The Mind Thieves

Chapter 1

     Sam used to be the only quiet one in the class. Now everyone was silent. Sam used to be the only one to sit in the back of the class. But with every day that passed she found her small corner of the classroom being crowded out by other students who wanted to keep their heads down and minds hidden away. Sam use to be alone. Now everyone was.

    Gone were the cliches and stereotypes that once ruled this highschool and in their place was a grey pool of indistinguishable adolescents. Nobody wanted to stand out. standing out and being different used to be praised and respected, but now people were afraid to even speak for the fear that it would somehow make them a target. They were safer as a whole, just a speck of dust on the ground.

    A little over a year ago everything had changed. It started with a few individuals who began to be called FOW. They terrorized the country with fire, explosives, anything they could get their hands on, but the government believed they were manageable. The problem was, besides the execution of the attacks themselves, their didn't seem to be any connection between the individuals who performed them. FOW was used as a broad name for this rise in attacks, but the people who performed them were vastly different, living all over the country. It was impossible to tell if these attacks were even related.

    These attacks began to rise at an alarming rate, and from unpredictable sources. One could wake up one day and find that their mom or their little brother had just committed mass murder. People in the force sent to investigate the attacks could suddenly turn around and commit one themselves. The people who were caught were found delirious and confused, claiming that some force had taken over their mind and body, forcing them to do what they had done. They were sent to a facility to “investigate” this problem, and if it was some type of disease, to find out how to cure it or contain it, but nobody who had gone in there had ever come out. More and more people were beginning to fight this fate.

    Just last night, holed up in her room on her phone, Sam had read about a girl her age, from her same city, who had killed herself rather than go into one of those facilities, and Sam wondered what she would have done if she were in her position. But for now she was safe from having to make that decision, as long as she kept her head down.

    So that's how Sam found herself and the rest of her classmates sitting silently in the back of the classroom, heads down, while the teacher taught a useless lesson to an unresponsive class.

    Sam was lying with her head against the desk, etching a design into the corner of it's wood with her blue inked pen when the class room door suddenly flung open and knocked against the brick wall with a resounding BANG. All around her, students jumped in their seats with surprise. Sam could feel her heart pounding viciously within her chest and she studiously avoided the gazes of the men filing into the room.

    “Everybody up out of their seats, NOW!” A deep voice yelled.

    Sam hurriedly shot up out of her seat, along with the rest of the students.

    “Up against the wall,” the man in the front of the group ordered waving his gun in the direction indicated.

    Sam pressed up her back against the wall feeling the cold, rough, brick through the thin material of her t-shirt. They did this everyday. A group of men would come in at a random time throughout the school day. They would line everyone up against the wall and moving slowly down the line, they would stare into each and every students eyes, looking for that glint. That glint that would give away the other soul nesting in their bodies. They said it was like looking through a dark stained glass window, and seeing the silhouettes of some form of life moving behind it.

    Honestly, the idea disturbed Sam like no other. Just the thought of that little piece of insanity, hiding away, nesting itself in your head, waiting until you were most vulnerable to reveal itself, was enough to keep Sam awake at night.

    Although Sam kept her gaze straight in front of her, she could feel the man moving closer and closer and with him her heart beat faster and faster. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was the day she was taken away. She had seen it happen time and time again. Students dragged out of the classroom screaming, some of whom she had even considered friends.

    Her palms were sweating yet her mouth felt dry. She closed her eyes to take a calming breath and when she opened them a face stared back at her, inches from her own. She held back her gasp and forced herself to hold his gaze.

    His steel cold gray eyes searched her own, guarded and impersonal. His mouth screwed into a harsh line. Why hadn't he looked away yet? He didn't spend this long searching everyone else.

    “Look away!”  Sam internally screamed at him, yet his gaze remained and Sam began to feel tears prickle her stinging eyes from not blinking.

    Sam felt her stomach drop as she realized her worst nightmare might actually be happening. She had stayed quiet so long, she had actually started to believe that if she just stayed under the radar she could avoid this disease. But no one could avoid it. Not if it wanted them.

    Sam could feel her body tensing, preparing to run, and it surprised her. She has always thought that if she got the disease she would turn herself in, for the good of the world, but she guessed when it really came down to it, she was a lot more selfish than she let herself believe. She wanted to live. But was that really such a bad thing?

    Her knees quaked with anticipation.

     The man looked away.

    Sam blinked in surprise, leaning back as she realized she had actually been leaning forward slightly in preparation to flee. She let out a huge sigh of relief. She was free to live another day.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Authors Note: Yay! The first official chapter is up! If you enjoyed please comment and vote. Even if you didn't enjoy I would love to hear your input. I'll have another chapter up by tomorrow! 💗