Selene's New Moon

Chapter 1 : Life As I Know It

       I woke up with the sun as usual.  Just like any other morning.  Today is my 17th birthday -April 29th.   Going by what I have read and seen on t.v.,  most people would be expecting a fun day filled with cake, presents, family and friends;  but I have never experienced any of that.   There is a lot I haven't experienced, because I am the dirty little secret of the otherwise perfect and well to do Wilson family.

     I get my daily exercises out of the way, shower, then dress in a gray cotton skirt that comes to just below my knees, and a loose fitting sky blue  t- shirt with long sleeves.  I check my appearance in the full length bathroom mirror.  Still the same as yesterday.  Pale skin, pale blond hair that hangs about half way down my back, small nose , pale lips, and strange gray eyes  that seem to leave everyone who looks at me unsettled.   I am small, standing at only 5'3", have hardly any shape , and I am almost too skinny.  I hate the way I look-  it's part of  the reason I have been locked away in this house all my life.  I look nothing like my parents who both have brown hair.  My mother's eyes are blue, and my father's eyes are hazel.  The other reason for being hidden away is that I am crazy- as in insane.  I have seen and felt things that no one else does since I was about 5 years old.  My parents have never spent much time with me, but once I started seeing the currents of blue-green energy that seem to flow through the ground and every living thing,  they became even more distant and harsh.  I was given this large room on the other side of our house with my own bathroom, and my needs were cared for by Mary, the housekeeper. She doesn't like to look at me directly either but she keeps me fed, taught me how to do basic cleaning, and picks up books from the library for me.   Until I was 14,  I also had tutors that would come and teach me.  They were paid to keep quiet about me- the rumors in the small town we live in state that I am autistic and so stay at home - and my mother wants it to stay that way.  I am not to go off our property and I am not to speak or look at strangers.  If I did, they would know how unnatural and crazy I am and I would be locked up in a hospital somewhere.  I don't feel crazy, but I guess the insane never do.

      I pull my hair back into a low pony tail and then walk softly downstairs to the kitchen. My mother doesn't want to see or hear me.  I have learned to be silent and to be still through the years.  When you are locked in a closet for hours without meals , you quickly learn to be invisible.  Mother is no where to be seen though, so she must still be in her rooms or out with her friends.  Father is only here a couple times a year- he is always out for business.  Mary is also nowhere to be found, but she has some oatmeal going in the crockpot for me as usual and I help my self to the steaming yumminess.    I finish up  breakfast, wash my dishes and then head back up to my rooms to do my studying.  Since I can't go to public school, my father has given me access the internet and a credit card for books.  He watches everything I purchase , but at as long as they are books , he doesn't really care.  I have been working through a calculus book and a physics book. I also practice my Japanese language studies.  I love learning and reading- it fills the time,  lets me see some of the world, and when I am busy studying,  I can sometimes forget how alone I am.

    Around 2, I grab one of the fantasy books Mary picked up at the library for me and head out to the back yard, not bothering to put on any shoes.   We have a small manicured lawn that quickly leads into a wooded area.  I wiggle my toes in the soft grass as I watch the currents of blue and green dance all around me in the grass and trees just ahead.  I can feel the usual gentle tingle that rushes up my legs and all through my body. Energy. Life. I know it is all in my head- I am insane after all, but   I always feel so alive when I am outside .  I run through the grass and into the woods as fast as I can , leaving the lonely white house behind me.

        As soon as I enter the woods, I feel something strange- stranger than usual anyway. Usually the woods feel calm with just a gentle hum of energy.  Now it feels.... wrong.  Like something awful left its footprints in the soil.  I stand still and just watch and listen.  The green and blue energy still dances though, and the longer I stand there , the fainter the wrongness becomes. Whatever had happened, whatever had been here, .. it is gone now.    I stick the book into the waist band of my skirt and proceed to climb up a tree. I  spend the next few hours in a another world where I am a boy with magical powers and a talking horse.

         It has started to get dusky and cooler.  I guess I should head back in and grab some dinner. I am feeling pretty hungry now since I didn't think to grab anything for lunch.  I scamper down the tree and just as soon as I my feet touch the ground, I hear something.  I crunching of leaves....footsteps?  Nobody ever comes here.  We own this land.  I am supposed to be safe here! I hear it again.  Who or what is here?  I weave my way slowly and silently through the trees , close to the old abandoned shack that has been slowly crumbling and decomposing through the years.   And that is where I see them.

     There are two young men standing there , searching for something and talking in whispers.  I stand frozen behind a tree as I watch them-  too scared to move, and too entranced to do anything but stare.   They are both much taller than me and they are both beautiful.  The one is probably close to 6 feet tall and he has long golden blond hair that hangs around his face to his shoulders.  He is wearing khaki shorts  and a dark blue short sleeved shirt with buttons going up the front.  The other is a few inches shorter and looks to be Asian American.  He has short black hair that looks slightly rumpled.  He is wearing a worn pair of jeans and a faded t-shirt that has some cartoon character printed on it.  They both look to have a good deal of muscle on them.   I continue to stare as the black haired boy squats down to touch something on the ground.  Suddenly, I feel the currents of energy that are nearest to me turn towards me and I have the crazy urge to reach for them with my fingertips.  I touch a stream of power coming from the tree I am clinging to and it rushes through me so quickly I gasp. 
At which point, both boys jump and look towards me with shock in their eyes.

So , first chapter done.  I did proof read it, but right after I had written it , and it is really late for me now.  Please be kind; I haven't written any stories since high school- which was ages ago. This is just for fun and I hope you enjoy it.  I do plan to try to write a chapter tomorrow.  Weekends will probably be the time I do most of my writing.  With a full time day job, a 4 year old, and a part time bellydance troupe that  I work with ,  my writing may be a little sporadic.