Read Online Escape to Eden by Rachel McClellan - Free Book Online Page A

Anthony says as he passes by Colt on his way to the kitchen.
    Colt mumbles something through a bite of pizza in his mouth.
    Anthony takes a slice of pizza into the living room and sits on a chair in front of a paper and pen. Every few seconds he scribbles a word like he’s making a list of some kind.
    I stay where I’m at, standing beneath a fluorescent light. Their interactions are so strange to me, yet familiar somehow.
    “Here,” Colt says and gives me one of his slices. He walks away and sits across from Anthony.
    I quickly take a bite to prevent a long string of cheese from falling to the ground. As soon as I taste it, my stomach demands more. I eat three more slices, careful of the open blisters on my hands. The heat from the pizza stings my open wounds. When I’m finished I turn and see Anthony and Colt staring at me.
    “How long has it been since you last ate?” Anthony asks.
    “Ebony gave me pudding earlier today. I don’t remember if I was given anything before that.”
    Anthony shakes his head. “Maybe it’s best if you don’t remember. The Institute is known for its cruelty.”
    Colt sets his plate of his half-eaten pizza slice on the cushion next to him and returns to the kitchen. He looks inside several cupboards, shoving cans of food this way and that, until he removes a small white box.
    “This will work,” he says. “Come here, Patch.”
    I hesitate because I hate that name.
    “You can choose a different name if you’d like,” he says as if he’s read my mind.
    I go to him. “It’s fine, I guess. There are worse things then being named after a dog, right?”
    His eyes meet mine. “You’re hardly a dog. Give me your hands.”
    I don’t move. I’m too distracted by an unfamiliar feeling in my gut. It’s like my stomach has flipped in the most pleasurable way, warming my insides.
    “Your hands,” he says again. “I need to put medicine on them.”
    “Oh,” I say and open my right palm.
    “Those look bad.” He twists a lid on a small tube and squeezes a clear, gelatinous substance out the tip. “Rub that around, and then get your other hand.”
    I do as he says, trying my best not to flinch as the medicine is burning something fierce.
    “It hurts at first, but it really speeds up the healing process,” he says.
    I meet his gaze. His blue eyes seem to shimmer, reminding me of the colors of the inside of a shell just beneath a tide pool.
    A tide pool .
    I remember the ocean. The sounds, the smell.
    “What is it?” he asks.
    Realizing I’m still staring, I glance away. “The ocean. I think I lived by the ocean.”
    “You’re getting your memory back,” he says and hands me the ointment. “Put a lot on.”
    “Thank you.”
    Ten minutes later I’m lying on the floor in the office, staring at the man in the painting.
    “You don’t have to sleep on the floor,” Anthony says as he walks in.
    “It’s okay. I don’t mind at all.”
    He squats down. “Everything’s going to be okay, I promise. Soon you’ll remember who you are, and we’ll be out of the city and on our way to Eden. And who knows? Maybe you’ll know someone there.”
    “Maybe.”
    He straightens. “Get some sleep.”
    Before he turns off the light manually, I say, “Thank you, Anthony. For helping me.”
    “You’re welcome.”
    The lights go off. As soon as they do, a soft glow appears at the base of the floor near the door. I can barely make out the outline of the man in the painting. I close my eyes and see him. His brown eyes, the slight smile. I think I hear him laugh. This makes me think of Colt, whom I don’t think knows how to laugh, and I wonder why Jenna hates him so much. I remember his eyes and think again of the ocean.
    This is what I’m thinking of when I fall asleep. In my dreams I feel the ocean’s foam swirling around my ankles, cooling my skin. Waves crash to shore, tirelessly battering the earth. There’s a forest nearby with old, tall trees. I run into it laughing. There’s