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ONE
RAVEN
I’m standing in a room, and so many people are looking at me—adult people with eyes that remind me of those that peer out from the darkness in cartoons. You know, the ones that are supposed to be scary. Well, these eyes remind me of those, and it’s terrifying. I can see all of their faces since the lights are on in the room.
“Stand right there,” a lady with a camera tells me. She’s standing in front of me, and the camera is on some sort of stand.
Everyone is watching me, and I’m scared.
“Where’s my dad?” I ask as I fiddle nervously with the hem of my dress.
When we came to this house, my dad had been with me. But soon after we entered the place, he took off with a bunch of guys. He told me to wait in this room that doesn’t even have windows, and then all these people showed up and started whispering while they stared at me.
“Your dad’s busy,” the woman with the camera says. “Now, don’t move. I’m going to take a photo of you.”
Tears burn my eyes, and she sighs. “Estell.” She snaps her fingers. “Bring in the other one. Perhaps that’ll get her to be more cooperative. If not, we’ll have to take more drastic measures, but I’d rather not dope her up if I don’t have to.”
I’m not fully certain what she’s saying, but my stomach twists in knots. I’m about to try to run out of the room, although I have this bad feeling that these people are bad and will chase me.
I stand still as a boy enters the room. I saw him when we arrived. He was getting into trouble. Or, well, he was getting yelled at for doing something.
He looks around my age, has short brown hair, and dark eyes. He looks scared but is trying to hide it as he walks straight toward me. He’s wearing boots, and they squeak against the black and white checkered floor as he approaches. When he reaches me, he turns and stands beside me. He’s slightly taller.
I look at him, wondering why he’s here and why I am, too. He doesn’t look at me, though, his gaze fixed on the camera.
“Don’t look at me,” he mutters under his breath. “Look at the camera and keep your expression blank. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can get the hell out of here.”
I don’t understand any of this. I want my dad, but asking for him didn’t do any good. So, I decide to listen to the boy and face the camera.
The lady behind it lowers her eyes to the lens.
Flash.
Flash.
Flash—
My eyes snap open. A light flickers through my room. It confuses the crap out of me to the point where I bolt upright in bed. I seriously expect someone to be standing at the foot of the bed, taking a photo of me, but no one is there.
Another flash flickers through my room, and I realize it’s coming from the window. A window I don’t remember being in my bedroom.
Panic sets in as I peer around, trying to figure out where I am. A lamp is on, and I see blue walls surrounding me …
Then it clicks.
I’m at Hunter, Jax, and Zay’s house, not my aunt and uncle’s. I left the lamp on because the dark scares the shit out of me. I was a little buzzed when I fell asleep not too long after we received a text that school was canceled due to the weather. Hunter had given me one of his shirts to sleep in, so the scent of his cologne is currently kissing my nostrils.
One thing that I don’t know is why in the hell something is flashing outside. Did it start to lightning again?
I climb out of bed and walk over to the window. When I peer outside, shock whips through me at the sight. The snowfall has nearly tripled since I went to bed and is still fluttering down from the sky like big chunks of cotton candy. The flashing light is coming from a malfunctioning solar lamppost. Or, well, it just doesn’t have enough light to continue working.
Releasing a breath that I didn’t realize I was holding, I turn away from the window and rake my fingers through my hair. That dream … memory—whatever the hell it was—is making me feel uneasy. I honestly am starting to feel like I’m losing my mind. I need to learn more about memory loss and what causes it, and maybe find a way to dig out all my buried memories. I would search for it online, except I don’t have a phone, and my computer is at my aunt and uncle’s house.
I need to get my stuff if I’m going to live here.
I head back to bed to get some sleep, but I’m wide awake now. And kind of thirsty. It’s still dark outside. I check the time and frown.
Five thirty in the morning.
