So here I am. In a janitor’s closet that smells like vomit and the cleaning supplies that have a hint of lemon to it. My long brown hair with natural highlights has stuck to my forehead and to the back of my neck, because of the gradually increasing humidity in the air. The only sounds I hear are the shallow breathing of the out-cold janitor who sits in the far back corner of the surprisingly large closet, and the beating of my heart against my ribs as if it is trying to crack my ribs open to escape. It’s as dark as the devil’s soul in here. I put my hand right up to my face and I still can’t see it. The only light that slips into the room is instantly swallowed up by the darkness that lingers in here. How’d I get here, you ask? I’ll just start by introducing myself.
My name is Mazaline Lanston, or MZ, as Stacie Conline calls me. I just started the tenth grade a couple of weeks ago. Stacie is my best friend that has been by my side since the sixth grade. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I walked into my new classroom on the first day of school and I saw her, except I didn’t know her then. I weaved in and out through desks to approach her. As I closed in on her, she turned to me with the largest brown eyes I have ever seen. Her curly blonde hair flowed down to her collar bone. She almost looked frightened. I gave her the biggest smile I could give because I wanted her to be my friend. Her eyes got even larger and just when I thought she didn’t want to be my friend, she shoots up out of her chair and gives me a big hug. Ever since that day we have been inseparable.
The only person who could have ever separated Stacie and I was Vanessa Jackson. She is an ice hearted, venom spitting, devil. She could turn the sunny skies into a raging storm in two seconds flat. She tried stealing Stacie away from me in seventh grade, but Stacie knew better. Now, Vanessa is out to ruin my life and anyone who crosses her path. Maybe that’s why I’m in this whole mess.
  It’s Wednesday, October 13, 2020. My alarm clock went off at 5:32 a.m. but I’ve been awake since 3:21 a.m. Today feels different. It feels like you know a bully is going to punch you today. It feels like my body knows the future and it’s trying to convince my mind to run and hide, but my mind is confused. Why would I want to run and hide? I instantly shut off my alarm with a flick of my hand and the sensor box picks up the movement and shuts off the alarm. I lay in bed wondering if I should pretend I’m sick. I decide to go to school. I slowly sit up so that the world doesn’t start to spin. I look around my room, it’s pretty small and has scattered clothes everywhere except for the corner of my room where my sensor box watches my every move. I hate that box. I feel like its stalking me; like it needs to watch me to live.  I shake my head and stand up quick, sending me through a dizzy state. I drag my feet over to where my closet door hangs slightly open. I start sifting through my clothes that lay lifelessly on hangers. I, finally, come across my favorite track t-shirt. It is neon green with big and bold pink letters that say “Track and Field” and on the back it says (in pink) “MZ”.
I grab the shirt and the closest pair of pants to me and get in the closet. I don’t dare turn on the lights. If I turned on the lights the sensor box would come in here and I don’t need that thing watching me change clothes. I slip into the clothes I grabbed and walk out of the closet. I trudge across my room to my dresser and pick out a pair of Nike socks. They are the old hyper-elite ankle socks, but they work. Then I grab my Nike running shoes that have built in jets to make me run faster. I wave my hand ever so slightly at the sensor box and it switches my light off. I head across my long hallway to where my bathroom is. I brush my hair and press my make-up button then a mechanical arm pops out of the bathroom wall and puts on mascara and that’s all I let it do.
My stomach growls at me. I walk back out into the hallway and head right to where the kitchen is.
“Hey Mom,” I say as I sit on the island in the kitchen.
“Hey sweetie!” Mom says as she turns around to face me, “Did you get any sleep? You look like you haven’t slept in ages!”
“I’m fine. I’m just hungry.”
Lie. I’m not fine. Something strange has been going on. At exactly 4:08 this morning something freaky happened. The clock didn’t change for a whole hour. Also, the sensor box wouldn’t move so I went to check on my parents and that’s when I knew I had this ability. My dad was frozen mid-sneeze. I could stop time.
I concentrate on doing it again right now and it happens. My mom is in mid-stir of her cereal. I regain time again and grab my book bag and head out for the flo-bus. The flo-bus appears hovering at the corner of my black, smooth, driveway. Its bright yellow with black letters saying New York West District which is chipping away like it has been there for hundreds of years. I enter the flo-bus and sit in my normal seat, G8. I watch my perfectly normal, white, house drift into the morning fog as we push forward to school. My gut twists into a bunch of contortions at the thought of going to school. Something bad is going to happen. Something really bad.
I sit on the flo-bus for 32 minutes; I analyze the interior of the flo-bus in case something terrible happens. That’s when it hits me.  My teachers are always talking about how the government takes teenage kids who can exceed more than others. Is stopping time exceeding more than others? Am I going to get taken away? I remember last year my friend, Jenna Irgely, was taking one of the special tests we take every week with the special metal tablet pens and an army of one thousand guards picked her up and started dragging her away. She was screaming and her brows had furrowed in concentration. Then a guard came up to her and stabbed her with a syringe on her right shoulder and she instantly fell unconscious. I remember smelling the smell of blood mixed with something sweet. The more I think about Jenna’s face the more I think she looks like me when I… stop time.
  I finally arrive at my school at 6:58 a.m. I get off the flo-bus and head straight through the transparent doors. I see Stacie once I make a left into the building.
“Thank goodness you’re here! We need to talk. Like now.” I say as I grab Stacie’s left arm and drag her to the nearest bathroom.
“What is it?” Stacie says looking quite frightened”
“I can stop time…”
Once these words exited my mouth I instantly regret it. Stacie starts laughing uncontrollably.
“What’s so funny?” Stacie just won’t stop laughing, “Come on! I’m one of the special ones the government warns us about! Don’t you get it? I’m in danger!” A tear slips from my eyes.
Stacie stops laughing and just looks at me.
“You’re kidding, right?” Stacie says in almost a whisper.
“No!”
“Oh my god! MZ you need to never use your power! Ever!”
“I won’t, I promise!” I’m now sobbing.
My body shakes from the waterfalls of tears that slip down my face. Stacie grabs me and hugs me. Just then a toilet flushes. We freeze in terror. I hear the creak of a bathroom stall open. I glance over to the stall and there stands Vanessa with her sensor box recording the whole thing.
“Hey Vanessa.” Stacie lingers on her ending vowels a second longer than she should which makes us look even more suspicious.
“Hello there, MZ.” I shudder with fear as she spits my name out of her mouth like it was moldy food.
“Um. What’s up?” I can’t take the cold blue eyes that are fixated on me.
I want to curl up in a ball and hide. I want to run. Maybe this is why I wanted to run when I found out I could.. I stop time, again. I see Vanessa’s chilly blue eyes stare at where I once was as I move. Everything is still except the sensor box. It follows my every move. God I hate those things. Wait a second… If time is stopped why does that thing still follow my moves? I sprint out of the bathroom as fast as I can. I hear footsteps, multiple footsteps.
“Hey, you there! Stop and put your hands where I can see them!”
I stop and turn around. There are about forty men standing a few paces behind me. I notice they have more high-tech sensor boxes, and government badges hanging proudly on their collars.
“Oh no. RUN! ”Says a little voice in my head. I listen to the voice.
I sprint down the long corridor until I spot a janitors closet and I hop into it pulling the door closed behind me. A janitor is snoring on a beat up chair, but I don’t take any chances. I hit him upside the head to make him unconscious. The government soldiers must have been able to turn off my power! I turn the light off in the closet and hide in a corner closest to the door in case I have to make a quick get-away. I suddenly hear a pair of soft footsteps approach the closet door.
This is it… This is how I die.. The door swings open and there stands the cold hearted Vanessa. Here to turn me in.
She smirks as she says, “Hey Captain LS , she’s over here.”
I hear heavy footsteps approach the doorway and Vanessa runs off.
“Hello there, MZ.” He spits out my name just like how Vanessa does, “My name is Captain LS, and you are a very special and quite a remarkable young lady!”
I hate how he talks to me. He’s basically saying “You are an amazing girl, except I just feel like killing you because you are different or ‘special’,” Ugh.
“Well, if I’m that remarkable, why are you going to kill me?”
“Maybe it’s because you are one of the special ones who get to die early!” his smile sickens me.
His voice sounds smug and laced with disgust. I look in his eyes; they look fierce with a hint of kindness but not much at all.
“You done staring at my pretty face, yet?” He smiles his little boyish smile. “What? You want to die looking at me?”
“Your face is the last thing I want to see,” I spat out a little too quickly.
His smile fades, “You’re going to die and I’ll make sure it’s painful.”
He pulls out his gun. It isn’t a normal police force-go, which is a gun that uses telekinesis to shoot a paralyzing dart in you. This is a military down-li, basically one shot anywhere and you’re dead. He raises the down-li to my head.
“Any last words, beautiful?” His compliment didn’t sound like a jab, it sounded like he actually meant it.
I’m dead. No escaping this. I’ll just try once more. I try again to stop time and immediately get an excruciating pain in the back of my spine. I squeeze my eyes shut because the light from the open doorway sends stabs of pain coursing through my brain. I sit there shaking, then all of a sudden the pain stops and I look towards the soldier wondering why I haven’t been killed yet, when I see him standing in shock. No, not shock, fear. He starts looking around like he’s blind as a bat. Then he runs out of the janitors room. I stand up feeling a little dizzy and walk out of the hallway. I look both ways wondering which way the soldier went. I turn left and look out the window.
It’s surprisingly nice out. I wonder what that soldier saw to make him run that fast away from me. I scan the ground seeing many military soldiers, when it hits me. I normally see my reflection in the window but today I see nothing. I walk over to the ladies restroom and peek into the mirror hoping to see a female whose hair touches the side of her elbows. That soldier wasn’t afraid of what he saw. He was afraid of what he didn’t see. Me.