Chapter 6- Tara
Scared out of my mind
Is life supposed to be so scary? Are we all supposed to live in fear of another horrible thing happening to you? I used to lived in fear that my father would lose his job, the only thing that seemed to work for us. He is and was an amazing scientist. I learned from him, and we bonded. My father used to be only thing in my life that wasn’t tainted. The only thing that made sense. My father, who always knew what to do, my father, who was always able to laugh in the face of death. I hope that his talent for that carried as well as I think it did. Anyway, James and J convinced me that I should get some sleep before I have to be taken. So I lie down on J’s thin pillow and cover myself with James’s jacket. They promised they would wake me and wouldn’t go instead of me. So, I sleep. And I dream. I dream of my parents.
We all sit outside on the hill beside My Aunt’s house, just me, my father, and my mother. For some reason I can’t quite identify, I feel like I need to be somewhere. But we have a picnic lunch with us, so we all get our sandwiches out and eat, my father telling jokes and my mother laughing so hard I should worry. But I don’t. instead I say,
“Mom? You’re okay, right?” She looks at me, frowning.
“Of course I am, dear. Why wouldn’t I be?” Her voice is just the way it should be. Caring, happy, and safe. I shake my head.
“I don’t know. Of course you're fine. I love you mom.” My mother laughs and takes my hand, my father taking my other. They join hands together and we just sit there, smiling. Suddenly, a dark light passes over us, red so bright, I’m almost blinded, and a black so dark, I want to curl up into a ball and hide myself from it. I am crying, screaming, yelling, and I don’t even know what’s going on. Then, my father grows up to a huge size and crushes my mother in his hands. I continue to scream until I hear James’s voice calling my name,
“Tara? It’s James. Wake up!” I open my eyes and see James and J standing over me.
“It’s time.” J says, pointing at the sky. It’s starting to turn red, and there's an unsettling purple in the background. I stand up, drinking in the wonderful moment on the ground.Then, I shake away the image of my father grabbing up my mother’s body and crushing it and replace it with an image of all of us together. Me, James, My parents, and I’m surprised to see J in that image too. I preserve the image, smile at my friends, and run towards the high mountain where I am most likely to be chosen to for the Taking. I dare to take a look behind me. It doesn’t help. I see James and J embrace for a single second then watch me walk away, trying not to make me come back. I don't know what’s going to happen to them, or to me, but it occurs to me that I have as way to get away from danger. With my phone. They don’t have anything. You should have left it with them. I nod, not in the mood to have an argument with myself. I curse under my breath, Then close my eyes to clear the tears that plague them and continue running up the hill. The sky took longer to change this time, and I’m not sure what that means. Maybe that their power is going towards something bigger? Something that might be able to hurt my father. I see a beam of light coming closer to me and stop. I know that I’m the one that will be chosen. It’s not stoppable. I close my eyes, and pray for the safety of my friends, my father, and the earth in general, and let the beam take me.
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I feel the pressure on my body release, and feel the ground underneath my feet. I sigh and drop to the ground, exhausted. I sit halfway up, one foot on the ground, both my hands out to steady myself. I look around. I’m in a ship, I know because I can see the sky turning back to its wonderful blue outside the window. I look behind me and see that I’m being watched. There’s a camera in the corner, and on the bed beside a window. A projector screen comes down and I see My father there, reading off a script.
“I am Joseph Lexton. You know me as your ruler. I am now your fellow scientist, and then, If you live, your executioner.” I look at his face, exactly the same face I saw one day ago. I stare at him as he drones on about my death, my testing, and the like. I think, look up. See me. Remember who you are. Finally he looks up from his paper and drops his pen. I gasp. This is not my father. He has a scar down the left side of his face, making his un-fatherly sneer look more evil.
“You...” He stammers. “You’re dead.” I stumble over to the bed.
“No... I’m not. Who are you? What have you done with my father?” He frowns.
“You are my daughter. You died 3 year ago, when your mother did.”He looks horrified and on the verge of tears, and he has another look in his eyes that I can’t quite place, but I know it scares me. I shake my head.
“This is impossible. “ I whisper breathlessly. The man who is and isn’t my father nods. Then sudden realization dawns on his face.
You’re Tara Pearl Lexton?” I nod. He narrows his eyes. “Do you have a childhood scar in your right eyebrow?” I shake my head.
“It’s on my left eyebrow.” The man shakes his head and swears loudly.
“You’re my daughter! No...” He nods. “You’re my alternate dimension daughter. I frown.
“You’re...” I begin. He swears again. I raise my eyebrows, then let them drop again, not understanding. “You... Have my father! You... took him!” I scream. “You’re the him from here!” I say, realizing what’s going on and hating it. I open my mouth, letting my jaw hung there, suspended in the air.
What’re you going to do now, Genius? I try and push my stupid Brain Monkey’s comments away and look at the retrieving screen. I look around the room and see a table rising from the ground with sandwich fixings on it. I walk over to it and take out some bread. I lay it on the napkin and spin the top off of the mayo. I dip a spoon deep into it and scrape it across the bread. I lay the ham and turkey on the bread and put another piece on top of that. Then, I take up the sandwich and throw it on the ground.
“I refuse to eat this. I don’t care what you want with me, I won’t do a thing until I get my father back and leave.” I walk over to the bed and tip it over, sitting where it used to be. I wait for what feels like forever, but I probably closer to five minutes, then the door closest to me opens. I don’t look up to see who it is, because I know. It’s him.
“You’re quite the rebel.” I look up and see that his face is not quite at scary when it’s normally sized. I meet his eye with what I hope is a defiant glare. He frowns. “Since you know your father as Dad, if you wish you may call me that as well.” I shake my head.
“You’re nothing like my father.” I sneer. He laughs bitterly.
“I would think quite the opposite, my dear. I am your father. I have the same mind and body. However, who are you? Why would you be here?” He’s challenging me, but I don’t have time for this. I take it.
“I am Tara. I am the only Tara, apparently, who had the guts to live.” Now it’s his turn to be challenged. He opens his mouth and closes it several times before settling on just sneering at me. After a moment, He roars at me;
“She was full of life, you swine!” I gasp. “She had more life than you even could! The worst thing that ever happened to me was losing her.” I stand up, feeling taller than I ever have.
“First of all, I am as full of life as her. I do recall you saying, ‘I have the same mind and body’, but I could be wrong. And second of all, the worst mistake you ever made was bringing me here!” I say, my voice rising with every word I say. He scoffs again and looks at me with hard eyes.
“I was going to offer you a place, a chance for life, even with your father, but you have shown yourself to be unworthy. I thought you would remind me of my daughter, but you don’t. You are a despicable person, Tara. You don’t deserve to own a name.” He stands up slowly, brushing off the dust in his lap that doesn’t exist, and walks out the door while I scream horrible, horrible, awful things at him. And then, after I’m sure he’s out of hearing range, I drop down to the floor and cry. Sobbing, crying, thinking of nothing. Because I know. I know that what I did was stupid and rash, and I am a despicable human being.
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