It all started after Jenna and I got off the bus. We were walking down the road and we saw a jellyfish about four feet in width with short waving tentacles in the air kind of smooshed onto the pavement. It was white and transparent. I think this must’ve happened before because we weren’t surprised, just curiously serious. There were more jellyfish behind it but they looked like they were run over. They were all different sizes; from the size of my palm, to the size of a dinner plate. After Jenna and I split, I had to hop around the jellyfish because they basically covered the road there was so many. As I approached my house I saw a drunk man. Mollie knew who he was but I didn’t (as if I was the camera). I walked as quickly as I could to the garage, hoping that he didn’t see me. When I got to the garage I swiftly closed the door but opened the shutters in the garage door so I could see the man. He had followed me a little ways onto the driveway but now was turning around and walking in the street, a bottle in hand. Now Mollie let me know who it was; and Jared Murphy. Subliminally I knew he lived across the street where Sam lives now. I was scared. This had happened a few times before but never this close to me. He yelled something at me but I can’t remember what they were. Finally he staggered away.
That night at dinner I told my family what had happened. Papa said, “I’ve heard things, kidnappings… disappearances. Stay away from him.” From then on my terror started.
I started to see him everywhere. Walking in the park, outside my school, outside my friends houses. Everyone now was hearing rumors about kidnappings and told us to try and stick together. I was petrified. One day I was walking from the bus. Jenna wasn’t there. I was uneasy, my mind always on where Jared was and what he was doing. Slowly I noticed a car driving slowly behind me. It stopped when I did and started going again when I did. It was a large Sudan with a blinking red light inside the windshield and nothing else. I ran all the way home. It occurred to me that I was being stalked and that terrified me.
One day Julia did not return to school. No one knew where she was or why. I knew that Jared had taken her.
One day I went over Marie’s house. I had predicted that she was a gardener and we were outside admiring her garden. I remember asking her if she would like a space in the community gardens and she said she’d love to have one. A car pulled up on the street.
A sense of terrified futility rooted me to the spot as I saw the back of a blond man’s head as he got out of the car. When he turned around I saw it. It was Jared. Marie hadn’t noticed. Events started to happen in slow motion. He ran up to us and grabbed Marie from behind. I was screaming as he stuffed her into the car and tried to run when he came after me. He roughly grabbed me too and with little difficulty, threw me into the car. I huddled next to Marie who was strangely calm. Turns out she was expecting to be kidnapped eventually. She never told me why.
Jared drove and drove. Marie fell asleep at one point but I stayed awake watching the streetlights flash across the window. We were both asleep when we arrived in a posh-looking college campus. Walking in we were handed off to two security guards who had to restrain Jared from following Marie and I. He was licking his lips franticly and had a lopsided grin plastered onto his face. It occurred to me that he was hired to deliver us here but he was still an insane kidnapper. The two guards got him into his car and Jared drove away.
Marie and I were taken into a room filled with pink things. Evening gowns, ribbon, fluffy things, gilded mirrors. A lady came out and admired us. She tutted twice and told us that she’d have to clean us up. She left and another lady came in who looked like she was in charge. She brought someone out of a dressing room and then bustled off to do something. I saw that it was Julia. I almost cried. Someone had tried to straighten Julia’s hair and put her into a fooffy dress. But the worst was the fake tan that was smeared across her whole body. I tried to say ‘fake tan’ but I couldn’t speak. Julia saw my distress and took my hands saying, “Fake tan right? I would never wear this but that’s just what the lady put on me. And this is dress? Never in a million years.” I smiled and she told me that she had been taken here and they gave her a ‘makeover’. She said it was so that no one would be about to recognize her from her old life. They were changing the children they took so that their parents could never find them. Julia and I left the room but the lady made Marie stay behind. I never saw her again.
Julia and I signed up for college on the posh-looking campus but soon found out that it would be different than we expected. Everyone was evaluated and his or her super power was revealed. I met a charismatic, funny guy during evaluation and we decided to stick together. I had a few classes with him and the same lunch and free periods. Turns out my power is firepower. I could ignite my hands with a thought, but it required concentration to start the fire and maintain it. I could also fly, a power that most people had on campus. I think Martin, my new guy friend, had waterpower. I can’t remember what type though.
I got used to college life. I had Julia and Martin and the classes weren’t too hard. I flew to most places but my flying wasn’t easy; my altitude depended on how much concentration I had.
Once Julia and I tried to switch colleges to find our parents and get away from the ‘System’ that held all the students. The System eventually found us but only took me. I was separated from Julia because she didn’t have enough power to be worth returning to campus. I went back to campus and eventually learned to like it there. I even fell in love with Martin.

Then I woke up.