I’m drifting. Feeling, not thinking as the cotton-cloud feathery softness that was my sheets hugged me. I was in paradise, the feeling of bliss that overcomes your body as you slowly come to consciousness. The cool fabric against my warm skin, the beating heart that played the rhythm behind the melody of my soft breathing.

I’m drifting. But not to sleep. EARGHH EARGHH EARGHH. The blaring of my alarm shook me out of my bliss. The stress of everything hung back upon my shoulders, you’d think that after waking up every day since the day I was born you would get used to it.

"God damn it," I grumbled to myself. I threw my left hand out to hit the alarm button on my phone when I hit something that felt slightly different than the smooth surface of my phone. The familiar tinkle of water dripping off the nightstand and pooling on the ground reminded me of what today was, and what I was waking up too.

Now slightly less annoyed, I finally hit the alarm button on my phone that lay on my desk next to my bed. It sat there seemingly laughing at my discomfort. I mopped up the water with my shirt and I just laid there for a minute hoping to recast the feeling but alas it was gone. Checking the time, I realized it was only eight, I really got to get into the schedule again for waking up early. Summer had made me soft, like a little-stuffed bunny.

Chase: The Bunny Rabbit.

Chuckling to myself I started my routine warmup for the day, I kept hitting pushups until my arms wobbled and collapsed under me. With my heart racing, the stiffness and grogginess were lifted expeditiously and I felt ready to tackle the day.

 “Honey, get up! You're leaving in an hour!” My mom yelled from the kitchen.

“Yeah yeah, I'm up,” I yelled back.

I quickly took a shower, dressed, and headed down to the kitchen where my mom was setting up breakfast. My dad was always gone before I got up as he had to work at six, and my mom didn’t each much anyway, so I usually had breakfast to myself. The sweet smell of buttery pancakes combined with the spicy tang of the sausages wafted from the dining table as I hunkered down in front of it.

“Hey baby, I made your favorite for your big day,” She said with a smile, she beamed at me as I grinned back. She was so bright nowadays, always so optimistic about the future. She wasn’t always like that after Andre died she was really broken down. What most broke her was that she wasn’t there to see it, but perhaps that was the greatest miracle of all since I don’t think she’d be able to handle It all if she did. Although I still wonder if that shining smile was a mask for what lay beneath. Maybe the apple really didn’t fall far from the tree.

“Mmm smells great!” I said as I inhaled the delicious smell of breakfast and changed the topic to breakfast in my mind.

I grabbed my fork and knife and got started. I closed my eyes, feeling my taste buds dance as I chewed. When I opened them, I saw my mom sitting next to me, staring at me intently. I swallowed quickly and raised my eyebrows inquisitively.

She paused, her eyes darting across the table.

“I want you to be safe over there,” She said softly still staring intently at me.

“Aside from the whole torture aspect everything is perfectly A-Okay over there,” I replied jokingly.

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She blinked.

I knew what she was thinking about, I was now her only child. She’s worried about me like any parent would be. My dad knew what I was going through and gave me his support, he said I needed to become a man and this was one way to do it.

“Whatever happens, I want you to know I’m proud of you and what you are.” She said slowly.

“I know,” I answered honestly. She loved me and I her, I wasn’t going to let her or Andre down.

I bit into the sausage, getting back on track on the food since it was too early for heavy thinking.

She stared at me, analyzing my face as if I was going to disappear forever in just a few minutes. “I’m gonna get dressed and in twenty mins get into the car.” She instructed as she got up and went to her room.”

“No problem,” I answered as I took the last bite of the pancakes.

I wasn’t worried, I was excited. I’ve dreamed of this day for a while.

I quickly finished eating, got into a presentable button-down shirt (short sleeved) with khakis for my first day. I wanted to look good. Ya know, for the ladies. Fifteen minutes later I headed out to the car since at one I needed to be at the facilities, and I didn’t want to be late on my first day.

Three and a half hours. That’s how long it took from my house to the facilities where I'll be receiving “treatment”. Three and a half hours in a stuffy car where my knees were killing me and nothing to do except listen to my dad's best hits from the 80's.

“K, we’re here honey” I heard my mother exclaimed as I sighed in relief.

“The GPS says it’s on the right somewhere” She continued. I stayed silent, vigilant, a small part of me wondered if this was all some sort of joke or prank.

But the rational side of me won over, this couldn’t possibly be a prank.

Although it did seem pretty baron out here.

We were in a scorched desert-like area, with no wild life in sight, or any kind of life for that matter. But as we passed a large cluster of boulders, a bundle of buildings lay before me. They had a large three to four-story main building that connected to a multitude of others. There were also watch towers at each corner with men on top carrying large semi-automatics. A few men though wore a different attire. Instead of the regular military uniform, they wore a tight fighting costume, that revealed nothing and everything at the same time. Nothing as in what pointed to what they could do, Super-wise, and everything that pointed that they at least were a Super.

We approached the gate which had a small building on each side manned by two gruff looking guards with again, semi-automatics, we gave our information to one of the guards and they let us through. Afterward, we were quickly guided to a garage where we unloaded my suitcase in the cargo bay. The garage like the rest of the building, high tech equipment and what seemed like the rest of the candidate's cars. Our parking space was the last one available in the space which was odd because we were right on time, maybe we read the time wrong?

The entire garage was crowded, the cars ranged from shiny vintage, convertibles, to even a few super cars that were in no way related to Supers, other than maybe being built by one. Our old, paint-chipped minivan felt out of place, something akin to a bumblebee in a soda can.

A man (a scientist as it appeared) approached us. He wore a white lab coat as you saw in movies and was ancient. Wrinkles were like crevices in his face, chunks of his nose were missing and one of the eyes seemed to be dimmer than the other. “Mr. Millers will you please come with me, your mother will be escorted to a different room to receive forms as will you with the rest of the candidates” he ordered in his scratchy voice.

“Sure.”

I glanced at my Mom who nodded to me and went with two others. One with the shifters outfit that was navy blue and another in a suit (the kind politicians wear). I glanced back the old scientist and scampered to catch up as he already left.

While walking I had a few questions on my mind that I wanted to voice to the now silent man. “So, are we gonna do anything else other than sign forms today?” I questioned him as we walked down a dimly lit hallway with doors on each side.

A beat passed.

“There will be an orientation after everything is filled out- you’ll be informed of what we’ll be doing to you and the others and what the… effects are.”

I nodded then was about to ask what those effects were, but I was cut off when we approached another door.

“Right this way please” he signaled toward the door.

“Thanks, Mr…”

“Richards” He signaled toward the door again more insistently this time.

Not much for small talk this guy I thought as I entered the room filled with the others leaving the dim hallway behind me.