Chosen (Incomplete)

EDDIE~

I woke up from my deep sleep with a jolt. I glanced around, disoriented, and saw that my friends were passed out on the couches. I remembered that I had my birthday party yesterday, and my best friends had stayed over. I quietly got up and walked upstairs to get some water. I leaned against the island counter and sipped from my glass. After a moment of silence I realized something wasn't right, my dad was a horrible snorer, I should hear him. I tried to shake it off and told myself that I was just being paranoid. I remembered that my parents had been invited to a party last night, they were probably still there.
I was about to go back downstairs when I stopped myself. I had a bad feeling about something. I slowly snuck  into my parents bedroom and stopped to let my eyes adjust to the dark. Once they did I saw that the bed was empty. I looked in the bathroom that was connected to their room. Empty. I took a deep breath, they were at a party. I still had a bad feeling, so I began digging through their drawers. They would be furious if they knew that I was going through their things but I didn't care. I opened one drawer that was filled with old bills and name badges from previous jobs. I dug through it until a matte black, already opened envelope caught my attention. I opened it and pulled out a note. It read:
______________________________________________________________________________
    Dear Brad and May,
    You have just won a free trip to Paris, France. DO NOT tell your child(ren), Edward, that you have left, or else you can not go on this trip. Edward, your child(ren), Edward, will be taken care of.
N.E.L.
______________________________________________________________________________
   What the f*ck? I stared at the note for a moment. There was no way that they had actually taken up that deal. There was no way they had left me without knowing who would take care of me. I ran back downstairs to wake up the others. Bryce and Kylie, my girl best friends, were asleep on the two couches. Carter was on the floor.
We had been a tight knit of a friend group for years, I trusted them with my entire existence. Although there was one of them that I trusted a bit more than the others. I hurried over to where Bryce was asleep on the couch. Bryce was tall, probably 5'7, and strong since she played sports. Her hair was golden, dirty blonde and cut to her collarbone. She was fairly tan, but not too much. Bryce was pretty, really pretty, but she was my best friend- we'd known each other for years.
"Bryce! Bryce wake up!" I whisper yelled. She awoke with a sharp inhale through her nose.
"What... what's wrong?" She asked as she rubbed eyes.
"My parents, they're gone," I said in a panicked voice. She must have noticed my tone because she sat up with a concerned expression on her face.
"I thought they were at a party," She said slowly, becoming more awake with each passing second.
"So did I," I said. When she looked even more confused I elaborated, "I found a note, it's really creepy. Come on, I left it upstairs." As we walked to the stairs Carter stirred.
"What are you guys doing?" He grumbled.
"Nothing," I lied.
"Bullsh*t," He said. He stood up to his full height, towering over both Bryce and I. Carter seemed intimidating, with his black hair and height. Once you got to know him though, he was honestly sort of a softie. Bryce laughed a bit at his language.
"Eddie found a weird note, and his parents are gone. We're going to check it out," She whispered. Carter scratched the back of his head and yawned.
"Ed, I thought your parents were at a party," Carter said.
"I know- you'll see what we mean when we get upstairs," I said. We continued to walk up the stairs, careful not to wake Kylie. Once we made it up the stairs I showed them the note. They read it for a moment before looking up at me.
"There's no way they actually left. Not without telling you," Bryce exclaimed.
"You'd be surprised," I murmured. They all knew that my relationship with my parents wasn't the greatest, but even I knew they would never actually leave. Right?
We talked for a couple minutes about what might have happened before Kylie trudged up the stairs.
"What's going on?" She asked. Kylie was the youngest out of all of us. Her soft but elegant face held a worried look. Kylie was a sweet girl; I got along with her really well, but she wasn't the brightest. Her long brunette hair was in a loose braid that rested against her back. Her blue eyes immediately went to Carter, causing her face to flush red. It was no secret that she had a huge crush on Carter, but we didn't ever talk about it.
Bryce explained what had happened and Kylie read the note. Bryce looked as if she was in deep thought for a moment before she walked over to the door that connected to my garage. She opened it up and flicked on the light switch next to the door frame. We all crowded behind her.
"What are we looking for?" Kylie asked.
"How did they get to the airport to go to France without a car?" Bryce asked, although it sounded more like a demand.
"You're right" I said, "And we would have heard a car in the driveway if someone came to pick them up."
"So... they actually went to the party and got picked up from there?" Kylie asked.
"Or they're still at the party, we don't if they're in France," Carter added.
"Yeah but..." Bryce walked out of the doorway to check something, "Damn, it's two in the morning. Is it normal for them to be out this late?" She asked.
"No it's not," I ran my hands through my hair.
"Maybe we should go check with our parents to see if they know anything," Kylie suggested. We all agreed and went to go put on our normal clothes. After we were dressed we opened my garage door and all got on our bikes. We all lived in the same neighborhood so we could just ride our bikes to each other's houses. Kylie lived the closest to me, so we rode to her house first.
"I'll go in and tell you guys what my parents say," Kylie said as she got off her bike and put the kickstand down. She ran into her house and left us all sitting on our bikes in silence. She was gone for a couple minutes before she rushed back out with a black envelope in her hand and tears streaming down her face.
"Th- they're gone," She wailed. Bryce rushed off her bike and squeezed Kylie as she cried. She glanced at both Carter and I. After we had gotten Kylie calmed down, we pedaled to Carter's house. It was the same with him, his parents were gone- the only difference was that Carter didn't cry, he was just pissed off. At that point Bryce looked terrified of what she would find in her house. Once we reached Bryce's home she ran off her bike without bothering to put the kickstand out. After a couple minutes she walked out. Her steps were slow and heavy, and one of her hands was clenched in a fist. She raised her head to look at us. She held out her clenched fist wordlessly, we all saw the black note she was holding.
"So... what do we do now?" I asked. I cursed myself for my voice being so shaky, but I was trying not to have a panic attack.
"We should go to the police," Carter decided. We all agreed. I glanced at Bryce, she looked crestfallen. Kylie looked like she would burst into tears at any second, and Carter looked like he would punch the next person he saw. I wondered how I looked as we began to pedal in the direction that would take us out of our neighborhood, probably as horrible as I felt.
We rode in silence until a screeching of tires sounded from around a corner we were coming up on. A dark black van swerved out onto the street in front of us and continued in our direction. It was going much faster than you were supposed to go in neighborhoods.
When it became clear the van wasn't going to slow I yelled, "Get out of the way!"
We all dove off of our bikes to the sides of the rode. Bryce and I landed next to each other while Kylie and Carter were on the other side of the road.
"Son of a b*tch," I murmured as my arms and legs stung from where I'd scraped them on the road. The van screeched to a stop in front of our bikes. I stiffened as the door opened. No one got out.
"Get in," A deep male voice rumbled. I didn't recognize it from anywhere. Bryce and I exchanged a look.
"Run!" Bryce screamed. We all scrambled to our feet and bolted in the opposite direction of the van.
I heard the man murmur, "Fire."
I heard Bryce scream. I looked at her to see her collapse to the ground and began twitching, as if she were having a seizure. I watched in horror as Kylie collapsed in the same way, then Carter. I noticed that as Carter stopped moving, it looked like his eyes went completely white. I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my lower back, then it felt as if I was getting shocked all over my body. I tried to get a breath down, but it felt as if my body was rejecting that idea. I stopped breathing as my vision went black.

I opened my eyes suddenly, my body seemingly deciding that it was safe to wake up. Then I realized I was underwater, in a strange tube. I screamed, then clamped my hand over my mouth. I closed my mouth and examined my hand. I had needles in my hand. I looked over at my other hand, to see that I had even more needles in it. I tried to calm my racing heart, I wasn't feeling any need to breathe so I supposed I was alright. I looked around towards the outside of my tube. The room was fairly large, with tubes like my own in every corner. Next to every tube was a panel and a screen that seemed to be taking vitals. There wasn't much lighting in the room, but I could make out Bryce's face in the tube right across from mine. I tried to yell her name, but water rushed into my mouth. I had to get out. I ripped the needles that were in my hands out and began banging on the glass of the tube. It was too difficult to continue to bang on the glass, so I just tried pushing on it. My hands started glowing a bright white orange. The glass around my hands began to glow a neon red, then a hole appeared. The water bagan to rush out of the hole, and it became large enough for me to crawl through. I crawled through the hole, trying to stay away from the smooth, hot glass. When I got to my hips, I accidentally nudged over. I flinched, expecting to get a blazing burn, but I felt nothing; like I was immune to it.
I fell to the floor and coughed out as much water as I could. I took a few deep breaths when my lungs were clear. My clothes stuck to my skin, making me shiver. I looked up to Bryce's tube again. The top of the glass cylinder held a number: ST54. I glanced behind me to my own tube. The number on the top read: S92M. I wondered what they were for. I looked back to Bryce. Her skin was pale and she had some kind of tattoo all down the left side of her body. Her eyes were open, but they didn't blink. They had turned a dark black, even the whites. I shivered as I looked at her. I looked next to Bryce's tube. Kylie was there, wide awake, knocking on the glass.  I quickly got on my feet, but had to take a moment as my head swam. After I could see straight, I rushed over to her. Her tube also had a number on the top: SO87. The panel next to the tube held some buttons, and I assumed that they opened the tube. I started pushing the different symbols, trying to find out which would get her out of the tube. She started hitting the glass, trying to get my attention. I quit pressing the buttons randomly and looked at her.
"What?" I croaked, my voice scratchy from disuse. I didn't expect a response, but I heard her voice clearly.
"I'm okay," She replied. I was shocked, "I've been here for hours. I can breathe, don't worry about me right  now. Get the others."
I nodded my head and looked at the last tube in the room. Like the others, it held a number at the top: SV4B. There was no person in the tube, I began to panic for a moment. I saw that instead of Carter being in the tube, there was flying electricity. That had to be impossible though. All of this had to be impossible. Suddenly the electricity inside stopped. Carter's form appeared within the murky water.
His eyes flew open quickly, but there was no color. Like I remembered, his eyes were completely white. I ran to the panel besides his tube. It was just like the other panel, I didn't understand what any of the symbols meant.  I gave up on the buttons and started banging on the glass to attempt to get Carter's attention. I saw a bright flash of light, so bright that it burned my eyes. I stumbled to the floor, and heard Kylie shriek. I looked back up at Carter. The electricity had started back up again. The bolts spun faster, and continued to climb in speed. The faster they got, the brighter they got. I semi-covered my eyes to shield from the light. It started getting too bright, so I just backed away. Then the glass shattered. I barely avoided getting stabbed by multiple flying shards by diving on the floor. Kylie screamed again, this time concerned for me. Carter stepped out, eyes wide open. He was dripping wet, his hair plastered to his forehead. His eyes slowly closed. Then, he fell flat on the floor. His head made direct contact with the concrete beneath him.