I woke up on the morning of June 13th sore, my head aching, as if someone turned on a vibrating machine and set it to extreme. I trudged down the stairs, greeted by the smell of grilled cheese. "Good morning sweetheart, how did you sleep?" Dad asked. I groaned in reply, grabbing a plate of grilled cheese and sitting down opposite Dad.

"Where's Mum?" I asked him, biting into my grilled cheese. It tasted amazing, and super cheesy.

"Oh, she's outside, gardening." Of course she is. Trust Mum to be the one gardening at 8 am. "So, what are you up to today?" Dad asked me.

I shrugged. "Oh, wait, I just remembered, I'm going to that Evo convention thing or whatever with my friends. We might bump into Alex, if we see-"

"Why would you want to go to something like that? Don't tell me you're a symphatist!" Dad exclaimed. I dropped my grilled cheese onto the plate, all hunger evaporated.

"What? Dad, are you even hearing yourself? I just want to go and have fun, hang out with friends, and see God's creation of cool people with powers! Besides, I'm only in Midland for a few more days, and then I'm heading to New York." My friends and I, four of us, are on a road trip, from LA to New York, but we split up at Texas, where I stayed with my parents for 5 days, and they spent their detour in Colorado, and then we'd meet up at the Odessa Summit, for the Evos and Humans thing.

"Those Evos are dangerous, Annie!" Dad cried out. "There was this one Evo named Sylar, he cut people's head open and collect their abilities like some kind of souvenir!"

"Yeah, I've heard about him. He was there when Claire Bennet jumped off that Ferris wheel." After Claire Bennet jumped off the Ferris wheel, everything changed. Suddenly, so many people came out with stories about their powers, posting them on social media, until it seemed that Evos outnumber humans. Mum and Dad weren't really interested in this whole 'evolved humans' thing. Well, that is, until my brother Alex, came out and said he was a 'Dimension-Hopper'. Of course, nobody believed him, until he disappeared off the face of the planet, as if he never really existed. Dad, being a man with a temper as scary as a really good horror movie, got angry and forbid to let anyone mention him in a casual conversation. Mum, who's much more understanding when involving Alex, told Dad that it was his anger that led him to not come home. Then he called me, out of the blue, telling me that he has tickets for me and my friends to go to the Evo & Humans summit. Which I realized I was late for, if I was going to be on time.

"Dad, I understand your anger and confusion, really, I do. But he's still your son. How long are you going to be mad at him?" I asked, taking the last bite of my grilled cheese sandwich.

"As long as it takes."

I arrived at the Odessa Summit with 10 minutes to spare before the doors open at 10. There were a lot of people queuing up for entrance, but since my brother works at Renautas, my friends and I were allowed a free pass to enter 5 minutes before everyone else. I know it's not much, but hey, at least we're treated with something nice.

"Hey! Annie!" I heard someone shout from behind me. I turned around and grinned as I spotted my friends waving at me. I went over to them, maneuvering past the protesters and the impatient children with their equally irritated parents. I smiled at them, giving each of them a hug.

"Do we get lanyards? I always liked wearing them, as if I'm some important person." Rosie asked. She has curly hair and wears glasses, and she's always the crazy one between the four of us.

"Literally everyone's wearing lanyards, we're not that special." Ally said, rolling her eyes. She's always 90% done with Rosie's crazy personality.

"Yeah, Ally's right. Here," I said, handing them their lanyards. "The doors are opening in five minutes, which means we can enter already with our free pass."

"Let's go!" Holly exclaimed. I admire her enthusiasm. She's so optimistic and bubbly. And she's a super great cook.

We entered the compound among the others with free passes. I craned my neck to locate my brother, but he was nowhere to be found. Maybe he's just busy, I thought. I was so into finding my brother that I walked right into someone with an 'Oof!'. I backed away and blushed furiously, apologizing profusely.

"Oh, that's alright." He said. I looked up to see a guy, smiling at me (or my intense clumsiness, either one). Not only had I walked right into a guy, I walked right into a handsome guy. He had curly dark hair and an impressive jawline too. Way to go, Annie, I thought. You just had to bump into a handsome nice guy. He had an aura of intelligence around him as well. He looks slightly familiar too, as if he was in some sort of a movie or something.

"I'm Mohinder." He said, sticking his hand out for a handshake. I took his hand, smiling as I introduced myself. Calm down, Annie, he's just being nice, he's not flirting or anything.

"What do you think of the Evos?" Mohinder asked me. Oh god, it's a hard question, what do I think of them, what do I say?!

"They sound like a bunch of superheros." Oh gees, you sound like an idiot. This Mohinder guy is obviously a genius or something. Look at his suit! To my surprise, he let out a velvety laugh.

"Well, you're not wrong." He grinned.

"What about you?" I asked. "What's your opinion on them?"

"Sometimes questions are more powerful than answers. But luckily, you're talking to the world's leading researcher in Evo studies." Wait...

Then it hit me. "Oh my god, you're Dr. Suresh!" He grinned, revealing a set of pearly whites. "My brother loves your work! And I, uh, I've read your father's book, and I think it's amazing." Holy smokes, this gorgeous man is not only super handsome, but he's also super smart?! I think I'm going to faint.

"Yes, I am." He grinned. He does that a lot, apparently. Then someone called out his name, beckoning him to come over. It was Erica Kravid, some woman of high importance in Renautas. "It was nice meeting you, Annie." Dr. Suresh said.

"Likewise." I smiled, watching him walk away. Alex would be so jealous of me right now. "Yoohoo, earth to Annie?" Rosie said. I turned to see my three best friends giggling at me. "You were totally checking Dr. Suresh's butt out, weren't you?" Shit, was I not subtle enough?

"No way!" I lied, blushing furiously. Okay, so he was pretty cute, and super smart...He ticked off all my boxes in the Perfect Guy category. But I'm probably never going to see him ever again.

"We're here for the Evos, not the cute guys!" Holly said, dragging us to see a show.

"Can't we do both, though?" Ally asked, grinning, earning groans from Holly and Rosie.

We've been at the summit for about an hour, and there was still no signs of Alex. Not that I'm really annoyed by his absence, I mean, so far things are really fun, and so many people turned up for the summit to watch the Evos display their powers. And this one Evo, he could create snow out of water. Like, how cool is that?! Oh, and the fire-breathers, they're so cool.

Ally, Holly, Rosie and I (aka the 'Eee' squad, long story by the way) were eating our burritos which an Evo made with her lightning-speed hands when the sky suddenly turned dark. I looked up and saw that the sun had been blocked by the moon, in a solar eclipse. But that's not possible, the next solar eclipse would probably happen in another 3 months! Okay, call me a nerd, but I do research on solar eclipses for fun.

"Is that normal?" Holly asked. She's right. The darkness, thanks to the moon blocking the sun, seemed a little...unnatural. Literally everyone around us stopped what they were doing to look up at the dark sky.

Suddenly, we heard gunshots and loads of screaming and yelling as a man in horn-rimmed glasses kept shooting at the sky and shouting something unintelligible. Not two seconds later, multiple explosions detonated at the same time, and I was thrown from my seat and onto the floor.

My ears were ringing and my head was pounding. I could see people screaming and crying over lifeless bodies, but I couldn't hear them. I tried to get up, but then I realized I was pinned down by a bench, like the ones we were sitting on. Then I noticed the ragged piece of shrapnel embedded into my shoulder, causing me to feel extremely lightheaded.

The last thing I saw was the lifeless body of my best friend next to me as the darkness pulled me under.