If every thought we think creates our future, then why do we die? Or better yet, why don’t we? People that want to live forever or die early would only need to think of it and their future would happen right? Wrong. Life doesn’t work that way, and everyone alive knows it. You can’t change your life or your future just by thinking about something. But what if I told you, you could? Better yet, what if I told you, you can?
The year is 2020, in a world that looks the same as it did 20 years ago-just without the twin towers I suppose. My name is Gemma Gehrig. I know, weird name right? I’m a 17-year-old girl-well that part is pretty explanatory from the name-but I’m different from everyone else, or at least the majority of everyone else. I’m not different in the fact that I can do something that no one else can. Everyone can do what I do-they just don’t know they can. You see, I can make my thoughts and dreams become a reality-I’m one of few people who can actually use the skill. The funny part is that everyone can do it; they just don’t know they can. You see, when a person is born, they have the normal brain functions that help you live every day and go about your day to day business. But there’s also this secret part of your brain so miniscule that you never even see it on x-rays. Even doctors know about it but it’s never spoken of out loud. If they find children born with a visible section of this part of the brain they tell the family that the baby died quickly after birth. Then they take the baby to a special place in society where they’re raised to live normal lives. When we are born the section of our brain that allows to make our dreams become reality is already five to ten times the size it would be normally. But with it constantly growing, other parts of the brain are overpowered and our bodies become much weaker than that of a normal human. Our immune systems also become weaker and the weird part is that our skin is thinner. Granted our skin still protects everything inside us but it’s slightly translucent and also cuts easier.
There’s not a huge amount of my kind but we do exist. We could be anywhere though we all mainly live in New York. There used to be other institutes but they were shut down. If a child isn’t here there most likely dead or pretty darn close to it. We call ourselves the “almost people” or for short APES. We thought of this because we were humans in a sense but we were an older version of them. In a sense it’s almost like they’re the freaks, not us. But other than that our lives are pretty normal. We all go to school in New York, although some of us go to different places. We try and base it off of who looks most like they could be family and that group goes to one school while other groups go to a different one. We’re encouraged after high school to go check out the world though. Go to college, get a job, meet new people, and come back and visit every once in a while. The majority of the adults usually come back though. I guess it’s weird for them being the odd person out.
Something weird happened lately though. We thought it would be like any other day, but when two older APES came back carrying one of our own limp and lifeless in their arms, we knew it would be anything but that.
Two of the most recent elders to move out were holding her. Their names were Jordan and Ella and they had recently become engaged-both at the age of 23. They were carrying in Bailey-the newest APE to move out-who was soaked in blood with her clothes torn to tatters. She also had a cut down the side of her neck that was still trickling blood.
Jordan and Ella walked through the institute to the infirmary without saying a word. Ella’s face was streaked with tears but you could tell by the look in her eyes that she was doing her best to stay strong, but the second they set Bailey down on one of the infirmary beds she ran out of the room crying. With that everyone gathered around Bailey and knelt down next to the bed. One of my sisters-yes I have siblings-Eliza, began crying. She was older than I, and was good friends with Bailey. There would be no doubt that she would want to find who did this to her.
Since I brought up Eliza, I might as well talk about the rest of my family. My parents were Alexander and Mary. That’s all I know of them though. I have my older sister Eliza, my eldest sister Darian, and I also have a younger brother named William, but we all just call him Will. He’s a sweetheart, and at the moment too young to understand what’s really going on in life; he’s four. I’m pretty sure our parents have given up on trying to have a child that “survives.” We all thought they had given up after me, but apparently not. Although I did find out that my mother had had two other pregnancies which both ended in a miscarriage. Our family is the only one like this so far. Other families have had other children that didn’t turn out an APE; there have actually been many that didn’t turn out like mine where everyone was an APE. It kind of makes me wonder if one of my parents is an Ape themselves, or maybe both! But then I realize how crazy that would be. If they were APES then they would know where we are. They would know what we are. They would understand. But the fact that they’re not here shows me that isn’t true.
~*~
It’s been a couple of days since Bailey was brought here and I haven’t seen Eliza since. Although I’m the one avoiding the infirmary, so I guess it’s my fault I haven’t seen her.
~*~
We had Bailey’s funeral yesterday, and there were a lot of people there that I had never seen before. Some looked semi-familiar like maybe I had met them before but my mind still drew a blank whenever I tried to recall a name.
We had all thought Bailey had died of blood loss, but upon further inspection we found that the cut on her neck had been caused by a serrated dagger. The blade had gone in deep enough to move a section of her spinal column out of alignment, so she had already been dead before she even reached us. It’s sad to think of her like this, but I know that she’s okay now. At least, I hope she is.
~*~
It’s now been two days since Bailey’s funeral and there’s still an eerie haunting of a couple that I had seen there. I don’t know if they were APES or not-figuring that there were actual humans at the funeral. But their faces are stuck in the back of my mind and I don’t know why. I have a strange feeling that I know who they are, or at least that I did. Their faces ring this bell clear and loud in my head screaming, “HOW COULD YOU FORGET THEM!” But for the life of me I can’t figure out who they are. It’s a couple-male and female that both look like they could be in their late forties, early fifties. The woman looks similar to me, long dark brown hair with bright blue eyes. She has a spindly stature but stands tall. She is astounding and strikingly beautiful for her age. The man was beautiful as well but beyond opposite in looks. He too was lanky and tall but in place of her long flowing brown locks, he has a shock of orange hair sticking out in every direction from his head. His huge eyes were a murky brown with flecks of yellow that hid throughout his eyes. Although opposite, they seemed to belong to each other.
~*~
I continue to have nightmares of the couple. Night after night I can’t get them out of my head. I always see them at the funeral, the woman putting a white rose on Bailey’s coffin. But when she walks away the rose is dripping blood. I talked to some of the other people in the institute about it and one of my friends Hannah put it simply but scarily. “Use your power,” she said. “Take your dreams and make them a reality,” she said. “Make them bend to your will,” she said. Sometimes I worry about Hannah, but in this instance she did have a point. I could use my gift and make them come here; have them tell me everything about them. But I felt like I owed more to Eliza-and to Bailey. I mean, everyone could do what I was planning, but how was I to know who had actually thought of it? I guess we would find out the results in the morning.
~*~
So I have this technique that I use to allow myself to make sure that I dream of a specific topic so it will happen just like I want it to. Last night I made sure to use this and I dreamed that Bailey’s killer or killers would come to the institute and admit their wrongs. I had been awoken by the ringer on the institute door going off and resounding through the halls. I quickly got dressed into jeans and a tee and softly padded my way down the stairs in my Doctor Who socks.
As I rounded the last round-about of the stairs I caught a glimpse of a shock of orange hair next to long dark brown hair. My heart stopped as I landed on the first floor and saw the familiar faces of the couple that had haunted my dreams so often.
“Hi Gemma,” the women said. “I’m Clarissa and this is Garrett.” She paused as if hoping that I would respond but I was still too in shock that they were here.
“We’re your parents.”