Dakota Fairchild; The Vigilante's Mark

Part 1, Chapter 1

"You've got to trust me, if you're a successful college student and you end up meeting someone you like and settling down with a company which gives you a killer pay, free company-issued health insurance, and a house in a neighbourhood full to the brim with your work-mates, run. You do not want to end up like my parents. Last I heard, they were dead."

"I remember the morning I last heard, touched, laughed or saw my parents; there was a strange feeling in my gut, like I ate some strange mutant-sushi where the fish meat turned into multiple fish once it slid down my intestine; it was a terrible feeling, but if I tried, I could ignore it."

"Eli, our 'hired-help' who I've seen since the day I opened my eyes, had made my favorite breakfast. I never got my favorite breakfast - Cherry Kool-Aid, Peanut Butter sandwiches and half a chocolate chip cookie; it seems like a food combination you'd munch on for lunch, but there's my appetite for you. So much food, such an appetite."

"Sorry, let's get back on track. The first 'weirdling' of the day? The fact that Eli made my favorite breakfast; he only made it when he knew I needed some solace. The second 'weirdling' of the day, you ask? Mom and Dad didn't even look at my breakfast. They just stared at me. Not like some weird stalkers, you know? They just had this sad, wistful look in their eyes, like they could see my future, and that they didn't like what they saw. There was also a sprig of regret in their eyes - like my 'Greek-Demigod' fate was all their fault, something they couldn't save me from, my fight. I looked into my Mom's hazel gaze, held the look for a moment, telling her that I would whoop my fates but and that she and Dad didn't have to worry about me. Mom gave me that lopsided smile like she did when I first pulled out a knife from its scabbard. I nicked myself - not bad enough for me to lose cups of blood, but enough to make me understand the responsibility that comes with wielding weapons. And the pain that you can inflict on others."

"That morning, my parents, Eli, and I had woken up early. My parents 'work' from home, but, unlike most of you, if I went close to the study (say, for a little homework help), my parents would get a notification the second (well, milli-second) my feet would hit those carpet-pad pressure sensors in the hallway, and sharp red laser beams would ricochet from little metal panels on the wall, and I would be faced with the prospect of becoming a well-cooked Dakota-shish-kebab or not becoming a Dakota-shish-kebab. My parents would set a timer for as long as they wanted me to stay out or become a shish-kebab, and they would stop working and come out the doors for Dinner, So asking Dad for a little homework help was never too easy."

"That morning, Dad had woken me up early, he said that we would train in the basement. He said that it would be the most gruelling workout I would do with the skills that I had acquired, after everything I've trained for, you'd think that I could survive the end of the world and make it to the 'new beginning', but in my Dad's mind, you should be able to survive all that, and still have a whole load of stamina left to found a country and pioneer an instantly gratifying solution to the common cold."

"You see, ever since I could walk my parents believed that in order to be who I was "meant" to be, I needed to be both mentally and physically prepared. Have a problem with that data entry? ICT repair kid at your service. Want to find an equally beneficial workout that's easier to do compared to Crunches? Shoot me an email. Actually, come to me face-to-face, well, that is if you can talk to me, my 'wolf glare' tends to scare people away and throw the of the handle a little. Thankfully, it works well. Unfortunately, it works for everyone except for this one person in my class, but we'll get to her later. The only people I used to talk to were my parents and Eli. With the whole laser-cut-shish-kebab security system, I guess you could say that my parents were pretty busy. despite their eccentric ways, my parents were always there for me. The three of us were close. Tight, some would say."

"It's a shame that they're gone now. I miss them. But I have my Mom's hair and my Dad's green eyes, when I'm lonely and 'sad' I think about that and smile."