The Visitors-Abomination

Chapter 1- Pilot

•Khalil•

There goes that feeling of unease again.

Cold sweat trickled down Khalil's forehead and cold bumps covered his upper arms. He tried to focus on the people and houses outside Regina's car window but kept getting a bad feeling about that Monday. And it wasn't because he was a nearly fifteen-year-old with a different perspective leading him to think that almost nothing good happens when a day starts off bright.

He fixed the sleeve to his uniform shirt then wind down the window, a cool breeze whooshed through his dark curls, revealing forehead. Somehow it made him feel better. But better wasn't enough.

Children skipped down the sidewalks in his neighbourhood, as usual, laughing as if everything was alright. Khalil pitted them for not knowing how cruel the world is. He also envied them for not knowing how hard living in the world is.

He felt his adoptive mother's eyes on him. "Are you alright, sweetie?" Regina asked from his right side, eying him worriedly every few seconds.

"Yep," he answered nonchalantly. The way it came out sounded mean; it's not her fault that his real parents died. Khalil was adopted by Regina Lewis and her husband, Dereck Lewis when he was twelve, three years back. He accepted the fact they're the ones keeping him alive, but he didn't address them as a child would do to their parents.

In the past, when Khalil walked in public with his foster parents, persons would come up to them asking if they were related because he was black and they were white. No joke. But by then, he was already used to it.

Regina sighed as she turned up the volume on the car radio. At first, Khalil didn't care about what it said until the speaker said something that caught his attention. The man's voice was deep and he had a thick African American accent.

"...I have been getting signs all month. Today has given me the worst. America will crumble! The evils of mankind are rampaging and you all will be punished! I'm telling you-"

Suddenly Regina skipped the radio channel to a music one as she muttered something under her breath. "Hey! I was listening to that," Khalil whined, perching forward in his seat. The radio went static for a couple of seconds before playing again.

"It's not my cup of tea," she simply replied as the radio went static again, completely that time. She turned it off as she murmured something again. They arrived on the main road, directing to the city.

Khalil leaned back in his seat without another word. They passed multiple supermarkets, malls, a police station and other business places—be it a successful one or a failing one. A few minutes later is when they entered the poorer part of the city, mostly referred to as the "hood". Where strip clubs, bars, small diners and desperately old houses lay.

Of course, Khalil was already used to travelling through this particular section. In fact, he lived there before his parents died. But an unusual lot of persons were out and about and playing dominoes on the side. Even a few hid in alleys, exchanging drugs or/and smoking.

Regina wasn't a big fan of allowing her adoptive child look on at this type of surrounding, but it was the only stable road leading towards the main street which led to the high school.

If she took the lonely lane, leading to another main road every school day, there would be a high possibility of getting robbed or worse.

Khalil was too lost in observing through the window to notice a guy, looking a little older than him stumbling in front of the car from the other side. Regina hit the brakes instantly, sending both of them nearly flying into the windshield. He felt his heart hammering in his chest from the sudden movements.