I awake to the warm sun beating on my face and the birds singing their song, I still notice the darkness. The hole inside of me---It grows every day and there’s only one way to help it. I just hope it doesn’t get out of control before she’s ready.

Thinking about the next steps we need to take, I see a trail of ants along with a small hole in my tent the size of a quarter. I trace the trail all the way to my pile of food only to see that all of it is completely covered in ants.

“No, no, no, no, no!” I stammer out frantically as I try to brush them all off. I suddenly stop when I hear footsteps outside of the tent. Whoever they are, they’re trying to sneak up on me. I grab my knife that’s clipped to my backpack and sit by the door. Poised. Silent. Terrified. The tent starts to slowly unzip and I clench my knife with my sweaty hand, holding on for dear life.

“BACK AWAY!” I scream as I tear open the door, putting my knife to the throat of the perpetrator.

“Oh, Jess! We didn’t think you’d be awake yet! Can me and Jacob go to the river? He wants to try out his new ability!” Abby said excited as I sigh in relief and let down my hand. Abby is the youngest in our family. Fascinated by everything yet the smartest girl I’ve ever met. She hasn’t honed in to her abilities yet, but when she does, she will be the strongest one in our family and maybe our only hope.

“Uhhh hello? Earth to Jess!” Jacob says waving his hand in my face. “I’m trying to figure out how this new thing works. You can come with us if you have to. Eli is already down there practicing.” Jacob pleads.

“Alone?” I mumbled worried.

“Yeah, I told him he shouldn’t go alone but I couldn’t stop him so I just let him go. I’m sure he’s okay.” Jacob said while he dismissed the topic with his hand. Before he even finished his sentence I was running towards the river. Eli is the most endangered of us all. He is strong, fast, smart, and has the most control over his abilities. Not to mention, he is the Docs’ first successful experiment. They would do anything to get him back. Oh yeah, and I may have a small crush on him.

As I get close to the river I still don’t see Eli anywhere. “ELI!” I scream repeatedly trying to find him. What if he got captured? What if he got hurt? What if he got caught in the river and is drowning right now? I start panicking, putting my hands in my head and pulling at my hair. I squat close to the ground in a fetal position when suddenly, I feel a hand grab my shoulder.

“Hey.” a voice bellows from behind me. I realize that it’s Eli and I turn with intent, passion, and a fire in me as my fist meets his left cheekbone. He stumbles to the side laughing.

“What the hell were you thinking?!’ I scream. “You know how dangerous it is to be alone!”

“Woah woah woah! Calm down! I took caution. I have traps set up all around us. Plus, in this spot, nobody can see you.” He says while he grabs my shoulders and turns me around. When I turn, my eyes are met with a cove on the side of the river that has a huge, twenty foot long overhang covering virtually every line of site from the sky. “You always forget how smart I am.” he says as he crosses his arms with an attitude.

“No, I know you’re smart. But we both know that it’s a huge risk for you to be out here by yourself.” He sighs as my tone gets more serious. “This is an awesome place to practice and all, but not alone. That makes you more vulnerable than ever. Eli, the Docs are looking for you more than any of us. That means you have to be more cautious than any of us. So you can’t be running off doing stuff like—“

“Hey! You found him!” Jacob said enthusiastically.

“Yeah, he was just down here practicing.” I said nonchalantly, then turned to Eli and whispered, “This isn’t over.”

He looked back at me pretending to be scared saying, “oohhh” under his breath.

“Well, how’s it going Eli? Any new tricks?” Abby asked, excited as ever.

“I got one new one.” Eli said before he started waving his hand in front of him, as if inspecting it, as it started turning invisible, slowly working it’s way down his arm then all over his body until he was completely gone. Eli had been working on perfecting this for a while. I’m impressed that he finally got it. I won’t show it of course, but I’m impressed.

“Where’d he go?!” Jacob said frantically. “I need to learn that! Come ba--”

“Boo.” Eli said in to Jacobs ear as he reappeared, making Jacob jump into the air and scream in fright.

“Not funny…” Jacob said in an annoyed tone while we all laughed at him. “Now you have to teach me.” He said as he dragged Eli by the arm along with him.

“Can I go?” Abby asked with puppy dog eyes.

“Fine. But don’t overdo it. I don’t want you getting hurt.” I tried to scream to her as she ran off.

This is my family. Well the closest thing I have to it at least. I never met my real family.

None of us did. We were all taken at birth except for Jacob. The Docs wiped his memory of his family though. So this is all we got. The four of us against the world. We have to stay together or we are easy pickings for the Docs. Plus, we may be the only ones able to save each other. You see, the Docs put strands of DNA from different animals in to all of us and then genetically modified us to have what we call ‘abilities’. We all have strands of DNA from an iguana, which explains the camoflauge, a cheetah, which causes insane speed, a wolf, giving us a heightened sense of smell, and a hawk giving us the best eyesight possible. The Docs also put their own, lab made, genetics inside of all of us giving us each unique abilities.

Eli’s ability is telekinesis. He can move stuff around with his mind. Jacob’s muscles are genetically modified to be much stronger and powerful granting him, basically, super strength. Abby’s abilities are special. She can control people’s minds. Making them do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. She is the most powerful experiment made, but she isn’t good at using her abilities yet, rendering her almost useless in a fight. For me, well, we don’t know. I was told once what was injected into me, but the Docs thought that it was too dangerous for me to know so they erased my memories. The only thing I do know is that whatever is inside of me, is evil and knowing what it is lets us know how to defeat it. That’s where Abby comes in to play. If she can learn how to use her powers correctly and bring my memory back, we could figure out what this darkness inside of me is and take it down. I just hope we make it in time.

“Hey guys, I’m gonna head back to camp.” I shout across the river as I start making my way up the rocky edge, in to the forest. As I’m making my way down the trail, my attention is caught by a little, blinking red light in the ground. I go closer to inspect it and start to dig around the object until, suddenly, I hear a fast beeping then a BOOM.

I come back to consciousness with a loud ringing in my ears and Eli dragging me out of flames. And then the pain hit me. My whole body covered in needles and my skin burning and boiling. The aching of all of my muscles and bones makes me groan in agony. Then, it starts to disappear. The pain is receding, my skin is cooling, but the darkness is growing. I can feel it.

When my hearing comes back I can hear Eli telling me I’ll be okay, Abby crying, and Jacob.. Fighting? I turn my head and see that dreaded white coat starting to wrap around Jacob as the man grabs him. I fight to stand up and somehow, I do. But I feel different. I feel taller, bigger, stronger. I can do anything.

I run towards the man, grabbing Jacob, and punching the man with a black fist made of black and red energy. No, it’s not energy-- it’s the darkness. It felt the same but much bigger and stronger. ‘What is this?’ I think as I run towards the next Doc in sight, getting to him almost instantly, grabbing his throat and throwing him into a tree breaking his back. Those were the only Docs. I try to calm down but I can’t and I feel the power surging through me. I turn towards Eli and, on instinct, sprint towards him with a blood lust in my eyes. I’m going to kill him. But I don’t want to. Whatever’s inside of me does. My hand wraps around his neck and I start to squeeze without wanting to. Abby and Jacob are screaming and telling me to stop but my mind is blocking out their cries until...

“STOOOOOP” Abby screams at the top of her lungs. Her screech echoes in my head and I feel my power draining. The darkness is being attacked directly, slowly receding back into the middle of my stomach until it almost disappears. I fall on all fours and look at Abby while she sobs. Eli tries to catch his breath, rubbing the huge hand marks left on his neck.

Nobody was saying anything. Everyone was in shock until Eli broke the silence and said “We found out what it is. And I’m guessing Abby is getting closer to figuring out how to stop it.” The scared look on our faces quickly change to a hopeful grin. Ready to take on whatever the world has for us.