Prologue

Suffice to say, it's the start of the adventure. Introducing the main characters Devin, Jenna, and Jordan! The night starts well enough, but where will it end?

Prologue

“Come on, Devin!” Jenna called to him over her shoulder, laughing her carefree joy to the night. “Hurry up!”

“If you don’t quiet down a bit, a guard’s bound to hear, and it is way past curfew,” he warned, watching her shiny black hair move swiftly through the trees ahead, at least as much as he could see it in the moonlight. Curfew was one rule they constantly broke, even at twenty-three years old; the rule just didn’t make any sense to them. He kept jogging after her, and stopped suddenly when he almost ran into her going around a tree. Her bright, sea-green eyes were sparkling with laughter as she looked up at him. Devin quickly wrapped an arm around her waist. “Oh, look, I’ve caught myself a little ocean nymph while she was trapped on land.” He bent his head down and laid his lips on hers. “Maybe I should help her get back,” he murmured.

“Or you can keep her captive,” Jenna suggested as she watched his pretty, pale blue eyes that were such a sharp contrast to his midnight-black hair and tanned skin. “She probably wouldn’t mind that.”

“Neither would he,” Devin responded, completely serious now that he had her in his arms, and so captivated by her that he lost sense of everything else. It was always that way for them: laughter, trust, and a deep, passionate love that burned in them like a fire.

“But you see,” said a steely voice from just behind Jenna, “we would have a problem with that situation.” Before Devin could even think of moving, the man was ripping Jenna out of his arms.

“NO!” she screamed as he pulled her further from Devin, always keeping her out of his reach. “Let go of me, or I swear you will wish you were dead before I’m done with you!”

“What are you planning on doing, little sea-witch?” Jenna gasped, shocked that someone knew what she was, which meant they must also know what Devin was. That thought scared her even more, even as the man dragged her smoothly back into the woods, away from Devin. “Oh, yes, did you think we haven’t been monitoring you? We know your Power, and we also know that you are not quite close enough to your so-precious ocean to protect yourself, or your friend here.” His steely voice had gone frigid with his disgust towards the Controllers. Jenna had heard of men like him, had heard of Controllers disappearing all over Panastaria, but never had she met one.

“Devin, get out of here! Save yourself, and then get help!” Jenna urged, trying to stay calm, even in the face of her imminent capture and imprisonment. The man holding her now was forcing her further and further away from Devin, and he was moving faster and faster, seemingly not even breaking a sweat against her struggles.

“But"” Devin wanted to argue, but he was still in shock. Why hadn’t he felt the man coming? Almost no one ever snuck up on him!

“Don’t argue, just go! I trust you to find me! I trust you to get me back!” Jenna said. She tried to reach out with her Power towards her ocean, but it was just as the man said: she was just out of reach. “Go! Go now!”

Devin stared for another moment, devastated, as he tried to keep up with that man and his Jenna. He tried quickly to gain control of his own Power, to be able to sense the man, or stop him, but it was to no avail. He was nowhere close to strong enough of a Controller to free Jenna, at least not yet, and definitely not when he was this out of control of his emotions. “I will never give up trying to find you as long as I have a breath in my body!” Devin promised her as he gave up trying to summon his Power and keep up with the man.

“I know! I love you, Devin! Now run, before someone finds you!” And then she was gone.

“I love you, too,” he whispered to the night. He made himself another promise that night: that man, the one with the brown hair and eyes, wearing that ridiculous brown cloak, he was going to pay for taking Jenna, and every other Controller he had gotten his hands on. As the fact that she was really gone"that his Jenna, his heart and soul"was gone, hit him, his knees gave out and he collapsed to the ground and cried his sorrow into the night.

Somehow Devin had managed to get back to his home town, Rosera, that morning just before dawn, though he was at a loss as to how. He was going by Jenna’s house slowly, sadly, silently, when he heard his name in a hiss from a window next to him. He flinched, and then realized it was just Jordan, and it made him feel even worse. Devin didn’t want to have to tell anyone what had happened, least of all her younger, adopted brother.

“Have you seen Jenna? She hasn’t come back yet!” Jordan called in a whisper. All Devin did was look up at Jordan, wordlessly telling the eighteen-year-old that something was seriously wrong with the haunted look in his eyes. “I’m coming down.” Devin sighed and leaned casually in the shadow of Jordan and Jenna’s house. Where she would no longer live. He fought against the pain that thought brought him. The back door was pushed open quietly and Jordan’s head, covered in sleep-tousled brown hair, poked out and looked left to right before he stepped into the shadows next to Devin. “What happened? Where is she? Is she hurt?” Jordan demanded, still in a whisper.

“If she was hurt, I’d have brought her back and fixed her up with a healer.”

“Then what? Tell me, Devin. I know something’s wrong. I’m not a kid anymore,” he persisted, adamant about getting answers, even if it got him in trouble for being out of his house before he was allowed to be.

“Someone took her.” Jordan froze at the declaration, his chocolate eyes widening, shocked beyond belief. “The guy came out of nowhere. I didn’t sense him coming, but then we both know I’m not exactly a master like your sister.”

Jordan grabbed Devin’s shoulder tightly, digging his fingers in. “Who took her? And how? Just because you didn’t sense him, or couldn’t use your Power doesn’t mean you couldn’t catch up with the guy!”

“I know, Jordan!” Devin exclaimed, trying not to raise his voice above a whisper. “First the guy comes out of nowhere, wearing this brown cloak with the hood pulled up, and then he rips her out of my arms and starts running off with her! How did he move that quickly holding a struggling woman? I couldn’t even keep up!”

Jordan’s face was a mask of fury. “He’ll pay for taking her,” he swore, much the same as Devin had promised himself earlier.

“I know. I’m going to make sure of it. Don’t worry, I’ll bring her back,” Devin promised.

“What? I’m coming with you!” Jordan claimed. “There’s no way I could just wait here! She’s my sister!” At least at heart they were brother and sister. Jordan had been found by Jenna’s mother as a four-year-old kid, so she took him in and raised him as her own.

“And your parents won’t just accept you up and leaving. They already know Jenna and I are rebels. They’ll just figure we ran off together and fell asleep somewhere, and think they can punish us when we get back,” Devin reasoned.

“Oh, yeah, so what happens when you don’t come back for weeks on end? You don’t even know where she was taken! And when you get back, do you think they’ll just welcome you back with open arms?” Jordan started pacing along the back of the house, making sure to stay out of sight in the shadows.

“I’ll track her down, somehow. I don’t know how, yet, but I have to. She’s counting on me. And you know she’ll hate me for bringing you into trouble. And I don’t know if we’ll even come back once I find and rescue her. I’m going to sneak into my house to pack some things for the road, and then I’m leaving. I have some money stored up from working.” Devin started to move decisively toward his house, which was two houses down and across the street, when he heard the first horn. He cursed under his breath. “Get back inside, Jordan. Don’t get in trouble over this. You know what they’ll do if you get caught. If you plan on coming with me, you can’t be seen outside before you’re allowed.”

“I can come? You promise? Swear on her life!” Jordan demanded before Devin could leave.

Devin cursed the boy silently for cornering him. Jordan knew Devin always kept his promises, especially when he swore in Jenna’s name. “Fine, you have my word, you can come.” Jordan disappeared back inside, and then Devin carefully walked between Jordan’s and his neighbor’s house to peer out around the corner. He couldn’t see anyone walking down the street and decided to make a dash for it. If he had to, he could always just break out and run away later, but that would only be if they caught him outside right now. Devin ran across the thin road, and straight to his back door. He slowly opened it, just as he heard the second sounding of the morning wake-up horn. He hated that thing so much. “Thank the stars I’m leaving,” he muttered as he crept up the stairs to his room.

“I hope Jenna’s well this morning.” His mom’s soft, kind voice had him stopping in his tracks.

“She isn’t well, Mama,” he said quietly before entering his room to change clothes: some old jeans and a faded t-shirt.

When he went back into the hall, his mom was waiting for him, a petite woman with brown hair streaked with gray, and the bright blue eyes she had passed on to him. “What’s wrong, dear? Tell your mama.” The kind words were not mistaken for the offer they sounded like. In this house, when she asked for answers, she got them. He loved her, but hated all the rules society pinned on them. He wished he could have had his own home"well, a home with Jenna"already, but no, they had to wait a couple more years. What kind of ridiculous rule was that?

Devin sighed before he told her what had happened. He finished with, “I’m leaving to find her. You can try to stop me if you like, but it won’t do you any good.” His mother’s eyes were swimming with tears. She silently dropped them to the floor and turned to go back into her room. Devin let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He went back to his room and took out the bag he kept in his closet. He stuffed a couple sets of clothes in it, then searched his drawer until he found the stash of money he had been saving there. He would buy food as he needed it.

Again his mother was in the hall waiting for him. “I want you to find her, Dev. I will not stand in your way, and spoil my last few moments with you. Besides, you love each other, and you were never content living in our village, either of you. I have some money saved up for you, as well. It was meant to be given on your wedding day, but I don’t think I will be there to see it.”

“Ma"” he tried to cut in.

She shook her head, effectively silencing him. “I’m a romantic at heart. And I want you to be happy, and Jenna to be safe again. You can find her, I know you can.” It sounded just like Jenna did when the man was taking her away. “I also will not tell your father that I saw you this morning.” The third horn for wake-up had yet to be sounded. That was always when his father got up. “He would only yell at you, and say it served you right. I don’t believe that, so you must leave quickly.”

“I love you, Mom. Thank you,” Devin said as he kissed her cheek and wrapped her in a last hug before he started to leave.

“Tell Jordan I said to listen to you,” she said unexpectedly as he took the first step downstairs.

“You always know everything,” he said quietly. He hadn’t been planning on telling her that Jordan was leaving with him. He should have known better than that.

“I love you,” were the last words that Devin heard from his mother.

The third horn sounded, and Devin was actually allowed to be out of his house. He made his way across the street and waited behind Jordan’s home. He hoped the kid didn’t get caught by his parents, and that his parents didn’t come downstairs or outside before him. Devin opened his mind, shoving his Power into the house, so he wouldn’t be caught unawares when someone came to the door. When the door started opening, he was ready either to hide around the corner, or walk away with Jordan.

Jordan slipped out the doorway and scanned the area around him before spotting Devin. “It’s time,” Devin said, putting a comforting hand on Jordan’s shoulder as he moved out of the shadows and towards their future.

Author's Note

So this is the start, and it's probably the part of the book I'm least secure with so far. If you have suggestions, or you like it, or anything else, just review to let me know =) If people are interested enough in the story, I'll keep posting up the chapters that come after this one!

Reviews

[torments_scribe]

I think your concept is very intriguing, and I'm curious to know more about this curfew and their powers. It's a good beginning and you've got a lot of room for growth here.
A work in progress is better than no progress at tall!

The first few paragraphs between Devin and Jenna were really cute :)

[Legacy]

Lindsey,

I followed, serene with Jenna and Devin, watching them playing... admiring the love between the two.

Intrigued by the mystery of dark hair and light eyes... Devin with his tan. It appeared as everything was so wonderful - not a glimmer of trouble in sight, then out of the blue I was slammed to the floor!

Taken aback by the confusion, I quickly jumped to my feet to gain perspective as to what just happened, when in fact you explained without truly giving it away. ('Tis the way an adventure is meant).

We are unaware of whom the controllers are... what these two beautiful people are... or what powers they carry. All we know is they are now in serious trouble and only one way to cure serious trouble... more.

I deeply enjoyed this intro, as a lover of "Heroes" (I know)... I must tell you, so far you have captured adventure and curiousity. Hence; I look forward to more.

Thank you for sharing.

Have a wonderful day!

Legacy

Wonder if you have any short stories in your collection that may fit into 350 words or less? Since you are such a talented writer, I am certain you have a write that would work for one of the contests in one of Poetic Infusion Society's contests.