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Chapter One: Parker

Bzzz... 

Bzzz...

Bzzz...

The buzzing stopped. Parker shoved their face into the pillow, letting out a slow breath into the fabric. 

Bzzz...

Damn it, They thought, lifting their head to glance at the alarm clock on the bedside table. 2:29 am. Who'd be calling this early in the morning? Another quick glance answered that question as Parker saw the name on their phone; one that had become quite familiar. 

Sitting up, they grabbed the phone, pressing the green accept button. "Hello?" They said, their voice sounding deeper with sleep. 

"I think I remembered something." 

Emily's voice wasn't sleep filled or groggy. She sounded like she'd be awake for hours, almost as if she'd never gone to sleep in the first place. 

That woke Parker up almost instantly. "What do you mean?" They asked, pressing the volume up button on their phone to ensure they didn't miss a word. 

"I was dreaming and I think I remembered something. It felt so strange, like a laboratory of sorts. Which, now that I'm thinking about it sounds absolutely insane." She started to go off on a tangent, and Parker knew they had to reign her in. "Okay, okay. What happened in the dream?" They said, reaching over to grab the glasses off the night stand. 

Emily was one of the four other people Parker knew. After waking up on the side of the road a few months ago surrounded by strangers, it seemed obvious that the 5 of them would stick together. None of them remembered anything, only their names and ages. Over time, it was learned that they'd all been held somewhere together, as they had this vague sense of familiarity  with each other. 

Parker was the oldest. They didn't know their birthday, only that they were 19. Emily was next at 18. It felt right that she would be next on the list, she held a sense of authority over the rest that didn't quite reach Parker's level. Charlotte and Josh were next, both being 18 as well. They were the only two who had any sense of memory of each other. They were twins, and that seemed to be all they knew about each other. The youngest, was Kai. She was 17, barely acting 12. The 5 of them lived close to each other. Parker and Emily both opted to live alone, with Charlotte, Josh and Kai all living in a small apartment a block or so away. 

"I was in a dimly lit room, and it had like tubes and wires and stuff in it. It looked like one of those horror games Kai plays. I heard voices. It was two men, and they were arguing over something in this massive tube. It looked like a person, but I couldn't tell. They were saying the levels of something in their blood were wrong. I accidentally knocked something over and they saw me, and that's when I woke up." Emily said quickly, almost as if she didn't say it as fast as she could, she would forget. 

Parker took a deep breath. This was big. It'd been days since anyone had remembered anything, and this was the most anyone had remembered. Charlotte remembered feeling like she was freezing to death, and Kai remembered feeling like she was being electrocuted. Josh was odd. He always remembered a girl with blue eyes, and it always ended with him staring at Emily with a look of mixed disgust and confusion. "Did anything else happen, do you remember anything about their faces?" They asked. 

There was a pause before she spoke again. "I remember their eyes. They were green..." She trailed off. "What if that was Charlotte or Josh? Why were they in a tube?" She sounded like she was going to go off on a tangent again. Parker cut her off before she spoke again. "Listen. As big and amazing as this is, it is now.." They glanced at the clock. "..2:50 in the morning. Neither of us is in the right mindset to theorize about anything right now. Why don't we go back to sleep and we can meet up with the others in the morning?" There was silence on the other end. 

"Emily?" 

There was a loud snore from her end and Parker let out a soft laugh. "Why do you call me knowing you wont last?" They said quietly, hanging up the phone and placing it gently on the night stand. 

What does all of that mean? Parker thought, taking off their glasses and laying back down in bed. Were we all experimented on? They almost laughed at that idea. "Experiments." They tried aloud. It sounded strange on their tongue. "God, I need more sleep." Parker closed their eyes, rolling over and drifting off to sleep. 

It was dark and cold. Parker couldn't feel their toes, couldn't move no matter how hard they tried to force their body. Ever fiber of their being felt like it was being electrocuted. Like endless amounts of energy were running through it and they were powerless to stop it. "Dad, I don't think this is a good idea anymore" Parker managed to move their eyes, but they couldn't see anything. "Hush. You have no idea what your talking about, no idea how much money these experiments could make us." There was another voice. A man. He sounded older, maybe mid 50's if Parker was hearing correctly, which maybe they weren't. They couldn't tell. The other voice spoke again, a young girls. It sounded so familiar. "Look at how much pain their in, god can't they just be asleep for this?" There were footsteps that sounded like they were getting closer to them. "This isn't humane." The man let out a sharp laugh. "Fine, you want them to be asleep? Have it your way." There was a small gasp from the girl and then it felt like a thousand bolts of energy were being shot through Parker's system. The last thing they heard was a soft "I'm sorry." Before everything went dark. 

The next morning, Parker got up early. They needed to go for a walk to clear their head after the dream last night. What did it mean? Who was that girl they heard? After quickly getting dressed, they grabbed their keys and headed out the door. 

The city they all lived in was quiet, the total opposite of what a big city should be. At 9 am, there were only a few cars out on the road, and almost no one walking down the streets. It didn't bother Parker how quiet it was though, it was sort of comforting in a way. It gave them time and focus to think. 

If my dream was real, then that means some kind of experiment was performed on us. They thought, walking slowly down the street. They passed the small coffee shop where they worked with Josh. If Josh's memories are correct, with the fire feeling, does that mean he was experimented on too? Nothing seemed to make any sense. 

Thoughts began to swirl through Parker's head, almost giving them a headache. Does that mean we all have powers? The questions began to build, and the only thing they could think to do was run. 

So they did. 

Parker ran as fast and hard as they could, as if running could help them escape the amnesia and confusion they all faced. 

After running for what felt like hours, they finally came back to reality and looked around them. "What the hell.." They mumbled, realizing they'd unintentionally ran to the spot they'd woken up at. It was just a dusty strip of road. There were barriers with a chain connecting them with nothing behind it but open space. Something caught their eye though. A small picture on the ground, caught under a rock. A picture of them all, minus Emily. 

They all looked so young, probably no older then 7 or 8. What confused Parker, was the numbers over all of their heads. They were missing a 2. A number 1 was over their head, with a 3 and 4 over Charlotte and Josh's heads, a 5 over Kai's. 

Why wasn't Emily in the picture? Where were they when this was taken? Why were they numbered? And where was number 2?

                                                                          End of Chapter One