Part 1.

At the age of ten, I suffered a bad blow of amnesia that wiped away ten years of my life. Or, so I was told by my parents.

As the years went by, I thought I would regain them, even tried hard to have them back. But they didn't seem to want to be mine again, and maybe it was for the best, who knows why my brain was resisting them anyway. What if I had killed people and my brain just wanted to block away the trauma?

So by the age of seventeen, I had made peace that my life was ten-years-blank and it was supposed to be a good thing.

My life was great, superb.

But I couldn't help the feeling that I was being watched, everywhere. Whether at home, at the mall, even at school.

The invisible eyes made me feel nervous and edgy most of the time.

"What is this?" Dad's ever concerned voice asked as his eyes ran over the phone's screen I had shoved to his face.

He reached for the remote with his right hand, paused the show he was watching on Netflix, a documentary about space; The Secrets of the Universe. I could not remember how many times he kept watching it.

I smiled, unable to contain my excitement.

A few seconds later, mom walked in the lounge carrying a cup of coffee for dad. She placed it carefully on the table by dad's chair then straightened. Her ever keen green eyes ran over me, and I could feel the same thing I felt eight years ago when I first made eye contact with her...fear.

She forced a brief smile and hurried away, killing the warm glow that had filled my chest a while ago.

"Don't mind her. She's always in a bit of a mood." Dad comforted. He patted the empty space on the sofa. "Sit!"

I obeyed, pushing aside mom's constant reaction to me. It hurt so much, other mothers were loving, caring and easy to talk to as I had heard other students brag. But my mother, she was cold, distant...as if watching over me was more of a job she hated than a responsibility.

"You applied for the Special Force Academy?" Dad's tone leaked of surprise.

I shook my head, "no dad! They picked me without me even applying. Isn't it crazy?" I burst, happy beyond any possible measurement. "They must have recognized my mastery in science, I heard they picked students with potential to join... Oh dad!" I sighed dreamily while staring at the drawn windows. Nothing could go wrong. My heart was at peace with my entire body.

"No!" Dad suddenly breathed while springing up.

He seemed distressed, confused, hurt.

"Dad?" I called softly while getting up to face him.

He ran a hand through the short curls that had some gray here and there.

"What's the problem? Are you feeli-"

"Why did they pick you?" He demanded looking into my eyes. "I tried shielding you from them by raising you ri-"

"Arnold!" Mom yelled from the door leading to the kitchen. She ran in the room blazing with anger at her husband. "What in world do you think you're doing? Come on. NOW!" Mom ordered while pulling him towards the exit door, leaving me frozen there in utter confusion.

***

The night sky had grown unusually dark over the past five years. Changing more and more, just like how the earth was dying.

As I stared at the stars, I experienced a strange feeling spreading within the walls of my chest like a constriction. It shot through me like lightning till it reached the silver bracelet in my left hand.

I rolled up the sleeve, examined the bracelet keenly, then sighed. It was pointless, for so long I had tried taking that cursed thing off of me but all efforts were futile. Dad said it was supposed to keep me safe. From what? I had no idea. He only said it would come off when the time was right, whatever that meant.

Why was the earth dying?

Scientist said that it was due to the ozone layer thinning. It sounded reasonable, yet for some weird reason, a part of me disagreed in secret. For one, there were strange disease outbreaks around the world, seasons shifting and cases of people showing odd behaviors like cannibalism out of the blues.

The governments all over the world were working extra hard to hide all the evil happening by simply blaming the ozone.

I wish I had the answers as to why everything was happening. But, once I join the Academy, I was sure there would be smart people that specialized in that area that could provide me with useful insight.