Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

round the corner, a guard is standing there, his gun aimed and ready. I don’t hesitate, I just pull the trigger, watching him grip his shoulder, leaning back in pain.

A little further down, there’s another guard, but he doesn’t have his gun pointed at me. Instead, his hands are in the air, his eyes filled with fear.

“Don’t shoot. Please,” he calls to me. I don’t lower my gun, walking briskly towards him. “He’s in that room,” he points at a door. “Your parents are in room seventeen. Please just let me go.”

“Give me your weapons,” I reply. He responds immediately, pulling a handgun off his belt, then sliding the strap of a larger, scarier gun off his back. They drop to the floor. He puts his hands back up.

“Go. Now.” I nod my head toward the door to the staircase across the hall. I follow his movements with the barrel of my gun as he walks slowly towards the door, opens it, then starts moving up the stairs. As soon as the door closes, he starts to run, taking them two at a time. When I’m sure he’s gone, I walk over to the door he told me Maverick was in.

I hold Dave’s ID card up to the gray box next to the door and the light flashes green. I grab the handle and rip it open.

Inside, Maverick is standing against the other wall. He peers at me, bright yellow eyes blinking behind a mask of fear.

I take three breaths in and out, trying to steady myself. He’s okay. He’s okay.

Then, finally, I step forward, ready to close the distance between us, to lose myself in his embrace, to feel all of the feelings I’d been too afraid to let myself feel before.

But I stop, because Maverick flinches, backing into the corner of the room.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, putting my hands out to show him that I’m no threat.

He blinks at me, and his next three words send me spiraling into a never-ending circle of cold, unstoppable horror.

“Who are you?”

Chapter 34

I stand there, trembling.

Alice has taken Maverick’s memories away.

Alice has taken Maverick’s memories away.

Alice. Has. Taken. Maverick’s. Memories. Away.

My world crashes around me, burning flames and walls caving in on my heart.

Alice must have figured out how to replicate his ability. And now she’s used it against him. Against me.

Suddenly, and angrily, I wish that I had been the one holding the gun that had killed her.

Squashing my rage, I turn my attention to Maverick, the terrified boy who has no idea who I am.

“My name is Laura,” I tell him shakily. “I’m here to help you.”

He blinks at me, doesn’t respond.

“Do you know your name?” I ask him. I need to know what he knows. How much Alice has taken from him.

He looks confused, but answers. “Maverick.”

I sigh in relief. “Do you know where you are?”

His blinks. “Alice’s laboratory.”

“You remember Alice?”

He nods but still looks wary. “She’s been forcing me to work for her.”

“How did you get here?”

“I don’t know. One second I was at my house, and now I’m here. I think I was drugged.”

A little worse than drugged. “And where is your house?”

“Spruce Lane. Up the mountain. Why are you asking me this?”

He knows where his house is. He knows who he is. Does he know about everything else? “Alice kidnapped you to test her new invention. She found a way to replicate your ability.”

I watch him, judging his reaction. He understands. Then his eyes widen. “You mean—”

“She used it on you. She made you forget things.”

“What things?” he asks, concern drawing lines across his forehead.

“Me,” I tell him. “You don’t remember me at all, do you?” I ask.

He stares at me for a long moment. Then he just shakes his head.

I take a deep breath. Alice could have erased his entire memory, made him forget about her, causing him to be easily compliant to all of her demands. But instead, she seems to have only erased me from his mind. It’s a targeted, specific attack.

She must have had someone with Maverick’s ability down here, ready to use it at a moment’s notice. Is that what she meant when she said that there would be consequences? Did my decision not to help her cause this to happen? Cause her to make Maverick forget about me?

“Alright,” I finally say, burying my growing guilt deep down. “Here’s what you need to know: you used to know me. I’m on your side. I’ll explain the rest later, but right now, I need to find my parents. And then we need to get out of here.”

He nods. Steps toward me hesitantly.

“Follow me.”

We race down the hallway and I scan the numbers on the doors, counting down until I get to seventeen. Shakily, I hold Dave’s card up to the detector, watching as the light turns green. I’m terrified to find out what she’s done to my parents.

When I open the door, I spot them. Mom hunched over, tears streaked across her face. Dad next to her, his hand on her back. They look up at the sound of us.

I wait. They should smile now. They should cross the room and pull me into a hug. Tell me they’re so glad to see me, glad I’m safe. But they don’t. They just sit there, blinking in fear.

Alice has taken their memories away, too.

The room swirls around me, and I realize I can’t do this. I can’t take this. I have to get out. But when I turn around, Maverick is standing there, watching me, waiting for me to do something. Mom and Dad give me the same look.

I can’t do this, but I have to.

So I open my