Noah I was strolling on the lawn when Olivia approached and notified me about the blood test that was to be conducted. I ascended to my room. Ethan entered with a syringe, removed its cap and turned the bevel up. He pulled the skin tight on the inside of my elbow and pierced the skin and vein in one movement. A week had passed, and yet there was no news about Ella that Olivia promised me. Every night I pat myself to sleep by fantasizing about those priceless moments we spent together. I inserted one end of the USB cable in my laptop and the other end in the port of microcontroller motherboard to transfer the C program that was supposed to operate the machine I had built. It was a transformer vehicle that could transfigure into a plane or a bot from a car on command by its remote control. It took me on a trip down the memory lane of the time when Jenny and I used to build a fan utilizing the motor extracted out of a store-bought remote-control car. A vehicle out of question is sup

NOAH I could see Liam gazing at me in an awkward manner. I didn't get it. Probably he had heard about my first meeting with Lane. Olivia had told me that it was not quite what they were expecting. I wholly broke down when they asked about my family. “I have a wife. I don’t know where she is as if now. But Olivia … she said that she’d help me find her,” I answered his question. "And what about your parents?" he came up with another question. "They died. And m--my twin sister. She also died." His face ran blank, eyes felt like peering right into my soul. He was still expecting something. An extended answer perhaps. Or probably a reaction. I had nothing else to say. Olivia stepped into the awkward pause between us. She stood there for a while without saying anything. “Liam.” She sighed. “Monica and I were taking Noah out. Lane said to take you with us. If you wanted to go.” He rose to his feet. I overheard him whisper, “wait … he got a pass already?” Olivia didn't both

Noah I tried to run away. But couldn't, as I recalled this forest. My nightmare. Flashing into reality. The dense weeping willows. Olivia and Liam ambled behind me pursuing the trail I was following. Crooning the same melody. Now the flags of trees motioned to its rhythm. A dark figure in distance lurked at the rear of the trunk. It held on to a camcorder, the lens looking onto the unfilled space encircled by the green and brown giants. The silhouette was too far flung to be clearly seen. But I knew it had a recorder. Almost like a Déjà vu. I’ve experienced it before. Not in a dream or hallucination. In reality. The stage was set. I hurriedly tramped through the two steps into the center, to perform the pirouette Jenny and I had been preparing for our dad’s wedding. A baby-blue color was slathered over nature’s ceiling. The sun hid behind an enormous cloud, giving it a silver lining. I watched them drift away by the joyous winds revealing the solar disc ornamented in the sky. It w

NOAH I ran. Fast and forward. Not because Liam said to. I wanted to get away from everyone. The woods weren’t populated by weeping willows anymore. Olivia and Liam bolted to get to me. I didn’t want to be gotten. Did not want to go back to that place. It was nasty and depressing. Recovery from that place wasn’t for me. Not for people like me. I needed to be with them. Mom, Dad and Jenny. And Ella. I ran while tears from my eyes flew backwards as the wind struck my face. My body started producing heat. Tears mixed with sweat. My lungs were in need of more oxygen. I stopped and glanced over my shoulders. Olivia and Liam could be seen in distance, flying through the woods. No. It won’t happen. I won’t go back there ever again. Ella can help me recover. Not them. Ah! My body felt as if it would crumble into pieces. I needed to brethe. But didn't have time to stop. My head spun rigorously. I continued to run. My speed slowed down. I darted through the air coughing and breathing heavily.

Olivia What the … Are they both dead? I crawled over to Liam’s body fighting nausea and excruciating headache. He wasn’t breathing. Shit! I place two fingers, on his bloodstained wrist. In the middle of the bone and tendon over his radial artery, which was situated on the thumb side. He had no pulse! It took just almost an hour to wreck everything. The triangular fragment of glass jabbed into Liam’s abdomen drenched in gore. Fingerprints were stamped over it. I squinted to see the pattern. It was a double loop. I gazed at my fingertips; arch patterns were engraved on them. They weren’t mine. Then they should have been Noah’s. I crept over to Noah on my knees and trembling hands. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It clicked me that Monica was with us as well. I checked Noah's nerves. They were throbbing. He was alive. He had a plain arched pattern on his fingers. I dragged myself over to the main door. It was still fastened from the outside. "Shit!" I messed up badly. Should've n