Far From Home

Chapter 3 far from home 

After Shade finished the last precious slice of the mushroom and olive pizza, he went upstairs, took a long shower, and then collapsed into bed. It was around one in the morning and Shade was texting on his phone, he liked to text about what he planned to do during his summer, especially to his close friends.

Shade felt that summer brought peace and rest. Staying up till three in the morning and then sleeping in until one in the afternoon was probably his favorite thing about summer. In summer he could let go of all the stress that school brings, His friends would try to tell him that school isn’t so bad, but he is the type of student not to fool around in class. Shade took every assignment, test, and exam extremely serious. School wasn’t a game to him, but more of a race. Shade felt it held him back and he hated the fact that school was supposed to define what you were to do in life, especially when you’re not sure what you want out of it.

    Summer seemed like an endless paradise, he could do as he pleased. If he wanted to go out with his friends and spear fish in the creek at four in the morning, he could do so. Mr. and Mrs. Davinson were indifferent to what Shade did as long as he got his chores done. Shade loved this freedom to do whatever. To be free of responsibility was a gift that only a few could hold, but like all gifts, it can be taken away. Shade turned eighteen that summer, and it was legal for the Davinsons to put him out on the streets.

Shade wouldn’t be homeless. He had already picked out a cheap apartment to live in, while he finished his senior year, but summer came first and he planned to make the most out of what little time he had left before the drudgery of adulthood was upon him. 

While Shade was texting in a group chat, banging started to come from the wall. Shade’s room was right next to Alexa’s room on the top floor. Alexa was slamming on the wall for a good five minutes until her roommates couldn’t take it anymore. They pried her from the wall and had to drag her to bed.

Shade couldn’t sleep. He started wondering about his test results and the weird behavior of one of the proctors, he laughed a little. Shade turned his phone off and he laid in his bed. He laid there for a good thirty minutes when he heard a loud knock at the door all the way downstairs.

“Well someone’s home early.” Shade suspected it was Mr. and Mrs. Davinson returning from visiting their son. “They must have lost their keys.” He walked down stairs to open the door. He reached for the grimy door handle and opened it. And to his surprise it was not who he expected.

“Mr. Foret??? What are you doing here?”

“You test results are in!” Mr. Foret said excitedly. 

 “What…? Why? Is this a joke, cause it’s not funny I was almost asleep!” he questioned in a harsh wispier.

Mr. Foret smiled, “This is no joke, your test results are in, and we have your prize!” he said as he pointed to a car, with Mr. Howell in the driver’s seat. 

“Is this for real?” Shade uttered in confusion.

“Well someone hired us to get their test subject, you, for something they were doing so Mr. Howell and I go undercover everywhere and…”

“Foret!” shouted Mr. Howell as he got out of the dark car, “That’s enough, Shade you need to come with us, now.”

“Well you’re out of luck because I'm not going with anybody. Get out of here before I call the cops.”

“Look Sherman! We don’t have time for your crap get into the car, our flight leaves in three hours,” yelled Mr. Foret, as he took out a blunt object and hit Shade in the head in the same place that he had gotten stricken by a rock earlier that day.

They dragged Shade to their car. Alexa walked out the door. She hadn’t really heard the conversation.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Mr. Howel saw that Mr. Foret didn’t know what to say. “We are with the police, Shade has done something very illegal, and we are taking him down to the station.”

There was a long pause until Alexa burst into laughter, “Hahahahaha, Don’t bring him back, Hahahahaha.”

“Mr. Howel laughed awkwardly alongside with her. “heh heh, Will do, go back inside now and sleep, he’ll be back in a few weeks, good-bye now.” Then Mr. Foret put Shade in the back of the car with help from Mr. Howel, they then got into the car and shut the door while they both watched Alexa walked back inside.

 “That was almost too close…What a weird kid… anyway do we have the plane ready at the airport, we have to be there by morning,” asked Mr. Foret.

“Yes everything is how it should be.”

 “Then let’s get out of here,” said Mr. Foret.

When Alexa got back upstairs, she watched from Shade’s window as the car went off into the darkness, “Don’t come back, I hope you never come back,” She smiled as the car got farther and farther away.

  

 

Shade woke up in an airplane. “Ugh, my head,” he took a quick glance around the plane and was confused. He was reclined in a seat with no one else in sight. He tried to remember how he had gotten there.

“That idiot, Mr. Foret!” he quickly jumped up from his seat. He saw a doorway covered by a curtain that led into another cabin in the plane. He rushed through and saw Mr. Howel and Mr. Foret sitting across from each other at a table, he stormed over furiously planning to attack one of them.

“WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME” he yelled as he was about to sock Mr. Foret in the face.

Mr. Foret quickly dodged the punch and jumped in surprise, Mr. Howel simply sat waiting for Shade to calm down.

“We are taking you to Egypt,” Mr. Foret explained. “You’ll be a test monkey just like the rest of em,” He growled as he was angry from what Shade had tried to do.   

“…WHAT! YOU CAN’T JUST KIDNAP PEOPLE!”

“No, were secretly ‘adopting’ you,” he chuckled. “Well I guess not that being we’re handing you over to someone else, we’re merely the middle men.”

“THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE!” shouted Shade.

“Calm down Shade, calm down,” Mr. Howel urged. He cracked his knuckles and then motioned for Mr. Foret to sit back down. “You must understand that we have no ill intentions towards you, In fact you’re one of the more mellow people I’ve… borrowed.”

“Borrowed, you freaking kidnapped me! And for what… are you gunna kill me!” Shade panicked.

“Yes!” yelled Mr. Foret to quickly for Mr. Howell to respond.

“No!” stated Mr. Howel, “Don’t listen him, he has... issues. We’re not going to hurt you in any way, in fact out clients even stated the importance of your safety.”

“Safety? He bashed me over the head with what I think was a frying pan?” as he pointed a finger to Mr. Foret who had a sly smile on his face.    

“Like I said, he has issues. The T.S. will take care of you and your needs, and when all is said and done, they’ll send you home.”

 “The T.S.?” asked Shade slowly.

“The T.S. stands for the Time Society. They are a group of people who want to perfect the art of time travel. They don’t get many volunteers, don’t ask, so they’ve hired us to find subjects that meet the standards of the machine.”

“You’re joking right? Where’s the hidden camera?”

Mr. Foret spoke up, “I’m a funny guy, but this is no joke, well it might be…we actually haven’t seen the machine in person, you should ask when we get there.”

“Get where?” Shade interrupted as he glanced towards the window. 

 “Weren’t you listing to me, we’re taking you to Egypt.”

Shade tightened his fist, “Take me home… or else.”

Mr. Foret started to crack up, and it even brought a smile to Mr. Howel's face. “We’re not going to take you home,” Mr. Howel then grew very serious. “You don’t have the choice. Everything is being set into motion, and there is no turning back.”

Shade lowered his head, defeated, angry, and mostly confused he walked out of the cabin, The last thing he heard from the two of them was laughter, all about how the two of them had captured a group of girls, who were in a band, by convincing them they were producers and could sign them off on some big deal.

Shade took a seat, wondering how many people these lunatics had taken. How had he fallen into their trap? What game were these people playing at, were they telling the truth? He couldn’t focus, He felt completely helpless, just like when he was with Alexander, he punched the seat in front of him, then sighed, “I'm never going home am I…” 

Author's Note

Feel free to criticize my work, I want it to be the best it can be.