Loose Threads

Prologue

Prologue

Harrison Lyker wasn't a man of many words. He was a scientist, a specialist in human DNA research. He was an easy man to work with, but hard to get along with. He hardly spoke to his colleagues, and when he did it was usually one or two-word answers.

He had been lucky to marry who he did, although most people didn't understand how he had even met his wife.

Melisande was the exact opposite of Harrison. She had a bubbly personality and spoke enough for the both of them. She was never seen without a smile or a story, and to most people it was a mystery how she and Harrison even met, let alone fell in love.

Melisande was a journalist, she had been all over the world before she married. When she was pregnant with their first child, she settled down and became an editor instead. Harrison worked for the Chicago Oscorp laboratory, and he made more than enough money for them to live comfortably.

Together, they had two children, daughters named Amalia and Chrysti. Harrison had been working towards a big break on his new assignment, project Alpha Evolution, a human DNA enhancement project.

When Melisande got pregnant with their third child, he put in a request for the project to be terminated. It was rejected. When Melisande died birthing their son, a healthy boy named Ajax, Harrison once again requested the project be discontinued for his family's safety. It was granted this time.

Five years later, Harrison was transferred to the New York Oscorp building, their headquarters. He moved his three children to an apartment, transferring his daughters to a private school funded by his work. Ajax was too young for school, having not yet turned five.

They lived in uptown Manhattan comfortably, for two more years before disaster struck. An old Chicago Oscorp employee was sorting through old files when she came across the research from project Alpha Evolution. Curiosity piqued, she skimmed through the last page of the final report.

Five minutes later, she was on a call with her boss about what she had just read. And two days later, a white semi, driven by an Oscorp employee, was barrelling down the freeway in New York.

Harrison missed Melisande. She was always better at getting the girls to settle down. They were nine and ten now, and just like their mother, loud and rambunctious. Ajax was quiet, more like his father, but Harrison thought that might be because the poor six-year-old had no room to speak around his sisters.

It was nearing seven fifty, and Harrison was stuck hopelessly in traffic. They had run out of marmalade that morning, and Amalia refused to eat anything until he had found another jar in the back of their pantry, and Chrysti was frantic because she couldn't find her favourite shoes. They had left later than Harrison had wanted, and now he was going to be late dropping them all off at school, and in turn late for work, where he was already on thin ice as it was–

Miraculously, the vehicles ahead of him began to move, inching forwards faster and faster, until they were moving at a regular pace again. Harrison breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe they wouldn't be late after all.

Behind him, Ajax shouted as Chrysti tugged on his hair, a bright fiery red that he liked to keep longer than traditional. Harrison turned around, fed up with his kids already today, and at the one moment he wasn't looking, a sixteen-wheeler swerved into their lane.

The small Honda Civic didn't stand a chance. The semi hit it at an angle, and it flew through the air, rolling over and over before crashing back into the pavement and sequentially causing a six-car pile-up.

Harrison and his daughters were killed instantly. Cars swerved out of the way of the accident, hitting barriers and other cars. People were screaming, and more than a few were on their phones.

No one seemed to notice as the semi driver hopped out of his cabin and stumbled away.

And no one noticed the small six-year-old with fiery red hair crawl out of a crushed Honda Civic, wiping blood off his face after having given up trying to rouse his father and sisters. No one noticed as he took off into the crowd, too preoccupied with the gruesome horror in front of them to see anything else. 

Fun Fact: there are only four words in the English language that end in 'dous'. Do you know what they are?