Emily's Trial

Chapter 1 

The Apocalypse didn't start with four horsemen, harbingers of the horror to come. It didn't start with a plague, or pestilence, or even zombies rising from the dead.

It came slowly, and without warning. It crept up on people in the shadows, no more than a vague darkness that spread like an unseen cancer.

And it wasn't set into action by a divine hand. A teenage girl was the catalyst for the End Times.

I should know. I'm the one that started it.

I didn't plan to. I didn't want to start the End Times, and I'm not evil.

Madame Wong taught me to tell the truth, and so here it is. I'm the one responsible for the Apocalypse. And this is the story of how I unwittingly unlocked the door to the darkness; of how a Priestess of the Order of Brighid, entrusted with powerful magic that was supposed to be used for the benefit of all humankind, unleashed a force that would destroy it instead.

And it all began with desire.

I sat at our usual lunch table with Jake, Fanny and my ever-present lunchtime entourage of sycophants. I had become Emily, the lunchtime Circus Freak.

The torc was still wrapped around my arm; still welded to my soul by the faerie magic that had created it. The torc still feeding my powers.

But was I out saving old ladies from muggers? Did I use my powers to fight evil, like some teenage superhero? No. I used the torc's power to levitate objects in the lunchroom and eavesdrop into the minds of others.

I had become notorious. But notoriety is not the same as popularity - or acceptance.

When we got back from Europe, I stopped hiding my abilities, and I told my story to anyone who'd listen. Sure, people were amazed - in awe even. But the more I told the truth of who I was - really was - the farther away I got from acceptance by 'them'.

Owen Breen was one of 'them'. On the other side of the lunchroom at the table where he held court. He was in a whole different hemisphere from 'us'. Owen's hemisphere consisted of the popular seniors and a few of 'them' from the junior class. My hemisphere was filled with 'us', the freaks, the geeks and other on the fringe.

It had all started with desire, and Owen Breen was the well of desire from which I wanted to drink.

I'd sneak looks at him every chance I got. I felt pulled in by his dark, chocolate eyes. I wanted to dive into those eyes.

What would happen if our hemispheres meet? What would it be like to kiss his full lips?

"Emily!"

Someone was yelling my name.

"Em. Earth to Em!"

It was Fanny.

"Huh?"

"You're hoarding the salt. Pass it over." She said it extremely slowly, as if she was talking to a small child.

"Oh. Sure." The clear shaker lifted in the air and floated across the table to Fanny.

"You can use your hands you know," Jake said.

"I can, it's just more fun to do it with my mind." He rolled his eyes at me.

"Where were you?" asked Fanny.

If you only knew!

"You weren't eavesdropping in someone's head again, were you? 'Cause you agreed that was rude and you'd stop," Jake said.