Metamorphosis: Science Fiction Adventure: Book 1

by Kimberly Smith

  Kyla wiped her eyes and vowed that all the people involved with her mother and father’s deaths were going to pay for what they had done. She started reciting the license plate of the van, in her head. She couldn’t remember the information for both vehicles. Knowing who owned one was good enough for her. By the time Kyla had the plate number committed to memory, the men were getting back into their cars. The man who had driven the SUV was speaking with her uncle on the porch of the house. Kyla watched as he handed her uncle an envelope, which he opened and smiled before shaking the man’s hand.

  Within minutes, the van pulled onto the street, the SUV turned around in the driveway following the van to the end of the block. Kyla watched as they turned to the right disappearing from sight. She thought about the plate number again, testing her memory. Since they had left so quickly, Kyla guessed that her uncle had been notified that she had gotten away from the man who was supposed to capture her and bring her there.

  Chapter Three

  Kyla walked along the side of the road with her arms wrapped around her body. She had walked away from her uncle’s neighborhood, not sure where she was going. The only thing she was sure of was that she needed to get as far from that house as possible. Kyla went through the details of the night over and over. She stopped, looking around her. Kyla had walked a very long distance. She crossed the parking lot and sat down by the door of a convenience store. Kyla could have gone inside, but her mind had shut down, and she didn’t know what to do. Thinking of her father and her mother, she cried.

  A pair of brown leather boots appeared in front of Kyla’s feet. “Baby, are you alright,” a soft-spoken woman’s voice said over her head. “I can call the police for you.”

  Kyla wiped her eyes and raised her head and stood. The voice had come from an older woman with a wrinkled face and kind eyes. “Um… no. I don’t need the police, but would you let me use your phone to call my… family, to come and get me?”

  “Of course,” the woman said, reaching into an old leather handbag. She pulled out a phone and handed it to Kyla.

  Kyla took the phone, dialing her best friend’s number. The phone was answered on the second ring. “Dad, it’s me, Kyla. I’m at the Kum and Go on route four. Can you come and get me?” Kyla pressed her lips together, hoping that her friend understood that something was wrong and that Kyla needed her.

  “Why are you calling me, dad?” Crystal said grumpily.

  “Dad, how long will it take you to get here?” Kyla put emphasis on the word ‘Dad.’

  “Why are you at the Kum and Go on route four? What’s going on?”

  Crystal sounded wide awake now. “I’ll be waiting out front, please hurry. It’s cold, and I’m in my pajamas.”

  “Okay, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Kyla ended the call and handed the phone back to the woman. “Thanks. My father is on his way.”

  “Why don’t you wait inside, or you can sit in my car until he gets here?”

  Kyla smiled at her. “Thanks, but I’ll be fine right here.”

  The woman smiled at her. “I’m going in to get a few things. If you change your mind, just let me know when I come out.”

  Kyla smiled at the lady as she went inside the store. It was kind of her to offer, but right now, Kyla didn’t trust anyone except Crystal. Kyla leaned against the exterior of the building, going over the events of the past few hours again. Her parents were dead, and her uncle had something to do with it. She had no other family that she knew of. Her dad’s parents had died when she was a child, and Her mother had never talked about her life before the two of them met.

  The door opened, and the woman was holding a coffee cup. “It’s cocoa. Since you won’t go inside, I thought this might keep you warm while you wait.”

  Kyla almost started to cry again at the kindness this stranger was showing her. “Thank you,” she said, taking the cup from her hands.

  “I asked the clerk to keep an eye on you until your ride shows up. Just give him a wave when you leave, so that he knows everything is okay.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Kyla said with a small smile as she glanced through the window at the man inside behind the counter. The cocoa warmed her hands as she lifted the tear-away tab on the lid. Kyla blew into the hole, before sipping the brown liquid as the woman went back to her car and got in. She waved at Kyla before she backed out of her parking space and drove away.

  Kyla was almost finished with the cocoa, when she saw the quad cab navy blue Chevy truck. She groaned as she finished the contents of the cup and tossed it in the trash. Crystal wasn’t alone. Her older brother Taylor was behind the wheel. Kyla turned and waved to the man working inside. Once Taylor had stopped the truck in front of her, she got in behind him. “What are you doing out here at the crack of dawn, in your pajama’s, Crystal asked?”

  Kyla lay her head back against the seat and let the flood gates open. She sobbed, not able to tell Crystal what she had been through. Crystal climbed over the seat, sitting next to Kyla, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, letting her cry until she stopped a good while later. She was looking at her hands in her lap, but she could feel Taylor and Crystal’s eyes on her. Kyla took a deep breath and told them everything that happened. “What am I going to do? My parents are dead. My uncle is behind it. I can’t go home, and those men are probably still looking for me.”

  “You’ll come home with us,” Crystal said without hesitation. “I’m sure Dad will know what to do.”

  A few hours ago, Kyla would have thought the same thing. Her own father would know what to do, but she was without him, and she couldn’t take the chance of something happening to Crystal and Taylor’s father. Kyla was shaking her head, “No, I can’t do that.

  I need to go somewhere safe, where I can figure out what is going on. Somewhere no one would think to come looking for me.”

  Taylor started the engine, “I know where we can take you, the lake house.”

  “Yeah,” Crystal said, grabbing Kyla’s hands. “It’s empty, and there’s no one around for miles. You’ll be safe there.”

  Chapter Four

  The lake house was set against a picturesque background of beautiful trees, two counties away from their everyday life. The front of the house faced the main road, which couldn’t be seen due to the expanse of trees and hilly terrain. The back half of the house was floor to ceiling windows with a fantastic view of the lake.

  Kyla had been there a few times before with Crystal’s family. She had slept most of the way there this time. The ride took less than an hour, but it was a nap that Kyla had needed. Crystal woke her just as Taylor turned off the main road onto the dirt road that led to the house. “We’re almost there.” Kyla sat up, catching Taylor’s eyes looking at her in the rearview mirror. He looked away after a few seconds. “I Always leave some clothes here. You can borrow anything you want. It’s a good thing we’re almost the same size,” Crystal said as Taylor stopped in front of the house.

  “Thanks,” Kyla said, looking out the side window. She knew that her voice sounded flat, but she was tired and afraid. She was only seventeen years old. This was her last year of high school. She was supposed to be planning her future, picking out prom dresses and colleges, going on dates. She sighed, knowing that things had changed and would never be the same again.

  Even if there weren’t men after her, it wouldn’t change anything. Her parents were gone, and she was alone. She would have expected her uncle to take her in, but he was the cause of her pain. She was sure that Crystal’s family would offer her a place in their home. None of that mattered. People were trying to kill her, and she didn’t know why.

  Kyla and Crystal got out of the truck, followed by Taylor, who pulled a set of keys from the glovebox. He unlocked the door and held it open for them. Crystal led Kyla down the hallway to the left where the bedrooms were. “You can use my room.”

  It was beautiful with a queen-sized bed, dresser, and a chair in the corner. One side of the room face
d the woods. It also gave a partial view of the lake. At that moment, all Kyla could think of was a long shower and changing clothes.

  Crystal opened the closet and tossed out a pair of jeans, a tee-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. Then she went to the chest next to the bathroom door and found panties, a bra, and a pair of socks. She handed them to Kyla. “Is it weird that you’re going to wear my underwear,” Crystal asked with an eyebrow raised and a crinkle in her nose?

  “No weirder than it was for you to wear my bathing suit last time we were here. They’ve been washed, right?”

  “Then, it’s not weird,” Crystal said, handing over the items.

  “This is perfect,” Kyla said, taking the clothes into the bathroom attached to the room.

  “I’ll go see what kind of grub we have. We usually keep the dry goods stocked, and I’m sure there is food in the freezer, but we may need to make a run for milk and stuff like that,” Crystal called out as she left the room.

  “Okay,” Kyla replied, starting the water in the shower. Then she stood, staring at herself in the mirror. She looked the same as she had last night before going to bed, but nothing was the same. Her long, honey-colored curls were tangled and matted. She also had bits of leaves and twigs here and there. The blue-green eyes that stared back at her looked flat and dull. Her skin was the only thing that looked normal. It almost glowed under the lights of the vanity mirror.

  Her coloring was closer to that of her mother’s. Elise Woods was a beautiful African American woman with caramel-colored skin, full pouty lips, high cheekbones, and almond-shaped green eyes. Kyla’s skin was lighter but looked as flawless as her mother’s. Her father was handsome as well. His hair had been blonde, and his eyes blue like the ocean. People always stopped and stared when the three of them were together.

  Picturing her mother and father standing side by side, caused her heart to hurt. She wiped at her tears. She needed to get to the bottom of what had happened. She needed to know why her uncle hated her mother. What had she done that would make him do something as vile as what had transpired in her home? It just didn’t make sense to her. Kyla pushed the thoughts from her mind as she stripped from her clothing and stepped into the bathtub.

  By the time she got out, she felt a little better. She cried again and would probably cry a lot for a while. She had never imagined her life without her parents. Even if she got to the bottom of why her parents had been killed, her life would never be good again. Kyla wrapped her hair in a towel before getting dressed and looking through Crystal’s things for a comb or brush. She found one in the middle drawer of the cabinet and began the slow process of detangling her hair. By the time Kyla was finished, her arms were tired. She had way too much hair, too long, too thick, too curly. She routed around through the drawers again until she found an elastic band. Kyla pulled her hair up into a ponytail high on her head, letting the ends fall to the middle of her back.

  She gave herself one last look in the mirror. Kyla and Crystal were nearly the same size, but Kyla’s body was curvy in comparison, so the jeans hugged her hips and backside, and the top clung to her chest. Kyla always felt self-conscious around Taylor. She knew that it was because she liked him, but he didn’t seem to see her as anything other than his bratty sister’s friend.

  Kyla could hear her friends talking as she came down the hall. “This isn’t about how I feel. I just think it will be better if you go home. With both of us missing, Mom and Dad are going to want to know where we are and what we’re doing.” Taylor and Crystal were standing in the kitchen when Kyla entered the room. “Dad’s gonna want to know where his truck is. You can tell him that you took it to get donuts or something.”

  “Why do you get to stay? She’s my friend and besides, what are you going to do if you need to go somewhere? You won’t have the truck. We could just call Dad and tell him we’re here.”

  “Guys, please don’t fight. Crystal, go home. I’m sure that someone is going to … find my dad. I need you to keep your ears open, and since I don’t have my phone, you’ll have to send messages to Taylor to let me know what’s happening. I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay here very long anyway. I just need enough time to try tracing the license plate on the van they took my mom away in. As soon as I have that information, I’ll figure out what to do next.”

  Crystal rolled her eyes and gave in sighing heavily, “Okay, but if you need me, you call me or send a text, and I’ll come flying back out here,” she said, coming around the bar to hug Kyla. “Are you sure?”

  Kyla hugged her tightly. She would have sent Taylor away too, but she remembered that Taylor was good with computers. He also had friends who were involved in hacking. Maybe he would be able to help her with the plate number. Crystal was like family to her, and she didn’t want anything to happen to her. She didn’t want anything to happen to Taylor either, but she needed him right now. Kyla released her friend. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  The three of them walked out to the truck. Crystal hugged her again before Taylor handed his sister the keys. Kyla and Taylor stood on the porch waving until Crystal disappeared from their sight. “Thank you for getting her to go home,” Taylor said as they went back inside.

  “I love her, and I don’t want anything to happen to her. She’s all the family I have left,” Kyla said, hopping up to sit on the kitchen counter. Kayla saw the look on Taylor’s face and amended her statement. “Your whole family is my family.”

  “It’s okay,” Taylor said, leaning against the counter across from her. “I know what you meant.”

  “I also wanted you to stay because I think you or some of your friends can help me find out who owns the van that came to my uncle’s house.”

  Taylor smiled. If anyone could find out who the van belonged to, it was his friend Andy. They had been friends since grade school, and Andy was the smartest person Taylor knew. He spent his time on the dark web, learning how to hack into anything and everything. Even though he was only a year older than Taylor, Andy used that knowledge to test security software for companies and government agencies. He was highly skilled and highly sought after.

  Andy made a name for himself when he was twelve years old by hacking into Microsoft. He wasn’t caught by conventional means. He contacted the company to let them know about the vulnerability, and in return, they offered him a job. They were quite surprised to learn that Andy was only a child. It made no difference to them. They hired him anyway. Andy would probably find what she needed in a matter of minutes. “Okay, let’s give him a call and see if he can help.”

  Chapter Five

  Taylor was standing on the back porch of the house while Kyla sat on the dock at the lake. Kyla could feel him watching her. Andy was more than willing to help them. He seemed excited by it, though he figured it would be an easy task. "I'll tap into the DMV database and find out who the car is registered to. Then, I can dig in and find any information about the owner."

  "My uncle Brian, Brian Woods, called whoever it was that was in the car. Can you look into who he called last night," Kyla asked? Maybe that, along with whatever information Andy could find about the automobile, would give her a better idea of what was going on. She supplied Andy with more details about her uncle.

  "Sure, I'll get back to you as soon as I have something to tell you," Andy said, ending the call.

  When they finished talking to him. Kyla had tried to sleep, but she kept seeing her father lying on the floor, and then her mother being wheeled out of her uncle's house. She got up and walked out to the dock and had been sitting there ever since. Kyla went over the conversation her mother had with her uncle again and again. She was missing something, but what.

  So engrossed in her thoughts, she hadn't heard Taylor coming down the walkway until he sat down next to her. "Are you okay? You've been sitting here for a long time?"

  Kyla didn't look at him. She kept her gaze on the calm surface of the water. "I'm trying to make sense of the conversation I overheard at my uncle's house."
<
br />   "What did you hear?" Kyla repeated the conversation to Taylor as best she could recall it. "He said what you are, are you sure?"

  Kyla nodded her head. "Yeah, I thought it was a weird thing for him to say, and the thing about exterminating everyone. I have no idea what he could have meant by that. He made it sound as if my mother was a spy or something. My uncle has always been a little strange. My dad said it was because of his injuries when he was in the service, but for him to think that my mother was some sort of spy … well, it just doesn't make sense."

  "You're right, it doesn't."

  "I've never heard him sound so cold and unfeeling when he talked about my dad being dead. I know that he loved him. They were close for a long time, and then one day, Uncle Brian started behaving weird."

  "Did you spend any time with your uncle after his change," Taylor asked, turning to look at Kyla.

  "He came around less, and when he did, he watched my mother and me like we had two heads or something. Yeah, my father would still take me with him when he would go visit him. We went fishing with him and hunting. He would tell me stories and talk to me like he was really interested in what I thought about different stuff. He would play games with me, and he was always asking me crazy questions and playing pretend. My father said that he was expanding my imagination. Still, it felt like he was hoping to get me to say something like he was testing me or interrogating me. Maybe I'm imagining it all. Listening to him while I stood on the steps of his deck, he sounded so hateful," Kyla shook her head, trying to clear his voice and the awful things he said to her mother from her mind.

  Taylor's phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket. "It's Andy," he said, answering it. "Hey." There was a short pause, and then Taylor looked at her and said, "Hold on. I'm gonna put you on speaker." Taylor hit the appropriate button, and then Kyla could here Andy. "Go ahead."