How IT Began?

I stared at my reflection in the mirror of my room -It was a small space with a single bed, a study table and pink colored walls - My brilliant blue eyes, surrounded by a thick forest of lashes looked tired, as if I had been awake for the last few nights. Well, the same could be said about my whole appearance-the dark circles under my eyes looked strange against my pale skin, while my always pretty long wavy dark brown lush hair stood tangled around my thin face, my full lips dry from exhaustion. I sighed and lazily combed my hair. I could do nothing else ofcourse. Well,at least my leather black jacket looked ok. I frowned and turned away from the mirror.

My sleepless nights were a curse I had to endure without even knowing why. The nightmares kept me awake, every time I closed my eyes a new kind of fear jostled me awake. Honestly saying they weren't even so much scary, they were mostly images, images that didn't make any sense to me. I felt like I've lived those dreams before but couldn't find those memories. My mind felt like it was being hauled into a dark tornado, with no way out, I was always screaming and thrashing inside it but no one helped me out of it. Every single thought ached some smaller part of me, some darker part, a part of me which I couldn't reach. Yet...

As I was lost in my disturbing thoughts I noticed a bright red color outside my window. I put down my brush and opened my glass window, cool air and fog came inside and brushed my already cold cheeks, I shivered and picked up the single red rose sitting just outside on my window sill. I sighed again and smelled it's lovely aroma, a small smile curved my lips without me realizing. I found an exact same rose on my window sill my every birthday. It had become kind of a routine to me now; It still didn't feel like my birthday until I received my secret little gift. I didn't know who sent me these but still I didn't mind receiving. And of course there was still that little hope that blossomed in my chest every year. I carefully placed it in my drawer; where i kept all those eighteen flowers.

There was a slight knock on my door "Can I come in, sweetie?" My Mom asked and poked her head inside.

I smiled, "You are already inside, Mom" I said, she smiled sweetly and placed her hands on my shoulders "Happy Birthday, my little Pumpkin" She said and kissed my forehead.

"Thanks" I forced a smile "You're not happy?" she asked.

"Is there a reason to be?" I said and her ice blue eyes turned sad. I instantly regretted my words.

"You're turning Eighteen today, for every other teenager, it is" She said and then lowered her voice, "Don't ruin your moment because of someone who didn't care about you...or me" she completed the sentence with some difficulty.

"You never tell me about him, as you said I am sixteen now, at least you can tell me something now" I insisted, She exhaled and wrapped her arms around me tightly.

"He left us, isn't that enough for you to hate him" She asked sadly, I hugged her back.

"You know I love you, right?" I said, "and that I can't hate my father either, and I want to know the reason he left us, I want to know the reason a father left the day his daughter was born without even seeing her face for once", Tears threatened my eyes and I closed them inside, just like I did every time, the pain of not knowing had always been greater than the pain of losing him.

"You can't live your life mourning a person you never knew, and you have me, isn't that enough?" she said and pulled away from me.

I pushed a blonde strand of hair behind her ear and smiled warmly, "You'll always be enough, Mommy" I assured her. She beamed and turned to leave but stopped near the door and said, "Brain and Sam are waiting downstairs eagerly"

I smiled "I am coming"

She left me alone then. Alone with my thoughts, alone with my nightmares just like I was every night. My endless nightmares, they were just images, vivid and strange images that haunted me everywhere. They didn't make any sense or any coherent meaning that I could understand so I just lay awake at night, repeating those dreams over and over in my mind and then playing with them. But still I was hopeless about them. My father had left me and my mother the day I was born, I never saw him and I never even saw his pictures.

Sometimes I saw his shadow, just a shadow but I could never see his face and that hurt. But I knew that these dreams were not just dreams because I knew something was coming, something big that would change my life forever.

I sighed and turned towards my door while hanging my backpack on one shoulder and ran down the stairs. My two best friends sat bickering with each other in the living room, "Good morning, guys" I said as I joined them.

Sam threw her arms around me as soon as she saw me and started jumping, "Happy Birthday, Christine" she chorused and Brian joined in with her, I patted her back and laughed, "You are a demon" I said.

She released me and beamed at me, "I have good news for you" she said

I fell on the couch "Really? Good news on my birthday? No doubt my life is going to change once I turn eighteen" I said and picked up a book from the center table and tried to read it.

"Don't be sarcastic, Christy" Brian said.

"Sorry" I mumbled.

My mom came in then with hot chocolate and churros. I sighed; "I am starving" I said and quickly picked up a handful of churros.

"You kids have school today, or are you going to celebrate" mom asked us.

"Yeah, we were thinking about skipping school..." Brian trailed off as I shot him a warning look

"No I want to go to school, I have an assignment to submit today" I concluded

"Is it necessary? You can skip... if you want" my mom offered. I looked at her-she was so beautiful, with a long willowy body long blonde waves cascading to her hips, sky blue big eyes like open skies and high cheekbones-I smiled "It isn't like we are going to spend all day in school is it? We can celebrate after it" I stood up then, "Okay Mom, we are getting late, Bye" I kissed her cheek and hurried out of the front door but I stopped on the last stairs, fog was on everything around us. I couldn't see one thing two feet in front of me, and the air smelled stale and musty. That was strange, such intense weather in the mid of September, smoke came out of my mouth as I exhaled. Brian and Sam joined me, Sam offered me my hoodie.

"It's cold" she said

"It's strange" I corrected her automatically. "Let's go" I said as I wore my hoodie and started walking down my street.

"So, what was the good news?" I asked Sam casually

"Oh! That, we got tickets for the Beyoncé concert tonight" she grinned at me

"You are kidding me, right?" I smiled

"It's awesome" Brian said and high fived me

"Christine...!" Mom's voice called from behind us. I stopped and turned quickly, she was not visible through the fog but somehow I knew she was standing exactly forty feet away from us in our little porch garden, only her silhouette was visible through the fog. I narrowed my eyes, she was walking toward us now, but something was strange, I could see how the fog seemed to almost part to give her way, as if a curtain being pulled away, and she was wearing only a single flannel shirt. She hugged her chest tightly as she approached.

"What happened, Mom? Are you okay?" I asked her worriedly and clasped her hands in mine, I shivered-they were ice cold- I stared at her beautiful face, her long lashes, her high cheekbones, and her long blonde hair and her eyes, they seemed to search something around us. She seemed to be afraid of something.

She gnawed on her lip and said, "How about if I took an off today? We could have a party, we will play games and I will make a lot of snacks for you kids" she was still chewing her lip "Why don't you stay inside today? The weather is not much ideal" she waited for my response with pleading blue eyes.

I bit my lower lip and squeezed her hand "You know you can't take off today, Billy was already pretty upset when you skipped office last week two times, remember? He can fire you" I said "And it's a Monday, I really have to submit this assignment and I also have an important test, you understand right?" she sighed heavily and touched her forehead to mine, "I do, I always do" then she retreated, kissed my cheek, "Don't meet any strangers, and if something looks too odd to you, come back or call me, I'll be there sooner than you can think" she said rather seriously and her eyes demanded my promise, I nodded although I wasn't sure what was going on.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Collins" Brian supplied, "I'll make sure she doesn't meet any strange strangers"

Mom ignored him; her eyes were still fixed on me, as if she was trying to memorize me. "I will always love you, you are my biggest treasure" she finally said, "I know, Mom" I said.

Then she turned and walked back to our house. I watched her retreating figure until she vanished into the fog.

"That was..." Haya started, "Extraordinary" I finished her sentence and turned

The way to school was rather long; My mother and I lived alone in a little farmhouse type of house in the lonely parts of the city, with the forest joining our home on the backside and a single lonely road joint us to the city itself. Although it wasn't too long from school or from Brian or Sam's home but still it was a long walk. And I liked it that way to be honest. Eerie I know but to a girl like me that home was heaven.

As we reached the school, I shivered again. The low red brick building of High school was musty in the smoke and the huge tiger statue outside it was almost invisible, the flowers around it which were always colorful looked pale and dried.

I tried to ignore it and quickly picked my way inside the school. I took off my hood once I was inside the building.

"We don"t have class in the first period; we"ll be in the cafeteria, okay?" Brian said to me. His hazel eyes scanned me like they always did whenever he suspected something sinister going on in my mind.

"I am fine and no, no need to stay with me like a shadow" I answered his unspoken question

He laughed and I ruffled his untidy light brown hair to reassure him that I was completely fine.

"She looks fine to me" Sam's green eyes raked me, "Just a little pale, but that's usual right?" She said

I rolled my eyes, "Get lost now, you idiots" I pushed them out of my way and walked towards my locker. As I moved I caught something moving in my peripheral vision. I quickly whirled around but saw nothing, just an empty white wall.

I kept walking then, hoping that was just my mind trick. Students filed around the corridor, some stood in groups and some leaned against the lockers -at least high school was normal today- I reached my locker and opened it, while I retrieved my assignment file from it, I noticed something unusual on my door, it was a white piece of paper stuck on the inside of my door. But the paper wasn't the strange thing. Strange was the way letters were written on it. I plucked it off immediately and read it. There were just three words written in red liquid on it. The handwriting was dirty and looked as if written by left hand. I grimaced at the three words, it was completely sinister.

"They are coming"

And a single little pentagram on top of them, that was ridiculous, who would say something like that to me? And who is coming? I shut the locker door and it banged -too loudly- many heads turned in my direction, one of my classmates, Matt -who is probably interested in me- raised dark eyebrows at me. I shrugged and started walking towards my classroom.

I stuffed that piece of paper inside my backpack. Is something bad going to happen? Is that why Mom was so weird? Does she know something that I don"t? I kept asking myself these questions as I walked. That' ridiculous; don't be stupid a voice said inside my head.

I inhaled calmly and tried to push away those thoughts from my mind.

It turned out that my English teacher Mr. Warner was not going to take the lecture today because he was busy taking the new football team tryouts of some newcomers. So I turned in to move to the football arena to give him the assignment there but my way was blocked by a tall lanky girl.

Emily smirked at me-she was an arrogant blondie, with long tanned legs, blue eyes and a high fashion sense- I stared at her indifferently, "Where do you think you are going?" she said in her awful French drawl- I gritted my teeth, I hated that voice- I shrugged "To the football arena" I said

She frowned and touched my cheek, "Do you not know that only cheerleaders and players are allowed there today?" she drawled further "Normal Humans who are exceptionally good in studies and have a bad taste of fashion, are not allowed...sadly" Her companions- Lauren, Benjie and Izzy- laughed at that. I tried to wedge through them but they blocked my way.

"Don"t you understand English?" Lauren hissed at me- all I wanted was to pull out those long silver hair from her scalp- but before I could say something, "I think you are the one who doesn't understand English" a new voice said from behind Emily, she turned quickly to face another girl. I haven't seen this girl before in school I was sure of that, because if I had I could never forget.

She was as tall as Emily but far more beautiful than her. Her long dark brown hair reached her hips and a black highlight fell on her face, her large hazel eyes stared unblinking at Emily, her long slender body was far curvier than Emily"s and as she spoke, her eyes drifted to mine and stayed there for a long moment.

"Who are you?" Emily hissed at her with an ugly frown on her face, the new girl just pouted her full lips and said "That"s none of your concern" Emily started to retort but Benjie stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder, she tried to push him away but he said, "She is Felicity Lawrence" and she stopped.

She gave me a last glare and then stomped away from there.

"Thanks" I murmured to Felicity once we were alone.

She watched me with a peculiar expression which I couldn't comprehend. At last she said "Don't let that mean that I like you"

I was momentarily taken aback by that response, "I wasn't going to either" I said.

Just then another guy came from behind her and grabbed her arm- he was also quiet strange, and I haven't seen him before, he was tall and muscular with golden brown hair and startling features-I hope my sister wasn't giving you a hard time, was she?" he said in a silky voice to me and as I met his eyes I found myself reeling towards the floor but I controlled and stared back evenly at him- his eyes were a strange color of violet, I have never seen eyes like that- "No, actually she just saved me from having a hard time rather" I finally said and my voice sounded small to my own ears.

"Amazing, now if you will excuse us" he said, "Of course" I muttered

"It was a pleasure meeting you" he said and turned, taking Felicity with him. But he glanced back once before turning a corner.

I finally breathed and closed my eyes. What was that? I asked myself

I was about to move back to where I had been going earlier but Matt blocked my way. I groaned internally, why was getting to a tryout so difficult today?

"Hi, Matt" I smiled, he beamed back at me. His blonde hair was wet- because of the foggy weather maybe- his blue eyes danced.

"What was Erik and Felicity Lawrence saying to you?" he asked uncertainly, I frowned "His name was Erik? Oh, I didn't know" I said. "Of course you didn't" he said

"And who are they?" I tried not to be too curious

"You seriously don't know?" he raised an eyebrow

"No, I seriously don't know" Usually I would never have tolerated this long conversation with Matt, but today it was of my own interest so I had to cope with it.

"They are the Lawrence's Children, well I don't know the whole story but I know that they are a big deal. You must have heard about The Lawrence Enterprises haven't you? They are rich, very rich" he said - he seemed quite impressed by them- "Of course I know" I said, although I really didn't know anything about this company.

"Okay. Matt I've got to go to the football arena, See you later" I said and strolled past him quickly.