Chapter 1 - Awakening

Clara's story begins.

“That’s it. I’m done with this s**t.” Dawn slammed her locker shut and turned to face me.

“Don’t talk like that! Do you want to get a sentence?” I whispered as I leaned in towards her.  The anger in her eyes showed me she didn’t care. She fumbled with her bag and mumbled a few things to herself. What we say at home is different than what we say in school. The Superior allows us to attend school so we can still learn the necessities. However much of what we learn has been altered to fit his likings and guards have been posted at each doorway to assure no teacher tries to speak of the powers. Once I was in a class where the teacher decided to speak of the Protectors.  He told us of a woman named Adaline. She was capable of generating large invisible shields, he called them force fields, that could be as large as she wanted. He began to tell us of how she fought to protect both other Protectors and people related to them and that’s when the guard came in. It happened quite quickly. The guard slammed open the door and fired his weapon only once for once was all he needed. A tranquilizing dart pierced into our teacher’s neck leaving him unconscious. The guard crossed the room and caught our teacher before his eyes had even fully shut. I never saw him again.

One day a girl in my class mentioned it. She was taken away, too. When she returned she never spoke about it again. In fact, she hasn’t said anything since that day. As Dawn and I walked down the hallway I made eye contact with the girl. Her eyes were filled with this unbearable fear I knew must have been driving her mad. I felt as though she was screaming out to me without actually speaking a word.

That’s when it happened, something that had never occurred as a possibility to me. Suddenly, I was overcome with all these memories of an institution. The room offered no feelings of comfort what with its solid white walls and metal flooring. The handcuffs tightly clamped around my wrists gave the impression that I was a danger to these guards surrounding me though it was clear that I was the one in danger. The scene changed instantaneously to one I wish I could forget. I was strapped to a bed that appeared to be more of a table. The guards were quickly followed by a man dressed in all white. He tested the straps to be sure I couldn’t be moved and that’s when I noticed my skin. It wasn’t my skin at all. It was far too light to be mine and these hands were unfamiliar. The man began asking me - or this person I have assumed the shape of - questions that I was unable to focus on let alone answer due to the fear that was consuming me. The guards had been equipped with a burning pole that slowly inched towards me with every second I didn’t respond to the man’s questions.

“I demand an answer, Miss Rolver” the man shouted at me. The poles burned me out of my trance. I was still staring at the girl. The girl whose name I now remembered was Danielle Rolver. She brushed her blonde hair behind her ear and I was immediately brought to the attention of her arms covered in burn marks.

“It was her memories,” I thought aloud. Dawn looked at me with a sense of worry. My feet carried me to Danielle before I could even decide it was the right move. I felt Dawn on my trail and knew she would be very confused but this conversation with Danielle had to happen.

“She has completely lost it if she thinks she’s going to speak to the Queen of Silence,” Dawn commented.

“Well you don’t know what I’m going to say to her and you don’t know what she’s been through, Dawn. It’s a lot worse than we could ever imagine.” She stared at me in shear bewilderment. What the hell? Is she responding to me? But I didn’t say anything, did I? No, she’s definitely lost it. I better take her home.

“No, Dawn, I haven’t lost it, okay? I just have to talk to…” I turned around and she was gone. Danielle had fled in the time I had taken to speak to Dawn.

“Clara, I haven’t said anything. How are you doing this?” With her words my actions started to sink in. She hadn’t said anything? What does that mean? I’d definitely heard her, hadn’t I? She responded to me when I spoke I know she did. Oh, man, maybe we should just go home. If something weird is happening to her it shouldn’t be happening here.

“Nothing weird is happening to me. Why do you keep talking like I’m not here?” My eyes locked with Dawn’s and I was warped into another strange trance. I was small, probably about as small as a five year old. Tears were streaming down my face as I watched a man get shoved into a Collector car. A woman wrapped her arms around me and turned my gaze away from the car and onto her.

“Sweetie, everything is going to be okay. Daddy is going to be gone for a while but they’ll realize he’s not a threat and he’ll be back okay? Don’t cry my sunshine, everything will be alright.” The scene altered and I was sitting on a chair in Dawn’s living room. The man I now recognize as her dad was sitting in front of me just staring out the window.

“Do you want some water, Dad?” my small voice questioned. He looked at me for a moment and then returned to the window. I sighed and wondered if I’d ever hear his voice again or see him smile once more. I shook my head and returned to my strange conversation with Dawn. She was shaking her head but when she finished she glared at me.

“You were in my head.” Her voice was laced with anger, “You’re one of them and you never told me?” Whoa what’s happening over there? Is Dawn yelling at Clara? I wonder if there will be a chick fight. I turned my head and found the source of the questions was a boy from class, Ian. Most of the kid’s in the hall were focused on us now. I grabbed Dawn’s wrist and ran around the corner. How could she keep this from me? Aren’t we supposed to be best friends? I could hear Dawn’s thoughts in my head again and they kept coming closer together almost as if she was speaking them all at the same time. Wow, Dawn looks really worried. I wonder if I should get a teacher or maybe a guard. I picked up on someone else’s thought though it was difficult to decipher whose it was. Clara looks gorgeous. I wonder if now is a good time to ask her out. Scratch that she looks seriously angry. Another foreign thought in my mind overlapped with the ones before. My head was pounding in my skull at this point. I spun around to face Dawn after leading her as far away from the crowd as I could handle before becoming woozy.

“Look, Clara, I have no idea what’s happening but we need to get you home now. I think I know where this is going and I can’t lose you, too.” Her voice shook on the last few words and the pain in her eyes bore deep into mine. I opened my mouth to speak but my mind was bombarded with thoughts of all the kids throughout the hallway. The pounding in my head became too much. My legs collapsed as I blacked out. I assume Dawn caught me but it’s just as likely that I crashed into the tile.

Reviews

[Jamal]

great chapter but it could do with some broadening. perhaps some descriptions of the characters and the surroundings might help. kmu

[lanistarr]

Okay thanks! I'll try to work that into chapter 2. If not then I'll rewrite this chapter.