Black-Eyed Kids: The Complete Series

by Miranda Hardy

  MARCUS

  BLACK-EYED KIDS BOOK TWO

  “Mix a little foolishness with your prudence: It’s good to be silly at the right moment.” ~ Horace

  1

  MARCUS

  A NEW BEGINNING

  THE EVIL TOILET taunts me. It’s not the toilet that bothers me so much as the mirror I’d have to pass to get to the crapper. Maybe I can just go outside for the rest of my life…live natural like the grizzly mountain men hermits I saw on TV.

  The grizzly part may have to wait, since it seems I can’t grow a single damn hair on my chin. It’s got to have been a good five days since I’ve shaved and nothing’s growing. Either my body is totally whacked or my genetics suck. Given my family’s gene pool, I may be a hairless, bald fat guy in five years. This pathetic mental image sends a shiver down my spine.

  Screw it. I’m not going to the bathroom in here. If I can’t look like a mountain man, maybe I can at least piss like one. The tricky part will be trying to get outside without waking anybody up.

  The entire house sits eerily quiet. I should be getting some rest, but it’s no good. Whatever mind-control crap Level 6 injected into me must be wearing off, because I have no desire to sleep and I’m pretty sure my thoughts are my own. But, I have this tingly urge on the edge of my thoughts that I can’t seem to shake. The urge to consume, and no amount of food will satisfy it.

  The events over the last couple of weeks circle in my head like vultures scoping out a wounded animal, waiting for it to succumb to the Reaper. The memories always start out nice with me getting my license, and getting ready to start school, then they take a darker turn with Tarick’s death, Maverick completely losing it after having lost his mother, and then my being kidnapped, drugged, and waking up a total black-eyed freak.

  Oh, and then there was the fact I became a cold-blooded killer, having stabbed Cadence in the back in order to save Mav. She thought she’d live forever, yet one knife to the back put an end to that theory. So, being afraid to go into the bathroom just seems lame.

  Since the entire house sleeps, I sneak into Lisa’s parents’ office. I’m tempted to fire up the desktop. Who has a fear of mirrors anyway? Spectrophobia – No. Catoptrophia – No. Eisoptrophobia – Yes. I can’t even pronounce that, damn it! I’m not really good with looking things up like Lisa is, so I decide against it. I’m sure the medical websites would say that I need serious mental help and strong anti-psychotic drugs STAT.

  Considering my current state, I doubt that therapy and drugs would help with my problem, although I’m up for the drug trials. I’m pretty damn sure there’s not a support group for people who have a fear of mirrors, and I’d probably scare the fear right out of everyone in that group once they got a view of my eyes. So I’d say there’s only one way to get over this little problem of mine…but first, nature calls.

  Maverick snores in the living room on the recliner, and Astid sleeps like the dead on the couch. I wonder if that’s how I’m supposed to sleep now…like the dead. For the first few days, all I wanted to do was sleep, but now, I can’t bring myself to close my eyes. Every time I start to drift, flashes of scenes I can’t quite fully remember surface, and it’s so frustrating like trying to put together a puzzle without all the pieces.

  I could use some good weed right about now. But now that I’m a weird black-eyed kid hybrid, would that just totally make me wig-out? The last thing I need to do is go full-on mental.

  Lisa’s sleeping down the hall in her room, and I almost feel guilty for what I’m about to do. Lisa has been freaking out ever since the night we killed all those secret agents, and I don’t blame her. I just need to get out of this house and get some fresh air.

  The clock on the house alarm box flashes 11:30PM, and I punch in the code until the green light flashes. I had reached out to Lisa’s mind and grabbed the security code since she’s been obsessed with arming and disarming it all the time now. I wonder if her obsession with locks and alarms will follow her for the rest of her life. Probably. I think we’ve all developed a bunch of new fears these last couple of weeks that we never expected to have.

  I leave the door unlocked and close it behind me. I sneak slowly around to the corner of the house to find a bush to water. The night air smells moist from the recent rain. It’s funny how things seem different to me now. The dark doesn’t seem dark to me anymore. It’s as if I’m staring at a bright TV screen in a movie theater. Wherever I look, everything becomes so clear. I check my pocket to be sure my sunglasses are there in case I happen to run into anyone. Isn’t there a song about wearing sunglasses at night? I vaguely remember Mom singing it in the kitchen one day, and Buttface made fun of her for it. I decide to take a much needed walk.

  Buttface…yeah, it’s not the same saying it in my head when I can’t call Robby by that nickname in person anymore. I seriously doubt I’ll ever see him or Mom again. This mood change thing sucks ass. How did Maverick deal with the depression creeping into his brain like this? It’s like my emotions mesh together in a giant ball of puzzle pieces. Is this what girls feel like during their time of the month? I wonder if Mav started getting depressed after his dad left or if it’s genetics or something.

  I’m a mess. Damn you Level 6.

  Since I’ve never met my dad, it never fazed me that he wasn’t ever around. I guess it would be worse had I known him before he left. He ditched out on us right after Robby was born. No love lost there. But Mom and Robby…it hurts just thinking about having to leave them.

  Forever.

  With all of these bogus thoughts roaming through my head, I feel like a damn woman. Is this what they think about all the time? Millions of stupid, unimportant things? Makes me miss that cloudy, blissful feeling I always got in my drug-hazed days. Somehow, I don’t think I’ll get that feeling so easily now.

  Without even trying, I’m vaguely aware of the presence of all the people around me inside their houses– awake and asleep alike. Some are playing video games, watching TV, doing the nasty…I can somehow feel them all over the place. The hunger rises up from my belly, but I swallow the need to feed and pick up my pace.

  After I reach the end of the street where all the nice neighborhood houses end, I turn left and head out west. There’s a good chance I won’t run into anyone there, as it’s mostly office buildings and warehouses.

  The streetlamps shine so much more brightly than I remember, and bugs swarm around the bulbs. Their tiny wings glisten in the light, like fresh rain on a leaf, and yellow glowing auras surround them. If I concentrate closely, I can focus on their buzzing sound. It’s so strange. Who knew bugs could be so damn cool?

  Even the smallest amount of energy buzzing around increases the urge growing inside of me. The feeling that the energy should be inside of me instead of the smallest of creatures flying around in the night sky causes the hairs on my arms to stand. The energy seems to be calling me like a drug. I know that feeling well.

  It finally dawns on me how Astid knew the effects of this monstrous change would have on me. She knew my hunger would consume my every waking thought, and that’s why she feels sorry for me. Sucks to be her. Now it sucks to be me.

  The warehouses come into sight, and I’m thankful not another human roams these streets. Being so far away from people makes me feel so alone. I can no longer feel the presence of others, and it’s weird. I turn a corner and head into a busier section of town. I know being around people will make me hungrier, but I don’t like the sensation of not being able to sense anyone around me.

  Just thinking about what I’ve become makes me even more depressed. Out of all my friends, Lisa was the nicest to me. The only reason why I never made a move on her was out of respect for Mav.

  But now, I have to watch myself when I’m around her. When I feel her approach, I have to try really hard to distract myself from my urges. Eating a bunch of food helps. So far, it’s been working, but I’m not sure how much longer I can go without…

  I make another left turn a
nd stop. The building across the street sits empty, but beckons to me. It’s there. I’ve been there before. That’s the building that the Level 6 asshats brought me to. I’m sure of it. It’s like I just found a piece of the missing puzzle in my head.

  My brain is bombarded by more fuzzy memories. They brought me and Cadence here first, before putting us on a plane. I should just keep walking, but I can’t.

  I need to remember.

  2

  MARCUS

  SUDDENLY, MY HEAD clears, like I’m waking up from being in a coma for months and finally remembering the whole ordeal. It begins to play over in my head as if the clouds disappear from the scene revealing the truth.

  AFTER BEING CAUGHT in the barn, that awful lady barked orders at everyone. They stuffed us between two huge scary apes posing as agents into the dark SUV with Cadence constantly threatening them that her uncles were cops and would be really pissed if she was treated poorly.

  Cadence screamed, “This is kidnapping, plain and simple! My family will find us, they will track us with the GPS installed in my phone, you nut jobs!”

  I nudged her to shut the hell up, and everyone thought I was the idiot. One of the big guys searched us, pulled our phones out, and smashed them on the floor without saying one word to either of us in the process. He squashed them easily, as if they were a pile of grapes. Call me impressed.

  “What the—” Cadence swung her claws towards the agent on the left while reaching down to what remained of her phone. “You’ll pay for that.”

  He shoved her back into the seat, wedging her between me and the other goon.

  The lady up front turned around in her front seat and threw us a pissed off look. “Keep her quiet back there. I can’t hear myself think.” She turned her evil eyes on Cadence. “If you can’t shut that trap of yours, I’ll duct tape your hands and mouth, got it?”

  I winked at her. “You can duct tape my hands to my mouth any time.” My words never seemed to come out like I imagined them to. They always sounded better in my head.

  The agent-lady’s eyes narrowed to small slits. “Not one damn word.”

  I was the one being kidnapped, so why was this lady so damn cranky? She wasn’t just Agent-Lady, so I upgraded her nickname to Bitch-Lady.

  Cadence shut up for the rest of the ride, which seemed a lot longer than it was. The SUV jerked over the curb and pulled into the warehouse that was full with dark cars and blinking equipment set up all over the place.

  After yanking us out of the vehicle by our arms and bringing us into a dark room with only a tall metal lamp in the corner, the goons sat us into two chairs around a square table and backed up to the wall. Bitch-Lady sat across from us. She stared at us, one at a time, for a minute without saying anything.

  Cadence glared back at her and crossed her arms in defiance.

  “Are you going to tell me why you both were out there in the middle of the night snooping around?” the woman asked, finally breaking the awkward silence.

  Cadence rolled her eyes. “Are you going to stop being a bitch and let us go home, or continue with this game of kidnapping and acting all tough?”

  “Boy, talk about being at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Bitch-Lady said.

  I didn’t like the woman’s tone, so I decided to try to make peace with her. “We won’t say nothing, just let us go home. Sorry to intrude on your little search party. We were just playing around. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

  She nodded to one of the butch men and he left the room.

  The knowing look they had exchanged made me even more nervous. Were they going to off us now?

  “Since you’re not being forthcoming with information, I’ll assume that you are friends of Maverick and know all about the BEKs,” Bitch-Lady said as she got up from the table and went to the door.

  Cadence looked at me and shook her head, urging me not to rat everyone out. This lady was fishing and we weren’t going to take the bait. If she was acting like she was going to put a bullet in our heads, she was a damn good actor.

  The big guy came back and handed her a box before taking up a position behind Cadence and me. Another agent entered the room and stood next to his goon-buddy. Bitch-Lady pulled out two syringes from the box, and I about pissed my pants. Was she going to poison us? Or maybe she had some kind of truth serum she was going to shoot into our veins. Either way, I didn’t like the way Bitch-Lady was looking at us with those big ass needles.

  Cadence screamed while the two guys held both of us down. Bitch-Lady went to Cadence first, emptying the syringe into her left arm. Cadence continued to struggle, but her screaming eased into a soft whimper. Then she started crying.

  The guy holding me was too strong, and all I could do was watch Bitch-Lady stick the needle into my arm. The liquid injected into my vein looked clear, and it burned my skin.

  It only took a few seconds for the fuzziness to overcome me. I felt aware of what was happening, yet I couldn’t do anything about it. It was like I was dreaming all of it, and I would eventually wake up from this nightmare. So it was no use fighting.

  Cadence was quiet, but I couldn’t focus my eyes well enough to see if she was still conscious. One of the big goons hoisted her up and draped her over his shoulder.

  I wanted to ask where they were taking her, but my mouth wouldn’t cooperate.

  The other agent ushered me out with Bitch-Lady as my mind clouded with static. I must have blacked out, because the next thing I remember is being thrown onto a gurney like a slab of beef and getting strapped down.

  Blackness gave way to glimpses of light, and all of a sudden I was being wheeled onto a plane. I wanted to say, “Hey, how did the plane get here?” but I’m sure my words came out all slurred and messed up.

  “This one’s not out,” some tall dark figure barked, and then another bee stung my arm, and the clouds started showing up again.

  I was pissed that they injected me again, but before I could protest, I totally blacked out.

  Beep! Beep! The bleeping of a machine started stabbing into my eardrums, and the fog slowly lifted from my brain. My back jiggled with the gurney’s rough movement as they wheeled me down a white hall. I realized that I was strapped down and attached to a machine. Am I in a hospital?

  A guy in a white lab coat looked down at me while pushing me down the hall. There’s no nametag on his coat, and he doesn’t have a stethoscope around his neck, so I’m guessing I’m not at a hospital. I wanted to wipe the fuzziness from my eyes, but my restraints were too tight. Where’s Cadence? My tongue felt fat in my mouth, and I still couldn’t speak.

  Mr. Lab Coat continued to push my gurney, and we passed by a room where a loud screeching yell just about ruptured my eardrums. It was deafening. Lab Coat Dude stopped and covered his ears, and mine felt like they were going to explode.

  The agony somehow sharpened my vision, though. I managed to turn my head to see the source of this ear-piercing scream, and I noticed a scary looking creature in a glass box in the middle of a room. Its screeching stopped, and it looked directly back at me. If I had a full bladder, I would have wet myself right there.

  My eyesight still wasn’t one-hundred percent, but I knew the thing was humanoid. It was huge, though. Like Bigfoot. I couldn’t make out the creature’s face or anything, but I just knew it was a monster. It was like Frankenstein on steroids.

  Thankfully, Mr. Lab Coat came to his senses and pushed me past the room. My mind continued to pull itself from its haze, and now I wanted to go back and get another look. I was sure my mind was playing tricks on me, and this was just an effect of the drugs they injected into my arm.

  I made out more footsteps following me, so I assumed the agents were now joining Lab Coat Jerk and me on our journey to nowhere. My captors finally rolled me into what looked like a small hospital room.

  Cadence lay on another gurney next to me. Her body twitched, which gave me some comfort. I couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or closed, so I tried my best to ta
lk to her.

  “Caaa…” My voice had failed me. I couldn’t call her name, but I knew that she had heard me.

  With some effort, Cadence turned to me, and that’s when I let out a pathetic scream. The strain made my throat feel as if it was on fire, and panic seized me. Even though it was hopeless, I struggled against the restraints pinning my body to the gurney.

  Cadence’s eyes were completely black, and she gave me a sickly grin.

  What had they done to her? The fight had been completely ripped from her, and now she looked like…a black-eyed kid. How was that possible?

  “I’m uncertain of this one’s outcome,” Mr. Lab Douche said. “I highly doubt he’ll survive the doses. His brain’s abnormal.”

  It dawned on me at that moment that he was talking about me. I was going to die.

  3

  MARCUS

  THE FEELING OF terror fades, but the memory refuses to go away. They say your entire life flashes in front of you just before death, and I have to disagree. For me, all I felt was pure fear. And that’s the last thing I remember about being at their ‘hospital’. I know way more happened after Mr. Lab Jackass said that I wouldn’t survive their doses, though.

  Yet here I am, dipshit.

  Those Level 6 goons must have kept us pretty well drugged up after that. In fact, it feels like the drugs are still somewhat in my system days later.

  I shake off that thought and stroll toward the warehouse. Maybe they left some clue behind as to where they took us. It would be nice to have something concrete to tell Mav and Astid, but how much will my story really help them? I don’t need any more of their sympathy.

  It’s no wonder Level 6 chose this place. It’s the last building on a dead-end street. All the other buildings seems shut down right at five o’clock, so they had the privacy they needed to kidnap and drug us after hours.