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Title: A Fine Boy Summary: An unidentified person speaks with William in an effort to understand who and what he is. My own little personal input: At first the "unidentified person" was someone we know on the X-Files, but I decided to change that since it took away from the story. The person who narrates the story is whoever you want it to be! So have fun! I remember the night I met the boy. I was wearing a navy blue trench coat, and drove a black Mercedes. It was during the summer break when he was 22 years old. He clumsily stumbled out of a cab at about 3:00 in the morning after a fun night of partying with a group of his closest friends. Before he walked away from the cab containing a few friends, he blew his girlfriend a drunken kiss goodbye, and told her to call him when she got home. He wanted to make sure that she made it home safe. As he approached his house, I called out his name. William turned around to face me, as though he had been expecting me. And he wondered, how long had I been standing there, waiting for him? "What do you want?" he asked, annoyed. I started to cross the street, and he became defensive. "One more step and you're dead." "You don't even have a weapon," I said. "I don't need a weapon," he confidently replied. "Well, I don't have a weapon on me anyways." "You cross that street, and you're still dead. Raise your hands. Now," he demanded. I was shocked and impressed by his behavior. "How did you even know who I was?" I asked. William chuckled in response. I already liked him. Though I could barely see his face in the dim streetlight, I could tell he was a perfect mix of his parent's best features, and seemingly adopted their "don't mess with me" attitudes. Smart boy. "Come on, I just want to sleep. I'm tired and I feel like shit. Plus I need to wait for my girlfriend to call. Can't you come creep up on me some other time? You people have the worst timing." His words reminded me that he was just a kid in university. "How do you do it? You act like you're a normal kid." "Kid? For starters, I'm an adult. And if I were just normal, I'd shoot myself. If my girlfriend or parents were just normal, I'd go insane." How could he be so casual about everything? He obviously knew who he was, and what he could do. I started to get restless with his attitude. My need to get some sort of rise out of him increased. "They'll kill your girlfriend, you know." He simply shrugged. "I figured that much. But, it won't happen. In a few years, we're going to get married, on perfect white sand. And she'll live longer than I." I was in awe. "You're psychic!" "No, you idiot, my girlfriend and I have already discussed this. The rest is just a guess." I wasn't paying attention to his words. "You know Gibson Praise, don't you?" "I'm not like him, if that's what you're getting at. Thank goodness I'm not like him." Then what was so important about this kid? He needed to have some sort ability, something that made him special. Otherwise, why would the project care so much about him? "I know what you're thinking. Not because I'm psychic, but because I know how all of you people think. You're all the same." His bottled anger that I could smell from across the street was about to be unleashed. Sure, I didn't know what kind of powers William had, but I was smart enough to know that I didn't want to be in his way when he got mad. Milliseconds before he uttered another word, I was drowning in my own thoughts. I didn't know anything about him. None of us did. All we knew was Mulder and Scully. Mulder who had wasted a good part of his life on the X-Files. Scully who had joined him and wasted a good portion of her life as well. Mulder who had strands of alien blood floating in him. Scully who had been abducted by men who are mostly dead now from either dying from a natural death, or from being murdered. Mulder and Scully who created William. They made their own project, and much to our project's dismay, we knew nothing about it. "Go away! Leave!" William hissed. "Go back to wherever the hell you came from, and tell your buddies that it's useless bothering me. Go find a new hobby." How much was William bothered? No one ever told me. I was just another person sent out to speak to him. Actually, the orders were "to observe and threaten him". Observe and threaten him? For what reason? He seemed harmless. Yet, his anger hinted at something dark lurking within him. A rage against the evil that he has dealt with in his life. An overpowering love for those who've protected and cared for him. William stepped closer to the front steps of his house, and the streetlight made him glow for a second or two. Even from the distance that separated us, I managed to get a glimpse of the animal that William could be. It was then that I understood his words clearly. "You've killed before, haven't you?" His body was still. His heart was racing. No one had ever confronted him about this. He was a good guy, who would ever think that William had the capacity to kill? "And I bet that your parents don't even have a clue about it," I said. "Is that why you're speaking so quietly to me right now? Are you afraid you'll wake them up? Are you afraid that they'll find out that you know more than they do?" "Fuck you," was William's measly response. I heard the regret in his voice, and it almost made me feel just as human as he pretended to be. There was a short silence between us as William pondered the rest of his life. He walked halfway across the street, and I surprisingly became very nervous. He stood in the middle of the street so I could see the seriousness of his face. "I'm tired of this shit," he calmly stated. "I was happy my whole life. Then suddenly I became a teenager and you all thought that you could mess with my life," his voice increasing became louder. "You want to know something? I'm not an idiot. You bastards should get a fucking clue. My parents have beaten you guys a million times over. I'll do the same." By then, he was standing too close to me. I wanted to tell him that he was invading my personal space. In that moment, I was reduced to being back in grade 4, being picked on by the school bully. Now that I had a good view of William, I could see how well built he was. Furthermore, however, I could see the torture in his eyes. It was torture that he only knew from us. "You know, " William turned away from me, supposedly disgusted by my presence, "my parents kept something from me for the longest time. And, even though I knew there was a secret, I never cared." "Because you knew they were protecting you," I said more to myself than to him. William nodded his head. "And they still think they're protecting you." "My girlfriend woke me up at 4 in the morning a few months ago. She was having trouble sleeping that night. And when she opened her window to get some fresh air into her room, she claimed to have seen a car parked by her house with a man inside. She only had her back to the window for a few seconds, but that man drove away fast." William shuffled his feet, shaking his head. Sighing, he stopped and looked at me square in the eye. "I'm the one who's doing the protecting. Protecting my parents, protecting my girlfriend. Protecting me," he said. He spoke in a hush tone, as though he was revealing a grand secret. I felt bad for the kid; his life wasn't fair. I understood Mulder and Scully's decision to not go into hiding. As a parent, I knew that would ruin a child's life. I could see how much William loved his suburban lifestyle. He was good with people, and loved to be around them. Then it occurred to me. William had revealed a secret. I studied him, taking into account his strength, his will and his love for life. "You killed for them, didn't you?" "What?" he said, surprised. "You just more or less confessed it. Two people involved with the project were mysteriously killed over the past few years. The one that died before I got involved with the project was to protect your parents. And the more recent one was for your girlfriend. It was the man in the car who she saw outside her window." "Maybe you should quit the damn project and join the FBI," William sarcastically joked. Even if he was just kidding, he brought up a good point. No, I wasn't about to join the FBI. However, tonight I realized that I wasn't much different from Mulder and Scully. I had my own children to protect. I didn't want to raise children who had the strength to withstand half as much rage as William could. "I'm done here," I announced. William appeared genuinely confused. "We're not getting anywhere, and even if I could with you, I'm not sure if I would want to." "Good." I nodded my head as a way of saying goodbye. As I slowly walked away, I could feel William's gaze following me. I turned back to face him. "What?" A small smile played on his face, almost as though he was amused. "You're not like the rest of them. You don't belong." William paused for a moment, then reached out his hand. I cautiously shook it, waiting for the catch. "Here's the deal," William finally spoke. "Besides my parents and my girlfriend, I don't trust anyone. But, I want to believe that when you drive away from my house tonight, that you won't return here, and that you won't ever return to the consortium." It felt weird having this kid telling me how I should live my life, but I think he knew that I made up my mind about everything before he shook my hand. When he released my hand, I felt different, like my blood was cleaner, and my thoughts were clearer. I opened my mouth to say something to William, though I'm quite sure what I would have said. However, he saved me from speaking at all, saying, "That's all. There's nothing more to discuss." William walked away, satisfied. I was rather satisfied with myself. Even if I didn't know what tomorrow would bring, I felt safe. I sat comfortably in my black Mercedes, and watched William enter his house. As I slowly turned on the engine, I saw a light illuminate one of the rooms. Then, I saw William's silhouette in the window, holding a phone to his ear. I chuckled to myself. Mulder and Scully had raised a fine boy. Fin
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