Harsh Reality by Marie (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📖

Chapter One

My breath hitched in my throat.

Gone.

This couldn’t be happening.

No, this is all just a dream. This is all just a dream.

I would believe that lie if the feeling in my heart wasn’t so…empty. Bare. Vacant. Drained. I would believe it if my gut wasn’t screaming out in pain, hurt and damage.

Vision is becoming so hazy.

The urge to scream is so strong, but my throat is sealing up and I’m having trouble just breathing.

What’s wrong with me? What did I ever do to earn this? Why is this happening to me? Sure, I’m still alive. But I’m not really living.

I’m surviving.

There’s a huge difference between living and surviving, trust me. So what if I’m a total stranger? Well, I guess I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t trust me, since I don’t trust anyone around me. Except two people, and one of them has vanished.

The note that my sister, Gina, left on her dresser isn’t hers. It’s her handwriting, but the I’s don’t have that little spot in the middle that the pen didn’t cover. Gina’s fanatical with circles and will draw one whenever possible, even with the dots on her I’s. The dots on this note were colored in.

It had to be an insinuation that it wasn’t really true. Maybe her captors made her write a letter, and that was her leaving a hint to come help her, that this note wasn’t authentic. Possibly, but honestly, Gina isn’t that bright, she never has been. And probably never will be, then again, she always has shocked me at one time or another with her different skills.

Nevertheless, one of the only two people in my life that I love is gone. Vanished. To be honest, the odds are against me. All of them are. At least 99.9% are, and that’s pretty much all of them if you round it. Does that seem very likely? Nope, it doesn’t.

But I was going to attempt a rescue mission anyways. What kind of a sister would I be if I didn’t even strive to save her? So what if it’s practically a suicide mission? Life wouldn’t be worth living without her. I’ve lost so much already, I’m not willing to lose her too.

I studied the note even harder; the ink hadn’t completely dried yet. But this was a fairly new pen, so the ink didn’t dry for awhile. But still, it meant that they didn’t leave as long ago as they could have. This was very good news. But I will bet you all the money I have in my name that it was the only good news that I was going to receive tonight. Let’s see…all that would add up to…ten dollars and sixty-nine cents. I I’m freaking filthy rich, aren’t I?

Actually, I have no money in my name. It would be impossible. Because, according to the government, I died three years ago, along with my parents and baby brother. Same with Gina, the results were the same for both of us. If the government does find out that we’re alive, we’d be dead. But it wouldn’t matter anyways because we don’t matter to anyone. No one cares, except us. And half of ‘us’ might possibly be dead. The problem is, they might know we’re alive, which causes problems for us because then they’ll probably slaughter us, just like they did to our parents and little brother, Zachary.

Sedona-

Don’t worry ‘bout me, I had to get away for awhile. It may be some time before I’m back.

Love you

-G

Gina would never tell me not to worry about her by her own free will. She loves attention, any kind she can receive. Well, at least this way she will obtain a lot of attention from me. I dare say she would even be surprised that I came after her. No matter how much of a pain she can possibly be, I will always love her. Especially now, since she’s the only one I have left.

As almost on cue, a cold airstream burst out of nowhere and opened the already partially opened window. I swear it wasn’t a coincidence.

Snow piled in, more and more rushing in at the moment. Whoever took her made a pretty smart move, I wouldn’t be able to track their foot prints if there was a blizzard going on, now would I? It’s not like I hate an acute sense of hearing or smell. In fact, my smell has been a bit off ever since that fire I was in at age seven. The smoke ruined my nose, and it didn’t seem to be coming back, even after a little over eight years later. Kind of like with your heart, once it’s broken, it doesn’t heal quickly, if even at all. Quite sad, I know, but it’s the truth.

The room became an instantaneous freezer box, everything freezing over within seconds. Almost abnormal if you ask me. But of course I don’t think you ever did, so never mind.

I backed out of the room, one step at a time.

It’s not that hard, I told myself.

Baby steps.

As soon as I reach the entrance to Gina’s former room, I slammed the door behind me and bolted. I say former room because if I find her, we won’t be coming back to this place at all. If you’re me, you shouldn’t go back to the same place that your sister was kidnapped. Or killed. We don’t really know yet. I don’t know where we would head after this was all done with. Maybe California. I have always wanted to learn how to surf. Plus, I’ve got that blonde surfer hair and I tan quite easily. After being stuck up here in the mountains all winter, I’ve become tremendously pale and I really need to get out in the great outdoors. California might do me some good.

I collided with something hard and firm, yet warm. So I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a wall. Unless we’d gotten new, insulated ones that I wasn’t aware of. Which I really doubt it, because its winter and no one would come up her during winter. Except us because we’re delusional like that. At least we’re pretty hidden from society. Well, if you don’t count the wireless internet and cable that we have up here.

“Dona, calm down.”

I rolled my eyes at the familiar voice. Shawn’s voice to be exact.

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down.” I warned.

“Sorry.” Shawn murmured. “Have you seen Gina lately?”

I pressed ‘Gina’s’ note into his hand. His eyes scanned over it over and over again. Even though it was only a little over twenty words, his mind wasn’t comprehending it clearly. Just like I did.

Shawn was one of Gina and I’s buddies we picked up from our travels. But unlike all the others, he just seemed to stick instead of ditching us. Most people would gain our trust and then take off with anything we had. Desperate times calls for desperate measures. After awhile we just started to keep to ourselves and not trust anyone around us. Maybe that’s what we should’ve done in the first place. Shawn would disappear from time to time but would always come back like an oh-so loving boomerang. But instead of hitting us on the head like in the cartoons, he didn’t harm us. He brought us even more luck than anyone else ever did in our lives. He happened to be the other person in my life that I didn’t want to lose. Ever. Well, he wasn’t missing, so I guess that was some good news, am I correct?

I’m still keeping my ten bucks. I’m going to need it.

“She didn’t go by her own free will.” Shawn stated, repeating my thoughts like he’d heard them. That would explain so much about him…

“Way to state the obvious.” I snapped.

He raised his hands in the international symbol of surrender. Yet another reason he was so likable; he always tried to keep the peace in disastrous situations. Other times, he’s not soa. Who took her?”

Well, I guess he might as well know now. I didn’t know if there was going to be a better time for it.

Ever.

***

He always knew we were running from something, but he never asked specifically what we were running from.

I knew that he had a pretty dark, cold, and harsh past. So I returned the favor and didn’t pry into his business. We were a family, but we were focused on our life now and not the past.

But it looked like I was going to have to explain it all to him now.

So be it.

“Gina and I are dead.” Hey, at least I’m blunt.

He nodded, taking it in better than I thought. So I enlightened him a bit more. As a reward. Maybe I should have been concerned because he didn’t react hardly at all by saying that Gina and I were dead.

“Do you remember what happened to my family?” I asked, cautiously.

“Yeah, they died in a car accident.”

I nodded slowly. “But they weren’t the only ones in that car. Gina and I…we were…”

“You were?” He pressed.

“We were in that car, too.” I explained. “But we didn’t die.”

That was almost a lie, Gina’s heart had stopped beating for a couple of seconds. Her breathing had halted for even longer than that. So she was technically dead for a tiny amount of time, but since my school had done a lecture on CPR that week, I knew how to do it and keep her heart beating until her breaths started back up again.

“Okay, obviously, because you’re standing right here in front of me.” He pointed out.