Chapter 16

Josh bent down and picked up Jenna’s limp form. She had a few cuts and scratches. Nothing that worried him. The cut on her head wasn’t deep.
He carried her out of the forest and to his car. He thanked his lucky stars that Paige had not decided to take it. He knew where she lived. They had been watching her house for days.
He parked the car and just sat there staring. He thought about leaving her on the front porch and driving away. She didn’t deserve that.
Slowly he walked up to the front door and rang the bell. The door opened. He knew he had paled. His body began to feel like ice.
Memories, ones he tried to keep hidden. His secret to bare. They flooded his mind. Needles, a toddler. He shook his head. They were his nightmares.
He recalled as his body jarred with each blow, how the pain seared through his skin and took away every feeling of safety he had ever had.
The needles were the worst. The liquid set his veins on fire. He shrouded.
“I found her in the woods,” The man took her from him. Josh backed down the steps, as he grinned at him. He knew who he was. He could remember too.
He had made a mistake.

***
Fire rose high into the sky; thick plumes of smoke clogged her chest. She was chocking and struggling to pull in clean air.
Buildings crumbled around her, little houses with straw roofs. “Edina, Edina, get down!” she heard a woman’s voice. Jenna looked to the sound of the voice to see the woman become engulfed in flames. She had the same shade of hair as herself.
Her vision changed. She was alone. Stood before a large mansion. A young girl walked down the stone steps. Not any girl but herself. Only she was wearing medieval clothes. A dark brown dress with a white pinafore. She looked like an old-fashioned wife.
“You must remember,” the girl said before vanishing.
Jenna woke up in her room. The sunlight poured through a crack in her curtains. She couldn’t remember how she got in bed. She was in the forest. Or was she? Was it a dream?
She sat up. Her head began to pound. “Not again,” she muttered, making her way into the bathroom. She had to look twice at herself. Her head sported a nasty gash. Her eyes, well they were now green. Not a green mixed with blue, but a bright glow in the dark green. It wasn’t possible. Her eyes were blue.
“Remember,” her reflection spoke. Jenna jumped back crashing into the shower. She stared at the mirror. Nothing happened. Her reflection didn’t speak to her again.
A knock on the door made her heart leap into her throat. “Jenna, come on, I have to be at class in like twenty minutes,” Claire yelled at the closed door.
She was always on the last push. More often than not, she was late. Jenna opened the door. She didn’t want to take a shower. She wanted to curl back up in her bed and wake up. Wake up from her freaky dream.
“Nice, where did you get them?” Claire asked.
“What?” Jenna replied.
“The contacts, they are cool and freaky. About time you took part in Halloween like the rest of us,” she laughed.
Jenna stared at the door closing on her. Claire saw them too.
She shook her head. Time to sleep.

***
“I don’t want that boy anywhere near our daughter,” Selena pleaded. Her husband was changing. Once he was a loving caring father, now he wanted to use their daughter, as bait.
Selena didn’t like the idea. She didn’t like her husband messing around with those people, that wasn’t the right word for them. Monster’s that is what they were.
“I am so close, do you know what it would mean, for us. That cruise you have been eyeing. We will be able to go. Not just that but anywhere you want to go,”
Selena shook her head. Money, he was going to risk his daughter’s life for money. She couldn’t look at him. He was a mess. His clothes were well past their cell by date. A shave would be a start. He was starting to look like a nutty professor.
“You should listen to yourself. It stops and it stops now. Our children are more important than creating those, those monsters!”
“Those monsters could be our lifeline. They could….” Mason was cut off; Selena couldn’t handle it anymore. The secrets, the lies. They were tearing her apart. Then there was Jenna. Somehow, she had crossed paths with one of them. Selena knew it was only a matter of time before the monsters went after her family. Isn’t that what her husband had been doing? Going after there’s. Soon they would pay them back. Selena was not about to pay the price.
“Could, that one word right there could. It is not enough,” she walked away. Mason wasn’t himself. Hopefully he would see sense. She stopped and turned back to her husband, pulling her shoulders back she looked him in the eyes. “I will not risk Jenna’s life. It stops and it stops now, or I will take the kids,”
“You can’t do that,”
“I can and I will,” Mason stomped across the room and the next thing Selena’s head whipped back as Mason’s hand connected with her face. In all the years they had been married. Not once had he laid a hand on her.
“Do not threaten me!” he bellowed his eyes wild and his body shaking.

***
Jenna sat on the bottom of the stairs. He had hit her mum. Her heart stopped beating for a second. “Monsters” the word felt strange when she said it out loud. What were they talking about? Her mind became a whirlwind of thoughts and questions. None made sense. She looked at the time. Ten A.M if she hurried, she would make it to second period. Maybe school would be a good distraction.
Jenna made it to her class. Communications, taking her seat beside Donna, she pulled out her notebook. Donna didn’t look at her. She was staring straight ahead.
“You, okay?” Jenna asked. Donna didn’t answer. She didn’t blink or acknowledge Jenna. Jenna waved her hand in front of Donna’s face. She jumped sending her chair wheeling backwards.
“Sorry,” Jenna said. A little in shock. Her heart had soared with Donna’s reaction.
“Are you Okay?” Jenna asked her again.
“Yeah, yeah. I need to talk to you. Meet me in the library at lunch?” Jenna nodded as Mrs. Skye walked in.
“Today, we are going to talk about work. You will all be taking part in a work experience challenge. Y
You will all be given a form to take to an employer to fill in. You will be spending a week working for free to give you experience, so chose the setting or place you would like to work in wisely,” the room filled with groans. Jenna however perked up. This was it. It was her chance to get into her father’s workplace, an excuse to be there. She could feel the excitement bubbling in her chest. Maybe, just maybe she would find the answers she needed.
Lunch time came around quickly. Jenna headed to the library to meet Donna.
“Hay,” Jenna greeted Donna, taking a seat at the side of her.
“Hay,” Donna answered, chewing on her fingers, Jenna noticed that they were bitten down to the skin, Donna continued to bite them like a famished mouse. Silence sat between the two of them like a poison. It seeped into her brain and sent the signal of nerves.
“What’s up?” Jenna asked. She needed noise. The look on Donna’s face wasn’t helping.
“Well…”
“Erm…” Silence. She stopped talking, her eyes gazing around the room. It was mostly empty. Most students were eating lunch.
“What is it Donna?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this. Where to start,” She held Jenna’s eyes with her own.
“The beginning is always best,” Jenna tried to joke. Jenna was becoming impatient. She was hoping to use her lunch break and free period to get her dad to sign the work experience form. The sooner the better, she had a feeling all the answers she needed were in that building. Yes, she was nervous and the thought of stepping back in that place clawed at her stomach. Yet she fought the feeling. She had to find out what was going on. Even if that would mean facing her demons.
“I lied to you Jenna, I am not who you think I am,” Jenna’s full attention was on Donna now. Her brain was trying to process what she had just said. Then it started to think up the things that Donna could have lied about. Jenna could not figure it out. She laughed then. Donna was one of the most honest people she knew. She always told Jenna the truth whether Jenna liked it or not. That is what Jenna liked about Donna, she always knew where she stood.
“Donna, are you okay? What could you have possibly lied about?”
“I am a witch,”
“I wouldn’t go that far, yes you hang out with the mean kids but you’re different. You’re not like them,” Jenna tried to make her feel better. She had time to think, and she didn’t believe Donna was a bad person at all.
“No Jenna, I am a real witch, like in spells and magic,” That was it, Jenna stood up, it was like her insanity was a disease spreading to those around her. Like a thief it had stolen into Donna’s mind, planting its deranged roots and thoughts.