Chapter 18 (N)

Today’s the day we try to kill Barry. I shuddered at the thought. I can’t kill anyone! I’m not strong enough! What if he kills anyone else? We shouldn’t! I don’t want anything to happen to them! I’ll tell Kai. But I can’t chicken out! It’s for Dan!
I’m so conflicted. What if Barry kills all of us? What if my plan doesn’t work?
Calm down! I have to think positive. But what if anything wrong happens? We shouldn’t do this… But we have to! Or else Barry might kill somebody else…
If he kills me, will he let everyone else live? He didn’t seem like he wanted to kill anyone after Dan… But then I made him fall, and he wanted to kill me.
So, he wouldn’t kill anyone else! If I let him kill me, then my friends will carry on with the plan anyway!

Alt+Control 29

Gerad smoothes down his hair sheepishly. “Awhile, now…”

“You are to tell no one of this. I’m serious.” I tell him. He looks at me, hurt. I shake my head.

“But, you said they had Lukas there! And…if he really is there…and he isn’t dead…”

“Don’t say another word. I can’t allow you to. You’ll get hurt.” The words feel so blunt, but I can’t allow him to come. I just can’t.

“I’m not incapable,” snaps Gerad, taking me aback, and I bump into Marc. “Don’t treat me like I am.”

“I’m not! Don’t take this the wrong way—“

“Take me with you. You need help, right? It doesn’t sound like just the two of you will be able to handle this alone.”

“He’s got a point there,” says Marc.

Alt+Control 28

“Special. What would that crazy old man know?” scoffs Marc as we descend in the elevator.

I want to disagree, but what can I say? Mr. Sharpo certainly seemed a little out of it, but I have a feeling that he said has something in it, something more subtle. But then again, I could just be over-thinking it. He just might be a man gone senile. So I keep my mouth shut.

Marc looks at me, and then suddenly rubs my head.

I jump, and then scowl at him. I smooth down my unruly hair and pull it back into a ponytail. “What was that for?” I ask. He’s been touchy-feely all of today, and it’s honestly just irritating me.

“Nothing much. You were thinking too hard, I could tell.”

I raise a questioning eyebrow. Since when has he been studying me close enough to see that I’m thinking hard?

“Your eyebrows scrunch up and you give a little grimace.” He demonstrates my facial expression and I laugh.

“There. That’s more like you. Don’t let that senile man get to you. He’s just spouting nonsense,” says Marc.

Chapter 17 (N)

Kai:
Why is she so late? I’m starting to get worried. We still need to work on the project, with Yin!
The door knocked. I ran downstairs to open it. No one was there.
“Kai, it’s me. Hurry, close the door before he knows I’m here!”
I didn’t know who it was, but I obeyed anyway.
“Who are you?”
“Who do you think I am?” Oh, it’s Light.
“Why are you invisible?”
“I was running away from Barry.” I gasped. She became visible. She was panting.
“Why? Did he figure out that you were warning Dan?”
“Dan…” she said quietly. Huh? What about him?
“What?” She grabbed me by the shoulders.
“He killed Dan!” I swear my heart skipped a beat. Dan…
“He w-what?” I stammered. Maybe it’s a joke…
“Dan is dead…” She let go of me, and looked away.
Dan… He killed Dan… I didn’t know how I felt about this…
“Are you sure?! Maybe we can bring him back!” I knew she wasn’t lying, but I still couldn’t believe it’s true.
“I’m really sure…” Her voice was weak. Dan…
“And why were you running away from Barry?”
“He wants to kill me too now…”
Oh no, he isn’t. I’m not going to let him!
“What did you do?”
“Made him fall from the roof…” she muttered. Dan…
“I can’t believe you did that! Are you crazy?!”
“What did you expect me to do?! To just leave Dan there, and let Barry torture him?!”
I didn’t know how to answer. Dan…
“But now you’re his next target! You know how long it took him to kill Dan! He’s probably not going to give up!”
“Thanks for the reassurance.”
“Well I’m not going to let him do anything to you!”
“Don’t get involved! He might make you a target too!”
“I don’t care! I’m not going to let him!”
“Kai, don’t be stupid! I can handle him by myself!” She suddenly turned angry.
“No, you can’t! I’m going to help you!”
“That’s so horrible!” said a voice behind me. It was Kim.
“Kim!” we said in unison.
“I can’t believe Barry killed him!”
“How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know… But we need to get rid of Barry!”
“And how are we going to do that?!”
“Think!” We all sat thinking.
“I think I got it!” exclaimed Light. She then told us her plan. Dan…
“That’s brilliant!” shouted Kim. It was a good idea…
“Hmm, do you think it will actually work?”
“It’s worth a try.”
“We’ll try it then. But I’m still not sure…”
“Come on Kai! It’s a good plan!”
“Let’s do it tomorrow.”
“Tell everyone! We need all the help we can get!”
We spent two hours telling everyone about the plan. Everyone agreed to help us. Dan…
Late at night I woke up. I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know why. But one word has been in my head. “Dan…” I felt so bad because I don’t think the argument was worth losing our friendship over. It’s too late now… I can’t undo what’s already done. Dan…
I will avenge for him… I will put all my strength into it…
Please forgive me Dan…
I miss you…

--THE END—

I actually have no comment...

Alt+Control 27

I stood up and started backing towards the door. “How do you know who I am, Mr. Sharpo? And how do I know that you’re not one of them?” I start hyperventilating. Could this be another trap?

Before I can blink, Marc has him by the collar, and hauls him out of his chair.

“Who are you, and what do you know about us?” he hisses, centimeters away from Mr. Sharpo’s face. I’ve never seen Marc this way before…it’s scaring me a bit.

“Marc!” Screw the fake names. We’re already uncovered. “Put him down, and we can talk! He can’t call security or anything to alert them.”

Marc slowly puts him down. Mr. Sharpo breathes a visible sigh of relief.

I walk over to Marc and whisper in his ear angrily. “What were you thinking? We need him alive, even if he’s a threat! Now calm down, and let me do the talking.”

Alt+Control 26

“Now that business is done, why don’t we head to the big one, hmm?” Marc asks.

I take a deep breath in and exhale loudly. “Let’s do it.”

The hallway only goes one way, and it leads to a large door. Marc pushes it open with a creak, and we find ourselves in an extremely large room, with a glass wall at the opposite end, and a long table that extends from where we stood to the glass wall. There were three chairs at the opposite end, and in one of the chairs sat a man in a grey suit.

The man gets up and walks towards us, and I carefully analyze the man we will be speaking with in a short few moments.

He looks like he’s in his late-40s, with a few crease lines and thinning hair. His face is not unkind, but it’s hardened. He looks quite a bit older than Bronson, and seems much more refined. When he reaches us, I realize he’s only a bit taller than I am.

“You must be my next meeting. My pleasure to meet you…” he looks at us slightly quizzically.

“Mr. and Mrs. Andrews,” inputs Marc. “And the pleasure is all mine, assuredly.”

Alt+Control 25

I smile at him. So he’s a ladies’ man, huh. I don’t like men like him. Too slick, and all charm and hands.

“My name is Kai Andrews. But please call me Kai, Mr. Bronson.” The name just slides off my tongue. Well, I very well can’t tell him that I’m the one his bosses just tried to kidnap. I flutter my eyelashes at him the best I can. This is awkward, getting hit on by a man probably double my age.

“Kai,” Mr. Bronson sounded, letting it roll off his tongue. “What a beautiful name.”

I feel my heart thump, and colour rise to my cheeks. He’s all charm, but very effective charm.

Alt+Control 24

“Where the hell have you been?” he asks, quite annoyed.

“Believe it or not, fighting for my life.” I really don’t feel like arguing right now.

“Well thankfully, the meeting before ours is running late, so we’re still technically on time.” He looks me up and down. “Go fix up your make-up and hair. You certainly look like you’ve been fighting. But hurry, the meeting’s starting soon.”

I rush to the bathroom, and see that all the hard work I put into my appearance this morning is pretty much ruined right now. I smooth down my hair using water from the sink, and I rub off and reapply my make-up. I turn around to inspect myself, and I see a long gash up the back of my stockings. I sigh. There’s nothing I can really do about that. I take off my shoe, seeing that there are little shards from the android’s eye still embedded.

Alt+Control 23

Shit, shit, shit! I force my hand through the gap and push more. The door refuses to budge anymore.

I can hear the robot coming closer to me. It sounds like footsteps, but it’s too even and methodical to be human. It sounds like a ticking clock, every second closer to me than it was before. The footsteps are now a car away from me.

I renew my efforts, but I can’t do anything. Nothing’s moving anymore. I take off both of my high heels, just in case I need to run.

I finally see what the robot looks like. It’s an android, probably an Alphaport 3.0 version. I’ve seen images of these on the internet, but they’re still very rare. No one can afford androids unless you’re a millionaire…or the government. Almost no one has ever seen a real life android, so I could count myself lucky. This android is probably the last thing I’ll ever see. It stops a few paces in front of me

The android is human-like in shape, but that’s where the similarities seem to end. The eyes are red bulbs, with no pupils or whites. The “skin” is a pure white, with no changes in colour anywhere, flaws or scratches. But the mouth is the scariest part: it’s stuck in a little half-smile, as if it’s going to take pleasure in tearing my limbs apart.

Chapter 16 (N)

“What are you going to do?” asked Kai. I was dangling upside-down from her bed.
“I don’t know! What should I do?” I was getting really worried. I never thought Barry would turn out so… evil.
“Well, definitely don’t tell Barry you know.”
“Duh, we’ll just have to keep Dan away from him….” Kai gave me a weird look.
“Ahem.” I didn’t get what she was talking about… Wait! I get it!
“Sorry, but how are we going to keep you know who away from Barry?”
“He probably already told him where he lives….”
“Why did he have to burn him?” I took a ball and threw it in her closet.
“What are you talking about?” Didn’t Kim tell her?
“The reason why Barry wants to kill you know who…?” I was starting to wonder why she didn’t know.

Alt+Control 22

So it’s finally Saturday, after 2 days of anxiously waiting. No one’s at home, so I can leave the house without anyone questioning my outfit.

I’m wearing a knee-length black skirt overtop sheer black stockings with a grey blouse I got from my mom. I stole some of my mom’s makeup and I used some of her darker lipstick, eyeliner and eye shadow to make myself look older than my 14 years. Finally I take out the one pair of high-heels I own and slip them on. I grab my a small purse, my tablet, and my brand new phone and head out the door.

My phone beeps at me, notifying me of a new text. I check it, and see it’s from Marc.

“Meet me at the south end of Queen Station,” it says. If I catch the Skytrain 5 minutes away from here, I’ll be able to get to Queen Station by 15:45, which gives us enough time to get to the building and be prepared.

I speed walk the best to my ability in the heels to the station. I catch the Skytrain just as it was about to leave, but I manage to step in right before the doors shut behind me.

I sit down, relieving my now aching feet. The train is oddly quiet. No one else is in here as far as I can see. No murmuring, children babbling…just silence.

This peculiar hush was even more pronounced by the train silently gliding over the tracks. The magnets that make the train quiet is a blessing when it’s already loud inside of the train, but when there’s nothing creating noise, it’s creepy.

And K's New Title Is....

sorry I haven't been posting lately! schoolwork kinda ate up my time. but anyways, the results of the poll is in, and I'm pleased to announce the brand new title for my novel!
drum roll please.....

Chapter 21-and-a-Half

It’s Friday, and tomorrow isn’t just the day when I have that meeting with Mr. Sharpo. It’s also Gerad’s birthday. And here I am, sitting, trying to figure out what to give him as a gift. I really should be picking out my outfit for tomorrow, and getting everything ready so everything goes smoothly. But I can’t concentrate on that until I figure out a proper present!

I pace back and forth, getting more and more agitated. I’ve already asked a bunch of people on LikeIt I’ve already thought of giving him a gift certificate for some movies, but too many other people said they’d be doing that.

Hmmm… books? Nope, we don’t really read the same stuff. He likes more comedic books; I’m a hardcore fantasy and sci-fi fan. I don’t think he’ll appreciate any computer stuff coming from me since the software episode. And I don’t think any of the stuff I can make would appeal to a guy. I collapse onto my chair and sigh. My brother peeks into my room.

“What’s wrong? That was some loud sigh!”

“I can’t think of a present for Gerad! And his birthday is tomorrow!”

My brother stands in my doorway and thinks. “Well he’s been helping you with your novel right? Why don’t you write something for him?”

“Awesome! Thanks so much!” I run over to my brother and give him a kiss on the top of his head. I run back to my tablet and open the word-processing program.

I had totally forgotten about my novel for the last week since I’ve been so busy with the mystery, but Gerad always loved reading it. He always helped when I was stuck with my plot, or needed some names.

I opened a brand new document and started writing a chapter.

Happy Birthday G! Here's a bonus chapter just for you :)

Chapter 15 (Part 2) (N)

“Meet me in the library after school,” I read the text in my head. It’s from unknown.
“Who are you?” I replied.
“You don’t need to know yet, but stay away from him,” I read. What? Who?
“Who should I stay away from?”
“Do as I say for your own good.” Is this a prank?
“At least tell me who!”
“Light, don’t be stubborn.”
“How do you know my name?”
“I know a lot of things. Goodbye.”
“Wait! Who are you? Who should I stay away from? How do you know my name?”

Chapter 15 (N)

Kai:
“Kim, you already ate your food. Now tell me!”
“I’m from the future, but from the past. It’s too complicated for even you. But Dan’s in big trouble. And Kai, we’ve chose you to help us.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“That is confidential information.”
“You’re a kid.”
“Your point is…?”
“How old are you?”
“That is confidential information.”
“Fine, just tell me about Dan then.”
“A revenge seeker is trying to find Dan. According to a recent update, the enemy has made contact with Dan. There’s little time left, Kai.”