I can't explain it. He helped me, yes. He saved me when I needed saving. He always stood by my side when I needed someone to lean on, someone to talk to. He was a good man. I knew, somewhere in my heart, that I had changed him as well. He wasn't the same man whom I had met, all those years ago. He wasn't a killer now; he was just man who wanted to help others. He was still distant, though, and I knew why. He was going to lose me one day and he knew it, putting it lightly.
I sit here now, watching him across the hallway. He's handing some papers over to a possible recruit, along with a phone number. I just smile to myself because he's so charming to people, but it's usually in that 'fake' kind of way. They're usually all idiots. They never even notice, too. I don't understand how someone can be so plain and so unobservant. If they tell him off, we usually know that they're keepers. Funny how that works out, I suppose.
He comes back into the hotel lobby, wandering over to me. He offers me a hand up and I gladly take it, like always. "Looks like we might have a deal coming our way," comes that husky tone. I merely nod in reply. "Good," I say back. "I'm glad. Can we get out of here now? I'm starving… I'm starting to get a headache, too."
His eyebrows draw together and he sighs, putting a hand on my forehead. "You've got a bit of a fever," he said quietly to me. I just roll my eyes at that. "I'm fine," I ground out. "I'm just hungry, Dad." He laughs at that and we walk off towards the door.
What's my name? Right, let's start there… My full name is Danielle Sara Sophia Rosen but most people just call me Dani. He doesn't, though. He's too old fashioned. Who's this man, hmm? His name is Stanton Parish. Of course that's not his real name, though. It's only his 'work' name. Jacob Dunham is his real name. I'm among the few people on his new team. We're close, almost like one big family and we'll kill to keep it that way. We've always been tight and I thank god every morning for being so lucky.
ASR stands for Alphas and Specials Relief. You see, we're onto something here. The government and what's left of Red Flag are against us. Always. We're the ones who fight back and retaliate. Stanton, or Jacob as most of us call him, doesn't put up with anything these days. We help other Alphas like us and we stop the government from committing genocide upon us. This is our legacy. I'm here because I want to be, because I love what I do and I want a better world.
I'm an artist, which is the one thing I turned to almost ten years ago. I'm a recovering drug addict. It was Jacob who had saved me. He picked me up and took me under his wing one night when I had gotten beat up. I can't even remember what for now, if you ask me. He saved my life and there's no way that I could ever repay him for that.
I live in New York, actually Brooklyn to be exact. Jacob lives in West Virginia and to be honest that's where I usually am. I'm almost never in New York anymore. I might as well just sell my place. I think my father would be upset if I went and did that, though. Doctor Lee Rosen is my father, you've probably heard of him. He works at DCIS. He's a neurologist as well as a psychiatrist with a long history of hands-on work with patients suffering from neurological disorders. He has a team of Alphas now and they work together. I love him, don't get me wrong, but let's just say that he and I aren't always on the same page. He's the reason I wound up on drugs in the first place. But we'll get more into that later, I suppose.
I'm an Alpha as well. I'm an Empathetic Contagion. I can pass my emotions on to others and make them feel what I am feeling. I can also feel everything they're feeling at the same time. It's a bit…hard to handle at times.
And so, hello and welcome to my crazy life. Have fun trying to keep up with me.