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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Chapter 2
An old man sat at a desk surrounded by pictures and the past. To the old man, it seemed that the past was engulfing and drowning him. When he was startled out of his thoughts by the shrill ring of the telephone, he quickly composed himself. He knew who was at the other end of the line and with a steady hand and voice raised the receiver to his ear and said, “This is Sydney.”
“Why is Miss Parker’s phone disconnected? Why won’t she answer her cell?” The voice of Jarod came quickly, his words rushing together in his panic over his oldest and best friend.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to try to contact her. Her phone is disconnected because no one lives in that house anymore. Her cell, well, it’s probably long gone by now.”
“What! She loves that old house, it would take a lot to get her to give it up.”
“Jarod,” Sydney began, surprised only that his protégé who always seemed to know all that went on in Miss Parker’s life, didn’t know. “Jarod, Miss Parker disappeared nearly three months ago. Just before Christmas, about two weeks after you went incommunicado. Both she and young Master Parker vanished two days before Christmas Eve and nothing has been heard from either. The Centre is hunting her and Master Parker with even more fervor than they have ever hunted you.”
“She’s gone?” Jarod’s voice sounded smaller and quieter than Sydney had ever heard it. Even after Kyle had died, Jarod had not sounded this completely lost.
“I’m sorry Jarod. Perhaps when it is safe for her to do so, she will contact you.”
“Sydney that requires that she find me. And I have no intention of being found again. The game is over.”
“My boy, do not underestimate Parker. I have long believed that you and you’re family have remained in the outside world for as long as you have simply because that was how she wanted things to be. If she had ever actually wanted you at the Centre again, you would not have had any say in the matter Jarod.”
“Sydney, she tried for six years and never caught me. At least, never long enough to return me to the Centre on any permanent basis.”
“Jarod, you forget that Parker is no ordinary woman….”
“You’re telling me.” Jarod interrupted.
“Jarod! She is a Red File for a reason. Parker not only has her mother’s gift, but is also the Pretender gene. And if I am not mistaken, her father made sure she had the training to use her ability as a Pretender. She never caught you because no matter what she said, she didn’t want to. Remember this Jarod, as you search for her. She traded her freedom for yours.”
With that, Sydney returned the phone to its cradle. And returned to gazing at a picture of a young Miss Parker and her mother, it was the last time they had smiled at a camera together.
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Hundreds of miles away in upstate New York, sitting at the kitchen table of a renovated farmhouse, Jarod stared at the phone in his hand. There were few constants in his life since leaving the Centre and he clung to those constants like a drowning man to a lifesaver. He always ended conversations, he was the one to hang up, not the other way around. Miss Parker chased and he ran, no matter what he wished, that was how the world worked. He ran, she chased, even though it had seemed that after the Island she had visibly given up the chase and only participated because she had to.
But then six months after their experiences on the Island he had found what he thought was the missing piece.
He had found his mother.
And then he had ended the game from his end, and done what the Centre had dreaded he’d do for years. He disappeared.
But he had discovered something in the last months. He had found that it was harder to be Jarod Russell than it was to be just Jarod.
He found that he missed moving from place to place.
He found that he missed meeting new people.
He found that he missed pretending.
But most of all, he found that he missed calling them. Sydney and Miss Parker. He realized how much he missed them when Ryan, his young clone, and his mother commented on how often he reached for the phone when he need help with something and on how often after a nightmare (a nightly occurrence) they found him eating a bowl of ice cream and staring at his cell phone. Sometimes they even found him dialing the numbers, but he never finished the sequence that would connect him to her voice. Until tonight. And now he found that she was gone. Disappeared and hunted. But he still wanted to talk to her. Maybe now she had reached that turning point, after all she had taken her baby brother and left Hell.
An old man sat at a desk surrounded by pictures and the past. To the old man, it seemed that the past was engulfing and drowning him. When he was startled out of his thoughts by the shrill ring of the telephone, he quickly composed himself. He knew who was at the other end of the line and with a steady hand and voice raised the receiver to his ear and said, “This is Sydney.”
“Why is Miss Parker’s phone disconnected? Why won’t she answer her cell?” The voice of Jarod came quickly, his words rushing together in his panic over his oldest and best friend.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to try to contact her. Her phone is disconnected because no one lives in that house anymore. Her cell, well, it’s probably long gone by now.”
“What! She loves that old house, it would take a lot to get her to give it up.”
“Jarod,” Sydney began, surprised only that his protégé who always seemed to know all that went on in Miss Parker’s life, didn’t know. “Jarod, Miss Parker disappeared nearly three months ago. Just before Christmas, about two weeks after you went incommunicado. Both she and young Master Parker vanished two days before Christmas Eve and nothing has been heard from either. The Centre is hunting her and Master Parker with even more fervor than they have ever hunted you.”
“She’s gone?” Jarod’s voice sounded smaller and quieter than Sydney had ever heard it. Even after Kyle had died, Jarod had not sounded this completely lost.
“I’m sorry Jarod. Perhaps when it is safe for her to do so, she will contact you.”
“Sydney that requires that she find me. And I have no intention of being found again. The game is over.”
“My boy, do not underestimate Parker. I have long believed that you and you’re family have remained in the outside world for as long as you have simply because that was how she wanted things to be. If she had ever actually wanted you at the Centre again, you would not have had any say in the matter Jarod.”
“Sydney, she tried for six years and never caught me. At least, never long enough to return me to the Centre on any permanent basis.”
“Jarod, you forget that Parker is no ordinary woman….”
“You’re telling me.” Jarod interrupted.
“Jarod! She is a Red File for a reason. Parker not only has her mother’s gift, but is also the Pretender gene. And if I am not mistaken, her father made sure she had the training to use her ability as a Pretender. She never caught you because no matter what she said, she didn’t want to. Remember this Jarod, as you search for her. She traded her freedom for yours.”
With that, Sydney returned the phone to its cradle. And returned to gazing at a picture of a young Miss Parker and her mother, it was the last time they had smiled at a camera together.
JMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMPJMP
Hundreds of miles away in upstate New York, sitting at the kitchen table of a renovated farmhouse, Jarod stared at the phone in his hand. There were few constants in his life since leaving the Centre and he clung to those constants like a drowning man to a lifesaver. He always ended conversations, he was the one to hang up, not the other way around. Miss Parker chased and he ran, no matter what he wished, that was how the world worked. He ran, she chased, even though it had seemed that after the Island she had visibly given up the chase and only participated because she had to.
But then six months after their experiences on the Island he had found what he thought was the missing piece.
He had found his mother.
And then he had ended the game from his end, and done what the Centre had dreaded he’d do for years. He disappeared.
But he had discovered something in the last months. He had found that it was harder to be Jarod Russell than it was to be just Jarod.
He found that he missed moving from place to place.
He found that he missed meeting new people.
He found that he missed pretending.
But most of all, he found that he missed calling them. Sydney and Miss Parker. He realized how much he missed them when Ryan, his young clone, and his mother commented on how often he reached for the phone when he need help with something and on how often after a nightmare (a nightly occurrence) they found him eating a bowl of ice cream and staring at his cell phone. Sometimes they even found him dialing the numbers, but he never finished the sequence that would connect him to her voice. Until tonight. And now he found that she was gone. Disappeared and hunted. But he still wanted to talk to her. Maybe now she had reached that turning point, after all she had taken her baby brother and left Hell.
