Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series (2 page)

THREE

How did you get in here?  I asked Carolyn, who was still sitting in the corner of my basement closet.

She didn’t say anything.  She sat there, trembling, just staring at me as if she had seen a ghost.

I realized that I was still holding the knife and I got rid of it right away.  I was probably scaring her to death, holding the knife like that.

I tried to sound calm, so that maybe I could get her to talk.

“Did you follow me here?”

She nodded.

“You couldn’t find anyone at the museum?”

She shook her head.  Still not saying a word.

Something was clearly not right, I mean, even if she got in the school bus without anyone seeing her, she wouldn’t know where I lived.  I drove home from school and she was certainly not in my car.

Still controlling my voice to sound calm, I asked, “Do you want to tell me how you really got here?”

She shook her head once again. 
Okay, this is so not going well.

I grabbed my cell.  “What is your parents’ number?  I will call them for you.”

She shrugged.

Great!

“You do at least know your address, right?”  I asked her.

She nodded. 
Okay, we are making progress.

“Okay.  That is good.  How about we get out of this basement and I will take you home.”

She hesitated.

“Come on, you can’t exactly stay here.”

Carolyn slowly got up and walked out of the closet.  She was still shaking, as if she was cold.  I told her we would go by my room and get her something warm to wear and then I would take her home.

She followed me to my room, not saying a word, just looking around.  Once in my room, I showed her where my walk-in closet was and told her to pick out a sweater. 

I went to my bed, grabbed Kelly’s laptop to put it back in her room, just in case she got home before I did.  I also wrote her and Andrew a note.  I would have called them but they were probably too busy at their charity dinner.  After putting the laptop back in Kelly’s room, I went back to my room and got my shoes on.

Carolyn?  I called out her name. 
Okay, so letting a stranger alone in my room… That was smart!  Kelly and Andrew really need to work on this alarm system… 
Carolyn?  I called her again, after not getting any response.

She still didn’t make a sound.  I walked over to where I had left her.  I was already losing my patience, which wasn’t that great to begin with. 

Carolyn stood in the middle of my closet, just looking around.

“Are you ready to go?”  I asked.

She nodded.  I hoped she didn’t live too far, or this would be one long ride.

I noticed that she was still shaking.

“Don’t you need a sweater or something?  You can pick whichever one you want.”

She looked as if she was going to reach for a sweater, but she stopped herself and shook her head.

I looked at her, confused.  “Alright.  Let’s go, then.”

Carolyn followed me downstairs. 

“I’m just going to set the alarm and lock the door.  You can go ahead and get in my car.  It is the R8 in the driveway.”

She looked at me confused.

I rolled my eyes at her, and then hoped that she didn’t see it or notice that my patience was gone.

I took a deep breath.

“The black car,” I said.

She nodded and went to the car that I had now unlocked.  I almost thought about using the remote start, but something gave me the feeling that would probably scare her….  The girl was really starting to creep me out.

I locked the front door and walked to my car.  As I got in, I noticed that Carolyn looked really uncomfortable, but I didn’t ask her why… not like she was going to tell me anyway.

“Okay, I need your address, so you are gonna have to talk.”  That came out a lot harsher than I meant to.  I tried an apologetic smile but I don’t think she even noticed.

Her voice was so low that I could barely hear, but she did give me an address.  I plugged it in the GPS as she watched my every move, and then I turned the radio on, knowing that would be the key to avoid the awkward silence.

The address that she gave me wasn’t too far away.  It took about twenty minutes to get there, and her neighborhood didn’t seem too bad either. 

I parked in front of the two-story house.  Even being dark outside, it was noticeable that her house was the only house in the neighborhood that didn’t have a well-kept lawn.  All lights were off and there was no car in the driveway.

“Umm.  Are you sure you will be okay?  Doesn’t seem like anyone is home.”

“I will be okay.  Thank you,” she said in a low voice.

Carolyn started to reach for the door handle, and stopped.  She looked down, avoiding eye contact.  “I am not sure how to open it.”

You have got to be kidding me!
  I thought to myself, hoping that she couldn’t read my expression.

I started to show her how to, but… again, lack of patience…. I got out of the car, walked around and opened the door for her. 

She got out, and thanked me again.  She even smiled this time, and I kinda felt bad for her.

“No problem.  I will stay here and make sure you get in safely.”

Her smile faded.  “No need to.  I have to go in through the back door.”

“Okay.  Well, I guess… bye.”

“Good-bye,” she said, and then she went toward the back of the house, disappearing in the darkness.

***

Traffic going back home was not that great.  I got home freaking forty minutes later. 

Andrew and Kelly still weren’t home, so I took the note that I had left them and threw it away…one less thing to explain.

I went to my room, took a shower and got ready for bed.

I realized that I forgot to check Ashley’s Facebook to see what kind of rumors she was spreading, but I heard Kelly and Andrew downstairs, so I just went to the living room and used the computer that I was actually allowed to use.

Surprisingly, there was nothing on Ashley’s page, but Justin had sent me a couple of messages saying he missed me.
Ugh.

“What is wrong?”  Kelly asked.

I shrugged.  “Nothing… just broke-up with Justin today and he is trying to get back together.”

Kelly didn’t care for Justin at all, but she also never passed up the opportunity to try and get closer, having mom-daughter talks, that type of thing.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, eager to give advice.

I usually gave in.  She and Andrew were always so nice.  They always went above and beyond to make me feel as if I belonged, and I did feel like I belonged. I even thought of them as my real mom and dad, but for some reason I just felt more comfortable calling them by their names.

I turned away from the computer and looked at Kelly.  “Yeah, we can talk about it, but can we do it tomorrow?  I am exhausted.”

Kelly smiled.  “Of course we can, Kayla.  How about we go out to dinner tomorrow, just you and I?”

“Sounds great,” I said cheerfully.

With no hesitation, I deleted Justin’s messages and then went to my room.

I really was exhausted.  I put my cell in the charger and went straight to bed.

I was lying there for a few minutes when I heard a noise.  I couldn’t tell what it was, it wasn’t even that loud, but I could tell it was something in my room.  I turned the light on.

I heard a strange noise coming from my closet.  It wasn’t that loud, and I had no idea what it was, although it sounded like fingernails scratching a wall and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep unless the noise stopped.

I opened the door, and was startled by the sight of Carolyn trying to reach for one of my sweaters.

I didn’t even notice her reaction, I turned around and went running out of my room, screaming, “MOM! ... DAD!”

FOUR

Andrew and Kelly were upstairs within seconds; running into me right outside of my room. 

The fact that I usually didn’t call them dad and mom had definitely sent them the message that something was wrong.

“What is wrong, Kayla?”  Andrew asked in an alarmed tone.

“There is someone in my room!”

Andrew didn’t even give me a chance to go any further… to tell him that it was a kid and that she had been there earlier.

He ordered Kelly and
me
to go downstairs and call the cops. 

I considered making another attempt to tell him about Carolyn, but calling the cops to get her out of there for good was probably the best thing to do, so I just followed Kelly downstairs.

I wasn’t sure what Andrew had in mind, but he was a smart guy.  I had slammed my bedroom door shut on my way out and I assumed he would probably just stand there and make sure no one got out, at least until the cops got to the house.  Besides, I didn’t think Carolyn would have been crazy enough to get out through the window, being that my room was after all, on the second floor of the house and it would have been a loooong way down.

Downstairs, Kelly was freaking out, so I told her everything about Carolyn.  I told Kelly about how she was lost at the museum and she had somehow followed me home.  I told her that I had taken Carolyn to her house and that she must have turned around and somehow followed me again.

Kelly was still shaking, but she seemed more relaxed now that she knew the stranger in the house was just a kid.

The cops were still not there, so Kelly walked closer to the stairs, where she had a good view of the upstairs hallway and my bedroom door.  I followed her there. 

As I had assumed, Andrew stood guard right outside of my bedroom.  Kelly yelled out to him that the person in my room was just a kid and that she was probably scared.

“You should probably go in there and talk to her before she hears the cops coming and gets even more scared,” Kelly said, sounding much calmer than she was seconds before.

Andrew reached for the door.

“Her name is Carolyn,” I said.

Andrew looked at me confused, but didn’t say anything.

He opened the door.

“Carolyn?  Can you come out and talk to us?” he asked.

After not getting an answer, he walked into my room.  By that time, the cops were knocking on the front door.

Kelly went to get the door and she was just on her way back with the cops, who she had already warned that it was a kid that we were dealing with, when Andrew came out of my room.

“Umm, there is no one in Kayla’s room,” he said, looking even more confused.

Both cops seemed really nice.  They were both in their early thirties.  One of them, Officer Phillips, sounded and looked really tired.  He was the one who stayed to ask me questions, while his partner went around the house checking every room.

I told Officer Phillips everything, including the address where I had taken Carolyn to when I gave her a ride home.  He listened carefully, and then he took a few minutes to go to his car to have someone check on that address.

When he finally returned, his partner was already done doing his walk-through and he hadn’t found anything.

Officer Phillips said that the house where I had dropped off Carolyn had been abandoned for months and that it was possible Carolyn was just a runaway kid looking for a place to hide.

Andrew met his gaze, trying to reason with everything that was happening.  “Yeah, but she should still be in this house.  I was guarding Kayla’s bedroom door the entire time!”

“Well, Mr. Gallagher,” he said, as he addressed Andrew, “These kids can be real sneaky.”

Officer Phillips then looked at me.  “Kayla, we need to talk to your mom and dad about securing the house a little better… in private.”

I shrugged.  “Guess I will be in my room.”

I went upstairs and walked into my room, leaving my bedroom door slightly open so that I could hear what they were saying.

“Mr. Gallagher, do you have any reason to believe that your daughter made this up?”

“Of course not!”  Andrew said in a frustrated tone.  “Why would you even suggest that?”

“Mr. Gallagher, there are no signs of anyone breaking in or out of your home… the house at the address your daughter gave us has been unoccupied for months.  We sent someone to check it out and there were no signs of breaking and entering there either.” 

Okay, the whole talk about kids like Carolyn being sneaky was just his way of not calling me a liar right to my face.

“Kayla wouldn’t lie,” Andrew said in a firm voice.

Andrew defending me was the only thing keeping me from losing my temper and going back downstairs.

Kelly interrupted the conversation.  “Oh my god!” she said in an alarmed tone.  “Andrew, honey… I didn’t think much of it earlier, but when we got back home my laptop was not where I left it in our room.”

“What does that have to do with it, Kelly?”

“The laptop was on the desk, right next to the envelope with the baby’s ultrasound pictures.  Kayla probably saw them and got upset.  I know it is not like her, but she probably wanted to get our attention...  We should have told her as soon as we found out I was pregnant.”

I sat against my bedroom door, in shock.  Not because they hadn’t told me that they were having a baby, even though from what I was told that was impossible, but because they were actually insinuating that I had made this all up.

The other cop, Officer Watson, interrupted them. 

“Mrs. Gallagher, that is probably exactly what happened.  Kids do things to get attention all the time.  You should still have your alarm checked, but there really are no signs that anything happened.  Just have a talk with your daughter.”

Andrew and Kelly thanked the cops for coming out and checking on everything and actually apologized for the trouble!”

As soon as the cops left, Andrew and Kelly were in my room.  They weren’t mad.  They said they were going to have the alarm checked out and didn’t even mention Carolyn again.  They also didn’t mention their little private chat with the cops.

They didn’t assume that I was snooping around in their room earlier; they didn’t even mention the ultrasound pictures.  They just told me the news, that I would have a baby brother or sister and apologized for not telling me earlier, that they were just trying to figure out how to tell me.

Kelly and Andrew had been told years before that they weren’t able to have children.  They never told me the reasons, which I was glad.  Way too much information… but not being able to have kids of their own led them to adopting me.

Honestly, I was glad that they were having a baby.  That meant less time to focus on everything that I did.  But I was so mad that they thought I was lying and that they were playing it out like nothing had happened, that my reaction to the news of them having a baby probably led them to believe that the cops were right about everything they had said… that I made it all up to get their attention.

Kelly said we would talk more when we went to dinner the next day.  We said our good nights, Andrew turned my lights off, and they left my room.

I was so pissed off that they thought I was lying.  I couldn’t even recall ever being that mad.

I was running everything about Carolyn through my mind, trying to think of clues to prove that I wasn’t lying, which was totally messed up that I even had to prove myself.  But I just knew that bringing it up and arguing my case would do no good.  I remembered hearing scratching sounds coming from my closet before, when Carolyn was in there.  Clearly there had to be some kind of marks somewhere in that closet…something proving that had happened.

I turned the lights back on.  I walked to my closet and opened the door.

“What the hell!”  I said, at the sight of Carolyn sitting in the back corner of my closed, just staring at the wall.

This time I didn’t run, and I was certainly not letting her out of my sight.  I didn’t want to risk calling Andrew and Kelly, and having Carolyn somehow get away from me again, so this time, my plan was to take her to them.

Carolyn still just stared at the wall, not reacting at all to me being there. 

She was really creeping me out.

I reached for her wrist.  I was determined to drag her to Andrew and Kelly’s room if I had to.

As I attempted to grab her wrist, my hand went right through her.

I stood there, with my mouth hanging open. 

This time she looked at me, and she seemed just as scared as I was.

“What are you?”  I asked.

She didn’t say anything.  She just stared at me, and then, she faded away.