2 A.M.
Another sleepless night…
Another night filled with flashback nightmares. Jackson says it's from the stress of the move but I think that's his way of comforting me.
I walked over to the window and stared at the clouded dark night. The rain slapped against the window, it was the rain keeping me awake. The storm reminded me of that day…the day I lost both of my parents.
When I was ten years old, I was coming home from school on a rainy day. Every day I would have been greeted by my mother as I got off the bus. Not that day, that day I was left to walk home alone. I remember how I was upset by the water that splashed into my boots.
Who would have guessed a rainy day would change my happy normal childhood. Okay, normal for me. My mother ran an online business that allowed her to be home with me, while my father worked as a doctor in a hospital in the next city over.
But everything would change on that rainy day. I splashed through the puddles trying to get home. Finally, I walked through the door and started to yell, "Mom...Mommy??? Mommm?" As I started to walk through, I noticed the house was a mess. Papers were tossed everywhere, picture frames either cracked or not there. It didn't take me long to notice the blood in the kitchen and my mother's dead body on the floor. I tried to call for help but the line was dead, I ran up the stairs to find my father's dead body in the hallway.
All I knew next was I was running screaming in the middle of the street. Just as the rain started to pick up a car came to a screeching halt in front of me. The lights blinded me and I remember the snot starting to come. At that time I wish my mother was there to help me. My neighbors didn't enjoy someone ruining their quiet street as they called 911. For a long time all I could remember was being drenched.
There he was, Agent Nolan Jones. Standing at six foot 2 tall, scruffy, and grey. Pure business! Nothing like what he is at home, which makes me laugh at the thought. Nolan was in my neighborhood for me, Nolan was there to talk to my parents about me.
I can still remember what he said when he got out of the car, "Indiana, I'm Nolan Jones and I'm here to get you."
He was aged but he had that aura around him that I grew to trust. I ran into his arms and sobbed. I was crying for all sorts of reasons, my parents being dead, no one had helped me, and that I'm freezing.
That night I was taken to a government building, Agent Jones took me in and gave me a change of clothes and a warm blanket. I was put in a room with a two-way mirror, people who came in never really looked at me and they had something in their ears so they couldn't hear me. This was after the lady who came in the first time who started to talk to me, I made leave and stop talking. I actually had to tell her to speak. After that, no one was allowed to talk to me or look at me. She did that thing where she changed the tone of her voice and tried to speak to me as if I was a baby.
….Now that I think of that...that maybe was wrong...
My mother and father always said I was special but I thought that's just what all parents are supposed to say. You know, like 'You will do great things kiddo!'. As I started to grow, I started to notice. Strangers would do just about anything to be around me. We would be out shopping and people would stop what they were doing and start to hand me things. Would rush to buy me stuff, I hated it. It caused me to hate being in public, which my parents both agreed, no more going out for me, not until I was older. I constantly waited to stay in, my alone time I enjoyed more. I enjoyed my books and learning different things. I wanted to stay home and do homeschool but my mom thought it would be a good idea for me to go to public school and be around kids my age, also I kind of asked for it because I found out I would have more access to a library.
"Indie? Why are you awake?" Jackson said, startling me out of my thoughts.
Jackson was or should I say is Nolan's son. He also is an agent for the government just like his father. Although he was groomed to become my agent. Nolan was granted access to bring me home, as I refused to speak to anyone but Nolan. When people did ask me to speak, I would cause their eyes to start to bleed as I refused to speak and the silence seemed to break the blood vessels. This was after I silenced that lady. When I did that they locked me in the dark. I didn't like the dark, I couldn't see in the pitch black, then I heard someone come in and I started to freak out and well...blood... They said I was a danger to the rest of the building. So, Nolan said he would take me home and keep me out of the public. He had a wife who was an agent and also a professor at a college and a son who was 15 at the time.
Jackson was not happy with me being there. He would never say anything about it but I always felt like he hated me. I think I need to make a mental note to ask him if he did. Although as the years went by Jackson became my best friend and I was his. Jackson was a good kid, beyond good, most kids his age at the time would already be acting out, Jackson was on the honor roll.
I looked at him then back out in the rain, "Can't sleep, I keep thinking…" I said as I remembered the past.
He yawned and grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around me, "You should be sleeping, you have school tomorrow."
I rolled my eyes at the thought of another public school with the usual teenage parasites. I had already graduated high school by the time I was thirteen. When I was fourteen, I was able to take online college courses. Sometimes I was able to sneak into college courses with Professor Jones. Actually going off to college was never going to happen but when I turned sixteen, the government sent me to towns to settle problems which meant new schools.
...I wonder if I age out of high school they will send me to college, that might be fun….
I glanced around and saw the files that lay all over my desk. With pictures of girls sprawled out and dead. Probably not what normal teens would be looking at but then again nothing about my life has ever been normal.
"Just another school, another town," I said annoyed.
Jackson sat next to me, "What is wrong Indie? Really?"
I let out a sigh, "Jax, I'm just tired. The rain is keeping me awake, I keep thinking of that night." I said as I paced around my room.
"Indie, you need to relax. That was almost 8 years ago," he said without thinking.
"You need to leave, now!" I shouted!
It was only 8 years for him but for me, it felt like just yesterday. I was being pushed into the dark, I was being pushed to be cleaner by the government. I am not allowed to be a normal teenager and he's just telling me oh that was almost 8 years ago, get over it!
"Fine!" He said standing up and leaving the room.
I slammed the door!
I hated that, I hated that he thinks I should just forget about everything. I felt like a fish in a fishbowl. He has no idea what it was like, what it was like to lose your whole life in a blink and to be forced into something. I was left in a metal room, something a prisoner would have. Nolan was not allowed to be in the room with me, I was left alone. I was handed a file and by handed meaning, some lady in a pantsuit said look at this and walked out. Never once looking at me. I was treated like I was something to fear but I was only ten.
Now I am in my room, my room in a new town that isn't my home and isn't my town. I am angry! Although why am I angry, am I angry at Jax or at this situation. I think it's more about the situation but then again we go through this constantly, sometimes he's not good at comforting me and I am just angered. Like an empath, I feel everyone's feelings and push out my own.
I heard Jax at my door, with a soft knock…
"I am sorry, I am just tired too." I heard from the door.
"Just go away, Jax, I don't want to hate you….I really don't!" I said with a little tear running down my face.
"Okay, Indie." His voice rang through, "Lay down and I will read to you." He said with a little bit of hopefulness.
When I first moved in with Nolan and his family, Jackson would read to me, I think it was because he was the one who always heard me wake up in the middle of the night but I always just hope it was just because he wanted to.
I open the door and I put my hands up in defeat. "Fine! You win!" I said
He looked at me, well more in my direction than at me, "I am sorry Indie, that was wrong for me to say."
Since then Jax, now Agent Jackson Jones, would be training to become my handler that night. This was his father's suggestion as he knew I would be very important. He was still young but coming from a family of government agents this was already something that he would end up doing, well maybe not be a handler to a girl. He had the top training from the start causing him to be the top in his class. Now he's what I think is underpaid. He comes with me, town to town, deals with all the drama, and never does he get credit.
Even though I am almost 18 and no longer than a scared 10-year-old girl running from something, I still enjoy Jax reading to me.
I laid my head down on the pillow and pulled the blankets up. I stared at him, "Okay." I said.
"You know this reminds me of that first night. You couldn't sleep and my mom told me to read to you." He said with a laugh, "I thought you were never going to quit crying. She thought having someone who was closer to your age would be easier for you."
He also told me later down the line that it was his mother's idea that he would read to me because I was already hurting from losing my parents. I didn't need someone else trying to step in to be that for me.
I laughed and looked up at the ceiling, "Yeah, I remember. You tried to read me Dr. Sesuss. I wanted to toss it at your head!"
Again you would think even though we weren't far off in age he would not want to read Dr. Sesuss.
He shook his head, "Like I knew what a prodigy liked to read."
"Oh shut up! You finally did get something I enjoyed." I looked at his hands, it was the same book that he carried from town to town. It was always his go-to. I really do need to find him another book.
Always prepared if need be. To be fair there was a box of books that were always a top priority to bring no matter where we were, other things can be replaced in an instant but sometimes books were a bit harder. For the book tonight it would be my favorite that I would request.
...Edgar Allen Poe...
He opened the book, "Okay, which one?"
I smiled, "Hmm, how about The Tell-Tale Heart." I said.
"Really Indiana!?!?" He questioned amusedly.
I laughed, "Yes, why are you scared??" I questioned him.
I knew why, he disliked my choice. The reason I'm here happens to be because the town wants to keep the killings quiet. Hints why the files are sitting on my desk, I'm not some horror nut who enjoys the grims of crime. I'm here to solve things quietly. Jax isn't happy that we're only here because I fit the type the killer enjoys.
"FINE INDIANA!" He said flipping through pages…"True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?"
I closed my eyes and drifted...