` TWIX ` a story of a girl

[brandon peter westley]

COMING SOON.
TOTAL OF 6 CHAPTERS and 56 PAGES
Enjoy!

Okay, to start it off this is a book im writing that is slowly coming about. Im only going to post the Prolouge for now, but i might do some Chapters depending on how much you guys want to read it. Its very actiioned packed, and the first book that i ever wrote that had such use of strong emotions over death and such. Sounds werid, but all my stories before this my characters reacted to something tragic like a family member dying without much emotion because i was unsure on how I should write it. So, enjoy my book TWIX'. If you can PM me or talk to me on the -c-box about it that would be great so i can reserve each post for each chapter ^^ thanks

[brandon peter westley]

PROLOGUE

the canyon[/center][/font][/i][/color]

“Ill go get some water.”

“Okay”

“Do you want to come?”

“No”

“Okay”

She stood up slowly, running her hands through her hair with a sigh. Pulling her jacket closer together she moved away from him; leaving Patrick leaning against the rocky outcrop. Her eyes looked away, peering up at the place they had appeared in. It was some sort of canyon, the sides carved out, leading so far down that it seemed like it would never end. Something was so peculiar about it. It was just so different. It made her think about the Grand Canyon, and yet it seemed so different. The walls of the canyon were odd; carved straight as if a knife through butter. It was all even, man-made looking. There was no vegetation or life down here either. She was standing at the lowest point of the canyon, the sun so far away that it was cold and dark down where she and the boy were. Shivering she moved forward, her eyes looking for the river she had seen before.

Something about this place she did not like. Something about the canyon just wasn’t safe. She tried to push the thought away; but it seemed like it just would not leave her. Danger often would not let you push it away. Instinct perhaps. Finding herself frozen in both thought and action, her hands began shaking. It was not like the shivering processed when you were cold either. Lifting up her hands she looked at them, her arms unable to keep them from shaking. It was like a fearful manner, as if she had just committed a serious crime with these hands. However, they were just her normal, old hands. Dirty hands, but the same hands she had before all of this happened. Turning them over from top to bottom she felt horrible about them. They looked like normal teenagers would, but she knew that her hands were just a disguise of what they really were. Shivering again, she tucked her shaking hands into the front pocket of her sweatshirt, lowering her head as she forced herself to move once again.

As she climbed over the rocky outcrops of the canyon, she was looking down at the carved stone floor. Each step was taking with carefully hesitancy, attempting to keep herself from slipping down the evenly carved surface. However, as she accidentally lost her footing, the only thing she could do was lean against the sides of the canyon to keep herself steady. Upon doing this, the feeling of pain climbed up the side of her arm. Agonizing sharp pain, as if she was being stabbed painfully many times in her arm. With a sharp gasp she jerked her arm away. Grasping her arm with her hands, squeezing it together in attempt to stop the pain she gazed at the wall of the canyon. She eyed it carefully for some sort of cactus or sharp rock she had brushed on, but saw none. Winching she looked at her arm, the pain rippling up her shoulder with amazingly fast accuracy. She felt no blood, just stinging pain. After a few moments the pain went away, replaced with a stone-like numbness in her arm. Intrigued she found herself quite unable to move her arm at all. Pulling back the sweatshirt on her arm she looked at it, but it looked perfectly fine.

The sound of water running over stone made her lookup. She spotted the river near by, and forced her to forget about her arm. At this point she realized how thirsty she truly was. Her mouth was so dry, her lips smacking together in attempt to draw some water to her parched mouth. She knew that Patrick was thirsty too. Leaving her limp hand at her side she moved forward, moving much quicker now in an attempt to get to the river faster. She finally stopping when she splashed into the water, the ice-cold liquid water sloshing onto her foot. It was cold, numbing her toes even through her shoe. Pulling an empty water bottle from the inside of her sweatshirt she opened the cap. However, as she kneeled down to fill the water bottle up she noticed something. The water was a deep color of black, ink black. Hesitant she felt an argument forming in her mind. They needed water; or else they wouldn’t be able to continue on. Nor would they be able to leave; for the canyon would not let them go as easily as they came. However, this water was terrifying. Staring into it she felt herself easily lost in the swirling blackness that flowed endlessly down the rocks. She didn’t know why she was so afraid of this place; it was just an old empty canyon. But everything about it was off, scary.

Mumbling something under her breath she quickly scooped the water bottle into the black river, getting a significant amount of liquid into the plastic container. Snapping on the lid she stood up, turning away from the river. Her arm still numb and limp at her side she was beginning to feel even worse about this place. Without her arm working, they were good as dead if someone showed up. The hair on the back of her neck stood up at the thought. She wanted to get back to Patrick more then ever.

“Ill tell Patrick we will leave as soon as I get back” she said, reassuring herself as she climbed backup the rocky sides of the canyon toward were he was sitting still. Stumbling and struggling up the sides she finally reached the top, rubbing the sweat from her forehead with the arm of her jacket. As she put her hand down she didn’t notice the tiny specks of blood on her sweatshirt. Continuing to move she finally spotted Patrick, still slumped against the side of the wall.

“Hey, I got us some water,” she said, moving toward him slowly. She was gripping her numb arm she stood a little ways off from him. When she did not get a reply she furled her brow. Stumbling toward him she spoke again, concern in her voice.

“Patrick are-“ she said, but her voice was cut off mid sentence. Golden colored eyes widening she stared in fright at what was before her. Patrick was lying up against the stone, his head limp and leaning against his shoulder. In the middle of his head was a hole, the size of a bullet penetrating his skull. Her eyes wide in fear, she stared, frozen in place as she watched crimson blood drip onto the canyon rock. “No” she said, barely below a whisper as she stared at her dead friend. She had to put a leg forward to stop her from falling. She felt herself getting sick, the images of the alive Patrick, the friend Patrick, playing in her head. Holding her hand over her mouth she controlled herself from getting sick there and then. She felt hot tears streaming down her face as she rushed forward to him. Kneeling down in the bloody rock she stretched her good arm out, as if unsure what to do. At the sight of her hands she wanted to scream and she lowered them. She found her vision becoming blurry, tears streaming down her face. “No, Patrick you weren’t supposed to die!” she said, pounding her good arm against the rock next to him. She felt helpless, and tired to force the good arm upward with no luck. Crying she grabbed him, hugging him close to her. He was dead, gone. She felt no life in his body, and soon she couldn’t control herself. Holding him close to her she froze. Her heart skipped a beat, her legs loosing their ability to keep her from standing. One thought came to mind as she dropped him onto the rock again.

She was not alone in the canyon.

Controlling her tears she scrambled frightfully away, her eyes turning to the backpack against the side of the wall a few feet away. Crawling toward it she threw open the top, her arm pushing into the bag with unnecessary force. The sound of someone walking closer made her flinch as she struggled to find what she was looking for. Feeling metal, she gripped halt of the gun in the backpack. Closing her eyes she let out a sigh. It was moving oh so slowly now, every footstep of the killer, and every breath she took stretching to eternity. Feeling the eyes of the killer burning in her back, she felt as if death was behind her itself. Letting out one more breath she spun around, her eyes closed. Fingers on the trigger she fired twice the sounds of gunshots echoing off the canyon walls. However, she soon found that the second shot was not hers. The sudden pain erupted in her hand and she let out a surprised and pained gasp as she pulled it to her chest. Dropping the gun, the clattering of metal weapon on stone seemed to go on forever, eerily echoing off the sides of the mysterious canyon. Gripping her bleeding hand she looked up in fear.

“Looks like I missed your head, pity,” the woman said, lowering her gun to look at her.

“Lucky for me,” the girl answered bitterly, watching the woman carefully as her hand bled. “Why did you kill Patrick, Joanna?” she said, her voice harsh and demanding as she glared into the women’s eyes. “He had nothing to do with this, he was just with me,” she spat, forcing herself not to sneak a glance at her fallen friend. Eyes would not leave Joanna, no matter what.

“Who cares” the woman said, shrugging nonchalantly, “He was with you. I have strict orders to kill anyone with you and get you to my Boss. Dead or alive he wants your hands Spires,” she said, cocking the gun once to re-load.

“How did you get here?” Spires demanded feeling her hands clench at her sides. Anger burned in her mind, and she wanted oh so much to kill the damn women here and now.
“Easy, I followed you” she said, raising the gun again, “You guys are just silly kids, you had no clue I had been following you this whole time,” the woman said, laughing as she pointed the barrel at her. “Your little friend should have come with you to get water shouldn’t he? That way you two could die together,” the women said laughing.

Spires winched in pain and anger at her words. She once again tried to lift up her numb arm, struggling until it budged slightly. Lifting her hands together with painfully slowness she moved to make almost a clapping motion. Clenching her teeth she moved them down again. Her numb arm quivering she held them to the cold rock bellow her. Biting her lip she pushed down hard, but nothing appeared. No escape route.

“Silly girl, you know the canyon won’t let you leave” Joanna said, watching Spire’s futile movements. “And it seems that you are resisting, which means I have the right to kill you” the woman said, resting the finger on the trigger

“Wait” Spires said, her voice desperate. “If you kill me, you won’t be able to get out” Spires said. It was her last choice to get that into the women’s little head. She was the only way to get out of here, the only way to get back home. However, the woman simply laughed.

“There are more people like you Spires, so don’t worry, ill get out fine” she said, smirking. Feeling the last bit of hope leave her, Spires scrambled away, struggling to crawl away with her bad arm returning to its numb state. Moving just in time, she heard as a shot fire. Eyes closed and awaiting death, she felt the bullet graze her cheek, and she held her hand against it. Eyes desperately darted back and forth for anything. The gun was way too far out of reach. No rocks or sticks to through, no boulders to hide behind. She heard the gun cock once again and her heart skipped a beat. She was going to die here, she was going to die here for sure. Maybe she should die; she led Patrick to his death after all. But she couldn’t die, she couldn’t die in this damn canyon. She had something to take care of; and she couldn’t die here. With one last she pulled her hands together, the pain returning in her arm as she attempted she clapped her hands together, feeling the force between her skin. But this time she did not push them against the stone. She began scrambling up, using her strong legs to push herself up. Standing there she faced Joanna, staring right into the barrel of the gun.

“I told you, that wont-“ the woman said, but was caught mid sentence as Spires kicked forward, leg propelling her as she, rushed at her with her hands forward. She heard a shot fire, and pain shot down her numb arm, but she only slowed for a moment before continuing toward her. Stretching her hands she pushed them against the woman’s stomach, letting loose an almost frightful yell. The gun dropped from the woman’s hand, and she fell backwards, clearly caught off guard from the girls charge. But as Spires pulled away she did not see the women fall. Gripping her hand onto her bloody shoulder she looked around for the women; but all that was left was the gun. She was gone. Wincing she could barely keep herself standing and she felt her head becoming light headed and dizzy.

After a few moments it was clear that the woman was not coming back. All of her energy sucked from her and the blood loss getting to her brain she collapsed, falling to her knees. Eyes barely open she winced, letting loose a cry of pure anguish at it all.

Remembering Patrick she felt the sickness coming back to her, and she was barely able to crawl toward Patrick. Falling a little short of where he was she was able to keep herself up by pushing her good arm against the stone.

“I’m sorry” she said, staring at him before hanging her head in defeat. “I just couldn’t help you Pat. I just couldn’t save anyone.” She said, her voice fading away. So maybe she was going to die here.

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 1

spires maria- sarah twix[/center][/font][/i][/color]

Spires Maria-Sarah (Hon) Twix was not in a happy mood. She walked quietly without a noise under the roofs of the school building. The world was seemingly deserted as she walked down the empty corridors. Everyone was gone, and she lowered her hand to look at her cell phone, 4:30. She sighed, pushing the phone back into her pocket. Stripped vans splashed into dirt brown puddles as she walked along. Pulling her sweatshirt hood over her brown hair, she fought off the cold air that was left behind from the early down pour of rain

Detention, again. As always her angry teacher had held her back. What was it this time? The rude remark? The attitude? Perhaps it was the missing homework that she seemed to always have. She had spent hours sitting in her desk with her head on the icy wood table top with her teacher going on and on about manners and the ‘what you must always say and do’ stuff that everyone else followed. Today it had been a simple remark that sent the bald, skinny and huge glasses-wearing science teacher, Mr. Vilo fuming. He had been explaining the anatomy of the eyes, and how glasses work to protect and aid them. Spires had been sleeping, as usual, when she heard her name called out in a squeaky voice.

“Miss Spires? Miss Spires?”

“Miss Spires Twix!?

“Huh?” she had replied, the after-lunch siesta rudely awakened by his itchy-scratchy voice that everyone hated. The other kids were snickering and turning to look at her with smiles and frowns. Spires simply smiled sheepishly as she put her hand under her chin with elbows on her table.

“Can you tell me what kind of glasses are used for someone that is far sighted and near?” he said, smirking almost victoriously. Unlike other troublemakers of the time, she did not melt under the fact she could not answer this. Instead, she seemed to get braver as she replied.

“Those huge circular glasses you got on you nose Bob?” she replied with a smirk. The class laughed out loud, not even silenced by the teacher’s angry stare. She had used his real name, which angered him even further. He seemed to almost shake in anger, his skinny ungainly body nearly loosing balance and he clenched his fits together.

“What did you say?” he said, his glasses shaking on his nose like they would fall off. The fellow classmates seemed to gasp and whisper, nudging their buddies as they waited for the girl’s reaction. She simply smiled flicking an eraser crumb sitting on her desk. She seemed to wait for a few seconds, scratching her brown hair without a noise. It was completely silent as everyone waited anxiously for what would happen next.

“You heard me. I said, 'your glasses are huge and quite ugly', get smaller ones Bob; you look like a cross-eyed bug” she said, sending the class into an array of laughter and pandemonium. Then, as if a savior to the punished looking Mr. Vilo, the bell rang, Kids rose laughing and pushing in their chairs with loud screeches. Spires smiled and grabbed her backpack. However, as she made her way for the door, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to stare at Mr. Vilo and immediately rolled her eyes.

“Stay after class Miss Twix, I will have a word with you” he said sternly as she snorted, taking a seat with her feet up on the desk. Mr. Vilo murmuring something angrily as he took a seat behind his desk.

So here she was. Soon she would be heading home to get scolded once again by her parents. Truthfully, she was lagging. She didn’t really feel like getting another lecture on how she should live her life. She had so many she was sure she could give a lecture to her parents herself. You would think the parents would understand; but they didn’t. They weren’t like all the other troublemaker kids that lived about. They were not like the ones that never cared and let things pass. No. They were the over-concerned, over-caring, ‘wanting-their-kids-to-do-everything-right’ parents. She was supposed to be the straight A+ student like her older sister was. Spires was lucky to come home with something above a C these days on her report card. She wasn’t the smartest kid in the bunch. Then again, Spires was very smart. She was smart, however, her smarts were used on the ‘dark side’ of life and not academically. So Spires was by far intelligent, she just choose not to use her intelligence in school.

She counted every pillar in the outside hallways of La Paz Intermediate. She could almost hear the wind blowing heavily, no human bodies to stop it as it whisked across her back. With another rueful sigh she pulled the sweatshirt over her shoulder tighter once again. Finally the bike rack came into view and she hurried her pace toward it. Instinctively she jumped up on one of the sidebars of the bike rack and balanced expertly on it. She counted her steps without a sound until she finally hopped off the end of the sidebars as she jumped into the puddles. The dirty water splashed off her feet and sent droplets at her face. She laughed, running through the puddles and up the ramp that led to the street. At odd intervals she watched the cars zoom by left and right like busy bugs. Finally she turned away from watching cars as she jogged uphill toward the cross walk. The cross-walk-lady was nowhere to be seen, already left. She looked both ways dutifully and ran across the wet asphalt street without harm, splashing heavily in the puddles that collected on the crosswalk ends. She did not care that her jean bottoms were soaked wet and dark navy blue from being wet. She did not care how the people in passing cars looked at her with eyebrows raised.

Spires rarely cared.

The closer she came to her destination, the more she dreaded it. She wasn’t afraid, heck no. She was just annoyed with the fact she was going to get lectured once again. Her mom’s car would soon be looming as she walked up the steep hill without a sound. It was drizzling again, but only like a light mist in the sky. She sighed, as her eyes caught sight of the huge black Hummer that stuck out like a huge sore thumb parked on the side of the road. She could already see the head of one of her parents above the seat as she came closer, and she sighed. However, she suddenly stopped, the feeling of dread higher then ever before as she froze. She could hear her heart beat faster, a voice cooing to her to ‘run away run far far away’. Whether people had any animal instincts in them, she was positive this could be one. Flight, not fight. She knew danger was coming and yet she was going to walk right toward it. In nature, you had a death wish to walk right into danger. But we all know how this feels. Whether this feeling was with your parents, before a test you didn’t study, or while you ready for a one on one fistfight; we would all sooner or later feel this impending doom. It wasn’t the best thing to feel in your life; and it because your emotions to sky rocket off your brain and explode. Whoopee.
Spires would not be afraid.

So she rose her head and held a tight emotionless scowl on her lips. She marched forward, feeling like a prisoner going to be hanged. Her hands trying to be steady she gripped the door handle. She shook away all hesitation, and without a noise she opened the huge thick door and jumped in, pushing the backpack under her feet and absentmindedly flicked on the radio. Chancing a quick glance to her side she was relieved; it was her mom. Even so, she felt her spine prick and she quickly found something very interesting outside her window. It was silent for a while, and very eerie silence at that. Like they always said; beware the calm before the storm. The car was not moving, and she felt herself sinking farther and farther into her doom. She breathed in and out, feeling as if a man with a knife was behind her; about to strike. She counted the seconds nervously in her mind and as she came to ten the radio flicked off and she heard her mother’s stern voice.

“What did you do today Spires?” she asked, the cold and stern anger in her voice causing Spires to flinch.

“Nuthin’ ” she said, her voice muffled as she continued to stare at the invisible thing that was so dang interesting outside the window. She could almost hear her mom’s anger boiling as she spoke again.

“Spires…” she said, sighing loudly before continuing, “Why do you do these things?”

“Dunno” Spires replied dutifully, keeping her sentences to one, curt words. She knew better then to try to speak clearly to state her case; it would only lead to get yelled at more.

“I think you know Spires Maria-Sarah” she said, using her ‘punishment name’. Rut ro. Now she was in trouble. Spires knew what was going on. Her mother was coaxing her to say something, and then swiftly punish her. Like a snake waiting for the mouse to move from behind the stone. “Spires?”

“Okay okay, just relax..” she said. But, she bit her tongue because of this.

“RELAX?!” her mother screamed her voice rising. Spires wanted to curse out loud. She fell for the bait, she allowed her mom to get angrier. She just needs to tape her mouth shut and be lonely non-talking Spires. “How can I relax when my daughter is getting in trouble every single day?!” she said, almost screaming; her voice hurting Spire’s ears dearly and she clamped her hands over them. She decided against talking, hoping her mom would calm down. But it didn’t work. She felt her hand grab her arm and turned her around harshly. Spires flinched, her mom’s nails digging into the flesh in her arm. “Look at me when I talk to you!” she said, pausing for a moment as Spires stared at her, glaring, into her mother eyes with pure hate at being hurt. “And answer me!”

“Okay mom. I made fun of a teacher today. Now please let me go”. It worked and ‘The Mom’ was satisfied for now and released her. She stared the car, scowling. For a few more minutes there was awkward silence before her mom leaned forward and started the car. Spires could still tell her mom was angry, but for now she would leave her daughter for the shark; her dad. The car rolled away from the school, the rain thickening as it pelted the car windows rhythmically. As if to add to the song of rain the windshields popped on and whisked back and forth in quick intervals. The time in the car passed by forever; every light stretching to an eternity. However they were soon turning into the driveway of her house. Unfortunately, her house was not the place she wanted to be. Biting her lip she awaited for the car to stop. Planning and hoping the brown-haired girl jumped from the car, pulling on her backpack within a matter of seconds. Slamming the car door shut behind her, she ran in as the garage door opened nosily. Approaching the inside door she hesitantly gripped the doorknob, pushing the door forward as silent as she could. However, it squeaked and groaned; causing her to flinch. She turned her head, breathing heavily as she made way inside the house. Immediately she turned her had to the steps; her greatest escape to her own private room upstairs. With a great leap she bounded forward. Skipping the steps she was free. She was going to make it! She was truly free from-

“Spires, come here”

She froze. Damn. Turning her head to see her dad sitting in the chair in the near-by living room she bit her lip. Oh god, shoot her now. Hanging her head she move slowly into the living room, not daring to try to escape this one. She didn’t even need to look at her dad to know what was on his face. He would be fuming with anger and rage, all hid in a huge scowl in his skin and lips. She didn’t need to pause or anything, and she simply took a seat on the couch and hid her face behind her hair. Within seconds the sound of her father rising was heard. Within seconds the whole thing started over again. Throughout the whole thing, she kept nodding dumfoundedly; but truthfully, she wasn’t paying attention. She pretended to be crestfallen, attempting to please her father in some way. Make him think he was truly punishing her. However, deep inside she was just as angry and pissed as her parents were.

She waited it out without speaking a word until her dad spoke again.

“….and because of this you are grounded. Go up to your room” he said sternly and turned away. Spires sighed, her feet pushing her up from the couch. Without a sound she retreated up the stairs to her room. Walking calmly down the hall as she reached the upstairs she spotted the open door of her room. Closing her eyes she walked through the door, hands gripping the door knob behind her. Suddenly, she jerked her hand away, slamming the door behind her with a rippling thud. A loud scream of anger and hate boiled from her lips as she stomped the ground with her feet repeated times under her until they were numb. She held back angry spiteful tears as she stomped around her room; throwing things and screaming out curse words at no one in pure spite of her situation.

Normally Spires wasn’t this angry. Normally the lectures were just annoying, not enough to get her this angry. However, she was supposed to go out with her friends tonight to The Spectrum. This ‘grounding’ thing ruined the whole dang day, and she soon began retaliating because of it. It was silly as she screamed again and chucked a pillow from her bed at the door to cause a thundering bang. But this was her way of retaliating. True, it was silly. But she felt as if this was the only way. She knew that no matter what she did the punishment wouldn’t be repealed. And yet, here she was causing a ruckus in her room. Once again with this impending doom.

However, as soon as the anger started: it ended. She stopped, breathing heavily as she dropped the pillow clenched in her hands onto the carpet bellow her. The feeling of someone watching behind her made her freeze were she stood. She growled turning around to probably find her mom or dad coming up to yell at her for being so loud. However, it was quite the opposite. Sitting calmly in front of her, Spires was surprised to see deep brown puppy eyes staring at her almost comically. She must of came in behind me Spires thought and stared into the brown puppy eyes in return, her gaze softening. In reaction, she dropped onto one knee, motioning her hand forward.

“Hey there Terra” she said sweetly, cooing at her dog in almost a baby type of voice.
Terra seemed to tremble in excitement, with holding a pure attack of hyperness. But it didn't last long, for soon the puppy exploded upward, bounding toward her like some huge monster. Then again, she really wasn’t a puppy. She was only a little over one year old, and yet she nearly caused Spires to topple over as the dog and girl collided in the carpet. Covered in what seemed a thousand kisses she finally was able to drag off the dog that was laying literally on top of her. Finally free, Spires turned away pushing herself up with Terra following happily.

Without a sound she whipped out her cell phone from her pocket and jumped on her bed. Fingers moved quickly as she sent messages to her friends like lighting about her current predicament. She felt the bed rumble as Terra bounded up beside her, the huge puppy laying down on her stomach and stretching out on the bed beside Spires. Soon, as she waited on her bed, Spires was sent at least five replied of ‘sorries’ and ‘that sucks’. But that was it. She groaned, tossing the phone to the bed violently. She felt angry with her friends for not doing anything else, or at least saying something else besides curt remarks. However, her cell phone beeped loudly as another text message popped in. She answered it promptly.

‘u don’t worry about it Spires, ill deal with it”

Spires could not remember the number at the time and seemed to groan angrily. She was too angry and lazy to find out. So she ignored it, and placed the phone back on her bed. Whoever sent it was dumb thinking that he or she could ‘deal with it’. What was he or she going to do: kill her parents. The thought made her laugh.

With a rueful sigh Spires turned over and tugged her puppy close to her. Terra turned to face her, laying a huge slobbery kiss on her cheek that made Spires laugh again. Man, she loved this dog. This was really the only thing she actually tried to care about in her life. Terra was her everything, and she would never ever let anything happen to her. Terra would be with her everywhere, and they would both grow old and die together in a little old ranch in Montana. Yeah. That would be awesome. Heck, she would hide away Terra in her bag as she went to collage. Terra would be with her everywhere, and no one could tell her otherwise. No sir-ee. Terra was her dog by all rights and no one could take her from Spires Maria-Sarah (Hon) Twix.

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 2

the escape[/center][/font][/i][/color]

It was dark. Completely and utterly dark in her room as she awoke from sleeping. For a moment she forgot entirely why she had awakened, or how she had managed to sleep so early. But she was laying across her bed, with Terra tucked neatly by her side. But soon she realized how late it was as she slowly rose up. She could barely see her own hand in front of her as she reached for her alarm clock and turned it on. The light blinding her, it took her a few moments to actually see what time it was. 10:30pm. Dang, she slept all the way? Now as she moved around in her dark room she felt as if she could never fall asleep again. On the contrary she was actually quite awake and ready for whatever.

Well here came whatever.

Tick, tick, tick-scratch

She froze in fear as she heard something at her window. Her back to the open window she felt a pair of eyes burning into her back and she nearly screamed out in fear. Terra had slowly begun to awake and she moaned sleepily and tried to get comfortable. However, as she went to go back to sleep, she to heard the noise at the windowsill. In reaction she growled fiercely, her teeth reveling as her upper lips curled up. Her ears pinned to her head her hackles rose high on her back as she tried to scare away whatever was there. Spires was almost about to cry for her parents to come as a voice spoke to her.

“Spires, Ouch. Is that you?”

She knew that voice anywhere. Without fear now she turned around to be staring into the eyes of a teenage boy on her roof, peering in her window with a sheepish smile on his face. However, she could sense that Terra was just about to attack and bark at him, for she was rising as well as soon as Spires did. The bark almost hit the air, but before it could get loud enough Spires grabbed her puppy’s muzzle and silenced her. Terra obliged and slowly followed ‘her girl’ as Spires sliding off the bed and walked toward the window. With nothing more then a loud crack she opened the window and let him. Because the boy was leaning hard onto the window, he tumbled and fell on top of her. The boy muttering a thousand of sorries, she was clearly blushing in the dark as she pushed him off with a grunt.

“What the heck are you doing Patrick?” she asked as she scrambled to stand up. She took a nervous stare at her door over her shoulder but it did not open. Terra was quite interested as she sniffed the ‘intruder’ all over and wagging her tail happily.

“Coming to get you. Didn’t you get my text? I’m here to bring you to The Spectrum” he asked as he too got up from the ground and patted the interested Terra on the head.

“I didn’t think you were actually going to do anything” she said nonchalantly. She stared at him for a few more minutes before nearly yelling at him again, “Well?! What are we going to do then? Just stand here and stare at each other!?” Although Spires wouldn’t mind staring at the cute boy all night. Her yelling did make him jump however, and he quickly turned and scrambled out the window again. Standing on the lower roof he motioned for her to follow. Spires, rolling her eyes, followed him without a sound. She soon found herself standing on the deep red roof plates of her house. She still didn’t understand how Patrick even got up here. But her question was answered before she could even ask it.

“I found your guys’ ladder in the side yard” he said, pointing his finger at the ladder that was laid sideways up to the rooftop. Spires, who really wasn’t the greatest lover of heights, was cautious as she moved along the roof top, careful not to make too much noise as the two teenagers passed over her parent room underfoot. Soon the two reached to ladder, and they quietly one by one walked down. Spires was especially careful, because it was so dark she could barely see the step under her. Soon she found Patrick yelling at her from bellow.

“Hurry up Spires, everyone is waiting!”

Spires wanted to hurt him for being so loud. But what he said made her stop. Everyone was waiting? But how? The main question that passed her mind as she jumped off the ladder when she was close enough to the ground was this: How in the heck were they going to get there? Patrick quickly disappeared as he dragged the ladder away and put it back where he found it. Before he could speak as he returned, Spires stepped in front of him.

“Tell me; how the heck are we going to get there? I can’t drive, and I sure don’t feel up to walking all the way to The Spectrum…” she said, sarcasm and clear annoyance in her voice as she waited for his reply. It came quickly as he pointed at the street.

“My older brother, ya know Roger? He said he would bring us there…” Patrick said as he grabbed Spire’s hand as pulled her away to the street. As if on cue a white Jeep came rolling up to her house as if it had been there the whole time. Spires was shaking her head back and forth in disbelief. All of it was just too much, and she laughed as Roger pulled the Jeep up next to her and slowly exited with an almost fake smile on his face.

“You got to be kidding me…” Spires said as she stared at her brother. Roger really didn’t like Spires much, and Spires absolutely loathed Roger. They just didn’t get along. Period.

“Shut up Spires. The only reason why I'm doing this is because I’m meeting my own buddies at The Spectrum”

“You have friends? I never knew that…”

“Spires!” Patrick said and shook her shoulder to make her be quiet. Spires pushed his hand off her shoulder angrily as she turned to get in the car.

“Whatever.” Spies said, pausing for a moment before speaking again but under her breath. “Just don’t get to drunk buddy-boy”. She felt Patrick flick her in a warning and she simply rolled her eyes. Briskly she opened to car door and jumped in, keeping the door open as Patrick joined her in the back. It was silent for some time as Roger struggled to get the old car started. Spires was just about to open her mouth to complain when the car stared and purred into an easy working roll of the motor. Spires was silenced, and she slumped her shoulders on the seat with a sigh as the car slowly began rolling out of the driveway. She didn’t even look at her house as the car drove away along the black tar road. She turned and smiled to Patrick, and he returned it handsomely. What fun this would be. Me, Patrick, and a couple of my best buds she thought to herself as she listened to Patrick yell at his brother to turn the radio on.

Spectrum, here we come

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 3

period five[/center][/font][/i][/color]

“Spires!”

The voice of her mother came rolling into her ears loudly. Her eyes opened sleepily, the morning light illuminating the room brightly. She winced as she stuffed her face back into her pillow, the brightness stinging her eyes painfully. She moaned angrily as she once again heard her mom call from downstairs.

“Spires, get up! We have to leave for school in a few minutes” The truth hit her hard as she sprung out of her bed, eye spinning until they met her alarm clock aside the bed.

8:00! She had to leave to school in at least fifteen minutes. Heart beating quickly she rushed to get all her clothes on. Fully dressed she ran into her bathroom, staring at herself sleepily into the mirror. She looked like a drunken person that collapsed in the bar. Her eyes were dark underneath with wide black circled that looked like smeared makeup. She struggled to brush her ruffled hair as best as she could, but it seemed to stick out each and every way. Angry, she hurriedly ran out of the bathroom.

Terra appeared from the other room as she bounded around and around her.

“Down Terra, I can play with you now” she said strictly and the puppy recoiled, a sad look on her face as her chance to play was put off angrily. But Spires didn’t have time to just stop and have a good romp with her dog. Anger boiled deep inside her; why the heck did her mom wake her up so late? Maybe she knows about the Spectrum? She thought, scaring herself as she ran briskly down the stairs, skipping the last three steps routinely as she banged to the lower level of her house. Her mom was cooking something that melted amazing in a pan, and her dad was reading the paper, shielding his face as he read.

“What’s for breakfast?” Spires asked nonchalantly as she jumped on the couch. Eyes averting the clock she was please to see it was only 8:08, she had moved quickly and still had some time. She cocked her head to the side to catch what her mom would say, but all she heard was the crackling of bacon or some sort sausage in the pan. Angry, she repeated the question loud and with gusto. “What’s for breakfast MOM!” she said, pulling herself up to stare at her from the bed. Her mom was frowning, ignoring her daughter without even a second glance. Spires was getting extremely annoyed with her mom; but she could tell she would eventually tell her. She was frowning; because she knew she couldn’t ignore her daughter for now. “What’s for brake-“

“Sausage, scrambled eggs, and toast” her mom confessed finally and Spires sighed, leaning back with a sigh of ‘victory’. But as she went for the remote for the T.V. she caught her dad looking at her angrily, and she snatched the remote up quickly and said nothing else. For at least five minutes she went into a remote spree, flicking though the channels over and over again, trying to find something good enough to watch. She listened as Terra came tearing down the stairs and was quick to sit at the couch side and lick her hands like they were covered in peanut butter. Spires soon pulled away and pushed her crazy dog away.

“Here you go” her mom said as she set down her breakfast. Spires took it readily and stuffed it into her mouth. It was almost 8:30 now, and she ate, admittedly, like a starved hog.

______________________________________

Soon she was clambering out of the car with her backpack on. The rest of the morning had been quite easy, and now she was running down the hill toward the bike rack. As she met up with the crossing guard, she came to a skidding stop, waiting for the Asian woman to turn to her. She was nearly on the edge when the lady said “Ready?”

“Yes” she replied dutifully, waiting for the well known ‘GO’. But it did not come.

‘READY?!” the crossing guard said angrily and flicked her ruby red stop sign toward her. Spires, sorely confused replied loudly.

“YES!” she said waving her hands and jumping up and down in emphasis. However, the lady still fumed. With a high pitch odd scream she walked across and grabbed her shoulder with her nails and pushed her forward. Spires, smarting in embarrassment and pain she crossed, keeping her head low as she reached the other side. Away from the crazy crossing guard, she vowed then and there she would cause chaos to this lady for being so dang crazy!

huuummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

CRAP! She thought as the bell rung loudly over her, and she ran as fast as she could to homeroom. Luckily it was close to the bike rack and she ran into the already filled classroom with a sheepish smile. She skirted into the far back of the room and took a seat. All the kids’ eyes were on her, but her math teacher had seemed not to notice.

“Ms. Ferro?” came a girl’s voice in the front. Immediately Spires gripped her desk angrily. It was Kate. She hated Kate. She hated her pudgy, ugly face, squeaky voice, greasy hair, and always dirty shit she wore. But the thing that Spires hated the most about her was the life of tattle tailing that she led. She already knew what that fat, ugly, girl was going to say before she actually did. “Ms. Ferro! Spires was late!” she said loudly, turning in her seat to stare at Spires smugly. All the kids gulped and sunk into their seat. Spires lifted her hand and swiped it under her throat, the ‘your dead’ sign, and Kate squeaked like the fat rat she was and faced front ward. Soon Ms. Ferro looked up and smiled at Kate.

“Kate?” she asked and the girl looked up expectantly to her math teacher. “Shut up”

With this the class admittedly broke into a laughter, even Ms. Ferro was laughing for sometime before she raised her hands to silence the class. Kate had her lower lip out, sniveling that she had been punished. She wanted to scream out, but said nothing. Spires was smiling happily at her math teacher. She loved Ms. Ferro, she was the best ever; the only teacher that Spires didn’t actually try to upset of all her teacher that she had. However, Ms. Ferro spoke again and the class, smiling, listened without speaking. It was clear everyone else liked Ms. Ferro too.

“What’s’ the excuse today Spires? Huh?” she asked, putting her hands under her chin and waited.

“The new crossing guard isn’t too smart” Spires replied simply, sending the class into a laughing fit. Among the chaos she heard other agree with her.

“It’s the truth!”

“All she says is ‘READY?!’ “

“Yeah, then we wait for go, and it never comes!”

“QUIET!” Ms. Ferro finally said, the class quieting within seconds. The class, suddenly worried that Ms. Ferro was speaking to them angrily they sunk very low into their seats, even Spires. However, Ms. Ferro was a good natured and funny teacher, and as she spoke it was clear she was just kidding about being angry “All that women knows is the word ‘Ready’!” she said, and the class went into a fit of laughter. Whether it really was that funny, it was because a teacher had actually tried to be funny. Sure, teachers always tried to throw in jokes; and it normally didn’t work. The truth was; Ms. Ferro was more then a teenager then she was a teacher; and it was awesome.

Before anything else could happen, the speakers tuned on.

Diinng doong diinng doong

‘Welcome students to La Paz Intermediate! It is Wed. January 17th, and we will be starting with period five today…’

That was all Spires heard. Period 5?! Great, wonderful. Period five meant only one thing; Mr. Vilo

______________________________________

Spires walked through the science classroom door with a displeased look on her face. Her hand rose in front of her mouth in a tired yawn as she moved toward her desk. Pulling out her seat she sat down, her head immediately thudding onto the table. Groaning from the fatigue that ailed her, she was not happy as she heard someone laughing beside her.

“Pat, shut the heck up” she said unhappily to Patrick who was poking her from the seat next to her own.

“You look like a ghost Spires…” he said comically. He didn’t have much time before Spires flung her head up, smacking the top of his head with the bottom of her hand. “Ow” he replied, rubbing his head in smarting pain.

“’Cause of you I’m tired. That stupid trip to the Spectrum was retarded. All we did was eat ice cream and sneak into an R-rated movie. It was boring as hell” she said, thudding her head against the table again.

“Oh, okay” Patrick said, moving away and slinking in his seat.

“Okay children listen up” came the squeaky voice of Mr. Vilo. Most of the students looked up, including Patrick. All Spires did was make a noise half between a snore and an angry groan. Mr. Vilo was fuming, but said nothing about it. “Today we are going to do a lab with some chemicals. These are very dangerous, and in order for everyone’s safety they must follow the rules exactly and pay close attention to what chemical you are mixing with another” he said, pausing for a moment to push up his glasses. “This includes you Spires” he said

One of her hands rose in the air with the thumbs up sign, but otherwise Spires said nothing. The thumbs up sign was her secret was of saying ‘I don’t care’. Mr. Vilo truly didn’t get it, so he turned away with some feeling of a reaction besides a joke pointed toward him. She made another nose, but this one was a muffed laugh. Patrick rose an eyebrow in reaction and shook his head back and forth. Even with her head on the table she spoke bitterly.

“What the hell are you looking at Pat?” she asked, and Patrick made a slight yip before putting his face forward. Spires listened without a care as Mr. Vilo chose some more, awake, volunteers to get all the supplies. Still keeping her head down, she heard the clatter of supplies on her desk. She was shook awaken by Patrick shaking her shoulder violently to get her awake.

“Spires, Spires-“

“Stop shaking me so hard Pat, you will rip me skin off”

“Oh, sorry. Its just I need you to mix the first material, the green one, with the darker colored one. The one that Mr. Vilo said. I think he said it was the orange one…” Patrick said and looked away to work on his own part of the lab. Spires struggled to keep her eyes open as she turned to the equipment in front of her. It was pretty complicated looking, with knobs and what seemed like some sort of fire thing you could turn on. If she would have listened she would know what to do, but instead she stared at it was tired eyes. She was clearly not in the mood. Hands moved and gripped the first substance that Patrick had mentioned.

“Mix the green with the orange one?” she asked, spinning the green substance in his container nonchalantly. Not even looking at Spires as he was deep in concentration in how own lab he didn’t answer very clearly.

“Yea, just like Mr. Vilo said”

“Alrighty then” she said, turning away from him before murmuring, “Like I was listening” Biting her lip she looked at the containers. Oh great. As she studied each one carefully there was two orange ones. Pushing her hand against her forehead she closed her eyes. She found herself playing the eni-miney-mo game, and when she opened her golden eyes again she spotted the orange one she was going to use. Yawning she grabbed it, the container between her fingers. Looks like Kool-Aid she thought to herself as she shook it up and down to see what would happen. Nothing besides a little white foam.

“What valve do I-“

“The one Mr. Vilo said to use” Patrick replied quickly, and she turned to see him violently writing notes in his lab book as his chemicals most likely acted like they were supposed to. Rolling her eyes she turned back to the machine. There was the fire one, and what seemed like a mixing one. Biting her lip again she chose randomly, her eyes settling down on the fire one. Lifting the chemicals she randomly poured them in without measuring. She just guessed all of it. Putting the lid on top she turned on the gas, fire alighting the bottom of the valve.

“You done?” Patrick mumbled, looking up from his notes.

“Ya, sure. I mixed the green one with the uh, second orange one” she said, pointing at the empty canister. Smiling she turned up the heat more. Sitting back in her chair she yawned again “This is easy Pat. Don’t know why you-“

“Spires you idiot!” Patrick yelled, and Spires turned as she heard his scream. Frightened at the fact he was yelling at her, she moved away from him. Watching him reach out to grab her arm and miss, she heard a soft clicking noise from the fire valve. Everything was moving as if in slow motion as the valve made one last click and exploded. Flames erupted upward like some monster as glass burtsted out in ever direction. The result was that of a bomb, and all she heard was the screams of her fellow classmates and the sound of the fire destroying everything in its way. Eyes wide she had only a few moments to react, and she promptly lifted up her arm quickly, covering her face as shards of glass exploded in her direction and cut into them. She let out a scream of pain as she felt her skin tear and rip right in front of her. Fire spreading quickly she heard the panicked noises of students fleeing from the flying shards of glass and intense flames. Gasping for air, pain overtook her and Spires tumbled out of the chair in hopes of getting away from the flames. Outstretching her arms she awaited hitting the ground to keep herself from colliding face first. However, collision was much more painful then expected. As soon as her hands felt the tile floor below her, pain shot up her arms, almost causing her to fall on her face anyway. Slamming her shut eyes shut she winched in pain and surprise. Gasping for breath she kept herself up, attempting to ignore the burning that was torturing her hands bellow. Whatever it was, if she put her face in it, it would probably be bad. Thinking she had fallen on some glass she opened her eyes once again. However, as her vision cleared she found it was anything but glass. A sticky black substance had leaked onto the ground from the explosion, and her hand was right in the middle of it. Winching she struggled to get herself up, but her hands were useless; as if stuck to the ground. She let out a yell of pain and panic as her own hands began turning a darker shade of black as well. Fear overtook her at the moment as a thought came to mind. It looked like they were dying. Eyes wide with fright she struggled to get away with no luck at all.

“Spires hold on!” she heard Patrick cry from somewhere around her, and felt his arms wrap around her stomach. Winching her hands were separated from the substance and she let out another agonizing cry as she felt her skin being literally ripped off. Patrick nearly dropped her at that moment, feeling like he had done more bad then good. However he kept moving. Pulling Spires away from the shards glass and spilled chemicals, Patrick dragged her out the door with all the other waiting kids. Everyone was accounted for, and even Mr. Vilo was standing there trying to calm everyone down. As Patrick settled Spires down a little off from the group, Mr. Vilo walked over, kneeling besides them with concern. Tears streaming down her face Spires held her burning, stinging hands against her chest, her body curled forward in agonizing pain. Patrick let go of her carefully, his face awestruck at all that had happened.

“Spires, Spires what’s wrong?” he asked, lifting his arm to painfully rub the blood from the shards of glass from his face.

“My hands. Pat, my hands are dead” she cried loosening her hands from her chest to reveal her black and burned hands. Mr. Vilo pulled away in surprise and Patrick widened his eyes. Her hand truthfully looked as if they were dead All her fingers were frozen in place, and the black ness was climbing up her arm like a curling snake. She tired to move her black fingers, but only found it impossible. Crying, she looked away from her damaged hands and turned to Patrick fearfully. “Patrick, I'm going to die…”

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 4

because of foolishness[/center][/font][/i][/color]

It was so dark. Just intensely dark that it was if she was falling down an abyss with no end. But it wasn’t just dark. It was nothing. There was a big difference between the dark of night, and the black nothingness she was in. She was just there; neither moving nor stopping. This was truly an odd place indeed. She tried to move; but found it impossible. Not because she couldn’t move; but when she did there was no way to exclude her moving from the blackness. No matter how she moved it was all the same; everything. She thought she would panic; but there was no fear in this place. It was just calm nothingness. Relief. I must be dead she thought almost ruefully. Maybe she was dead. Trying to reach for the memories in her head she remembered the class room accident. She remembered her dying hands and Patrick’s surprised face. Then all she remembered was this place, this blackness. I must have died she thought again, concluding that she was dead. Something did come to mind; regret. If she was dead that was not good. She felt calm, and yet dread came to mind when she knew she was dead. I don’t want to die.

“Spires?”

The voice came through the darkness, frightening her for a moment.

“Spires?”

Golden eyes wide she peered into the darkness, but saw nothing. It was just nothing. And yet, that voice. That voice so familiar that there had to be someone else, something else besides nothing. It was echoing, filled with grief and concern that made her spine prick. It was Patrick.

“Patrick? Are you dead too?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” the voice promptly replied and she felt a hand come down on her shoulder. She jerked away, unsure what to think. Why was he acting this way?

“Look, I'm sorry you’re dead but-“

“Open your eyes you idiot”

The thought hit her hard. It took her a few minutes for her to even concentrate on it. As her mind focused more and what was truthfully going on she realized that her eyes were in fact closed. It took her sometime to open them, as if she as opening her eyes for the first time in her life. Upon opening them she knew she was not dead. Upon opening she felt like she was in heaven.

Light erupted in her eyes, illuminating her vision so brightly that it stung painfully. Not wanting to close her eyes again she began to blink furiously, attempting to get rid of the bright blindness that was plaguing her. As her eyes adjusted the world came back to her. The first thing she noticed was Patrick leaning over the bed. His eyebrows rose to give her a quizzical stare, which ultimately made him look almost comical. She returned to gaze with equal confusion as her arms worked to push herself up against the seat.

Everything else became clear as she surveyed where she actually was. By the white clean rooms and the smell of pure disinfectant she guessed she was in the hospital. Dressed in an apron type thing and sitting up in a soft clean bead she knew that it was quite true. After a few moments of confusion she turned to Patrick to say something, but he got to it before she could.

“So your awake now” he said, leaning back to sit in a chair besides the bed.

“I guess so” Spires replied simply, blinking slowly as things began to return to her conscious. “What were you doing anyway?” she questioned him, “Telling me all your deepest and darkest secrets why I sleep. Kinda freaky Pat” she said before Patrick could even reply. He pulled back in surprise, but she could see the look of pure embarrassment on his face.

“No” he replied defensively. Spires lifted her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug.

“So, what happened anyway?”

“Well, you got knocked out quite suddenly. One minute sitting there, the other minutes looking dead as a rock” he said, lifting his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug; but she could tell he was still fully concerned in the whole matter.

“Oh” Spires said, pausing for a minute to take it in. Did she really fall on conscious? She couldn’t even remember. “How long was I out?”

“Two days-“

“TWO DAYS?!” she exclaimed, yelling so loud that Patrick nearly fell backwards off the chair. “Was I just in this stupid hospital for two whole days!? What did they do, inject me with some sort of experimental aspirin and-“

“Spires, you were in a coma…” he said, interrupting her rant sharply. The tone of his voice surprised her, and she slunk back into the bed quietly. After a few moments of awkward silence, Patrick spoke again. “Plus, they had to fix your hands..”

The thought hit her even harder then before. Her heart promptly skipped a beat, her eyes widening in remembrance. With a gasp she jerked her hands from out of the blankets with a swift movement, pulling them up to her face for a frightful inspection. However, she found that was quite impossible. They were wrapped up in a white bandage that stretched all the way up to her shoulders. Her mouth open in pure shock she felt herself moving again. Her hands moved together as she started pulling the bandages off.

“Spires! Stop it!” Patrick said, jumping forward to lightly grab her hand. Even though his grip was barely anything, Spires flinched at the slight pain and dropped her hands into her lap. “What were you thinking?” he asked, staring at her with both anger and concern as he backed away. Grabbing the rolling seat he had been sitting in a moment ago he pulled it closer to the bed and sat down once again.

“I’m, I’m sorry. I just wanted to see…” she said looking away from him bitterly as she stared down at her bandaged arms. “Pat?”

“Yeah?”

“What happened?”

Her question was so simple, and yet only silence followed afterwards. After a few moments of pure awkward silence he sighed ruefully before speaking.

“The whole thing exploded. Glass, Fire, everywhere. Scariest thing I’ve had happen in my life really. It was all my fault; I wasn’t paying attention to what you were doing, and when I realized the mistake you made it was to late”

“It wasn’t your fault-“

“You must of fallen over or something, and the next thing I knew you were on the ground with your hands in something. Some sort of black chemical from the result of the fire and the two substances before hand. I must have done something wrong Spires, because I pulled you away from it and you just started crying. I did do something wrong, because then all you could mumble was ‘My hands are dying’ over and over again..” he said, his voice fading away at the end of his sentence. Spires wasn’t even looking at him, but instead glaring down at her hands laying in her lap. Taking everything into account she was able to clearly remember everything from that day from when she came to school to when she was crying outside the classroom with her hands pulled close to her. Only one question came to mind.

“What’s going to happen with my hands?”

Patrick did not answer. I fact, he didn’t even look at her. He found his own hands so interesting that he didn’t look up. Feeling ignored some time when by as her anger began to boil beyond belief. Why wouldn’t he just tell her? Why couldn’t Patrick just tell her. So what if it was bad; not knowing is even worse. The fact that he wasn’t even telling her not only angered her, but scared her. She did not like the feeling of secrets or surprises. She did not like the fact that someone knew something that she did not. She did not like the fact that her best friend couldn’t even answer a simple question. It wasn’t like she was going to get angry at him for whatver awnser he was going to tell her. He didn’t have any responsiblitiy in her getting hurt; it was all her fault. Finnaly, she opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off.

The sound off three rhythmic knocks on the door not only caused her to not speak, but jerk up in a jolt of surprise. Her heart skipping a beat, she felt almost silly to be jumping and simple things like someone knocking on the door.

“Come in” Patrick said before Spires could and she glared at him for a moment. He wasn’t doing very good at making her very happy. She felt like she would have been better in a coma then being awake and lied to. There was another slight on the door before the door knob clicked. The thick blue colored wooden door swung inward as three people slowly walked in.

“But what about her condition-“ she heard the all too familiar voice of her mother. Immediately her eyebrows furled in a look of pure hate. Her mother was suddenly cut off as she turned and stared toward the bed. The look of pure shock and surprise was placed on her face. Beside her was her father; but the only look on his face was the ugly smug that Spire’s despised so very much. Standing behind them was a man Spires had never seen before. Just as Spires tried to find out who he was her mother suddenly let loose a sound of a half scream and sigh. Spires flinched at such a noise and promptly pulled away in surprise.

“Spires! Your’re awake!” he mother screamed, her body coming rushing toward the bead. Her mom flew herself on Spires, the roller medical bead rocking back in forth in an attempt to steady itself against the sudden violent weight. Smothered in her mother Spires could hear Patrick’s chair flip over and him mutter a silent ‘ow’.

“Mom, I cant breathe” Spies said in a muffled voice as she struggled to get a breathe under the crushing weight of her mother. Still squishing her Spires felt the anger boiling in her mind.

“Mom, get off right now” she said, surprised at the pure spiteful and commanding way she spoke. It surprised her mom too, and she jerked way in surprise at her daughter acting in such way. The shocked on her face now of disbelief her mom backed away, moving into the corner of the room with her scowling father.

“Who’s he?” Spires asked, turning her head toward the odd man. Finally having time to study the man correctly she noticed that he was wearing a white lab-looking coat. The look on his face annoyed her. It was a deadly mix between amused and completely smug. He had that look that just said ‘I know more then you right now’. She stared at him with a scowl of disgust. However, he did not flinch like most of all adult do. He just stared at her and tipped his head higher in her direction.

“My name is Dr. Sheppard. I am your assigned doctor Spires” he said, his voice nice but it was clearly fake. Everything about him was just obviously a fake. Either that or he really hated his job. She turned her head toward her parents, but they looked like oblivious cows in the spot light. However, Patrick was staring at the Doctor with the same look of confusion that Spires was. There was a big thing of distrust going on, and he had only said a few words. Spires wondered if she could get a new doctor.

“Okay, Doctor, since no one else will tell me…” she said, sending a look of fake disbelief in Patrick’s direction, “What is wrong with me hands anyway?” she asked, the words rolling of her tongue in disgust. She hated to ask a question of him. As expected he almost ‘lit up’ in a look of pure victory over her.

“Well…” he said, looking down at the clipboard he was holding in his hands. Fake. Spires could already tell that he knew, but for some reason he was putting on this big fat lie. “Hmm, lets see here. Ah, here we are….” he said pausing for a moment, a moment that Spires wanted to stand up and throw her fist in his big fat smug face. “Your hand had been critically injured when it had fallen in what witnesses said was ‘a unknown black substance’. Unfortunately the substance was unable to be intensified, because it simply disappeared. We believe it was a new element that had been extremely weak to the new world. We believe it could not survive in oxygen. Which leads us to another point…” he said, his voice fading again. Spire’s face literally turning red in pure spiteful anger she could not hold it any longer.

“Get on with it already!” she screamed.

“Spires, stop” she heard her father growl from the other side of the room, and she didn’t even dare look at him. She already knew was expression would be on his face. That angry and overly disappointed look. She didn’t need that to make her even more angry. The way he spoke to her, the way he reprimanded her. It sounds so similar to ‘Spires, Sit’. She was no dog, and she did not like to be spoken to as one.

“Yes, ahem” Dr. Sheppard said, his finger pushing the glasses up on his face smugly. “The substance was absorbed into your hand, and oddly enough your skin pigment changed to black as well. The tissue appeared to be dying. Luckily, the substance reacted the same way with the oxygen we breathe and so it was slowly killed off by your white blood cells. We believe not all of it was killed of, but instead just became part of your body system of your hands. We have concluded that the little part of the substance in your hands will no cause any damage. As of now your arm is still healing and needs to be restricted for some time before we can take the bandages off…” the Doctor said, finally stopping to cough smugly into his fisted hands. He peered at the groups as if to find question, but it was only an awkward silence. For one, Spires was just looking solemnly at her hands, and Patrick was looking away nervously. Besides them, Spire’s parents just looked purely out of it.

“Now, I’d advise we leave,” Dr. Sheppard added, motioning with his hand toward the door. “Miss Twix needs some time to recover”. However, when Spire’s mother and father filled out the door obediently, Patrick simply stayed where he was. The look of pure anger and annoyance on the doctor’s face pleased her, but Patrick was melting under his harsh stare. “You too Mr. Collins” the doctor said angrily. With her parents outside the door, Spires finally retaliated.

“Patrick can stay right where he is. He wont stop my healing process doctor” she said, a smirk flowing on her lips. She could just feel the anger boiling up in the doctors’ mind, but this time he backed down. Without a word he turned away, his hand gripping the door knob tightly and slammed the door slowly. Spire’s listened silently for the sound of the doctors footsteps, and soon enough Sheppard could be heard walking down the tilted hallway.

“Why couldn’t you have just told me that?” Spires asked suddenly, and Patrick jumped at the sudden question thrown out him without notice.

“What?”

“Why couldn’t you just say my hands were going to be okay? Did you just want to keep it a little secret or just piss me off? Hmm?” she asked harshly, and Patrick frowned. There was another period of awkward and completely silence, Spires turning on the medical bed toward him as she awaited the answer. But it did not come for some time. Growing impatient, she opened her mouth to attack him again, but he cut her off.

“I cant..”

“Why not?”

“I just…cant?”

“Pat, come on, I'm your best friend for crying out loud!”

“Ill get arrested” Patrick quickly added, making Spires grow silent for a moment. Arrested? So there was, for sure, something else besides her whole hand issue going on right now. Obviously the police was in on this as well. The thought of them coming into her room while she slept creped her out, and she had to stifle a shiver up her back. Then again, she was somewhat expecting that. She had blown up half of the science department and almost killed everyone in the room at the time. The police would, of course, would be stalking her in every movement that she took. She was just a criminal in a hospital right now.

“Since when has that stopped us from anything?” she asked, making a clear point. They had done many an illegal thing in their short lifespan as it was. Was there something more important about these police, or was Patrick getting paranoid all of the sudden? Faced with this dead up of the argument, Patrick sighed ruefully before replying.
“Some sort of government or police came into your room and asked me to leave,” Patrick started, pausing for a moment to word his next sentence before continuing, “I wanted to know what they were doing, so I stayed outside the door and listened to their conversation. They were talking about some sort of test results and the government-“

“Like some sort of blood testing or whatever? That’s just-“

“No, Spires, like experimental. They were talking about a testing laboratory for ‘Special Cases’ or something like that. They were talking about testing you Spires” Patrick said, finally ending with such a morbid picture. There was no way in hell Spires was going to allow herself to be tested, poked, and prodded for some stupid experiment. She wasn’t a lab rat. She was a human being, just like everyone else. They couldn’t. She wouldn’t let them. It was just not going to happen. She felt so un-confident about the whole thing, so the hope that it wouldn’t happen felt so impossible. They could probably do whatever they want. Just storm in here with the police badge as sweep her away to some laboratory to test hair products on her hands in Kentucky. Great, wonderful. What a good way to live.

“Don’t worry Pat, It wont happen” Spires said, reaching out her bandages arm to prop it up on his shoulder comfortingly. Perhaps it was a lie. But if it made Patrick feel better about the whole thing; then who gives.

There was another long period of silence as the two friends smiled at each other nervously, as if they both knew it was a lie but were trying to convince each other ‘everything was going to be okay’. When a knock sounded on the door, both of them jumped up suddenly. Spires pulled her hand away as the door opened, and the two teenagers turned their heads at the person in the doorway.

“Hello” the person said, a women. Dressed in all white and draped in a traditional white apron, it was clear she was a nurse. The smell of food suddenly hit Spire’s senses, but she grew almost sick at it. The women slowly wheeled in a metal tray, plates with an arrangement of food spread onto of it. Everything looked pre-cooked, cold, and from a tube. Spires nearly leaned over the seat to throw up. The disgusted and yet pitied look on Patrick’s face made Spires want to smack him harshly. He was surely glad that he didn’t have to eat this crap. The nurse quietly pulled out a table-bed try, pulling it up so it sat snuggly on Spire’s lap. With an eye brow cocked, Spires watched the Nurse set out the food. She looked at the nurse, studying her like she studied everyone else. She had a eagle-like face, her features elongated and sharp. Dangerously sharp. Everything about her was like some mysterious snake that was curled up, ready to strike out at the passing creature. She seemed sentimental, but it was fake. She avoided all eye contact and didn’t say much. That was the only way to fake her truly horrendous attitude. As Spires looked over the women’s brown hair and deep black eyes she noticed that she had the same eyes at the Doctor. Deep, smug and knowing more then you.

“Thanks…” Spires said, her voice fading.

“Joanna” the women added, saying her name almost to shove it into Spires face. She saw Patrick shrug his shoulders in the corner of her eyes.

“Thanks Joanna”

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 5

the puddle[/center][/font][/i][/color]

Three months.

She had stayed in the hospital for thee whole months. The thought of finally being free should have been elated, amazing. But it was not. Nothing about it was amazing. In fact, she would’ve been five times happier back in the hospital mad sipping meat from a straw. The real world was such an ass. No, people were such an ass.

“Hey, Spires” she heard a mocking voice roll into her ears. Here she was again. There was another face in the crowd, surrounded by his or her buddies. She stopped, her sides rising and falling in vexation at being teased once again. The outside hallways of school were almost empty now, all the kids heading home after school. All day she had gone through discrimination and all the crap the world could give her. “Did you explode another building today?” the voice asked again. Smug, dumb, fat. Kate. Without even looking back, Spires replied bitterly.

“No”

“Are you sure you didn’t?” Kate asked again, her friends sending up an array of giggles. Spires really didn’t understand why people found it so funny to make fun of someone for days on end. The minutes Spires set foot on school grounds she was found and narrowed down on every little person in the school. Even the teachers were not the same to her.

“I would know if I blew up a building Kate” Spires replied simply, the anger boiling in her mind. She just kept telling herself she is not worth it, not worth your time.

“Not true. The last time you blew up a building all you could scream was, ‘IM DYING! IM DYING!” Kate said, her friends all letting and uproar of laughter come from the group as the fat Kate danced around gripping her hands in mock agony. Letting out a series of wimpy and baby-like whines she sounded like some dying animal. Spires didn’t even say anything. Instead she took one step forward, the hands at her side crunching up in a fist. “Hey! You come back here, I aint done with-“ Kate said, but was quickly cut off.

Spires whirled around, her legs sidestepping for more velocity as she threw her body and outstretched arm forward. Her fist clenched angrily she moved, socking Kate squarely in the face with force. Kate fell back in surprise, letting loose a scream of surprised and agonizing pain. However, instead of feeling pure victory, Spires felt pain as well. It rose all the way up her arm again, the old burning sensation becoming real again. With a gasp of pain she griped her arms toward her. Below her in the muck of the last rain Kate scrambled upward. Blood dripping from her nose she whipped the bloody mud mess away with a growl.

“What the hell was that?” Kate asked as she helped herself up, her entire back covered it brown sludge. Spires, who was gripping her hands in pain still could muster a victorious smile on her lips. Her face soon grimaced however as her hands seem to vibrate, the feelings of pure power erupting up her arm.

“A punch” Spires replied simply, gritting he teeth together so she could attempt to speak past the pain. Kate was looking like some dumb creature caught in the spot light of an incoming car. She was obviously dumfounded why Spires was in pain when she didn’t even get punched. Her friend shuffled their feet nervously as they too noticed it. They all knew about what happened to her arms. Some of it was true, parts of it were false. But all of it was the fact that something was wrong with Spire’s hands.

“So manly...” Kate spat angrily. Unlike most girls, Spires did slap and scratch. Oh no. She just socked people in the face.

“Why thank you” Spires retaliated, her voice pained but holding up as best as she could. The pain was slowly beginning to fade away, the numb agonizing pain seemingly burning out, running out of gas. The anger in Kate was no subduing however. Her face burned a solid deep red in pure anger of the situation and the fact that Spires was even daring to mock her in front of her friends. Some friends Spires thought, watching the nervous and jumpy friends, which were definitely thinking of taking off, behind the bully. They looked so afraid that Spires could take a step forward and they would take off running. She smiled at this, feeling the pain float away. But as soon as her arms began to regain a sense of movement, a full-blown force rammed into her. A short gasp of air was taken in the pain as Kate rammed into her stomach. Gritting her teeth she felt herself falling. Instinctively she turned, hands outstretched to keep her from falling. Once again she made the same mistake as before.

Instinct was sometimes not the best thing.

Her hands slammed into the concrete, her arms feeling as if they were going to snap off due to the pressure. Water splashed her face, impact finding its spot right in the middle of a huge deep puddle. Behind her, she could hear Kate laughing victoriously as she stood over the fallen enemy. The vibrating pain shot up her arms once again, causing her to let out a half scream of shock. This one was worse then before, the pain feeling as if her arms were going to explode from the inside. The laughing of Kate was suddenly cut off as the fat bully heard she silent pained sobs of Spires. Finding out she actually hurt someone, Kate began walking away, the sounds of foot steps running down the hall echoing into Spire’s ears. Tears running down her face, the droplets slowly falling into the puddle. Her eyes blurry she could barely notice anything around her expect the horrible pain. But something more then pain. Something more then the feeling of burning skin and paralyzing shock.

Power.

Power was surging through her veins, and she could feel it. It made her sick. The feeling of something flowing in your veins, powerful or not, gave her to creeps. She wanted to just let herself fall into the muddy concrete, let herself be covered with the mucky water of the huge puddle. But she didn’t. It was if her hands were not letting her. But how on earth could hands stop you from doing anything. Hands were just you. They had no brain or separate system. And yet, they were almost controlling her.

Sniffing loudly she tried to wipe the tears from her face, but found she could not move. Her hands were not just saying that she couldn’t move, but they were enforcing it as well. She felt as if someone had super glued her hands to the puddle bellow her, and she found herself panicking. But no matter how many times she tugged and pulled; her hands would just not budge. She felt the urge to scream for help, yell at the top of her lungs to get someone’s attention. She was supposed to meet Patrick after school. Would he get suspicious of her not being there, or would he just figure that she forgot. Still panic set in. What if she was stuck for the whole day, what if-

But something cut her panic short. As her eyes searched for someone, anyone, she noticed something. Something glimmered brightly in the corner of her eye. She froze for a moment, unsure of what she was seeing. Slowly turning her head toward the puddle, she stared with disbelief. How could this be possible? Sitting in the puddle was a city. The golden buildings rose above the bottom of the ocean, huge elegant towers and skyscraper looking objects sticking out from the surface of the waves. She was staring at it all as if she was there, as if she was swimming in the ice cold water and looking down at the city that lay under her feet.

How can this be? Spires thought in disbelief. There was a little city under her. How was that possible? Her eyes jerked away from the puddle, searching the area around her for anything that could reflect such a thing. Nothing. Just her leaning over the puddle. As soon as the relation came that it was real, she felt the force in her arm keeping her where she was, suddenly collapse. Her body fell, her arms almost defaulty and broken. Unable to keep herself up, her face slammed into the puddle harshly. She expected to feel concrete rise up to smack her in the face, but no pain came. Only the sensation of pure icy cold water. Finding her eyes closed, she pried them open slowly. She found herself in the ocean, her head dangling from nothing. Her hair, wet and floating at her sides, she felt like she was halfway in and out of a pool. Remembering that she had to breathe, her hands found a grip on the ‘other side’ pulling her wet head and face back to her world.

Complete and utter silence. She stared down, her wet hair dripping into the puddle.
to form rippling waves to obscuring the image. Her heart beat against her chest rapidly, eyes wide in compete shock. How could their be a city in a puddle. Her hands were shaking, but she was able to finally move them. However, she felt as if they were connected to the opening in the puddle and her movements were slowed and almost lengthened as if in slow motion. Dragging her weighed down hand she moved them toward the puddle once more. As if she couldn’t actually believe it, she pushed her hand until the puddle with such a force she knew she was going to hit concrete with a solid bang. But once again she felt her hand engulfed in ice cold liquid that froze her fingers like ice. Instead of immediately pulling out, she let her arm linger there for a few minutes, the puddle becoming solid and calm again to allow her to see the hidden city more clearly. The cold water numbing her hands, she moved it around, producing bubbles in the oceanic water with every swipe of her hand.

So many questions flooded her mind. However, every single one could not be possibly answered. Why was there a fricken city in a puddle? But something about it was different. Perhaps it wasn’t in a puddle, but a hole into another part of the world. Maybe a portal into another universe. Everything changed so drastically that it was impossible to believe the under-water city had been located here for such a long time. Somebody would have seen, somebody must have fallen through.

Her hands slowly pulled from the open hole. Fingers, cold and numb moved along the sides until she felt the water suddenly break. As if the hole suddenly stopped, she felt the bumpy and yet completely smooth edge of the concrete break. It was literarily like someone drilled a hole in the concrete to another world. It was so impossible. Maybe she was dreaming. Maybe she would just pinch herself and would wake up in her warm bed. But everything was too real, too convincing. This was no dream; the pain was real and the world bellow was too.

“Are you okay?” a voice suddenly said, making Spire’s jump in fright. He head flung upward in shock at the voice. Everything worked quite quickly, her body and arms jerked out from the portal with a quick tug, sending a spray of water on her clothes. Sitting in front of the portal in an attempt of hiding it she turned to face the voice.

“Cane?” she asked as if out of breathe. Cane had been somewhat of a friend to her. He was just one of Patrick’s friends really, one that had been his closest male friend since kindergarten. She was somewhat jealous of his relationship with Patrick; which made her very suspicious of him. Cane was handsome to say the least; but everything about him was like that of a hawk. His features were sharp and strict, always holding almost a half smile half sneer on his face. He had deep black hair that was short and straight, almost slick and greasy. His eyes were a very light shade of blue like uncut ice. He was just mysterious and sharp, like something was hiding behind those icy eyes. But those eyes you could get lost in so easily like some hypnotizing magic on your mind.

“Playing with puddles Spires?” he asked, his voice venomous but otherwise sarcastic and good mannered. Spires, blinking slowly, chanced a look over her shoulder at the puddle. “What do you got there?” he asked, smiling as he began walking forward.

“Nothing” she said quickly, her voice sharp and nervous. At this he rose a eyebrow at her nervousness. Spires scrambled to stand, her burning ad yet wet hands pushing her upward quickly. Cane peered over her shoulder in an attempt to see whatever she was hiding. He was curious at what was making the strong and bold Spires so jumpy.

“Hey, come on. You can show me right?” he asked simply as he stepped forward again. Spires knew she couldn’t stop him now. He would either bug her to the point she would give it up, or he would just push her aside to look at the portal. A scowl on her face she rubbed her hands together nervously.

“Fine, look…” she said, stepped to the side. Cane’s icy eyes flickered over the puddle with interest. But disappointment filed with curious look in his eyes. Furling her eye brows he turned his hawk-face toward Spires.

“A puddle?” he questioned, almost annoyed at the ‘trick’ that was so suddenly played on him. At his question, Spires turned to look at the portal. Well, now it was just a puddle now. The glimmer of a underwater city was no longer in the gathered liquid on the asphalt. It was just a normal old puddle, and the only thing she saw in it was the reflection on herself and the hawk-like features of Cane. She lifted her head, smiling deviously at the disappointed teenager.

“Ya, I told you it was nothing” she said, suddenly regaining confidence so fast that Cane pulled a dumfounded look on his face. She laughed lightly, her fist jabbing his shoulder playfully as she turned away. Cane followed her with his eyes as he rubbed his wounded shoulder with a scowl. “What are you doing here anyway Cane?” she asked, looking over her shoulder as she gathered her backpack that had been thrown away by Kate and her groupies. Dusting off the water and grime from her once clean backpack, she awaited Cane’s answer.

“Err, Patrick is waiting for you. He sent me to find you. He always so obsessed like that” he said, his shoulders rising in a shrug at his own speech. Patrick was always checking up on Spires lately because of the accident in Science class. Every time she was walking along she would either see him or Cane near by. It was annoying her lately, and she felt like a dog on a tight leash.

“Ya well, you need to lay off the stalking. I’m fine…” she said, and Cane shrugged nonchalantly once again. With a flick of his hand, he motioned for her to follow him.

“Whatever, just come on. I’m hungry as hell” Cane said, his voice returning to its comical state once again. Spires smiled in reply as she shrugged her ruined backpack onto her shoulder. However, she was slow to follow him. Not because she didn’t want to; but instead she didn’t want to leave the puddle. She walked backwards as she watched the puddle, expecting some sort of creature or wave to break from the puddle and open the portal once again. But nothing. Just the normal old puddle. She sighed quietly as she turned around, attempting to ignore the puddle. But even as Cane led her away, the puddle, the underwater world and her mysterious hands kept playing over and over in her head.

[/blockquote][/color]

[brandon peter westley]

CHAPTER 6

the investigation[/center][/font][/i][/color]

“Do you think I'm lying!? Tell me why the hell you think I'm lying to you Patrick!”

Spires yelled at him angrily. For the first time in her life she was actually angry with him. Everything else had been just a little pissy mood; and they were quickly laughing at their own stupidly. Fighting was stupid. And yet; Spires was here fighting with her best friend. As made clear, Spires is and will always be an angry and fighting kind of person. So as she rammed Patrick into the wall, grabbing the front of his shirt with her hand, it was anything but abnormal.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Patrick said, staring at her in shock.

Spires was pushed away violently by her friend and she struggled to steady herself. Tears were brimming in her eyes, he wasn’t listening. Why would he listen? It was so impossible that it would appear that she was crazy. Yea, it must be that. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe she was still in a coma, floating in dreamland. Maybe all of this was made up and everyone thought she was never going to wake up. Spires wanted that to be so.

“Why don’t you believe me Pat?” she asked simply, throwing her hands up in almost a dramatic manner to get her point across.

“How in the hell am I supposed to believe that…that you put your hand in a puddle and fell into the ocean?!” Patrick replied, shaking his head as he looked away in disbelief, his voice thickly sarcastic.

“Your not supposed to believe, you have to,” Spires said, pausing for a moment to regain her breathe. Patrick was rubbing his head where it had banged up against the concrete wall painfully. “You’re my best friend Patrick. You don’t question these things...” she said slowly, reaching out with her hands to grip his shoulder comfortingly. But it was more comfort for herself then him. “I’m not crazy Pat”

There was a period of silence as Patrick looked down at her hand resting on his shoulder. All the way home Spires had sat in the back of the car, nervously looking out the window and laying her hands in her lap as if they were contaminated. All the way home she didn’t say a word besides hello. Even when Cane was dropped off and the long drive to Spire’s house; she didn’t say a word. Only when they reached her house and the two teenagers got out of the car and it drove out of site, Spires suddenly burst out some odd story that made no sense and rammed him against a wall. He had no reason to believe her; no reason to think she was telling the truth.

“I know your not crazy” he said slowly, as if unsure what he was saying was right. “But you’re acting crazy Spires…” he added, looking up at her with a faint smile. She lifted her hand, slowly pulling it away from his shoulder and resting it at her side without a sound.

“I know. Its just…I cant help it” she said quietly. She found herself nervously looking over her shoulder, the feeling of being watched making the hair on the back of her neck prick slightly.

“So maybe you can open some portal into another world,” Patrick said suddenly, his voice serious and yet suddenly so adapted to the situation. “The only way for me to believe whatever that you are telling me, is if I see it for my own eyes…”

“But I don’t know how I just open it!” Spires retaliated, quieting herself as her voice began to rise again in her own anger and frustration. How could she explain all of it to Patrick, make sense of it at all without him actually being her.

“Okay. Tell me everything that happened, slowly and clearly. Maybe we can try it again…” he said, and Spires looked at him with doubt before continuing.

“Well, um, I punched Kate-“

“Which is good?”

“What?”

“Punching Kate. It’s good right?”

“Ya, sure whatever,” Spires said in an annoyed tone. How was she supposed to tell him the story if he kept interrupting her. “Cause her face is as hard as a fricken stone, my hand started to seriously sting. But I noticed it was almost…vibrating or something. It was the oddest thing; but I felt some sort of power and control in my hands. Like-“

“Like what?” Patrick butted in quickly.

“Like I was holding the button to destroy the world or something. Kate pushed me down and I fell in the puddle with my hand outstretched in front of me. Kate and her groupies scattered and I looked down at the puddle. And in the water was a city. Like a futuristic city, but complete engulfed in water. After a while staring at the portal or whatever we will call it; Cane showed up and as I pulled my hands away it must of closed…” Spires said, finally finishing her story. She expected some comment from Patrick; but found her voice followed by pure silence. It was clear he was thinking by the determined look on his face, but he still looked baffled and confused. Spires was about to say something to wake him up from his ‘trance’ we he suddenly exploded with speech.

“Your hands!” he said quickly, looking down at her hands that were resting against her leg.

“Okay. We’ve established that I have hands. It would be a revelation; but unfortunately everyone seems to have them-“

“No, no, no! Your hands must have some sort of power right? I mean, why else would some government officials want to test them?” he cut her off sharply.

“Pat, I don’t think I'm magical…”

“Well maybe you aren’t magical. Maybe that substance or whatever in your hands? Maybe that…that…”

“Open portals into other dimensions? Pat, it was just simple chemicals in a high school…” Spires said, her voice filled with doubt. But as she spoke, she already noticed the anger boiling up in him because of her stubbornness.

“I thought you wanted me to help?” he asked almost bitterly as every idea of his was shot down quickly by the condescending Spires.

“You are..” she said, pausing for a moment before adding, “I’m just eliminating the possibilities” she said with a brisk smile; but was only returned with a scowl on Patrick’s face.

“Put your hands on the wall….” He said suddenly, and she looked at him with confusion.

“Say what?” she asked, but before she could get an answer, Patrick suddenly lurched forward and gripped her wrists tightly. She jerked away in surprise, but he didn’t let go.

“Listen. You need to listen to me okay? Put your hands on the wall” he said. Spires looked at him in pure disbelief. Why was Patrick being so violent? He seemed to be seriously off his rocker. But then the thought hit her; she probably wasn’t helping. Staring at him with the attempt to find some hidden secrets in his command, she found nothing but impatience. He slowly let go of her hands and sighed ruefully, as if he finally lost the impatience and anger in one moment.

“Okay, fine…” she said, staring at him as she lifted her hands. Not until she felt the course house wall under her hands did she turn away from him to concentrate. Fingers curled, palms cold at the low temperature plaster of the house. No matter how hard she thought or made herself believe; there was no portal into another world appearing in front of her. Patrick stared at her hands in pure confusion. “Something must be missing…” Spires mumbled quietly, pushing her hands against the wall with more force; but nothing.

“The power…” Patrick said lightly, as if under his breath. However, it held the air of a person screaming ‘Eureka!’

“What?” she asked in confusion.

“You said there was power in your hands after you punched Kate. Do you feel that now?” he asked, revelation in his eyes. Spires averted her eyes from him to her hands once again. That vibrating and almost invincible power that had shot up her arms was missing. She closed her eyes for a moment, attempting to remember what it felt like. She had felt like some God, some person that had the power to defy everything, break every rule. How any one person could achieve such a feeling was beyond even her. Invincible. A word that was ultimately impossible. After much thought, she opened her eyes and replied slowly.

“No,” Patrick looked at her for a moment, the look on his face almost comical, which confused Spires even more.

“So that means the power comes from something hitting each other right? Right. So we need to activate the power by hitting your hands against something-“

“Patrick, there is no way I'm going to punch you” Spires interrupted, cutting him off before he could continue. “Sometimes I want to; but not right now my friend”

“Fine,” he said curtly, his eyes moving around the scenery as he was obvious trying to find anything that she could punch. Her hands were already beginning to hurt at the thought of punching trees, rocks, and poles. After much silence it was clear Patrick had no clue what to do.

“Well,” Spires said, slapping her hands together in a clap to ‘end’ the conversation, “I’m hungry, so-“ she said, but paused for a moment as something rolled up her hands in that swift clap of palms. Frozen in place she stared down at her hands in surprise as the ‘invincibility’ was tingling to the end of her fingers. A minuscule amount to what happened earlier in the day, but not unnoticeable. “Patrick…”

“You felt it didn’t you?” he asked simply, already telling by the shocked expression on her face. With his hands he motioned toward the wall. “Clap again I guess, and try” he said, his words so boring and dull but the excitement in his voice was far too noticeable. Spires, who was slightly smiling now, turned back toward the wall. She felt almost awkward as she lengthened her hands as far as she could. Slightly closing her eyes she pulled her hands together with a whoosh of air. Palm smacked palm with a loud resounding crack. A stinging pain followed, but was almost nothing compared to the pure power erupting up her arm. Smiling more broadly now, her hands outstretched in front of her she pushed them forward. This time, as her hands crunched against the plaster wall of the house there was the unmistakable feeling of something moving under her hands. Her mind clear and not rebounding from being pushed down like before, she found it much easier to feel everything going on under her hands. She thought about the underwater world, the golden city, and ice cold ocean. Her golden eyes wide, she watched as the house opened up with almost a magical look to it. The walls seemed to crumble; but nothing fell. But within moments that stretched into hours she watched a portal form in the side of her house the size of her shoulder to waist. Her smile fading for a moment to turn more serious she took the chance of looking at Patrick. His eyes were wide, his mouth agape in a shocked gasp.

“Holy crap” she heard Patrick gasp. She had never seen him so shocked before.

“I’m guessing you believe me know?” she questioned almost sarcastically, Patrick shaking his head in disbelief. He turned to Spires, slowly taking a step toward the portal. In front of him fish where swimming back and forth, colors bright and florescent like some kind of kaleidoscope. He swallowed, turning his head to look at Spires.

“Yea, I guess I do...” he said, his voice confused and shocked at the spectacle in front of him. “What do we do now?” he asked suddenly, his voice almost controlled now as he became tense.

“Close it I guess…” Spires said, turning away from Patrick for a moment. Eyes centered on the opening, and with a sharp intake of breath, she jerked her hands away. Expecting a quick snap or some sort as it closed, she was surprised when it slowly materialized back into a normal wall. The incredulous stare on her face was quite priceless. But Patrick brought her back into attention as he spoke again.

“No, what do you do with this?” he asked, trying to make his point. Spires was looking down at her plain-looking hands once again.

“We are sure as heck not going to tell my parents. Or the police. The cops would put me-“ she said, but she was cut off as she noticed the surprised and dismayed stared on Patrick’s face.

“The cops would do what now?” came a rough and male voice. The hair on the back of her neck rose once again at the pure tone it held. Strict, demanding. And yet completely amused. Spires flinched, spinning around in shock to face two men. They were both dressed up in business-suits, looking like the guys right out of a CSI TV show. The one that spoke was smirking slightly, his cold eyes burning straight into her own; as if trying to dig some secret thought out of her head. His lips pulled up in almost a smug expression. As their eyes met, she felt suddenly weak, as if she wanted to give up the information to the strange man and his cold eyes right then and now. And she almost did; before Patrick spoke.

“We were just talking about tee-peeing our friends house, of course. I’m sorry that you had to hear that….?” He said, leaving it a clear question for his name. Spires forced a breath out of her suddenly squeezed lungs, daring a look back at her friend. God was he smart. Normally she was too, but something about the man almost made her loose the control over herself that she normally held.

“Scott, from the FBI. This is my partner, Jacob” the man said, relinquishing a golden plated badge from his pocket. His cold hard stare looked back at the two kids from his picture. It was definitely him. It looked pretty legit, but then again, how was she supposed to know what a FBI badge was supposed to look like? Jacob also flashed his badge as well to make it clear he was in the same boat as his creepy ‘partner’. Jacob looked so much friendlier as a person, like he would be a guy that anyone would easily get along with. For some reason, is face was almost too serious, no smile or smirk held on his features. However, his eyes were so much more inviting and understanding. The difference between the two cops was almost too much, and yet they were both still intimidating.

“May we talk to your parents?” Jacob asked, the two of them putting their badges back in their suit pockets in unison. Almost robotic like. Spires couldn’t help but feel a wave of dread coming over her at his question. Her parents were going to freak when some FBI agents wanted to talk to them.

“Ya, they are inside” Spires replied, motioning the door behind her with a flick of her head. Jacob turned to his partner and nodded. Dang, something about them were so mysterious. Spires rarely trusted adults, and these guys were way off her meter. And yet, she felt the urge to spill all the information at them, just throw it at them without a care in the world.

“I’ll handle this one Scott” Jacob said with a nod. The partner made his way toward the door without a sound, opening it without even knocking. ‘Ill handle this’ pretty much meant, ‘You watch the kids’. Patrick understood as well, and the two of them glared uncertainly at the man, expecting him to do or say something. However, for the first few minutes it was silent. The only noise was the sound of Spires’s parents talking with the FBI agent inside the house. Nothing big, just slightly hushed voices behind them. The two teenagers leaned down slightly, taking a seat on the sidewalk.

“Why are you here anyway?” Spires said suddenly, her curiosity getting the best of her. Patrick nudged Spires in the stomach with his elbow in almost a warning kind of way. The FBI agent looked up, almost surprised that she asked that kind of question. It was bold. But Spires was a bold kind of girl.

“Not much really, we just needed to talk with your parents about the incident at your school…” he replied calmly, as if testing the two kids for a reply. He still looked amused, and that expression on his face was like he knew something that they did not.

“But that was a long time ago, the police already talked about with us at the hospital. Why-“

“We just needed to clear things up, that’s all” the man replied, cutting her off. Almost as if he wanted to change the subject. Almost as if he had been asked that question so many times before. He awkwardly leaned up against the wall of the house, folding his hands over his chest. Patrick and Spires still stared at him, unsure and cautious. He was very intimating looking, and for all they cared he could kill them if necessary. Like he was some Rambo in a disguise. The conversation was heating up inside the house, their voices getting louder as if something was being demanded.

Suddenly, and oh so eerily, the sound of a police siren was screeching in the distance. Pretty normal right? But Spires caught the sudden stiffening of the so-called FBI agent as he turned and looked up the street. Why was he so nervous? You heard police sirens in the distance all the time. However, the police siren was unmistakably getting louder and louder. Almost to the point that it sounded as if it was climbing the hill of her street right then and there.

“Damn” she heard Scott say, as he turned around as if to yell something back at the house.

“You’re not police officers are you?” Spires demanded suddenly. Just as she did, the sound of a gun exploded behind her. The two kids watched in dismay as the bullet nearly nicked the man’s head and buried into the house behind him. Everything seemed to explode into chaos after that. She heard her mother’s scream break the shocked silence, and a hustle going on inside the house. Scott gripped his head in pain, a glimmer of red on his hands. Grunting, he turned to look at his partner as he busted out the door. Another shot was fired, and Spires could hear the glass shatter on the door where a few moments ago Jacob had been standing. The two kids hit the dirt instinctively, covering their head as the pieces of glass flew around them. They expected the two men to run; try to get away. Instead they crouched in the ground behind the bushes near the kids, watching the police men from the sparse openings. Almost as if they were guarding them. That confused Spires greatly.

“Looks like they found out already” Jacob said awkwardly, pushing open the bush for a better look. The sound of a few men yelling and car door’s shutting could be heard from where the two kids were laying down. How many police men were there? They began inching away from the so called FBI agents in fright. They had to be imposters or something. But for what reason? Another bullet flew overhead as Scott, hearing them try to run, stood up a little to face the kids. Once again, it almost buried itself in his head, which only made the situation all the more dangerous. Cursing under his breath, he crouched in the grass, still holding his head in pain. It was only then that Spires was aware of the gun in his hands. The glint of sliver and black metal glared back at her like a grinning dangerous monster. Spires and Patrick stared at the gun in shock and dismay. Was he going to shoot them?

“Listen okay?” he said, his voice suddenly more friendly. Almost desperate. Immediately the two kids listened, as if that was the only thing they could do. “We need you to open a portal right this instant. And I mean now” he said, ducking slightly as another shot fired over his head. All the two teenagers could do was stare at him in disbelief.

“How do you know about-“

“Don’t ask me how I know,” Scott said, cutting off Spire’s words.

“Just do what he says Spires” Patrick said under his breath, eyeing the gun in his hands. Jacob had one too, and he was silently cocking it into gear.

“THIS IS THE POLICE. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP” the speaker boomed behind them. What was this, some sort of hostage situation? Either way it was completely real and completely reality. She had gone though a lot of crazy experiences, but the police? Nothing like that. Spires didn’t know if she should trust the two men in front of her or the ones that were the real cops behind the bushes. As she looked at Scott, and the expression on his face, she realized it was desperate. He was clearly trying very hard to get it into her head what they meant. Like trying to get her focused, to concentrate. He was desperate, and she knew that he came here purely to depend on her help. He did not look like one the bad guys. He looked like the determined hero.

“Okay” she said slowly, using her hands to prop her off the grass. She made a move toward the wall, but Jacob’s voice stopped her.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t stand up. Just do it in the grass. Think about it, really concentrate” Jacob said slowly, turning to look at her. The grass? She wondered if that would even work. She couldn’t imagine a hole forming on an uneven surface at all. However, she didn’t ask any questions. The two men seemed very interested now, watching her as she made her way toward the nearby lawn. Without hesitation she clapped her hands together, feeling the familiar power rush over her. They were intrigued for a moment, and she wondered how much they actually knew about her newfound ‘powers’.

Once again the ground fell under her, earth and grass folding under the force throbbing from her hands. She couldn’t help but feel a rush of adrenaline pour from her at the sound of many men shuffling their feet on concrete. The police were coming.

“Stop, don’t move!” Jacob yelled as he spotted a few of them hesitantly round the corner of the house. His silver colored pistol jerked up in front of his face, holding it in his hands with ease as he pointed it at the handful of men. She watched, in shock, as the gun shifted from the men in front of her to Patrick’s head. The boy froze in shock, the cold metal of the gun pressing up against his skull. She lost her concentration for that mere moment, and the serene scene under her crumbled into a truly horrible looking place. The green rolling hills that they were supposed to escape too formed in cold hard dead stone. The bright blue sky was a shady grey, foliage wilted and dead growing out of crevices in the earth.

“Spires!” she heard Patrick yell, but it was not asking for her help. It was desperate. “Spires, just concentrate” he said. There was almost a look of dread on Scott’s face as he lightly pushed Spire’s forward.

“Too late, just go in” he said stiffly. Go in? The thought perplexed her? What if she materialized like everything else? What if she turned into some disgusting beast deformed by defying the laws of the word? What if she could never get back? “Dammit, get in!” Scott said, his voice authoritative again, just enough to jerk her back into harsh reality. For some reason; she closed her eyes, unable to look at what she was doing. She sucked in one good gasp of air and stepped in. Much to her surprise, the portal could not close. It was the oddest feeling in the world; standing half and half in two different worlds. She felt really, truly horrible. As if she was committing a crime. With a gasp she slipped completely in the hole in the grass. Her hands pulled back painfully, attached to the portal as if they were stuck there with super glue. The horrid heat of the other world flooded over her, almost as if she just stepped out into 100 degree weather. But she didn’t have much time before the others climbed through. Her depth perception was completely screwed. She had climbed down the portal, but had ended up crawling straight into the other world. Her head was spinning slightly, either from confusion or the heat. The next person to climb through was Scott, who slid onto the heat filled world with a surprisingly calm expression.

When he was completely through, he noticed the pain written on her face. She could not move her hands what so ever, and no matter how hard she pulled and tugged on them; they wouldn’t budge. Quite frankly, she was beginning to panic. She was surprised to feel his hand grab her arm slightly. She didn’t even realize they were shaking violently until he held them still.

“Relax. Calm down. Concentrate on keeping it open” he said, his voice surprisingly encouraging. She did what he said without question, even though her hands were being twisted backwards at the oddest angle. It felt as if someone was grabbing her, pulling her back into her world. Concentrating was very hard. In her world, she heard shots fire, ringing next to her as if they were actually there. She watched in surprise as Patrick came tumbling through the portal, standing awkwardly between her outstretched arms as they were wrenched painfully forward once again.

“Scott!” he heard Jacob yell from the other side. The sound of yelling voices was very clear, and Jacob’s voice was pained. Scott stared in shock, and he made a move that appeared as if he was going back in.

“Jacob? What’s wrong?” he questioned, his calm voice faltering. But just as he was about to make a move towards the portal, the sound of yelling voices and a struggle un-furling up above caused him to freeze. The sound of handcuffs clicked eerily, and Jacob sounded like he was performing quite a struggle.

“Spires! Close the portal!” Jacob’s voice screamed into her ear. It wasn’t so much that she was listening to him, then it was that he scared her. She jumped, flinching at his loud voice. With that one jerked moment, her hands were freed and the portal snapped shut with an eerie click.

The silence that followed was horrible. The thing that made her panic was the look on Scott’s face. Worried. It was like as soon as the calmest of them lost his cool, the two teenagers followed. Why shouldn’t she be panicking? She was standing in another world. For god sake molten lava was seeping in the distance, and ominous cloud of soot and ash rising in the horizon. A volcano? She had no clue. The most horrible thought of all was the fact that she had no clue if she was going to get back. Life here? No way. No way…

“Scott..?” she asked, almost unable to speak. It was like one light word, the only thing that she could muster. The world was crashing down on her, she couldn’t help it.

“Scott…” Patrick added, his voice just as light. Obvious he was suffering the same thing. “Maybe we should-“

“I’m thinking” Scott said suddenly, his voice a bit too loud then it was supposed to be. He caused the both of them to jump nearly out of their skin. It wasn’t completely quiet in this new world, but the lack of voices was horrible. Made it seem even more dead and worse of a place then it even was.

“Well, you’re doing hell of a job there Scott. If you haven’t noticed, we are in a fricken wasteland? Why? Because we jumped through a portal. That makes perfect sense,” Spires said suddenly, butting in with such anger that it surprised even herself.

“I’m thinking okay!” he yelled back, his hand lifting up in an over dramatic way. Either that or he was extremely freaked out. Great. Perfect. Wonderful. She did notice something about him, however. For some reason Scott seemed so much younger then he really was. It made no sense at all, but just how he acted and spoke; it was like a teenager. She realized it was the same thing with Jacob as well now that she thought about it. But it was, for some reason, different with him as well. He was serious, and yet appeared younger then he was. They had to be in their late twenties; but they acted like people her age. Expect a lot calmer, smart, and smooth. Like trainer killers.

That made the one thought come to mind; why was she trusting him? Why did she get in that damn portal? The heat was making her sway, and the air was begging to become anything but clear. That soot and ash cloud was coming closer and closer. That was definitely not good.

“We need to get out of here,” Patrick said, Spires nodding firmly in response. It gave some sort of wakeup call to the guy, and Scott jerked his head toward them. His hand lifted, nervously running his fingers through his short brown hair.

“Right, uh…” he said, spinning around slightly to take a sweep of the place. “Spires. You need to open a portal. Think of anything, anywhere that could bring you back to our world…” he said, grimacing slightly at the smell of volcanic ash in the air. Something had to have erupted near by. That was definitely not good.

“Can I do it in the air?” Spires asked simply, her question rocking Scott off balance. Obviously he wasn’t expecting her to ask questions.

“I…uh...you..” he said, trying to grasp at his words. “You aren’t ready for that yet. So, just, open one on the ground” he continued, recovering as best as he could. Spires eyed him suspiciously, but followed orders. Wow, that was new. She wasn’t asking questions, contradicting what he said at all. Just doing it. Like a little dog on a leash. Maybe it was because his idea was the best and smartest option. Or maybe she was just desperate.

“Okay” she said simply. She turned away slowly, her hands outstretching in front of her. It was feeling less and less awkward now as her arms jerked together. Palm against palm with a loud crack of a noise, she felt that familiar rippling power rise up her arms. That would be something she would never get used too. That was for sure. She leaned over, knees bending under her as she outstretched her hands toward the red colored earth. It was surprisingly hot at the touch, like the sand on a warm beach. She winched slightly as it burned her hands, but she forced herself to ignore it.

“Oh, and please god don’t think about your house will ya?” Scott asked, smiling as best as he could. So he can crack a joke is it? Great. She really didn’t know what to think about. So, slightly staring at Scott, the portal swirled open in front of her. Red earth crumbled, the scene of a dark black world appearing on the other side. For a moment she wondered what it was. But eventually some light appeared in the portal. Stars? Yes. And a steep lamp as well. The light was eerie, and cold breeze coming off of the open hole in the ground felt good against her burning hot face. Cool, cold. It made her senses and stress almost float away. There was her normal old world. That was such a relief. She was going to go back! Thank God!

Without a word she entered the portal. She was expecting the reaction more. The depth perception, the horrible pain in her arms, the shock feeling that came over her as she went from world to world; all of it wasn’t as shocking as before. However, that one feeling had to be the oddest in the world. Maybe she really was breaking a golden rule. Going from world to world did not seem like something Mother Nature permitted. But she had to ignore that now; her mind clearing as she fought the pain of her arm was twisted backwards once again.

Welcome back Spires.

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