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

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

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

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

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

………………………

“Wake up! You’re going to be late again!” A voice echoes through my bedroom and with a groan I slowly open my eyes.

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

These insane thoughts continue to swirl around my head as I make it down the stairs and sit down at our family’s kitchen table. My mom greets me with a smile and a granola bar. She knows I’m useless in the morning and talking won’t amount to much. I happily eat the meager meal and rush out the door, almost stepping on our overweight cat on the way out.

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

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

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

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

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

“I can’t help but notice that you have been late almost every day so far this year, Mr. Ellsworth. Is everything alright?” His way of addressing every student formally comes off as almost condescending and uncaring.

“Everything’s fine.” I say with a shrug. I don’t like sharing my life story with any of the staff at this school. They don’t need to know what I do as long as it doesn’t affect my grades.

“Are you sure? Nothing’s going on at home you want to talk about?” His eyebrow rise up inquisitively, almost comically so.

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

“Mr. Ellsworth, you are one of the brightest students at this school, but you don’t seem to care about anything you do. You haven’t joined any clubs or sport teams even though you have proven time and time again that you would excel at many of them. I expect more from you.”

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

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

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

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

“Where were you? You usually aren’t THIS late!”

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

“I got held up by an angry giant. It wasn’t completely my fault!” I whisper back an answer while laying my head down on my desk.

“You can’t already be going to sleep…the day has barely even started! And what did Darwin want with you?” She inches closer and closer to my desk with every word that leaves her mouth. Frankly, dealing with this every morning is starting to get a little annoying.

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

“Sorry Mrs. Hollins, it won’t happen again.” Amanda reverts back to her perfect student persona and returns to her seat immediately.

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