Coming to Life: The Eliminator

by tepignite

Jake, a 13 year old boy, finds out that he has amazing abilities unlike any other. He is targeted by an evil man called the Eliminator and has to survive. Along the way, he meets a girl. She too has abilities. How did they get these abilities? Will they be able to stop the Eliminator before they get eliminated? Read to find out!

Coming to Life:

The Eliminator

By Benjamin Eaton

Hi. I'm Jake. I'm 30 and I try to lead as normal a life as possible, as both my mother and father are dead. I'm not exactly your average person. You see, I have special abilities. I decided that people need to know about people like us, so I wrote this. And if you happen to be like us, know that you're not alone. You'll understand a bit more in my life story. It begins when I was 13.

Part 1

Black Holes

CHAPTER 1

"Mom, do we really have to go to New York? I mean, what's wrong with me staying here in St. Louis, while you two go on the stupid vacation?" I asked my mom as we went through airport security. I hated summer vacations. Mom and Dad would always choose a place I didn't want to go. Two years ago it was Philadelphia. Last year it was Walla Walla, Washington. This year, they wanted to force me to go with them to New York. We were gonna go to the Empire State Building.

"Come on, honey. It won't be that bad," She insisted.

"But all my friends live here. And I don't see why I can't live with Grandma over the summer. Then I could stay here, and you two could have the time of your life, without me. You know that I hate your stupid vacations."

"We've already discussed this. Grandma has enough to worry about. She has a bum knee, Alzheimer's, and she doesn't even have a phone, internet, or a car. Not to mention she's...um...slightly... uh...delusional."

"But I could take care of her," I urged. It was kind of a lie. There was no way I was gonna do anything like change an elderly woman's diaper. No offense to any elderlies. It's just not something many teenagers like to do in their spare time. I would much rather play video games, or even clean my room for that matter.

"She already has a nurse that takes care of her. I don't want you getting in the way," Dad said, as we were just about to board the stupid plane to stupid New York. No offense to New Yorkers. I just hate vacations. Wow, I'm offending so many people, and I haven't even finished the first chapter. Suddenly, I had just remembered something.

"Hey, wait a sec. Oh no! I left my laptop on that chair out there. You go ahead, I'll be right back." I said, running back toward the chairs as fast as I could. When I finally reached the chair where my laptop was, I saw an old man playing solitaire on it! "Um, sir," I said politely, as I tapped his shoulder, "Give it, you old, saggy-butted freak!" I yanked the laptop out of his grasp an ran back toward the terminal. As I ran, I looked back and saw the man waving his cane at me. It sounded like he was saying something like: "You whippersnapper! I almost won! Give it back you varmint." I kept running to the terminal where my mom and dad had boarded on to our airplane, but got stopped by a young lady.

"I'm sorry young man, this plane is finished taking passengers. It's getting ready to take off."

"B-But, my parents are on it! I have to get on!" I said frantically, "I can't ju-," I thought for a moment. If I don't board this plane, I don't have to go to New York. I looked back at the lady. "I'm sorry ma'am. I made a mistake, my parents aren't on this plane. They're right over there." I walked away from her and out the main entrance. My house was eight miles or so from the airport, so it was a bit of a walk, but I was in fairly good shape, so I could get back home in about twenty minutes. The walk was so peaceful. It felt like the most perfect day that was ever made.

When I got home, I sat down and wondered what my parents were thinking. They were probably worried sick. Oh well. They shouldn't have tried to make me go with them to stupid New York anyway. They knew I hated their vacations, I thought to myself. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on. It was on the news. I was just about to change the channel to cartoons, when the anchorman said something that caught my attention. I started paying attention and noticed a picture of the wreckage of a plane.

"There were no survivors found in the wreckage. The bomb was planted under the left wing and is suspected to have been planted by an employee, as airport security sees no other possibility. It exploded eight minutes away from the airport. Again, this was flight 726 and there are no survivors. We have not been given any names of the victims. However, there are a reported seventy-seven people dead. The plane had returned to the airport for an unknown reason after only about a minute in the air. Then, after taking off for the second time, the bomb went off. It is assumed that the bomb was set for twenty minutes."

I turned off the TV and sat there in awe. That was my plane. I should have been dead. And my parents, gone, forever. My whole life was falling apart. I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn't true, but in my heart, I knew it was. I sat there, just simply staring at the TV as if it would somehow bring them back to me. I couldn't cry, at first. I was in a state of shock. I couldn't do anything. But, after about ten minutes of doing nothing, I broke down. Tears poured out of my eyes. This went on for nearly a full hour. I got tired and ended up crying myself to sleep.

Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning and looked around. "Mom? Dad?" I looked everywhere in every room, just to make sure yesterday wasn't a dream. It wasn't. I figured that the Child Protective people would come knocking at my door. I watched TV and waited. No one came. Then I realized, after it came to already be 4 o'clock, everyone thinks I'm dead, too. They think I was on the plane. Then, another thought came into my mind. Why did my plane have the bomb on it? Who did it? And, who did that person want dead? Suddenly, I heard a knock. "I knew they'd come," I muttered to myself. I answered the door. There was a single man standing there, smiling down at me. He had dark gray hair, blue eyes, and was six feet tall. Maybe sixty, sixty-five years old?

"Hello, Jake," the man said.

"Um, hi," I said back.

"I am so sorry for your loss.

"Um, thanks," I said.

" There are a few things we need to discuss. May I come in?"

"Yeah, sure." We sat down at the dining room table.

"You are an only child, correct?"

I nodded.

"All right," he said, writing something down. "And, why weren't you on the plane?"

"Um, I ran back to get my laptop and the plane took off without me," I looked out the window. "Shouldn't there be more of you here?" He looked at me, and then back at the piece if paper.

"Nope, just me. Now, do your parents have a will?"

"No. Do forty year-olds usually have wills?"

"It's just something I have to ask," he said, staring at the piece of paper. "Do you have any other living relatives?"

"Yeah, there's my grandma." I said. Something didn't feel right. Then I remembered. Shouldn't everyone think I'm dead? How did he know I was alive? How did he know where I lived? And most importantly, how in the world did he know my name?

"And where does your grandma live?" I froze. I knew that wasn't supposed to be a question. I was beginning to become scared.

"Um, is that a necessary question?" I asked. He looked at me.

"Please, just answer the question, I have other houses I have to go to. I can't spend all day here," he said.

"Um, I need to use the bathroom, really bad. May I be excused for a moment? It's an emergency," I said.

"Of course. I'll be waiting right here." He said back.

I ran to the bathroom and locked myself in. What was I going to do? This guy should not be here. I was getting pretty freaked out. I pulled out my cell phone and started to dial 9-1-1. I got the nine and the first one dialed in when all of a sudden, the man kicked the door down.

"Aaaaah!" I screamed, "What are you doing?!"

"You little pest! You were supposed to die, but no! You had to find a way out! Well, I won't let you have another chance to survive!" The man clenched his fists and I thought he was going to beat me to death. Instead, he put his fists together, and slowly pulled them apart. There was a suction-like feeling coming from between his fists.

"What's going on! What are you doing?! You're kinda freaking me out, sir!" I shouted at him, trying to understand what was going on.

"Two words you little brat. Black. Hole. That bomb on the plane was for you." He kept pulling his fists apart and suddenly, all the toothbrushes and soap bars got sucked between his fists and vanished.

"What the-" My hair started to get pulled in, making my whole body come toward him. "Stop it! Why are you doing this!" He unclenched his fists. The black hole disappeared. He stared at me, then gave me a look as if to say I was stupid.

"You really don't know, do you?" He rolled his eyes, re-clenched his fists and started over. But, before the black hole got strong, I pushed him over and ran out of the bathroom. I scurried out of the house.

"Help! Help! There's a-" I looked at the world around me. All the houses were gone. Gone as if they never even existed. Not even a trace.

"Ha! You really think you can escape me? No matter where you go, I'll find you. And I will kill you!" the man yelled. I ran as fast as I could. After about ten minutes, I stopped, knelt down for a moment, and tried to catch my breath. I hated having asthma. My inhaler was still in the house and there was no way I was going back there. I stood back up and started running again. I ran and ran. I knew that my legs were about to give out, but it didn't matter. I was going to run as far as I possibly could no matter how bad I needed to rest. I was totally terrified. Was I having a nightmare? I continued running until I started having trouble breathing, feeling lightheaded. Then, I blacked out.

Chapter 3

"W-Where am I?" My vision was blurry, but I could just barely make out the shape of a person.

"You're okay. You're at my house. I'm Auburn. I'm 13. What's your name, and how old are you?" I looked around the room. It was a complete mess. There were magazines scattered all over the floor, dirty clothes everywhere, and various stains on the carpet.

"I'm Jake. I'm 13, too. What happened?" I said staring up at a girl with straight black hair and deep teal eyes. She was very tall for a thirteen year-old girl. Probably five foot seven. She made me feel super short, as I was only five foot five at the time.
"I don't really know. I found you in the middle of the street outside of my house. You were passed out and your heart was beating like crazy."

"I-I remember. That strange man was chasing me, trying to kill me. I kept running to get away from him."

"Um...okay. So, do you need to call your parents to come pick you up?"

"My parents died yesterday in a plane crash."

"Wait, are you talking about the one that had a bomb on it? I'm so sorry." She thought for a moment. "Wait. Why weren't you on it?"

"Y-You're one of them! That's the exact same thing that man said! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!"

"Hey, Jake. Wake up."

"Huh?"

"You passed out again. What is with you? I just wondered why you weren't on the plane. But, fine. You don't have to answer. I won't force you."

"Auburn! Open the door! I forgot the keys!" There was a voice coming from a man outside the front door. He sounded very drunk.

"Coming!" Auburn ran to the door and unlocked it. "Hey, Dad. This is is Jake. I found him lying-"

"Who is that? I told you if I ever caught you with a boy in this house I would make him regret it! Did he touch you?" He turned to me. "I'm gonna kill you, boy!"

"Dad, no! I found him passed out on the str-"

"I'll teach you to mess with my daughter!" Her dad shouted. He grabbed a wooden chair and threw it at me. I narrowly avoided it.

"I didn't do anything! Stop, please! I'll leave!" It was no use. He wouldn't stop. He picked up a beer bottle and threw it right at my face.

"Ow! Stop it!" I felt the warm sensation of blood dripping down my face. I felt the glass inside of my skin.

"Daddy, please stop! He didn't do anything!" Her dad picked up a knife with at least a five-inch blade. I covered my face with my hands.

"Stop it, dad! Please!" Auburn was nearly in tears. Suddenly, out of nowhere, her dad froze. He was totally, utterly stiff. I slowly put down my hands. I looked at Auburn.

"What did you do to him?" I asked as I stared at her.

"I-I don't know. He just... froze. Did I make him freeze?" She asked as if I knew what had just happened.

"I don't know. Did you?" I asked her back.

"I guess I did. I...can I unfreeze him?" In my head I was really hoping that she couldn't unfreeze him.

"Hopefully. But before you try, maybe you should, oh, I don't know, lay him in a bed or something. You know, make him think he was dreaming," I told her. She nodded.

"All right, I'll do that. You wait outside. I don't want that to happen again. I'll come out if I unfreeze him. And if I can't unfreeze him..." She paused. "Then, I guess I'll still come out."

"All right." So I went outside and waited. I was standing there for about fifteen minutes. I was about to leave, but she finally came out.

"I did it! I unfroze him. He's inside resting. I still don't know how it happened, though. This is just so weird."

"Well, what did you do when he froze?"

"Well, I really wanted him to stop, and then he froze."

"And when you unfroze him...?"

"I really wanted him to unfreeze. And he did."

"So...you can freeze and unfreeze people?" I asked.

"Um..."

"Wow. That's amazing! You have the ability to freeze and unfreeze people," I said.

"Yeah, I guess I can. I wonder if there's anyone else out there that can do it or if I'm the only one," she wondered as we went back inside. We ate a few snacks, watched TV, and talked a bit.

"So, you said something about a man wanting to kill you. What is that all about?"

"Well, I was in my house, and there was a knock at the door. So, I answered it. He acted like he was part of the Child Protective Agency or something. But he asked weird questions, so I got skeptical. I told him I needed to go to the bathroom. So I was in the bathroom and all of a sudden, the man kicked down the door and started saying how I was supposed to die in the plane. He started making a black hole and tried to suck me in. When I ran outside, all the houses were gone. I managed to get away and I kept running and running and I guess I passed out and ended up here."

"Wait. So, did you ever go to the bathroom?"

"What?

"You said you went into the bathroom, and he kicked down the door. Did you ever get to go to the bathroom?"

"No! I just told him that so I could think."

"So you can't think unless you're by a toilet?"

"What? No. I wanted to be alone to figure out what I should do."

"So, you didn't have to go to the bathroom."

"No! Why are you acting so focused on my bathroom habits?"

"I dunno. I was just curious."

"Well, can we not talk about it any-" There was a knock on the door.

"Who could that be?" Auburn wondered.

"Don't. Open. The door."

Chapter 4

"Why can't I open the door?" Auburn asked.

"I think it's him."

"Who?" She asked.

"The man! He knows I'm here!"

"Oh, come on. Do you really think I'm going to believe tha-" Boom! The door fell inwards. The man that tried to kill me walked in.

"It's him! We gotta get outta here!" I screamed. I grabbed Auburn's arm and asked her where the back door was.

"It's back there! Why does he want you dead? Did you do something to him?"

"I don't know! He's crazy! Come on, we have to go!"

"I'm coming. Wait, what about my dad?"

"Are there any more beer bottles in your house?"

"Yeah!"

"I think he'll be fine!" We ran out the back door and hopped a few fences, avoiding three yappy dogs and a rottweiler, not to mention the fact that we got soaked with a sprinkler, which actually felt good, seeing as it was somewhere around a hundred degrees. We kept running for a while. After we had gotten about a mile or so away from Auburn's house, I tripped over my shoelace and the two of us took a hard fall onto the blistering hot tar of the street.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" She said, frustratedly. I stood back up and helped her get back to her feet.

"Sorry, I tripped. I think we're safe, though." Auburn looked around nervously, making sure we weren't followed.

"Let's call the police. Then, maybe they can catch that crazy man and he won't be able to hurt anyone," Auburn suggested.

"Oh, right. And tell them that there's a guy that makes black holes, kicks down doors, blew up a plane, made a whole town disappear, and wants to kill us?"

"Hmm," She said. "Good point. Now what?"

"I don't know. What do people normally do when they're getting chased by a psychotic freak that wants to suck them into a black whole generated from them clenching their fists, putting them together, and slowly pulling them apart?"

"Well-"

"It was rhetorical," I told her. "We need to think of a plan. What do you think we should do now. We should have a little time to think before that nut finds us." Auburn thought for a moment. She lit up.

"We could have fun freezing people. There's this one kid in my class that is so annoying. I mean what kind of a person puts hot glue on a chair and tells someone to sit on it? My butt was stuck to that thing for hours! The custodian had to come and use some kind of solvent to get me off. And then another time he switched our report cards and I got grounded for three weeks for failing five classes until his dad finally figured out what happened. And then there was that one time when he emailed a virus to my computer and-"

"Auburn! We can't just go around freezing people."

"But he's so annoying. Couldn't we just zip by his house real quick and freeze him. Oh! And then we could glue his butt to a chair. And we could put whipped cream and lipstick on his face and take pictures of him and post them on the Internet! Oh! And we could shave funny words in hair and we could dye it pur-"

"Auburn!" She pouted.

"All right, all right. Well, if we can't freeze him, what do you think we should do, oh master of brilliant ideas?" She gave me a snotty look.

"Well, Miss Sticky Butt, I think we should go back to my house. Maybe I'll find something there that will help us out. I just hope he didn't ruin everything in my house."

So we started back up and headed to my humble abode.

Chapter 5

"Well, it doesn't look like he messed up too much." I said as we both walked into my room. I crouched down and looked under my bed.

"So, what exactly do you think you're going to find?"

"Well, my mom used to always tell a bedtime story about a little boy that crawled under his bed every night and would imagine all sorts of wonderful things."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Well, the boy would always pretend to go on different adventures and stuff while he was under his bed and would always find amazing treasures."

"And?"
"Well, I got to thinking, maybe there's supposed to be something under my bed," I said as I reached under my mattress, "Wait! What's this?" I picked up a little piece of paper. It had a note written on it. I read it out loud.

"Jake. There is so much about you that is special. You are one of a kind. We have been keeping something from you. When you were young, five, to be exact, you drew a picture of a little bird. You showed it to me and pretended to pet it. Suddenly, the bird came to life. It flew away. I don't know why or how it happened, but ever since that day, we made sure we never let you draw again. We just want you to know that if you are ever in trouble, you can draw a picture and you will be able to make it come to life by touching it and wishing that it were alive. We love you and hope for the best for you.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Auburn stared at me.

"You pet...a picture?" Auburn asked.

"Is that really the most important thing you picked up from the letter?" I said. "It says that I can bring pictures... to life."

"Well, maybe you should draw something on the back of the note and see if it, you know, comes to life." Auburn suggested.

"Good idea." So I decided to draw a rock. Hey, I was 13 and stupid. I wasn't exactly thinking about drawing a million dollars.

"A rock? Really?"

"Look, can I just touch it without you getting on my case?"

"Fine. Go ahead." So I reached my hand down and laid it on top of the paper. I focused on making the rock real. I concentrated as hard as I could. Centered all my energy into making the rock come into existence.

"Nothing's happening, Auburn. Why won't it work?"

"Maybe because normal people can't make pictures come to life and you happen to be a normal person."

"But, why would my parents write that note if it wasn't tr- whoa! I feel all tingly." My whole body started having the same feeling as when your foot falls asleep. It was something that I had never felt before in my life. Suddenly, I felt a slight jolt in my head, as if a pulse of electricity had been shot into my brain.

"Ow!"

"Jake! Look! There's a rock right next to you! You did it!"

"I... I can't believe it. Do you know what this means?"

"We're both freaks of nature?" Auburn said. I rolled my eyes.

"No. Together, we might be able to stop the Eliminator," I said.

"Who's the Eliminator?"
"It's my nickname for the crazy guy that wants to kill me. And if we work together, I'm sure we can stop him," I said. Auburn started to think.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder. Do you think he wants to kill me, too?" Auburn asked.

"Wait. Why would he want to kill you?"
"Um, hello!" She snapped, "I have the ability to freeze people! Why would he want to kill just one person with an ability when he has the opportunity to kill two people with an ability? It would only make sense."
"Good point," I said. I started to feel weird. "Come on, let's get out of here. I have a bad feeling that he's gonna show up here soon."

"Where are we gonna go?"

"You'll see."

Chapter 6

We had been walking for about twenty-five minutes through a heavily forested area. Mosquitoes and gnats were bombarding us mercilessly. I was used to it, though. Grandma used to take me out on long hikes when I was eight. You know, before she lost her mind.

"Come on, Jake. Where are we going? We've been walking for hours," Auburn exaggerated. We came to a clearing. I stopped walking. Auburn ran into me.

"We're here. See that house over there?"

"Yeah."

"That's my grandma's house. We can stay there for the time being. The Eliminator asked me where my grandma lived, but I didn't give him an answer, so he shouldn't be able to find us. At least, not in the near future." We walked up to the door. I knocked.

"Who is it?" It was my grandma's nurse.

"It's Jake. Can I come in?"

"Coming." She opened the door. "Hi Jake. What are you doing here?"

"Um, we were wondering if we could-"

"Is this your girlfriend?" She interrupted. That question caught me totally off guard.

"What?! No! We just met!" I said real quick. Auburn blushed. The nurse looked around.

"Where are your parents?" She obviously didn't know about the crash. Of course, grandma doesn't have a TV, so it would be kinda hard to find out.

"Um, they're in New York. On vacation."

"Why aren't you there with them?"

"I didn't feel like going...uh...Are those croissants?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Um...no...those are your grandma's dentures," she said, staring at me like I had lost my mind. I looked at my feet.

"Oh. Right. Um, well this is Auburn. Would it be okay if we stayed here for a few days?"

"Sure! We'd love it if you stayed here! Wouldn't we, Elaine?" The nurse asked my grandma, who was in her lounge chair by the fireplace and tiger rug. Grandma hunted back in the day. Way back in the day.

"What? Who are those two children. Do they have cookies?" My grandma was having one of her slow moments.

"Hey grandma, it's me, Jake," I said.

"Jake! Well, how have you been doing? I haven't seen you in such a long time. You've grown so much." She gave me a hug. "Wait. What happened to those two lovely kids with cookies?" Grandma asked.

"Never mind that. My friend and I are going to be staying here for a little while. We'll use mom's old room."

"How nice," she said. She scanned Auburn over. "Is that your girlfriend, dear?" Grandma walked up to my ear and whispered, "You could have done much better." Auburn's jaw dropped. Oh boy. I was afraid something like that would happen. Now, Auburn is a very attractive girl. But, like most girls, she couldn't handle one little insult.

"Excuse me?" Auburn turned to me. "Did she seriously just insult me?" Auburn was frazzled.

"Just follow me." I grabbed her arm and took her upstairs. We walked into a room. It had two beds. Both were frilly. One was yellow and one was orange. It was my mom's and her sister's old room. My aunt had died at the age of twelve, so I never really met her. I looked at Auburn. "Don't worry. With her bum knee she can't even come up here. We'll be safe from her evil words," I said, trying to lighten up her mood.

"That is the rudest woman I have ever met! What's wrong with me? I would be, like, the perfect girlfriend."
"I'm sure you would. Come on. Let's rest a bit."

"So I'm just supposed to let the fact that she thinks I'm a-a...worthless piece of garbage go? I'm a lot more attractive than that old hag."

"Auburn, she's an eighty-four year old woman. She doesn't even know what she's talking about half of the time. She probably doesn't even know who she is. Give her a break."

"Whatever. I still don't like her," she said.

"Wonderful. Now, choose a bed," I said. Auburn frowned and let out a big sigh.

"Fine. I want the one by the window."

"Great. Now rest up. We have a lot of things we have to do tomorrow."

Chapter 7

The next morning, I woke up at about 6:30. Auburn was still asleep. In fact, everyone was. I sneaked out of the room and went down the creaky stairs, hoping I wouldn't wake anyone up. I opened the refrigerator to get a snack. Problem was, there was nothing good. I decided that I needed to do some shopping. New problem. I had no money. However, I knew where Grandma kept her money. In the oven. I grabbed twenty bucks and headed out the front door. Don't judge me. I went to the Fast Mart two blocks away. I grabbed two bags of chips, a bottle of lemonade, and a cake. What can I say, I like cake.

"That'll be fourteen dollars and twenty-seven cents." I handed the clerk the money.

"Keep the change." I said and walked out. I could tell the clerk was stunned at what I had just said. It probably totally screwed up their system since I paid more than I should have. By the time I got back, everyone was awake. Auburn ran up to me.

"Where on earth have you been?! Your insane grandma just tried to give me a bath!" Auburn screamed. "She said that I smelled bad! Can you believe that?! I smell perfectly fine! I mean, she tried to take my clothes off, for the love of God! Why isn't she in a nursing home? She's obviously a total nutcase!"

"Auburn, chill out. I was just out getting some food. Here, have a cake." I said, handing the cake to her with a cheesy smile.

"Forget about the stupid cake!" she shouted, throwing the cake on the ground. "I want to get out of here."

"Where else do you think we're gonna go? Grandma isn't that bad." Truth is, she was that bad. But the last thing I needed was for Auburn to go get herself into trouble. But, Auburn being the girl she is, did exactly that.

"Well if you won't leave with me, I'll leave alone!" Auburn shouted, storming out of the house.

"Auburn, wait! Where will you go?" She turned toward me, anger in her eyes.

"How should I know? But, as long as it's away from here, then it doesn't really matter to me." She snapped, stomping away. Grandma had really done it that time. All of a sudden, when Auburn was about a yard away from the front door, a man ran up to her and put his hand over her face. She struggled for a moment, then, her body became limp. The man dragged her away.

"Auburn!" I screamed. I ran as fast as I could to catch up with the man, who I assumed was the Eliminator. "Stop! You kidnapper!" The man started picking up speed. Faster. Faster. My legs were about to give out. Suddenly, I realized, he must have been running at least fifty miles per hour! Soon they vanished over the horizon.

"Auburn!"

Chapter 8

There was no way that I was going to let him get away with that. Only problem was, I had no idea where he was going. Or did I? I looked on the ground a few feet ahead of me. I guess what the man didn't realize, was that he was running so fast, he made a huge rut in the ground. Idiot. I decided to follow it. I knew that if there was any chance that I was going to see Auburn again, I had to. The trail seemed to go on forever. On the way, all I could think about was how I didn't want my existence to ruin someone else's life. I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I wasn't running at full speed, but I was still getting pretty tired. I'm sure you would too after jogging for over an hour straight. All of a sudden, a little girl with a shirt on that said "Aria" on it ran up to me. She was no older than five.

"Mister, something's wrong with my daddy! He won't wake up!"

"Do you know how it happened?" I ran toward where a man in his late 30's was lying on the ground.

"A man was running with a girl and Daddy asked him what he was doing. Then he put his hand over his face and Daddy fell asleep."

"That's just like Auburn!" I said. I had no idea how to wake him up.

"Wake him up! Please! I'm scared!" I decided I should make the kid feel better, so I stayed calm and tried to ensure her that her dad would be all right.

"I'm sure he'll wake up in a few hours." I took his dad into his house and laid him on a bed.

"Okay."

"Bye," I said, walking away. I started back up, following the rut. I followed it for such a long time. I didn't know if it would ever end. The whole time, I had been looking at the rut. I hadn't even noticed that I was in a ghost town, until, of course, I got hit in the head by a rock. I rubbed my head and looked around.

"Ow! Who did that?"

"Turn around, moron." I turned around. It was Auburn!

"How did you get away?!" I asked her, running up to her.

"Well, the jerk that grabbed me took me into a shack up over there. When I woke up, I saw the man staring at me. And I was tied up with ropes to a chair. He said that I was gonna have to stay there until his "boss" got there. He started reading a newspaper. Little did he know, I had a pocketknife in my pocket. Dumbo wasn't very good at his job. I took it out, and cut myself free. I grabbed a hammer I saw on the floor, sneaked up on him, and slammed it against his face. He was out cold. Serves him right. No one kidnaps me and gets away with it. The nerve. Of course, he's lucky I didn't gouge his stupid eyeballs out with my knife."

"And then you came here?"

"Well, there's more. I tied him up with some other ropes he had in there. Then, as I was leaving, the Eliminator showed up. He started to reach his arm out, but there was no way I was gonna let him touch me."

"Wait. So the kidnapper wasn't the Eliminator?"

"Nope. It was some other guy that I've never seen in my life. So anyway, he reached out toward me, but I ducked around him, and I ran as fast as I could and ended up here." She thought for a moment. "I have a question for you. Why didn't you draw something that would save me? I mean would that have been so hard? I've been wandering around for hours out here."

"Because I... that never came to mind. Hey, I'm new to this, okay. I was a little bit more concerned about saving your life than making something."

"Well, maybe next time I get kidnapped, you could save me a bit quicker."

"All right! I get it! So the Eliminator didn't follow you here?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Well, that's good. Now, can we please go back to my grandma's house before he ends up finding us?"

"If you think I'm gonna walk all the way back to your stupid, delusional, degrading, snobby, witch-"

"Relax!" I said before she thought of something mean to say about my grandma. "I drew these before I left a little boy's house." I said, handing her rocket-powered shoes. She snatched them out of my hands and smiled at me.

"Sweet!"

Chapter 9

"Hey Grandma! We're back!" Grandma walked out of the den and confronted us.

"Did you bring the cookies?" Grandma asked.

"Um," I said.

"Well, we would have, but it turns out that cookies have been banned in the United States until further notice." Auburn said.

"But. why would the government do that?"

"Well, apparently it's because they make the elderly become irritating and get uncontrollable butt hair." Auburn said gleefully to my Grandma. I have to admit, it was funny.

"Is that so, dear? Well, that's fine. Now, about that bath." Auburn had already ran up the stairs. I looked at Grandma.

"Um, she's allergic to water," I said, following right behind Auburn. We went into the guest room upstairs.

"Well, now what are we supposed to do?" Auburn asked. I had an idea.

"Here's what I've been thinking. We should put an ad up on the internet that says that we're looking for people with amazing talents. You know, we could ask them to tell us about their talent in an email. Then we would know if they were like us and worth looking into. And then, maybe we could get a crew of people to help us stop the Eliminator."

"That's a great idea!" Auburn exclaimed. So we put an ad up on the internet and waited for responses. After waiting for a while we fell asleep. I woke up to a beep, and noticed that Auburn was asleep in my lap. I rolled her off of me and she fell onto the carpeted floor with a thud.

"Auburn! Get up!" I shouted at her. She woke up embarrassed. "We got a bunch of responses." I said looking at them. The first one said something about shooting milk out of his nose. The next one was about a girl that could eat twenty hotdogs in seven minutes. The third one was from a boy that said he could talk with his mouth shut. The fourth one was from a girl that said she could sleep through anything. And then there was this one from a thirty year-old woman that said I was her long lost love and wanted to meet with me so I could give her money. We looked through over fifty responses and were about to give up, until we finally saw one that showed a bit of promise. A fifteen year-old girl living on her own in Springfield, Illinois that said she can become pure electricity and travel through electrical wires. So, I emailed her my grandma's address. She replied saying that she was on her way. Now the question was: How long does it take for electricity to travel long distances?

Chapter 10

"Jake! There's someone here to see you!" Grandma shouted up the stairs. Auburn and I rushed down the stairs and went up to the front door. Standing there was a girl with short blonde hair and a few patches of freckles.

"Hi, I'm Veronica, Veronica Seldings. Are you Jake and Auburn?" The girl at the door asked.

"Yeah, I'm Jake and this is Auburn."

"Oh, really? I thought you were Auburn." I looked at her funny. "I was kidding," she said.

"Come on," Auburn said, "Let's go outside. There are electrical wires out there."

"Did someone say wires?" The nurse ran up to us. "No one goes near the wires, you hear? They're dangerous."

"Wires? We were talking about fires. You know, all the wild fires because of the extreme heat and stuff. What would we do with wires anyway?" I said.

"Just don't do anything stupid," she warned us.

"Don't worry! We've never done anything dangerous in our lives!" Auburn told her. The nurse raised an eyebrow, then walked away.

We headed on out and walked over to the power lines. I kept thinking to myself God I hope she's not just some crazy girl that thinks she has powers.

"All right, I need to concentrate." Veronica told us. She touched one of the wires in the backyard. She closed her eyes and poof! She was a huge shimmering ball of electricity. I felt heat radiating from her.

"Oh my God! I can't believe it! She actually did it!" I asked her if I could touch her. The ball of electricity moved away so I kinda figured that was a no. I guess I would have been shocked silly if I would have touched her. She changed back into a person.

"So, are you impressed?" She asked.

"That was amazing!" Auburn exclaimed.

"Just make sure no one touches me when I'm like that. Otherwise you could become paralyzed or even die."

"How do you know?" I asked her.

"Well, when I was eleven, I somehow managed to turn into electricity while my mom and dad were hugging me. My parents started screaming. I didn't know how to change back. My mom's heart stopped and she died instantly. My dad had third degree burn all over his body and he was knocked unconscious. I was finally able to turn back into myself. I called an ambulance. When they got there they asked me how it had happened. I-I didn't want to get arrested, so I told them I was in my room when it happened, and I heard them scream, so I ran out to see what was going on. They took my dad to the hospital, but he died on the way there. I managed to avoid having to go to some dumb orphanage by running away. I spent my time on the run figuring out how to control my ability," she said. Then she gave us an eerie look. "When I was thirteen, a man walked up to me and started making a black hole. Before he could hurt me, I ran away from him and have never seen him since." She paused and looked down. "I'll still never forgive myself for killing my parents."

"Wow, I'm so sorry." I said, trying to comfort her. I could tell she wanted to cry.

"Yeah, but it's all right. I've met you two. I know I'm not alone. So, what can you two do?" She asked.

"I can make pictures come to life."

"I can freeze people. Not with, like, ice or anything. Just, like, make them stop moving."

"Wow! That's awesome! So why exactly did you want me to come here?" She asked.

"Well, we just so happened to encounter that black hole-making freak. He tried to kill us both. Also, we now know that there's another one. One that can run super fast. He kidnapped Auburn."

"Why are they targeting people with these abilities? I mean, they have abilities, too." Veronica wondered.

"I guess he doesn't want anyone else to be like him. Maybe he wants to be unique." Auburn suggested.

"I was thinking that maybe you could travel through some wires and find him. Then, you could tell us where he was, and we could stop him." I told them.

"All right. I'll do it." Veronica said without hesitation.

Chapter 11

So Veronica turned back into the ball of electricity and went into an electrical wire. When she went into the wire, you could tell where she was because it was slightly thicker than the other parts. She said that she can travel as fast as real electricity, so I was hoping she would find the Eliminator pretty quickly. After about half a minute, Veronica was back. She changed back into herself.

"I found him! He's in a stone building on the corner of Mayfree and Jensen Avenue, a few blocks away. He was there with three other guys. Come on! Follow me!" So we followed her in the wires. It was hard to keep up, but Auburn and I made sure we didn't lose her.

"Hey," Auburn started, "There's a stone building right there!" Veronica came out of the wire.

"That's it. That's where they are."

"Here, let me draw something real quick." I took out a piece of paper from my pocket and drew a picture of a pepper spray can and a knockout gas bomb. I put my hand on the pictures. I concentrated as much as possible. I started to feel tingly. Here it comes I thought to myself. A jolting pain went through my brain.

"Ow!" The items were there, right in front of me. I picked them up and asked, "Everyone ready?"

"Yep." They both said in unison. I ran up to a window and busted it. The four men in there turned and stared at me.

"Sweet dreams!" I shouted, as I tossed the knockout gas in the hole.

"What the-" one of them said. Two of the men had already collapsed, but the other two had realized what was going on and they ran out the back door.

"I'll get them!" Auburn shouted. She started to chase them.

"Wait!" I shouted at her. She turned.

"What?" She asked.

"Let them go. We have two of them. Let's start with what we've got."

"Fine." We walked into the house. I drew ropes and duct tape and made them a reality. We tied them up and duct taped their mouths shut. We waited for them to wake up.

"Mrrgh." One of them said. He opened his eyes.

"That's the guy that kidnapped me!" Auburn screamed.

"Mmmr! Mrt mr mgr." The man grunted. I ripped the tape off of his mouth, removing his bushy mustache. "Let me go!"

"If you think we're dumb enough that we just let you go free, then you're crazy." Veronica told him.

"Why are you guys trying to kill us?" I asked him. He turned away. "And if you won't talk, we'll spray you with pepper spray."

"You'll never get me to talk."

"You just did, moron." Auburn said with a smile.

"Shut up." The man growled.

"Fine. Then I'll make you talk." I held up the mace and sprayed it all over his face.

"Aah! Stop it you brat! Stop it! Aah, it burns!" At this point, the other guy woke up.

"Hey you. Maybe you'll answer our questions." Veronica said, ripping the tape off of him.

"Or do you want pepper spray all over your ugly face?" Auburn asked him.

"What do you want from me?" I could tell he was probably the least experienced of the two. He only looked about fourteen. It was such a shame that kids got into such bad things. I knew I could break him.

"First of all, what's your name?" I asked him.

"Brendan, um Rogers."

"What's his name?" I asked, pointing at the other man.

"Kurt." He told me.

"Shut up!" Kurt yelled at him.

"What's your ability?" I asked Brendan.

"I can stretch. My body is like rubber. Now let me go."

"Not so fast. What are you people trying to do? Why do you want other people with abilities dead?" Auburn asked. He hesitated.

"I can't say. They'll kill me."

"Darn right, we will." The man I sprayed with pepper spray said. I sprayed him again. He shouted in pain.

"Well, either they could kill you, or I could draw a knife and slowly make you bleed out." I told him.

"No! Please! I'll tell you. We want people with abilities dead so they won't stop our plans!" He said really fast.

"What plans?" I asked.

"I don't know! They haven't told me! They were about to, until you came." He told us.

"Will you shut up?!" The other man said.

"Guys, come here." I told the others. "I think we could use him on our team."

"What! But he's a bad guy!" Auburn said.

"Jake has a point. He could prove to be very useful." Veronica said. I walked over to Brendan.

"Okay, here's the deal. I like you. And since the other guys are gonna try and kill you no matter what, since you told us everything, I want you to join us. What do you say?"

"Um," he looked over at the other guy. "Sure, just get me out of here before they try to kill me."

"As long as you're with us, we'll do anything we can to keep you safe." I told him. I untied him. Then, I was about to call the police to get the other guy, but I realized, they wouldn't do anything. They would think we were crazy. I decided to do something different. I drew a hole on the ground and made it real. Then I drew a huge rock and made it real. I threw Kurt down the hole and covered it with the rock. He would die down there due to lack of oxygen. And that's what I wanted. I didn't care about him. My parents were dead, and it's partly his fault. He deserved to die as far as I was concerned. I know it's wrong to kill people, but I was enraged.

"Come on guys, let's get out of here." I told my friends.

"Where are we gonna go?" Brendan asked.

"We're going back to my grandma's house."

Chapter 12

"Where have you been?" Grandma's nurse asked. "And who is he?"

"Oh, this is Brendan. He's an old friend. We were out at the bowling alley. We'll be upstairs. Could you tell us when supper is ready?" I asked, saying everything as if it were just one super-long sentence.

"Um, sure." We ran upstairs.

"Okay, Brendan. We need a little bit more information from you. Where do you live?"

"I don't live anywhere. My parents are dead.

"Okay, um...who's that guy that makes black holes?"

"That's Marcelo Rodriguez. He's the leader. His abilities are black hole generation and making illusions.

"So that's how he made my neighborhood disappear. With an illusion!" I said. "And who was the other guy that escaped?"
"That was Vince Castello. He can shape-shift." Auburn gasped.

"Whoa. That means that he could be here right now, and we wouldn't even know it." Auburn said, looking around the room.

"I'm sure he's not here, Auburn." Veronica told her.

"I know, I know. But you can never be too careful." Auburn said, looking around nervously.

"So, are there more than just the four of you?" I asked Brendan.

"Oh yes. There are about forty of them. At least that I know of. There could be more of them out there. There's a movement to get people with abilities on their side. And the ones that don't join them, they eliminate."

"Now I get it. They're planning to gather people with abilities, and they're gonna pull something big. I don't know what it is, but it'll be big." I said.

"They have to be stopped!" Auburn was getting furious, "Where do they get off killing people just because they don't want to join their stupid group? They have no right to force people to do something that they don't want to do."

"My question is: How did we all get these powers?" I wondered.

"Yeah. How did we get abilities and other people don't have any? " Veronica asked.

"The boss said that it had something to do with a pill."

"A pill? What kind of pill?" Auburn asked.

"It was a pill that somehow affected babies. I think it had something to do with the parents- no, wait. The mother of a person with an ability. Did your moms happen to take any kind of pill when they were pregnant?"

"I don't know, maybe," I thought for a moment." Yeah! There was some sort of a pill my mom said she took when she was pregnant that the doctor said would ensure that I would be full-term. She said it worked, too."

"Yeah! My mom took one of those, too!" Auburn said.

"Oh my God! My mom did, too!" Veronica shouted.

"I remember! The boss said he went to a bunch of random hospitals and took the identity of different doctors. He gave out pills to the pregnant women he met, saying the pill would take them to full-term. And it worked. The only thing was that there was a side effect. Their kids would have abilities. Actually, up to two abilities."

"I can't believe it." Auburn said. "I can't believe my mom would be dumb enough to trust that jerk."

"He waited until all of the kids that were affected were thirteen, and either got them on his team, or killed them. His goal was to make a team of people with abilities to fulfill his plan. But, I don't know what the plan is exactly." Brendan said.

"Well, that's what we're gonna have to figure out." I said.

Chapter 13

"Kids! Supper's ready!" The nurse shouted up the stairs. We headed down.

"What kind of grub did you make?" I asked.

"We have salad, toast, and fruit." The nurse replied. My friends and I just stared at her. That wasn't exactly the kind of food teenagers like to eat.

"And I ordered pizza. I was a kid once, too. You guys like pepperoni?" She asked. We all told her yes. So we sat down. I was kinda dreading it. I had no idea what kinds of conversation we would have.

"So, young lady," Grandma said, motioning to Veronica, "Are you Jake's girlfriend? You're a very attractive girl." I looked down. Great. Wonderful conversation starter. Auburn just stared at Grandma.

"Oh no, I'm not his girlfriend. We just met." Veronica chuckled, "Jake, I don't get how you were born. I mean, having a forty year-old grandma and all. Your parents must be ten," Veronica said, lying through her teeth trying to impress Grandma's.

"Oh, you're such a sweet girl. You should really consider Jake. I want at least eight grandchildren and until he gets a girlfriend, there isn't a chance that I'll have any." Auburn looked like she was about to punch my grandma's lights out.

"Grandma, please. You're embarrassing me."

"Oh, come now Jake, you finally found a winner. I'm just trying to help you along." Auburn was literally turning red.

"I need to pee." Auburn said calmly as she walked to the newly refurbished bathroom.

"Excuse me ma'am. Could you pass the salad." Brendan asked my grandma.

"Here you go." She turned to me. "So Jake, is this young lady your girlfriend? She's very pretty." There went her Alzheimer's again.

"No, Grandma. She's not my girlfriend. She's actually a trained assassin. She's already killed seventy people and she's only fifteen." My grandma looked surprised. Veronica just stared at me.

"I didn't know they were still hiring aspirins. Does it give good pay?"

"Well, she gets twenty cents a year." I told her. Veronica was still staring.

"Oh my! You must be filthy rich. Do you have a Bel Aire?" There went Grandma thinking we were still in the 50's.

"No Grandma. She drives a Pinto." Veronica was still staring at me and didn't show signs of stopping.

"Oh! How fancy!" Sometimes I just don't get that woman.

"Okay, I'm back." Auburn sat back down.

"Oh, it's you! Did you bring my cookies."

"Actually, there are some in your ear," Auburn told her. Grandma looked confused as she was feeling her ears.

"I don't feel them," Grandma said.

"You're lack of brain must have eaten them," Auburn said.

"But...a brain doesn't have a mouth," Grandma said looking the most confused I had ever seen her.

"Elaine, there are no cookies, dear," the nurse said. No one said anything for the rest of the meal.

"Hey, guys. Let's go back upstairs." I told the gang. So without a word, we went back upstairs.

Chapter 14

"Your grandma is such a bi-"

"Auburn! Settle down! I'm sure she doesn't mean to make you feel like lowly hobo that has no reason to be alive."

"Ugh. Whatever."

"Why did you keep making me sound bad in front of your grandma?" Veronica asked.

"I... look... it's... you...ugh. Look can we just start thinking of a plan?" I said changing the subject.

"Plan for what?" Brendan wondered.

"Plan for taking down the Eliminator." I said.

"Is that your name for Marcelo?" Brendan asked me.

"Yeah. So anyways, we need to stop him before he takes any more lives."

"How do we find him, though?" Auburn asked.

"I know where he is." A voice behind us said. We turned. It was the Eliminator with some other guy! We all screamed. Then, my memory went blank.

I woke up behind bars. I woke the others.

"Well, it's about time you delinquents woke up. It's already morning" The Eliminator said.

"Let us go, you psycho!" I yelled.

"Ha! I'll let you go all right. Down into the chasm below." I looked down. We were in a cage, dangling over a cliff. Auburn and Veronica screamed.

"Don't do this! Please!" I screamed at him. He laughed. The bottom of the cage dropped out. We all started to fall. I was sure it was the end. Then, I realized I had a pen in my pocket. I took it out and drew an enormous pillow on my leg. I concentrated and made it real. I threw it down as hard as I could. The problem was, we were heavier than the pillow so we fell faster than it. Then, I looked over at Brendan. He was huge... and flat. He had stretched himself out. He kicked his shoes off and grabbed on to the cliffs with his hands and feet. He managed to catch all of us on his back.

"Now what!?" Auburn shouted at Brendan.

"Climb down the side of the cliff!" He shouted back. "We don't want to go back to the Eliminator!" So we all headed to the sides of the cliffs.

"Wait. Lemme draw harnesses and ropes and stuff. You know, so we don't die." I drew on my leg again. "Here you go." So we climbed down the the bottom of the cliff. It took forever.

"We made it!" Auburn shouted. She ran up to me and hugged me. She backed off. "Sorry. Um. Yay."

Chapter 15

I could hear the Eliminator yell at the other guy with him. Then, there was a long yell. The Eliminator had pushed the man over the cliff. He slammed into the ground five feet away from us. His guts went everywhere. Including on Auburn.

"Ew! I have gunk all over me! How on earth do we get out of here? This place looks endless. Isn't there an elevator somewhere? I do not want to walk my way out of this place. And the sun is so hot." Auburn complained.

"Look, we're alive. That's what's important." Veronica snapped back. Auburn stuck her tongue out at her.

"Guys! Come on, we need to find a way out." I grabbed my pen. I attempted to draw a hot air balloon on my arm. I realized no ink was coming out. "Great, my pen is out of ink. Just my luck." I threw the dried-up pen at the ground and looked up only to see the Eliminator staring down at us.

"Let's just start walking. We'll get somewhere at some point." Brendan suggested. "I wonder where we are. St. Louis doesn't have any canyons, right?"

"No, not that I know of. I mean, there are the Ozarks in the southern part of Missouri, but I doubt that this is what they look like. This place seems almost desert-like. Auburn, what do you think?" I said.

"I hate walking." Auburn complained.

"Stop being such a baby. Maybe it'll help you lose that bulging belly of yours." Veronica said back.

"What! Are you calling me fat?"

"Well, I'm not talking to the rock over there."

"I'll throw a rock at you if you don't shut your mouth you stupid piece of poop."

"Wow, that was probably the single worst comeback that I have ever heard in my entire life. And believe me, I've heard quite a few." I decided to just stay out of it for the time-being. I figured they would resolve it themselves.

"I can't believe you. For being fifteen, you sure are immature." Auburn sounded like she was about to strangle Veronica. I don't get why girls can never get along. Especially when they're around a boy.

"Why don't you do us all a favor and go find a rock and bash your head in so that maybe, you look a bit more appealing!"

"Maybe I will so I don't have to hear your manly voice!"

"Manly! My voice is not manly, little Miss mustache!"

"I do not have a mustache! Jake! Tell her I don't have a mustache!" I stayed quiet.

"Awww, is little Miss mustache concerned about what Jake thinks? We all know that you're madly in love with him."

"I am not! Leave me alone!"

"Auburn and Jake, sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-"

"Shut up!"

"Make me, you mutt. No wonder your dad is a drunkard. He has to deal with you. And what, did your mom kill herself out of embarrassment of having you as a daughter?" That was where I had to step in.

"Guys! Will you both just shut up! Is it really that hard to get along? I know that both of you are in love with me, so stop it! If I hear one more word from either of you, I'll make Brendan stretch out and lift you back up to the top of the cliff so the Eliminator can suck you into a black hole. Did I make myself clear?"

They both stared at the ground and nodded. I always thought that I was immature. But seeing those two fight? I realized I was probably the most mature in the group.

"Hey! Look over there." Brendan was pointing at a buggy coming toward us.

"Hey! Help us! We're lost!" I shouted. The driver drove up to us. He was a man, maybe in his mid-thirties. He had a buzz cut and talked like a cowboy. He was a fairly buff guy.

"Howdy. What are y'all doing down here? This here is one of the most dangerous parts of the Grand Canyon."

"Grand Canyon!" We all said in unison. We stared at each other.

Chapter 16

The man took us to a shanty in the canyon and introduced himself. "My name is Ian. Now tell me, what on earth are you doing down here?"

"We were on vacation with our families. We got separated from our parents." Brendan told Ian.

"Oh? In my thirteen years of being a canyon guide, this hasn't happened even once. Did you call your parents with one of them portable phone things?"

"Um, our parents don't believe in having... portable phone things." I said.

"I see... well, I reckon I'll be able to get y'all outta here."

"Thank you so much!" Auburn said, elated. We followed Ian out the door.

"So, is this your first visit to the Grand Canyon?" Ian asked.

"Yeah. The trip seemed so short, it felt like we just materialized here." Veronica told him. We kept walking. We came to a narrower part of the canyon that was blocked by a huge boulder.

"Aw, shoot. Another one? Seems that there've been more and more boulders falling here, recently. Ian said.

"Great, now we're trapped." Veronica complained.

"Now who's complaining?" Auburn said. Veronica made a face back at her..

"Now, now. Don't get yer panties in bunch. This is an extremely solvable problem." Ian walked up to the boulder, touched it, and yelled. The boulder turned into a large rock, then a small rock, and then, a pebble.

"What! You have an ability?" I asked, shocked.

"Well, I reckon I do. I can shrink things. My twin brother, Jeff has the ability to make things big, but I haven't seen him in twenty-five years." Auburn twitched.

"How old is your brother?" I asked.

"Why, we're thirty-eight."

"So, he went missing when he was thirteen?" I asked.

"I reckon so. Do you have an ability?" He asked me.

"Um..." I looked at the others. They looked right back at me. "Yeah. We all have abilities. I make pictures come to life. She freezes people. He stretches. And she can become electricity."

"Well I'll be! I thought me and my brother were the only freaks in the world. Turns out, there's a bunch of them." We kept walking. We got to a natural ramp and climbed up.

"I am so sunburned." Veronica said, touching her neck.

"Shut up, you whiner." Auburn mumbled.

"Well, yer here. I can't go any further. Good luck finding yer parents." He said, as he walked away. For some reason, I had felt as though we had met before. And Auburn acted weird around him. I wondered what that was all about.

Chapter 17

We walked into the welcome center. There weren't many people there.

"Um, how are we gonna get back to St. Louis?" Auburn asked.

"I have an idea." I walked up to the front desk and asked if I could borrow a pen. The lady said I could so I grabbed one and drew something on a piece of paper.

"What is that? Veronica asked.

"It's a teleporter." I made it come to life. It stood about three feet tall. It had four prongs sticking out of it and a big yellow button.

"How does it work?" Brendan asked.

"Well, if it works how I want it to, we need to grab onto a prong. Then I push this button, and... poof." All four of us grabbed on and I pushed the yellow button. The teleporter started vibrating like crazy.

"This better work." Brendan said, nervously. I was just as worried as he was. There was an illuminating flash. The next thing I knew, we standing under the St. Louis Arch.

"Whoa! We made it!" Auburn exclaimed.

"We're at the Arch." I scanned my body to make sure my head wasn't on backwards. After I made sure everything was intact, I continued. "Let's go to my house. I need to do something."

We decided to hail a taxi.

"So, what exactly do you have to do at your house?" Brendan asked.

"I need to check something." There was something that had been bugging me ever since that newscast. When that guy said, "The plane had returned to the airport for an unknown reason after only about a minute in the air," something just seemed weird. When we got to my house I drew some money and gave it to the driver. I opened the door slowly.

"Hello?" I said. I looked around. There was no answer.

"Who do you think is here?" Auburn asked.

"You see, I was kinda expecting my parents to be here. I thought that maybe the reason the plane they were on turned around was that my parents didn't want to leave me. But I guess not." I said solemnly.

"Oh, they're here all right." I turned quickly to the oh so familiar voice.

"You! Where are my parents." I was getting sick of the Eliminator.

"They're upstairs. But, they're a little tied up right now."

"Why are you being such a jerk! Leave us alone. You leave us alone and we'll forget you even exist." Auburn screamed.

"Oh, but that wouldn't be any fun now would it." I had a feeling that, for the first time, he didn't really want to kill me. Otherwise, he probably would have already started to make the black hole with his fists.

"Look, what do you want?" I asked, wanting to get to the point.

"If you join my team, I will spare your parents' lives. Together we can do great things. I have great plans, and with you, we can accomplish them." I hesitated.

"What about my friends? Can they join?" Auburn, Brendan, and Veronica gasped.

"Are you serious? You can't join him! And there is no way that we would join you." Veronica said, shocked.

"Come on guys. There's no way we can beat him. He's just too powerful." I said, pointing at the ceiling fan, casually. It was almost unnoticeable, since I was waving my arms around a lot. Luckily Brendan got the message. The Eliminator was to busy looking at me he didn't notice Brendan.

"So you're just gonna give up?!" Auburn was furious with me. Suddenly the ceiling fan crashed down on the Eliminator's head. He was out cold. You see, I had Brendan stretch his arm up to the fan and knock it down.

"Watch him." I said running up the stairs. When I got to the top I saw two dead bodies without heads tied up, floating in a pool of blood. My mom and dad. I had figured that the Eliminator had killed them already. Although, I didn't think he would be so gruesome as to suck their heads off with a black hole. I didn't cry. I had already lost them once. I felt as though there was just no real reason to cry over their deaths a second time. I ran back downstairs.

"They're dead, aren't they?" Veronica asked. I nodded.

"What do we do with 'jerk' over there?" Auburn asked me, looking down at him. I drew some handcuffs, more pepper spray, and a dagger. I handcuffed the Eliminator and waited for him to come to.

"Did you really think I would join him?" I asked my friends. They stared at the ground. "I would never do anything like that. I just wanna make sure you guys will always trust me. I would never betray anyone of you." Just then, the Eliminator woke up.

Chapter 18

"I will kill all of you. Now let me go!"

"Now, now. That wouldn't be any fun now would it?" I said, still not quite understanding how a sixty-something year-old could be so heartless. I always though of elderly people as sweet, innocent people...well...other than my grandma...and the guy at the airport on my laptop...and that man at the Fast Mart that called me a dolt. I don't even know what that even means, but he yelled it, so it's probably something mean. Okay fine. Elderly people can be mean. Whatever.

"What are you gonna do with me, you dolt?"

"What is a dolt?!" I screamed at his face.

"Wow. You seriously don't know what an adult is? It's another word for grown-up! Duh!" Auburn told me. I just stared at her.

"That's not what I meant! I meant...forget it. Anyway. If you tell us your plan, I'll spare your parents lives."

"First of all, my mom is dead. Second of all, kill my dad for all I care. He's ninety-seven and as annoying as you!"

"Oh shut up. What is your plan?" I said, aiming the pepper spray at his face, ready to spray it all over him.

"I'm not that easy to break." He sneered. I sprayed him. He didn't even make a sound, as if I had just sprayed air at him.

"Spill it!" Veronica shouted at him. She picked up the dagger and was ready to stab his throat. I stopped her just in time. I shook my head at her. We couldn't kill him yet. We needed to know the plan. After that, I would have been more than happy to kill him. I would let everyone take turns stabbing him. Then, I would cut his head off. But we couldn't do it. Not yet, anyway. He was to full of valuable information.

"Tell us, you murderer!" Brendan yelled.

"Murderer? Oh come on. You've killed dozens of people. Like, oh, I don't know. The people on Flight 726." We all stared at Brendan.

Chapter 19

"Wait, you killed them? You put the bomb on the plane?!" I asked.

"I-I didn't know any better. He forced me."

"Oh, now, now. It's okay, grandson." The Eliminator said. We gasped.

"Wait, why would he call Brendan grandson unless... I bet they're related!" Auburn said, shocked. Brendan looked down.

"I should've known. Marcelo Rodriguez. Brendan Rogers.

"I'm not like him! I hate him! Just kill him!" Brendan said.

"I'm surprised you haven't told them the plan yet, you traitor. I guess you're still too scared of what I could do to you." The Eliminator sneered. We looked at Brendan.

"You know the plan!? How could you just sit there quietly while he was busy killing hundreds of people? Are you even on our side?" I asked.

"Yes! Please, you've gotta believe me!"

"Brendan. Go." I told him.

"But..." He started.

"Go."

He walked out of the house. We turned back to the Eliminator.

"What is your stupid plan?!" I asked him again.

"Well, my plan is for him to burn you all to a crisp." He said, motioning to a tall man standing behind us. The man's fists were on fire. I grabbed the dagger and lunged. The man melted it with his flames!

"What the-"

"His flames are over one-thousand degrees Fahrenheit. You don't stand any chance against him."

I was speechless. How would I beat him? I had no ideas at all. The flame man walked toward us. I had no other choice.

"Run!"

Chapter 20

We ran out of the house not knowing if we were being followed. Luckily, they didn't come after us. A guy that made thousand degree fire? That was a little bit too much for me to handle. I couldn't have drawn anything because Mr. Flame would have burnt the paper before I even started to draw. I just hoped that he wouldn't burn my house down before I would be able to give my parents a proper funeral. Bad news. My hopes were crushed. The jerk burned down my house along with my beheaded parents in it.

"Where do you think Brendan went?" Auburn asked.

"I don't know, and I don't care. That jerk tried to kill me and my parents. I hope he dies. A slow painful death."

"Don't you think maybe you were a little rough on him?" Veronica asked.

"No." I said.

"You know, he did save our lives." Auburn said.

"Cool." I said. I would never forgive him.

"You need to lighten up." Veronica said.

"Why wouldn't he tell us the plan? I mean- The plan! Crap! We forgot to ask him what the plan was! Ugh!"

"Maybe we can find him. I'm sure he couldn't have gotten too far in such a short amount of time." Veronica said, reassuringly. So we looked around for awhile. Veronica went into some wires to search. Auburn looked around North St. Louis. I got the City. We all met back up at Grandma's house.

"Any luck?" I asked the girls. The shook their heads.

"Gah! Why did I have to be so mean to him? I should have waited 'til I got the plan out of him." I was pretty upset at myself. My cellphone rang.

"Hello?"

"Jake? Is that you." A voice whispered.

"Yeah. Is this Brendan?"

"Yeah. Listen, I figured I could maybe redeem myself by telling you the plan."

"Where are you?"

"My Grandpa, the Eliminator caught me. He tied me up. I don't know where I am or what he's gonna do to me. Anyways, his plan is to gather people with abilities to kill off the world's population. He wants to repopulate it with people with abilities."

"Do you have any idea where you are?"

"Not really. Oh my God. He's coming." I heard a voice in the background.

"Who are you talking- give me that phone you idiot!" The last thing I heard was the sound of a gun firing.

"Brendan? Brendan?" I hung up.

"What happened?" Auburn wondered.

"Brendan...is dead." Veronica and Auburn stayed silent. "Why did I have to tell him to go? I basically assisted in his murder! Ugh. I'm so stupid. I hate my life!"

"Jake, it's okay. You were upset. You didn't know that the Eliminator would find him so fast." Auburn said trying to comfort me.

"That's just it. I knew that the Eliminator was gonna find him. I knew he was gonna kill him." He was the third person that died that day.

"Did he tell you the plan?" Auburn asked.

"Yeah. I know the plan. They want to gather people with abilities together and kill off people without abilities." I told them.

"That's horrible. You can't kill people just because they're different!" Veronica said, outraged.

"Yeah. What's even more horrible is that Brendan's own grandfather killed him."

"Jake. You need to get over that. It would've happened sooner or later." Auburn said.

"I could've stopped it.

Chapter 21

I was so mad. I hated the Eliminator with a passion. I promised myself that the next time I saw him, I would kill him. He had gone way too far. So we were back at Grandma's, and she hadn't changed a bit.

"You're the rich aspirin with the Pinto, right?" Grandma said.

"Uh, yeah. That's me." Veronica replied.

"Guys, come upstairs with me." I told the girls. We went upstairs and sat down on the frilly yellow bed in my mom's old room.

"Yeah. What's up?" Veronica asked.

"We need a plan. If we're gonna eliminate the Eliminator, then we need to figure out how we're gonna do it." They hesitated.

"I got it!" Auburn exclaimed. "Okay. So next time we run into him, we distract him, while Veronica sneaks off. Then, she turns into electricity and zaps him."

"Sounds kinda complicated." I told her. She pouted.

"How about Auburn just freezes him and I zap him to death?" Veronica suggested.

"That's brilliant!" I exclaimed. Auburn pouted even more.

"Fine. But my plan is plan B." So we went downstairs and opened the front door. Then, out of nowhere, we all started floating.

"What the-" I started. I looked up. There was an enormous black hole above us.

"No!" We all screamed. I shut my eyes.

When I opened them, I was back in my house. Veronica, Auburn, Brendan and I were standing there, staring down at the Eliminator who staring right back at me with a sneer.

"Huh?" I said out loud. What had just happened? This had happened before. This very exact moment.

"Yes! Please, you've gotta believe me!" Brendan pleaded to me.

"Um, what?"

"You have to believe me! I'm nothing like him."

"Um, I believe you." Did I just time travel? I did. I had traveled through the threads of time, just in time to avoid being crushed by a black hole. Then I remembered. "Kill him! Now! A man with flame fists is coming!" I told my friends.

"What?" Before we could kill him, he walked in, fists on fire.

"Not again."

"Wait! David, before you kill them, I must talk to the boy." The Eliminator turned to me. "How did you know about David?"

"Um...Internet?"

"Did you time travel?"

"What? No! Hehe. Me?"

"He's the one! He's the one that got the time traveling ability! Kill him now!"

Chapter 22

"Run!" I screamed. We all ran out of the house before the flame man could get us.

"Did he say that you time traveled?" Auburn asked me as we ran.

"Yeah. We were about to die so I shut my eyes and I ended up here." I told her.

"How did you do it?" Brendan asked.

"I have no idea." We kept running.

"Where will we go?" Veronica asked.

"I think I know." I said.

Once again, we were back at Grandma's house. We went to sleep extra early that night. I had actually slept well for the first time in days. When I woke up, I had an idea. A crazy, stupid idea. But it had to work. If it didn't, then we would all probably die.

"The Eliminator is outside. There's a black hole above the porch. But I have an idea." I told my friends, drawing a bunch of pictures.

"Okay, what's your idea?" Auburn asked.

"You are so stupid! I cannot believe you!" Auburn screamed at us as she slowly dragged her feet out the back door. Brendan looked out the window to make sure nothing went wrong. "Hey! Eliminator! I wanna join you! I am sick of these people! And if I can't join you..." She thought for a moment. "Then you might as well just kill me. Right here, right now." Brendan said he saw the Eliminator walking up to her. Perfect.

"Veronica, do you see the black hole?" I asked. Veronica was looking out the window in the front of the house.

"Nope. There isn't one anymore." She responded. Good.

"Go! Hurry!" I told Veronica. She took her shoes off and went into the wires connected to the house. So far so good. "Is Auburn okay?" I asked Brendan. He nodded. He said they were talking. Veronica ran back in.

"There's just one other guy with him. He's at the side of the house. It might be the flame man." She said, putting her shoes back on.

"All right." I said. "Now!" Brendan whacked the back door. That was her signal. Auburn froze the Eliminator. At least, she tried. It wouldn't work.

"Ha! You thought I was that stupid? I would never let you join me!" He said, smiling with an eerie grin. Luckily, I had predicted that would happen. I dragged my feet out the back door.

"Hey, Eliminator!" I shouted. He turned toward me.

"The time traveler! Get him!" The fire guy ran toward me. Veronica was sneaking up behind the Eliminator. Now was my chance. With my new black hole-generating gloves, I made a black hole. Flame man stared at me, confused. Then, he figured it out, as he was pulled in.

"No!" he screamed, right before he was crushed, and destroyed.

"What!?" The Eliminator shouted angrily. Just then, Veronica grabbed his neck. She sent out an enormous jolt of electricity through his body. "Aaah!" He shrieked. He grabbed her while being filled with electricity and pushed her down. "You little pests! You killed my best member!" Crap. He was still alive. Luckily, we had built in that possibility as part of the plan.

He started to make a black hole of his own. "This has gone on long enough!" He yelled. The black hole got bigger and bigger. We stood still, feet planted firmly on the ground. The Eliminator looked slightly befuddled. He made it bigger. We didn't budge. He looked infuriated. He put his fists down, making the black hole vanish. He ran toward me. All of a sudden, we were in outer space. Wait. What? No. An illusion generated by the Eliminator. He hit me in the face with a right hook. I fell. I was still conscious, though. Veronica turned into electricity and jumped on top of the Eliminator's head. He let out a scream of pure agony. Then, he collapsed to the ground. The illusion disappeared. The Eliminator lay on the ground totally motionless. He was finally dead. I sucked him up into a black hole. The black hole mysteriously vanished.

Okay. You might be a little bit confused, so let me make sense of things for you. Before we went through with the plan, I drew a series of different things. Number one, I drew a sleep spray and sprayed Grandma and the nurse so they wouldn't interfere with anything. Number two, I drew gloves that could make black holes. I had to beat him at his own game. Number three, I drew shoes. Not just any shoes. Shoes that are magnetic to the earth's inner core. because of that, there was no possible way his black hole was gonna pick us up.

Part 2

The Pain

Chapter 23

We went back inside. Grandma and the nurse had woken up. They had no idea what had just taken place in their backyard. I told the guys to come upstairs. We went into our room and plopped on the frilly, yellow bed.

"Let's celebrate. We deserve to have a little bit of down-time." I said, drawing a cake that was identical the one Auburn had rudely thrown at the floor. I put my hand on it. Concentrated. Here it comes. An extremely painful jolt of pain went through my head. "Aah!" I screamed. It was the worst pain I had ever experienced in my life. I felt blood was dripping from my nose. The world around me was spinning. I fell over.

"Jake!" Auburn screamed. My vision went blurry.

"Stay with us Jake!" Veronica yelled. She grabbed a tissue and wiped the blood off from under my nose.

"Jake! What's happening?!" Brendan shouted. My hearing became muffled. I was starting to feel cold. What was happening? I had no idea. Another, slightly smaller, jolt of pain surged through my head. I was too weak to scream. I just winced.

"Wush habnig t'me?" My speech was slurred. I asked "what's happening to me." Was I having a stroke? I had never been so scared in my life. Not even when the Eliminator tried to kill us. Was I dying?

"What's going on up there?" A voice from downstairs said. I shook my head, signaling I didn't want Grandma or the nurse to worry.

"Um, we're playing a game. We'll try to be quieter." Auburn told the nurse. I could hear footsteps walking up the stairs.

"Playing a game?" The nurse walked in and spotted me. "Oh my God! I'm calling 9-1-1!" She screamed as she rushed back downstairs.

"Don't worry Jake. I promise we won't let anything happen to you. You'll be all right." Auburn said, trying to comfort me. She wasn't doing a very good job at convincing me that I was going to be all right. She was crying uncontrollably. I just lay there, wondering how bad I looked. Waiting. Waiting.

After a few minutes an ambulance had arrived. The paramedics carried me down the stairs. I was put on a gurney and rushed to the ER.

Chapter 24

By the time I had gotten to the ER, I had passed out twice and died once. Luckily they managed to revive me. Everything was a blur.

"Mom...?" I said to what I now know was Auburn.

"Just stay calm, Jake. You're gonna be okay." Auburn said. I was terrified. All these strange noises around me that I couldn't identify. The doctors put an IV in my left arm. I didn't even feel it go in. I just knew it was there because I felt a warm sensation flow through my veins. I had multiple x-rays, CT Scans, MRI's, the works. They simply couldn't find anything wrong with me. They made me stay over night. I died once again while I slept. They revived me a second time. I decided not to go to sleep anymore. By morning I was feeling much better. Or so I thought. Although my vision and hearing was better, another startling symptom occurred. At eleven A.M., I started having a seizure.

"Help him! Nurse! He's having a seizure!." Auburn, who was the only one that stayed over night, screamed. The nurses rushed in. They managed to get my seizing under control. Why was this happening? Then I remembered.

"Auburn. The cake."

"What?"

"This happened when I tried to make the cake real. Give a pen and paper."

"You want to make it happen again!?"

"I need to make sure that's it." She handed me what I asked for. I drew a frog with a beard and mustache. I touched it and concentrated. That's when the worse pain I had ever felt in my life came over me. I let out an agonizing scream. I started to have another seizure. The nurses and doctors calmed me down. Why? Why did this happen?

The doctors gave me some medicine to help me sleep. That was a mistake. While I was sleeping I had a horrible nightmare...

"Ja-a-a-ke, oh Ja-a-a-ke! I'm not dead. I'm not that easy to kill." It was the Eliminator. "You just hurt me. Being part black hole myself, they don't really phase me. Know this. I will kill you." There were no images in my dream.

"Why is this happening?" I asked the voice.

"You tried to kill me. Who was it that gave you that power? Me! You obviously don't appreciate it, so I've decided not to let you use it. If you try, you will be at risk of dying. That pain that you used to feel when you made things come to life? I magnified it so that every time you try to make something, it will cause excruciating pain. Oh yeah. You can call me Dr. E."

Chapter 25

I woke up after that last sentence. I noticed an old doctor standing next to me filling the IV drip with something.

"Doctor, what are you putting in there?"

"Just relax. It's gonna make all your pain go away." I looked at his name tag. It said he was Dr. Evans. Dr. E! "All your troubles will be over real soon." Oh my God! I had to get out. I couldn't let him win. I had to get out. I had to get out.

"Leave me alone!" I screamed at him. I jumped out of the uncomfortable bed I was in and ran. I got out to the hallway. I had no idea how to get out of there. I decided to go left. Then I thought of something. Where's Auburn?!

"Auburn!" I started shouting every few seconds. I'm sure I looked like a total lunatic running around a hospital in nothing but a gown, screaming the name Auburn repeatedly. I had finally found the main entrance, or in my case, main exit. Then, I realized I was being chased down by a bunch of doctors, nurses, orderlies and security. I had almost gotten to the automatic doors, close enough that they had sensed me and opened, an old man tackled me, probably thinking I was an escaped convict or something. Old people really can be mean. A nurse injected something into my arm that made me feel weird. I passed out. Security took me to the "special" section of the hospital. I was admitted.

I woke up, not recalling what had happened a few hours ago. I had an IV in my arm. I saw a nurse in the room with me. She smiled.

"Hi. Are you feeling better?" She asked me. I looked around.

"Where am I?"

"You've been admitted to the emotionally...um...disturbed section of the hospital," she said.

"Wait. Why?" I asked, totally clueless about what had just happened.

"Oh, honey. You were on a rampage. You ran all over the place screaming 'Auburn'. You really don't remember that?"

"No. No, I don't. As far as I know, I've never even met an Auburn," I said.

"What's your name?"

"Um," I thought, "I don't remember."

"Well, we're going to keep you here for a few days for observation, just to make sure you're all right. Doctor Ericson will be taking care of you for the time-being. Okay?"

"Okay," I said. I was confused. I couldn't remember anything. An old man walked into the room and filled my IV with a transparent purple liquid.

"This is going to make you feel a whole lot better, all right?" The doctor said.

"Um. Okay," I replied back. The doctor left, locking the door behind him. I was in a padded room with nothing but myself. I hadn't the slightest idea on what I could've done to get myself in that situation. I started to feel loopy. Then, I chuckled. Then, I chortled. I began uncontrollably laughing. Problem was, I didn't know why. I mean, I was laughing to the point that it hurt. I clenched my chest. My heart was beating like crazy. What was going on? I started to have a seizure. A bunch of nurses and doctors rushed in, including Doctor Ericson and the lady nurse I talked to before. I couldn't talk. I tried, but the words wouldn't escape my mouth. The nurses were frantically rushing around. So were the doctors. Well, all of them except for Doctor Ericson. My seizing continued and my head hit the padded floor with incredible force. I blacked out.

I woke up with a start. I scanned the room. I was still in the padded nut shack. There was a different lady in the room than before.

"You gave us a scare. We thought we lost you," she said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You started seizing. Thankfully we managed to get you stabilized."

"Why did I start seizing?" I asked.

"We don't really know. We're doing some tests to figure out what happened. Now, dear, do you remember why you're in here?" The nurse asked. I tried to think as hard as I could.

"I-I don't remember."

"Well, we're gonna figure out why you've lost your memory, too," the lady said. She left the room.

Truth was, I remembered everything that had just taken place. Every last detail. I knew what had happened. Dr. Ericson, or should I say the Eliminator, had tried to kill me. Again. Luckily, he failed. I knew that he would try it again, and again, until he succeeded. Just then, the Eliminator walked in.

"Hello, Jake. This medicine will help you regain your memory," he said.

"Okay," I said. He put some medicine in my IV drip. What he lacked to notice was that the needle wasn't in me. It was just above my skin.

"There. In a few minutes, everything will be over."

"Okay," I said in my most idiotic voice I could. He walked out of the room. I put my plan in action. I got out of my bed and grabbed a plastic container. I stabbed my IV drip with the needle and I squeezed the liquid out into the container. I put the lid on the container and slid it under the bed. I just had to hope that the security guards wouldn't video tape. School might pay off for me if the plan worked. I went back into the bed and painfully slid the IV back into the hole as best I could. In a few minutes the Eliminator walked in with a nurse. I was lying on the bed smiling up at the ceiling. The Eliminator looked at me with wide eyes. He checked the needle to see if it was in me.

"Um. Jake?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"I'm gonna have to give you some more medicine."

"Okay," I said, "That stuff makes me feel happy."

"Um. Right," he said. He put more stuff in my IV drip and left the room along with the nurse. Perfect. Science class didn't let me down. The "medicine" didn't come out, even though there was a hole in the bag. Something about chemical bonding or whatnot. So I grabbed the container out from under the bed and squeezed the liquid out into it, then slid it back under the bed. I laid back on the bed and waited. The Eliminator once again walked in. And once again I was staring at the ceiling, smiling.

"Jake?"

"Yeah, Mr. Doctor person?"

"Um, how are you feeling?" He asked me.

"I feel great!" I said. "Um, Doctor?"
"What?"

"I have a secret," I told him. He walked over to me.

"What?"

"Come closer." He walked right up to me.

"What?"

"I...hate...you!" I screamed the last word as loud as I could. He fell back. I grabbed the needle and jabbed it into his neck. I started carving his skin with it. He screamed.

"What are you doing!?"

"Getting my revenge! You murderer!" I screamed at him. A bunch of nurses ran into the room and grabbed me off of the Eliminator. One of the nurses injected me with something that made me sleepy.

"He's a murderer. You have to believe me," I said as I collapsed.

Chapter 26

When I woke up, I looked around and knew exactly where I was. A nurse walked in. She checked my blood pressure.

"I want to get out of here. Now," I said sternly.

"I'm sorry, young man, but we can't release you. We need to make sure that you're stable."

"I'm as stable as I'll ever be!" I screamed in her face.

"Well, then you're gonna be here for a long time."

"Let me leave!" I screamed really loud.

"You need to calm down."

"Please get me out of here! I'm not crazy! Those doctors tried to kill me!" The lady looked at me funny.

"What doctors?"

"Dr. Evans! And Dr. Ericson! They put something in my IV drip that was gonna kill me!"

"Young man, I assure you that we have the absolute best doctors possible. We give them background checks, too.

"You have to believe me! They tried to kill me! And they were the same person!" I insisted. I was digging myself in deeper.

She sighed. Then, she paged Dr. Evans and Dr. Ericson. I thought for sure that I had the Eliminator cornered. He couldn't be two people at once. To my surprise, two guys walked in. "Are these the doctors that tried to kill you?" The lady asked. I looked at them. They were two young men no older than thirty. The Eliminator was good. Real good.

"But, my Dr. Evans and Dr. Ericson were old!"

"I have never even seen this boy." One of them said. They both walked away muttering something about a crazy kid. The lady walked out and shut my door.

"I'm not crazy!" I screamed. "Where's Auburn!" I started to cry.

Chapter 27

The next morning, I woke up to a loud voice.

"You have a visitor." The nurse told me. She led the visitor into my room. I screamed

"That's him! That's the guy that tried to kill me!" The Eliminator was my visitor. "Get him out of here!"

"Oh dear," The Eliminator said, "I always knew my grandson was troubled, but I didn't know it was this severe. Will he be okay?"

"Grandson!? I'm not even related to you, you psychotic freak! That's the Dr. Evans that tried to kill me!"

"Jake, don't you recognize me? I'm your grandpa." He said. How could that nurse believe him! He was the crazy one.

"I'll leave you two alone for a few minutes-" The nurse started.

"No! He's gonna kill me! Please! I'm not crazy! Don't leave me alone with him! I swear he's not my grandpa! He murdered my parents! He makes black holes with his fists!" The nurse just stared at me with her mouth open.

"Um...okay." Then, she left.

"Hey, Jake. I can't believe you had to be admitted here. I'm so sorry. But they're gonna make sure you're safe."

"Oh cut the crap, Eliminator. What do you want."

"Well, I just wanted you to know that your girlfriend is safe and sound." He smiled.

"She's not my- where is she, you monster!?"

"She's safe. That's all that matters."

"If you so much as lay one finger on her I swear I will kill you so hard. And then I'll kill you again." I was so sick of this guy.

"Why don't you just time travel your way out of here, time traveler?"

"I don't know how!" I screamed at him.

"Well, you managed to once. I'm sure you can do it again."

"Let me guess. You did something with that ability, too." He just smiled.

"I will kill you, but I've decided this isn't the right time or place. The dumb doctors will just reverse whatever I do. Of course, I could just make a black hole and suck everyone up, but I have a better plan. And you can't interfere with it, now that you're in here. If you would have just joined me when you had the chance, you wouldn't be here, now would you?" He told the nurse that he was ready to leave. She let him out and then shut the door. Why did all these awful things have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? A few minutes later the nurse walked back in.

"You're popular today. You have another visitor." The nurse told me. She opened the door and let a familiar man in.

"Ian?! What are you doing here?" It was the man that had helped us get out of the Grand Canyon.

"Well, howdy Jake. Why are you locked up in here?"

"The Eliminator, er, this guy that has been trying to kill me and my friends, made me look like a crazy person and got me locked up here. How did you know I was here?" I told him.

"Veronica came to my place and told me what had happened."

"Veronica? Whew, she's safe. Did she say anything about Brendan and Auburn?" I asked him, with little hope.

"Yeah, she said they were at your grandma's house. She said that once Auburn had come home from the hospital last night, she saw you on the news, running around in the hospital like a crazy person."

"Good, they're safe."

"Well, you being in here is just wrong. I reckon I oughta get you out of here."

"You can get me out?!"

"Why, sure! I'm pretty well off. I'll just sign some stuff, show them my fake ID and give them money for their "services"." I was so elated. So Ian got me out of the nut house and took me to my grandma's house.

Chapter 28

"Auburn!" I ran up to her and gave her a huge hug. Then, I did something that I never thought I would do. I kissed her. On the lips. For five seconds. Passionately. Once I finally realized what I had just done, I backed off. I said nothing, waiting for her to slap me. Brendan and Ian just stared at me like I was a nut.

"Um...wow." She said.

"Sorry." I said. Totally embarrassed.

"No, no. It's fine." She smiled.

"The Eliminator is still alive." I said, changing the subject, as I always love to do when things get awkward. The others didn't act very surprised. It seemed as though they had been expecting me to tell them that.

"I knew it was too easy. Why does it always have to be so hard to get rid of bad guys?" Auburn said.

"Well, what do we do now? I know! You can draw a tracker to find him and something else to kill him." Brendan suggested.

"I can't. It could kill me." I told her.

"I hate him." Brendan said quietly.

"Brendan. I have a question. Why didn't you tell us the plan?" I asked him. He hesitated for a moment.

"I guess I was just afraid that he would hurt me."

"Before I time-traveled, your grandpa... killed you.

"What?! Are you serious?

"Yeah. I told you I didn't believe you and I made you leave our group. Then you called me to tell me the plan. Your grandpa saw you on the phone, and the last thing I heard was a gun firing." I told him.

"Wait. Maybe he just shot my phone. You never know."

"I never thought of that. Hey. Where's Veronica?" I asked. I looked around the room. There was no sign of her. "Did the Eliminator take her!?" I said frantically. Auburn looked down and shook her head.

"She said that she couldn't help us anymore."

"Wait, why? Did you two have another fight?"

"No! I swear we didn't! She just said she couldn't help anymore and told us we had nothing to do with why she was leaving. She even apologized for arguing with me all the time. I don't really get why she would leave. Maybe she had a family crisis or something?" She said, sadly. I couldn't believe it. She was the key to my next plan, and she just decided to run off? How could she be so selfish? I sighed.

"Okay. Well, did she say where she was gonna go?" I asked.

"She just said she needed to find someone." Brendan answered.

"Well, let's rest up. We have a lot to do tomorrow." We all went to sleep. I had another scary nightmare.

"I am extremely disappointed in you Jake. You were safe as long as you were in the wacky shack. But now that your out of there, you're my top priority. If you want to live, you had better join me, fast. Or, face the consequences of meddling with me and my plans. I will succeed. Nothing you can do will stop me! Heed my word Jacob Lewis. You will die!" I woke up in a pool of sweat, my heart racing so fast, I thought it was going to fly straight out of my chest. It was only six A.M. I looked over at the others. They were tossing and turning in their sleep, like they were having as bad a nightmare as I was having.

"Guys? Guys, wake up!" They wouldn't wake up. I was scared. Why couldn't I get them up? I ran downstairs to my grandma's room.

"Grandma!" She was wriggling around in her sleep. No. I ran to see if the nurse was awake. She, too, was moving around in her sleep as if she was trapped in a never-ending nightmare. What was I going to do? I knew exactly what I was going to do.

Chapter 29

I ran outside. The sun had already come up. To my surprise, I saw Veronica standing in front of me.

"Veronica?"

"Hello Jake. What's new?"

"Why did you leave us? My new plan revolved totally around you! You know what? It doesn't matter. You're back. Now we can stop him." I said. Veronica teared up.

"I'm sorry, Jake." She said. Then, without warning, she shot a bolt of electricity at my face. I don't know how I managed to avoid it, but one thing was for sure. I was shocked. Not with electricity. But, you know, shocked.

"Veronica! What are you doing?!" I said, full of disbelief. Was she trying to kill me? Had she just gone crazy?

"She's not on your side anymore, Jake." The Eliminator came out from behind a bush. I looked at Veronica.

"You were right when you said we couldn't beat him. You may have just been saying that, but it's true. There is no way to beat him. He's just way to powerful." She said. I could tell she wasn't just playing a trick on him. She had actually joined him. Surprise suddenly turned into rage. More than rage. Utter hate.

"Are you kidding me?! Please tell me this is just a prank. How could you do this to us? We worked together for weeks and you just stab me and my friends in the back? What kind of a person does that?" I yelled at her.

"Please Jake. You have to understand. He promised me that he wouldn't kill me if I join him. You can still join us, too. I don't want to hurt you. It wouldn't be that bad. What would be so bad about living in a world with people that have abilities? It would be fun. It would be the start of a new era." She said. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Veronica, as stubborn as she was, had fallen for the Eliminator's lies.

"What would be so bad is that you would be killing millions and millions of innocent people that have every right to live. Do you think killing someone that did nothing wrong is a good thing to do?"

"If you join us then I could release your friends and family from the nightmare. Please Jake. It's for the best."

"What? You're the one that's giving them the nightmares? Why are you doing this, Veronica?" I asked her.

"I'm sorry, Jake." She told me. I could tell that she was about to zap me with her electricity, as I could see sparks coming out of her hands.

"I'm sorry too, Veronica." I said. Then, in one fell swoop. I threw Auburn's pocketknife at her chest. Straight through the heart. She looked at me, then at the knife, then at me again. I saw a teardrop run down her cheek. She mouthed the words "I'm so sorry." Then, she collapsed. I was so furious. The Eliminator was trying to corrupt my friends. He walked toward me.

"You call me a murderer. Yet, you've killed three people. You know, we're not that different." He told me.

"I am nothing like you. I only kill people that are doing wrong." Suddenly I heard something.

"Jake!" I heard Auburn yell from inside the house. I turned toward the house and looked at a window. I saw Auburn standing there waving at me. They had woken up! I was relieved. I turned back to the Eliminator to make sure he didn't attack me while I wasn't looking, only to see that he had left me alone. I was the only one out there, other than Veronica's cold, dead body. I walked up to her, and knelt down to touch her lifeless, limp body.

"Oh, Veronica. I'm sorry. I didn't want to do that to you. I hope you forgive me." I started to bawl my eyes out. There weren't any words to describe how I felt at that moment. I more than hated that stupid Eliminator. He disgusted me so much. He was making my friends turn against me. I couldn't handle losing another friend. From that moment on, I promised myself that I would protect my friends with my life.

Chapter 30

I went back into the house, wiping tears from my eyes. I slowly walked up the stairs. Auburn saw me. She ran up to me.

"What happened out there? I saw the body. Did you kill another one of the Eliminator's henchmen?" I nodded.

"Who?" I stayed quiet. "Jake?"

"Veronica." I told her. She stood there trying to process what I had just said. She looked at me and shook her head.

"So she wanted to find the Eliminator... I can't believe it. I wish everything would just go back to normal."

"Yeah, me, too. Veronica was making all of you have a nightmare. That was her second ability. Causing nightmares. I tried to wake you guys up, but I couldn't. I guess once I killed her, she had no more power over you."

"Oh right! I forgot to tell you about that! I had this weird nightmare. The Eliminator talked to me."

"He did?"

"Yeah. He said that I should join him if I wanted to live." She said. The other two said that that was what they dreamt about too.

"You guys need to promise me that you will never join him and his psychotic team." I told them. They all promised. I've always wondered what Grandma and the nurse dreamt about, but I never asked. Heck, Grandma probably dreamt about cookies. As for her nurse? Who knows.

"He needs to be stopped. Now." Brendan told us. Honestly, I think Brendan had a crush on Veronica as he was never the same after her death.

"I'm gonna draw something."

"What?! You can't! You might die!" Auburn protested.

"I know. But I have to do it." I said, grabbing a piece of paper and a pencil. I started to draw a picture.

"No, Jake! I won't let you die."

"That's what I'm counting on." I said as I touched the picture. An Eliminator tracker appeared in front of me. My vision went blurry and I passed out.

Chapter 31

"Brendan! He's awake!" I heard a voice that sounded like an angel. It was Auburn. I sat up and looked around.

"What happened? Where's Ian?" I asked.

"You made an Eliminator tracker. Then you passed out. Ian went back to Arizona" Brendan told me. My vision was a bit distorted.

"Did you get him?"

"No. We were waiting for you. I got a doctor to come and watch over you. He said you were fine yesterday so he left." Auburn said. I smiled at her.

"I knew you wouldn't let me die." She smiled back. I think, for the first time, I realized I was falling in love. I stood up and embraced her.

"I like you." I told her.

"I like you, too." She replied.

"Um, yeah I like you guys, too, but can we go kick some Eliminator butt?" Brendan said, eager to get revenge on his grandpa. We decided that it wasn't the best time to make out. I looked at the tracker.

"He's in the city. I think he's gonna pull something." We headed out to the location he was at. It took us about fifteen minutes to find him. Mainly because he had a disguise on. He looked like a ninety year-old. He was telling a crowd of people something.

"Inside of this building, is something so amazing, that I know none of you have seen anything like it before. Come on in and see the most amazing thing in the world." People were walking into the building. I had a hunch of what was in the building. A black hole. He had already started killing off people. I picked up a newspaper that was lying on the ground. The headline said 'Thousands of People Missing Across The Country'.

"How long was I out?!" I asked Auburn.

"Five days." She responded.

"Great." I said. I walked up to where the Eliminator was.

"Well, hello young man! Would you like to see the most amazing thing in the world?" He asked. I realized he didn't know that we knew who he was!

"Um. Well, I would but I'm worried that it might be scary." I said. He looked at me weirdly.

"Oh, come now. It isn't scary at all."

"Then, why are all the people in there screaming?" Auburn said.

"That's a good question. Maybe you should go in there to see what's going on." He had no idea that I knew it was him. And I wouldn't have. Except I made the tracker. Which he also didn't know about. He thought I was too scared of what he said to make anything. But I realized it was probably the only way I could stop him.

"My legs hurt. Maybe you should go in there and see what's going on." I suggested. He frowned at me.

"Fine. I'll go in there to see what's going on." He said. I knew that pushing him into the black hole wouldn't kill him. And he could go in there and come back out and still be fine. I had to figure out what I should do. Then, I figured it out. He started walking over to the building.

"Oh darn. I have to go. My parents are over there waiting for me." I said. He turned around and stared shouting.

"What?! You're parents? But, I thought I-" He stopped and changed the tone of his voice. "I would like to meet your parents, if that's all right with you." He told me.

"Sure! Follow me." We started walking. "Oh no! They're starting to leave without me. Hurry up!" I started running faster. So was the Eliminator. Auburn and Brendan probably had no idea what I was going to do.

"Where are they?" The Eliminator was getting impatient. If I was gonna do it, I had to do it now. I ran into an abandoned building.

"They went in here. There they are!" I pointed at nothing. He looked. And with ninja reflexes, I stabbed him in the neck with the same pocketknife I had used on Veronica. He screamed and became lifeless. But, after all we had been through, I didn't believe he was dead. I stabbed him a second time.

"Let me do it, too!" Auburn demanded. She grabbed the knife from me and stabbed him in the back multiple times.

"My turn!" Brendan shouted. He grabbed the knife and stabbed his grandpa about twelve times. You may call it overkill, but I call it deserved. He deserved every stab he got. I took the knife from Brendan and made sure I sliced his neck open. The last thing I did was gouge his eyes out. Sorry for the gory details. A pregnant lady walked in and screamed. I turned toward her, still holding the bloody knife.

"It's a dummy...filled with ketchup. We're practicing for a... school play." I told her. She slowly walked out. I hoped she would believe it. We dragged his body out through the back. There was a convenient river behind the building. We put him and the knife in the river, and he floated away.

"Well, that's that." Auburn said. We were just about to leave the building. Then, what I was afraid of...happened.

Chapter 32

"That's them officers! They're the one's that were killing someone!" It was the pregnant lady. Snitch. I thought. Why couldn't people just mind their own business. The officers walked up to us, aiming their guns at us. One was buff and bald. The other was a shrimp with long blonde hair.

"We were just practicing for a school play," Auburn told them.

"What kind of a sick school play involves stabbing a supposed dummy dozens of times?" The buff guy asked. I thought.

"We go to Eliminator School," I said. It was the first thing that came to mind. The the officers and pregnant lady stared at me.

"Eliminator School? What's that?" The buff officer asked.

"Um, it's a performing art's school. We have a dramatic play every year. Right guys?" I said. The other two nodded.

"Stand against the wall," an officer said, not believing a word I said.

"Do you see a body here?" Brendan asked.

"Well, no," the shrimpy officer said.

"Then, we did nothing," I said. I could tell that they weren't very experienced. They paused.

"But, we have a witness," The buff guy said.

"I have three witnesses that say that we weren't doing anything bad," I said.

"Who?" The shrimp asked.

"Us," we all said.

"But...suspects can't be witnesses," the shrimp said.

"Prove it," Auburn said.

"Prove it? But-we...um," the buff guy said.

"I saw them! I know I did!" The pregnant lady said.

"We didn't kill anyone. Why would we?"

"How should I know? You did it!" The pregnant lady said.

"Did what?" Auburn asked.

"You killed that man!"

"What man?" I asked.

"The man that you stabbed! Are you kids insane?!"

"I don't see any man with stab wounds. Are you sure you didn't stab someone?" Brendan asked.

"Me? I-Don't turn this around to me! You're the murderers!

"Wait. Even if we did stab someone, how do you know they died...unless you were part of it," I asked.

"What!? Are you crazy! Officers! Arrest them!"

"She's pregnant. The baby is probably sucking all the blood from her brain. She can't think right," Brendan said. The officers thought for a moment. The buff one looked down at his watch. He smiled.

"Well, we can still take you in for truancy, It's 2:45" the buff one said. They must not have been getting enough calls. They took out their cuffs and came toward us. The pregnant lady smiled, feeling proud of herself.

"But...we're off school. It's June," I said.

"Oh. Um...well...aha! You're trespassing! This is private property!" The shrimp said. They came toward us again.

"I don't see any signs that say it's private property," Brendan said.

"But. Um," the buff officer said.

"Ma'am, I think your cell phone is ringing," Auburn said.

"Cell phone? But, I don't have a cell phone."

"Oh no! It must be your baby!" I said.

"What? But, how can a baby ring?"

"Good question. Maybe you should go to a hospital and find out why your baby is ringing," Auburn said.

"But-you kids are lunatics! Officers! Take them in! They're clearly not in their right minds!"

"Well, duh! We're in our left minds," I said.

"What?" Brendan said, not getting what I had just said.

"Just arrest them!" The pregnant lady said.

"Wait!" I said. "Is it getting cold in here?" Everyone looked at me.

"No. Not really," Brendan said.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm freezing!" I shouted. Auburn got the message. She froze all three of them.

"What do we do with them?" Brendan asked. I looked around. I had no ideas

"Put them in the river," I finally said.

"They'll drown!" Auburn said. I thought some more. I walked out of the building.

"Where are you going?" Brendan asked.

"Home," I said.

"But what about them?" Auburn asked. I shrugged. They followed me out.

Chapter 33

"Well, maybe now we can have our little celebration." I said, drawing another cake. If my head didn't explode, then that would mean that the Eliminator was really, truly dead. I concentrated. Oh God. I really hope he's dead. The cake suddenly appeared.

"Wha- I didn't even feel a thing! He's dead!" We all celebrated. We were finally rid of the psycho. After we partied for a few hours, we realized it was really late, so we decided it was time to hit the sack. It was about seven o'clock when Auburn, Brendan, and I were woken up by a loud shout coming from downstairs.

"Jake! There's someone here to see Auburn!" the nurse shouted up the stairs. We ran down to the door. We stopped in our tracks.

"Dad?!" It was all Auburn could get out. He was the last person I thought would be there. He was the last person I wanted to be there.

"Auburn. We're going home." He said with a firm voice.

"But-" She said.

"Your grandfather is dead."

"What grandfather?"

"You never met him. He was murdered. Apparently stabbed over sixty-five times." He said. I froze. Sixty-five times? Wait. What? The gears in my brain were working overtime. Eliminator? Grandpa?Did we kill... her grandpa? Auburn and Brendan looked over at me. They realized that, too. That meant that Brendan and Auburn were...cousins? That also meant the the Eliminator wanted to kill his own granddaughter.

"But, I like it here. And I don't want to see a grandpa I never even knew. It would just be... awkward." She told him.

"Auburn! Now! Get away from the little delinquent. He has no right to be anywhere near you." He said. Then he looked at me more closely. "That's that boy that was making out with you at our house! You said I was just dreaming! Did you lie to me?" He was raising his voice more and more. Auburn started to get scared. I nudged her. She shook her head. I guess she didn't want to freeze him. Why? I have no idea. She decided to confront him.

"I happen to love that delinquent! He has been nothing but nice to me! He is a way better person than you will ever be! I don't know why Mom even married you! I can't believe she stayed with you long enough to have me. I bet she's a great person. You probably just lied to me when you said she ran off because she hated me. Well, I'm sick of you. You are done bossing me around, you smelly, old, uneducated, good for nothing drunkard!" Auburn screamed at him. The nurse was just staring at the scene.

"You do not disrespect me young lady! I am your father!" Was he getting bigger, or was I just imagining.

"You aren't my father! You were never my father! All you ever did was drink and sleep! You never did anything for me! I had to do everything on my own! I had to buy food, medicine, I even bought you your stupid beer! I had to register myself into school! I had to get a job at ten! That's not even legal! I had to tell them I was a freakin' midget! I provided for my family! I took care of you! I did everything! You need to stop treating me like I'm nothing! Maybe you should treat me with more respect! I'm not your servant! I am your daughter, and it's about time you start treating me like one!" Okay. Now I was sure. He was definitely getting bigger. Did Auburn even notice?

"You didn't deserve for me to be a good father! I was a way better father than you deserved! You, young lady, are a disgrace! You are not my daughter anymore!" He yelled. Auburn finally noticed how big he was, after he was about eight feet tall. The nurse was just staring... until she fainted. Great. Another thing I had to worry about.

"What- how are you that big?"

"Um..."

"Dad? Do you...have an ability?" He froze.

"Do you?" He dumbly asked.

"Yeah...do you?" Her dad looked around. Then he blurted out.

"I can make things grow! Okay?! Now shut up and come home!" he yelled. Wait. He grows. I heard about a guy that grows before. Where did I hear about that? The canyon. Wait a second. That meant that...

"You're Ian's brother!?"

Chapter 34

Auburn's dad just stared at me.

"How do you know Ian!?" He shouted.

"Um...Internet?"

"Stop lying to me, boy!?"

"Um...we met him at the Grand Canyon." I told him. Probably not my best idea. He turned tomato red. I don't mean his head turned pink. It turned crimson.

"We?! You took my daughter to the Grand Canyon?!"

"I thought I wasn't your daughter anymore." Auburn sassed.

"Shut up and stay out of this, girly!" He screamed.

"Do not scream at her! Scream at me all you want, but nobody disrespects my girlfriend, you dolt," He gave me an odd look. I figured he didn't know what it meant. The one thing that we actually had in common.

I wanted to beat that guy up so bad. But I managed to refrain from it. Auburn smiled at me and hugged me.

"Girlfriend!? You two are-? Auburn! You're coming with me! Now!" He walked up the stairs and grabbed her by her long beautiful hair. I slapped him in the face. Normally, I don't suggest doing that to an adult. But, when it comes to love, you do some weird things.

"Do not touch my girlfriend!" I said, shoving him down the stairs. Let me tell you. It is very hard to push a nine foot tall, four-hundred pound man, down. He bellowed.

"You are gonna die!" He screamed at me. I felt weird. Heavier. My neck felt tired, as if all of it's muscles were on vacation.

"Oh my God! Your head!" Auburn screamed. She immediately froze her demon dad. She stared at me.

"What? Is it a pimple?"

"He made your head, like,two times bigger than it should be. Any bigger and it probably would've exploded. We need to find Ian so he can shrink it. I don't want my boyfriend looking like a freakish alien." I froze. Then, I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. My jaw dropped. My head was gigantic!

"I look like... a bobble-head." I said, walking out of the bathroom. Auburn grabbed my hand and ran outside.

"Where's your teleporter?"

"In the shed. Why?"

"We're going to the Grand Canyon." We ran to the teleporter.

"Wait! It needs four people for it to work. That's how I made it."

"Where are we gonna get two other people?" Auburn said.

"Um...hi. Remember me?" We turned around. We had totally forgotten about Brendan. He had rolled Auburn's dad out to us. "He can be the fourth. You never said we couldn't use a frozen person."

Chapter 35

We ran as fast as we could.

"Ian! Ian!" We screamed, running into his little hut.

"What? What is it?"

"My dad, your brother, made his head huge!" He stared at my head. I don't even think he heard what she said.

"I'll fix it." He shrunk my head down to normal size. "Now what did you say about my brother?" he said.

"My dumb dad is your dumb brother. He did that to Jake." Auburn said, pointing to her dad. Ian looked at him.

"Holy-I thought he was dead!"

"Nope. And guess What else? Your dad is the Eliminator."

"Huh? You mean the guy that has been trying to kill you guys? I always thought my father was dead." He said in shock.

"Yeah, well, he is now. We ended up killing him."

"Well, I guess since I always thought he was dead, it really doesn't make much of a difference to me. How did you kill him?"

"Um...we kinda stabbed him...sixty-five times." I told him.

"Wow...that's...a big number."

"Well, he tried to kill us so-" I started.

"I didn't say he didn't deserve it. I just said that was a big number." There was a long, awkward silence. We stared at Auburn's dad occasionally, wondering if maybe we should unfreeze him. Finally, someone broke the silence.

"Do you think it's bad for someone to be frozen for long periods of time?" Brendan wondered. We all shrugged. Then I thought of something.

"Wait. You know what I just realized?"

"What?" Everyone said in unison.

"Brendan. Auburn's dad is your uncle. Auburn is your cousin. Ian and Auburn's dad are brothers. That means...Ian's your dad." Ian and Brendan stared at each other for a full minute.

"Dad?"

"Son?"

They embraced.

Chapter 36

They hugged for nearly five minutes.

"Grandpa told me you were dead. Said you were on a ship that crashed into some rocks." Brendan said.

"Your grandpa took you away from me when your mother had you. He said I was too immature for a son. Then, I was told that you two were on a ship and had crashed into some rocks." Funny how people lie.

"Wait. What happened to Mom?"

"She died during labor," he told Brendan. Brendan looked down. "But, it wasn't your fault. She had cancer. It killed her during the delivery." Ian said. Another awkward silence. Then, I said something.

"Maybe we should unfreeze him." Everyone looked at me.

"Nah," Auburn finally said. We all decided to have a little meal at Ian's place. We talked a bit, Auburn's dad still frozen.

"Do you think it's gonna make him go brain dead if we don't unfreeze him?" I asked. I don't really know why I was so concerned. I mean, you can't really kill something that never existed. Ian shrank him. Then, Auburn unfroze him. He continued ranting for a moment.

"You stupid punk- w-where am I?" he said. He looked around. Then, he spotted Ian. "Ian?" He was stunned. "I was told that you had died in a shipwreck. How did I get here?" I spoke up.

"I teleported us here. So your brother could shrink my head. You're not a very nice and understanding guy." I told him. He said nothing.

"Why are you hassling these kids? They've done nothing wrong." Ian said to his brother.

"I'm-I...I just didn't want Auburn to be with the wrong kind of person. I was only protecting her."

"Well, you were being a little bit overprotective." Auburn said.

"I'm sorry honey. I'll try to be more understanding," her dad said. Her dad opened her arms and Auburn begrudgingly hugged her father.

"Daddy. I really like Jake. He's a good person. He's kept me alive this whole time," Auburn said.

"Wait. What do you mean 'he kept you alive'?" Her dad asked.

"Well...um...Grandpa tried to kill us."

"You mean, you met your grandfather?" He asked.

"Yeah. Well, we didn't just meet him. We actually kinda...um...killed him," Auburn told her father.

"You killed your grandfather?!"

"He tried to kill us! You have no idea how close we were to death! He didn't even care that we were related!"

"You mean to tell me that you stabbed my father over 65 times?" he asked.

"Um...yeah, pretty much." There was a long pause.

"I thought he'd never die! You have no idea how many times I've tried to kill that psychotic-" He stopped talking. Then, he staggered and fell head-first onto the ground.

"Daddy!" Auburn screamed. She crouched down to where he was lying. There was an arrow stuck in his back. Right between his shoulder blades. We looked around. There was no one in sight. What had just happened?

"Who did it? Who's th-" He froze. Ian fell to the ground, alongside his brother. We had a murderer on our hands.

"Dad!" Brendan screamed. He, too, had an arrow in his back. Who could it be? Who is doing this? Then, I figured it out. The one thing we had forgotten about. The one thing that we totally overlooked. The one thing that could end up being the cause of our demise. The shape-shifter.

We ran back to the teleporter and went back to my grandma's house. I told my friends who I thought was behind Ian and Jeff's deaths. They were furious. We felt so stupid. How could we have forgotten about him? Brendan had told us about him, and we had completely neglected to find him. We wouldn't let him get away with it. We then knew our next target. Vince, the shape-shifter.