Chapter 22: The escape

“How come I’m here? Where am I by the way?”. I asked him.

“I will explain everything but first you have to eat something, you must be starving it been two days since I brought you here”. He said.

“Wait, two days?”. I asked confuse.

“Later, now let me see what I can find in the kitchen”. He said exiting the bedroom. I sat on the bed and started to ponder about what he has just said.

‘He must be mistaken, it couldn’t have two day since the library’. I thought.

“Oh no dad and Celia. Where is my phone”. I started looking around searching for it but remembered using it as a bait to trick Nicole.

I sat there thinking about what to do next, how I would explain it to my father after two days. Jason came back quickly with a tray on what was a bowl of cereal, a glass of juice, a bottle of water and an assortment of fruits.

“Here we are, breakfast of champions even if already afternoon but it doesn’t matter”. He said as he put the tray on the bedside table.

“What day is it?”. I asked just to be sure I didn’t get it wrong before.

“It’s Saturday”. He said calmly.

“No, that can’t be”. I denied, that would be almost three days away that I don’t have a recollection of.

“Sybil I promise I will explain everything but you have to eat something first. The have spent all those days in a daze and didn’t eat anything except for the IV my mother gave you”. He said.

“But I...”. I started to say but he stopped me.

“Everything you want to know after you eat something”. He said as he handed me the bottle water.

I drank it all and a felt a little better. I didn’t like cereal but I force myself to eat some of it.

“Now tell me why I am here?”. I asked.

“I found you”. He said.

“Where?”.

“At the river, I found you there”. Jason responded avoiding looking directly at me.

“How did you found me? How did you know I was there”. I asked him clearly remembering except Nicole or me I didn’t saw anyone else at the river shore.

“I heard you that night”.

“So you were there but I didn’t see you, I don’t remember if at any moment I was screaming asking for help”.

‘Did I scream and I don’t remember doing it’. I thought try hard to get through the mist that fell on my mind preventing me into remembering clearly what happened at the river side.

“You don’t have to scream for me to hear you”. He said still looking outside.

“What do you mean?”.

“That we have a connection. I know it when you are sad, happy or like the other night when you feel yourself in danger, I feel it too”.

“I still don’t understand what do you mean”. I asked more confused than before.

“It crazy and hard to believe but I can hear you”. He turned to face me. “I mean in my mind, you’re like another peace of me I can know if you’re fine or not”.

“So you mean everything I’m thinking right now”. I wanted to now.

“No, no like this. I can’t read what your thoughts like they were a book , what I got is more like sensations and sometimes in sentences or blurred images of what happen to you like the other night”. He said.

“Since when can you do it?”. I asked, feeling uneasy that a stranger can know so much things about me.

“Since the first time I saw you, at first I thought I was being delusional because it’s impossible to do such thing like read people mind but as time flew I had to accept that I wasn’t insane at all? He said.

“So what you mean if that since Monday you can read or I don’t know what else with my thoughts”. I asked felling skeptical.

“No, no just since this Monday, it been more than two years now, and initially the connection I felt between us wasn’t as strong as it is now”. He responded.

“How could we had have such type of connection for more than two years if we have never seen each other before”. I said.

“We have met before the day you moved in with your father. When you climbed out the car I remember I was in front of your house, looking at your face anyone could have guess you were sad about something but the difference was that I felt sad too. I know what it was to sympathize to other people misery but the feeling I had at that moment was different from any others, and instinctively I knew I had to keep you safe. I came back the after and after, every day for more than two years but you never left your house. I’ve had a glimpse of you at time but you have never payed attention to me”. He said.

“So you were there all along looking upon me, it’s a bit creepy, I don’t know if I have to feel good about it”. I said expressing clearly what I felt after what he meant.

“I know it sound creepy, I must appear like a stalker but I can assure you it is not like this. It’s a necessity, more like a mission to keep you safe even if I don’t know why. I’ve pondered about the reason of all this from the beginning but unfortunately I didn’t have the answer.” Jason answered.

“Am I the only person you can read his mind”. I wanted to know.

“No, with anyone else it’s different I can control it but not with you”. He took one of my hand into his. “ you’re special princess, I know it crazy and I can’t explain it more clearly at least for now, but I know the most important thing I have to do now is to keep you safe even if I don’t know why”. He finished looking at me directly in the eyes.

“And Nicole...oh no I have to call my father and let him know that I am fine”.I said. “Can I borrow your phone?”.

“Don’t worry about that my mother had already called your father he knows that you are we us”. He said leading back to the bed and asked me to take a seat. “And about Nicole you have to be careful”.

“You know her?”. I asked, all the time we have Spanish class he acted liked he didn’t know her.

“I knew Nicole, the real her not that thing what look like her but it not her”. He responded.