Misplaced Trilogy

by Brian Bennett

  Misplaced - Hunted - Feared

  Published by Vireo Publications

  Misplaced Trilogy

  Copyright © 2017 Brian Bennett

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  Cover By Vireo Publications

  www.vireopub.com

  Part 1 – Misplaced

  Intruder

  Message

  Identity

  Dream

  Barn

  Manhunt

  Sheriff

  Vibes

  Masquerade

  Pursuit

  Rescue

  Transmit

  Fantasy

  Bargain

  Family

  Substitute

  Teenagers

  Papers

  Nightmare

  Misplaced

  Messenger

  Storm

  Workers

  Flight

  Erased

  Natural

  Part 2 - Hunted

  Excursion

  Amusing

  Lemon

  Crow’s Nest

  Scarface

  Face-Off

  Ousted

  Burger Barn

  Pearl

  Wake Up

  Dylan

  Discovered

  Raspberry Pie

  Jailbirds

  Bombshell

  Flee

  Checkpoint

  Hawk Eyes

  Surrender

  Safe-House

  Corroborate

  Excuse Me

  Bugged

  Evidence

  Interference

  Transmitter

  Bad Vibes

  Protection

  Resurrection

  Arken

  Part 3 - Feared

  Transmitter

  Camp

  Rest Stop

  Contact

  Cyclist

  Tracked

  Max

  Kryo

  Developments

  Voyeur

  Daytime Drama

  Mothers

  Briefing

  Paperwork

  Mother

  Guest

  Alarm

  Exit

  Confiding

  Phone Call

  Reunion

  Influence

  Showtime

  Close Encounter

  Controller

  Stuck

  Interstellar

  Unwelcome

  Moles

  City of Bones

  Stargazer

  Drudgery

  Sector C

  Star Map

  Separated

  Mom

  Deserted

  Baashzar

  Epilogue

  Part 1 – Misplaced

  Intruder

  TREY GAZED OVER the subdued cafeteria during afternoon study hall. The mangled aromas from lunchtime still lingered in the still air as he sat on the tabletop. A handful of fellow seniors clustered around him in similar posture.

  "Butts off the tables," Mr. Emerick muttered in passing.

  In unison, the group of seniors obeyed the shop teacher's command and eased down onto the benches.

  Before Emerick had gone far, Trey raised himself back onto the tabletop. Everyone around him snickered except Zach. Trey's best friend shook his head, swinging his shaggy blond hair in disappointment. Long and lean, Zach was an all-round athlete, but distance running was his passion. He lived and ate healthily and it showed.

  Students gravitated to their usual corners, leaving swaths of slate-gray tables unoccupied throughout the large dining hall.

  "Who's the new kid?" Trey asked, looking toward the group of advanced students. The crowd of middle-grade kids had bumped up to high school classes, but most looked more at home on a playground.

  The new boy was small like the others, but somehow he exuded a much larger confidence. A swarm of youngsters fluttered around him like bugs to a lantern.

  Trey flung a pen cap into their midst, bouncing it off one of their unsuspecting heads. When their attention slowly turned toward him, he casually waved the new kid over.

  The flock parted, making a pathway for the dark-haired boy to walk to the table of seniors.

  "What's your name, kid?" asked Trey.

  The young boy answered with no sign of apprehension. "Nigel."

  "Are you new here? Or did you just get smart?"

  "I'm new."

  "Welcome to Longwood High School," Trey said with false sincerity. "I'm Trey. This is Zach." He didn't mention the gang of others hanging on his words.

  "Nice to meet you," Nigel said.

  "Now, we take care of our new students, but we need to know they appreciate our efforts."

  Nigel stared at him with dark-brown questioning eyes.

  Trey pointed to the vending machine hugging the far wall. "That's all juice and water." He leaned back and dug two quarters from his faded blue jeans. "But the teachers have their own machine right outside that door. How about you be a good sport and get me a Coke?"

  With little hesitation, Nigel took the quarters and marched toward the unmarked exit.

  "You really are a butthead," said Zach.

  The others in their rank snickered with anticipation.

  Nigel went through the steel door and it snapped closed behind him. Moments later, the handle jiggled. The door was locked.

  The table erupted in muffled laughter.

  The younger kids looked desperately at the sealed door, seeming to want to open it for their new friend Nigel, but afraid to step forward.

  The gag had played out, so Trey gave a nod toward the exit, and a couple of the small boys rushed to let Nigel back inside. One looked around the outside of the building while the other held the door.

  "He's gone," the boy said, stepping back inside.

  At that moment, the bell rang, echoing through the empty halls. A mob of students grabbed their belongings and filed out of the cafeteria on their way to their next classes, leaving the frazzled boys to sort out the problem of their missing companion.

  Trey and Zach strolled together through the bustling halls to Trey's locker.

  "I'll catch up," Trey said, stopping just long enough to throw all his books inside.

  He swung the door closed and nearly plowed into the small boy standing in front of him. Nigel stared up at him with a look of accomplishment and a can of Coke.

  * * *

  Long after midnight, something woke Trey from a deep sleep. A shadowy figure stood at the foot of his bed.

  "Zach? What do you want?" Trey groggily asked, struggling to make sense of the intrusion. "It's late. Leave me alone."

  Zach held up three fingers. Slowly, he pulled back a dark hood, revealing his true identity.

  It wasn't Zach. It was Nigel, the new kid from study hall.

  Trey threw back the covers and lunged toward the boy.

  "What are you doing in my room, you little twerp?"

  He grasped at the neck of the boy's shirt, but his fingers slid through nothing but air. The boy was gone.

  He looked at the locked window and the closed bedroom door. "Oh man, I must have had supper too late."

  He scuttled back into bed and was quickly back to sleep, but the invasive memory lingered with him long into the night.

  * * *

  Throughout the following day, Trey watched for Nigel around the high school, but he rarely saw the younger students outside study hall unless they happened to be in one of his classes.

  Afternoon rolled around, and Tr
ey was unusually quiet while waiting for the group of advanced kids to flock into the cafeteria. He craned his neck, looking for the new leader of the young brainiacs. He finally spotted Nigel in a plain t-shirt and jeans. In some small way, the fact that the young boy was not wearing a dark hoodie made it more obvious that what he saw in the night was a dream or a figment of his imagination.

  Hoodie or not, he was still distracted and found himself looking toward Nigel to see what the strange boy was doing.

  "Butts off the tables," said Emerick.

  The group of seniors slid down onto their seats, but this time, Trey stayed down instead of sneaking his rear-end back up onto the table.

  "What's up with you today?" asked Zach, sliding next to him.

  Trey shook his head. "Nothing. I just can't shake a crazy dream, that's all."

  Zach turned toward the cheerleader table and raised his eyebrows. "Do tell."

  "It wasn't--" Trey cut his words short, realizing how bad it would sound, given the context, to mention dreaming about Nigel. "It's none of your business, perv."

  The subject was dropped, but throughout the period he couldn't shed the uneasy feeling.

  He stole another glance toward the group of young students. The smart kids were fully absorbed in their open books, but this time, Nigel wasn't with them.

  Trey rose onto the table and casually gazed around the lifeless cafeteria. Before he could spot the missing boy, the school bell rang out, waking the dead crowd. He gave up his search and gathered his books from the table.

  A short while later, Zach left him alone at his locker. Trey swung open the door and was quite surprised to find a single can of Coke planted conspicuously inside.

  * * *

  At the end of the school day, Zach threw his book bag in the back of Trey's small pickup truck and climbed into the cab. Trey opened the driver's door for Amy and followed in next to the curvy blonde.

  The trio sped through the small town of Longwood, just slow enough to make it not worth Sheriff Smead's time to fuss with them.

  It was Tuesday, so Trey swung past the movie theater to check the new postings.

  "Well, we know what we're doing Friday," Trey said, after reading the top movie listing.

  "Ugh, Jigsaw 3!" said Amy.

  "You don't have to go," Trey offered.

  "Oh, I survived the first two. I can handle one more."

  "I think I'm busy," said Zach.

  "Aww, B S! You have to go. Billy's been waiting for this for months."

  "I know. But maybe I'll be deathly ill. Who knows? One can hope."

  They all laughed in agreement.

  Farther down the street, the truck pulled up in front of Longhaven housing community. The narrow entrance wasn't gated, but the manicured shrubbery and security cameras clearly stated you are not welcome here.

  Zach got out and grabbed his pack from the bed. He threw up a hand and walked down the sidewalk into the development. Amy stayed close to Trey's side as they drove away.

  Just past the edge of town, the couple turned onto Route 868. The two-lane blacktop road stretched as straight as an arrow from one end of the county to the other. Before long, they were pulling into the driveway of the small run-down house where Amy lived with her single-mother. Ms. Parker was walking back from the mailbox with a handful of bills and stopped to wave as they drove in.

  Amy leaned over and gave Trey a small kiss on the cheek.

  Even Amy’s mother was under the impression that her and Trey had been dating for the last year. The lead up to the junior prom had been such a fiasco for both of them, the two most sought after individuals in the school, that they had struck an agreement to go as a couple. The mock relationship had served them well since.

  "See ya," Amy said, sliding out of the truck.

  As she strutted up the driveway toward the little white house, her best attempts at dressing conservatively in loose jeans couldn’t conceal the fact that she was downright sexy, and that was exactly what made her such prey.

  Trey wondered if he was making a mistake by not dating her for real, but he knew they weren’t right for each other, and anything more than friendship would make him no better than the hounds that lusted after her.

  Message

  SOMETIME IN THE dark, quiet hours that night, Trey bolted upright from a dead sleep. A shadowy figure stood motionless at the foot of his bed.

  "How did you get in here?" Trey asked, breathing heavily with apprehension. The sound of his own words gave a sense of reality to the moment. This was not a dream.

  "What do you want?" he asked softly.

  Without speaking, the intruder raised two fingers. As before, he lowered his dark hood. It was clearly Nigel standing in Trey's bedroom, but the boy had miraculously aged by several years.

  "What does--"

  Before Trey could complete his question, Nigel vanished.

  * * *

  Early the next morning, Trey's truck was deathly quiet after he finished telling Amy and Zach about his strange nighttime experiences.

  Amy broke the long and awkward silence. "I think it means you feel guilty for picking on him."

  Trey shook his head. "But I'm telling you, I was not asleep. It was not a dream."

  She reached to feel his forehead.

  "I'm not sick either," he snapped, pushing her hand away.

  Zach chimed in. "So, what? We're supposed to think he's some sort of vampire or something?"

  "No! I don't know. I shouldn't have said anything." Trey adjusted the mirror to see the bus lane. "You guys don't have to wait, but I'm going to talk to him."

  "Whoa whoa whoa," said Zach, "You can't just ask this kid if he magically appeared in your bedroom last night."

  Trey huffed. "How stupid do I look?"

  They both turned to him simultaneously, neither cracking a smile.

  "Bite me," he said, prompting restrained snickers from his friends.

  Zach regained his composure and leaned forward. "Seriously though, have you thought about what you're going to say?"

  "Yes, I thought about it all night. I'm just going to thank him for the Coke and ask if there is anything he’d like to talk to me about."

  "Uh-uh," said Amy. "Scratch that. It sounds like you're trying to have the talk."

  They all grimaced at the awkward thought.

  Zach relaxed into the truck seat. "The more I think about it, we better hang out and make sure you don't totally embarrass yourself."

  Trey looked at them each for a moment. "Thanks . . . I think."

  Bus after bus arrived and departed before Nigel finally emerged from the one marked number ten.

  "There he is," Amy said, full of excitement.

  "Yeah," Trey nervously acknowledged. "I saw him."

  They hurried out of the truck, but before Trey had even closed his door, a jacked-up Ford pulled in front of him, blocking in his little Nissan. It was Billy's routine show of truck dominance.

  Trey stretched onto his toes, trying to see past the mud-coated hood. He crouched to the ground and looked for Nigel's footsteps through the view under the truck. But the only feet he saw were Billy's scruffy boots lowering out of the pickup.

  With a mix of disappointment and relief, Trey sighed and rose to a stand.

  "Study hall," he muttered under his breath.

  * * *

  "Butts off the tables," old man Emerick announced.

  Trey ignored the command completely and eagerly watched the entrance for the late arrivers.

  The group of junior high students soon filed into the cafeteria like little trolls, hunched over by their heavy book bags. When Nigel appeared among them, Trey pointed a finger at him until he noticed. The small, dark-haired boy smiled and dropped his pack on a table. He headed toward the senior table, ignoring his friends' panicked attempts to call him back.

  "Thanks for the Cokes," Trey said.

  Amy and Zach snickered.

  "You're welcome," Nigel said. He looked toward the far door. "D
o you want another?"

  "No, not now. I just wanted to make sure things were going well for you here . . . Nobody's picking on you or anything?"

  Amy squeaked, stifling her laughter.

  Nigel shook his head rapidly. "No, everyone's very nice to me."

  "Hey . . . uh . . . about that door thing. You know I was just messing with ya, right? I didn't mean any harm."

  Nigel puzzled over it a moment, then shrugged. "No harm."

  Feeling embarrassed, Trey fought for a goodwill gesture. "Oh, this is Zach--"

  Nigel joined in, saying Zach's name simultaneously.

  "That's right," Trey said, "I already introduced you."

  Nigel picked up where Trey left off, pointing to each person as he stated their name. "Amy, Billy, Mark, Steven, Amber, Hunter, Brayden, and Tish." He smiled at the last girl. "Or Patricia."

  The snickers stopped.

  After a moment, Billy jeered, "Are you special or somethin’?"

  "Knock it off," Trey said, raising a back-fist toward Billy, just out of his reach. For a fleeting moment, he wondered how Nigel might have answered had he not interrupted.

  "Nigel," Trey said, "I told you we take care of new students, and I meant it. So, if you have any problems. You can talk to me."

  Nigel nodded.

  Trey stared at him intently, waiting for any additional response. When nothing came, he asked, "Nothing?"

  Nigel shook his head.

  "All right, you can go back to your friends-- your other friends."

  "Okay."

  Nigel turned and walked away. The group of whiz kids buzzed around him upon his return to their little nest.

  Zach moved closer to Trey and spoke quietly, "I'll probably have strange dreams tonight, too. There's something weird about that boy."

  Trey nodded, but something in his gut told him there was more to the kid than weird.

  A firm punch on the arm from Billy got his attention.

  "Jigsaw," Billy said, pumping his fist and thick sleeveless arm.

  Trey fought through the pain in his upper-arm without wincing, unwilling to give the big farm boy the satisfaction of knowing he felt the punch. Billy may not have been as physically fit as Trey and Zach, but he was as strong as an ox.

  "Oh yeah, I can't wait," Trey said with false enthusiasm.

  "I'm bringin' Julie," Billy said, inflating his chest.

  "I thought you two broke up?"