Archive of Our Own

Work Text

Prologue

They had been surrounding me again, holding me down as I squirmed from the pain.
They were drawing
my blood once again. I didn't scream or cry but it did hurt, I clenched my teeth, balling up my fists. After a couple more seconds it was over.

My body relaxed knowing that fingernail imprints were on the inside of my soft, squishy palms. My jaw was stiff but it was better than that pain.

"Alex Novel," I jumped at my name since I never like what was said afterward. "We will be doing some more tests so we will be putting you under some anesthetics." The person in front of me said.

The woman was wearing a white lab coat like everyone else here. Her light brown hair pulled back into a tight bun, that looked painful, not a single loose hair in sight.
Her skin was fair, but all the Scientists here had the same colored skin. Pale but not pale enough to be white. Underneath the lab coat was a white button up shirt, she wore black pants, along with closed toe black shoes. She was frowning and slightly annoyed because she was expecting me an eight-year-old to respond even though no matter what I said she would do it
anyways.

"Okay, when?" I ask knowing it was better than to not fight the tests.

"In a couple of hours." She says and walks off, I sit in the chair, trying to relax.

I had been tested several times at this point they were re-running tests, because of the 'abnormalities' they would see. I had learned more casual and complex words than most second graders were supposed to know.

My second-grade teacher Mrs. Lee, told the system I displayed some concerning behaviors. When I used my powers to show my friends, anything that touched it would either freeze to death or turn to ash. Or the times I was running around in the grass and it would turn brown where I stepped. But most of the time when I showed my powers it was a dark purple fire that sprung to life in my palm.
The system then forced my parents to bring me here. I haven't seen them for 3 months, and during those months from what I could glean, they haven't made any progress at all, big shocker.

There were some other kids here but we weren't allowed to talk to each other. The Scientists said it was dangerous. I didn't see how, but they were the adults and
no matter how much I didn't want to listen to them, I had to because I had no choice. Plus I would get punished if I didn't. I never really had a choice and the correct answer was always yes, no matter the circumstances.

Maybe one hour later, I was given the anesthetics and fell asleep, their voices became quiet, and muffled. It felt almost as if I was sinking down into a big ocean of water, but I didn't have the sensation of drowning. It felt like minutes later when
I came to and I see the one Scientist I nicknamed Mr.
Fear, he was scary.

His dark murky blue eyes were scanning my body trying to figure out another place to hit me, and calling me a freak. The lab coat he wore was always buttoned up. I only ever saw the dark grey pants, with the dressy pointed toed shoes that he wore. They shone like they were brand new. He had thin spiky black hair. Whenever I saw him he always looked the same, no matter how many times I saw him.

He walked towards me and my heart started racing, I was terrified of him, I didn't like anyone touching me, especially him. But I couldn't fight, I couldn't protect myself, and most of all I couldn't stand up for myself. I had no voice, no opinion, not here. He slapped me backhandedly, and it was extremely painful, he was married so he wore a plain silver ring
and he slapped me with that hand.

"Don't you know when to greet your elders?" He said with his usual gruff and deep voice, full of hatred of course. He grabbed my chin and lifted my face up further so he could see the terror in my eyes. My bottom lip quivered. I instinctively reach up to grab his arm since he was squeezing my face so hard it hurt. The second I grabbed his arm his eyes went dark his grip slacked and he turned to ash. I look down at the floor where I see his lab coat, shoes, pants, and his ring, along with the dark grey powder on the floor. I didn't hear myself scream, I didn't even realize I had opened my mouth until the other Scientists came rushing in and stopping once they saw the ash on the ground, there were at least seven in the room. One rushed forward to subdue me, and I fell back into the sinking dream-like state.

I didn't even know until I woke up that it was a month later and they had messed with my genes and made everything worse. Now whatever control I had was gone, and I was filled with negative emotions, and when I used my powers the
build-up
would disappear, and now, I was what they called an insomniac. It apparently meant I couldn't sleep. And when I did sleep just like using my powers it gave me relief. But I vowed never to touch anyone after that day because I didn't want someone I cared about turned to ash.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Everyone I have ever known has had powers and had a position, job, something they're marked as. By the time they were 15 years old, they knew what they were going to be. I am 18, and it was
three days away from the Choosing ceremony, where everyone gets chosen for a position, based off of the power you had. But... There wasn't going to be anything for me because I had dark powers, more specifically I could turn things into ash amongst other things.
Sometimes I turned things into ash
without my control. I lived alone, that was how I protected people, along with making an effort not to touch anyone. Unless I was wearing clothes, but I made sure no one touched my skin.

I was supposed to meet up with my parents and friends today. I was lying in bed staring up at the ceiling trying to get as much control as I could before the build-up happened, and when it does everyone around me would be scared of me so I would use my powers as much as I could when I was here, at my apartment.

You can't control me, you never will. Especially if you can't accept me, that I will always be a part of you. I would love to see you try to make me quake with fear.
I hear the high pitched voice that was both male and female, this voice, of course, was only discovered
after the Scientists genetically engineered me into losing this power, which
made it worse. I ignored it as it faded away into the abyss of my mind and it only reeled its head when it was morning but only occasionally.

I never understood why it did that, but it wasn't like I could explain it to other people, simply because they wouldn't understand. So since I got out of the Lab I kept my powers a secret from anyone I didn't know. People were scared of me and I was scared of what I would do to them.

I stumbled out of my bed almost hitting my head on the end table. The cool air whisking away the warm I had from when I was under my covers. I shivered a little, getting up and rubbing my arms. I then opened my closet and grabbed a grey hoodie, grabbing a black t-shirt. I put on the pants I had worn the day before, black and ripped. I threw all this on in the span of five minutes. And was now brushing my teeth, while staring at my
sleepy face, my shoulder length dark brown hair was stringy and knotted. I had stormy grey eyes, my skin tone is lightly tanned. I spat out the toothpaste rinsing my mouth out, and brushing my hair and then tying it up.

I walk out of the bathroom, grabbing my
phone, and then putting on my shoes, and leather jacket, that was a dark grey-black maroon color. I open the door to my
apartment, quickly sending my parents a quick text letting them know that I'll be at the restaurant in five minutes. I was eating breakfast with them, and then it was to my friends.

I walk out of the apartment building, seeing the towering buildings around me. People walking up and down the sidewalk. I was going to a breakfast diner a couple of blocks down. It was called Chess' Breakfast Diner, or CBD if you were talking to the locals. I dodged a couple of people who were paying too much attention to their phones. I grabbed my arms hugging them to me. I could feel the urge to reach out and use my powers, but I had to subdue it, I couldn't show anyone, I had to make it seem like I could control it when it more of controlled me. If I showed one sign of me not being able to control it I would have to go back to the Lab. I shuddered at the thought.

I pushed open the door of the diner, the cool air conditioning blasted me in the face cooling me down from the scalding temperature from outside. I immediately spotted my parents sitting in a booth, I walk over past other people and tables. I sit down on the other side of them, keeping my hands to myself.

"Anything I can get you, Sir?" I hear someone ask in a cheerful tone, I look over to see a guy with black hair with shaved sides tied back into a bun, he had an lightly tanned skin. His nose being medium size and was also a button nose. He had bright blue eyes, he wasn't lanky or scrawny, he had good muscle on him. He wore the diner uniform, I snapped out of it and stopped gawking.

"I-I'll have some water," I say silently cursing myself for stuttering. He nodded and walked away.

"Is he a candidate?" I hear my dad, Andrew says teasingly. I look over to him, his brown hair spiked up with gel, he looked a lot like me, well kind of anyways. He had amber eyes, and he had pale skin, he didn't get out as much as he used to.

"Whatever," I say dismissively.

"Honey, you know you can love whoever you want, right?" My mom, Reyna, asks me kindly. She had blonde hair, grey eyes, and lightly tanned skin. She and my dad had completely different personalities. She was more passive, while my dad could get very aggressive towards certain things.

"You both should know it isn't an option, and you should know why," I say keeping my voice, I was really self-conscious about my powers.

"Alex, come on. You've got most of it under control right?" My dad said I stayed silent because not even I wanted to know that answer. "Just go for it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"He could turn to ash," I say quietly while leaning over. I see him walking back over to me with the water, he sets it down in front of me, I smile at him and nod my head.

"So are we just about ready for breakfast?" He asks us, looking between me and my parents. I hadn't looked at a menu but I already knew I was going to get pancakes.

"Alex?" I hear my mom ask, I glance over to her, seeing encouragement in her eyes.

"I'll have pancakes," I say he quickly writes it down.

"What flavor? Vanilla, Chocolate, or Strawberry." He says smiling at me, he
must
have got
tired of all the smiling.

"Vanilla," I say, he grins even further.

"Good choice." He says, and I knew my face was starting to change to a pink color. I look over to my parents, trying to hide it. "What can I do for you lovely folks?"

"Oh, we'll both have the french toast." My mother said smiling at the waiter. He nodded stepping back a little.

"Coming right up." He says walking away. I hear my dad clear his throat, I look over to him to see his eyebrows raised.

"Be quiet," I say, wanting to curl up in a ball.

"We aren't going to leave you alone until you get his number." I hear my dad say. My mouth dropped open.

"I'm not that smooth." Is what I ended up saying without knowing until a couple of seconds later.

"You're my son, trust me, your smooth. How else did I woo your mother?" He asks me, raising an eyebrow.

"Maybe," I say while I curse myself for even giving them and myself hope. But maybe I could use this, a relationship. I'm not getting my hopes up though.

"That's my boy." My dad says proudly, I flash him a quick glare, just as the food gets here.

"Pancakes for you." The waiter says putting a stack of pancakes in front of me. "And french toast for you two, enjoy your meal!" He walks off flashing me
a quick grin when he noticed me looking at him. I look away quickly and start eating.

From there my parents and I had light-hearted banter. They were asking parent
stuff, and then things about my friends. My plans after the Choosing assuming I'll have a job. I hadn't seen them in a couple of weeks so they were worried about me even though I had talked to them a week before on the phone. Parents never made sense to me with their separation anxiety from their child. Whatever.

I lean my head back, as my parents discussed something amongst themselves. I was full of pancakes. I tilt my head to see if I could catch a glimpse of the waiter. He was good looking and absolutely my type but I was almost sure he wasn't gay and even if he was great at hiding it. I catch his
eye
and we make eye contact, he bit his lip and winked. I blushed so hard I was sure I was tomato red. Why, did he do that? I think to myself. I felt flustered. I took a couple of deep breaths and was better. Wait... During that whole time I didn't feel sad, and any negative emotion, instead it was replaced with a warm fuzzy feeling that I have never felt before. Was that love?

"Alex?" I hear my mom say cutting through my thoughts. I look over she raises an eyebrow. "Are you alright you look a little flushed?" I nod my head absentmindedly. "Okay, we're gonna call for the check, and we are paying for you."

"I can pay for myself I'm not broke," I say I would rather pay for myself or halves.

"Our treat." She says smiling at me. "But since we are treating you, you're going to pay us back."

"With what?" I ask, they'll probably just want me to pay them back.

"Go get his number." She says nonchalantly. My mouth falls open, I can't do that for one I-. The waiter walks over with two pieces of paper in his hand. He put the receipt
down in front of my parents. He moves over to me, putting a piece of paper down in front of me, he winks, sending my face red, he smirked and walked off.
I turn over the piece of paper.

Hey, my name is Blaze, here is my number, take me out sometime cutie! ;)
Right below was his number, I didn't even ask... I look up at my parents and turned the note around so they could see it. They both smiled.

"I told you so." My dad said smiling. My mom was also smiling. They both get up bidding me their quick goodbyes, as they go off to pay at the register. I sat there in shock, I pull out my phone, quickly making him a contact and sending him a text.

Hey Blaze!
My name is Alex, the one whom you gave your number to at the restaurant, tell when your free and I can arrange a date. Thanks!
I send the text I put my phone in my back pocket and then got up. I walk up to my parents who were talking with one of the workers.

"Hey Mom, Dad, I got to go, I have to go meet Jaydon," I say, my mom turns around and hugs me, I pat her back, and my dad pats my back.
She releases me and I nod to the both of them and exit the glass push doors.

My phone starts to ring, I get it out of my back pocket, it was Jaydon. This was his way of saying hurry up, just as I am about to pick it up, he hung up. I pick up the pace a little. We were meeting at a trail to walk on, he wanted me to be his model so he takes pictures, for his next exhibit online. He has used me as a model before so why
not.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"It took you long enough," Jaydon says as he gets his tripod out of his car. I roll my eyes knowing that he didn't care if I was early or 20 minutes late just as long as I showed up.

"It is nice to know that you're glad to see me," I say sarcastically. We had to cross a street to get to the trail, after maybe one mile we wouldn't have any service. The trail was in a forest and at the end of the five-mile hike were waterfalls. I wasn't wearing the most appropriate clothing for this adventure.

"You're going to hate yourself for wearing all black, and you are lucky they paved the trail because your feet would be in pain." He says once he notices my attire. We both cross the street, I was holding Jay's collapsable tripod. He put it in his backpack once we crossed the street. Now we were walking down the trail with Jay taking some pictures of the scenery. The green trees and grass surrounding us, I could smell the water from here, the wet grass smelled fresh.

"I got someone's number today," I say, to get his attention so he would talk to me other than instructions to pose properly.

"Really?" He says in surprise. He knew about my powers.

"I know, I didn't even ask but I'm sure I was really obvious," I say glancing over to him.

"You usually are." He says nonchalantly.

"Oh, thanks for your vote of confidence," I say sarcastically.

"How'd you get it?" He asked me curiously.

"He wrote it down on a note and gave it to me when he gave my parents their receipt," I say nonchalantly, I was trying to act cool when I was excited and nervous.

"Wow, what are we still in high school or some shit, where you pass notes to get into someone's pants in the girls' bathroom after 3rd period?" He says sarcastically. I laugh this was how Jaydon was, he also didn't care what my powers were or what they did. I sparked a flame to life in my hand. He glanced over, I could tell he didn't care but he was fascinated by my powers whether I like it or not. Once we got further down the trail there was some river access we could go to. Trees surrounding the trail.

I walk down the uneven and muddy stairs, hearing the camera shutter sound behind me. He liked taking pictures of me in my natural environment. Whatever. On his little photoshoots, unless he told me a certain way to pose we almost never talked, he wanted me to pretend like he wasn't there. So I could reflect on myself and I chose places I knew he would get good pictures at.

I crouch down and stick my hand in the water, feeling the cool water running through my fingers, wrapping my palm with a cool white cloth, I get back up and shake my hand a little to get some of the excess water off my hand. I leaned against a tree and sighed closing my eyes, listening to the birds and water running. I heard the camera shutter again. I opened my eyes and looked over to Jaydon, the camera shutter sounded off again. He was looking through the viewfinder adjusting the focusing, his right eye closed, his dark amethyst eyes usually got him a couple girls and guys staring at him. They were just really rare to come by. His darkly tanned skin usually made them pop out even more. His hair was jet black shaved on the sides and slicked back. Although when he was just with me he would let his hair run rampant, be in tangles and curls, and it honestly looked better that way but he didn't care too much but he did it anyway. Whatever I guess, if you feel great on the inside and out by the appearance you have I guess that is the only thing that matters right.

"Take your hair tie out and look over my right shoulder." He instructed I sighed taking it out and looking over his right shoulder. I hear the camera shutter and I get up from the tree. "Oh did you hear about the Dark Killer?" I look over to him raising an eyebrow. I didn't really care about that kind of stuff but he does. "Apparently he has been killing people, no pattern at all, nothing for the police to bank on, but with every crime scene has the word Overpowered written somewhere." He glanced over at the river took some pictures and then turned back towards me. "And he kills the old fashioned way."

"What?" I say, now I was curious.

"Yeah, guns, knife, nothing related to powers at all." He further explains.

"That's..." I trail off searching for the right word, "weird."

"What's even worse is that it isn't a quick easy painless death, it is brutal, but there are no prints, DNA, nothing." He said like he was trying to figure it out himself.

"Is there the possibility he doesn't have any powers?" I ask feeling as if someone was watching me. I look over my shoulder, seeing nothing amongst the trees, muddy puddles, and wet grass.

"I was thinking that too but the police aren't looking into that option. They are thinking he has some special ability to hide DNA and prints." He scoffs as he starts walking back up the trail, I jog to catch up with him.

That was the end of the conversation, he took some more pictures of me and Aviva was jogging to catch up with us. Aviva was a strawberry blonde, with light tan skin, she was wearing a dark blue tank top with ripped skinny blue jeans. It looked like she was wearing a light pink lipstick along with black mascara and dark brown smokey look, or at least I think that's what it was called.

"Am I being replaced?" I ask sarcastically.

"I can have two models and plus it took a lot of convincing to get her to come here, so go say hi and skedaddle, I'm sure you have a date to plan out," Jaydon says waving me off.

"Send me the pictures later,"I say as I walk towards Aviva.

"Will do." He calls from behind me.

As I got closer to Aviva I noticed she looked really uncomfortable. She was looking around nervously, and almost tripped a couple times. She seemed to avoiding my eye contact, she was nervous about something.

"Hey, you alright?" I ask her, she looks down at my feet.

"I'm fine." She says I could tell she tried to make it dismissive but it didn't really work that well.

"Tell me, I can see that you uncomfortable and nervous," I say trying to get her to open up.

"I'm nervous about this whole photoshoot thing." She says as she rubs her hand on her right arm. I roll my eyes.

"You'll do great, he'll just ask you to pose a certain way and he will line up the shot and boom you're done," I say summing up every shoot I've done with Jay.

"Does he do nude pictures?" She whispers. I laugh, she looks up at me confused.

"No, clothes stay on for girls, I have had several pictures taken when I was shirtless. That I ended up vetoing." I sigh getting ready to further explain what happens. "This is what happens, he'll take the pictures, do some tweaks in Photoshop and then send them to you and you get to decide which ones go in his online gallery," I explain knowing that Jay has a tendency of not fully explaining things. She relaxed a bit and nods.

"Thanks, Alex." She says smiling, "I'll catch you later."

"Yeah," I say as I pat her shoulder making sure my hand only hit the clothing on her shoulder and walk past her.

I walk from the trail to the street and then down to the bridge. I stopped at the bridge that went over the river. The blue-green water sparkled in the sunlight. I lean on the railing feeling the warm sunlight sink into my skin. I hadn't done this in an awhile, I was usually stuck on the same schedule most of the time. That was unless I made plans. I stop leaning and continue walking I didn't live very far from the trail. I could see my apartment building from where I was standing.

I jogged up the stairs and entered my apartment with my key. I kicked my shoes off and walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Just as I did my phone got a text notification. I sighed, grabbing it out of my pocket, it was a text from Blaze. My heart started racing and the warm fuzzy feeling returned, and I hadn't even opened the message yet. I open my phone and tap on the text icon and number that had just texted me.
Blaze:
Hey Alex! I am free on Friday and how about we go out on the town's trail, I'd prefer not to go to the movies and dinner somewhere. Sorry if that is what you wanted.
I smiled to myself, biting my lip. I quickly send my reply.
Alex:

That's alright, at least I don't have to go through the trouble of finding a movie and restaurant. What time?

Blaze:

Oh cool, how about 5 pm does that work for you?

Alex:
That should be good, just don't murder me.
I send nervously and eagerly awaiting a reply.
Blaze:

I wouldn't dream of it, you're too handsome for that. ;)

Alex:

(*^_^*)

Blaze:

Aw how cute. I wish I could see your blush in real life.

Alex:

Thanks?

Blaze:

Haha. Don't worry it is a compliment. Sorry, I have to go, boss, is calling for me, I'll see you on Friday?

Alex:

Of course, I wouldn't dream of missing it.

That was the end of the text conversation, and in a way, I felt like I wanted to talk to him even more. I smile to myself, closing my eyes, when I reopen them again I see purple little butterflies flying around me. It startled me for a second, at least three of them had landed on my arm. They weren't malicious it was almost as if they were egging me on. They soon disappeared. I wasn't sad that they were gone, could always summon them again.

Wednesday was the Choosing ceremony, I wouldn't be given a job it wouldn't be possible. Not with my powers. I tried not to think about it too much it wasn't something I wanted to know. I closed my eyes and drifted off into the dark void known as the dream world.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I awoke to darkness it almost startled me, my heart starting racing for a couple seconds. My mind going a million miles a minute with the only thought of
What have I done?
Until I realized it was only night time but then I knew no matter how tired I was I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. I sighed, it defiantly wasn't going to happen. I was I guess you could say nocturnal and an insomniac at night. I could sleep during the day all you wanted but the second the sunset it was time for Insomnia.

I got up from the couch grabbing my phone with me, walking into my bedroom. Plugging my phone in, the illuminated screen revealed I had a text from Aviva. I unlocked my phone and went into messages tapping her name.
Aviva:

Hey Alex, thanks for the advice everything went well, I'll send you the pictures I picked out later.

I rolled my eyes knowing I could just go on the gallery and would see them, I didn't say she was the smartest. I sigh, locking my phone, now I had to calm down my brain, and meditate. Although I wasn't going to do that right away. I'll let my thoughts go rampant for a little while.

I expel energy out from my body and sigh in relief, it was nice using my powers, because a sense of calmness and tranquility washed over me, the purple butterflies fluttering around the room before settling on different places around the room. What jobs can I do? I think knowing that there wasn't many, wait... A performance artist that uses fire as their main act. I bet that's what they will choose. I'll probably have to perform there in front of hundreds of people. A shiver went down my spine.

I summoned a flame to my hand and twirled it around in my fingers throwing it in the air and then catching it flawlessly. They will defiantly choose that, it is either that or 'controlled fires' as a firefighter. Neither I wanted to do, but I had to do something, otherwise, I will be jobless, and... A sense of panic washed over me and the butterflies started flying around the room erratically. I breathed in and out, calm down, otherwise, you won't get to sleep tonight. Now I was done with my thoughts and I turned over onto my right side closing my eyes and started my breathing exercises, feeling my consciousness slip from under me and within a couple minutes I was asleep.

Now I will confidently say it is never good when I dream. I would much rather have a terrible sleep with the black void rather than a dream. I gave up on good dreams a long time ago. But when I do dream now I wake up with a blank expression because there was a time where I never thought I would get used to the pain, but I did. It still mentally fucked with my head, though.

There I was back in the lab being forced to touch a mouse, seeing it squeal in pain for half a second and then turn into ash, I was crying, sobbing in fact. Fear had completely taken over I was no longer my child self.

This repeated several more times where I could touch several animals with turning them to ash. I was released and saw my parents again for the first time in what was it now? A year? I think so, I was happy to see them but I couldn't smile because I was scared I would turn them into ash. My blood went cold, as they started walking towards me. A doctor stepped in front of me blocking them from coming any closer to me. I look up it was Doctor Lisa. Her brown hair in a bun, and pale skin, with her lab coat hiding any blemishes from other kids. Some of them were 'sleeping.' I hope they don't wake up worse than what they already were.

"There are some new things about your son you should know before you have full custody of him again." She says her sweet sickly tone, stuck out. I hated that voice, it made me want to go hide because that was the voice I associated my name with, she called it in that tone. If I didn't comply her tone would get sterner and sterner.

"And they would be?" My dad asked I couldn't see either of them. I don't want to go back to the lab, I want to go home, even though it won't be 'normal.'

"Your son can turn just about anything to ash, hopefully, he has better control now, he has Insomnia now, along with a voice that only comes out in the morning and much more. We'll give you his file in a minute so you have a more detailed description." She explained.

"What did you do to my son?" I hear my mom say, I could hear the anger in her voice. "What did you do?"

"We-" Doctor Lisa paused nervously looking down the hallway, like as if she would be safe if she ran down there. "We genetically engineered some of his genes and others matured more quickly than we expected, only after Doctor Clennings had an unfortunate accident." She says Mr. Fear, that's who she was talking about.

"You did what!" I hear my mom say with even more anger, possibly even hatred. "Why weren't we talked to about this?"

"Ma'am I am not the one you should be talking to about that. I am one of Alex's caretakers, and so was Doctor Clennings." Doctor Lisa says blatantly. They weren't my caretakers none of them were. I took a deep breath forcing myself to smile. I walked around Doctor Lisa without touching her and then looking up at my mom and dad's angered faces.

"I'm okay," I say smiling, even though it came out more like I was pleading. Which was true, I didn't want to go back, it would only entail more testing. And the only thing I had control on was pretty much everything but the whole turning things into ash part. "Let's go."

My parents looked as if they were about to cry, I could tell they wanted to hug me. Should I let them? Only if they touch my clothes and not skin, everything should be okay... No ash.

"Only touch my clothes if you want to hug me," I say. My mom dropped to her knees engulfing me into a hug, crying into my shoulder. "Let's go home. I don't want to be here anymore. Please don't make me stay." I whisper into her ear, only loud enough for her to hear it. But just as I finish she becomes ash. Then I was screaming again. Just as the shot full of anesthetics hit my neck I awoke.

Daylight was coming through my blinds, golden lines on my white walls.
She's dead, Alex. You killed her.
I hear the voice say, I could feel it, the build-up. I threw out as much energy as I could. Mom's alive she isn't dead. I would know if something happened, everything is okay, I tell myself.

After a couple minutes I manage to mentally calm myself down, this was why I hated dreaming. I hear a notification on my phone. I grab it and unplugging it from the charging cord. I unlocked it and went into my messages. It was from Blaze.
Blaze:

Good morning handsome! :) Hey if you wanna meet up today, I'm cool with that, I can come to pick you up. Let me know.

I would be extremely happy to meet him today but I don't know how well I'm going to function especially after that build up. I could see three wolves on all sides of my bed looking up at me.

"Should I say yes?" I ask them curiously knowing they knew my mind better than I did. The dark purple wolves jumped up onto my bed two laying down on my sides, and the last pawing at my phone. I'll take that as a yes. The wolf laid down to my right, resting its head on my right leg.
Alex:

Hey, sure, I live in the apartment buildings on Hidden street. My apartment number is 366, so buzz me when you arrive. What time were you thinking?

I get out of my bed climbing over the wolves, who looked at me unhappily when I did so. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and started eating it. Honestly, it just tasted of sugar but I was too lazy to cook anything. My phone binged show a text from Blaze.
Blaze:

How about 9 AM? I'm pretty close to there anyway.

Alex:

Yeah sure.

I glance at the clock as I get up to wash my bowl. It was 8:50 AM. I ran and into my room and rummaged through my closet, grabbing a grey t-shirt, and black skinny jeans. I put them on while my heart was beating a million times a second. I run into the bathroom brushing my teeth and putting deodorant on at the same time. I brushed my unruly twisted and knotted hair. Once I had gotten all the tangles up I tied it up. I went back into the kitchen putting my shoes on as quickly as I could. I glance over at the clock 9:03 AM. Made it in time, I guess. Well, he wasn't here yet.

At 9:10 AM, I hear the buzzer go off. I grab my phone, jacket, wallet, and keys. Then made my way down the stairs. I open the door and then the metal gate. Seeing the black-haired boy in front of me smiling.

"Nice to see you again handsome." He says walking to a grey Buick opening the door, I blushed and got into the car. He closed it for me and walked around getting in the car, turning the ignition and started driving.

"Where are we going?" I ask staring at him.

"We are going to do a movie marathon." He says looking over flashing me a grin. Sending my face red. He laughed, it sounded light and happy. "Your so cute when you blush."

"W-what are we marathoning?" I ask as we park in front of another apartment complex, we were on Lize Street I think.

"The sexy answer is whatever you want, but the real one is Lord of the Rings." He says getting out, I get out and walk over. As he unlocks the glass sliding doors, with a key code. He held out his hand, smiling, I swallowed hard. I slid my jacket over my hand and grabbed it making sure he couldn't touch my skin.

I could tell he was confused by this as we entered the elevator, he pressed the 11th-floor button. We went up, I knew he glanced over at me I could feel his eyes on me because I was blushing extremely hard. I flinched when I felt his hand brush my skin as he brushed a piece of hair behind my ear. Not only scaring the living hell out of me. I look over panicked, letting go of his hand pressing myself up against the elevator wall. He frowned looking concerned.

"What's wrong?" He asked concerned. I have to tell him what he is signing up for if he likes me this much.

"N-not here." I say knowing the elevator had a camera. He nodded as the elevator slowed to a stopped and dinged. Walking out and towards his apartment, now I was scared thinking that he wouldn't like me anymore because I was freak, I was dangerous something. And now I mentally preparing myself as we walked inside.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

We went into Blaze's living room sitting down on the grey couch. The floor was hardwood, it looked dark to be a dark mahogany color. He had a dark blue rug underneath the couch and coffee table, which had metallic legs to keep the glass on top from falling. There was a TV on a TV stand, it was also glass. and the shelves were littered with movies. The walls were a very light gray color.

I was, of course, nervous, shoving my shaky hands into my pockets. I could feel the bead of sweat slowly go down the side of my face. I look over to Blaze who looked very confused and concerned. I take in a deep breath and let it out preparing myself to be ushered out.

"I know you're really confused right now but just know I lived this way for a long time. I have powers that aren't good or happy unless you are seeing the part I can control." I pause trying to keep my composure going because I was freaking out on the inside. "I can turn living things to ash. It is only when other living things touch my skin or I touch them. It doesn't always happen though, obviously, you would be ash by now." I say looking down, not daring to look over at Blaze. I squeeze my eyes shut waiting for the words get out exit his mouth. I didn't hear anything, I still didn't dare look over. I stood up, "I'll leave don't worry, it's best you forget about me." I say walking over to the door. Just as I turn the handle a hand presses up against the door.

"How did you find out?" He asked, I was frozen in place, not scared or terrified, just panicking. But somehow I knew it was better, to be honest, and just say what happened.

"I was being tested on in a lab," I heard him mutter something along the lines of oh my god. "One of the doctors that would beat me came in the room and he grabbed me and I grabbed his wrist and then he was ash on the ground," I say remembering Mr. Fear's face piece by piece. I was shaking now, scared of what I was and how I endangered people I was around. I heard his gasp behind me, which snapped me out of my self-pity. I turn around to see the purple butterflies landing on my arms.
"D-don't worry the won't hurt you," I say trying to put him at ease if he was scared or panicking.

"Alex, I'm not scared of you." He said looking straight into my eyes. "We all have our weak points. You don't have to leave. As long as I touch your clothes I should be fine right?" I nod slowly, he smiles at me and takes my wrist that had my jacket on it taking me back over to the couch.

"I don't understand," I say confused. The butterflies had disappeared now. He looks at me and laughs.

"Well I don't have my touching problem anymore but I get it. I have the powers to make someone even myself feel emotions. I could make someone so sad that their depressed or make someone cry from happiness. So I never really liked touching anyone." He explained smiling kindly.

"How did you get over it?" I asked him.

"I slowly started to touch people. Like hands and arms, and then I started hugging and all of that." He said, "But I don't know if that will help you."

"I'm just scared I will turn the people I care about most into ash," I explain looking down to the dark blue carpet.

"I don't think you will." I look at him. "I mean when you turned things to ash were they trying to attack you?"

All the test that had dogs and cats viciously lunging at me I would scream and the second I touched them they would be ash. I would be crying by the end of each one of being scared and sad.

"Yeah," I answer quietly.

"Okay, since I would already be ash since I touched you why am I not?" He asked.

"Because you didn't attack me?" I ask him, he nods.

"Precisely," he held out his hand. "Try touching my hand." I look at him in shock.

"You do realize there is a chance you will die," I say in a way of warning.

"I don't care, go ahead." He says, I shakily reach out and touch his hand. Closing my eyes terrified of what would happen if I opened them. His skin was soft, his fingers were long but they weren't thin or really thick. "I'm not ash."

"N-no your not," I say shakily quickly taking my hand away.

"Do you wanna watch that movie now or would you rather go?" He asks me smiling gently.

"I'll stay." I say trying to calm down as I open my eyes to see he was still there. He wasn't an illusion my mind made up.

"Okay," He says as he moves to get up, I grab the back of his shirt pulling on it, he looks down at me.

"Thanks," I say looking away blushing, feeling embarrassed. I hear him chuckle.

"Don't worry about it." He says kindly as he walks around the coffee table to the shelves of movies.

Now to marathon movies especially long movies, you need to have soda, candy, popcorn, and someone you can laugh and talk with through the slow parts. Which was exactly what Blaze and I did. Although I couldn't keep my eyes off him, at some point I would look over to see what his reaction was. Cause at that point I was just interested in him and nothing else. Once the credits rolled my phone went off and Blaze looked over at it. This was when 'oh crap' was the only thing going through my mind when I realized the text was from Jaydon and I had a feeling that these were the pictures that he took at the trail and ran them through photoshop.

I quickly grabbed my phone before Blaze saw the messages. I opened my phone and looked at the pictures a blush spreading on my face when I saw the headshots and then the one where I was walking down the steps. I scrolled all the way down and I saw the last one which was me on the bridge. Jaydon zoomed in and caught me with my hair blowing in the wind with my eyes closed and I could see that I looked really relaxed and at peace.Jaydon:You know what to do.I didn't respond, I locked my phone putting it down, looking over to Blaze who had cocked an eyebrow. This was when I ran what had just happened in my mind again, I quickly and most likely nervously grabbed my phone, and then blushed once I saw the pictures. Oh my God! I am such a moron.

"Umm..." I hear Blaze murmur. I breathed out a sigh further chastising myself. "Something family related?"

"N-no." I stutter and further curse myself out. "My friend is a photographer and I guess you could say he did a photo shoot with me." And once again after I said that I realized how much that sounded like I just stripped nude in the forest and he took pictures. "Not like that." I quickly rushed putting my head in my hands. I heard Blaze laugh, it was soft and light, it almost sounded relieved in a way.

"Can I see them?" He asked curiously. I looked over at him my mouth open. "What?" I shook my head and unlocked my phone and brought the pictures up, then giving my phone to Blaze. I started fidgeting as I watched his face go from calmness to surprise. "They're all really good. I especially like the last one." He handed me my phone back, and I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. I look up at him and he bit his lip sending shiver down my spine, no doubt making my blush even redder.

"T-thanks," I say staring over his shoulder. Although I'm sure he noticed I was deliberating looking away from him. So, therefore, he moved over just enough where I could see his skin. I could tell he was teasing me and I didn't mind it. A long time has passed where I felt happiness, and this was a feeling I never wanted to go away.

"Hey, Alex?" I looked over to him.

"Yeah?" I say in response.

"Can I meet your friend?" He asks me. I raise my eyebrow, glancing at him. "Don't worry you won't have anything to worry about, I'm only interested in you." I laughed knowing that the second he saw Jay he would be on his fuck list.

"You'd be surprised. But if you really want to I can set something up." I say, a piece of hair falls into my face, and Blaze tucked it behind my ear. My heart racing and I was no doubt blushing.

"You didn't flinch or look terrified." Blaze states smirking slightly.

"You barely touched me," I say looking away blushing. Knowing what Blaze said about my powers was probably true but I didn't want to push it. I was I guess okay with light touching like when he would brush loose strands over my ear. But when I touched his hand it felt like it was too much. He was right though if I don't push myself or figure out how it works then I won't make any progress.

"You're making some progress." He said cheerfully, I glance over to see him smiling. "Hey, what job do you think your gonna get tomorrow?" I could he thought it was an innocent question.

"Performance artist or firefighter," I say, he cocks an eyebrow at me.

"Why?" He asks.

"Well for one, I actually write short stories, and send them into a magazine company every two months, and second your job relates to your powers at the Choosing," I explain eyeing him carefully.

"How do your powers apply to firefighting or performance arts? Although I would love to see you in something other than a jacket and black pants." He says, making me blush.

"Can I show you something?" I ask knowing that I can potentially destroy whatever I have with him.

"Sure," he says without hesitance.

I breathe in and out calming my mind, I rolled up my sleeve, I summon a flame to my hand. I hear Blaze suck in a breath. I twirled the flames around in my hand, in between my fingers. I threw it into the air, catching it perfectly, I closed my hand around it. "What's your favorite animal?" I ask him.

"Wolves," he says breathlessly. I nod and threw the flame at the ground allowing the three wolves to appear that I had seen earlier. "Holy-" He trailed off in shock. The one in the middle in which I called Alpha, cocked his head to the side as he gazed at Blaze. The other two never really showed any personality traits that much besides obeying Alpha. Plus Alpha was usually the one that would comfort me when I threw out my powers when the build-up came.

Alpha cautiously approached Blaze, I watched Alpha closely. I knew Alpha wouldn't hurt Blaze, but sometimes I needed to see his reactions with certain people. Once he was close enough to Blaze he was smelling Blaze. He looked up at Blaze and then over to me. I could tell he liked Blaze, Alpha walked over to me and sat down in between my legs, leaning on my left leg. The other two jumped up on the couch and sat on either side of me, the one on my right, pawed at Blaze's hand. Startled Blaze looked at me.

"You can touch them," I say as I reach down to scratch behind Alpha's right ear. Blaze gasped, he was surprised that it felt like they actually had fur and skin. The wolf leaned into his touch, she was now parked on his lap, as Blaze touched her.

"Wow... It feels like there is fur there." He says looking over at me smiling. I sheepishly smile at him. Blaze looks down at his phone, and scowls.

"What?" I ask.

"I have to start getting ready for work, I'll see you at the ceremony." He says, I get up and grin at him.

"Thanks for having me over, I should probably work on some of my stories." I say walking over to the door. As I put my hand on the door, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"I'll be sure to invite you over again."
He says he leaned down and kissed my shoulder. I blushed mahogany red. He let go of me and I left.
I got to the elevator, seeing that no one was in there, I crumbled to the ground. Oh my god he kissed me! That was the only thing on my mind the whole way down.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Today was the day... It was the ceremony, I didn't sleep too well. I mean I couldn't sleep until 3 AM and then only slept for four hours. I was having a great time as I put on a black buttoned up shirt, along with grey slacks, with dark brown uncomfortable shoes, they looked nice. I pulled my hair back after I had tried to tame the unruly strands, key word tried. I brushed my teeth and grabbed an apple on the way out, eating it on my way down. I quickly checked my pockets with my free hand, my wallet was in my right back pocket, my keys and phone in my front left pocket. I chewed the bite I had of the apple. The ceremony started at 7:30 AM, Jaydon was driving the both of us there. He was already waiting outside. It was currently 6:45 AM, I threw the apple away in the trash knowing Jay didn't like any food or drinks in his car unless it had a lid or was in a container.

I ran outside, to his car, I knocked on the window letting him know I was there. I opened the door and sitting down in the passenger seat. Jay had slicked his hair back, he wore a white button-up shirt and beige slacks. His sleeves were rolled up, "are you gonna stop gawking and put on your seatbelt?" I shook myself out of my daze and did as I was told.

"You look nice," I say, watching the road.

"Obviously, if that wasn't true I wouldn't be expecting you to gawk at me." He said, he slows to a stop and turns right. "You look nice too, you clean up well, Novell."

"Thanks," I say, Blaze should look nice today as well, that was when I remembered that he wanted to Jay. "Hey. Do you want to meet Blaze?"

"Umm, and what immediately get on his fuck list?" He replies sarcastically.

"He wants to meet you," I say as we turn into the auditoriums parking lot.

"Okay, but if he starts flirting with me, it isn't my fault." I roll my eyes. We got out of the car and walked inside, several girls stopped and stared at Jay. We walked into the dark lobby room, only being illuminated by mood lights. We stopped in front of the two ID checking people. I fished mine out of my wallet and got out my ID, once Jay was let through and directed where to go I showed them mine.

"Follow the path on the right." The guard told me as he handed my ID back to me. I nodded and jogged to catch up with Jay. We sat down behind the stage where at least 15 other people were. The chairs were wooden and uncomfortable. I leaned back and sighed, trying to calm my nerves, since I knew I wouldn't really be that happy with whatever job they gave me. Although being a performance artist meant I would have to perform on stage. This was for all ages as well. I take out my phone I might as well choose the pictures that Jay had sent me yesterday. I picked some and was hovering my finger over the last one I clicked on it and sent the list over to Jay. I might as well, Jay would also force me to choose that one as well, since it was a perfect shot.

Jay takes out his phone, and then put it back. He looks over to me quizzically, knowing I was going to ask about Aviva and how many she chose.

"All of them." He says almost as if he could read my mind.

"No way," I say in surprise.

"Yeah, she liked all of them."

"How many did you take of her?" I ask, he raises an eyebrow.

"About 10 or so." I shake my head in response.

"It is gonna be a big one this time, huh?" I said already knowing the answer.

"Yep, I'm gonna have to charge more to get access to them too." He answers, there was gonna be a lot so he was gonna up the price from $5 to probably $8 or so.

Aviva was 19 years old and was a novelist. We met in high school, all of us did actually, we were a small trio of friends. She was the one who put a word in for me about my short stories that I was posting and writing on a site, online. They read it and sent me a message. Bada bing and bada boom, here I am. She would be in the crowd, applauding.

Five people walked in chatting away loudly all five of them sit down in the front row. One with black hair shaved sides, tied back into a tight bun sat down to my right. He was wearing a navy blue button up shirt, with black slacks, and black shiny pointed toed shoes. He seemed to be watching the others in the group and putting in his input every so often.

Jay throws his head back and quietly groans. He glances over at me seeing that my eyes said something to the degree of 'I'm right there with you buddy.' I look back to the person to my right feeling a sense of familiarity.

"So is your boy-toy here yet?" I hear one of the guys further down ask.

"Leo, come on you know he is lying right? There is no way that this 'gorgeous' person exists. Plus no one here fits the description of long brown hair and beautiful stormy grey eyes. Amongst other things." Someone else responds chuckling. It took me a second to realize that they could be talking about me. I didn't make any reaction.

"I'm sure he'll be here he looked about my age." I hear the person to my right say. I paled and looked over, realizing that the person to my right was Blaze. Butterflies flew around erratically in my stomach. Jay looks over to me and raises an eyebrow. Okay, I was going to try something bold and then hate myself for it later.

I cleared my throat, "Blaze is that you?" I ask, knowing he would immediately recognize my voice. He whipped his head around and my thoughts were confirmed once I saw his bright blue eyes.

"Alex? That's you?" He says in a shocked tone.

"Yeah?" I say, in a way of who else would it be? His friends leaned over to see me and rolled their eyes. Jay stirred, he most likely saw their reaction.

"Holy-" His voice trailed off as his eyes made their way down my body. I rolled my eyes.

"Eyes up here buddy," I say as his eyes flew back up to my face.

"You look great." He says, I lightly blush.

"You too," I say, Jay, elbows my back. "Oh right," I lean back and gesture to Jay, "this is Jaydon, the photographer." Blaze's eyes travel over to Jaydon, whom leaned forward and offered Blaze, his hand. They shook hands, Blaze looks over to me.

"How have you not fucked him?" He asked me, I stared at him. "No offense." He says looking at Jay.

"None taken, and trust me he tried back in high school. I believe he was drunk when that happened and he-" I coughed knowing exactly which story he was about to tell. "Oh, do you not want me to tell him that?" Jay asked in a childish voice. Blaze look over to me confused. He didn't really know or understand the unspoken language between us. I send a glare over in the direction of Jay. He, of course, chuckles.

"Right, these are my friends," Blaze says pointing to the four other people next to him. "The one to my right is Noah," Noah had red hair with brown eyes, his nose and cheeks dotted with freckles. His hair in curly tassles, he was wearing a grey suit with a red tie. He nodded to me, once we made eye contact. "Next to Noah is Aiden." Aiden was blonde, his hair was half shaved and flipped over to the left side. He had dark green eyes, he wore a white button-up shirt and a light grey vest, grey slacks. He grinned at me, I returned his smile, moving my gaze back to Blaze. "After Aiden, there's River and Liam, but everyone just Liam, Leo." Blaze finishes, River had light brown hair, which was spiked up, he had dark amber eyes. He was wearing a light green button-up shirt with grey slacks. Lastly, there was Liam, he was wearing a dark grey long sleeve shirt with a suit jacket on top, and dark blue jeans. Liam had vibrant green eyes, with black hair, he smiled at me, I nodded. Looked over my shoulder to Jay, who looked like he was completely done with this.

"What job do you think your gonna get?" I hear Leo ask, I look back over to him.

"Don't know, quite hard to choose with my powers, I'd guess," I answer hoping that he wouldn't ask what my powers are.

"Oh well, I'm going to be a detective." I could tell Jay was trying to hold in a comment that he would be telling me later. Even though I had a feeling that it had something to do with that Leo would be terrible as a detective. It wasn't like I couldn't disagree with that. "River's gonna be a DJ." River looked over to Leo like he had just said something he shouldn't have.

"Dude, you don't know that. Plus no music person at all has looked at my stuff." River said sternly.

"I know some music producers if you want I could tell them about you." I offer, River looks over in my direction hopeful.

"You don't have to do that." He said.

"It isn't a problem I have to check in with them anyways," I say. He nods to me and I hear the muffled words of the President on stage. Probably getting ready to call someone's name.

"Lisa Allan, your up, start making your way to the stage." One of the staff say, a girl gets up and follows the signs that lead to the stage.

I lean back in my chair and breath trying to block out any negative thoughts. I hear a camera flash and the conversation next to me stops. I glance over to Jay and I saw he had his camera out, pointing in my direction.

"Jay, I might actually hurt you," I say, knowing that he knew it was a joke and empty threat.

"Sorry, the position was too good to miss." He answered as he puts the lens cap on. I sigh, glancing over at Blaze who looked confused.

"Does this happen all the time?" Blaze asks Jay.

"No, but I knew that I would get at least one good picture out of him so yeah, and plus I bring my camera everywhere," Jay answers looking up at Blaze. I could tell Blaze still didn't understand.

"Essentially I am his entertainment and model whenever I am with him."

"That's weird," Blaze says.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jaydon," Jay says smiling, I laugh. Jay was even worse in high school, he would get anyone to do whatever he wanted. That was his powers anyway, he would suggest something and the person he was 'suggesting' things to would just automatically do it. Teachers absolutely hated him, but he didn't care too much.

"Liam Ally, your up." The staff called out, Leo got up with a big grin on his face. Following the staff, after a couple seconds, I hear a lot of clapping, I take another breath. It is going to okay, Alex.

No, it won't, you'll hate this job with a burning passion in your heart. I hear the voice say my head, I grit my teeth, knowing my nerves were now through the roof.

"Breathe, you'll be okay, Alex." I hear Jay whisper to me, and before I even complied with what he said I knew he laced it with his powers. But I knew I needed that, even though I absolutely hated it when he did that to me. I take a couple breaths and my nerves go back down to a reasonable level.

"Alex, you good?" I hear Blaze say as he touches my shoulder. I look over to him seeing his eyes full of concern. I was almost sure my face revealed all that was going on. But I was almost sure my mouth would betray me.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I say, knowing after Jay's command wore off I wouldn't be.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

I was, of course, the last one in the room. Besides the fact, I was stressing out again on whether or not my name would even be called. Or how about if they even found a job for me. I once again surveyed my surroundings for the third time. The staff had started to put up some of the empty chairs. Since I was the only one in the room I decided to stand up. Hopefully making their job a little easier."Alexander Novell." I flinch at the sound, well other than metallic clinking. I walked over to the staff who I was following to the stage. My name was called, now came the real fun... I was being led to the stage and I could now hear what the president was saying. "When the President says your name go on stage." The staff said as they walked off behind me.I had a clear view of the stage. The President was wearing a navy blue suit, with black pointed toe shoes, white button-up shirt, and a navy blue tie. He was bald with amber eyes. His face was everywhere on social media, news, anything the internet was related to he was on it. He didn't scare me, it was more of I was terrified of what job the system gave me."Now we have one last person for today's ceremony. We actually have dedicated the next 10 minutes just for him to work his magic." He said with emphasis on magic. "Alexander Novell." I took a breath and walked out on stage smiling, or rather fake smiling. I was met with loud applauding, and a couple of whistles. I shook the President's hand, we nodded to each other. "How are you doing today Alexander?" He pointed the microphone he was holding in my direction."I'm a little nervous," I answer honestly."Oh, you've got nothing to be worried about, unless you have stage fright." He said cocking an eyebrow. Once again pointing the microphone in my direction."No, I don't," I answer."Alright then. Are you ready to know what your job is?" He asked I nodded before he had a chance to offer me the microphone. "You will be- drumroll please." He said looking over to the audience who in response, provided him with one. "A performance artist." He looks at me smiling, I return his smile. "How do you feel about putting on a little show?" I glance over to the audience trying to find a familiar face, finding no comfort. I saw the children in the front row, a girl looked up at me with sad eyes, almost hopeful."Sure," I say looking back over to the President. He nods offering me the microphone to me, I take it and he walks off the stage. I look out to the crowd settling my eyes to the kids. I guess I'll just target them, and then quickly with the adults. "This is pretty boring right?" I ask them, they all immediately start cheering. The girl shifts around in her dark grey dress. "So I am gonna choose one of you and how about you give me a request of what you want to see." Their hands shot up, I walked over to the stairs the spotlight following me. The girl I had my eyes on gingerly rose her hand after I passed by, I stopped and back up to her. "Hello there, what's your name?" I ask her kindly, I offer her the microphone."Dakota." She says in a small voice."Hi Dakota, what do you want me to do?""Can I see what love would look like?" She says the adult behind her leaned down and seemed to be chiding her. Her eyes closed, she seemed saddened. "Neve-""I'll do that for you," I said cutting her off, looking straight into the adult's eyes. I saw anger and then fear flash through them. I went back up the stairs, the whole time thinking of a way I could show that and then just as I put the mic back in its holder, I realize I show how I feel about Blaze. I roll up my sleeves and step back, sparking the flame into my hand I clasped my hand over it, changing it into a broken heart. Of course, it was dark purple like everything else I created including animals.I removed my hand from the top, letting it levitate from my hand, I removed my hand from under it. I reached my left hand out to the girl and made it seem like the broken heart came out of her chest, all the other kids were watching in awe, but the girl burst into tears. Before it got to me, I made it fall. I caught it, but then showed that it had been shattered. I made the broken heart that was still intact zoom around it, as I slowly levitated the pieces from my hand, making the pieces go back together, making some of them break on the way up. I lowered my hands once all the pieces had left. The heart was now all back together, the two broken heart zipped around the room, circling each other. until I made them stop in front of her and join together. I made them, together, zoom back to the stage and they seem to trip on something and fall to the ground to my right, breaking them apart in the process. I made them then morph into the girl, and then a boy who zoomed to his feet offering her his hand. She took it and as she was being helped up, I made it seem like many years passed. Once she was fully up, the boy took her in his arms and hugged her, they then faded away gradually.I looked back to the girl who was practically sobbing, she ran out of her chair, once the adult leaned down again, raced up the steps and was heading towards me. She wanted to hug me and was going to let her, this wasn't an attack this was an expression of gratitude. I smiled at her and dropped to one knee opening up my arms. She ran straight into them wrapping her arms around me. I pushed out a breath, Alex, everything will be okay. I wrapped my arms around her, my skin touched her cold soft skin. I rubbed her back, as she continued to cry on her shoulder, I almost cried myself when I realized that she wasn't ash on the ground. Blaze was right, after all, I could touch people without hurting them.A couple more seconds went by and she let go of me and went back to her seat, wiping her face in the process. I walked over to the microphone looking out to the hundreds of faces in awe. "Thank you," I say and then the President walked back onto the stage wiping his eyes. I backed up and let him take over."Alexander Novell, that is the most touching show I have ever seen performed by a performance artist. I think you'll do well in this industry. Thank you for that, you may be seated." He says I nod to him and go down the steps and walk up the steps to other seats. Finding the other people that got jobs and a free seat in the middle of Blaze and Jaydon. I sat down, knowing that Jaydon was staring at me in shock.The President gave a speech about how we would succeed in what we were assigned to do. Then said goodbye to everyone, the lights came on and everyone started leaving. I got up, starting to walk outside. I made it to the car, waiting for Jay. I saw my parents walking towards me. I smile at them as my mom hugs me. I wrap my arms around her."You- you." It almost seemed like she couldn't get it out."I touched someone," I say as we break apart."How?" I hear Jay say from behind them."Blaze," I answer, looking him dead in the eyes."That boy is better for you than I thought." He says smiling shaking his head."I don't know if that's a good thing?" I hear Blaze say to my right who was standing there."It is good, although I'm gonna start small." I looking at Blaze."Does this mean I get to introduce you to T-shirts?" Jay asks I glance over to see him smirking."Don't push it," I say, everyone laughs. My parents check the time and sigh."I'm sorry Alex, we really want to celebrate with you but we have work. How's Friday?" My dad asks. I paled knowing that was the day Blaze and I was going out on a date."Sorry I've got plans. How about Sunday?" I say, they nod in agreement. They both quickly hug me and start walking into the parking lot. I sigh."I'll see you Friday then?" Blaze says. I look over to him."Ugh, I should've known," Jaydon says as he gets into the car starting it."I wouldn't dream of missing it," I say, he smiles."See you, Magician." He says, making me blush. I jog over to the passenger side door, getting in the car."Do you wanna hug?" I ask already knowing his answer."Fuck off." He says, I laugh as he pulls out of the parking spot, as I click my seatbelt into the mechanism. We drive off, as he tells me about the next shoot he wanted to do with me, while I was using my powers. Knowing that is what I would be known for. I was hoping that I gave that girl, even more, hope than what her parents were giving her.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Thursday was nothing but business and congratulations. When I say business I mean sending off my manuscript and then answering emails I was receiving from many theaters, apparently, the owners of some theaters saw my little show and invited me to come to perform. I told them I'd be happy to but I would have to work on the dates with them. Since I didn't really want to turn down Blaze for a day that he was free, or Jaydon. Even though Jay was already a known photographer, his online gallery was very popular, the only difference now was that he could contact printing companies and be able to ship the pictures to people who were willing to pay that price. Plus he made his own schedule and I knew that he would want to hang out with me again at some point, with or without his camera.

I essentially didn't leave my apartment at all yesterday. But now it was 4:45 and I was walking to the trail, there were picnic tables at the front so I didn't have wait standing for Blaze to get there. Even though I was quite nervous about this date. I sat down on the wooden picnic tables, and waited, I put on my earbuds and played music as the wind from the river blew my hair and clothes. I hummed along with the music, not hearing the car that pulled into the parking lot. I glance over and recognize Blaze's car I take off my earbuds and coil them up and shove them and my phone into my pocket.

I walked over to the car, seeing that he was trying to text me to let me know I was here. He should've been able to see me, I knocked on the window, he looked over and his eyes widened. I smiled, as he got out of the car.

"Hey, you startled me." He says grinning putting his phone away.

"I thought you would've been able to see me," I say as we started walking to the trail. "What job did you get you never told me?"

"Oh, I'm a Therapist. I guess because I give good advice and relatively understand feelings, they want me to be one. I mean I won't say I'm unhappy about it though." He explained, I nodded. "Speaking of which, you chose that girl for a reason didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. I could tell she was hurt just by looking into her eyes, it takes one to know one I guess." I say shrugging.

"What do you mean?" He asks.

"You know how I told you I went to a lab."

"Yeah."

"After I got out I kinda felt like I was lost because the whole world had kept going on without me. I had lost all of my friends, I skipped multiple grades because I was around Scientists all day so I learned things extremely fast, my vocabulary was quite big, but none of the kids my age understood me. My parents would constantly argue at home about me because I was different and they both were waiting for me to go back to my earlier self, that honestly was lost the second I was admitted into the lab. So most of that stuff just piled on top of each other and I was depressed until I met Aviva and Jay in high school. Because we were weird and different together. And that felt fucking amazing." I explain as we walked further down the trail shoving my hands in my pockets.

"Okay, can I ask something real quick?" He asks me.

"Go for it," I said glancing over at him nervously.

"Why tell me all this?" He asked confused.

"I honestly think it is because I trust you. I mean I met someone with relatively the same touching issue I have," I pause to take a breath, "and you helped with that, I at least consider you a friend. Plus if you are really that interested and won't get scared off by me this won't bother you and you'd just accept it like it was an apart of me." I explain looking over to the trees blocking my view from the river.

"Alex, you interest me as a person and friend. Not just a love interest, and don't get me wrong you definitely are. But let's put it this way I didn't think you'd open up as soon as you did." He explained with multiple hand gestures to himself and me.

"Thanks?" I say in the form of a question.

"It's a compliment don't worry." He says shaking his head. "Oh right, have you heard about the most recent kill on the Dark Killer."

"Everyone seems to be so obsessed with him, and to answer your question no, I don't normally follow the news very often," I say looking over to him.

"I get it, no this might be gory so sorry in advance." He pauses looking at me any reaction.

"Blaze I can turn people to ash..."

"I know, anyways he apparently killed someone by ripping them open and taking out their intestines puncturing a little hole letting them slowly bleed to death. The words overpowered written down on his chest. The scary part is the guy was still alive and says he saw a guy in a dark hood and then while trying to give a better description he died." I felt chills go down my spine.

"I bet you that he times everything he does, and doesn't have any powers," I say as if that realization just hit me.

"Why do you say 'he times it'?" He asked me.

"That was too specific, this feels like it'll be a different version of the Zodiac Killer." I pause, "he wants to give the police a chance."

"I can agree with that, and plus if you are careful enough you don't leave any prints. I mean it is possible to get no powers, it is just extremely uncommon." Blaze replies.

"Yeah," I say. "I mean some of us would rather be powerless because you don't want to accidentally do something and then be accused of murdering someone on purpose."

"Speaking of which how did you get away from turning that one guy into ash?" He asked.

"Okay let me put it this the administration basically said, 'he did the world a favor.' The doctor not only abused me and what I did was purely based off of reaction, besides the fact he had sexually harassed several women, not to mention blackmail." I say Blaze's jaw dropped open.

"And that excused you from everything." He replied in shock.

"No not everything, they made me stay three months longer than necessary. Plus I had to go back to do monthly checkup reports for a full year when I'm sure they knew for a fact that I was terrified of the place." I say nonchalantly.

"Oh." He says, I could tell he wasn't really understanding that, but it was fine with me. "Where did you and Jaydon take those pictures?"

"Do you actually want to know?" I ask quizzically.

"Well, yeah." He said blatantly.

"Okay." I walked over and into the trees, dodging some overhanging branches, and stepping around some big rocks. I could see the river now I walked a bit further, so I was closers to the embankment of water. Knowing I didn't want to step on the wet river rocks.

"This is cool." I hear Blaze say behind me, I turned around to look at his face, just to see his reaction. The wind blew gently against the objects the area making the leaves on the trees glide together. I felt my hair tye loosen then break, as the wind blew on me. I reached up to my hair once I had felt it break. This felt like a stereotypical movie scene, cliché.

I look back over to Blaze who seemed to be just fine with my hair down. Knowing my hair it probably looked unkept now. I ran my hand through some of it trying to tame some of it.

"Aren't you looking gorgeous?" He said I glanced back over to him, seeing him smile. I rolled my eyes at him. I walk back up to the trail, knowing that he was right behind. I looked behind me, to see him slip, I grabbed his arm, holding him there. He looked up at me a little startled. That's when I realized what had just happened, my heart started to race, I immediately let go of him. "I'm okay." He said trying to reassure me. "How about we go to dinner where neither of us will trip and get hurt?" I nodded knowing that I couldn't trust the words that came out of my mouth. I grabbed his shirt looking down at the ground.

"I-"

"I'm alive." He simply said cutting me off, I could tell he wanted to hug me though. The human interaction of touch to reassure me. But even as we walked back to his car, I felt terrified and relieved at the same time, knowing that I wanted to be able to touch someone again, hug them, kiss them, hold hands, and it felt almost impossible to accomplish.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

We walked in the Carlson's Cafe I believe it was called. Everything here usually had Cafe after it. In my opinion, it was kind of dumb, you aren't really using any creativity at all, just coping someone else and calling it yours. It didn't necessarily annoy me, it just didn't make any sense to me.

We were seated at a table for two, the table seemed to be bamboo wood along with the chairs. The chairs were very uncomfortable. Not to mention I had somehow made this date uncomfortable and awkward. This happened by me just touching his arm, I was a complete idiot sometimes. What was wrong with me?

"So how's been your soon to be booming career?" Blaze's voice cut through my thoughts. Oh, right I need to talk to him about that.

"Well assuming we'd go another date mind if I run some of the dates for theaters by you?" I ask looking down at my menu, glancing over to my ice water.

"Assuming?" He paused, "I mean there will be more, but sure go ahead."

"Okay, so I got one for next Saturday at 8:30 pm?" I say in more of the tone of a question as I fish my phone out of my pocket.

"Where?" Blaze asks curiously. I opened the list I had written.

"The Orion Concert Hall," I answer once I had found it.

"I heard that's a small and nice theater," Blaze says.

"Umm... The Apollo Lantern Amphitheatre, on October 16th at 7:30 pm." I pause, I look up to see Blaze, he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Sorry, it's just a lot of bad things have happened to me on that day." He says in a sad tone. I need to touch him. But what if- no I can't think like that anymore I'm not at the lab. I shakily reach my hand on his placing it on his. I breathed out and looked up at him. His eyes were laced with joy and sadness. Joy probably because I touched him voluntarily.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked looking straight at him, not for a second dropping his gaze.

"Your-"

"T-touching you. I know." I stumbled. "Do you want to or?"

"I-" He paused dropping my gaze, "I just lost a lot of people that day."

"Because of your powers?" I ask looking at him concerned.

"Yeah." He glanced up at me. "I had to move schools."

"Okay," I say softly.

"I also lost my best friend on that day." I could see his eyes start to water. "I'm sorry."

"You're good," I say calmly despite the fact that my hands were shaking.

"Well, at least we're even now," Blaze says rubbing his eyes. I laugh softly.

"So... Now that we both have opened up to each other let's try some light-hearted banter." Blaze suggests while smiling. I nod my head and remove my hand from his.

After dinner, we both decided to go to a children's playground. I swung on the swings, seeing how small the slides and stairs were. I remember the slides being huge, Blaze was leaning on the monkey bars, watching me. I kind of wished I had a camera because that was a perfect pose and so was the environment.

It was sunset outside, the oranges and reds blending in together. I jumped off the swing, hearing the hinges squeak behind me. I walked over to Blaze, who adjusted his stance.

"Aren't you picture-esc," I say climbing up the monkey bars and on top of them. I sat down and looked down at him.

"You know you just said what I think about you normally." He said smirking up at me. I looked away feeling my cheeks heat up.

"Get your ass up here," I say looking at the trees in the distance. I feel the monkey bars shake as he climbed up to sit next to me.

"This has been a couple of interesting hours," Blaze says. "I want to wrap my arm around you." I glance over to him. He was looking at me probably trying to figure out whether I'd actually go for it or not. I breathed out, you can do this. Nothing bad will happen nothing happen, it'll be okay. I leaned over and onto his chest. I felt his heartbeat, it was fast, probably because I had touched him voluntarily twice in one day. Which I will admit was an achievement.

He slowly wrapped his arm around me. He was warm, it was kind of nice. I closed my eyes, breathing in the smell of his clothes. That's weird, Alex. But of course I did it anyway. He smelled of a forest during fall. We kind of just sat there, saying nothing, doing nothing. It was I guess relaxing, it didn't feel weird. It was almost unknown.

"Somebody's feeling better I see." I hear Blaze say which cut through my thoughts. I shot my eyes open to see the purple butterflies fluttering around us.

"I can make them go away," I say.

"No. They're pretty, just like you." He says it came out almost natural.

"Stop it," I say nudging him slightly. He chuckles.

"Never." He says pulling me closer to him. I roll my eyes. "Hey wanna watch a movie at your place?"

"Sure, but my place is a little small, so..." I trail off.

"That's fine." He says.

"Okay," I say making the butterflies disappear and I climb down the monkey bars. Blaze doing the same, he wraps his arm around me again as we walk towards the car. He let's go of me as I get into the car, he walks to the other side and gets in. He puts the key in the ignition turning it on. The car came to life it lit up inside and we were off.

We pulled up to my apartment building I unlocked the main door, I waved at the night receptionist, who smiled back at me. I went up the steps and unlocked my door, twisting the doorknob and pushing it open. I let him in first, taking my shoes off at the door. Blaze doing the same. He walked further in looking around, I flicked the light on plopping down at the couch.

"So what options do you have?" He asked me. I looked over and got up and went over to a cabinet that the TV was sitting on. It was light bamboo wood, I slid it open. I skimmed the movie options and then grabbed Back to the Future, hoping that would suffice.

"Oh, an oldie but goodie." I hear Blaze say behind me. I pop it into the Blu-ray player and turn the TV on. I almost never watch cable, I didn't see a point to it. Watching commercials every 20 minutes was just stupid.

I got back up since I had been kneeling and plopped back down on the couch. I turned out the light and turned the sound up to a reasonable amount to where the neighbors wouldn't complain too much. I pressed play on the title menu and set the remote down and leaned up against Blaze. "You're too cute."

"Ssshhh, the movie is starting," I say feeling my cheeks heat up again. He really did have a way of making me blush with almost every compliment of his. He wrapped his arm around me. I felt the security of his smell and warmth again.

As the movie went on I heard Blaze chuckle a couple times or hum to the music. I, on the other hand, slowly felt my eyes get heavier and heavier. I was trying to fight off sleep but before I knew it, I was out like a light. Feeling the soft feeling of the couch and warmth of Blaze lull me deeper and deeper to sleep.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Mr. Novell, come out. It is time for your daily check-up, we have to make sure your genes aren't creating new ones. Do you want your powers worse than they are now?" I hear Dr. Fear's voice ring through my ears. I was hiding in the bathroom, I had locked the door and held onto the lock, knowing full well that they all had keys. I didn't dare speak, I looked down at my hand and sparked a purple flame to life.

Why? Why did this power have to choose me? I just want to be normal. Go to a school and not learn everything from scientists that only care about my genes. Why?

"Mr. Novell, huh?" I hear a new voice. The scene changed to a dressing room, I turned around to see Blaze standing there raising his eyebrow. He was probably talking about the name on the dressing room door. I couldn't speak. I wanted to tell him something. I couldn't. Like something was tying me down, cotton balls shoved down my throat as if they would keep me from talking. "Awfully professional, don't you think?"

He walked towards me with a look that not even I could identify. I took a step back and next thing I knew I falling into a black abyss. The light getting further and further away. I reached out my hand as if someone would grab it. I closed my eyes. I felt a hand grab mine, I snapped open my eyes to see Blaze, holding onto my hand tightly. He dragged me out of the abyss and I was surrounded by a room of light. He let go of my wrist, and before I could say anything he hugged me.

I awoke with a start. I glanced around me to see that it was morning and Blaze had fallen asleep too. He seemed to have draped a blanket over us. I wiggled out of his grip without waking him surprisingly. I turned the corner and into the kitchen, getting out a cup and drinking some water. Sild down the cabinets with the cup in my hand Alpha walked up to me and curled up beside me putting his paw on my thigh. This was his way of asking if I was alright. I pet his head and sighed, I pushed Alpha's paw off of me and got up. I walked over to the table and sat down, opening up my charging laptop. Knowing I needed to send a couple of emails to some theaters.

Now I had to think of what my performances were gonna be. I drank some more of the water I had. What would be interesting? Damn, I couldn't really think of anything. Wait this is for me to have fun, so why was I thinking of what would be more interesting for other people to see? Music, I could use music, now as to what those songs would be, I don't really know.

I sparked a flame to life in my hand, tapped my shoulder with it, making it travel across my chest and arm. Holding it in my other hand twirling it around my fingers. I let it extinguish itself, as Blaze walked in. He walked over to me, slowly messaging my shoulders.

"I'm assuming you know that I have to leave right?" Blaze says quietly.

"And I'm assuming that you slept well?" I say knowing full well that he had to leave. But I knew I would see him again, so it didn't bother me too much.

"Yeah, I did. I wasn't expecting you to fall asleep so quickly though it was kind of surprising." He said stretching his arms above his head. "You looked really peaceful so I didn't want to wake you. So I kind of just stayed on the couch and eventually fell asleep." He further explained rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Did I look peaceful? That is vastly different than actually how my dream was going. My dreams were almost suffocatingly real. I could almost remember everything that was said during my dream. Every different scene I could remember exactly how it looked. This wasn't anything new, most of the time if I did have any dreams I could remember it exactly. Most of the time my dreams were haunted by the face and death of Dr. Fear. I didn't get your generic nightmares. My past was traumatic enough for my mind to remember a piece of it and I would continue to hate my mind. It was a nightly acceptance I had to go through after getting out of the lab.

"Alex?" Blaze's voice cuts through my thoughts. I look up at him, probably thankfully. Thankful to get me out of the chain of thoughts that would continue to come back for all times.

"Yeah?" I swallow looking back over to my laptop, hitting send for the email, I finished proofreading.

"Are you alright?" He asks cocking his head to the side slightly.

"I'm alright, just spaced out for a second," I said smiling slightly. He didn't really seem to believe me.

"Ok, well I have to go to work." He said, "text me if you need me." I nodded slowly.

"Wait you have to work on a Saturday?" I ask him raising an eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised how hectic my schedule is now." He says chuckling a little.

He looked at me for a couple more seconds and walked closer to me. "Can I get a kiss?" I hear, I blush so fiercely I was almost sure I was a red L.E.D light, that goes on a Christmas tree.

"Don't push your luck," I say looking to my hands that were resting in my lap. Trying to calm down.

"Can't blame me for trying. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah see you later." I hear the door close behind him and I exhaled in a rush of breath. Now everything seemed too quiet like something was missing. I, of course, knew exactly what was missing but I almost didn't want to admit it. I leaned back. "What am I gonna do?"

I hear the clicking of paws of the floor, I glanced over to see Alpha, he was, of course, was standing there, in the doorway of the kitchen, looking regal. His look seemed to say something to the degree of, 'really?' Why did the wolf of all things know me better than myself? Made no sense at all.

My phone started buzzing, Jay's name appeared on it as the caller ID. I sighed, sliding my finger across the screen answering it.

"Hey, I need your face," Jay says nonchalantly.

"Why?" I ask knowing this was his way of asking me to go be his model.

"Cause I've taken enough landscape pictures, and they need something more." He says.

"Is variety the word you're looking for?" I asked rolling my eyes.

"Yes now get here!" He says.

"Alright, where are you?" I ask knowing I wouldn't be able to get out of this.

"Where am I?" He murmurs sarcastically. "I'm at the trail, Alex."

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit." I sighed hanging up the phone.

I close the lid to my laptop and stare up at the ceiling for a couple of seconds before moving to get up and put actual clothes on. I got up and changed, I grabbed my keys that were on the table. Walking out of my apartment locking the door behind me. I walked down the stairs and out the door. I started the short walk to the trail. Now I had to worry about what Jay was gonna make me do. And trust me he got his way.

It all is due to his powers. He can persuade someone to do anything he wants. That, of course, sounds like he has a silver tongue. He can just suggest something to you wouldn't be able to not do it. When he and I originally met, he tried to use it on me. It didn't work since I don't really listen to people anyways. He soon found out he had to use a lot of effort to be able to get me to do what he wants. In which he just gave up and we became friends. Plus unless I ask him too he doesn't use it on me. If I do it is only so that my emotions aren't out of control, the main one that gets really bad is anxiety.

I slide my hand across the railing, feeling the dirt and grime. I looked over to the sparkling river. The warm breeze slams into me and rips its way through my clothes, and danced on my skin. It felt kind of relaxing and almost like the wind was trying to tickle me, but instead decided to envelop me in a hug. The sky was a light blue, a couple of puffy and fluffy clouds in sight. The sun seemed to be saying hi as it directly shone in my eyes. I had to blink a couple of times and put my hand in front of my face to make sure I didn't walk into the road. I made it to the parking lot seeing Jay standing there.

"Finally! What took so long?" He asks sarcastically.

"Whatever. Let's go." I say as we started down the gravel path. This should be interesting I guess. Since I know Jay is going to ask about what I did last night.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"How have you been?" I ask knowing I might get a sarcastic answer."I've been alright just checking up on my gallery and editing pictures. What about you?" He asks, wow I got a serious answer that's a first."Eh, I just wrote on my manuscripts, sent out some emails, just as boring as you," I say smiling at him. He rolls his eyes."I called you out here cause I found this good spot but it feels unbalanced without someone being there." He says his eyebrows furrowing together, he was thinking."So I'm your personal model?" I ask raising an eyebrow, Jay smirked at my comment."If that's what you wanna call yourself then sure. Now come on." He said gesturing for me to follow him.Silence followed our conversation, it wasn't so bad, I summoned a small ball into my hand and made run around my arms and fingers. It isn't so bad being silent, it can be calming."I still can't believe that Leo is actually a detective," Jay says, myself the rest of the statement was 'in training.'"I kinda have to agree with you he doesn't seem like the type that is about that kind of stuff.
I bet it was the first mystery TV series he saw," I say."What did you do last night?" Jay asks as he walks next to me our feet crunching on the gravel path."None of your business," I say hoping he wouldn't pry more information. He looked over to me and cocked his head to the side."Okay so something definitely happened, tell me." He says in a quickened pace. I glanced away from him. "I have two ways of getting information out of you, I recommend that you choose wisely." I rolled my eyes."It was worth a shot." I pause deciding on whether not I actually wanted to tell Jay about last night. I sigh I might as well since he won't let it drop. "I hung out with Blaze.""Oh," he trails off. We were in silence for a while. In those moments I was trying to figure out on whether or not it was awkward silence or peaceful silence. I honestly can't tell anymore. I look around seeing the usual trees, and weeds surrounding us. The light and dark, greens, browns, and yellows surrounded us. I could feel my mind slowly soak into my surroundings, it was slowly blending together. I was aware of everything else but I was comfortable. It is that feeling you get when you are alone and you have the sense of being content on what is going in your life. May I mention especially with me... It doesn't happen often."Anything else?" Jay breaks the silence. I looked over to him reflexively."We uh, hung out, went to the old school park,""The one where (Bex) and I sat on Jimmy Stooler's legs in elementary school," Jay said cutting me off."Yeah. Then we uh," I looked away nervously, "cuddled on top of the monkey bars." When I looked back over to Jay he looked so happy that he could hug me which is rare. And scary, mostly scary."And...?" Jay trailed off, gesturing towards me, obviously wanting more information."That's it," I say hoping that I'll get away with it."Don't lie to me, there's more than your letting on," Jay says, see now I know I knew that I should tell him. "Come on," he coaxed.I felt it first, his words soaking into my brain, wiggling its way through it, trying to find the right nerve pathways to get me to speak, and then the right memory for me to tell. Then I heard it. He lowers his voice and he makes it have a certain calming undertone to it."Asshole," I say breathlessly, he used too much, I can't resist him. I won't be able to keep my mouth shut. I saw his reaction to my statement. His lips twitched, and his eyes focused in on me, and then the emotion of losing something that he tried to get. What he was trying to get was my answer."We went back to my apartment, we watched a movie, and I feel asleep on him, I woke up and he was still on the couch next to me asleep. I'm assuming we were cuddling all night before he left he asked for a kiss goodbye to which I declined." I felt the words leave me, and the freedom came back to me.I didn't say anything, silence overtook me. It wasn't the fact he used his powers on me without my permission, he did it because he got scared. Possibly worried, I stopped walking and stared at him, I didn't care how it seemed to him. I wanted him to see that I was angry with him. He turned and he seemed to keenly watch me. I know why he did this...I went back to the lab for a visit, while Jay and I were friends, I didn't speak for two months. In the mind of Jay's I had changed and I stopped letting people in. I had so many flashbacks all at once, that I didn't know what to do, or how to convey what was going on internally. I was stuck in this one place and I couldn't figure out what to do even though I knew all along. I hung out with them, but it was like something was holding them back. I shut him and (NAME) out, I didn't smile or laugh. Jay was scared and worried that something had happened. I tried to give them the connection they wanted, but I never could until I started talking and told them my past. From that day everything got a little better."I'm not gonna apologize." He says gripping his lens cap."I know," I say slowly and softly."Why didn't you tell me?" He says, I looked away but I could still feel his eyes on me. It was almost like he was trying to untangle the complex knots, that was my mind. The knots a struggle for me to untangle."It's embarrassing, like hell I would tell you without coaxing," I say leaning my head back, seeing the canopy of tree leaves above. I heard a quick soft click of his camera, and I let the green atmosphere suffocate me. The leaves brushing against each other making a sound that to me at least was better than rain. I started to walk again, shoving my hands into my pockets. I walk in front of Jay, I hear the soft click of his camera behind me again. "Let's go take some pictures."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

My phone buzzed in my back pocket, it startled me, sending shivers down my spine. I was trying to be still while Jay was taking a picture, which I simultaneously moved as he took the picture. I knew in the three seconds I had before he said something that I should act as if nothing happened.

"You moved." He said annoyed, as he looked at the picture and raised the camera back up to take another picture. I kept still and tried not to look at the camera lens. I heard the camera shutter and breathed out, not realizing I was holding in a breath. "Okay, I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while," Jay says.

I got up from the uncomfortable sitting position I was in and checked my phone. It was a text message from Blaze.

"Had a feeling," Jay says, I looked up seeing as that his comment referred to my phone.

"Shut up," I say unlocking my phone, reading Blaze's message.Blaze:Hey I told my sister that were dating and she wants to meet you, what do you say?Alex:Umm... Sure. When and where?Blaze:Today and I'll pick you up at 3:30 PM, is that alright?Alex:I'll see you then.

"Anyways how's your newfound job been going. That was one hell of a show you put on at the ceremony." Jay asks, noticing that my phone went back into my back pocket.

"Good, I guess, some theaters have already reached out to me," I say as we walk back up to the main trail, twigs and leaves crunching under my feet.

"What do you mean I guess? That sounds great." Jay says, putting the lens cap back on his camera.

"I have no idea as to what I'm going to perform there." I pause seeing as that Jay was taking my problem into account. "But I did come up with syncing up to music, or doing that but showing the story I think the song is telling me."

"I would go with the second one. Telling a story through what you can do is more meaningful than dancing to it." He says tilting his head to the side as if to say, 'really this is a problem.'

I nodded and we continued on, Jay telling me about Aviva thought was gonna happen at that last photo shoot. She told him almost exactly what she told me, that she was scared that it was a nude photo shoot. Jay, of course, being Jay, laughed at her and continued to tease her about it the whole time. Once we reached the parking lot we bid our goodbyes to each other and went our separate ways. I walked across the bridge back to my apartment, it like always took five minutes. I went up to my apartment, I unlocked the door and plopped down on the couch, feeling the soft cushions, support my back that had been aching from the uncomfortable positions Jay had me in. I guess that was his way of revenge.

I sighed and took out my phone, noticing it was 3:20. I had 10 minutes to get myself ready. Now I wasn't worried but after the first five minutes went by that was when I got a reminder text from Blaze.Blaze:On my way, be there in five.Alex:Okay, I'll be waiting.

Now when I sent that, I was in the middle of throwing clothes on. In my mind, I had one minute to do everything, 1 minute for clothes, one minute for brushing my teeth and hair, and 2 minutes to get my ass down to the street. Somehow I accomplished that with my phone in my back pocket and keys in my front pocket. I was panting since I sprinted downstairs, I had one single minute to spare, never am I procrastinating again. I knew deep down that was an utter lie.

I saw Blaze's car pull up I opened the passenger door and stepped inside, sitting down and buckling up, feeling the soft warm air blowing on my skin.

"I hope you hadn't been out there long, it is starting to get colder out." Blaze said, taking a left and stopping at a stop light.

"Nope, just a minute or so," I said knowing it felt more like 30 seconds. He glanced over at me and then did a double take.

"Did you brush your hair?" He asks raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" I say confused since I put my hair up.

"Wow, I will say I dig you more with your hair down. Do you wanna make that good of an impression?" He paused to look over at me.

"Yeah. I mean she is your family." I say biting my lip. He chuckled, smiling at me afterward.

"Okay, Alex Novell." He said, which in return sent my face bright red, I turned and looked out the window. The building passed by, this town looked the best in fall, everything was nice to look at. Most of the buildings were made of bricks, so they were either red, faded red, or brown. It was almost as if this town was made to be in fall all the time.

He pulled over in the street parking and looked over to me. He unbuckled his seat belt without looking and pulled the keys out from the ignition. Sighing once he was done.

"Um when you meet her, don't like to get scared?" He says, I immediately got scared and curious at the same time. I unbuckled my seatbelt, opening the door and getting out, Blaze quickly following my lead. He opened the door for me, somehow I knew that we were going to the Cafe, the cafe that was wedged between two print shops. How either of the two shops kept business was honestly a miracle. I followed Blaze in and to a table, with a girl that had black curly hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes. She looked Hispanic and was tall. She was wearing a dark green army jacket with a maroon shirt underneath, She wore skinny jeans in a dark blue color and black shoes.

When she saw me her eyes lit up. I was trying to figure out how the hell she and Blaze were related they looked nothing alike.

"Hey, I'm Rebecca but just call me Bex. Your Alex right?" She asks me smiling at me.

"Yeah that's me," I said returning her smile.

"I've heard a lot about you from Blaze." She quickly looks at Blaze and smiled. But it wasn't the just happy smile, it was also something of the degree, I told you so.

"We should sit down." Blaze suggested clearing his throat and throwing a quick glare at Bex's direction.

"If you don't mind me asking Alex, what job do you have?" Bex asks me curiously.

"Oh I am a performer and I guess author on the side. I haven't really figured it out very much." I say laughing nervously.

"I didn't get to go the ceremony this year. But I heard your part of the ceremony was the part." She glanced over to Blaze and looked back over to me, "I heard that one froze up and could barely utter a sentence."

"I did not." Blaze exasperated but also firmly.

"Really cause one of my sources sent me a video that said otherwise." She said smirking, tilting her head to the side.

"Damn." Blaze said quietly and also clicking his tongue. He looked away and his eyes twitched. I chuckled, knowing exactly how I was able to notice these small things. Blaze looks back over to me, "What's so funny?"

"I could say but what would be the fun in that," I say smirking and watching his face go from anger to frustration.

"I like this one Blaze," Bex said, winking at me. I guess that was her way of approval.

"I had a feeling that you would." He murmured glaring at the wall.

"Didn't you say that you were an author?" She says looking back over to me after sending a quick glare back over to Blaze.

"Yeah I did, why do you ask?" I say almost knowing the next question by heart. What are your stories about?

"What's your author name? I might know who you are." She says I look at her almost stunned.

"Alex Novell," I say, silently praying that she knew me, so I didn't have to explain what my stories are about.

"Wait, really?" She says shocked.

"Yeah," I say nervously.

"Your the one that practically made mystery books dust off the old barrier that new ones wouldn't cross as the older ones did." She stared at me awe. Almost like how could this little boy doubt his abilities to writing when he's done all of that. "Come on, no one in that genre does anything with rape victims and doesn't edit out the side of her story with a shit ton of details."

"I'm guessing your an author then since most people don't know who I am," I say, not really wanting her appeasive thoughts about me.

"Rebecca Philips. I write just about anything, horror, fiction, fantasy, just as long as I can put my spin on it." She says smirking, I don't think I want to know what her 'spin' is.

"What spin?" Blaze asks, I could he was genuinely curious but when your next thought is shit, that's never a good sign.

"I write BL. I also can see memories and I also have a photographic memory." She says looking straight at me. Her second statement was a threat, her way of saying if I hurt Blaze she would know. I nod, letting her know I knew what she meant. She smiled in response.

"You weirdo," Blaze says, with the face of disapproval. I rolled my eyes, I'm gonna look her up cause there's more to this than I know. "You actually-" He trailed off, yeah Blaze was definitely misinterpreting that.

I found the Wiki article and tapped it. It told me mostly everything I knew. I skimmed through the article, 'if you're looking for erotic details and smut, this is definitely not the author for you, she has stated several times that she prefers writing fluff.'

"Oh," I trailed off, why does that make sense though? She chuckled as Blaze tried to continue to throw out accusations. I was unsure on whether or not I should tell Blaze, it was more interesting to see like this when I say interesting I mean funny.

"What did you find on me, Alex?" She asks smirking, I nearly cracked up as Blaze wiped his head over and stared at me.

"She writes BL fluff," I say trying to hold in laughter knowing he had no clue what fluff meant.

"Fluff?" He asks looking from me to Bex.

"No sex," I say, the definition almost exploded from me, as I doubled over in laughter, Bex joined in with me.

"Oh," he says his face looking dumbfounded. Once Bex and I stopped laughing, I decided to go on to risky territory.

"Excuse me asking but are you two really brother and sister?" I asked fully expecting one of them to get a little annoyed.

"Is that what you told him?" Bex asks Blaze raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah." He answered slowly.

"We are just cousins but grew up like we were brother and sister," Bex explains, rolling her eyes at me.

We talked for a while longer and then bid our goodbyes Bex exchanged her number with me, she said if I had any questions or editing advice to text her. Blaze had been driving me back to my apartment, "what do you think of her?"

"What do you want me to say?" I ask him knowing that there was a correct and incorrect answer here.

"Whatever you want." He says glancing over to me.

"I like her, she seems nice, and I'm sure gives helpful advice," I say watching him, we pull to a stop in front of my apartment building.

"I know." He says tapping his fingers on the driver's wheel, he was in thought. I unbuckled my seat belt.

"Well, this is me," I say grabbing the door handle.

"I can't tell you how much I want to kiss you right now." He says, I freeze and turn to see him looking at me longingly.

"I'm not ready for that," I say dropping his gaze.

"I know, I want you to kiss me when you're comfortable, cause I'll be waiting." He says, I slowly raised my gaze back up to his. I leaned towards him, tilting my head to the side. His breath hitched for a second, I leaned my head on his shoulder and shakily wrap my arms around him.

"Thank you, Blaze," I say into his shoulder and move back, knowing that I was furiously blushing.

"Your welcome?" He said breathlessly, but it sounded more like a question than a statement. I exited the car and bent down before I shut the door.

"Text me, Fire," I say closing the door, I waved, he waved back and drove off. I went to my apartment and laid down on the couch, I felt like I could almost die in happiness. I closed my eyes and breathed out smiling, once I opened them again, the purple butterflies flew erratically around, almost as if they were displaying my happiness. I smiled again, he's definitely the one. I don't want to lose him. Does that mean I love him?

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It was a week before my first performance, the one at Orion. I had chosen five songs. The songs would go pretty quick so I should explain a little bit about why I think the story applies, that is if I think I can, or just have them ask questions. I was trying to figure out how to portray the story being told.

The first song went something like this a girl had been cheated on, and the cheater is trying to use the girl as a rebound. He apologizes and then proceeds to try to convince the girl to have sex with him. If she doesn't he would tell all his friends, she doesn't stand for it and kicks him out, saying she would be better on her own.

The second song to me is about a guy who is desperately in love with a girl who treats him horribly. She badmouths him to her friends, says that stuff to his face and they get into arguments all the time. But he still loves her, he knows that she won't stop and will leave. He doesn't want that but he would rather be in more pain than her, and let her live on to be happy. Their story always repeats itself, with whomever she dates, but he was the only that loved and cared about her.

The third song's story is about a guy that had a bad relationship and another guy likes him and will treat him well but he keeps pushing the guy away and is scared that something similar that happened in a previous relationship will happen again, he ends up giving the guy a chance and falls in love.

In the fourth song, a girl is very depressed and has very low confidence, she runs into a boy, they slowly become friends even though she likes him more than a friend. She is just content with being just friends because she thinks that if she makes any advances on him, she'll lose him. The boy will never get married or have a girlfriend because he loves her and wants to be with her for the rest of his life but it never happens.

Finally, the fifth song is about a guy who loves a girl but the girl is scared that he will leave her. This is because she had mistreated in past relationships, and the guys had left her once she said 'i love you.' So she wants to take it slow.

As to how I was going to portray all that, was upon further thought, but I had come up with a couple of ideas. So in doing so, I invited Jay over. As I hung up with him on the phone was only then I realized that was a super bad idea. It was a bad idea in a sense of where he holds back no punches. In turn whatever he said would sting. If he didn't like anything, which frankly was a big if. I had maybe 15 minutes to prepare myself.

I spent most of that time pacing. Pacing deep in thought, when I stopped and had maybe two minutes left of my 15-minute time range, I looked down at my clothes. I was still wearing my PJ's. Are you kidding me? I thought to myself before I ran into my bedroom and put actual clothes on. I heard the buzzer as I was tying up my hair, I walked over and buzzed him in. He knocked on my door and I let him in. He walked in and looked around while taking off his shoes.

"So, when are we gonna start?" He asked, he was wearing a long sleeve shirt it was a dark maroon red, he wore dark navy blue jeans. "Living room?" He asked, I nodded and led him into the living room. He plopped down on the couch. "Entertain me, Alex Novell." I glared at him and played the first song.

In the beginning instrumental part of the song, I swirled my dark magic together making a tornado, after a second more of the tornado, I dispersed it outwards. Creating two people standing back to back, once the singer started, then I made them move. The guy turned and lightly touched her shoulder, she turned around with her arms crossed. She pushed him and pointed, basically telling him to get out, but he gets on his knees and begs her to let him stay. He rocked back and forth with his palms pressed together. She tapped her foot, and crossed her arms, she pointed again. Then he got mad, I made him use erratic gestures, he pulled his phone out and gestured towards, I changed his stance up. I made his body language cockier. I made the girl get scared and nervous for a second. In a sense I just made her freeze up, be motionless, I made her legs shake slightly. After a couple more seconds, she stood straight up and pointed again making him leave. He turned around, I made him look back once more and then look forward again. I made him fade into dust and disperse. I had made her slowly lower her arm, she turned and faced the audience, which was Jay in this case, and sit down and morph into a wolf, specifically Alpha. He walked toward me and we both stooped out heads low. The song ended, and Jay was clapping. I looked up and stared at him.

"What? Your staring at me like I have a hard-on and asked you to fuck me." He said casually, it almost scared me how casual he said it.

"I just didn't expect you to clap, I was expecting you to start with constructive criticism," I said rolling my eyes but continuing to stare at him. I watched his facial expressions move, his lips twisted into a smirk, his eyebrows rose up, and he leaned against his hand.

"I mean I can do that, but I honestly think that was good, you gotta remember Novell you're not exactly a social butterfly. So this," he gestured to me, "is out of your comfort zone, and I'm actually surprised how well thought out that was."

"Thanks, I guess." I say, "shall I continue?"

"Duh." He says rolling his eyes while smiling.

I play the next couple songs mimicking the story, that I had thought out in my head, I tried to have fun with them, trying to immerse myself with the sound of the music. It was easier than I thought it would be, at one point Jay was nodding his head back and forth with the beat. I almost lost concentration and started to laugh, I smiled to myself and focused on the music. By the time I was done with all the songs I was starving, I had forgotten that when I used a lot of my powers that it made me hungry and tired. Jay was hungry also, I kept the music playing, letting it switch from song to song, as Jay and I made dinner together. This wasn't an unnatural and weird for the both of us, we were making fried rice, I was cutting up the vegetables.

"You know I'm actually kind of proud of you for doing this, finding yourself a boyfriend and working on your touching thing." He says in almost a grateful way. I glance over to him, his eyebrows furrowed together, and he stared intently at the rice.

"Thanks, Jay. I'm kind of proud of myself too. I never really thought I'd come this far and here I am." I say nodding to him, continuing to cut the mushroom. I elbowed him in the ribs, he winced and looked at me, "stop staring intently on the rice, it makes me think your gonna set it on fire with your mind." He laughed and clutched his stomach smiling.

"That reminds me of something that happened in high school."

"What?"

"Alice Parker." He says the name came out of his mouth with a couple of snickers on the way.

"Is that the girl that you dared to go set Seth Maquey's jacket on fire, during lunch?"

"Dude yes, I can't believe she actually did it too." He said trying to keep in laughter, his shoulder were shaking furiously.

"She had a crush on your sorry ass, you dunce. Actually, I'm pretty sure even the straight guys had a crush on you. Plus you probably used your powers to get her to do it." I say rolling my eyes, putting the mushroom and other vegetables in the pan frying them together.

"That's true. I kinda miss the days of high school, even though no one cared about me except you and Aviva. They were fun, we didn't have to worry about things that we do now. Although I'm sure you didn't like them very much." He explained smiling slightly, his eyes stared into mine, I looked back to the pan stirring the vegetables around some more.

"I didn't like them much, yes, but I did like the fun I had, even if I was scared of hurting someone. You've always been a good friend even if we kinda got annoyed with each other at first." I say smiling.

"Stop being wholesome you prick," Jay says stirring the rice. I laugh and punch his shoulder lightly.

"Let's be honest your more of a prick than I am," I say, we both smiled at each other in the mutual agreement that we both were assholes in our own way. I guess high school was fun, but also scary, because I didn't want to get sent back to the lab. That was the thing I was more scared of than anything else.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

"Sir!" One of the detectives ran up to me with a letter in their hands. This person was no other than Markis Parks, he was a small man, he had brown hair, with extravagant blue eyes, his hair was always curly. His skin was a pale color, making others worry if he was sick.

"Yes?" The chief, Reath Loelle, his was short and stuck up with too much gel, his ginger hair slowly fading grey, his skin fair colored,
his eyes a murky green, his nose crooked probably from being broken several times.

"We got a letter from him," Markis says slowly. Reath turned and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Forensics now," Reath demanded.

"I already had them check it, they said there was nothing on it," Markis said quietly like he didn't want to disappoint his chief. Reath sneered and made a tsking sound with tongue.

"Let me see it," Reath said harshly grabbing it and gently opening the envelope and taking out the letter.

Dark Killer, that is what they call me. Some say it is because I do my justice at night, while others say it is the brutal gruesome kills I do.

It is almost funny, you are the police, these great leaders and you haven't even figured out one thing about me. But of course, you're too ludcrious, you've forgotten how to catch people the old way. The way with forensics without fingerprints and DNA. Fingerprints? Don't make me laugh. You know if this was so easy I would've started sooner.

You know we all have our secrets, including mine. when I was younger I believe when I was eight, I dismantled my mother's iron. She never found out it was me. What's something you hide?

"He wrote it in a perfect word font, I believe it is Courier," Markis stated the letter looked as if it had been typed but upon closer inspection, it was written with a number two pencil.

"So we can't use handwriting, he's a tricky one," Reath said, staring at the letter as he put it back into the envelope.

"What do we do with it?" Markis asked glancing at the letter.

"You and your partner check for puzzles, anagrams, whatever you can in this. Cause normally this is just seen as nonsense." Reath said handing the letter back, Markis nodded and walked out of Reath's office, gently closing the door.

Reath slammed his hand down on his desk, glaring at the door. "I will catch you one of these days, mark my words, Dark Killer." He said the name with such disdain that it was almost like spitting fire and poison in the same direction. And then he watched them collide together and work their magic, nothing else had to be said to get his point across.
His hands started smoking, dark grey smoke wafting up from them. He looked at them and took a deep breath, he got up and left his office saying nothing more to himself.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Truly tonight was the night. The one night where I couldn't sleep. It wasn't because I was nervous about my performance, which I was but not this much. I felt my hands twitch and salty liquid leak from my eyes. Slowly rolling my cheeks as they made their way to my ears and cooled down inside them. I was scared to sleep. I was afraid to close my eyes and drift off. I was terrified to dream. At the same time, I knew I had to. When people are around me and spend the night, I don't usually have this issue, but it is almost like once every week now. I have one flashback about the lab, and I can't sleep.

I turn on my side and stared at my phone. Almost wanting it to cure my pain for me, give me a distraction, but I knew that no one I knew was awake at 3 AM, especially not on a weekday. Alex, breathe, it'll be okay.
I closed my
eyes and tried to sleep. Hopefully a dreamless sleep. I gave into the black abyss behind my eyes and I was asleep.

My sleep, I couldn't even call sleep. Dreamless, but I woke up at 4 and then 5, after this for another three hours I gave up on sleep and stayed awake. I decided to write on my manuscript that I had been prolonging, my editor was going to start asking questions soon. I sent the manuscript off after I completed three more chapters. I
thought I had more than that, but it kept me busy until 8 AM. I threw my head back, breathing out. I got up slowly stretching my legs since they were numb and stiff.

I walked over to my phone checking the notifications, I had gotten in the night and part of the morning. I took my phone off the charger and sat down on the couch turning on the TV for some background noise. It was the news channel, it was now on the weather segment of the show. I look back down to my phone, scrolling through the notifications. I got some emails throughout the night. Several other apps I had, also sent me some notifications, I was looking for text messages. Found them. I thought when I saw that Jay, Aviva, and my mom had texted me. I sigh and unlock my phone, tapping on the texting app.

Mom:
Hey honey! How is everything going?

Alex:

Everything is going well. How have you been?

I back out of the conversation since I knew it would take a while for her to respond. She is probably at work or something. I tap on Jaydon's messages expecting something incredibly raunchy.
Jay:

Ok, guess where I am?

Alex:

Where?

Jay:

who said I was going to tell you that easily?

Alex:

Jay.

Jay:

Yes?

Alex:

Go.

Jay:

Coffee table with a crack in it and my tea.

Alex:

Aviva's place.

Jay:

Damn your good, you should come over.

Alex:

Maybe

Jay:

Ok
I bet Aviva is asking if I want to hang out. I'd make a bet against myself and win. If only I could pay myself 300 bucks that would be great. I tap on her conversation.
Aviva:

Do you want to hang out with Jay and me? At my place?

Alex:

I'll think about it, I've got to contemplate about my day a little more first.

Aviva:

Ok, let me know when you have an answer for me.

Which was true I wanted to figure out what I was going to do today. I paid my rent two weeks ago so I don't need to worry about that just yet, I don't have to write on any stories. Blaze was most likely at work, so I couldn't hang out with him. What does he even see in me? What if he was just dating me out of pity? Does he actually care about me? I started spiraling further and further down. I felt tears slowly start to roll down my cheeks again. I can barely touch him, that's got to be a big issue for him. I hug my knees to my chest and laid down on my couch. I felt the couch cushion dip behind me and three dogs cradled themselves around me. Alpha was behind me laying his head on my side, the other two were on either side of me. I knew why they were there, it was to make me feel secure. My phone started ringing, I sat up and grabbed it very fast that by the time I read who was calling me, I had vertigo. My sight went black and blue, green, and yellow danced around before they faded and I could see again. It was Jay who was calling me.

"I hope you know that I'm about to buzz into your apartment with Aviva." I hear Jay say over the phone as I hear the crinkling old buzzing sound come from my kitchen.

"You guys suck," I say and hang up. I walk into my kitchen and buzz them in. I quickly straighten somethings, knowing that if they came up the steps it would take longer than the elevator. I lean against the door as Alpha emerges next to me, rubbing his head on my calf. I scratch behind his ear and slowly pet his head. I hear one single knock on the door, I look out the peephole seeing them both standing there. I take the chain lock off, along with the deadbolt and doorknob lock and open the door.

"Well look who it is?" Jay says while smirking, I step aside and let them in. Aviva smiles at me.

"I tried to tell him to
leave you be, he didn't listen." She said sheepishly, as Jay made his way to the living room.

"It's okay," I say as Aviva walks to the living with myself and Alpha following close behind.

As I walk back into the living room and sit down with Alpha between my legs as I pet him. Jay had already picked up the remote and was flipping through some channels. His legs were crossed, his hair was slicked back, he probably had a shoot earlier or something. He was wearing a leather jacket with a white t-shirt underneath, he wore lose skinny jeans, they were a dark navy blue. I saw his eyes flick over to me and then back to the TV.

"So what did you need to contemplate?" He asked me nonchalantly.

"If I really wanted to hang out with you guys. I'm sure I've got something I need to do." It almost hit me as soon as I was done saying it. The ceremony, what was his name... River, that's it. I told him I'd help him since he was going to be a DJ according to Aiden. I need to send an email, to Andy. "Shit." I murmur and get up quickly grabbing my laptop. Opening my email, furiously typing an email.

"Really you're doing work right now," Jay asked sarcastically.

"Either shut up and don't say anything or leave. Those are your two options, choose one and go with it." I retort without filtering what I said. I sent the email, and look through my inbox to see if my editor had gotten my manuscript. I hadn't gotten anything yet, I closed my laptop.

"What was all that about?" I hear Aviva ask from my left.
I look over her strawberry blonde hair was in a french braid. When we were in high school I started growing my hair out, by Senior year she was braiding my hair.
She was wearing a light blue jacket with a grey shirt. She was twirling the string of the jacket in her fingers. She was wearing black combat boots, the laces were tucked into the shoe, her pants were a navy blue, and seemed to be more like leggings.

"I told this guy I would help him at the ceremony and I now just remembered to do it," I say knowing that Jay wasn't anyway butthurt in what I said. Honestly, I was surprised he didn't respond.

"Oh." She says blankly. I put my laptop on the coffee table and then leaned back. I once again felt the couch dip and feel a dog's head lay in my lap. I pet Alpha once again, he knew that I still wasn't that great from earlier.

"I've never seen Alpha do that before," Jay said. I glance over to Jay he was looking curiously at Alpha.

"Well, you haven't seen Alpha that much," I respond not really wanting to divulge that I had been crying before they showed up.

"True. You know you're still in your PJ's right." He asked slowly.

"Is that a complaint I hear?" I say, Jay chuckled.

"No, just reminding you just in case you wanted to go change into, something else that isn't your boxers, and a t-shirt that is obviously too big for you." I glare over to him for a couple of seconds.

"Nah, I'm good." I hear him sigh, and I knew I had won.

"Before you girls start bickering again, Jay and I were talking about high school stories we had," Aviva said she was smiling faintly.

"I've decided getting weird unnecessary boners in class doesn't count." Jay proclaims raising his arms towards the ceiling, his fingers twirling around a little.
I wanted this person to have sex with me.
I bury my head in my arms, of course, I wanted him to have sex with me. Only because of his looks nothing else, simply that.

"You really have to remind me of the bad times, man?" I sigh, keeping my internal screaming on the inside.

"We all know you and I both were hard as hell in first-period math." Jay laughed leaning back into the couch looking up. "Ms. L."

"I. Hate. You." I simply say emphasizing each syllable.

"See we got her when she was h-"

"Zip it, Aviva please," I say almost begging Aviva to save me from the perpetual hell Jay just put me through of looking at her boobs, and never anything else, but somehow managed to pass the class.

"Um, I got a vision in the middle of PE." She blurted out, which in short shut Jay up.

"Don't you have to immediately write those down, otherwise you'll forget big details," Jay asked raising an eyebrow.

"I repeated it over and over in my head. Plus this was before that started taking an effect on me." She said shrugging.

"And you remembered everything?" I asked curiously.

"I forgot what I looked like." She said without thinking. Now Jay and I knew what she meant, but this was an actual issue for her. What she meant was that she forgot what the person she saw looked like. Not herself, she said I, because as any artist will tell you, anything you make has a piece of you in it, so almost by second nature you call it yourself. I sometimes called my characters in interviews I've done, "a part of me." I didn't even realize I had until they asked me more about it. I glanced over at Jay, we made eye contact, I raised my eyebrows at him. He and I both knew we have to wait until she corrects herself. She looked at both me and Jay curious and confused. Her eyes widened, "oh I mean him, Leo Brooks." She looked down and to the left, while physically face-palming.

"You know what, I'm going to go get dressed why don't we all go somewhere, "I say standing up.

"Finally small fry," Jay says smirking lowering his eyebrows slightly giving him a devious look.

"You too, Bill O'Reilly," I say as I start walking to my bedroom.

"I'm going to kill you." I hear him say quietly but loud enough for me to hear.

"Same to you, doggyknobber." Aviva was going to spiral down slowly if we didn't do something, so as much as I don't want to I have to leave my apartment. I sighed as I pulled my pants on jumping up into them. It was for the greater good I reminded myself.