by:

Cassidy's life has been lonely and full of heartache. Abandoned as an infant, bounced from foster home to foster home. He's never found a place where he's belonged. Then one summer as his life starts to turn around, something happens that changes everything...

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Author's Note: Here's another Sunday posting. I'm seriously considering posting the rest of this story on Sundays from now on. Though I have considered possibly posting on Tuesdays as well. Mondays are fairly busy posting days on this site after all. I'm curious what everyone else thinks. I have to say this is a shorter chapter and it doesn't have all those juicy answers people were hoping for after last chapter's shocking twist. I'm once again like to thank Nyssa for her work trying to make sense of my scribblings and make them readable for everyone else :D.

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5.

A dim light shone into the room from a window off to my left. I turned my head, blinking away the groggy feeling. For a moment it felt like my whole body was floating. The weightlessness only lasted for a few more seconds and then I came crashing back down. I grunted. My mouth was dry and it felt like there was a great weight holding me down. As soon as I tried to sit up, I realized what it was. Straps. I wiggled, trying to see how much room I had. Not much. There were two. One across my chest, just under my armpits and another across my legs, just above my knees. Whoever put them there was bound and determined that I didn’t move.

I tried raising my arms but they were strapped down too, at my wrists.

The same with my feet but at my ankles.

A prisoner.

The only thing I could move freely was my head. In the dim light, I could see most of the room. It was large, the windows were floor to ceiling, they covered the whole left wall. The bed I was on seemed to be the center of the room. It had higher ceilings and very little furniture. I saw a dresser, what might look like a sofa and maybe a table. There were three doors. One was the exit, the other two must have been a closet and the bathroom door. This wasn’t the bungalow anymore though. The room was much larger than that. So I’d been moved. I would have spit if I could.

Right now though, I needed to figure out what was going on.

Things were a bit foggy.

I remembered everything up until being brought home by the cops. As the seconds went by though, more and more was starting to come into focus. After the cop left, I was hugging Mrs. Spencer and someone stabbed me with a needle. No, not someone. It was her. I could still feel the slight sting from it. I had stumbled into the room and passed out. I woke up twice before this. Once in a dark place where I was stuck with a needle again. Then again, strapped to a bed. More than likely this one. This was my third time waking, the first time they let me wake I should say. I say “they” because I could vaguely remember hearing voices that the second time.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember anything they were saying.

Not that that would help me anyway.

There was only one thing that could help me now.

Time.

So I waited.

I’m not sure how long I stared at the window but as I did more and more light started to stream through it. Dawn was breaking slowly. More light meant that more of the morning was coming. I’m not sure how long it took, but eventually, I heard something. I turned toward the door and waited. There was someone on the other side, someone with heels. A second later, the door opened. A moment after that, a woman came into the room. I would say she was gorgeous if the circumstances were a bit different. I’m not going to lie though, she was very nice to look at. Maybe late twenties, early thirties. Her dark hair was nice and tidy, held away from her face in a professional style. She had horn-rimmed glasses, professionally done makeup and was wearing a fake smile. Having been pushed from person to person over the years, it was easy to spot a fake smile.

“Good morning, Cassidy,” she said in a friendly voice. “I’m Dr. Chambers. It’s very nice to finally meet you."

She walked toward the bed, those heels of hers clicking.

I watched her.

She was tall. The heels only added to her height. Her long legs were cased in dark nylons, leading to a professional’s gray skirt and finally a tight white blouse. She said she was a doctor but she didn’t dress like one. I almost wanted to say high-end call girl, but that would have been rude. It was hard not to think so though, especially with her top button undone. This woman was either trying to get attention or trying to make me feel comfortable. My mind was trying to say the former, but I knew it was the latter. These people had all but kidnapped me.

“I’d shake your hand, but I seem to be a little tied up at the moment,” I grunted.

She smiled her fake smile again. “We’re terribly sorry about that, but we needed to make sure that you weren’t a threat to yourself or others.”

A threat?

Why would I be a threat?

“Yes, because all foster kids are dangerous criminals,” I deadpanned, hoping for a response.

None came.

Instead, she retrieved a chair from the corner of the room and brought it to within a foot or so of the bed. Far enough away that I couldn’t reach her, but close enough. We played the silent staring game for a bit. I spent our silent stare-off trying to figure out what this woman, and by extension, the Spencers wanted with me. It was clear now that they weren’t my aunt and uncle. At least, I was pretty sure they weren’t. It was the little things that I missed. They never told me their first names for one thing. For another, they never really asked me about myself. Most of the stuff they knew, it was from my file. At first, I chalked it all up to the awkwardness of it all, but now I knew the truth.

They didn’t want to get to know me at all.

“So what was the plan?” I finally asked.

I surprised her with the question.

“Excuse me?”

I sighed. “The Spencers. If this was what they were planning all along, they could have done it at any time.” I said coldly, watching her face. I saw her eye twitch. I smiled and continued. “So what was their original plan?”

She smirked. “They said you were a smart boy. I suppose not underestimating you would have saved them some problems...”

“You didn’t answer the question.”

She sighed. “No, I didn’t. To be honest, there was no solid plan in place. The vacation would have continued as planned. You would have left Virginia Beach in the morning and drove to Richmond as planned. Your life would have been uneventful.”

I watched her as she talked. She was lying. When people lied, they had a Tell. Like in a game of cards. I was always good at telling when people were lying. It was one of the side effects of being in the system for as long as I have. I learned things. Dr. Chambers’ Tell was easy: she tapped her foot. It was a nervous gesture, but she only did it when she was talking. So it told me she was either afraid of me – not likely – or she was lying. I thought about calling her on it, but decided I’d let her think she was in control here.

“So in this supposed plan, where did you come in?”

She gave me a knowing smiled again. “I’m your psychiatrist."

“Of course you are.”

“Well someone needs to cure you of your water fear.”

Cure me? Was that what this was about? It made little to no sense though. She seemed like a very important person. I was strapped to a bed while talking to her. Clearly, there was more to this than just my fear of water. Yet she made a big deal out of curing me of it? Something didn’t add up. Well, a lot of things didn’t add up, but she could have told me anything. Why did she say she was there to cure my fear?

“Why me?”

It was the most important question of the hour.

“Why not you?” It wasn’t really an answer. “You’re young. You have a long, full life ahead of you. This fear is a crippling thing. I want to help you overcome it.”

I struggled to prove a point. “Is strapping down your patient a part of that therapy?”

“That was….out of my hands...”

Out of her hands? Which meant there was definitely more to this than I thought.

I was about to ask her more when we were interrupted.

There was a knock on the door. Before she could even turn toward it, two men came bursting into the room. They were large, dressed in black, with buzzed heads.

“What the hell is this?” she snapped, jumping to her feet. “I need more time, I haven’t even started!”

“You’ve said enough” snapped one, pushing her out of the way.

“He’ll hear about this!”

The pushy man scoffed. “Who do you think told us to stop you.”

“I was in the middle of the interrogation...”

The other guy laughed. “You think that’s what was going on? You think you were in charge here? You weren’t interrogating him at all, Doc. We’ve been watching. The punk has been in control the entire time.”

All eyes were on me.

I tried to shrug but couldn’t.

The Pushy guy moved over to me. “We’re moving you. You try anything...”

He held up a cattle prod.

“You understand?”

I nodded.

“Mr. Stewart, I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Dr. Chambers, trying to push some control again.

She wasn’t very successful. She tried to make her way over to me, but the other man stepped in her way. He wasn’t going to move either. He was too big for her to push too. In the end, she stopped trying. I had been convinced she was the one in charge here. It was clear now that she was just the middle man. She probably thought she was calling all the shots, but these two men really were. Them, and whoever it is they all really worked for. There were still a lot of things that I didn’t know. Chief among them was why they even wanted me in the first place.

I was a nobody.

And yet, there were a lot of them for just me.

Things didn’t add up at all.

“Doc,” said the other man, trying to be more civil. “We can take it from here. We’ll see you again on the boat.”

Boat?

Dr. Chambers looked at him intently. Then looked at me. “He will hear about this...”

She sounded like a spoiled child, angry about losing her favorite toy.

She then huffed and stomped out of the room.

Both men watched her go, shaking their heads as they did.

I watched too. First her, then them. They didn’t say anything but the one without the cattle prod walked over to the bed. He started to undo the straps holding my ankles. His partner, Mr. Stewart, kept the prod pointed at me. They both watched me like a hawk. At this point, I’m not sure I could run even if I wanted to. As soon as he removed the straps across my upper thighs, the feeling started to return to my legs. I hadn’t realized how tight they were until now. I’m not sure how long I’d been laying here, but my legs were numb. Running was definitely out of the question.

Mr. Stewart stepped closer when his friend started to unstrap my wrists.

“You try anything...”

I grunted. “I can’t feel anything...”

They ignored the comment.

They finally finished undoing my last strap. I sat up with a groan. My entire body hurt. Both men were a bit jumpy. I thought for sure I was going to get stuck by that thing. Instead, they stepped back and gave me a moment. I started to rub my sore wrists, then my ankles. Those things were way too tight. As I started to rub some feeling back into my legs they stopped me.

“Enough of that, we have a timetable.”

I was all but dragged off the bed. When my feet hit the ground, I almost fell to the floor. It told me one thing, I’d been strapped to that bed longer than a night. If I had to guess, I would say at least a day or two. I missed my Birthday. More than that though, I missed my daily talk with Tori. If I knew my sister as well as I thought I did, she was probably in full-blown panic mode. It wouldn’t be long before there was a slew of men and women from different police forces looking for me. That still begged one question though. How long have I been missing? I knew it had to be at least a day, because the light from the window had grown lighter as the hours passed.

Was it the day after my birthday though?

Or the day after that?

I had no true way of knowing unless I asked.

“How long have I been here."

“Long enough.”

I was shoved forward but I stumbled. After all, I could barely stand. One of them cursed. I heard the prod and flinched. Nothing happened though. Instead, I felt a strong hand grab my arm and pull me along. It wasn’t any better, but at least with one of them holding me, I could sorta walk. I was half helped, half-dragged over to the door. A moment later it was open, and we were in a brightly lit hall. The light was overwhelming. I shielded my eyes with a hand. Now I knew I’d been in that dimly lit room for more than a day.

“Move it blondie!”

Blondie?

I was about to protest when we passed by one of the many mirrors in the hall. I stopped dead in my tracks, gasping. My hair was completely blonde now, but that wasn’t the only shock. It was long and wavy, past my shoulders and down my back. How was that possible? Hair didn’t grow that fast. Even in a few days. The length of my hair, it should have taken months.

“Move it!”

I was shoved again, this time I let them push me.

We moved along the hall until we passed another mirror. I caught another quick glance. My hair wasn’t the only thing that had changed. I couldn’t remember the last time my eyes looked that blue. There was something else. Did my face look softer? I didn’t get a good enough look though because I was shoved forward again. There was something wrong. Something that made no sense. Why did I look so different? Did they do something to me? I’d heard of some pretty extensive plastic surgery. I’d seen those shows. The problem was I had no bruises, no bandages. Didn’t things like that take a really long time?

We passed another mirror as we walked but I didn’t bother looking.

I didn’t want to see anything more.

Finally, we reached a set of elevators at the end of the hall.

They held me up as they called one, and the three of us waited impatiently. When it arrived they shoved me in. The interior of the elevator was a mirrored surface. I couldn’t avoid looking at myself now. They couldn’t push me around in here either. I watched as they pushed a button with an H on it. I assumed it represented the roof. Which meant they were probably flying me out of here. Which meant there was probably a helipad and a helicopter up there. I would have been more excited if not for the fact that they were kidnapping me. I tried not to think about it and concentrated on my reflection some more.

My face was different.

My nose was slightly smaller, my lips were bigger. Pouty, I think the phrase was. Everything was a bit softer. My scar was gone too. I used to have a tiny one on my chin, just below my bottom lip. I cut it on a piece of glass when I was four. Had to have a couple of stitches. I was amazed to see it missing. Had they done that as well? Was it even possible to remove scars like that? I squinted, leaning closer, wondering what else had changed. I reached up to touch my face when I noticed something else.

My bracelet was gone.

“Looking for something, princess,” scoffed one of the guards.

I looked at the reflective surface. My bracelet dangled in his fingers.

“Boss said I’m supposed to keep this safe,” he said with a laugh, sticking it in one of his pockets.

Why?

It was just a stupid bracelet?

Wasn’t it?

I didn’t get much time to dwell on it because the elevator finally came to a stop. The doors opened and I was pushed out onto the roof. A rush of air hit me, staggering me back for a second. Looking around, I saw familiar hotels. I was still in Virginia Beach. Trying to take a look around, I caught a glimpse of the Neptune and the park down below. They didn’t take me very far. I could even see the resort down there. I’m not sure, but I thought I saw the bungalow we stayed at. In fact, the Spencers’ car was still parked out front. It amazed me they were still there. It also told me something. It really had only been a few days. Which made no sense at all.

How did my hair grow so long?

How had my face changed so much?

I pushed across the roof, toward the helipad.

There was a shiny, black helicopter waiting. It had no markings that I could see, but it had one of those sides that had no door. I always thought those were really unsafe.

A man standing nearby came rushing off.

“Did you stick it yet?” he shouted, pointing at me.

“We were going to in air.”

The man didn’t look thrilled but nodded.

What did he mean, “It?”

That was kind of rude.

“Get in the helicopter!” shouted one of my guards, giving me a push.

I grunted, but did as I was told. The man followed me in, making sure he had the cattle prod close to my side. He wasn’t taking any chances. I still wasn’t sure why. How dangerous could a sixteen-year-old be? Did he actually think I could beat him up? He was bigger than I was, holding a pretty nasty weapon, and he had a friend. I was no match for any of them. Just as well, they seemed to be taking every precaution available. I mean the man who greeted us had a holstered pistol on his hip. What the hell was that all about? There was a guy in the front seat next to the pilot. I could see his gun as well.

Who were these people?

What did they want with me?

I wanted to ask questions, but I’m not sure any of them could hear me anymore over the whirring of the blades. They were putting on headsets, passing me one too. I was shouted at, so I put it on. I suddenly heard them talking:

“Where are we taking It?”

“The Mooring Gaul.”

“Is he serious?”

“He wants to talk to It first.”

“This is a bad idea!”

“He’s the boss.”

They stopped talking. The helicopter slowly started to lift off the pad. I couldn’t hide my excitement as we flew up into the air. We hovered over the building for a second before turning and flying toward the ocean. We flew over the tops of all the buildings, low enough that I could make out everything below. I was a bit nervous about being so exposed to the air like this though. I was strapped in, but I was still pretty scared about the lack of doors. I looked nervously at my captors. Only the two of them were in the back with me. Mr. Stewart and his less talkative friend. Stewart had the cattle prod and my bracelet.

I looked at his pocket and felt empty.

I shook it off.

I turned back to looking out the side as we flew. It didn’t take us very long to leave the beach behind us. We gained some altitude but not enough to be dangerous for us. A minute or so later, there was nothing but open ocean. Looking at all that water made me really nervous. It didn’t help that we were so high up either. I wanted to puke. My skin started to crawl and I felt a bit lightheaded.

“Where are we going?” I asked, barely able to get the words out.

“The boss has a yacht out there, he wants to see you.”

The boss.

“How far now?”

“ETA fifteen minutes,” said the pilot.

“Ok Stewart, enough of the bullshit, tag it now!” snapped the passenger.

Mr. Stewart sighed, passing his cattle prod to his partner. The partner passed him a little blue gun that looked like a squirt gun. He looked at me, shaking his head. A moment later, he grabbed my arm. Before I could even react, he put the little gun to my skin and pulled the trigger. There was a piercing pain. I cried out for about a second, then the pain was gone.

“What the hell was that?” I snapped, rubbing my arm.

He smirked. “Insurance.”

“Give me the thing to turn it on?” he said, setting the gun down and waving a hand behind him.

His partner handed him something that looked like a price tag scanner from a shopper’s market.

“Stick out your arm!”

I shook my head.

I had no idea what was going on, but I wasn’t letting them do anything more to me.

Mr. Stewart grunted. “Hold It still!”

His partner leaned forward, setting the cattle prod on the seat between us and made a grab for me. I’m not sure what came over me. I knew they were about to do something awful, and I reacted without thinking. One second I was pushing away from them and the next I was grabbing the prod. When I jabbed it into his shoulder and pulled the little trigger, I didn’t realize it was going to happen that quickly. The man screamed out in pain, snapped to the side and slammed into his friend. Mr. Stewart stumbled, I swung the prod around like a weapon and crashed him in the side of the face with it.

I heard a crack as a tooth flew from his mouth.

There was a scream from upfront. The man in the co-pilot seat fumbled for his gun, pulled it out and I stuck him in the arm with the prod. He screamed, fired a round through the roof and sent the helicopter sideways. The bullet sound ricocheted throughout the small pace, deafening all of us. The helicopter continued to spin about. It made a nosedive. The pilot was struggling to regain control. At this point, my two guards had recovered. They came at me together. I still had the prod though. I stuck one in the neck, giving him a nasty jolt. While he was stumbling back, I kicked out with both my feet. The force of the kick sent him backward.

And right out the side of the helicopter.

Oops.

The rushing air cut off his scream.

“You son of a bitch!” screamed Mr. Stewart, grabbing me.

He got my wrist, twisting my arm.

I screamed, dropped the prod.

The helicopter still canted about, tossing and turning. By this point my assailant was free of his seat-belt, trying to subdue me. He managed to get my belt free too. In a panic, I smashed the heel of my hand into his face. He screamed, losing his balance. While he was on the floor, I jumped on top of him. I smashed a fist into the side of his head, screaming like a maniac. The blow hurt but my adrenaline kept me going. I punched him again and again. He was barely conscious, his face a bloody mess. He gasped. I pushed away and reached for his pocket. I pulled out the bracelet, holding it tightly in my fist.

“Mine!” I shouted triumphantly.

I’m not sure why I wanted it so much, but once I held it, I felt better.

Almost powerful.

That’s when he shoved me.

I think it was meant to only push me off of him and it did. The thing was, I already didn’t have a great grip on anything. The helicopter chose that exact moment to swerve again. I tumbled backward. He was right with me, flailing. He grabbed me, trying to keep me from falling, but he didn’t have a great grip either.

Shit.

The next thing I knew, the helicopter was above us and we were tumbling away from it.

We spun in the air, facing the water below us.

I heard him scream as we got closer and closer.

I closed my eyes.

The seconds felt like an eternity.

I opened just in time to see the water inches in front of my face before I hit it.

Then nothing.

Author’s note: As I’m sure all of you know, comments are life blood to an author. I’m not begging or demanding, but I certainly would appreciate anything you have to say (or ask). It doesn’t have to be long and involved, just give me your reaction to the story. Anything critical you have to say, PLEASE do so in a PM. Pointing out people's flaws or mistakes in a comment is hurtful and NOT appreciated.Thanks in advance...EOF