Caught

Chapter Twenty-Five

"If your mother knows where you kids are, why aren't their forces here yet?"

"First of all, I'm not a kid anymore, King Jacin. Second, mom loves surprise attacks, and she wouldn't send them here if Lauren was so heavily watched over by your own guards," Spencer said. "Even if now Lauren knows that she's being watched, mom will probably attack when she's most vulnerable. So she couldn't fight."

I was curled up into a ball on my bed, rocking back and forth, cradling myself. I was scared - no, terrified. There was no escape from her, none. You could be halfway across the earth and still she manages to know where you are.

All because of a stupid link she put in me.

"There's no escape," I muttered into my knees. "There's no escape, none. She'll always be there."

I feel that if a child is scared of her own mother, she's done something really messed up to get them there. She'll always be there, giving me no privacy - every teenagers worst nightmare, I think.

Kassandra put her arm around me, bringing me close. "Lauren, we're going to find a way around this, alright? She can't stay in you head all the time. I mean, especially teenage girls need some time alone. I know there were times when I was a teenager- which wasn't too long ago, when I just needed to kick my mom out of the house."

I wish I could kick her into the ocean or something, I thought.

The words she spoke after I told her I wasn't going to follow her rules were unbearable to here. Just hearing those words with her voice. I closed my eyes, remembering how there was a day where I dreamed my parents would come and save me from the Institute.

Dreams are just petty things we hold on to so we don't have to face reality.

"Hey," Kassandra said, breaking the silence. "You know, your brother and I got you something."

She held out a perfectly gift wrapped box in front of her. It was covered in silver, sparkling paper and there was a red bow on top. She handed it to me. I stared at the box for the longest time, wondering what this was for.

"Go on, open it."

I ripped the wrapping off the box, sticking the bow on to the side of the bed frame. I looked at the gift in awe.

"A new phone?" I asked. "Why?"

Kass smiled. "I mean, your old one is so four years ago and was so damaged by the end of Christmas Eve, we had to throw it a funeral. It's just so you could keep in touch, you know? It's the latest design."

"I'm gonna break it."

"If you do, we have Spencer to replace it."

Spence turned around, a look of anger on his face. "Lauren, if you break that, I'm not getting you a new one. I'm trying to save up for a place of my own."

I crossed my arms. "Fine then."

"Oh, another thing." Kassandra picked up another thing off the floor - a container with something in it. "Figgy pudding!"

Ironically, Ms. Parker walked into the room at that moment, a clipboard in hand. She was probably here for a mini checkup. When she spotted her daughter with the container, a look of disappointment painted her face.

"Kassandra, you know you shouldn't be having that much sugar," She frowned and turned to Spencer. "How is there even some left?"

He shrugged. "Somehow."

Kass rolled her eyes. "I was going to share, mom."

"Lauren isn't in any condition to eat that, just so you know," The doctor stated. "Before she starts eating sugar, maybe let her have some actual food."