9 Lives

Chapter 26, Dougleman's Microchip

When I woke up, Luke was beside me, peacefully asleep. I looked at the clock; it was 9:30 AM. Lovely. There was so much to do today, but I woke up late. I dragged myself out of bed and noticed that the clothes I had left on the bathroom floor last night were clean and sitting on the floor. I glanced at Luke. He was dead asleep. I quickly changed into my clothes and folded the bathrobe. I left it where I found my clothes, and just as I was about to leave the room a young blonde girl with her hair in pigtails came barreling in. When she saw me, she gasped.

"Hi!" she squealed. "I'm Maddy, Luke's cousin. I've been here for a week since my parents are going out of town. I decided to come here since I'm bored and saw a pretty castle. We all thought he was dead, but Luke says if I don't tell anyone he's alive he'll give me candy! I'm supposed to stay with my mom's friend and she's looking for me," she rambled on.

"Just how old are you?" I asked.

"I'm 10. Why?" Maddy asked.

"Don't you think your mom's friend is worried and might be looking for you right now?"

She cocked her head at me. "Oh, okay then. I could back to her, but I don't think she cares. She just ignores me for the whole day. I got hurt once and I was crying, but she didn't do anything," she shrugged. "Do you like how I washed your clothes?"

"Yes, thank you. If the lady ignores you, I think you can stay here."

"Yep! I'm going to wake Luke up now!"

With that, she ran past me and threw herself on top of Luke, screaming, "OH LUKEY BOY, IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!"

"Shut up, Maddy!" Luke shouted, throwing a pillow at her.

"You're just lazy!" Maddy exclaimed.

Luke got up and dragged her across the floor by her hair.

"This is why you're single!" Maddy screeched, kicking at Luke's legs. I snickered at that one.

Luke let go of her pigtail and she ran past me and out of the room, screaming," Luke's single!"

"Sorry about that."

"It's fine, I think she's cute. Don't you think her parents are worried about her, though?" I asked.

He looked at me with a bitter smile. "Her parents don't care if she's dead or alive. She could be gone for days and her parents wouldn't notice or care. That's how my aunt and uncle are. They have four kids. Two of them ran out of the house the second they turned 18, and they have a 16-year-old runaway who's probably dead by now. Nobody knows where he is, and my aunt and uncle don't care. They never tried to look for him. The friend of theirs that Maddy's supposed to be staying with is a divorced alcoholic who lives on her dead father's money, and she didn't even notice that Maddy was staying with her. The sad part is that Maddy believes her parents care about her. I'm keeping her with me for the time being, and when all of this is over, I'll personally take her to Mr. Fox. Although he thinks I'm dead, when we defeat Dougleman he won't be in harm's way and I can visit him alive. When this is over, you can go back to your parents. Jacob will give them their memories back, and nonexistent memories of all the years you were gone."

"I don't want that," I breathed. "Their memories of me are already gone, and I don't want any fake ones in their heads. Even so, wouldn't it be weird, someone's daughter disappearing for years and suddenly coming back?"

"It is cruel," Luke whispered.

"There's too much work to do right now. Let's go see how things are going with the microchip detector," I said, changing the subject.

"Nick finished the detector just last night. You're just going to jump into the water and drown."

I cringed. "What?"