The C I N Series Bundled Read online

  I really was going to die in Lynn.

  Except it wasn’t Ally who was going to kill me.

  I was going to drown.

  My eyes burned and I slapped the side of the boat. I needed air in my lungs. They were about to burst from the pressure. What would my mom say when she came to get me? Millie where is my precious daughter? Dead?! You only watched her for three days!

  Who was I kidding? My mom wasn’t coming to get me and she wasn’t going to miss me if I drowned.

  I still didn’t want to die.

  I struggled to free my leg. It wouldn’t budge. I’d caught it underneath the safety bar. Yeah, real security…

  Suddenly, the kayak flipped forward and I gasped for air. My lungs burned and I felt as if I were going to explode all over. I coughed up water from my lungs. Ally was coughing, too. She’d been stuck as well. We gagged and spit out salt water.

  Alex sat in his kayak with a pained expression. “That was a close one.”

  I couldn’t speak. My hands, arms, face and the whole rest of my body trembled and shivered from the cold.

  He held on tight to our boat. “I think we should hurry home.”

  I looked up at the sky. It was clear, as if it hadn’t threatened to rain just moments ago. The ocean waters were calm and relaxed, too. “I lost my oar.”

  Ally laughed. “Me, too.”

  Alex tied our kayak to his and pulled us back. He had to pay for the lost oars and he rented towels from the cabana boy so that Ally and I could dry off. We walked back up the road to the house. Our clothes dried some in the sun and when we arrived home there was an old Mitsubishi in the yard.

  It couldn’t be!

  Nine

  The Electrifying Truth

  I ran, slipping and sliding in Ally’s flip flops. Amber; she’d come back for me. I knew she couldn’t stay away from me too long! I was going home! It was a miracle. And to think I’d almost given up on her.

  Outside, sitting on the purple porch swing was my mom. She saw me and burst into tears. Her long blond hair was cut short, to her ears, and she wore overalls (of all things). I didn’t care; my mom had come to take me back. She really did love me. Amber didn’t say she loved me but why else would she drive across the country to come get me?

  “Mom!” I raced up the steps and collided into her arms. She swung me around and squeezed me tight. Tears brimmed in her eyes and she pulled away to get a good look at me.

  “You look different. Darker—”

  “Yeah, hello to you, too,” I rolled my eyes. “What are you doing here? I’ve been waiting for you to call me!”

  “I’ve called you every day since you left. I kept getting Millie’s answering machine and panicked. I thought something happened to you so I got in my car and drove all night.”

  “You must be tired,” I said. “Are you hungry?”

  “Starving. Let’s go out to eat some place nice. You can tell me all about Lynn.” She surveyed my wet clothes. “It looks like you’re having fun.”

  I forced myself to smile. There was no sense in telling her about my near death experience or about Ally and her practical jokes. I was going home, so it didn’t matter anymore.

  Alex and Ally stood a few feet away. They glared at my mother. She waved and smiled. “Who are they? Do I know them? They look so familiar.”

  “That’s Alex and Ally. Aunt Millie watches them while their parents are out of town.”

  “Well, why don’t you invite them to lunch, too?” I shrugged my shoulders. I needed to change into dry clothes anyway and one more hour with the freaks wouldn’t kill me. At least I didn’t think it would.

  “Would you like to come to lunch with me and my mom?”

  Ally turned sideways and whispered into Alex’s ear. He nodded then looked at me.

  “Yes,” he said. It sounded almost like he had to force himself into agreeing. Ally motioned for me to follow her into the house. She closed the front door behind her and locked the dead bolt.

  “What are you doing?”

  Ally glowered, “I do not like people in my house. I didn’t invite her here.”

  Thank goodness I was leaving!

  “Can I borrow some more clothes? All of mine are dirty.” I will mail them back to you. Ha.

  “Yes, I’ll bring some out for you.” Ally slammed her door. What was it with the two of them and slamming doors? Was she angry when she was finally getting rid of her mole; isn’t that what she’d called me?

  I put on the jeans and tee shirt she gave me. I looked nice. She had good taste in clothes for sure; at least for me, anyway. She wore a long cotton dress that dangled around her ankles.

  “Let’s hurry up and get this over with.” Ally crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. Did she think my mother was going to leave without me?

  My mom sat on the porch swing with her hands in her lap. She looked uncomfortable. Alex stood several feet away with his face turned. “Okay, we’re ready.”

  I sat in the front and Alex and Ally crawled into the backseat of my mom’s Mitsubishi. My mom looked at me with concern. She leaned over and whispered into my ear, “What in the world?”

  We drove along the dirt road and turned onto the main highway. Alex and Ally stared out the window intently. “Look at this place,” Alex sighed. “It’s so different.”

  Ally said nothing.

  “So, how old are you, Alex?” Amber asked. She looked at him in the rear view mirror.

  “Eighteen, I guess.”

  My mom turned into a Denny’s and parked. “You guess?”

  Alex nodded.

  We took a table close to the door. It wasn’t crowded inside the restaurant which seemed to ease the tension a little.

  “So, what happened at the ‘you know what’?” I smiled, swallowing. Amber avoided my eyes. She didn’t go to the psychiatric hospital. But, who was I to judge her? If she wanted to lie to me then that was okay. “Did they help you?”

  “She didn’t go,” Alex answered. “She never had any intention to really go.”

  Amber’s lip quivered. Why did Alex have to be so cruel? Couldn’t he just let my mother lie to me?

  “It’s okay, mom. I’m just happy you’re here.” I grabbed her hand. She squeezed me back hard. “Alex can be a little blunt sometimes. I don’t think he means anything by it, though. Millie considers them geniuses.”

  My mom placed her hand on Alex’s arm.

  She was going to tell him that it was okay; that she understood and that he hadn’t offended her. The truth was always the best policy. Yes, that is what my mother would’ve said for sure…

  Alex screamed and smacked her hand away. He stood and picked up his chair. His face burned red and I could see one of his veins popping out on his forehead. He lifted the chair above his head, as if he were going to hurl it at my mother.

  “Alex!” I yelled. “What are you doing?”

  He looked into my eyes. Alex took steady breaths, almost like he were counting to ten. The chair found its place on the floor again and Alex sat.

  My heart pumped and my skin itched. What a lunatic. “Mom, don’t touch Alex, he doesn’t like it.”

  My mother sat frozen at the table. “Uh, I can see that.”

  Alex nodded and scooted back to the table.

  Our waitress inched her way over with a look of horror on her face. “I-Is everything all right here?”

  Ally smiled. “Yes, of course. We’re just very hungry.” I almost laughed. She was trying to pass Alex’s fit off as hunger. Who knows, maybe he was hungry.

  “I’ll ask the kitchen staff to push your order,” the waitress said, backing away from the table slowly.

  “That’s a very wise idea.”

  “So, Lisa I thought we could leave for home today. I figured since you have your permit you could drive until it gets dark. I would have some time to rest up from my drive here and we could stay in some cheap hotel for the night.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I hooted, ra
ising my fist in the air.

  Alex narrowed his eyes at Amber. “Why would you want to take her with you? Do you have a place to live? Aren’t you still sick?”

  “Leaving my daughter here isn’t going to help make me better.”

  “I’m afraid she is your problem.” Alex crossed his arms and leaned them on the table. “Isn’t that right, Amber? It’s hard to look at her now that she’s older and resembles him so much?”

  “Lisa.” My mom stood, banging her knees under the table. “Let’s get out of here. This kid is scaring me. I’m sorry I left you with these freaks.”

  I obeyed, pushing my chair away from the table. Ally grabbed my shirt and jerked me backwards. “What’s happening?” Her eyes watered. “Alex, what’s going on? I don’t understand.”

  “Nothing, don’t worry Ally. Amber isn’t taking Lisa anywhere.”

  My heart stopped. I wasn’t leaving? What was he talking about? Was this another one of his games? Amber grabbed my arm and tugged. She led me out the front door.

  “Get in the car, Lisa. Those kids are crazy. That boy is going to kill someone one day. He’s like the next Ted Bundy or something.”

  She started the car. I looked in the side mirror. Alex and Ally raced out of Denny’s and stood on the sidewalk. Ally was shouting at Alex, begging him for something. He just stared at our car.

  My mom put the car in drive and pressed her foot to the gas pedal. We hit the highway and took a deep breath. My mom blasted the radio and began singing. It was an old song by Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

  We merged into traffic. I finally relaxed. They didn’t have super speed. I laughed at this. What did I think Alex and Ally were?

  “We’re almost out of Lynn,” my mom squealed.

  “Almost free—”

  I grabbed the dash and my mom clutched the steering wheel.

  She hit her brakes and the car spun in a circle.

  A bolt of lightning hit the roadway splitting the ‘Lynn, Massachusetts’ sign into two pieces.

  Hurry on home.

  The voice, it was back. It had to be Alex. It just had to be! I looked behind us for any sign of him. He was not there.

  What about Ally? No. No Ally.

  I reached over and grabbed my mother’s hand. We looked at the sky. It was clear; not a rain cloud in sight. Where had the lightning come from?

  “Start the car,” I demanded, “I want to get out of here.”

  My mom turned the ignition but the car stalled. She tried again.

  Nothing.

  What was wrong with the stupid car? Did it overheat?

  Finally, the engine purred and my mom inched forward. She went around another car that had skidded to a stop as well.

  Amber hit the brakes.

  The road had a big hole in the center of it. There wasn’t any way out, at least not this way. “Find another exit.” I bit my fingernails.

  “Did Millie tell you something?” Amber asked, backing out of the debris.

  What was she talking about?

  “About the night you were conceived?” Amber glanced at me. “Alex knew about it and I don’t remember telling Millie anything about it; ever.”

  “What are you talking about?” My hands trembled.

  “Good, it’s better that you never know.”

  “Know what?” I screeched. “Stop the car!”

  My mom hit the brakes. We were half on the sidewalk, trying to get out of the mess of vehicles backed up because of the lightning strike.

  “Really, Lisa, it’s not a big deal,” She wouldn’t look at me. “It’s something that only concerns me.”

  “Mother.”

  “Lisa.”

  “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to get out and go find Alex. He will tell me for sure!”

  My mother hid her face in her hands. “Jimmy, well, he's not your real father.”

  I blinked, stunned. How was that possible? She’d been married to him years before I was ever even born. Did she have an affair and never tell me about it?

  “Who’s my father, then?”

  “I don’t know.” She wiped the tears from her eyes.

  How could she not know? Did she have multiple affairs with men? I thought she’d loved Jimmy.

  “I came home after a long night of working; I went to the bathroom to take a shower because I was so dirty from running around at a catering party. When I close my eyes I can still smell the chocolate fondue that spilled all over my apron.”

  Amber opened her mouth but nothing came out.

  “What happened, mom?” I asked, almost afraid of the answer.

  “Some man, with eyes just like yours stepped into the shower.”

  “Mom?” My lips trembled. I didn’t want to process this information. She was right. It was better to not know. My heart pounded and I couldn’t breathe. My legs shook uncontrollably.

  My father was a rapist.

  “He slammed me into t h e w a l l, and then he—”

  “Stop, I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  Everything made sense. I now understood why Jimmy and Amber were so happy before I was born, why Amber never said she loved me and even why she looked sad whenever she peered into my eyes…

  I was the problem.

  I made my mother crazy.

  “I can’t be near you, Lisa, without thinking about that night, but, another part of me cannot be away from you, either.”

  “Is that why you sent me away? Because you didn’t want to face me anymore?”

  “Millie never responded to any of my calls in the past. I always got her voicemail, then a few days after I’d had one of my episodes, I was fine and didn’t want you to leave. But, out of the blue, Millie called me back two weeks ago. She said she’d help me out just this once. It was very out of character for Millie to do this. She’s never been a very good sister-in-law to me. But, I thought maybe if I had a little break to clear my head, maybe, just maybe I could see you for you and not him.”

  “So, what do you want to do now?” Did she want to be rid of me? Had I destroyed her life? Why had she even given birth to me?

  “I want to get you out of Lynn. That’s what I want to do right now.”

  She hugged me. “Lisa, I’m so sorry I told you.”

  Amber and I got out of the car and took the sidewalk. The Mitsubishi had seen better days and so we figured we could walk to the next town and get two cheap bus tickets to some new place.

  We were going to start over.

  “I could get contacts. That might make it easier for you to look at me.”

  “We’re going to get some counseling together. That would probably be the best thing.”

  We crossed the street.

  The sky darkened.

  My heart raced. Not again. What was wrong with the weather here?

  “Lisa, I forgot my phone. I’ll be right back.” Amber ran back to the car. I stood inches away from the broken “Welcome to Lynn” sign.

  Lightning never struck the same place twice. That’s what I’d heard, anyway.

  Thunder rolled above us and ambulances and police cars finally arrived from Lynn and the surrounding city. People climbed out of their cars, shouting and cursing filled my ears and I sat on part of the “Lynn” sign.

  Droplets of rain pelted me in the forehead. My mom had been derailed. A policeman had stopped to question her.

  “Come on, Mom,” I thought. “It’s going to get ugly.”

  Maybe we could leave in our car after all. The police were already getting to work on organizing a detour. I got up and stretched.

  Lightning flashed in the sky.

  I looked up and saw two lightning bolts heading straight towards me.

  Ten

  Erase Your Pain

  My head throbbed. A thousand different sounds echoed inside my head. I couldn’t see or move my body. It was as if I were frozen in place.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Two lightning bolts hit her? Why isn’t she bu
rnt to a crisp then?”

  Someone picked me up, probably a paramedic, and put me on a stretcher. He spoke into his receiver and slammed the door of the ambulance shut. Two blurred figures leaned over me.

  “It’s going to be okay,” a male voice said. “We’re going to erase the pain for you.”

  I wasn’t in any physical pain. I couldn’t feel anything actually. I tried to move my arm. Either it was strapped down or I was paralyzed. Where was my mom? Was that her sitting there with me?

  “Mom,” I tried to speak,” The male voice took my hand. Pain shot through my arm like a bolt of electricity.

  “Ally,” he said. It was them, Alex and Ally. Why were they in the ambulance with me? What had they done to my mom? Where was she? Had they hurt her? Had she been struck by lightning too?

  “I still think she will hate us if we do this,” Ally said. What were they going to do to me?

  “Do you want her to stay or not?” Alex snapped, “Hold her hand. We need to erase the pain.”

  When Ally took my other hand, the pain I felt when Alex touched me vanished.

  ***

  I was at the beach in South Florida. The waves crashed against the shore. There were seagulls flying above my head. My mother was there and she was with Jimmy, sitting in lawn chairs a few yards away. They laughed and watched as I built sandcastles in the sand.

  The sand was warm and I picked up a bucket and raced into the saltwater.

  I filled my bucket…

  …and turned around.

  Ally and Alex sat in lawn chairs on the Massachusetts’ beach. They smiled and waved at me. I looked down and realized I was holding a kayak. It really was too heavy for me to carry myself.

  Ally raced over to help me. She giggled when we accidentally dropped it into the water. One of the oars floated away.

  I screeched and chased after it.

  Eleven

  Donna Denning

  Beep.

  Beep. Beep.

  I rubbed my eyes. Why was I surrounded by noisy machinery? I looked down. There were tubes on my hands. Where was I? I felt my face. There was a tube in my nose, too. Was I at the hospital?

  I sat up. A tall, thin man in a doctor’s jacket smiled at me.