The Lie

CHAPTER 5 July 2nd Alice's Birthday

Alice was the first to wake up. She had to be really quite to make sure that she didn’t wake them up as well. She walked over to the lockers and opened the one to the far left and pulled out a revolving pistol and a single bullet. She loaded the gun and sat it on the desk. She then walked over to Landon who was sleeping on the couch.

“Landon.” Alice whispered. “Landon wake up.” He opened his eyes. 

“Shh, quiet so we don’t wake her up.” She said motioning to Navy.

 He nodded, got up, walked over to the desk to see the gun. He knew what that meant and wished there was another way, but he knew that there wasn’t. Alice looked over at Navy, there was pain in her voice.

“Landon, I want to tell her. That’s all I want to do, she needs to know. I just don’t think I can hurt her again. Not again…” She whispered. Tears started to fall from her eyes. Landon walked over to Alice and put his hands on her shoulders.

“We can’t tell her. I’m sorry, but we just can’t. You know that.” He replied. 

Alice bowed her head in sadness. Landon then walked over to the computer and started hacking the C.I.A.’s DNA database. He was good at things like that. Alice walked over to Navy and woke her up. 

“Morning Alice. OH, Happy Birthday! Wait, what’s wrong?” Navy asked. Alice smiled slightly through the pain and wiped away the tears. 

“I chose.” Alice answered.

“Chose what?” Navy said. She sounded scared.

“I choose between dying and using you as a pawn.” Alice said fighting tears. Navy looked at her scared, waiting for the answer.

“I am so sorry… but I have to die… It’s the only way.” Alice said. 

“Alice… no. You can’t.” Navy replied about to cry.

“Okay, I am ready whenever you are, Alice.” said Landon as he picked up the gun and c****d it.

“Ready? Ready for what? What are you going to do?” Navy said frantically. 

Alice and Landon walked outside and Navy followed.

“What the hell are you going?” she yelled.

Landon stopped but Alice walked for another 15 feet and stopped as well. Landon stopped Navy so she couldn’t follow Alice.

“What are you doing!?” Navy demanded as Landon raised the gun and pointed it at Alice.

“Good bye Navy.” Alice said.

When the gun fired, there was a loud bang and Alice’s hands went to her chest. She fell. There was a moment of silence which didn’t last long. Navy let out a blood curtailing scream. She ran to Alice and she was covered in blood.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?!?” Navy screamed at Landon. 

She had never cried so hard, she held Alice. Landon mumbled under his breath. “Goodbye, Alexis…” then walked away behind the hideout, leaving Navy holding Alice in her arms. 

There were sirens in the distance about a minute after the shot. It took another three minutes before they actually got to Navy and Alice, but to Navy, it felt like hours.

When the ambulance reached them, the paramedics did all that they could to save her, then got out a gurney, loaded her up onto it, and put her in the truck. Navy started to get into the back of the ambulance when a paramedic stopped her.

“Mame, I’m sorry but you can’t come back here.”

“No you don’t understand, she’s my sister.” Navy cried.

She knew that only family was allowed in the back.

“I’m sorry, but you still can’t come back here. You should call and have someone come pick you up and take you, okay?” the paramedic replied.

Navy just stared absently and pulled out her phone to call her mom. While she dialed the ambulance drove away slowly over the rough terrain. Navy was left alone in the woods waiting for her mom to answer.

“Navy, are you okay? What’s up? Where are you?” Her mom said in a panic.

“I… I am 6 miles in the middle of nowhere. I’m going to… uh… to… find my way back to town. I will call you then.” Navy answered, she was crying and could barely speak.

“Navy, what’s wrong?” Her mom said concerned for her daughter. 

“She’s gone mom. Alice is…”she paused because the words she was about to say hurt. “Alice is dead.” Navy ended the call and began walking. 

About ten minutes passed when Navy heard an explosion. It came from the direction she was headed. She began to run. That was the way that the ambulance went with Alice. Deep down Navy knew that Alice was gone, but she wasn’t ready to let her go. She couldn’t, not after everything that they had been through together. As she ran, she got closer and closer to the smoke she saw rising above the trees, she could hear sirens getting closer and closer. She ran and ran, and for a moment, one small moment, she forgot that Alice was gone and all she could think was ‘’I hope Alice is okay.’’ 

She reached the end of the woods and saw something that shocked her. She saw the ambulance that carried Alice in flames being put out by firemen. All the paramedics made it out in time, but Alice’s body however was burned beyond recognition. They removed the body and were in the process of moving it to another ambulance when Navy ran through the barricades to see her. 

When Navy got to her she was looking for something that was discernible about the body that would tell her that it was her best friend; she was looking for the locket, but there wasn’t one. Navy froze. That wasn’t Alice and she knew it. Alice would die before she took off that necklace and she did, so why wasn’t it on the body that was supposed to be her best friend?

As the paramedics loaded the body on the truck, Navy was looking around. She was looking for anything that she knew, anything, anyone. She needed to know something as true. None of this made any sense to her. Something, anything. Paramedics noticed that she was covered in blood and they surrounded her and were asking her what happened and if she was okay.

“Get away from me, nothing happened, I’m fine. Just back off.” Navy said to the paramedics. They could clearly that she was unharmed and just needed some time, so they all left her alone. She just stood there crying and in shock. This was a lot to handle and she didn’t even have Alice. Navy looked just beyond the barricades and saw a face. She knew that face. Someone was walking away and turned their head back around for one second. Just one. Navy saw Alice walking away wearing the paramedics uniform and Alice was grabbing her locket around her neck, then got lost in the crowd. 

“Alice…” She said softly under her breath in disbelief. Then she yelled it hoping it was her.

“Alice!” She screamed walking toward the barricades. As soon as she reached the barricades, her mother showed up and shouted her name.

“Navy!” Her mom yelled as she ran up to her daughter and hugged her, Navy thought that she saw Alice but when she disappeared it just felt like a hallucination. Alice was gone and it suddenly hit her. When Lisa let her go she spoke again.

“Oh my word! What happened to you? Why are you covered in blood? Are you okay?” 

Navy was shutting down inside. She couldn’t think straight, she didn’t know what to do. In a matter of minutes her life took a sharp turn. Alice was gone, and she was alone. Landon disappeared and her parents didn’t know what happened nor would they understand. Navy then replied to her mom’s questions.

“Everything happened to me, Alice died in my arms, and no, I’m not okay.” Navy just stood there silent, in the middle of all the chaos, she did nothing. Her mom spoke softly, she knew that Navy had been through a lot. 

“Let’s go home. You need rest.” Navy just nodded absently and started walking with her mom to the car. While they are sitting in the car her mother calmly starts asking Navy questions.

“Navy, where's Alice? What did you mean? She’s not actually dead is she?” Navy just looked straight forward. She looked sad, but she barely had an emotion on her face. 

“I thought she died in my arms.” Navy replied. She slowly looked down, but her face didn’t change in its expression. She looked at shirt covered in blood, Alice’s blood. 

“Why did she do this? Why did she have to die? What did she do that would make her do this? How could Landon do this? How could he? His own sister. How could he shoot his own sister?” Navy asked rhetorically. She wanted to know the answer to all of those questions, but she knew that no one but Alice really knew what happened and why she and Landon did what they did. 

“Navy, I am so sorry, you two were like sisters.” Lisa said as they pulled into the driveway.

“No, we were not like sisters. We were sisters.” Navy said defensively. She opened the car door and slammed it as she got out, stormed into the house and slammed that door too. When she got to her room she was crying. She couldn’t help it. Her best friend died in her arms and she didn’t know what was going on. She just stood there in the middle of her room crying.

“Navy!” Her mom yelled from downstairs. “There is someone here to see you.” Navy knew that it wasn’t Alice, but she was the only person who ever came to see her. She was curious as to who it was so she wiped her eyes and went downstairs. Her parents were sitting on one of the couches in the living room. She got to the bottom of the stairs and saw who it was, Laura. She walked over to her.

“Are you here to arrest me? Fine. Do it. I don’t care anymore. There’s no reason to run. Alice is dead, so go ahead arrest me.” Said Navy. She put her arms out infront of her, wrists up. She was angry at Laura and blamed her for what happened. 

“I am not here to arrest you. I just want to talk.” Said Laura.

“Talk? Talk about what? Alice is dead and out of your way, I don’t know what you want from me.” Navy replied slowly raising her voice.

“I just have a few questions. Please.” She said pointing to the couch. She sat down but Navy was hesitant. She waited a moment then sat down as well. Navy looked at her waiting for yet more questions. As if she hadn’t been through enough already.

“Where did she die and how?” She asked. “I want the whole story and leave nothing out.”

“She was shot and killed in the woods about 6 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere.”Navy said. As she spoke, she felt as though she was reliving everything. She saw Alice’s face. She felt Alice lying lifeless in her arms, covered in blood. She heard the sirens. She saw her face. She watched Alice get shot and fall to the ground. She held Alice. She watched Alice die. She died in her arms. 

As she told Laura of what happened she wasn’t thinking. She told the story of what happened, not thinking about what happened then, but rather of what happened before. Before everything. She was remembering Alice. She was remembering all the good times and the bad. All the videogames, all the racing in the park, all the movies, fighting, laughter, name calling, vacations, games, arguing. All the things that she ever did with Alice. All the while absent mindedly telling the story to Laura.

“... then my mom came and got me and took me home and then I am talking to you….” Navy finished and tears slowly made their way down her face. 

“Did you know she was going to do that?” Laura asked.

“No, I didn’t. If I knew I would have stopped her. I didn’t know, you have to believe me. I already told you everything that happened. She didn’t tell me anything.” Navy pleated. Laura said a few things to her parents and left.

“Can I go to my room now? I just want to be alone right now.” Navy said softly. Her parents looked at her and gently nodded their heads and Navy went to her room.

When she got to her room she saw something different. There was a C.D. case sitting on her bed. It was labeled in sharpy, Hey, Listen. That was a saying from Alice and Navy’s favorite videogame. 

She walked over to it and stopped crying, sat down on the bed and looked at it. She had never seen it before, when she opened the case there was a C.D. in it. It was labeled Watch alone. Navy got up, put it in her computer and hit play. Alice appeared on the screen. Navy’s hands went to her mouth.

“Hey, Navy. So, if you are watching this then, well, then that means that I’m gone. I made this about ten or fifteen minutes after you saw me killed. I know that doesn’t make sense so, I guess I owe you an explanation. I’m not dead, but I am gone. I think I am going to have to leave, I think I am going to have to move. I told Landon to drop this off at your house as soon as he got the chance.” Alice said. Navy was crying again. She continued.

“So, I know I put you through a lot, I know that you saw me shot and and burned but, it’s all fake. All of it. I’ve done this before, when I was caught the first time. Wow, I have a lot to confess. My name isn’t even Alice. It’s Alexis. My full name is Alexis Maria McKinnis. I changed my name to Alice Jade Winters after I faked my death the first time. So, I gotta change it again.”

Navy noticed that Alice was outside. The place looked familiar. She took the video in the park.

“I know that I may never see you again so I figured I would tell you how I did it.” Alice said. Navy couldn’t believe it. Her tears were no longer sad. They were tears of joy, she was alive. Alice was alive.

“I don’t know when you are going to get this, but it all happened the day I ‘died’ on the second of July, my birthday. Landon and I started while you were still asleep. He hacked the DNA database changed the name of Jane Doe 416 to Alice so that way the fake blood we used would match the body that was burned in the ambulance. All the records would show that it was me that burned the fire. Not Jane Doe 416. The ambulance got there so quickly because Landon called ahead. The paramedics weren’t actually real paramedics, well they were but they are friends of Landon and they do work at the hospital. They owed him a favor so he told them what was going on. They came and put me in the truck. I told them not to let you in the back because we were going to blow it up. The body was already in the back and so was an extra paramedics uniform that I would use to escape without being noticed. I saw you there, at the fire, I am so sorry. I couldn’t tell you in case Laura came by to interrogate you. You just couldn’t know. If was for your own good...” 

Navy was still confused, but Alice must have known she would be lost because of what she said next.

“...and I know you are wondering how I got shot and lived. I put one bullet into the gun, but that one round was a blank. I had a small bag of blood in the breast pocket of my jacket. When the gun went off I popped the bag when I held my chest. The hole then looked kind of like a gunshot hole. When you ran over to me you didn’t check my pulse and you were shaking me enough not to notice that I was breathing. I really want to see you again, just to say goodbye. I will be in the park until five, then I will have to go. I hope to see you there, but if I don’t then I understand and I want you to do me one last favor, live long and prosper.” Alice held up the vulcan peace symbol from Star Trek, their favorite show, and the message ended. It was four twenty-seven. Navy got her jacket and ran downstairs.

“Mom, I am going to the park I will be back soon!” Navy said as she ran out the door not giving her parents enough time to answer. She was running faster than she had even run before. There were tears in her eyes, happy tears. She didn’t stop, she wouldn’t stop until she saw Alice. 

She got to the park and looked at her watch, four thirty-three. She ran to the bench that they always sat on together and talked. When she got close enough to see the bench, she saw Alice there waiting. Alice looked over, saw her and stood up. Navy ran to her sister and hugged her like she would die if she let go. 

“I thought you were dead, I thought I would never see you again.” Navy said in tears.

“I know. I’m sorry” Alice replied. They finished their hug and sat down on the bench.

“I can’t believe you’re alive.”said Navy. ”I don’t know where to start.” 

 Alice smiled, then she felt a hand on shoulder. She tried to move but the grip tightened and it hurt. Navy looked up and it was Laura. 

“What are you d-...” Navy was stopped before she could finish.

“I tailed you” Laura said to Navy.

“Alice, please don’t try and run. There’s something I need to tell you.” Laura sounded calm and caring now. She didn’t sound at all like an agent anymore. She walked around in front of her. Alice looked scared and defeated, she knew that she couldn’t run. 

“Alice, can I please see your locket?” she asked. Alice unzipped her jacket and revealed the locket.

“What do you want with my locket?” Alice asked. Laura was silent. It looked like she was about to start crying. Laura unzipped her jacket and she too had a locket. She and Alice had matching lockets. Alice had never seen a locket that looked like hers before, how can they have the same one. 

“Alice, can you open it?” Laura asked.

“No, I can’t there is a key that goes to it, but I don’t have it.” Alice replied sadly.

“I do.” Laura said. She pulled out two keys from her pocket and handed one to Alice and kept the other one. They both opened their lockets.

When Alice opened hers, a small piece of paper fell out. Alice read it, Love mom and dad. 

Alice put the paper in her pocket and looked at the picture. It was a picture of Laura and a man. He looked similar to Landon.

“Are… Are you telling me, that you’re my… mother?” Alice spoke softly, she was scared and excited at the same time. She was tearing up. She had been searching for her parents for years, she didn’t care who they were, she just wanted to know.

“Yes” Laura replied. “I am your mom, Laura McKinnis, and I know your real name. Alexis Maria McKinnis. I joined the C.I.A. to find you. I can understand if you don’t want me around but I finally found you and don’t want to let you go again. I made that mistake once and I’m not about to do it again.”

Alice stood up and hugged her mother, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but she knew that one way or another, she was going to jail. She let go of her mother.

“Are you still going to arrest me?” Alice asked softly.

“Well, I don’t want to, I don’t know. What if-” She was cut off. Tony, Shawn, and three other men surrounded them. Navy sat still on the bench with her hand in the air. Laura and Alice got defensive. Alice looked at her mother in horror.

“It was a setup…?” Alice said, shocked. “You’re not even my mom are you? ARE YOU?” She yelled. Alice couldn’t believe what had happened to her, what she had let happen to her.

“I can’t believe I fell for this.” Alice whispered to herself. She looked up at Laura, she looked surprised, like she didn’t know that this was going to happen. She also looked sad and scared, she looked as though she were about to cry. Her eyes were welling up with tears and she put her hand on her locket, the locket with the picture of her kids, the only thing she had left, her only memory of them. Inside Laura’s locket were two pictures, one of Landon and one of Alice. The pictures were taken in the hospital room only hours after they were born.

Alice looked at Laura. “I can’t believe you would hand me my mother and then just rip her away from me. I have been searching for my mother for as long as I can remember. Well, I guess you did what you had to do, doesn’t matter how you do it.”

“No, Alexis, I didn’t know, you have to belie-” 

“Shut up! Just shut up. That is not my name! My name is Alice! Atleast call me by my name. Alexis died in that car four years ago and you got me, okay? You caught me. Why are you still lying to me?”Alice said defensively and sadden. She turned to face Navy on the bench, then she turned back to Laura and put her hands behind her back. 

“I give up…” Alice said in a soft whisper. “Arrest me…”

Alice looked at Navy and started to cry silent tears. Navy looked at Alice, but her cries weren’t so silent.

“No Alice, you can’t do this, you just can’t I lost you once and I am not going to lose you again. I can’t be alone again, please… not again.”

A man broke the circle and started to cuff Alice.

“Navy, there is nowhere left to run, there will always be “A Piece of Me” with you.” Alice looked at Navy like it would be the last time she would see her sister again. Navy’s eyes got big. She understood what Alice meant. “A Piece of Me” was a book that Alice gave to Navy when she turned sixteen. 

“Good-bye Navy. I love you.” Whispered Alice as they walked her to the cop car around the corner. Navy couldn’t hear her and yet she responded. “Good-bye Alice, I love you.”

And just like that, Alice was gone. Navy didn’t know why Alice told her to get that book, it made no sense, but that had to be what Alice meant, it just had to be. Navy looked down at her watch, it was four fifty-nine, she watched it turn to five. She felt this feeling before, actually the feeling hasn’t left since this whole thing started. She felt lost and confused. She felt empty.

“A Piece of Me” she thought. “Get the book.”

By the time she got home and her parents stopped interrogating her about everything that has happened in the past few days, she forgot about the book. Navy was exhausted, she went up to her room. When she got there, she saw the computer screen frozen on Alice’s faces. Her eyes, glazed over like newly cut glass, a tear running down her cheek and an empty, scared smile. It suddenly hit her, “A Piece of Me”! She yelled. She ran to her desk and threw open one of the drawers, she was frantically looking for that book. When she found it she didn’t ever bother to close the drawer, she sat down at her desk and opened the book to the first page. She scanned the book for anything Alice could have been talking about. She scanned every page, cover to cover. 

“Nothing!” She yelled. “There’s nothing here!”

Out of anger, she threw the book against the wall. The book fell to the ground and the jacket slid half off and was torn. Navy stood up, picked up the book and was about to put it away when she saw writing on the inside of the book jacket. 102 Dow St. 

Navy set an alarm to go off at nine a.m. tomorrow titled 102 Dow St. so she wouldn’t forget. Then she fell asleep.