1 The Lovers Tree.

I stirred from her slumber, the sounds of the city ringing through night in waves of sirens and traffic. I was used to the lights of passing cars, however those lights usually are colorless, these are red and blue.

I crept down the stairs, making sure to skip the fourth step, that creaked under added weight. Sneaking through the house, I found that a police officer was at the doorway.

Mom usually opens the door, but it appeared that the police officers were growing impatient, waiting for someone to answer the door. I slowly approached the door and turned the nob.

"I assume you are melody," The officer asked, although it sounded more like he was demanding that I answer. "we need you to come with us miss. we need you to answer some questions for us,"

"I am, but I can't go with you sir, Mom should be home soon Sir, I don't want to worry her," I answered, taking special care to be as respectful as I possibly could.

"Worry not miss, that won't be a concern, just come with us to the precinct and everything will be explained," he said motioning me out to his vehicle.

He lowered my head as I got into the back of the car.

I could tell that there was something going on that he wasn't telling me about, something that made me worried that if I asked him about it, I would not like the answer I was given. I saw a file sitting beside him, I reached forward and found that I was just able to get the file through the metal device. The file smelled of fresh ink and was still warm to the touch. what ever was in this file was urgent enough, that the police officer had rushed to get me after reading it.

I slowly opened the file, I closed it immediately as tears poured onto the pages.

"I am truly sorry miss, I give you my condolences," the officer said, buckling his seat belt.

I tried to thank him but all that came out was a sob that was followed by more tears.

18 years later

I looked at the tree, holding back tears. The tree was white like living ivory, it had no bark, but somehow it still produced leaves and flowers. I looked at the bas of the tree, and placed my bouquet on the base of the stone that laid at base of the tree.

"Here lies beloved husband and father Mark loven, and beloved wife and mother Liza loven,"

Their birthdates were still unknown, as where the birthdates of many people who were born before the bloom.

The bloom referred to the first case of supernatural abilities, the records of those who were born prior had been lost in the attacks that followed the bloom.

Nowadays everyone had an ability of some sort, depending on the ability you had the higher you were in social status.

I walked through the gates of the graveyard and made my way through the overcrowded city streets.

A little boy ran past with a hat in his hand, he rushed off moving faster than humanly possible as a little girl morphed into a bird to fly after him.

I wondered what it must feel like have an ability, to be like everyone else, unburdened by the weight of society.

I made my way to an old warehouse, it was the place that most knaves went. Knaves were those who had no ability, homeless and drenched in poverty, this warehouse was the only home we could afford.

I walked past the group's of people who were huddle together around various fires around the warehouse.

"melody, over here," Someone shouted, drawing my attention to a girl in a black hoodie.

I studied her body language as I approached her slowly. She turned back around to find that I was standing right behind her. She jumped, looking almost terrified until she wrapped her arms around my neck.

"I missed you, melody," she exclaimed, it had been a while since I had been back.

"I missed you too, Christa," I said, embraceing her into the longest hug I think I had ever given.

I was a loner, even though I was offered a place here, I chose to find my own way. You may be thinking, "wow stuck up much, too good to stay with the other knaves", before you start thinking of me as snobbish, please understand that most of the people here aren't actually knaves. After the time that has passed since the bloom the percentage of people who have no ability is only 25 percent leaving a good 75 percent with abilities. yeah there are many knaves in the colony, but most are just people with lower level powers. Christa is one of those people, she has the ability to see different outcomes, now you might be thinking what company wouldn't want someone with that ability. I wonder the same thing, but when I ask she always says that her ability is passive and that she can't actively use it. she also says that the visions aren't always helpful, like seeing that if you eat the sandwich you found in the dumpster behind the deli, you will get gassy. I still think that any ability is better than no ability.

"Oh right, I forgot, Davy needed to see you," she said, releasing me after several minutes of sinking deeper and deeper into my embrace.

I released her and kissed her on the forehead, watching as she blushed a vibrant red. I climbed the stairs to the main office, it was known as Davey's war room and only he and a few appointed officials were permitted to enter.

"Davey, you said you needed to see me," I called, into the unusual darkness of the room.

He leaned over and flipped a switch by his bed, as the lights came on with a flicker he stood and hobbled his way over.

He was a tall and handsome man, for someone as old as he was. His pant leg ended at the upper thigh, wher his metal leg connected to his thighbone. He was a war veteran, but he never told anyone which war he fought in. He said that he fought in the war so that other would never live to see its horrors, he didn't even tell you how he got the purple heart that hung on his uniform with pride.

"Melody you should know that if your on time your late and if your early..."

"your on time, yes sir I know," I interrupted. "What was so urgent that you needed me to skip breakfast,"

"I wanted you to see something, my dear," he answered, leading me over to the table.

Spread out on the table was various newspaper articles, Most where about people with abilities that had been found dead.

"what on earth is all this," I asked, looking through each article as if it were some kind of code.

"18 stories about ability holders being found dead, some whose abilities are ranked at SR," he said, limping towards me slowly.

"That's ridiculous, ability holders with SR abilities have abilities to prevent them from harm," I said, still dumbfounded by this disturbing news.

"while that may be true, it has been found that it is possible to get through their defensive abilities. Melody this is our chance to achieve something magical,.we can achieve a society where there are no classes based off of ability levels, possibly one without classes at all," He said, smiling from ear to ear.

"Even if that were possible, how can we fight back against those who oppress us. They have abilities that out rank people that we can only dream to out rank," I said, still stone faced from confusion.

"unless... you know how to give someone abilities," I exclaimed, white in the face.