Always Thinking

Strangers

You can't blend rocks into the water. You can't make a tree smaller once it grows, but chameleons can change colors. Usually that's good, usually, it gives them an advantage, and in a moving, desperate world an advantage is nothing to be taken lightly. Especially when you're the one being taken advantage of.

It wasn't a tug, it was better described as a jagged pull that rips the arm out of it's socket. Amber was walking through the halls after school, it was only a few minutes past the last bell, and everyone was already gone.

"Amber!" Someone called.

She looked back and forth, nearly toppling over from the dead weight of her backpack. Nobody. She kept walking, it was just her imagination.

As she passed the Janitor's closet, something wrapped around her wrist and sent shocks up and down her spine when it ripped her back. For a moment her heart stopped, then she was pulled again past the now open door of the Janitor's closet.

Dark surrounded her as it closed and something followed her in.

"Let go of me!" She shrieked, ripping her wrist to her chest. It was only light enough in the closet for her to see a figure standing right next to her, but it didn't move. It had a slender frame that looked stronger than her, blocking the door. "What the hell?" She took a step back, right into the wall.

It moved for a second, she could see it's hand raise above her head, and she instinctively ducked to avoid the hit.

"Calm down! Amber!" It whispered, it was a he, "I'm not going to hit you!" The hand reached up past her head and to a chain by the ceiling. In all but an instant, light overwhelmed her as her eyes struggled to focus.

A tall boy, with a leather jacket and blue jeans stood in front of her in the yellow glow of the light, "Adam?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" He said in a rushed whisper.

"I go to school here! You didn't say you went here!"

"You didn't either!" There was a panicked tone in his voice.

I furrowed my brow and the churning in my stomach grew, "What's wrong?"

"I can't know you Amber!" His eyes widened in front of me, "I don't know you, okay? We've never met!"

He waved his hand between us and I couldn't help but panic at his random thoughts, he was joking right?

"What?"

"If they find out I know you, they'll beat the hell out of me again! Amber," He grabbed my shoulders fiercely and I felt something I'd never really felt around Adam, fear. "No matter what, We've never met."

Attempting to shake loose of his death grip I I shook my head back and forth, "Why? What the hell is going on?"

His jaw tightened, "Meet me at the stream tonight, okay?" He released his hands and I stumbled back into the wall.

Within and instant he'd reached back up to the string and I was engulfed in darkness. Momentary light blinded me when he rushed out of the closet, then Adam was gone.