January 28. Subject female, early twenties, caucasian, roughly 150 pounds. Reference number 08276. Was exposed to the darkness during first trimester of pregnancy. Subject is now twenty one days pregnant. This one appears hopeful.
February 12. Subject showing rejection to vitamins and other birth enhancing chemicals. There are an unusual number of white blood cells in the patient’s blood stream. Further studies into possibilities of diabetes and other diseases’ are pending. Considering Philidamide.
March 1. Subject has gone into early labor. Child appears to be perfectly healthy, with no sources of the darkness within his genetic structure. The project has been terminated, marked FAILURE.
March 7. Female subject has fled with her child. One soldier killed during said escape. Female subject was captured approximately five miles from town. As per procedure she was made insulin-deficient prior to testing. Prolonged time away from treatment center caused kidney failure and other complications resulting in her death. However, the child was too young to be altered in any such way...
HE WILL SURVIVE . . .
CHAPTER ONE:
SMALL TOWN
15 YEARS LATER
“So, you going to Julian Grendel’s party on Friday?” she asked him, paying little attention to his response or even if he gave one. It was one thing he almost admired about Sara Johnson; she had a way of controlling you without even letting you know you were being controlled. Maybe it was her lips, or how she subconsciously played with her curly blonde hair all the time, but she always did it. She was good at it, and she knew it.
“Uh, I’m not sure. I was thinking about hitting the Factory with Mike,” Alexander Drew replied, half concentrating on her and half watching out for Grendel himself. For whatever reason, Grendel didn’t like people not coming to his parties. He brushed a hand through his dark brown hair. His eyes darted about skittishly, meeting those of every person who walked past the two of them, then immediately dropped to the floor. Finally, they found her. Her perfect body, not too thin, those lush pink lips, short blonde hair and the way her blue eyes looked right through you, slicing at you.
“Oh, come on, Xander,” she whined. She said his name like it was some kind of a joke.
He didn’t remember the orphanage, but he remembered how he got stuck with the name Xander. Every child had been named after a saint. There were three children who had been given the name Alexander by separate caretakers. For identification purposes, one was Alexander, another was Alex, and he was just plain Xander.
He hated the name; it was just another thing to make him stand out that tiny bit when all he wanted was not to be noticed… and the one person he did want to notice him said his name as if it were a joke.
“Alright, I’ll come. But you have to promise me you’ll make sure Mike and Cathy don’t ditch me like the last time,” he reasoned, heaving a massive sigh as he gave in.
“They didn’t ditch you.”
He gave her a droll, tired look.
“They didn’t!” she laughed, slapping his arm playfully.
He frowned, then rolled his eyes and nodded.
“Oh, come on. Don’t sulk. You know I’m right. They love you.”
“They do,” he agreed finally. “They really do. They love me and they’re there for me and they are the best of friends - except in public. In public, it’s like we never met.”
“Drama queen.”
“Oh, I’m not saying they try it or anything... it’s just the way things are. I get it.” He forced a smile, making eye contact with her. “I don’t even think they realize they do it.”
She gave him a little smile, the right corner of her lip curling just enough to make her irresistible as she fixed her black tube top, even though it hadn’t really needed it. In all honesty, it was not so much a tube top as it was a strip of black tape going across her chest. That was the other thing about Sara. Besides having the looks of a goddess and the voice of an angel... she dressed like the devil. Skimpy tank tops and hip-hugger jeans. Fishnet stockings wrapped around her hands and covering her forearms. Large hoop earrings, at least two rings on each finger (silver on the left and gold on the right) and all that was just one outfit.
“I promise,” she said, after she had spent enough time fiddling with her attire to make him twitch. “They’ll be good little boys and girls, as long as you are.”
He snorted, rolled his eyes, and closed his locker door with a clang. He pulled his book bag onto his back as the two of them started walking toward the front exit of Coral Beach High, the flat-out boring high school in the mediocre town of Coral Beach, getting ready to walk home together just like they did every day.
“So, what’s new today?” he asked, shooting her a smile. “Anything scandalous going on?”
Now it was his turn to know the answer before she gave it. He asked something like that of her every day, because to her there was always something scandalous happening. Everywhere. Always. But to be fair, scandalous things seemed to happen around her anyway.
“Well,” she started, smirking to herself proudly. “I heard from Julie Peterson today that the reason Derek has been so on edge lately is because Theresa had to take the test.”
“Yeah,” Xander nodded. “That Family Living test was bad news. I think I must have only gotten an eighty-five or something...”
She turned and gave him a little slap on the arm. “Not that test, you halfwit. A pregnancy test.”
Xander’s eyes went
