Stealth

On the night before the departure ceremony, I was very jumpy.  What if we got caught?  Would we get some kind of horrific punishment, or worse, be forced to stay longer?  Sheer panic crashed over me in waves as I lay awake.  I glanced around the room.  Everyone seemed to be asleep.  The blonde girl—never did catch her name—snored softly in the bunk across from mine.  Red tufts of hair stuck out from the covers on the two top bunks.  The silence made me even more antsy.  

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.  

“Cattie, are you awake?” I whispered, lightly kicking the bunk above me.  “Don’t you think we should be leaving now?”

I heard what sounded like a muffled “Ouch!” Then there was a rustling of sheets.  Her head appeared from the top bunk, hair disheveled.  

“Yes, I’m awake,” she hissed.  “And a little sore on the bottom, thanks to you.  I have a cousin who—”

“All right.  I’m sorry.  I’m just nervous,” I apologized.

She nodded.  “I’m nervous too.  Come on, let’s get out of here.” She climbed down the ladder.  I noticed that she was already dressed, like me.  We woke True up and headed out as quickly as possible.  

The hallways were eerily silent.  True and I followed Cattie down the corridors, looking this way and that.  When we came near the third door on the left, we heard voices.  From what I could gather, some of the staff was having a midnight snack of some kind.  Out of pure curiosity, we pressed our ears to the door.

“Just think, by tomorrow those brats will be gone,” one said with a satisfied sigh.

“Yeah,” barked another one.  “But a new batch will be arriving soon after.”

There were agitated murmurs of agreement.

Someone cleared her throat angrily.  “These ‘brats’ are mere children who are being forced to do things no one their ages should be doing.  However, they continue to work hard and push themselves to the limit.  Many of them come to me with ghastly injuries, but they don’t utter a single cry of pain.  They just stare down at the floor, trying very hard not to show any emotion.”

We couldn’t believe our ears.  Someone was actually taking our side.  An uncomfortable silence followed.

Finally Sergeant Buck muttered, “Tough little monsters.  I’ll give them that.”

Again there was silence and a few uneasy coughs.  After a while they began to talk about other things, such as politics and how much they were getting paid, which was a lot, mind you.

I felt like kicking myself for spending so much time standing there.  Still, it definitely was interesting to hear what they really thought about us.  Brats?  Tough little monsters, were we?  Oh, I’d show them how tough we really were.  I’d outwit them and teach them a thing or two.  I squared my shoulders, holding my head a little higher.  We silently moved on.

It felt like a full hour before Cattie stopped us in front of a big metal door.  When she tried to turn the knob, it wouldn’t open.  

“I don’t understand.  It opened for me before and I’m sure this is the right one,” she insisted, staring at the door in disbelief.

With my hands on my hips, I asked, “Are you sure nobody saw you?”

She blinked.  “Of course.”

True rolled her eyes, removing a bobby pin from her hair.  In one stride, she stood right in front of the door.  She picked the lock and had the door open in a matter of seconds.

We entered the room, which was full of weaponry.  One word: Awful.  Guns, grenades, and heaven knows what else lined the walls.  I didn’t really understand why they would have all this stuff.  I mean, this was a boot camp, but technically not a real one.  And another question: Why wasn’t their security better?  We had just picked the lock and waltzed right in.  There should have been sirens going off and red lights flashing.  Something.  Anything.  The lack of protection was shocking and a bit suspicious.  Maybe they had a hidden camera somewhere and a mob of angry armed men would be coming this way any minute, but when I looked out the door, there was nothing.  Since we’d left our room, we’d seen no one patrolling the hallways.  The whole setup seemed very unprofessional.  

As planned, Cattie stood at the door while True and I raided the stash.  I settled on a handgun.  Although it made me grimace to touch it, I reluctantly slipped it into the bag I’d brought with me.  True took one for herself and one for Cattie as well.  Then she took a few other things that she thought would be useful.

Before leaving the room, I took a quick sweep around just to make sure that there weren’t any big gaps or anything that indicated that someone had been there.  Nope.  We’d been careful to take very little so that we wouldn’t leave any clues behind.  Being surrounded by all those terrible tools made me feel oddly vulnerable.  I hightailed it out of there once Cattie gave the go-ahead.  My friends and I surreptitiously crept down the corridors extra quietly until we were safely back in our room.

The other two fell asleep instantly, but I did not.  Lying awake, I checked my watch.  1:00 a.m.  exactly.  I willed myself to go to sleep.  Since the departure ceremony was tomorrow, the time to wake up had been changed to an earlier time.  Like the staff had said, they couldn’t wait to get rid of us “brats.” Huh.  Clenching my teeth, I replayed the whole conversation in my head.  They made me sick.  We weren’t so crazy about them either.  On that note, I slipped into a deep sleep.

I wandered the halls of KVMS, my school.  Hearing sounds coming from the now dark cafetorium, I headed there.  Chase, Malerie, Louis, Asialie, and Ella sat at one of the lunch tables.  They had their heads lowered, voices hushed.  I stepped closer to hear what they were saying.  They abruptly stopped whispering, turning to stare at me.  Elated to see them again, I felt like running over and giving them all a great big hug, but something stopped me in my tracks.  Their expressions were all wrong.  Instead of smiles, looks of fear and perplexity greeted me.

“Lily,” I heard a voice say, “don’t do anything hasty.  Just put it down and we’ll work this out.”

I turned to see Dustin slowly backing away from me, hands up.  “Please, don’t shoot!” He got down on his knees, eyes pleading.  “I’ll do anything.  Look, I’m sorry for everything I’ve done.  You’re right to be mad, just please don’t shoot.”

Bewildered by this peculiar spectacle, I tried to assure him that I had no idea what he was talking about.  I had no intention of hurting him.  Dustin didn’t believe me.  He continued to beg and whimper.  This was so unlike him.  Then I saw it.  That thing in my hand.  My shaking hand was pointing it right at him.

“No,” I whispered, trying to put my arm down, but it wouldn’t budge.  Panicking, I attempted to drop the thing, but it was as if it was glued to my palm.  Shaking with fear, I tried to throw it, stomp on it, and bang it against the wall.  Nothing worked.  

I had no choice but to watch in horror as my fingers slowly pulled the trigger.  Crying silently, I closed my eyes, unable to bear what came next.  There was a loud bang and I felt my hand being pushed back from the force.  After an agonizing cry, I heard nothing.  Finally free of the dirty thing, my sweaty hand let it fall to the ground.

Opening my eyes, I ran toward the lifeless heap on the ground.  The utter silence threatened to suffocate me as I placed his head upon my lap.  A scream for him to get up filled my lungs, but nothing came out.  I held him close, tears streaming down my cheeks.  How could this be happening?  This had never been the plan!  He wasn’t supposed to be…I couldn’t even think the word.  

Suddenly my friends had surrounded me.  Their looming figures glared at me in disapproval.  They chanted something that I couldn’t quite hear.  Their voices became louder and louder until my ears rang with the terrible screeching.  

“Murderer!” my former friends accused, pointing their fingers at me.

I noticed that my hands were wet.  Turning my palms over, I found them scarlet red with blood.  This time my screams bounced against the walls, making an echo.  Agony, surprise, fear, and a whole bunch of other emotions surged through me all at the same time.  Darkness closed in as the now ghoulish figures came closer and closer.  Soon I could see nothing but their feet and grasping hands.  So many hands.  Certain that my life would soon end, I squeezed my eyes shut and waited.

I woke up in a cold sweat, the sheets in disarray.  I could still feel the blood on my palms and the shame that pulsed inside me.  Wincing at the sound of the stupid morning horn, I rubbed at my eyes and stretched.  In the shower, I scrubbed a little harder to wash that horrible dream away.  Remembering the look in his eyes and all that blood made me shiver.  I gave myself a vigorous shake.  Scrubbing wasn’t doing any good, so I tried just blocking it out of my head.  That seemed to work for the time being.  Satisfied, I finished getting ready and headed for the ceremonial breakfast feast.

Laughter and excited chatter streamed out of the room.  Everything about it was bigger and friendlier.  Yes, the dining room had always been the happiest place, but this was different.  We were finally going to leave!  This made everyone happy—especially the staff, as we had learned the previous night.

I sat down at the usual place, greeting my friends as cheerfully as I could.  They weren’t buying it.  I assured them that nothing was wrong.  Then after much persistence on their part, I caved.  I told them about my dream.

“I know what it means,” Cattie said with a casual nod of the head.

True and I both stared at her.

She took a sip of her fruit punch before going on.  “It’s your conscience.” She leaned back in her chair, looking all wise and knowing.

“That explains it,” I agreed.  “I really don’t want to do this, so I think my brain is reminding me of that.  Maybe there is another way .  .  .”

True shook her head.  “Sorry, Lily, but there’s not.  It’s not like you’re going to hurt the guy.  You’ll just hold him at gunpoint to make him get us out of here like in the movies.  Anyway, we can’t come up with a whole new plan now.  We leave boot camp in a few hours!”

“But this isn’t a movie!  It’s real life.  I mean, how is our crazy scheme going to hold up?”

“It will,” Cattie insisted, putting her hand over mine.  “If we trust in each other, then we can do anything.”

True raised her eyebrows.  “Did you get that from a sappy movie or something?”

Cattie grinned.  “Yeah.”

We all giggled.  It was a little corny, but she was right.  We really could do anything if we had the drive to do it.  I had full confidence in them and myself.  This had to work.

“Fine, we’ll stick to the original plan.  If anything changes, I’ll find a way to contact you, all right?” I said.

They both nodded their heads.  We stacked our hands on the table and broke on three.  Nothing could stop us now.  The confidence emanating from them lifted my spirits.  Not entirely, though.  I couldn’t quite shake the guilt tugging at me.  Grandmother had always said that if something didn’t sit right, then it was wrong.  Biting my lip, I gazed out the window.  Maybe that dream had been telling me something.

A loud bugle interrupted my thoughts.  The ceremonies had begun.  Everyone lined up in a single file.  Down the halls we marched until we reached the ballroom.  Why a boot camp would have a ballroom stumped me, but there it was.  Streamers and balloons covered the huge ceiling.  The floors were as shiny as Asialie’s lip gloss.  A sharp pang of homesickness surprised me.  I shook it off and stood at attention like the rest.

Sergeant Buck walked down the line of unusually stiff children, handing out metals.  They weren’t the cheap kind.  No, they sparkled and shined with real gold and silver.

“Never have I seen a sorrier group of ragamuffins,” he growled.  “However, you are tough, and tough is what this place is about.  We’ve decided to give you kids a little treat.” With the way he said “kids,” you’d think he was talking about a bunch of cockroaches.

He glared down at us.  “Since you’ve been working so hard, and it’s the last day, you may mingle with your friends and have some punch and refreshments.”

With that, we were let loose into the big room.  Music blared, but nobody danced.  They just hung around the punch table, munching on cookies.  People mumbled to their friends, staring down at the ground.

“That’s it,” True exclaimed, taking another swig of her punch and slamming it down.  “I’ve had enough of this.  Time to liven up this dead party.”

Cattie and I followed her to the center of the room, wondering what the heck she was doing.  All eyes were on us.

Then True began to dance.  I’m not kidding.  She was dancing like a crazy person in the middle of a dead party.  She looked over at me like she wanted me to do something.  So I got in there and started to dance right beside her.  Then she stopped and said, “Go, Lily!” She stepped back next to Cattie, who had begun to chant along with her.

Soon everyone had surrounded me in a circle, chanting, “Go, Lily!” Then some guy I’d never seen before jumped in, dancing with me.  Shrugging my shoulders, I went with it.  Whatever.  Following our lead, they all joined in.

“You’re a good dancer,” said the guy.

“Thanks.  Right back at you,” I yelled over, and I meant it.  

For the first time, I looked him over.  He rocked a buzz cut and a strong build.  He appeared to have a love for dancing, like me.  I decided that I’d like to get to know this boy.

After a while I got tired and excused myself to the refreshment table.  On my way over, I caught a glimpse of my pal True.  She was teaching a group of boys how to beat box.  She seemed to be having fun.  When I reached the table, I found Cattie talking some poor soul to death.  I sipped my punch and took a bite of a brownie, watching in amusement.  

“Anyway, then I went to the carnival and got a cool keychain.  Wanna see?” she was saying.

When she turned to get it out of her pocket, the girl fled the scene.  Cattie noticed that she was gone, shrugged, and moved on to another person.  I laughed, shaking my head.

I spotted my dancing partner and walked over to him.  I leaned on the wall next to him.  “Hey.”

“Hey, what’s up?” he said in a friendly manner.

“Nothin’ much.” I replied, nonchalantly sipping my punch.  “ I was just wondering what your name was.”

“Marcus,” he said.  Then he sized me up.  “Aren’t you Dustin’s girlfriend?”

“No, I’m not Dustin’s girlfriend.  I will never be his girlfriend and don’t you forget it,” I snapped.

Marcus raised his arms.  “Whoa.  No need to get mad.  I was just askin’ since I’ve seen you around and Dustin told me about you.”

“Really?  Are you guys, like, friends or something?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets.  Guess you can.  He took me off the streets and brought me here.  We’ve been kinda like brothers ever since.”

“So, you like it here?”

He shrugged.  “At least I don’t have to worry about food and stuff like that.  It’s cool.”

I had nothing to say to that.  We were silent for a while until Marcus asked me if I liked it there.

“Not really.  I just wanna go home.”

“Too bad you feel that way.  I actually never met anyone who didn’t wanna be here.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you learn to dance like that?” I inquired.

He explained that his brother had taught him.  That’s how they made money.  People would pay to see them dance and do acrobatics.  Then he asked me the same question.

“Taught myself.  So, where’s your brother now?”

Oh no.  I had asked the wrong question.  He looked down at his shoes, digging his hands even deeper into his pockets.  “He’s dead.”

“Oh.  I’m so sorry,” I said, wishing that I hadn’t been so nosy.

“Naw, it’s cool,” he assured me with a halfhearted shrug.  “Happened a long time ago.”

Before I could say anything else, the horn sounded, saving us from an inevitable awkwardness.  After saying goodbye to Marcus, I gladly followed the crowd out the door.

Cool air hit my face as I entered the outside world, and it looked like it was about to rain.  I sniffy air, holding out my arms with a happy smile.  No more drills and horrible obstacle courses.  No longer would my body ache every night and every minute of the day.  And best of all, no more grown-ups screaming in my ear or telling me to drop and give them fifty.  The thought made me so giddy that I could’ve shouted.

Before I could do just that, True appeared beside me.

“Remember the plan,” was all she said before running off somewhere.

I nodded to myself, all giddiness gone.  I would never forget the plan.  That was the only chance of my escape.  When I remembered what I was supposed to do to make it all work, I felt nauseous.  I wanted nothing more than to take that thing out of my bag and fling it somewhere.  I didn’t, of course, though I wished I could.

I began to walk in the direction of the school, deciding to take my time.  The other kids whizzed past me while I kept a slow pace.  Soon it was just me and the trees.  I sighed, completely content.  

Once near the school, I saw someone jogging toward me.  I squinted to see who it was.  Why, it was my good old pal Dustin.  Well, there went my peaceful state of mind.  I stopped walking and turned, heading the other way.  Too late.  I could sense him next to me.  I kept going, keeping my head down.  He shuffled his feet and cleared his throat.  Still, I insisted on not starting the inevitable conversation.

“Uh…hey,” he mumbled.

I stole a glance at him.  Was it me, or had he grown taller?  He was also in dire need of a haircut. I noticed that he was staring at me, so I quickly flicked my eyes back down.  When I decided to look up again, he caught me, smiling shyly.

“What are you doing here?” I grumbled.

My question caught him off guard.  He began to stutter.  “I-I…Umm…I came to…to say hi.”

I pursed my lips.  “Well, you said it, so you can go away now.”

He fell into stunned silence for a minute.  Then he spoke yet again.  “I was thinking that maybe we could go for a walk.  You know, since we kind of already are?”

I sighed.  We soon passed the boot camp.  I have to say, I wasn’t going to miss it at all.  Not one bit.  Only a crazy person would want to go there a second time.  Even though I had gotten used to the pain, I was still sore.  And if I moved a certain way, my leg muscles hurt like crazy.  So no, I wouldn’t go back if you paid me.

The silence was killing me, reminding me way too much of that horrible dream.

“Aren’t you going to ask me a whole bunch of questions?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said.

Then he unloaded all of these questions on me.  I answered them without looking up, talking to my shoes the whole time.  Some of them were stupid and others were reasonable.  I answered them as best as I could, happy to be making noise.  Finally they ceased.  Again there was an uneasy silence between us.  I longed to end it, but I couldn’t thinkhing to say.  I didn’t have to.

“Will you just look up at me?!” Dustin yelled in exasperation.

Jumping, I quickly looked up.  He had stopped in his tracks to glare at me, nostrils flaring.  If this was supposed to scare me, then it wasn’t working.  Comical would be the better word for it.  I couldn’t help but laugh.  For some reason, I found his frustration really funny.

“What’s so funny?” he demanded, still glaring.

I didn’t answer, unable to quit laughing.  He asked me if I was OK, anger gone.  In its place was an expression of bewilderment.  He took a step toward me.

The fit of giggles abruptly stopped.  Without thinking, I gazed directly into his eyes.  I was reminded of that look of pain and fear I had seen in those same eyes.  That lifeless heap in my arms.  No, that wasn’t the real Dustin.  That had been the dream Dustin.  But if it had just been a dream, then why did it bother me so much?  I turned away.  

“Are you OK?” he repeated, taking another step.

I stepped back, snapping out of it.  “What?  Oh, yeah, I’m fine.  Let’s keep moving.” I began to walk briskly down the path, hoping that he wouldn’t follow, but he did.

Trying to keep the conversation light, I mentioned that I had met his friend Marcus.

“Really?  Cool guy, isn’t he?  I think he loves to dance almost as much as you do.”

“I know.  I danced with him,” I said gloatingly.

“You did?” he gasped, taken aback.

“What, are you jealous?”

He brushed this off with a flick of his hand.  “No.  What’s there to be jealous about?”

I grinned.  For a while, nothing could be heard except for the crunching of the gravel under our feet.  I studied our surroundings.  Where were we, anyway?  There was nothing but trees and more trees.  They were leafing out now, and some of them were flowering.  Buds covered the ground.  It was all very beautiful, but my shoulder had started to ache from the pressure of the bag I was carrying.  All I wanted to do right now was go back to my room and get some rest.  Maybe, if I was lucky, I wouldn’t have that dream again.  

“We should probably be heading back,” I said, beginning to turn around.

Dustin reached out to stop me.  “Wait.  Just a little farther.  I want to show you something.”

With a sigh, I put my hands on my hips, eyes in slits.  “What is it this time?” I tried to emphasize my annoyance.  Here he was, keeping me from getting some rest after a very hard few weeks.  Honestly, I didn’t think I had any patience for this at the moment.

He noticed this and laughed.  It was a loud playful sound.  I couldn’t help but crack a smile.  

“Don’t worry.  You won’t be disappointed,” he promised, speeding up with me right on his heels.

We came to a stop at a square building.  The words The Hang Out flashed in big bright red letters.  Next to the building was a parking lot that appeared to be empty at the moment.  Dustin sauntered right double doors.  

He beckoned for me to follow.  While going in, I noticed a sign stating that the area was closed.  I pointed this out to him.  He told me that it just meant the place was reserved.

“For who?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“For us, of course,” he replied, wiggling his eyebrows.

He traipsed over to the switch panel.  With a flick of the switch, all was transformed.  My eyes were seriously bugging out.  To our left was a huge arcade.  To our right there stood a restaurant.  We faced a skating rink.  It must have had at least a mile-long perimeter.  Dustin headed for the stairs.  I hurried to follow.  

He walked on up to the skate booth.  He climbed over the counter and disappeared between the rows and rows of skates.  

“What’s your size?” I heard his muffled voice ask.

“Size 6,” I answered, too stunned to say anything else.

He soon returned with two pairs of skates, one for me and one for him.  “You have small feet.”

Ignoring him altogether, I went back downstairs.  We sat on little benches in the middle of the room and put the skates on.  Then we entered the rink.  I shivered, wishing that I had a coat.  It was freezing cold in there, like we had gone back in time.  Goosebumps had already appeared on my skin.  Dustin handed me a scarf, gloves, and jacket as if he had read my mind.

“So, do you know how to skate?” he asked as I gratefully slipped the winter garments on.  

“I’ve skated before, but be forewarned.  I’m not very good.”

He shrugged.  “Neither am I, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to skate.  Come on!”

I let him lead me out onto the ice, watching my footing.  Dustin skated really fast compared to me.  He practically melted the ice with his speed.  I rolled my eyes.  What a show-off.  Keeping a steady pace, I scowled at him as he zipped past.  The whiz boy jumped and twirled around the ice.  He reminded me of those professional skaters I used to watch on TV with my mom.  Every leap and turn was perfect and beautiful, like watching a dancer, only in colder climates.  For a moment I stood mesmerized by the skater in front of me.  When he noticed me staring, he grinned, starting to skate over.  I abruptly turned away, wobbled a little, and focused on skating.  Slow and steady.  Side to side.

Dustin was soon beside me, matching my slow and steady pace.  Neither of us talked for a few minutes.  There was just the sound of our skates scraping the ice.  

“You like my skating,” he commented.

“I thought you said you weren’t good.  Are you kidding me?  You’re awesome!  Have you thought of trying out for the Olympic team?”

He blushed.  “Thanks, but I think I’m too young to try out, anyway.”

I snorted.  “Young shmung.  Once they see you skate, you’re so in.”

“Thanks,” he said again.

I shrugged.  “It’s the truth.”

Suddenly Dustin took my hand and had begun pulling me toward the middle of the rink.  

I quickly grabbed hold of the railing, stopping him in his tracks.  “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I think I’m about to teach you a few tricks, if you don’t mind,” he calmly replied.

Shaking my head, I told him that I could barely skate, much less do tricks.  I would fall flat on my face.

A smile tugged at the side of his mouth.  “That’s not going to happen.  I won’t let it.  Now, let go.”

Taking a deep, exasperated breath, I reluctantly did as he asked and allowed myself to be pulled away.  Once we were in the middle of the rink, he dropped my hand and skated around me in a tight circle.

“I’m going to teach you how to spin,” he explained.  “Keep one foot on the ground and use your other leg for momentum.  Try to keep your body facing me, no matter what.”

I nodded, concentrating on what he said.  After a while of slow spinning, Dustin sped up a bit.  He kept getting faster and faster until he had turned into a blur.  I twirled and twirled, gathering speed along with him.  Wait a second; I was going way too fast!  There seemed to be no way to stop myself.  In a panic, my eyes darted around the rink.  Worst thing I ever could have done.  This only made me really dizzy.  I closed my eyes, attempting to stop the dizziness, but I was caught off balance.  Before I knew it, I was flailing my arms, trying not to fall.  However, the force of gravity prevailed.  I was going down.

Just when I was about to crack my head open on the hard ice, strong hands stopped my descent.  I opened my very tightly closed eyelids.  They rested on a boy’s foolishly grinning face looming over me.  Dustin.

“You all right?” he asked, laughter in his voice.

I glared up at him.  “Yeah, sure.  A few more seconds and I so would not have been all right.”

He rolled his eyes.  “You were never going to fall.  As I’ve told you before, I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Like I could totally trust him.  I stood up, pushing his hands from around my waist.  “After everything that’s happened, you of all people shouldn’t expect me to just trust you.”

He backed up away from me, looking hurt.  “I know.  Sorry.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Dustin resumed skating.

I stayed where I was.  Although I felt guilty for snapping at him like that, my words were true.  I skated over to the benches and took off my skates, stripping off the winter wear.

I headed upstairs with the skates slung over my shoulder.  During all this, Dustin kept skating, not even noticing my absence.  This didn’t surprise or upset me.  I didn’t really feel like speaking to him, anyway.

Once upstairs, I put the skates back and took a look around.  Directly next to the skate shack was a big Starbucks.  It had to be one of the nicest ones I had ever seen.  Waves of the wonderful, intoxicating smells of coffee beans and pastries floated from the restaurant.  Next to that stood a seriously creepy-looking laser-tag maze, which I so wanted to explore.  Since I had no intention of asking Dustin, I let myself in.

The place was pitch black except for the neon lights.  Laser guns and glow-in-the-dark vests hung from hooks at the entrance.

I decided to take a gun and vest for safety reasons.  You’d think I’d freak out holding a laser gun and all, but I didn’t.  They were just toys.  What was there to be afraid of?

I cautiously walked down the dark path.  Flashing signs warned me to Beware and Watch Out! Then I felt something move under my foot.  A second later a skeleton flew out in front of me.  I screamed.  My screams soon turned into laughter.  Just a dummy, of course.  This was like a haunted house.  Whoever came up with that must have been very creative.  Every few minutes a creature of some kind would jump out in front of me.  So that I could pass, I had to shoot them with my laser.  I had fun, but the experience would have been better if someone else was there with me.

Right on cue, someone or something came up from behind me and grabbed my shoulders.  Strange, I couldn’t recall stepping on a trigger.  Yelping, I whirled around.  Instead of a mechanical creature, a snickering boy stood before me.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

Dustin shrugged.  “Wasn’t that hard.”

“You scared me.”

His eyes gleamed under the flashing neon lights.  “That was the point.”

I shot him with my laser gun.  Grinning, he ran into the dark.  I hurried after him, but the maze had swallowed him up.  Using my laser as a flashlight, I crept along, searching.  

He came out of nowhere and grabbed me, scaring the living daylights out of me.  Shrieking, I wriggled out of his grasp.  He laughed, shooting at me with his laser gun.  We went on like this for a while, darting behind walls, giving each other a scare, and of course, shooting.  Then we exited the maze and headed for Starbucks.

Once we had reached the counter, some guy popped right up without warning.  He had on a Starbucks tee and cap.  Flashing a very charming smile, he asked us what we would like.  His teeth were so white that they had to be veneers.  This was interesting, because the guy couldn’t have been any older than twenty.  The tag on his shirt read Jeremy.  His eyes were a pretty blue.  They reminded me of the beach, my favorite vacation spot.  Wavy locks of dark hair hung loose from under his hat.  Boy, was he cute.

Since I was too busy staring into Jeremy’s eyes, Dustin ordered for me.  When the cutest employee in the world handed me my iced mocha latte, his fingers touched mine for a second.  They were pleasantly warm.  I would have fainted right there if Dustin hadn’t been steering me away from the counter.  I stole another longing glance toward Dreamy Jeremy.  He gave me a small crooked smile.  My heart did a little flip.

Dustin sat down across from me in a booth.  I could tell he was kind of annoyed by my sudden crush on the employee.  

“Where did he come from?” I asked, gazing in his direction.

Dustin shrugged, taking a sip of of his Frappuccino.  “I don’t know.  He started working here a few days ago.  It’s not that important.” He was trying hard to hide his irritation, but he wasn’t doing a very good job.

Then I took a sip of my first latte ever.  It tasted really good.  I hurried to take another sip.  Then another.  Dustin laughed at my reaction to the tasty beverage.

“Haven’t you ever had one of those before?”

I shook my head.  “Nope.  This is my first.” I took another long sip before I went on to say, “Wow, this is so good.  Mom says I’m too young to .  .  .” I trailed off, looking down at my cup.  

He cleared his throat.  “Sorry.  This was supposed to get your mind off of… you know.”

I smiled weakly.  “That’s sweet, but that’s not the only reason why you brought me here.”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair.  “Actually, there’s something I need to tell you, about that building we saw on the tour.”

I remembered the strange calmness on that little girl’s face and shuddered.  

Moving closer, he began to tell me what he’d found out.

The building had turned to be some kind of science lab, as we had already assumed.  Different experiments were performed on a selection of kids.  Usually they came out mentally and physically traumatized.  On very rare occasions they were mostly fine, with just a few bruises.  However, they all lost memory of what had happened.  Dustin’s dad visited the lab daily, checking on the progress.  This wa had gathered so far.

Dustin put his head down on the table.  “Lily, what if I was wrong about Dad?  What if he really is insane?” He raised his head to rest his troubled eyes on me.  “There are other things I’ve heard too.  Really bad things, like sometimes, for a test, he has kids commit murder. Just to see if they can do it.  I may have even witnessed it happen without knowing.  I think there’s something really wrong going on, but there’s no way to know for sure.”

“Well,” I said, placing a hand on his, “there just might be a way.”

Eyes alight with curiosity, he leaned in closer.  “What?”

I flashed him a wicked grin, the idea already forming in my head.