Dedicated to Steph. She is amazing! And she makes the best covers and banner (as you can see). Also, her stories are awesome so go check them out (;
Chapter One -
Id won the fight. I was done. For now.
I put my hands down on my hard desk and laid my head down, ignoring the world around me, ignoring the emotions pouring into me from my classmates. I needed sleep and I needed it badly. I had fought and I had won. But at what cost to me?
It was hard to tell how I was feeling because of all the other emotions that were engulfing me, but after some pushing and pulling, I managed to mute most of the colourful feelings.
The weight of my own emotions crashed down on me as soon as I could focus on them, knocking the breath out of me instantly. A wave of emotions rolled through my thin body, shocking me beyond belief. If I had thought feeling other peoples emotions was bad, I could tell you, felling mine was torture. I would have given anything in that split second to turn back time and have my own feelings back buried deep inside. The crushing grief that I had been holding onto for so long roared to the surface, fierce and ready to control me. I gritted my teeth. With a force that surprised even me, I pushed it all away. I had no time to deal with heartache and sorrow. I had to concentrate on what had happened.
Most of my energy was gone and I was weak.
That had never happened before. Not like this. The last time it happened I had felt feeble and powerless too, but my control had returned only seconds later. So far, it hadn't come back to me. Would it return this time? Yes? No? Maybe?
It had to.
What would happen if it didn't return? What would happen to me if I couldn't regain my strength to continue fighting my battles?
A vicious shudder rippled its way down my spine, making the rest of my body tremble violently. My hands shook underneath me, making the pounding in my head increase. A small, almost inaudible, groan of pain escaped from behind my lips before I had time to clamp them shut. Somebody in front of me called my name, but the voice got quieter and quieter until it drifted off completely, lost behind the hammering of my heartbeat in my ears.
I closed my thick lashes, heavy with exhaustion, and let the dimness of unconsciousness surround me. The swirling emotions slowly faded away as the veil of blackness took over completely.
The sun began to disappear and along with it went my mother's smile.
She loved the sun. She loved it almost as much as she loved me, her only child, her only daughter. Mum believed that the sun held all the secrets of the world. She believed that nothing bad could happen during the day. She always told me the sun held certain powers that not many people knew about.
It was times like that thought she was going crazy.
She wasn't crazy exactly, but sometimes she would fall into a trance. A trance that I was certain I was meant to wake her from.
When she fell into them, her eyes would go blank and her face would be wiped clean of all emotion. Sometimes her brows would furrow or slant downwards into an ugly grimace that made her young, beautiful face contort into something dark and threatening. It was times like those that I would feel fear. Not just the type of fear that made your heart rate quicken the slightest bit, but the fear that would scar you for life. The type of fear that would send a shiver through your body, would make your hands tremble, your knees weak.
The type of fear that forced images into your brain and locked them there so you could never erase them, never forget them.
The type of fear that gave you nightmares.
When she fell into a trance, she would go on and on about stupid, idiotic things like magic and evil people. She would tell me that 'I was meant to know'. She would say, 'I should tell you before it's too late'. These words made me not only question her sanity, but her trust in me. Was she really hiding things from me? Was there really something that I needed to know? One day she even said: 'He will never rest until I'm gone. He's coming for me.' But that wasn't all. She had paused, while her face twisted into a deep scowl. Her eyes had pierced into mine. But they hadn't been looking at me; they had been looking far away. In those few minutes, she hadn't been standing in the living room with me; she had been running for her life somewhere else. After a few seconds, she had gasped and taken a step back. When she had spoken again, it was fear that had driven her words. "No.. No, No, No! He isn't coming for me –" Her eyes had snapped back to reality and pierced straight into mine "– He's coming for you."
Those words had made my blood run cold.
I hadn't known what to do. I had screamed. Not just any scream, but a scream of pure terror that had rung through the house and echoed off the walls. Of course, that had knocked her out of the state she'd been in.
But I had never forgotten.
In the beginning when she first started getting locked in her trances, she would tell me to avoid nighttime because that's when they could attack. I hadn't known who 'they' were, but the message was the same. Towards the end though, the warnings had changed. She feared something; something different then what usually made her scared. When she spoke, she was terrified. She started telling me that they could get me during the day now too. She told me that no time was safe anymore. She would explain to me how I was safest during the day because that was when they were scared to come out, but if they were tempted to, they would still attack. She told me that they had gained power.
She said they were stronger then she believed was possible.
Whenever I asked her who she was going on about, she would usually snap out of it. And if I asked her later on the next day, she would avert her gaze and refuse to make eye contact. She would tell me I must have imagined her saying those things. She was a terrible liar. However the look of fear on her face when I mentioned anything was enough to stop me asking too many times. I could never bear it. I could never handle it myself. I was too scared. I didn't want to have the images that haunted her stuck in my head as well. It was a pathetic excuse, but it was true.
Despite what my mother said and the warnings she gave me, I still loved sunset. I loved seeing the sun disappear. I liked seeing it hide. I loved seeing the moon high up in the sky. It comforted me in a way nothing else could. It gave me strength.
The moon made me powerful.
Mother actually looked scared when I told her it have me power. But no matter her emotions, she hid them from me. She didn't trust me with whatever it was she wanted to tell me and she would always try and change my mind. She always disagreed, saying people were happier during the day. I didn't like to admit it to her, but she was right. People were much happier during the day. People felt they had more freedom when the sun was out, they felt they were safer. Day is when most people live and work, when most animals come out and when most plants and crops grow. The day seemed to bring out the best in people. But... The darkness of night gave the world a whole new look. It's not so bright at night so you don't have to strain your eyes. At night, the sun isn't there to harass you and make you hide your eyes behind glasses and cover your face in sticky white sunscreen.
Night is beautiful.
Nighttime also meant something else to me, something that I shared with very few people and was understood by even fewer. It was something that not even my own mother understood.
To me it meant the past was fading.
You still had all your memories from the previous day and your life before, but you were also moving forward. You had the chance to live anther day.
Mum and I both loved dawn because it meant a fresh beginning; the start of something new.
I looked out the window, staring with hypnotized eyes as the trees flashed past, almost invisible because of the speed we were travelling. The sky outside was beautiful, holding several different colours captive in the picture perfect image. It looked like the whole world was on fire. The distance was blazing beautifully as the colours all deepened into one magnificent crimson red. The sky was dancing.
Soon the colour would disappear. Soon it would be night.
I glanced over at mum from my position in the passenger seat. She started to look away just as I looked at her, but not before I caught the hideously funny face she was pulling at me. I tried not to laugh, but gave up after a few seconds. She had her tongue sticking out and twisted around, her eyes were cross eyed and she had one finger up her nose. Impossibly, it made her look younger. It was unbelievable that someone could still look so beautiful while looking like such a monster. I sighed heavily, my laughter drying up instantly. I grabbed the visor above my head and pulled it down to look at myself in the reflection of the small mirror.
Mum and I were the same but different in every way. I had the same colour hair as mum, the same colour eyes, and the same shaped face. But... I just wasn't beautiful. We had the same skinny figure, but she was incredibly tall and I was incredibly short. Her hair was short and styled nicely, whereas mine was just long and straight, boring and ugly. Her eyes were almond shaped and shone with a happiness that never seemed to disappear, whereas mine were huge, round and seemed to blaze with every different emotion that passed through me. It was horrible. Everybody always knew what I was thinking and what I was feeling just because they could see it in my eyes. Her round face was rather large but it was the perfect size for her and matched her hair. Mine was small and looked me look younger then I actually was.
Why couldn't I be beautiful too?
Mum giggled at me when she saw my expression and I looked back at her with somewhat haunted eyes. I wished I could be like her. Even our laughs were the same but different, just like the rest of us. Hers was deep and held a beautiful melody. Mine was high pitched and annoying.
I grumbled at my child like mother and turned back to watch the trees fly past. I didn't want to think about our differences anymore. There was too many of them.
"Faith," she warned, "I know what you're thinking." I looked over at her, my eyes wide. What? How?
"Sure you do," I quipped.
She giggled quietly at my unfriendly response. "Hun, you're beautiful. Drop dead gorgeous. Now," she eyed me warily, "stop comparing." It was unbelievable how she always knew what I was thinking.
I gaped at her, completely bemused.
She laughed at my expression then tried to mimic it.
I sealed my lips shut, refusing to smile at the idiot in front of me. She pulled her lips into a horrible pout that scrunched up the rest of her face and made her look like a fish. I laughed out loud and after a few second, she joined in, keeping her new face intact.
That made me laugh even harder and before long we were both in stitches.
Yeah, we had a pretty close relationship. She wasn't just my mother, she was my best friend.
When she turned to look back at the road in front of us, I leant over and tugged on her hair, making her jump in surprise. I laughed when she gasped quietly. I punched her arm lightly to let her it was a joke. When she looked over at me again, her topaz eyes were sparkling with hidden amusement. I eyed her cautiously. She was up to something... I raised my eyebrow and wait—
"Wake up, Faith!"