Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (38 page)

Jason stayed standing, in fact, he was pacing. This boy needed to calm down!

Bill, Nancy and her parents all took their respective seats and all eyes turned to Jason.

“I have the holo-footage,” Jason said, his eyes crazed.

“Okay, he’s losing it,” Nancy said concerned.

“No. I gave Turner a fake holo-chip, well, it wasn’t fake, it was some footage I picked up after I stole the tornado footage, but I knew we’d need a decoy, just in case.” Jason was babbling out his story now.

“But, they searched you.” Bill tried to be the voice of reason to Jason’s apparent insanity.

Jason continued to ramble. “They didn’t search
inside
of me. I swallowed the chip. It’s covering should be enough to protect it from my digestive system, but I need George here to retrieve the data just in case. Nancy’s place is the only safe haven we have from Turner, as long as he’s in the dark about us having the holo-chip, we could still get it on the air.” Jason was excited now.

“You swallowed it?” I asked, as a surge of hope coursed through me. Maybe we could still take Gramps down before he could do any more damage.

“Yup,” Jason said like the cat that ate the canary. And I guess, he actually did.

“So what, you’re going to poop it out?” Nancy’s face cringed in disgust.

“Well, yeah, but I got it out of top security. Turner was just being lazy, he should have had me scanned but he was too obsessed with Chelsan to be thorough.” Jason side-stepped the issue of how the chip was going to re-surface.

“But you’re pooping it out?” Nancy wasn’t letting it go. “That’s disgusting.”

“When is it coming out? Are you… regular… or…” Bill suddenly found himself too embarrassed to finish the conversation.

“Would everyone stop obsessing about my bowel movements and start congratulating me on accomplishing our mission. It’s not easy shoving a piece of metal down your throat.” Jason seemed very put off by the disturbed reaction of the others.

“I think it’s brilliant.” George was beaming. “As soon as it… well… as soon as you clean it up, it’ll be no problem retrieving the data. I’ll have it transferred on a new chip and read to go… when you are.” George apparently didn’t want to mention the method of extracting the chip either.

Jason turned to Vianne and held his arm out for her. “Let’s make a concoction that will speed this process up, shall we?”

Grinning, Vianne wrapped her arm in his. “I’m sure I can put something together, load you up on fiber.”

“This is so gross.” Nancy’s arms were crossed and she was extremely disgusted by the whole ordeal.

“Hush,” Vianne scolded her daughter as she and Jason left for the kitchen.

Once they were gone, George turned to the four of us. “You kids should get some rest, Chelsan looks like she’s about to pass out. Bill, Ryan, you better stay here tonight. I’ll call your parents and let them know. You all have school in the morning.”

Ugggh. School. Did we really have to go to school after everything we’d been through? Apparently, the answer was yes. But George was right about something. I was ready to drop. I only had a few minutes left in me. Just enough time to snuggle up to Ryan before wondrous sleep overtook me.

There were no arguments on anyone’s part. We all said our good nights to George and headed up stairs. Bill and Ryan were to sleep in Nancy’s guest bedroom, but there was no way I was letting Ryan out of my sight. Bill obviously didn’t want
that
image stuck in his head so he left for the guest room.

Nancy decided to join him, giving me a wink and a nudge toward Ryan. “And besides, it’ll make poop boy jealous. Mom and Dad won’t care anyway. I think they’re secretly hoping I’ll marry Bill.” And with that she joined Bill in his room.

Ryan and I entered Nancy’s room still holding hands. It was like walking into a safe haven of awesomeness. I checked the room once over for anyone lurking about. Once clear, Ryan and I plopped down on Nancy’s phenomenal bed of comfort. It was just about the softest most amazing sensation ever.

Ryan and I faced each other forehead to forehead. His hand rested comfortably on my hip while I placed mine on his waist. I was about to nod off into dreamland when Ryan suddenly leaned in and started to kiss me. It was like an electric charge surged through my system and I kissed him back empowered by this newfound energy. His lips were tender and firm at the same time and my head went dizzy with the feeling. Kissing him was almost like a drug taking over all my senses to the point of explosion. I couldn’t seem to stop. I didn’t want to stop. The more we kissed the more I wanted it to keep going. The thought of stopping was actually excruciating to contemplate. His hands pulled me in tighter to his body with just enough force to make the butterflies in my stomach go insane. I held onto him as if he were my salvation from all the craziness. His hand now cradled the small of my back with agonizing tenderness. This boy was going to be the end of me! So much adrenaline, hormones, emotions, everything was becoming too much to bear all at once.

I pulled away breathless.

He was slightly out of breath as well.

“Too much,” was all that came out of my mouth.

Ryan nodded, though his hand still cradled my back, which made me want to kiss him all over again.

He was so freakin’ hot!

We sat there for about five more seconds before Ryan pulled me in and started to kiss me again.

Oh boy.

It was even more intense than the first time. I found myself wanting more of him. Wanting more than just kissing. I wanted
all
of him. I started to pull off his shirt when he drew back.

His hand cupped my cheek. “We should wait. I want to make this special.”

I had to take a minute to calm my brain down from all the excitement. “You’re the human equivalent of a brain-fry,” I said and laughed a little.

Ryan smiled back and kissed me gently. “I just want you to know…” Ryan was suddenly very serious.

I had a surge of panic. Was he going to break up with me? Was I terrible? Why was he looking at me like that?

“I love you,” he said and there was genuine fear in his eyes.

And I realized the fear was because he didn’t know how I felt about him. He was completely putting himself out there and I was officially letting him hang.

“I love you,” I said and kissed him again.

We couldn’t seem to control ourselves. It was getting harder and harder to break away. I was filled with a genuine glow of happiness I had never felt before. Ryan loved me. I guess I already knew that from the way he looked at me to his actions over the last week, but to hear him say it made my heart swell uncontrollably. He pushed in closer to me and I was so besieged by this onslaught of sensations I couldn’t even keep a coherent thought.

This time I had to rip myself away from him. “Whoa,” I said and I felt like laughing again. These past days were filled with one extreme to the next. From the devastating death of my mother, to constantly fighting to stay alive, to the awe-inspiring loyalty of friends, to Ryan. I was shocked that my heart was still beating.

“Yeah, whoa is right,” Ryan said with a genuine grin. “I really meant for you to go to sleep,” he said sheepishly.

“Sure you did, perv,” I said and tickled his side.

Ryan squirmed and laughed, then his eyes met mine, intense. “Everything that we went through today… I just wanted to tell you how I felt… In case…”

“Don’t start thinking that way. I’m going to meet with Turner tomorrow, Jason is going to release the holo-footage and everything is going to be fine. I promise,” I said and hoped I wasn’t lying.

Ryan held my face in his hands and kissed me lightly. “You’re right. Everything will work out. I have complete faith in you.” Ryan positioned himself so he could cradle me from behind. He kissed the back of my neck. “Go to sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”

Ryan’s arms felt strong and welcoming as they held me close when exhaustion finally claimed me. I was asleep in seconds.

Chapter Seven

Monday September 27, 2320

I became aware of the fact that I was dreaming when I realized I was flying over Nancy’s house. It was strange because I felt completely awake, but I was soaring through the air like a bird. I could even feel the wind on my face and all the sounds of nightlife chirping and hooting as I sped past. I had no control over my destination. It was as if I was a fish on a hook being reeled in.

I was above it all; houses, buildings, hover-cars, almost in the stars themselves. I viewed the city below. Tiny glowing strings of light weaved together like a tapestry of luminosity. One thread radiated brighter than all the rest and I was immediately drawn to it. When I looked down at my body, I saw that it was actually connected to my chest and was the source that pulled me forward. Up close the string was bright yellow and seemingly had no substance, it was made up completely of light, and yet it was strong like a rope. It tugged me down toward its end.

Once I gave into the pull, I soared at a thrilling speed to see where this cord of light led. My surroundings whizzed by me at lightning speed. It was such a rush I didn’t want to wake up. I could feel my adrenaline course through my body and it was exhilarating.

The roof of an enormous twenty-acre mansion rose up to meet me like a wall of doom and I flinched, ready for impact. Instead, I flew straight through it as if it were made of air. The thread of light was so bright it was almost blinding as I entered a master bedroom the size of Nancy’s house and I suddenly stopped, hovering over the source of light. I was drawn to it like a moth to flame. I was connected to it as surely as I was connected to anything. It felt right. It felt warm and inviting.

Through the glow I could tell it was another person who was emanating this cord of light. I squinted to see whom I was so drawn to. To see who pulled me out of my body to bring me here? I could barely see their face…

No.

The cat-like features of my grandmother glowed brightly from the string of light that bound us together. I tried to break free. I wanted to wretch from the realization of who was lying in front of me. I could see Turner sleeping soundly next to her then. He just looked like an old man, snoring loudly, thinning hair tousled. Not nearly as scary as when he was awake, but Roberta was just as terrifying asleep, with her pulled back skin and frozen features. Truly a monster in the darkness. I would have thought she was dead if I hadn’t seen her chest moving up and down.

The string started to rein me in once more. I tried to put on the brakes. I couldn’t believe there had even been a second of comfort from this wicked woman. The last thing I wanted to do was be sucked inside her vortex of evil, but the pull was too strong. I was going inside her head. Just like Turner did to me that night in the hospital. This was the astral projection thingy that Jason talked about. I must have a natural instinct for it. Or, when Turner did it to me, it opened up that part of my brain so I could do it myself. Whatever the reason, I was here in Roberta Turner’s bedroom, about to jump inside her brain.

And it suddenly occurred to me: that might not be a bad thing. Maybe I could find some things out. Maybe I could convince her to leave my friends and me alone. It was worth a try.

I closed my eyes and leapt in like I did when I flew through the roof. It was as if her body was insubstantial and only the light was real.

I opened my eyes…

I was alone in total darkness.

I didn’t panic like I thought I would. I was actually quite calm considering I was in feline freak’s head. Trying to figure out how this whole thing worked was my biggest concern. Do I walk around? Will things just appear in front of me? Is there some version of her in here like when Turner visited me? He was much more experienced than me when it came to this
out of body
ordeal, but so far I’d been figuring this kind of thing out just fine.

“Memories,” I said out loud, hoping for some result.

And sure enough a long hallway opened up in front of me with doors on either side. It seemed to stretch out for miles and miles as if there were no end. I walked over to the first door and opened it.