A New Life Series - Starter Kit Read online

  Immediately, the young woman tried to recover, but she smiled too largely, sputtering, “Well, nice to meet you.” She gave a small half wave and quickly retreated down the hall.

  Tori sat stunned for a moment on the edge of the bed, staring at the empty doorway. Finally, she slipped off her canvas shoes and moved to the head of the bed. Shoving her right shoulder into the corner as she squatted, she rested her forehead against the wall and drifted off to sleep.

  Several hours later, she awoke to the sound of a gravelly voice and a firm hand shaking her left shoulder. Giving a sharp shout, she spun around, slapping the hand away from her, and sitting straight up with wide eyes and quickened breath. After a few moments of deep breathing, Tori made out the face of an older black woman, with short grey hair and a gold tooth.

  While she stared at the shiny object, she heard the voice say, “Youse gonna miss dinna young'un,” and then the woman turned and left the room.

  Slowly, Tori stood up from the bed and pushed her feet back into the canvas slippers. Moving cautiously to the door, she looked down the hall, and noted a couple of people moving along the passage in the direction they had entered from earlier that day. While considering whether she was actually hungry, her stomach gave a loud rumble, so she followed in the direction the others had taken in hopes of finding the cafeteria.

  It only took a few minutes to locate the large room, off in the hallway to the left of the massive fountain. The room held a flurry of chatter, as groups of people sat around circular tables, enjoying their meal. Tori stepped into the room, and she could hear the drop in the noise level as several of the speaker's voices suddenly halted or dropped to a whisper.

  Ignoring the stares, Tori made her way over to the stack of trays that marked the beginning of the cafeteria line. Taking one, she shuffled along, sliding the tray and selecting items for her meal. About halfway down the line, she became aware that the two women on the other side of the glass were standing, gaping at her.

  At that moment, Tori would have headed back to her room had it not been for the relentless complaints of her intestines. With great purpose, she chose to move the tray across the metal bars, continuing to gather items. At the end, she stopped to look eye to eye with one of the women who served the drinks. “Water, please,” she requested, her voice barely above a whisper.

  The attendant poured the drink without a sound and placed the glass on her tray. Tori looked up to meet her gaze. As soon as their eyes met, the woman shot her a quick, tense smile, then quickly dropped her eyes, turning away. With a heavy heart, she lifted her meal and entered the sea of tables.

  Making the long walk to the far end of the room, Tori chose an empty table and sat her food down upon it. Once she had, she realized the real conundrum was at hand—exactly where to sit. In the past, it would not have mattered. When she was with the Dragons, she would have been safe and accepted no matter which seat she occupied. In this place, things were by no means as certain.

  Should she sit with her back to the room, where she could eat in semi-privacy? Doing so meant the risk of having someone approach unseen from behind. And yet, the thought of sitting on the opposite side of the table, facing the room filled with strangers staring in her direction was not any more appealing.

  After a full minute of consideration, she compromised and sat halfway around the table, with her back to a wall, and the majority of the room to her left, where it could be monitored using her peripheral vision. Straight in front of her, Tori could see the serving line and a handful of people exiting it. Curiously, all of those coming off the line and heading into the seating area were quickly waved over to an empty spot elsewhere in the dining room, and so the five other chairs at her table remained unfilled.

  Step by Step

  Eli Founder arrived the following morning to discover Tori seated in one of the padded chairs, knees curled to her chest and arms wrapped. She had been sitting for some time, watching the sunrise bring light to the lush green outside her small window. The Dragons slept and lived outdoors routinely, and she had begun to feel penned up being indoors for so many days.

  “How’s the bed?” Eli asked as he took the seat opposite of her. A blank stare her only response, he mumbled a simple “Well, you'll get there,” and let the subject drop.

  Tori lay her left cheek on her knees, watching out into the patio for several minutes. Finally, in a low voice, she inquired, “Why am I here?”

  Eli shifted in his seat, wanting to be precise with his words. “You're here for evaluation, and to heal.” He drew a deep breath to continue, catching himself before he spoke, and then exhaled slowly in silence.

  Tori's head popped up, and she asked again in a more forceful tone, “No, I mean why am I here.” She added emphasis to the word 'here' by reaching out with her right hand to stab the table with her index finger.

  At his surprised look, she continued with the irritation clear in her voice, “I told you the knife was mine. I told you the Dragons got what they deserved. I did it. I killed them. Why am I not in prison or a cell or something?” Tori uncurled her legs and began to move her hands around as she spoke, clearly distressed about her situation.

  Eli drew another deep breath as he watched, again releasing it slowly. “This is very complicated,” he spoke in his low, soothing tone. “I understand you feel very guilty right now, maybe wanting to be punished for your actions, but there are a lot of questions that must be answered before any judgments can be made.”

  Eli paused as Tori tilted her head in an odd fashion, giving him an angry look and almost growling, “What kind of questions?”

  Thinking back to the meeting and the plan, he decided to simply lay it all out. “Well, for starters, we don't really know who you are, do we?” The question flatter, like a statement, he didn't pause for a reply. “Your ID was fake, and your identity has been completely untraceable up to this point.”

  Tori's jaw dropped in disbelief. She had never really considered who she was or where she had come from, like it would matter. She only knew she was Tori, the girl of the group, a Dragon as long as she could remember.

  “So am I a prisoner here?” she demanded. “If not, I could just leave. I’m twenty-four years old; I can leave and go and do whatever I want to do.” She stammered a bit, not at all sure how her words would be taken or if a punishment would come raining down.

  But, Eli only barked a short laugh of amusement and shook his head. “You're not twenty-four, Tori. Your ID was fake. The whole thing was fake. The only thing on it that is accurate is the picture; it looks like you. By the doctor's best estimate, you are not even fifteen yet,” he took great care to stick to the details he’d been given.

  Tori stared at him, mouth still slightly open, in a state of shock, and he shifted in his seat under her stern gaze. He continued slowly, trying to be more wary of her feelings, flies and honey and all that, “Look, we had a meeting, a committee of people, after you were found. Together, we decided how to handle your situation, because quite frankly, it's pretty unique. What we need to do first, is find out who you are, and we have a team working on that. Second, we need to find out everything we can about you—where have you been, what you have experienced, are you educated? We are going to need you to cooperate and tell us everything you can about your life. Anything and everything you can remember.”

  Pausing, he leaned back in his chair, feeling the need to reach out to her. “It's going to be hard for you. We know you’ve been through a lot, and we want to help you, if you will let us.”

  Tori sat glaring at the man across the table, her mind racing, searching through memories, trying to find something that would debunk everything he had said. She couldn't find it. All she could remember was Eddie and Red and the rest of the Dragons. And Henry. Henry, who had been there for her all those years. At last she spoke, her voice barely audible. “Why didn't you just let me die?”

  Eli eyed her carefully, giving a long pause before responding. “That's not what we do,
Tori. We don't kill people, and we don't ‘just let them die.’ We save them and help them. That's what we’re going to do for you, if you will allow us to.” She could see the lump in his throat move as he swallowed. “For now, we have an appointment to keep.” To punctuate his statement, he rose and waited for her to join him at the door.

  While Eli led her through the halls of the facility, he began to notice a pattern in the reactions of the people as they spotted her. He had come to think of her as a beautiful person, but he felt fairly certain that was not the cause of the double takes and stares she received.

  Thinking about the committee, he hoped Debra Paisley, the agent in charge of integrating Tori into society after the investigation had concluded, would find what could be done to remove or cover the scar that marred the girl's pretty face. This short walk had made him very aware of what a huge block this small thing had the potential to be for her.

  Arriving at the entrance to Dr. Lawrence Carlisle’s office, Eli took a step inside to shake his hand and introduce Tori before heading out. Then, giving her a quick pat on the shoulder and encouraging smile, he bade softly, “Good luck! I’ll see you in a few days.”

  “A few days?” Tori echoed, taken by surprise. As much as she disliked his visits, she disliked the thought of not having them even more.

  “Sure—other business. You'll be fine.” Not wanting to drag things out, he walked away with a quick wave of his hand in goodbye.

  Tori stared after him for a moment, and then took a slow look around the room from the doorway before sitting in one of the large chairs on the patient side of the desk. The office seemed crowded by the size of the furniture, all dark stained wood and burgundy colored leather.

  There were two large floor-to-ceiling bookcases on either side of the door, and an entire wall made of glass on the left hand side behind the desk, which presented a view out into the sun covered foliage outside. Dr. Carlisle himself was a middle aged man with a balding head and wire framed glasses. There were pictures of his family scattered around the room, all smiling at her.

  Overwhelmed by the feeling she had missed out on far more than she had realized, she folded her hands in her lap and stared across the desk at the doctor, who studied her for a few moments before he began speaking. “That's some scar,” he finally began. “Mind telling me how you got it?”'

  Tori’s nostrils flared as she took a deep breath. She did mind telling him about it and considered saying so. “Eddie Farrell gave it to me so that people wouldn't talk to me,” she finally stated without any hint of emotion.

  The doctor continued to study her for a moment, then leaned forward in his chair to place his forearms on his desk. “I see,” he replied “And do you always answer questions in fifteen words or less? I mean that could have made a nice story and told me a great deal about you.”

  Perfectly calm, Tori met his gaze, but chose to ignore the question. After several more minutes of silence, the doctor reached for his pen and made a few notes on the yellow notepad next to him. Then, standing, he gave her a half smile and commanded, “Let's go for a walk.”

  After leaving the office, the doctor led the girl out through a glass door and into the garden that made up the heart of the building. As they walked along the winding path, he decided to take a different approach. “You know we’re going to try to help you, right?”

  Again in a flat tone, “Yes, I know,” she responded.

  “Very well then,” continued the doctor. “So, we are going to need to set some ground rules here I think. I can see you are accustomed to only giving exactly what you have been asked to share and no more. In some instances that can be a good thing, but here, what you need to do most is talk. You need to share everything, and I do mean everything, including the things that cause you pain, fear or sadness, as well as the things that make you happy. Do you understand?”

  Stopping abruptly, Tori looked irritated, her eyes shifting around rapidly as if she were searching for something that had slipped out of sight. Finally, she looked straight at him and replied, “Dr. Carlisle, I only ever feel one thing, and that's anger. You can't hurt me. I don't feel happy; I don't feel sad. Everyone I have ever known or cared about is dead. I have spent my whole life in the midst of a group of street thugs and criminals who did terrible things to me and made me do terrible things to other people. I killed those men. I don't really know what you or anyone else wants from me. The only thing I do know is that Henry told me one day I would have a different life, and now I think that maybe, somehow, this is how I’m going to get it. That is the only reason I’m standing here, talking to you right now. Because I promised that I would.”

  The frankness of her words brought a smile to the doctor’s thin lips. “Well, there you go. That is a start. Of course, this isn't going to be easy for you, and you may find that you feel or care about more than you realized or wanted to. For right now, we need to come up with a plan for what you are going to do to get better or improve your life as it were. First off…” and the doctor laid out his plan for meetings and journals, testing and educational experiences he felt were needed to help her get in touch with her inner self and begin to prepare for the rest of her life.

  Tori just stared at him. She could feel the anger boiling inside of her, and for a moment she felt severely tempted to knock him to the ground and punch him a few times. Resisting the urge, she simply stood there listening and hoping for the strength to make it through what lay ahead.

  After he finished outlining her schedule, the doctor led her to the cafeteria where he allowed her to eat. Left to her meal, Tori made her way through the line alone as she had before. Carrying her tray with deliberate steps, she returned to the same corner chair that she had deemed the most functional. She ate in a wary state, always monitoring the comings and goings of others, her mind turning over the conversations of Eli and Dr. Carlisle. The two seemed to align perfectly, and she allowed herself to consider the possibility they were genuinely intending to help her.

  After lunch, Tori began taking tests to evaluate her education. She had been reluctant to share that she had never actually seen the inside of a classroom. Fortunately for her, it had been decided that it would be easier to simply run a battery of exams to determine where her strengths and weaknesses lay.

  Dr. Carlisle explained that he had already contacted one of the local colleges in search of any students who would be willing to tutor her in subjects where her skills were lacking, but Tori wasn't fond of the idea. She sat staring at the page of questions that first day, and she couldn't help wondering if she should give it her best, or randomly mark answers and be done with it.

  In the end, her pride and Henry's memory won out. Besides, if they intended to make her learn the parts she didn't know, it would be pointless to do poorly on purpose and then suffer being tutored because of it. Making her choice, she went to great lengths to work through each problem the best she could.

  After a few hours of working, Tori was set free to explore the hospital on her own, which she preferred, rather than being around people. First, she made her way through the garden, taking in the sounds and smells. Along one of the paths, she discovered a stone bench, where she camped out for almost an hour watching birds busily visiting flowers and flitting about. She sat, enjoying the warm late-afternoon sun on her upturned face, while the musical chirps and whistles echoed around her.

  The girl recognized a few of the species and her mind drifted back through the years, back before everything got ugly with the Dragons; back to the time when they were her teachers and mentors. In fact, even though Henry had been her dearest friend, only a small part of what she knew had come from him.

  Marcus Sanchez had been the one to teach her about birds. He knew all about them—species, habitats, and behaviors. He also had been the one who gave her the best Spanish lessons and would tell her stories he had heard as a boy; stories that made her laugh or cry, back before she forgot how to feel and show emotion. As Tori sat remembering, a pang
of sadness touched her, and she thought about the small camp they had occupied “in the bush” of South America, as the Dragons called it.

  It wasn't much, a small clearing where a rough cabin that formed the kitchen and chow hall stood, surrounded by light jungle that served as the sleeping quarters in small tents or hammocks and lean-tos. Even the ground under one of the metal patios or awnings would do for a nap. It was often hot there, and when the rains came, it seemed to last for days and weeks at a time. In a way, it had been the only home she had ever known; out in the open where the wind, sun and rain were better than walls and windows, and the Dragons were her family.

  Shaking off the past, Tori stood, stretched, and headed inside to explore the rest of the building while she had the chance. Making her way on around what turned out to be a large square building that made a complete loop, with the garden area in the middle, she discovered two other things that made the hospital almost likable.

  The first was the library. The girl had always had a love for the written word and the places they could take her. In their old cabin, the Dragons had built a set of shelves for her books that covered an entire wall. When they hit the road, she had only been allowed to keep a single tome in her pack at a time. Now, she had a whole room full of them, a sight that made her heart thump with anticipation.

  The second discovery was even better—she found the gym. Inside were a treadmill, weights, an overhead bar, and ropes for climbing and jumping. The Dragons had always kept themselves fit, and had taught her how to train and exercise regularly, even when there wasn't a lot of fancy equipment around to use. Tori had not bothered trying to work out since the farmhouse, but realized she had missed the physical activity and would relish being able to train again.

  Making her way back to her room, she mentally worked out a schedule for herself. She had checked out a book from the Library, “A History of Ancient Egypt,” and could not wait to delve into the pages. When she arrived back in her small quarters, she set the clock on the dresser for 5:00 am, to ensure she would awaken early enough to hit the gym before breakfast.