Chapter 3
People always ask me why I'm friends with Thalia. I know we're each others total opposite. She's reckless I'm stable, she changes all the time, I'm always the same, she's wild I'm obedient, she's the one that messes up, I'm the one that cleans it up. But still we found a way to complete each other. I don't know why I care so much about Thalia but I do. And I know she feels the same way about me.
"HOLY SHIT THALIA." I yelled running towards her.
"The monsters, they are in her, I...She..." Cassie was sobbing next to me.
I realised I was crying too when I got too her. I tried to feel her heartbeat but she started convulsing. I held her head from the ground, terrified.
"This is all my bloody fault." Cassie said still crying.
"JUST SHUT UP CASS." I couldn't bear her desperation because I was too busy dealing with mine. I passed her my cellphone. "Call 911."
Suddenly Cassie's face lighted up.
"The-they possessed her, I know what to do." She mumbled getting on her feet.
"I'm not in the mood for your crazy talk right now Cass." My meanness was out of control.
"We need to take her to the scientists I met yesterday, trust me, please, just once."
Thalia has stopped seizing but she was barely breathing.
"Cassie, please we don't have time for trusting now, we need to take her to the hospital."
"The nearest hospital is 30 minutes away from here, she'll be bloody dead when the ambulance arrives."
I froze, if I trusted Cassie she could drive me to imaginary scientists or something, but she was right, the ambulance would be to late.
I got up too, holding Thalia by her left arm.
"Get the other arm, you can show me where to go but I'll drive."
-----------------------------------------
Cassidy showed me the way to a dark, empty street where the only sound we could hear was the distant noise of cars in an avenue.
We carried still unconscious Thalia out of the car into the only building on the street that had light coming out of a window, witch Cass had the key to get in.
"We have to be quick, her breathing is just getting worse." I said carrying Thalia through a barely illuminated corridor.
"Her breathing is the least of our worries." Cassie answered knocking on the last door of the long corridor.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "And who are you looking for? I'm lost."
"Who is it?" A strong voice came from the other side of the door.
"It's Cassidy, let me in Max, it's an emergency."
The door opened quickly and in front of us was a man that was small to the high of my hips, he was bald, a white beard occupied his chin and the hole perimeter around his mouth, he wore thick black glasses and a white coat.
"Cassie, I'm glad you came." He then looked at me. "And who are you?"
Before I could answer Cassie said:
"These are Winter and her possessed friend Thalia, will you please help us?" She begged.
"Oh." He seemed to have just noticed the unconscious Thalia in my arms. "Of course, of course, come in."
Cassie went through the door and I followed her, entering a large rectangular room illuminated by very shiny white lights. I noticed it was a laboratory because of the many devices spread by the room making all kinds of noises. Two other men wearing coats were sitting in tall chairs, leaning over a white marble table and looking into huge microscopes, they didn't even look at us when we came in.
Thalia mumbled something I didn't understand.
"Lay her down on the table." Max said pointing at the other side of the room. "How long has she been down?"
Cassidy lifted Thalia's feet up and we laid her on another marble table.
"For about 15 minutes." Cassie said seeing I was too confused to talk.
"You came just in time." He putted on white doctor gloves and grabbed a syringe full of a pink liquid from a silver shelf.
"WOW, wow, wait." I screamed blocking Max's way. "I'm not gonna let a complete stranger inject stuff in Thalia."
The other men finally looked at us.
"It's not any "stuff" young lady." The blonde one said. "It's an antidote for monster possession."
I was feeling dizzy.
"You too?" I said. "YOU'RE ALL CRAZY. I'M TAKING THALIA TO A HOSPITAL.
"Trust me Winter." Cassie said calmly. "They know what they're doing."
"Nobody is getting {near} Thalia, you hear me? I answered in the same tone.
But when I turned around to check her pulse her green eyes were wide open.
In the blink of an eye Thalia got up, grabbed my arm and pushed me to the ground.
A wild scream escaped from her throat and she kicked Cassie in the stomach.
"What the bloody hell are you doing? I said, too surprised to scream.
Thalia didn't even look at me, she raised her hand to punch Max but he was quicker, some how he managed to push the syringe into her arm and she fell to the ground.
I opened my mouth to protest but before I could say anything I felt a sting on my left arm and lost the ability of forming words. Mumbling senseless noises I was lifted up to a table by the brunet scientist that was the last thing I saw before my eyelids got heavy and everything got dark.
------------------------------------------
I woke up with my arms and legs tied down to a plastic chair in a small room made almost entirely of wood. Differently from the place we were before this one was dark, illuminated by candles, the only electronic device in sight was a panel with a 3D image of our city marked with 8 red dots, some of them were moving. There was also multiple shelves on the wall on my left side, covered by old looking books.
Thalia was apparently sleeping next to me, tied down to another chair.
"Thalia." My voice sounded rusty. "Wake up."
She opened her eyes slowly and looked around confused.
"Where are we?" She asked. "What happened?"
"You suddenly turned into a robot sent to destroy us all, that's what happened." I laughed faintly.
"I remember punching a bunch of people, but it's all fuzzy and it doesn't seem like it was exactly me." She laughed. "That must sound crazy."
"It does." I said. "But the point is I think we were kidnapped."
I heard a clicking noise and the door opened, the white light coming from the other side hurt my eyes, the scientists entered the room, all three wearing white cotton shirt and pants.
"Hello girls." Max said. "I'm sorry we had to tie you down, we were afraid if we didn't you two would run away."
"You were right." I said interrupting him.
The two other scientists gave me a mean look but Max just continued "You must be very confused by the events of tonight and if you want we can explain it all." He coughed. "But I must warn you about the responsibility that comes with this explanation."
I then noticed someone was missing.
"What did you do with Cassidy?"
"She's eating a sandwich in the laboratory." The blonde scientist said quickly. "By the way, my name is Daniel."
"We'll have time for presentations afterwards." Max told Daniel and then turned to us. "Girls, I really think you should listen to me for a moment before you choose to believe it or not."
I was curious to hear their crazy version of the story so I asked "If we listen to you will you let us go home?"
"Of course." Said the brunet scientist that was quiet till now.
"Ok, I need to explain it all from the start then." Max said slowly. "You have probably noticed that sometimes Cassie sees creatures that frighten her." I knew where this was going. "And you have to know that this creatures are real, it seems impossible but they are."
I rolled my eyes but Thalia was still paying attention.
"This monsters are the image of fear, they are responsible for nightmares and when a child truly believes in them, they become real."
"Can you stop bullshitting us?" I said irritated. "I wanna go home."
"Shut up Winter, I want to hear him." Thalia said and I rolled my eyes again.
"Well" Max said. "Their idea of fun is possessing people, leading them to get into fights, rob places and even kill other people."
"Wait." Thalia finally looked suspicious "So you're saying every crime committed is this monsters fault?"
"Of course not." Max said scratching his beard. "Just the ones committed by good people that had no intention of doing it, people can be evil by themselves too."
I was tired of all this. I started to wonder if there was any possibility that we were on TV and this was some kind of prank.
"And you just figured all of this?" I said in the middle of a laugh.
"Thank you Winter, that's what I was trying to get to." Max said ignoring my laughs. "Me and my sons Daniel and Henry come from a long generation of Liverpool ******* we have seen and killed a lot of this monsters."
I contained another laugh and Thalia looked at me mad.
"We usually live a normal life." Max continued. "This creatures are rare, so we only have to interrupt about once or twice a year, but there has been an incredible increase on their number in this city and we don't know the reason for it, that's why Cassie has been so desperate."
"And how come we can't see them?" Thalia asked.
"I was getting there." He said. "To see this monsters you just have to believe they exist, it may seem easy but it's not."
Thalia's eyes were glowing like tiny stars.
"Now that you 'explained'" I formed quotation marks with my fingers. "Can you let us go?"
Max and his sons exchanged a look and nodded with their heads.
"We only have one last thing we have to tell you." Max said calmly. "You see those red dots in the city map?"
We nodded.
"They show the ******** in this city, and if you come closer you can see that there are 5 of them in this room." He pointed at the panel.
"What are you trying to say?" Thalia's eyes seemed to glow even more if that was possible.
"Didn't you wonder why Cassidy tried to be around you?" Max said. "You give her the feeling of protection, you give each other that feeling too that's why you're friends. You two and your friend Nicholas Parker are *******.
"Okay." I said. "That's enough, let us go."
He ignored me.
"You see this mark?" He showed a familiar brown mark in the form of a little 'plus' in his clavicle "Is the mark of a ******, I bet all that I own that you two have the same one." The two brothers repeated the gesture showing the same place.
It was true, I had that same little plus in my clavicle since I was borne.
"You're right." Thalia couldn't contain her excitement. "We have it too."
I needed some air, it was getting harder and harder for me to breath, the air seemed to be getting thicker.
"Please just let us go home." I begged.
Max looked disappointed but he asked his sons to untie us.
"And are there anymore ******* in our school?" Thalia asked getting up.
"Yes, but I think I should keep them in secret for now." Max answered.
"Thalia you can't have believed all this shit."
"Your mind is just too closed Winter."
"Oh shut up, let's go home."
"I hope you think about what we told you and come back when it's time." Max opened the door for us.
"We will." Thalia said, as always quicker then me.
I rolled my eyes for the third time that evening.
We got back in the laboratory, Cassie was waiting for us.
"What do you research here?" Thalia asked looking around.
"We test all kinds of theories for all kinds of people." The blonde brother said.
I grabbed Cassie's arm and walked toward the dark corridor.
"Bye guys." Thalia said.
I closed the door before they could answer.
------------------------------------------
When I dropped Thalia at her foster parent's house I was alone with Cassidy in the car.
"What did they tell you Cass?" I asked. "That you are a ********* too?"
"No." She said. "I was just a stupid bloody kid who believed in her nightmares and now sees monsters everywhere."
I watched her through the rearview mirror, she had dropped her golden hair and it was loose over her shoulder. She seemed to be so sure that everything they said was true. I don't even believe in God, how could I believe in all that madness? I have to admit a part of me screamed it was true since he showed us that mark, but the logical part was stronger.
We got to the closed condominium where Cassie's house was. I was there once years ago in Thomas's birthday party when we were all friends.
The doorman let me in and I followed the streets until the Walker's home.
"Can you walk me to the door?" Cassidy asked me. "I'm scared."
Something about her look made me want to hug her tightly.
"Sure."
We walked together and before we got to the door someone opened it.
"Cassidy." Thomas ran toward us wearing a black T-Shirt and jeans and hugged her. "Where were you?"
She opened her mouth but I was faster.
"I found her lost in a night club and gave her a ride."
He finally looked at me, everything in his face looked just too perfect.
"Thank you so much."
"Anytime."I half smiled.
"We tried to call her but she forgot her cellphone as always." He blinked. " Your name is Winter right?"
"Yeah." I said nervously. "Hum, I have to go so...bye."
"Bye." They said at the same time.
I walked to my car and finally drove home
People always ask me why I'm friends with Thalia. I know we're each others total opposite. She's reckless I'm stable, she changes all the time, I'm always the same, she's wild I'm obedient, she's the one that messes up, I'm the one that cleans it up. But still we found a way to complete each other. I don't know why I care so much about Thalia but I do. And I know she feels the same way about me.
"HOLY SHIT THALIA." I yelled running towards her.
"The monsters, they are in her, I...She..." Cassie was sobbing next to me.
I realised I was crying too when I got too her. I tried to feel her heartbeat but she started convulsing. I held her head from the ground, terrified.
"This is all my bloody fault." Cassie said still crying.
"JUST SHUT UP CASS." I couldn't bear her desperation because I was too busy dealing with mine. I passed her my cellphone. "Call 911."
Suddenly Cassie's face lighted up.
"The-they possessed her, I know what to do." She mumbled getting on her feet.
"I'm not in the mood for your crazy talk right now Cass." My meanness was out of control.
"We need to take her to the scientists I met yesterday, trust me, please, just once."
Thalia has stopped seizing but she was barely breathing.
"Cassie, please we don't have time for trusting now, we need to take her to the hospital."
"The nearest hospital is 30 minutes away from here, she'll be bloody dead when the ambulance arrives."
I froze, if I trusted Cassie she could drive me to imaginary scientists or something, but she was right, the ambulance would be to late.
I got up too, holding Thalia by her left arm.
"Get the other arm, you can show me where to go but I'll drive."
-----------------------------------------
Cassidy showed me the way to a dark, empty street where the only sound we could hear was the distant noise of cars in an avenue.
We carried still unconscious Thalia out of the car into the only building on the street that had light coming out of a window, witch Cass had the key to get in.
"We have to be quick, her breathing is just getting worse." I said carrying Thalia through a barely illuminated corridor.
"Her breathing is the least of our worries." Cassie answered knocking on the last door of the long corridor.
"What do you mean?" I asked. "And who are you looking for? I'm lost."
"Who is it?" A strong voice came from the other side of the door.
"It's Cassidy, let me in Max, it's an emergency."
The door opened quickly and in front of us was a man that was small to the high of my hips, he was bald, a white beard occupied his chin and the hole perimeter around his mouth, he wore thick black glasses and a white coat.
"Cassie, I'm glad you came." He then looked at me. "And who are you?"
Before I could answer Cassie said:
"These are Winter and her possessed friend Thalia, will you please help us?" She begged.
"Oh." He seemed to have just noticed the unconscious Thalia in my arms. "Of course, of course, come in."
Cassie went through the door and I followed her, entering a large rectangular room illuminated by very shiny white lights. I noticed it was a laboratory because of the many devices spread by the room making all kinds of noises. Two other men wearing coats were sitting in tall chairs, leaning over a white marble table and looking into huge microscopes, they didn't even look at us when we came in.
Thalia mumbled something I didn't understand.
"Lay her down on the table." Max said pointing at the other side of the room. "How long has she been down?"
Cassidy lifted Thalia's feet up and we laid her on another marble table.
"For about 15 minutes." Cassie said seeing I was too confused to talk.
"You came just in time." He putted on white doctor gloves and grabbed a syringe full of a pink liquid from a silver shelf.
"WOW, wow, wait." I screamed blocking Max's way. "I'm not gonna let a complete stranger inject stuff in Thalia."
The other men finally looked at us.
"It's not any "stuff" young lady." The blonde one said. "It's an antidote for monster possession."
I was feeling dizzy.
"You too?" I said. "YOU'RE ALL CRAZY. I'M TAKING THALIA TO A HOSPITAL.
"Trust me Winter." Cassie said calmly. "They know what they're doing."
"Nobody is getting {near} Thalia, you hear me? I answered in the same tone.
But when I turned around to check her pulse her green eyes were wide open.
In the blink of an eye Thalia got up, grabbed my arm and pushed me to the ground.
A wild scream escaped from her throat and she kicked Cassie in the stomach.
"What the bloody hell are you doing? I said, too surprised to scream.
Thalia didn't even look at me, she raised her hand to punch Max but he was quicker, some how he managed to push the syringe into her arm and she fell to the ground.
I opened my mouth to protest but before I could say anything I felt a sting on my left arm and lost the ability of forming words. Mumbling senseless noises I was lifted up to a table by the brunet scientist that was the last thing I saw before my eyelids got heavy and everything got dark.
------------------------------------------
I woke up with my arms and legs tied down to a plastic chair in a small room made almost entirely of wood. Differently from the place we were before this one was dark, illuminated by candles, the only electronic device in sight was a panel with a 3D image of our city marked with 8 red dots, some of them were moving. There was also multiple shelves on the wall on my left side, covered by old looking books.
Thalia was apparently sleeping next to me, tied down to another chair.
"Thalia." My voice sounded rusty. "Wake up."
She opened her eyes slowly and looked around confused.
"Where are we?" She asked. "What happened?"
"You suddenly turned into a robot sent to destroy us all, that's what happened." I laughed faintly.
"I remember punching a bunch of people, but it's all fuzzy and it doesn't seem like it was exactly me." She laughed. "That must sound crazy."
"It does." I said. "But the point is I think we were kidnapped."
I heard a clicking noise and the door opened, the white light coming from the other side hurt my eyes, the scientists entered the room, all three wearing white cotton shirt and pants.
"Hello girls." Max said. "I'm sorry we had to tie you down, we were afraid if we didn't you two would run away."
"You were right." I said interrupting him.
The two other scientists gave me a mean look but Max just continued "You must be very confused by the events of tonight and if you want we can explain it all." He coughed. "But I must warn you about the responsibility that comes with this explanation."
I then noticed someone was missing.
"What did you do with Cassidy?"
"She's eating a sandwich in the laboratory." The blonde scientist said quickly. "By the way, my name is Daniel."
"We'll have time for presentations afterwards." Max told Daniel and then turned to us. "Girls, I really think you should listen to me for a moment before you choose to believe it or not."
I was curious to hear their crazy version of the story so I asked "If we listen to you will you let us go home?"
"Of course." Said the brunet scientist that was quiet till now.
"Ok, I need to explain it all from the start then." Max said slowly. "You have probably noticed that sometimes Cassie sees creatures that frighten her." I knew where this was going. "And you have to know that this creatures are real, it seems impossible but they are."
I rolled my eyes but Thalia was still paying attention.
"This monsters are the image of fear, they are responsible for nightmares and when a child truly believes in them, they become real."
"Can you stop bullshitting us?" I said irritated. "I wanna go home."
"Shut up Winter, I want to hear him." Thalia said and I rolled my eyes again.
"Well" Max said. "Their idea of fun is possessing people, leading them to get into fights, rob places and even kill other people."
"Wait." Thalia finally looked suspicious "So you're saying every crime committed is this monsters fault?"
"Of course not." Max said scratching his beard. "Just the ones committed by good people that had no intention of doing it, people can be evil by themselves too."
I was tired of all this. I started to wonder if there was any possibility that we were on TV and this was some kind of prank.
"And you just figured all of this?" I said in the middle of a laugh.
"Thank you Winter, that's what I was trying to get to." Max said ignoring my laughs. "Me and my sons Daniel and Henry come from a long generation of Liverpool ******* we have seen and killed a lot of this monsters."
I contained another laugh and Thalia looked at me mad.
"We usually live a normal life." Max continued. "This creatures are rare, so we only have to interrupt about once or twice a year, but there has been an incredible increase on their number in this city and we don't know the reason for it, that's why Cassie has been so desperate."
"And how come we can't see them?" Thalia asked.
"I was getting there." He said. "To see this monsters you just have to believe they exist, it may seem easy but it's not."
Thalia's eyes were glowing like tiny stars.
"Now that you 'explained'" I formed quotation marks with my fingers. "Can you let us go?"
Max and his sons exchanged a look and nodded with their heads.
"We only have one last thing we have to tell you." Max said calmly. "You see those red dots in the city map?"
We nodded.
"They show the ******** in this city, and if you come closer you can see that there are 5 of them in this room." He pointed at the panel.
"What are you trying to say?" Thalia's eyes seemed to glow even more if that was possible.
"Didn't you wonder why Cassidy tried to be around you?" Max said. "You give her the feeling of protection, you give each other that feeling too that's why you're friends. You two and your friend Nicholas Parker are *******.
"Okay." I said. "That's enough, let us go."
He ignored me.
"You see this mark?" He showed a familiar brown mark in the form of a little 'plus' in his clavicle "Is the mark of a ******, I bet all that I own that you two have the same one." The two brothers repeated the gesture showing the same place.
It was true, I had that same little plus in my clavicle since I was borne.
"You're right." Thalia couldn't contain her excitement. "We have it too."
I needed some air, it was getting harder and harder for me to breath, the air seemed to be getting thicker.
"Please just let us go home." I begged.
Max looked disappointed but he asked his sons to untie us.
"And are there anymore ******* in our school?" Thalia asked getting up.
"Yes, but I think I should keep them in secret for now." Max answered.
"Thalia you can't have believed all this shit."
"Your mind is just too closed Winter."
"Oh shut up, let's go home."
"I hope you think about what we told you and come back when it's time." Max opened the door for us.
"We will." Thalia said, as always quicker then me.
I rolled my eyes for the third time that evening.
We got back in the laboratory, Cassie was waiting for us.
"What do you research here?" Thalia asked looking around.
"We test all kinds of theories for all kinds of people." The blonde brother said.
I grabbed Cassie's arm and walked toward the dark corridor.
"Bye guys." Thalia said.
I closed the door before they could answer.
------------------------------------------
When I dropped Thalia at her foster parent's house I was alone with Cassidy in the car.
"What did they tell you Cass?" I asked. "That you are a ********* too?"
"No." She said. "I was just a stupid bloody kid who believed in her nightmares and now sees monsters everywhere."
I watched her through the rearview mirror, she had dropped her golden hair and it was loose over her shoulder. She seemed to be so sure that everything they said was true. I don't even believe in God, how could I believe in all that madness? I have to admit a part of me screamed it was true since he showed us that mark, but the logical part was stronger.
We got to the closed condominium where Cassie's house was. I was there once years ago in Thomas's birthday party when we were all friends.
The doorman let me in and I followed the streets until the Walker's home.
"Can you walk me to the door?" Cassidy asked me. "I'm scared."
Something about her look made me want to hug her tightly.
"Sure."
We walked together and before we got to the door someone opened it.
"Cassidy." Thomas ran toward us wearing a black T-Shirt and jeans and hugged her. "Where were you?"
She opened her mouth but I was faster.
"I found her lost in a night club and gave her a ride."
He finally looked at me, everything in his face looked just too perfect.
"Thank you so much."
"Anytime."I half smiled.
"We tried to call her but she forgot her cellphone as always." He blinked. " Your name is Winter right?"
"Yeah." I said nervously. "Hum, I have to go so...bye."
"Bye." They said at the same time.
I walked to my car and finally drove home
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