Concepts of Change

I

27 of April 1999

I was woken up in the middle of the night by a loud bump that travelled through the roof. People all around me were jumping out of bed and running out of the room. I reached for my glasses that I had placed on my night stand the previous night and looked around me. What surrounded me was chaos, an absolute mess. By the time I had thought about what had happened, everyone was out of the room. Out of my life. Seemed like it was the best place for them to be. I was nothing but trouble wherever I went and that was nothing but the truth.

"What are you still doing here Sam?" The voice was familiar to me, but so many other things were rushing around in my mind that I couldn't put the voice to the name or face. I got spun around by my wrist and was facing the person.

"James, you scared me". I knew who it was now. The only person that wasn't afraid of me. The only person who cared about what I did and what happened when I was around. It was a welcoming feeling, one that wasn't familiar enough to me.

"I was coming to make sure that you were okay and we're gonna get out of here."

"What is even happening? I got up and everyone was gone."

"They're here Sam. Everyone is freaking out. But I have you to look after. Who knows what would happen if no one looked out for each other. "

I found it hard to believe that someone actually cared about me. Someone cared about the way I felt, the way I'm looked after, treated. All this changed in seconds.

I had turned my back to collect a few things before James and I left the complex, but before I was ready to go, someone pulled at my hair and I was yanked to the ground. I had regained my footing to find that James had disappeared; without me. I was really alone at this point. My attacker had vanished also, seemingly into thin air. Like there wasn't actually a person there at all. I ran out of the room and almost was tempted to jump down the stairs instead of run. Once I was outside, the cold night air had hit me and I saw the detailed skyline of California, with an orange tinge to the darkness. This was not good. I had to run. The only issue is that I would have to leave where I was. Again. I begun my adventure into the unknown, to have nobody know who I was and what I could to do.