Gone Forever - Brielle Kin (books suggested by bill gates TXT) 📗

gently, kind eyes. I couldn’t help but smile. Jake was really nice and it’s glad to know that he knows what I’m going through.
“Thanks!” I said shyly.
“Don’t mention it.” Jake said smiling down at me.
“Jake?” I asked him as we were just about ready to sit down.
“Yes Kate?” Jake asked sitting down. Austin was on the other side of the fire so hopefully he wouldn’t hear me.
“Is it just me or does Austin seem a little strange?” I asked looking at Austin.
“What do you mean by strange?” Jake said grabbing a bottle of water out of his pack.
“I mean, does he seem like himself?” I asked while staring at Austin. He was now throwing all his stuff out of his backpack.
“Yeah, sort of.” Jake said looking at Austin too. “He seems a little loopy. It might still be from the medicine we shot into him. The medication should wear off. If it doesn’t, we’ll just take him to the medic’s in Sten.”
“Are you sure it’s because of the medicine? I was thinking it was because of the poison. I probably didn’t clean it out good enough and the poison is probably spreading as we speak!” I said starting to worry. “And if the poison continues, he could lose it. He could die! Oh Jake! What do we do?”
“First of all, calm down. He’s not going to die. Trust me!” Jake said looking at me in the eyes.
“How do you know?” I said quietly looking at him in the eyes.
“Because, we’ll get him to the medic’s in time. If we get moving soon, we can get there to save him. Like I said before, trust me.” Jake said still looking at me in the eyes.
“I trust you. But we need to go now. I can’t lose another friend.” I said almost about to cry.
“I know. He doesn’t have a lot of time left so we need to get going. We’re almost to Sten anyway.” Jake said trying to calm me down.
He doesn’t have a lot of time left. That simple sentence kept going through my mind. It made me worry even more.
“Austin! Don’t eat that!” Jake said getting up from the log. “That’s not food, it’s a rock!” Jake was now running to Austin trying to get him to put the rock down. I couldn’t help but laugh a little. I’ve got to say, that cheered me up a little. I decided to go help Jake out with Austin because they were fighting over the rock.
“Boys, stop fighting!” I said grabbing the rock from both of their hands. “We need to get going.”
“Kate’s right. Austin, grab your backpack. We need to get going.” Jake said standing up from his sitting position.
“Okay. Where are we going?” Austin said reaching for his backpack. Jake just looked at me with a concern look.
“Home.” Jake finally said.
Chapter 6

I grabbed my knife while Jake grabbed his backpack. I didn’t want to leave it again. I looked over at Austin who was sitting quietly on a log. After Austin’s incident of not knowing where we were going scared me. He was defiantly messed up but hopefully it could be cured. I haven’t ever really talked to Austin back when he lived in our town. I would see him occasionally when mother sent me into their diner to pick up something. And even when I did talk to him at the diner, he never acted this strange.
“Ready?” Jake asked us as he made his way over.
“Yep.” I said standing up from where I sat.
“Great! Let’s get going,” Jake said helping Austin up from the log. Jake about collapsed because
Austin jumped on him. I just stood there and rolled my eyes. Jake finally regained his balance after he pushed Austin after him.
“Okay, I’m finally ready.” Jake said smiling. “Let’s go.” We started to walk but we didn’t walk really fast because of Austin. He could walk but a lot of times we had to hold on to him because he kept falling. Austin’s weight on my shoulder started to make it hurt. It didn’t help because the shoulder the weight was on was my bad shoulder. I was glad that the other half of Austin’s weight was on Jake’s shoulder. I would have collapsed without a doubt if Jake wasn’t there helping me. We didn’t talk while we were walking. I was kind of glad because I didn’t want Austin to say anything weird. We walked and walked for a long time. We finally stopped when we got to an old barn. I didn’t believe this was the entrance to Sten if Jake hadn’t said that we were there. The barn looked so old that it looked like it could fall apart any second now. I followed Jake and Austin up to the door stops. The door was all rusted and had vines all over it. If no one would have told me that this was a door I would have never guessed. The whole barn was covered with vines. The vines made the barn blend in with the scenery. It was almost like the barn wasn’t there no matter what direction you stood in. Jake went up to the barn and reached behind a vine. He pulled the vine away from the barn to reveal a door. There was nothing special about this door like I thought there would be. It was just a plain, normal looking, wood barn door with hundreds of vines covering it. I watched Jake pull more vines away from the door so that it would be easier to open. After the door was visible, Jake pushed the door open to reveal a dark, dusty room. At first I just stood there in disbelief. There was no way that this dirty, old barn could be the entrance to Sten. I noticed Jake, who was already inside, motioning for me to come in. As I walked into the barn, the floors kept creaking under my feet. I got to about the center of the room when I stopped. I always like to become familiar with my surroundings before I make a decision if I should go any farther or not. I looked up at the roof which had holes in it. No hayloft, so no one could be hiding, waiting to shoot me. I kept scanning the barn until I saw Jake and Austin who were sitting on the farthest corner from the center. I decided this place was safe so I made my way over to where the boys were sitting. By the time I got over to them, Jake had already moved to a different place on that wall. I made my way over to where Jake was messing with something when I caught a glimpse of Austin. He was sitting on that same haystack that I saw him sitting on earlier but now smiling and staring at me. I just kept walking towards Jake. Who knows what kind of sentences would come out of Austin’s mouth now!
“Hey baby! What’s up?” Austin said suddenly. I spun around quickly to see Austin trying to act all cool.
“Excuse me? What did you just call me?” I asked marching back over to him.
“I called you baby because you are as cute as one!” Austin said moving his eyebrows up and down. “Do you have a boyfriend?” I could tell he was thinking Jake was my boyfriend.
“No. And I’m not planning on having one.” I said turning my back on Austin. I was just about ready to walk back to Jake when Austin said, “Whatever babe. But I’m here if you need someone!” That really did it! I marched my way back to Austin and slapped him. I don’t care if it hurt. He needs to wake up from this weird dream. Austin was getting stranger and stranger. I don’t even ever recall him telling any girl was cute. Anytime I saw him in the diner, he always was in a corner. Always being quiet. Never talking to anyone but his family.
“What was that about?” Jake asked me when I came over to him.
“Oh, just having a friendly conversation with Austin.” I said trying to see what Jake was doing.
“A friendly conversation? It looked to me like a slap off.” Jake said with a huge smile on his face.
“Stop it! Austin’s getting weirder and weirder. Besides, he deserved it this time.” I said shooting Jake a look.
“What did he do this time?” Jake asked with a sigh.
“He started flirting with me. Said I looked as cute as a baby.” I said getting mad again.
“Really?” Jake said with a shocked expression. “Cute as a baby, huh? I’m sorry Kate, but that’s funny!”
“Jake! Knock it off!” I said hitting him on the shoulder. “It’s not funny! There is seriously something wrong with him!”
“Really? Your just now noticing that?” Jake asked smiling.
“Jake! This isn’t funny!” I started to yell.
“Kate, calm down! I’m just kidding! I know that his condition is serious. We’ll get him to a doctor as soon as we get to Sten which will be soon.” Jake said getting serious. “I promise.”
“Thanks.” I said sitting down by him. For the first time I noticed why Jake was sitting here. It’s because there was a door. Another door with vines. Jake pulled out a key from his pocket and stuck it into one of the vines with a hole in it. The vine then released itself from the door revealing the key in a keyhole. Jake stepped back from the door and just watched. All the vines on the door started moving away to reveal a steal door. To my surprise, the door had all sorts of fancy locks on it. I caught Jake looking at me with a huge smile. I couldn’t help but smile back because of how unrealistic all this seemed. Jake went back to the door and punched in some numbers in the number locked. After it seemed like five minutes, the lock finally clicked. At last! I thought. We can finally go in! Just when I thought we were done with locks another lock appeared. It was a strange lock but then again, what could possibly be stranger than this whole situation! Jake rolled up his sleeve and put his arm over the lock. I guess it was one of those scanning locks because it was scanning Jakes arm. I couldn’t tell what it was scanning but when Jake turned around I could see that it was his tattoo. Jake stepped back right as the door slowly opened. As the door opened light filled the whole room. I looked over to see Jake smiling. I could tell he was happy to be going home again.
“Ready?” Jake asked me as the door completely opened.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” I said smiling. I figured nothing could