Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER ONE ~PART ONE~

I try my best to remain emotionally uninvolved with my struggle to stay alive. As if I am watching the movie of this all play out. I'm sitting cozy on my living room couch, a soda in one hand and a bowl of extra buttered popcorn in the other, telling myself not to worry. It's not real. It's just a movie. The boy on the screen is just an actor paid to look like he is starving and struggling to stay alive.

It works out for the most part. I get through most nights with only a few psyche altering nightmares where I wake up in a cold sweat. I pictured being sixteen a little different than this.

I start to dig through the rubble pile of leather wallets and canvas purses in my backpack pulling one out at a time. Rick Johnson is the name of the man pictured in the license of the first wallet I pick out. His picture is of an obviously younger Rick Johnson than when I pulled this wallet from him last week. The Rick Johnson in the picture is fit with dark hazel eyes, a slightly rounded chin and only minimal signs of hair loss. The Rick Johnson I pulled it from couldn't have been more opposite. He has an excessive amount of weight carried all over his body-especially in his gut and under his chin. He had shallow, beady eyes and was sporting the always fashionable cul-de-sac hair style.

He was an easy target. And I must say, I enjoy the easy targets. It makes what I do that much more, bearable. He wasn't easy because he had money just pouring out of his pockets, or he was throwing it around like he had just won the lottery. No, he was easy because he deserved it. He deserved to be taught a lesson.

I had watched him for a second from a bench near the motel rooms pretending to occupy myself with my phone that wasn't even turned on. He might as well have been holding up a neon sign that read, Hey everybody, I'm cheating on my wife! Sad really.

Soon after I had spotted him as my target, he had spotted his. A very tall blonde woman, in a pair of black super-high heels (only exaggerating her height) and a cheetah print dress sucked tightly against the curves of her body. She had emerged out of the choking darkness of the night. She was tightly clenching a clutch purse in one hand by her side while the other hand bent at the elbow, swayed back and forth, raised as she walked. Again something straight out of the movies. The story of my life.

After she had spotted the neon sign over the man's car, she casually strolled over to him and bent over to lean into the car.

From my place on the bench near the rooms I could hear an exchange of words. A giggle erupted from the Amazonian woman as she had pulled herself free of the car window and the man rolled it up. The woman then stretched out a bit of the gum she was chewing from her mouth. Twisting it around and around until she now has a pink ball at the end of her finger. She then returned the ball of gum back to her mouth as the man made his way out of the car.

The scene made me uncomfortable and I felt sick to my stomach, like I was going to barf, or pass out from disgust-or both. I had just wanted for the moment to end.

I pressed on through the ill feelings and continued to watch them. The man pulled a couple hundreds out of his wallet and dangled it in front of the woman. She quickly grabbed the money, giggled, then shoved it into her dress where it disappeared beneath the cheetah fabric.

The man then slipped his stuffed wallet into his back pocket and they made their way, arm in arm, step in step, towards the rooms. They stepped onto the curb and began to walk past me. An overwhelming cloud of too much cologne or perfume had filled my nose. Then my lungs and my eyes began to water as I started to choke. I wasn't able to tell if the smell was from the man or the woman-either way, I was even more disgusted that now my sense of smell had been violated by their sickly intentions.

The smell distracted me for only a moment, but I regained focus and realized that I needed this pull or else I may not see another person for a while. I had really needed the spending cash.

One good thing about pulling from these kinds of guys is that they always tend to carry large amounts of cash-which was much easier to swipe and use at my own convenience later on with no worries of being tracked down and busted.

I realized I need to act quick or the opportunity would pass. I reached out my hand and closed my eyes. Concentrated on my surroundings as I picture them in my mind. The man. The woman. The pants pocket. The wallet. I could see it as clear as day in my mind. I could feel it. An extension of me was released from my outstretched hand, towards the man. The air around me had seemed to throb. Closing in on me. Expanding outward stretching me. Tight. Relaxed. Tight. Relaxed.

The pants pocket. The wallet.

I then began to remove it from the man's pocket. Opening my eyes when I had the wallet locked in my mind, I had seen the object of my intentions slowly rising out of the man's pocket, peeking out like, peek-a-boo.

Easy Money.

To do this without the man feeling it took tremendous focus. I'm sure that I was also being helped by his divided attention.

Thank you Amazonian woman.

I gave one last pull to move it out of the man's pocket when the lip of the wallet caught the rim of his belt breaking it from my concentration. This had sent it on a one way ticket straight to the ground.

Time seemed to stand still at this point if I remember correctly. Every breath a millennium in length. A shuddering shockwave of time and space seemingly rippled out from me causing time to halt its unruly advance.

There was not a whole lot of ambient noise where we were (other than the pounding in my heart) and I knew that if the wallet had hit the ground, they would have heard it and would have promptly turn around to pick it up. I had to move fast, again I had thrusted my arm out with a slight grunt and closed my eyes desperately focusing on the falling wallet, slow motion at this point.

I then swung my other hand into action throwing every bit of me into the efforts. Until finally, I had got control of it and opened my eyes to see the two of them sneak away into one of the rooms. Promptly closing the door and locking it repeatedly. First the twist lock. Then the dead bolt, followed by the chain lock.

I'm at first strangely shocked at the sight of where the wallet should have be. While my eyes were closed I had thought that the man must have turned and picked up the wallet. A wave of disappointment rushed over me at that point. There was nothing there where the wallet should be. I was confused as I lower my arms and the tension coursing throughout my body had dwindled with it. The moment I had done so, the wallet fell inches from a veil of camouflage. Landing exactly where it should've landed.

Unsure of what had just happened; I chalked it up to the lack of sleep and the hunger I had been experiencing. Unable at this point to withhold the smile forming on my face I had let the confusion fall away and victory set in.

Easy money.

I remember all I could think about that night was how good I was going to eat. Thanks to my ability-or abilities...