Chapter 1 : Boston
On this pleasant day in the middle of June, young Michael—full name "Michael Smith"—had just finished his final year at his middle school in Boston. He had finished the school year at the top of his class, but that didn't concern him much. Michael is a cheerful and playful young orphan who has lived for fourteen years in his old Boston orphanage, located at 842 Beacon Street. Every day for fourteen years, he had seen the same faces, the same cracked walls, the same rooms that smelled of staleness, and the same dark corners that only saw the light of day ten times a year.
In this orphanage, apart from his guardian Elizabeth Wilson, a woman in her fifties, no one else likes him. Michael considers her his adoptive mother. When he was a child, he spent all his time stuck to her and didn't want to let go. She is the only person to whom he dares to confide his secrets, his fears, his shames, and his crushes. She feels an almost maternal love for him; she treats him like her own child. She spoils him constantly, something she almost never does with the other children.
At school, despite his positive and cheerful character, Michael has no friends; he has never had any. Everyone his age considers him a strange person. Everyone avoids him like the plague; in the cafeteria, Michael's table always remained empty, an invisible circle that no one crossed. One day, Michael wanted to break this solitude on Elizabeth's advice. He wanted to try talking to people for the first time. He went to see a group of four girls during recess.
"Hi!" Michael said, a little stressed. "Can I play with you?"
The girls looked him up and down with contempt.
"No thanks, you're too weird!" one of the girls replied.
Then, they all left, snickering. Michael was used to this loneliness and the mockery, but this time he felt his heart tear and tears welling up. Michael had become accustomed to this social solitude. To him, as long as he had Elizabeth, everything was fine in his life, no matter the rest.
Michael is neither especially ugly nor especially handsome. He is a sturdy guy, five feet nine inches tall, with a mixed-race complexion—far from the stereotypes of a handsome boy who is six feet tall, muscular, drives a brand-name car, and has rich parents. Michael never knew his parents. Elizabeth always told him she found him fourteen years ago next to the orphanage when she went out to take out the trash. She found him in a shoebox in front of the orphanage door, took him in, and brought him inside. For Michael, every time she tells him this, he doesn't care: to him, she is his family, and no one else.
At the orphanage, his situation is no better than at school with the other children. The only difference is that at the orphanage, they don't pretend he doesn't exist; they just don't speak to him. There are ten children in total at the orphanage: Michael, Andrew, the Brown twins, Marie, Emma, Freddy, Alexandre, Louise, Pablo, and Clara. They are all used to playing together, but as soon as Michael tries to join them, they either stop playing or ask him to leave. One day, while the Brown twins were playing cards together, Michael entered the room; they gathered their cards and left. The two other guardians, Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Williams, avoid him because when Michael was four, while running in the hallways, he pointed his finger at Mrs. Williams and she was mysteriously thrown to the ground. Since that day, the two women have been afraid of him; they shared with Elizabeth their desire for Michael to be sent to another orphanage, which Elizabeth refused. Michael is used to being sidelined at the orphanage, which means he spends most of his time in his room on his computer, which he had bought at a flea market a year ago.
The day after school ended, after having celebrated his results with Elizabeth the night before, Michael decided to spend some time in town and walk around Boston. At eight o'clock in the morning, while the other children were still sleeping, Michael woke up early. He got ready. Once prepared, around eight-fifteen, he opened his dormitory door and was about to cross the front entrance to head out.
"May I know where you are going, young man?" said a woman behind him, just as he was about to step out the door.
Michael turned around. It was Elizabeth, who was cleaning.
"I'm going for a walk in town," Michael replied, a little stressed.
"All alone at this hour?" Elizabeth replied, pointing her head toward the clock on the wall, which displayed 8:17.
Michael didn't know what to answer. He stood there, frozen in front of the door, looking at her. Elizabeth stepped forward, slipped a hundred dollars into his pocket, and whispered in his ear:
"Take care of yourself, and be back before six o'clock."
Michael gave her a hug and replied joyfully:
"Yes!"
Then he rushed outside.
Four hours had passed since he left the orphanage. Michael had taken the bus to reach places far from the orphanage. In four hours, he had visited several public parks like the Boston Common and the Charles River Esplanade. He also passed by several museums.
Around 12:15, Michael felt a bit hungry. He asked a passerby:
"Excuse me, sir, do you know of a place nearby to eat something?"
The passerby told him there was a Starbucks Coffee nearby and gave him the address:
"It's at 185 Dartmouth St, Boston, kid."
Michael quickly typed the address into his phone's GPS.
"Thank you very much. Have a good day, sir!"
Michael called out to the man as he walked away.
He entered the Starbucks. He had thought the Starbucks would be full since it was noon, but the place was almost empty. The only people he saw were the cashiers, the cooks, himself, and five men dressed in black at the table next to the counter. He found it strange, but didn't dwell on it. He walked up to the counter and placed his order:
"Hello! I would like to order a chicken sandwich, a chocolate donut, and a hot chocolate, please."
"Hello! Will that be all?" the cashier replied.
"Yes!" Michael answered with a big smile.
"It will be ready in seven minutes," the server told him.
Michael nodded with satisfaction.
"Hello!" exclaimed a voice next to Michael, which made him jump.
Michael turned to his right and saw a blonde woman with long white hair styled in soft curls, an oval face with fine features. She was much shorter than him to the naked eye, and she couldn't have been more than five feet tall.
"Hello! What would you like?" the cashier replied, moving toward her.
"I would like an espresso, please; that will be all," the lady replied.
"Alright," said the cashier.
"Is there something on my face that attracts you, Mr. Smith?" she said, looking Michael straight in the eyes.
"Uh, I... wait... how do you know my name?" Michael replied, totally surprised and unsettled that this stranger knew his name.
"You've grown up quite a bit since the last time I saw you," the lady replied, amused by Michael's reaction.
"Who are you? I don't know you," Michael replied, still unsettled.
"How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Emma Carter," she said with a smile.
Michael looked into her eyes. He was still slightly surprised that she knew his name, but he was no longer unsettled. Not wanting to appear intimidated, he quickly steered the conversation:
"Alright! But that doesn't answer my question: how do you know my first name?" Michael asked, trying to lock his gaze with hers, his back straight.
"Oh! The little boy seems to have grown wings. Tell me, Mr. Smith, just by looking at you, you don't seem to be more than fourteen. You dare talk like that to your elder of twenty-nine?" she said, visibly amused, giving him a huge smile.
Michael gave a half-smile—a provocative one that only Elizabeth knew—sweeping away his shyness.
"Twenty-nine? I would have thought thirty-seven given the wrinkles around your eyes," he replied in a perfectly calm tone.
"Cough-cough!" Michael heard from behind him.
He turned and saw that the men behind him, who had been drinking their coffee ten seconds ago, were now looking at him with serious expressions.
"You, get back to your coffee!" Emma exclaimed, pointing her finger at the five men.
"Yes, ma'am," they replied.
Michael turned to Emma, totally confused:
"You know them?" he asked her.
"Let's just say we are work colleagues," she replied.
"So, does that mean I'm old in your opinion?" she continued.
"Uh, no... how to explain... it means you are a mature woman, endowed with great wisdom regarding life experiences,"
Michael replied with a smile to hide that he was starting to get stressed.
"Here you go, sir, here is your order!" said the server, who had just placed Michael's order on the counter.
"Uh, I would like to take it to go, please," Michael told him.
The server nodded and put Michael's order in a paper bag, then handed it to him. Michael grabbed the bag, took three steps toward the door, then stopped. He turned to the lady and said provocatively, with an innocent child's smile:
"Nice meeting you, ma'am... or sir... considering the little mustache to take into account."
"You little brat!" Emma retorted, eyes wide, pretending to be offended.
"We will meet again very soon, little brat, rest assured," she added.
Michael walked out of the café, still a bit dazed by what had just happened at Starbucks. A mountain of questions sprang to his mind:
"She didn't answer my question: how does she know my name? Who were those men? Why do they obey her? Why did she say we would meet again?"
Michael was so absorbed in his own mind, questioning the "hows" and "whys," that he didn't realize he had already walked eighty meters since stepping out of the Starbucks.
"Excuse me, kid! Don't you have something to eat?"
Michael startled, totally surprised, because he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings with so many questions arising in his mind. Michael turned to his left and saw a homeless man sitting on the ground. He was struck by immense compassion.
"Wait," he said, rummaging through his Starbucks bag.
He took out his sandwich and gave it to the man before wishing him a good day and heading off to catch his bus.
Around 1:40 PM, Michael got off the bus and walked toward the orphanage. It was barely 2:00 PM. Even though Elizabeth had allowed him to stay out until 6:00 PM, Michael decided to return earlier, feeling tired after only five and a half hours in total. Out of the hundred dollars Elizabeth had given him, he had spent eighty. Before taking his bus back to the orphanage, Michael had hurried to a shop to quickly buy a bouquet of flowers for Elizabeth, aiming to surprise her.
On the way back, when he was two blocks from the orphanage, he began to see a crowd gathered in front of the building, blocked by police barriers. He also began to hear police sirens. Michael began to feel stress overwhelm him, his heart starting to beat two thousand times a minute. Michael dropped his bouquet and started running toward the orphanage. He knew very well that the police wouldn't let him cross the barrier, so he decided he would jump over it and enter the building.
Once he reached the crowd, he started pushing everyone to make a path and jumped over the barrier. The police and the crowd started shouting:
"Come here, kid! Don't go in there!!!" a panicked police officer shouted at him.
When he reached the door, all the police officers started running after him to catch him and prevent him from entering the building, but Michael was faster than them and penetrated the building. Barely inside the orphanage, he rushed into the living room. He ran through the hallway. This hallway that he had known as gray, with cracks and smelling of dust for fourteen years, was now painted in blood, with long, deep cracks, as if a beast with long claws had struck the wall. With the stress, he didn't waste time wondering who could have done this: he turned right at the end of the hallway.
"Elizabeth, I..."
Michael didn't have time to finish his sentence before he was faced with a true vision of horror: Andrew, the Brown twins, Marie, Emma, Freddy, Alexandre, Louise, Pablo, Clara, Mrs. Williams, and Mrs. Johnson were all gathered in the living room, dead, their bodies shredded and scattered around the room.
Michael began to suffocate and feel his heart tearing in his chest.
"Eli... Eliz... Elizabeth?" he said, trying to call out to her.
But his voice was barely audible as he struggled to catch his breath, which had been cut off by the shock. Michael's legs gave out, and he fell to the ground, on his knees.
It was at that moment that the police arrived in the room. One of them stepped toward Michael to take him and bring him outside, but before he could even touch him, the officers began to hear cracking sounds in the house. They all turned toward Michael and saw fissures starting to open under his feet. Before they could even understand what was happening, they were all propelled backward by an invisible force, as if they had collided with an invisible wall.
Outside, people began to see faults opening up under the ground of the orphanage and spreading all around the area. Everyone started to panic and flee. In the center of this chaos, heartbroken and grieving, Michael collapsed face-down and lost consciousness.
