Then
The pounding on my window woke me seconds before Jason busted through it. I screamed, pulling the covers up to my chin.
“What the hell are you doing? Have you lost your mind?”
My parents rushed through the door and my father said some words worse than the one I had just used. My mom sat on the bed, pulling me against her like her arms could keep me safe from the insanity surging into my room at three in the morning.
“You all have to come with me.” Jason raised his hands in the air. “Okay? There’s something happening. It’s very bad. There’s one chance for survival.”
“Son.” My father flipped on the light, his almost healed black eye the first thing I noticed. “I don’t know what you’ve taken tonight but you need to go home and sleep it off before I call the police.”
“Sir.” His politeness was preferable to the way he’d spoken to my dad the last time he’d presented himself in my room. “I realize you have no reason to believe anything I say. I know you don’t trust me. You have no reason to. My hope is you’ll come to see how much I love Rachel and find it in your heart to forgive me someday.”
“Jason.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Rachel, I really am, but I can’t give you a choice. You have to live through this and I have the means to make sure you do.”
My father had enough. He stormed forward and Jason growled at him, which made my dad stop in his tracks. It was just so weird he made those noises. I shivered. Maybe scary would be a better word.
“Autumn. Luna.” Jason’s sisters came through the window. Autumn nodded and Luna smiled before looking at her feet.
“I don’t like this,” Luna whispered.
I bet she didn’t. Whatever this proved to be.
“No choice.” Jason stretched his neck, his gaze meeting mine. “I’m sorry you have to see this now. We should have had years together first.”
“What?” I sat up in the bed. So what if he saw my blue nightie with the bows on it? I needed to get control of this situation. “Jason, please, go home. See your dad. Get some help.”
But he never answered me. In front of my eyes, Jason’s and his sisters’ bodies started to change. At first, I couldn’t believe what I saw. My mother gasped and I knew it was real even though my mind screamed to stop this horrible dream. I needed to wake up.
His features elongated, with his nose and mouth changing color while they became animal-like. His ears grew up from the top of his head into a pointy-shaped feature, covered in dark fur. My mother gripped me even closer. I could feel her heart beating rapidly, matching my own.
“Jason!” I screamed. “Please stop this. Please, won’t you make this end?”
As if begging him would make it cease, as if I pleaded long and hard enough, Jason Kenwood would not become a creature best left in fiction. Because as I watched, unable to pull my eyes away even as I wanted nothing more than to run and hide, my ex-boyfriend became a Werewolf—as did his sisters.
My parents did nothing. All any of us could seem to do was stay still and wait to see what happened next. I looked left and right. Why didn’t my parents do something?
I stood up, grabbing my nightstand lamp. It ripped out the wall, sparking while I yanked on it. “If you come near me, near any of us. I’ll hit you with this. Do you understand, Jason? I will whack you over the head with this lamp.”
My hands shook and the goose bumps on my skin stuck out so profoundly they hurt. I jumped from my left foot to my right. I meant it. I would strike him down if he—
Jason leaped at me. I heard my mother shriek and then I blacked out.
***
I woke up sitting on a floor in a strange room. I looked down at myself. My blue nightie was gone and in its place were jeans and a blue T-shirt. When had I dressed?
People were shouting and I stood up to see what was going on. My father hollered at Isaac Icahn. I shook my head. What the hell? How had we gotten here? The last thing I remembered involved my bedroom and Jason turning into a…Werewolf.
I didn’t see him anywhere, which caused me no short amount of relief. I took a deep breath. My mother was unconscious, across the room on a stretcher. Two men picked her up and carried her somewhere.
“Stop!” I charged after her. What was wrong? Had Jason hurt my mom? “Where are you going?”
“Stop, young lady. We won’t be harming any of you. We’re saving your life.” I knew the man who spoke to me but I couldn’t place him, not really. Maybe I had seen him at the Icahns’ party. I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t care.
“What? Where are you taking my mother?” And why was my dad hollering at Icahn instead of doing something about this?
“You’re right to question him!” a redheaded man tied to a chair shouted at me. I turned to look at him. He had an Irish accent and wore a brown plaid coat. His face, long and lean, had stubble on it like he hadn’t shaved in a while. “They’re lying. These people are the worst kind of scum.”
“Now, now, Keith Endover, you should consider yourself lucky. You’re going to live through this mess, and when it’s over, you can report about it to the few hundreds of people who will still be around to hear it.”
“You piece of shit!” Keith yelled back. He looked at me, his eyes red and bloodshot. “They’re going to stick us in some machines. Don’t believe them. It won’t save us. God knows what they’ll do to us while we’re in there. They have all sorts of things here straight out of fiction. Cloning machines. Mind manipulation. All kinds of illegal. This mess? This is their fault. They probably did it on purpose.”
“What mess?” I could hardly speak
“Look.” Keith motioned with his chin and I looked up at a television screen broadcasting in the corner of the room. The two men who had my mother disappeared with her. I tried to move to get to her and they blocked me again. My father would have to deal with them. Adults never took teenagers seriously. As he seemed to be in a screaming match with one of the most powerful men in the country, I decided to go see what Keith meant.
The TV volume had been muted but I could see people on the screen. I covered my mouth as I realized what I looked at. No—not people. Pale, with red eyes and long teeth, the creatures running around on the screen attacking people were Vampires.
“This can’t be real.” I had spoken aloud even though I hadn’t meant to.
“It’s horribly real.”
I jumped and then leaped at Chad Lyons the second I realized he stood behind me. He caught me in his arms and didn’t object to the hug I insisted he give me.
Jason had become a Werewolf, and Vampires wandered the streets. The man named Keith talked about cloning and drugs. What did any of this have to do with me?
“Are we going to die?” I whispered in Chad’s ear like he could make this all better, even though I knew he couldn’t.
“No.” He shook his head, setting me back down on my feet. “They brought us here to save us. I’m so glad to see you.”
“My ex-boyfriend must have gotten me here somehow. He came to my room. It’s really strange…he became a Werewolf.”
Chad bent over. “Did I hear you correctly?”
I nodded. “I’m not insane.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.” Icahn had managed to extricate himself from my father and the man had stood up on top of a desk. “Let me have your attention. You are the lucky few.”
“This isn’t acceptable, Dr. Icahn,” Chad’s father called out to him. “You can’t hold us hostage here.”
“As I’ve told you and everyone else many times, Mr. Lyons, you are here to be kept alive. Those people out there are all going to catch the virus. There’s nothing I can do about it now.”
I looked at Chad. “Virus?”
“The one that wasn’t supposed to be any big deal.” He shook his head. “My dad told my mom this wasn’t going to end well. I hate I took money from this guy.”
Micah moved up next to us. “Don’t worry, big brother. It doesn’t look like you’ll ever really get the chance to use his funding. We’re all going to die today.”
I shivered and Chad rubbed my arms. “Don’t be an ass. You’re frightening Rachel.”
“She should be afraid. We should all be terrified.” Micah shook his head. “The good news is Tia will get to go meet her maker with her boyfriend in tow.”
Micah’s sister huddled in the corner with Glen. How had he gotten here? In fact, how had everyone arrived at this location?
“How did you guys get here?”
“A man with a gun arrived at our house and dragged us all out. It could have gotten bad but they managed to subdue Dad before he could get to his gun. This is all so screwed up.” Micah walked away from us.
“Ms. Clancy.”
I looked up Isaac Icahn. “You’re talking to me?”
“Yes.” He smiled and the image of a serpent rose to my mind. “You weren’t on my list initially, but I’m glad to have you. The Kenwood boy made quite a case for bringing you along. You should feel honored he spent so much energy. Andon couldn’t even get his own wife to come here.”
I swallowed. “I saw him. He became—”
“A Werewolf. Yes. I know.” Icahn dismissed me. “I think you’ll be an added benefit to our group. New energy. You’re bright, young, and attractive. Jason said you whacked him over the head with a lamp. You might be just what I was looking for.”
Chad pulled me closer. “Dr. Icahn, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you talking to Rachel like this.”
Neither was I. Attractive? I shuddered. Grown men shouldn’t say things like that to teenagers. It just came across as creepy.
“Well, you’re all going to get used to having me around.” He stared at the two of us. “This is an interesting problem. I made a promise to Andon’s son I am going to have to honor. Hopefully, when you wake up, whatever this is between the two of you will have passed.” He looked over his shoulder. “Liam, Noah, tell the guys to load them up.” His gaze met mine again. “We will survive this. Humanity will come back. I intend to see to it.”
A tall man with thick, brown hair approached us. “I’ll take her.”
I stared up at him, my heart beating so fast I could feel it in my stomach. So this was what a panic attack felt like. My chest tightened.
“Daddy!” Where had he gone? Probably after my mother. I got no answer. I shook my head. This couldn’t be happening.
Behind me, Chad struggled with his guard. “I’m not going with you!” He took a whack to the head by a brown stick resembling something someone would use on a horse. He reared back, trying to grab on to the stick before they could hit him again.
Micah fought with his assailant, too. Hand to hand, they shoved and clawed.
Icahn laughed. “Take note of who fights you and who doesn’t. It will matter later.”
“My name is Darren.” The person who wanted to take me smiled at me. “Come with me, please.”
“Darren.” I swallowed. “Are you a nice man?”
“I am.” He extended his hand like I should take it.
I looked up at the television again. The Vampire creatures were sucking on a news reporter’s neck. Across the room from me, Keith had slammed the backside of his chair into the two men who tried to take him down. A woman I didn’t know knelt on the floor, crying. Several people walked with their guards without complaint.
“If you’re a nice man, Darren, then I am sorry about this.” I kicked him hard, right in the center of his shin. He cursed and lunged for me. I ran toward Chad and Micah, grabbing on to their arms. We would all get out of there. And we’d find my parents. I didn’t know how, but we’d all be okay. There couldn’t be any other result.
Darren grabbed me from behind. I tried to kick him again but I had no idea how to fight back. Why would I? Never in my life had defending myself mattered very much. If I’d known this would happen, I’d have taken a self-defense class. Chad tried to grab me and took another blow to the head for his efforts.
“Put me down!” I hollered, trying to wrench myself free.
My efforts made Darren laugh. “You’re a tough little girl, aren’t you? I’m going to put you down as a fighter. I’d like to see what happens to you.”
“What happens to me?” My chest felt tight.
Darren pulled me along with him. We entered a room the size of my school’s gymnasium. Lined up, one next to the other, were large pods more fitting for a space shuttle than the back room of whatever this place happened to be.
“You’ll be right in the middle of the room.” Darren smiled. “It doesn’t matter. All of you will end up in the same place eventually.”
“Please don’t put me in one of those things.” I didn’t even know what to call them.
Ahead of me, Keith got shoved into a pod. He looked dazed.
“Hey!” I called out to him and he raised his head. “What are they going to do to us?”
He shook his head. “I wish I could tell you, young lady. I just don’t know. Good luck.”
Darren dragged me along. I looked at each pod. Some of them weren’t empty; they had people inside of them. Their eyes closed, each person seemed to be sleeping. Oh God, I’d seen things like this before but always in the weird black-and-white movies my father watched at midnight on weekends.
No. No. No.
My father’s face, asleep in a state of repose making him look calm, stared out at me. I sucked in my breath. This couldn’t be happening. He was supposed to wake up and make this stop.
I shook. “Daddy!” I screamed and nothing happened. He didn’t wake up. No one was going to make this situation any better for me.
“Darren.” He kept tugging me along past the pod holding my mother, also sleeping. I winced. At least now I knew where they’d both landed. How could I get them out of their pods? Was there a wake-up switch?
“You’re going to be okay, little girl. I’ll even come and check up on you. Every day. I’ll make sure everything with you is absolutely perfect until I have to go under, too.”
“No. Darren, please. You can’t stick me in it. Let me go. I’ll take my people and leave. We won’t tell anyone what’s happening here.”
He laughed. “If you left here, you’d be dead or you’d become one of them. I won’t be allowed to leave here for years. Heck, they may eventually end up sticking me in one of those, too. I’m not going to let you go. I’ve decided I like your spirit.”
Darren stopped. “Here you go. Looks like a good one. It’s too bad I can’t make it prettier for you. Paint it pink or whatever you girls like.”
“I don’t like pink.” What a ridiculous thing to say, even though I’d just uttered the words. He didn’t respond, which helped me not to feel quite so ridiculous.
When it came down to it, I didn’t even fight getting into the pod. What good would it have done? Darren outweighed me by a great deal. He’d been trained as some kind of soldier, which of course begged the question as to how long Dr. Icahn had planned this horrid event.
I was just a girl and even if I’d wanted to, I could never have won in a physical altercation with anyone. If my parents had been forced into pods and Keith, who looked pretty tough, ended up in one, then I didn’t stand a chance.
“You’ll come and check on me every day?” I stared at Darren.
He nodded. “Unless I’m in my own pod I won’t miss a day, Rachel.”
Darren knew my name. I didn’t know when he’d learned it. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
I stepped inside and leaned against the back. There really wasn’t any other position I could take. If these were the last moments of my life, they were really pretty pathetic.
I’d never gotten to go to college, get married, have a job where I felt fulfilled and helped the world, or had a baby of my own. A tear slipped down my cheek, although crying felt pointless.
Darren hadn’t closed the pod yet and I could still see everyone being hauled around. Chad had two people dragging him. He saw me as he passed and tried to stop. I heard him scream my name but I didn’t respond.
If he could find a way to avoid the machines, then more power to him.
Darren shut the pod door. It clicked like the way it sounds on an airplane when the flight attendant shuts the cabin door. Only I wasn’t on a trip, seated between my parents, waiting for the fasten seat belt sign to be turned off.
This was a trip I had to take all by myself and I had no idea where I was going.
I took a deep breath and then a blast of cold air….