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Chapter 3-- really long, sorry |
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Chapter THREE: Return
The sky darkened, it was going to rain and Darien knew that it wouldn’t be long from her experience traveling across many terrains in many parts of the world. She had traveled far this day and she was close to where she was going so there was no need to stop now. Just over the next hill ahead of her was the military school she had once called home. As she climbed it the alarm at the school sounded, she turned back to see Red Eyes. Darien gritted her teeth, tugged her gray hoodie tighter around her waist, then ran towards the school clutching her dark blue book bag in her arms.
This had to be the second worst birthday she had ever had, the first being when she went to live with Commandant Yearly. Since then the world had become more dangerous as even more demons had been found in existence. Though running from a demon had to make her seventeenth birthday the worst.
When Darien reached the school, she threw her backpack onto her back and climbed the wall without any difficulty. She then ran smack dab into Commandant Jenkins. He did not recognize her, but he did push her inside the bunker away from the danger.
Darien looked him up and down, his hair was beginning to turn grey and his uniform had obviously changed since she left. ‘Perhaps,’ she thought, ‘My running away made his hair turn grey.’ She shook her head, and looked towards the door and realized how many people were crammed into the small bunker. Shuddering she looked for a way out, before her claustrophobia was to take hold.
The power suddenly went out and the bunker quickly became pitch black. She wanted to scream, the bodies around her only became denser as the door opened and more cadets crowded in. Wanting her freedom from the crowded hot room, Darien quickly pulled back her long bleach blonde hair into an emerald green bandana, which matched her eyes, and pulled gloves, with the fingers roughly cut off, onto both her hands using only her teeth.
She then pushed her way past the collection of cowering cadets as Commandant Jenkins yelled for her to stop. Darien pushed open the door and walked outside.
She looked up at the roof then to the wall, climbing this particular wall would be just like old times, though now there was more at stake than what anyone else knew. Gritting her teeth with a grin on her face Darien climbed up the wall. There was little time to waste with the impending storm and a giant demon on the loose.
Jenkins ran outside; when he did not see her, he quickly went to search the grounds hoping that he would be able to find the young woman before Red Eyes devoured another victim.
Once on the roof, which took longer than normal due to Darien’s cheep pair of sneakers, which caused her slip a few times, she loaded her rifle as Red Eyes came closer. She took it, aimed straight for Red Eyes’ face, and fired. The giant demon shook off the bullet and stepped closer to the wall, with a small amount of blood dripping down its face. When Red Eyes reached the wall, it received a severe shock to its face, as it had seventeen years before. Without thinking once about, continuing on Red Eyes turned back, for safety, and ran towards the mountains.
Darien set down her rifle. She grinned as she looked out over the beautiful countryside. It was said to have been much more beautiful before Red Eyes had appeared and the students of the school chopped down the forest for their own protection. Smiling she knew that she was finally home after seven years of being away traveling the world, and going to school.
She had been in college for the last four years under a very prestigious scholarship, where she had to work in the dorms and cafeteria to pay it off. Less than a week before she graduated with high honors at the top of her class. With her degrees she could do just about anything with her life, but her first duty was to return to the small military school where she had grown up.
Before this, she had ended up in an elementary school where the teachers had found her to be a genius and sent her onto the middle school. The middle school teachers too believed that she was a genius and almost immediately sent her onto high school where she spent three as she thought them to be, very pointless years learning how to cook, sew, use a computer and various other things. As she did in college, she quickly tested out of math, science, and social studies classes. Darien enjoyed her gym and English classes the most, because she could not test out of them, she had no choice but to take them. However, she never minded taking these classes.
After she ran away she sent weekly letters to the school, but none of them had ever been responded to. Even phone calls were left ignored. The lack of responses brought her to believe that the unthinkable had happened; Red Eyes had destroyed the school and everyone was dead. Though this thought had crossed her mind time and time again she did not allow it to get to her because after all the mail was not being sent back, for various reasons this was both a good and bad thing. It meant either the wrong people had intercepted her mail, or that it had been sent to the post office where it was still waiting. Fortunately, there were no problems when she would go and borrow money from the schools bank account for food and clothing. When she was younger, she had learned the bank account number for the school and luckily for her sake, the number and the bank was never changed.
Again, she looked towards the ever-darkening sky; the rain would come sooner than later. She kicked her rifle towards the door on the far side of the roof and opened it. A sound caused her to look back towards the air vents; she then looked back to the door and walked in. Only after she had walked inside she bent over to pick up the rifle, which she dare not touch while outside for fear of being struck by lightning.
Darien peered down the darkened stairwell then made her way down the long flight of stairs. She occasionally would look back up the stairs as she heard odd sounds like as if there were someone on the roof.
She stopped at the third floor, opened the door, after checking the hallway and seeing that there was hail coming down outside, she slung the rifle over her back, and walked towards her old room. Darien slowly turned the doorknob only to find that the door was locked. Puzzled by this she pulled her bag off her back and rummaged through until she found a key she then tried it. The door opened without difficulty. Smiling she threw the key into the air and caught it.
Inside lying on her bed, she found a small memorial adorned with stuffed animals, dead flowers, and a carved piece of wood stating:
This Door Shall Be Shut Forever More.
We Have Lost The One Joy Of Our School.
Rest in Piece Forever.
Darien: 1989-1999
Darien’s eyes quivered, as she read it. They thought she had died, which was probably a good thing.
Nevertheless, the question of the letters remained. Where were they? Had they been lost along the way? No, they could not have been lost or left at the post office, they had to have been intercepted, but she could not risk letting anyone know that they had in fact been intercepted by anyone. Only one person would know for sure if she were in mortal danger for the time being and that person was not in touch with her, and there was no way of reaching him at this late hour.
She shut the door and placed her things on the floor then pulled all the things save for the stuffed animals off her bed and looked it all over.
She then walked over to the window seat and sat down opening the drawer below and pulling out a set of diaries, which she left behind. Standing she went to her bag and pulled out seven diaries one for each year of her life as a runaway. Sighing she placed them into the drawer and pulled out a new diary in which she wrote of the days events.
Around nine, she heard the cadets running through the halls and slamming doors, luckily she did not need to leave the room, for she had her own bathroom and few would notice water running, at least not in this rainstorm. Besides, if they did they would most likely think that it was coming from the floor above or below where those floors bathrooms were located.
She picked up her cell phone and wondered whether she should call someone, no, noise would make the cadets suspicious or possibly scared, but what of her contact? Would he dare answer the phone or a text message after nine and risk getting into trouble during the floor check? No.
Darien bounced onto the bed still staring at the cell phone. It would be a waste of her time trying to get information out of anyone tonight. She would just have to risk hiding in the room whether or not it meant she would be in danger. The night was dreary enough as it was and she had traveled a long way just to reach the school.
Besides the fact that he would get into trouble she had been unable to contact him for the last two months leading her to believe that he was too busy to answer her calls or the same people who were chasing after her captured her. Just as they captured her “sister”, Jaden a close friend who was helping her flee when she was captured not two days before.
She shook her head realizing that he was at the military school. Closing her eyes, she rolled onto her side and imagined what he would look like now. The last time she saw his face was over seven years before.
The sound of shouting roused her late into the night. The digital clock on her nightstand read 12:30 as she held it in front of her face and yawned.
Commandant Jenkins was waking everyone up to form a search party. Darien stood up and walked to the door, she partially opened it, “Jenkins be quiet some of us need our sleep!” someone yelled. Other cadets quickly murmured in agreement.
Jenkins glared at the cadet then said, “That woman went missing, it could have been Red Eyes, but I don’t think it was. I want the grounds searched at once,” he shouted.
“Your right we have to find her, we don’t want another incident like with Darien…,” a familiar voice answered. Darien automatically recognized it as Terrence, he was her contact, and she needed a way to speak with him though she also did not want to be discovered.
“That’s right, we don’t…” Jenkins started to say.
“We’ll go start searching the grounds right away sir,” Terrence said interrupting him.
Without thinking of how much danger she was putting herself and the cadets into, Darien threw open her door wide and yelled, “Cadet Taylor reporting for duty! Commandant Jenkins, where do you wish for me to search first?” She said saluting. Using James’s last name only seemed right because it was what everyone used in previous years as she lived there, for the past seven years she had used Rasta, her given name, as her alibi. Darien was of course only kidding around, but she did not expect it to scare everyone as horribly as she did.
The cadets and Jenkins, other than Terrence, jumped. They thought she was a ghost until Jenkins recognized her as the woman he had seen before, “Stand down men. Who are you and how did you get into that room?”
Terrence blinked wondering what was going on, he would not have jumped even if this girl were Darien, and after all, he was the only person who knew that she was alive.
“I told you I’m Cadet Taylor,” She said, “and I got in with my key, I can’t believe you locked this door…”
“Please don’t joke, Darien was only ten when she…”
“Ran away,” Darien answered.
“No when she died…”
“No I ran away, I’ve been gone for seven years…”
“Please don’t joke with us…” Jenkins said at almost a shout.
“If I were joking I would have stopped. I am Darien, I know I do not look like I did seven years ago, but I was in college. I graduated at the top of my class with very high honors, why didn’t you come to my graduation for high school or college. I wrote to you many times about it, I also wrote to James, but I never received any sort of response,” she said.
While she awaited a response, she realized that she should not have said anything. She was now in danger, there was no excuse for risking everyone’s life for her own pleasure. Shaking her head, she realized that there had to be a spy somewhere among the cadets.
Commandant Jenkins blinked hard rubbing his eyes. He looked her over; she wore blue jeans, a tee shirt and a hoodie, tied tightly around her waist. Though he did not realize it from her bleach blonde hair, he knew that indeed it was Darien. Her bright green eyes were a dead giveaway. Gasping he said, “You are Darien. What letters?”
“I wrote you and James once a week,” Darien explained.
“Terrence.” He said sternly.
“Sir?” The well-built sixteen-year-old African American asked stepping forward.
“Go get James; he’s probably in the library,” Jenkins commanded.
“Oh don’t bother him, he’s probably busy…” Darien said glancing over at the sixteen-year old who was still in his pajamas.
“He rarely leaves the library, he’s writing a book about the wonderful years you spent here, before your apparent death. Go get him Terrence,” Jenkins said shooing the other cadets off to bed.
Terrence saluted and walked away. Darien smiled as he walked away, “He’s hot,” she murmured.
“Hmm?”
“Nothing, so what is this you say about a book?” she asked looking back towards him.
“He’s been writing it as long as any of us can remember, he’s so into detail and he has many first hand accounts from cadets fearing your wrath on their beer,” Jenkins explained clapping her on the shoulder.
Darien laughed, “Those were the best times,” she said with a bright warm smile to hide her fear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile Terrence was walking through the library in his search for James. He was afraid to call for him so he kept looking until he finally found him in the back of the library, “Sir?”
James looked up from his laptop. He looked the cadet over with his dark blue eyes, “What?” he finally asked leaning back in his chair and putting his feet on the table.
Terrence quickly looked over the scraggly brown haired man sitting in front of him. He had not seen him since his fathers’ funeral, seven years before. To Terrence he looked like how he would describe a crazy homeless man, except that James was wearing a tan uniform issued to him by the school. “Commandant Jenkins,” he finally began.
“Commandant Jenkins, that man never comes down to my refuge so go away. I have one more sentence to write and I shall be finished, but that does not mean that I will willingly leave.” He said shooing him away with his left hand.
“But sir, he wants you on the third floor…” Terrence continued.
“The third floor?” James asked pulling down his reading glasses, “Is he mad? I do not go to the third floor! Horrible memories haunt the third floor!” James exclaimed, “Does he want me to have another heart attack?”
“Sir?” Terrence asked moving back towards a bookcase.
James fumbled with a pill bottle and pulled out a single red pill before saying, “Go, and bring whatever he wants me to see here. He is not allowed in my refuge, now go,” he said taking a drink of water and swallowing the pill.
“Yes sir,” Terrence said slowly moving back towards the door.
“I said go!” He said balling up his left fist.
Terrence took off fearing James’ wrath. He wondered whether or not James was left handed by the way he had tried to shoo him away, or if something happened to cause his right hand to go limp, after all not once during their conversation had he moved his right hand. Wiping away sweat from his brow as he exited the library remembering that James had mentioned a heart attack, could that have been what caused the paralysis in his right hand? It was possible, but Terrence did not believe that was the reason his right hand was paralyzed.
While he walked, he had a nagging thought that tried to tell him that Darien was an imposter. He knew the real Darien and she was not blonde, but those eyes, her eyes were unmistakable because of how bright the green tint was in them. It had to be her, but what was she doing putting the school and students in danger by blurting out who she was?
When he reached Commandant Jenkins on the third floor, again he told him what had happened in the library. Commandant Jenkins laughed hard and said, “So the old coot is almost done, he won’t be done when Darien here gets through with him.”
“He isn’t old…” Terrence pointed out, "Sir I may be out of line in asking this, but what’s wrong with his right hand?”
“But he is crazy,” he said giving him a stare, “Terrence take Darien to him as he requested.”
“Sir you didn't answer…” Terrence began.
“You are out of line asking that, it is unimportant, now go,” he said giving him a stern stare.
“Sir he warned me about his…”
“Yes, he would warn you about that, but I do not believe that bringing Darien to him will cause any harm, now get out of my sight,” Jenkins barked.
Terrence nodded and walked down the hallway. Darien followed Terrence down to the second floor in silence. When they reached the second floor Terrence turned back to her, “So what’s with the blonde I thought you were a brunette.”
Darien pulled a piece of her long wavy blonde hair in front of her face. She sighed, “It was a cruel joke. The students do this to everyone who graduates at the top of their class.”
“I like it…” he said.
“Uh…thanks, I guess,” she said throwing it back with a flirty movement.
Terrence smiled, “So you haven’t seen James in like what seven years now?”
Darien nodded, “Why?” she seemed unable to stop herself from telling him the truth by this point, so she did not bother stopping herself, “What exactly is wrong with him Terrence?”
“I didn’t exactly tell him you were coming back with me,” He said continuing down the long dark hallway, “do you know about his hand?”
Darien stopped in her tracks, “You didn’t?”
Terrence turned around, “No. I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Darien looked back down the hallway to the stairs, then back to Terrence. With tears in her eyes she said, “I can’t do this. He thinks I’m dead.”
“As he should,” Terrence mumbled.
The door at the end of the hall opened and James walked out, “Ah-ha there you are boy, what is it that thing you were bringing me?”
Darien turned; her hair seemed to flip around like a skirt, “James?”
Terrence looked over to him, “This is who I was bringing you,” he said loudly. He hit his head and groaned, “Idiot,” he said under his breath.
James stared hard, and then asked, “Are you a relative of Darien? Because if you are then you should know that, she's dead. I'm sorry…”
Darien took off running towards him, “Daddy!”
James stared and recoiled as she hugged him. “Who are you?”
Terrence walked towards them, “This is Darien. She used to live here.” he shook his head; this was not like him to put people in danger for one persons happiness. ‘Perhaps,’ he thought, ‘I am going crazy or I’m really crushing on her.’
“I’m sorry I ran away…I wrote to you and Commandant Jenkins once a week, so you wouldn’t worry,” she cried squeezing him tighter.
“Darien? No, you’re a ghost!” he pushed her off and ran into the library locking the door behind him.
“Daddy!” Darien cried banging on the door. “Daddy I’m sorry! Please talk to me! Daddy!” she slid down to her knees.
Terrence put his hand on Darien’s shoulder, “It’s no use come on we’ll try to coax him out of the library tomorrow, or at least get the key,” he said trying to calm her down so that she would not draw attention to herself.
Darien stood up, turned towards Terrence, and buried her face in his shirt, “What’s wrong with him, Terrence, what‘s wrong with him?”
Terrence held her close, “You know he has a heart condition…”
“What? Was it my fault? Was it? Was it because I ran away?” she cried.
Commandant Jenkins walked up to them, “I would think it did not go well.” Terrence who had his arms wrapped around Darien shook his head; “It may take some time for him to accept your return. We’ll look for those letters in the morning, for now I suggest that you get some sleep.” He nodded to Terrence, “Take her to her room. And no Darien, it was not your fault it was entirely my own fault. I let you carry a rifle; I told him his father died eleven years after the fact. It was my fault. You had nothing to do with his poor health. He was already sick when he had his heart attack, and that was only because he worried himself sick then I told him. That’s why we sent you to live with the Yearly family. I’m sorry I never told you,” he said, “Now Terrence would you walk her up to her room?”
Terrence nodded and picked up Darien, “Her room not yours!” Jenkins shouted.
Rolling his eyes, Terrence carried Darien up to her room. As he placed Darien on the floor she looked up at him, “You really didn’t have to carry me up to my room.”
“I wanted to. After all you were crying, and I wasn’t about to make you walk up here like that,” he said, wiping her tears away with his shirtsleeve.
Darien smiled then with a heavy sigh she said, “Thanks. I guess.”
Terrence smiled, “No thank you…I realized a while back when we were downstairs that you were the one who my father came back with after his stay here.” He paused, “You knew him as Tom.”
Darien’s bright green eyes widened, “I knew it! You…you haven‘t contacted me and…you…you were the one who kissed me!”
“Yes…”
Darien gasped and backed away in shock as she remembered that he kissed her. Her eyes twitched, gulping she wondered why he had not answered her calls telling her whether it was safe to return to the school. She now knew why, it was not safe and he could not risk calling her because of this.
Putting his hand to his face he sighed, “Darien I was nine, I had no idea what I was doing.” He looked down, “I went to your funeral, then to my dad’s.” he murmured, “They know that you’re here. They’ve been intercepting your mail. You shouldn’t be here, run away before they come.”
“I’m sorry I left, I should never have run away,” she said looking down and scuffling her feet on the floor, “I didn’t know how many people it would affect. I was only ten.” She had to keep up her act just in case someone was to pass them and overhear. Even if it was about one in the morning and everyone was to be in their rooms.
Terrence shook his head, “I thought for so long that it was my fault you and dad had died…I said they know you’re here, they control Red Eyes,” he murmured again.
“You should never think that,” Darien said placing her hand on his shoulder. Terrence looked into her eyes, and suddenly moved closer to her. She stood her ground as he kissed her. He backed away, “Terrence…” she smiled.
“I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have…I was just trying to tell you to…” Darien moved closer and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she kissed him, “Hush it’s been a long time.” she whispered, “Happy birthday,” she said kissing him again.
Terrence found himself caught up in the moment; he momentarily forgot that she was being chased. He had known since he was nine, he was in love. However, someone was calling him and Darien back to reality though neither wanted the kiss to end.
“Terrence! Darien!”
“Commandant Jenkins!” The two shouted backing away from each other and against opposite walls. Neither had expected him to go back to his office, they expected him to take the other stairs to the opposite end of the wing and go to bed. However, Jenkins knew better than to leave the two alone unsupervised and only went upstairs to make sure that they were both in their own rooms.
“My office now!” he shouted pointing back down the hallway.
“Sir, yes, sir!” they both shouted turning towards his office, which was down the hall.
“Darien!” he shouted giving her a stern stare.
“Sir?” she asked freezing in her place.
“Go to your room!”
Terrence turned back and mouthed the words, “Run away before they kill you, they’re coming and happy birthday to you too.”
“Yes sir!” Darien said turning back towards her room. She quickly ran in and shut the door. Her face was flushed a bright red, she had not expected herself to kiss Terrence, after all they barely knew each other. It had been over three months since their last conversation, but she had never realized how much she missed and liked him.
Her cell phone suddenly beeped, she picked it up, the message on the front read, WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? YOU KNOW WE’LL FIND YOU SOMEHOW. DON’T THINK WE WON’T.
Darien’s whole body shuddered; she threw the cell phone to the floor and stepped on it. The people who were chasing her must have gotten the cell phone number from her kidnapped “sister” who had been helping her flee, when she was suddenly captured and Darien escaped on foot only two days earlier. Since then she had been running on little sleep and food trying to get back to the military school where she thought that she would be safe, and yet now she was no longer anywhere close to being safe. But now she was in more danger than she had ever been in before.
After locking her door, she picked up her rifle. She knew that this was no joke. Terrence told the truth, she should run, but by this point there was more than likely nowhere to run.
Glancing around the room, she placed the rifle next to her bed. She still needed to sleep and with nowhere to escape, she had no choice.
Without removing her shoes she plopped herself onto the bed and fell fast asleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Terrence knew he was in trouble, but he could not bring himself to tell Jenkins what kind of danger the school was. Jenkins kept talking and yelling, and then he finally slammed his hands on the desk and yelled into his ear, “Have you been listening?”
“Sir, no, how can I…” Terrence said.
“Don’t give me that crap! What the hell is going on? You knew she was alive, I noticed that you didn’t jump when she said her name,” he growled.
“Sir, I will only tell you if it comes to that, but yes I did know she was alive. So what? She needed to remain dead, and that’s all I can say, but don’t go blaming me if anything out of the ordinary happens. Red Eyes showed for a reason and now he knows where he can once again find her,” Terrence gulped he had said too much.
“Oh really is that so, and what do you know of this?”
“I am not at liberty to say, I am under oath not to say,” Terrence said looking away.
“Two can play at that game,” he grumbled, “I am also under oath not to tell you about someone, about your father and if you want to know you’ll have to tell me,” Jenkins said trying to coax the information out of him.
“My father is dead,” Terrence began to say only to be interrupted by Jenkins yet again.
“But what if he weren’t would you be interested then?” Jenkins said pulling out a file with his fathers name on it.
“He’s dead, you hear me?”
“Then ask your mother,” he said.
Terrence growled, “Even if my father isn’t dead, he must be under some sort of secret operation where the enemy needs to believe that he is dead.” There would be no way that Jenkins was getting any information out of him. “If you really want to know ask Darien, oh wait she’s already asleep. Besides, she wouldn’t tell you even if she wanted to…you know you turned a little thing like a kiss into a damn interrogation! All because she ran away and why because she heard you say that you were going to send her away to a private school.”
Jenkins gulped, “Then why did she come back?”
“She was obviously worried, and now because you never responded to her letters she could be in danger. Goodnight sir!” he said standing and walking towards the door.
“You asked about James’ arm, would you give me the information I want if I tell you about that?” Jenkins asked.
Terrence turned back, “Perhaps if I find the story interesting.”
“Alright then.” Jenkins then told him about James’ arm.
However, Terrence shook his head, “Nope, it’s not even close to being interesting. Considering I now know who my father was talking about when he told that to my mom.”
“Grr…what do you want?” Jenkins growled angrily.
“I think, what I really want is sleep,” Terrence said walking out of the room and to his own, which happened to be right next to Darien’s.
Jenkins growled and locked his office then walked to the other wing of the third floor where his room was located.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Long after Darien fell asleep, the doorknob began to rattle, waking her. With eyes quivering, she picked up the rifle and moved to the far side of the room. She glanced to her left the clock read 3:30. Pointing the rifle at the door she wondered if whether or not she were in danger. She thought that maybe the intruder was only Terrence making sure that her door remained locked, but this was only a thought, a thought which could get her killed.
Sweat poured down her face as the door opened, a man dressed in black entered, gritting her teeth she fired at him. The man dodged, Darien reloaded her rifle as fast as she could, and she had been found. She fired at him and again he dodged and made his way closer to her. Darien reached under her bed and pulled out a rapier, she had not fenced in forever, but it was her last resort, reloading her rifle now could prove fatal.
The man pulled out a gun, Darien dropped the rapier and moved towards the windows with her hands held in the air, then without thinking, she pushed the windows open with her elbow, jumped onto the rainwater drain, and slid down. He shot at her, as she climbed into a window.
Darien was beginning to wonder why no one was awake after four loud gunshots. She would not be surprised if they were dead or drugged; it was more likely that they had been drugged than dead.
When she reached a closet, she broke it open and pulled out a firearm, and extra ammo. Quickly and quietly, she ran to the library, which was still locked. Since she was unable to get in, she boosted herself into the vent system and crawled until she found her way into the library.
James heard the commotion and saw her crawl out of the vent, “Who are you?” he asked pointing a revolver at her using his left hand.
Darien held her hands in the air, and then glanced at his motionless right hand. She then said, “I told you I’m Darien, and now is not a good time, everyone has been drugged, some creep has been following me since I crossed the state line,” she lied, “He somehow found my phone number and tracked me here,” she said, using her saddest puppy eyes hoping to jolt his memory.
He shook his gun towards her face as if trying to remember something, “Those bright green…Darien? It is you.”
“Finally…there’s no way in, so he shouldn’t be able to follow me,” she said loading her firearm.
“You got in,” he said pointing to the vent still holding his gun firmly.
“He doesn’t know that though,” she said looking around.
“I see that you have given up your rifle, for a firearm,” he said.
“For now…”
“Were you even trained on that?” he asked.
“Yeah, a long time ago,” she said loading it.
James shook his head, “As commandant I should not allow you to have that, but if it means your safety then you should carry it for now.”
“Commandant?” she questioned looking at her loaded firearm.
“Yes…” he froze at the sound of a three fast gunshots. The library door fell in towards them.
Darien pointed her firearm towards the man, as she backed away towards the windows. “Coward!” he yelled.
Darien growled and shot at him. He dodged; her face went stark white with fear. She ran and cried out as he shot at her.
James came to his senses and shot at the man hitting him in the chest, but not before the man shot Darien. He turned to see her lying on the floor bleeding, “Darien!” He ran to her and picked her up as best he could with only one good hand, “Darien!”
Commandant Jenkins ran in he looked groggy, “James there’s a…Darien!” he looked down at the now dead man, “Oh why…”
“Damn it Jenkins call 911!”
Jenkins pulled out his cell phone and dialed, “Yes this is an emergency! Someone broke into the military school and shot my daughter! Why was she here? What kind of question is that, he drugged everyone in the school except her! You should send more than one ambulance some of the boys do not take well to chloroform…oh crap, James you stay here, I have to go check on the students!” he said running off.
The ambulances soon arrived; thirteen students went to the hospital with severe hives covering their bodies.
As Darien was put into one of the ambulances Jenkins jumped in, “James you’re in charge. Make sure all the students get to their classes.”
“Yes sir.” he said walking back inside. There were students standing in the hallways, many of them were mortified to see the paramedics taking Darien out, with blood covering her body. “Everyone to the auditorium!” he shouted.
“Yes, Commandant Taylor!” they shouted walking away uniformly to the auditorium.
James blinked; it had been a long time since he had heard the students speak his last name. He glanced down at his shirt, which was covered in blood. Quickly he went and changed before he reached the auditorium. The students were chaotic until he entered, “Alright, I realize it has already been a long night. Commandant Jenkins has told me to make you all go to your classes, but I’m going to let whoever wants the day off take off. The rest of you are to go to your classes. If all of the classes are empty then we’ll postpone them until Saturday. Have I made this clear?”
“Yes sir!” the students shouted uniformly.
Terrence threw his hand into the air, “Sir is Darien going to be alright? Are any of the students who were taken to the hospital going to be okay?” he asked.
“Yes, the students, who were taken, had extremely bad hives from the chloroform should be fine. As for Darien, we are unsure at this point,” James sighed.
Another hand went up; he pointed the cadet out, “Sir? Can we go to bed?”
“Yes, you may all go to bed.”
Terrence looked around as everyone walked out. James stopped and glared at him. With a gulp, Terrence explained what had been going on for the past five years. For some reason he felt that he could trust James more than he could Jenkins.
James was shocked to learn that he had known everything. He immediately tightened security around the school and awaited word from Jenkins.
There was no word from Jenkins until late in the afternoon when he called to tell them that Darien had made it through the surgery and that the cadets needed to be picked up from the hospital.
James went for the cadets and left the other commandants in charge. However the cadets had ideas for these certain commandants, which included locking them into the attic after convincing each and every one of them that there was someone up there moaning, which after a time was true for they locked them into the attic separately. They then threw a party, which left a mess of the entire building.
As James drove the bus up to the school, he could hear loud music playing and see things being thrown out the windows. “Hooligans! It’s no wonder that their parents left them with us. You thirteen follow me!” he said getting off the bus.
The thirteen cadets followed him obediently as he entered the building. “Cadets!” The cadets froze in place and one hit the floor as he slid down the banister. James unplugged their radio, “Where are the commandants?” he asked picking up the one who slid down the banister. The boy shuddered and pointed to the ceiling. “Clean up this mess! Now! You thirteen follow me!”
The thirteen followed him as he went upstairs yelling the same commands to the cadets on other floors. When he finally reached the attic, he found cadets guarding it and chased them off to clean up the mess. He opened the attic doors and found the other commandants and among them Terrence who was bruised. Shaking his head he sighed, “Terrence? Why are you up here? You all get those hooligans to clean up that mess!” The other commandants ran off, “You go to your rooms!” The thirteen cadets ran off to their rooms.
Terrence gulped, “I didn’t have anything to do with it!” he suddenly yelped.
“I know…what the heck happened though was it the commandants lack of responsibility?” he asked.
“No, they threw me up there first! Then the others came trying to figure out what was moaning and they jumped them! I was just their stupid bait!” Terrence complained.
“Would you mind going to clean up Darien’s room?”
“They know where she is though…”
“She’ll be fine…after all we’re living with these hooligans!” James shook his head, “I’m going to bed. Commandant Hilo see to it that they clean up this mess! And you go clean Darien’s room, she won’t be here for at least three days so put sheets on her bed and have the other cadets help paint it…we have a green color in the storage room so it’ll have to do,” Jenkins said as he walked off.
Terrence shuddered, “He’s scaring me…”
Hilo looked over at him, “He scares us all.” Shrugging he walked down the stairs and called back, “Do as he says and you’ll be okay.”
 Flamegirl88 · Thu Mar 01, 2007 @ 01:29am · 0 Comments |
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