Death is My Salvation

Chapter 1

Today was like any other day, wake up, walk dog, go to school, go to work, come home, walk dog, eat, shower, sleep, repeat. Same thing. Day in, day out. My name is Tsu, Tsu Yamada. I'm eighteen years old and I go to a really old run down school in my hometown- it's called Elsinore- and honestly compared to the others it's-pretty bad. The roofs always leaking, the food is always rotten, and the books are, well, moldy. But that's everywhere, I guess. The school used to have a strict dress code but not so much anymore, they've laid off ever since the wars and such. See, the wars are overseas but they're constantly going on, and kids and adults are being drafted every day to join.
No one really cares about academic things anymore. Ever since scientists cooked up 'heroes' in their labs nothing has been the same. See, the first hero was forged a long time ago, back before I was born. They wanted the 'perfect soldier' and found the weakest wimpiest person for the job. The person had to have a good heart and nerves of steel so imagine their surprise when they found this person actually existed. They got him on the next flight out and into their labs. The surgery was a success and bam there's the worlds first super hero.
After a few years it was deemed wrong and inhumane and world leaders put an end to this and it was almost forgotten. Over the next few hundred years, evolution had a different idea. See, you can't just introduce new genes to a race and not expect crazy results. Reports started coming in from all over the world about kids with powers, real life super powers. It was amazing! Until, of course, it wasn't. As always, people wanted power. The bigger and badder power you had the bigger and badder you were. Some people created organizations while others simply did their own thing.
Having super powers wasn't unheard of, but it was becoming more and more rare so people with powers were of higher demand. Scientists wanted to study them and see what exactly made the powers transferable, others wanted to see who had powers and why, and others just didn't want to feel alone. Towns were ravaged, armies were there strictly for recovery.
"Hello, is anyone in there?" The voice cut through my reverie like a blade through butter, "I-what?" I said looking around, I found to my horror that everyone in the room was looking at me. I felt my face going as red as a beet and looked down at my desk just as quickly as I'd looked up. I was hoping to be sucked up by the very Earth itself. There was a tapping on my desk in front of me and I had to look up into the angry face of Mr. Hill. He was a tall pale man, brown greying hair heavier set and thick glasses. Most upperclassman hated him because he was so stern, in this moment I hated myself for being caught daydreaming. I knew better. He always called out people who weren't paying attention and made them present the next section of what we were learning in front of the class to insure they were paying attention.
No no no, please no. "There's obviously something else on your mind, care to share with the class? Or is this how all schools operate in the Midwest?" I cringed as he berated me but didn't answer because I knew he wasn't done. If you interrupted him in his rant-even if it's to agree with him- he goes harder. He can even kick you out.
"So, you've learned how to tune in, good. Now, tell me what were we discussing?" I bit my lip and felt as my body was trembling, I tried to steady it before answering but it was no use. "The second Civil War, what caused it, and why powers are wrong." It came out in one big rush and I wasn't even sure if anyone understood me.
I prayed they understood. Please don't make me go up there, I waited for him to acknowledge whether I was right or not. The moment stretched on, I could tell he was dragging it out. When the moment became unbearable I finally forced myself to meet his eyes. I tried to search them for an answer without being too obvious. They were their typical blue grey color that seemed always reminded me of dead fish. He grumbled but turned around and walked back towards the front of the class. "Before we were so rudely interrupted....." he went back to the lecture and I couldn't help it, I breathed out a sigh of relief.
I looked out the window to my left and saw it had started raining, the day had been grey when I walked here this morning. Through the smudged window I saw something strange, what the- is that a person? I squinted my eyes to see through the smudge, sure enough it was. I couldn't tell whether it was man or woman but it was definitely a person. They were in all black: black pants, black shirt, with a black hoodie pulled low over their eyes, and white shoes. Even with the hoodie pulled low I could tell they were staring straight at- "me?" I asked quietly before turning away and focusing on Mr. Hill before he noticed I wasn't paying attention. Again.
After a moment I ticked my eyes to the left to see if the person was there. They weren't. I breathed a sigh of relief and refocused my energy back into the lecture.