Secrets Are For Keeping

Chapter Forty-One

The blonde haired lady came forward and pulled me to my feet, this time, I didn't even bother to fight. Because I'd realized how pointless it was. How pointless it'd been from the very beginning. There was no escaping it, just as I'd always thought, but maybe, just maybe for a second there I'd believed that I could be happy and that I could break free of the chains that never stopped binding me.

I was taken back through a couple hallways until the woman stopped in front of a metal door and opened it. Inside was a bland white room with white fluorescent lights in the ceiling and nothing but a metal chair in the middle of it.

"You'll be waiting here until we take you away for the second phase of inspections." Then she was gone, and the door closed behind her and locked. My first move was to try the door anyway, even though I was certain it would be locked. I was right, and I quickly fell back down onto the white painted floor, curling my knees up to my chest and staring at the metal door.

Waiting. Waiting had never been my specialty. But now I had no choice, but to wait. There was no clock inside the room and no windows for me to tell whether it was day or night. The only thing besides me was the chair, and I wondered if they expected me to sit on it.

All the other students who'd disappeared had probably been in the same room. They'd probably sat in the chair staring at the wall and wondering what would happen to them next, just like I was now. I stared at the chair for a couple minutes until my butt began to feel uncomfortable sitting on the merciless stone floor.

I stood up and sat down in the metal chair instead, feeling a stab to my pride, but not caring that I'd gone along with their rules just this one time. And it wasn't exactly even a rule. They'd just provided me with something that I'd taken.

I stared at the wall for what felt like hours. Occasionally, I'd start tapping my finger against my thigh, sometimes beating out a random rhythm and others just spontaneously banging my finger with no order at all.

I'd stopped bothering to even try guessing the time when footsteps came from outside my cell. My jail cell, as I'd begun to refer to it as. It reminded me a lot of one, with nothing there to make the hours mean something.

There was a wiggling of the door handle and I expected it to quickly slide open, but it didn't. The wiggling continued for a couple seconds too long, and I sat up in confused alert. Then the door opened quickly revealing a figure that came sprinting out towards me before I could stand up and see who had opened the door.

I was wrapped up in his arms before I could even see his face. But I knew who it was. It was easy to recognize him now.

"I thought you were already gone," Zander said, his voice cracking with sadness.

I hugged him back, shocked that he was actually there, physically in front of me.

"Zander...," I said, pulling away from him so I could see his face. "...how?"

"We don't have much time...okay? Pepper and I have come up with a plan...all you need to know is that when they take you out of this room, which they have to at some point, look for us in the hallway. When you hear the distraction, run. Don't look back, just run. Okay, can you do that?" he explained hurriedly, not bothering to repeat anything or wait for my response. "I'll see you soon." He looked at me, almost near tears, but then he turned away and rushed back out the door, closing it so it locked on his way out.

I almost wanted to call out to him before he could leave, but then it was too late. I stared at the metal door, feeling more empty inside than I had before. Except now there was a fire in the emptiness, a burning flame of hope that hadn't existed before that my thoughts tried drowning out since I knew if it didn't happen it would just ruin me even more and make everything worse.

Hours later, I finally heard what I'd been dreading, yet also becoming more and more excited for as my hope for escape increased. Footsteps came once again, but these were louder and more certain, and I knew that they could only belong to the blonde haired inspector from before. The door opened and the inspector walked in, still gushing happiness as she waved for me to come forward.

"Come on, we have a car waiting for you outside." She grabbed my arm and pulled me out the door once I was close enough to her. Then she pulled out a pair of handcuffs and began to wrap them around my wrists. She looked up into my eyes when she was done and explained, "Just as a precaution."

Then she grabbed me by my arm again and began pulling me down the hallway, except now I was being flanked by four other inspectors.

I walked with her this time, trying to keep up an act of cooperation. If I pretended I was going along, then it'd be more likely she wouldn't expect me to run.

And I was going to run.

We continued down another hall and I knew we were getting closer to the front entrance of the school where the car would be to take me away.

I waited anxiously to hear anything that could be counted as a distraction. A clash, yelling, anything. My breathing felt louder than normal in my ears, yet no noises came. I continued to walk, seeing the front doors coming closer to me. They were going to do it soon, they had to. Then I'd run away as fast as I could when I saw it, just like Zander had told me to.

Afterwards....

...wow, I hadn't even thought about that.

I couldn't come back to school after that since the inspectors would find me immediately.

But would they search for me? And what if they did?

I'd have to run further, run away from everything I'd loved here. From Olivia, Kain, and from Pepper and Zander. From the life I had scraped from the scraps left behind after the bomb of the Animuses creation and the inspection. And I'd never be able to come back. If they actually tried searching for me I would never be safe again. My entire life would be lived in fear, with me looking back every few feet to make sure I hadn't been followed.

But now the door was nearly right in front of me and I knew the distraction had to be coming. I needed to focus and I also needed to trust Zander. He must've already thought all of this through, and probably had an idea. I just needed to trust what he'd told me and go along with his plan.

I tried to slow down my movement as we were only one yard away from the door.

Come on, Zander and Pepper, please...

The door was coming even closer and the blonde haired inspector was pulling me harder as I started to resist again. She glanced back at me with annoyance, like this was just an everyday chore such as taking out the trash. Except the trash didn't want to be taken out.

The door was right in front of me and my heart was beating twice its average speed.

And then...

I was through the door. A cold breeze hit me in the face as I was forced outside of the school, into a foggy evening. The sun was just setting down over the horizon. I'd been in the same white room for almost a whole day.

The distraction hadn't come. It wasn't coming. It was all over, and the hope that had been ignited in me was suddenly doused in water and extinguished as my feet stumbled down the front steps of the school.

I saw the black van waiting for me in the road, and didn't bother trying to run. Because Zander's plan had failed and there was no reason to now.

The back door opened and I was shoved inside onto the plush, black leather seats. I sat upright, tempted to just run outside right then and there, but the door had already closed and locked me inside. I pulled on my seatbelt when the driver glared at me for a full minute.

Then the car was moving, and I looked back towards the school.

I knew that it was the last I'd ever see of my old life.