CHAPTER 1: ZANE'S AWAKENED POWERS
1068 Words
Eleven years ago...
"Three mice are jumping around, happy with the cheese they found. Three mice are screaming, happy with the cheese they found," the three kids are singing at the back of the secondhand car. Althea and her husband Bren, with their three children, are going to the beach for a family getaway. It is summer, and beach outings have been their family tradition every year. They left their house at midnight for long hours of driving. They are now on the way to the beach, driving on the road in a rural area. The sides of the road are full of trees and wild plants. It was five-thirty, and the sun was about to rise. The beach is thirty minutes away from where they are now.
Althea met Bren in the mall where she and her mother bought things for her maternity. They became friends, and later on, Bren courted her. He knew what happened to Althea. They got married before giving birth to Zane. He accepted and treated him as his son, and the kid knew he was his biological father.
Bren is now a salesman at a department store, while Althea is an assistant nurse at Doctor Rebecca's clinic. She applied there two years ago after passing the board exam, and the doctor was kind enough to give her the job. Althea's mother gave the second-hand car to them last year before passing away due to a heart attack. Althea looked at the back through the rearview mirror. Her kids are singing random children's songs. Her eldest child is Zane, a seven-year-old boy, the youngest sibling is on Zane's lap, Wane, three years old. Sitting beside him is the five-year-old Anne.
"Wear your seat belt, Anne," Zane reminded his sister, but the little girl unstrapped it.
"It's so tight. It pulls me whenever Dad steps on the break, and it's hard to breathe," she complained. Zane lets his sister do what she wants.
They sang along with the kids when a man in black clothes suddenly appeared in front of their car and bumped them. It was too late for Bren to step on the break. They hit the man, but the car was pushed and skidded to the side of the road, and then it bumped into a large tree. The man did not appear to be affected and was still standing in the middle of the road. While looking at the crashed car, the front was wrecked.
Bren hit his head on the window, and Althea lost consciousness because of shock. Anne was unconscious on the car floor. Zane remained hugging his younger brother Wane while he held onto his seat belt.
"Brother," Wane said, crying. "Mom, Dad!" He continued crying.
He looked outside the car and saw the man they bumped into. He was still standing in the middle of the road. Zane saw the scary face of the man, and another three men walked out of the bush from the roadside. They are all scary-looking. He felt danger while the men went closer to their car. The scary men reached their car and started banging it. The man they bumped into went to his side and banged the window
He stared at his face. His eyes are full black, his skin is pale, and his fangs are yellowish. Zane can see his saliva. He is drooling at them. The car window broke, and the glass pieces hit his face. The man tried grabbing him, but he reached Wane's arm instead of him. His baby brother cried so loud.
He does not know what to do. His heartbeat is fast, and he is scared. "Mom, Dad!" He called his parents, but they were still unconscious.
He hugged his baby brother tight, and then he screamed. "Stay away from us!" His scream released a sound wave, that made the scary men step back and cover their ears. Zane lost his control. His eyes shone like a bright white star. He unstrapped his seat belt and put Wane on the car seat. His brother innocently stared at him. He stepped out of the car and went closer to one of the scary men. He raised his hand and released a magnetic force that made the man blow away and hit the tree on the other side of the road. The other three scary men stepped back and planned to run away, but Zane stomped his foot and shook the ground. The three scary men lost their balance. The ground opened wide, and they fell in it, then it closed again like nothing happened.
His consciousness went back, and he saw the scary man standing up, then started walking towards him. The man looks furious. His knees wobble, almost loses his balance because of a fractured leg, but he walks faster to reach him.
"You stay away from my family and die!" Zane shouted. He released another sound wave--- it was stronger. The scary man covered his ears and cried in pain. The man kept on bleeding until he collapsed and fell to the ground. He started disappearing into the thin air. Zane saw what happened to the man. He got scared because of it. Zane knows it was him who did it to that scary man. He was shaking when he returned to the car and checked his family.
He heard his father moaning. "Dad!"
"Z-Zane..." Bren said. "Your Mom..." He shook Althea to wake her up, but no response from her. "No... Althea..." He immediately took out his phone and called the emergency hotline. He checked his children.
"Are you okay, Zane? Are you hurt anywhere? How are your siblings?" He worriedly looked at her daughter lying on the car floor, unconscious.
"W-we're okay, Dad, I guess," he said, but he was still nervous. He killed a man. Even though he is a scary man who wants to hurt them, his young mind still thinks his power is dangerous, and he needs to be careful in fighting back. He does not want it to happen again.
The ambulance arrived. The medical team pulled out a stretcher and took Zane's Mom out of the car. Anne is also still unconscious. Bren, while his head was still bleeding, took his daughter out of the car and handed her to the medical team. They all rode the emergency vehicle and were sent to the hospital.
- Writer
