Never Alone

Chapter 1

I was having a picnic with Tom and Elise when it began. Everything was going great. I made perfectly prepared sandwiches and perfectly sliced fruit cubes. Tom was joking, Elise was laughing, I was happy. Then Elise stood up and said, "I'm so done pretending. I hate you and I always have. Let's go Tommy," before storming off. Tom nodded in agreement as he followed her and flipped me off. I opened my mouth to ask why they were acting like this but my voice was decidedly absent. Everything I'd done for the picnic wasn't good enough. Suddenly, everything went pitch black, and then the lights turned back on and I was back in the office of the Agency for Superhuman Abilities of Columbus.

"Fear of isolation and rejection," the doctor stated dispassionately. "Third one this week," she sighed at my extremely average teen anxiety. I wondered what kind of fear it would take to get her interested. "The treatment is a one-time, free, intravenous transfusion. You'll need to stay here overnight for observation in case you have some kind of reaction. The serum will hurt but what's new," she trailed off as she started to leave the exam room.

"Wait! I still have one question!" I exclaimed as I started to get down from the exam table. I didn't realize I was dizzy until I was falling.

"Woah, woah, woah," she said as she caught me. "You can't get up yet. Even the small dose of fear finder that we gave you is gonna make you really woozy. Don't get up until we tell you that you can. The last thing I need is a lawsuit. What's this world-changing, all-important question?"

"Do you know what my power will be?" I asked.

"How on earth should I know?" She said harshly. "I don't stick around to find out what all you whiny emotional kids get. I have a life," and with that she left the room.

"Oh," I said absentmindedly. A few minutes later a nurse entered the room with a tray and my chart. On the tray was some tubing for the IV, a small needle, a few wipes, a metallic bag labeled "ISOLATION", and a metallic bag labeled "REJECTION".

She found a vein in my right arm quickly and began the drip of the two glittering serums. The liquid coming from the isolation bag was a opalescent white, and the liquid coming from the rejection bag was a sparkling red. When the serums entered my arm through the IV, it was a pain I could barely explain. It was a constant, cold, but at the same time hot pain. I couldn't feel my hand on that arm, but I could feel the freezing, burning substance crawling up my arm, through my shoulder, and into the rest of my body. Once my entire body was consumed by its icy fire the nurse came in and removed the IV and the two bags.

My mind and body were so exhausted from the fear finder serum and the power serums respectively, I was asleep almost immediately and stayed asleep until the nurses woke me up to go home. I didn't dream in the whole eight hours I slept through, which I found strange, but the nurses assured me was just a side effect of the power serum.

I got dressed in a hurry because I needed to get home by noon so I wouldn't miss my mother before she left for work. She was going to have a million questions, no doubt. As I was about to walk out the door, a thin but muscular guy, who looked to be around my age, and wore some of the most fashionable clothes I'd ever seen, walked in.

"Hi, Jenna. I'm Jordan, your new best friend."

"What? How do you know my name? This is a private room," I stammered. "You need to leave. NURSE!" I yelled.

"Oh, I should mention. I'm your super power," he said calmly. "I'm a friend that can never leave you, can't hate you, and will never get bored with you," he said with a smile.

One of the nurses who woke me up rushed in, "What's wrong? You yelled like there was an intruder!"

"There is! Can't you see him?" I implored.

"Oh, by the way, nobody else can see me, only you. On the up side, if I move anything it looks like you did it with your mind so that's pretty cool," he said. He was acting like this was all some kind of joke. As if to prove that thought true, he opened the drawer where they kept the needles and threw a fist full of them in the trash.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me. Another fear of needles? That's it. You need to leave," the nurse said, pushing me out the door and grabbed a red phone on the wall. "Hey Bill. I need you to escort a patient out. We have another teenager who thinks the way to fix her fear is to just throw them in the trash... yes I mean we have another needle fear... I don't know why we still keep needles in the room, just get up here." She hung up the phone and turned to me. "You are gonna have to leave now or be forcibly removed by a security guard."

"I am perfectly fine with leaving! Don't worry! I'll get out of your hair," I said as I speed walked down the hallway and out the door. Jordan just floated along next to me. What an asshole.

Once I reached the street I slowed my pace to an angry stomp-like gait. "I can't believe this is the power I got," I muttered to myself as I walked down the street. Luckily my house was only a block from the ASAC, considering the fact that they highly advise against driving after the procedure, so it was completely feasible for me to walk home.

"Come on! It'll be fun! I'm gonna grow on you!" Jordan said jovially.

"I hope so," I sighed. He would have to in order for this to work.