ONE

CHAPTER ONE

There are people in this world with traits that standout to the point of being eccentric; someone who’s a fanatic risk-taker, someone who’s intuition seems to be more accurate than average. These traits seem so handy to the people they describe they seem almost like a super power.

To the few who are aware of how unique they are they call themselves, ‘gifted’.

Israel opened his eyes, and quickly developed a splitting headache. He slowly tried getting to his feet. Sunlight was pouring into the room and that didn’t help. Israel felt his stomach do a few flops as he stood and he rushed into the toilet to throw up.

He was puking his guts out when she walked up to him. It was a normal scene; a number of kids had partied too hard and were suffering agonising hangovers the day after. There was one exception though, Israel was thirteen.

“Go away”, Israel said waving his hand around even though his head was buried in the toilet. She was standing by the door with arms folded. “The last thing I need is-”

She leaned closer took out a foghorn and blew it in his ear. His head instinctively smacked against the porcelain of the toilet and his face almost dipped into the toilet water.

“That’s what you get for being such an annoying little brother. You’re only thirteen”, Sam, his sister said. It was short for Samantha.

“The reason why that is, is because you have no life. Classic overachiever who gives up everything for a life she presumes will be better. But you can’t know for sure can you?” Israel said.

“And what do you know about life?” Sam asked. Israel was no longer bent over the toilet bowl. Sam was surprised he’d recovered from a hangover this quickly.

“You’d be surprised the kind of people you meet at parties like this. Sometime ago I met a college student, an overachiever like you. And he was already regretting it. Live a little sis”, Israel said half mockingly.

Sixteen year old Sam scoffed. She turned her back. “Let’s go home”, she said.

 

 

Sam and Israel were born to parents, Ezekiel and Celine Raye. But they travelled a lot because of the nature of their work, leaving the two siblings by themselves. They’d tried getting a caretaker for the children, five times. Nobody could handle Israel. So he was now Sam’s unwanted responsibility.

They got home and Sam opened the door. They both walked in.

Israel went straight for the fridge. As he did, he heard the door being locked behind him. He dropped the glass that was in his hand. It shattered as it hit the floor, spreading cold juice all over his sneakers. But Israel didn’t notice. All he could focus on was avoiding been tricked into being stuck at home by his sister.

By the time he got to the door it was already too late. He searched his pocket for the keys only to realize they were gone. This was her plan from the very beginning.

Israel rushed to the hole he had made in the basement to help him escape. It was sealed. How Sam had managed to seal an opening he’d used jus the day before was beyond him.

He rushed back upstairs. “Sis, don’t lock me up and leave me by myself.” When she didn’t answer, he added, “You’re going to regret this!”

 

Sam opened the door and instantly dropped her keys. On the floor, right in front of Israel were three bloody corpses. He was panting.

“What did you do?” Sam asked.

“They attacked me first. I was just defending myself”, Israel said.

“You know that according to the law excessive force when defending one’s self can lead to a charge of manslaughter or even death, right?”

“Your point?” Israel asked rolling his eyes.

“You’re always excessive”, Sam explained.

“They came to kidnap me”, Israel said. “And there’s only one reason why anyone would do that.”

“You’re sure you haven’t pissed off someone-”

“-To beat me up, yes. To kill or kidnap me? No.”

“You’re assuming Dad’s job had something to do with this”, Sam said.

“Of course. All the secrecy that surrounds his work, the constant travelling, it must be some government highly classified job.” His eyes widened. “Maybe he’s a secret agent.”

Sam sighed. “It’s at times like these I remember, oh right, you’re just thirteen.”

“Regardless, I think we learnt an important lesson today. Never mess with someone who’s had survival training.”

“How did they die?” Sam asked.

 

Israel was asleep when he heard someone come in through the back. He quickly run to the back and discovered a new hole had been drilled into the wall. Large enough for the man he saw before him, a towering man of 6, 2, to creep in.

Both froze for awhile, looking at each other. Then Israel struck. He swung a foot into the man’s knee. Then as the man tried to protect his knee, Israel smacked him across the face with a roundhouse kick.

He looked for the nearest object he could use. A small wooden pestle caught his attention. Blunt force trauma to the head, he thought. Not enough to kill him just enough to knock him out. He grabbed it and was ready to swing when he felt a powerful surge of electricity go through his entire body.

He blacked out and fell to the ground.

When he woke up, he had been tied, hand and foot together and was staring at two people; one man, one woman. This man was different from the man he’d attacked earlier. He was smaller of a medium build and he and the woman seemed to be having an argument.

Israel barely caught some of the words they exchanged. He was far away in the corner of the room.

“Revenge…kidnap…son…kid…”

Their voices rose for a minute. “We can’t let our guards down for even a second. Did you see what he almost did to Diego? No thirteen year old would attack a man like that. He’s a monster”, the woman said

“Come on, there’s three of us now. Besides tough thirteen year olds would do that”, the man responded.

“Those are people from your neighbourhood, Jasper. People who’ve been in the streets and have to watch their back. He’s an urban boy, there’s no reason for him to be this-”

“But he’s not just any boy, Desiree”, Jasper responded.

Desiree fell silent. That’s odd, Israel thought. It seemed like they were agreeing… unless… he wasn’t talking about him being odd, but about something else.

Jasper walked up to him and took out a gun. “We’re going to take you out. And you know what will happen if you don’t cooperate right?” he said.

Israel nodded vigorously.

The man took off Israel’s gag. And then Israel bit him.

“Aargh!” The gun fell from the man’s hand and went off, burying a bullet in his thigh.

Desiree quickly took out her gun and pointed it at Israel. “Killing you would not be our best but it still gets the job done”, she said. She pulled the trigger.

And Israel moved out of the way, his hands and legs already free.

“How…?”

“Next time you tie someone up, make sure to check all their pockets first, idiots”, Israel said.

Jasper scrambled for the gun but Israel got it first. And for a second they froze and stared at each other. Jasper looked like he couldn’t believe what Israel was about to do. Desiree took the opportunity to fire another shot. But that was just Israel baiting her. He fired two shots into her abdomen.

 

Then he focused the barrel of the gun at charging Jasper and shot him in the head. Pieces of his brain flew across the room.

Then Diego stepped in and saw the carnage. He froze for about two seconds. Calculating whether to run or fight. Israel’s gun rose to Diego’s chest level.

Diego ducked to avoid the first shot. But he didn’t see Israel’s second gun. The gun he’d took immediately after killing her. And even as he ducked, the bullet from the second gun dug its way into his flesh, through his stomach and out of his back.

Diego dropped to the floor, dead, instantly.

And that was when Sam walked in.

That was also the first day Israel killed someone.

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Ko11]

Good story but the second paragraph needs a little work. Your transition was a little weird because you end the first paragraph saying that Sam and Israel was heading home but then you mention that people are gifted. If you would have put that as your backstory for Sam and Israel that would have been great because we have an idea of who they are as a human being like their traits and so on.

[Jared Grace]

Thanks a lot. I appreciate the review