Chapter 1

What happens to Morpha next?

“It’s been almost a year since Morpha, the criminal on the streets of Valmere, has gone undetected by police. Has this thief moved on? Have they hidden away? We will never know. Tune in next time for more reports on this elusive character, only on V13, the most reliable news service in the US.” I cut off the TV quickly as I heard the front door slam closed. Jumping from the worn beige couch and to the wood floor with a thump, I ran to greet my foster mom. “Eve!” I call. A woman stood at the door, fumbling with paper bags full of goods from the market. As she placed them down, her every feature was revealed. Her wavy black hair was like a veil, covering her left eye, leaving her with one soft caramel eye vulnerable to the sun. She is curvy and sweet. She still is firm with me, making sure I get my fruits and veggies, like any mom would do, but she still lets me enjoy weekends, when the firm tone disappears. “Hey Leaf! I ran to the store on my way home from class!” she says. I grab a few bags and carry them to the kitchen tentatively, the wood floor cold under my bare feet. I place them on the black marble island. As I begin to root through them, something brushes my mind. I freeze as a chill streaks up my spine and my vision goes black. Suddenly, an image fills my mind. It’s so vivid; I can see it like I am there. The world is splitting apart; Dust coating the air, buildings crumbled to the ground. One side held the humans, painted in green and gold. On the other, mutants of all shapes, sizes, and colors. At the head of the army stands me. I look different, older and wilder, somehow. The sides stare each other down. Breaking the thick silence, a mutant screams “Arguere!”, Latin for “charge!”. The mutants screech and howl and start to advance in an aggressive run. The humans follow suit. Both sides rush at each other. Closer, closer, and than, black. It’s over. I feel a sort of vacuum feeling, like I’m being sucked into a black hole, cell by cell. As it began, it ended. My eyes opened and I blinked up at Eve and my best friend in the whole universe, Lex. Lex was pretty to say the least. Her golden brown hair, wavy only at the ends, hung over me. Her sharp eyes, a gold straight from the ground, peering down at me, full of concern. She curves in ways I could only imagine. “W-What happened?” I whisper, my throat dry and crackly. “Here, take this.” Eve says softly, handing me a bottle of water. They help me up into a sitting position. Eve tells the story. “I came in and you were frozen halfway through going through the bags. You collapsed. Your eyes were black and you were twitching violently. I didn’t know what to do, so I called Lex. She came over within the minute. We both waited it out. She started telling me a story about training her dog with Harry Potter spells when you woke up.” “I was whispering ‘Episkey’ the whole time” Lex says with a bright smile. I gave a shaky smile. Eve allowed Lex to stay over for the night, since it was summer break and her parents were out of town. I ran with her back to her house, to help her pack. As we finished stuffing her black duffel with the necessities, we jogged back to my house. In an alley, Lex asked “Hey, wanna have a tuffle?” A tuffle was our version of a fight. There were a few differences from the usual fight though. Nobody gets seriously injured, since this is training for Lex, and we can use powers.“Can I count down this time?” I ask tentatively. She nods and starts to bounce, an eager smirk on her face. “3…” I start to bounce. “2…” I imagine the animal in my head, seeing its every feature. I pause, a sinister smirk on my face. “1” I whisper, and my body shifts. I dive to the ground as my body turns into a slithering ball of scales. I rise and hiss, flaring my chest and showing my fangs. My body is black, patterned with bright purple. She smiles and shakes her head. Than she instantly starts to shimmer. Her body takes on a glowing blue. The ground starts to rumble. My upper back starts to crawl and purple monarch wings sprout. Crystals break out of the ground, so I fly over them and attempt to strike. We continue the tuffle for hours, and when we are done, we collapse in deep gasping breaths. In our true forms, we sat together in silence, watching the stars twinkle. She still sparkled and I still had my wings out, but we didn’t care. Nobody could see us. We were wrong. We were so engrossed in watching the stars that we didn’t notice the quiet click of a camera, taking a picture of two girls, sitting, in an allyway

Author's Note

Any thoughts?