When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Chapter 14: Around the Island (Part 4)

The day was sunny, so she drove around the entire island, where the community gates didn't stop her. She stopped and took notes as she went, trying to figure out if she was overthinking something or if it was truly odd.

The town itself, the parks, the perfection of all the gardens...it was all peculiar. She never saw anyone actually gardening, but there were never any weeds. Even in the parts that looked wild, it was as if someone designed nature. There was no other way to put it. The woods were a stylized ideal of what nature should be. Wild flowers and trees grew in vignettes that were too perfect for sheer luck. Every place she looked was beautiful. It was like walking around in a dream. No one littered here. For that matter—where were all the trash cans?

The effect of the perfect gardens was unreal, like she was living on a stage. It was also distracting, taking her thoughts away from what might be lurking underneath.

It was a perfect trap. Add that to the memory loss and strong emotions, and Julie knew why she was complacent for so long.

It would have been terrible if she had grown up here like Kara and the others. Anger burned beneath her skin, but she tempered it now, stoking it to just below the tipping point, but keeping a calm veneer over her face. If she felt like she might slip under the peaceful spell, she pulled up her dancing mind, taking comfort in the prickling currents she felt throughout her body which prevented more memory loss.

She wouldn't forget. She was mastering whatever this was.

Julie leaned against a tree in the island's main park with the red notebook propped on her knees, watching the people in the town. How they all dressed nicely, with no jeans or t-shirts in sight. The building across from the coffee shop where people came and went but there were no stores. The traffic over the bridge—which was very little. The same damn people who watched her on the bridge earlier, still watching the bridge.

There was something very wrong about this place. She shivered.

They were all so formal for living in a beach town, like it was necessary for them to impress each other. Was everyone here a prisoner and being controlled, except for a few people? Why only them? Or was everyone but a few people happy here and helping to keep the rest under control?

She wasn't entirely sure how many people lived on the island, but it had to be several thousand. Each neighborhood had ten to twenty homes, and they lined up and down the island, which stretched twenty miles or more. Or at least she thought it did. Some places, like the middle, were thinner than others, so the neighborhoods might be smaller.

Julie still wore her towel wrapped around her waist and her bathing suit top. This was a beach town, and she refused to feel underdressed. She would not live by any more of these stupid rules. She wanted to see what they did if she start walking around in her jeans.

Who was she kidding? She had no idea what was going on. She might be angry, but she didn't need to push it. What would happen if they all realized she wasn't under their spell anymore? Julie rubbed her forehead. She felt a headache coming.

She looked down at her notes. On one page she listed what emotions she knew caused memory issues.

Anger. Sadness. Frustration.

She remembered being happy and the moments around it a few times since she arrived. Dancing with Muriel.

So happiness was allowed. Which explained a lot. Her mouth screwed up into a bitter knot. She was allowed to think and feel happy thoughts. Happy, harmless, mindless thoughts.

Julie sighed. She was not going to work this out today. She needed to know more.

The sun was starting to set. The vivid oranges and purples contrasted the bright blue of the daytime sky. At least the sunset was real.