Changing The Future

CHAPTER VII

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Alice is in her room wearing shorts and a tank top. She grabs her bag with spare clothes, a towel, her phone and a bottle of water, and some health bars. In a blink of an eye, she is standing in front of a white modern house with a dark gray roof. She is wearing the spare clothes she brought with her. This must be where Asher lives, she thinks to herself while observing the house. She walks to the front door and rings the doorbell. "I'm coming." She hears a woman say from the other side of the door. The door opens and a tall Chinese woman with just above shoulder-length pitch-black hair, wearing a black blouse and gray pants is standing in the door frame. "Who are you?" The woman asks, narrowing her eyes and looking at Alice with suspicion. Alice feels like the woman is looking straight through her soul and judging her. The woman has piercing dark gray eyes. "My name is Alice. I'm a friend of Asher." Alice says politely not wanting to get on the woman's bad side. The woman takes another look at Alice and then smiles. "Come in." The woman stepped aside for Alice to come in. She closes the door behind Alice. "Hi I'm Asher's mother, Raven." They both shake hands. "Asher's room is upstairs down the hallway." Alice nods and walks upstairs. What she didn't know was that the piercing gray eyes were following her until she was out of sight.

When Alice reaches the end of the hallway, she knocks on the door that's supposed to be Asher's. There is no answer. She knocks again. Still no answer. Is this not the right door? "I'm coming in." 'Please don't be naked.' She thinks to herself. She opens the door and steps inside. "Hello?" She looks around. Asher is nowhere to be seen. This has to be his room. The whole room is black, gray, and white. There are a few posters of superheroes. "Asher are you in here?" Alice asks worriedly. She walks up to a door. It must be the door that leads to his bathroom. She knocks on the door. "Asher are you in there?" No answer. She turns around and is just about to exit his room to tell his mother that he isn't in there when she sees Asher standing in the hallway ready to enter his bedroom. They are both looking at each other. "Alice, I didn't know you were here or coming." He walks to his bed and sits on it. He signals Alice to come sit next to him. "Well, I came to check on you." She sits down next to Asher. "Did you just climb through the window into my room or do my parents know that you're here?" She lets out a small uncharacteristic giggle. "I came through the front door of course." Asher looks at Alice thinking about something. "You don't laugh or smile a lot, do you? You always look so serious." Alice sighs and looks away from Asher. She's looking at his family picture that is on a stand in front of a mirror. Asher and his parents are standing next to each other both smiling and a younger version of Asher standing between them laughing. "You see, I am adopted and when I was in the orphanage, I always held a grudge against my mother and I was always mad at her for leaving me. The children there never really liked me very much and they were also scared of me. When I got adopted by my father, he treated me as if I was his own child. I was slowly starting to show more emotions, but after a while, I made a choice that made my childhood different from a normal person's childhood." Asher was going to say something but was cut off by Alice. "But that still didn't give me a reason not to smile because I was loved by my father even after I made that choice. It didn't affect our relationship. On my fifteenth birthday, someone came and told me something that changed my life and that made me like this." Asher doesn't know what to say. He wants to know what that person said to her but if she doesn't want to tell him he isn't going to force her to. "And I know you also didn't have and have an easy life getting bullied and all." She looks at Asher again. She didn't notice it before but he looks like he didn't sleep for days. His hair is a mess and he has dark circles around his eyes. "Asher, have you even slept for the past few days?" Asher scratches the back of his head sheepishly. "I couldn't sleep for the past few days." "Do you want to talk about it?" If Asher couldn't sleep because her father has been stalking him, Alice is going to kill him. Asher starts to think. Does he really want to tell her about the family secret he just found out? He barely knows her. She is his first friend in a long time. But what if she betrays him? What if that's why she became his friend just to learn all his secrets and expose him later on. But on the other hand, she doesn't seem like that kind of person. Screw it he's going to tell her. "Yes, I do but can it be in private?" "Sure." Alice says understanding what he means. "I don't want my parents to hear it." Alice stands up. "Okay, we're going out." "Can't you just-" "No. You need to get some fresh air so go get ready."

Asher and Alice are still inAsher's room. Asher is standing and Alice is sitting on Asher's bed. "Why didyou say we were going to go out when you still did it?" Everything is quiet.Nothing is moving. It's like everything became a statue. Alice stopped time.That's her actual ability. She can't teleport. She stops time and just walks tothe place she wants to be and unstops time. Asher knew about this. Everyone thinksthat her ability is teleportation but it's time control. Asher knows about thisbecause when she saved him from Joshua and Rose, she forgot to freeze Asher.But he doesn't know why she doesn't want people to know her real powers."Someone is standing outside." Alice says. Pointing at the door. Asher walks upto the door and opens it. It's his mother. She's standing in the hallwayholding a tray of cookies. "I had heard footsteps and I wanted to make theperson think that we were going outside and not stay here." "Yeah, it would beweird if my mother would have listened and you would just leave because Ialready told you everything but for her, it's just one second of silence."Asher closes the door and walks toward Alice. "Okay about why I couldn't reallysleep much. Where should I start?" "Start from the beginning." Asher closes hiseyes and takes a deep breath. "Okay, so after the exams, I went home and mygrandparents were there which is strange because my parents banned them fromour house. I didn't really talk to them and went to my room." Asher turns hisback towards Alice not looking at her. "As I went upstairs, I could hear mygrandparents and parents arguing. I stayed in my room until I heard a crashingsound coming from downstairs so I ran towards the sound to see what washappening." He turns around facing Alice again. "When I came downstairs, I didnot expect to see what I saw." "What did you see?" Alice asks curiously. "I sawmy father holding back my mother while she was trying to swing a sword at mygrandparents." That was not what Alice expected. "A sword?" Alice deadpans."Yes. After it was all over my mother fainted and was asleep for a few days andin the meantime, I asked my father about the sword but he wouldn't tell me." Hesits next to Alice. "I found out that my mother has abilities." Alice justlooks at him not understanding what's wrong with that. "My parents told me thatI'm the first one in the family to have abilities. I don't know what to do."Alice puts her hand on Asher's shoulder to try and comfort him. She doesn'tknow what to do in these kinds of situations. "Maybe they also have an abilitythat people see as a villain power and that's why they also don't use it. AndI'm stuck with the thought that maybe my parents are villains.' Asher sayswalking away frustrated. "If they are villains I would know because I know alot about villains and I don't think your parents are villains." Asher raisesan eyebrow at her and looks at her for a minute but lets it go. "Well, that's arelief because I thought a hero was following me to know where my parents liveto arrest them." 'So he doesn't know that my father is stalking him.' Alicethinks to herself. "My parents however think that my grandparents hired someoneto take me away." Alice sighs. "Whoever that person is, you know how to defendyourself now and if you couldn't I would be disappointed after all the trainingI gave you." "Yeah, thanks to you I'm doing better now." "No need to thank me."Alice unfreezes time. "So, you want to go to the park?" "Sure." There's a knockon the door. "Come in." The door opens and Asher's mother steps into thebedroom. "I made some chocolate chip cookies. Do you want one?" "Sorry mom, butwe're going to the park maybe next time?" His mother begins to look down butthen instantly smiles again. "Well, more cookies for me." His mother turnsaround and exits his room. Alice grabs her bag and they both exit his bedroom.