Prolouge

Icey fingers gripped my arm, pulling me into the depths of dreamworld once again.

There was no sunlight in my dreams. Only shadows, monsters. Nightmares.

I was there again, the night of the accident.

Achcol muddled my brain, making my words slow, and clearing out my thought process altogether. But it didnt take my memory, I wish it had.

The fire blazed tall, taller then me. I didnt know how a bunch of highschoolers got it like this, I didnt even think it was a good idea to have the beer next to the fire. But it was.

"Come on Em!" Oriana slurred, pulling my arm. "Dance with me! Let go!"

I pulled away. "I cant dance!" I laughed. My voice, soft and musical. I missed it.

"Please." She begged, her blue eyes wide. "Tonight, you can be a teenager. Let go, get your parents voices out of your head!"

I shook my head, backing away from my best friend. She glared at me for a full ten second before a girl came up and pulled her away. They kissed, and began dancing, rough jerky movements. It could go on America's top ten ugly moves.

"You waited for me baby?" A boy asked, his words slurred. We were all drunk. I didnt even know him, but I pushed it all away.

I wish I could blame Oriana. She told me to let go, so I did. I ignored my gut telling me to go. I ignored the shadows calling my name. I ignored it all and let this boy kiss me.

His lips were wet, the kiss itself was slobbery. He groped at me, pulled me closer. He wouldn't let go.

"Stop." I said, trying to push him away. "No."

"Come on baby." He whispered husky in my ear. It wasnt working. He wasnt listening. "You dont mean it."

"Yes I do! I said no." My voice wasnt working right. It shook, it wasnt loud enough. What good was having a voice if they didnt listen. "No!"

I screamed inside my head, no, no, no. Excuses popped up, my parents were expecting me. I had a boyfriend. I'm lesbian. None of it worked. He wouldn't listen. I had to get past his drunken haze.

In my fear, I didn't listen to my body. I didnt notice the familar popping of electricity under my skin. The coldness of the black fire. The ringing as my mind let itself go. The groans of dead as they emerged.

"Let go of me!" I begged. Tears streamed down my face, I tried to slip from his grasp. "Listen to me! I said no!" My voice was rough, mucus sliding down my throat.

Quicker then I realized, I lost control. I braced myself, either from the boy, who had taken off my shirt, or the pain that came with my abilities.

They first came when I was first adopted. Eight years old, I shocked a girl and she fell asleep. The teachers thought I hit her. Nine, the skeletons hanging in the halls for Halloween were real, they whispered to me. Asking me to bad things. Ten, I threw a fit, and the weather responded. Eleven, I made a knife out of a metal fork. Twelve, I burned my childhood dog.

Light flashed behind my eyes as my head began to pound. I screamed, releasing it all. I couldn't hold it back, not anymore.

Lightning streaked down, hitting the boy. I never learned his name. I refused to. He turned to ash. The campfire turned black, devouring everything in its path as it leaped over the rocks containing it.

The wind picked up and the metal of the cars began to shift into sharp points. The screams echoed in my ears, I stumbled away. The ground began to shake, hands reaching up. They grabbed ankles, pulling kids to their deaths.

"No!" I screamed. I didnt mean to. I didnt want this. "Stop! Stop it!"

I hit the ground, rocks cut my hand, a spider bit my finger. Oriana was being burned, I could hear her screams.

"No! Leave them alone." Ghosts swirled around me, whispering things I couldn't understand. Warning me.

"Leave me alone." I cried. I was choking on my tears. Nobody was listening. I should just stop talking.

I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out. I tried again and again. I tried until I ran out of breath and passed out.

I tried in the hospital when I woke up. I tried when the police asked me questions. Nobody had survive. Nobody but me.

I killed them. I killed them all because I lost control. I lost control because he didnt listen. I lost my voice because i lost control. My fault. My fault my best friend was dead. My fault families lost a member. My fault, and their ghosts reminded me daily.

I woke up in a cold sweat, my hair plastered to my face. Looking over, Lyris slept peacefully on her bed. She reminded me of Oriana.

Five seconds later, as I was catching my breath, a horrid bell sounded. It was the kind that no matter how hard you try, you couldn't put it in your dream.

Lyris groaned, sitting up. Her blonde hair stuck up and her face covered in sweat. I laughed silently. Per usual.

"What are you laughing about. You look like a mess too girl. And that hair." She shivered, making me laugh more.

We both stood up, stretching. I vaguely wondered what time it was.

"Attention students, you have five minutes to get ready and meet in the lunch hall. Starting now." Mr. Cye's voice echoed. It seemed to echo no matter how loud he spoke.

I took my dream, my nightmare, and pushed it away. Nobody needed to know what happened.

The dress code, black. Anything you wore had to be black. Then you had to wear a jacket, it had a symbol on it. I assumed it was different for each team. Ours was a rose.

"It could've been orange." Lyris shrugged, slipping into her jacket. Black looked good on her, like she could take on the world.

I shrugged my own clothes on. I couldn't see the design on my own jacket, which disappointed me a little.

Then we met in the lunch hall for breakfast. So contradicting.

I was right, each jacket had a different symbol for the teams. One team had dolphins, another had pigs. Maybe they were just as messy.

"You think our symbols represent something?" Lyris asked, looking at our group.

"A rose, duh." Raiden said, slurping up his cereal.

"No! Like that dolphin group!" She nodded to them. "Dolphins are intelligent, so maybe the team is really smart. Pigs, they're pretty strong and can survive off of anything. Maybe that team is like that."

The boys seemed to consider this, and I let the thought run through my own mind. Maybe she was right.

"So what, we smell good?" Kieran joked.

I nodded, it made sense, but what did it make us?