Prologue:

Two things happened on April 11.

Agent Ambrosia was deemed fully neutralized.

And I was born.

The researchers found that Agent Ambrosia had to be in the mother's system all throughout the pregnancy. So now, finally, finally there would be an end to IAAN.

An end of being in the shadows.

An end to being hunted for the new generations to come.

However, I am still in the final group of the children who would be locked away in the world's history.

I am still dangerous.

I am still a monster.

Regardless if society thinks I am or not.

Chapter 1:

It started to rain, so we headed home.

My parents took me to see Black Betty for the first time. The scent of fake lemon still lingered within her dented, beat up doors, at least according to them. My mom showed me an old picture, apparently from a few years after they left Betty in the midst of the woods. I saw the pure joy in their faces. Pure friendship and love. I wish I had that. I identified each of their faces: Mom, Dad, Chubs, Zu. Their beaming faces stared at me, as if welcoming me into their cluster.

It was the day before I turned fourteen.

The day before I was gifted with my monster.

My doctor always kept a close watch on me to the point where it was creepy. I knew I wasn't going to die thanks to IAAN, but they wanted to predict what color I was going to be. They narrowed it to three options: Blue, Yellow, or—

Or Orange.

Mom always says that her abilities made life worse, that they took everything from her.

I didn't want that, and I went to bed every single day since I was eight, hoping I would wake up a Blue or a Yellow.

But life doesn't give you that choice.

—

I woke up to the usual feeling of wanting to murder my alarm clock before it did its usual annoying wakeup call, but it never went off. I heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, the smell of burning wax and blueberry pancakes coming with it.

Great. I thought, here we go for the annual embarrassment. I pretended to sleep, hoping that would drive them off. My bedroom door cracked open and I heard someone sit on my bed. I felt soft hands wipe the stray hairs from my face. Mom. She swiped the hair behind my ear and slid down my arm to finally put a comforting hand on my wrist.

I felt a trickle at the back of my mind, and pain exploded behind my eyes. Mom must have felt it too, because all I saw before I was slammed out was Dad driving, singing "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys, the silver moonlight hiding his bruises and cuts. He looked—

I returned to reality and slipped into darkness. Everything was black.

I knew something was wrong because all I could hear was Mom saying, "Shit, shit, oh my god, Liam!"

I heard running footsteps.

Dad must have stayed in the hallway with the pancakes.

"Darlin'? Is everything okay?"

"She's… she's—"

Mom burst into tears that sounded like they were out of panic and sympathy.

I woke up alarmed and ran. I needed out. I half-jumped-half-fell down the stairs and opened the front door frantically. I didn't realize I was sobbing until I slammed the door behind me, knocking off the single crescent moon nailed there.

This place is no longer safe. Not when I'm going to be here.

"Emma! Emma, come back!"

I ran down the stone path, past the garden, down the street into the adjacent neighborhood. I wiped my eyes with my wrist and knocked on the door.

A dark tan figure with electric blue hair answered.

"Emma? Why are you here so damn early?"

I all but shoved Vida out of my way and stormed through the house, down the hall. When I finally reached the bathroom, I closed the door and pressed the lock. I looked into the mirror and saw my reflection, orange eyes staring back at me.

No. This is just a dream. Mom and Dad promised you'd be okay….

"Stop." I whispered, "Stop."

There was a small, but audible knock at the door.

"Emma?"

It wasn't Vida, it was Chubs.

This definitely isn't a dream.

"Please open the door."

"Grannie, you know that if she's anything like Ruby, you are going to have to try a lot harder to get the damn door open."

There was another knock, louder this time. Then silence.

The lock clicked open, then Vida opened the door and slid a bobby pin back into her hair. That was my punishment for coming to the house of a former Childrens' League member. Her brows were drawn together in confusion, and Chubs's expression looked identical.

Chubs broke the awkward silence. "Emma? What's going on? Did Lee do something? Do you need me to call Ruby?"

I was speaking before I could stop myself. "No, they are the last people that I want to see right now."

"Emma…."

Vida reached for my wrist. I jerked back. "Don't touch me. Not unless you want to forget about me and be driven insane about it."

"What? Oh, oh, Grannie, we have another person to perform brain voodoo."

"At least she didn't disguise herself as a Green and scared the daylights out of all of us." Chubs started down the hallway, bringing his phone up to his ear.

My voice was shaking from the power of my sobs. "I don't want to be an Orange. I don't want to live in fear. I'm going on the run."

"Em… there's no reason you need to go on the run. Leaving home isn't going to save you."

"No, but it'll save you. I don't want to do what Mom did to her parents—"

"Emma, Jesus, what are you… you… Ruby can help you." Vida began, "She can teach you, there's no need to be like this."

Chubs returned into the room and crouched down to where I was, passing me his phone. It was Dad, he sounded concerned, his accent was deeper.

"Darlin', why did you leave? Mom told me, but I don't want you to ever think we would leave you because you're an Orange…."

"I thought I had wiped myself from Mom's memory and I didn't want to see the ending."

"Emma, Mom's on her way to get you right now."

"I can't come back."

"Emma, the last time I didn't return to Mom, she went back to Thurmond and sacrificed her life for the kids inside. She almost died. I've lost enough people, I don't need to add my daughter to the mix."

At that, I hung up and gave the phone back to Chubs. I needed some air. I opened the front door and stepped into the porch. A black car was already there, along with a worried looking Mom. She stared at me in awe.

"Emma, come here."

I ran into her open arms and dug my face into her shoulder, thinking I would disappear. My own tears rolled onto her light green blouse, and I felt ashamed.

I'm fourteen now. I can't cry like this.

Mom lifted me into the car and buckled my seatbelt. She started to cry, but her voice was steady.

"Emma, never do that again. You scared the hell out of all of us. You can't run from your monster. I'm speaking from experience, never think you are anything less than who you've always wanted to be. You are not alone. Remember, I promised you that I would give you the life that was taken away from me. I'm so sorry that I shut my mind off to you. I know your head must hurt somethin' fierce. I know you don't understand these crazy abilities, but I will teach you how to control them. I never want you to think that you should close yourself off to other people because of what you can do. You are the most strong, smart, confident, ambitious, and practical person I know. Don't let this stop you."

That only made me cry harder. I leaned my head against the window just as we pulled into the driveway. As soon as the door unlocked, I opened it and ran up to my room and got into bed. I couldn't stop the waterfall of tears, but I could stop interactions with others.

Dad must have called Zu looking for me, because she walked in, followed by Vida and Mom. They sat down at the foot of my bed and Zu started to speak.

"Emma, I know what it's like to feel isolated and forgotten." She stayed close, but kept her distance. Distance was good. "If you ever need me, just give me a call."

She got up and walked away.

"Don't make me skin your ass." Vida said with a light giggle, "Don't get yourself stabbed either."

Mom gasped and giggled lightly, and Vida followed Zu down the stairs.

I opened my eyes, dried my tears, and walked over to my vanity. I brushed my brown hair back into a braid and looked at the appearance of confidence in my hazel eyes. I turned around and looked at Mom. "So, when's the first lesson?"