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Posted by Larissa Pahomov in English 3 - Pahomov - D on





Chapter 1 (Isaac)



Isaac was 6 when his father died in the 50 gallon war. What was the fight over? 50 gallons of water. His mother also fought in the war, but she survived and went on to become a scientist. She became one of the world’s most respected scientists.It was 2078 and the population had drastically gone up. The world’s population clocked in at about 12 billion and resources were running thin quickly, especially water. Clean water has become so scarce that even the fishes must huddle in together and take short breaths to not take up all of the oxygen in the water because there is so little. Aside from America and Germany fighting over 50 gallons of water found in Japan, all countries are kind of tense. Gallons are never found randomly. They are harvested. And each country has a fair share based on their population. Japan harvested and hid fifty gallons in violation of their population. They had 450. They were only supposed to have 400. Even though many people hated the war, some loved it. Some felt like they needed it. It was a sort of population control. Many people were drafted. Although, the battle ended short when the two countries just decided to split it 25/25. Not as many people died, and it was a peaceful two years. Then the discovery of “Scrups” happened. And all humans were turning against each other so quick you would have thought they were enemies even before time. 


Isaac was now 8 years old and he lived in a tiny house along with his mother. He shook the black hair from his face and he walked into the kitchen. 


"Mami!" 


"Que?" 


"What are you eating?" 


"Steak." 


Isaac frowned, he knew that they were blessed with money but he wish she didn’t spend it on fresh food and eat it all. Both corners of her mouth scrunched up into a satisfied smile. Isaac had always heard "Eat healthy, you are what you eat ya know," from his abuela and he was always afraid his mom would turn into a steak. He never shared this fear with her because he didn't want to be labeled as a "dummy". She always called him that when she thought he made a stupid comment. His mother ate steak every night. Every morning. Every noon. And for snack, which was 6 times a day. And with each steak she ate, she drank a 8 ounce glass of orange juice and 2 ounces of water. Little Isaac walked up to his mother. 


“Can I have some?”, his eyes went wide. “BUT ONLY A LITTLE BIT!”


His mother jumped back and her right eyebrow scrunched up, “Que te pasa?! Why the hell are you yelling?!”


Isaac apologized as his mother cut a small piece of steak. Her eyes were rimmed with dark purle, and the sea of wrinkled invaded her eyes, creating saggy bags. Despite his mom being exhausted, he loved her because she still took the time to talk to him. She flashed him a tired smile as she fixed him a small plate of steak. He was glad he only asked for a little bit, he didn’t want to turn into a steak. 


“Lo siento, I forgot your fork!” Maribel stood up to run to the kitchen. 


“No te preocupes, I’ll get it,” little Isaac got up to grab a fork. As he went to grab the iron handle to the wooden drawer, he bit on his lip so that he wouldn’t gasp as draw flew open as the handle pulled out straight towards his hands. 


“Isaac? Are you okay?” his mother called. Worry was deep in her voice and she got up to move. Just then, Isaac came running through the door. Spoons, forks, and knives were flying through the air and they seemed to be chasing him. He ran back and forth, desperately trying to live when his mother brought a fist upon his cheek. Isaac blacked out, that’s all he remembered. 


He woke up on a soft bed, screaming. He mother ran into his bedroom and held him down. 


“Shhh! Shhh! Shhh! Ya cálmate!” she held his shoulders down as he panted. 


“What do you mean calm down already?! Did you see that mommy?! Did you see that?!” he pointed everywhere, he quickly became paranoid as the metal candle holder on the brown wooden dresser started to shake. He screamed and his mom put her hand over his mouth. 


“Shhh, the more calm you are, the less it happens. This was much easier when you were younger. I used to put medicine in your bottle just to calm you down,” she sat up on the bed and wiped the tears from his scared face. 


“Your father, used to laugh. He believed that he had everything a man wanted. A wife, a beautiful child, a good paying job. He didn’t mind. We knew you were always special. Especially because his jacket buttons always stuck to your back. It was easy to peel them off of course. But it was funny to see the rainbow of colors on your back.” She giggled. 


“You...you mean you knew I was a scrup?!” Isaac’s mouth twinged into a tight pout. 


“A what?” her right eye brow scrunched up. Isaac knew that look, but he didn’t care. 


“A screw up mom! A screw up!” he yelled, her temper came in quick and she slapped him so fast he didn’t even see the hand. Just heard a “whir” before he saw stars. She began to yell! 


“You are NOT a screw up Isaac! You are beautiful and you are special!” she saw the tears in his eyes and she calmed down. She didn’t like hitting him, even for disciplinary reasons. 


“We just, we just didn’t say anything because we thought we could keep it under control. We didn’t know what caused it at the time. We don’t know. But what we do know is, if people know then they will take you away from me.” 


She began to cry, streams of tears dressed her delicate face and she no longer looked tired. Just devistated. 


“I can’t have them take you away from me. I would die. I would just die. I wouldn’t know what to do!” She held on to Isaac and they cried together. 


“W-w-what do I do mami?” he held on to her hand. 


“I’ll show you,” she held up her right hand and a fork flew right into it. Isaac’s eyes went wide. 


“WHOA! YOU HAVE IT TOO?” Isaac almost passed out. This was too much excitement for one day. He damn near fainted. 


“Yes, come here. You can read well can’t you?” she pulled out a leather bound book. It was big, brown, and it had a metal lock on it. 


“Yes ma’am,” he said proudly. 


“I know you’re mature. I was waiting to give this to you, go in your room and read it,” she handed him the book. But he didn’t know the lock combination. It was a 7 slot lock and he didn’t know if he had to guess or what, and he flashed a worried look at his mother. She held out her right hand and the lock turned. The term “SOFRITO” came out and Isaac smiled. Only mami would do something like this. 


“Mom, anyone whose spanish will know this! Can’t I change it?” he pouted. 


“Yeah, here”, she held out her right hand again and made a fist. Something clicked and she rephrased the word into “ISAACYR”. 


“There, your name and the first initial of your father’s last name and the first initials of my last name. Better?” she looked proud. 


“Yes!” Isaac ran to his room and plopped on his bed. He opened the book, he appreciated the fact that his mom drew pictures for him to understand. 


Chapter 2 (Maribel’s Diary)


Dear Isaac, 


Hello, if you’re reading this, it means you’ve finally discovered that you are special. Like me. I might be retired now, and we’re probably living low because we are “special” and I need to teach you how to conceal your powers. Because if they are found, we will both be killed. Please read this, and learn a lot. This was from the studies that I did when I was still a scientist. Ok, here we go. 



Basically, we are of the magnet origin. It is ancient, and it’s just ONE of the many origins that people can come from. Not everyone in the family has it. Just you, me, your grandma, and her father. Basically, we have the power to magnetize and demagnetize ourselves. But with magic, comes science. I’ve done some experiments on myself and I realized that the reason why you are of magnet origin is partly my fault. You know how I always eat steak and drink orange juice? Well, those are my favorite things to eat and drink. The issue is, we are already born with an iron imbalance in our bodies because we are basically human magnets. You know what else has iron? Steak. And do you know what an orange has? Vitamin C. Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron and I pretty much ate this while I was pregant with you. I’m so sorry Isaac, please forgive me for burdening you. ❤


Okay, here’s a simple diagram: 





Okay honey, as you can see, we have a crap load of iron in us. Therefore, at will, we can become super magnetic. Here are things you need to know: 


  1. Even if you want to panic, don’t. You will pull all of the metal to yourself or push it away. 
  2. Befriend people of different origins. If you want, I can introduce you to some. 
  3. Befriend people of similar origins. Here’s a chart of how they’re broken down. 





Earth (metal)

Water (life) 

Fire (offense)

Air (supports) 

Magnetic (attracts metal)

Life (healers)

Electricity (Good at fighting, can summon electricity. Good for black outs)

Travelers (can fly/super speed)

Rockers (Manipulate Earth/Metal) 

Aqua mages (can manipulate water) 

Starters (People who can summon fire)

Pushers (Can maipulate air to create “natural” disasters)

Chameleons (once they touch the earth they can blend in) 

Green thumbs (Can manipulate plants) 

Melters (People who just have the abilities to heat up things)

Airlocks (Can summon air) 


As people of the origins, our job is to simply keep the elements in balance and to keep the Earth safe from it’s people. We were supposed to live in peace. Now, for each origin there is a “mother” origin. The mother origins are the four elements. Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. And from these stem the “baby” origins. Such as us “Magnetics”. Now, where were weeeee oh yeah. How to magnetize! Here is a practice method: 


  1. Sit in a calm, quiet room. 
  2. Put a metallic object in front of you. 
  3. Close your eyes. 
  4. Breathe calmly in and out. In and out. 
  5. Grab the fork. When you touch it, focus on the energy going back and forth into the fork. 
  6. When you close your eyes, hold the fork in front of you. You will be able to see a bright blue outline of everything. Focus on the fork until all of it is light blue. 
  7. Mentally tell it to push away. 
  8. Let go. 
  9. If it drops, you need to practice some more. 
  10. Once you master that, you can mentally “demagnitize” yourself. 
  11. Hold the fork until it’s blue again. Now, focus all the energy away until it’s faint blue again. 
  12. Drop it. 
  13. You won’t attract any metal unless you want to. 
  14. What the hell are you waiting for? Go try it! 


Isaac was excited. He jumped out of his bed and ran to the door and screamed when he saw his mom standing there with a fork. 


“Here!” she threw the fork at him and he screamed and put his hands up. The metal flew to his hand. 


“Okay, here’s one thing. As magnetics, we can only pull or push. There is no floating or suspending in the air. That’s what the Rockers are for. Now, try to pull that spoon over here. Remember the guide. Y por favor, no te grites.” she pouted. 


“Okay I won’t scream,” He sat on the floor and closed his eyes. He breathed in and out. In and out. He could feel his body gathering energy and soon he could see the outline of every little thing in the room. He focused on the little spoon on the marble counter and soon it began to turn bright blue. He thought “COME” and in a flash he felt the spoon smack into his hand. 


“Whoa I did it!” Isaac jumped up and down.


“Great, now, time to ea-,” she stopped in mid sentence. Isaac could see blood drip on the floor. 


“MAMI!” he screamed to deaf ears. Dead ears. He saw her body fly to the ground and he held out his hand in panic. Her book flew to his hand as he backed in a corner and screamed. Tears flew to his face. He panicked, his body drenched in sweat and a little urine trickled. Four men in army uniforms started to walk towards him. The strongest one, the most muscular spoke up first. 


“I don’t know Hank. He’s just a kid. Do we have to kill him? We could just collect him.”


The smallest one, who was supposedly the leader shot back: 


“Orders were, annihilate any scrups. Shoot him.” 


The men readied their guns and shot. Isaac screamed and put his hands up and all of a sudden the shots stopped. All he could he was four dead men who looked like bloody swiss cheese then he was whirred away. All he saw was a flash of his neighborhood and his house getting smaller and the next thing he knew he was in a room. He looked up and there was an African American kid. 


“W-w-what are you DOING?” Isaac began to stand up but he fell again. He was dizzy. 


“Calm down dude, that’s gonna happen. Hi. My name’s Connor and I like Star Wars. Everyone get’s dizzy when I drive them!” Connor was 8 years old at that time and full of energy. 


“H-h-h-hi. My name’s Isaac. I’m a m-m-..,” Isaac couldn’t stop stuttering out of fear. 


“Magnetic? Yeah. I know. We all know. You’re mom used to be one of the big guys.”, Connor stood Isaace up and supported him on his shoulder. 


“We all?” Isaac looked around. They were in a little shack. Connor pulled open a wooden plank and there was a stair case. Connor led Isaac down. 


“Common dude! This is so cool! You’ll get to meet my mom, Jennifer, and all my friends!”. 


As they slowly walked down the dark, spiral stair case, Isaac began to whimper and cry. 


“I-it’s okay! You don’t have to cry! Please don’t cry!” Connor tried his best to calm Isaac down but to no avail. The loss of his mother was too much to bare. He trudged down the stairs to a big ice door. It was frozen solid. White, frozen, solid. 


Connor yelled out “Jennifer!” and the ice magically melted. A nine year old white girl was on the other side. 


“Aw, why is he crying?” she pouted. Behind her, a quick “whir” and a tall slender black woman popped up in front of her. 


“Connor what the hell were you THINKING?” she yelled at him as he hung his head. 


“I was… I got Miss Maribel’s kid. She…,” little Connor didn’t even need to finish the sentence till his mother’s hard scowl softened. 


“Oh, oh you poor baby!” she lifted Isaac in her arms and he let her. He cried on her shoulder and she held him tightly. He looked around with his tear-blurry eyes and sniffled. The room was white with blue lights. The carpet and the couches were white where as the tables and chairs were blue. There were people of all ages staring at him. 


Miss Lana set him down. “Would ya like some water honey?”, Isaacs eyes went wide with surprise. 


“You can have juice, but water is illegal to have! Who are you people?!.” Lana gave him a warm smile. 


“We are you, and you’re one of us. Jennifer!”, Jenny came with an empty cup and drew her right hand up she pulled the moisture out of the air and poured it into the cup. The cup got frosty. She handed it to a now very thirsy Isaac. Miss Lana introduced them all. 


“This is Jennifer. Her origin is Aqua Mage, Mother Origin is water. And this is Connor. He’s a traveler, as you know he can run really fast and he makes trouble. Listen, I’m really sorry about your mother… she meant a lot to everyone here as well.” Lana held on to his shoulder. Isaac looked up with red puffy eyes. 


“Why did they kill my mom? We didn’t do anything!” tears were streaming down Isaac’s face. Lana picked him up gently and took him into a small white room, she closed the door behind her to shield them from staring eyes. 


“The government sees her as a threat. They don’t like people like us. It’s just that, I’m scared for them.” she said, her eyes looked down with sorrow. 


“Why?” 


“Well. Have you ever heard of the term “You are your worst enemy?”” She scrunched her eye brows up. 


“Yes! My mom used to say it all the time!” 


“Well, they will destroy themselves eventually. But, it’s up to us to protect our people. SNS. Suspernatural Society.”


Isaac felt a sort of proudness. He quietly got up, walked to the door, opened it and looked out. 


“Hi” he said, “I’m Isaac”. 


Chapter 3 (2082)




 Isaac was now ten, even 2 years later his mother’s death still affected him. He walked out of a medium red house. That’s where all of the members of the SNS stayed. He walked down the sidewalk to the corner of the 56 septa bus. As it arrived he read some graffiti on the side “No Scrups”. Isaac was scared, but he remembered what his mother said. Be careful, and breathe. He breathed and got on the bus. He sat near the door, that’s where he always felt safe. A strange old lady, wrinkled to the bone began to chant something. He couldn’t hear it until she started to speak up: 


“No Scrups! No Scrups! No Scrups!”, by that point everyone in the bus decided to chime in, getting louder in unison.  


“NO SCRUPS! NO SCRUPS! NOOOOOO SCRUUUUPS!”, Isaac was getting nervous. His palms were sweaty, his eye brows scrunched up, his face in a frown. He closed his fists and the bus stopped. People’s chants died down and gasps went all around. The old crone whispered: 


“There’s a scrup in here...everyone off the bus!” everyone ran out of the doors. Scared. Nervous. Violent. The outside of the bus was crunched. People scattered in all directions, women, men, children, even the old wrinkled prune seemed to gain speed as if she were 30 years younger. Isaac ran down the street to Erie and Torresdale to catch the EL to school. He was happy to finally make it. After he got on his long ride, he hopped off at 13 street and took a trolley to 22nd. As he went up the stairs, he could hear the same chants. He walked in on a crowd who were protesting intergrated schools. He ran past them and went to greenfield. He was about ten minutes late as he slammed into the seat of his first class, sweaty, nervous. His teacher Miss Mara scolded him for being late. He tried to explain but she wouldn’t have it. She made him sit up front, and the school bully Johnathon threw spit balls at him. Isaac was young, but he was old enough to know what happens. When a fight is going on, the kid that is the most in trouble is the one that retaliates. Isaac looked at his teacher and pretended to pay attention, but he changed his focus. He instead, saw a dull blue light around his teacher, but he could feel the intensity of the metal desk behind him. Jonathon teetered back in his desk and Isaac made himself negative between himself and the desk, pushing it back. Johnathon began to cry as Isaac smiled. He ran his fingers through his hair, it was oily. He figured he could get Connor to rush him home and wash it real quick, but he changed his mind. Jennifer was in his class as well, as Jonathon fell, Jenny flashed Isaac a smile. She was trying so hard not to laugh. After a daunting 45 minutes, the bell rang and all of the kids ran out into the hallway for their next class. 


“Hey!” Jennifer yelled as she ran up. “Happy Birthday!” she smiled. 


“Wanna skip?” Isaac inquired. He was so tired. A friend of theirs, Harry ran up as well. 


“You can count me in! Hey, did you guys hear?” Isaac and Jenny looked confused. Harry decided to elaborate. “They killed him! They took him away and they finally killed him!” 


“Who?” Isaac was curious! 


“That Scrup!” he pulled out his hollogram phone and showed him a picture of an Asian man. His hair was scruffy, but that face looked familiar. No. Isaac couldn’t and would not believe it. His dad died in the war. But this man looked so familiar. No. Isaac’s dad died in a war. 


“D-d-didn’t he die in a war?” Isaac was in shock. 


“Heck no! My mom told me they got him while the war was going on. He’s on a death sentence. But they finally killed him! Isn’t that great? Hung him in front of everyone! They said he was the laaaaaast one that they knew about. They killed his wife already. They’re just looking for the kid! Well, I gotta go!” and proud Harry ran away. Isaac laid himself upon the wall. Shaking. 


“We have to go home!” and just then a “whir” came by and Connor was standing 2 inches from Isaac’s face.


“I can get you guys there!” and the “beep” of an announcement went on. They stopped to listen. 


“Attention! Attention! News reports have stated that a SNS house was found and cleared out! Soldiers have eleminated the threats, along with their leader Lana Johnson!”. 


Connor’s heart took no time to break. Connor grabbed Jennifer and Isaac tightly and ran with all of his might to the house. It was on fire. Wood and metal were everywhere and Jennifer held out her hands and frosted everyone’s skin. 


“It helps. You won’t burn or even feel hot. My grandma taught me that”. All three of them slowly walked in. 


“My father…. was alive.” Isaac whispered. Tears running down his face. He was sad, not only because he didn’t know his father. But because he heard what happened to prisoners through Harry as well. And from the bruises and lash marks that he witnessed in the picture, it didn’t look like he had it easy. Connor began to cry as well. He kneeled down and held a burnt black hand, he washed it in his never ending agony. 


“Mama….” but alas, he had no time to mourn as five soldiers with masks and fire proof suits came in. They all held their guns and began to shoot. Isaac made himself negative and flew the bullets their way, killing all five. 


“Connor! Take Jennifer and go!” Isaac pulled all the metal towards him. Jennifer screamed:


“No, we’re not leaving! We got to stick together. Remember?” she frowned, she had no parents and Connor and Isaac were like brothers to her. “REMEM-” and Connor whirred her away after giving Isaac a strong and lasting hug. 


Chapter 4 



Isaac was brought before a crowd in Ritten House. Whipped. Bloodied. Dirty. Skin black from the ash. Through his chewed up ears he could hear: 


“NO SCRUPS! NO SCRUPS! NO SCRUPS!” 


He could also hear a group of women who were upset: 


“NO! He’s just a child! He’s just a child!” 


They brought him onto a stage in front of everyone and through him over a cold wooden block. A big man with an axe came by and made a speech. 


“Dear ladies, and gentlemen. These “Scrups” are nothing but trouble. They think they’re better than us, stronger, and more deserving of life just because they have powers. We have a child here. The child of the two leaders of SNS. Maribel Rodriguez and Ichiro Akiyama. The child of disgusting scum who didn’t deserve to walk the Earth.” 


A lady yelled out “They were SOLDIERS. They FOUGHT for this COUNTRY! You are the real scum!” 


The man simply replied with “Shut the hell up you prune. Bring her up here.” two soldiers dragged her up to the wooden block and slammed her down as well. 



The man cleared his throat, “As I was saying, as humans, we are supposed to take care of this world. And today, we will make progress. Look at this boy and his scum follower! This is the enemy! This is what we must kill! They are the reason for sickness, global warming, the pain and agony that we endure every day! It’s ALL THEM!” 


And with that, he brought down the axe. The head of the old woman ended up in the middle of the crowd and they all screamed a yell of joy as her blood sprayed on the grass. 


“Goodbye devil child”, the man brought up his axe and- 


_-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__-__


A ten year old girl with brown curly hair closed the book. She ran out to the living room to her mother. Her father ran after her: 


“Clara, CLARA! Give me that book! JENNIFER COME AND GET THIS GIRL!”. Clara’s mother softly got up from the couch. 


“Connor what’s wrong now?” she inquired. She was tired. 


“Did this really happen?” she breathed in and out. She never read something so scary. Her mother sat her upon her lap. 


“No honey, of course not.” She rocked Clara back and forth until she fell asleep. She gave Clara to Connor and in 1 second Connor came back. 


“You tucked her in and all?” Jennifer asked. 


“Yes. Was one second too long for you?” and he tried to smile but it didn’t cheer Jennifer up. 


“Where did she find that book Connor? I… I hid it away. I didn’t want to remember. I didn’t want to remember being in that crowd. Seeing Isaac… for God’s sake he was only ten Connor! Only ten! How many other children did they need to murder before they got their point across? Just for being a magnetic? For being a “scrup”? We even have to hide today Connor. When will they stop hating us?” Jennifer’s face became coated in tears. 


“Just because he was a child, he had a hard time controlling it. Just because he was special. They killed him. Did they have to?” Jennifer mumbled. 


Connor held her frail body and hummed until she calmed down. 


“I know honey. I know. We just need to keep hiding. Ok? They can’t just tell if we have powers. We’ve had a nice life so far ok? And our baby was born normal. You don’t have to worry. Even if we were found out. I’ll protect you and Clara with all my life.” 


Jennifer sniffled and she smiled. “Yeah, at least Clara is normal.” 


It was just then she realized that Clara had just walked in. She was scared. 


“Mommy?” tears were in her eyes. Her body was shaking. She jumped into her parents’ arms. 


“Yes honey what’s wrong?” Jennifer began to sweat. Hoping her daughter didn’t hear the conversation. Her daughter held up her right hand, and a spoon began to float. Jenny’s eyes went wide with fear. She whispered: 


“A r-r-rocker!” Jennifer exclaimed. 


“M-m-mommy, some kids at school saw. My t-t-teacher knows”. Clara couldn’t stop stuttering. She wasn’t ignorant to the world. She knew.


Jennifer and Connor looked at each other as they heard a knock on the door. As Connor stood up to hold Clara and Jennifer to escape, the door flew inwards and broke open. 




The End  

Catism By Brycen Itzko

Posted by Brycen Itzko in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

“ I welcome all of you to the Rodents. Our goal is to destroy the evil of the Lolcat cult that has taken over our world. 7 years ago, cats suddenly gain intelligence from pictures of Lolcats. Shortly after, a cult had begun to worship these new self-aware cats and forced all who opposed the cult to make cheeseburgers. When the cats looked at the pictures and saw the pictures of the other cats, they slowly began to learn how to read. This made cats able to read signs and other things. Cats then began to think of themselves as more than just a cat but a higher species. Through the years cats became so self-aware that cats were able to solve math problems and think of ideas that would eventually change the world. Now some people saw this as a sign that cats should rule instead of humans, cats supremacy. Other people saw it has a threat to humans and thought of it as an abomination. Eventually the people who thought cats should rule the world created a cult that would in time become a religion. The religion spread faster than wildfire and soon more than three - fourths of world’s population was converted. The small portion of humans that went against this religion moved to Russia in order to escape the religion. There was peace for a time until a human killed a cat with his car. This started what was know as the Cat Fights and these wars lasted for several months due to many of the cats dying from the cold.

The war seemed to be on the humans side until the cats decided that enough was enough. The cats fired three nuclear missiles at Russia. Since Russia already had several nuclear weapons there, the explosion turned Russia into a no man’s land. The remaining human population fled to a secure location in France but had to stay hidden from the Cats. the religion  adopted a new named and called themselves Catism. The Catismist forced the other humans to make cheeseburgers for them. The remaining human population in France created a rebellion against Catism. “


“This is where we stand today”, said Swiss.


This is where I come in, my name’s Bobby Lue and I am one of the newest recruits of Rodents. I born into the cheeseburger slavery and was separated from my parents at the age of 5. I worked the cheeseburger factories until I was 14. I was losing hope until Rodents came in and raided the factory. They found me and recruited me on the spot to join the cause. I went through 3 months of training before I was officially deemed a recruit. It was a hard 3 months, but at the end of it I was able to overcome any obstacle that was put in front of me.  Now I am here with my friend Possum who looks very nervous but anxious at the same time. Possum has been with me since I could remember, the factory workers found him as a baby laying in a cart of buns. Since no one could claim him as their own, he was put to work and name Possum since he looked dead when they first saw him. Now we both made it through the training and stand here in front of our leader Swiss who has just reached the end of his speech.


“Oh, I almost forgot,there will be an special mission tomorrow and the goal of this mission is to capture a cat alive”, Swiss said.


*(Due to issues with writing and time, this story is not complete)*

Life I Never Lived

Posted by Jamira Carter in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

Chapter 1

Eighty-nine. One year closer to death, one year away from the big nine-oh. Another birthday alone, but that’s alright, I’m used to it. Richard sent a card in the mail, no money in it of course. I knew I raised a cheap ass. You’d think after raising a bastard on your own and giving him everything you could, he’d be kind enough to put a damn dollar  in your card.

It’s fine though, I’m alright on my own. There’s no nuisances to get on my damn nerves, besides these nerve-wrecking kids always screaming outside my window. But other than that, being alone is quite peaceful. Who needs anyone? Not me. Shit. 

I’ve been living on my own, cooking on my own, washing my ass on my own, taking pills on my own, I can do anything a 20 year old can. Speaking of which, I better fill this prescription before I lay croaking on the ground.


“Dave & Brother’s Pharmacy. Please hold.” 

10 minutes later and I’m  still on hold. Boy, I tell ya, people can’t run a damn business to save their lives.


“ Hello, how can I help you?” The receptionist asked.

“I’d like to fill a prescription for Atripla for delivery. ” I said. 

“ And your name please?”

 “Helen Jackson.” 

“ Okay Mrs. Jackson, your prescription should be ready within a few hours. We’ll send it out for delivery as soon as we can.” she said.


I didn’t even feel like correcting her on the “Mrs.” Instead I just hung up. Well now that that’s out the way, I can relax and enjoy my birthday. Watch a little t.v., lay down, maybe even order some Chinese food. The doctor says it’s not good for me, but I’m 89. I gotta die somehow.


Now if only I could find the number. I know I had the menu lying around here somewhere.  Maybe in the kitchen?


These steps are becoming more and more of a hassle for me. And this damn cat isn’t helping.


“Move Mittens!” I yelled.

 And in that very moment, the damn cat clawed at my foot, leaving me to tumble to the steps. I hit my head pretty hard and began seeing a white light. Then, I saw myself, lying at the bottom of the steps with blood dripping down my head. Wait, how am I out of my own body? I can’t be dead. Or can I?


How can this happen? I’m in complete shock. This can’t be real. 




Chapter 2 

Okay, after 25 minutes of trying to understanding what the hell is happening, there’s no other answer; I’m dead. Lord knows how long it’ ll be until someone finds my body. Who comes to check on me? 

And why am I not in heaven? I thought the Bible said “Absent from the body is present with the Lord.”  Wait, I have to be buried first. I forgot all about that “dust to dust, ashes to ashes, back in the Earth” mess. 

Hours and hours pass, and I continue to watch my lifeless, limp body lie on the floor. Of course the cat is walking all over me. I knew I should’ve got rid of it a long time ago. 


After so much silence, I finally hear the doorbell. I went to see who was there, well not “me” but, my ghost or whatever the hell I am right now. It was a man holding a bag. He had on a uniformed shirt, and after struggling so hard to see what it said, I finally knew.


“Dave & Brothers’ Pharmacy.”


He rang the door and even knocked a few times. I tried to answer it, and my arm went right through the door. He left a note on the door, then walked away, and drove off.


Another hour or so passed, when the doorbell rang again. This time, it was Richard. I haven’t seen him in months, so this was a shock. Then again, it is my birthday, so I can’t be too much of shock. He rang the doorbell a while, and began screaming outside my house.


“MA! Open the door!” He exclaimed.

 After 15 minutes of trying to ‘wake me up’ to let him in, he left, but came right back. He left to get the spare key to my home. He opened the door, and walked right through me and found my lifeless body.


After 7 hours of lying on the floor, I was finally found. Richard held my cold body, crying and screaming.

“Wake up Ma, please,” He cried. “I need you.”

He called the paramedics and they pronounced me dead at 8:23 p.m. I saw them carry my body out in a body bag.  








Chapter 3 

Days later, it’s finally time for my funeral. I don’t see too many here but I didn’t expect many. I don’t see too many tears shedding either. Richard is shedding a tear here and there, but no one else. His kids are just sitting there on their damn phones. Can’t even show an ounce of respect. 

Listening to these remarks about me makes me want to jump out the damn casket and hit everyone. Suddenly, I was such a nice person? Yet I lived my remaining years by myself. 

“Now it’s time for the reading of the eulogy.” The Pastor said. “ Richard, if you will.” 


Skimming over the eulogy, I froze. Everything about my life was in there. everything. 



“ Helen Denise Jackson was born December 5, 1997 to Christina Jackson. Born with HIV, life wasn’t the easiest for her. She was told she wouldn’t live past her early 30‘s but she still managed to live until 89 years old.”


The small crowd clapped and cheered as Richard took a pause in reading.


“ She attended Lakewood High School and graduated in 2016. Then, she headed off to college at Xavier University, where she graduated with her Master’s and Bachelor’s degree. She never married, but did have many relationships through out her life.” 


That’s a damn lie. I can only name a handful of relationships. Every man left when he discovered my little secret. 


“In 2024, she decided to have an artificial insemination pregnancy where she had her only child, Richard Dwayne Jackson. Man, I was my momma’s baby boy, everyone knew that.”  Richard laughed. 


No you weren’t. You barely contacted me, Bastard. 


Richard focused back on the eulogy. 


“ Helen leaves behind one son: Richard, two grand kids: Dana and Tyler, a younger sister; Nyla Jackson, and a host of nieces, nephews, great grandchildren, and other loved ones. She never found love with a man, but she surely found love with the Lord.”


“Hallelujah!” a woman from the front row yelled. 


After remarks and all the other bullshit, it’s finally time for the burial. I hear the people chanting the prayer from the Book of Common prayer. 


“Dust to dust, ashes to ashes” 


When everyone left their flowers on my casket, I saw it being lowered into the ground. This was it. Once I’m buried, I’m going to Heaven- or Hell. 























Chapter 4

I opened my eyes and in front of me were two large golden gates. There wasn’t an aching bone in my body and all of my wrinkles had vanished. There were angels at the opened gate and I decided to walk through, or at least try, but the angels stopped me by blocking the entrance with their large wings.


“Why can’t I go through?” I asked.


They didn’t responded, but instead pointed behind me, which is where I saw a man.


“Hi. I’m your guardian angel.”  He said

“Oh well, hi.” I responded.

“I’m also your biological father.” 

My eyes has widened at him. I knew he wasn’t lying because my eyes were just like his.  But why was he younger than me?

“I died at 26 if you’re wondering why I’m so young. While you were in the womb, I was killed by a hit man. I didn’t even know your mother was pregnant ‘til I got here , or her name for that matter.” He laughed.


That could only mean one thing. she got pregnant while “working.” 

I just stared at him in shock.


“Listen, as of know you aren’t allowed in the gates of Heaven.” 


“WHAT?” I screamed. There was no way I was going to Hell.


“Why were you so bitter all of your life? Life is a gift that you misused, and now He doesn’t want you in his kingdom.”

My eyes swelled up with tears hearing this. “Being born with HIV is no joke. I never had real relationships because of it. Guys would always run off once they found out my secret. I had to artificially become pregnant for crying out loud! I wanted the experience to date and find love and be married, and I never had the chance too because of the fucking HIV. That’s why I’m so damn bitter.” 


“Well what if i told you you could live your life without the disease?”
“Then I wouldn’t be so bitter as you like to call it.” 

“You aren’t getting into the Gates with the attitude and life that you’ve lived so I’ll tell you what. Take this” he said, handing her a capsule. “It’ll reset your life, no disease, no nothing. If you live this life like He intended, then you’ll be invited into the Gates of Heaven.” 

I never been so ecstatic. “Thank you!” I cried. I’d finally had the chance to be normal. 



Chapter 5

“Push Push Push Push!” the doctors screamed. 


“One more push Christina, you can do it!” 

I felt a gust of air and a bunch of light hit my face, and I instantly began screaming.


“It’s a baby girl!” 

I still was screaming. 

“I’ll name her Helen” she said . “Helen Denise Jackson.” 

And here I am, only a few minutes old, looking forward to a live without HIV.

Dimensions

Posted by Emily Jenson in English 3 - Pahomov - D on


This was NOT supposed to happen. no no no no no Raine thought as she sprinted down the corridor. This had never happened before. There were precautions. There were steps taken to prevent this from ever happening. But it had. Why?


Turning the corner she stopped abruptly. There, at the end of the hall, the last door on the left. Raine watched as a series of men and women in labcoats entered and left the room, hurried. A tall man saw her watching and motioned for her to come forward.


She began to open her mouth, and he held up his hand, silencing her. “It happened an hour ago. The vitals were perfect, breathing normal. And then he just.... woke up.” Raine sucked in air and covered her mouth with her hand. No one ever woke up. Ever. She smoothed her lab coat and strode into the room, biting back the fear that arose in her throat.


There, on the bed, sat a teen boy with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He stared at the wall, as doctors and scientists poked and prodded at his arms where a thick IV was implanted. Raine walked towards him, trying not to notice the vacant look in his once lively eyes.


“Ethan?”

The boy turned his head slowly, and mouthed the words i'm sorry.  Raine was shocked. Him? Sorry? He had no reason to be sorry. in fact, he had every reason in the world to be furious. What he was promised- security, peace, and safety- all that were ripped from him.


Ethan, and all the other residents of the North Haven Research Facility all possessed a chemical compound in their brain that allowed them to see different dimensions. It appears in the late teenage years, often similar to the signs of schizophrenia- paranoia, delusions of grandeur, hearing voices and hallucinations.


Raine had been the first to realize the difference between schizophrenics and dimensionalists (the name given to people like Ethan). Her younger sister claimed she could see different worlds, that she could hear the organisms in different dimensions speaking to her. she eventually was overwhelmed by the mental stimulation and died of an aneurysm.


Raine devoted her life to finding and helping people like her sister. She found that as the children got older, the voices and visions became stronger and impossible to handle. the human psyche was simply too weak to withhold the vast information the chemical compound released.


So a serum was created, to put the patients in a coma like state where their visions of different dimensions were isolated, essentially forcing them into their own minds for their own safety. So they lived in hospital beds, eyes darting back and forth underneath closed lids, living in a different world. Their minds were stable. In this, they were freed from their confusion of living in two worlds.


But somehow, ethan had woke up. Raine kneeled down and took the boys hands in her own. “Why are you sorry?” tears began streaming down his face. his voice was barely audible, yet Raine heard his quiet words. “I tried to stay... but they wouldn’t let me. There’s something they don’t want us to see.” He lifted his eyes to meet hers. “They know. They know about us.”


Raine stared at the boy. He looked petrified, his hands suddenly icy, his eyes filled with pain. His eyes searched her face as he mumbled something incoherently. A shiver ran up Raine’s spine. She stood up then, unwove the boy’s cold fingers from hers and strode out of the room, surprised at her own composure.

Once in her office, the tired, exasperated, and confused woman shrank down into her office chair and put her head on her desk. Think Raine. Think.


Mentally lining up her plan Raine breathed in and out slowly, composing herself. She stood up, and walked over to the full length mirror behind the door. A tall thin woman stood before her. Sleek black hair flowed down her waist. her eyes were deep brown with bags of sleepless nights beneath them. small thick glasses perched on her nose. Raine smoothed her labcoat and walked out the door to the elevator and went to the lab’s basement.


Once inside the musky warehouse like room, Raine went to a small office with old furniture and boxes of files stacked about. She walked towards the back of the room and opened a hatch in the floor. She climbed down carefully, silently cursing the business attire black heels she wore.


The room beneath the basement was even smaller than the room she had entered from. It was a concrete room, with files and paperwork pasted on the walls and thin lines of red string connecting different points on the wall display. Her fathers work. It was her father that inspired Raine to be a scientist. He had been a geneticist, and had an addiction to hallucinogenic drugs. He went insane after his daughter died and overdosed on DMT, convinced he could enter a different dimension that took his daughter.

Raine discovered her father’s small room 6 months after he died.


The tired scientist walked towards the center of the room and opened the silver briefcase that sat upon a small metal table. She uncapped the syringe that held a murky green liquid, rolled up her sleeve and plunged the needle into her vein.


Raine slumped to the floor and lay on the cold concrete, preparing herself for what she knew would come. With her father’s work and her discoveries about the hallucinogenic drug DMt, Raine had created a serum that would allow her to develop the dementionalist compound. She breathed in and out as her vision began to blur, knowing she could do this. She would find the others, find out who They are, and finally get some answers. Truthfully she had almost injected the serum many times before, her curiosity and pent up anger for her sister driving her to do it. She had been waiting for an excuse. This was as good as any.


Raines eyes closed and she hovered in a half conscious state, she felt like she was floating in a pool of warm water. Then, nothingness.




The tall wiry dark haired woman’s eyes snapped open and she gulped for air. A group of nurses and aides rushed towards her, holding her arms and legs to the gurney covered in a thin white sheet. She thrashed and screamed, still lost partially in her subconscious.

A doctor stood before her and scribbled on a chart.



Patient still appears to be in a psychotic state. Awoke from the psychosis induced coma ranting and screaming. Still violent. Will have to sedate.


Dr. Ethan Haven

Raine Psychiatric Hospital

Reocurrence

Posted by Naihema Powell in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

I shuddered as the brisk november air flew up my skirt knocking me off balance, I yelped out, swinging my arms desperate to find something to steady myself. My heart raced, I looked down. Bad idea.

“Ida, can you please be the hell careful! and hurry up! Andrew pulling the car around.” Fey called up from the ground. I took a deep breath in, I can do this. Its only two stories, thats not bad. With one leg already out the window, I swung my left one out and balanced myself on the ledge. One jump, thats all it took, I’d jump from my ledge onto the tree and scale my way down. 

Wiping my sweaty palms onto the black skirt I wore, and pushing my red hair from off of my face, I stood up, putting all my weight into my toes, ready to leap. 

“hurry the fuck up Ida!!” Fey was never the most patient, as much as I wanted to get this over with I wasn’t about to risk my life. 

I closed my eyes and envisioned myself pushing off from the ledge and gracefully flying through the air. I imagined how the tips of my shoes would meet the branches and how smoothly i would climb down the side and land on the ground next to my friend. 

Opening my eyes, and praying one last time I pushed off, the tree came closer it was right in my grasp. My foot landed on the branch the way I envisioned, 

“good.. good, steady” I heard Fey calling from the ground. I was on the tree, I took my foot and attempted phase two. The climb down. I put only a little weight on the next branch to test its strength. It seem sturdy, I brought all my weight down, and cautiously started to bring my right leg to meet it. The branch started to give way, bending a little at the middle. My heart started racing, pounding against my rib cage. Sweat rolled down my brows, I lifted my right foot back up into its original postion. 

“Fey, I can’t do this!” I yelled down “the branch is going to break, I can feel it” I was on the verge of tears, this was a bad idea. It was silent below me, to terrified to look down I called for Fey again. 

“Ida, look down...” 

“No, Fey i will cry, just go get my dad or something. Theres a ladder in the garage” I could feel my right leg cramping because of the awkward position it was lifted in. 

“you are such a drama queen .. “ i heard Fey mumble, hearing her feet rustle against the dead leaves I figured she was making her way towards the garage. 

Something grabbed my shirt, and pulled me downwards, I stumbled, my heart dropped. a hand covered my mouth to muffle the scream that we all knew was coming. 

“Shhhhhh!!” Fey yelled, holding onto my shirt, “you were literally one leap from the ground dumbass” She helped me regain my balance. standing I shock I couldn’t do anything but laugh, looking from her to the tree and the branch I realized I was less than 7 feet up. My face felt hot, I could tell i was still sweating. I waited a moment to collect myself before asking Fey where Andrew was.

“last time i checked he said he was bringing the car around” she checked her phone. “ he’s parked on the corner” she said before locking her iphone and putting it back in her bra. 

We both made our way to the next block over, I couldn’t keep up with Fey’s fast pace stride, 

“keep up” she called. I jogged to catch up with her, heart still racing at the thought of what i just did. I’ve never been this defiant towards my parents, everything they told me to do I obeyed. As i slid into the plush leather seat of Andrews ford explorer, the reality of what I had done sunk in. I felt a rush of adrenaline course through my veins as he sped off down the dark quiet streets of my neighborhood. He turned the radio up a couple clicks as we made the final turn out of residental area and onto the main highway. This was the first time I’d snuck out and I never felt more alive, my mind started to wander at the thought of what would happen if i got caught. I quickly pushed it out of my head and decided to live in the moment and enjoy it now. I rolled down the windows so the sweat of me trying to leap from my second story window could dry. 

“We’re on our way!” Fey screamed out the window, Andrew hit 95 and sped down the open highway. The time on the digital clock read 12:45am, by the speed we were going we’d be there in a half an hour tops. 

“Yo this party is going to be crazy!!” I felt like I was in competition with the radio, over all the noise i felt like nobody could hear me.

“I hope its not corny. I did not just do all this for nothing..” I was relieved when Fey turned around from the front seat and responded. Her face lit with excitement, her brown her hung just below her chin was now blowing wildly in the wind. 

“I don’t think JasonTeary’s parties are ever corny, trust me.  these things are crazy” andrew called from the front seat as he switched into another lane. The entire car jerked as he recklessly switched. Andrew was never the most safe driver, I snugged deeper into my seat. 

“This. is. my. song” Fey reached for the knob and cranked the music all the way up. We all began nodding our heads in sync to the music. This was going to be a good night.


***


Andrew turned off the highway about 28 minutes later, we cruised down one of back roads for a good 10 minutes before he made a left onto a small cul-de-sac. There were faint sounds of music, I strained my ear so I could hear it, hjeart pounding with each second passing, the bass became louder and the words in the distance became more distinct. We cruised down the street, around the bend i craned my neck and strained my eyes to make out the figure in the distance. A large house sat the the very end of the cul-de-sac. Teenagers swarmed the lawn, the red cups that littered the lawn reflected the lights. Cars were parked on every side of the house including in th streets. Andrew couldn’t make his way completely down to the cul-de-sac.  was able to make out a couple of people I knew. I couldn’t fully believe that I was here. This was completely unlike me, but i was determined to enjoy every minute of it. As andrew parked the car I reapplied my lip gloss and fixed my hair. Checking my unarm pits for sweat stains I took out my perfume and sprayed myself 3 times. 

Emerging from the car, I pulled down my skirt and fixed my shirt so that my breasts sat upright. Fey came around the car and stood next to me, “how do i look?” she said fixing her hair, 

“cute, you guys ready?” i called back to Andrew who was already in the trunk of his car pulling out a package of beers. Nodding he pulled one off of the ring and began guzzling it down.

We walked towards the party, as we approched I started to recognize people that I knew, old friends from middle school, people from my current school and even people from my neighborhood. Half of them too drunk to stand, I wanted to be where they were. I watched yearning for a drink, walking up the steps, Fey was they first one at the door.

“Do we knock?” she asked. Knocking didn’t seem logical, the music was way to loud for anyone to hear.

“Maybe its unlocked” I suggested trying the knob, half surprised when I wasn’t locked. this was our first time at a frat house. Nobody knew what to do, Edfer has the craziest parties every year. When he graduated Fern High me and my friends made it a must to go to his next party. This was it, I crossed the thresh hold and immediately a wave of sweat, alcohol and vomit hit me ambushing my nose. I put my hand to my nose and began pushing my way through the crowd looking for a drink. Fey trailed behind me, 

“daaamnn” I heard her mutter under her breath. “this party is crazy.” We contiuned through the crowd of sweaty teenagers. Potheads in one corner rolling and smoking, alcoholics in another corner chugging and doing shots. You had people to drunk to function stumbling and falling everywhere, there was every different groups here yet they all seemed to blend together perfectly. 

Fey and I finally found the drinks, browsing the selection I settled for a cup of Vladimir Vodka mixed with fruit punch. Fey pondered over the selection, did two shots of vodka straight before grabbing a beer. 

“You drink beer?” I said, shouting over the music

“whaaat?” Fey screamed turning her ear to me. I shook my head dismissing the question i already knew the answer too. Fey didn’t drink beer, she was probably just doing it now to get a buzz on. 

I lingered around the drink table filling my cup as it grew low, a couple of people came over to talk to me but for the most part all I had was Fey. We lost Andrew at the door, these were more so his friends if anyones. Around my 5th cup of the same Vlad and Fruit Punch I decided to go dance. Throwing my red cup on the floor I got up, the alcohol hit me instantly almost knocking me back down. I stumbled back using the chair to regain my balance. Laughing at my own clumsiness I started walking towards the yard. Pushing my way through the crowd of intoxicated adolescents I made my way to the sliding double doors. 

The fresh air hit me almost as hard as the alcohol did, knocking me back into the screen door. I stumbled struggling to regain my balance, I felt a hand grab my waist, steadying me. 

“woah, i got you” a voice deep male voice said, I jumped pulling away from the hand and turing to see who it was. he looked alarmed at my sudden movement, 

“Are you okay?” he said moments later, he was a handsome fellow about 5’9 brown hair, piercing blue eyes, he had broad shoulders a muscular frame, and the deepest dimples. His beauty left me breathless, all i could do was nod my head, 

“you don’t look it.” he pressed on, I continued to shake my head, I was fine, “ I didn’t even drink... drink that much. I’m ... I - I am fine.” I began to feel a little lightheaded, shaking me head and rubbing my eyes I looked for a place to sit down.  The stranger moved towards me, putting his arms out as if to help me, I shooed him away. As much as I appreciated a little assistance there was something about him, something off that made me question if excepting his help was a good idea. 

Too tired and dizzy to say anything else I shut down and let him help me, my stomach was in knots, I felt dizzy again, it became harder to breath. He pulled my hair back from my face and leaned me over the railing. I instantly threw up, seeing all the liquor I had consumed inside the party. He rubbed my back and retrieved napkins. All the while I couldn’t help but think who was this guy, I had no clue. Once I had finished thowing up, he went into the house and got me a bottle of water. 

“Drink this” he said, I obeyed and began guzzling the water bottle down, not stopping until the contents were gone. 

“feeling better” he said after I had finished drinking the water, all I could do was nod I still felt a little weak. there was a bench on the far side of his yard, I started to make my way towards it, I was done for the night. The feeling of being drunk, and throwing up was one I never wanted to feel again. I now knew why I had never attended one of these parties before. I suddenly wished I had stayed home. I heard footsteps being me, I knew I was being followed, I turned being me to see blue eyes, I hadn’t bothered to ask for a name so thats the only thing I knew to identify him as.

“Why the hell are you following me” I called to blue eyes behind me, he laughed a little before responding, “thats the way to talk to someone who’s about to save your life.”

about to. Those two words rang in my head, what did he mean by about to. I was tempted to ask him, but decided he was just as drunk as I had been and let it go. I didn’t have time to entertain his stupidity. Ignoring his response I continued on towards the benches. 

“Mind if i join you?” he called once i got there, I sat on the one furthest from the house, the pounding of the bass made my head hurt. 

“I don’t care what you do,” there was no reason for me to be so mean to someone who held my hair as I threw up, yet a part of me didn't trust this stranger. There was something off about him.

“I don’t understand why this time you’re so mean Ida, normally our encounters are pleasant ones” blue eyes said as he took a seat next to time, I scooted over, I didn’t want him that close to me.

“When did I ever tell you my name,” I asked realizing he had just called me Ida. 

“This name you never told me, but i’ve been keeping up with you. I was surprised when Theodore agreed to let Lynette name you Ida, I know he wanted to name you Lisa so bad.” My heart began to race, I was more uncomfortable at the fact that he knew my parents first name than at the fact that he was so close. I didn’t know this kid, never seen him a day in my life, yet he knew what my parents wanted to name me. He knew personal information that I’m pretty sure nobody knew but me and my little sister. 

“How... how -” I couldn’t even get the words out.

“How did I know” blue eyes finished the sentence for me, moving in closer. “I don’t know if you caught this before, you’re a smart girl Ida, I kinda hoped you would. But I said Im about to save your life...” there was a hint of arrogance in blue eyes voice, like he knew he was some sort of super hero. Like he knew I was dependent on him. It made me angry. I wasn’t dependent on anybody, and at this moment he just sounded crazy. I started to get up I wasn’t about to sit here and listen to a drunk mans stories. 

“I noticed. I don’t think you noticed how crazy you sound right now. You don’t know me, you don’t know me at all.” I snapped turning my back to walk away.

“Ida i know everything about you, jeez you were so much nicer in your other lives. I’m just going t get to the point. I’ll Rip the bandaid off fast. We are stuck in a universe that loops. You have been living the same life for 569 years. You’ve been to this party 569 times, we’ve had this conversation 569 times, you’ve thrown up about.. 569 times. Oh and i’ve saved your life 569 time. there is about to be an explosion in that house caused by a dumbass trying to light a blunt on the stove and a whole bunch of open flammable liquor spilling everywhere. Everybody you know, including you little friend will die a sad a tragic death except for who.. -” blue eyes paused and looked at me. I could feel my airway closing, sweat trickled down my forehead. A million thoughts running through my head, I shook the small thought that suggested that he was right. I soon shook all thoughts from my head having to do with this topic. Turning my head and waving my hand I dismissed blue eyes. I had decided he was officially out of his mind.

“don’t believe me if you want to, but one thing you’re not going to do is walk in that house.” blue eyes voice turned cold, it sent a chill up my spine. I wanted to disobey, and go in the house. I didn’t want to listen to blue eyes. after all if he was telling the truth then I’d just “relive” this day over again. But something about his voice, something about  the way he said it made me want to obey him. “why me!” i snapped “out of everybody here, you pick me to save. I don’t understand. why not just let me die. Find somebody else to save” by the look on blue’s face I could tell he was hurt. He looked as if he wanted to say something but just couldn’t find the words to do so. I stared at him for a couple more minutes waiting for my explaining as to  why I am the damsel he choose to focus all his time and energy into. “hellooooo!” i called when I still got no response. blue continued to ignore me, his gaze distant, I had no clue what he was thinking, a part of me cared for him and wanted to listen to the warning he had given about not going into the house. Another part of me wanted to believe he was delusional. When i got ignored for the second time I decided to go into the house ignoring all warnings blue eyes was giving me. Turning my back on him i started across the wet grass, ignoring the shards that were getting caught in my sandals.

“We were supposed to be married” blue calls after me. I stop dead in my tracks. “we were supposed to be married, married with kids. three of them Josh, Jordan and Jamira.  We lived in a house just outside of new jersey ... you were a wedding planner and I use an accountant..... our life was perfect.” I was frozen in my steps, partially in shock and partially in disbelief. I looked back at blue waiting for more to the explanation, Something to convince me that he was telling the truth. A part of me wanted him to be telling he truth, I never envisioned myself even being alone for this long with a boy let alone marrying one. I couldn’t allow myself to grasp that idea that blue eyes could be telling the truth. 

“A few years back, our future changed.. I don’t know how, I don’t know why. But one morning I woke up and you weren’t there. our kids weren’t there. I’ve spent years jumping through time reliving this day. Reliving this day 569 times trying to convince you to make the right choice. Trying to convince you to not go into that goddamn house Ida... but every single time, you choose to ignore me. You think i’m bullshitting and honestly I’m not trying to give up on us. On the life we have but i’m getting close to it. So i’m standing here, begging you. Not to go into that house. For the sake of our marriage, our kids. Our future.” blue is damn near in tears, his face is red and he is out of breath. I feel for him, I don’t know what to say. I debate in my head if i should listen to him of not, if his words are true. If i stand out here long enough will the house infact blow up. I shake my head ...this isn’t real. I begin making my way towards the house. This time running, I sprinted away from the creepy boy with the blue eyes and headed for the house. Nothing he said was making any sense. None of that was possible, how does one travel through time and relive the same day over and over again.

“IDA!!!!” I heard blue eyes scream, ignoring him I pressed forward, the wind blowing through my hair. The sweat dripping off of my forehead. Stumbling something I struggled to regain my balance. I could hear blue eyes , cries from behind me he begged and pleaded for me to come back. I just wanted to find Fey and leave, we should’ve never come. A rumbling sound stopped me dead in my tracks, several screams came from the house people started filling out onto the porch in hysterics. I gazed up at the house, the kitchen erupted in flames. My heart immediately fell to the pit of my stomach. I wasn’t worried about the fact that blue eyes had been right, I was worried about my friend.

“FEY!!!” I cried for her, unable to move, I wanted to go in the house in search for her, but couldn’t get my legs to obey with what my brain was giving it orders to do. The windows busted out of the kitchen and more people ran out of the house. Some on fire, some badly burned, I could still hear blues cries in the distance. 

“IDAA!” he called, I looked back at the sound of my name. Blue waved his hands motioning me to come back to him. He was saying something but i couldn’t make out what. “A... Aw..AWAY” away? I didn’t understand what he was trying to say

“GET AWAY” I heard it, but it was too late, the house exploded, shards of hot class cut deep inside of me, I could feel the heat from the blast burning my skin, it soon became hard to breathe. I flew through the air, bloodcurdling screams left my mouth and joined the others in a perfect symphony. I hit the ground hard, cracking something in my back, I couldn’t move. I could still hear blue’s cries as closed my eyes and let myself go. 



***


I shuddered as the brisk november air flew up my skirt knocking me off balance, I yelped out, swinging my arms desperate to find something to steady myself. My heart raced, I looked down. Bad idea.

“Ida, can you please be the hell careful! and hurry up! Andrew pulling the car around.” Fey called up from the ground. I took a deep breath in . . . 

Only The Good Die Young

Posted by Alexis Dean in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

In the heart of Austin, Texas lies a rancher in the middle of the woods. Living in that rancher are Sara Jane and her fiancé Luke. The high school sweethearts have been together for over eight years and their love just grows stronger every day and is a constant reminder of what happiness is. Growing up in a small town has its perks. More freedom, less people, basically easy living. There wasn’t a store on every corner, downtown was really 10 miles away and you knew everyone by first name. They didn’t live a very lavish lifestyle. Sara Jane was born a preacher’s daughter.

She would attend church regularly and on her free time growing up would tend the horses at her mother’s ranch. Her parents had been married for many years and she wanted her love to be just like that. When she met Luke in high school it was love at first sight. He made her heart flutter. She knew there was no other person that would make her more happy than him.

One day, Luke finally came up to her and told her he liked her. Her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach and she tried to utter the simply words “me too.” He knew how she felt about him before she even opened her mouth. He just felt the connection between them. He knew they could make it work. Staring right into her eyes with her hands wrapped in his, he asks “Will you be my girlfriend?” She smiles back and replies “I’m glad you asked. Of course I will!”  They were inseparable. They literally spent every minute together. He would pick her up before school and drop her off after school. They would go out for dates, and talk on the phone for hours. Until one of their parents yelled “Off the phone lovebirds, school tomorrow.”  Each day would start and end the same. However, things weren’t always perfect for them. They went through their periods of ups and downs and childish breakups. But they always found their way back to each other. 

Sara wanted to pursue a career in medicine ever since her grandmother passed away because she wanted to stop everyone from going through what she went through. However, she needed to prove herself. She needed to get into the best college. She needed to show everyone that she was serious about this.

She was a straight A student in high school and had perfect attendance, however she was scared that she was making the wrong mistake going to medical school and becoming a nurse because she was breaking the mold of everything her family does. Being a preacher’s daughter and her mother working on a farm, a nurse really doesn’t match their lifestyles. 

However, she didn’t want that to stop her. During her first three years of medical school she continued to get straight A’s until the last year of college when she moved on her own and became distracted. That was quickly changed when she realized that she wanted to be better and just get her last year finished. 

She graduated from college with a 3.89 GPA and was immediately placed at the neighborhood hospital. She started at the bottom of the hospital scale cleaning bedpans and making sure that each patient had water and then worked her way up to being the head oncology nurse, using her degree to the fullest. Oncology was the department that she wanted to stay with because she wanted to see if there was a cure to these cancers that people dealt with everyday and that claimed so many lives. 

The more she worked around cancer patients the more she began to question the way things were and how they were supposed to be and why people had to die. “Why does cancer exist” she asked herself one day. It just happened to be that she was standing in front of one of her patients rooms and he overheard her. “I ask myself the same question everyday when I wake up in here” he responded to her. “Oh my goodness, Mr. Johnson. I am so sorry I didn’t know you heard me.” “It’s okay sweetie, just be careful with what you say sometimes.” Those words stuck in her head for days after that incident. Mr. Johnson died a few months later of colon cancer and those were the last words Sara ever heard from Mr. Johnson. 

Sara and Luke were the most perfect couple, the did everything together and lived such a happy life. He loved that she was a nurse and he was a lawyer and their schedules matched up perfectly. He would cook dinner for her every night. They would spend hours just talking and then fall asleep in each others arms. What Sara didn’t know was that Luke was holding something from her. Luke sat Sara down one night during dinner and had to tell her something. “Sara, I need to tell you that I have been hiding something from you for the last few weeks.” “Okay, what is it.” “I went to the doctors the other day and they told me I have liver cancer.” “Oh my god, please say you are kidding.” “Why would I kid about that Sara?” “I don’t know Luke, but I cannot handle this.” “Why did you hide it from me?” “I don’t know Sara, I didn’t know how to tell you.” For three days there was not a word uttered between them. Sara was hurting and Luke didn’t know how to help her through it. His health was declining and he needed treatment. Sara made sure that he had the care he needed but was scared to loose him. He was her everything. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he knew he couldn’t be strong. Sara knew she had to find a way to cure him before she lost him. She couldn’t handle it. She would go to work every day and in the medicine cabinet try to figure out what could go together to heal him. One day she thought that if she could find a way to mix the medicines together, how would she know if they worked. She would have to find people who were dying of cancer and try it on them. But that was wrong. How could she do that? How could she potentially kill people while trying to save them? It could work, but there was no guarantee. 

She couldn’t tell anyone of these plans. These thoughts she was having were evil, but she needed to be sure that she was doing everything that she could. She needed to know that she tried to cure him and that if she couldn’t that she did everything to try to help him. She needed to plan this out. She needed to figure out how she was going to test the medicine on those patients. She had an idea but she wasn’t sure. The only way she could do it was by using their Iv’s. But how would she mix the different medicines? She would have to find a room and do all of it, or could she do it at home? She found a room in the hospital that she could mix all the medicines and fill needles so that she could inject the patient’s Iv’s with while no one was looking. She would do this and test the patients progress over a few days. 

Luke continued to get worse. Her treatments with the patients were a win and loose situation because there were good days and bad days. There was no clear set cure yet, but she wasn’t going to stop. Not with Luke getting worse everyday. But time was getting short. Most of her patients were getting closer to dying and she wanted to save them and save Luke but she didn’t know how to. There had to be a perfect combination of medicines she just had to find it. She then began to start making different combinations with three or four medicines and finally she started to progress. But how could she treat Luke? He was in and out of the hospital as his condition worsens. She had to tell him.. But she doesn’t know how. She was going to write him a letter. She was going to tell him before it was too late. She was going to try her mixture and hope for the best. 

When she went to the hospital later that night she injected him with the treatment while no one was looking and hoped that he will begin to feel better. 

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. Luke had a bad reaction to the mixture and whatever the hospital on him and later he lost his life.  However, she still had the letter she wrote him and was going to bury him with it. 

Dear Luke, 

I am writing you a letter to tell you something. I didn’t know how to tell you in person however I just need to get it out. I did something very bad and need you to forgive me. From when you were diagnosed with the cancer I spent my days thinking about ways to cure you. I worked at the hospital mixing medicines to cure the treatment and I used my patients as guinea pigs. I am so sorry. I didn’t want to loose you. I love you! 

Love, 

Sara Jane

Thy Shall Choose

Posted by Nikki Adeli in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

“It’s your choice Susanna, said Lawrence, “It’s all up to you”.

“Choose from what?” 

“If you don’t choose, you’ll face brutal consequences. Beginning with the ones you love most.” 


This was the 5th night in a row Susanna was having this dream. The chills and hot flashes would wake her up everytime at 4:34 am causing for her not to go back to sleep. She would lie restless in her bed til 5:45, when her alarm clock would ring. Her day had begun.


“Sam, wake up! You’re going to be late!” 

“It’s stuck again mom, I need help.”

As the aromatic smell of pancakes and coffee filled the house, so did the morning frustration. 

“I told you that these don’t fit anymore mom,” said a frustrated Sam.

“Look Sam, I called Dr. Procter 2 times last week, do you want me to harass the guy?”

“Well if it leads to me getting the prosthetic legs that actually fit, then godspeed.”


Susanna hadn’t called the doctor. Her insurance called her a week prior telling her that Sam’s new legs wouldn’t be covered by their insurance and that his doctor was no longer in their network. Susanna needed to look for a new doctor that would take a new patient that didn’t have that great of a track record. 


Ever since George and Grace passed, things were tough for Susanna. She knew that she had to be strong for Sam, now that he was dealing with his amputation. She didn’t cry at the funeral. She didn’t bring any of the flowers, letters, or teddy bears inside. Ever since the accident, every morning, she tells herself “you’re okay”, when she knows she’s breaking. 


“Okay, finish up your breakfast, you’re going to be late. Come on let’s go”.

“Mom?” questioned Sam.

“Yes?”

“Why are you always in a rush to send me off to school because I’m always out the door 45 minutes before the bell rings when we only live 10 minutes from school?”

She wasn’t going to tell him the real reason.

“Because punctuality is the key to success, now go wait for the bus, it will be here any minute now.”

“Okay, love you mom.”

“Love you too pick you up at 4”


As the door closed behind him, the tears began to blur her vision.

 

“No tears Susanna,” she told herself. “Today is the day.” Today was the day she was going to make it. She showered, packed her things, and got dressed for work. She put her stuff on the kitchen counter and began to walk towards it. 


“Today is the day,” she murmured to herself. “Today I will walk in.”

As she saw the pink and purple bead curtains sway side to side, she remembered Grace’s laughter. The smile that was Susanna’s everyday motivation. The smile that was missing two front teeth. 


As she stood in front of the door, she began to tremble. She put out her left hand and pushed the beads aside as she nervously reached her right hand toward to the door knob.

“On the 3,” she said to herself. “One, two-o-o, thhre-e-e”.

Push. 

It had been three years since she saw Uncle Earl’s dollhouse. The vanilla essence brought back carpool, candy store visits, and father-daughter dances. The vanilla essence brought her to her knees.

“Why! Why Gracie! Why!” she had broke. 


Her cries for Grace were so loud that she didn’t here the front door open.


“Susanna?!” It was her older sister, Nancy. “Oh my goodness Susanna get up.”

“Why Nancy? She was only 5! She was to be at school right now. Why Nancy?

Nancy hadn’t seen her sister cry before, this was all very new to her. 

“Susanna it’s going to be alright. You’ll get through this. You need to let the past go Susanna. Sam needs you. He needs his mom to love and care for him, including his mother calling this new doctor her sister found for her.”

“But, Nancy,”

“No, no don’t speak about the money. It’s taken care of.”

“I can’t accep-”

“Stop. Yes you can. Now get up and go find out if this Dr. Lawrence Fisher is really as phenomenal an as they say he is. “

“Thank you Nancy.”

-----------


The doctor’s office was just 2 streets down from her work. She decided that she’d go to work and then go to Dr. Fisher’s when she was settled.

As she drove into the parking lot, something felt out of place. Everyone who was usually inside during their hours was actually outside. She parked her car and spotted Lucia, her friend. 

“Is there a fire drill going on?” said Susanna. 

“Um, no. We just liked how, um, nice the weather was. You know how suffocating those cubicles can be”

“Yeah, I guess. So I guess I’ll see you inside?”

“Oh yes! Most definitely!”


As Susanna walked towards her cubicle, she began to see more and more flowers appear out of other people’s cubicles. The smell of her favorite Cinnamon Spice cake grew stronger as she approached her cubicle. 


“Oh no,” she thought to herself. “Martin.”

A middle aged, athletic built man jumped from behind Susanna’s cubicle’s wall.

“You bet it’s Martin! The one and only Martin. The man who’s meant for you Martin. The only Martin in your-”

“Stop!”

“I’m sorry, did I do something wrong? Oh no, it’s the cake isn’t it? I knew there wasn’t enough powerdered sugar on it!”

“No Martin, it’s not the cake. This is so sweet of you to do all this for my-”

“Our!”

“Our work anniversary. But today just isn’t the day. Okay?”

“Okay.” 

“Thank you Martin, I’ll help you clean up”

“Does this mean I need to cancel the massage appointment I had for?”

Susanna knew she was not going to pass up on that opportunity.

“Oh no! I would hate for that to go to waste, I’ll just take it for now and drive there myself.”

“Oh okay, good!” exclaimed Martin “It’s two streets down, in that new doctor’s office. And Susanna?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you”

“Great, thanks for the coupon!”

Susanna had never driven as fast she did for that massage session. In less than 5 minutes, she was welcomed into a rejuvenating advanced massage center that left her mesmerized. It wasn’t like anything she had seen before. She knew she deserved this. 

She walked up to the service lady and handed her the massage coupon.

“Hello!” screeched the computerized service lady. “I am Flo! I love the rejuvenation center! I feel so rejuvenated! How can I help you today?”

“One massage please.” This was the happiest Susanna had been in a very long time. 

“Great! Change into a massage suit and wait in the jacuzzi until we get to your turn.”


There were already 3 ladies in the jacuzzi. 3 ladies that seemed a bit off to Susanna. Then again, since the accident, a lot of things seemed off to her. But these ladies were especially bizarre

“You’re not crazy Susanna” said the blonde lady.

“Pardon?” 

“You’re not crazy Susanna” repeated the blonde.

“Yes she is, she’s psychotic” said the red heard.

“I am not psychotic!”

“Yes you are,” said the 3rd women in the jacuzzi. “You are a slimy murderer who killed her husband and daughter!”

“LADIES!” A tall man approached the jacuzzi from the steamy sauna in the back. “My kitties, this is not how we treat our new guests. Understood?”

The 3 ladies stood up in the jacuzzi and their heads flashed a beam of light at the ceiling as they all answered “Yes Mr. Fisher”.

“Mr. Fisher was Sam’s new doctor’s name,”Susanna thought to herself

“Susanna it’s a pleasure, I’ve been looking forward to our appointment.”

“I think you mean my son, he’s the one who will be your patient soon.” 

“No, you. Come with me Susanna.”


Dr. Fisher walked Susanna through a glass tunnel that led to a steel elevator.


“You are to take this elevator to the UG floor. Wait there for me, do not talk to anyone. I’ll take care of Sam.”

“But Dr. Fisher-”

“Call me Lawrence.”


And with that she was off.

The elevator was something out of a haunted house. It was dented and had bullet shots through every wall. Susanna had a headache began to worry, not for herself, but for Sam. Horrid thoughts crossed her mind one after another as she got deeper into the ground. The deeper she went the more pressure she felt on her head.


Then, a light shined through the bullet holes. Susanna began to get light headed.


“What’s going on?” said Susanna


The shadow of a women appeared before her who pick her up.


“The antidote is working. Let her fall.” said the woman


Susanna began to see black and white stripes and fell into a deep sleep


-------


“She needs to choose Lawrence!”

“Nancy, it takes time.”

“No, there isn’t time, we don’t have time. Gracie and George are slowly fading away, we need them back or none of this.”

Susanna was slowly gaining back her consciousness.


“Nancy?”

This wasn’t suppose to happen.

“Lawrence, I thought you said she wouldn’t wake up for a while!” screamed Nancy

“Nancy is that you? Help Nancy, they took me.”

“Lawrence I’ll put her back to sleep.”

“Nancy, don’t. We need to tell her.”.

“Lawrence? Tell me what?” Susanna began to tremble again.

“It’s your choice Susanna, said Lawrence, “It’s all up to you”.

“Choose from what?” 

“If you don’t choose, you’ll face brutal consequences. Beginning with the ones you love most.”


Susanna fell into a state of shock. 

“No,” she said.

“We can bring George and Grace back Susanna,”

“No stop.”

“Susanna, just listen to me.”

“No I don’t want to hear it Lawrence, plea-”

“Susanna!” yelled Nancy. “This is for your own good and for Sam. Okay?”

“You’re in on this Nancy?”


“George lied to you. George didn’t work for an architecture firm. He worked for the NSA. George was working on a very sensitive sensor that if not dealt with correctly, would endanger every single person in this country. This sensor detects natural disasters to bioterrorism plots. The only person who can unlock the sensor is George. He made the sensor so locked that only him or someone with the same blood as him can unlock this sensor.”

Lawrence took over. “However, recently we got word that one of the militants in Kenya has hacked into the NSA’s system and is in the process of unlocking the sensor as we speak.”


“George knew something like this would happen Susanna. He also knew that he would give up his life to protect this country. Therefore, he made the sensor in way that only a certain person’s blood, besides his, could shut off this sensor. An arm’s worth of blood can only shut it off.” 


“Then, I’ll give blood. Give me a vile, I’ll do it myself.” proclaimed Susanna

“You can’t Susanna,” said Lawrence, “we already tested you. You are iron deficient you can’t give up an arm’s worth of blood.”

“But we know who can.” said Nancy


A silence fell among them. Susanna looked to Nancy as she handed her a report.

“Susanna, I tested Sam. He’s the only one who can sto-”


“No! You won’t take another part of my son from me! He is already suffering enough from the last car accident. I won’t let you!”

“It’s the country or Sam, Susanna! Uncle Earl would laugh at you right now.”


“Me Nancy?! You tricked me into coming into this dungeon that has robot women who accuse me to be a murderer!"

Lawrence realized this was all getting out of hand.


“Look Susanna, we can calmly talk about this.”


“No you listen to me, both of you! Do not get close to my son or me every again. You guys got us here in the first place and I want out. George is dead. He is gone. He left us. 

This was his problem. Not mine and certainly not Sam’s.” 


Susanna pulled the IVs out of her arm and pushed her way through the double doors to where she thought led her to the elevators. But instead, it led her to the hospital wing.


Susanna saw a sight she thought she would never see again. 

“Gracie?” 

Nancy ran towards Susanna to stop her. 

“Susanna wait! Don’t get close to her!”


Susanna ran towards Grace and embraced her in her arms. She cried and squeezed her tightly as Grace stood there. Emotionless.

“Gracie, it’s me! Mommy!”


No response from Gracie just a blank stare.


“Gracie?”


“Why did you let her run through the doors Nancy!?” Lawrence wasn’t pleased.


“What did you do to her!” Susanna looks to Grace and begins to frantically shake her. “Gracie! Gracie!”


Gracie looks to Lawrence then looks Susanna


“You must choose Mommy”.


Susanna looked taken a back.

“You must choose Mommy. You must choose Mommy. You must choose Mommy.” Gracie got louder until the phrase into a siren shriek. 

“What’s going on!?” Susanna couldn’t handle the sounds or her daughter anymore. Lawrence ran across the room and grabbed on to a red lever. Once he pulled it down, Gracie turned off. Lawrence looked to Susanna.


“It’s up to you Susanna. Make your choice now or the rest of our nation’s children will end up just like Gracie.


“Fine. But I want to be in the car with him to make sure he’s not in pain.”


Nancy didn’t approve. 


“It’s much to dangerous Susanna, I can’t have you do that.”


“Me in the car, or not blood.”


----------

It was 4 pm. Lawrence’s robot driver and Susanna were on their way to pick up Sam. Susanna began to tremble again. She knew she had to be strong to make sure Sam would be okay, who she spotted limping towards the car. 


“Hey sweetie, how was school?”


“It was awful, I‘ve got blisters all over my legs. Did you call the doctor?”


“I sure did. We are actually going now so buckle up.”


As Sam sat in the car, he realized his mother wasn’t as happy as she usually was to see him.


“Mom,” said Sam.


“Yes sweetie?”


“Are you okay?”


Susanna squeezed out a grin and said “I’m fine”.


“Okay, good.” Sam turned his back to the door and began to tell his mom about how much he loved coming home to be with her. As he turned Susanna saw Nancy’s programmed SUV coming straight for Sam’s door. She clenched his legs and closed her eyes. 


Crash.

Susanna heard Sam screaming for help but she felt restricted. She couldn’t move to hold him and tell it was all going to be okay, that he saved this entire country. All she could see was one of the jacuzzi ladies open her claw hands and grab her unconcious son. The blonde jacuzzi lady looked to Susanna and assured her that everything was going to be okay and that she was not going to remember any of this. Susanna drifted off.

--------


Lost In Knowing

Posted by My Truong in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

It feels lonely and cold to lock myself up like this. To hide from everyone, my entire family, all my friends, my peers, and people I love. To be unable to hold or physically touch the humans I care about..is the most unfortunate and torturing thing I have ever experienced and I believe there is no other person in this earth that goes through this conflict like I do. The fear and images that flash in my mind when I touch someone is unbelievable. To be able to predict someone’s death through a touch..is the worst gift anyone can ever receive.

My name is Kayler  and when I was fourteen years old, I was riding the train to school in the morning. It was extremely crowded and I just needed to get to school on time. The train station I ride is one of the most popular train stations in my city to get to any part of the city you need to go to. Especially during rush hour, it made it worse, it was just packed, the train couldn’t hold anymore people and workers made announcement to ask riders to wait for the next train to arrive. Usually robberies do happen since I was getting on the station where most poverty exists. I saw a man in a black coat with a brief case running away from three policeman that was happening nearly a block away from me. He was running through people, shoving them and pushing them in order to escape from the cops.

“Stop!”

“Stop now!”

The police kept yelling while chasing the man.  I thought it was just a robbery, maybe he stole that brief case from someone. It was no surprise to me, it wasn’t the first time I saw a robbery happening while waiting for my train to head to school. I looked away and continued to listen to my MP3 player. Suddenly, I heard a huge explosion and the ground shook. I lost balance right away and fell onto the ground and everyone around me started screaming. People also fell and half my body was crushed by two other people and I could not hear anything after that. All I heard was faint yelling and crying, and my vision was blurry. I started to see some smoke and haze as I looked up, trying to pull my legs out underneath from someone else on top of me. I started to feel dizzy and passed out. I came to the conclusions that it was just a bomb explosion. I passed out and from that day, my life has not been the same.

It been a few months after the incident, I started catching buses to school instead of the train. My parents were traumatized by the small nuclear bomb explosion that happened months ago at my train station. It was closed for a while anyway and I don’t mind riding a few buses to school. It’s a lot less crowded than taking that train.

“Oh my god is already 8:10” I got off my last bus to walk to school, and started to speed walk and turned up my music louder. I was too busy trying to change the song on my MP3 player that I bumped into a lady shorter than me. I looked up and caught her by her shoulders. It was a senior citizen, a frail small lady.

“Sorry!” I felt bad, she looked startled even though I ran into her sofly . She just nodded and walked away.

I continued to walk the couple of blocks I had left. As I walked farther from her, I somehow had these thoughts I couldn’t control. I kept seeing images of her in my head getting hit by a car. It was so strange, why am I even imagining this happening to her? I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I couldn’t stop seeing it in my head. The exactly images was her crossing the street and a minivan didn’t break into and hit her, and she just tumbled over. Something didn’t feel right, my gut was telling to turn back around and go make sure she is okay.

As I pulled out my earphones and started to run backwards to find her two blocks down, I started to trembled at the thought. My palms got sweaty, my legs started shaking as I was jogging. I ran down the block to the stop sign and there she was. Laying on the ground in front of a minivan, passed out. A local crossing guard from the other street heard the car and went to go check. She started yelling that the senior citizen no longer has a pulse. If only I was faster, she wouldn’t had died. If only I hadn’t touched her, maybe I wouldn’t had saw that coming. It was a strange feeling,

“How did this thought come to my mind?”

“Why?  how did I know she gonna get hit by a car?”

I ask myself a lot of question that day, but it just a mystery. I can't answer my own question. I got to school late that day. In class instead of pay attention to my teacher and learn how the earth orbit around the sun. I was in wonderland trying to answer these mystery question.

Times go by really fast, it had been 5 years after that crazy incident happen with the lady. I’m nineteen years old attending to a university near home now . I was getting dressed for a close friend’s birthday dinner party. I was anxious because I can’t wait to take pictures and I heard there’s going to be a really special surprise there by my best friend’s boyfriend, Kevin  specifically for my Katrina. I arrived to the dinner party and we are having an amazing time. Later that night when is time for my her to cut the her cake. The light are off and Kevin slowly walk out the the crow and pull out the ring in front of Katrina.

“Will you marry me?”

At first she just cried and screamed.

“Yes!”

It was so sweet, it was such a surprise. She was such a happy, beautiful girl at that moment. A month later, my Katrina told me that her fiancé is taking an airplane to another state for an internship for a few weeks with a big business company. I stopped by his apartment to wish him good luck for his internship because I heard it’s going to be competitive. I just stopped by and had a drink then right before he closed his door, I gave him a quick hug.

The day Katrina’s fiancé had to leave onto the airplane, I woke up from a really bad nightmare. In the dream, I saw an airplane crashing while trying to land at an airport and then I saw Katrina weeping and sobbing on the floor claiming that’s the airplane that her fiancé was on. I was so sweaty when I woke up, this reminds me of what happened to the poor old lady 5 years ago. I started to cry in bed because I had no clue what to do. My gut was telling me to tell Katrina right away but I don’t want to sound like a mentally insane person. It was 6AM and realized that his airplane was departing at 8AM. I couldn’t take it anymore, I called Katrina and she picked up and sounded very sleepy.

“Katrina I need to come to your house right now is really important” .

“What going? Are you okay?

“Is something importance, I’m on my to your house right now”

I drove quickly to her apartment. I cried so much in front of her, I had such a hard time explaining to her about the nightmare. I wasn’t able to tell her what happened with senior citizen because she not gonna understand. “Kayler is okay, stay calm and stop crying.” She hug my very tight that I can barely breath.  She called Kevin and explain what happen while they were talking I took the phone from her hand

“Kevin please do not get on that plane.”

“Listen to me for once, please Kevin.”

“But Katrina I have to get on this airplane right now” He hang up the phone.

I was shaking so much, it was the worst feeling ever. I left and went back to my home. I cried in bed for hours and that nightmare kept flashing by in my mind. I knew he was arriving at his destination around 5PM. I turned on the news around the time and there it was. Breaking news, a plane crashed. I called Katrina , when she picked up, her voice was trembling, she was crying and couldn’t the words out her mouth. Her fiancé’s airplane was the one that crashed while landing at the airport.

I am able to visualize the death of certain people in my lives after I touch them. “Is it because of the nuclear bomb explosion incident when I was fourteen years old? ”

After the accident I have been isolating myself among my loved ones. The entire experience has psychologically and emotionally changed me as a person, overall. I became a fearful, depressed and mentally unstable adult. I ended up transferring to another university and moving a few states away from home. My family and close friends has questioned my sudden move out and I no longer speak to my best friend of which her fiancé passed away due to the airplane accident. My life reverted from that moment on and I just can’t look back. I would much rather move far away and not create relationships or friendships with anyone in order to keep myself from feeling guilty or hurting anyone close to me. I would rather not use this “gift” of mine. It is harmful and it only causes emotional stress upon myself and people I really love.

A new environment has made me feel better about my life. No attachments to other people meant no one nor myself was getting hurt. I spent the past two years trying to forget these terrible memories and not think about my “special ability”. But for the past month, all the memories have been flashing back inside my head, over and over again. It is all coming back and I have no clue how to stop it again. It is haunting me, day and night. Even in my dreams, I can no longer sleep well without seeing the old lady get hit by a car again or my best friend sobbing because of her fiancé death from the airplane accident. This was hurting me all over again. I have decided to spend tonight on my kitchen floor drinking until my blood streams are filled with alcohol. I’m gonna be so intoxicated to the point where I need to forget these memories. Even if it means to abuse my own body.

Continuing onto my alcohol addiction now, it has not help me at all. I have only been able to wake up with headaches and still nightmares almost every night about everything. I have decided: enough is enough. If I don’t help myself, no one is going to help me. I need to reach out to someone. I feel lonely and worthless. I miss my family and all my friends back home. I can’t return home until I get rid of this “ability” or get over my fears. It’s like a monster inside, no one can destroy it except for myself.

I have visited a local psychology clinic in my city to seek help right away. I was able to contact and get in touch with the most well known psychologist there. His name is Dr. Emeric and he is specialized in hallucinations. Although my issues are clearly not hallucinations, but there is still a lot going on inside my head and maybe he can help me out with it. Explaining this whole thought process is going to be difficult. Katrina  thought I was crazy when I was warning her about her fiancé death.

As I spoke to Dr. Emeric from the very start and to the very end of my memories, he has no words but a phrase “interesting” which is the most cliché word that every psychologist usually says after he listens to a crazy person speak on their behalf. I still felt hopeless because his expression only changed a little bit. He told me to return back the following week for another appointment. I don’t really look forward to it but I will surely give it another try because I’m not giving up yet.

After I got home, I spent a few hours online researching about the nuclear bomb explosion that happened years ago. I never really looked into because every time I read about it somewhere, it made me feel nervous and it made my anxiety worse. This is just the post trauma that I have experienced. I literally went through dozens of articles online to see if there anyone else out there like me. Someone who went through a similar problem like me, someone who understands my pain of this “ability”, or someone who has this same exact ability. I was desperate to hope there was information about the nuclear bomb, maybe some other substance that it’s made out of. Because this is not a normal nuclear bomb if it has literally psychologically messed up my brain and gives me the ability to visualized some people’s death. That just isn’t normal and I am trying every way to dig up facts about this incident.

I was interviewed for a new job at a local office near my home. I decided to give it a try because I was offered a higher salary than where I was working at currently. I didn’t really like staying at one spot for too long, I started to become too friendly to my co workers and the goal of moving to this city was to stay isolated to avoid pain and harming others. Moving to this new job, there is a guy that sits across the room from me.  He name is Ivan and every morning when I see him he asked me if i want a cup of coffee he voice is very polite and sweet. I have no really had interactions like this with my co workers for a very long time being able to see someone’s smile like that towards me feels very heart warming. I miss human connections and feelings. But I must keep my distance to avoid any harm.

I came to Dr. Emeric’s office for a following appointment, he has prescribed to me anti depressants and I knew that was going to happen. That is the usual for being diagnosed with hallucinations. I told Dr. Emeric that we need to go into more depth for my illness because I need to get the bottom of everything. He told me it takes patience and time and Emeric wanted to also do further research into the nuclear bomb explosion incident. I told him I already did that and I found completely nothing. Dr. Emeric sounded like he hesitated to do this but towards the end of our appointment, he told me that he’s going to have to refer to me to a scientist to talk about.

I got home that day in a very bad mood. I don't know what to do and again I want to separate myself from the world.  I started to feel depressed and the only thing I can do now is to see Ivan. Ivan comforted me and the only one who understood me. He was there when I needed him. A connection between Ivan and I are becoming stronger and stronger.

I learned a lesson. Ivan was there for me. I was never independent. He was someone out there in the world and now I found him. The person who has helped me and understood me for my own illness and my physical appearance.




Mistakes

Posted by Jian Zhang in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

In the year 2100, science has advanced much more then we believed. Cancer has been cured, a new clean energy was found, even body modifications are possible. Like science, humans have also evolved over the years. Some people are born able to move objects with their mind, create fire out of thin air and other odd abilities due to being able to use all 100% of their brain power. While many welcomes such changes, there are those who oppose such things fear that it will make them no longer “human.” The story follows the life of Eli, a orphan who was adopted by Al.


“Eli! It’s time for dinner!” Al shouted

“Ok...” Eli says quietly as he walked down the stairs

it has been about 6 months since Al has adopted Eli. During this time they have grown rather close. Al may drinks a lot and sometimes do and say things he don’t mean to, but he is still a kind person.

“So how was school?” Says Al

“I-it’s fun there... I made many friends...” Eli smiles nervously

“Thats good to know, you were so shy around people that I was worried” Al said with a kind smile

Eli just nodded his head and continued eating

“ah-” Al tries to continue the conversation but also ran out of topics

Seeing how there was nothing else to talk about, Eli and Al just keep eating in silence.

Buy the time they were done, it was already dark.

“Did you finish your homework yet?” Al asked while turning on the TV

“Not yet... I’m going to finish it now.” says Eli and he walked back up the stairs

As Eli go into his room, he could finally relax.

“What’s his problem, wanting to know everything you do”

“y-you’re wrong, he was just worried about me that’s all...”

“Worried? HA! He is just like the others, he only cares for you so he doesn’t get in trouble.”

“go-go away! He isn’t that kind of person!”

“You knew as well was I that I can’t, remember, I am a part of you... that will never change...”

After that, Eli’s other half finally went quiet. He is something Eli had to deal with for a very long time. Since as long as Eli could remember, he has been adopted and abandoned over and over again. All those who adopted him became afraid of him sooner rather then later. Sometime during cycle, he was born, a split personality that is the complete opposite of Eli.

“Al is a really kind person...” Eli whispers as he continues his homework.

Some more time past by and Eli has finished his homework. Just as he was about to go to sleep, he heard the TV downstairs still running. It was Al, he was still watching the late night news.

*Studies have shown that the birth rate of mutants have dramatically increased these past few years. Since the government still understand very little of these mutants, the government suggests to report to the local officials if someone you know is a mutant. Now back to you.*

Mutants... *hic* those crazy things should be locked away in a zoo! *hic* It was Al drunk on the couch talking about how much he dislikes mutants.

Eli walks down to Al and called out to him

“F-father?”

“eh? oh! El-*hic*i, did you sle*hic*ep yet? you have school tomorro*hic*w...”

“I’m going to sleep soon, you should too...”

Eli propped Al up against him and walked up the stairs with him

After reaching Al’s room, Eli tucked Al in and went back into the hallway where the sound of the TV was still clear.

“You know he will find out sooner or later.”

“I k-know that... but I think he will understand!”

“pft it’s amazing how you can trust him even after all the others you have trusted all betrayed you. Not to mention how much this one seem to hate people who has powers.”

“ya... but still! He may be afraid of them but if we just talk to him about it, he will understand right? r-right?

He was quiet. With that, Eli looked at the TV, turned it off and went into his room for the night.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


“So! Everyone should bring these back and get them signed  by next friday! Those who don’t won’t be going on the trip so remember to bring them! Class dismissed!” Says Eli’s homeroom teacher.

“Hey! Eli!” shouted Kyle

“Are you going to go on the trip!? It looks really fun!” Kyle says grinning

“maybe, I’m not sure if father has time...” Eli says quietly

“Of course he will! It’s not like he can’t take a break from writing his book~”

“I don’t know... I really don’t want to disturb his work...”

“Oh you worrywart~, just go and ask him! Here! I’ll come with you!”

Saying that Kyle grabbed Eli by the arm and run off towards Eli’s house.

“Mr. Alex! Are you home!?” Kyle shouted at the house

“Ya! wait, wait just one moment!” Al said as a big clang came out of the attic

When Al go to the door he was covered in dust

“Were you cleaning Mr. Alex?” Kyle asks

“Ya, I wanted to clean the attic for sometime now.” Al smiles

“Welcome home Eli” Al says kindly

“I-i’m back” Eli said

Seeing this Kyle laughed again

“Oh Eli~ you are just as shy at home as in school!”

“Come on in you two and get some snacks” Al waves them in

After Kyle and Eli had their share of snacks, Kyle finally started talking about the trip

“Next month our class is going on a trip to the mountains! Can Eli go too!?”

“Of course he can!” Al exclaimed

“Can you come too?” Kyle asks

“Me? hum...” Al was deep in thought

“Maybe... I would have to wait and see... But if I’m free I’ll will definitely go.

“Hear that Eli? You can go too!” Kyle jumps up and down happily

“ya!” Eli replied

It was the day of the trip. The sun was shining, clear skies and a nice breeze blowing. It was the perfect day for a trip to the mountains.

“Everyone! Get to your groups! You will be camping with the people in your group here on the mountain for 2 days and 2 nights! Make sure you bring all the supplies with you! But most importantly don’t forget the emergency flare!. In case of any trouble or injuries, fire the flare like in the instruction booklet and a teacher will come and pick you up! Any questions!?”

The teacher looks around

“Alright! Go up this path and you will reach the campsite by dusk! Have fun and be safe!”

With that, the students, teachers and parents who can come all went up the road to the campsite.

“Awwww, so Mr. Alex couldn’t come?” says Kyle

“ya... he had to go to a meeting...”

“... Cheer up!” Kyle said with a grin

“My parents couldn’t come either! So we will just have to do this ourselves!”

This made Eli laugh a bit

With all the chatting they did, they reached the campsite before long

“Wow that was more tiring then I thought!” Kyle said gasping for air

“Y-ya... it seemed... so much... easier...” says Eli just as out of breath

They both laughed at how out of breath they are

Afterwards they started to build their campsite.

“Where should be build them Eli?”

“anywhere is fine with me..”

“Anywhere?” Kyle looks about

“How about over there!” Kyle said while pointing at a giant oak tree

“sure, that looks good”

“Alright! Let’s start building!” Kyle seemed very excited

By the time they were done it was already dark. So they had dinner and got really for bed.

“Hey Eli? you still awake?” Kyle said

“ya... I can’t seem to fall asleep.”

“you too? hehe, neither can I”

“So have you told your dad yet?...”

“no... no, not yet...”

“you should really tell him... it’s not right to keep him in the dark.”

“you’re right... but how can I tell him?..”

“I’m sure he will listen to you... I haven’t seen him as happy as he did with you since his wife died...”

“I’ll think about it... I really want to tell him too...”

“Kyle?” Eli looked at Kyle and Kyle seems to have fallen asleep already

“thank you...”




----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey! Eli! Wake up already!”

“how can you be so loud this early in the morning... *yawns*”

“hehehe, unlike you I’m not lazy” Kyle says smiling

“Oh by the way breakfast is ready! We have having biscuits and ham today! Also we are going to pick some mushrooms later! So make sure to bring your bag with you!” Kyle said cheerfully

“alright... *sigh*”

After  they finished their breakfast they gathered their things and went off to pick mushrooms.

“hey Eli”

....

“hey Eli!”

....

“...HEY!” Kyle shouted

“waah!?”

“Are you ignoring me!?” kyle says with her cheeks puffed out like a bruting child

“o-oh, nothing... I was just thinking.”

“? Thinking about what?”

“how I should tell father... seeming how much he hates mutants...”

“... it will be fine... I’m sure of it. If it’s you I think he will accept you...”

“thanks Kyle...”

just as Eli finished saying that the ground under them caved in

“AhhH!!!!!!!!”

The two of them fell into the river below

“KYLE! You alright!?” *cough cough*

“y-ya! Sort of! We need to, find a way up!”

“The sides are too steep! we can’t climb it!”

“Kyle! Grab my hand!”

Eli extends his hand and Kyle was able to grab on

What can I do!? Eli thought to himself, as he looked around he saw a branch that is just long enough to reach the river.

Eli closes his eyes and concentrates, on the branch. The branch started bending as if it were magic. The two was able to grab onto the branch and climb to safety.

“well, that worked” kyle said

“... but where are we now? We got washed quite the way down stream...”

“Hey I know!Let’s use the flares!” Kyle says as she dug reached for her bag, but her bag was washed away.

“...”

“... even if you had it, it wouldn’t work... it was wet and it wouldn’t light up anyways”

“w-what should *sniff* we do?” Kyle said with watery eyes

“wa- hey don’t cry! we’ll be fine! we didn’t get washed down that far!”

*sniff* “you sure?” Kyle said as she wiped her eyes

“...let’s go then or it will get dark before we get back to camp...”

“*sniff* ok.” says Kyle

So the two of them started to follow the river up, hoping to find the campground. But what they didn’t know is that even though it was a camping ground, there were areas that are fenced off to keep the wild animals out.


Eli looks up in the sky, it was already past noon.

“hey, Eli, do you really think we can get back before the teachers get worried?” Kyle questioned

“... I don’t knew... but we should be close right? We have been walking for some time now...”

Just as Eli said that, a sound came from a berry bush.

“hey! maybe it’s someone from class!” Kyle said as she ran towards the bush

But it wasn’t their classmate, it was a bear, and it was mad that Kyle disturbed it’s dinner.

The bear chased them all over the forest, but somehow they were able to lose the bear.

“well, now we are really lost...” Eli said as he looks around

“s-so now what? are we going to die in the forest?” Kyle started to get teary eyed again

“n-no! of course not!” Eli said trying to convince Kyle

“*sniff* you don’t sound very convincing...” Kyle said looking at Eli

“eh....”

As Eli frantically tries to calm Kyle down, he noticed off in the distance was a trail of smoke.

“Kyle look over there! There’s smoke!”

kyle looks up at where Eli was pointing and was smiling again

“What are you waiting for!? Come on!”

Kyle grabbed Eli and ran towards the smoke.

Luckily the smoke was from one of the camps who started to cook dinner.

When they got back the teachers were worried sick and the two got an long scolding from the teachers. But, since it was all over, they just patched the two up and let them finish the trip.

As the two was going home

“hey, kyle”

“hum?”

“I’ve decided to tell father about me...”

“really!? Thats great! He will surely understand!” Kyle smiled

“thank you...”

However the other side of him disagrees...

“Are you really that stupid?! Do you really think he will accept you, a freak like you?”

“... Al is a good person, I believe he will accept me... just like Kyle”

“You’re kidding right? Have you forgotten what we have been through? Were they nothing to you?”

“o-of course I remember... but just this once, just this once I wish to believe again...”

“Well suit yourself... I warned you.”






----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Father, I’m home.” Eli said as he walked in.

But there was no answer

“Father?” Eli shouted, but there was still no answer

As Eli walked into the living room he saw a piece of paper

“Eli, if you are reading this, I will be gone for a week or so. There is food in the fridge and money in the drawer. My parents in the First District is sick, I’m going to visit them for a bit. Be good and look after the house ok? Oh and remember to do your homework and sleep on time!

From: Al”

“Hahahahaha, Just as you made up your mind, that guy isn’t here!”

“sh-shut up! I trust him! i’ll just have to wait a bit longer.. thats all...”

“suit yourself~”


But a week passed and Al did not return. Then two weeks, then three. The weeks turned into months and the months turned into years. Al never came back. There was no news, no letter, nothing about Al. He just vanished. Five years have passed since Al disappeared. Eli, was was only only twelve is now seventeen. During these 5 years, the villagers gradually found out that he was a mutant, but no one was really not against it. To find his father Eli thought to himself that he must become stronger. So he trained his body and his powers for 5 years. Then he wished to leave the 2nd District in search for his father.

“You better not disappear like your father Eli...” Kyle says with tears in her eye

Eli smiles “don’t worry, I will come back... thank you and everyone for these years. Without you guys I wouldn’t be here right now. So stop crying ok? I’m not that shy little kid anymore.”

Kyle nodded and joined the others waving goodbye.

As he left, the villagers bide his farewell and gave him some money and freshly baked bread.


After about 3 days of walking Eli arrived in the First District. It was nothing like the 2nd, for it was very new and everything looked very advance. There are drones cleaning the sidewalks, Self driving cars, Robots doing shopping for people, it was something Eli saw on TV before, but never seen it in real life. Instead of looking for a place to live and a job like the elder suggested, Eli spent the entire day looking about the city. So logically, when night fell, he still haven’t found a place to take shelter. He walked about the city and was able to find a park.

Since he had nowhere to go, he decided to stay there for the night.

After saying good night, Eli drifted off to sleep... but was shortly awoken.

“STOP!” Shouted a voice “ST-OP! IN THE NAME OF THE LA-W!”

The person who was getting shouted at ran pass Eli

“Stop? Are you stupid?! Who would stop if you told them to stop?”

“I-will-get- youuu *deep breathing* I will - catch you-!”

“um... officer, I think he is getting away...” Eli says as he watches this comedy play out before him.

“I-I-I know that!” The officer says out of breath

“Would you like some help?” Eli asked

“wh-what can you do, *huff puff* you’re just a civilian.”

Eli waved his hand in the direction the they who the officer was chasing went

and from the distance came a yelp for help.

“There you go~” Eli said smiling

When the officer went over to see what was going on, she found the robber suspended in midair.

She gasps “you are a mutant?”

Eli scratches his head “is that bad?” he questioned

“N-no! That’s wonderful!” the officer said amazed

Eli was sort of thrown off by her odd reaction and could only blush

“Hey come with me!”

“ok- wait what!?”

“Come with me to the police department! You’re not doing anything anyways, besides I need to take you in for a statement too”

With that said, she grabbed Eli and the robber to the police car.

When Eli got in, he thought to himself, “I seem to get dragged around a whole lot...”

“yes you do”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


“So what’s your name?” she asks

“e-Eli”

“Eli? What a interesting name for a guy” she says as she let out a little laugh

“I am Marry, I just joined the police this month!” she says happily

“So what are you doing here and why were you sleeping in the park?”

“I thought this was going to be a statement for catching the thief...”

“Oh it’s fine!”

“AHEM”

Marry jumped in her chair and turned around.

“I-i diddididn’t see you there chief.” Marry squeaked

“How Many Times Have I Told You This Is Not A Game!?” the chief boomed

“a-a lot...”

The chief sighs and turns to Eli.

“So I heard that you help this newbie catch the thief am I correct?”

“uh, yes sir...”

“And that you are a mutant as well?”

“y-ya...”

“How would you like to join police force?”

“...wait what?” Eli said looking very confused

“Our previous psychic user retired, so we need someone like you. Seeming the way you look I’m guessing your new here and doesn’t have a place to live nor a job. The pay isn’t the best but you can live here. So what do you say?”

“A normal citizen can just join the police force just like that?”

“Well, no, you would have to go through training first but it isn’t that hard. It will take a month at most. So you interested?”

“S-sure! It will be my pleasure!” Eli says happily

“GOOD!” went the chief with him thundering voice

“Here is the address for training, go there and just say Chief Luke sent you. They will take care of you from there.

“I think I just got suckered into this...”

Marry quietly nodded.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It has been a while since Eli join the police force. With his powers, he was able to help many people and catch criminals that others couldn’t. But one thing still sits heavy on his mind.

Where did his father go? Also that he was still unable to tell him the truth.

One day while organizing the archives Marry found something.

“Hey Eli! Didn’t you say you were looking for a guy named Alex?”

“Ya, did you find something?” Eli looked over

“I think so, is this him?” Marry hands Eli a folder with the name Alex on the front

Eli was surprised, it really was his father’s full name.

As he opened the folder he found out why he never returned...

He was killed in a traffic accident the day before he was going to come back.

Within the folder he also found the possessions Al left behind.

There was his favorite pen he uses to write his books with, a photo of his late wife and also a odd looking disk.

“Marry, do you know what this is?” Eli said showing her the disk

“That’s a hologram recorder, are you going to listen to it?”

Eli nods and starts up the playback.

Eli, happy birthday, I don’t have the courage to talk to you face to face but, if it is a recording, I can do it. I have known for a long time that you were a mutant, but I couldn’t say it to you since you knew how much I hate them... But after I met you, I started to change, you are you, mutant or not. I just want to say, Happy birthday Eli, and I love you...”

The hologram ended and so did this story.



(In case if you are wondering why the story seem to be missing many thing, it was because I thought it was supposed to be a 25k word paper, not 2500. So the story was made around the idea that it would be 25k words. After finding out it was 2500 I had to cut out many things to make it fit the requirement.)

Loss of the stars

Posted by Micah Getz in English 3 - Pahomov - D on

A giant metal behemoth span through orbit at thousands of miles an hour. Moth like in appearance, the middle was a cylinder roughly the size of the Hubble Telescope and each of its wings were thin layers of absolute darkness that covered a quarter of a kilometer.

EC21-2,750 began to warm up the laser in its central cylinder. Flying through space it was the pinnacle of modern technology*, and launching the first one (EC21-1) into space had almost driven it’s developers bankrupt. Its four large solar fans could unfold 500 meters out and 500 meters wide, and during lift off literally weighed tons. Nobody knew if the firing system would be adversely affected during lift off. It hadn’t been. It had functioned perfectly, and its 27,659th grandchild was about to follow in its footsteps.

Its large onboard battery didn’t heat at all as the orbiting stating prepared to fire its laser. That would be emitting frequency in infrared, and when it emitted a wavelength the station always made sure it was much stronger than that. The onboard computer of the station recognized the location and began firing the laser, a ray so strong that the eye couldn’t register seeing it and so tight a wavelength that it wobbled less than the nucleus of a hydrogen atom. A pillar of these threads of light punched through the atmosphere relaying the power to a station on the ground.

Energy Collection model 21 unit 2,750 had deposited its power, and mere seconds afterwards, EC25-2,483,950 also deposited its energy.

*Or it had been for about 6 months, but that was a year ago, so it was still moderately groundbreaking. Not like the EC10 class. Those guys were amazingly outdated.

Amelia looked at the the flower. Its petals were brown and slightly curled, as it lay in the garden. She packed the dirt around its base, and plucked a withered leaf off it.

The rest of the garden was in a similar state of disrepair. Plants that would normally be growing well were dying, and some plants had already assumed that it was fall and started dropping their leaves. She loyally crawled through the beds of plants, pruning and letting them devote more energy to things towards new leaves rather than those already withered.

As Amelia lay back she shuddered. Even in the middle of the day, the light felt dim. Turning in disgust she left the garden and moved into her house. Locking the door behind her Amelia moved inside, turning on the lights in every room, not because she was scared but… well, not not because she was scared. Generally she didn’t. Her parents had driven it into her that she shouldn’t keep the lights on, because they didn’t like paying the electric bill. Oh, and because it would kill the planet, but nobody liked mentioning that. Of course now she had to pay the electric bills, but if she wanted to pay a little more today she could. It was a liberating feeling.

As her computer began to download a video to watch in her downtime, its screen displayed the pre-downloaded news. More incidents of crimes taking place in the dark, of pot use changing to psychedelic mushrooms due to the scarcity of marijuana, and of a government official being bribed. No one cited the massive Energy Collectors as the reason for this, but almost all of the ads were purchased by the EC. Most ads on the net were these days. She furrowed her brow at the screen, but it quickly relaxed as the video began to play.


Amelia drove to work in her electric car. The prevalent use of smart cars may have horrified cultures of the past, but it was pragmatic after a time. ‘Gas Stations’ got discounts and bought electricity through bulk purchases, and also used a higher amperage than what was used in normal electric lines. They had no qualms that the world had switched over to electric.

As she stopped at a light, she saw a V of birds flying south overhead, preparing for the winter. 3 months early. While that was strange and unnatural, it wasn’t that surprising. It felt like fall, the days were shorter and it was colder than normal. As the light stopped, she saw one bird fall from the flock fall to the ground, crashing into a sidewalk.

Amelia looked at it again. She checked her watch. She did some math. The light turned green, and she crossed the street, pulled over to the side of the road and got out. The bird flapped a little.

She looked at it. Amelia didn’t know if she wanted to get close to it. Birds weren’t the most cleanly creatures, and if it was still alive it might bite. Or peck, since birds don’t have teeth… Regardless, she just kind of squatted next to it, looking down at its once flapping body. The bird didn’t move. Amelia moved her head closer, for a better look. The bird didn’t move. She kind of nudged it with her foot. The bird was moved, but didn’t react at all.

Finally at peace that the little bird wouldn’t somehow kill her, Amelia got down to looking at the details of what the little bird looked like. Sad was apparently the answer. Other than the fall having looked like it broke its wing, the bird looked completely starved, its little skeleton almost visible beneath its feathers.

Amelia sat there for a second, pondering of the strange events. The bird moving south early and the bird starving to death in the process was just strange. The bird had starved to death flying south for the winter. Except that the expectation of winter was a lie brought on by darker days, later sunrises and earlier sunsets.

She stopped her pondering to check her watch, and saw that she had to stop her pondering for a bit more time than that.

Taking out her cellphone, she snapped off a quick picture of the bird, and then on a spur of the moment decision she picked it up and put it in her trunk before going off to work.


“Ms. Smith!” Johnny said “Is this right?”

Amelia smiled down at him, if you could really call a smile that thin a “smile”. It was a grimace stretched out and curled up at the ends.

“Indoor voices Johnny” Amelia rebuked “But yes, that’s correct good job.”

Johnny smiled back, completely missing Amelia’s annoyance, and dumped all the puzzle pieces back onto the floor so he could put it together again. She made eye contact with the other teacher across the room. Mrs. Clifford looked back, and nodded. The kids were getting a bit too loud, and it was time to begin the next activity.

Mrs. Clifford stood in front of the class, and smiled gaudily.

“Okay everyone, it’s drawing time! Ms. Smith is handing out paper, make sure to say thank you, and today we’ll draw about the last time you saw a shooting star. Draw yourself and the star in one picture, and then we’ll draw what you wished for in the next one. Yes Daphne?”

“What’s a star?”

Amelia swooped in next to Daphne to handle the miniature crisis.

“Stars honey, the lights in the sky that come out at night?”

Daphne furrowed her brow.

“I don’t remember seeing lights at night. It’s just dark.” Daphne said.

“I’m sure you just go to bed too early for it.” Amelia replied and straightened to walk away.

“I haven’t either!” Said Johnny, “And I didn’t go to bed until ten last week!”

The other kids looked at him with slight awe. He puffed up his chest in pride.

“I’ve seen them,” floated the dreamy voice of Sarah from across the classroom “but not for awhile. I think they just don’t like coming out any more”

“I don’t know what to draw” Johnny complained, “can you show me pictures”

“Draw dots on the sky, with yourself underneath it.” Mrs. Clifford intervened, “And then draw your wish on another paper.”

The kids finally settled down and started making drawing.

“Do they really not know what stars look like?” Amelia

“I don’t know.”Mrs. Clifford replied.

“I know that they need to know.” She said, her mouth a smile. A tight smile.



Amelia had decided that a mass email to all of the parents at school over their children’s ignorance was bad idea, but she still could try and remedy the problem. She was about halfway through creating a website for public awareness when she found another website made to do the same thing, and she learned that she hadn’t been halfway done with her website. In fact Amelia might never have been able to accomplish what the Association Against Energy Collectors had with only the online ‘make your own website’ kit she had been using for free. The AAEC homepage was stark and annoyingly devoid of graphics; except it had a tiered forum system that allowed people to share information globally, super-regionally, regionally, and locally. Of course she joined immediately, and in a moment of weakness she used her actual name.

All of the forums had pictures of strange behaviors by animals, stories about societal breakdowns, and the question of why energy wasn’t free. Of course all forums had their share of mystics who hated Earth’s separation from the stars and people who complained about the economic plight of the Middle East in a post-oil world, but internet trolls were always a result of open discourse.

As Amelia followed the information, she realized that there wasn’t any single place that compiled all of the information. While of the forums had similar information, none had any real numbers, none stated things politely, and none gathered information about world wide similarities. Slightly annoyed, she clicked the email box in the corner of her screen and sent an email.

The information on the local forums included birds migration and crime rates, but the primary focus was on a local rally. Apparently there was a public relations department of the EC was close by, and the rally there was supposed to support civilian sunlight rights. It was important, but was really just a stepping stone for a larger rally that would be happening at EC headquarters themselves later in the year, which also was thankfully close. The thread was mostly about what signs people should carry. After a moment of thought Amelia posted that they should just carry birds in.

As Amelia was just about ready to hibernate her computer and start work on a lesson plan, she received a reply from the system admin.


Amelia Smith,

While we appreciate your drive, we don’t have anyone to devote to that. As a mainly volunteer organization, AAEC would be happy to post your articles, if you actually write them.


Amelia checked her watch. She had some time, and she had Excel on her laptop. She could get some work done.



Amelia checked her watch and leaned on her car. It was about an hour before the rally was scheduled to start, but she was composing herself. For the last three and a half weeks she had been posting reviews of the global condition, and for about half that time she was getting global feedback. Feedback at all was more than Amelia was expecting, but she was getting enough that she had to set up a different email account for it, and she got it to be hosted by the AAEC. The local forum had started calling for her by name whenever there was a question, and she had been uncertain on how to present herself for the rally. She had taken the safest route and dressed business casual, not how she normally presented herself, but first impressions were important.

“Excuse me?”

Amelia looked up startled. A news car had appeared in front of her and a bright eyed news caster was looking at her with a gaudy grin. The joys of electric cars was like constantly opening a present, surprising but not always in a good way.

“The rally’s not for an hour. This can surely wait until then.” She said straightening herself.

The reporter froze. He looked at the news car, and the camera mounted above it, and then back at her.

“Well then preliminary comments? How about your name, and how you’re associated?”

Amelia looked at him, and sighed. This is what the whole rally was likely to entail.

“I’m Amelia Smith, and I work on the-”

“You’re the one who writes the instructional part of the website!” The newscaster jumped in “I’ve read all of your posts! Is it really true that over 100 species of migratory birds are currently starving by beginning migration early?”

“Yes,” Amelia thinly smiled “otherwise I wouldn’t have posted it. I gathered pictures from across the global forums and had 5 birdwatchers and a zoologist identify them. Four more were identified, but only half could agree on them, so they were not included.”

“And you personally are interested in this because of children?” the newscaster continued undaunted.

Amelia sighed, and began answering questions. The newscaster not only seemed to enjoy every piece of information she gave him, but ask for more. She had more though, a result of trolls on the internet asking too many annoying questions, and she used her experience as a preschool teacher to say the facts simply.

“Thank you Ms.Smith for your understanding of the AAEC, we will be back later for the rally.” He grinned. As suddenly as the newscaster swooped in, he exited.

A car pulled up, and a heavily bearded head popped out.

“Is this the rally?”

Amelia sighed.



The rally had gone well.

More people had shown up than she had predicted would, and they all actually seemed invested in the cause. Throughout the event Amelia had stood in the back watching and checking to see if everything went according to plan. It did, being rather simple. Most of the protest was composed of yelling and waving dead birds on sticks (She gave all of her birds out to the others. They smelled.), but to end the protest they lit sparklers that represented the stars. They aptly burned brightly for seconds and then disappeared. Then a specifically chosen group of protesters went into press release building and had a sit in. After all, is it really a protest without a couple of arrests?

At the start of the protest Amelia had decided to be amiable, and had introduced herself to the earliest protestors. They had all already known of her, and didn’t seem too offput by her actual appearance. Nonetheless, Amelia had appreciated her business suit. As more people showed up, Amelia had withdrawn to watch and to antisocially rest. However, a crowd of people followed her. Instead of introductions taking place, the new protestors would instead introduce themselves, and meet Ms.Smith. Ms. Smith would then either start a conversation or smile a tight lipped smile at them and continue her moments of isolation. Regardless of whether she chose isolation or society, she was always able to rejoin the community the moment she wished. Being able to choose felt good.

Leaning back in her chair she smiled. It had been a good day, and proof was laid out on the computer screen in front of her. The news networks and daytime TV had latched onto the AAEC protest as a way of keeping viewers awake with their sensationalist stories of countercultural warriors. Amelia guessed that conclusion made sense. They were against one of the most taken for granted companies that existed. Energy collectors had stopped wars, started wars, and prevented global warming. A group of corpse waving fanatics that went against such a superpower could really only be seen as laughable. However, at the very least it gave the group notoriety. The local thread had just become a buzz of new greetings and moving pictures from the protest.

Ms. Smith didn’t post anything about it in her section though. Her section of the website was devoted only to the most important global issues. Public forums would have to be enough for the bragging.

A pop up appeared in the top right of her screen. She had gotten an e-mail from the AAEC headquarters.



Amelia walked into the pre-school for the last time. Her smiles were uncharacteristically honest as she talked to the kids. They kind of fawned back, not saying any real full sentences, just exclamations tied together into something that made sense somewhere in their heads. The points sometimes got across. She smiled anyway.

Before the day really began she pulled Mrs. Clifford aside.

“I can’t be here anymore.” She told her. “I know it’s unprofessional, but I have leave in the middle of the year.”

“I’m not sure I understand. You’re leaving? When? Why?, unless it’s too personal.” Mrs. Clifford calmly interrogated, swapping glances between her and the classroom of kids. She kept a placid smile on her face.

“I was offered a job at a not-for-profit organization. AAEC, it does work that will hopefully let the kids see stars again.”Amelia responded.

“Not teaching... to help children... certainly shows a certain imagination.” Mrs. Clifford said, lifting the edges of her lips into a smirk.

“It’s temporary! When things change I won’t be needed anymore.”

“That’s not going to work.” Mrs. Clifford turned her full attention to Amelia “Lifestyle choices have the tendency to change your life. It may be possible for you to return, but… well you’re always welcome here.”

“Thank you. But I think the AAEC really needs me.”



It was a mess. The constant compilation of data that was necessary for her job made Amelia’s eyes ache. The feedback was a constant rush and even trying to reply to one in three email she received was impossible. An even bigger mess was preparation for protesting at the EC’s main headquarters.

The headquarters were in the middle of a megalopolis, and when they sent out a memo they received nearly two thousand replies. A march on the central headquarters would be the biggest thing that the AAEC had ever done. It just wasn’t equipped to prepare for it. The actual organization had tens of thousands of members world wide, but it only had about a hundred employees. Of these only a percentage were in the area, and of these only a small percentage was Ms. Smith, but she felt like she was burdened with all of the work.

She knew that she was actually only working on different tasks than the others, they just seemed infinitely more frustrating. Amelia had been tasked to be the PR person for the group. While other members would work towards finding housing for traveling members and locating parking for the locals, Mrs.Smith was gathering media attention. Apparently her part of the website was the one most heavily viewed by non-members, and she was lucky enough to have been featured on several TV shows. These TV shows generally ‘allowed’ her to also talk a little about her cause before hand, adding an extra layer of stress. She wasn’t exactly a talky person, and the media coverage added to her frequent blogging made her feel exposed and exhausted.

Except that she had a way to deal with this situation. Amelia opened her email and looked at all of the emails she was sent every day, and she felt supported.



“Where are the stars?”

‘Gone’ was the answer the screaming crowd tried to say, but when hundreds of people scream at once words stop working. A wave of sound hit the man with the microphone, but that was kind of how it was supposed to work.

Standing in the back Ms. Smith didn’t participate, but just replied to whoever talked to her. At first this meant responding to protesters who wanted to meet her, but it eventually became the news network. The biggest change was when the birds came out.

A whole mob of people carrying dead birds stinks. The air was foul with their stench. The crowd around Ms. Smith parted slightly and a cop walked up to her.

“The rally itself is fine, but having this many dead bodies around may be unsafe. I have to ask you to stop them.” The cop said, mindful of the protesters around him. In the path he caused in the crowd, cops followed him.

“We didn’t bring the birds, they already were here. Dead. They starved themselves flying south for the winter in the August. We’re merely displaying what was already around.” Ms. Smith replied.

“The reason behind them being dead aren’t my job. I’m just letting you know that the protesters need to be told it’s a safety issue for them to be held up like that.” the straight faced cop replied.

“If that’s what you have decided, then you should tell them.” Ms. Smith said

The cop looked at the crowd around him, and then at the crowd of thousands screaming closer towards the AAC headquarters. He looked at her.

“I think that you have to tell them.”

“I’m in no position of authority over them, I just raised awareness of the protest. I’m not carrying a bird. If you want to stop them you should.”

The cop looked at the crowd. He looked at the 20 cops behind him. He looked at the crowd. He looked at Ms. Smith. “I never said that they should stop. I just said they should know that it is unsafe.”

And then he left.

Two days after the protests began the company let it be known that they were willing to make a deal. Of course, they weren’t going to negotiate with the whole mob, but they were willing to negotiate with twenty people.

AAEC hadn’t quite prepared for this possibility, but a crack team was quickly made. Amelia and a couple of other important public AAEC figures were included, as well as more of the actual organizers and a few members who were lawyers.

The group all walked together into the building, and were met by a man with a smile and a handshake.

“I’m Greg Wharton, the current CEO of the company. I hope we can come to an agreement. But where are my manners! Negotiations will happen at a more proper location. If you would follow me…”

Mrs. Smith turned her nose up upon entering. The Energy Collector headquarters were unnecessarily opulent, made more pompous by the CEO’s constant jabbering. It was a 10-story building with a green roof, and every floor was unnecessarily packed with electronics. The floors were TV screens, windows live streams of views worldwide, and most functions in the building were automated. In spite of the constantly working electronics, the rooms were kept cool through constantly running central air.

Energy Collector was extremely proud that their technology meant that electricity couldn’t kill the planet, and found it necessary to flaunt their power as much as possible.

Greg took the group up an elevator, and the whole entourage exited onto the green roof. Bare grass was underfoot, and Greg led them to the edge of it and looked over the fence at the gathered mob. He turned around and smiled.

“You’ve gathered quite a force. Media coverage is flocking over this mess, and we don’t like it. We are willing to acquiesce to some of your demands.”

Mr. Tarn stepped forward.

“Our organization demands more equal orbits of satellites, a recognition of people’s right to sunlight, and an effort on behalf of the company to lighting our streets after dark.”

Amelia smiled.

“My company is willing to create community help programs to help after dark.”

“I don’t think you understand Mr. Wharton. These are our final demands, we can’t step down any farther than this. The people have expectations.”

Greg sighed.

“The reason I brought this meeting to the roof was to be unobserved. Because we all have pressures on us, expectations, and we shouldn’t feel the need to have all of those met at the diplomatic table.” Greg turned and made eye contact with every member of the delegation. “Most people don’t know it, but Energy Collectors operate almost completely on profit. Once a satellite is reached, it’s pretty much self sustaining. What cuts in price people have seen in electricity is pretty much superficial. It costs us almost nothing to make.

“Now what to do with all of that money… Until now, we have mostly just stockpiled our billions, knowing that they might become useful. Now we see a use for them. My investors aren’t going to be willing to create cutbacks in our programs. We can create nature reserves, create lights, fund schools; all of these options are preferable to cutting our income by a single percent. However, we are willing to make a deal with you.”

“This year, our billion dollar industry is fed by most of the world. Cars feed it, companies depend on it, and we understandably get some money. We are willing to not get all of it this year. I have talked to the shareholders. If this deal works, we are willing to take one percent out of our yearly income… and give it to the twenty of you.”

The group blanched. Amelia looked at all of them in shock, and knew that the group’s answer should be clear.

“Profit or income?” Mr. Tarn asked.

Surprised, Amelia stared at Mr. Tarn and then walked to the roof and looked at the protestors below as Wharton and Tarn quibbled. The rest of the group also became embroiled in the definition of a percent, Amelia could feel the greed radiating from the group.

As the group was starting to calm down, she called out  “Mr. Wharton!”

“Yes Ms. Smith?” he asked, strolling up to her “Any specific questions?”

“What about the children?”

He blinked. “What about them?”

“Will they be able to see the stars?”

“We can set up a TV station or something,” he laughed “maybe an interactive website. Is that all?”

Amelia sighed. She lunged at him.

Greg step backed shocked, and put his hands out, pushing her away. Amelia let herself be hit, and be pushed away. And Ms. Winters smiled.

She stumbled backwards, and for a moment she felt the fence on her back. Then it gave way to a feeling of weightlessness, as the edge of the roof retreated.

And the mob roared.

ENG3-014

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2013-14

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