Glitches (Book 1)

Chapter 10: Justin

I sat on one of the large beanbags in my room, completely absorbed in a video game. Ah, how quiet and peaceful it is when your sister isn't home.

Claire had boarded our private jet just that morning, and the house had already acquired a nice, tranquil feel without her constantly practicing her powers. Not that I was one for tranquility, considering I always preferred action, but you can't have everything.

Suddenly, I heard fast, heavy footsteps and Mom's frantic voice. "Justin! Come out here!" She yelled seconds after slamming her phone down on a table. "It's Claire," she hissed. "The people who were supposed to pick her up at the Houston airport said she never arrived. Even with delays, she should have gotten there at least an hour ago!"

"Try calling her," I suggested.

"Oh yeah!" Mom said with feigned realization. "Like I didn't try that already. She won't pick up her phone or answer any texts!"

Knots of fear began to form in my stomach. I had wished my sister would disappear so many times before, so why didn't this make me jump for joy? I had no idea, but what I did know was that it did quite the opposite, in reality. I was actually worried!

"I'm going to go downstairs and call the police. Don't leave your room until I come back up here!"

I nodded inattentively, but my eyes went straight to my phone. I knew exactly what had happened to my sister. Scrolling through my apps, I opened up messages and clicked on Claire's name. There was the last message she had sent me, just like it had been when I first read it a couple of hours ago.

Glitch messed with pilot's head. Flew jet to San Francisco instead of Houston. WGO people are taking me to their headquarters in a really nice car, apparently there's no reception there so don't try to text me back. Plz don't tell parents, especially not Dad, he'll freak. I'll be ok. They're really nice.

Of course, I listened to her. Doing so, I pretended I had no idea what happened every time Mom and Dad asked if I did. Yet, every lie filled me with an overwhelming sense of remorse. My parents were so worried, they had the right to be, and they deserved to know what was going on. Still, my curiosity about WGO outweighed my guilt. And, I felt that, after several years of cursing her very existence, I owed Claire my assistance. Sassy as she was, she had never directly wronged me, and she was all alone at the headquarters of an unfamiliar organization. She needed all the help she could get.

Soon, I began to hear my parents' hushed voices coming from somewhere around the dining room. I tiptoed down to the first floor, grateful for our noiseless carpeted stairs, and positioned myself in a nice little corner by the banister. From this vantage point, I had a clear view of both Mom and Dad. They stood facing each other just outside the kitchen, and their facial expressions alone were enough to tell me that something major was going on.

"Do you think it was her, Lucia?" Dad asked, his voice full of fear and hatred.

"Who? What are you talking about? I don't understand!" Mom choked on her words, pressing her palms into the granite counter behind her as she shrank away.

"Amanda," Dad added. "The WGO girl. Don't you remember her? Don't you remember Megan? Don't you remember anything that happened?"

"Henry," Mom began saying Dad's name slowly and purposefully. "This is not the time for one of your wild fantasies about Glitches or whatever. Nobody can control another person's thoughts. This is not Sci-Fi, it is real life! It's fine if you want to create your own little imaginary places to escape to in your mind. It's a coping mechanism for some people dealing with stress and life, but it's getting to the point where I'm worried about you. You're driving yourself insane with this horrible story that you tell yourself is your past. I'm not just going to stand here and watch!" Her face turned red with passionate firmness and her chest heaved, as her breaths grew more and more energized.

"How can you not remember Megan!" Dad stomped his foot on the tile in rage. "She was our daughter, Lucia. You gave birth to her. You raised her. You made beautiful memories with her Then Amanda, that demon, she took it all away!"

He turned in my direction shaking his head, and for a second, I was afraid he was going to see me. Luckily, he looked past me, but the expression on his face was one of such raw pain and grief. I had to shut my eyes to keep myself from crying out in alarm.

"Listen to me!" Mom grabbed Dad's face with both hands, forcing him to look back at her. "Amanda, Megan, Glitches, and WGO are all figments of your imagination. They don't exist, and they never will. We have two children, Justin and Claire. That's it. We'll find Claire, and after, we'll see a doctor about your mental condition."

"My mental condition?" Dad wrenched away from Mom with rage and disgust. "Don't you mean your mental condition? Amanda made the Glitches erase your memories of themselves and Megan so they wouldn't have to deal with you again. They meant to erase mine too, but I escaped!"

"Oh Henry," Mom softened at the sight of the troubled anxiety on Dad's face. "Please don't hurt yourself like this, there's no reason to."

Then, as I watched my parents argue, a new idea struck my mind. My brain began to connect the dots, and it all suddenly seemed perfectly clear. I cursed myself for not thinking of this earlier.

Their conversation faded into the distance as I walked briskly back the way I had come. I knew how to show Mom that Dad wasn't, in fact, insane.

For most of my life, I had thought like Mom, too. And then, a few months ago, something had started to change. Memories had started to come back to me, tickling the edges of my mind and replaying themselves randomly. Each time I retrieved a new memory, I felt an inexplicable sense of happiness, like I was one step closer to being whole.

Megan was very real, and I knew exactly how to prove it.

The entire world seemed to fall silent around me as I arrived in an unused room on the second floor. The small space- which I assumed was intended to be a study- contained nothing but a few unopened cardboard boxes and an old desk, and sported only a single window. Sunlight streamed steadily through it in the absence of curtains, illuminating the piles of dust and cobwebs that had accumulated in the corners of the room.

Ignoring the mess, I approached the broken desk and yanked open Mom's junk drawer to find an old family photo. I hadn't paid much attention to it before, but I now knew it held the key to everything. The photo showed a baby boy, little girl in pigtails, and a proud looking first grader with a tiny backpack on her shoulders.

I knew what the caption said. I had read it so many times as memories resurfaced in my brain that my subconscious had retained it, seemingly just for this very moment.

"Henry and Lucia King with children Claire, Justin, and Megan King," I whispered with confidence just before turning the picture over. Though, what I found on the back, utterly shocked me.

Henry and Lucia King with two children and family friend, Laura Heart.

The last few words had been erased and replaced so neatly that there was absolutely no proof of the original caption. There was only one possible explanation for this.

Glitches.

I looked down into the drawer and found another surprise just under where the photo had been... a sticky note with one short message scrawled across it in perfect cursive.

I had to do this. I cannot let her remember.

-Amanda Myers