Linus rubbed his eyes lazily. Sitting on a reclined chair he finally felt the built up fatigue catching up to him. He had been awake for two days straight and his body wasn’t used to that.

And if that wasn’t enough, his mind had not been able to process the last turn of events yet.

It all started with meeting Valentina that day in school. When Albert went flying towards the woods Linus couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.

That was it.

The sign they had been looking for. Something did happen, and now, they knew what changed.

Well, sort of.

Albert had walked on air like the man atop the spire. Granted he did it accidentally and completely misguidedly. But chances are, that’s what the scroll was for, not some creative form of infecting someone with a weird disease.

But just as he thought he could stop worrying about his friend he saw Valentina chasing him, running like a red arrow, faster than any human should be. Her hands pulsated with a yellow energy. He ran after them and arrived to the scene just in time to witness Valentina dash up a tree and bury her fist into his best friend’s stomach.

As Albert dropped down from the tree and passed out in front of his attacker. Linus’ protective instincts immediately kicked in. He rushed over and put himself in between the two.

“Hey, back off” he said. Her gaze shifted from Albert to him, her fiery yellow eyes instilled the fear in Linus. Still, he put his hands up.

Suddenly, she seemed to calm down. Her menacing aura disappeared, her eyes and hands returned to normal.

“Hah, what’s this?” she asked with an exasperated look. “You should stay back Linus. This does not concern you”.

“What are you talking about? You just threw my best friend from the top of a tree, of course it concerns me!”

“No… I mean. You can’t take part in this fight, it’s not for... people like you.” Valentina averted her gaze. She seemed to be avoiding explaining too much.

“Listen, whatever the hell you are, we don’t have anything to do with it!” Linus answered angrily.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Valentina ironically. “Have you ever seen a normal person jump like that boy?”

“That was not him, that’s the scroll’s fault!”

Linus then explained to her the situation from the previous night. How they came across the scroll and what it did to Albert. He wasn’t too happy to see her frown when he talked about the glowing text. It didn’t seem like a good sign.

Valentina listened quietly to his story, after it was over she had a devastated look on her face.

“God, what a mess.” she said rubbing her temple. “You’re gonna have to come with me”

“With you? Where?”

“To my home. It’s a place that’s home for everyone like me. We can take care of him there. Then we can figure out your situation”

“I’m not sure I trust you” said Linus.

“And what choice do you have? You don’t even know what this is” she said shaking the scroll to his face. “If you want answers you come with me. Besides, I’m not sure you’re safe staying in school anymore”.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Oh, what do you think? An internet video? Really?” she answered exasperated “I’ll give you a hint: This...” she pointed to the scroll “valuable.”

Linus frowned at her, still wary.

Valentina sighed.

“I’m sorry Linus. I didn’t mean to hurt him, or belittle you guys. But this is important. Come with me, we can give him medical attention there.”

In the end Linus gave in and she put Albert on her back. They sneaked through the woods and jumped over the school walls. After a quick phone call, a black car pulled up in front of them. It was a big SUV with stained glass.

“Let’s go” said Valentina. Linus raised an eyebrow at her but she ignored him and entered the car. The driver was also mysterious. A man in a black suit who didn’t say a word the entire trip.

But that was far from the last surprise of the day.

About half an hour later they arrived to an adorned steel gate surrounded by tall walls. The gates opened to allow their passage and the car followed into a dirt road. It turned out that Valentina’s “home” was actually an enormous mansion on the outskirts of town, surrounded by vast gardens. And she didn’t seem to live alone as well.

There were several people on the mansion grounds, most of them youngsters, although there were adults here and there. Some of the teenagers were just lazying around on the grass, others played sports on the court, some kids were playing catch around the trees. The car zig zaged across the path until they reached the front of the house.

Valentina signaled for him to get out. Then she proceeded to take Albert up on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carry him to the door. Linus wasn’t even surprised anymore and just followed suit.

They were received by a tall slender man wearing suit pants and a vest. He had long silver-dyed hair up to his back. Wow, this is the most stylish emo dude I’ve ever seen... thought Linus, but kept it to himself.

“Lucca, where’s the director?” asked Valentina curtly.

“At the lab as usual, miss” he answered formally, taking a small bow.

She stopped dead in her tracks. She squinted her eyes to Lucca and said:

“Are you mocking me?”

Suddenly his whole demeanor changed from submissive to sarcastic.

“Me? I would NEVER” he said with both hands on his chest as if he was appalled by that very idea. “I am simply fulfilling my humble duties of being Director Amelia’s fucking slave.”

Valentina laughed at his dismay.

“Then maybe you should stop dressing like that. You know you are totally her type, right? When you said you would do anything to study under her I didn’t know you meant that.”

“Believe it or not, she ordered me to do it” he said disheartened.

The chit chat continued as they walked through the hallways. The house wasn’t richly decorated but there were some paintings on the walls. Some had epic creatures on them that Linus had never heard of, others captured different men, some in intense battles.

At the back of the house they took a downwards staircase that ended in stone walled corridor with green lights. At the end, there was wooden a door. Lucca knocked twice.

A sultry voice answered:

“Come in”.

Inside the room the mysterious green lights dominated the place giving it a gloomy vibe. The walls were filled with weird machinery and tables with disorganized papers. It was basically a mess, with different chairs spread around and no decoration pattern other than the lights.

Standing over a table in the center of the room was a woman with a lab coat.

“Hello, Valentina my dear, have you brought me something interesting?” asked the woman without turning around.

“Yes. First I’d like you to have a look at this boy here.” answered Valentina pointing at Albert.

The director took a look over her shoulder but her attention swiftly shifted back to her work.

“How many times do I have to tell you, baby? Boys aren’t interesting.” the woman turned around this time to face the group. Her eyes locked onto Lucca, lasciviously. “I like men.” she said, with a wicked smile on her face.

Linus looked at the man beside him who seemed to be trying to ignore the harassment. The woman talking to them seemed to be close to her 30s, she wore big round glasses and had straight brown hair. Meanwhile, her target seemed to be 19 or 20, although he dressed like an adult.

“I also got this” said Valentina waving the scroll over her head.

“HO, HO, HO. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT” said the director pouncing towards Valentina’s hand.

“No, no, no... Amelia.” said Valentina holding it out of the director’s hands. “First, the boy”

“FINE” she answered pouting “Put him down on the scan. Is he a Descendant, too?”.

“Yes, although the other kid here says he isn’t.” Valentina said as laid Albert down in a medical bed by the wall and rolled him into a big, round, scanning machine. She threw the scroll into Amelia’s hand, who held it like a kid with a new toy.

“When you talk that way I almost forget that you are a kid too, Val” said Amelia.

“Shut up, I’m not a kid” she answered.

Meanwhile, Linus watched that back and forth confused. Albert was a what? These people are weird... He thought. As if she could hear his thinking, Amelia started walking towards him, staring. But as she approached, she opened a motherly smile.

“You seem to be exhausted boy.” she said affectionately holding his chin “This will take a while, do you want to have a rest?”

Linus was hesitant to accept the offer, he glanced at Albert inside the weird scan machine. Amelia noticed his eye movement.

“Don’t worry, you can stay here if you want. I have very comfortable chairs” Linus wanted to resist, but his legs and back were in a lot of pain and his eyelids were heavy.

“Fine” he said, and Amelia guided him to a reclined chair. He completely fell apart on the chair, fighting hard to stay awake.

“Valentina you fool. Normal people’s bodies can’t take what yours can. You’d be wise to pay attention to those around you.” said the director. Valentina answered simply with a grunt.

At last, things calmed down. Lucca had left the room and Amelia started fidgeting with the screen next to the scan. Valentina sat on a chair beside Linus and waited.

Now, as he laid there, Linus tried processing the things he had seen. The flying man, the flying Albert, the classmate with secret agent drivers and huge houses, and the increasing number of weird people surrounding him. Everybody seemed to know what was going on except for him, and that started to get on his nerves. He turned to Valentina.

“Now, can you tell me what’s going on?”

She hesitated for a second, and suddenly she felt like the shy girl from school again.

“I’m not sure how much I can tell you...” Valentina glanced at Amelia “If you were his family, it would be different...”

“I am his family, ok?” said Linus raising his voice “I grew up with him, I can’t even remember the first time we met cause’ we were too young. I spend most of my nights at his house because his family says they’d rather let me stay there then send me back to the orphanage in the evening.”

Linus had teary eyes when he finished, he rubbed them off, embarrassed.

On the other side of the room Amelia took a giant headphone and put it on. She started singing in a horrible singing voice.

“I’D RATHER BE HARD TO LOOOOOOOVE...”

They both looked at her surprised, but she just went back to fidget with the monitor.

“I, see...” said Valentina, understanding her actions. “What do you wanna know?”

“Start from the beginning. Who did we meet at the top of the skyscraper?”

“Who?” she answered. “Well, basically, you’ve met a God.”