《A World of My Own》


 Prologue: Childhood

    Prologue: Childhood


    I was always smart as a kid, but it had always been something I took for granted. Much like how many kids take for granted their ability to wake up each day and know they will have something to eat and a house to play and sleep within. My intelligence was something I had no basis for as a child, so I simply thought it was how every child was. My intelligence arrived much earlier than any major physical changes. By the time I was only sixteen months old I could hold entire conversations with my parents who were both still around at that time. By the age of three I had begun learning English at the behest of both of my parents. They had told me time and time again that early childhood was the best time to learn languages. What only occurred to me much later, was how surprising it was that my parents were fluent in every language I was taught.


    At the age of five I was perfectly fluent in three languages and could hold basic conversations in three others. It was at this time my parents left me. They did not leave me completely to my own devices, however. They left stacks of books I was to not only just read, but learn. Learning is very different from reading. Anyone can simply pick up a book and begin to read it. A college student could pick up a calculus book and read it from cover to cover, but still never truly learn anything about calculus and it¡¯s actual uses. Learning entails being able to use the knowledge within the books in useful situations or even simply outside of their simplistically shown nature within each book.


    Computer science appeared to be the theme of the books left for me during this period of time. I was still na?ve and had yet to even leave my own house at this time, so to me my parents were my world. I could never even imagine disobeying them so I trudged on through the stacks of books containing knowledge on coding languages and mathematics. Yes, mathematics ended up being directly related and useful to coding in many different languages, which many fail to understand when they first begin delving into computer science. I became proficient. I could code complex programs in minutes without making a single error. At this point two years had passed.


    You may be wondering how a five year old stayed alive in a house all alone without any money or form of transportation. It is a very good aspect of this story to question and also a very easy one to answer. My parents had set up a sort of delivery method with a coworker. Every Tuesday the doorbell would ring and a package of assorted vegetables, canned goods, and other food would be waiting for me in a box outside. This was how I learned my first, what I like to call ¡°Real world skill¡±, cooking. Cooking was something I did out of necessity. I never enjoyed cooking and would just make simplistic meals out of the ingredients brought to me. Although in the beginning I failed to even do that much and would end up just eating the ingredients raw.


    It was at this point my parents returned once again. I was so excited. Two years without parents can take quite a toll on a young kid¡¯s psyche and I was not an exception. I may have actually faired much worse, since within the entire two years of their absence, I had absolutely no contact with the outside world. My appearance was horrifying to say the least. I was as pale as a ghost back then and my hair was always a brown, disheveled mess resting atop my head. I had not stopped learning languages and became fluent in the six I had begun learning, but lack of human contact had made me anti-social. Even if I could speak those languages, I lacked the experience many kids my age had already begun to have involving interpersonal communication. My parents had brought with them some pleasant news though. We were moving.


    I had become sick of the house I was staying in. Seeing the same scenery for seven years can do that to anyone. The only issue I faced was that I had no concept of, well anything other than the languages I could speak and the computer science skills I had become so fluent with. I was told we were going to America. I had no idea what an America was, but I still remained hopeful for an exciting change of scenery¡­until I had my first encounter with an airplane.


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    The noise alone made me fear for my life, but the fact we were going into one sent me into a panic attack. My parents gave me something to drink telling me it would calm me down. The next moment I was waking up in the airplane right when it was landing. That was the first time I was ever drugged by my parents and the only time I remember it happening.


    The first seven years of my life was a rather lonely one and one I tend to avoid reflecting on too often. I still have no idea where the actual location of my first house was and I have very little motivation to ask. My life truly began when I arrived in the United States. We moved into a house in Westchester, New York. I call it a house, but it was much more similar to a mansion. Standing three stories tall, it was brick and mortar monument to my family¡¯s wealth. We also owned a large portion of the surrounding woods. These woods offered secrecy and security, although I did not understand that back then. This was when my training began. My parents hired a retired military drill sergeant and disappeared once again. I was given the full treatment. What I suffered through in the three years we stayed together could only be described as hell, but I was just happy to have some human companionship.


    During my three years of getting drilled by the sergeant, not sexually of course, I learned some of my most useful skills. Using firearms, primarily sniper rifles, hand-to-hand combat, and perhaps most importantly, I learned discipline. Although his name escapes me, or perhaps I never did learn it to begin with, I owe that man my thanks and a couple good punches. Those three years were also the time I learned about the world around me. Politics, economics, world history, and a couple of the sciences were just a few of the subjects I chose to study up on in the free time I managed to get from that old bastard.


    My tenth birthday was when my parents came home once again. My father came home with a missing eye. It should have frightened me, seeing my father like that. I just didn¡¯t care. My mother was not in great shape either. Her ring finger and pinky were both missing from her left hand and her left leg was in a cast. Once again I felt nothing. I¡¯m not sure why, but that moment was when I realized I wasn¡¯t quite normal. The signs had been so obvious beforehand. My ridiculous intelligence, my rapidly increasing physique, and now my lack of sympathy and empathy. I must have just lacked the necessary precursor to fully understanding my own uniqueness. I was still unsure about I was becoming, but I had become very aware my parents were conditioning me for something.


    I never asked what happened to them. They simply came in and began talking. My parents¡¯ jobs were startling yet almost expected in some ways. My father was, or rather is, a human trafficker who sells to a variety of clients. My mother works for the Italian mafia although she did not say the specific tasks she had to do. After explaining this to me they then invited me to begin helping them out on smaller jobs. This was a promise of outside contact and adventure. How could I refuse? They also added in my possible enrollment within a local prep school which only furthered my acceptance. This is where I currently stand. Ironically laying atop a roof opposite a warehouse in southern Texas. The scope of my sniper rifle aimed straight at the head of one of the Mexican cartel¡¯s runners. My father¡¯s hand now has two fingers scratching his right ear lobe, that¡¯s the signal. I take the shot.

 Chapter One

    Chapter One


    I am now eleven years old. I have been told I look closer to a sixteen year old. I guess I have my large stature to thank for that. The years of exercise are finally showing their results. I have now been helping my dad, Richard Ellsworth, for the last year. He always tells me to call him Richard, but I prefer the name Dick. Thanks to him I have been to some real shitholes and have met with some of the worst humanity has to offer. I am frightened to say I fit right in. They got my humor and some of them I even considered family. The only issue with our line of work is that people have a very high mortality rate. The few people with whom I became close with all died not even a month later. Human trafficking is not a business anyone can take lightly.


    My father is someone who understands this concept very well. His business model consists of two very clear objectives. If someone has something you want, take it. If someone pisses you off, make sure they do not live to see the next day. These are the two business ideals I have been following for the last year. I have learned that stealing people is a lot more difficult than simply killing someone. Killing is simple, one bullet to the head and move on. Stealing is much more complex. I have to make sure that I successfully infiltrate and extract the product with minimal casualties. I have decided that doing so without anyone dying is impossible. A firefight is inevitable in those situations and someone always gets hit. It can¡¯t be helped.


    My mother has yet to return from her trip to Italy. She left three months ago on ¡°Important business¡±. I still have no idea what she does. Luckily, my life is about to change. I can finally go to school. My dad enrolled me in a local private high school, Sacred Hearts. Of course with our line of work my actual name could not be used. I was sent to get fake documents to help me get in. This was another way for my father to test the information network I had slowly been growing the past year. He was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I got the documents within three days and if you know anything about illegal documents that is an impressive amount of time. I am now Jacob Smith, fourteen year old high school freshman. The name sucks, but it will work for the time being. Of course I am well beyond what any high school can teach me, but I am going purely for the social aspect it will bring. I have not had any normal interactions with anyone close to my age in my life so far. I do not count any interactions with slaves I have handled since the interactions with them are hard to call ordinary.  I just hope I can learn a bit more on how someone my age normally acts.


    My schooling actually begins next week. I would not say I am excited, that rarely happens anymore. I am more at a minimally intrigued. I am just interested in this new aspect of life I have yet to experience. ¡°Hurry up and get the hell down here!¡± this gruff voice was none other than Dicks, his voice always has a way of forcing me to snap back to reality. His impatience is very obvious by the tone of his voice. It''s never good to keep a Dick waiting.


    I have a job tonight which will bring in millions if done correctly. I rush over to my closet and hit a panel on the side of my room. The closet swings open revealing the hidden wall of illegal gear. I am not expecting this job to be very difficult. I will be performing a simple assassination. I reach out and grab my M24 along with its silencer. This along with my array of knives would be all I bring for tonight. I shove it all into my black duffel bag and rush down the stairs.  The sight of my father¡¯s six foot tall figure is an imposing one. His face is always cleanly shaven and perfectly smooth aside from the scar that now runs across his right eye.


    ¡°What took so long?¡± he grunts at me. Now that I think about it, his voice does not match his facial features.


    ¡°I had to finish packing, let¡¯s head out. The target will be there in an hour.¡± I reply in an easygoing manner, which only seems to piss off Dick even further.


    ¡°We could have had even more time if you had just hurried the fuck up!¡± He yells this as we leave the mansion and stepped into the black Toyota Camry waiting outside the house. A car that will draw the least amount of attention is always the best choice. With our job, standing out means either death or jail.


    ¡°We still have time, just calm down. It only takes me a few minutes to set up.¡±  I give my reply while thinking about what I should have for dinner. A chicken dish sounds really good.


    If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.¡°We cannot fuck this one up! This shipment will be for the Russian mafia and they don¡¯t react nicely when they fail to get what they want.¡± My father is always so stressed out. We have yet to fail a mission and I do not plan on making this the first. My only part in this job is to kill the freelance black market worker, John Hemsworth. It is nothing personal, we just need the twenty slaves he has in his warehouse. I believe one of them is a high priority target, but that is Dick¡¯s ordeal not mine.


    ¡°I have yet to fail once and this will not be my first time.¡± With that our brief conversation is over. Arriving a block away from our target¡¯s meeting location. I quickly run over to the building directly adjacent to where the meeting will take place. It is a little clich¨¦, but a parking garage offers great cover and a quick getaway if trouble appears.  I quickly set up my sniper rifle. Slowly screwing on the silencer as time slowly drifts past. Twenty minutes are remaining before the meeting time so I begin to search the nearby area for any potential threats. After quickly looking around through my scope I notice an odd glint in a nearby window. Zooming in I see a sniper rifle aiming straight back at me. I quickly fire off a shot while almost simultaneously ducking down. Pieces of cement shot out from only centimeters above my head where the shooter¡¯s bullet was now lodged. I now only have fifteen minutes before the meeting time and the completion of my job was uncertain. The sniper rifle was now gone from the window, but that does not mean the opponent is dead.


    I am running out of time. Blood slowly trickles down my cheek from where cement had become lodged within, only agitating me further. I need a quick way to take out this fucking sniper. I grab my knives from my belt and quickly run across the road. The sniper was on the fourth floor and that is my current destination. I quickly make my way up the building and arrive at the room only to find it empty. A sense of foreboding washes over me. Something isn¡¯t right. I quickly swing the knife in my right hand behind me only to be greeted with the clang of steel on steel. I turn around to see a woman I have never met, but her beauty is stunning. Her tight, black nylon outfit only manages to enrapture me further although it appears very impractical and uncomfortable. Her short, black hair swishes back and forth as we exchange a few more blows with our knives. I am left with a deep gash in my right forearm from the exchange. I am now fed up. There is very little time left. She needs to die. I rush at her with my knives swinging the right one up to block her incoming attack aimed at my neck, the second I aim at her abdomen only to be blocked once more. A gunshot then rang throughout the room. We both stop in our tracks. I give her a small grin as she falls to the floor in a pool of her own blood. I always keep a small handgun strapped onto the side of my boot. It is only seconds until the meeting time and I quickly rush over to the window she was aiming out of. I hate using apartment buildings as my spot for sniping. It¡¯s too impractical. Sadly my target is already making his way towards the danger zone. Imagine I sang that last part.


    My target was careful and probably thought he had planned for everything, but not everything can be planned for. I quickly take aim with the foreign sniper rifle and let loose one bullet. I watch as it hits him perfectly in his temple and blood decorates the concrete behind him with a dark red hue. My role in this operation has finished. I start to head out, but once I reach the car I notice Dick hasn¡¯t come back yet from capturing the already captured slaves. In this line of work, helping others is almost looked down upon. Live and let die is the motto of most of the underworld, but this man was still my father. I can¡¯t help it, I decide to simply drive by the warehouse to see if everything is progressing smoothly.


    As I pull up, smoke begins billowing out of the partially open iron doors of the warehouse. Something isn¡¯t right. I rush in with my pistol in hand, searching for my father. I hurriedly run through empty rooms until I start running into corpses, most already engulfed in flames. I keep running forward covering my mouth with my sleeve. My father has been a total asshole to me for most of my life, but he has still helped me out of many situations that should have killed me. I owe him multiple lives that I do not have to give. I make it to the basement steps. As I am about to start heading down I see a young girl making her way to the ladder through the flames. Her eyes seem to be made of fire themselves and her golden crimson hair is whipping wildly around her as she slowly walks towards me. Her clothes are long gone, but her skin appears to be unaffected by the flames surrounding her. She begins climbing the ladder, takes one look at me standing at the top and says three words, ¡°He¡¯s not here.¡±

 Chapter Two

    Chapter Two


    Her name is Felicia. At least she looked like a Felicia. I didn¡¯t actually have a chance to talk to her. The building began falling down right as she appeared. My only option was to escape. After weaving my way through the burning debris crashing around me I realized she had disappeared and I was left alone. Now I am left without my father and hell of a lot of questions. My only option was to head home and recuperate.


    After a short drive I have finally arrived back at our mansion. Making my way inside, I grab a healthy snack of candy laying on our counter and crash onto my computer chair. I fall asleep so fast that I don¡¯t even have a chance to eat the candy I had grabbed. I woke up the next morning with the wave of questions still crashing through my mind and intense back pain. Sleeping in a chair was not one of my best ideas. After my shower I quickly get to work. I have a lot to figure out and I want to get it done before school begins. My first issue will be money. My parents kept strict control of our funds and with both of my parents missing I had no way to access any of our vast amount of riches. Luckily, I have a variety of skills that can be very useful for monetary gain. I choose the easiest way and hack into a low security bank withdrawing only about twenty grand. If it''s so easy why wouldn''t I have done it before? Good question me. This is just the only time I have really needed or wanted any money. Having safely transferred the funds over to an account I just recently made for my fake ID, it was time to move on to more pressing matters.


    My biggest issue at the moment is myself. I have been constantly putting it off as unimportant, but it has reached a point where it simply cannot be ignored. My body seems to heal at an exponential rate. The deep gash on my forearm has already become nothing more than a scar. That was a wound that would have needed multiple stitches and weeks to fully heal from. That and Felicia the flame girl. There are obviously some sort of mutants living in broad daylight and I guess my ability makes me one of them. My mind has begun to float off into imaginations of a mutant academy where I fight crime or maybe a group of vigilantes teaming up to save the world. It is now that I realize which side I would be on. I am the bad guy. Well that¡¯s what any normal human would view me as. Everything I do and have done could be considered morally corrupt on some level. With this thought my hollow laugh echoes throughout the empty house. Being a villain isn¡¯t such a terrible thing. With this small revelation, I decide to put off this ¡°superpower¡± issue until it becomes more relevant.


    School and work is what I should be focused on! Since Dick is now gone I will have to take over his business for the time being. The Russian mafia should be paying our house a visit soon as well, I better do my best to be an accommodating host. I quickly walk over and turn on the land mines we have hidden across our lawn. I am not even going to try and hold a conversation with them. It is going to be kill or be killed. Just how I like it. With any luck the mines will scare them off and I won¡¯t be forced to start shooting.


    Dick¡¯s business is another issue that I have to face. I have the right connections, I just lack the experience in negotiations. I will probably end up hemorrhaging money for a while, but I should get the hang of it soon enough. With that I call up Hector who could now be considered ¡°my¡± drug distributor.


    ¡°Hector small change of plans,¡± I began speaking immediately once the phone picked up. ¡°My father is off on some very important business so I will be in charge for the unforeseeable future. Prices and distribution rates will remain the same as will the punishments for disobeying orders.¡± With that I hung up. Never let Hector begin talking. He is a slimy bastard who is only good with his words. With that I called our other business partners with the same messages. I can be just as tyrannical as my father if necessary and they need to understand that. If not, this entire business venture will turn into a bloody one.


    The gross profit from Dick¡¯s area of work has always been a staggering figure. I had seen it before, but actually being in charge of close to 1.2 billion dollars¡¯ worth of drugs, sex slaves, and a mixture of other illegal activities is a lot more daunting than it originally seems. I¡¯m sure there is not a single kid in the world that can relate to my current issues. Once I become acclimated and my job as CEO is firmly established, I plan on making some drastic changes. Dick has never been very good with finances or economics. I should just say Dick is only good at being a Dick. My regime will start now and I can make a fuck load more than just 1.2 billion dollars. Another couple hours pass as I slowly work my way through my families extensive contact network when suddenly the first mine went off. It was much more powerful than expected and shook my entire house. Following the first, a second and third go off with two more earth shaking booms. The entire house begins trembling now. I hope this does not become a common occurrence. I would hate for all the buildings I venture into to collapse shortly after.


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    I grab a shotgun, two P90s and a string of grenades we keep in our kitchen and rush out the back door. Just as I leave a motherfucking tank blasts a giant hole in the left side of the house. The goddamn Russian mafia brought a fucking tank! I have no other options. I abandon the weapons I am holding while pulling out all the pins in the grenades and chucking the entire belt behind me. The grenades failed to any meaningful damage to anyone behind me. I begin to run for the woods although not before catching sight of a familiar face among the Russians, Hector. His goofy ass grin is easy to pick out from the crowd. I can¡¯t believe I failed to see this coming. This was brought on by my own stupidity. If I had stayed quiet and waited for either father or mother to return home this could have been easily avoided. I was noticed when I first began running, but I think they still expected my father to be home and chose to hover around the house. Hector was always a careful one. I probably don¡¯t pose much of a threat to them at the moment.


    After running for hours I finally stop to catch my breath. Only then do I notice the large amount of blood leaking from the front of my shirt. I must have been hit by a stray bullet when I began running. Adrenaline has really fucked me over this time. My blood had already fully soaked the t-shirt I am wearing and the amount of blood I have already lost must be astronomical. I guess my healing can only accomplish so much. I quickly rip my shirt off and tightly wrap it around the wounded area. My only hope now is to reach a hospital before I succumb to my wounds. With adrenaline still pumping through my veins, I continue on my journey through the forest leaving a trail of blood as I go. I just barely make it out and reach the edge of a highway before I lose consciousness.


    I open my eyes only to see an unfamiliar set of eyes looking back at me.


    ¡°Mommy he woke up! Mommy!¡± The voice of the little girl, previously standing over me, could now be heard echoing down the halls of the hospital I was currently placed in. Before I had a chance to check my current state of health, a middle aged couple rushed in, with the little girl from before hot on their heels.


    ¡°Thank god he¡¯s alright, what could cause a teenager to wind up in such a situation?¡± the average looking middle aged man said. Average is the only way to describe him. From his haircut to his suit, everything about him screams average.


    The younger woman standing next to him only continues to look at me with a worried expression on her face. She has a motherly aura surrounding her, assuming such a thing actually exists. With that I decide to finally chime in.


    ¡°What did happen?¡± I meekly ask. Exaggerating my condition seems like a great position to take at the moment.


    ¡°You were shot, multiple times from the looks of it. We found you on the side of the road and brought you here immediately. Do you remember who did this to you? Even a rough description could help!¡± Mr. Average¡¯s talking speed was gradually increasing as he clearly became more worked up. It brought me a small amount of amusement.


    I am not going to answer immediately. I need to sit in silence for a few seconds to truly gather my thoughts. I cannot remember getting shot a second time, but now that I am fully awake I can tell my leg is encased in some kind of brace. How could I completely miss getting shot in the leg? I will not fully trust this family. They are almost too nice. There isn¡¯t anyone who cares about a strangers well-being this much.


    As if understating what I was thinking the motherly woman softly said, ¡°We¡¯re sorry to be a bother so soon after you have woken up. We¡¯ll give you some time to gather your thoughts. We¡¯re just glad you are doing alright.¡± With those words the mother lightly pushed her husband and daughter out the door leaving me alone once more to contemplate what new hell I found myself in now.

 Chapter Three

    Authors Note: Sorry about the short chapter, I have a lot going on with school and work. I should have a longer, more interesting chapter out later today. Thank you for reading my story!


    Chapter 3


    I came to a conclusion just a few seconds ago while lying in this comfortable hospital bed. I need to escape! With my abilities and the fact that I have already fully healed I can make a stealthy escape. I scan the room for any sort of sharp tool I can use to get this damned cast off my leg. I am not having any luck. I happen to glance outside the window and my plans have been derailed as fast as the Nazi regime. Across the street, in a black sedan sit two burly men in black suits. They are very obviously from the mafia. Leaving now would only result in my early death. Dick was always great at making enemies. For now I will play the sick patient. I still have my fake ID I made for school so I can get by as a regular high school student. Well most regular high school students don¡¯t get shot twice. Oh shit, I forgot about school. I guess I¡¯ll be starting a little late if I plan on following the unwell patient plan. I guess I need to get acclimated to living within a hospital for a while.


    It¡¯s been an entire month. The doctor is being a little bitch and is making me go through physical therapy. I played along for a while, but acting weak is something I can only do for so long. After two weeks I had enough and began using the weight I always use to workout with. Turns out it is more than most adults could lift. I may have acted a bit rashly. At least after that my physical therapy ended. The doctor still said I needed to stay in the hospital for another two weeks. I think they are trying to figure out how I healed so quickly. Even I don¡¯t know that. Today is the last day of my month long hospital stint and this month gave me a lot of time to think. I need to stop acting so rashly, I¡¯m still a kid. Not a normal kid by any means, but still a kid. I¡¯ll be going to high school once I get out. I need to lay low, at least until my mom comes back from Italy. Once she returns and sees the state of our house, everything in her path will be destroyed.


    Mr. Average is now standing in the doorway to my room looking very pleased with himself. Of course in the month I have been in the hospital I got to learn about the family that saved me. They are the Reed family. Mr. Average is actually called Andrew Reed. The mother is Samantha. They also have two girls, Rachel and Hannah. Rachel is the little girl I had the pleasure of hearing when I woke up in the hospital. Hannah is a sophomore in high school at Sacred Hearts. Yes, the same high school I will be going to. I still have not met her, but if she is anything like the rest of her family then ignoring her will be the best option.


    ¡°It is finally time for you to get out here. Come on, we will give you a ride home.¡± He seems almost too excited. Wait, I never told them where my home is. Now that I think about it, what kind of family did I give my fake identification? Shit.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know where I live though.¡± I replied hesitantly, afraid of the answer I was about to receive.


    ¡°You are coming to live with us! We have all the paper work filled out and legal procedures taken care of. A fourteen year old boy should not have to live alone on his high school campus.¡± Damnit, I made Jacob Smith an orphan. It seemed easier at the time to simply make the parents disappear than to create fake ones. I don¡¯t think I have much of a choice here.


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    I put on the best smile I can and reply with. ¡°I would hate to be a burden to you two. You both have done so much for me already. I can¡¯t ask this much from you.¡± I know this won¡¯t change anything, but this is the right way to respond.


    ¡°Nonsense! You are already family to us! Come on we need to get going. We still have to buy you some clothes and school supplies. You are already three weeks late for school.¡± Samantha said all this with a voice filled with love. Love isn¡¯t something I am familiar with. It feels disgusting. They shouldn¡¯t have love for someone they only met a month ago. They also shouldn¡¯t take in a stranger they just met a month ago. This family is too odd.


    As we walk through the lobby of the hospital, I take a look at myself in a nearby mirror. My short black hair, dark brown eyes, and very pale skin don¡¯t create a very welcoming visage. I also notice a scar on my right cheek. It must be from when the cement shrapnel from the sniper bullet hit me. My ability must only be able to heal until the wound becomes a scar. That means I am also sporting a long scar on my forearm and two scars from my bullet wounds. All of that will not be easy to explain to anyone that asks.


    We finally arrive at their house. It is exactly what I expected. A middle sized suburban household. The house was in a cul-de-sac with many other houses that look the exact same. I can already tell it is a very boring place to live. Their house is a two story house made entirely of brick. A Honda Civic is sitting in the driveway. We are currently in a minivan, so they must own two cars. They lead me inside, talking the entire time. I am just pretending to listen at this point. We finally reach a room on the second floor and they lead me inside.


    ¡°Here is your room, Jacob. We realize it doesn¡¯t have much, but we weren¡¯t sure how to decorate it.¡± Andrew said this while looking at me, obviously waiting to see my reaction.


    ¡°This is already more than enough. Thank you both so much! This means the world to me.¡± I have grown pretty great at faking emotions and soon tears began to well up in my eyes. I gave both of them a hug while saying those gag worthy words.


    ¡°When you are ready, come downstairs and we can head out to buy you what will need.¡± Samantha said as they politely left the room. I¡¯m sure they did so to give me time to sort through my emotions. I look at the almost empty room. It just has a bed in one corner and a desk in the other with a closet door to the right of me. This room will do for the time being. I then slowly shut the door and head downstairs towards my new family.

 Chapter Four

    Chapter Four


    I am on my way to school. This is going to be my first day there. I have already missed a month of school, but I guess they don¡¯t care as long as they receive the tuition money. Andrew is the one driving me to school. He really needs to learn how to shut the fuck up. So far he has talked about his issues at work, his issues with the yardwork he has been doing lately, and issues I was actually present during. What issues could those possibly be? Well let me tell you, random voice in my head. He is talking about the time I spent in the hospital. It is fucking ridiculous! I was there, why would he talk about how scared he was? I don¡¯t understand nor do I care enough to ask why.


    Our car has finally made it to the front of the school. I did some research on this place so I am not surprised by the grandeur of the building, but its size was still a little awe inspiring. The main building was built into a large spire towering over the rest of the school. The remaining buildings were all built with a gothic architectural style. Only the rich would be attending this school. It really makes me question how the Reeds were able to send their daughter here.


    The car comes to a complete stop and I rush out to get into the building.


    ¡°Enjoy your first day of school. I¡¯ll be waiting here to pick you up once the day is over!¡± I hear the words of Andrew drift out from the minivan as it pulls away. That car could actually make a woman¡¯s pussy dry up. I walk slowly into the school, heading for the office.  I have no idea what my class schedule is. I never had the time to check it beforehand, not that it matters. Any class I take here will be one I could have passed when I was five.


    An elderly woman greets me as I walk through the door. She is the type of woman who was always too scared to move away from the town she was born in and ended up working at the high school she went to. Now she is simply waiting out the days until she dies. These type of people are always the saddest to look at. She is nothing more than a walking corpse.


    ¡°Hi, I am Jacob Smith, I missed the first month of school due to my hospitalization and was wondering if I could get my class schedule.¡± I initiate the conversation. Someone had to.


    ¡°Ohh yes, I got a call from your caregivers a few days ago. Here¡¯s your schedule and a map of the school. Your first class is Biology, which is just down the hall to the right.¡± Her aged voice slowly explains where to go.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± After she finishes I quickly thank her, grab the sheet she held out to me and head straight to class. I¡¯ve lost the enthusiasm I once had for school. I no longer strive to mingle with people my own age, I am just too unique to ever fit in. I arrive at my first class very promptly, it was fairly easy to find. I sit down and prepare for the long day that awaits me. It is strange that I wasn¡¯t given a locker though, maybe that will happen later on. The class is slowly filling up and eventually the teacher walks in and class begins. No, I didn¡¯t introduce myself to the class. That kind of pussy shit doesn¡¯t happen in America. You show up and are thrown to the wolves. The wolves being prepubescent teenagers in this case, which can often times be just as horrifying. I am not one to talk though, I am not even twelve yet. I would fit into that category as well.


    Class is over, well the first one is. It was as dull and interminable as I had expected. The classroom interactions were childish at best. Talking isn¡¯t allowed in class during class time unless the teacher allows it. This meant that I have yet to even talk to a fellow classmate, but my hope for any meaningful interactions have all but vanished with the immaturity I witnessed from the first class alone.


    My next few classes were just as horrible as my first. Same shit different location. The school is set up so a student will travel to each one of their classes across campus. A fifteen minute break is allowed between each one and during that break a student must prepare their material and get to class before it starts. It just puts more stress onto the students. I have made it to our dedicated time for lunch. It almost feels like this is a prison or maybe a cattle farm. Students being the cattle of course.


    I grab some mess of food they hand me for lunch and I immediately throw it away, I don¡¯t have much of an appetite. A group of kids sitting next to me are giving me strange looks. It almost seems like they want to approach me, but have no idea how. I am growing pretty listless and need something to entertain me. I¡¯ll go see what they want.


    I walk over and sit down at an empty seat at their table. ¡°Hi I¡¯m Jacob. I don¡¯t believe we have met.¡± My greeting may have been a bit formal, but I¡¯m not in the mood to be childish.


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    The kids at the table all return the greeting and introduce themselves. I forgot to pay attention. Their names aren¡¯t important anyways. They clearly have something interesting to tell or ask me. After a few minutes of friendly banter they finally get to the big picture.


    ¡°My friends and I are throwing a party this weekend. Why don¡¯t you come as well? It would be a great way to meet your fellow classmates.¡± This is what I was waiting for. Something interesting has finally reared its head and I pounce on it quicker than a starving hobo can pounce on a dollar. I am also not sure that is exactly how he said it. I find that I keep translating everything people say in this school into something intelligible. I¡¯m not sure I could figure out the meaning to our conversations if I didn¡¯t.


    ¡°I would love to go! I¡¯ve been wanting to find a way to get to know everyone better.¡± I choose to add some extra excitement in my acceptance. It can¡¯t hurt.


    ¡°That¡¯s great. The party will be this Saturday at my house. Write down your number and I will text you the details later.¡± He said this while pulling out a piece of paper that had list of numbers already written down on it. I wrote down my name and number in the next open line.


    I am writing down the last number when the school bell goes off, it¡¯s time to go back to class. The rest of the day went almost identically to the beginning of it. Boring classes and boring conversations. I could describe the rest of the week in excruciatingly boring detail, but that doesn¡¯t make for much of a story and is also why I am now leaving school Friday afternoon. I need to prepare for the party tomorrow night. Rich high school kids can be a great source of income and an even greater way to gain influence quickly.


    When I arrive home I dial a phone number I memorized a long time ago. A man picks up, speaking in Vietnamese. My Vietnamese is a little rusty, but I can still speak with the best of them. We converse in Vietnamese for a few minutes and then I hang up the phone. Hector doesn¡¯t have control over, or intel on, all of my contacts. I just ordered ten ounces of cocaine and will need to leave soon to go pick it up. Cocaine is a great drug to sell. The prices are high and become higher when idiotic high school kids are involved. I should be able to triple the ten grand I am spending on it. I will probably sell it cheap to start out though to make sure they trust me and slowly raise the prices. I will also need to find drug runners of my own once this becomes big enough.


    I head out to pick up my cocaine and pay the man with a portion of the money I stole from the bank before I got shot. The transaction is done without a hitch and I head back home. I am now in possession of ten ounces of coke and down ten thousand dollars. This better be worth it.


    Saturday night I get a ride over to the party. I take my backpack with me, but neither of my caretakers questioned me about it. It is currently filled with cocaine, but shouldn¡¯t be for long. I step out of the car to head towards the house, but before I got out Andrew had to leave me with his words of wisdom, ¡°If anyone offers you alcohol or drugs, turn them down. Nothing good comes out those illegal activities.¡± I couldn¡¯t even look at him without laughing so I just step out of the car and walk to the house without looking back. I arrive at the entrance and walk inside. The second I open the front door, I am hit with a wave of loud music and the smell of alcohol. This is the type of atmosphere I thrive in.


    I quickly get to work distributing the product. I begin by giving very small amounts of free to those who appear to be the most fucked up. I continue doing so and as the night wears on word begins to spread that I have something worthwhile. The moment multiple people come to me asking for some I begin charging money for it. I can¡¯t help but notice an attractive blonde girl keeps coming back for more. This is her fourth time coming to me, but even if I try she keeps buying the smallest amount I offer. It is almost as if she wants to stop, but lacks the willpower to truly go through with it. Addiction is just one of the perks to this job. The night ends with me selling off almost seventy- five percent of the cocaine I brought. I have already made back the money I spent and an extra two thousand in pure profit. I purposely sold it cheap this time around. Get them hooked and they will keep coming back for more, no matter how expensive it gets. This will be only the beginning to my re-entry into the drug market.

 Chapter Five

    Author''s note: So here is chapter five. Again thanks so much for reading my story and any feedback would be extremely helpful. I honestly don''t have a concrete plan for this story yet so if there is some aspect of it you want to see more of let me know.


    Chapter Five


    ¡°Here is the money I owe you.¡± Rob hands me a stack of bills and I immediately begin counting through it. The entire five hundred is here and I let him leave. Yes my business has grown this quickly. It has only been a few weeks and I already have three people working under me. Rob, the short, pudgy guy from earlier, was my first recruit and so far my most profitable. I am now at a point where I don¡¯t have to actually sell any of the drug myself. My three runners will show up at my house randomly throughout the week and I will hand them the drugs they will have to distribute that week. Each of my runners has an amount they must pay me back at the end of each week. Whatever they make beyond that they get to keep. I have noticed some local gangsters hanging around the area recently. They must have started noticing some of my drugs floating around and want to get rid of the competition. I will have to deal with them sooner rather than later.


    I may also have to consider expanding soon. I frequent just about every high school party now and every time I do more drugs follow. Kids will start dying or getting arrested. Once they do police will begin snooping around. Police are easy to avoid, but are never good for business. If I sold to more people and increased the types of drugs I sell then I could cut off the tumorous high school section of my business while maintaining or even increasing business elsewhere. The other issue I have is that I am really only after influence and power. Money has never been an issue for me and I doubt it ever will. It is just a nice afterthought and that is why expansion is my highest priority at the moment.


    The residents of my house are the most comical aspect of this whole operation. Both Andrew and Samantha are oblivious to what is actually going on. They think my drug runners are my friends coming over to visit. I never see Rachel anymore, I think she is scared of me. Hannah is the most intriguing one. Five days ago I was woken up in the middle of the night by a familiar face. The blonde from the party was standing over me looking like a nervous wreck. The moon reflected off of her blue eyes as she stared at me slowly sit up in my bed.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± I asked. Of course I recognized her, but I was unsure how she got into my room.


    ¡°Hannah you dipshit. My room is literally down the hall from yours.¡± She said this in a strained whisper. I could tell she wanted to either yell or slap me in the face.


    ¡°What do you want? I hate being woken up.¡± This was all I could think of saying at the moment. I was still trying to process what was going on. How could I have never seen her in the house before?


    ¡°I need cocaine for a party I¡¯m going to tomorrow. I know you have some.¡± I think she is trying to threaten me. Her glare is not a friendly one.


    ¡°Sorry, but I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about. Although I don¡¯t mind what is happening right now.¡± Hannah was slowly climbing on top of me while maintaining eye contact.


    ¡°Don¡¯t play dumb with me. I know you have it and I will pay any price to get it.¡± With those words the large t-shirt she was wearing came off and she moved her mouth right next to my ear.


    ¡°I¡¯ll do anything you want.¡± This was whispered directly into my ear as she softly bit my earlobe. I am only a teenager in the end, I couldn¡¯t hold back after that. We fucked every single day that week, but I only gave her cocaine the first time we did it. I don¡¯t give handouts. She kept coming back in the hopes of getting some more, but it never happened and never will again. That¡¯s a great thing about drugs, sex is usually going to come along with them.


    It was very obvious that Hannah had experience with sex before. I wasn¡¯t expecting anything different, finding a sophomore in high school that is a virgin would be a lot more surprising. Thinking back on it, I lost my virginity at ten years old. My dad is such a shitty parent. He took me to a whorehouse after the first mission I helped him out with. I wasn¡¯t even given a choice in the matter, we simply showed up and I was immediately taken into a room with a nude woman. She did all the work. I had no idea what was going on back then, I only knew it felt amazing. Since then sex is something I will never turn down, but don¡¯t actively seek out either. My time can be used in much more useful ways than chasing after women.


    I am now working on the new clientele I want my drug runners to aim for. The new clientele will bring with it a new drug. Ecstasy is another drug that can be bought cheaply in bulk and sold at exorbitant prices to a young, rich demographic. It is also one I enjoy taking occasionally. The high you experience makes you forget about the world and just enjoy the present. It allows me to feel emotions I was unaware I had before and would never feel without the drug. Luckily this area has multiple colleges nearby. Colleges and college parties are the new realms my company will be delving into. With this small expansion will come more runners and conflict will be inevitable. The second I go through with the expansion I will crush the other local drug dealers on my own. No one can stand in my way.


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    A month has passed since I began planning my expansion and it is now ready to be put into action. This plan will be one that starts with bloodshed. Over the last month I have accumulated three more runners and my profits have tripled. The biggest change has been with Hannah, however. She is now almost constantly high on something, but it is not anything I am offering. She is hardly at home anymore and her absence has caused obvious changes in the rest of the family. Andrew and Samantha spend most of their time arguing, it is rare to see them happy anymore. Rachel has almost been completely forgotten, by her parents and her sister. She rarely leaves her room. All of this makes my job a lot easier.


    I grab the silenced Gruber Kurz from under my mattress. I purchased it a week back just for this moment. I also bring multiple round of ammunition. Many people will be falling to my silent bullets tonight. My first target is a small time drug dealer at the local college. He deals out of his apartment, but


    [code]is known to be aggressive and very territorial. He will become a nuisance soon and must be taken care of. It only takes me fifteen minutes to reach his apartment and only a few seconds to get through the lock on his door. Lock picking has always come easy to me. I slowly walk through his apartment, dodging the trash that has been thrown precariously around the room. It¡¯s a small apartment with just the main room, a bathroom, and the bedroom at the back end. The bedroom door is already open and I make my way into his dimly lit room to find his naked ass laying on the bed. Next to him are two college girls who are obviously too high to even know where they are. The girls see me come in, but only continue to stare with dead eyes. It almost feels like they are looking through me instead of at me. I can¡¯t have any witnesses. They are the first ones to go.


    I take aim and fire two shots. Both shots hit true and two small holes, one in each of the girls¡¯ foreheads, are now visible. The girls both slowly slump over on top of each other in the corner of the room they had been sitting in. They most likely died without understanding they were in danger at all. Next I walk up to the man sprawled out on the bed. I put my gun to the back of his head and pull the trigger.


    The rest of the night went the same way. I went around killing anyone I thought might bring me trouble in the future. Most of them were college students who were dealing on the side. Brute force is always the easiest way to handle competition.


    As I see morning sun rise in the sky I make my way home. I went through thirty-three bullets last night and every one took a life. The police will have a field day with this, but I don¡¯t leave evidence behind. I made sure I hacked every type of surveillance even remotely near any areas I visited during the night. I also covered any track that could lead the cops to me. This is a skill every good criminal needs and one I learned very thoroughly from my parents.


    I reach my house to find a very unwelcoming sight. Four police cars and an ambulance are parked at my house. I quickly run behind a nearby house and toss my now empty gun into the thickest bush in their yard. I then step back out onto the road and begin running at my house. Police wouldn¡¯t be here for me. I am certain of that, so the only conclusion is that something happened to someone else I live with.


    ¡°What happened!? Is everyone alright??¡± I yell running in through the front door with a few of the cops from outside chasing me in. The first thing I notice is the loud wailing coming from a room upstairs. I rush up the stairs, taking them two at a time and run down the hallway. The crying is coming from Hannah¡¯s room and I rush in only to find Samantha crouched on the ground with her head in her hands wailing. Her screams feel as though they could pierce my soul. A team of paramedics is working on a young body over in the corner. Andrew is sitting next to Samantha with his arm around her and he is clearly in shock. He is just staring at the wall opposite him, not moving a muscle. I look at the body the paramedics are working on and to my surprise it¡¯s not Hannah, it¡¯s Rachel. Her eyes, devoid of life, are staring up at the ceiling or maybe they are looking past that to the world she never had a chance to experience.


    I join Samantha and Andrew in mourning and even let out a few tears. I still have some use for this place after all. The paramedics work for a few more minutes, but officially call her time of death after realizing she can¡¯t be saved. I already noticed earlier what happened here. An open bag of cocaine lay on the floor with most of it gone and a young girl was dead on the floor, with the probable cause being a heart attack. It¡¯s not difficult to put two and two together. The inevitable first death from the drugs came to be. The victim was unexpected and also problematic. Police are bad for business.

 Chapter Six

    Author''s note: Just to give a warning about this chapter. It is a disturbing one. Following that pleasant note, thanks for reading! I love you all except Steve. Fuck you Steve.


    Chapter Six


    The household is silent. It has been for the last two week ever since Rachel died. Andrew and Samantha stopped talking to each other altogether. Andrew is rarely sober anymore and Samantha will sit in front of the television every day watching the same news channel and nothing more. Hannah came home a few days after Rachel¡¯s death looking like absolute shit. Her once well kempt blonde hair was now a ratty mess of dull blonde. Her gaunt pale face was a tribute to the massive amount of drugs she must have been doing. The first thing she did when she came home was loudly bust into my room a punch me in the face with all the force she could muster.


    ¡°You sick fuck! You killed my sister!¡± Her fists continued to land on me, but each one was weaker than the last.


    ¡°How could this happen.. She didn¡¯t deserve to die, my sister can¡¯t die!¡± Hannah was now kneeling on the floor having given up her barrage from earlier. I understood what she meant to say, I just disagreed with it.


    ¡°It is not my room she died in and it was not my drugs she took.¡± I gave this reply while looking down at the top of her head, having nothing else to look at.


    ¡°Just because I sell drugs does not make me the one responsible. You always have drugs with you and I¡¯m sure you had some hidden in your room.¡± Hannah only seemed to shrink further into the floor after I finished speaking. She looked defeated and I think she realized the truth at that point. She was one of the main reasons her sister had died. I left her to kneel on the floor of my room and went to go work on my current business. My expansion had just begun and I needed to focus all of my attention on that.


    This household has become a dangerous place to stay. Hannah still hates me and may try killing me one of these days. Andrew and Samantha no longer do anything at all. I may call Child Protective Services and see if I can move onto the high school campus for the time being. Sadly, a high school student will have a hard time getting an apartment by themselves, which only leaves me with that option to aim for.


    On the bright side my expansion is progressing very quickly. I already have fifty people under me now and most of them are college students. I have created a hierarchal system where ten of the runners are higher up while each one of those ten has a couple of runners under them. I now have control of a majority of the drug market within this town and I barely have to move a muscle to allow it to continue expanding. I need to think bigger. Drugs can only get me so far in this world, I need to begin doing more if I want to become influential enough to take back what was originally mine.


    I finally decide to call my mother. She always has a strict policy that she never should be bothered when she is out working, but this situation calls for it. I am running out of ideas.


    ¡°Mother I need your help.¡± I always start talking the second a phone is answered. It might not be a god habit to have.


    ¡°I know the details honey, I am on my way back now. I think it¡¯s time you begin helping me out with some of my jobs now.¡± With that she hangs up the phone. My mother is one of few words. I will eventually get her to answer some of my questions, but for now I need to take care of some loose ends, the loose ends being the Reeds family.


    I return to the bush where I had thrown my gun weeks ago to find it still there, untouched. I pick it up and head back into the house. Once I get the call from mother that she has arrived I will leave this house and everyone in it behind. My drug ring I have created will continue and I will continue allowing it to grow and expand. It has already reached a point where my direct hand in its activities is not needed. It will grow naturally on its own.


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    Within a few hours I get the call from mother and I begin to clean up any evidence of my presence at the Reeds house. My room has little added to it ever since I moved in. I only need to make sure any trace of drugs has been wiped clean from the room. I also pull out a floorboard and grab all the ammunition I have left. There are six bullets. More than enough to finish up here. I slowly load my gun while thinking of what my future might entail. Will I end up working for the Italian mafia or will I only help out on a few missions? I guess I will just have to wait and see.


    With my gun fully loaded it is time to move on. I am heading to Hannah¡¯s room first. She is the closest and the one who will cause the most trouble if she found out what was going on. I walk in with the gun in my hand only to see Hannah sitting on the edge of her bed staring at me.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about this, but I can¡¯t leave any loose ends.¡± I say this while pointing the gun at her head. It is surprising how she is still so calm.


    ¡°Let me do it myself.¡± She whispers these words while looking straight into the barrel of the gun. I walk forward and place the gun in her right hand. She slowly lifts the gun to her and her finger is twitching on the trigger.


    ¡°This was all your fault. If only you never came into this town, moved into my home, fucked with my family. I could still be living a normal life. I would still have a sister. My parents would be back to their normal, happy selves. Fuck you Jacob.¡± Once that final word leaves her mouth she pulls the trigger. The gun shot is almost silent thanks to the silencer, but the outcome is the same. Hannah lies dead on her bed with a bullet wound through her head. I walk over, pick up the gun and make my way downstairs.


    I walk into the living room to see Andrew and Samantha sitting next to each other on the couch. I walk up behind them and quickly fire off two shots. I did not have a lot of interactions with the two of them. I chose to give them a quick death. I head back upstairs and place the gun back by Hannah¡¯s side. Her fingerprints are the only ones on the gun, I always wear gloves when handling guns. With any luck, this will be thought of as a murder suicide. I grab my bag and head outside to the black Rolls Royce waiting for me outside the house. While walking through the living room I notice that Andrew and Samantha¡¯s hands are intertwined. They must have finally made up.


    I walk out to the car and enter the passenger side door. My mother is sitting in the driver¡¯s seat waiting for me.


    ¡°Is everything taken care of?¡± She asks this while pulling away from the house.


    ¡°Yes, I took care of any loose ends that may spring up. Where are we heading?¡± I ask this while watching the house I had spent the last six months of my life in get smaller and smaller. I would never be going back.


    ¡°I have an apartment in the city. We will be staying there for the time being.¡± Her eyes never leave the road while she talks and I continue to stare out the window with my expressionless face. My mother is not one for talking. I¡¯m sure answers will be waiting for me at the apartment

 Quick update before the next chapter!

    I cannot gurantee I will be able to continue my current posting speed. I have finals coming up in a few weeks that will take up a good portion of my time. I will try to at least post one chapter a day.


    Moving on to news relating to the actual story. I was recently made aware that my story is very dark. I guess I should have added a trigger warning along with the mature tag it has. Haha but I have actually added that to the summary so everyone''s jimmies won''t get rustled. The story will only continue to get darker though. I have no plans on turning this into a lighthearted romcomor or some piss poor harem story.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    The first arc has ended and the new one will begin in a few hours. What will happen? Will he kill more people? Probably. I''m not even sure yet.

 Chapter Seven

    Chapter Seven


    Driving through New York City is never a pleasant experience. The crowds, the rude drivers, the asshole pedestrians, it is all just one big clusterfuck of unpleasant experiences. My mother¡¯s apartment ended up being a penthouse loft in a thirty floor building in the middle of New York. We have just pulled into the parking garage near the building and are on our way to the elevator that will take us up to the awaiting multi-million dollar loft.


    As we stand in the elevator as it slowly makes its way up my mother begins to speak.


    ¡°This apartment will be your new home and our current base of operations. Your childish games will end now. I will need your absolute best for the upcoming missions I have planned.¡±


    ¡°Yes mother.¡± I give my curt reply as the elevator doors swing open. I always end up talking very formally with my mother. It has just always been that way. She has always treated me with the same decorum. I follow my mother as we enter the apartment and the second I do a gunshot resounds throughout the room. I¡¯ve been shot and it is not a pleasant feeling. I look up to see Felicia standing behind the smoking barrel of the pistol she is currently holding. The bullet went straight through my heart and blood is now leaking down both sides of my shirt. It hurts like a bitch, but I am not losing consciousness and I actually notice the pain beginning to slowly fade away. I look down at my chest to see the wound slowly closing up right before my eyes. I knew I could regenerate, but not this fast. This is fucking insane. Am I invincible now?


    My mind is working harder than ever before to figure out what is actually going on, but in my stupor I forgot to speak. I have been standing in place staring at my chest for the last few minutes. I finally look up and address my assailant.


    ¡°Hello Felicia, you are looking as lovely as I remember although I preferred the outfit you had on before.¡± Felicia is now wearing a gray t-shirt and pink shorts. It is a huge difference to what she had on last time we met, nothing. I only realize my mistake a few seconds after saying my sentence. Felicia is the name I made up for her, I never actually learned her name.


    I look up to see both my mother and Felicia staring at me with inquisitive looks on their faces. My mother chimes in first.


    ¡°Who is Felicia?¡± She says this although the answer is very obvious.


    ¡°The girl that just shot me. I thought she looked like a Felicia the last time I saw her so that¡¯s what I ended up calling her.¡± I said this in a very matter of fact way and continue on with a bit more anger, ¡°Why was I just shot and why is she here??¡±


    ¡°She works for me. Her real name is Alicia if you even care. Your made up name is surprisingly close to her actual one. Good job.¡± Sarcasm is easy to spot when it is coming from my mother.


    ¡°She will be teaching you what your powers are and also helping you control them. There is an entire side of this world that you are now about to learn about.¡± With those final words, my mother walked into the room on the left, leaving Felicia and I alone.


    ¡°Why did you need to shoot me? I already knew I had powers.¡± I am now staring straight into Felicia¡¯s eyes. The more I stare the more they look like tiny flames. It is almost hypnotizing.


    ¡°I was just following Mrs. Ellsworth¡¯s orders. Your training will begin tomorrow. Wake up at five a.m. tomorrow morning and meet me here.¡± Felicia left me as well once she said that one sentence. I am starting to get a little pissed at how no one explains anything in this family. I pick up my bags and head to a nearby room. It is the only one the two ladies didn¡¯t enter so I can only assume it leads to my room. When I open the door a pleasant sight greets me. A high-tech computer is set up on the opposite wall just waiting for me to begin pushing its buttons. Its three monitors are illuminating the room with their pale, fluorescent light. There is also a bed very well furnished bed off to the side of the room. Lavish is good word to describe the room I now have. Expensive carpeting covers the floor and the wall facing out into the city is completely made of glass giving me a great view and the room a modern look. I grab a change of clothes and head off to bed. It¡¯s been a long day and I need some sleep. While changing I can¡¯t help but notice the new scar that adorns my body. If I continue like this I may end up becoming one big scar. I may get a cool nickname out of it though. My thoughts slowly drift away as I enter a deep sleep.


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    The next morning I wake up promptly at four forty-five and await my new teacher in the main room of the apartment. She somehow shows up precisely at five and the lesson begins. I got shot. It hurt just as much as it did yesterday. I¡¯m not even sure why she felt the need to do it again. I do seem to be healing even faster now than I did the night before though.


    ¡°You may have noticed already, but the more you are forced to use your ability the stronger it becomes. Never think that you are invincible or that you are the only one. There are others with powers just like you and I, some are more frightening than you could ever imagine.¡± While she was talking she conjures a flame right above her outstretched palm. I watch as she manipulates it into a variety of shapes and poses before she suddenly fires it at me. I knew this would happen. I quickly dodge to the side only to feel a searing pain in my left arm. Her flame expanded as soon as it passed me by. This was my first experience with being burned. I think I prefer being shot.


    The rest of the day consisted of me being killed and mutilated in a variety of ways. Alicia was kind enough to throw in a bit of clarifying information in between the torturous behavior. We are what¡¯s known as the Machtbefugnis. It is German for power, or that is the best way to describe it. I¡¯m just going to call them M¡¯s. Just because a word is foreign does not mean it suddenly becomes more sophisticated. Whatever asshat came up with that name needs to grow the hell up.


    Every power imaginable is one an M can possess, but every M can only have one power. I guess that makes mine regeneration. Alicia¡¯s is obviously controlling fire or possibly becoming fire. Both are plausible options. I guess this means my parents each have a power as well. It¡¯s great that my family shares so much with me. We are a very tight knit group.


    Each country has a multiple M¡¯s working for them. These secret task forces will be our main enemy when we actually begin conducting business. I can¡¯t wait. My life has finally become exciting once more. Suburban life just isn¡¯t for me. I begin to settle in for some torture from a beautiful girl.


    A month has gone by and I can now take thirty bullets in the chest without being fazed. It is not that I don¡¯t feel that pain, I have just become accustomed to it. If a person is placed in an environment for so long, what they experience there will become expected and normal. This concept is prospectively simple, but many times more difficult to explain. Imagine we were all born in the Christian¡¯s version of hell. They believe that in there version of hell, one will be tortured for all eternity. The only issue is that if someone only experiences torture than that will be what they consider their normal life. A person can become accustomed to even the worst of situations if they experience the situation long enough.


    On a smaller scale, that is what has happened to me. I register the pain, but I view it as one might view a paper cut. It is inconsequential and only a small nuisance I can easily overcome. It also helps that my regeneration has reached a frightening level. The second I am shot I heal. It is instantaneous. I wonder if I can still age? Being immortal would allow for me to worry a lot less about the situations I find myself caught up in. I still need to worry about other people with powers though. I am not sure how strong they may be or what they might be able to do to me.


    I turn around to find my mother standing behind me. She has obviously been waiting for me to notice her.


    ¡°We will now begin our first mission. Our plane leaves in two hours. Follow me.¡± Mother has such a way with words. I am simply overwhelmed with how verbose she becomes when talking with me.


    I slowly follow along wearing my new outfit. I chose to go with a more sophisticated look for my new job. I am wearing an Armani suit. It wasn¡¯t cheap. Normally I would go with a simple t-shirt and shorts, but I need something that can cover all the new scars I have acquired over the past month with Alicia. She likes to play rough. I like to imagine I cut quite an image wearing such a suit, but I am not the best judge when it comes to personal beauty or fashion. Honestly this outfit idea was created by Alicia. I had nothing to do with it.


    As we reach the airport and enter the private jet my mother owns. I finally ask where we are heading. The reply was surprising.


    ¡°Afghanistan¡±

 Chapter Eight

    Author''s Note: So I have noticed that my description for this story is pretty shitty. If anyone wants to write a description for the story I will be happy to use it and all the credit for it will go to yooouuu. The most entertaining one will get chosen! Post them wherever you feel like. Or just ignore me. I may end up writing a new one myself. Thanks for reading and don''t forget that my story is a great place to look for helpful life tips.


    Chapter Eight


    I enjoy plane rides, they give me time to think and give me great scenery to stare at while doing so. Sadly, the scenery I was hoping for disappeared a couple hours back. We are now flying within a large amount of clouds. All I can see out the window is pure white, seemingly endless in its deliberate obscuring of the scenery I so desperately desire. I turn back to the whiskey I have been nursing for last the hour or so. I focus intently on the brown liquid swishing back and forth within the glass, the small waves splashing up the sides and falling back down into the glass as if they are pursuing freedom from the glass casing they have been placed within. I pull a pill bottle out of my pocket and gently slide out two small pills from within. I place both of them on my tongue and wash it down with what¡¯s left of the whiskey in my glass.


    I just took a diluted form of speed. Why would you do that? I felt that flying in an airplane didn¡¯t get me high enough.


    I often wonder if I am going insane. I don¡¯t think the drugs are helping with that. To give a more serious answer instead of a shit joke, I find speed to be helpful when I dive out of planes. It keeps me focused when I am falling at hundreds of miles per hour straight at the ground below, which is a very important aspect of skydiving. This time will also be a bit different from my previous jumps. I don¡¯t get a parachute. I have been told it is another way to test and improve my regenerative abilities. I just think Alicia enjoys watching me suffer.


    The plane quickly reaches my drop off point and I jump out with nothing on other than a shirt and shorts. I changed in the plane on the flight over. I did enjoy the suit, but in this situation it felt very impractical. I unlatch the door on the plane. The sound of wind roaring as it enters the opening envelopes me as I run at the exit and dive out.


    There is no feeling quite like the one I am experiencing right now. I now see that taking the speed was a horrid idea. I am able to see with perfect clarity the ground that is rushing up to meet me. I brace for the impact and I am met with a flash of pain and then darkness.


    Waking up in a pool of my own blood is a first. Waking up missing an arm and a leg is also something I am experiencing for the first time. I believe I was only unconscious for a few seconds which is made apparent by the large, slowly growing pool of blood that surrounds my disfigured body. My leg is a couple feet from my current position although it appears to be badly mangled. I have yet to locate my arm, but I am almost certain it is behind me. I slowly crawl towards my leg, dragging my entire body through my own pool of blood with an arm that should not be able to move. The few feet now seem like miles as I forcefully make my way toward my own leg. I need to reattach both limbs before I finish regenerating or else I may end up without them. After what may be the most excruciating seconds of my life, I make it to my leg and roughly shove it against the stump where it belongs. I watch as the tendons begin to reform and I feel my muscles being regenerated at a fast pace. Now I just need to find my arm. I look behind me to see it laying against a blood spattered rock. By this point my broken bones have healed and the progress to my arm is a lot less excruciating. I slam my arm in a similar fashion as my leg was, against the stump where it once was and feel it begin to heal immediately.


    I lay against the rock waiting to completely heal before I begin the mission I was sent here to do. It only takes a few more seconds before I continue on. I begin walking towards the village that lies just north of where I landed. This village is unique and due to that, it has become a target of the Italian mafia. I have begun to question why I get involved in these ridiculous situations. I have the ability to run off on my own. Maybe I will focus on that once I finish this fucking mission or maybe I subconsciously enjoy being put into these kind of situations. I¡¯m beginning to think I understand myself less and less as I grow older.


    After walking over one final brown hill of dirt and sand the village comes into sight. Calling it a shithole would be offensive to holes filled with shit all over the world. The few shacks that make up the village look as though they will crumble down if even the smallest of breezes brushes against the outer walls.  Fortunately for me, I don¡¯t have to actually enter the village. My destination is the mine that resides directly behind the town. A rare mineral has been discovered there that is said to give M¡¯s an extra ability. Am I interested? A little, I may steal a small amount for myself as well. Power is always a useful commodity in this day and age.


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    I reach the mine without any sight of other humans in the area. Something isn¡¯t right. Even though the village is small there should still be some sign of human life within it. I am going to regret this later, but I am going to check out the village first before I enter the mine. A mine is an easy area to set up a trap and a difficult place to escape from one.


    I slowly enter the village and my stomach is immediately wracked with immense pain. The pain slowly begins to spread and envelopes my entire chest. I can barely breath, this is the work of a very deadly poison. I¡¯m not sure which group would find it necessary to poison a village of innocent people, but even I would avoid doing so. I hate using poison. My regeneration is enough for me to continue walking through the village with only a hell of a lot of pain following each step I take. I can already see the bodies of a few of the villagers. With how fresh the corpses are I doubt the enemy will be very far away. The possibility they would have had time to set up any sort of trap is very unlikely.


    With that in mind, I quickly enter the mine and begin making my way down into the depths. It¡¯s damp and poorly lit, a string of old lightbulbs is strung up along the ceiling giving just enough light for me to make sure I am not stepping on the bodies strewn across the ground. These aren¡¯t the bodies of the villagers though. These all look like either American or European soldiers. Most have their throats slit open making my journey through the mine a lot bloodier than I hoped it would be. The farther in I go, the fewer dead soldiers I run into. The bodies I am finding now appear to have been poisoned. All I am aware of at this moment is that there is a very skilled soldier and someone very skilled with poisons ahead of me.


    After walking down a few more miles, I enter a large open area lit up by red luminescent rocks. These rocks are the target of my trip down here. There are only two issues I have to deal with first. In the middle of the cavern are a man and woman facing each other and both are holding a long hunter¡¯s knife in their right hand. The woman is wearing a black gas mask that covers most of her face, her black hair and black eyes are the only things visible. The man is a lot stranger. There is a mist constantly being emitted from his body and surrounding the woman opposite him. I believe I have found the one responsible for the poison from earlier. They are both focused on each so intently that they have yet to notice I have joined in on the fun. I choose the path of least resistance and head straight towards the rocks, leaving the two to fight between themselves. Right before I am about to touch the nearest rock a knife pierces through my hand. I couldn¡¯t even see it. I am dealing with something way above my current level.


    I pull out the knife from my hand and turn around to see both of the people, who were currently my competition, staring at me. I stare back looking at both of them in turn and then turn around and reach out for the rock again. This time I was hit with a wave of poison. The pain is intense, but I continue to reach out for the rock and grab onto it. The second I touch the rock I feel a strange sensation within my skull, almost as if my head is about to explode. The pressure keeps building until I can no longer contain it. It bursts out with ferocious roar and the competition I am facing both explode into nothing more than blood and gore. It is almost as If they were crushed by an immense pressure from all sides. The strangest thing is that the balls of gore are still floating in the air. I like to think of myself as something of a genius and I quickly begin to figure out what just took place. I just awakened a second ability thanks to the rock I just touched. I now have the ability of telekinesis. I just seem to lack the ability to control it.


    I take off my shirt and begin stuffing it full of crystals to take with me and begin to leave the cavern. I can only carry so much and the cavern is still full of crystals when I prepare to leave. I¡¯m sure that these crystals were only just a rumor to begin with and I was just sent in to confirm if it was false. Who would believe they actually exist. These crystals could change the world as we know it. Everyone could awaken an ability and soon those without would become the minority. Warfare would never be the same again if these became public. Thinking of this I grab a small crystal and stuff it into the sole of my shoe. It could become a great bargaining chip in future situations. As I make my way up through the cave I notice that every single corpse has been mashed into nothing more than a pool of blood. There is so much blood I am actually wading through it since it now reaches up to my ankles. My ability may have been a lot stronger than I originally thought. I step out of the mine to see a helicopter land a few feet in front of me. Looks like my ride is here.

 Chapter Nine

    Author''s Note: Sorry about the late post and the short chapter. I had to work the entire day. I''ll try to get another one out tonight, but it may be out tomorrow morning. This chapter is a little disturbing so put on your big boy or girl pants. Yeah I added both genders in there. If you identify as anything else then your shit out of luck. No dragonkin allowed bitch. Okay fine you can come in as well.


    Chapter Nine


    Well fuck me in the ass. I am now running through the village as quickly as I can while a helicopter is shooting heavy rounds at me. The buildings I am near are being torn to pieces by hundreds of bullets fiercely piercing through them. I¡¯ve been hit nine times now, all going straight through my chest. In case it isn¡¯t obvious by now, that helicopter was not my ride. I don¡¯t even know who it is, but they are not friendly. I just have to continue running until my actual ride shows up.


    It has been fifteen minutes now and my ride has finally come into view. The enemy helicopter ran out of bullets a while ago and realizing I was unharmed left quickly afterwards. They must not have had any M¡¯s on board otherwise I would be in for an interesting fight.  I run up to the helicopter that has landed and jump in through one of the openings on the side. The helicopter rises up and begins the journey to the nearby Italian airbase.


    My mother greets me once I land and I am led into a small room with two men inside. They are both easily standing at Six feet five inches and both have on very expensive looking white suits. These two must be people higher ups from the Italian mafia.


    ¡°Did you retrieve the rock?¡± The man on the right begins speaking while staring at me. I must make for an odd sight. I am currently covered from head to toe in blood. It is not a pleasant feeling. I place my bundled up shirt on the table in the middle of the room and slowly unwrap it revealing the crystals within. There red glow lit up the room as the men¡¯s interest peaked. The man who spoke earlier reaches out and grabs a handful, but nothing happens. I am bracing myself for the worst, but minutes begin to trickle by with nothing happening.


    ¡°I knew it was all a hoax, these crystals don¡¯t do shit.¡± The man angrily threw down the crystal he had in his hand and it shatters against the ground.


    He turns to me and says, ¡°Are you sure these were the right ones?¡±


    ¡°They were the only ones in the entire mine. They must be it.¡± I reply while keeping my surprise to myself. Why would the rocks only work for me? What the hell is going on? The two men are now discussing something between themselves, having already forgotten I was in the room.


    I get the message and leave the room. I am once again left on my own and I begin wandering around in search of food. All the buildings in the area look the same. Square concrete blocks built for practicality and not for appearance. I follow a crowd of people going towards a building obviously larger than the others. Inside is one thing I have been searching for. The food I was given from the building is anything, but good, however, I don¡¯t care. I am so hungry I could anything placed in front of me, which is exactly what I am doing.


    After that god awful meal I am now in search of a place to sleep. The second building I walk into has cots lining the walls. I choose the first open one I see and immediately get some well-deserved rest.


    I am in front of the Reed¡¯s household. I don¡¯t know how I ended up here or why I am slowly walking towards the entrance. I open the door and step inside. The first room I am in is the living room. The room where I previously killed Andrew and Samantha. On the floor I see two bodies face down on the ground. I approach them and reach down to flip them over. Suddenly, the bodies flip over and begin screaming. Both are the bodies of Andrew of and Samantha, but something is little different. They don¡¯t have eyes, where there eyes should be are empty sockets. Staring into them I feel the darkness slowly enveloping me. A bullet hole can be seen on each one of their foreheads. No blood is coming out, but the far wall can be seen through the holes. Their mouths are elongated to an impossible almost as if attempting to swallow me whole.


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    I pedal backwards trying to get away from those grotesque monsters, but they begin to walk towards me. Their jerky movements still overtaken my fear stricken attempt at escape. As they encircle me in a corner of the room the monster that was once Andrew opens his mouth even further and swallows me whole.


    I am now in Hannah¡¯s bedroom. The screaming from those monsters has given me a splitting headache. It isn¡¯t going away. It feels as if my mind is being torn apart. The only thing I can do is kneel down in pain. I see a pair of shoes step in front of me from my view of the floor. I force myself to look up and see Hannah looking down at me. She is holding the pistol that ended her life. Her lifeless eyes look down upon me and her mouth moves in a familiar fashion. It takes a while to register, but I eventually hear it. She is saying ¡°Fuck you Jacob¡± over and over. The more she says it the louder it gets. It almost sounds like the words are bouncing off the walls.


    ¡°Fuck you Jacob. Fuck you Jac. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.¡± Soon that is all I hear. Fuck you keeps resounding in my mind over and over as Hannah slowly points the pistol towards me. My headache keeps getting worse and worse. The pain is so bad that tears are now running down my cheeks. I look into the barrel gun and everything goes silent.


    ¡°FUCK YOU JACOB¡± The words explode within my mind and the gun goes off. I see a flash of light and wake up on the ground. Why am I on the ground? I slowly sit up to realize I am now sitting in the middle of a crater that stretches for miles in all directions. The airbase I was previously in is now nowhere to be seen. What the fuck happened. Did I cause this? It looks as if an atomic bomb was dropped directly where I am standing except for the fact that I am perfectly fine. Who all was on the base? Is my mother dead as well?


    I begin making my way out of the crater, but I have a long walk ahead of me. I finally reach the end and notice half a building still standing. It has been perfectly cut in half. Almost as if a giant knife had very cut it perfectly in half. I make my way up to see what is left. The building is the same style as the ones that were on the airbase which answers my first question. I am standing on what is left of the airbase. The building that was precisely cut in half was actually a home for a family that lived on the base. The only remainder of the family is the upper torso of the father that clearly fell out of the limply hanging cot that has also been accurately cut in half. I am now stuck in the middle of Afghanistan with nothing more than the clothes on my back. I grab the food I can within the half of a house, choose a random direction and begin walking.

 Chapter Ten

    Author''s Note: Thank you! I feel like I don''t say that enough. Thank you to everyone following. Thank you to everyone reading. Thank you to everyone who writes comments. I do actually read them all and I enjoy reading what your thoughts are on my story. If there''s something you like, dislike, want more of, or less of let me know! Now enjoy the chapter you bastards. Oh yeah, trigger warning.


    Chapter Ten


    It¡¯s been over four weeks. Over four weeks since I began walking. I lost count after the first two, I didn¡¯t have the energy to continue. I haven¡¯t run into a single sign of life. I only see the same dull scenery day to day. I ran out of food the second day. It¡¯s not like I had a lot of it to begin with. Thanks to that I have now learned I cannot die from dehydration or starvation. I have no idea why, but I don¡¯t have the energy to even begin figuring it out. The only issue I am facing is that the hunger and thirst still remain.


    I believe I am slowly losing my grasp on the world. The delusions from lack of nutrients have become grander day by day. I keep seeing animals running by, but they are always just a little too far away to reach. I also see puddles of water with every step I take, but every time I stoop down to quench my thirst, my hands hit the ground beneath them. I don¡¯t even have the ability to kill myself. I am stuck within this torture until I reach some form of civilization.


    I keep walking step by step. My shirt was soaked with sweat the first few days I began walking, but now it is as dry as when I began just a lot dirtier. I don¡¯t have any water left in my body to sweat out. There isn¡¯t even any vegetation around or at least none my brain will allow me to see in my delusional state.


    Out of the corner of my eye I see a small lamb run by my right side. I don¡¯t have the energy to chase after it, but I imagine its neck snapping. With that its head twists one hundred eighty degrees staring behind it directly at me. The lamb¡¯s body then slumps over, dead. I rush over and begin eating the first meal I have had in weeks. I don¡¯t stop to think about the fact that it hasn¡¯t been cooked. I don¡¯t think about the fact that I am tearing into the small body of the lamb like a wild animal. Blood is running down the sides of my mouth as I continue to eat the raw meat. I don¡¯t seem to be able to get rid of this relentless hunger. I am now eating any piece of the lamb I can get my hands on. The heart, the eyes, the brain, I eat everything. After finishing my meal I sit down to digest what has just happened. A lamb would mean there are other animals around. A lamb could never survive out on its own. I begin to walk from my recent kill heading in the direction the lamb was running. I don¡¯t look back. If I had I would have been horrified. On the side of the road lay the bloody remains of a young child. Nothing about it was identifiable. The only thing that gave it away was the piece of child sized cloth that lay next to the remains.


    The first thing I run into when nearing civilization is a stream. I now have regained a bit of my sanity and know I need to wash off the blood that now covers most of my body. While I am enjoying the refreshing water and drinking as much as I can possibly swallow. I see a man running yelling in Pashto. I took some time on the flight over to learn a variety of important words and phrases in case a situation where I became stuck in Afghanistan came up and look at me now.


    ¡°Daughter¡­¡­..Daughter¡­¡­¡± The man is yelling entire sentences in a very frantic manner, but the only word I understand is daughter. Approaching him now would not be a great idea. Foreigners in Afghanistan are already looked down upon. I need to find a military outfit of a foreign soldier. That would at least make my appearance in Afghanistan cities explainable.


    I sneak in through the nearby towns gates. I finally have a stroke of luck and see American soldiers throughout the city from my vantage points within alleyways. I follow them from the shadows until we reach their temporary military base.


    ¡°Hey Jim, I heard we are getting shipped back soon. I can''t wait to finally leave this shitty town.¡± A short man standing guard at the base begins speaking to the man next to him.


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    ¡°Yeah I heard. Let¡¯s just wait and see. The last time we were told that was in Iraq and we were just sent here instead.¡± Jim doesn¡¯t seem to be the optimistic type. For some reason I can hear a second conversation as well. It sounds disjointed and uncertain.


    ¡°I hate this asshole. I want to leave. I want to see my kids.¡± These snippets of thought came rushing into my head. These words didn¡¯t match up with the words being said. Either someone is whispering weird ass phrases directly into my ear, or I can now read minds. The latter is the more probable option. If I can receive thoughts can I send them?


    I attempt to reach out to Jim the one whose mind I listened in on earlier. I begin repeating the same phrase over and over and over.


    ¡°Kill him.¡±


    After a few minutes of doing this Jim slowly stands up, pulls out his pistol, and shoots the other soldier in the head. Brain matter flies everywhere and soon other soldiers will be making their way over here, alerted by the gunshot. I decide to make my move. I run up behind Jim, who is now staring at shock at the dead body that lies in front of him and snap his neck with a loud crunch.


    I pick up his body and quickly rush back into my hiding spot, change, and rush back out in Jim¡¯s ill-fitting uniform. Now will come the difficult part. I look nothing like Jim. I will have to transmit a message to every soldier here mentally, convincing them that I either look like Jim or that I have always been Jim. I choose the second option. It may be more difficult to pull off, but it will make future interactions with the soldiers a lot easier. I pull out the pistol Jim used previously and fire some rounds randomly into the darkness that is surrounding the base. I have already begun my mental takeover of the soldiers and they should all believe that I am one of them by now.


    Three soldiers run up with guns out.


    ¡°Jim what is going on here? What happened to Patrick?¡± The soldiers immediately start asking questions, but I am ready for it.


    ¡°Terrorists shot at us from the shadows. They got Patrick, I returned fire, but I was too surprised to actually get a good grasp of where the shot came from.¡± Okay, this description is obviously full of gaping holes, but with a little mental gymnastics I had all of them believing every word that left my mouth. This power is much more useful than my regeneration.


    With any luck, I will end up back in the United States if I remain with this group of soldiers. For now I will continue to wait and practice using my power. Who knows how powerful I can become and what I will be able to accomplish once I gain full control of this power. I could take what I want, rule what I want, and destroy anything that tries to stop me. I could even overtake my parents if they are still alive.


    The soldiers were exactly what I expected a group of American soldiers to be like in Afghanistan. Loud, brash, and brazenly ignorant. These were obviously men that chose the army, because paying attention in school was just a little too difficult for them. This point was really driven home once I began talking with them. Everything they said either related to the things they had waiting for them back in the United States or how terrible the terrorists are that we were sent here to fight. The actual reason for fighting is idiotic. The United States has little reason to continue with this war on terror when so few Americans have actually dies from terrorist attacks. Their time and money could be spent on much more productive things. I do have to respect the American government at the same time though. They played upon the U.S. population¡¯s fears to help further their own ideas and plans. It really is a fantastic way to gain loyalty and spread influence at the same time.


    I am not in a rush. I am still young and war is an interesting way to spend my time. I will lay low here until I am given a chance to head home naturally. The experience of fighting in a war will be worth gaining.

 Important Shit! I wish I knew how to create a poll.

    It appears I have gotten a critical comment from some asshole on one of my chapters. I love it. I wanted to create a poll for this, but I have no idea how to handle that. I''ve  only been on this site for five days, or maybe four? I''m not sure.


    The comment brought up the  lack of detail many of my chapters have. I can''t deny that. I can occasionally rush through certain sections of the story. Should I start adding in more detail into each one of my chapters from here on out or keep my style of writing the way it is?


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    If I began adding more detail the chapters would become longer. This would mean I would upload less frequently.


    A chapter is coming later today so just ignore this if you don''t care and just want to read the story, but I genuinely want to write the best story I can and the feedback would be helpful.

 Chapter Eleven

    Author''s Note: This is a shorter chapter. I''m attempting to change my writing style a bit. Add in a bit more detail as well as slow down the story. Let me know what you think!


    Chapter Eleven


    A soldier is laying down atop a three story building made of stone. His breathing is slowed to an almost stop as he stares down the scope of his sniper rifle. His light brown camouflage uniform helps him blend into to the surrounding scenery as he searches for his next target. I am standing directly behind him with a grin plastered across my face. I pull out my knife slice the carotid artery on his neck and watch as the life slowly leaves him. I pull out my radio and begin speaking into it.


    ¡°All clear.¡± This is all I need to say. The team of soldiers I have spent the last year with now rush into the surrounding area, making their way towards a known enemy base. Our group is always given these suicidal missions. I am honestly beginning to think that we are meant to die here, thousands of miles from anywhere of importance.


    I rush down the building to join up with the rest of my fellow soldiers as we make our way into the compound. A firefight is approaching and all the soldiers know it. Each one is holding their AK-47 with a tightly clenched hands as we continue moving forward carefully. Building to building we make our way forward, but have yet to run into any other enemies. Just as we are about to reach the entrance of the base a lone man walks out of the front. He is wearing clothes similar to the ones of the soldier I just killed, however something feels off. As I hide behind cover with two other soldiers I catch a glimpse of the man¡¯s eyes. They are glowing red. They are shining in the same way the rocks from the cavern shone, with a radiance that seemed almost otherworldly.


    ¡°Retreat, get the hell away from that man!¡± I yell this out, but I was a second too late. The man disappears in a cloud of red smoke and appears directly behind the two soldiers that were taking cover behind a car in front of me. The man¡¯s arms are lodged inside of their heads and the next second he disappears again. The two men are now left with two holes in their heads the size of the man¡¯s forearms. The red-eyed man appears once more in front of the entrance to the base while all of us begin retreating to a safe distance. For some reason the man is not giving chase.


    We rush back out to the outskirts of the small town we were in with the entire group in disarray.


    ¡°What in the holy fuck was that thing?¡± A gravelly voice brings all the soldiers back to reality. The man that just spoke is Frederick, but everyone in the group calls him the holy F. Mainly because of his extreme religious views. He obviously only touts his religiosity when we all are not in a life or death situation. I find him entertaining, however. His rough features and stubble that covers his face make him the stereotypical soldier.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but we need to regroup and figure out a different plan of attack.¡¯ This time a high pitched voice entered the fray and every time it has in the past year, everyone pays attention. Hayley the commanding officer, is a short woman with even shorter dark brown hair. The best way to describe her would be beautiful, but I prefer regarding her as hot as fuck. Everything about her is perfect, but her short stature and great looks don¡¯t cause her to lose any respect or authority over the other soldiers. She has proven herself a better soldier than everyone here on multiple occasions.


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    ¡°We can¡¯t fight that thing, it killed Rick and Peter instantly. We should call this mission off until we can get backup from nearby outposts.¡± She is now looking at every one of us, waiting to see if anyone disagrees with her. None of us do and with that we begin making our way back to the camp we have set up a few miles out.


    The atmosphere within the camp is stifling. Everyone is in mourning. Death is naturally an expected part of being a soldier, but for most it is never an easy one to come to terms with. We all sit around a poorly made fire eating the rations we had prepared for the day. I have found that remaining silent is the best way for me to fit in with this group and is what I have been doing. I have become the group¡¯s assassin and translator. I take out single targets that may be in difficult to reach areas. My grasp on the Pashto language has also grown tremendously in the last year. I can hold conversations with citizens and if the situation requires it, enemy soldiers. This has also made me the one who interrogates any prisoners of war we may capture during our missions. It¡¯s a job I can do with relative ease while using telepathy.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s been a rough day for all of you, everyone should get some well-deserved rest. We will be remaining here until I hear about our next course of action.¡± Hayley speaks out in a calm voice addressing all of us who are sitting around the fire. There are seven of us in total. It was fifteen a year ago and nine earlier on today. The group continues to grow smaller and smaller and soon we will either be assigned new members or each one of us will be reassigned to a new team. Everyone here realizes that, but it is a reality that not any of them want to face. As the night drags on more and more people leave to go to sleep until only Hayley and I remain.


    ¡°I heard you scream for retreat before that monster began attacking, do you know what it is?¡± Hayley is now staring intently in my direction with her large brown eyes. They are alluring and also a dangerous weapon in her hands.


    ¡°No, I only caught a glimpse of its eyes. They were completely red. I only had a feeling that whatever that thing was it wasn¡¯t normal.¡± I give this reply knowing full well she will not be happy with it.


    ¡°I find it hard to believe you. I¡¯ve been watching you this past year and something about you seems different, Jim. You were never this quiet and I don¡¯t recall you being able to speak Pashto at all.¡± She is now looking at me with a sense of nervousness in her eyes. She has never been good at hiding her emotions.


    ¡°I never had a reason to speak it until recently. I also have been a little homesick recently, which may be why I seem so distant and quiet. I¡¯m sorry if I worried you.¡± I give her another answer that I make up off the top of my head.


    She lets out a sigh and begins staring at the ground. ¡°Were all homesick Jim, it¡¯s been years since any of us have been able to go home. Just remember that if you ever need someone to talk to I¡¯ll always be here.¡±


    ¡°I appreciate it Hayley.¡± I now begin to stand up and head towards my sleeping bag. ¡°Make sure you get some sleep tonight, we don¡¯t know what tomorrow will have in store for us.¡±


    ¡°Good night Jim.¡± She just gives a soft reply and continues to stare into the slowly dying flames. I walk away leaving her sitting at the fire. She hunches over and begins crying after I leave. Her lonely figure slowly being engulfed in the darkness of the night.

 Chapter Twelve

    Author''s Note: Here''s the next chapter. I just slammed my hands against the keyboard a few times and this is what came out. Enjoy or don''t. Whatever fuck you. I love you


    Chapter Twelve


    I wake up at around one in the morning. Putting on a black outfit, I begin to make my way back towards the town my team was in the day before. I carefully make my way through the camp, stepping lightly over a few sleeping soldiers and past the bonfire now filled with ashes. I am going back to the enemy base to investigate on my own. I may not be able to kill the red-eyed man waiting for me at the entrance, but I am also pretty confident in my ability to survive any of his attacks.


    I am making my way through the town. Its atmosphere is very different at night. The unlit streets make seeing anything a few yards ahead of me almost impossible. The empty houses, with their pitch black interiors, make my journey through the town that much more uncomfortable. I get the feeling that I am being watched from every building I pass.


    I eventually make it back to the area of our previous conflict with the man, the entrance to the base. As I near I run into the dead bodies of Rick and Peter, both in the same location they were previously. The blood on the ground is still wet from the wounds they suffered. As I reach down to grab the extra ammunition they have with them, two glowing red dots appear in the distance. The red lights shine through the darkness giving a warning of the attack that was sure to come. I prepare myself for the man¡¯s attack only to notice that the eyes remain motionless. I slowly begin making my way towards the red glow, each step being slow. I know what this man is capable of and I am ready for his attack. The second the eyes disappear I will begin my counterattack.


    The eyes continue to remain where they are. I don¡¯t understand. Why wouldn¡¯t he begin attacking me? I am now much closer to the entrance than the two men who died earlier were, but the man still has yer to move. After a few more minutes of cautiously moving forward I reach the man. I finally get a good look at him and I¡¯m not sure if he can even be considered a human anymore. His eyes are not the only part of him that is glowing. A faint red glow can be seen coming from beneath his uniform on both his arms and legs. Whatever this thing is, it must not view me as an enemy.


    As I step directly next to it, it turns its head towards me. Those shining red eyes are now directly looking into my own as if it is waiting for me to give it orders. I just continue to wait for it to make some other sort of movement and after a while it turns around and walks back into the base. Without knowing what is going on I choose to follow it. I am already curious about the base and what this monster is. I figure following it will lead me to some answers.


    We pass through the entrance, two big wrought iron gates stand open leading into a large, unkempt lawn. We walk along a crumbling stone path the looks as if it could be hundreds of years old. Weeds and a variety of other flora are overgrown and are filling in the cracks along the path. We are walking towards an old, rundown building that is very obviously devoid of life. The door is hanging loosely on one of its hinges which Mr. Red-eyes shoves to the side as we enter the building. The inside of the building doesn¡¯t look any better. There isn¡¯t a single piece of furniture within the foyer and the wallpaper is peeling off in many locations and bugs can be seen crawling on the walls in more than a few locations.


    We are heading toward a door hidden directly behind the large staircase that slowly rises from the middle of the room up to the second floor. He opens the old, wooden door and we big to head down a set of stairs that almost seem like they will fall apart with each step. The thin pieces of wood they are made out of bend under my weight every time I step on one. I reach the bottom only to be met with a solid steel door, its modern exterior standing out greatly against the decrepit interior surrounding it. The man walks next to the door and stands perfectly still almost as if waiting for me to do something.


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    I walk up slowly and am greeted with a panel suddenly flipping out from the middle of the door. I walk up and press my finger into the scanner presented and feel a prick as my blood is drawn from an unseen needle. A robotic voice speaks out of the panel in front of me in a dull, monotone voice.


    ¡°Welcome Mr. Ellsworth. Please come in.¡±


    With that the door opens to reveal a pure white room. Once I walk in I finally get a good view of what is inside. A laboratory, but one unlike I have ever seen before. The room is filled with stainless steel operating tables. Very old blood stains cover the floor as if this place hasn¡¯t been used in a long time. I begin my tour of the lab, the red-eyed man remained outside. I travel room to room looking for anything that might help explain what this place is and what was being done here.


    I finally find something worthwhile in the last room I enter. Large military crates are stacked four high, filling the entire room. There must be almost sixty crates in here. On the end of every single one is a large cursive E. I recognize this symbol. It is one that has been around since my childhood. It is the symbol of the conglomerate of Ellsworth companies. My father took over multiple businesses over the years and eventually put them all under one name. This also gave him a great legal overhead for anyone who began looking into him. These all belong to my family and I am not as surprised as I should be. I should have expected this after all the other shit that has happened so far.


    I walk up to the nearest crate and unlatch it, slowly opening the lid. The room is immediately bathed in a bright red light. These are all the same type of crystals I helped extract from the mine a year ago. I understand what is going on. My family is experimenting with these crystals and are obviously attempting to create controllable human weapons. Based off the guy outside, they must have succeeded to some extent. If they actually succeeded these crystals still wouldn¡¯t be here and the lab would not be left unattended. I need more information.


    With that I move onto the floor below. This offers a lot more as far as explanations go. The entire floor is filled with cells. Each one barely large enough to fit human inside, but that is what they have been used for. Decaying corpses can be seen in many of the cells and a few of them have almost completely decomposed. It smells like ass, but that is to be expected with the current surroundings. I move closer to get a better look at a nearby corpse. It has scars covering its body. The incisions are primarily along the arms and legs. His eyes are completely gone, but it appears it was not caused by decomposition. A scar runs along both of the corpses eyes almost as if they were replaced with something else. The rest of the floor contains many more cells and corpses, but nothing new to actually discover. I do find a phone back on the first floor of the laboratory and decide to place a call.

 Chapter Thirteen

    Chapter 13


    The phone is ringing over and over again. I am now calling the fifth person in the queue I had created within my mind just moments ago. My goal is to not only figure out what this place is, but who it actually belongs to and why it accepted my DNA for entry. So far I have not been able to reach a single person. I have called my parents and two other men I met while helping my father move slaves throughout the United States. I am calling the man I least want to talk to right now. After two rings of the phone a familiar voice comes out of the speaker.


    ¡°Hello, who is this?¡± The voice of the man who fucked me over back in New York is now speaking to me. I am not one to hold grudges for too long and he is one of the most capable men I know.


    ¡°Hey Hector its Charles. I¡¯m sure you remember me. I have a business proposition for you.¡± Hector remains silent for a few seconds before answering.


    ¡°How the hell are you still alive? I thought you died a while back. What could you possibly have to offer me?¡± Hector voice is full of a mixture of surprise and anger. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s very happy I I¡¯m still alive.


    ¡°I have come across some materials that you may find useful, but I need some human bodies in exchange, preferably alive.¡± I give him a vague answer, he doesn¡¯t deserve anything more. This is going to be a difficult exchange to make.


    ¡°Well what the fuck do you expect me to do? With that information you could be giving me goddamn anything. I¡¯ll need to see what you are offering before I can promise anything.¡± His response is expected, but something I can handle.


    ¡°Just track the location of the phone call and meet me here. I will give you three days to make up your mind and make your way out here. If by then you aren¡¯t here I will find someone else to buy the material. I guess I should mention that it can be used to create very powerful weapons if used correctly. I¡¯m sure that will help with your decision. See you in a few days.¡± With that I ended the phone call. I still have issues speaking with that asshole, but he can give me something I desperately need.


    At this point many people would wonder why I would invite over the man who had just tried to kill me a little over a year ago. Well fuck them. With my current abilities I could kill Hector and anyone else he decides to bring along to play with me as well. When offering a deal, make sure you have the ability to protect the assets you are attempting to sell. This is especially true when dealing with illegal goods. It¡¯s not exactly an option to turn to the police if your illegal things were stolen illegally. Only a fucking idiot would do something like that.


    Well I have only managed to accomplish one thing so far. I have yet to figure out who actually owned this lab or why it was abandoned, but that can all be put on hold for the time being. I see great potential within this lab. With the vast amount of crystals in the other room I could create an army of specialized soldiers just like the one standing outside right now. They would silently obey any command I gave them. With that my return to the United States and the Underworld would be accompanied by a war with my victory being almost completely assured.


    I begin attempting to find a computer that still works within the lab. I go from computer to computer, but have yet to have any luck. The modern computers all have a screen as thin as a single piece of paper and do not have any wires to attach them to anything. They also seem to lack keyboards which is something I will deal with once I find one that actually works. The only issue is that most appear to have been physically destroyed in some way. Most have multiple bullets holes through the screens. The ones that don¡¯t have any physical problems all fail to turn on. I go through the entire lab without any luck and eventually give up. However, I do manage to find a few medical documents. They describe a couple of the procedures that were done with the crystals. Using these I can begin my experimentation, now all I need are humans I can use a test subjects. My mind instantly thinks of the seven soldiers that are currently sleeping only a few miles away.


    I walk out to the waiting red-eyed man and tell him my newly created instructions. ¡°Follow me, we are going to capture a couple of people. Use non-lethal force, I want them alive. Lock them up in the lower cells once they are captured.¡± The man just looks at me with his glowing red eyes for a few seconds before finally nodding his head slowly. With that my new excursion has begun. I step out of the decrepit building to get a view of the morning sun slowly rising to greet me. The town is being bathed in a yellow-orange light, dispelling the darkness that had encompassed the town the night before. I make my way with my new accomplice towards the camp full of my new test subjects.


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    They are all still sleeping soundly, the day before must have really taken a toll on them. I walk up to each one and grip their necks for a few seconds actually causing them all to become fully unconscious. This is just to make sure they will remain unconscious until I get them all locked up. After only a few minutes, with the help of Red, I have five of the soldiers tied up and ready to be transported. I am only missing Hayley. For some reason I have a few reservations in using her in the same way I plan on using the other soldiers. I think I will just take these five for now and make my way back. She won¡¯t be able to get very far or do anything detrimental on her own.


    I telekinetically pick up all five of the soldiers and begin making my way back. If anyone saw me right now I¡¯m sure they would be scared shitless. I am walking along the road with five bodies limply floating behind me and a man with glowing red eyes walking next to me. It¡¯s a sight that would make anyone speechless. We reach the old lab without any issues and quickly make our way to the basement. Once there I drop the five bodies. Carrying all five took more of a toll on my mind than I thought it would. I am now left with a splitting headache as Red and I begin taking each of the soldiers to a nearby cell. I throw the three I could grab into cells with already rotting corpses. I didn¡¯t have time to clean out the cells and I wouldn¡¯t waste my time doing it for people about to die anyways. I will wait for them to wake up before beginning any experimentation. I need to see what reactions they give as soon as the crystal is inserted into their body. This will mean the people will need to be awake and also off any type of anesthesia. I will have Red write down all the changes he notices, assuming he still has the ability to write anything.


    I begin preparing the tools I will need. Sadly, the lab is missing a lot of the equipment it once had, but I make do with the few surgical tools I can find lying around. I end up waiting a few more hours before the soldier wakes up. The first one to wake is Jacob. He is only twenty-three years old and joined the army straight out of high school. His young features make him appear under twenty. Without knowing him, most people would assume he is still seventeen or eighteen. His voice is now echoing throughout the basement.


    ¡°Where the hell am I? Who¡¯s there?¡± His head jerks to the side as I begin walking towards his cell.


    ¡°Jim is that you? Thank god get us out of here!¡± Joy reflects within Jacob¡¯s eyes as he sees me approaching. I just smile lightly at him. I had forgotten I still have the soldiers believing I am Jim. Keeping it like that wouldn¡¯t hurt. I reach out with my mind, restricting Jacob from moving an inch, this also included his mouth. I don¡¯t want to hear him whining the entire time. I lift Jacob up and float him upstairs to my newly created surgery table. I will be going through many people learning how to properly perform this procedure, with Jacob being the first. I strap him down on the table and bind his mouth with a piece of cloth. He is now struggling against the restraints, but they are so tightly bound that he can only manage to wriggle a couple centimeters in either direction.


    I pick up the scalpel sitting on the shining metallic tray on the right of the operating table. Jacob¡¯s face is now one full of fear. It appears he has finally realized what is actually going on. It won¡¯t make a difference. I begin the first incision on the center of his right forearm with blood beginning to slowly flow out from the freshly made cut. Jacob¡¯s muffled screams fill the room as I continue the cut down the rest of his arm. I then pick up the red crystals from the nearby crate and shove three inside of his arm in the locations labeled within the medical documents I found earlier. The second the crystals entered his arm, his body begins bucking around wildly. His arm begins to shine brightly as it is now turning a dark shade of red. Just a second later, his entire body begins shining with the same red hue. I know what this means. It¡¯s a failure.


    I run out of the room as a high pitched whine now fills the entire base and with a loud explosion, the first experiment ends with a room filled with blood.

 Chapter Fourteen

    Author''s Note: Holy shit a new chapter. I don''t even have an excuse for why it took so long. I''m just lazy as fuck. My bad.


    Chapter Fourteen


    It took only a few seconds for me to clean the room of the blood that had covered every inch of it. I did not expect this first time to go well and my initial hypothesis was proven correct. The first experiment has quite literally blown up in my face. I will not let one failure stop me. Did Hitler give up after he was refused from the Vienna Art Academy twice? No! He pushed on with his dreams and eventually took over half of Europe. That and his artwork now sells for a shit ton of money. I bet Hitler did all of that just so he could sell his paintings. What a sneaky bastard.


    The room is now back to its original, pristine condition. There is no sign that a human just violently exploded a few minutes ago. As luck would have it, I can now hear a couple voices coming up from the basement. I guess it¡¯s time for another test.


    Each one of my steps echoes against the stairwell as I make my down towards the cells. Halfway down the steps the voices stop, but I continue walking at the same pace as before. The anticipation is killing me. Who are the two that are now awake? Will the reaction be any different if I insert the crystals into a different section of the body? Do different people have different compatibilities with the crystals? The only way I can truly find out is to keep going through more and more bodies. Eventually one will give me the result I am looking for. My dick¡¯s getting hard just thinking about the future possibilities of these crystals.


    ¡°Jim! Holy fuck! What happened to you and where are we?!¡± The deep voice of Frederick is the one that breaks the silence. I can¡¯t help but grin at the sound of it. I was hoping he would be the next candidate up for some fun. He just continues to talk though which is starting to piss me off.


    ¡°Where did all the blood come from? Help get me out from hurr¡­¡± His voice was abruptly cut off as I halted his ability to move. Wait blood? What blood?


    I look down and notice that my entire body is covered in splashes of blood. In my excitement I forgot to clean myself off after cleaning up the room. Oh well, this Jim fa?ade has run its course anyways. I think it¡¯s time to go back to being the Charles everyone knows and loves.


    I walk up to Frederick¡¯s cage and squat down so my face is level with his. My grin keeps getting bigger and bigger. I can¡¯t help it. The look in his eyes already shows fear and some understanding of what his situation now is, but he can¡¯t yell out or move an inch. All he can do is continue to stare at the figure that is just a few feet in front of him.


    ¡°Hello Frederick, I¡¯m glad to see that you are doing well.¡± I may as well let him know how he is going to die. He was a decent soldier, albeit a little annoying.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you are wondering what is going on right now. Well let me fill you in. You are currently inside my new laboratory! Welcome. I guess I should also mention that I am not actually Jim, he died over a year ago. My name is Charles Ellsworth. It is truly a pleasure to meet you as who I really am. Sadly, I think the pleasure might literally be all mine, but I have already told you too much. We have work to do.¡±


    With that I got up and began slowly walking back up the stairs. Frederick¡¯s body slowly rose up from the ground and followed after me exiting the now open jail cell. At the top of the stairs I turn around and face Frederick once more.


    ¡°You are the second.¡± And with those four words I head into the operation room. It only takes a few minutes to strap Frederick onto the table. I release my mental restraints on him at this point.


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    ¡°Red, begin recording everything that happens from this point forward.¡± At these words, Red moves into action from the back corner of the room. He is now standing a few feet away from the table with a pen and notepad.


    ¡°You motherfucker! Let us go! Why the hell would you be doing this?¡± The desperate shouts of Frederick are now filling the room which I easily ignore. This time I will be trying a different area of insertion. The right eye. I can¡¯t wait to see what happens.


    I grab the eye clamp and quickly place it onto his right eye. Frederick¡¯s now wide open and very bloodshot eye is darting around the room trying to find some way to escape. Of course there is none. His fate is already sealed. He almost looks comical in some dark, twisted way.


    I reach over and grab the scalpel that is once again shining luminously in the bright, sterile room. Of course I would prefer a melon baller, who wouldn¡¯t?! Sadly, I have limited resources and tools to work with. I walk up to Frederick, standing to the right of his head. I am now holding the scalpel as one would hold a knife they were about to stab into a man¡¯s chest.


    ¡°Don¡¯t do it Jim! Please don¡¯t! I have a wife and kids back home! They need me! I swear I won¡¯t tell anyone about this place if you let me go! Jim! Jim!¡± His screams go on until I raise the scalpel above my head. I swiftly bring it down directly in the middle of the pupil of his right eye. A sickening squelch fills the room as the scalpel quickly goes halfway into his eye before stopping. The second the scalpel entered his eye, blood shoots out in an arc.


    ¡°AHhhhhhHH!!¡± The pained screams of Frederick fill the room. That is all he is able to get out of his mouth now. With a weird pop, I rip out his right eye from his skull, causing even more blood to begin pouring out from the wound.


    ¡°Red, crystal. ¡° I hold out my left hand behind my back and feel a crystal placed within it. Without even looking at the crystal in my hand I jam it into Frederick¡¯s right eye socket and stand by his side waiting with bated breath.


    A few seconds path without any change until suddenly red glowing streaks began spreading out from his right eye across his face. This time was different from the last. The glowing streaks did not increase in brightness, only length. The red veins are making their way down his face onto his neck and stop there. A gargling sound is now coming from Frederick¡¯s body as blood begins to pour out of his mouth, nose and eyes, pooling on the floor below.


    ¡°It was another failure.¡± I say with a sigh. I had high hopes for this one. On a positive note, he did not explode. I¡¯ll take this small victory and move on to the next one with even higher expectations.


    ¡°Red, take this body back to the cell it was in and come back up. I want to hear your thoughts on what went wrong.¡± Red quickly went to work and made it back up within a few minutes. By that time I had already cleaned the room once more.


    ¡°What were your thoughts on the experiment?¡± I turn to look at those empty red eyes as Red enters the room.


    ¡°I have a few thoughts on that sir, but right now we have some unwelcome guests in the vicinity that we may need to take care of first.¡± I look at Red and begin to grin once more.


    ¡°Oh, what fun.¡±

 Chapter Fifteen

    The fun came and went in a flurry of bullets and blood. The forces have yet to realize how large of threat I am and will be, but that¡¯s fine for now. I can deal with these crack teams of soldiers they send sporadically to my door step. Each group of soldiers almost eager to hurry towards their deaths which I am always happy to gift to each one of them. I find the fighting to be a nice break from the monotony of experimentation I have been going through.


    Hector arrived almost a week ago and the exchange went off without a hitch. Well, one of his guards died but beyond that it went as smoothly as one could hope buying human beings could. The people he brought in were of all ethnicities and backgrounds which they all seemed to think I would care about. A sob story of how he sold himself to save his family, how she was stolen from her home in which she was the only one to care for the kids inside it. It just went on and on and eventually became almost unbearable. With so many people to experiment on and my patience slowly waning, I sped things up. I began to go through ten people day and vast amounts of the red crystals. Every experiment gave me varying degrees of success.


    Due to my impatience, I am now down to my last crate of red crystals with only one real success to speak of. She was a fluke, a lucky guess that led to even more failures. I shoved a crystal into her skull so that it was actually shoved through the frontal cortex of her brain and barely touching her amygdala. Of course, the crystal I used was shaved to an almost needle like thickness. I felt like I was working in some old mental institution where a needle to the brain was the only cure. The result was amazing, though. Her power reached unfathomable heights and the room itself was slowly begin to cave in on itself until the screaming started. It was a high pitched scream, almost inaudible, that seemed to crush even the air itself from existence. When Red and I came to hours later, she was gone. I may have unleashed an indestructible abomination onto the world that day, but it was a necessary evil. It allowed me to reach this point.


    I had Ol¡¯ Red strap me onto the operating table. The hard steel table feels foreign now that I¡¯m the one laying on it. The remaining red crystals are all on a table to the left of me, each one shaved to the size a needle but much longer. This will be the next step for me. A step into the world of superhuman. I will be so powerful that not even all the world¡¯s forces combined could stop me.


    With just a thought from me, all the crystals begin to float into the air and hover over each of the points I will shove them into and I quickly push down. Each one entering at the exact same time with the exact same amount of force. It almost looks like a fucked up form of acupuncture. At first, I feel nothing. I just lay back on the steel table hoping for the best. Suddenly everything goes red.


    ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­


    ¡°Wake up! You¡¯re going to be late again!¡± A voice echoes through my bedroom and with a groan I slowly open my eyes.


    A familiar sight assaults my eyes as I look around my room. It is a small bedroom typical of a high schooler from a middle class family, with my bed in one corner and a shabby desk in the other. I shuffle over to my small closet doors reaching in to grab my school uniform. As one usually does at this point in the morning, I consider dropping out of high school. I could sell drugs! Cocaine is getting popular with my classmates. I could make a killing selling just a small amount of it.


    These insane thoughts continue to swirl around my head as I make it down the stairs and sit down at our family¡¯s kitchen table. My mom greets me with a smile and a granola bar. She knows I¡¯m useless in the morning and talking won¡¯t amount to much. I happily eat the meager meal and rush out the door, almost stepping on our overweight cat on the way out.


    After three tries, my piece of shit truck finally starts and I speed the entire ten minute drive through my small town to my high school. I pull in to my parking spot at 8:05 am. I¡¯m already late. My first class began five minutes ago. Being on time is something I gave up on my freshman year. I¡¯ll just take the detentions and move on with my life.


    I casually walk into the school and take a few books I may need for my upcoming classes and shut the locker door to come face to face with the school principal, Principal Darwin. Ironically he is the most religious man I have ever met.  He¡¯s a rather grumpy looking old man, already completely bald, but he stands at a horrifying 6¡¯7¡±. Seeing him tower over you in the morning is always a sign you are going to have a bad day.


    ¡°Mr. Ellsworth, may I have a word with you in my office?¡± His deep voice rumbles down at me and I reluctantly shut my locker with a slam that echoes louder than I hoped, and follow him back to the front of the building.


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    I have never been a bad kid by any definition of the word. I have always been well within the top ten percent of my class as far as grades go and I never go out partying or any of that shit other teenagers seem to enjoy doing so much. Looking at the way I am being treated now, no one would be able to tell.


    Principal Darwin¡¯s office is a small office filled with a variety of pointless Knick knacks and awards that no one other than him cares about. I take a seat in an uncomfortable wooden chair set up opposite his desk waiting for his wrath to rain down upon me.


    ¡°I can¡¯t help but notice that you have been late almost every day so far this year, Mr. Ellsworth. Is everything alright?¡± His way of addressing every student formally comes off as almost condescending and uncaring.


    ¡°Everything¡¯s fine.¡± I say with a shrug. I don¡¯t like sharing my life story with any of the staff at this school. They don¡¯t need to know what I do as long as it doesn¡¯t affect my grades.


    ¡°Are you sure? Nothing¡¯s going on at home you want to talk about?¡± His eyebrow rise up inquisitively, almost comically so.


    ¡°No sir. I¡¯m just lazy.¡± This answer very obviously makes him angry, or at least annoys him a bit. He furrows his brow thinking of what to say next.


    ¡°Mr. Ellsworth, you are one of the brightest students at this school, but you don¡¯t seem to care about anything you do. You haven¡¯t joined any clubs or sport teams even though you have proven time and time again that you would excel at many of them. I expect more from you.¡±


    ¡°May I go to class now? I would hate to miss out on one of Mrs. Hollins¡¯ great lectures on writing techniques.¡± I give him a smirk, in a way of mocking I rarely partake in.


    ¡°Yes, you may, but this is my warning to you Mr. Ellsworth. If you are late again you will be given an automatic suspension no matter what reason you may have for doing so.¡± He is standing now. His height adds weight to these words that would otherwise mean little to me. I was actually scared for a few seconds.


    I turn and leave without saying another word. I was afraid I would say something I would really regret later on. Talking to ¡°authority¡± figures at my high school always brings out the worst in me.


    I make it to class without any other unwelcome interruptions and take my seat at the back of the class. I prepare to begin my first nap of the day when a whisper snaps me out of my hopeful aspirations.


    ¡°Where were you? You usually aren¡¯t THIS late!¡±


    I turn to look at the seat to my right. I¡¯m met with the angry glare of an attractive girl. Seeing her angry just makes her look more attractive. She is the type of girl every guy wants to be with, but only the popular have a chance of talking to. Which makes me quite the anomaly. Well even that can be explained. I¡¯ve known her since we were both only five years old. Childhood friendship can break many barriers.


    ¡°I got held up by an angry giant. It wasn¡¯t completely my fault!¡± I whisper back an answer while laying my head down on my desk.


    ¡°You can¡¯t already be going to sleep¡­the day has barely even started! And what did Darwin want with you?¡± She inches closer and closer to my desk with every word that leaves her mouth. Frankly, dealing with this every morning is starting to get a little annoying.


    ¡°Amanda get back to your desk!¡± Mrs. Hollins screechy voice echoes throughout the classroom and every students head turns back towards the two of us. I hate being the center of attention.


    ¡°Sorry Mrs. Hollins, it won¡¯t happen again.¡± Amanda reverts back to her perfect student persona and returns to her seat immediately.


    Mrs. Hollins sighs and lightly says, ¡°That¡¯s what you say every morning..¡± but she goes back to her droll lecture on Charles Dickens. With the interruptions gone, I put down my head and begin my first nap of the day.

 Chapter Sixteen

    Author''s Note: I keep meaning to add one of these. To clear a few things up, last chapter was the beginning of Act 2. It''s going to start off slowly, but eventually everything will be explained and Act 1 will be brought into this as well. Right now these are more introductory chapters, but next chapter things will pick up and a few things will make more sense. Thanks for reading.


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    Chapter Sixteen


    ¡°Hurry the fuck up, were already running late!¡± I am jolted awake by a light shove. Amanda is standing over me looking a little annoyed. Her brow is furrowed in a comical attempt at looking angry.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to be the last in line for lunch again! All the good deserts will be gone.¡± Amanda mumbles to herself as I slowly stand up and shove my books into my backpack.


    ¡°You know, you can always go down without me.¡± I say apprehensively, knowing the reply I¡¯m going to get.


    Amanda glares at me and angrily says, ¡°You would just sleep through lunch, you ass. We tried that before.¡± The last few words were said in a hiss, not unlike a rattlesnake preparing to strike. I finally get all my books packed up and follow Amanda out the door. We¡¯re making our way down the narrow corridor of our high school. The whitewashed walls and ceilings make it feel more like an institute for the mentally insane rather than a high school for maturing teenagers. The only inclination that this is a place of learning is the variety of posters and banners hanging up on the walls.


    We cross under a faded that has been hanging above the entrance of the cafeteria for years. A reminder to avoid drugs is plastered across it in dark red letters. If anything, this banner just serves as a reminder for the kids to buy more.


    ¡°Goddammit! I knew this would happen.¡± I am interrupted from my thoughts by Amanda¡¯s sudden outburst. I look over to see what she is so angry about and see the line to get food is now wrapped all the way around the outskirts of the cafeteria. With the line like that it will be almost fifteen minutes before we get any food at all.


    ¡°We¡¯re you expecting anything different? It¡¯s always like this when we arrive.¡± I lazily reply as we get in line at the very back.


    ¡°For some strange reason I actually was.¡± Her words trail off as she catches sight of someone she knows much further up in line.


    ¡°You should go join them. I¡¯ll see you at our usual table once I get my food.¡± I already knew what was coming and chose to preempt her upcoming farewell.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Cee, make sure you stay in line and don¡¯t go straight to the table. You need to stop skipping meals.¡± Amanda says in a worrying tone. She¡¯s always worrying about me. It almost feels like I have two mothers. I watch as Amanda runs up to her friends in line greeting many others she happens to see along the way. Her popularity always amazes me.


    Once I¡¯m sure she is out of my line of sight I turn around and head toward a large table at the back of the cafeteria. The table is half full and sitting on the left side is an excessively attractive guy. He notices me walking towards him and gives me a halfhearted wave.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t get food again? Amanda¡¯s going to be pissed when she makes it over here.¡± Josh says this while chuckling. He finds the altercations Amanda and I have amusing.


    ¡°She¡¯ll get over it, or force feed me her food.¡± I say with a shrug as I sit down directly across from Josh and pull out my Biology homework that was due next class.


    A few minutes later Josh loudly says, ¡°Holy shit! Have you seen the news recently?¡± He is staring at his phone intently as if it would disappear the second he takes his eyes off of it.


    ¡°About the cystallus right?¡± I reply without giving it much thought.


    ¡°No, something huge just happened in Europe. Here, read this.¡±


    Josh hands me his phone and I begin reading the article. Physically touching the screen of a phone is no longer necessary. The phone uses a combination of sensors and cameras in order to monitor what you are reading and even what your intent is. A few of the newest phones even have a neurological link that allows you to control your phone purely with your thoughts, which just so happens to be the phone this rich bastard has.


    The article is long and horribly verbose. I skim through it and pick out the most interesting bits. A large explosion just happened in the exact middle of China. Everything within a one thousand kilometer radius was completely destroyed. Following the explosion, a multitude of residents outside the blast radius began experiencing rapid changes within their bodies. The changes were usually very hard to notice, but a few were said to have gained super human abilities.


    Once I finish reading I hand Josh his phone and say, ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time this has happened you know. This is already the sixth time one of these red explosions has occurred.¡±


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    ¡°Yeah, but this is one had the largest amount of casualties yet. It said almost ten million people died. How does that not scare you? What if we¡¯ll be the next ones to be wiped out?¡± Josh is working himself into a fervor when Amanda finally appeared.


    ¡°Come on Jay, stop reading those articles. There¡¯s no point in worrying about something we have no control over.¡± Amanda says this while giving Josh a kiss on the cheek and sitting in the seat next to him.


    ¡°Where¡¯s your food?¡± Amanda now has turned her attention towards me and I don¡¯t have a good response ready.


    ¡°Don¡¯t pretend you¡¯re suddenly interested in doing your homework. You said you would get food this time!¡± This is one of the few times Amanda has gotten this mad at me. I¡¯m used to her being playfully angry, but this time is different. She looks like she is actually about to hit me, which would not make me want to get food any more than I already do, which is not at all.


    Josh, noticing the tension, stands up and whispers into Amanda¡¯s ear. Whatever he says works because Amanda calms down and begins to eat, but not without glaring at me for a few seconds.


    I just can¡¯t let it go and say, ¡°What I eat isn¡¯t any your business.¡± The second the words leave my mouth I regret it. Amanda stands up and slaps me. It isn¡¯t a hard slap by any means, but I definitely feel it.


    ¡°What the fuck! You couldn¡¯t just let it go. You¡¯ve been such an asshole lately! Ever since the accident I¡¯ve been scared. What if you try it again! What if this will be the last day I see you..¡±  I¡¯ve heard enough. Without saying anything I get up and start walking towards the exit.


    I get halfway to the door when I feel someone grab me from behind. Amanda has her arms wrapped around my stomach and I can hear her lightly crying. Her barely audible voice from behind me says, ¡°Please don¡¯t leave, I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m just worried about you. You don¡¯t seem to be yourself lately.¡± Now we have the attention of almost half the cafeteria, it¡¯s a little unnerving.


    I turn around, look Amanda in the eyes and say, ¡°I know and I appreciate it, but I¡¯m fine, really. I just need to get out of here for a little while. I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡± With that I left. I didn¡¯t look back, but if I had I would¡¯ve seen Amanda standing hunched over in the middle of the aisle looking defeated and Josh standing at our original table looking conflicted. He was obviously trying to decide between comforting Amanda and chasing after me.


    I am now all the way out to my truck without being stopped. Leaving school has never been a difficult thing to do. There are not enough teachers to keep track of all the students all the time. All they are able to do is implement a set of meaningless punishments for kids who don¡¯t show up to class. I¡¯ve missed so many classes that I will never be able to work off all the detentions I have.


    After a short drive I make it back home and immediately go to take my medication. Two red and one blue pill that take me a couple tries to get down. I didn¡¯t always have to take this shit and my life has not always been a melodramatic special you might see on late night television. It all started six months ago. That night I was home alone watching tv when I suddenly blacked out. The next thing I know I was in the hospital with over three hundred stitches in my back and chest. Apparently, I drove my truck into a tree in an attempt to kill myself. I¡¯m not sure if that¡¯s true, but I have no way to find out what actually happened. Once I made it out of the hospital I was forced to go to a therapist where I was diagnosed with multiple mental health issues. The most prominent being depression, but the other being Antisocial Personality Disorder. The strange thing is that these two rarely go hand in hand and that Antisocial Personality Disorder is now just a nice way to call someone a sociopath.


    The only one people know about is the depression. I would rather keep the fact that I am a sociopath to myself. You can imagine how this news affected the way everyone treated me. Amanda started freaking out about everything I do and all my classmates spoke very carefully when they were around me. It was annoying the first week I had to deal with it, now I just ignore it. The most annoying part of the experience has been the voices. They come and go, but they always have some strange saying or advice to give me. This is something only I know about. The last thing I need is to also be diagnosed with psychosis or something similar to that.


    I lay down on the couch to begin my midday nap knowing I will be woken up by Amanda when she busts in here after school lets out.

 Chapter Seventeen

    Author''s Note: You''re all going to hate me for this chapter. It still doesn''t answer a whole lot. Answers are going to come gradually so sit tight and strap on.... or in. This chapter is a little darker so warning? although if you''ve made it this far it shouldn''t bother you.


    I also started a second novel I will be writing on the side. Check it out bitches.


    royalroadl.com/fiction/8197</a>


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    Chapter Seventeen


    I woke up to silence. The sort of silence one might expect at the wake of a man without friends or relatives. It was a silence that felt threatening, the calm before a storm so to speak. I slowly get up off the couch causing my back to crack in an unpleasant way. My body hasn¡¯t been the same ever since the accident.


    I dig my phone out of my pocket and can¡¯t help but feel surprised at the time. Not that it¡¯s late, but school should have let out a few hours ago and Amanda didn¡¯t come by to wake me up. This may be the first time she hasn¡¯t stopped by after one of our bouts at school. What was even more surprising was the amount of missed calls and messages I had on my phone. One by one I read the messages and they made out quite a horrific story.


    ¡®Something¡¯s wrong. The school¡¯s in lockdown. Stay away.¡¯


    ¡®I hear screaming. I think people are getting hurt.¡¯


    ¡®Cee¡­Answer me¡¯


    ¡®I can¡¯t get a hold of Josh. What if he doesn¡¯t make it?¡¯


    ¡®Oh god I think he¡¯s coming. I¡¯m sorry about earlier, you know I could never be mad at you. I¡¯ll always love you¡¯


    The messages ended after that. My hands were trembling as I dialed her number and waited with bated breath for what I would hear on the other line. All I got was a dial tone. My breath was heavy now, heavier than I remember it being moments ago. My hands were shaking so horribly now that I dropped my phone, not that it matters.


    I rush out to my truck and speed off imagining the worst.


    ¡°She¡¯s dead.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s dead.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s dead.¡±


    A new voice forcefully interrupts my thoughts as I speed through my town towards the school. It¡¯s a deep, gravelly voice that only helps in adding to the dread I feel over what must have happened. My drive to the school was met with sirens, tens of them all belonging to police cars and ambulances. All going the same direction I was, but much faster.


    ¡°Accept fate for what it is. Your life is what¡¯s important.¡± The voice appeared once more. It was starting to piss me off.


    My truck was stopped a mile away from the school. Not by a police barricade, but by what seemed like every car in the town with even more arriving behind me. Horrified parents were rushing out of their cars towards the school, worried about the fate of their child. I joined them in the mad dash for hope and answers and eventually reached a line of police cars blocking off the entrance to the school grounds. A crowd of roughly a thousand people were surrounding it, many crying, yelling, or staring blankly ahead as if they had already lost hope.


    I stood there with the crowd for minutes that felt like hours and seconds that somehow felt even longer. That moment was the most powerless I had ever felt in my life. The anxiousness and desire to help being overwhelmed by the realization that the situation is out of your hands is a feeling that few ever know firsthand and is one no one ever should.


    ¡°My daughter! Please my daughter is in there! You have to let me in.¡± A woman ran up to the police officers at the barricade and tried to push past them without any luck. This scene happened over and over with many different parents and siblings.


    ¡°Do you know what is actually going on inside?¡± A well-dressed man standing next to me asked me this to distract himself from the overbearing feeling of uncertainty.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I wish they would give us an update or announcement or or something.¡± I stumble over my words as I try to push down the emotions welling up inside me.


    The man hummed slightly then said, ¡°Well it shouldn¡¯t be long now.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡± I turn to look at the man, but find a different man in his place giving me strange look. I then realize that I recognized that man¡¯s voice. It¡¯s the same one that has been tormenting me for the last six months. Am I seeing things now as well?


    Thirty minutes after the man disappeared a loud noise came from the direction of the school. Loud doesn¡¯t begin to describe it. It was loud enough to hurt. The earth shook underneath everyone¡¯s feet as a cloud of smoke now billowed out from above the school. The police officers along with the crowd all stared in shock and terror at what could only be described as a catastrophe.


    Something inside me clicked. I rushed forward, through the crowd and past the police barricade. It isn¡¯t until I¡¯m a few yards ahead of them that one of them noticed and alerted the others. At that point I was already too far ahead.


    I made it to the entrance of the school to be met with a horrific sight. Incomplete bodies are scattered across the ground, each slightly burnt and slowly pooling blood onto the ground beneath them. It was terrible, yet it felt familiar in some horrific way. Like this is something I¡¯ve seen before.


    The entrance then burst open and students and teachers in differing forms of disarray rushed out and ran as far as they could away from the nightmare behind them. I scanned the crowd, only searching for one person. I stood there and waited and waited and waited until the crowd started to thin. Josh had come out earlier, but he just gave me a quick hug and ran off with the others.


    It wasn¡¯t until the last few people trickled out that I saw a glimpse of her face. Grimy, covered in blood, but still her face all the same. Tears began to trickle slowly down my face as she came into view. I couldn¡¯t move. I just stood there overcome with joy as she noticed and ran up to my crying as well. She quickly embraced me and the second she did every question I wanted to ask her just vanished. I could only say the same phrase over and over.


    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry.¡±


    It took a couple of minutes for me to gather myself and finally ask her a question.


    ¡°What happened in there?¡± I ask weakly.


    ¡°Cee it was horrible.¡± She pauses to gather her thoughts before beginning. ¡° James went berserk. He had a gun or something that shot holes through anyone he wished. He wasn¡¯t himself. I hid in our biology classroom with the rest of our class, but he came for us, Cee. He killed the entire class.¡±


    I stand there in horror as I look at her distraught expression before I finally remember we are having a conversation. ¡°How did you escape?¡± I ask hesitantly. I¡¯m having trouble processing what happened. It¡¯s all too much.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t. He kept me alive. After killing everyone he came over to me and looked at me with red, glowing eyes. He said that this was all started five-hundred years ago by Charles Ellsworth. Why did he bring you up Cee? And why did he let me live? Wasn¡¯t the first red explosion five-hundred years ago?¡± Her words toward the end were becoming erratic and frightened. It was painful to listen to.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It¡¯s all over. Everything¡¯s going to be fine. We can worry about that later.¡± I¡¯m not sure how to respond so I just give her empty words of comfort as I hold onto her trembling body.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here. We can find some answers once we get back home.¡± I say this as I walk her towards the oncoming storm of police and medical officers.