Chapter 2
Flashbacks
Out of all the many things I’ve uncovered in the past 24 hours, my abilities to talk to animals and heal them puzzles me the most. Out of all the people I’ve known, I don’t think I’ve ever met one like this. They never seemed off or “special” to put it one way. But there was this one time I remember something, just before my 7th birthday …..
~(*)~
“Come on, come on!” Oriea yells as she races towards the ‘blue house’. “I want to be the first to get one!”
It's nighttime and we are dressed up in silly costumes. I can’t exactly tell what I was, but I remember Ori (that's what we called her) was a cat. We held baskets in our hands and we were sucking on candy. As we raced, I remember getting caught up in a wire running down the sidewalk, as I tripped, I yelled something. Ori turns back to me and shoots a yellow streak from her hands. A person appears next to me and flashes light on me. Another somehow uses vines to lift me up. Then everyone on the streets freezes. A person grabs everyone and snaps his or her fingers, causing us all to teleport. Then I pass out.
It just seems like minutes, but what I know is hours pass by and then I wake up in a bed. Not a hospital bed, a fluffy, cloud-like bed with people on either side. I don’t think they realized I was awake, but I heard them say, “She will need Erasemers to come after all she’s seen.”
Seen? Then it's back in flashes. The appearing people, the vines, the stopped people, and I can’t help but reveal that I am awake.
“What was all of that?”
A lady in a bodysuit wrapped in vines replies, “Nothing Sweetie. All a dream”
~(*)~
Once the memory returns to me, my much-more-mature brain tells me that something was off about that Oriea girl. And the rest of them as a matter-a-fact. The vine lady, the time stopper guy, the light-flasher-person, and the teleporter person. I am so confused. I try to recall a confrontation with Oriea after that, but can’t find any. Then I come to my senses. What if Oriea had to leave because she revealed something?
Then something comes to mind…
~(*)~
Father is reading to me in the bedroom while I am lying in bed and suddenly there is a banging on the front door. He shushes me, rushes downstairs, and opens the door. Men start yelling and screaming. I hear words such as, “betrayal to our type” or “Left without notice” and “come now or face consequences” . I heard Father talk to them about a castle, a woman whose name was Nightbirde and a group called the Dysgrex. Father tells them to be quiet and go away. He tells them that they have no business there. Before leaving, one man says something to Father. I couldn’t make out what it was at the time, but now I know.
“We are coming for you.”
~(*)~
That was no ruse, what the man said. 7 days later, Father was gone without a trace. Without him at home to settle my mother, she started yelling at me. She treated me like a slave for years until I couldn’t put up with it anymore. As I am thinking about this, the moment I left floods into my brain in full detail.
~(*)~
I am sitting on my bed, my school supplies scattered around the room like dust on an untouched shelf. I’m taking all the things I need out of my drawers and stuffing them into my backpack. Pencils, paper, clothes, and some books all get thrown into it. I tiptoe into the bathroom and grab the bar of soap, find the original box for it, and put that into my backpack too. I scoop up the pack, grab a blanket off my bed, and start to go out the door. As I reach the kitchen, Mother steps out.
“Now where in the world do you think you are going, young lady?” She growls.
“Out. I’m leaving. Anywhere but here.”I snarl, “Now get out of my way.”
“Daughter! Come back!” She calls after me.
“Never call me daughter again, you're no mother of mine.”
~(*)~
Winter taps me with one furry paw, “Are you ok?” she asks, with a look of genuine concern on her little face.
“Yes. I am.” I say, “I’m just tired.”
“Ok. I’ll let you sleep.” she replies. I watch her lie down on a bed of fern leaves I made her and then I drift off to sleep again. This time, instead of a memory, a vision pops into my head.
~(*)~
There is a girl. Blonde hair, green eyes, and a black jumpsuit. She is sitting on a wall in the dead of night. Wolves howl, crickets chirp, and wind blows. But nothing phases the girl. She seems to be watching something off in the distance, but I can’t tell who or what. Then, out of nowhere, she suddenly jumps up and quickly runs in the opposite direction of where she was looking.
~(*)~
The image of the girl pastes itself into my mind like nails on wood. Who is she? Is this vision happening now? Is it in the future? I am so confused. I ponder this for a while until Winter nudges my thigh.
“What?” I ask.
She nods her head in one direction, which I find to be north. I glance over there and see two men. One heavy and one skinny.
