Chapter Seventeen
"Our time is running out, our time is running out,"-Muse
The next morning Sienna woke feeling disoriented. That had been some dream last night. She looked around the room and relaxed once she recognized her surroundings. She was in her room. She got up from bed to quickly and felt a bit dizzy. 'It must be side effects from that new medication', she thought to herself. Her head was also pounding to the beat of her heart. She tried to ignore all the discomfort and made her way to the bathroom.
Just as she was about to start her daily hygiene routine she noticed a piece of paper stuck under her door.
Sienna walked over and picked it up. It was a note, she realized. She carefully opened it and read:
Meet me by the garden at the back of the library tomorrow after your last class. I have something important to tell you. –T
Twenty three words and a signature that simply read T. She wondered I doubt for a moment before she thought of Tristan. He must have been the one to slip the note. Why did he want to see her though? He barely ever talked to her anymore.
She shrugged and slipped the note into her pocket. Her wondering would have to wait. She headed into her bathroom and began to get ready for whatever awaited her today.
"...and I am so done with him! Can you believe he was acting like nothing happened?! He's unbelievable!" Scar rambled on and on all through lunch. She was, of course, speaking of Nathan who she was still upset with. Now she seemed obsessed with the idea of getting revenge on him.
"You know what I'm going to do? Give him a taste of his own bitter medicine. I'm going to do exactly what he did with that bit-"
"Is that really the smart thing to do? You really shouldn't fight fire with fire. Someone is bound to get burnt." Sienna interrupted her.
"Parry would disagree," she muttered but continued eating her barbecue chicken. "Anyway all I need now is someone to make him jealous with and I was hoping you would help me with that part? I did after all help you find your stalker."
"Okay first of all I didn't ask you for help and second of all I barely know anyone in this school. I'm sure you can find someone to kiss in front of everyone if that's what you really want."
"Seriously? What kind of a friend are you? Gosh. Fine, I'll find someone myself," she replies in a huff. Sienna rolls her eyes and continues to enjoy the rest of her salad and baked sweet potato, her favorite. She had decided to avoid the chicken.
Sienna looked around and noticed someone was missing at the cafeteria. Where could Tristan be...
His warm lips molded perfectly with hers. The kiss was soft, sensual and sweet. She never wanted it to end but unfortunately they were human and were in need of oxygen. He didn't seem to think so, though. He tangled his right hand in her hair and his other he used to grip her waist. He was holding her as if he never wanted to let her go.
He bit her lip in a playful manner and she giggled like a schoolgirl. When she couldn't take it anymore of it she untangled herself from his grip and sighed.
And just when they were about to attach their lips again, Ana woke from her wonderful dream.
"I knew it was too good to be true," Ana said to herself. She gone up to her room after lunch to take a quick 'siesta', as Enrique called it, and had ended up sleeping longer than she'd planned on.
She glanced at the clock and realized her last class was already half over. No sense in showing up now. She would just make up an excuse about feeling ill. After her last class she did however have counseling with Mr. Teer but some students in the hall had said that he still had not returned from his prolonged vacation. She would go to his office anyway to be sure. You couldn't always believe everything you heard from other people. Ana knew that from first-hand experience.
When two o' clock arrived, she put her shoes on and headed to Mr. Teer's office.
Much to her surprise his office was closed and no one was inside. She went to the office and asked the blonde secretary what was going on. She also asked when he would be back. Ana enjoyed talking to Mr. Teer. She liked having someone outside her circle of friends and family to confide in.
"Oh honey I'm sorry to tell you but Mr. Teer won't be coming back. Didn't you read the newspaper this morning?" she asked Ana.
"No, why?" she asked back in surprise. Ana had never read a newspaper or watched the news in her entire life. She hated all the negative news they spread. Good things happened too.
"And you haven't seen the news either?" Ana shook her head. The secretary handed the newspaper over to Ana.
"Oh I don't really read the newspaper. It's boring and depressing," ANA confessed.
"Honey, you will definitely want to read this trust me,"
She shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the newspaper that was being handed to her.
"Open up to page seven," instructed the secretary. Ana did as she was told and almost dropped the newspaper in shock at the huge picture she was staring at. There right on page seven of the New York Times newspaper was a picture of a man who was found dead in a dark alleyway in the streets of the dangerous city. The police found him a couple of days ago, it read, and the body had already been identified. The article went into detail about the numerous injuries the body of the man had. Ana only briefly scanned through that part seeing as those kinds of things disgusted her.
When she reached the end of the article she finally found the name of the man who had been discovered dead. It was none other than Mr. Teer, Oak Wood High's counselor.
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Parry had a plan. It was one of his finest ones too. If Scar complied with her part of the deal, he would make Nathan's life impossible for messing with his sister. All his life Parry had been a master of pranks. He had spent middle school in detention for messing with the students as well as the teachers. However no prank had ever been as big as the one he was currently plotting. Nathan would be sorry he had ever cheated on Scar. Parry was going to teach him a lesson.
In fact, his plan was so good that he was willing to go through with it even if his sister couldn't help him get Sienna to fall for him, or at least forget Tristan. He couldn't wait to put it to action. All he needed now was the right timing and equipment.
He was keeping his plan a secret from even his sister. She would try to stop him if she found out. She would think it was too extreme.
However he didn't really care what she thought of him. She already knew he was crazy. The rest of school was still fooled by parry's sweet and nice looking exterior. Even Sienna was fooled. She had no idea of what was inside Parry's devious mind. He hoped she never found out either. She'd be scared of him if she ever got to know the real him.
Parry would also need some assistance with his master plan. He knew the only guy he could really count on was himself but this was not a one man job. He needed a sidekick. The only person he could think of was Enrique who wouldn't judge him like the others would. He could also bribe Enrique into helping him or blackmail him. Either method was equally effective.
Parry was aware of Enrique's attraction to Ana. He also suspected Ana liked him as well. Of course, he would never tell him that.
He had seen them sneaking around places to be alone and Enrique had asked none other than Ana to the dance. It was obvious to anyone. Those two love birds were infatuated with each other. He envied them in a way. He wished Sienna felt for him what Ana felt for Enrique. Things would be so much easier that way.
Oh well. Things only went Parry's way when he made them happen. This would just be another project he would make happen. He would make her fall in love with him. She would love him so much that she wouldn't even remember that jerk's name ever again. Sienna would be his sooner rather than later. All he needed to do was set the plan in motion, gather the necessary materials, and figure out the right timing to attack.
With or without Enrique's help, he would succeed. Parry was a very careful planner. He should have been in the military. He would go over every detail of the plan until he found a flaw. That plan would be perfect by the time he was done with it. No one would suspect him as the culprit. He would wipe out all traces of himself from the scene. He would make sure to leave no evidence behind. Nathan wouldn't know what hit him. No one in the school would be able to make sense of the mess Parry was planning to make. He would get his sister's revenge on Nathan, get Sienna and everyone would be happy. There was no way anything could go wrong.
Parry took out his pad and pencil and continued his work.
'This will be the greatest prank ever done in the history of Oak Wood High', he thought to himself as he finished his plan.
Things were chaotic at the Institute. Everyone was a mess. Dr. Lucian wondered if it was a full moon. That would explain everyone's altered mood. Even the boss who was usually so calm and collected was a disaster. No one had finished their reports in time, experiments needed to be conducted and worst of all the new medication was running low. The boss had instructed Dr. Lucian to fabricate more but the only problem was they were lacking a specific and very important ingredient they would need.
In other news, Breen was still missing.
Dr. Lucian found himself quite disturbed thinking of his friend day and night. He also couldn't get that mysterious call off of his mind. What did he mean? Had he officially gone insane? Had he been drunk when he had made the call? Where was he? Was he in danger? And what did any of it mean?
He replayed all the clues in Breen's message over and over again like a broken record. He had even gone as far as writing down the information about the clock striking, the clicking of heels and the maze. Breen seemed to think they had been set up. He seemed to suspect they were being used by the people in power at the institute. What Dr. Lucian couldn't figure out was what exactly Breen wanted him to do and where exactly he was. He had tried tracking the phone he called him from but that hadn't worked seeing as it had been a public phone on the street.
Who knew where Breen could be. Dr. Lucian just hoped his friend and co-worker was fine.
Dr. Lucian took out his computer and researched the missing ingredient again. The place where they had gotten it from last time was out of it and another shipment of it wouldn't be arriving in another three weeks. The boss wouldn't be happy about that news at all.
He sighed and took off his reading glasses. He rubbed his eyes and decided he needed some coffee to wake him up. It was going to be another long night. Dr. Lucian couldn't wait for his retirement. Frankly, he was quite tired of working at the same place for so many years. He was tired of seeing the faces of the same employees. He was tired of having no social life whatsoever and tired of not being able to be with his family. But what he was most tired of was his despicable boss. Oh how he detested her. He probably would have never taken the job if he would have known he would have her to deal with.
His dream job had turned into a living nightmare.
Sometimes he found himself questioning if it really would all be worth it in the end. Was the end result more valuable than his happiness?
Lucian dialed his secretary and asked her to bring in a hot mug of coffee. In a matter of minutes, she walked in wearing the shortest skirt that would be accepted for work and carried in a tray of steaming hot coffee, just how he liked it. She had also brought in the brown sugar the doctor favored.
"Thank you, dear" he said to her once she set the tray on his desk.
"Is everything okay doctor? You seem a bit tense. I think you should take a break. You've been working too hard," she said to him.
"That sounds lovely but there is no time for breaks in this field of work,"
"I see. Oh doctor I almost forgot to give this to you. The boss wanted you to see the news that's been circulating all over the building. It's quite sad," she said handing him the newspaper. He grabbed it and opened it once she had left the room. He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary it was page after page of bad news, bad government decisions and advertisements. What could be so important that the boss would want him to see? He kept flipping through the pages knowing the boss wouldn't waste his time for nonsense until he reached a page that caught his attention.
It was a page with a gruesome picture and two big letters written in bold that read: FOUND DEAD.
However that wasn't what caught his attention. Someone had circled the two bold letters in a red marker and had written 'You could be next'.
Sienna was finished with all her day classes and she had had dinner. Now she planned to go up to her room and freshen up before going to meet Tristan at the garden. She knew the place well. It was situated behind the big antique looking library, Tristan favorite place at school.
Once she was ready, she applied some lipstick on to her lips and decided she was ready. She suspected Tristan would like it. 'Since when do you care what Tristan thinks of you?' a little voice whispered to her.
When she reached her destination, she glanced around but saw no sign of him or anyone else for that matter. The wind had picked up and was blowing her hair all over the place. She sighed and tried to gather it to one side of her shoulder in an attempt to keep it from flying into her face. She decided to sit on the cool grass and wait for him to arrive. Several minutes passed before her mind became active and she started to worry. What if Tristan hadn't been the one to send her the note? What if this was a trap? What if the culprit had been her stalker? Was he or she going to play another trick on her? Oh God. Why hadn't she told anyone where she was going? She should have at least informed Scar or Ana where she was going in case she didn't come back. What if the stalker kidnapped her? Or worse...
She could have left a note in her room as to where she was. But she hadn't thought of any of that. Sienna was too naïve for her own good. Was she in time to leave? Had her stalker arrived yet? She started getting up from the cool grass when all of a sudden two hands appeared out of nowhere and covered her eyes.
She yelped in surprise and started to panic. This is it.
"Shhh relax, it's only me. Sorry I'm late. I lost track of time," said a very familiar voice behind her. Tristan uncovered her eyes and she turned around to face him. "And frankly I wasn't sure if you would show up."
"That note was pretty mysterious. Why didn't you just tell me in person?" she questioned crossing her arms across her chest. Tristan stared down at it for a moment and then met her gaze again.
"I didn't have any time. I knew I wouldn't be able to see you today before now,"
"Oh,"
"Let's sit," she complied and found him sitting a lot closer to her than necessary.
"So what was so important that you wanted to tell me so badly?"
"You don't waste any time do you?" he laughed. "Just remember I need you to keep a very open mind for what I'm about to tell you, please,"
"Are you trying to tell me you're gay?" Sienna asked.
"What?! No, of course not." Tristan said in bewilderment.
"Ok well then what is it? You look very serious,"
"That's because what I'm about to tell you is a serious matter," Tristan told her. "So, before I tell you, you have to promise you won't tell a single soul any of it, promise?"
"Of course,"
"Okay, well, I broke into the school office the other night and I stole some files and-"
"You what?!" Sienna shouted in shock.
"Please let me finish and then you can scream and ask all the questions you want,"
"Alright, alright, you just took me a bit by surprise there. I didn't expect you to say that. You could get in trouble for that,"
"I know but only if anyone finds out and I did a pretty good job of erasing any evidence left behind by me so as long as you don't tell anyone I think I'm relatively safe," Tristan said and continued, "So I stole some files. I was originally only going to take my files but then I saw yours and some other important documents and I took those too. I spent all of last night reading through them and you're not going to believe what I found out," Tristan paused and looked around.
"Wait but why did you steal the files?" Sienna wondered out loud.
"Because, Sin, I want to get out of here. I'm planning on breaking out of this jail school and I can't leave behind any information about me in case they decide to contact whatever family I have left or track me or something,"
"Oh," Sienna didn't know what to say.
"So as I was saying, I came across something very interesting and quite scary actually. I came across a file that was named Oak Wood High School Plans 2015. It was an extensive document but I managed to get through the whole thing and really you're not going to believe what I found in there. Before I tell you this I must ask you something first."
"What is it?"
"Would anyone come looking for you if you suddenly disappeared for a month or so?"
"What do you mean?" Tristan was scaring her now. In what direction was all this crazy talk heading?
"Well yes, my parents of course," she told him. It hurt to admit even to herself that her parents probably wouldn't care if she disappeared. They would probably celebrate the event. After all, they had wanted to get rid of her for years now. Sending her off to boarding school was a way of doing exactly that. But, of course, she wasn't about to tell Tristan that.
"Anyone else?"
"No,"
"What if your parents thought you were still at school?"
"But wouldn't the school notify them of my disappearance?"
"Not if they didn't have any of your information," he explained and took out several manila folders out from his messenger bag. He handed one that had Sienna's name on it to her.
"Why are you giving me this?" she asked.
"It's all of the information the school has on you. I took it from the office last night and I was going to look over it but I didn't want you to feel like I was intruding so instead of reading it, I'm giving it to you. You can decided to do whatever you want with it."
"Oh, well thanks for not reading it," she said to him. Who knew what was on that file. Sienna appreciated him respecting her privacy that way. Besides, there were things that Sienna didn't want anyone in school to know, Tristan included. She had things to hide.
"You're welcome. So I still can't make complete sense of the files I was reading about what the plans for this school are but it was pretty clear. I'm just having trouble believing it. I made you a copy of the files in case you didn't believe me and wanted to read for yourself. It's inside the manila folder with your information." What Sienna didn't know was that besides the copy of the school's documents, Tristan had also made a copy of Sienna's information in case he ever needed it.
"You know I'm going to believe you, I don't see why you would lie to me," she told him but she was quite happy he had made her a copy.
"So the files were about a lot of different things. It basically went into detail about what the school panned to do at the end of this year. It was also describing the different types of dosage of medication they were injecting into the cafeteria food which made me think of that weird man with the suit we saw come out of the kitchen that time. They're testing our food and injecting weird medication in it. I couldn't figure out what exactly it was that they were putting into the food but it seemed like some kind of drug to sedate people in a subtle way. It also said that the highest level of drugs was found in the al the meat and dairy products. I'm glad we've been staying away from that. It was explaining how everyone in the school was being monitored twenty four, seven and how there were security guards everywhere in case something went wrong with one of the students or in case someone got out of control. They're treating us like we're all crazy."
"Are you sure about this? It doesn't make any sense. This is just a boarding school like any other," Sienna was confused. She didn't know what to believe. Sure she had noticed some things in the school that were odd but it didn't mean they thought everyone was crazy.
"But that's the things, Sin, don't you see? It's not just some boarding school!"
"What are you trying to say?" Sienna questioned.
"I'm trying to tell you that this school isn't what it appears to be,"
"So it's not just a school for average kid's whose parents don't want them at home?"
"No. it's much more than that and that's why we have to leave before it's too late. We don't have much time either. We only have another month or so before it's all over,"
"All over? You're speaking like the end of the world is coming near,"
"It might as well be because if we don't leave soon, it will be the end of our world at least."
"What?"
"Sienna you don't seem to be understanding what's about to happen,"
"That's because you're not speaking clearly,"
"How much more obvious can I be? Sin, you have to run away with me before it's too late. I'm planning to leave with or without you. I'm not going to stay here and wait for my end. I've already got everything set. I've been saving up money for my escape and I've found a way out without anyone noticing. I want you to go with me but I'm leaving soon. You have to make your choice. Stay here and wait for the end or run away with me and save yourself,"
"Tristan tell me what they are planning."
"Sin, we are all experiments and once they are done with us they're going to destroy this place along with everyone in it. Students, staff and teachers included. They don't need us anymore. We are just experiments."
A/N: Surprise! Was that a superfast update or what? I must say I'm proud of myself. Comment and vote if you want an even faster update! What do you think is going to happen next? Dedication goes to the first person that answers that question in the comments below. Oh and sorry if there are a lot of mistakes. i didn't have time to edit this chapter. i will be doing all the editing after i'm done with the whole book because if not it will take me much longer to get it done and I don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer.