Puzzle Pieces

Chapter 6

After a minute, I put the glasses back on and adjusted my coat. The little brown-haired girl smiled, taking my breath away. She wore a pink shirt with cats on the front and some jean pants. Her wavy hair blew as the breeze brushed past her. The voice wondered if it could volunteer for the class just to get closer to her.

"No! Katrina! Get away!" I tried to shout, but I couldn't. He wanted to find a way to talk to her. He just wanted to be near her. She was the air in his lungs. The teacher looked over again and harsh words erupted in his thoughts. “Will this hog of a woman leave? Stop looking at me you cow!” he wanted to say.

The group of girls erupted in laughter and I saw the dimples in her light cheeks. I watched her intently as she didn't notice me. “You find that funny, baby?” he said to himself. He started to swoon, he almost licked the gate. He never felt more alive than this moment. Whistles started blowing. I looked to see if they were being blown at me, trying to chase me a way, but they were not. I tried to walk away, but I couldn't leave her. I was stuck there. I was stuck because the man wanted to be here. He wanted to watch, as he called her, HIS girl.

"Let's go, Katrina," one of her little blonde friends said.

"Katrina," the man's voice whispered. He repeated her name over and over again. He was excited as he watched her. She walked towards a line, but stopped and turned, looking at me. Again I tried to warn her to get away, but I couldn't. A big smile spread across my face and I started waving. Greeting someone the way you did if you were old time friends or family that you haven’t seen in a long time and missed. A small, awkward, smile spread across her lips. Then, as if she realized I was a stranger, she looked down and away.

"NO!" the man's voice yelled internally. He wanted her focus on me. His voice continues in my head. "I haven't been able to pull my eyes away from her in days, since her and her mother were at the bank the other day. Even when I'm not watching her here, I see her every time I close my eyes. I must find a way that we can be together forever. Then we’ll never be apart". I felt sick to my stomach, vomit rose in my throat to no avail. I was unable to move or do anything unless the man wanted to. I watched as the teacher led the class down the hall. “Soon,” he said before walking down the sidewalk.

I jumped up in bed. The lamp on the nightstand next to my bed was still on. The music, lower now, was still playing. Did I drift to sleep? The lump in my throat rose and I ran to the bathroom. After spilling my dinner, I washed up and laid in bed, hugging my pillow to myself. Why would I dream of that man again? Or Katrina? That he was watching her? I heard the thoughts and felt his feelings as if they were my own. It was almost like having a movie play inside of my head, only I was acting it out. I tried to move away, to get away to protect Katrina, but I couldn't. Why? Why would I dream that? Maybe because of the first nightmare and how I saw them both today? I shook my head, holding my pillow closer to myself, a surge of emotions going through me. My stomach still turned, I felt dizzy, I was sweaty and my heart raced.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Annabel? Are you asleep?" Noah's voice said on the other side of the door.

"No. Come in," I said, sitting up in bed. I'm still mad at him, but I need a distraction. Something to take away from the nightmare I just had. Noah walked in and shut the door behind him before walking over and sitting at the end of my bed.

"For some reason I felt like I needed to check on you. I figured something had to be up. Is everything okay?" he asked sincerely.

"Yeah, just another nightmare."

“Want to talk about it?”

The dream replayed in my head. How could I even begin to explain? I shook my head.

"Well, since I'm here, I should apologize. The reason I ditched today was because I just couldn’t go. Simple enough, right? With our ‘big birthday’ and mom trying her best, it just. I couldn’t. I went and spent time with dad. I did think about going to school, but I ended up driving right past it. I'm sorry that I left you. At first, I meant it as a joke, but it ended up being something I needed. I’m sorry. I honestly didn't mean to get you into any trouble. I'll talk to Ms. Lawrence tomorrow and see if she can take off the demerit," he said quietly. Wow. This was different. I felt stupid. How could I not see that something was bugging him?

"Don't bother. You know Ms. Lawrence won't change anything. Plus, I have already served my detention. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you or noticed you struggling, but I probably wouldn't have laughed about having to walk to school and serving detention. That was a very bad joke. Now I'm grounded too."

"Do you want me to talk to mom?"

"Wouldn't help me. I'm mostly in trouble for the first two demerits I have," I said, rolling my eyes. He snickered as he pointed at me.

"And that's why you're the bad twin.”

"I am not the bad twin. That’s you, always ditching to hook up with girls. And even though you’re the reason for my demerit, you didn’t even get in trouble!"

"First, I don’t ditch to hook up with girls. And second, what are demerits to you anyway, Ms. Goody goody?"

"I only have two demerits left before getting kicked off of the squad! That's important to me."

"Well then, don’t get anymore demerits. How many demerits can you get in two months?" he asked rhetorically.

"Not the point, but I guess you're right. You do realize that you're going to get a demerit for skipping today, right?"

"Eh. We'll see. I'm pretty good at forging mom's signature," he said with a shrug as he stood up from the bed.

“And I’m the bad twin?”

He laughed over his shoulder as he opened the door. “Turn the question into a statement.

I grabbed one of my pillows to throw at him, but before I could, he closed the door.

"Oy Vey," I said, putting my head back against my headboard with my eyes shut.

Streaks of sunbeams came in through the boards on the window. Katrina laid on the dirty twin mattress on the floor, holding herself and crying. A pit grew in my stomach. I’m back at the abandoned house? She watched as I lowered myself to the ground and crawled to her. Her pajamas weren’t as dirty as the first time I saw her and her hair was not as tangled.

“Can you help me?” she asked with a river of tears flowing out of her eyes. “I want to go home.”

My heart sank and I had to stop myself from crying with her. Seeing her so little and afraid, I wanted to help her with everything that I was. I took a deep breath and held her hand in mine.

“Where’s the bad man?” I asked.

My alarm startled me awake. I took deep breaths as my heart raced. I was covered in sweat. I looked around my room before I shut off my alarm. I clearly slept enough to dream, but why doesn’t it feel like I haven’t slept all night? And why dream of Katrina and the house again? I didn’t have much time to dwell on it. I had to get up, shower, and get ready for school. I had to catch the bus. I struggled out of bed thinking at least it's Friday. I still don’t get why I have to take the bus instead of my mom making Noah take me. We’re going to the same place anyway. Well, most days. The sun was still hiding, giving the sky a pretty blue hue.

After a shower, I got dressed in some black stretchy pants and a gray and black striped long sleeve shirt. I tugged on my knee-high boots and went downstairs. When I walked into the kitchen, mom stood staring at the miniature TV on the kitchen counter, her hand over her mouth. I smelled coffee, but it was still brewing. I grabbed the box of cereal and poured myself a bowl. My mother ignored me. “Morning mom,” I said as I poured the milk.

“Shhh, I’m watching the news,” she said, still with her hand over her mouth. A gesture she used when something really surprised her or made her sad. The news. Always so sad to watch. Bad thing after bad thing usually happened in the bigger towns around ours. Another reason mom chooses not to move. And why I choose not to watch it.

"Let me guess. There was another possible bomb threat? Or something of that nature?”

“Don’t mock Annabel. This is serious and it happened not too far from here,” she said, giving me goose bumps.

“In Sierra Hills?”

“No, in the valley,” she said, turning up the volume. My stomach dropped. Nothing ever happened in the valley. Sierra Hills maybe every once in a while, but never in the valley. Who’d come into the boonies?

“What is it? What happened?”

"A girl has been abducted. It's been all over the news this morning. I guess someone broke into the house and took her," she said, shaking her head. Her hand still covered her mouth. A k********g? A break in? A k********g and a break-in!? It actually was a big shock. We've only ever had a handful of child abductions that I could remember since I was a little girl. Most of which were false alarms. Children got picked up by a parent and taken for ice cream or something like that. A break in happened in Sierra hills like at the school or a*****e, but even that was rare.

I took big mouthfuls of my cereal as I watched the small screen. The anchor person shook her head stating the police are asking for the public’s help. The TV flashed a picture of the abducted girl. It was her. Katrina Peterson.