“MAMMA! MAMMA! NO LEAVE HER ALONE!” 7 year old Maddie screamed as she hid behind the bed watching the tall group of men, who she thought were good people, beat and rape her mother to death. “NOOO-AAHHH!”, Maddie rose to her feet, glaring at the three men standing over her mom. Her high pitched, ear damaging scream stopped them and before reacting, all at once, they were thrown against the metal wall behind them. Maddie, crying, ran toward her mom repeating her name, shaking and begging her to open her eyes. She was dead. Maddie felt weak, blood dropped to her shirt falling from her nose, it took everything out of her to knock out three government officials. She couldn’t do anything as she felt four hands, that belonged to two more officials, grasp her upper arms, pick her up off of her mom, and drag her away. Maddie fell faint as she whispered one more time, “mamma...”. Maddie woke up in a dark, blacker than black room; the place where she would be sleeping for the next 6 years. There were no windows, but she could make out a door; it was locked. “Hello?.... HELLO?!.... mamma?”.
~6 years later~
“Can someone explain to the class what it means to have a corrupt government?” Matt, the smart one, raised his hand to answer the teacher’s question.
“When the government is actually doing the opposite of what is good for society”, he stated.
“You’re on the right track, Mathew. We, as a community, put our trust into the government to fix the problems that are out of our hands. A corrupt government would abuse their power and instead of looking out for society, they would do what benefits them only. Does that make sense?” Everyone nodded at Mr. Fitz, “This can cause a lot of fear in the community–”, the end of school bell rang, cutting him off.
“Bye Mr. Fitz”, the three out of four class pets, Matt, Chris, and Jessica all said at once before walking out the door.
“Have a good weekend, guys, don’t get into too much trouble”, Mr. Fitz said as a joke, with a big grin to show off his almost perfect teeth. What the kids didn’t know was he accidentally just foreshadowed their next few months. “And tell Jack for me that he shouldn’t skip another history class, he’s missing out”, Mr. Fitz said with a smirk, as they walked out the door.
“Wait, where is Jack? I haven’t seen him at all today...” Chris asked.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him since he left my house yesterday night”, Matt answered
“That’s weird... he usually tells us if he won’t be at school”, Jessica started to worry. She was the mom of the group, always has everything planned out. “Chris, let’s stop by his house on the way home”. Jessica and Chris were siblings and live down the road from Jack’s house.
“Call my house and tell me if he’s there”, Matt wanted to check with them, but he lived in the other direction.
On the way home Chris and Jessica passed Jack’s house. The front door was wide open. As Chris and Jessica came closer they heard a loud crash and Jack’s mom’s life-threatening scream. Chris didn’t hesitate and bolted forward toward the front porch, but Jessica lunged for his arm before he could get far.
“What are you doing!?” She scolded him
“What do mean ‘what am I doing’? I’m going inside”
“Are you insane, we should leave and get help”, Jessica was hesitant to go inside, she was terrified to find out what was in there. She had the common sense to run in the opposite way of trouble.
“Jack and his mom are in there and need our help. There’s no time to just stand here”, Chris snapped at his sister and ripped his arm out from her grip. Jessica just watched as he ran inside. She was scared but sprinted in a second later; there was no way she was gonna let her little brother go alone.
When Jessica entered the house all she saw was Chris standing in the middle of a perfectly clean living room. “What is going on”, Jessica’s eyes were wide open and her heart would not stop accelerating.
“Jack? Mrs. Hill? Hello, is anyone here?”, Chris called, ignoring Jessica’s question.
“If nobody’s here.... then what did we hear?”, Jessica could barley finish, her throat was tight and she was shaking as if she were in the Arctic with no coat. “Chris, common we are leaving right now”, she demanded. Chris didn’t argue. They ran home and immediately filled Matt in.
“No one was there?! Oh my god... Well, apparently Jack has been missing since last night. My mom said Mrs. Hill called her this morning saying that she filed a missing persons report, but the cops can’t do anything until it reaches 48 hours... we need to figure out what’s happening.” Matt rambled on while he was trying to wrap his head around everything.
“After dinner lets meet in the front, we can’t wait 48 hours, we’re doing this tonight”, Jessica said with determination, except for the fact that she was actually mortified. They all were.
~
“Oh god. Why does the sun set so quickly... it’s only 6:30”, Jessica hated the dark, she hated not being able to see, and most of all she hated not knowing what was ahead of her.
“Lets go, Jessica, it’s okay we have flashlights. We need to find Jack...” Chris said rushing his sister. They all headed toward Jack’s house once again. They went to the door; it was shut this time and locked. The lights were off and no one answered after they knocked.
“Lets go around back, I know where Jack’s shed is in the woods, he is always hiding out in there”, Matt exclaims, leading the pack around the side of the house.
“THE WOODS?!” Jessica wanted to turn back and rush home. It was getting really dark and the woods were even darker. Her stomach rolled over, the uneasy, queasy feeling made her want to puke. “Guys, Jack and possibly his mom are missing... and you want to go in the woods behind their house? Anything could be in there, anything...”, the one thing she hated more than the dark, were all the possible things that hid in it.
“If we don’t find anything at the shed, we will go right home and continue tomorrow during the day, okay?” Chris assured her.
“Fine, let’s hurry then”, she said biting her lip.
They all turned their flashlights on and walked about half a mile into the woods to get to Jack’s daily hide out site. There was nothing there, there was nothing anywhere. It was almost as if it were too quiet. The three of them came out from looking in the shed and pointed their flashlights back toward home, that’s when–
“AAHHHH!!”, all three of them jumped. What stood in their spotlight were two tall masculine men wearing formal suits. The men’s abrupt appearance was almost too abrupt and out of nowhere...
“What are you kids doing out here”, the one with the scar down his neck asked calmly, superiorly, cocking his head.
“Uh w-we were just playing...”, Chris was able to mumble out, “...we’re leaving, don’t worry”. The three started to walk away slowly. Non of them had a clue what the hell just happened, but they knew they wanted to leave the situation. Their walking turned into a slight jog.
“Holy shit their following us”, once Matt noticed the men creeping behind them, their jogging turned into a full sprint.
“This is why I didn’t want to come in the woods!!” Jessica yelled while sprinting further into the dark, placing blame on the two boys.
“Why are you chasing us? Who are you?!” Matt yelled back, hoping for a reasonable explanation. No answer.
The men were now close enough to grab all three of them, but before they could, they were thrown back against a tree. The kids stoped dead in their tracks and turned around. Before their feet laid the now lifeless, grown men. Their heads crept up and saw what looked to be a girl.
“What the hell just happened?”, Chris said, not believing what he just saw.
“You just saved our lives...”, stated Jessica, as she stood, stunned.
“Who are you”, Matt asked finally.
~
The four of them stood in the middle of the woods, staring at each other. No one said a word for about two minutes until Chris tried rationalizing the scenario with sarcasm... “Okay, so your just a girl that hides in the woods and kills bad people whenever necessary? Yeah sure, that makes sense...”
“I’m sorry...”, were the two words the girl said, not denying Chris’s blunt theory.
“What are you sorry for? You literally just saved our asses”.
“Asses?” The girl seemed confused at very common swear word.
“It’s plural for the noun ass”, Chris chuckled.
“Oh shut up Chris”, Matt turned his attention to the girl, “It’s just another word for ‘butt’. Anyways, uh, could you maybe explain to us about what, uh... uh, just explain, maybe”.
“My names Maddie, I’m eleven years old. Those men were government officials. They killed my mother and kept me locked up in a cell for six years because of what I can do. I escaped and they were looking for me, but found you”, Maddie said without a stutter.
“Woah, hold up, slow down... that was a lot of information”, Chris felt like he was dreaming. Non of this could actually be real.
“Do you need a place to stay?” Matt suggested that she stay with him, “after all, you are in hiding”.
“Wait, I thought the government were good people... they killed your mom? You’ve been locked up like a prisoner? You have powers? I’m sorry... but what the hell”, Jessica was having a hard time understanding everything.
“I’ll explain on the way back... we should get out of the woods”, Maddie didn’t like the dark just like the rest of them. The dark is where your greatest fears come to life.
~
Hid out in Matt’s basement, the four of them held a question and answer session with Maddie after she was done explaining her life story. “So you technically are like a superhero... That’s sick”.
“So the government is actually evil? And you’re on the run from them?” Jessica said remembering history class and what Mr. Fitz said about the current cultural problem of a potential corrupt government and the fears that ties along with it.
“What happens if they find you?” Asked Matt.
“I’m not a superhero, I just control things with my mind. And yes because of my ability they saw me as a threat and locked me up. They did so many tests on me; they eventually want to make an army of people like me, working for them. They want chaos”, Maddie got quiet , “They need me to make their army, so if they find me, they won’t kill me. But they will kill anyone who gets in the way of finding me, and anyone who knows too much...” Maddie trailed off, “I should stop, the less you all know the better. I should not have dragged you into my mess. I’m so sorry, I will leave”.
“Are you kidding? You are not leaving. We are friends now, and friends have each others back. We will keep you safe. If they find you it will be worse, for you and for society...”, Matt wasn’t going to let her go, “...you are staying here with me”, it wasn’t a question.
“Okay...”, Maddie smiled, she never had ‘friends’ before, “...why were you guys in the woods anyway?”
“We were looking for our friend, Jack, and his mom. They went missing”, Chris pointed to a photo on the shelf. When Maddie saw Jack in the photograph, her eyes dilated and her jaw dropped. She had recognized him.
“You saw him, didn’t you? Where? Is he okay?” Jessica said jumping out of her seat. She always had a minor crush on Jack; now that he’s gone, she wishes she could see him one more time.
“No...”, Maddie voice went in a soft whisper.
“No what? You didn’t see him?”
“No, he’s not okay... I saw him get taken away. They probably killed him by now”, Maddie choked up, the lump in her throat made her want to cry.
“You don’t know that. He could still be alive. He could be!” Jessica’s heart dropped.
“It’s possible...”, Maddie lost hope, “They are evil and corrupt. They will only keep him alive if he has something that benefits them”. “It’s possible though, you said it yourself, it’s possible”.
“Yes, I also saw an older woman... you said his mother went missing as well?” Maddie questioned.
“Mrs. Hill... oh god why would they take them?” Chris felt sick.
“They probably saw something or overheard something that could oust the government for being corrupted”, Maddie had formed a hatred for them, “they all deserve what’s coming to them. If we stick together we can get them back, if they are still alive of course, but we can do this. We just need as much help as possible”.
“So we’re doing this. We are getting him back?”, Matt phrased it as a question but it was more of a statement. “Not only are get getting Jack and his mother back, we are going to destroy their entire operation. It won’t be easy but it will be worth it”. Maddie had planned for this day ever since she saw her mother get beaten to death when she was six years old. Now she has an army of her own to help her.