The Darkest Minds - "I'm a red,"

1.

It all happened so fast.

The first to die in my class was a girl named Clover. We all witnessed it. But it was a coincidence, right?

Then it was Kyle who didn't show up to school. Then Maiah. Then Cody.

At that point parents started taking their kids out of school, to try and protect them. My mom was too drunk to care. Without dad, she didn't have the will to care. She only cared when I did something wrong. I secretly hoped the disease would take me.

I was the last one in my class. All up until the schools closed. Permanently. We thought it was over. No other kids had died. IAAN had been eradicated, the worst was over.

But then it started. Kids all across the country started showing "symptoms."

Things lifting on their own accord, the electricity in whole neighbourhoods short-circuiting, houses going up in flames.

That's when the camps and collections started. The government asked any parents whose children were showing symptoms to hand them over.

Still, my mom didn't care. She was barely home anyway and when she was, she beat me for simply existing.

Then the order became mandatory.

I started showing symptoms. When I was angry at my mom, the fire in my trash can caught on fire for no reason. I developed a twitch, it felt like something was under my skin, begging to be freed, I was so hot. There was a fire in my core that spilled over into the other parts of my body.

A couple months later, the government started offering rewards to any parent or good samaritan who reported a kid to the government.

I was in my room, but I heard my mom on her phone in the kitchen. "Yes... child symptoms... pick her up..."

I thought I was hallucinating. She'd never do that, would she? I know she doesn't exactly care the most about me, but sending me away?

So I waited, trying to figure out what I should do.

I waited in my room for an hour until I peaked my head out the door. Looking to the couch, I see she's passed out with a bottle in her hand.

Tiptoeing to the kitchen, I grab our house phone. Maybe I can call grandma? But then I see a van pull up outside our house. It's entirely black, no markings or logos. People in uniforms pour out, they all have guns in their hands. Fuck.

Rushing back to my room I shut and lock the door, phone clutched in my hand. Thinking fast, I remember the card the social worker left for my mom.

I dig through my drawer and grab it, I retrieved it from the trash can after mom threw it away. I read the name. Catherine Connor.

Someone at the school reported my mom to CPS after they saw the bruises littering my body. After my dad died mom lost it to alcohol. I've always been forced to have tough skin. Being Korean in a small, predominantly white, town has warranted its own battles. I don't trust anymore.

When CPS came my mom lied and I lied, she promised me she would stop if I lied, that she would be better. She guilt tripped me and made me believe the government was evil. But the agent, Catherine, had this soft aura about her.