How to Do the Impossible
By: Shinda Verdomd

Chapter 1

I can't believe I’m risking my life for this stupid mission. Not to mention, I’m risking his life too! No, I’m not just risking it, I’ve already lost it! He’s going to die now because of me and because of my stupid little mission to find out the ‘truth’.



It must have been Monday morning. God, who in their right minds likes Mondays anyways? I threw my pillow against the wall, for the third night in a row I couldn’t sleep because of the constant nightmares. I always see this little red devil-like demon that couldn’t have been more than two feet high who, in my dreams, has me strapped to a table. She takes her claws and scratches lines across my body and I’m left struggling and screaming. She slowly peels my skin off of my body as she laughs and tears pour down my cheeks and…ugh! It was just another nightmare. It’s all just one big nightmare.
I struggled out of bed and walked down the stairs. My sister was already there enjoying her breakfast. There were eggs and toast and fresh grapefruit juice, the works. She threw something at my head, my vision was still too blurred to see what it was, but my hair smelled like sausage. Usually I would have gone off on her and ground her into the floorboards, but she was taking advantage of my…insomnia…if you could call it that. Clare and I are identical twin sisters, but we couldn’t be more different. Clare was about boys and cheerleading and dating and social status and looking good and putting other people down and pink….I was more into black, my friends, scaring, intimidating, grades, my future. I dressed like a Goth kid, my hair was dyed black, I wore colored contacts that made my eyes the soul crushing color deep red, I wore black, ripped and baggy clothes while Clare showed off her natural blonde hair in a pony and her tight pink cheerleading outfit with that skimpy white short skirt. You could call her a popular, a plastic, a cliché. I’m not saying that I’m a complete original, but God, did she really have to pick such an overused social standing?
Anyways, she looked at me and in her maddeningly sweet way, she said, “Aronatha still at you? What would she want with you anyways? I mean, you’re just a low classed nobody.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Barbie; I don’t mean to offend you and your high priced Ken dolls.”
She rolled her eyes at me and went back to her breakfast. There was one more thing that I was waiting for for this day to be completely like all the others. Jake Randall’s shiny silver whatever year and whatever model car to show up in the driveway and honk for Clare to come out. He always gave her rides to school, but today, he was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Ken?” I asked plopping down on the other wooden barstool that she so graciously left open for me.
“That’s none of your business. Jake will come when he comes.”
“Oh my God!” I said throwing my hand to my mouth, “He left you!” I couldn’t help but laugh. That is the exact reason why I don’t have a boyfriend. Men can't be trusted with fragile things like a woman’s heart. “Looks like you’re walking. Don’t bother asking me for directions.”
“Just shut up already, Tara.” Her spoon twisted in her fingers. Strange, I thought Gramma bought sturdy silverware, not that flimsy crap. I picked up her fork and tried to bend it with both my hands, but it wouldn’t budge. I threw it down and angrily barked, “How did you do that?”
She looked surprised as she saw the bent up spoon untangle from her fingers. “I-I don’t know.”
“Well…I’m going to try to catch some sleep before I have to walk a mile and a half to school.”
I heard her groan as I lay down on the couch and closed my eyes. It felt good until Aronatha ripped through my senses and tore from my subconscious. She was smiling like she wanted me to come after her. Blood dripped from her fangs. She was taunting me.
“Gramma!” I yelled.
She walked into the room. Gramma had short and frizzy white hair and had the strangest shade of green eyes. Almost as if they weren’t human or something.She looked like any other grandmother in the world. She looked like you could break her just by looking at her, but she was one of the scariest people I knew. I was so glad she was on my side.
Gramma raised Clare and me since we were little kids and our parents were killed. They were said to be mangled by some type of Krothosaur in the woods when we were like four or five. I still remember the headlines from that day. Local residents Jim and Anna Carrolyn mauled to death. Inside job?
That’s what a lot of people thought happened. Krothosaurs are commonly used as house pets even though they look like giant vicious wolves. Krothosaurs love to play with young kids and only attack when they are commanded to by the one true dominant leader. Police handed me and my sister off to our Gramma and the story just died away. There was no investigation, no suspects, no murder. Secretly, I’ve always been looking for clues to find the killer. The only thing that I’ve come up with so far is that the murderer is still in the Village somewhere, hiding in plain sight. The last person known to have ownership of a Krothosaur was a woman named Jade Abora, but she mysteriously disappeared off the face of the planet after my parents died.
Yes, Krothosaurs are demons. They live all around us. Demons.Some people have unnatural powers because they are descended from demons and humans.
Back to the story, Gramma came running in. She was unusually fit for an elderly lady, but I never questioned it. I figured that I was descended from demons and the bloodline died out before it got to me, so she had the power to stay in shape long into her golden years, while Clare and I got to be regular people.
“Gramma, can I skip school today? I can't sleep or focus on anything.”
“Why not?”
“Because,” Clare cut in, “She keeps seeing these demons come after her that aren’t really there.”
“Would you mean a little red thing with black hair and yellow claws?” She asked.
“Yea, how did you know?”
“Because I saw it run around in the garden earlier this week!” She hugged me. “Oh Tara, your powers have finally come in!”
“Gram,” I pushed her away, “What powers?”
“You are progeny of a great and terrible demon who used to terrorize this Village decades ago. I was waiting for your powers to come in! Looks like you’re a Tracer. Ah, the power to see nearby demons. Don’t worry Tara, as you grow stronger, so will your powers. You’ll be able to see demons further away, and even with your eyes open. Oh, I’m so proud. If your powers came in, then that means that Clare’s must have as well!”
Clare held up her mangled spoon.
“Ooo,” Grams was way too giddy about this. “Clare’s a Lifter! Your powers focus on your emotions. If you are feeling something like confidence, or aggression, you could lift trailers, but if you feel guilt or self-doubt, a feather could smash your bones to bits.”
Clare’s eyes widened into giant O’s. Note to Self: When Clare’s feeling bad about having no real friends, throw Tic Tacs at her.
“Grams,” I said, sitting up. “How do I stop seeing this demon? I need some sleep.”
“Oh, Dearie, you have to kill her.”





Chapter 2

That’s what Clare and I did. We packed a bag as Gramma told us all about the dangers of demon slaying and how we’d be better off to just call a Ranger and have them take care of the demon and that she didn’t want her last two links in the world violently ripped from her like her son and his wife were.
“Sorry Grams, we have to kill that thing so that I can get some rest.” Stage one of sleep deprivation: lack of reasonability. “We’ll be back soon, I hope.” I looked at Clare. “Besides, we have tractor strength over there, so I think were pretty covered in that area. Hey, do you have any weapons lying around that we can borrow? Something like a sword would do.”
Grams solemnly nodded as she walked down the stairs to the basement that we never knew existed. Down there was like Sharp City. There were knives, daggers, swords, bottles with poisons in them, all kinds of things. We just grabbed whatever we could fit into our few belt loops and shove into our backpacks. It looked like she was crying as we walked out of the house.
Our two story house was literally on the edge of the forest, so we didn’t have to go far to get there. After a couple of minutes of wandering around aimlessly and getting thoroughly lost, Clare asked “Why don’t you just close your eyes and look for her like Gramma said that you could?”
What the heck? I closed my eyes and waited a moment for Aronatha to appear and horrify me with another God-awful dream of her skinning me alive.
There she is. I thought. She was once again taunting me. She was giving me the universal come-at-me sign that she really didn’t want to be giving me right now. I walked towards her and heard Clare scream something at me. I could hear her yell, but I couldn’t make out any of the words; I was just so focused on the little imp-demon that everything else was blocked out.
Something forced me to the ground. Clare was on top of me.
“You idiot!” She yelled at me, “You were about to walk into her claws!”
I looked up and the little red demon was looking at me with that pompous and arrogant smile of hers. Her claw-fingers were extended out, maybe four or five inches and held together to form a make-shift spike.
Ok, so to tell you how this fight went would be like telling you… alright, so I can't come up with a good simile, big deal.
So we kicked Aronatha’s butt, literally. We didn’t need to pull weapons or anything. We just shoved our feet into her forehead so that she couldn’t get close enough to us to hit us.
“Why are you here?!” The imp-demon hissed.
“To kill you!” I yelled back at her. “You’re haunting my dreams and I haven’t slept for days.”
“Oh, so then you would be the young Tracer.” That stupid pompous smile came back. “I’ll make a trade with you. I shall leave the area in exchange; I’ll tell you who really killed your parents.”
“I already know who killed them! It was Jade Abora!” I lied.
“But do you idiots know why?”
“Why?”
“That’s the big question. No one knows why they had to die. It must have been pretty big to have forced Jade’s hand like that, but no one crosses Mrs. Abora and lives to tell the tale.”
My hands inched to the sword attached in my belt loop. In a single swift motion, I ripped it out of the sheath and slashed Aronatha’s chest and face. She only lay on the ground before her body disappeared into thin air like all dead demons do.
“Why’d you kill her like that? She might have known something!”
“She didn’t. Being popular and spoiled, you can’t read people like I can. She was only hiding the fact that she didn’t know anything, wanted to torture me, and planned to lead us in circles.”

Chapter 3


Clare and I slept under the stars that night, mostly because we weren’t smart enough to pack tents just in case we were too stupid to figure out that we won’t be able to get back home once were gone. Clare panicked while I built a fire with one of my few stashed away lighters and some dry wood nearby.
Finally, I could lie down and get some well deserved rest…
“Tara!” Clare yelled, shaking me wake. “There’s something in the trees watching us!”
“Clare! They are called birds and they watch everyone. Let me go back to sleep. Staying awake for eighty-odd hours makes you tired enough to kill someone when they wake you.”
“Tara, I swear, there’s a person in the trees swinging like a frigging monkey!”
I looked up at the trees and saw the leaves move, but just barely. “Who’s out there?” I called to the Monkey-Person. Someone dropped out from the branches.
It was a teenage boy. He had one of those clichéd skater hats over his blonde hair, a yellow and black plaid shirt and dark pants that were so big on him that they completely covered his feet. Everything was big on him except for his hat, which looked like it was about to be ripped in half.
“Hi.” He said, simply put.
“Hello…Were you just watching us?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I know newbies when I see them, so naturally when you and the other girl there came wandering through our swamp, we had to keep an eye on you to make sure that you weren’t just like all the others, you know, just here to kill us like the others in that crazy little city. But you two are too young and untrained to defeat me and my brother.”
“Hey! You don’t exactly look like the fighting type yourself either!”
He walked over to me. Then I could see it. Battle scars. There were two or three down his cheeks and the rest covered all of his body -all that wasn’t covered by clothes; which was his hands, rolled up sleeves, and shoulders. “See? I’m a fully decorated warrior. You don’t have any scars.”
“Wait a minute, why did you think that we came to kill you?”
“Because the last time two beautiful women came to this little swamp, they pretended to be…in love with us to win our trust and kill us. You know how shunned half breeds are.”
“You are a half breed?”
“Geez, you ask too many questions. Now get out of our swamp before we decide to kill you.”
“You keep saying ‘we’. Where’s the other half of this ‘we’?”
He sighed. “Mikel!”
Mikel’s head popped out from underneath the tree. He was completely upside-down. He had nice tan hair, almost like a honey color, but not quite. He had a white and black plaid shirt. That was all that we could see of him.
“What is it, brother?” Wow. The voice of a god. Ok, enough of the teenage moment.
“These girls won’t leave.”
“Are you sure that you want them to leave? That pink one there is pretty cute.”
The boy who was yet to be named held his fingers to his chin like he was deep in thought. “I don’t know, bro, I think you’re losing your sight or something. The Goth girl is obviously way cuter.”
I felt my cheeks flush and looked away.
“Enough contemplating on our looks, Tara, we need to get home.” Clare snapped.
“Ditto.” I agreed. “Uhh…”
“Thomas.” The boy answered my unspoken question.
“Thomas, we need to get to the edge of the forest so that we can get home and we don’t know which way is the closes to town.”
“Sorry, I can’t help.”
“What? Why not?”
“My mother and father fought for this swamp. They drove out dozens of demons; my father gave up his life for this swamp. I could never leave it.”
“Dude, move on. Where’s your mom?”
“Dead.”
“And you said that you were living here since your mom took over the swamp?”
“Yea.”
“So you know the land.”
“Duh.”
“So you’d be the perfect guide to help us get out of this stupid forest.”
He was speechless for a moment before he said, “Nope.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to go.”
Clare looked past him and said, “Mikel, do you want to come with us? We really need a bodyguard, someone who is big and strong, and knows how to protect dainty little girls like us.”
Mikel blushed. I face palmed.
“Stand strong, bro.” Thomas said.
“Actually, I kind of want to go with them. They seem kind of interesting. Plus they’re pretty cute.”
This time, Thomas rolled his eyes. “Nice.” He sighed. “Fine, we’ll come with you, but first, you two have to stay here for a bit so that we can give you a little bit of training and a few scars to make you look tough.”
“Done deal.” I replied almost instantaneously.
“But sis,” Clare grabbed my attention. “I don’t want any scars. Scars permanently damage your skin and you look like a horrible freak.”
“Sorry Thomas,” I began, “My sister doesn't want the training necessary for her survival. She’d rather die in these woods than have a tiny scar or two.”
“Tara!”


















Chapter 4

Thomas had taken my hand and we were, by some miracle, running through the forest dodging trees and stumps. Occasionally I’d trip and fall on top of him. We were laughing. I honestly cannot remember how it came to this point, but I sort of didn’t care and just went with it. He led me to this old broken down building like thing.
“It’s the old tree house that my father had built for me before I was born. Mikel and I used to play here all the time, but when Mother was attacked by a werewolf one night, Mikel and I ran here for cover. I still remember the thunderstorm and how the ladder up creaked and moaned as you climbed it.
“Mikel and I were on full panic mode. The only thing that we could think about was getting up that tree house and away from the werewolf. Once we were up there, the thunderstorm got worse. A tree started to collapse. It was breaking and where it landed was through the roof and top floor of the tree house. Before the tree fell, Mikel and I had to get out. The winds had knocked down the ladder and torn off several chunks of the flooring. Being the older brother, I had to jump down through the floor first and then catch Mikel as he came down after me. But it didn’t exactly go that way.
“When I tried to build up the nerve to jump down thirty-odd feet, I slipped down the hole, and tried to grab on to the ledge. Several splinters dug into my hand and I let go and fell down the way. I broke my leg so bad that the bone snapped apart and popped out of the skin. Mikel jumped down without hurting himself in any way and helped me limp into town so that I could get my leg fixed. I remembered how all the other kids used to hide in the corner away from me, which is why I never show those parts of my body. Not even to Mikel. Thank God they are easily concealed. You can only tell my father was a goblin because you can see my ears and feet. It’s so weird how he managed to have a kid with a human woman.”
“Let me see your ears.”
“No, weren’t you just listening to me? No one gets to see them.”
I’m a natural born rebel. I just walked up to him and got a grip on his hat. He looked away from me without fighting back. I gently pulled on it at first, but when it wouldn’t come off; a stupid little smirk appeared on his face, and he pulled it off himself.
At first, this seemed like a good idea, you know; give the boy a bit of self-esteem. But now that I’ve actually seen that, I don’t know. I swear there were huge elf-pointy ears, but a sickening shade of green.
“Ok, wow.”
“Are you happy now? Go ahead and run off like all the others. God, I wish I was Mikel, he has all the luck. He’s a shape shifter, so he doesn't have to look like a hideous goblin if he doesn't want to”
“No, I’m not going anywhere.” I swear I felt nauseous, but I wouldn’t let him know that.
“You want to go up there?” He asked, casually trying to change the subject.
“You said that there was a huge hole in the floor.”
“Tara, Mikel and I have been here all our lives and we were just little kids when that happened. You don’t think that we would have fixed it by now?”
“Is it?”
“Mostly. We couldn’t fix the floor, so we just put bars in that you have to climb across to get to the rest of the tree house.”
“Are you sure that it’s safe?”
“Yeah, Mikel and I learned how to do that whole monkey/tree thing because of these bars. We rebuilt the ladder with metal so that they won’t fall off or anything.”
“Okay, but if I fall and die, I’m coming back to haunt your ass.”
“Accepted. Now go.”
I grabbed the bar that as at eye-level with me and pressed my foot against the second from the bottom.
“Go on, or are you too scared?”
“No way.” I climbed up the ladder as quickly as my trembling fingers and feet would let me, which honestly wasn’t very fast.As long as you make it up there alive…
Thomas easily followed me up. There was a small platform only big enough for one person, so he had to crouch down over me, and I was already on my knees, which was a highly awkward position for the two of us.
“Okay, now just grab onto that bar there, the first one, and then slide your legs across onto the second one. Now let one leg drop, and then the other, be careful not to lose your grip, its one hell of a fall, trust me.”
I did as he said, then started to Monkey Bar my way across. It was harder though, because each bar was several inches higher than the last. There was one bar that was at about foot length. So I pressed my black sneaker against it and stepped up. The moment I let go of the previous bar to grab the last, I slipped. For a moment, every second seemed like a day. Everything moved in slow motion. I saw the foot step and grabbed on to it with my life. My lower body swung out below me, free dangling. The small gust of wind felt like a hurricane to my every nerve.
“Tara!” Thomas yelled from across the gap. “Tara, hold on!”
“Not much else I can do!” My heart was pounding a mile a minute. I felt like a hummingbird after a double espresso. He acted like my joints weren’t instantaneously converted into reinforced steel and I actually could move somewhere other than around the bar. Thomas ran from the tree to right about where I was. The distance between us distorted my view a little, so it looked like he was off to the side.
“Tara, let go! Trust me!”
Honestly it was seriously hard to conceive the idea that some boy whom I had only just met could be trusted with my life. He seems sincere, but if he was off by a hair with anything, I’d be pudding. I hope he had good muscles and coordination.
“Let go, Tara, I’ll catch you, I swear! Trust me!”
My arms were giving out, I had to do something. I could feel the nervous sweat form around my arms and palms. My grip wasn’t going to be lasting much longer. On one hand, Thomas could miss and I die, on the other, he misses and I die.
Bye Clare, I’m sorry the rivalry had to end so suddenly.
My hand slipped.
I was falling through the open air.

















Chapter 5

Life was just passing right by me at the speed of light. Now death was coming at me like a wrecking ball. Unavoidable, irretrievable and unmistakable. The last thing I saw was the sun setting. Amusing little omen, physical manifestation, of how the sun was setting on my own life.
Then I wasn’t falling.

I couldn’t open my eyes. Whatever thing was waiting for me, the angel of death, a demon of Hell, whatever it was, I didn’t want to see it. My life was over too easy. Too soon. People said that I was all too able to cope with disaster and tragedy, but if you gave me a paper cut, I’d never forgive you. If my life was over, then it was over.
“Open your eyes and quit shaking already, Tara.”
The brightness burned my eyes. I looked around, waiting for something to prove to me that I was dead.
“Tara, you’re not dead, look at me.”
I looked up and stared into his eyes. Maybe that was his plan all along, save my life so that I would trust him.
“Sorry I risked your life like that; I didn’t think you would get hurt. Didn’t you ever hear of gym class?”
“Well excuse me for not being so enthusiastic. I didn’t exactly think that monkey bars were going to be important later in life.”
He chuckled. “Let’s get you home, can you walk?”
“Not while you’re holding me.”
He rolled his eyes and set me down, but clumsily I fell over. It must have been the bone-jelly factor of almost dying where all your nerves are still on edge even though you know that you’re safe. He laid down adjacent to me and looked at the setting sun. Something about it was picturesque. I usually never liked anything this bright and colorful, but this seemed so different and surreal. It was a change of pace for me. A lot of things were. I tried not to let the happy and relaxing colors seep into my soul, but some things can’t be stopped. Something about Thomas was almost childlike. Any other person met any other way that was just like him would have gotten under my skin, but Thomas was different.
His hand flung forward and rested on mine. It was a weird feeling; did that make him my boyfriend or something? Gross… I wasn’t really sure if I was in the secretly-all-about-cute-boys phase or still in the oh-my-gosh-boys-are-so-gross phase.Maybe somewhere caught in the middle. I hated getting caught in the middle of things.
“Thomas, why are you like this with me and not Clare? Why’d you pick me over her?”
“I don’t know. Probably because I like to be the life of the party and Clare seemed to have that position completely filled, and if you’re nothing like her like you claim, then you’d be a total downer and I can have my job.”
“Misery loves company.”

“Mikel,” Clare called. “Where are you?”
“Up here!” He called from the trees.
“Where up there, I can’t find you anywhere.”
“Don’t look at the trees, look past the leaves.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Mikel jumped down from the trees and took her hand. “C’mon Clare, this way.” He climbed up the tree with no problem. Clare silently thanked herself that she was smart enough to change into pants before she left. Several times Mikel had to wrap his legs around a tree branch, fall upside-down, and help her up before they both made it to the top. He helped hold her up as she looked out on the horizon. The sun was maybe halfway down in the sky, which made it light up the most beautiful and vibrant colors. The purple light meshed with the pink and the orange, creating an array of colors. It was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen in her life. It even beat out the sight of her three and a half foot tall cheerleading trophy.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before? So…” He couldn’t finish.
“…Perfect?”
“Yea. Have you?”
“No, I don’t think I have.”
“I wonder if Thomas and Tara can see this. It seems…magical.”

Thomas was next to me, we were still lying on the damp grass staring at the setting sky. Our index fingers were touching at the tip, probably the Goth Tracer and the Half-Goblin way of holding hands. I swear there was mutual awkwardness going on here, but it seemed ok, like we were allowed to be scared. Tension filled the air, maybe one of us was supposed to say something, but no words came out. The simple silence seemed natural, but every moment felt like another shot of adrenaline.
Finally, I managed to spit out, “So…”
“So…what?”
“Did you expect to be finger-touching with a Tracer?”
“Nope. I thought that they would have all killed themselves before I got to meet one.”
“What?”
“Yea, you didn’t know that? Tracers can see the most horrible demons do the worst things and their powers don’t stop for holidays or special occasions. Most of them give up about a year after that power comes in. That’s another reason why I wanted to hang out with you. I thought you were a young Tracer on the edge and I had to help you. But I guess you’re just fine on your own.”
“Well, thanks for the misplaced sympathy.”
“You’re welcome. I was just caring for your mental health.”
We both giggled for a moment then moved to second base: Actual hand-holding. I know, shocking, right?
“Thomas, who is that in the distance?”


















Chapter 6

“Tara-Alexandria Carrolyn.” Clare called. “Don’t you see that boy’s head? His ears are hideous! How could you stand to be near that?”
“Well Clare-Yvette Carrolyn, he’s a really nice guy and he’s really funny and he saved my life. If he covers his ears, he looks just like the guys that you date.”
“Nice and funny aren’t going to get you anywhere in life. You have to be good looking to get somewhere, which is why I am head cheerleader and you are just some low class freak.”
“Look, Thomas is a nice guy. Besides, you only like Mikel because he’s good-looking.”
“Not true.” She looked like she was trying to think of another good reason. “He took me to the top of atree at sunset and we watched it together.”
“So? Thomas and I lay down in the grass and held hands and watched the sunset.”
“How can you like him with those ears?”
“I look past the ears, Clare. I’m not like you.”
“You’re not beautiful.”
“Watch it, we’re identical.”
“You destroyed your hair with that ugly dye and you wear clothes two sizes too big that look like they went through a blender!”
“You wear clothes two sizes too smallthat make you look like a ten cent whore with an IQ lower than her age!”
“Ladies!” Mikel cut in, “Please don’t fight over us or anything. You two are sisters, you shouldn’t fight. Thomas and I only fight physically to keep up our training.”
“Clare,” I began; the truth had to come out, I had to let it out. “You only care about appearance, which is why you’ve already had two abusive boyfriends and Jake Randall wouldn’t stay with you. He may have been the hottest guy in school, but he is the biggest asshole alive. I don’t really care who I date as long as he takes care of me. That’s the point of being a low class nobody, then you have the real friends who would stick by you no matter what, then you don’t get stuck with idiots like Jake Randall who peak in high school.”
“Tara,” Mikel chided without a response, “you’re sisters, quit acting like babies.”
“No, Mikel she needed to hear the truth. She may like you, but she only likes you for your looks.”
“In that case,” A voice broke out from the back, “What do you like me for?”
“Thomas? I…”
“Well…?” He didn’t seem angry, he seemed…curious.
“I like that you saved my life. I like how you watched the sunset with me, and how you trusted me not to scream and run away when I saw your goblin appendages.”
“Yea, that is true. Would you mind coming with me?”
“To where?”
“Wait!” Clare cut in. “You’re a goblin? No, I don’t trust you with my sister. I knew there was something wrong with you. No one is that perfect.”
“Clare, I’m going with him. He saved my life. I trust him.” It wasn't really trust that made me go with Thomas, it was a desire to get away from my sister and a curiosity about Thomas. I wanted to know about him.
“Well I don’t. Besides, if someone sees you with him and recognizes you as my sister, my reputation is going in the toilet.”
“I’m trying to get this into your thick head, Clare. I don’t care what Thomas looks like. He’s really nice to me and I really like him and oh my God, did I just say that out loud.”
Tomas’s face almost seemed to erupt into this cute bad boy looking grin and a slight tint of red. “You like me? I knew it.”
I couldn’t exactly see, but I was pretty sure that my face was as red as a crayon. “Moving on to more pressing matters…” I tried to change the subject. “I was thinking about Clare’s and my parents.”
“No, no. Tara, you’re not getting out of this one.”
“Drop it, Thomas. We can talk about it later. Seriously, our parents weren’t in a random mauling, I’m telling you, it was murder!”
“Unless,” Clare interceded, “Mom and Dad committed suicide with them. Maybe that’s what the police thought happened.”
“No, Mom and Dad loved us. They had two little twin girls at home, how could they have possibly killed themselves? And have you ever been mauled by a wolf? I don’t imagine that it’s very pleasant.”
“Well, I remember reading all the articles about their deaths and one of our neighbors mentioned that she heard them argue with a woman the night before they were found dead.”
“I remember that night! You were crying because you thought that Mom and Dad were fighting with each other.”
“Shut up, Tara.”
“Listen to me, Clare. We have to find out who that woman was. She murdered our parents.”
“Should we start with the common knowledge that someone named Jade Abora was last known to have them?”
“I see what you mean, a woman fighting with our parents, plus the fact that ‘Jade’ isn’t the most masculine name in the world.”
“So it’s settled then.” Thomas said with confidence. “We’re setting out for this Jade lady.”
“It’s the only lead we’ve got.”
As we all turned to start walking, Thomas whispered something under his breath that sounded like, “I knew she liked me.” He held a triumphant smile for the next mile and a half or so.





















Chapter 7

Walking through the forest: Not so bad.
Walking through the forest on an empty stomach: I can deal.
Walking through the forest on an empty stomach occasionally turning to see Thomas’s smug little look: Unacceptable.
“We’ll be in town soon, Tara.” Thomas said as he looped his fingers between mine, effectively making my face turn tomato red. “We’ll read up on Jade Abora.”
He was just trying to start a conversation.

We wound up somewhere in Montana. It was rocky, filled with hills, ants, and the occasional pixies stopping us to ask us riddles that pertained to each of our ugly personality traits and so on. Damn pixies could read us like freaking books. Like he said, we came into a town. It was unfamiliar, mostly because Gramma never took us to any towns; she always went shopping by herself. The boys had passed us a few minutes ago and were leading Clare and me through the surprisingly quiet town.
She looked at me and whispered, “Tara, I’ve been thinking.”
“Oh my God, I think the world is going to end!”
“Shut up!” She punched my shoulder. “Seriously. Think about it, Tara. Jade Abora. Doesn't Grandma have the same initials? Jackie Aims. Doesn't that sound a bit odd to you?”
“Kind of. Hey, remember that room that she’d never let us in? I saw it once and she had Jade’s name written all over everything. We should get home as soon as possible. It’s been like two months since we saw Gramma. She might be worried about us.”

We strolled along the winding road. I wished that there was some way that we could have gotten there faster, but walking was all that we had. After a few hours of chit-chat with Clare about her boring school life, when I was truly tired of hearing about how one of her clichéd jock ex-boyfriends came into school with some kind of facial blemish and how he lost several rep points for it and that she was mortified because she actually went out with him two years ago, I walked up to Thomas, intertwined my fingers with his and intimately pressed myself against his side. Anything to get away from Clare’s useless rambling…
“Tell me about your mom.” I said.
“What? Why?”
“Because I’m interested.”
“No you’re not.”
“Fine, you caught me. But you can still tell me. I’ll listen.”
He rolled his eyes and said, “I miss her. She was supposed to be beautiful, but I was really little when she died, and all the memories I have of her are a bit foggy.” He stopped and let Clare pass us, making sure that they both were pretty far away from us. “Mikel isn’t really my brother. Mom and I were walking through the forest like we always did, but we found a goblin trying to eat a little boy and we scared him off. For a couple of days Mom and I went through the town looking for whoever was supposed to be looking out for the boy, but we just couldn’t. Eventually, we tried to retrace our steps and look through the forest. Not long after, we found his parents. Dead. Mom decided not to tell Mikel about it, so that he’d feel like he belonged with us. He isn’t really a goblin at all; he just has some demon blood in his family line. Mikel isn’t even his real name, no one who knew him was still alive, and so we gave him a name.”
“Wow.”
“Mom was the best. She took care of us, always managed to have clean clothes for us and she’d kiss our little skinned knees.”
“Sounds great.”
“It was. I think Mikel remembers her better that I do. I think it’s because he didn’t have any memories of her as a tiny little kid, then suddenly she and I are there and were making him happy. I also think he never took her for granted like I did.
“After some time, we got used to having Mikel around. I mean he’s only about a year or two younger than me. It seemed like he was always part of the family.”
“What about you? You just willingly gave over your mother’s affection to a boy you weren’t even related to?”
“I guess so. I mean, at first, I hated it. I used to be her center of attention and then suddenly it felt like she could never quite get around to me. I told myself that he would be gone soon and it would just be me and Mom again, but when I saw his father dead on the ground with his mom, I couldn’t help but think ‘he doesn't have a mom now when I have mine all to myself’. I felt like a greedy little SOB.”
“That’s not possible; you’re the nicest person I’ve ever met. You even made threatening my life sound polite. I don’t really remember much about mine either. They were killed when I was little. Hey, look how much farther Tara and Mikel got!”
We ran to catch them, but they ran from us, like a tag team game of…well, tag. Life seemed perfectly normal. We were just kids running around, completely untouched by the thin fabric that separated reality with fantasy. God, fantasy was so amazing right now.



























Chapter 8

It didn’t take very long to fall back into the familiarity of the bleakness of our mission. I couldn’t believe that Grandma was our only suspect, there was a good chance that she was a Jade-worshipper and might have helped in the murder of our parents... She raised us, she taught us right and wrong. She kissed our scraped knees. She helped both Clare and me through our painful, soul-destroying first crushes. She was the Mom we didn’t have. Minus the Mom-ness. She was our best friend, not a parent or guardian.
I could see the clearing coming up pretty quickly, but night was drawing on us pretty fast. Mikel and Thomas set up camp while Clare aggravated herself over starting a fire.
“Tara, you’re the pyro, you start the fire.”
“Nope. Sorry Clare, I’m getting too much enjoyment out of watching you suffer.”
She grunted and rolled her eyes. Sometimes, I’d much rather sit in the dark with the cold creeping under my skin, watching Clare fail and fail at something that would only take me a moment than actually do it myself. Clare struggled and struggled until Mikel came to her rescue. Something about seeing him after hearing that story made me give off these depressed vibes, which Mikel and Thomas picked up instantly, but only Tomas came to my rescue. Mikel had his arm around Clare and was holding the objects she was holding, showing her how to start a fire the right way. It almost looked like he was trying to seduce her more than start a fire.
Once the fire had actually started, I shared a blanket with Thomas by it. We shared some fish that Mikel caught in the river nearby.
“Tomorrow, we’re going into town.”
“What for?” Was Mikel’s reply to Thomas. “You hate the town. You remember all the kids.”
“Of course I know that. But there’s something I need to see in town. Are we even heading in the right direction?”
Mikel stuck his thumb in his mouth and then held it up in the air. “No, we’re going too far east.” He picked up a stick and drew and arrow in the dirt. That was the direction we were going in. As if to check his numbers, Thomas mimicked Mikel’s technique. He pulled me closer to him and whispered, “The wind always blows from the west here. Town is in the north. That’s how we know where we’re going. When you get all wet, you become more sensitive to the cold, so you can feel the direction of the wind. “
“Oh. Well, what do we need in town?”
“You’ll see.” He said with his devious little teen boy smile and a tap of his index finger on the tip of my nose.










Chapter 9

Town was too far away. We were running short on water, the rivers were the other way—it would have ended in an endless loop, running back for water, walking back out, running out of it, going back for more.
The town looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. It looked almost 18th century, but people were modern. Regular shirts and pants, cars going down the cobblestone streets. It was a beautiful town. I’d never been in one before. Gramma kept us out of them because she said the temptation to buy silly things was too great, so she always went alone. We had never even been outside our backyard before.
“Thomas.” I grabbed his shirt sleeve around the wrist area and clung to it. I didn’t want to say ‘I’m scared’even though that was the truth. As I said earlier, Clare and I are complete opposites. She was the twin who loved big open areas, filled with new and strange people.
He understood and put a reassuring arm around my shoulders. “Relax. I’ll protect you.” He whispered in my ear. He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers in with mine in a way that I wasn't accustomed to. He waved off Mikel, who took Clare back into the forest, probably to set up camp. Thomas led me to a place I was sort of familiar with. A library.
The sliding doors opened for us. Thomas turned to me and moved closer to me. He gently whispered, “Tara, promise me you won't laugh.”
“At?”
“Me. I have to tell you something important.”
For a moment, I couldn’t find the right words. “Yea, I promise.”
“Tara…I can't read. I need you to help me out here.”
“Oh…” All expression left my face. “Sure, I can help.” I almost felt bad for him.
“Thank you, Tara.” He snuggled his cheek against mine for a second, effectively making me turn bright red. Still having a grip on my hand, he walked me up to a sign hanging from the ceiling. He pointed and asked cutely, “What’s that one say?”
“Uh…’Fiction Novels’.”
“Oh, then where on the completely wrong side of the library.” He giggled a little and pulled me to the other side and pointed to another sign. “What about that one?”
“’Reference’.”
“Awesome! Second try’s the charm!”
I laughed at his enthusiasm. “So what’s over here?”
He pulled out the thickest book he could find and laid it on the table. ”Tara, what is this book called?”
“Uhh…’ The Encyclopedia of All Known and Discovered Demons’.”
“Perfect. Now Tara, tell me about the demon that killed your parents. I could probably tell you what it’s called, but you have to look it up.”
“If you can't read, then how do you know what all the demons are called?”
“My Mom used to read these books to me. She taught me about them all, showed me pictures and told me how to kill them. She wanted me to be able to defend myself from anything.”
“Well, from what the newspapers said, they were Krothosaurs.”
“Ouch, Krothosaurs are particularly nasty. Well, you’re the reader.”
I flipped through the pages. I purposefully went too far and then not far enough, just so watch Thomas point out demons and name them instantly and show him what some letters where and what they sounded like. After about twenty-five minutes, I found the Krothosaur’s page.
“A fierce demon that is commonly used as a household petto guard from intruders. Krothosaurs understand the human language of English and take orders only from their one true master, the alpha male of the family or pack (Can be a female on rare occasions). They were used mainly in assassinations because of their silence and ability to consume a human corpse in under a minute, leaving nothing behind. Krothosaurs have been extinct since the murders of Jim and Anna Carolynn, however rumors and sightings still exist.”
“Whoa. Doesn't sound pretty. But it couldn’t have been a Krothosaur, they don’t leave anything behind. You said your parents’ bodies were found. Something isn’t adding up here.”
“You’re telling me.”
Thomas flipped the page over and pointed to the picture of the demon. It looked like the Krothosaur, a big wolf. The only difference was that the teeth on this one were bigger, and the eyes were red. On a Krothosaur they were blue or brown like wolves. “This is a Krothosauro.” He said solemnly, like he knew this was the final answer. He looked incredibly sad. I couldn’t see his somber expression, his head was limp; he was looking at the edge of the table closest to him.
He wanted me to read it to him. “Krothosauros are the most vicious of all known demons. They were once used in assassinations along with their ancestors, the Krothosaurs; however, Krothosauros turn on their masters, devouring them along with the target. Krothosauros were also used in tracking, because of their distinct ability to follow their prey even when the trail has gone cold. There is no known way to kill a Krothosauro, their outer coats seem to be fire and explosion proof, their lungs have a backup mechanism that allows them to breathe underwater, their skin is too durable to be pierced. Once the Krothosauro has taken in the scent of their prey, they never stop searching for it until they devour their prey.”
“There were prints outside my side of the tent last night. I wanted to tell you, maybe you –the strong one of the group- could be able to tell the others.”
“No, Thomas. No. No demon is going to kill you. We’ll…we’ll find a way to get rid of it…” My brain wasn't working right. It felt so hollow in my head. The electric feeling almost burned when Thomas embraced me. It felt like my brain was about to sort circuit.
Thomas was going to die…





















Chapter 10













I tried to walk back with Thomas, our fingers were intertwined and there was nothing but absolute quiet. The silence felt like sharp knives running paths into my skin. I wanted to retch. It would have been easier to talk, but there were no words for something like this. Thomas was putting up such a brave front. I didn’t know what to say anymore.
All we did was lace our fingers together and walk home. ’Home’ being wherever Clare and Mikel were hiding. Clare and Mikel tried to figure out what the heck was going on between me and Thomas, but we wouldn’t tell. Thomas would never tell, he wanted me to be the one to do it, but….I’m just not that strong. We ate our fish dinner, walked about a mile and a half and moved on.
There were more paw prints on Thomas’s side of the tent the next morning.
























Chapter 11












The Hunter was watching his prey with hungry eyes. He was waiting for Master’s command, but he couldn’t wait much longer. Hunter wanted to eat. Hunter wanted the boy’s flesh. Hunter wanted Master to hurry and give the order. Hunter was tired of waiting for Master to make her move. Why couldn’t she just tell him to go eat the boy already? Master hated demons, so why let a perfectly ripe goblin boy go? It made no sense to Hunter, but then again, Hunter was still just an animal. Hunter watched the two girls and the two boys. Master had promised Hunter one of the boys as a meal if he could get them all back to Master’s house. Hunter wanted the goblin boy. Demons tasted much better than humans.
Hunter carefully left his mark –his paw prints—beside his next kill’s bed.
Hunter took off into the night as Master had told him to. ‘Don’t be seen, Hunter, or else I’ll have you skinned alive and tossed into the fire.’
Hunter didn’t doubt Master’s threats. She had done it before. Hunter vanished before anyone could see him, leaving no trail behind.





















Chapter 12








Thomas was a mess, but somehow only Mikel and I could see it. This Krothosauro is killing him before the mauling. I couldn’t stand to watch this, but what could I do? There was no known way to kill a Krothosauro. I was going to have to watch him die.
Then a thought hit me. Grandma know about demons! She could probably tell us how to at least get rid of the Krothosauro. Everyone knew that the local Demon Rangers won't go near Krothosauros, so we couldn’t rely on them even if we wanted to. Grandma. We’re coming home.

Home we went. The next day, Mikel and Thomas adjusted our course so that we could be back at Grandma’s in just a few hours. I had missed Grandma. I missed the little bagged lunches that she made for us and when she was waiting for us when we came home from school. I wonder what she’d say about Thomas and Mikel. ‘They seem like such nice boys…’ or maybe ‘hurry up and make me a Great Grandmother already!’ or possibly even ‘Get those demons out of my house!’ I was so afraid of her answer that I didn’t want to go back, but it had to be done.
I seemed to be a nervous wreck during the walk home. This time, ‘Home’ was my actual house. I wondered if Thomas had ever slept in a real bed before, or been in an actual house. So many things wandered into my little brain. Would Grandma still be there waiting for us?
After the sun went down, I knocked on the front door. The front yard seemed so different. Something was missing? Where were Grandma’s tacky pink flamingos? And her fish pond was gone too. The funny signs that used to be in the front yard were gone. Even the door looked different. Maybe I was just hallucinating.
“Tara…? Do you see it too?”
“Yea, Clare. I see it.”
I wasn't hallucinating. There was a Krothosauro in my bedroom.
It was watching Thomas.














Chapter 13
Clare rubbed her eyes as I pounded on the door. I looked up and the Krothosauro was gone. Grandma answered the door. She looked awestruck to see her filthy grandchildren return, and with boys.
“Oh my, Clare….Tara…you two are home!” It sounded almost like that was total bull. “Who are these two…? They…they smell like demons. Demons! You two brought demons to my house?”
“Grandma…”
“No, don’t ‘Grandma’ me, those two are demons!”
“They helped us get back home! They were nice to us and I thought that the least we could do to repay them was to give them a meal or something.”
“I’ll give nothing to demons!” She shrieked.
“Grandma, what’s wrong with you? You taught us to be nice to everyone! You can't pick and choose who you’re nice to.”
“If only you knew, Tara, you wouldn’t be saying such things.”
“Then enlighten me, Grandmother. Tell me so that I could understand!”
She let us all into the house and pulled me off to the side. Clare didn’t notice my disappearance. She just pulled the last little bit of Kool-Aid that Grandma was too diabetic to drink and poured it into three cups. Thomas and Mikel stared at it and swirled it around in the cup several times before they drank it in tiny sips.
“You want to know, Tara? You really want to know?”
“Yes, I want to know.”
She sighed like she was pulling open stitched up wounds. Removing the skeleton from her closet. “I was in love with a demon once. He was a big, ugly, purple thing, but I loved him because he was sweet to me. We were married and your father was born. Once your father was born, my ‘husband’ tried to kill me because he claimed that since he had a son, he no longer needed me. I took your father and left, putting up demon shields around the house so that he would be safe. He surprisingly had no demon features and only a minor power, so I didn’t train him. Just after you and Clare came to be, he found out what he was. I begged him and that woman, Anna, to allow me to train you two to be strong once your powers came in, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They wanted you two to believe that you were normal girls—“
“So then you’re a total hypocrite! You let us live here, and we’re demons!”
“Tara! You’re missing the point! Those two demons will turn on you just like I was. You can't trust a demon, they will eat you in the end, Tara.” She paused and saw the unwavering expression on my face. She knew that I would never throw Mikel and Thomas out, especially after what they did for me and Clare. I looked over just in time to see Clare take a long drink of her Kool-Aid, Mikel gently pushed back the bottom of the cup so that red drink spilled down the front of her shirt and the two boys laughed. Mikel leaned over and kissed Clare, despite her being sticky now. She pressed her chest against his, successfully getting a big red stain on his shirt.
Grandma sighed and continued. “Just take my advice this one time, Tara. Just this once.”
“Of anything, Grandma, this is the one time that I don’t trust your decision.” I turned and walked away before she could object.
“Tara, I’m going upstairs. You and your demon-scum friends are to stay down here no matter what. Got it?”
Something was wrong with her. Majorly. She never talked to or about anyone like that. I just nodded my head and let her walk away.
Thomas put his arm around my shoulder and held his half empty cup up. “This is amazing stuff, Tara. Mikel and I lived off of boiled leaf water, this is pure amazing-ness.”
I giggled a little. I remembered where the cookie jar was and handed them each a chocolate chip cookie. I swear Thomas’s jaw hit the floor. He savored every morsel while Mikel crammed the whole thing in his mouth.
“Hey guys, something’s wrong upstairs. She’d never ban us from our rooms.” I was even more anxious now. What didn’t she want us to see?
“Thomas, we’re going upstairs.”
Whatever it was, I’m going to find out.









































Chapter 14











Thomas understood the urgency of the situation, so he didn’t signal to Mikel. We had to be super sneaky.
The first room we crept into was Clare’s. It was like the Easter Bunny exploded in there. Everything was pink and yellow, not to mention the thousands of stuffed animals that littered her bed and shelves. This room was sickening, however, nothing seemed out of the ordinary here. We checked the bathroom and closets we passed along the way to my bedroom.
My bedroom scared me worse than Clare’s did. I was sick to my stomach with that feeling that slithers down your spine like a cold breeze. I tried to hold on to my breath, but it slipped away. Thomas put his arms around me and held on to me like some kind of wind would pull us apart. He was just as scared as I was.
My walls and ceiling were black like usual, but all my furniture was taken out, the carpet was ripped out, so there were just bare, scuffed up floorboards, strange symbols were written over the walls in what looked like white chalk-the symbol for anarchy was written at least twice. All the light bulbs had been taken out of the room. There was an ornate end table with a large framed picture on top, leaning against the wall. There were lit candles all around…like a shrine.
The picture was a black haired woman with the strangest shade of green eyes. Almost like they weren’t human…
There was a small silver plaque underneath it. It read “Jade Abora, the greatest demon handler to ever walk the Earth.” Obviously, whoever set up this room must venerate Jade.
My right arm jumped around Thomas’s waist, holding him as tightly to me as it could.
Grandma was chanting something in a demon language behind the door.
Before Thomas and I could turn to run, she saw us.














Chapter 15










I was running and panting and gasping for air.I couldn’t see much of where we were going because of my hair in my face, but I could hear Thomas pull me out the back door. We ran across the yard to the fence that I swear wasn't there before. It was up higher than my head, but just barely.
Thomas bent down to one knee and linked his fingers together.
“Hurry Tara!”
He lifted me up, but ended up making me lose my balance. He sort of pushed me over the fence. I immediately stood up and threw my arm over the fence, but only up to my elbow got over. His right hand latched on to mine and climbed the fence.
Grandma grabbed the back of his shirt and his back belt loop. We were playing an almost morbid game of tug-of-war for Thomas. After about a minute, he swung his leg back and caught her in the stomach. Thomas flopped on top of me as Jade jumped the fence with the agility that I should have.
Thomas and I scrambled back to our feet. She lunged at us, and when she missed, she stopped completely and yelled, “Jimmy!”
Jimmy? My father’s name was Jim. I foolishly turned around, half expecting to see my father moving farther away as I ran from him.
Thomas didn’t turn. He knew better than that. He just grabbed my hand and held on to me as I screamed. I could see it clearly behind us, gaining on us as we tore down the street. It was the Krothosauro that was in my bedroom window. It was going to have me or Thomas in its snarling teeth in a moment.

















Chapter 16




















Hunter was catching up. Hunter was ready to eat. Hunter wanted demon-boy flesh.

























Chapter 17











Clare and Mikel were still following behind. There was no way they were going to catch us or the Krothosauro. Clare had stopped to scream at Jade to call off the ‘son she never had’. Mikel continued to chase after his brother and me.
Thomas pulled me into a sharp left to an alleyway where he knocked over several trashcans, which the beast bearing my father’s name easily jumped over.
I was crying and whimpering now, and in response, Thomas squeezed my hand reassuringly to let me know that he was right here with me.
And then….he tripped.
He skidded a few inches on his arms, tearing the soft skin apart badly. He let out a cry of pain. I went down with him, but didn’t fall down completely, I stayed on my feet. I pulled Thomas back up. Once we stopped we realized how exhausted we were and how much harder it was to start again.
Thomas and I came out of the alleyway and ran to the front yard. Hiding under the porch was one of Jade’s castaway pink flamingos. Thomas made a mad dash for it, pulling me along. He grabbed the metal leg and whacked the pink plastic against the concrete, forcing the flamingo to pop off the metal rod. He held it out like a knight brandishing his sword. His arm shot out in front of me and pulled me behind him.
Everything I read about the Krothosauro that one day passed before my eyes. That’s when I realized how to do the impossible.

















Chapter 18












The metal rod in Thomas’s hands was about two and a half feet long. I snatched it from him and bolted toward the snarling Krothosauro.
“Tara!” He leaned forwardwith an arm out like he was about to pull me out of the way of a speeding train. His blond curls were falling out of his hat and dangling just below his temples. His eyes were so wide…
I only had one shot at this…
The metal rod pierced Little Jimmy’s left eye. He howled in pain and fiercely shook his head shook his head as if to rip the rod from my hands, but I held on. I pulled it from the left eye and jammed it into the other. There was black blood dripping from the wounds in the eyes. The drips of blood singed the grass beneath us. Thomas was standing dumbfounded before he realized I needed his help. The beast was only blinded.
He ran around in the yard until he found our old For Sale sign and kicked the metal rod off it. I kept a firm grip on the rod that kept the Krothosauro in place. I jerked my head to show him exactly where I wanted him to aim. Thomas had better aim than I did. He made a perfect puncture into the Krothosauro’s ear and out the other side of its head. The Krothosaur’s eyes went pale and glassy. In a moment, the Krothosauro fell over with little pieces of brain matter dripping into the grass, leaving a cloud of smoke.
Jade let out a high pitched scream that hurt my ears. She rushed me and knocked me to the ground. The last thing I saw before I smashed my head off the concrete was Jade’s inhuman green eyes.
















Chapter 19














When I woke up, I was sitting in Thomas’s lap.
He was sitting in the driveway holding me, watching police take all of Jade’s self-worshipping items away as evidence. I could see her in the back of a Ranger’s car. Clare was standing in Mikel’s arms. She was crying into his chest, and he was just comforting her.
“Tara,” Thomas whispered in my ear. Thomas whispered in my ear. His whole arms were tightly bandaged and around me. “Take it easy, Honey. The ambulance will be here soon. You hit your head really hard and they are going to take you to a hospital once everything is cleared out here. Please try not to fall asleep, Sweetie.”

After my head healed, the police tried to take me and Clare away from our home, but we gathered our things and ran away an hour before they showed up. Guess where we moved to? To the swamp with Thomas and Mikel! They welcomed us without a problem.
After about a year, police gave up all searches for us and we were able to live happily. I can't tell you what happened after that because of the adventures we had, which would make amazing other stories.

To all the readers who believe in my story, never give up on your powers because you all have them too. You just have to bring them out and show them of for the world to see. Write your own story.