Spirits

Chapter one

The cold rain crashes down around me, so thick and heavy that I can barely see my brother walking just a few steps in front of me. The long, wet grass lashes in the wind, whipping painfully against my bare legs. I keep my head up against the raging storm and push against the strong wind that's trying to hold me back. My bare feet are numbed by the cold and the wind blowing in my face makes my eyes water and blurs my sight even more. Clark walks just ahead of me, casting a look over his shoulder every few minutes to make sure I'm still with him.

Suddenly the wind switches directions and blows hard against my back. I fly forward and face plant into the mud. My legs ache and the mud makes my eyes sting. I find it hard to find the motivation to get back up again, but a pair of strong hands grab me and pulls me to my feet. Where they touch me a swell of heat forms and spreads throughout my body, but the hands pull away and the sudden heat goes with them. Wiping the mud out of my eyes I see Clark shaking his head at me. His dark eyes two black orbs in the thick rain. He continues deeper into the storm and I stumble after him.

Ahead of me Clark starts to walk faster and I start to find it hard to keep up with him. I walk as fast as I can, but when he gets so far ahead of me that I can no longer see him panic sets in. Somehow I manage to pick up my pace to a jog and the pain in my legs tightens. I feel like I'm running through water, not rain water, but a lake, as I put one foot in front of the other.

That's when I see the faint light ahead of me, just slightly breaking through the heavy curtain of water. I keep moving slowly towards the light, my pace barely a crawl, until I smack into something hard in front of me.

"Watch out Raegan." Clark's soft voice sounds, and I realize that it was him whom I'd run into.

Relief washes over me and it's all I can do to stop myself from gripping him in a tight hug. He reaches out a hand for me to take and I graciously accept it. Warmth flows through my veins at the touch and the surrounding rain doesn't seem so daunting anymore. Hand in hand we walk to the light and the closer we get the louder the sound of raging water sounds. A large wooden shack with a bright street lamp sits next to the dark ocean. A long dock stretches out into the sea and a few tarp covered boats rock in the raging waters.

Shivering in the dark night we make our way to the door and Clark knocks two sharp knocks to the heavy wooden door. Standing there in the rain seems to last an eternity and the little strength that's left in me slowly ebs away. Just as I'm about to give up hope the door swings open and a rush of heat pours out. A shiver runs down my spine at the sudden temperature change.

A fierce looking man with a large black beard stands in the doorway, just barely blocking the view of a massive fireplace. He takes one look at us, two children carrying nothing but mud in their backs, and shakes his head. "No. I don't do handouts."

He starts to close the door and my heart races. I pull my hand out of Clarks and slightly curl my fingers, willing the door to stay open against the man's will. His eyes widen when the door starts to open again and he pulls hard against the door. I close my hand into a fist and the door flies open, slamming against the side of its house and shaking with the force of it.

The man's eyes are huge,"By Gods you children are Spirits." He says with awe.

I frown at his words. I've always hated the word the common people had dubbed us with. During the time of the first Spirits people thought of their powers as supernatural cause, believing that we were possessed by evil spirits. The humans hunted our kind, slicing us open to trying to free us from the spirit within us, but they ended up killing us for nothing. The power belonged to the individual. It was deep within us, buried in our bones and flowing through our veins. The power couldn't be stripped from us, it was ours and ours alone, but still, after hundreds of years, they still couldn't understand.