Jezelle Siderov

The group finds a mysterious letter.

"Say what?!" I yelped.

"Hey, I found a freezer!" Kate called.

"No, Kate!" I shouted, but I knew from the screaming I was too late. Following the sound of terror, I found Kate laying on the ground in front of an open freezer, a frozen corpse pinning her to the ground. I quickly pushed Auriela around the corner so she wouldn't see the corpse.

"I'm being molested by a dead guy!" Kate screeched, squirming frantically to free herself, but with no avail. I dropped to my knees and tried to budge the body, but the frozen limbs proved heavier than they looked. Damien hurried over and lifted the corpse, freeing Kate, who scrambled to her feet.

"Are you okay?" I questioned anxiously. Kate stared at me.

"Oh, no, I was just attacked by some dead dude. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just a small case of physiological trauma." she replied sarcastically, and I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, look at this!" Damien called from inside the freezer. A small brown mouse scampered up, then morphed back into Sadie, while Jeremy arrived fiddling with something in his hand. Ella and Peter joined us, and we all peered apprehensively into the frozen contents of the giant icebox.

The ice man who had fallen on Kate was propped up against the wall, and I finally got a good look at him. He was probably fifty years old, bald, with glasses, and was dressed in slacks and a vest. His arms were at his sides, his eyes shut. If it wasn't for his rigid state, I would've thought he was sleeping.

In the freezer, however, was a different story. In the back, two people sat, huddled together, as if to warm each other. One was a very pretty woman with honey blonde hair and blue eyes, probably thirty years old, her arms around a small boy with black hair and blue eyes, about nine years old.

All dead.

In the hand of the woman, there was a piece of paper with writing on it, perfectly preserved in the ice. Damien was crouched down, patiently chipping away at the woman's hand to get the letter. Sadie and Ella rushed outside to get some fresh air, taking Auriela with them upon my request, while Dexter and Peter had to look away from the bodies.

"Awesome! Dead people!" Kate commented, striding into the freezer without fear and kneeling next to Damien.

"I though you were physiologically traumatized." I told her, amused.

"Yeah, when I was being attacked." Kate rolled her eyes. "Duh. I'm not really scared of corpses. My mom was a mortician, and in the divorce, she only got money and me. For the first couple of weeks, before we got a house, we got to sleep in the coffin room with all the stiffs. It was awesome!"

"Got it!" Damien held up the letter in triumph, the ice chipped away, leaving only paper. Ripping open the envelope, he ushered Kate and I out of the freezer and shut the door, after shoving the old man back in the chilly atmosphere.

We all trooped back to the kitchen, where we could hear Ella comforting Sadie, who was dry heaving.

"Why is she so nauseated?" Kate asked loudly, as Ella herded a green Sadie back inside, followed by Auriela.

"Don't be rude." Ella shot Kate daggers.

"Guys, guys, we're all friends here. Let's just read the letter." Jeremy suggested. "By the way, I think Adri is a genius for finding this."

"Okay, first of all, I didn't find it." I groaned.

"You're still a genius." Jeremy insisted.

"Jeremy, if you value your unbroken face structure, I would shut up." Damien said mildly, spreading the letter out on the counter. "Okay, let's read this." We all crowded closer to glimpse the lettering on the paper, and the kitchen became silent as everyone absorbed the words.

I, Jezelle Siderov, write this letter, being the last of my family. My family was a clan of scientists, and we all studied the same thing while teaching our children the practice.

The Siderovs are the only ones who are taught on this secret.

I was born in Washington, DC, and spoke both Russian and English. My parents, Dmitri and Annika Siderov, crossed the border between Russia and America, seeking a better life, where they hoped that they would not be ridiculed for their science. Their practice was DNA and cells; a certain type.

They studied humans who had DNA with the helix in a pecurliar shape. Their DNA had an extra chemical base. Beside adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, there was another base, which my parents called "талантсине". The rough English translation is tanencine. The tanecine creates certain qualities in the human that are virtually impossible to replicate, and create new abilities for the person who possesses such a strange DNA structure.

These abilities vary person to person, and it is extremely difficult to predict what ability will come of the extra base, or when the power will show itself. The entire study of these powers have been ridiculed and mocked, for its rarity and lack of proof. Because of no funding, my parents have worked on a budget, with only the money my father earned working in the fields in Russia and then working as a handyman in America. Because of no licenses, the rare occasion where a gifted person was sighted, it was against the law to study them in any way without the person's permission on a signed document, which was never obtained, ever. They were also forbidden from a great many experiments, as they were only legal if one had permission, which my family did not.

Thus, my family throughout the generations, had experienced nothing but hardship and error, but they have borne it patiently, knowing one day, their tests would be accepted and used.

As I mentioned, I was born and raised in Washington, and was taught by my parents their practice, but I was not alone. I had a younger sister, two years younger than me, who learned by my side.

Her name was Alisa.

Alisa was.....different. She found people with the strange DNA an abomination, a freak of nature, and less human than un-gifted people. Studying hard, she became a hermit, almost never straying from her room, bringing her meals in there, spending her life examining this strange phenomenon. As she progressed in her education, my parents and I began to question her methods. She experimented on animals, like cats, dogs, and mice, conducting dangerous tests with no regard for the patient's health or safety. Without a doubt, she was discovering things in leaps and bounds, but she had lost sight of the humanity towards the DNA aberrations.

When Alisa was sixteen, she began to shut herself up in her room far more often. My mother finally decided to intervene, and searched her daughter's room while she had gone out. Upon the investigating, a horrid smell had taken over the entire room, but my mother had no idea what it was. As she was walking, she tripped on a floorboard that was sticking up slightly. Curious, my mother tugged at the board, discovering the plank lifted up.

Underneath the floor was a human boy.

He was my age, eighteen, and had obviously bigger and stronger than Alisa when he had been healthy. Despite that, Alisa had somehow incapacitated him, and shackled him to the ground underneath her bedroom. The chains around his hands had spikes pointing towards his skin, so trying to escape would be impossible. Now he was malnourished, dehydrated, and sat in his own filth for who knows how long, as my sister conducted awful tests on him. It was a miracle he had survived.

The evidence was irrefutable. Alisa was dangerous, a liability to everyone's safety. My parents checked her into an asylum, that would help her maybe someday get better. Unfortunately, as my parents were making the call, Alisa heard. Before the people could come and get her, Alisa disappeared, hopefully for good.

The boy who Alisa had captured was Oliver, with beautiful black hair and penetrating green eyes. His DNA had the chemical base tanecine, and he could make plants grow on a whim. Alisa had murdered his parents, and his only relative was an aunt in Iowa who refused to take him. My parents agreed to let him stay with us, and he sort became my foster brother.

To make a long story short, he volunteered himself for safe testing that helped my parents research, and captured my heart. When we were both twenty-three, we married, and moved into this house. Three years later, we were blessed with Erik, our beautiful son, and we lived in happiness for ten years. Oliver traveled an hour away every day to work his job, while I took care of Erik and kept up with my research. It was bliss.

Six months ago, we received a call. My parents had been found in the same house they had always lived in, both with bullets to the head, murdered in cold blood. The call was made by a neighbor, who spoke in hushed tones, insisting I tell no one who had told us of their deaths. Grief-stricken, I called the police over there, demanding an explanation. The cops said nothing but that the information was classified, and I'd best forget about it.

This morning, there was a knock at my door. I answered it, only to find a man dressed completely in black. Before we could even blink, my entire family (save Oliver, who was at work) was swarmed by men with guns. Following them, was none other than Alisa. She had risen to a place of unimaginable power, and almost nothing could stop her. She told me of her new empire, how she had the ability to capture and experiment on humans with tanecine, usually children, as it was much easier to dispose of the family that way. After telling us of her successes, she has locked Erik and I in our freezer used to store meats. She even forced Harold, our old gardener, who had been tending to the yard, to join my family in our impending deaths.

What feels like hours ago, Harold and little Erik have all passed into a sleep of which they will never wake. I myself feel weariness setting in, and fear I have little time, but someone must know of how dangerous Alisa is. She now goes by the name "Charlotte Zucherberg", and needs to be contained, saving the world from her reign of terror.

Maybe no one will read this, or it may be too late, but having this will comfort me, knowing I tried my best to warn the people. If by chance someone is reading this, I know not where Oliver is, or if he is even alive. If you see him, tell my love that my last thoughts are of him and his son.

Jezelle Siderov

We all stared at the paper, absolutely shocked at its contents.

"Well, no wonder she was crazy." Kate broke the silence. "Alisa is an awful name. She was probably teased." I rolled my eyes.

"What does it say, Adri?" Auriela squeezed my hand, looking up at me with her big brown eyes.

"Nothing, baby, nothing." I picked up Auriela, giving her a hug.

"We should start making this place livable." Jeremy decided. "It's probably two o'clock by now."

"You're right." I agreed, ignoring Jeremy's expression of elation at my agreement. "Jeremy, you have to work on all the function stuff. We can clean, but none of us know how to make things work." I pointed at the big gaping hole in the floor Damien had fallen through. "Do the floors first, then the toilets, sinks, and refrigerators first, okay?"

"Sure, that'll take me like three hours." Jeremy bragged.

"Fine, then you can help with the cleaning." I retorted tartly, setting down Auriela and opening a nearby closet. Pulling out a broom, mop, dustpan, mop bucket, spray cleaner, rags, and a big vacuum, all dirtier than the house, I handed the cleaning supplies to Kate, Dexter, and Damien, ordering them to clean them up outside. I sent Auriela with them, knowing the longer she was in the house, her chances of falling through the floor increased.

I took Ella and Sadie with me to the first bedroom, the one with bunk beds. Stripping both frames of their blankets and sheets, we dragged the fabric to some sort of laundry room. We went back to the other rooms, and collected the rest of the sheets, except for the bed that Dexter said crunched. Sadie, Ella, and I hurried over to the room, and were about to pull off the blanket when Auriela burst in.

"Don't touch it!!" she screeched, her eyes a shocking purple.

"Alantia?" I was a tad annoyed. "Where is Auriela?"

"This was an emergency." Alantia avoided my question, shoving Ella, Sadie, and me away from the bed. "I heard about the crunching and had to make sure." Using her tiny hand, she cautiously stuck her hand down the crack between the mattress and the bed frame. Withdrawing her hand, she gazed fearfully at the clear sphere she had retrieved, about the size of a marble.

"Thought so." Alantia examined the ball, then crushed it between her fingers. Yellowish juice dribbled down her arm. "I just saved your lives."

"How?" I demanded.

"By preventing your flesh from being devoured." Alantia answered cryptically. "Do we have rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide?"

Author's Note

I decided to put a chapter that would tell them who is responsible for the whole mess. Tell me what you think!!:)

Reviews

[CrimsonBlaze]

Geez, that girl has a messed up mind >:O!!!! I wonder if she's still alive.....However, nice write, and I'll try finsihing up the reviews as soon as possible :)