The Lost Queen Book 1 - Alden

"Are we there yet?" "How much longer?" "She's on my side!" "I'm not touching you!" I love my niece and nephew, but being stuck in the car with them for a half hour is pure torture. I really wouldn't wish this on anyone. All they do is scream and yell about anything. "He's breathing my air!" Ok that one was kind of funny. My sister is in the passenger seat with her face stuck to her phone. She is laughing quietly about something. "Doesn't all the yelling get to you?" "Sometimes, but I'm more concerned if they stop yelling. I know they are ok if they're making noise, silence scares the hell out of me though." She sighs and shakes a bit like a chill goes threw her. "GET OUT OF MY SPACE!" "I could really use a smoke right now." I'm trying to remain calm. Jess rolls her eyes, "You can't smoke with the kids in the car! Besides, we're almost there. I think you can make it to the mall." She's right, I can make it. They are only in town for 1 more night. Her husband had to leave for a work trip, so she came with the rug rats to visit the family. They are staying with me in my small apartment. It's a squish but we make it work. I only have 1 guest room but it has a king bed in it. She said the 3 of them could fit in it. And apparently they can, because this will be the 4th night of it. I only heard her complain about it once. On the second day, I guess she woke up with a foot in her mouth. She wasn't very happy and I don't think I helped the situation any by laughing at her. I still find it funny. I can't help but start to laugh again. "What's so funny?" she gives me a weird glance. "The foot." I bust out laughing. I get a dirty look and an eye roll for that. She wanted to grab something from some store in the mall before she went home. She told me what it was, but I really wasn't listening. So here we are, on our way to the mall with two kids in tow. They are so loud. I'll turn on the radio. "Let it go, let it go" OMG NO!!! It's to late, the three of them are already singing at the tops of their lungs. "I can't hold it back any more." We can't get to the mall fast enough. I am about to lose my mind. I should have let her drive my car, but I am trying to be a good brother and uncle. Trying to get a few extra minutes of time with them before they leave tomorrow. I really am regretting this decision. About the time the song ends, we pull into the parking lot. Convenient I know. I just need to find a parking spot. I already have the cigarette in my mouth and I'm half out the door when I finally get the car into park. I dive out and make a run for the nearest bench. I now claim this as my smoking bench and my plan is to chain smoke here for a bit. My sister walks by with the kids and laughs at me. After I get a couple smokes in, I'll go find them. I want to get the kids each a new toy or candy or something. Maybe a book. It doesn't really matter what they get, I want them to be able to say they got a souvenir from their trip. They really are good kids. I get to enjoy the silence for about 60 seconds when two school busses full of kids pull up. "Great", I mutter under my breath. I am far enough away from the kids that I don't worry about putting my cigarette out. But that doesn't stop any of the teachers or chaperones from giving me dirty looks. After they all make it in the mall, one of the teachers runs back out and tries to inhale a smoke in 1 puff. It is quite funny, not that I blame her. I only had 2 kids in the car. I couldn't imagine an entire bus load of them. I would probably be trying to smoke 3 at once right now. I look back as she is heading in. 2 creepy guys are taking her spot. They have long black trench coats on over top of all black clothes. They have long hair and both of them have pale faces. One of them catches me staring and gives me a nod. I return it. They give me an eerie feeling, but they're not doing anything weird. I'm going to continue enjoying smokes and silence. All of a sudden, a car comes flying up to the mall entrance and slams on the breaks. A man jumps out with a big machine gun. The only thing that goes through my head is "I can not let him go in there with all those kids." I jump off the bench and run towards him. I hit him on the side and we both go flying to the ground. But the gun is strapped around him, and I can't get it off him. We're on the ground struggling and we both have our hands on the gun pulling at it. I can hear those 2 guys getting closer. They are running towards us. But they are still too far away. He is somehow able to get his foot up and push me back with a hard kick. My hands lose their grip on the gun. -BANG- I don't know if I hear the gun fire, or feel the bullets enter my chest first. But I do know that I feel the pain. I feel really heavy. I can see the blood spilling out around me and the blackness is closing in on my vision. I can't get up or even move. The last thing I see is the men in long black trench coats jumping on the man with the gun. I know I am dying. But my brain is still working. It seems to be going through my whole life. Born Alden Edward Driscoll in a small town in 1995, I had a younger brother and sister. We didn't have much money growing up, but we always had enough love. Dad had to work 2 jobs at times to make sure we all ate and mom worked as a waitress. I lost my father when I was in my late teens. He had a massive heart attack. Died unexpectedly in his sleep. It was so tragic and sudden and he was so young, only in his 40's. He was such a good man. I only ever wanted to be like him. He loved his family and worked hard for them. He was loyal and honest and fair. All around, good man. Maybe I'll get to see him soon. I went to work after that. I started working at a car repair shop. It wasn't a lot of money, but I was able to help my mom pay the bills. She graduated from nursing school about 8 months later and was able to get a good job and make good money. I stayed at the repair shop for a few years. I eventually started taking classes at our community college. I graduated with a degree in computer science and landed a good job managing a group of office stores, specializing in computer repair. It's weird the thoughts you have when you are dying. I saw my 7th grade crushes face, my sister's smile when she became a mom, my mother giving me a hug when I graduated high school, my niece screaming let it go from the back seat, my mother crying tears of joy on stage when she graduated nursing school, and my dad trying to teach me how to pop a wheelie when I was a kid. He did his best but when he lifted up the front wheel, he fell straight on his ass. It was hilarious. I could smell my mother's cookies being baked and her perfume. Actually, I can hear her cooking. I can hear the rug rats begging for cookies. I open my eyes. I'm at my mother's house in the guest room bed. This is really weird. Trying to get up is really painful. "Jess!!! MOM!!!!" All I can do is yell. Jess comes running into the room screaming about something. I can't make any sense of what she is saying. "What the hell are you talking about?" I give her a blank stare. "You were attacked by an animal outside the mall. I was so worried. 2 men helped me get you into the car." She takes a deep breath. "I brought you here and your brother got you into the guest room." "Why is he MY brother today? Did he drop me or something?" I roll my eyes. "Yes." "That asshole." I pause for a minute trying to get my brain to understand what's happening. "Okay. I'm really groggy, but let me get this straight. I was attacked by an animal of some kind, was completely unconscious, and instead of taking me to a hospital, you brought me to mom's house and let your brother drop me?" I say this all very slowly, because this can't be right. Jess is usually not this stupid. "I'm sorry, I really didn't know what to do. The men said you would be ok and that you were in shock and mom's a nurse. I knew she would know what to do. So I came straight here." Her eyes are all teary and her voice is starting to crack. I know she's upset, so I'm not going to be mean. I'm alive and she's alive and the kids... "Hey sis, what happened to the man with the gun? Were the other guys able to stop him?" She stares at me all confused, "No one had a gun, it was an animal attack. It bit your neck, there was so much blood." I know what I felt was real, but I'm not going to argue with her. "I'll come check on you in a bit. Try to rest please. I need to help mom with the cooking." I lift my shirt to check my chest where I felt the bullets go in. There are little pink spots in those areas. They are so sore to touch but no holes. Not even a scab. This is weird. There's no other way to describe it. Maybe I really did lose my mind on the drive to the mall. That would explain a lot. I get up and check the animal bite. Sure enough, it appears to be an animal bite. I'm assuming whatever it was had fangs because my neck has 2 puncture holes. But it also has the flesh ripped off. Most of it is a big scab. It seems to be healing really fast, but I don't really know how long I've been asleep here either. This is really not making any sense, and I'm still very groggy. I'm going to sleep some more. Maybe when I wake up things will make sense. I let Jess know I'm going to sleep here and the key for my apartment is on my car keys. She can have the apartment for tonight. Moms going to work 3rd shift at the nursing home. So this really should be a nice quiet place to recover.