Glitches (Book 1)

Chapter 14.5: Justin

It was a rather cold night, and my mental captor had not bothered to stop by the closet for a coat. I felt goosebumps rise up on my exposed arms as I approached the deserted intersection, and as much as I wanted to wrap my hands around myself for warmth, my defiant limbs refused to budge. I found myself focusing on the movement of my eyes in order to distract myself from the helpless feeling that was beginning to pervade my thoughts.

Left eye closed.

Right eye closed.

Both eyes open.

Arriving at the intersection, I paused at the edge of the sidewalk. My head swiveled left and then right, as if my captor was checking to make sure there weren't any vehicles heading my way.

Well, it's nice to know you don't want your prisoner getting run over by a car at 2 A.M., I thought grudgingly.

My captor took control of my head once again, forcing me to stare at the concrete directly in front of me as I crossed the street. My desperate situation began to urge me to desperate theories, and I wondered if I was possessed.

What kind of ghost possesses someone and makes him or her walk around at night?

No, I most certainly wasn't possessed. If I were, I'd be screaming, wailing, and waking up the entire town. At least, according to my limited knowledge of them, ghosts weren't devious enough to orchestrate such perfectly timed kidnappings. Besides, I had a scientific mind. I didn't believe in the supernatural.

That's when it hit me.

The inhabitation of a host by an outside power wasn't the slightest bit supernatural.

I was being controlled by a Glitch!

This newfound realization struck a ray of hope into my heart. If I had control of my facial muscles, I would've grinned. I panned my eyes back and forth as I finished crossing the street and took a sharp right turn, continuing on my path along a new stretch of sidewalk. Yet, although I continuously looked back and forth and up and down until my eyeballs grew sore, I saw no one in the vicinity. I didn't even hear footsteps, heavy breathing, or anything else that would give me a hint as to the fact that I was being followed. According to Claire, Glitches could only control things they could see, so this was a definite flaw in my reasoning.

I could not let something as trivial as this convince me that my assumption was incorrect, however. It was simply the only plausible way to explain what was happening to me. It was pitch black outside- if there wasn't a Glitch guiding me across the sidewalk, I wouldn't have been able to see where I was going. I could easily have missed a figure in the darkness, and the blood rushing through my ears could've blocked out a telling noise.

The real question was: where was this Glitch trying to take me? And why that out of all people it had to be me? WGO had Claire; they already got what they wanted. Certainly, I couldn't be of any use to them now.

My attention was soon drawn away from my confused thoughts, to the screeching noise of a car pulling up behind me. As I turned around, I watched a tall man step out of an old, gray vehicle. The left headlight wasn't quite as bright as the right, but other than that barely noticeable flaw, it was a well-kept old car. It was stopped dangerously close to the curb, a sign that something wasn't quite right, The man's feet turned inward as he walked, just as mine had earlier, and his long coat was buttoned incorrectly. I could tell from his puzzled expression and methodical, almost robotic movements that he was being controlled too. He opened his mouth to ask me something, but his mouth shut as if the Glitch refused to let him talk. Then, assuming it was the same Glitch manipulating us, he or she made us both get in the car.

It was a long, silent drive. The car's dark windows combined with the lack of light outside made it impossible to see where we were going. I felt like a little boy who had just watched his first horror movie; every little noise was the distant cry of a demon, and every little shadow was a monster in the dark. I quivered in my seat wanting desperately to hug my knees to my chest, but lacked the freedom to perform even that simple task.

Soon enough, the car gradually came to a stop on the side of the road and I got out. I heard a few honks protesting the man's inconvenient choice of a parking spot, but that problem was soon solved. As soon as I shut the door, he swerved around and drove away, leaving me on an immaculate sidewalk. Just when I thought that things couldn't possibly get any worse, I realized where I was.

The airport.

My heart thudded in my chest as my body walked into the nearest terminal.

The Glitch could now send me anywhere in the world. They could send me somewhere so far I'd never be able to come back home.

I yelled nonstop at the top of my lungs during my journey through security, but the ear-splitting noise remained in my head. The Glitch's power adamantly kept my mouth clamped shut as he or she deftly controlled dozens of people to get me safely into the waiting area for a specific flight. I looked up at a screen on the wall and just managed to catch the flight's destination: San Francisco! If I remembered correctly, that was the location of WGO headquarters. What business did they have with me there?

Using the limited line of sight that was available to me while my head's position was fixed, I tried my best to see if there was anyone following me. Surely, the Glitch would have to be trailing close behind me. It only made sense because he or she had managed to control me so perfectly for such a long period of time. Bafflingly, I saw no one who looked like they might possess the Power of Manipulation. There were no mysterious hooded figures, and no one with their arms outstretched, manipulating the Code. All I saw were airport police officers and random people hurrying through the hallways trying to catch their flights.

I sighed as my eyeballs began to grow sore from darting around, returning my gaze to my lap. It didn't look like I was going to be making much progress in figuring out my situation this way anytime soon, and the last thing I wanted to do was tire my eyes out before I could discover a real clue to why WGO was holding me hostage.