I opened my eyes. It was a white washed room. In the room were a couple of bookshelves, some chock full of books, some empty. I was standing on a tattered Persian rug. In the corner stood an oak table containing a pen and a microscope. Groaning, I exclaimed, “Not this again.”

“You’ve been here before? Hmmm, I see why you wanted to hit me before. This is one of the most boring rooms I’ve seen.”

Hearing the voice behind me, I whirled around to see the smiling face of William Chen. He was sitting in a regal throne, adorned with purple cushions and studded with gems. His head was resting lazily on one hand. He waved his hand. An unwrapped burger appeared. Grabbing his burger, he took a bite. Savoring the taste, he chewed for a minute. “Mhm. You know, nothing beats the taste of meat. Being raised a vegetarian was one of my greatest regrets.”

William laughed. “This is no dream, yet it is a dream. This, is a manifestation of your consciousness.”

Narrowing my eyes, I glared at the old man. “If this is my consciousness, why are you here?”

Dematerializing the burger and wiping his mouth, he stood up. Behind him, the throne melted slowly into nothingness. Walking towards me with an upturned mouth, he said one word. “Guess.”

Stopping in front of me, the old man pulled out a sheet of paper. “I figured that you wouldn’t have read the documents in the folder I gave, or realized one important detail which prevented you from signing them.”

After receiving the sheet of paper, I perused its contents.

He gave me a regretful look. “Unfortunately, I can’t explain your questions until you mark the contract. You would have to trust me.”

The old man narrowed his eyes. He stared at my outstretched hand. Reaching over and grabbing the writ of paper, it burned up in his hand. The flames started from the tip of the paper and crossed down, engulfing the entire sheet. The black specks and ashes disintegrated into the wind. “Well Solare. I guess that means farewell.”

The world shook. Originating from his feet, a spiderweb pattern of cracks permeated throughout the room. From each crack oozed a black miasma. William put his hand out and grabbed mine. Shaking my hand, he said, “Without my support your awareness will collapse and you will go back to sleep. If you had agreed you would most likely have remembered this interaction, but due to your refusal, you will wake up with no knowledge of this meeting.” His eyes twinkled with an amusing light. “Contrary to what you might believe, I am very happy that you refused my offer. Now I know you won’t just throw your life away when I recruit you in the future.” The miasma filled the entire room like smoke. It got denser and denser. Soon, all I could see was black.

I opened my eyes. I sat up on my bed, head pounding.

The pounding got worse and worse. I went to grab a pitcher of water on the ground. I didn’t have a nightstand or anything similar so I got used to setting everything on the floor. Big mistake. As I grasped the handle and started lifting it up, my clammy fingers slipped off and spilled everything on the hardwood floor. “Damn it.” My bare feet coated with water, I walked to my kitchen to grab a few towels. While carrying the towels, my phone emitted a high-pitched tone and started buzzing. Curious as to what caused the debacle, I unlocked my phone. I stared at the alert present on my screen.

Washington D.C, AMBER Alert: LIC/SSEA389 (VA) 2072 Tan Dirkow Aether S Class Sedan CHILD: 17 Whit F 1SUSP: 25 Whit M 5’10’’ 170LB **

Reading the description, I sighed. After the discovery of mana came the influx of obviously less than savory individuals willing to explain the discovery in any way possible. This includes kidnapping children who seem to have lots of potential. Putting the phone down, I started mopped up the mess I made. Interrupting my hard work was knock of the door. I opened my phone and looked through the camera on my front door. Standing there was a pale blond man in a blue suit. His hands were crossed behind his back and he was leaning forward into the camera.

“Mr. Solare King, I am a representative sent by the D.C admission’s office here to explain more about your acceptance into college.”

Sighing I opened the door. “Didn’t Mr. Chen already go over my admissions process? I don’t think I need an explanation.”

He smiled. Alarm bells went off in my head. Something didn’t seem quite right. The man hadn’t given me any specifics about who he was and which college he represented. I was admitted into the ISM; the guy representing the school was inside my head when I slept. No way was there a random representative just coming to my school. I slammed the door shut. The representative banged his right hand against the door. “Mr. King, this is a very important matter. The information is very important for your future in the college.”

I narrowed my eyes. “If that’s the case. What’s in your left hand?” When the man was knocking on the door, I noticed he had kept his left hand behind his back. The man froze.

“Ok you got me.” He put his hands up in the air. In his left hand was a tazer. “Look, this was something that had to be done. Unfortunately, it seems you just made the whole process more complicated. The reason why I did this is because someone in a big family hired me to kidnap you. I don’t know why but it seems they…”

I tuned the guy out. I could tell everything he was saying was bullshit. If someone really wanted to kidnap me, they would have done it earlier. Even if it was that stupid guy back at the airport, he would have done it later. The timing was too quick for that. No, he was after me for a specific reason. I ran back into the bedroom. Frantically looking around, I looked for a glass box mounted on the wall.

After the awakening, the crime rate skyrocketed. Organized crime profited greatly from all the individuals with magical abilities and staying true to form, the government was too slow to cope. It took a good fifteen years for people with magical abilities to get truly integrated in the police force. The changes in society led to many safety features being designed to help the populace. Now, most buildings had a camera instead of a peephole like the one at my apartment door to prevent a magical assault through the door. Another added feature was a panic button. They were installed in houses to alert the police and the one in my apartment also sent a signal to the other apartments in the complex. The problem is I couldn’t find it.

Then, I remembered. Pushing my bed out of the way, I saw the box. There was a key which unlocked the case to the button. Taking my key ring, I tried to insert it. My hands were trembling, making impossible to get the key into the hole.

Deciding to give up on the proper way of opening up the case, I picked up my alarm clock. Holding it above my head, I smashed it down. The case shattered along with my alarm clock.

I slammed my hand into the button repeatedly. Expecting to hear the alarm go off I hear nothing. I hear a crash. From the sound of it, it was my door breaking down.

The man walked into the room. His footsteps thudded down, my breath quickening the closer he got. As soon as I heard the door break, I made a beeline to my closet and shut the door. Piling my clothes on top of me, I tried my best to make as little sound as possible.

“I see you hit the panic button. Thanks for that. The sound barrier I erected around your room is useless now. Guess this job is a messy one. Now let’s flush this mouse out of his little hole.”

The closet door burst open. Figuring my hiding place was blown, I had prepared myself for this moment. I jumped on to the guy. Pushing him down, I did the one thing that brings any guy down. I kneed the guy in the balls and booked it. Sprinting towards the hallway outside my apartment, I noticed my door. The bottom and the top half lay separated on the ground. Jumping over the debris, I made it to the hallway. Looking to the left and right I took a step.

Someone appeared to my left. Completely blindsided, I took a hit to the face. I crashed down and started blacking out. Just before I passed out, I heard two people talking.

“You’re such an idiot. All you had to do was taze him as soon as he opened the door and knock him out. We even had a fake ambulance prepared so you could tell everyone he had fainted. Because of your stupid pride, you had to pause and be all dramatic. You screwed this up big time.”

“We got him in the end, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, and now the police will be here in 5 minutes. Let’s load him up.”

I felt myself being lifted. I tried struggling. “It seems he isn’t completely out yet. Let’s make sure of that shall we?”

Something got injected into my arm. The world went black.