Lost Prodigy: The Amplifier

Chapter 1

Jace planted his hand on the ground, dust and grains of sand sticking to the sweat of his palm. He got up and grunted from the pain caused by his joints having rested on a hard, rocky surface; arrays of cracking and popping echoing throughout his body like an empty chamber.

Brushing himself off, he stopped as his eyes flashed into the abyss of his mind.

"I miss my family," he muttered to himself.

Continuing his forsaken life, Jace slouched his shoulders, checked that his gaming device was still charging from the wobbly socket and dragged himself to the run-down kitchen in search of food. He flipped on the light switch and saw color contrasting with the gray of his table, a color he otherwise never sees on top of it. It was a transparent plastic card with a bright orange strip going across it.

"The hell is this?" Scoffed Jace. Picking up the card, a small torn note swims through the air onto the ground.

It read, "Hey, I think you'll need this. All you have to do is sign the back and watch it unfold your life as it did mine."

Jace, doubtful and patronized, looked at the front and back of the card. The front had that orange stripe and a chip while the back had a black magnetic strip with a signature field and check-boxes below it.

"Cool card," said Jace, chuckling and smiling as if it were a joke. His stomach grumbled, and his smile quickly faded. He tossed the card across the room and checked the fridge. Nothing but a packaged honey-bun he skipped out on eating the night before to save for later. Before he could reach for it, a middle-aged man's voice echoed through the basement Jace resided in.

"Hey! Anyone down here?!"

Jace closed the fridge and inched the silverware drawer open to pull out a knife.

The man continued to call out, "Ay, I know someone be down here, come out now. Maybe ya'll a bunch of scared little teens? Last chance kiddos, enough with'cho games. Parties over but it's time for the adult to have some fun."

Jace's hairs stood up. The raspy, gurgling of the man's voice pictured a big, overweight man in his mind who was looking for trouble. Jace let go of the drawer, letting it slide back closed which slammed shut and sounded into the halls.

The man laughed, "Come out, come out wherever you are." Jace ran up to the wall behind the doorway, clenching the knife in his hand and rehearsing defensive movements in his mind. As long as he did the right tricks that he learned, he'll be fine. If his assailant has a gun, then he needs to make sure it points to non-vitals in the worst-case scenario.

The man trotted slowly to the kitchen door, knowing full well that someone would be in it. He holds his pistol high to raise his chance of hitting a target. He chuckled to himself. "Hey kid, just so you know, whatever you're gonna try ain't gonna work."

The footsteps were right behind the doorway. Jace peered around the corner to see the tips of high-heel shoes. The lunge that he was holding back dissipated as a woman appeared in front of him. Long, brown hair and black-rimmed glasses in a completely red outfit. She spoke to him in a soft voice, "Hey little boy. Are you lost?" Jace stared at her beauty in confusion. This was not the fat, middle-aged man he was imagining. Before he could respond, she raised her hand towards him and fired a pistol he didn't see her have before.

The bullet struck him in the right forearm and he dropped the knife. Even if it's a harmless -looking woman, Jace knew he couldn't let her go. She was a threat. Jace tackled the woman in the belly and she flew back against the wall and whimpered. "Damn it!" She yelled. Her voice reverberated into an unusual deep tone for a split second.

"Who the hell are you?" Yelled Jace. He chucked his left fist at her. All the lights went out without having the switch flipped. It was pitch black and Jace didn't know where to face. He threw his fists and strafed side to side trying to hit anything he could. He ran into someone, but the voice that grunted was that of a man's. Jace chucked another fist where he heard the voice but his fist was met with a hard surface. Jace screamed as his wrist snapped from the impact.

In the struggle of trying to retaliate, the man's gun sounded loudly without a muzzle-flash. Jace's ears rang and his waist felt a sharp pain. Jace dropped to the ground on his knees coughing and felt something under him. It was flat. Was it the knife?

Jace felt the object between his fingers. It was warm like plastic, like a card rather than a knife.

"Get your hands off my card!" The man bellowed. Jace looked up at where the disembodied voice was coming from and was met with a shoe as hard as steel to his face. Liquid sputtered from Jace's nose and he whaled on the ground, writhing. Footsteps tapped next to his head. The man was looting whatever Jace had stored, but came up nearly empty-handed with just a plastic card and his gaming device, the only thing that Jace looked forward to in coping with his miserable life.

The man stood above Jace resting in his pooling blood. "You had an unsigned card? Haha. Biggest mistake of your life."

Jace could sense that the man was still standing there thinking and somehow able to see Jace. The man laughed once again, "Ahaha! You're that boy from the news. You know, you should've used the card to redeem your family, but now it's too late."

Jace, still unable to see due to the pitch black, only moaned in response. The man tossed the card onto Jace and it bounced off. Once more, footsteps tapped next to Jace's head and vanished into the distance.

Jace's vision went back to normal. The lights didn't flicker on like they usually do. Rather, it seemed as if the lights were never off and his vision faded in.

Jace couldn't solve what was wrong with his vision, only focusing on the pain and the blood leaving his body. He groaned, and tears started leaving him, too. His left hand was now unusable, due to it flopping around as he moved his arms. Jace looked down at the wound. The amount of fluid leaving his body made him choke on his tears. He knew he was going to die, but he didn't want to face the fact. He put pressure on the wound, causing the bullet in his forearm to make his muscles scream. Jace replayed the situation in his mind, remembering what happened, trying to figure out what he did wrong and wishing he could reset.

It wasn't windy out, however, a light breeze made itself prominent as Jace's body slowly drifted into a chilling state. This was it.

Jace peered to his side once more, noticing the transparent card lying there next to him. The card led his eyes straight out to the stairway, someone peeking from around the corner. Someone with long hair. Jace thought of his family, his sister, father, and mother; and remembered what the man said about the card and saving his family. What did the card do?

The sensation of pain dissipated, and the feeling of his own blood warming up his frozen skin disappeared along with it.

Jace felt a comforting sensation as if he could fall into a restful slumber, and closed his eyes. It was time for him to go to sleep, he thought.