Thick trees of different shades lined the sides of the road. The only things separating civilization from vegetation were thick metal rails. The group was just passing into Virginia: home of several dead historical figures. The place even smelled like the breeding ground of America.
There was nothing much to say about this place. Not until they got into the farmland and countryside of southern Virginia.
"Well guys, welcome to southern Virginia, home of--well, you'll see," Azlyn announced.
"You know this place?" Haddix asked.
"Not well, thank The Lord. I lived with my biological family up in Northern Virginia until I was 8. Up there is where people are very, um--clean, nice, and civilized," Azlyn explained. She had that funny voice which people take on when they are avoiding saying something offensive.
"And people aren't civilized here?" Lisa asked. She was so curious that her respectful personality could not avoid asking the question.
"Virginia is weird; you go north, you're in the nation's capitol, you go south, you're in freaking Mississippi," Azlyn explained. Lisa and Haddix suppressed giggles.
As the car drove along, the landscape transformed. The road lost its protective metal strips at the sides, the land lost its trees, and the road grew blisters. Red powder made up the ground around them, surely the kind that will leave a stain. Patches of dried grass attempted to decorate the powder, but merely succeeding in bothering it. The road was littered with grass, dirt, and blisters. It hadn't been maintained as needed; the road was a light gray color and had fell victim to weathering. The road paint was chipped. The whole thing gave off terrible vibes. It was unspoken, but everyone was eager to move further up north.
"HUNGRY! OLLIE I'M HUNGRY AND I WANT POTTY AND I WANT MOMMY!" Lilly screamed suddenly. Mr. Haddix swerved a bit, but got back on track.
"Lilly, there are no places to potty or eat. You have to wait, okay?" Haddix told Lilly in a soft voice.
"What about Mommy, Ollie? When is Mommy coming back?" Lilly asked. She clearly did not understand the concept of death yet. Funny, the child was six years old and didn't know death. Azlyn had known death from two years old.
"Mommy is somewhere else right now, Lilly. You'll see her one day, but you have to be good," Oliver replied. He looked down at his feet. Knocking them together, harder, harder, harder.
A little rickety house appeared at their right. It was an ancient country home. There was a porch with sunken boards, a couch swing, and dead plants. The awning was a once-white, sagging cloth of sadness. The paint used to be paint, but it could never be called that now. I mean, how could you call a few pieces of white peels littering a sad old house paint? But wait, it got stranger. The house wasn't a house, for a sign on it read: "Rucker's Hamburgers." A picture of a chubby cartoon pig accompanied the words.
"Mr. Haddix, stop!" Azlyn yelled. The car screeched to a stop.
"What is it, Hunter?" Haddix asked, happy for a diversion from deep thought.
"There's a restaurant! Maybe they have ingredients left! Ready for lunch guys?" Azlyn asked, a cheerful smile painted on her face.
"Yummy! Yummy!" Lilly bounced up and down on Azlyn's lap.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ssst
Sssssssst
Ssssssssssst
The pink, juicy, plump rounds of meat sizzled on a hot stovetop. Azlyn and Haddix flipped them over, showing a brown meat on the top. Lettuce, tomato, onions, and cheese were lined up on the counter top. Six plates were laid out nearby. The place smelled like grease, but it was a welcoming smell to the hungry party.
"ALRIGHT GUYS! HAMBURGERRRRRS!" Azlyn squealed. You're probably wondering why she's so happy rather than being her usual moody self. That makes two of us.
Hungry hands scrambled to grab their plates. The only ones that didn't grab a plate belonged to Lilly. Azlyn picked Lilly's up and brought it over to a table.
"Come here, Lill!" Azlyn called.
Little Lilly hobbled over. Azlyn cut Lilly's hamburger into bite sized pieces. Lilly grabbed each one that was handed to her, swallowing them in a few seconds at a time. After Lilly finished eating, Azlyn sunk her teeth into her own food. It was delicious. Beef melted into cheese, which fell into tomato, falling into lettuce, which melted into onion. The juiciness of each ingredient held hands and hung on tight.
"Hey." Haddix slid into the seat next to her. Well, more like scooted, the bench was full of blisters.
"Yeah?" Azlyn said.
"So, this guy you've been perceiving through. Do you think he's close?" Haddix asked. Obviously a conversation starter; this was a dumb question.
"Well, he's on foot, we have a car, so he should be close. He's probably figured out what happened back in New York, so he's most likely headed there as well," said Azlyn.
"Yeah. How's your arm? You should probably remove the bandage," Haddix said, changing the subject.
Azlyn carefully tore off the bandage. It stung like hell, but she continued. The cuts looked mostly same, minus the blood. It wasn't as irritated as before.
"How are you?" Azlyn asked.
"What?" Haddix said, his cyan eyes shifting away and back.
"Don't give me that. I know you're upset. The knocking your feet, the anger when you saw Tom," Azlyn said.
"It's nothing. Honest," Haddix said. That's what he said, not what he showed. He's cyan eyes swam around. They looked dead, like they didn't belong in their sockets.
"Is it your mother? You miss her, right?" Azlyn asked. She put a hand on Haddix's back. I wish he'd shrugged it off, but he didn't, gross.
"I guess, but it's no use talking about it," Haddix answered. His eyes did another lap.
"No, it's not. All you can do is wait. Wait for the deadness to slowly subside. You'll learn to live with it," Azlyn said. She was watching Haddix's cyan eyes swimming around. They were not swimming in tears, they were just swimming. He was dead inside. She didn't know much about Haddix's parents, so she couldn't know how close Haddix was with his mother.
"If I'm honest with you, will you be honest with me? I need to know what Tom was talking about with the 'murders' and crap. I think it's eating you alive," Haddix said.
"Sure." Azlyn smiled. The fakest smile I have ever narrated in my entire life. It was the smile of a lie. She wouldn't tell Haddix, surely not ever.
"I was really close to my mother. You'll never know how close, but I can try to tell you. My story isn't as horrible as yours, but it isn't fun either," Haddix started. "I lived with my mom for a majority of my life. I never knew my dad. Mom said he died before I was born, in an accident. It was so boring with only Mom, she was always working late."
"Yeah?" Azlyn encouraged, twisting her golden brown hair in thought.
"I wanted a family, not just Mom, but she always got angry when I mentioned it. She didn't want to 'replace' dad. One day, I finally got her to give in. She was stressed out from a long day at work. She came home at one in the morning. Mom scolded me for waiting out on her. I told her 'Do you really want me to grow up fatherless? Do you really want me to grow up without one of the most essential parts to having a childhood? Well, maybe if I had a daddy, he would put me to bed, and I would be asleep! It's not fair! Not only that, I won't be able to have a little brother or sister! I'll be alone! Like you were without Dad!' I was only seven back then, and I guess that's what tipped her. She cried a lot, and I apologized. She told me it was okay, and a few years later she came home with someone. It was Dad, my future one at least. I was so happy. A few years later they married and had Lilly when I was eleven. Mom made a family because of me, she was happy. She was happy because of me, and I was happy because of her. She spent the first nine years of my life sulking and upset. She spent the next eight happy. I'm just sad that she died so horribly because we were so careless." The child didn't even pause to breathe. He needs an award, so I'll give him my metal of being one of the most interesting characters I have narrated.
Azlyn was about to answer when--
"Where's Lilly?" Lisa was looking around the restaurant. In response, everyone got up and started searching.
"LILLY!"
"LILLY, WHERE ARE YOU?"
"LILLY, COME TO OLLIE!"
The group searched everywhere. And by everywhere, I mean everywhere. They checked the dining area, the kitchen, the area around the house, the car, some even ventured into the woods, which were not even visible from the restaurant. Hours later, they came up with nothing.
"Azlyn, this would be a good time to perceive. Look through Lilly's eyes, find out where she is," Tom said.
"I don't know how to control my perceptions yet!" Azlyn yelled at him. She was frustrated. Her face was scratched up from looking through bushes with thorns, her eyes were sagging with fatigue pulling at them.
"Wow, what a help," Tom said sarcastically. He cared about Lilly, but not enough to tear out of his shell. The shell was a hard metal that prevented anyone from seeing inside. Maybe one day it would break, but most certainly not now.
Azlyn ignored him. She knew it was no use to argue with him, so she walked over to Haddix, who was arguing with his dad. Well, Haddix was arguing, his dad was just looking. Looking at what, you ask? Nothing. He was looking into nothingness. He was a lost man.
He was simply lost in a void of his own self pity. These characters disgust me. I absolutely hate to have to tell a story with an utterly self-pitying brute. People who absorb in their loss and failures end up losing more and failing more, plus, they are absolutely boring and obnoxious. Now you know why I never go into detail about Mr. Haddix. I absolutely despise him, and Haddix was beginning to despise him as well.
"How could you just stand there and give up? How could you do that? We haven't found a body, she could still be alive!" Haddix was yelling at a wall, it was no use.
Azlyn pulled Haddix away from his father. She could see that the yelling was hurting both of them. They would never find Lilly like this. It was already nighttime, and everybody was exhausted. Nobody wanted to sleep.
"Oliver, I think you need some sleep," Azlyn told him.
"How can I sleep?! How can I sleep when Lilly is gone?!" Oliver screamed. He ran to the car, sat in the backseat, and locked it, staring at nothing. Just like his father.
Azlyn was going to follow him, but her soul escaped her body. She tried to stay in her body, but it was like working against science. It was possible, but not without skill.
It was like trying to grab water; you could pick it up, but undoubtedly some would slip out of your hands. Similarly, Miss Hunter tried to pull her soul back in her body, but it slipped out of her hands, into the hands of another.
Her soul switched bodies quite fast. Azlyn hoped it was a sign that she would be able to control her perceptions soon, then she remembered how hard it was to stop the perception. She shook off the thought. Her soul planted itself in the body of the handsome man. Azlyn knew his body all too well, she wasn't mistaken. The man was face to face with a big, unshaven, red-faced man. The man smelled terrible, like blood. Was it coming from his mouth?
"You'll be a darn good one. Yer a purty 'ne too. So much muscle and height. Yessiree, that's a lotta meat right 'err ," the disgusting man said.
Oh great, this guy's probably an arch-human. A redneck arch-human, thought Azlyn.
The ugly man left Azlyn's host alone, in a closet. Wait--not alone; there was someone else there. Muffled cries were present. They were close by, so close you could--
The handsome man touched the hair of a crying child. Strawberry blond hair. Hair that looked like--
"Shhh. It's okay," said the handsome man. "What's your name?"
"Lilly, I am six," Lilly cried.
Azlyn's soul left the handsome man, and she returned to her own. It was a short perception, but she wasn't complaining.
As soon as Azlyn was in her own body, she ran to the car, where Haddix was moping. She tugged on the handle. It was locked. She screamed and knocked on the window. Her knocking on the hard glass ended in a dull pounding noise. Haddix didn't open up. She peered in the dark windows of the car to find that he was sleeping. She decided not to wake him into a world that he surely did not want to enter again.
Azlyn ran into the restaurant, looking for the others. Everyone was asleep. She must've been out longer than she thought. Fatigue washed over her, and despite the fact that Lilly could be dead in a matter of seconds, Azlyn fell asleep on a dirty, sticky restaurant table.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Burger smells infiltrated Azlyn's nose. With it came memories of yesterday: Lilly, the perception, the arch-human. And with these memories came adrenaline. Azlyn's squashed face peeled itself from the sticky table.
She ran around the restaurant, shaking everyone awake. Everyone except Haddix. Where was he? No time for that.
"Guys! Guys! Wake up! I saw her! Lilly was in a closet! With a man! She was about to be eaten by an arch-human! We have to find her!" Azlyn screamed, breaking her phrases into parts so that they acted as sentences.
"Wh-wha? When? Huh?" Tom said with a groggy voice. They were all still exhausted. Everyone except Mr. Haddix.
Mr. Haddix ran to the car with much alacrity, sliding into the driver's seat. Lisa and Tom walked over, with sleepiness weighing them down. Now, I know they are tired and all, but don't you think they would wake up a little bit? I mean, they had a lead on where Lilly was! Boy, Tom and Lisa were lazy.
Azlyn rushed them, quickly filling in with a 10 second version of her perception. That woke them up. Azlyn and Lisa slid into the backseats, finding a sleeping Oliver as they did so. Tom got in the front seat.
Azlyn shook Haddix. He wouldn't wake up. Maybe he had been up late. He slumped over onto her shoulder. I wish she had pushed him over, but she didn't, gross. I know that a narrator must not have opinions, but I simply cannot avoid commenting on how disgusting this was.
"Where do I go?" There was the sandpaper voice again. The second time Azlyn had heard it.
"Just drive until you see another house. There doesn't seem to be much out here. Look for signs of life as well, there doesn't seem to be much of that either," Azlyn told him.
Mr. Haddix didn't reply. He just started driving. The ride was bumpy due to Mr. Haddix's fast driving, and the blisters on the road. Oliver's head bounced up and down, knocking into Azlyn's shoulder every half a second. It was annoying, but she didn't mind. Lisa looked at them and smiled. Tom looked back and scowled. Everyone was too tired to say anything.
Azlyn was happy for a little bit, until her mind began to buzz. The pen decided to join in the fun:
And so, with a shaky breath I have accepted my fate. With my heart beating all the while, I see my past laid out as my future. And so, with a final breath I see my bound and certain destination.
The pen wrote more in her mind.
It's your fault Lilly is missing. It's your fault she's probably dead. You should've been paying attention to her, you stupid little girl. Your past is coming back to haunt you. It's all happening again. How could you let your guard down so easily?
It dipped itself in ink, but the ink was different. It was a thick, dark red substance. It was blood. The pen continued writing.
I have run out of ink, but you have left me something else to write with: blood. I am left to write in the blood of the people you have wasted. You worthless, senseless child. Who knows if little Lilly's blood is in this writing?
Could you possibly get more f-d up than this? What would Oliver think if he knew what you've done? Sweet, sweet Oliver. Oliver with the cyan blue eyes and the curly locks. The locks that make your tongue curl when you say the word. Locks. Locks. Locks. Oliver with the silly trench coat that makes him look quite mysterious. Oliver with those thin, pink lips. Oliver with...
"What are you thinking about?"
"Huh?!" Azlyn jumped. Oliver was awake. She hadn't noticed. "Oh, uh, nothing. Just about Lilly."
Clearly, in the drug of sleep, Oliver had forgotten the past events. Now, as Azlyn said the name of his sister, Oliver's face turned serious.
"Hey Ollie, I have to tell you something. It's about your sister," Azlyn said. Haddix knew it was not good news. Azlyn never called him Ollie, infact, she hardly called him Oliver. In addition, she bit her lip and chewed it, hoping it would bite off the sadness as well. It didn't bite anything, but Haddix's screwed up emotions.
"Is she dead?" Oliver said with a voice that could never be described as somber. It was full of anger, but a controlled kind of anger.
Azlyn put a hand on him. "I don't know. All I know is that the arch-humans have her. When I saw her, she was alive."
Oliver pushed the hand away. (Thank you child, I did not need you two getting turned on in the midst of my beautiful narrative.) "Whatever. She's probably dead."
"Hey hey, it's okay. We're still going to look for her. She was with the man who we are looking for! He will protect her. He seemed kind," Azlyn assured him.
"Yeah, whatever," Oliver answered.
Oliver was beginning to engulf himself in self-pity, just how I hate. It was no use to talk to him, he was just going to have to deal with it on his own. Azlyn suspected just as much, so she turned to Lisa, who was shaking. "What's wrong Lisa?"
"I took my eye off Lilly, it's my fault she's gone," Lisa said as she erased Lilly off of her list that was written in pencil. She sincerely hoped that she would be able to write the name back again.
"It's not your fault, it's mine. I was supposed to be watching her after I fed her," Azlyn replied, remembering the words written in blood.
Her father appeared in front of her.
You worthless child, he said.
I know. I'm sorry father, I'll try to be a better daughter, she told him in her thoughts.
You are not my daughter, I am proud to say that much.
Father, I tried. I tried to be good, so hard. It's not fair. I couldn't please you in life, and now I cannot even please you when you are dead. What did I do to you?
And so, with a shaky breath I have accepted my fate. With my heart beating all the while, I see my past laid out as my future. And so, with a final breath I see my bound and certain destination.
You! You have been writing with the pen! You have been writing the thoughts in my head! But, what does that passage have to do with you?
No you stupid child, you have been writing with the pen. Just as you have created me. And the passage, my horrible child, has to do with me in many ways. Ways you may never find out.
But Father! Please! Forgive me for whatever I did!
You can never be forgiven. You are damned.
"Azlyn!"
Yes Father?
"Azlyn!"
Yes Father?
"Azlyn!"
Yes Father?
"Azlyn!"
"Yes Father?!"
"Father?!" Lisa said, bewildered.
"Oh um, I meant, Lisa," Azlyn said, also bewildered.
"Azlyn, we found a house, and there are arch-humans in it. Lilly's in there," Lisa told her.
"Who's coming?" Azlyn asked.
Tom decided for them. "Well, Azlyn needs to train, I'm experienced, and Haddix is probably going to start bawling if we don't let him help save his sister." He was rude, but right.
Tom took a knife out of his pocket.
"What are we gonna use?" Azlyn asked.
"Whatever comes to mind. That's part of your training." He laughed.
Azlyn, Haddix, and Tom got out of the car. They sneaked into the house. It looked very similar to the restaurant, except that it was actually a house. It smelled horrible, like death. It was probably the smells of the arch-humans' meals.
Azlyn looked around for a closet. She couldn't find one. She motioned for them to move on.
Stairs led down to a dark basement that smelled even worse than upstairs. That was strange, Azlyn could've sworn that she saw a kitchen across from the closet. The kitchen in this house was upstairs. But then again, where else could Lilly be? There were no more houses around.
Azlyn and Haddix headed for the stairs, but Tom grabbed them by the shoulders. They turned towards him. He face-palmed (obviously calling them idiots), put his finger to his lips, put a hand to his ear, and made a walking symbol with his index and middle fingers. There were arch-humans downstairs. They couldn't just barge in there.
Oliver had other plans, he ran down the steps, his feet stomping on the creeky steps. It all happened so fast. Azlyn ran after him, but a floor board fell, and took Azlyn with it. There was no way that Tom could get passed the broken stairs in time to save Haddix from impending doom. Instead, he attempted to save Azlyn.
Azlyn and Tom are not of import at the moment. What is astonishing, is Mr. Oliver Haddix's side of the story, and that is what I shall show you.
As soon as Haddix appeared, the arch-humans chased after him. Their teeth gnashed, and a single bite would paralyze Haddix, making it impossible to defend himself. Surely, he would be dead in a matter of seconds.
But no.
In the corner of his eye, this genius of a child saw a fireplace. With this fireplace he saw a fireplace pokers, a sharp object. He dived for it, narrowly missing the grip of an oncoming arch-human. Her grabbed the tool, whipped around, and stabbed the closest monster in the heart. It came to him easily (quite surprisingly). With the same amount of ease, Oliver killed the rest of the monsters. Blood splattered across the floor.
The closet was on the other side of the room, and Oliver dashed to it. His hand grabbed the knob of the door, and he tugged with more force than needed. He was so excited, that his disappointment stung more than it should have.
The closet was empty. Yes, empty.
The shock brought poor Ollie to his knees. Crying on the rickety old floor boards of the closet.
Lilly was dead.