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“I SWEAR SHE WAS JUST here last night. Someone did this! Someone took her,” Teagan said as she looked around the utter chaos of what used to be Cali’s room. The bed was flipped over on its side, the sheets ripped off it. Papers were scattered around the floor in-between piles of clothing. The trashcan and the minifridge were upturned. The wardrobe was on its side with one of the doors standing wide open, the other one hanging limply half-way off the hinges. “You have to believe me.” She turned to look at Dr. Camden.
He stood there in the midst of the upheaval in his usual manner, unfeeling, unemotional, but his hard sharp eyes took in his surrounds, and she could see that he was thinking. Pushing his glasses higher, he scrunched up the bridge of his nose, and narrowed his eyes. His arms were crossed in a stern manner, just like the look that settled upon his face.
“Teagan, we’ve been over this before.” He leaned closer to her face, and she tried not to retreat. Tried to stay strong. Tried to look determined. “Your friend, Cali, is not real. She doesn’t exist. She never did.” He leaned back swiping his hand across the room to indicate the mess. “All of this was you.”
“I’m not crazy!” Teagan screamed, her eyes feeling like they would explode from her head, her hands white fists at her sides. They’d been at it for hours, him telling her Cali was made up, and her defending herself. She’d had it. “I didn’t do any of this. I was here last night with her. We had a fight, and...”
“You say you had a fight with her? What about, I wonder?” He’d stepped closer to her again, and she did take a step back this time. Was he starting to believe her, or was he trying to pry information out of her? She couldn’t tell. Best not to tell him then.
“Look, Teagan, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.” He pushed on his glasses again, and she tried not to roll her eyes.
“What’s the hard way?” she grumbled, because it was obvious he’d never believe her about Cali.
“Lock her in her room until I can decide what to do with her. We can’t have her roaming about on the streets, now can we? She could very well hurt someone.” This he said to the warden who’d been on duty last night. She nodded vigorously at his suggestion. “And you say you heard nothing?” He stooped down to pick up one of the crumpled up pieces of paper off the floor and opened it deliberately as he waited for her answer.
Teagan could see the sweat on the woman’s brow, and the large bob of her throat as she gulped before giving an answer. “No, sir. I mean yes.”
“Well, which is it?” He focused his attention on the fat, lazy guard, which made her shrink in on herself.
“This one,” she pointed at Teagan, “was in her own room making all kinds of racket, slamming doors and up past curfew. Lights on and all. I yelled at her to quiet down and banged on her door a few times. She did, far as I know. Things were quiet after that.”
Dr. Cam looked at Teagan, his eyes squinted as if deciding to pursue the matter or not. He turned away. “Lock her up. I’ll have to contact that step-mother of hers. In the meantime,” he swiveled around, his pointed, shinny-black shoe squeaking against the hardwood floor as he did so. “I want no more nonsense from you, young lady. Understood?”
Who did he think he was, her father? But she nodded anyway, scared of what he could do to her if she angered him further, and followed the guard back to her own room. The woman shoved her inside, and Teagan rubbed her arm where she’d grabbed her.
“You better hope he doesn’t fire me, little thing.” She moved her finger slowly across her neck in a threatening motion.
“Or what? You’ll kill yourself,” Teagan sassed.
“Stay put, or I’ll kill you myself, you little rat.” The hateful woman’s eyes flashed full black before she slammed the door in her face, and Teagan could hear the tingling of the keys as she locked the multiple locks on the outside of her door.
Teagan could care less about that door. Her and Cali had made an emergency escape route a couple years ago. All she needed to do was wait for the cover of dark and hope they didn’t come for her before then. Luckily, her step-mother’s forte was not caring about her so much anymore. Teagan added an extra layer of clothing to the one she had on, not knowing when she’d be able to get more clothes. Her entire plan revolved around her finding that old backpack Cali had stolen from her. She could still hear them, Dr. Camden and his thugs, in her friend’s room as she hunkered down on her bed in the near darkness to wait.
She’d slept in, overtired from all the excitement and nursing a hangover from the night before. She’d known the moment she’d opened her eyes that afternoon, that she needed to apologize to her friend. Cali had to have a good reason from keeping all the information from her, and as long as she gave her one... Well, her friend’s word was good enough for her. She’d just have to move past all that other stuff and forgive Cali.
Walking into her ransacked room, Teagan had been distraught. Who’d done this to her friend and for what reason? Had they taken Cali, or had she run away. Had the secret order she was hunting figured out she was onto them? And had they come to get her friend? A million different solutions went through Teagan’s head, none of them good for her friend. Never, in a million years, would she think the doctor wasn’t lying to her. He could say there were no records of a resident named Cali all he wanted to, but she’d never believe him. Cali had been real. She was still real, and Teagan was going to prove it.
They’d been in there for hours, but the sounds from her friend’s room seemed to die down and move down the hall. Teagan quickly laid down on her bed and huddled under the blanket, pretending to be asleep. The shadows from the quickly approaching night played across her floor in an eerie manner, and she cringed at the creepy play. She didn’t have time for a flashback now, which is what shadows usually caused. No, she needed to keep her wits about her. Footsteps approached outside.
“Well?” She heard Dr. Cam’s voice.
“Think she’s sleeping. I’ve been here the whole time, and she hasn’t made any sounds in hours.” Teagan hadn’t known the warden was sitting outside her door, and she was immediately glad that she hadn’t done something foolish earlier. “Probably wore herself out with all that screaming.” The guard offered.
“Have you checked to make sure she’s still in there?” Dr. Cam said, his tone dropping.
“Nowhere for her to go, like I said,” she raised her voice, “I’ve been here the whole time.”
“Move, you half-wit.”
Teagan could hear the scrapping sound of a chair being dragged across the wooden floor in the hallway. She focused on calming her breathing and kept her eyes gently closed. The door groaned open.
“Teagan?” Dr. Cam whispered, his voice immediately softer, as if not to wake her if she was sleeping. More footsteps, this time closer, signaled he’d moved into the room. Just play it cool, she told herself. She could feel his presence behind her, could hear his heavy breathing. She knew he was close. A couple of pokes in her back nearly startled her right off the bed, but she managed to hold it together somehow. As if being pleased that she was asleep, Teagan heard Dr. Cam’s footsteps retreating. Still, she dared not move a muscle.
“She’s sleeping. I’ll send someone round tomorrow to pick her up. You make sure you sit here all night. No one goes in or out, you hear?”
Teagan couldn’t hear the warden’s response, but she didn’t really care. As soon as he was gone, and the lazy woman fell asleep, which would be soon like always, she’d set her plan in motion. She’d already moved her wardrobe, so she wasn’t worried about waking anyone with loud noises. She’d just have to pray the wooden floor held out, and the load groans that usually accompanied walking wouldn’t give her away to the nasty woman. It shouldn’t be much longer now.
A soft tink outside her window woke her, and Teagan jumped up, forgetting her need to be stealthy. It was pure black outside. No moon shone to light her way, but she didn’t care, she knew the way with her eyes closed. Another tink on the window had her wondering what the heck was going on out there. She eased her way over to the dirty glass, thinking it might actually be her friend Cali. Just in case, she moved to the side and hide behind the wall, peering out but only getting a partial view from her location. Two shadows stood below the window. They looked like rather large men, but without the moonlight, she could barely tell. One of them pulled back and arm and loosed something, possibly a pebble, and the tink sounded on her window again.
Whoever they were, she didn’t know them. They could only mean trouble. She eased away from the wall, making sure to steer clear of their sight, and moved around her room until she found the wardrobe. She felt the wall beside it, and the panel released exactly where she thought it would. Now, all she had to do was get through the empty room next door, open the door to the hall without it squealing on her, and get down the hallway to Cali’s room.
She swung the panel to the side and stepped through to the darkened room on the other side. The sickening thick feeling of a spider web made her clench up as she waited for the feeling of something moving on her body. The feeling never came, and she exhaled shakily. Hands on the wall, she felt her way around the room slowly, so as not to trip over any obstacles in her way and draw attention to herself with the noise. At long last she was at the door. With a silent plea to any god that would deign to listen, Teagan exhaled and gave the doorknob a pull. Nothing. She tried to turn it again, this time vigorously, but nothing happened. It wouldn’t even twist in her hand. Shit. What was she going to do now. “Think Teagan, think,” she whispered to herself.
She pressed her head against the wooden door, leaning her weight against it and huffed, determined not to cry. With her movement, a tiny click sounded from somewhere inside the door. Could it be that easy? Maybe it hadn’t been latched all the way? With a deep breath, she gripped the doorknob tightly. “On three,” she said. “One, two, three.” To her delight the door swung open when she turned the knob and pulled on it with only a small sound. She stood still, breathless, for what seemed like minutes, making sure she hadn’t woken the sleeping dragon. There was a grunt, and then the loud sound of her snores flooded the hall once again.
As long as she kept that up, the squeaky boards in the hall would be no problem. Teagan was great at avoiding them. She did it almost nightly, or Cali had, on their sojourns to each other’s rooms. Left foot, left foot, right, left, a small hop, and now for the stubborn board. Teagan felt the floor with her toes, trying to find the board in question, the one that always made her wince. She could feel the edge of the board with her toe and moved her big toe slowly to the left until she could feel the nail that stuck up at an odd angle. She’d actually have to step on the nail to avoid all noise from that piece of word, but tonight she didn’t care. The pain would be worth it. She couldn’t risk waking the dungeon master.
She took a small step, biting back the pain of the pointed nail-head digging into the softest region of her foot. She’d done it. She almost smiled but reminded herself now was no time to get cocky. Teagan glanced toward the warden to confirm the woman was still sleeping. She’d turned in the seat and now rested her head against the wall, but she was still snoring, so Teagan felt good to continue her quest. She couldn’t go back now, even if she wanted to.
“Please let it be unlocked.” She gave the knob a quick turn, like ripping the Band-Aid off quickly to cause less pain. It opened on the first try, and she closed her eyes sending up a quick thank you. Pushing inside, she slowly eased the door closed behind her and locked the door. Leaning against it momentarily, she let out the breath she was unaware she’d been holding. She’d need her phone flashlight for this, but she was prepared. She untied the ratty sheet from around her waist that she’d taken from her bed and stuffed it up against the crack under the door. That ought to cover any light that may try to leak out. And she turned on her phone.
The beam of light moved across the room and Teagan’s jaw dropped. It was clean. As in spotless. As in no one had been in here and ransacked it. As in no one had lived in it in ages? What the heck was going on, and why? She moved the beam of light to the wardrobe that earlier had been tilted on its side with one door hanging off the hinges. It had been righted, and the door wasn’t hanging at an odd angle anymore. She rushed over to it saying a silent prayer. Throwing the doors open, she ripped up the second plank to the right, the one Cali had showed her. It budged as promised, and the glint of something silver pinged off the light that shown down on it. She didn’t hesitate, grabbed the full bag, shut off the light, just in case, and rushed to the window. She’d left it open earlier, claiming she’d been hot, but really she’d been forming the plan since the moment Dr. Cam had told her Cali wasn’t real.
She sighed, feeling it was still open, and grabbed onto the top of the frame kicking the screen out with her feet as she jumped up and out. She only had one shot to get this right. She’d calculated. It was about a six foot drop, not too high. She figured she could do it without breaking anything if she landed and rolled. What she was not expecting was a firm mass to break her fall.
“Shit!” the voice whispered harshly, just as she pushed off the body and landed in the shrubs. She crouched for cover, letting her eyes adjust. How had she not seen him?
“What is it?” another voice whispered loudly.
“I don’t know. The girl, maybe. I didn’t see which way she went.”
“Try to sense her.”
“I’ve got nothing.”
“Well, that’s all bushes and forest, she couldn’t have gone that way. We would’ve heard her. Let’s go that way.”
It wasn’t long before two sounds of footsteps ran off in a direction she hadn’t gone. Teagan waited a few moments, wondering who they were and making sure they were really gone. Then she put both arms through the backpack armholes and set in search of a cab. She figured she’d take a cab to the neighboring train station and from there head to the next state over before boarding a plane. As long as everything was still in the bag and Cali hadn’t removed any of it, she’d have a passport and plenty of money. She felt the pocket of her pants. The paper was still there, so she had an address too. Now, it was time to go find her father and get some help figuring out this mess.