Shields

Chapter 15: Planning

When I finally stopped driving, at least five hours later, I realized that I'd pulled into my driveway. It wasn't exactly the best place to hide, but I needed something familiar, and this was as close as I could get at the moment. Plus, it was a distance away from the White House, so they probably wouldn't be here yet.

I grabbed the spare key from underneath the dirt in the empty flower pot and looked behind me. Nothing was there except for normal neighborhood people. I unlocked the door to the house and went inside.

It was dark and looked abandoned. I flipped the lights on and the corridor lit up. Everything looked just the way I remembered it. The coat rack still had my leather jacket hanging off of it. I ignored it and headed up to my room.

I hadn't made my bed before I left a year ago, and it was still messed up and looked like it had been slept in. It was better than most beds would have been, though, because I always slept on top of the blankets.

I sat down on the bed and let myself fall back completely. I stare up at the white ceiling as my thoughts whirl around in my head.

Slowly, all of the information I'd gained that day sank in. I'd been running on adrenaline before and hadn't felt the pain from my wounds, but now I felt my stinging cheek and the soreness from running, being shot at and trying to drive and avoid enemy fire at the same time.

I got up and went to the bathroom, looking for something to distract myself. When I looked in the mirror, I realized that I looked older and more haggard. I washed my face and pulled open the cabinet behind the mirror, fishing through it, looking for something, anything that might help me in this situation.

I don't know what I was looking for, but when I felt in the back of the cabinet, I found a small bag with two pills in it. It wasn't labeled, but it brought a memory back.

She's dying. I can tell by the lack of life in her eyes, like she's barely hanging on. Dad already died from stage four brain cancer. It broke all of us, but I can tell that it broke Mom the most.

For weeks, she stayed locked up in her room, grieving and eating little. A year later, she got sick from something the doctors can't isolate or identify. Something strange that got into her blood stream. I could see it was killing her slowly and painfully.

She reached out and pressed something into my hand. I looked at it. Two pills in a small bag. "What's it for?" I asked her.

Tears shone in her eyes. "In case you need to forget..." she coughed, her whole body shaking. "In case you need to forget everything," she finished.

"Why would I want to forget my life?" I asked her, trying to understand. Tear dripped down my cheeks too. I didn't want to lose her too. I'd only have Thomas left. I wasn't sure I could live with the loss. I was only twelve, after all.

"Just keep it. Please, Demetriot, for me. They're the only two that exist. You have to keep them safe."

I could tell she was serious, because she hadn't used my nickname. "Alright, I'll keep it."

Thomas entered the room and I got up to leave, giving him a quick hug on my way out.

I went back to my bed and sat down. I pulled a pill out of the bag and rolled it between my fingers. I could forget everything. Start over completely, if that's what Mom meant when she said that.

I'd lost every single person I'd ever cared about in my whole life. It wouldn't hurt to start over.

But I couldn't. Not until I defeated Julius and stopped him from declaring war on Germany. Then I could start over. Find a life that was normal and live it to the fullest.