The Chosen: the Age of Corbin Tyler the Undying

Part 1: Chapter 1

It was late in the afternoon at the library where I was studying. My tutor, Mrs. Diana, was wrapping up our session for today.

"Just keep working on these equations until we meet next week," she told me, slinging her purse over her shoulder. "I'll test you again, and if you do well, we can move onto the next thing."

I fished twenty bucks out of my wallet and handed it to her. "Thanks Mrs. Diana. But I just can't help but feel like math just isn't my thing."

She took the payment. "You're welcome, sweetie. But keep in mind that no matter whether you feel like you're good at it or not, math is the language of the universe. If you can't master math, your options later are limited."

I shrugged. "That doesn't really bother me any. I've found I'm more street smart than book smart anyway."

She smiled, her brown eyes glittering behind the square frames of her glasses. "Street smart is definitely a plus anymore. We're running out of blue-collar workers you know."

I smiled back. "True. Maybe I'll go into something of that category."

She laughed. "Corbin Tyler, the maintenance man, I can see it now." She laughed some more as she left.

"Bye," I called after her.

She waved over her shoulder. Then undid her brown hair from its bun, letting it fall in its full length to her shoulder blades.

I smiled and started packing up my things.

My name is Corbin Matthias Tyler. I'm sixteen, or, was here. My hair is a dark blonde, my eyes are brown, and on all accounts, I'm normal.

Or, I thought I was.

On my way out of the library I waved at the clerk, who waved back. And just as I was about to unlock my car, I heard a crash down by the road.

I left my car and ran over to the edge of the parking lot to see what happened.

A man had crashed his car into an electrical pole.

I ran over and tried the handle. It wouldn't open. I looked inside and saw that the man was bleeding. A lot. The front of his shirt was completely soaked with blood.

He was responsive, however. He seemed to be actively attempting to pull something out of his chest. In fact, there were slicks of blood in mid-air along something unseen.

I knocked on the window.

He looked over at me.

I motioned for him to lean away from the window.

He did so.

I pulled my knife out of my pocket and flipped it around. On the bottom of it was a window smasher.

I smashed the window and leaned in to unbuckle him. When I leaned in, I heard what sounded like electricity crackling. I poked my head back outside to see what was going on. There was a loose wire from the pole lying on the ground, crackling from all of the stored energy that had nowhere to go. Not to far from it was a puddle of gasoline that was steadily growing.

I leaned back inside and started cutting the seatbelt off and got him out much faster than if I had tried to unbuckle him.

I pulled him from the window, and no sooner had I dragged him twenty feet away than the car went up in flames. The electricity had caught the gasoline on fire.

I lay him down on his back in the grass and checked him over. He was bleeding profusely from his chest. It looked really close to his heart. . .

"Sir," I called. "Sir, what is your name?"

"What?" He rasped.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"Tony," He replied quietly. Tony Carr."

"Ironic," I muttered under my breath.

"What's your name?" He asked me.

"Corbin Tyler," I told him, trying to keep him awake while I tried to stop the bleeding with my now removed shirt. I looked around to make sure someone was calling 911. And there was. Several people were, in fact.

"Tell me, Mr. Carr, do you have any family?"

"Yes," he said. "I have three daughters, a wife, and my parents are still alive."

"Okay, good, that's awesome, man." I watched his eyes grow darker. "Hey, where do you work?"

"I'm. . .sorry," he said. His voice barely more than a whisper. "I don't. . .want to be the. . .the first person. . .a young man. . .like you watches. . .die."

I looked him in the eye. "Then don't," I said. "Look at me. Look me in the eyes. Think about your family. Think of your reason."

His eyes continued to darken. His lips yet moved, but no sound escaped them. I heard the sound of approaching footsteps and was gently moved out of the way as the EMTs took over. I went over to the curb and sat down, trying to take in what had just happened. I heard the EMTs shouting orders for what to do. People were filming the whole thing. It was chaos.

I sat there, staring blankly and in a kind of daze. The authorities came and went, asking me their questions. I answered them all as best I could.

"Should we call someone to pick you up, bud?" One of the cops asked.

I didn't answer. I barely heard him.

I finally nodded.

I gave him my phone and he called my parents who came to pick me up.

"We may come by tomorrow," he told my parents. "Just based on preliminary evidence, it seems plausible that there is some foul play here and we will probably ask him some more questions."

They nodded in understanding, we all got in the van, and drove away.

-

We got home and I got in the shower to wash the blood off of me, but also because I needed to be alone. I was distressed, traumatized even, yes, but I was also confused. I had seen Mr. Carr trying to pull something that had not been there from his chest, I even saw the blood slicks. But when I went to stop the bleeding, there had been nothing stopping me from covering the wound, nor had there been any slicks in midair.

It was bewildering.

I finished in the shower and when I got into my room, I saw that I had a missed call from Diana. I called her back.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah," I answered, smiling a little bit.

"I don't just mean your body, sweetie."

My smile faded. ". . .I'm alright."

"Mmm." was her response at first. "Well, listen: if you need to talk about anything, just talk to your parents, Corbin, they love you and would love nothing more than to help you. But if you need a little more privacy, you're free to call me as well."

"Thanks," I said. "I appreciate it."

"Of course," she replied. "Now smile. I have to go. Buh-bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone.

Diana. She had been a family friend of ours for years. Since I was little. Very little. She was middle-aged now, I think, but she didn't look it to me. She was always bragging about her son. Saying that he stopped those with power if they became corrupt. She also bragged about her husband, who was in a position of power himself. He kept her safe by living apart from her but coming to visit regularly.

We once asked her if she had ever suspected him of cheating. She had replied with a no, saying that she would have known it if he had.

My family and I had never met her husband or son, but the way she talked them up, we had very positive opinions of the both of them.

And that's why Diana and I were so close. In many ways, she was like a second mother to me.

"You okay, bud?" My dad asked from behind the door to my room.

"Yeah," I answered. "I'm okay."