The Key Holders

"Did you feel it? The new 'aura' around her?"

The man sitting on one of the chairs around the table said.

"Of course I noticed. Her 'aureole' is probably changing." the woman who was sitting opposite the man, said. This was the only reason she could come up with.

- - -

Tash woke up late on a school day.

It was sunny and there was no trace that it had rained the previous night, but Tash knew it had. She was 14, had average height, had brownish-black hair and dimples. In short, she was deadly cute. The type of deadly cute in which deadly should be underlined, as she was a great fighter and knew how to use her charms. But Tash didn't think so, even if a lot of he friends and unknown people said that everyday. She didn't want to go to school today, so she decided to sleep in until the school gates closed, which was gonna be in 15 minutes. Suddenly someone knocked on the door and came in.

"Why knock if you're gonna come in anyway?" Tash muttered. She saw that the person who had knocked -and came in anyway- was her mom. 'Oh great, my plans have just been destroyed,' thought Tash, the usual reaction of every kid -who has ever been- when their mom walks in on the day they decide to skip school.

"It's time for school," her mom, Linda Mckenzie said, "which, I'm sure, you already know, so get up." Somehow, her mom always knew when she was awake.

Linda Mckenzie was a successful fashion designer. She was slim, tall, beautiful and walked with full confidence. The definition of 'beauty with brains'.

"And what if I don't wanna go?" Tash asked, snuggling her blanket.

"That's gonna be a....what about No?"

"Gaaaahhh mom, stop giving me hope."

Her mom chuckled, and left the room. That meant that the discussion was over and her mom expected her to go to school today.

Grumbling, Tash got to her feet, changed, pulled her hair in a pony tail and left the room with her books almost spilling out of her open bag.

Her and her parents rooms were on the second floor of their house, which only had two stories (or so people viewing it from outside would think). People said that this house was to humble for them, and that's how the humble image stuck to the family. Tash tumbled down the stairs, half asleep, half awake, and almost fell down when she reached the living room. She went towards the dining room, where her dad, Liam Mckenzie, was drinking coffee while reading a newspaper.

"Good morning, kiddo," her dad said, when she came in, barely looking up from his newspaper. Tash didn't know how, but her parents always felt her presence when she came in a room, even if they hadn't seen her.

A/N-maybe cuz you are very noisy? That's a common occurrence for kids these days. You can take me for an example.

Liam Mckenzie was a pro in business. A lot of companies gave him job offers with high salary, but they didn't know that he was the famous 'Hidden CEO and founder' of the most famous company. He looked younger than his age, like her mother, was fit, smart and handsome.

"Morning, dad."

Her mom appeared from the kitchen and plucked the newspaper out of her father's hand, on the way to give Tash her breakfast. There were pancakes for breakfast, topped with syrup. It looked mouth-watering.

"Hey!" Liam exclaimed, when Linda took the newspaper.

"No newspaper on the table. You already know that," Linda said, wiggling a finger at him.

Tash giggled. After finishing her breakfast, she zipped her bag, threw open the front door, "Byee." but didn't wait for the reply and took off to get a cab (she didn't like her parents dropping her to school), as the bus had already left.

While on the cab, she started thinking about her big brother. His name was Tad Mckenzie. He had the same brownish-black hair that Tash has, was tall, handsome and used to play basketball. he was 16 when he had left home (vanished). It has been two years since he left, so he might be 18 now, if he was alive. He used to be a big hit between girls. He had vanished, one day, and never came back. No in actually knew if he was dead. When he used to be here, he went to the same school as Tash. Because of him, girls always crowded Tash and tried to make a good impression on the both of them. Kiley was the only one who didn't do that, and she ended up becoming best friends with Tash.

Kiley had been absent and the day had went by as a blur for Tash. She had punched some people's face, so after detention, she took a cab, and went home.

As soon as she reached the front gate, she threw open the door (of the cab), tossed some money at the driver's face, and dashed to the front door.

She didn't know why she was having a sudden adrenaline rush. She'd usually never toss money like it was nothing. She wasn't one of those bratty 2nd generation kids who thought they could do anything as they're parents were rich and that money grew on trees. But, today, she didn't care, as her heart was thumping so fast, like she had had an overdose of already overdosed caffeine! She hadn't felt like this since she was having a race with her brother when she was 6 years old, and had somehow tangled herself at the top branch of some old tree! In the end, the tree had been cut down. She'd never got over the guilt, as if it wasn't for her, the tree wouldn't be cut down.

The house was empty, no one was there.

Tash ran to her room, threw the door open, tossed her bag to the bean bag, and yanked the top drawer of her table open, and took the journal she'd bought yesterday out. She felt the adrenaline rush stop, like her body had wanted to see the journal, and the adrenaline rush stopped when she put her hand on it.

'How weird,' Tash thought. 'Who cares, I had wanted to see it anyway,' she waved it off as a passing thought.

She had bought the journal yesterday when she had went to the plaza (here, a mall) with her mother. She didn't know why, but she had been drawn to it. She just hoped that it wouldn't end up like on horror movies, where the mc would be drawn to something and that would be the end of the world or something.

She took her pen, opened the journal to its first page, and wrote- 'Tash's Property' in calligraphy.

Suddenly the page started glowing. Tash was so surprised that her grip on the journal loosened. The journal slipped from her hand and fell on the floor. It was getting brighter and brighter.

Suddenly she heard a car pull up in the driveway. She ran to the door of her room, but it wouldn't open. That's weird. She didn't remember locking her door. Now this was getting scary. She then went to the window, but it wouldn't budge either. She saw her mom getting out of her car. Tash shouted so her mom would hear her and banged the window so much that it should have shattered. But it didn't. Her mom didn't hear her either. Even if she hadn't done that, her mom should've noticed the bright light coming from Tash's room. Tash was getting panicked. Even more panicked than when they couldn't find her brother, Tad, the night he had vanished. 'Was this what happened to my brother?'

It was a fleeting thought, because she needed to protect herself first, than come to any crazy conclusions about weird lights that swallow people coming out of books. Maybe this journal was made by sirens? Were they making modern ways to kill people?

'NO! SHUT UP, BRAIN!! SURVIVAL FIRST!!!'

She HAD to keep her mind from going off track and break the window, or make her mom notice her presence.

The light became too bright for Tash to see anything. She was blinded.

The next second, Tash and the journal vanished from the room , without leaving a trace.

Like they had never been their in the first place.

Outside, Linda looked up. 'Where did that faint flicker of aura come from?'