Chapter 1

Alan had always been just a face in the crowd and he preferred it that way. He stood out to nobody and could go about his day like a normal person. But he wasn’t a normal person.

Taking a deep breath, Alan stepped out off the step of the store and into the semi crowded street. He pulled the sleeves of his red jacket down over his hands and tucked them into his pockets. He kept his head down and walked, weaving in and out of people.

He hated crowded streets the most. Too many people, too many chances of physical contact. He pulled up short as an older lady brushed against him with a quiet “excuse me.” It had been an involuntary stop but he found himself holding his breath, waiting for the visions to fill his head. After a few seconds of nothing, he continued walking, his hands shaking.

He looked up just in time to dodge a street vendor who was pushing his cart and not noticing where he was going. Pressing his back against the brick wall of a flower shop, he sucked his gut in, trying his back to stay away from the moving cart.

“Seriously?” he snapped at the man after he had gone by. “Pay attention to where you’re going.”

“Sorry!” the man yelled over his shoulder.

Alan’s cheeks blushed, not knowing that the man had seen him. He was an older man, slightly bent from pushing his cart for so many years. He was on the shorter side, his grey mop of hair barely visible above the stack of material on the cart.

For a moment, Alan felt bad about snapping at him but the feeling was gone the moment an older woman grabbed him by the collar and ripped him away from the wall.

Where did she come from? he wondered as she threw him into the middle of the sidewalk. He stumbled for a split second before finding his footing. How is she so strong?

“What are you doing?” she yelled at him, greying hair tucked behind her ears. “I just painted that wall!”

He could hear her but he couldn’t see her. All he saw was black and for a moment, he didn’t know what was happening even though it had happened many times before. The edge of her knuckles were against his throat, just enough contact for him to see something he didn’t want to.

A white hospital room surrounded him, several posters about pregnancy and childbirth surrounded him. A happy laugh reached his ears and he turned, looking for the source of it. A middle aged woman lay on the white sheeted bed, a tiny baby crawled in her arms. Its eyes were squeezed close and it held the woman’s thumb in its tiny fist. A man stood at the side of the bed, a happy smile on his face.

“He looks just like you,” the woman said quietly.

“Does he?” he gave a small laugh as he reached out the stroke the baby’s soft head. “What name have you decided on?”

She smiled as she held the baby close to her. “Jason.”

Alan jerked back from the woman, eyes wide. She let go of him, leaving a slight wrinkle in his jacket. He looked at her confused.

“Make sure you didn’t get any paint on your nice jacket,” she said, turning to leave. She was obviously satisfied with the lecture she’d given him even though he’d heard none of it.

“Your son, Jason-” he blurted. She stopped and turned.

“What about him?” she asked, eyes dark and narrowed.

“Um, so his name was Jason?” he asked.

She nodded slowly. “Do you know him?”

He shook his head no before turning and heading back down the sidewalk. He straightened his jacket and zipped it up the whole way. Pulling his hood over his head, his brushed his red hair out of his face and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

A couple minutes later he stood at the base of a fifteen story apartment building. He looked up, stepping back a couple feet to see the top floor. He listened, straining his ears for any sound of music. For a moment, he heard nothing but then, he did. It was a quiet and dainty sounding song that floated through the air slowly, like a lazy snowflake.

With a small smile, he pushed open the metal gate at the bottom and entered, heading for the elevator. He tapped his foot impatiently against the ground as the elevator went up. The button for the 15 floor glowed red telling him where his destination was.

After five seconds of screeching chords and cables, the elevator came to a stop and opened up to the dimly lit floor. He stepped out and headed towards the roof access, hearing the squeak of the doors closing behind him. Taking the rusted metal stairs two at a time, he quickly climbed the twelve stairs and opened the door to the roof.

There was a small wooden platform on the far end of the roof that was about a foot and a half off the ground, serving as a chair and table for those who liked to eat on the roof. For the boy that was laying on it, it served as a bed.

“Vernon!” Alan yelled, lowering his voice.

The boy jerked up, eyes wide, startled. When he saw Alan’s laughing face, he grinned but the paleness of his face remained.

“What do you want?” he called to him, still laughing.

“I was waiting for Ari to return with the food,” he answered, turning the music down.

Alan slid onto the wooden platform and layed out on it, staring up at the white clouds in the sky.

“What’s she getting?” he asked with a sigh. He stretched, finally feeling safe from the flashbacks of strangers.

“Fried chicken,” Vernon flipped through his playlists as the current song ended. “Are you hungry?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, sitting up. “But why are you here?”

“To hang out,” he answered. “Mom and Dad left for a business trip for the next week so I’mma be here a little bit more.”

Alan sighed and rested his hands in his lap. He sat cross legged, slightly slouched. He listened to the song that Vernon had chosen for a moment. It was more upbeat than the last one, the beat in the back more subtly than before.

“Is this the best song you’ve got?” he asked, looking at his friend out of the corner of his eye. The mousy blond boy gave a small laugh. His green eyes always seemed to sparkle, but in the sunlight, they looked to have flecks of brown and black in them.

“No,” he answered, looking at Alan. “This is just the one I thought fit the mood.”

The door at the far end of the roof swung open and Ari appeared, carrying two plastic white bags. She kicked the door shut behind her with her foot and held the bags up victoriously.

“I’ve got the goods!” she proclaimed, dropping them down between Vernon and Alan.

Ari, who was Alan’s twin, looked exactly like him only she was a girl. Her red hair was shoulder blade length, brushing against her arms and high back with every step she took. Her brown eyes were also lit up as she sat down behind the two boys and opened the bags up.

“Chicken for you,” she set a medium box in front of Vernon. “And chicken for you.”

She handed a box to Alan.

“Oh, I see how it is,” he said, taking it from her. He held the box with both hands, the sleeves of the jacket stilled pulled over his hands. The last thing he wanted to get a flashback from was a chicken box from some street corner shop.

“Did you see anything?” Vernon asked, leaning forward, forgetting about his chicken for a moment.

Alan set the box down and displayed his sweater paws to Vernon. “No.”

The boy turned to Ari, “And you?”

“The bags are going to be recycled and the money I gave the cashier is going to be handed to some college girl with the clearest skin I’ve ever seen,” she said, taking a bite of her chicken. “Or just a really good makeup job.”

“And how is that helpful?” he looked at her scornfully before taking a bite of his own chicken.

She leaned over and grabbed the speaker that sat next to him and held down the power button till it turned off. He stared at her wide eyed and then down at his speaker before doing a fake pout.

“No!”

She smiled and slid it away from them. “That’s what you get.”

He leaned back, supporting himself by his hands. He looked at his piece of chicken which he had set back into the container.

“What’s it like?” he asked. “Having abilities and all?”

Alan stopped chewing for a moment, thinking. Ari shrugged.

“It’s nothing big,” she answered. “It’s actually kind of stupid, always seeing someone’s future and not knowing what yours is.”

Vernon turned to Alan, raising an eyebrow.

He thought for a moment, slowing chewing. He swallowed, remembering the first read he had ever done. All he saw was flames and all he felt was a terrible burning all over his body. He had been visiting the hospital to talk to his friend Lucas when he accidentally made contact with a burn patient. He remembered the habits and nightmares that had followed the encounter.

“I... it’s terrible,” he picked up another piece of chicken and studied it before continuing. “I feel what they felt in their worst days, I see what they saw, I experience what they experience and it honestly stinks.”

Vernon raised an eyebrow.

Alan gave a small smile before going back to eating, looking at the chicken leg after taking a bite out of it.

“I wish I had something that made me... special,” Vernon remarked with a shrug. Ari set her chicken down and took a deep breath.

“You are special,” she said, patting his shoulders. “If everyone was special, nobody would be special. We need people like you to exist so people like us can exist and be more special.”

“That was not helpful at all,” he narrowed his eyes and took an exaggerated bite out of his chicken. “That made me feel so much better.”

Alan studied his friend for a moment, watching him. His green eyes that had been lit up earlier seemed to lose a bit of their shine and his face had fallen.

There was something Vernon wasn’t telling them.

This is a rough draft so please excuse any misprints. (I tried lol) Thanks for reading and if you want to be tagged in future chapters, let me know!!