The Prophecy of Five

When I was eighteen and living with my parents, Cassadee and Blayze Knight, I was at home finishing up some homework for one of my college classes in my bedroom, and my parents were watching some TV in the living room. The power flickered, and a spark from some wires in the attic triggered a fire, causing our house to burst into flames. I smelt the smoke before I heard the alarm. My mother and father came into my room, telling me to get out of the house as fast as possible. I closed my laptop and started to get up from my desk when the ceiling right outside of my bedroom collapsed, trapping all of us in my bedroom. I didn’t want to die, and I couldn’t allow them to die. I needed to find a way to save all of us. I tried the window, but it was stuck and wouldn’t open, no matter how hard I tried. Then I started to feel all the heat circulating around me, and I didn’t know what was happening at the time. But, before I could do anything, fire shot out my hands, making an opening in the wall. My parents looked at me in surprise. Then they ran out of the opening and into the street. I also realized that I just shot fire out of my hands, but what I didn’t know was that I was immune to fire. Just before I ran out of the house, I heard a cracking noise, and then the roof collapsed in front of me, blocking the hole in the wall I had just made, trapping me in the house. When the firefighters arrived, my parents ran to them, screaming that their son was trapped in the house. Two firefighters ran to the front door and kicked it open and ran in, looking to save me from the fire. They looked confused when I came running through the fire and met them in the front room.

They thought for sure that I would be injured, but as they exited the house with me, they saw that I was unscathed. There were no third-degree burns, no scratches, no nothing. That’s when I realized I was immune to fire. My parents were fine, just had a lot of ash on their faces and were getting cleaned up. I felt like I had to get away from them because I didn’t want to hurt them. Plus, I had a strange feeling that I needed to find my brother and sisters, which was weird because I don’t have any siblings. They looked at me with a loving expression, as if to say. “Please, Sean, don’t go.” But I had to. It was the hardest thing I ever did, But I did it for their sake. I ran as fast and as far as I could.

By the time I stopped, I had no idea where I was, but I needed to find a place to sleep for the night. I saw a homeless shelter down the road, and since I was running out of ideas, I decided that would be the best place for me to spend the night. I saw a few homeless people standing by a barrel trying to get a fire started, but it just wasn’t lighting, so without thinking, I walked over to the barrel, placed my hand over it. I began to concentrate on the logs that were in the barrel. As my variant ability started to manifest itself again, every blood vessel in my body began to glow blue. As I extended my hand, fire shot out of my hand and ignited the wood inside the barrel. The men and women standing around the barrel looked at me with fear in their eyes and started yelling the word variant as loud as possible. I had no idea what that word meant, and I had no idea what was going on, so I started to back away from the fire. I had only taken a few steps when I bumped into someone, and I turned around to apologize and saw the biggest guy I had ever seen. He was wearing a black suit with a red tie that had a strange symbol on it. He was bald and was wearing a pair of sporty sunglasses, despite it being dark outside.

The man crouched down to look me right in the eyes and said in a strange accent, “Don’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.”

I looked at him and studied his face before I spoke, “Who are you?”

He smiled and responded. “My name is Alpha Osei.”

“What do you want?” I asked

“Well, I couldn’t help noticing how you started the fire in the barrel.”

“And your point is?”

“My point is that the homeless that were surrounding the barrel didn’t seem to appreciate what you did.”

“No, they didn’t. They were calling me a variant. I don’t understand what is a variant?”

“That is a complicated question that has an equally complicated answer. To put it simply, a variant is an evolved human.”

“Why does that scare people so much?” I asked

“Ah. That is another complicated question. I have an idea, though, If you come with me, then I will answer your questions, and I will show you your potential.”

“I don’t know, I have no idea who you are or if I can even trust you.”

“That's true. You don’t, but do you have anywhere else you can go? Yes, you could stay here, but for how long?”

I took a few minutes and thought long and hard about the position I was currently in. After a few minutes of thinking, the only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to stay here, so I had no choice. I looked at this huge black man and said, “Alright, I’m in. When do we leave?”

“We can leave now if you are ready.”

Without any hesitation I responded, “I’m ready now.”

“Good.” He said

With that, he raised his hand and waved it once in front of my face. All of a sudden, everything went black. I woke up and sat up with a start and found myself on a hospital bed hooked up to a couple of monitors. I looked around and saw a nurse a few feet away, “Where am I?”

The nurse hurried over to where I was and grabbed my hand. “It's okay. You’re safe.”

“Where am I?” I asked again

A male spoke up from the doorway, “You are in my home.”

I turned my head to see Alpha Osei, the one who brought me here, standing there wearing the same suit. “Alpha, why am I strapped in this bed and hooked up to machines?”

Alpha walked over to the bed, sat down, and looked at me, “Do you remember me telling you that if you came with me, I would answer your questions and show you your potential?”

I nodded my head, “Yes, and then you waved your hand in front of me, and everything went black. What did you do to me?”

“I’m sorry about that, my friend, I must keep this place hidden. The reason you are being monitored is because of the neuro-toxin I used, and sometimes it has some not so pleasant side effects, so we needed to keep an eye on you.”

“So, that is why the room kept spinning.” I said

“Yes, exactly. I’m surprised how quickly the neuro-toxin has left your system. It usually takes at least a full twenty-four hours for the effects to dissipate.”

“That usually happens when I get injected with numbing agents and stuff like that.” I commented

“If you feel up to it, I would be happy to take you on a tour of my home and answer any questions you might have.”

“Yeah, I’m ready to have you answer my questions.”

He looked at the nurse and said, “I want you to unhook our guest and get him the clothes I have provided.” He then looks at me, “After your unhook from the monitors, and you get dressed, I will meet you outside.”

“Okay.”

Alpha and the nurse stepped outside, and just before the door closed, Alpha turned to the nurse and said, out of my earshot, “He could become dangerous. I want you to keep an eye on him and make sure the lab gets his DNA  processed as soon as they can. I need to know if he is a viable option.”