds about their career paths all the time.
Toby lifted his glass of orange juice and took a gulp, setting it back on the table in front of him. “I’m definitely excited to start the new school year, especially as a senior. Play football, see my old friends again…”
I leaned into him and put my hand on his that was sitting on his thigh. “And visit me…” I added with a grin.
He shifted uncomfortably and withdrew his hand from mine, picking up his fork and pushing it into his eggs. “I, I’m not sure what you mean.”
I gaped at him, stunned by what he had just said and done. “I thought we talked about it,” I uttered beside his ear. “You were going to come see me after the program. One state over isn’t too far; don’t you remember saying that?”
He shrugged his answer, keeping his eyes on his tray as he stuck the forkful
of eggs in his mouth.
I leaned in closer to him. “Are you breaking up with me?”
“Breaking up with you?” he mocked loudly, making the rest of the group eye us uncomfortably. “What are you talking about, Millie?”
My heart was in a vice; his words were squeezing all the blood out of it. “Toby, look at me.”
He finished chewing his bite of food and his jaw clenched before looking over at me with hollow eyes. “What?”
“I asked you if you’re breaking up with me.”
His nostrils flared as he drew in a long, slow breath. Sitting down his fork, he turned on the bench and faced me, looking me square in the eyes. “Listen, Millie, I know you like me. But we’re just friends, okay? So please, stop acting like this. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
My mouth fell open as he turned back to his food. “Why are you treating me like this?” I pleaded. “You, you told me you would come see me, that one state away isn’t too far; that no state would be too far.”
“Yeah, what’s up, Toby?” Dwayne asked. “What happened to the two love birds we were all so fond of?”
“Love birds?” he laughed. “What are you guys talking about? Millie and I are just friends.”
Layla and I exchanged glances but she seemed quick to shrug it off, ready to let the issue go like Toby and I had just disagreed on something as insignificant as our favorite restaurant. But it wasn’t that easy for me. Why was he breaking my heart? Did he not think a long-distance relationship would work out between us?
My hand came to rest on his shoulder. “You told me you loved me.”
His jaw clenched once again. My spirits lifted; his arm came across his chest so he could rest his large hand on top of mine. When he shifted to face me, his eyes were more gentle than they had been previously. I was hopeful; I knew he had gotten cold feet and just made a mistake with thinking we wouldn’t work living in two different states.
His eyes searched mine for a moment, and we felt connected again. “I’m so sorry,” he said quietly. “But I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never told you I’m in love with you, Millie. We’ve been nothing more than friends since day one.”
My eyes blurred as I thought about the many conversations we had while getting to know each other, talking about grades and sports and school back home. We played tennis and games together; we laughed at each other’s jokes and hung out with Dwayne, Layla, and Connor like we all didn’t have a care in the world. I remembered him reaching for my hand at this very same table; I remembered him kissing me in front of my bunk room door. Why didn’t he?
He offered me a downturned smile and he gently guided my hand away from his shoulder. “These last two weeks have been so fun,” he assured me, glancing over at our friends. “It’s been a blast with all of you. But we came here for therapy, and now that we’ve been treated, we all get to go back home to our normal lives and re-enter the world as respectable young adults.” Dwayne, Layla, and Connor all nodded in agreement. Toby looked back over at me. “Don’t you agree?” he asked.
I wiped away a stray tear that trickled down my cheek and scooted over to give him some space. “Yeah,” I acknowledged honestly.
“It’s a great program,” Dwayne put in.
All at once, I felt like I had regained my clarity; I remembered why I was there in the first place. I righted my posture and smiled. “Yes, it’s a wonderful program; we are all lucky to have been a part of it.”
Toby’s mouth turned up in one corner as if what I said had made him proud. He reached over and took my hand in his. “We’ll always be friends, and we’ll always have our memories from this program.”
I nodded, my spirits lifting a little. But I had one last request before we would leave the program, and before I could leave the love I thought we shared behind. “Remember me,” I made him promise. “Tell me we’ll always remember each other.”
Something about my words made his smile dwindle, and his eyebrows slightly drew in. He watched me intently for a long moment, his pupils dilating as his blue eyes darted around mine with a different energy; his thumb began caressing the top of my hand in an old familiar way. I could tell there was a war going on in his head. I only wish I knew what it was about my request that transformed him, because what I asked of him had obviously struck him somehow. But as quickly as that moment came, he snapped out of it just as fast, and his pupils constricted back to their normal size. “Of course we’ll always remember each other, Millie,” he offered gently as his warm hand squeezed mine. “I promise.”
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Divine
A Divine Murder
Haunt My Dreams
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