When Lightning Strikes [COMPLETED]

Chapter 14: Around the Island (Part 2)

Julie was free the whole day. Maybe even more days if she encouraged her to go with Ariel all the time.

In five minutes she was out the door with her backpack and riding her moped down the street to town. She was glad it wasn't a bike—she was so nervous about sneaking around that a bike would wobble all over the road.

Jamie's school was all the way on the other side of the island. She could reach the other school in about half an hour if she pushed the moped to its max of 20 miles per hour. She wished she could have a car still, but at least having her license for this was a start. If she had a car, she could leave.

Maybe she should leave anyway.

The thought was so tempting that she veered off the main road when she reached the center park. She drove toward the one bridge that arched across to the mainland. No one stopped her as she went on the bridge, but for some reason she stopped herself, parking the small motor bike along the curb of the bridge. She pulled her hair down and let the wind whip through it.

She could leave right now. What am I waiting for?

Julie leaned over the bridge, staring into the water. She didn't want to leave her family. Even if they were lying to her. There had to be a good reason.

The water swirled underneath the concrete support, showing that the current underneath was swifter than the glassy surface belied. A white crane landed in a patch of marsh grass below.

She had to be imagining all of this.

She glanced down at her shoe, her hair whipping across her face again in the uninterrupted sea breeze. It was untied, and she squatted down to tie it, facing the town. Her hair kept catching in her mouth as it glided over her face. She picked at it, looking back towards the island. Her hand stilled on her shoe.

There were two men and a woman sitting at the café on the water's edge, about a hundred yards from where she stopped on the bridge. All three watched her intently. One of them looked like he was ready to jump out of his seat at any moment.

Julie stood back up and leaned over the railing again like she was watching the water below. Now that she was paying attention to them, she saw that the man who'd been standing was lounging in his chair again. She deliberately looked back at them. Their heads turned quickly toward each other. They were trying not to let her know they were staring at her.

She looked down at the water, her hair shielding her gaze. All three stared at her again. She stood up, pretending to stretch, and noticed that they all quickly looked away again.

What the hell?

Was she a prisoner here? Every time she started to wonder if she was crazy, stuff like this happened. She laughed at herself, since no one would hear out here on the waterway.

Why would they care about her? She don't even know them. They were strangers.

Julie got back on her moped and decided to ride it further down the bridge to see what happened. Her heartbeat quickened. She couldn't believe she was pushing this.

She took a deep breath. She did not want to lose a memory. She parked 20 feet from where she first stopped, letting her hair whip across her face as she looked back. Her eyes strained to see what the three people were doing.

All three were standing now to get a better look. Their angle at the restaurant wasn't great. Hands shaking, she deliberately fixed her hair back and looked back at the town. They looked away from her quickly, the woman pretending to fuss with a bag.

She was tempted to make a run for it, to see what would happened. If she got across the bridge on this slow thing, someone would easily catch up to her, if they were even worried about what she was doing. Maybe that's why it was okay to have one—it was too slow to escape on. If she did run away, she didn't know where she'd go. She couldn't make it to Atlanta. She didn't even know where she was.

Julie sighed and looked down at her shaking hands on the bridge railing. She didn't have the guts to do it.

Someone else may have the courage to run, but going out on her own seemed like a bad idea. She shivered. The memory of the night in the dark alley went through her mind. She didn't want to be alone. She had not thought about the attack in so long now. Maybe it was a side effect of this memory thing.

She looked back at the water, wind pushing her hair over her face again. The three people still stood there, stupidly waiting while the woman checked her bag. She glanced up again, and they glanced away.

They weren't even good at hiding what they were doing. This was ridiculous.

Julie got on her moped and turned it back toward the town, gripping the handles until her knuckles were white. She noticed through her pink visor that the three people were sitting back down at the table again, looking like they were enjoying a normal coffee together. None of them looked up as she buzzed past, and her grip on the handlebars loosened.

Was she being paranoid, or were they guarding people from leaving the island?

After another fifteen minutes, she saw a group of small buildings, very similar to the school she went to. There was no sign, but this had to be Jamie's school. She pulled further down the street, wheeling her moped in behind the school.

She glanced around. No one was watching. When she was safely inside the shrubs surrounding the back of the school, she pulled a pen out of her bag, using her mouth to hold the cap, and balanced her notebook on the steering bar to jot down a note about the bridge guards. It was another weird thing to think about later.

The back of the school was quiet. The thick shrubs that shielded her from the road also blocked out noises from the street and the wind that flowed through the island from the sea. It wasn't eerie though.

After putting her stuff away, she stared at the school. It was the same four stone buildings like hers. Panels of windows lined each wall, and the central garden was full of flowers and benches.

Just like her school. Nothing weird.

Julie walked around the deserted grounds, peering in most of the windows. Dark wood panels lined the hallways. Each classroom had a few wooden desks. There was a gym and another sort of large workshop space. She sat down on one of the benches after walking around the school for a while and pulled out a granola bar as a snack. She blinked back tears of frustration. Disappointment made the granola bar seem tasteless.

Nothing. It was just a few desks and dry erase boards. There wasn't even a spooky feeling. She thought there must have been something here. She sat there for a few minutes after eating, trying to think if there was anything else to look for.

She still didn't know much. Something was messing with her head. Her family knew. People were randomly rude to Andromeda. There were two schools. The kids started out at the school she was at, and some moved to the other school. Then they stopped hanging out with their friends from her school. Anger and other emotions made her forget. So if she could stay calm, she could remember. Also, the tingly feeling she got from dancing helped too, if she could do it when she wasn't dancing.

So she didn't know enough to guess anything. Hell, she wasn't even sure where she was, and she was too afraid to ask. Was she dealing with a government conspiracy or the witness protection program? Was she crazy, and everyone was trying to hide it from her? Something was going on. It gave her heart that no one was likely to be reading her mind or controlling it. Using her emotions to trigger some kind of memory loss was bad enough.

What didn't she know? What had she forgotten? She had no idea.

Julie stood up and kicked the stone bench. Stuffing the granola wrapper back in her book bag, she went back to her moped and wheeled it out to the street again. No one noticed.

Why would they care when there wasn't a thing there to be found?

***

Crossing fingers that this will upload!!!! I've been trying all week :/