First the voice was soft and quiet, “Miles…..” Then it gets louder “Milessss…..”
I call out to whoever is calling me, “Y-Yes, whose there?”


I see a dark silhouette approaching me. I steadily run to the person hoping he or she will be able to help me. I quickly realize that I'm not moving. I glance down at myself. Someone, or something, is pulling me back. There are black hands tugging at me body. It hurts. With all the hands on me it looks like they form two enormous hands. They pull me further and further away from the shadowy figure. I reach out to it, maybe it'll save me. I try to scream once more but they are suffocating me.


“What are you doing?” I ask my brother staring into his cluttered room. He is my big brother so it's my job to always be in his personal bubble. That's what he calls it. 'Jermalls bubble', it sounds like some mystical land where it’s peaceful and quiet. To me, that's terrifying. I need excitement!


“Why are you asking” he answered in a playful tone.


“I'm bored, I have literally nothing to do!” In this house the only activities you could do is, play video-games, annoy Jermall (that's fun to me), and watch TV. So, obviously you can see that this dreadful house isn't the best.


“Well you could always play a video game.” He answers me without looking at me. He is typing or something, and staring at his fancy computer.


Jermall bought this giant desktop a couple years ago. He is always in his room playing on it. He plays really strange computer games. He makes and edits videos on it. He pretty much does anything that you can do on a computer. Addicted is the right word for him and his girlfriend. Guess who his girlfriend is.....the computer.


“I already did. Infamous is amazing to an extent ya know? Anyway what time is it?”


Still looking at the obnoxious computer he replies, “It's about 8.”


“And mom still isn't home yet?”


“Nope. Didn't hear Allison walk in yet.” He always calls mom Allison. I haven't heard him say mom in a while. I guess that's what you do when you become a senior in high school.


“Well, I'm going to my room. Can you tell me when she walks in?”


“Yea I won't” He always talks to me like I'm some kind of child.


“Thanks big head.”


I turn and make my way to my room. My room is at the very end of the hallway, right next to the bathroom. I enter the freezing, pitch black room. I shiver. I flip the light switch on the wall. The light on my ceiling blinds me. I turn it off.


“Forget undressing, I'm going straight to bed.” I say to myself. In the mist of the total darkness I somehow make it to my bed. I jump right into it.


“Night world Miles is out!” I drift into a deep sleep pretty easily.


2



The door alarm breaks the silence. I sit straight up. I glance over to my shinning clock on my nightstand. It reads '2:46 A.M'.


“Is it mom?” I ask myself.


My legs swing out of the bed. I stand up slowly not making any noise. I tip-toe to the stairwell. As I pass Jermall's room I peek inside. He is fast asleep unfortunately. Jermall won't wake up for anything, even if someone is in the room screaming at him. I arrive at the steps and begin on the first one.


“Creeeeeeeek” the first stair in our house always makes that noise.


“Why didn't I remember that stupid stair?”


I sneak down the stairs. I make it to the bottom with no sound and no problem.


“Mom!” I whisper loudly.


No answer


I straighten my back. I guess no more ninja moves. I feel my stomach rumble like an earthquake. I didn't eat dinner last night. Without hesitation I leap towards the kitchen. Automatically I open my giant refrigerator. My eyes spot Jermall's perfectly boxed pizza like they know it has been sitting there. I look for the soda that Jermall bought yesterday. In this house Jermall's things are also my things. This is a shared relationship. A glass on the side of the refrigerator is filled with some type of pink liquid, probably a smoothie. My hand reaches for the glass on it's own, but instead of grabbing it I see something. Something not normal. It reflects off the glass. I turn hesitantly behind me. The window. The abnormal disruption came from the window.


“Aaron is that you” I call out.


I run to the back door and exit the house. I look around for him. I go to the bush behind the window. I poke inside it looking for that moron. No one is there


“He probably ran off like a little girl.”


I return to the house laughing at the fact that I was afraid of Aaron. I shut the refrigerator door.


“What were you doing!?”


“Ah!” I yell at the top of my lungs.


“Mom! You scared the living hell out of me!”


“Don't use that language! Now answer my question!” She says in an angry tone looking out the window.


“Oh! I was getting some pizza and I thought I heard someone outside.” I point to the bush outside of the window. “It probably was Aaron. No big deal” I chuckle.


“I don't want you going outside in the middle of the night. You might think its Aaron but even so, people are not always who they seem to be” She turns away.


“I mean.....I don't want you wandering in the middle of the night it's dangerous. She walks out of the kitchen and goes upstairs faster than she ever has.


“Well you win the creepiest mom award.” I whisper to myself.


People are not always who they seem to be. What is that supposed to mean?


Whatever.....I leave the kitchen and flick the light off. I flick it back on, walk backwards to the counter, and grab my pizza. Yum! Then for a second time, I leave and flick the light off again.


3



'People are not always who they seem to be'.....'People-'.....'Seem-'.....'What does that mean'


First the voice was soft and quiet, “Miles…..” Then it gets louder “Milessss…..”
I call out to whoever is calling me, “Y-Yes, whose there?”


I see a dark silhouette approaching me. I steadily run to the person hoping he or she will be able to help me. Then I realize that I’m not going anywhere. I look down at myself because I feel someone, or something, is pulling me back. There are black hands tugging at my body. With all the hands on me it looks like they form two enormous hands. They pull me further and further away from the shadowy figure. I reach out to it, maybe it'll save me. I try to scream once more but they are suffocating me.


There's a voice. “Miles!” it says


“Miles I'm going to kill you” “I'm going to kill you”


I brace myself for whatever is coming for me. Still suffocating, still being pulled. A hard object hits me.


It was the floor of my room.


“I'm going to kill you if you don't wake up bro!” It was Jermall's voice.


I quickly glance over to my clock, then to Jermall, and then back to my clock that says 8:05. “Oh crap, I’m going to be late for school!” I screech. I roll over and throw the covers off my body. I practically fall off of the bed and army crawl to my closet.


Jermall smirks down at the ground while he watches me act like a 5 year old. He looks at me on the floor and says, “You’re so weird”. He walks out of the room.


I finally get to my closet and I try to find an outfit. Light blue t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and my pair of Jordan’s. I quickly put those on and run downstairs to grab some breakfast. Without looking I took a Pop-Tart from the box and I sprint outside to my brother.


Jermall looks at me and begins to laugh hysterically. “You’re such an idiot.”


I close the car door, “Why am I an idiot?” I ask.


Still laughing he says, “Because you took the empty Pop-Tart box. That's what you get for being late!”


I look at what I am holding and I see that I am actually holding the empty Pop-Tart box. “Shut up and drive” I tell him.


As we are driving I can’t stop thinking about the nightmare I had. “Who was the lady calling my name? How did she know my name? Her voice was very familiar.” Thoughts race through my head. I try to stop thinking about the nightmare by thinking about school. “Aaron comes back from his vacation today. I think he went to Puerto Rico.” This thinking of a new subject isn't really helping. After about 5 minutes of driving we finally arrive at the school.


“Alright get out and sign in at the front desk before you're actually late.” Jermall says to me.


“Are you coming with me? You can’t ditch school!”


“I’m not, I have some business to attend to.” He says in an angry tone.


I get out of the car quickly so he doesn’t get angry at me. Then he drives off into the distance faster than ever. I don’t tend to ask him questions about his 'business' because he usually screams at me that it's none of my business. So, I just leave him alone. I look at my large, digital, watch and it reads, in green numbers, 8:15.


“RUN!” that was the only thing on my mind. I sprint to the front desk, just making it on time, and I sign in. Mrs. Stacy gives me this smirk as I depart from her desk. I make it to my first class which is Spanish. I peek inside the room, only my classmates are there. I sit in my seat, which was in the corner, and Aaron greets me harshly.


“Look who decides to show up.” Aaron says snickering.


I try to get comfortable in my hard, wobbly desk. I fail to succeed at this. “I know, I had a bad dream so I woke up late.”


“Want to hear about my dream!” Ashley says across from me.


Aaron and I, in unison, yell at her “NO!”


“Too bad” she replies obnoxiously. “I had a dream that-....”


Luckily our Spanish teacher Señorita walks in and cuts off Ashley's sentence.


“OK class, we are learning about Puerto Rico today”


“Hopefully this day will be short” I think to myself
...



The never ending dreadful school day ends. Ashley, Aaron and I walk down Madison Street towards my house.



“So you had a bad dream huh?” Aaron asks.



“Yea it was really dark and a woman I believe was calling my name. It was cold like- like-.”


Like Alaska!” Ashley interrupts. She loves to do that when people are talking. It gets annoying but sometimes resourceful when you can't find the right word.


I look at Ashley questioning her sanity to myself. “Yea.....I guess so. Anyway, I tried to walk to see if I can go somewhere. But, I never saw anybody. It was like I was walking blind. Nowhere to go, no idea where I am. The dream felt so real. It felt like a familiar area.”



Aaron chuckled, “That's deep bro. I do have to admit though, that is a hell of a lot better than my dreams. Which I usually can't remember.”


An awkward silence holds while we walk. We arrive at my house sooner then usual. I wave goodbye to Aaron as he walks down the block. Ashley and I however, have to finish our stupid science project. The STEM fair is what they call it now. I actually have a grade for this project. But, I am working with Ashley so I don't expect to see a high grade.


Ashley is the kind of person who can work hard when she wants to. Usually that's not often. Only if she worked as hard in school as she did on buying her expensive clothes.


I lead Ashley into my seemingly empty house. Usually you hear the explosion sounds from my brother computer upstairs or my mom doing housework. However, today the house didn't feel right.


“Mom!” I scream and wait for an answer.


After a couple seconds of silence I hear a voice reply.


“Yes Honey!? I am upstairs watching T.V.”


Relieved I walk Ashley to my living room.


“Sit anywhere you like. All the furniture is comfy anyway. At least I think so.”


She sits down in a chair across the room.


“I'm not going to. Why are you all the way over there?”


“It's comfy and not so bright.” she responds


I go over and sit next to her. This project requires both of us. We get the same grade, so she needs to put in the same effort I put in.


“So Ashley, where do we start?”


“We start-” she stops talking


I hear a faint buzzing noise.


“Oh that must be Steph!” She reaches for her phone out of her back pocket.


I snatch the phone away from her. “No phones, we have to get this done. We are going to work together on this.”



She laughs and says, “You are not the boss of me, so give me back my phone.”



I stand straight up and angrily point to the door. But before I can say anything I get a funny feeling in my fingers on my left hand. I see a flash of light in the corner of my eye and Ashley's mouth open wider than it ever has. Considering it opens a lot.


“l-l-l-lightning just come from your hand Miles.” Ashley stutters.



I make no movements. I know she is right, I just don't want to believe it. My hand is shaking furiously and I can't control it. Shouldn't my hand be burning like crazy? I feel nothing, only tingling sensations.


“You know I think your leaving idea was best. I will just get my bag and leave.” She picks up her book bag and sprints with her tiny little legs out the door.
She slams the door shut.



I’m still standing in the exact same place. “How did I just do that? That was awesome! But, I only dream about having this stuff. It's in movies and comic books. I must be imagining this stuff.” With my hand still in the air not moving I think, “Is this a dream or did I seriously just do that?”


My mom yells from upstairs “What was that noise?” She comes running downstairs. She sees me standing next to the living room wall with my hand pointing to a small hole. “What the hell happened?”



I open my mouth somehow and I tell her, “Ashley decided to call someone on the phone. She didn’t want to work on the science project with me. She wanted me to do all of the work. So, I got mad and yelled at her. I stood up and was about to tell her to leave the house, but when I stood up and pointed to the door, and lightning flew from my fingers. At least I think it did. I don’t know how or why that happened but it did.”



She looks sadly at the wall and says “I guess it’s time.” I watch her walk towards the couch. She sits down and it looks like she is sad. What does she have to tell me? Why is she so sad? She probably is going to ground me for that stupid hole.


“Miles, I never thought I would have to tell you this. But, you’re not my son.”



My heart feels like it just went through a shredder. “Oh I get it you’re trying to play a trick on me right? Ok, where is Jermall.” I stand up and start yelling his name but I get no reply back. Ok is like April fools coming early?”



She just stands there looking at me with no smile. I can tell she isn’t joking. “This is no trick. You and Jermall are not my children. You guys are adopted. I was a very good friend to your mom. We were best friends from the 2nd grade. When she first walked in the 2nd grade room I knew we were going to be best friends. From that time on we never left each other’s side, until that very day. It was our senior year in college. There was a fight after school in the schools’ square across from the park. Two boys, one was named Mike and the other was Kyle. This was also when your mom and dad met. Anyway, Mike threw an uppercut right under Kyle’ chin. Then Kyle threw a jab to Mike's rib. Then Kyle did the unbelievable. Mike was holding his side he was bleeding I think. Kyle’s face was red and also a little bloody. Kyle clenched his fist even harder. I could see the anger in his face and the veins on his wrists. He yelled as loud as he could and punched Mike in his stomach. Mike flew across the whole campus, into the park across the street, he flew through the statue of Abraham Lincoln and into a yoga gym on Third Avenue. You could see the hole in both the statue and the gym. Mike had to have gone at least a mile. Kyle still had an angry expression on his face. Emily gasped and looked around. Everybody was whispering to each other. Just before a teacher came out she ran over to Kyle. I yelled to her “Emily what are you doing?” and that's all I can remember. After a couple days Jermall was holding you at my front door. He had a note from your mother.


It read, 'I'm sorry for leaving unexpectedly. I should have told you a long time ago. I couldn't though. He made me keep everything a secret. I can't put you in danger. All my work will be destroyed along with me. All I can say is take care of my babies. I guess Jermall isn't a baby anymore if you are reading this note right? Well here's Miles. I guess all my genetic engineering classes paid off huh? Take care Allison.”


“Wait genetic engineering, is that what she went to collage for?” I ask her. “Why did she introduce me on the note like that?”


“You're in-” something catches her attention.


I hear strange voices outside the front door.