Soul Divided

11. - SPECIAL CHAPTER I - BEGINNINGS

It is 1829, a time where superstitions are still a common thing to which extend can become a reason to kill someone. Anyone who raises suspicion goes against religion or simply shares his honest opinion to the population, risks to be tortured, exorcised or worse. Tanya was one of those people and ever since a little girl, she could tell that she was different.

At the age of eight, she could slightly move objects with her eyesight. For her, it was something normal and thought everyone could do it. Her parents, who were very religious and superstitious, saw the devil within her, but couldn't bring themselves to talk with others about this; they could end up burning on a pyre alongside their child, so they just told her to stop moving objects without touching them. She didn't understand why, but listened to her parents and stopped.

Some years passed and yet another discovery was made at age of around twelve. They lived in a small farmer village and while helping her father with the animals in the barn, a rabid dog made his way inside and attacked Tanya. Screaming and trying to get the savage animal off her, she grabbed the dog from his throat, trying to get it off and the animal instantly collapsed, dead. Her father looked from around the corner and after the scene ended he rushed inside and aided his injured daughter. While treating her wounds, she held his hand, still scared of what happened, but after a few moments he started feeling ill and raised a fever. Sensing that something was not in order, he told Tanya to let go and never touch him or another person without permission and when she asked why, she was greeted with a slap and told to not question her parents' motives again.

Another two years passed. Tanya started to feel more and more different from the other people. She was sheltered by her parents and didn't have any friends because of that. They were afraid that if she revealed her unusual powers to the others, their lives would be over, but Tanya was near the end of her patience. The small talks with her parents only revealed that she is special and they didn't want someone to take her away from them... why special? She wasn't told why. The other kids always picked on Tanya whenever they saw her outside the house and sometimes even tried to hurt her by throwing things in her direction. She was used to this, she accepted, especially when her parents told her to do so, until one day when one of the boys, angry that she refused to reply to their taunts, decided to jump the fence and teach her a lesson. Caught off guard, Tanya was pushed and fell on the ground and started crying... why did they always picked on her? She didn't do anything to them, yet they always taunt her and now this. The angry boy started to hit Tanya when he saw that she was crying, but luckily Tanya's mother came out and afraid that they will get scolded, the kids ran off.

The mother told her daughter to stand up, clean herself up and go to bed... all with a firm cold voice and above all else, she didn't even bother to help her.

She did not even helped me get up from the ground... why... why is everyone so cold towards me?

Tanya's sad thoughts invaded her mind and crying in silence, she fell asleep. The next morning when she woke up, she was stunned... her wounds were gone; those from the fall and hits from the boy were gone and not even a scratch remained, less a wound. Cheerful, she showed this to her parents, who were preparing to leave for the field. With cold eyes and monotone voice they told Tanya to stay indoors and avoid further interaction with any of the kids... not even visual.

As they walked towards the field, they could freely talk.

"She gains strange new powers as she grows older... we must do something or we will face the burning purification if someone notices this."

"Yes husband, but what can we do?"

"We will wait for another season and then send her away. We stayed with the evil, within our house, for far too long."