Six Strangers by Lora Carlson (pdf ebook reader txt) 📕

“Hey” I said, but it came out strangled, so I try again.

“Hey, I’m Michael, what’s your name?” She just looked at me.

“Okay, I’ll just call you...” I said, pretending to think of a name.

“Echo”

“Echo” I repeat.

“Echo”

“Cool”

“I know” She grins. I chuckle and scoot next to her and lean against the wall.

“So, what high school do you go to?”

“James Madison High”

“Really? Me too” I smile, having someone from the the same school will be nice.

“I bet you five bucks they all go to JMH too” She said, gesturing to the four people lying on the floor in front of us.

“Ok”

“You’d better have five bucks on you because I don’t think we’ll be getting outta here any time soon” She sort of rambled while looking at the floor. I tried to lighten the mood.

“You’re a really good singer” It’s true.

“Really? Thanks.” She smiled a little. This is when I noticed the big red rip on her stomach.

“What happened?” I asked. It looked pretty new.

“What?” She looked at me and saw where I was looking.

“Oh, I was in a fight and got cut” I decided that I wouldn’t push it.

We both looked at the small blonde boy who rolled over, waiting for him to wake up.

Seth’s POV

I rolled over on the hard floor. I reached up to scratch my face when pain shot through my arm. I winced and sat up. Looking around, it all came back in a rush. My midnight stroll on the river, the scarecrow man, his gargantuan needle. I used my other hand to run my fingers through my hair. I jumped when I heard a guy ask me:

“Are you okay?” I looked behind me to see a big guy with wide shoulders and brown hair, sitting against a wall next to a girl with spiky purple hair.

“Um, I uh, well” I didn’t know what to say. I looked down at my arm. My gray sweatshirt was ripped and so was my sleeve. I didn’t want to look but I pulled the shredded shirt back and gave a sigh of relief. There was no cut, just a bandaid where I was poked with the needle. I looked back the big guy and said:

“I’m fine” I stood up and stumbled over to them. Sitting in front of them I introduced myself.

“My name is Seth Night”

“My name is Michael” The big guy said. He looked at the girl with purple hair, waiting for her to say her name. She just looked back at him. The staring contest went on for a couple more seconds but then purple haired girl looked away.

“I’m Echo” she mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and sliding down the wall a little bit.

I nodded and tested my arm by swinging it. My shoulder was fine, but my forearm was throbbing with the motion. I winced and stopped swinging it. I looked behind me and saw two girls laying on the floor. One was blonde and one was brunette.

“Who are they?” I asked Michael, because I had the feeling Echo wouldn’t talk to me.

“We don’t know” I noticed he was speaking for both of them.

“Do you guys know each other?” Michael seemed to know that Echo didn’t like talking to people much.

“No, we just met” Michael said slowly.

Echo just nodded.

I stood up and walked over to the brunette. She had a dark blue headband and black glasses. I brushed some of her curls out of her face. I heard singing and turned around. Echo had started singing “Keep you head up” by Andy Grammer at the second verse.

Zack’s POV

“Got my hands in my pockets, kickin these rocks, it’s kinda hard to watch this life go by.

Buying in the skeptics, skeptics mess with the confidence in my eyes. Seeing all the angles, start to get tangled, I start to compromise, my life and my purpose, is it all worth it, am I gonna turn out fine, oh, you’ll turn out fine, fine, oh, you’ll turn out fine.

But you gotta keep your head up, oh.

And you can let your hair down, eh.

You gotta keep your head up, oh.

And you can let  your hair down, eh. I know it’s hard, know it’s hard, to remember sometimes. But you gotta keep your head, oh. and you can let your hair down, eh eh eh eh.”

I sat up, rubbing my sore arm. I looked around. I was sitting in a room made completely out of concrete. There was nothing on the walls and nothing on the floor. Just gray concrete. I could still hear the singing.

I was leaning against a wall, but my back was to the singing. I looked to my left and saw the wall stopped. I scooted over to the opening. I looked through it. I saw the girl who was singing. She had short, spiky, bright purple hair and a boy with brown hair who was easily 6’3”. Across the floor was a small blonde boy leaning over a curly haired brunette. He was stroking her hair. I used the wall to stand up. When I did,0000000/ the singing stopped.

“Who’s there?” A masculine voice asked. I walked out.

“My name is Zack.” I wobbled a bit so I sat down across from the blonde boy. The tall guy was the one who had spoken.

“Well, I’m Michael, that’s Seth.” He said pointing to the small blonde. He looked at the girl. She muttered something under her breath.

Finally she said: “Echo.”

“Echo?” I asked. Because Tyler used to talk about one of his sister's friends and her name was Echo. He talked about how scary she was. I looked at the two girls lying on the floor.

I looked back at Echo and she was whispering to Michael. He grinned and looked at Seth.

“Hey Seth, I was wondering... What high school do you go too?” He grinned.

“Uh, JMH. I mean, James Madison High” He said, not looking away from the girl. Michael’s face fell as he looked at me.

“Me too,” I said with a shrug. Echo put her hand out.

“We still have to see if they go to JMH too!” He exclaimed. She smiled and shrugged.

“What?” I asked.

“Echo bet me five bucks that everyone goes to JMH,” he said while sliding down the wall.

Echo just chuckled. So did I. Even though I was freaking terrified.

Ashley's POV

I could feel someone stroking my face. It was calming. I moved my face closer to the hand. It stopped. I frowned and nuzzled it, trying to telling it to start stroking again. It slowly started stroking again. I fluttered my eyelids it an attempt to open them. I heard someone above me inhale. Loudly.

"I think she's waking up." a boy with a cute voice said. Happily I might add. I opened my eyes and I see a face. A beautiful, kind, face with brown eyes. And shaggy blonde hair. Then, I remembered what happened to me. My eyes went blurry with tears and my throat swelled with sadness and fear.

"Shh, shh... It's okay, it's okay. You're safe now... I think." He mumbled the last part. I breathed heavily. He helped me sit up and rubbed my back.

"My name is Seth, what is your name?" I cough and look around. "Hey, Look at me. Look at me. Good, now slowly. what is your name?" I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I tried again.

"Ashley." I coughed out.

"Ashley, That's a great name." He smiled at me. I smiled back. I scooted back and held myself up. I looked around. A couple feet next to me a blonde girl with pink highlights was laying on the floor. To my left a boy in an orange shirt with brown hair was sitting against a wall next to a girl in her bra (well, sports bra). She had spiky purple hair. In front of them, a boy with longer, darker, brown hair was sitting in front of them. They were all looking at me.

"What?" I snapped while taking my glasses off to wipe the tears out of my eyes. I put them back on and looked at Seth.

"Where are we? What are we doing here?" I quizzed him.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He answered sadly. I crossed my legs and pulled my skirt down. I looked at the two boys and the freaky girl.

"What are your names." I demanded.

"Zack" The boy with dark brown hair siad.

"Michael" The orange one said slowly. The freaky one just sat there, staring at me.

"If you don't answer me I'll just call you Freak." I said to her. She kept staring for a minute, then gave in.

"Echo" She practically growled at me. What was her problem? Anger issus anyone? I stand up and look around. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of concrete. There was a doorless door way a couple feet away. I walked to it and poked my head inside.

"There"s nothing in there." Zack said, walking up behind me. 

"How do you know?" I snapped at him. If you can't tell by now, I have the patience of a toothpick.

"He woke up in there" I spun around. Freak is the one who spoke. Everyone looked shocked. I glared at her and walked in anyways. It was a small room, it looked exactly the same as the bigger one. All made of concrete. I looked at the ceiling. A sqaure hole was right above my head. I smiled. Stupid Freak, if I want to find something, I find something. Since the only person here I liked was Seth, I called him.

"Seth." I said in a sing song voice.

"Yeah?" he said, poking his head through the door way.

"Look what I found." I stepped back a little. He walked in and looked up.

"Woah, Guys, you should see this" Everyone except the blonde girl came into the room.

"Interesting." Zack said, standing on his toes to see inside better. I looked at Freak smugly. She didn't even look at me. I looked back at the hole.

"I wonder if it leads anywhere?" I questioned out loud. Michael shook his head.

"No, no way. No one is going into that hole. We have to stick together." He said with force. I noticed he stepped a little closer to Freak. He was thinking the same thing I was. 

"If we have someone inside, they can try and find a way out. I think Fre-, err, Echo should be the crawler because she's the smallest." I looked at Seth and Zack. They both nodded. 

"We should wait for the other girl to wake up." He said quickly. I knew he was stalling.

"Fine." I huffed. We all walked back into the big room and sat down. 

"Someone should be with her when she wakes up. I know it helped me" I instruct. Zack gets up and moves over to her. I smile and settle next to Seth. I act happy, but really, I want to scream.

Nyla's POV

I was in the forest running for my life. I didn't know why I was running, but I knew if I slowed down I would be in big trouble. I looked behind me and saw Mr. James. He was running after me saying:

"Wake up! Wake up! Ugh, just wake up already!" But he had a female voice. 

I wake up with a start as I realise that I’m laying on concrete and not my bed. I sit up and clutch my head as it explodes with pain. I look around and see a boy about my age sitting in front of me. He looks at me for a while before looking at the people behind him.

“She goes to JMH.” He says slowly. I look at him.

“What?” I ask. Why did my highschool matter?

"I said, you go to JMH." I just look at the boy infront of me.. Then I hear a groan. I look behind him and see a boy in a orange shirt with large shoulders and brown hair. I look at him then jump to my feet, pointing at him.

"You!" I