Author note: This is a slightly early release of the finale of ARC 1 as a reward for those amongst you that stuck through it.  There will be a break before start of ARC 2. Probably 1-2 weeks so that I can finalise ARC 2. It is largely written but some stuff that I changed on the spot in ARC 1 make changes necessary.

This is the end of my first story. Feedback, good and bad is well appreciated. Who knows, some feedback may even make it into ARC 2 still.

NB: Warning, it is even bloodier than the previous chapter.

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In our 'Sparrow' group we had this new boy Mar join us.

"He is my neighbour", I announced to my friends yesterday.

"He is not coming to us?", my friend Marie asks.

"He doesn't seem to want to play with us.", someone else says.

We watched as he turned towards the books.

After all, it was the day where the paddling pool was out and all the kids played together outside. Except Mar, who was reading books inside and didn't want to get water on his face. Somehow I am getting the feeling of this sea scape again when I watched him but then it was immediately gone. Suddenly, I am getting dowsed with water from a small bucket. Marie giggled and run away. She is a bit younger and not so fast.

"Revenge!". There was no way I can be the only one to get wet. Grabbing the nearest bucket, dipping it into the pool I run after her. Needless to say I got my revenge soon.  Marie tried to get me several times after that but I am too fast. However, on two occasions I suddenly started to daydream again and gave her a chance. Strange, I normally do not daydream whilst playing at the paddling pool. I look at Mar but he is still just reading. Very strange, I was sure I could feel him close by. He is a bit creepy.

Later that day, he got picked up by his mom. I was grateful that we didn't walk home together.

Today, Mar is here from the beginning. We are digging out dinosaurs in the sand box. Mar surprised me in being the first to dig something up. It was as if he knew where to look for. I am still looking for my dinosaur. Everyone else seems to find something. I am getting a bit sad.

Then I hear a weird crackling sound and turn my head. A strange man is shooting something towards Mar but it didn't phase him. This is scary, I am ducking behind Mar who is standing in front of me. Then I hear a scream and see red water squirting about. I am curious and scared at the same time. So I peek around Mar and see Marie bleeding on the floor. The sight made me vomit. I couldn't take my eyes of her and there is still so much blood on the floor.

Suddenly, Mar is pulling me by the hand into the garden. I keep looking at the boy and almost falling down. The boy seem to still breath although his blood is splattered everywhere. My stomach is wrenching. Please stop this. This is a nightmare.

The man calls out to me. I do not understand. Did my friend get stabbed because of me ? I do not want anyone else to be hurt and do what he says. When on occasion my mom gets angry, she always stops yelling as soon as I do what she says. But the man only grabs me and chokes me. I cannot breath. I try to loosen his hands whilst gasping for air. I can hear him yelling something but the blood rushing through my head numbs all sound. I just about gather he is yelling at Mar. Please Mar, do what he says - I cannot breath I want to say. But I can only rasp.

Mar is tackling the man but he gets easily send flying. Suddenly, I feel my lungs filled with fresh air even though I cannot breath. It is bliss. I am struggling again to break free. Then the man twists my head. I cannot resist and something breaks. Then I pass out.

# # #

After putting the collar on, I am limb as a dead chicken. At least that is what I think I am expected to behave like. The collar appears to be some form of metal and some strong magnet meant to restrict electricity flow somehow. It seems to work to some extend. But it only seems to numb me. However, even if I break the collar,  I still cannot fight against this man. My 5 year old body does not have a strong enough physique. I have to wait for another opportunity. There has to be a way to use my gift on this man. Sorry Mel, please forgive me for letting you get killed. The other two at the child care I was able to heal. So it is just me and Mel at the moment.

The man is dragging me by my clothes to a car which hurts quite a bit. Because I meant to be incapacitated (I think) I don't dare to protect myself or do some reconnaissance using my gift. I just do not understand what capabilities the man has. I must hide my cards if I want to get out of this somehow. He throws me on the back seat face down and I am unable to see outside. But I can see the body bag of Mel next to me on the floor.

What did Mel do to deserve this? Because of me Mel is no longer safe. My naiveté is her killer. It is my worst nightmare come true. Mom, Dad, Claire and all the others. You died for nothing. My useless self was unable to stay under. And I managed to make the situation even worse by allowing more people to get killed. I want to cry. Just as the tears are starting, I bit my tongue hard. Now there is a metallic taste in my mouth now.

After what appears to be a long time the car stops. One of the underlings pulls Mel's body bag out of the car and tosses her on the concrete floor. I cannot see it but I can her the flap of her tiny body. I get a glance of the underlings face, I will remember it well. Then they throw me on the concrete floor as well. I am limp like rag doll and so hit my head and get dizzy. For good measure, the guys kicks me in the gut. I spit out the blood from my mouth and he grins satisfied. Then he walks away leave us lying there for some time. I will remember your face!

It must be an hour or so before the man that forced the collar on me is coming back and drags me through the building to an office. He sets me up like a doll on some office chair in his office. He thinks it is funny and degrading. Rather unexpected to me, I suddenly have a very good view on his operation. Through the glass window in the door I can see the an open plan office. There appears to be a whole floor occupied with agents just to find me. He also keeps talking just behind the door to someone else higher up in front of me. Does he think I was blind and deaf ?

Over the next few minutes, I learn quite a few useful facts. The man appears to be my new handler. What happened to the old handler I wonder. There is something like operation steel hook and steel net and something like an Enemir. The latter appears to be the one who found me. But he isn't in this office but apparently calls in for a report in a few hours. Why would he call if I am already found ? Is there a task he needs to do ? Somehow the word 'electric chair' comes to my mind and I suddenly feel stone cold.

Then something important happens. The handler is typing something on his mobile phone. Almost at the same time I can feel a very oppressing aura from a shadow on the wall. That's new. I move my eyes about but I cannot find a matching object for this shadow. This shadow appears to be talking but I cannot hear anything. Immediately the handler is kneeling on the floor pissing himself.

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Then I noticed something even stranger. As I look to the desk, I can see the mobile phone the handler just used. When I take a careful look, I can see a thread of energy connecting the phone to the direction of the shadow. It is a very thin but bright thread. Almost like a transparent fishing line. Without using my gift, just natively looking my eyes can just about follow the thread. It also appears that the thread somehow passes through a membrane as somewhere near the shadow as the thread suddenly blurs. It is like I can see the shadow of the thread rather than the line itself. It is almost like looking at a straw in a water glass. I cannot feel anything behind the membrane either. It's like space stops.

Then it hits me. The origin of the shadow is not part of this reality. Somewhere between the phone and the wall is a threshold or skin that separates this reality to another one. The shadow is a projection of the light falling through the membrane of whomever the handler is talking to. I cannot make out the origin clearly but I can sense an oppressing aura around the handler too. This aura in a much milder form is also around the handler. That aura completely envelopes him like second skin.

That is why I cannot change the handlers reality. He was protected with an skin containing another reality. It is almost like a sheet of other reality is around the handler. There are two realities and naturally the other reality are too strange and different. Laws of this world do not apply there the same way. Strange enough, there is no connection of the handler's aura to the shadow. But the phone has.

A thin strand of energy is connecting the phone with the person of the shadow. I am convinced. To me this thin strand is like a bridge. My mind can following that bridge secretly. I allow my energy to be sucked through a thin thread of something to somewhere and I can feel I am in the other reality. This reality feels very unnatural. I can sense thousands of life forms. But I cannot make out any shapes or patterns, just darkness. I cannot tell how large this space is nor can I feel any objects here. However, the number of entities in this reality is not constant. It changes all the time. Entities appear to leave and enter apparently at their leisure. I can feel some vibration.

I follow this string further and find a faint red glowing shape attached to it. It is the same shape as the shadow. So the shadow is a projection of this entity!

I start laughing aloud. It is an unsightly, mad laughter, poisonous laughter. The laughter releases my fury. I feel my eyes burn like lasers into the new handler. The collar bursts spectacularly. The handler turns around, catches my eyes and his face running pale. Frantically he pulls a gun from somewhere and is running towards me shooting his gun. Every bullet is a hit. But I intercept the bullets a hairs breath before my skin and bounce them back to him. Two can play this game. The bullets tunnel through the other reality because my self in the other space is vibrating the skin making little weak spots in it. Me on the other side is on the ball. The handler is hit several times and falls down in pain.

Just like this, I attack the red entity in the other reality. My mind creates a wave form that vibrates the space around the red entity. Slowly I increase the frequency of the vibration. Just like a guitar string the red entity starts vibrating. Once I reach the entity's harmonics, it starts snarling. I cannot describe it any other way. It is like an electric razor on a glass table. Since I have found the right frequency, the harmonic of the entity, I ramp up the volume. The entity is vibrating harders, snarls louder. Gradually, the vibration shakes the red entity to its breaking point.

In the office, the shadow is dimming. I can feel the aura fading. The aura around the still breathing handler is getting thinner. My anger is deep, I cannot hold back, I do not want to hold back. I feel like tearing through the handler with my teeth. For the sake of Mel, my parents, Claire and all the other victims I become evil.  I reach into his body and transfer all of his blood outside the skin. A large amount of liquid is trapped between the week aura protection and the skin of the handlers body. I can watch him drowning in his blood.

"You want to control me ? Then control this!", I shout to the shadow.

My self in the other reality is pushing more energy into the vibration and the red entity's shape distortion starts blurring from the speed. Suddenly, several other entities are approaching. However, they appear to observe the spectacle of the red entity being tortured. Suddenly, one of the observers is encompassing the red entity as to swallow it. Is it deicide? I can see the other entity turn yellow and emitting a much stronger aura. Canibalism ? Then the link becomes unstable and then breaks. I already snapped myself back to my reality.

I am back in the office again. A large amount of blood and urine is flowing on the floor with a shrivelled up body in the middle. I leave the office jumping from chair to desk to door. I don't want to touch the wet floor. Armed officers are lining up outside the door. They probably heard the shots. I make their blood jump one meter to the left. For a heartbeat the number of human shapes doubles then they collapse. However, I left the guy that dropped Mel on the floor to last. He can watch to see what happens to him next. After he got thoroughly slushed with blood from the others, I kill him as well.

Mel is still lying on the concrete floor in the parking area. I rush over and carefully unzip the bag. With relief I see it is really her. Placing my on her heart, I recall her pattern in the past and restore her. Now she is sleeping in my arm. Gingerly, I dip into her dream. I am praying to see her beautify mind sky. It is still dark in her mind. Then, just like clouds fly by to reveal the sun, the darkness glides away showing the azure sky. A huge weight falls of my shoulders. She ail be alright.

Gently, I pick her up and carry her out. After leaving the building, I simply collapse it. Of course, that that doesn't go unnoticed. The emergency services arrive in a few minutes. It is child's play to convince an officer to drive two kids staring at such a scene home. I already know that nobody else suffered. As we drive home, Mel wakes up. She looks at me with big eyes. I bet she wonders if this was all a dream.

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In a secret server room the spinning up of more fan's can be heard. Although there is no person around, a program has started to consume more computation power. There are another 52 days of time left for the Enemir before its forced shutdown. After destroying all personal it can find none to report to. After a few milliseconds of consideration the Enemir changes plans. After realising that it lacks the support to fulfil the mission it changes the software of the super solder.

And in parallel, it intensifies its efforts to create a clone.

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End of ARC1. Many thanks for reading this far!