FUTURITY

DEAD

Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Yellow eyes shone in the dark. Screams. A rippling growl.

Jason shook his head, his skull pounding. With a deep breath, he struggled to pay attention to his surroundings. At a food court outside Starbucks, his best friend grinned, brown eyes twinkling.

"You okay?" Shane said.

Jason shrugged, chuckling. How could he admit what he had just seen in his head? The images of pain and suffering were so real, and yet, he wasn't sure what they were exactly.

"Kiera likes you," Shane said. "You should see how she looks at you when she thinks no one's looking. That's evidence, or I'm crazy."

"And you think because you bark it like a quarterback, that makes it so-"

The blaze of yellow eyes and the scream invaded again, and Jason stiffened. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. What was happening?

"Kiera's really cute, and plus, she's your age," Shane said.

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Just because she's sixteen doesn't mean anything, Shane."

"Hey, it's a perk."

Jason fought back more disturbing images that raced in his mind.

"Whatever you say, yenta."

"Hey, I'm no matchmaker! And yentas are female."

Minutes later, Jason's iPhone buzzed. The screen read: DAD AND I DONE SHOPPING. C U @ CAR IN 5.

Jason stood and said, "Gotta go. Stupid phone."

"What's up?"

As Jason and Shane hurried through the mall toward the exit, Jason noticed a big flat-screen TV in a restaurant they passed. New headlines streamed across its surface. "Psychopath at Large," the headlines read. Jason paused, and Shane stopped beside him.

"Benjamin Crowe, a mentally unstable patient, has escaped and has been on the loose for the past four hours. He is believed to be injured and is a danger to himself and those around him." An image of a thin, long-nosed man with nearly white eyes appeared on the screen. "If you see him, please call-"

Jason walked to the exit with Shane beside him. The warm night air hit Jason's face but did nothing to clear his throbbing thoughts. He rechecked his phone.

Shane whispered, "Wow."

The parking lot was crowded with people flashing cameras. Reporters shouted from behind yellow tape. As paramedics lifted two people onto gurneys, Jason saw a slender hand hanging limply off one, a copper bracelet around the wrist.

"Mom!" Jason took off running, pushed through the crowd, and ducked under the tape. He raced past a police officer and reached the gurneys just as an EMT pulled a sheet over his mother's face. From the other stretcher, his father's lifeless eyes sucked Jason into their blue chasms.

The officer hurried toward him, hand raised. "Get back behind the tape."

"They're my parents," Jason said. His voice wavered, and he swallowed the rock of emotion back down.

The officer's tone changed, and he laid a hand gently on Jason's shoulder. "What's your name, son?"

"Jason Sorn."

"I'm Officer Yates. I'm sorry for your loss."

"How did this happen?"

"It looks like a mugger attacked them. Assuming they had a purse and wallet, they're both gone," Officer Yates said. "We got an anonymous call and found them in the alley over there. Just before your mother passed, she said something about 'a dark face' and 'glowing yellow eyes.' That mean anything to you?"

Jason shook his head, even though he thought he'd somehow seen those eyes as well. How was that possible? How could he have seen those pictures in his mind, minutes before his parents . . . No, he couldn't think like this. He refused to accept this. There had to be a way. There had to be a way to save his parents.

He looked at his mother's bracelet, and tears surged in his eyes. But they were already gone. A million things flashed through his thoughts at the same time. Memories of Mom and Dad came and went. Jason tasted bile.

Then an idea struck. "Did Benjamin Crowe do this?"

Yates shook his head. "We're not sure yet."

Jason looked back at his parents' bodies. His insides seemed to implode. He ran his fingers through his hair and closed his eyes to keep the tears in, but it only made them slip-free.

No. No. No.