---Four Years in The Future---

“Everybody to Mom’s room Tom’s having the slit-throat nightmare again! I don’t know what edition of it though so proceed everywhere with caution!” Dan yelled as he sprinted down the hallway.

Just like Daniel had said a girl with a slit throat walked slowly down the hallway with a ripped up teddy bear in hand. She appeared to be somewhere around nine years old and she is dressed in a pure white nightgown. On a closer look one would see blood stricken across the top of the gown. And what’s even weirder is the girl appeared to not even have a face just an empty void where one once was.

“It’s the ‘Girl’ Nightmare Edition everyone! Evacuate Mom’s room that’s where the girl will be congregating!” Daniel says as he makes a beeline for his room. As if practiced before everyone runs out of Mom’s room and files into Daniel and Mia’s. Daniel is the last one in and he closes the door softly behind him and slowly sits back against it. His heart pounding even though he’s faced this nightmare so many times before. Just looking at that dead girl is enough to scare him to death. It’s just impossible to get used to that. There are no footsteps to be heard in the hallway because Tom’s illusions can’t create sound, but somehow that makes it more terrifying.

“*Sob Sob* I just want to sleep is that so much to ask?! It’s been three days and I have to sleep in school for christ sake! My teacher wants to move me down a level now! I used to be at the top of my class for fuck’s sake!” Mia cries sobbing into her hands while Mom just comforts her. This time she doesn’t know what to say, no one does.

Since Tom awakened his power accidentally this family has taken a turn for the worse. It was cool at first; Tom created a lot of cool illusions, but then he fell asleep and our whole lives went to shit. We originally did not know this about Tom, but he has relentless nightmares, some of them so scary our minds have permanently wiped them from our brains. Most of them originate around this little girl. This creepy fucking girl that won’t fucking get out of our house. Mom has to stay home with Tom all day making sure nothing happens so she quit her job. Funnily enough, Dad is actually doing much better at work. He doesn’t seem to mind taking on the late-night shifts anymore.

“Why don’t we just wake Tom up?” Dan asks with a wry smile on his face and everyone just glares at him.

“You fucking know what happens when we get near him while he sleeps you shit head.” Mia spits venom at Dan.

“Watch your language Mia! And Dan you do know what happens so don’t ask again or you’re gonna be on dish duty for the rest of the year. Everyone just relax and try to get sleep while I stand watch.” Mom says in her best calming voice, but her fear seeps into her voice all the same. She knows both of them probably won’t be able to sleep tonight and it tears her apart. Tom's nightmares are taking a toll on everyone; especially Mia. At least Daniel has his Mind Enhancement power which helps him deal with everything without getting too tired or stressed out. And Mom gets to sleep during the day somewhat and sometimes Dad doesn’t even come home. Mia has no way to deal with Tom’s illusions and she is getting closer to cracking every single day.

Eventually everyone closes their eyes and falls asleep bunched up together on Daniel’s bed. A hand floats straight through the door and next a completely blank face followed by a bloodied bunny. The little girl stands over them watching and not moving. Everyone feels the eyes of someone watching them while they sleep and they wake up feeling a deep instinctual fear.

They jump awake and Daniel rushes over to the lights being the first to be able to think properly. He switches the light on and immediately runs for the door after he sees the bloody dead girl in front of him. He rips the door open and runs out of the room.

“No! No! No no no no no! Get out! Get out! You don’t exist so just get out! Get out of my house!” Mia cries into her arms. Mia missed the days when she was doted after; when she was the prodigy A class power girl that could do no wrong. Everything was great until...until that monster came into the house. Until Tom came into her life she was happy. No she was even better than happy! She was so happy she couldn't even describe it! Now her life is an endless nightmare.

“Honey calm down, we both know she isn’t real; she can’t hurt you in any way so try to calm down.” Mom soothes Mia but underneath the thin mask she wears it is obvious she is terrified. Deep down she understands that they can be hurt and have been. Deep down she knew she was going to have to make a decision to save her family from collapsing in on itself. Mom knew what she had to do but she really did not want to. She really, really, really did not want to.

Mom takes Mia by the hand and stands up while covering her eyes. Then she looked at the demon girl and whispers soothing words to her daughter. Taking the first step forward her blood starts pumping. ‘You don’t exist’ she repeats in her head. Looking at the open door she steels herself. She is going to have to be strong for her two children. Taking Mia she runs through the apparition as fast as possible. Getting through the Ghost took something akin to a mental weight off of Mom and she lets out an audible sigh.

Taking her hand off of Mia she takes her sobbing daughter over to the living room and leaves her on the couch. Daniel is hiding under the couch and Mom realizes it’s a bit dark so she walks over to the switch and looks down the hallway. She turns on the light and looks down the hallway. Her heart flutters because the girl is now staring directly at her from Mia and Daniel’s doorway. The blood is draining from the girl’s neck much faster now like a dam that had just been opened for the first time in years. Mom falls to her knees crying; she’s finally had enough with this endless nightmare. In fact, she’s had more than enough.

The blood pool makes its way to Annette on her knees and surrounds her completely as she sobs. Mia and Daniel come over to her to comfort her and they too are surrounded by the blood. Smiling at her amazing children she stands up to bring them into a hug. They separate after a long while and they all stand next to each other petrified. They are covered in blood. Sticky, warm, viscous blood that they could feel and smell.

“Wha-What...AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Mia starts screaming and Daniel takes her and runs out of the apartment. Mom looks around her and at her bloody shaking hands.

“How does- How can he create blood? He’s five. He can barely write properly, so how the fuck does he know the properties of blood? This should just be an illusion right?! Why does it feel so real?! He isn’t even in first grade yet for fuck's sake! That’s it! That’s fucking it! It’s time the demon is kicked out of the house!” With unseen vigor appearing out of thin air Annette runs over to the kitchen and picks the home phone off the wall. She rips the number she’s kept pinned to the corkboard for the past few months. Dialing in the number quickly she taps her foot waiting for them to pick up.

“Hello, this is the PCC how can we help you?” The operator lady finally picks up.

“Hi, uh can you put Mr. Hemsworth on please?”

“Of course just one second” The standby tune came on for a second only to be quickly shutoff as the other end was connected to Mr. Hemsworth.

“Julian...Please Julian I-”

“Annette you’ve finally come around haven’t you.”

“Please Julian just help me. It's Tom. He's too much. I- I can't take care of him anymore.”

“Don’t worry Annette we will be taking it upon ourselves to treat your son with the utmost care. When can we come get him?”

“Now, get him now.” As if she just ran a mile Annette speaks through huffs and puffs. She could feel her throat constricting. Tears rolled down her face but she pushes onwards. She has to protect her children.

“Right now? It’s one in the morning! You know that right?”

“Yes, please Julian. *Inhale* Just come get him.”

“Fine, Annette you won’t regret this trust me. He will be cared for by the best facilities in the United States.”

“Julian.”

“Yes.”

“Bring that girl who can nullify powers you’re going to need her.”

“Okay, I’ll be there as soon as possible.” Then the phone line ended and all that was left was the blaring sound of a phone before it was returned to its dock. Annette fell to the ground and curled up into the fetal position. The phone sounded much better than her thoughts right now. Annette cried on the ground for an unknown amount of time before she heard a knock on the door.

“Annette it’s me I’m here with Corty. Your kids fell asleep in the hallway so I haven’t woken them up, but it’s not really okay for them to be sleeping there the ground is really dirty. Please let me in Annette it’s rather depressing out here.” Annette got up and walked over to the door and unlocked the padlock then opened the door. Waving them in quickly she brought them over to the hallway. Annette never was one to beat around the bush.

“What the fuck! Annette where did all this blood come from?!” Julian backs up in surprise and Corty just keeps a stone face while looking around.

“The girl.” Annette points up to the figure they did not notice before and everyone cringes back even further.

“Tom managed to create tangible blood tonight somehow. He must have learned the properties of blood from the internet or something. Oh God Julian it’s just so fucked up! Why would a five year old even be dreaming of stuff like this?”

“It does make you wonder doesn’t it. From what I understand from your past calls these illusions are a by-product of his passive abilities and dreams. And looking at the state of you now these dreams must happen quite often. For a five year old to have nightmares like that every night...how does he cope with it?”

“He probably forgets them sir.”

“Doubt it. No one ever really forgets a nightmare. Not completely at least. Though that's neither here nor there Corty lets go see how Tom is doing.” Julien said as he looked towards Annette to lead the way.

Annette looks a little unwilling for a second but her face hardens and she walks halfway down the hallway not even paying the blood any mind. Or at least if she did she didn’t show it on her face. Stopping at Tom’s door she opens the door and then walks behind Corty and Julian. As if using them to protect herself from something.

Julian and Corty look in the small dark room and can’t see anything so Julian pulls out his phone to light up the place. Julian falls back in fright and Corty lets out a surprised squeal but remains standing up. The same girl in the hallway appeared in front of him but this time with a noose around her neck. Many more apparitions filled up the room leaving Tom just barely visible in his bed. All of them appear to have some form of a fatal wound and blood is spewing out of the opened doorway.

“This is much, much worse than I had originally thought.” Julien said while standing up with the help of Annette.

“*cough* Corty please use your power and we will be on our way.” Julian seemed to finally realize the urgency of this situation and did his best to suppress his instinctual fear.

“Yessir” Corty extended her hands outwards and clapped her hands. As if nothing was there the apparitions disappeared into nonexistence…

“J-just like that? All she had to do is clap?” Annette looked around in amazement and realized that the blood still remained. It really is real blood.

“Actually she didn’t even have to clap. She just likes to put on a show for the guests. Corty go wake up Tom.”

“No don’t! Don’t wake him up. I don’t have anything to say to him and even if I did it wouldn’t be right for me to tell him anything. He’ll be better off thinking I hate him.”

“Are you sure? This could be the last time you see him. You know how the PCC is with people like your son. Letting him out is potentially dangerous it would be hard to get him anywhere off campus.” Julian said with a concerned look on his face.

“...yes I am completely sure.” Annette said somberly.

“If you say so. Corty go pick up Tom we need to get out of here fast so we can fill out all the paperwork by morning time.” Corty went over to Tom and surprising gently lifted him up and draped him over her shoulder. Then she quickly left the room and met up with Julian and Annette in the hallway.

“Annette, you are sure about this?”

“Yes...just please take him and go I can’t bear to look at him any longer. Just take him and get out of my sight.” Annette said while wiping tears from her eyes. Annette tried to put on the fascade of hatred but she could never hate her baby boy. She couldn't but she had to try for the sake of her family.

“Whatever you say Annette. Corty lets move out we have work to do.”

“Yessir.” Corty headed towards the door and waited for Julian there.

“Annette you will not regret this decision I promise you.” Julian gave one last look at Annette and headed towards the door leaving Annette to cry by herself. All alone.

In the hallway, Julian and Corty silently passed by the sleeping bodies of Daniel and Mia. Because of some strange instinct, Daniel woke up in time to see the two figures enter an elevator and hit a button. When he looked closer through the dim elevator lights he saw that a figure was slouched over the woman’s shoulder. A small figure. ‘Tom!’ the elevator closed sending Daniel into darkness. Standing up Daniel ran for the stairway and banged through the push doorway. Jumping down the first stairway expertly then sliding down on the railings for the rest he made it down to the bottom floor in expert time. But he was too late. He saw the figures enter a van parked out front and chased after them. He ran over to the door and pushed it open but by the time he got there the car had already started up. The van started leaving so Daniel chased after it but Daniel stubbed his toe on the sidewalk in his haste. Falling down he looked up and all he saw was the van leaving, but suddenly there was a flash of light from another car and it managed to highlight the license plate. The numbers Daniel read that night were numbers that Daniel would never forget.

In the van, Julien and Corty were talking.

“Corty give the boy some anesthesia in case he wakes up. We don’t want him learning about our super secret hideout now do we.”

“Oh shut up you bastard. Wake me up at one in the morning again and I’ll slit your throat. You’re lucky the boss approves of this operation. And you realize we technically just kidnapped a child right?”

"Just do what you’re told Corty. We are doing Annette a favor alright. Yes we are gonna benefit greatly from the boy but it is still a favor none the less. Plus it is true that only our facilities can contain a boy of his likes. She would have cracked eventually if it wasn’t for us.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever you need to say to sleep at night .” Corty said as she injected the sleeping boy with some mysterious liquid.

“Just be quiet until we get back to the base.”

"..."

"You got scared back there didn't you?"

“Fuck you Hemsworth.”

---Unknown Time Later Location Unkown---

‘Ugh what the fuck. Why does my head hurt so fucking much?’ I reach up to cover my mouth when I yawn like I do every morning, but something keeps my hands down. Opening my eyes only to cringe back from a light that seems to be directed right at my face. Slowly opening my eyes I look down this time and see my hands are bound to a metallic chair with leather straps. ‘Kinky’. Looking up I see an empty chair where I assumed someone would be sitting soon.

---Like five hours later---

I was wrong about the soon part holy fuck. I wonder what this room is used for? I hope mom didn’t sell me to some human traffickers or something because if she did I’m gonna be pissed. Suddenly the door slams open and I see a grinning middle aged man walk into the room. ‘That’s never a good thing.’

“Hello Tom! I’m sure you’re very confused right now. And you are certainly entitled to be, but be rest assured you are in caring hands. Now without further ado welcome to PCC otherwise known as ‘Power Control Center’ let us have fun learning how to control your powers together!”

'At least he has pzazz...I guess.'