Chapter 12

When it isn't as pleasant being home as she thought, Katherine devises a plan to make sure he friends are alright. Even if that means going to ground zero.

It seemed to be a long period of time that passed from when I was thrown in the van to when we stopped. One of the guys in the front said we were here, but I didn’t know where I was until I was carried out of the van. We were outside of my house, and my parents ran down the driveway to get me. My mother was in tears, and my father thanked the men. Whatever they did, I couldn’t talk. I wanted to tell them that they basically tried to kill me, that they had Claire and Simon, that we had to go back.

“Thank God you’re home,” my mother said, hugging me. My father’s arms wrapped around both of us.

“Mister and misses Garcia, we found your daughter at the school. She was passed out on the lawn, but we already examined her and she is probably just tired and dehydrated. You should probably just let her stay home for the next couple of days to get better,” said the man that drove us. I remembered him by his blonde hair versus the black haired man who threw me in the back of the van.

“Thank you so much,” my parents said before carrying me off. Again, I wanted to shout and tell them we had to go back for my friends. Still nothing. Now my father was looking at me as he carried me up our front steps, “Katherine, why were you at the school after hours?”

“We weren’t. My friends and I went through the woods to a factory where they held experiments and studies on a rare parasite that can drain us or make us mindless slaves,” is what I wanted to say. The dryness of my throat held back my voice. It tickled the back of my throat, and I coughed. It felt really bad that I couldn’t speak up and tell my parents, despite what they’d think at least the truth would be out.

I had to go back. For Simon and for Claire.

Father gently placed me on my bed where the comfortable mattress swiftly brought me off to Dreamland. I didn’t stand a chance trying to stay awake. But when I woke up in the middle of my seemingly endless nap, I saw something odd wrapping around my hands. Upon a closer look, it wasn’t wrapping around me but in me already. My veins were turning black around the area where the Hex Driver was. They looked like dark worms near the surface of my skin, getting bigger by the second.

Could it be the parasite was still in me? No, that’d be terrible. There would be no way the Driver would be of any use without the parasite. What I was seeing must have been a dream, or maybe just normal residual effects. Weakly, I pulled the sleeve of my jacket down over my hand and fell back into a deep sleep.

Days passed and no word from Simon or Claire. Neither of them had been in school, and Claire’s mother was on sick leave. They couldn’t have made it out. The Hex Company kept the two of them there at the factory. There is no way of telling for sure, though, without going and sneaking in to make sure.

The weird, black veins on my arm haven’t changed. They haven’t shrunk nor grew, but I felt fine. My parents were worried sick, seeing bags under my eyes and a purplish tint to my skin. I felt fine, though, fit for battle. That’s what I told myself, at least. Tightening my headband around my head and through my hair.

The woods were as quiet as the first day I went through them. There it was, though. The Hex Factory towered over me. Oh, I was going back in. My friends were still in there.