Chapter 2 A Second Chance
In a house in Seattle, a boy writhed around in his bed. The youths name was Jake Shade, he was 15 and had messy, pitch black hair with red streaks in. he was a quiet loner who often hid in a corner to be by himself but he did have some very close friends that he hung out with. Many people thought he was strange but he had a gentle calm nature, except when he got angry. He also could never let anyone in need down and had an incurable sense of adventure; he was also a natural runner and an expert blader. He loved speed, using it to its full advantage when he got into trouble, but he could never go fast enough and every night he dreamed of running.
(Jakes dream)
"HAHA!" he yelled as he sped through the landscape, he ran so fast that he had broken the sound barrier long ago. He sprinted through valleys, up mountains and along vertical rock faces but it still wasn't enough, it wasn't fast enough. He pushed harder, praying that today would be the day he found what he was looking for, he had never know what it was but, somehow he knew that if he went fast enough he would find it. He went faster and faster, the wind almost non-existent except for its push against him. He screamed through a desert, almost making a sandstorm of his own "come on! Come on!" he muttered as he leaned further forward to decrease air resistance. Suddenly there was a flash of green light and a glowing sphere appeared, almost screaming in anger Jake slowed down to see what it was, he didn't want to run into it. He stopped right in front of the floating orb and stared at it, it was almost hypnotizing, the eerie green light it was emanating. The background became darker as the light played over him, the sun setting and not being replaced by the moon, the clouds parted but showed no stars. Slowly Jake lifted a hand to touch the sphere, a voice screamed in his head not to do it, but he had always ignored that voice. As his finger brushed the surface, a huge ripple spread across it and a face appeared inside the ball. The face looked like a hedgehog but it was too big and the eyes were huge. The two pairs of eyes, Jakes ice blue and the creatures deep crimson, stared at each other for what seemed like eternity, then the face spoke, resentment dripping in his voice.
"Faker," as it spoke the sphere engulfed Jake and blasted energy through him, but no matter how much he screamed, it didn't stop. Jakes head felt like it was splitting in two until…
"AAAHHH!" CRACK! "Ow…Jesus!" Jake had bolted upright, in fright from his dream; he had forgotten that he had to sit up carefully in order to avoid the ceiling that his high bed almost scraped. "Man!" he thought to himself as he jumped to the floor "I have GOT to get a smaller bed!" He walked over to his closet "What was with that dream?" he wondered out loud as he got dressed, "nothing like that has ever happened before! And what was that thing?" He looked out of his window, enjoying the view of snow falling, "Christmas is definitely the best time of the year," he thought to himself "wait, I'm getting side tracked, think straight for once Jake!" As he finished getting dressed his mother called up to him
"Jake? Breakfast!" her motherly voice floated through the air to him, along with the smell of waffles.
"coming mum!" he called back, grinning to himself, whenever his mother called him for breakfast it meant something good was going to happen. He slid down the banister and grabbed the end spinning himself off into the kitchen with the controlled flair he had learnt long ago
"Jake I know you like speed but do have to do that?" his mother asked sincerely
"What's wrong mum? You afraid I'm going to foul up one day? Jake replied with a smirk on his face "or is that you're afraid I'm going to stand on you?" he jibed boasting his height over his mother. Unfortunately for him his mother knew how to bring him down, and with a quick elbow to the diaphragm Jake was doubled over, out of breath from laughing. His mother pushed him into a chair and placed a plate of waffles in front of him. "Thanks mum!" his mother smiled at him and turned to pick up another plate, then sat down at the table.
Jake looked at his family, his father, Jack was sitting beside him, already halfway through his waffles and his annoying kid brother, Christian was almost done.
"So what was that scream about earlier Jake? You sounded like a narcotic waking up from a bad dream!" his 12 year old brother taunted. Jake glared at him
"For your information Christy! I am not a narcotic and the only way you'll find out what "that scream" was about is if you suddenly turn into a telepath!" he answered with a smile on his face. Christians face went livid and his eyes sparkled with annoyance
"My name is not Christy, it's Chris or Christian!" he spouted. Jake almost fell off his chair laughing; it was incredibly funny to annoy his brother as he reacted more than Jake. His father rolled his eyes
"Alright you two knock it off I've got to tell you something," he announced. Both Jake and Chris fell silent but continued to give each other the evil look. "Right," Jack said "as you know it's obviously almost Christmas and your grandparents are coming tomorrow, so we've decided to let you off homework to buy them a present!" At this there was a loud whoop from Jake and Chris who hated homework. "Anyway," Jack continued "here's fifty dollars each for you to buy a present," he handed 50 dollars over to Chris and then to Jake. As he sat down he suddenly did a double take and stared at Jakes eyes "…Jake, are you wearing contact lenses?" he asked quietly. Jake shook his head
"No dad, why do you ask?"
"Because your eyes have turned blood red!" he said solemnly with a hint of worry in his face
"What!" Jake exclaimed, running to the mirror he saw that his father spoke the truth and his eyes were a pure scarlet, on further examination he also noticed that his hair had some red streaks that weren't there the night before. "Wha!...huh! Okay this makes no sense at all!" Fortunately Jake had a cool head and didn't panic easily. "Wait," he thought "that creature in my dream had red eyes and streaks in his hair, or whatever that was sticking out the back of his head, but that doesn't explain why I've got them."
Jake took a deep breath to relax and turned back to his parents "it's okay I remember now, they're a practical joke for James," he said not wanting to worry his parents with the fact that he had no idea how he got them "I forgot that I put them on last night." His parents heaved a sigh of relief and turned back to their waffles, but Chris' gaze lingered on his brother for a second longer, he could tell that Jake was hiding something, but decided not to make anything of it. Jake shook his head and headed for the door "I think I'll go buy a present now, see you in a couple of hours!" he called. He grabbed his customized running shoes and put them on his feet, admiring them; they were a perfect fit and had reinforced aluminium along the side of the sole. They also had incredible grip and a slot on the bottom of the sole to attach a pair of wheels, essentially giving him shoes and skates in one package. He sprinted out the house and called James as he ran to the mall.
"Hello?" James answered
"Hey James it's Jake," Jake replied
"Oh hey Jake what's up?"
"Not much I just wondered if you wanted to meet up at the mall that's all,"
"Yeah sure I'll be there in half an hour?"
"Ye…" Jake suddenly noticed how fast he was running, he didn't have a speedometer but he was good at judging speed and distance and he knew enough about biology to know that it was very unnatural for a human to be running at 40 miles an hour especially without breaking a sweat for two minutes!
"Uh…make that fifteen minutes," he said slowly
"Fifteen minutes okay, see you there." With that James hung up. Jake slowed to a halt, getting some funny looks from some people that passed; he looked around then ducked into an alley.
"What the hell is going on?" he asked out loud "Now I can suddenly run at speeds previously unachievable by man?" This scared him but at the same time he was thrilled, he waited for an answer to his question just in case though. As he had suspected there was no answer so he decided to make his own. After much decision and forethought (about 20 seconds) he answered "cool!" then he sat down and attached his blades. "No way am I going to give up a chance for more speed!" he announced with a manic grin on his face, then he blasted out of the alley and headed for the mall, but the question kept buzzing around in his head, what was up with him?