We spent a while on the road, able to make conversation along the way. My mind kept wandering back to Brooklyn. She was so beautiful. I loved the way her hair fell perfectly over her shoulders, like a waterfall and the way her bright blue, ocean eyes sparkled like diamonds when she looked at me. I wanted to see her again so badly. As if Jackson could read my thoughts, he said, “So that girl you were with, she was pretty cute.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “She is.”
“You plan on seeing her again?”
I nodded in response but remembered his eyes were on the road so he couldn’t see me. “I hope so. I really want to see her.”
Jackson was silent for a moment. “Do you think your parents are okay?” he asked slowly.
“I hope so. I don’t know what I would do without them,” I replied.
“Yeah. I hope they’re not dead.”
When he said that, I almost stopped breathing. “What?”
“I just hope they aren’t dead. But I mean, there’s a pretty good chance that they are. They were inside the building when it exploded right?”
I could feel my face turning red and hot. “Yes,” I said, more sharply than I meant to.
“Well that’s pretty traumatic. That could have easily killed then. I mean…”
“Stop!” I shouted, interrupting him, pounding my fist on the dashboard. “Just stop. Please.”
Jackson was silent and I could tell he regretted it the second he said that. I was furious. How could he have said that to me? In a time like this? What kind of friend brings up a parents’ death when I was already scared half to death? But maybe he was right. After all, the explosion was huge and many people are hurt and have died. Maybe I just didn’t want to face the ugly truth. “Look, I’m so…” I started.
“It’s fine,” Jackson said, interrupting me. “I get that you’re upset.”
I sighed and we drove in silence for the rest of the way. When we finally got to the hospital, my fear had grown and overwhelmed me. I almost couldn’t get out of the car. Jackson got out and came around the car and opened the passenger door for me, with me still sitting there breathing heavily. “Come on,” he said, waving his hand for me to get out.
I shook my head violently. “I can’t.”
He breathed a deep breath and grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the car. “It’s going to be okay,” he said in a calming voice with a slight smile. “They’re fine. I promise.”
I looked at him, not believing him. I shook him off and started walking to the hospital office. The building was large with white walls and gray tile flooring. Walking through the sliding glass doors, I saw a white sign hung from the ceiling with colorful arrows pointing, giving directions. I followed the purple arrow, which gave the direction of the office. I saw the desk up ahead with a short lady with long, curly hair sitting at a computer. As I walked up to her, she greeted me with a smile. “Hello, how can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Sally and Mike Thompson. Are they here?” I asked in a shaky voice.
“Hold on one moment, I’ll check,” she replied, starting to type on her keyboard. Her fake smile slowly turned into a frown, making my heart stop. “I’m so sorry,” she said turning back to look at me.
“What? What is it?” I said frantically, raising my voice.
“I don’t know how to say this but… they have passed away.”
And just like the flip of a switch, my life was over. “No,” I heard myself say. “No, no, no! They can’t be dead. Are you sure you searched the right people?”
“I’m so, so sorry,” the woman said again.
My whole word had just fallen apart. Just like that, they were gone. Memories flashed through my head and it made me realize that I should have spent more time with them. Now they’re gone. I’ll never get to see them again. I could feel my heart sink to my stomach and my chest tightened. I thought I might be sick. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and the world around me started spinning.
Jackson must have walked me out and back to the car because I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there. All I remembered was stopping in an empty parking lot, the dark sky filled with stars, and falling into a deep sleep.
When I woke up, Jackson was behind the wheel, driving back into town. I knew I must have been crying because my face felt dry and tear-stained.
“Well, look who’s up from their little nap,” Jackson said jokingly.
I groaned, sitting up and cracking my neck from sleeping in such a weird position. “How long was I out?” I asked, my voice still strained and raspy.
“All night,” he replied. “I pulled over in an empty parking lot and fell asleep too. I got up about an hour ago.”
I looked at the small, glowing green clock on the dashboard. It was 6:30. I yawned and looked out the passenger window to see the sky still dark. We weren’t quite back into town yet and all around us were green fields of tall grass. I took a deep breath.
Then it hit me. My parents are dead, I have no family. My home is destroyed and I have nowhere to go. I didn’t want to go back, I had nothing left. The only thing that was waiting for me was Brooklyn. My mind was racing, trying to figure out what to do when I got back. Where would I stay? All of my belongings were ruined and some were irreplaceable. I could stay with my grandfather but that’s too far away from town.
Jackson must have read my mind because he said, “Hey, I know your place is destroyed and everything so I don’t mind if you stay with me for a while.”
“Really? That would be great,” I said thankfully.
“Yeah, of course. I rented a room in a hotel not too far from where your apartment was. You could just stay there for a while until things are sorted out.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much,” I said.
We drove for about twenty minutes before we reached my town. The streets were busy with cars and people rushing around, just like it had always been. But something about it was different, like it wasn’t the same.
Soon, we got to Jackson’s hotel and we walked up to his room. It was fairly large, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Everything was white; the walls, bedding, and furniture and it was surprisingly clean. Jackson let me have the smaller bedroom and I got settled in, not taking much time considering I had nothing to unpack. I took out my phone from my back pocket and sat down on the bed, sinking into the soft mattress. I typed in Brooklyn’s number and I was a little nervous to text her but with a burst of courage, I sent a text saying, “Hey, it’s Hunter. I’m back in town and was wondering if you wanted to get together. I’ll tell you all about my parents when we meet.”
It took about five minutes, which felt like hours, before she texted back. But what she said surprised and scared me. It read in all capital letters, “HELP I'M ON TOP OF THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING HURRY!”
I was so confused. What did she mean? Was she in trouble or hurt? I didn’t want to go all the way to the Empire State Building to find out but if she was in trouble, I’d do anything to save her. “Hey, Jackson?” I yelled to the other room.
“Yeah?” he shouted back.
“Come here for a second.”
Jackson walked in a moment later. “What’s up?”
“Look at this text Brooklyn sent me. It’s weird.”
He came around and sat on the bed next to me and hovered over the phone. “Huh,” he said furrowing his brow. “Do you think she’s okay?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I said reluctantly.
Jackson groaned. “Does that mean I have to drive all the way to the Empire State Building right now?”
“Sorry, buddy,” I replied getting up from the bed. “I have to see if she’s alright. Aren’t you worried?”
He sighed. “Yeah,” he said unhappily. “I guess.”
“Then let’s go.” I went into the bathroom and looked at my leg. It didn’t hurt like it had before, but the bandage that was wrapped tightly around my thigh was now stained with red blood. I steadily unwrapped it and looked at the cut. It was still large and deep. I threw the bandage wrap away and looked around for tissue or a first aid kit. I opened one of the cabinets under the sink and saw a red first aid kit. I took it out, grabbed a white bandage, and rinsed off my leg before wrapping the bandage around my leg.
I looked in the mirror and saw a tired and dirty face staring back at me. I turned on the faucet and cupped my hands, filling them up with cool water and splashed it over my face. Feeling refreshed, I ran my fingers through my dirty blonde hair and took one last look in the mirror before walking out the door.
Jackson and I were on the road for a while before seeing the massive building towering over us. By the time we got there, it had gotten pretty dark but the lights of the city were glowing, making it seem like it was daytime. We found a place to park about a block away from the building and started walking towards it. “Why did we have to park so far away?” Jackson whined.
“I don’t want us to draw any attention to ourselves,” I replied, looking around.
“Why? It’s not that unusual for two people to be walking around town at night,” he said sounding annoyed.
I shrugged and kept walking. We finally got to the building and looked inside, seeing only darkness. I tried the front door and, not surprisingly, it was locked. I walked around the side of the building and saw another door, hidden so that you couldn’t see it from the road. I walked up to it in the darkness of the alley and discovered that it opened. I called Jackson over and we entered quietly.
We made our way through some hallways and came to the main entrance. I looked around at the room, amazed by the size of it and saw that Jackson was in awe as well. “Brooklyn said she was on the top of the building,” I reminded him.
Jackson turned around and said, “Did she mean the top floor or the roof?”
I shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Let’s check both.”
We walked around, trying to find an elevator. I spotted one by the front door and ran over to it, Jackson right behind me. There was a piece of paper taped onto the doors saying, “Out of Order: Please take the stares”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jackson said sarcastically. “There’s got to be another elevator.”
I walked around the whole floor in a loop. There was only one other elevator and it, too, said that it was out of order. Of all times, I thought. I walked back over to Jackson and said, “There’s only one other elevator and it’s out of order, too”
He groaned. “This is unbelievable,” he said starting to walk over to an opening labeled “Stairs” and I followed. “Let’s get this over with,” he moaned reluctantly as he slowly made his way up the steps.
It seemed like a year before we reached the top of the building, making our way up at least 80 flights of stairs and finally getting to a door that lead to the roof. “This is crazy,” I said, trying to catch my breath. My hurt leg was now throbbing with pain. “A building this huge should have more elevators.”
Jackson just nodded in response, his hands on his knees struggling to breathe. “All I can say is she better be up here. I swear I’ll kill her if this is a joke.”
I laughed a weak laugh and put my hand on the doorknob, struggling to open the heavy door. I pushed it open and felt a blast of cool air as I walked outside. The roof was huge, with a plain and flat floor and a box-like shed in the middle of it. I ventured out a little further and looked around at the starless sky. I made my way over to the edge of the roof and looked out over the city, lights from signs and buildings lighting up the night.
I turned around and saw Jackson walking towards me. “Do you see her?” he asked still slightly out of breath.
I shook my head in response and walked towards the box-like shed. There was a door on it which I guessed lead back inside the building. As I made my way around it, I saw a dark silhouette of a man standing by the edge of the roof, looking out over the city. “Well, hello Hunter,” the man said without turning around. “Did you make it here without any trouble?”
Confused, I replied, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”
The man turned around but I still couldn’t see his face. “You really don’t recognize me?” he said in a low, raspy voice.
“Well I can’t see your face,” I replied.
He laughed a fake laugh as he stepped out from behind the shadows and into the moonlight, showing his face. He had dark brown hair slicked back neatly and eyes so dark they almost looked black. He was wearing jeans with a black leather jacket. He reminded me of one of those bad boy villains in a movie. “Now do you recognize me?”
I shook my head, still unsure of his identity. “No. How do you know me?”
He sighed. “Of course you don’t know who I am. You were very young when I met you,” he said dodging my question.
I was so confused, and a little scared. I looked around for Jackson but there was no sign of him. “Who are you?” I asked again in a more demanding voice.
“I am your uncle,” he said finally, slowly inching towards me.
“What? Why… how?” I stuttered. I had too many questions racing through my mind. Why was he here? How come my parents never mentioned me having an uncle? How did he know I was here?
“I know this is all confusing,” he started. “But I told you to come here for a reason.”
I didn’t know what he was talking about until I realized that it was Brooklyn that texted me to come here. “Where’s Brooklyn?” I asked slowly.
“Oh,I have her,” he said casually. “Don’t worry, you’ll get her back as soon as you agree to what I’m about to ask you.”
“Jackson!” I shouted, now getting really scared.
“It’s no use,” the man said suddenly. “I have him as well.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two men holding Jackson and Brooklyn. I turned around to look at them fully and saw that they both had a cloth covering their mouths and their hands handcuffed together. I heard Brooklyn scream that was muffled by the cloth.
“Let them go!” I exclaimed as I turned around to face the man that claimed to be my uncle.
“Like I said,” he said walking toward me. “As soon as you agree to what I’m asking.”
I backed up away from him. “What? What is it?”
“Well first of all, I’m the one who bombed your apartment,” he said turning back around to face the city.
Shivers ran down my back. I was in shock. “Why?” was all that could escape my mouth.
“I work for the NYSA, a secret society for New York. I’ve worked there for almost ten years, under the control of the government,” he said, his voice turning evil and sinister. “Working there was like a prison. I felt like I was a cage and I could never escape. I was in charge of computers and one day I was working late. I overheard the head of the association talk about growing the service and I hated that idea. That would mean that I would be brought down another level, economically. So I decided to branch out on my own for once, break out of this cage that they put me in. I got a group of people that were working in my department together and made a plan to destroy the association.”
My mind was lost and it got very cold all of a sudden. “So why did you bomb my apartment?” I asked, getting impatient.
“Well if you would let me finish,” he said, sounding irritated. “The association was held right underneath your apartment building. The only way to destroy it for good was to kill everyone in the service. So I put a bomb in your apartment during work hours and my plan worked perfectly.”
“No,” I said firmly, starting to raise my voice. “It didn’t work perfectly. You killed innocent people, including my parents!” I started walking towards him, my anger taking over me.
“Your parents were part of the association as well,” the man said calmly, still facing the city. “I had to kill them no matter what.”
That stopped me in my tracks. How did I not know? Why didn’t they tell me? All these years I thought they worked for an insurance company out of town. “You’re lying,” I said, not wanting to believe that my parents were lying to me all of my life.
“Why would I lie?” he said turning around to face me. “I never said I wanted to kill them. In fact, I tried to get them to join me but they refused, even after I told them they would die if they didn’t join me.”
“They wouldn’t lie to me,” I said, my voice cracking. I wanted to cry. “They told me they worked for an insurance company.”
“Did they ever tell you what insurance company they worked for?” he asked slyly.
In that moment, I realized they never really did tell me about their job and I was slightly believing that my parents had lied to me.
“I saw them at work every day of my life for ten years,” the man said, now very close to me. “I’m pretty sure they lied to you.”
I couldn’t speak for fear I might cry, feeling the tears build up in my eyes. My face felt hot now and the urge to punch the man standing in front of me was unbearable. “What do you want from me?” I asked slowly.
“I want to grow my own association. The few men and women that I have working for me right now isn’t enough. I need more people and I need your help.”
“Why should I help you?” I asked, turning around to look at my friends. Brooklyn looked frightened, her face pale in the moonlight. Jackson was still struggling to get out of the hands of the man that was holding him.
“You want your friends to live, don’t you?” the man threatened.
I looked back at him. “You mean you’re going to kill them if I don’t help you?”
“Exactly,” he said simply, like it was no big deal to kill someone.
I spun around to look at my friends when I heard a loud grunt as Jackson broke free from the man's’ grasp. He ran as the man chased after him and he defended himself only with his feet. The man that claimed to be my uncle was turned to Jackson, distracted. I took a chance and rushed to Brooklyn, punching the man holding her, knocking him out. I was surprised by my own strength and took in a second of victory then rushed over to help Brooklyn out of the handcuffs and ripped the cloth off of her mouth. “Thank you,” she said breathlessly, and pulled me into a hug.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled away. “Stay here and away from all of that, okay?” I told her, looking back at Jackson now on the ground kicking at both men.
“Okay,” Brooklyn said quickly. I started to turn around when she said, “Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful,” she said, pulling me into a kiss. I backed away after a few seconds and looked at her and smiled before running to help Jackson.
I ran up behind the man who was holding on to Jackson before and jumped on his back, tackling him. I brought him down to the ground but he pulled me down with him, landing hard on my back. The man got on top of me and hit me across the face, making me dizzy. I managed to push him off of me and got up to my feet. I felt a pain in my lip and felt a small trickle of blood running down my chin.
The man got up as well, giving me a chance to hit him in the chest, knocking him back down. I kicked him hard in the head, knocking him out. I kneeled down and tried to catch my breath but felt a sharp pain in my hurt leg. I looked down and saw that blood had leaked through my bandage. I shook the pain off and looked back at Jackson, who was still on the ground but now getting pummeled by the other man. As I ran towards them, an overwhelming pain took over, making me drop to the ground.
I looked up to see the man holding Jackson by the collar of his shirt over the edge of the building. Jackson's face was scraped and bruised, his hands still bound together by handcuffs. “This is your last chance, Hunter!” he yelled.
“Either come with me, or let your friend die.”
I couldn’t think straight, or see straight for that matter. This couldn’t be happening to me. My parents are dead, my home is destroyed, my so called uncle is a psychopath, and my friends’ life is in danger.
“I’m waiting, Hunter!” His eyes were wild and I could tell that if I didn’t say something soon, Jackson would fall to his death.
“Okay!” I yelled back to him, making my way back up to my feet. “I’ll go with you. Just let him go.”
He smiled an evil smile and slowly let go of Jackson, letting him get away from him and far away from the ledge. Just as the man started walking towards me, Brooklyn rushed up behind him and hit him in the back of the head with a large piece of metal. First, he looked confused but then went limp and fell to the ground. I looked up at Brooklyn who looked as shocked as I was. I could feel a smile spread across my face and I limped over to her. She dropped the metal and brought me into a hug.
“I will always be afraid of heights from now on,” I heard Jackson say.
I laughed and so did Brooklyn, pulling out of our hug and walking over to Jackson. We shared a group hug and the world around me fell away. All of my problems washed away and relief crashed over me.
The next few weeks were tough but eventually everything worked out. I lived with my grandfather until I had enough money to buy my own house. I visited Brooklyn all the time and she was the one thing that made me really happy. Jackson rented an apartment and is living in New York as well so I get to see often. Even though my parents are gone, I still have the memories of them and that will never go away. Spending the time with the people you love and making memories is the most important thing to me because those memories can never be replaced.