CHAPTER 5:- SLEEPLESS NIGHT

In the Rodriguez cramped apartment. The sounds of people partying, the distant sirens all of it seemed not to be heard by James as he tossed and turned on his room,the weight of his impending fifteenth birthday pressing down on him. Sleep evades him replaced by a gnawing anxiety. His future, he knew hung precariously in the balance. His ability awakening loomed large,a terrifying and exciting prospect simultaneously. Would he be a success like Eric and Emma, soaring to heights of power within S.A.M.T or would he be a failure, cast aside like a broken toy? The thought of ending up like Dio, a nameless servant in his own family home, filled him with revulsion. He gripped the worn-out pillowcase, his knuckles white. The package Dio was fetching from a warehouse,a package containing a powerful, illegal enhancer, represented his only hope of securing a high-level ability awakening. It was a desperate gamble, a shortcut that could potentially catapult him to the ranks of the elite, or leave him broken and useless.The drug was risky, unreliable,even dangerous, but to james it represented the only way to avoid a life of mediocrity.

He glanced at the clock 2:17 AM. The hours crawled by. Every creak of the floorboards sent a jolt of anxiety through him. He could barely breathe; he couldn't be sure what he was more scared of : failing to awaken a powerful ability, or the consequence of his actions if the package didn't arrive. His gaze drifted towards Dio's closed bedroom door. The weight of his dependence on his younger brother settled heavily upon him, a burden born not of affection, but of ruthless self-preservation. His thoughts returned to the warehouse district; a dangerous place for thieves. He cursed silently, praying that Dio, that pathetic excuse for a brother would succeed or die trying. His entire future rested in the shoulders of someone he viewed as nothing more than a tool. The first hint of dawn bled through the curtains, painting the room in a sickly yellow light. James knew that whatever happened next, it would irrevocably change his life. The dawn of his 15th birthday was about to break.