I had gone my entire life with a special ability, one that I didn't expect to have, nor did I expect anyone else to understand. Ever since I was old enough to read numbers and understand them, I realized that I could also see them. Floating, in mid air, above everyone's heads. All my life, I'd been able to see the numbers, but only when I was older did I understand their significance.

While I was walking down the street, I saw a lady whose numbers were suddenly falling, and I realized quickly as she crossed the street nearly directly in front of the path of a car what it meant. My legs moved faster than I ever thought they could, and I realized now that I knew when people would die. I could see their lifespan of everyone, their time left on this planet, and how fast or slow they would reach the end of their lives.

Even now, walking down the busy streets of LA, I could see the numbers. The rain falling overhead made no difference, bright and clear I could read them. I had been saving lives as long as I'd been able to understand, simply because I could see what would happen before it did. No one believed me, not my own mother or friends just because it sounded like nonsense. I'd never had the willpower to prove it to anyone, nor did I want to. A gift or not, I had to be responsible with it; this was not a toy.

I walked down the street, the gray overhead and the rain pouring down. The weather was cold, the air surprisingly dry and causing gooseflesh to work its way up my arms, making me shiver. It was cool enough that people around me wore thick jackets, but I only had a T shirt. It didn't bother me much, I didn't let it. My eyes were focused on the numbers counting down. They counted down by minutes, so anyone with large numbers I disregarded completely. I was looking for small numbers, fast numbers representing milliseconds counting down and the time that was coming to a close. I did this everyday, every hour and minute that I had free. The only thing I noticed about this ability was that I was never able to see my own numbers, not in a mirror or anything. This concerned me greatly, but there was clearly nothing I could do about it.

Suddenly, my eyes caught sight of a number falling. Milliseconds were visible, and I realized that he was crossing the street. I was currently going uphill, and so crossing here meant not being able to see over the hill at whatever vehicles were driving in which lanes. I began to push my way through the crowded sidewalk, trying to get to the man who was up ahead of me, walking with his head down in the rain as he crossed the street slowly. The numbers began to drop, only about 30 seconds left, and they were ticking away while I was pushing my way through the crowd. Even as I tried to run, people were simply in my way, irritated that I was shoving them aside and that they were forced to move for me.

I watched as his numbers dropped dangerously low, and I heard the truck coming over the hill before I saw it. I was still propelling my way through the crowd, and finally I got to where the man was crossing, but the truck was already well over the hill and barreling down. I watched in horror as his numbers dropped, and I was still several feet from him. I closed my eyes as I waited for the truck to hit the man, but instead I heard a horn and the sound of brakes screeching. I opened one eye only to see the man, dark hair and covered in dirt and scratches now, eyes wide with fear, lying at my feet with his numbers ranging well into the millions once more. Another man lay at my feet as well, his arms wrapped around the man who was supposed to die, and his bright green hair standing out from his dark clothes. He stood, helping the other man to his feet and apologizing only to turn and bump into me. He blue eyes met my brown ones, and I blinked, looking him up and down. Despite his green hair and staggering height, there was really only one thing that caught my attention.

He had no numbers over his head; just an infinity symbol.

This man, whoever he was, looked at me too. His eyes stopped just above my head, right where the numbers on any other person would be sitting, and he gaped. I wondered where my number count currently resided, but I couldn't focus on that as I allowed my eyes to trace over the man's features. He was muscular, but lanky. Skinny, but framed, and most importantly he was handsome. He didn't give me the same look over as I did him, rather he pulled out his phone and sent a text so rapidly I wasn't sure I could see his fingers moving; his gaze focused on me again.

"You're one of us," he whispered, and it sounded more like a question than a statement. I frowned at him, confused, but he took my hand and quickly led me away from the scene arising in the road. People were asking the man who escaped death if he was alright, and the truck driver what he was thinking; all the while we snuck away. "You have the infinity symbol too." The man informed me, and I paused, looking at him. His eyes were wide, serious, and as a black car pulled up with tinted windows, a man stepping out to open the back door for us, the man with the green hair grabbed my hand once more. "My name is Jack, and I'm just like you. You have to come with me."

"What? Why?" I demanded, and Jack turned to look at me. He seemed to finally assess my being now, looking me up and down quickly before once more trying to usher me in the vehicle. "Look, I don't know how you can see the numbers too, but I hardly know you. I can't just hop into a car with you and drive away."

"You're in grave danger here." Jack hissed at me, and I froze. He looked around, and then he stepped closer to me, leaning forward to whisper into my ear. "There are things you have yet to understand. Our ability makes us special, and there are people who are out to get us as a result. The only reason I ran into you today was because I was told about a strange man saving lives in this area, your name is already out there, meaning we're already losing time the longer you stand here." I paused, looking around as Jack whispered into my ear. His breath was hot on my neck, and I shivered as I stepped away from him, but suddenly I felt fear course through me. Was it really so dangerous? I looked back at Jack, and his eyes widened briefly for emphasis.

"How can I trust you?" I asked him, and Jack stared at me for a moment. His gaze focused on something behind me briefly before he looked back at me and smiled.

"Put it this way, the man behind you with a 9mm trained on the back of your head has exactly 2.74 seconds left to live." Jack said, and I froze. I whipped around again, finding myself face to face with a man dressed in all black. Sure enough, he had a gun that was aimed up at my face, and I looked up to see his numbers hit zero, and then he collapsed in front of me. The man who was holding the door to Jack's vehicle open still now had a gun out, and the barrel, elongated by a silencer, was now smoking. Jack looked at me expectantly, and I shuddered. "We don't have a lot of time," he reminded me, and I closed my eyes for a moment. "Mark?" I looked at him, unsure of how he knew my name or anything else about me. "You can trust me, I'm here to help, just like you."

I looked around again, at the people who were by the big truck and the death defying man who now were noticing Jack by his green hair and beginning to walk towards us for questions. I looked at the man holding the door, who made no sign of showing that he knew I was here, and then I looked at Jack. His face wasn't nearly as expressionless, but rather upset, angry, worried, and over all curious. I was cautious, I was skeptical, but most of all I was afraid; I didn't know these people or what they did, how they found me. I looked around once more before sighing, deciding that I really had no other options here.

I grabbed Jack's outstretched hand and got into the car.

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This was author144 's entry! Let her know just how epic it is! ~skwarlogirlcfc