The Adapter

Chapter 3

I awake to the cold air freezing my skin. Sometimes I wonder how I could move my blanket from on me, to on my floor, and find myself laying where my feet should be.

I begin to reminisce on the dream I had last night. "Why have I had the same dream twice? This is getting a bit weird." I say at a low pitch to myself as I ponder about how real that voice sounded. It was strange, but I soon move on with my day.

I grab some nice clothes and proceed to the bathroom to get ready for my date with Anne. I set my clothes on the sink, lay my dirty ones on the floor, and enter the shower. I turn the shower and move the temperature of it over to warm. I feel the warm was of the water hit my chest and wash myself.

I turn the shower off and dry myself with a towel, shaking out the water in my longish dirty blonde hair, and brush my teeth afterwards. I examine the whiteness of them afterwards and get myself dressed. I put on some deodorant, spray some cologne onto me, and leave the bathroom.

I grab my phone from my bedside table and find that it's 12:30pm. I text Anne good afternoon and head downstairs to see Justin. He's preparing himself a bagel in the kitchen.

"Hey there, kiddo!" I call out to him as I make my way to the kitchen.

"Hey brother! Want some of my bagel?" He asks with a happy look on his face. He's a good kid.

"No thanks, little guy. I'll make my own after you finish." I tell him as I grab a plate from one of our kitchen cabinets.

"Okay! Hey, could you hand me the butter knife?" He asks staring intently at the toaster.

"Sure thing!" I say as I grab one of the butter knives from our kitchen drawers.

The bagel halves pop up from the toaster. "Ah! That scared me a little!" Justin says after jumping a little.

"It's alright, Justin. I don't think that toaster's going to hurt you anytime soon. You want me to spread that cream cheese onto your bagel for you?" I ask Justin moving over towards the toaster.

"No, I can do it. Thank you for offering though!" He says as I hand him the butter knife.

I put in two bagel halves into the toaster and press down on the button. Justin sat down by the dinner table and ate his bagel there. Justin looks over to me and asks, "What are you doing today?"

I look towards him and say to him, "I have a date with a girl I met yesterday."

"What's her name, brother?" He asks

"Her name is Anne. I'm going to be leaving soon to get her and then we'll be going to West Gate."

"Anne's a pretty name, Chris! Is she nice?" He asks me. He always asks that whenever I mention someone to him. You'd think it would annoy me a little, but I actually think it's a bit cute how he does that.

"Yeah, she's a nice girl; pretty too."

"That's nice. When am I going to meet her?" He asks with a smile.

"I could actually bring her over here for dinner after our West Gate date. How does that sound, Justin?"

"That sounds awesome! I can't wait to meet her!" He says as he brings his plate, covered with some bagel crumbs, into the kitchen and puts it in the sink.

My bagel pops out from the toaster. I put the halves onto my plate and spread cream cheese onto them. I place the cream cheese back into the fridge and put the butter knife into the sink, then begin eating my bagel.

I finish my bagel and check my phone to see that Anne's texted me back as that it's 1:04pm. I read the text; it read "Good afternoon! :)" I proceed to text her how she was and send it to her.

"Well, Justin, it looks like I'll be leaving in a few. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" I ask my brother as I grab my keys.

"Yeah. I'll probably play some Xbox with my friends from school. Have fun on your date and tell your girlfriend I said hi!" He says to me with a slight laugh.

"Haha, I'll make sure to tell her you said hi. See you later, little bro!" And with that I enter the garage.

I open the garage and get into my car. I fasten my seatbelt and start my car. I drive out of the driveway, close the garage with my clicker, and begin my drive to Anne's apartment complex.

I decide to turn on the radio and searched my through the stations for anything interesting. While previewing the stations, I come across a report on a missing 15 year old boy with the name "Tyreese Felter". The report goes into detailing his last known location, his description, and clothes he wore at the time of the kidnapping.

The report seems to have ended, but a we hear a woman, who sounds like she has been sobbing for a good while now, on the radio. "Hello, my name is Carol Felter. My son, Tyreese Felter, has been missing since last week of February 11, 2014. Please, everyone help bring my baby home... I don't know how I've survived this week, but I hope you're out there and listening to this. I.... *cries*... I love you so much, Tyreese.... Your dad and I miss you dearly and pray for your safe return home.. *more crying is heard*... Please, everyone, help bring Tyreese home." Carol's plea for help ended with that, leaving me with a slight feeling of sadness. Her son is among one of the many kidnappings that have occurred since November 6 of last year.

I got to a red light and notice a shining light coming from my rear view mirror. I adjust it a little and notice the black van was a few cars behind me. Huh, it's that van again. I thought to myself looking back to it. The light turned green and I continue to head towards Anne's.

I look back and notice the van still following behind. I'm beginning to get suspicious about it and decide to make a right turn; the van still followed.

I see the van speeding up behind me and bumps into my bumper. Alright, I guess they're after me. I thought and tried speeding away from them.

I decided to go down a road taking me to a route that would take longer to reach Anne's apartment complex, but it also held several more turns. I speed up a little bit as the van follows a little ways behind me. I turn left, then right, then another left; going slightly off course, but it was also losing them.

I look back and see the van following me a bit further out. I notice a turn into Sun City and figured that I could lose them in there, so I took my left into there.

The lawns of the houses were all green, a few seniors dotted the sidewalks. I make a right turn into an alleyway between the houses and make another right turn as I exited. I check my rear view mirror, and see them turning into the alley. I quickly searched my surroundings and noticed a busy church parking lot. I decide to make a turn into it and park behind the church, where I wouldn't be visible to the van.

I wait there for a few minutes and see the black van driving passed the church and going away from where I was. I sighed in relief and called the cops to report the black van.

"Hello, Glendale Police Department, what's your emergency?" The operator said with a calm tone of voice.

"I was being followed by this black van with fully tinted windows." I tell the operator.

"Sir, did you catch the plate ID?" They asked with their voice's tempo slightly.

"No. I saw it on my bus yesterday, but I didn't see the license plate."

"As in there was no plate, or you didn't catch it?"

"I couldn't catch it."

"Oh... Well, be on the look out for the van. We've had some other reports with black vans and other vehicles recently. Be safe." And the operator hung up.

"This wasn't the first incident?" I thought aloud to myself, "Something's going on here.."

I thought to myself as I sat parked behind the church. What if they somehow found me again and followed me to West Gate? I have no idea what's going on with these vans, but something told me that they'd come back.

I decide to keep on my toes from that point on for the black van, and continued to make my way towards Anne's apartment.