1- The Accidental Eavesdrop (Valerie)

In the distance I can see someone running towards my direction,

I know who it is immediately as no one else knows that the hole
beneath the floorboards that I’m sitting in exists.
‘I’ve been looking for you.’ Announced Bronwyn.
I could tell she was fibbing as this would’ve been the first place
she checked, she always checks here first for me, as do I for her.
I don’t even bother to say a word, so she can say whatever she
came here for.
‘So Jace was being a numb skull again and kept telling me to not
let curiosity get ahead of me, coz blah blah blah curiosity killed
the cat and all that stuff.’ She spoke.

It was getting annoying listening to Bronwyn drone on and on

about how much of a nuisance her older brother Jace is. It’s
insane how much those two look so different yet alike.
Bronwyn’s hair was always unruly with an amazing auburn
colour and she has the most beautiful eyes with a shocking jade
green. Her face was splattered with freckles, as if someone had
painted every single one on her body intricately. Yet Jace had
short and neat, but curly ginger hair with eyes that could’ve only
been described as emerald. The only things similar between the
two is their pale freckled skin.
‘Val, Valerie, Valerieee, Valerie Lanhouster, VAL!’ I can just
barely hear her as she tries to grab my attention.
‘What do you want Bron?’
‘I want you to actually listen to me for once, because I have
found something that could save our lives.’ She answered.
Nothing she found could be this important, she’s always been
quite the exaggerator.
‘Well, aren’t you going to listen?’ She inquires.
‘Sure, whatever get on with your life-saving story.’
‘Well, it’s not a story it’s something I overheard Mr and Mrs
Jones say.’ Bronwyn defended.
‘WHAT! You eavesdropped on the people that are letting us live
here for free, I really don’t want you or me to get kicked out of
here.’
‘I didn’t really eavesdrop I was just passing by and heard them
discussing you know murder plans.’
My face to her now is probably giving off mixed emotions, as
I’m not really sure what to feel, except speechless.
‘I’m going to continue because your jaw just dropped to the
ground, so I was doing work for the community because it’s my
workday, Monday in case you’re wondering which you’re
probably not because I think you know that-’
‘Stopping blabbing and get to the point Wyn.’
I’m not usually impatient, but it annoys me how much Bronwyn
can talk before she gets to the point of the story. It’s amazing
how she’s not sick of her own voice, because of how much she
talks.

‘…so, then I heard Mr Jones say to Mrs Jones- seriously you’re

not listening to me again, are you?’ She asked in an annoyed
tone.
‘What, oh just continue.’
‘Ok, so when I was passing by, I heard Mr Jones say, ‘We killed
the congressman they’re going to catch on to us.’ Bronwyn
replied.
‘What are they catching onto?’
‘I getting to that.’
‘Then tell me.’
‘I will then, so Mrs Jones then said, ‘Darling just carry out your
plan’ and then-’
‘What plan?’
‘Stop interrupting me, I’m going to answer your questions
eventually, you ask questions after I’m done.’ She scolded.
‘Now you sound like a teacher.’
‘I’m going to ignore that comment and continue, so then he said,
‘That’s actually a good idea’ then she said, ‘what do you mean
by actually’ and then he said, ‘forget it’ and then she said ‘fine,
just tell me more about your plan’ and then he said his plan-’
‘Just tell me what the plan is.’
‘Ok I’ll tell it short and simple so you can understand for once,
so basically the plan is that they got worried because they shot
down Leo Ryan and now, they’re going to make us commit
suicide with Flavour-Aid and cyanide.’
‘WHAT!’
‘I know Flavour-Aid instead of Kool-Aid, what a disgrace.’
‘Seriously, Wyn stop joking we need to get out of here.’
‘What do you mean by here? She questioned.
‘I mean here People’s Temple, Jonestown, the place we grew
up, whatever you want to call it.’
‘Ok, ok calm down Val.’
‘Calm down how can I calm down when our supposed leaders
want to kill us.’
‘Actually, Val they want us to kill ourselves.’ She corrected.
‘Stop being a smart alec and pack so we can leave.’
‘Ok, I’m leaving.’
 2- We Have To Run (Bronwyn)
‘Well, that went amazing.’ I say to nobody, but myself.
That sounds kind of sad that I’m talking to myself, but no one
else is around and at least I’m listening. I ran away from Val a
few minutes ago, but I can’t bring myself to go pack without
telling my brother to come with us. Jace is the most annoying
person I know, other than myself. He thinks he’s better than me,
just because he’s a little bit smarter and always tries to use the
fact that he’s 12 minutes older than me, to stop me from doing
things or to try to win an argument.

I spot him sitting at a desk, he’s probably doing some sort of

work like the nerd he is.
‘What are you doing Jason Davis-Keerston?’ I ask him, using
his full name as I know it annoys him.
‘Go away Bronwyn.’ He replies.
‘How rude do you have be to me.’
‘Stop being so dramatic.’
‘I am not, I’m just a victim of your bullying and will not tolerate
it anymore.’
‘Did you just come here to annoy me or do you have a good
reason.’
‘I do have a good reason because I’m about to save your life.’
‘There you go again over exaggerating.’ He says, bored with me
already.
‘I’m not lying I’m actually saving our lives.’ I say truthfully, for
once.
‘Stop playing around.’
It’s so rude how he can just ignore whatever I’m saying and play
it off as a joke. So, I just tell him what I told Val, but a bit
differently to suit his smarty-pants needs.

‘That is not real stop being an idiot, Bronwyn.’

‘I’m not being an idiot the only person here, being an idiot is
you Jace, for not believing me when I’m actually telling the
truth for once.’
‘You are not telling the truth you’re jus-’
‘Jace stop ridiculing whatever Bronwyn says for once, because
she isn’t lying, and you guys need to pack so we can leave
before dark.’ Says Valerie from behind.
His eyes widen in shock when he hears Val from behind. He
gets startled very easily, and it’s very satisfactory to wipe his
smug smile of his face by scaring him, it always works.
‘How can I trust you guys, you’ve done this sort of thing to me
before.’ I can hear the panic in his voice as if he’s starting to
consider what we’re saying is true. It is true, I wouldn’t lie about
this sort of thing.
‘Get Bron to swear on it.’ Valerie suggests.
‘Hey!’
‘If you want me to believe you need to swear on it.’ He states.
‘Fine, I swear on my Grease poster that I’m telling the truth
about this.’
‘Just saying I know where it is, so if you are lying about this
then I suggest you protect it at all costs.’ Jace declared.
‘I’m not hiding it, because I’m telling the truth.’
‘I wouldn’t mind if you destroyed it anyway Jace, Grease is a
sucky movie.’ Valerie challenged.
‘Grease is literally an amazing movie and it isn’t sucky, but your
taste in movies is.’
‘I- let’s just pack so we can leave.’ She stuttered.
‘Fine.’
‘Fine.’
‘C’mon let’s go Jace.’
 3- Safe No More (Jace)
It’s insane that something like this would happen to us of all
people. People who have thought their lives that they were safe
here. But no one is. It shouldn’t be possible, we should be
warning people or calling the police.
‘Stop worrying.’ Bronwyn said.
It was a horrible attempt, and I don’t think anything could calm
me.
‘Hey Jace?’
‘What do you want, Wyn?’
‘What the hell is cyanide?’ She asked.
‘Cyanide is a chemical, gas that prevents your body from
absorbing oxygen, so you suffocate and die. Why do you want
to know?’
‘They want to use cyanide and Flavour-Aid to kill us.’ She
responded.
‘What?’
‘I know freaking out is your speciality, but you need to stop so
you can pack properly.’ Bronwyn scolded.
‘I should be saying that to you.’
‘Why should you?’ She asked.
‘You know, I’m 12 minutes older, than you.’
‘Well, you know, I’m braver, than you.’ She defended.
I’m not even going to try to oppose that, because it’s true. She’s
brave and I’m smart, we either work horribly or amazing
together depending on the situation.
‘I’m going to pack, you need to as well, have fun.’ She said,
leaving.
I’m definitely not going to have any fun, in a situation like this.

Choosing what to pack is hard. I normally have everything

analysed and planned out so whatever pack has what I need. Yet
today I have no plan or ideas or any clue where we’re going. It’s
difficult to come up with what I should pack, so I just end up
packing anything reasonable in sight. It’s better than whatever
Bronwyn packed, I know for sure. She would’ve rushed it and
packed anything at all.
A loud voice came blasting from the speakers, situated in each
tiny, dusty room, crowded with people. The voice was Mr Jones,
of course it was, he was the only one with access to it.
He was telling everyone to come down to the centre. The centre
is a place where Mr Jones would talk to us and tell us news.

Not wanting to be suspicious I decided to walk down there and

listen to whatever he had to say. I wonder if Bronwyn and
Valerie will come down. If they don’t, I should advise them to
so no one reports them to Mr Jones. So, I walked down to the
girls’ cabin and knocked on the door, waiting for a response. But
no one came, maybe they were already at the centre or had they
left me behind? I hope not, without them here I would be dead
meat. And Bronwyn wouldn’t leave me behind, she wouldn’t,
right?

4- The Cat Wasn’t Killed (Valerie)

After hearing the announcement over the speakers, we were
stuck running with the crowd to the centre. It was crowded and
not fit for over 100 people, and I just wanted to run out and
leave all my troubles behind. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t
just leave Bron and Jace behind like that, with them not knowing
where I am.

Everyone went quiet and it signalled that he had begun his

speech.
‘But in spite of all of my trying, a handful of our people, with
their lies, have made our life impossible. There’s no way to
detach ourself from what’s happened today. Not only are we in a
compound situation, not only are there those who have left and
committed the betrayal of the century, some have stolen children
from others, and are in pursuit right now to kill them, because
they stole their children. And we — we are sitting here waiting
on a powder keg. I don’t think it is what we want to do with our
babies. I don’t think that’s what we had in mind to do with our
babies. It is said by the greatest of prophets from time
immemorial: “No man may take my life from me; I lay my life
down.’

All of it was stupid, how people could believe this mess. It was
even more stupid that I couldn’t say anything or even warn
anyone. But it’s not like anyone would believe me of all people
anyways.

I could feel a hand intertwine their fingers with mine. So, I

looked up to find the culprit, it was Bronwyn. It must have been
written all over my face, the mix of emotions I was feeling. That
one action made me feel happy again. But of course, it had to be
ruined by Mr Jones speaking again.
‘So, to sit here and wait for the catastrophe that’s going to
happen on that airplane it’s going to be a catastrophe, it almost
happened here. Almost happened, the congressman was nearly
killed here. But you can’t steal people’s children. You can’t take
off with people’s children without expecting a violent reaction.
And that’s not so unfamiliar to us either if we — even if we
were Judeo-Christian if we weren’t Communists. The world the
kingdom suffers the violence and the violent shall take it by
force. If we can’t live in peace, then let’s die in peace.’

Then came the applause, it was sickening to see that people

agreed with this craziness. Or even went along with this. Why
would people waste their lives on this man, who didn’t care
about any of our lives.

‘Let’s go everyone, everything is already organised to complete

this. Just know if you don’t comply, we have ways to make
you.’

On top of trying to make us commit suicide, now he’s

threatening everybody.