Chapter 8:  History Repeats Itself

The drive was long, hard and silent for the Hanson family. Zac soon cried himself to sleep.

"Zac, look at me" a sweet voice whispered in Zac's ear. Zac looked up. There was Aundria.
"Don't cry Zac, she's alive and okay. At least for the time being"
"What do you mean by for the time being?"
Aundria looked to her feet. "She might drown, Zac.  Even I don't know her fate."
Aundria began to fade and then she vanished, leaving Zac all alone.

Alanis opened her eyes slightly. She was wrapped in warm blankets and she could hear a blazing fire. She began to sit up when knives seemed to strike her from all directions. She gasped in her pain and fell back to the soft pillow.

"Look Steven, she's awake. Go get Amy and Charlie." said a soft voice from across the room. Alanis looked up and saw a woman with long brown hair that was tied up in a French braid. Alanis noticed that the woman had soft green eyes when she came over to look at her.
"I'm so glad you're awake," she said softly, "I was worried that with injuries like those you might not make it." The woman placed the back of her hand against Alanis's forehead. She smiled and said, "No more fever, thank goodness" then looked over at the noise coming from the doorway. Alanis looked up too. In the doorway stood a strong, well built man with blond hair and green eyes, just like the woman's. In front of him stood two girls, they were twins with light brown hair and light brown eyes. As soon as they saw Alanis's eyes were open they smiled great big smiles.
Alanis sat up, ignoring her pain, and prepared for a game of twenty questions. Almost instantly, the bouncy twin girls jumped onto the foot of the bed and blurted out questions.

"Who are you?"
"What's your name?"
"Do you have any family?"
"Where are you from?"
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"Do you have someone we can call?"
"Why were you in the river?"

The woman touched the girls' shoulders gently. "One question at a time girls." She said and looked at Alanis calmly. "Let's start at the beginning, what is your name?"
"Alanis"
"Where are you from?"
"Cleveland, but I was going to Tulsa in Oklahoma"
"How old are you?"
"I just turned sixteen two days ago"
"Do you have any family?"
"Yes, my mother, my younger brother and my older sister. Then there's my dad, and that's the reason I'm here"
"You ran away?"
"No, I was going to Tulsa with my friend and there was a traffic stop. Turns out, he was one of the police officers searching the cars. When he saw me he grabbed me and started to handcuff me like I was a criminal. I ran. I jumped in the river to save myself from him. He's an awful, awful man, and I hate him." Alanis said with a crack in her voice. The woman put a soothing arm on Alanis's shoulder.
"It will be okay, we won't let anyone bother you, especially your father. My name is Jade. That is Steven, and these two little girls are Amy and Charlene, but you can call her Charlie." Jade said. Alanis smiled softly. Amy and Charlie looked about thirteen years old. Alanis lay back and closed her eyes. Almost immediately, she fell asleep.

Zac had a feeling Alanis was still alive, somewhere. He didn't know where to find here but he was going to find her. He slipped on his clothes and packed his backpack. He was almost out the window when he saw Taylor looking at him from across the room. He sighed and pulled himself back inside.
"I know, I know. I shouldn't be going after her because you were in some major trouble when you were sixteen and you ran off to go find her." Zac said sitting down on his bed. There, he began to unpack.
Taylor walked across the room and began to put the stuff back in the backpack.
"Taylor, what the heck are you doing?"
Taylor looked up at his brother and grinned. "I was only awake for two reasons. Reason number one, I was going to say goodbye. Reason number two, I was going to say this," Taylor put his hand on Zac's shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes, "Go get her Zac, she's worth it"