Another Short Story (Part Two)

Chapter Two

Clair looks hurt. Naria quickly undoes the silence spell so that I can smooth things over. Naria, Andrea, and Surrea all look to me to fix the situation. It's always been like that. 

"I can explain."

Clair crosses her arms. "I was going to get you out."

I hold up my hands in a disarming gesture. "We had a plan before you even captured me. I didn't have a way to tell them to call it off." I motion to the other girls.

Clair steps inside the room and closes the door. "Who are you?" she asks, looking at the other girls. I notice her eyes linger on Surrea's blindfold. 

The girls look at me, and I nod to them. 

"I'm Surrea."

"Andrea."

"Naria."

"I assume you three were the cause of the trouble in the east quadrant earlier?" Clair asks, leaning against the wall.

They look at each other uncomfortably. 

"Yeah, that was us," Andrea admits. 

Clair sighs. "I'll be back. Stay here, and I might be able to work something out." 

"What if we break out while you're gone?" Andrea asks brightly.

Clair doesn't look amused. "Then you'll be caught again and put in seperate cells, with special measures taken to make sure you can't escape. Trust me, staying here is your best option. I'm just trying to help you guys."

"Because taking Arabella prisioner is helping us," Naria mutters under her breath. 

Opening the door, Clair pauses for a moment. "To be completely honest, I have no idea why we took Arabella. It was not my call, and it wouldn't have happened if I were involved in planning this maneuver." She shakes her head with a slight smile. "Probably why I wasn't involved."

For half an instant, I notice just how tired she seems. She's so young. Who got her tangled up in this stuff? This business is no place for most adults, much less a kid like her.

Clair steps out of the door. "I'll be right back. Hang tight." She pulls it shut, and I hear the lock click. 

Another Short Story (Untitled So Far)

Hello dear readers!

I know, I didn't post the last couple weekends... again. I was out of town/away from my computer last weekend and the weekend before, I was busy with some projects. But I have an idea for another short story, and I think/hope this one will be better than the last one I did. I originally was going to do a short story for Clair but then I got a cool idea for something else that works better for someone else (although I'm still going to put Clair into it). Anyway, here goes nothing!

                                                        Chapter One

 My fingers work at the lock of my handcuffs as I sit alone in the interrogation room. They left me unsupervised. How silly of them. 

Footsteps sound in the hall and I stop moving. The door opens and a young lady with auburn hair and piercing blue eyes walks in. She approaches the table and spreads a stack of photographs out in front of me. All of them are from multiple time periods. All of them have me in them. 

"Who are you?" the lady asks.
I smirk. "I assume you have some sort of idea, considering you have me here."

She narrows her eyes slightly. "You're either a time traveler or immortal, or something else we haven't heard of. Which is it?"
"I'll tell you who I am if you'll tell me who you are."

She sits in the chair across the table. I notice how gracefully she moves. Odd thing to take note of, I know, but I'm used to perceiving such strange things. 

"My name's Clair," she tells me after a moment. "I'm an agent of A.R.R.O.W. And you are?"

"Arabella Werne. Immortal." 

Clair writes something down on a clipboard. "Since then?" She points at the oldest photograph, from around the year 1826.

I shake my head. "Before that. About... let's see... I was a kid when Rome fell... I became immortal when I was about twenty... so pretty close to a thousand and five hundred years ago."

She blinks. "That... is a long time," she manages after a moment. 

"I noticed."

Adding a note to her clipboard, Clair seems a little disturbed. I wonder what kind of experience she has with this sort of thing. She seems pretty young to be in an organization like this. She can't be younger than sixteen.

A shuffling noise comes from the ventilation shaft above. Clair doesn't seem to notice. 

"Well," she says after a moment. "I think that's all, so I'll go and check in with my boss and make sure there's nothing else I need to find out, and then we'll see about getting you out of here. I'll be back."

She stands up and leaves the room, taking the pictures and her clipboard with her. 

Exactly three minutes later, an overhead ceiling panel slides to the side and three other girls drop into the room. I'd managed to pick the lock on my handcuffs, finally, and I stand up and rub feeling back into my wrists.

"You guys were too loud," I complain. "I thought she'd hear you moving around in the air vent."

One of the girls, Surrea, shrugs. I notice her white blindfold is smudged with dust. "We tried to stay quiet."

"But Naria kept bumping me," Andrea explains energetically, in a much too loud voice. Her dark purple hair is more messy than normal, and her pale violet eyes are wide with indignation.

Naira crosses her arms. "I tried not to." The small girl's sea-green eyes are narrowed slightly, and I notice a bruise forming on her right arm.

"Did you three have some trouble getting in?" I ask. 

They look at each other. "No, not at all."

"You all seem to be in rough shape," I point out. "Come on, you guys have worked with me for years now. You know you can't hide anything."

"Okay, we may have run into a few soldiers on the way in," Surrea tells me. 

Naria nods. "But we took care of them without much fuss."

"They were only number threes," Andrea relates.

"Let's get out of here," I announce. I'll find out exactly what happened later. "Naria, will you silence us?"

She nods and spreads her hands, a deep green shimmer surrounding the four of us. "Done."

I open the door. "Here we go."

"Actually, you're staying here. All four of you."

Andrea clutches my arms. "A number seven. I've never, ever seen a number seven," she whispers urgently. 

"Clair," I smile, feigning unconcern. "Fancy seeing you here."

  To Be Continued

Poetry

Hello, dear readers!
Once again, I've lapsed in posting. Since my last blog post, we've moved to a new house, started soccer, finished the spring semester of co-op, and settled into new routines. But here I am! With a brand new blog post! So here's some poetry that's been stuck in my head for the past week.
Don't worry, this first poem is heavy, but there are softer ones afterward.

Antidote

Where is the antidote?
Where is the cure?
Are these problems real
Are we ever sure?

Here we go again
More gunshots in a safe place
More children hurt
More families torn

Here we go again
Another night of darkness deeper
Than the absence of sun
A night of fear, a night of unrest

Where is the antidote?
Where is the cure?
Are these problems real
Are we ever sure?

The problem is people are seen
Only as stastistics, "the majority of the population"
They forget we are humans with minds of our own
They forget we are people, broken, and with dreams

"Do not go quietly into that good night"
Truth-seekers are discouraged from their pursuit
If too many people know the truth
They will rebel

Rebel,
Against those who seek corrupted power
Rebel,
Against the misguided rules
Are the rebellious right?

Where is the antidote?
Where is the cure?
Are these problems real
Are we ever sure?

We are all misguided
We follow each other
And nobody knows where they're going
There are far too many lost sheep

Is there an antidote for the problems surrounding us
Are we all just going in circles
But look, we are good, we help others,
We restore other's faith in humanity

Who doesn't have hope for the future?
But who knows where we're going?
And all the questions are drowned out by the cries of others;
It's not fair, it's not right, we must be heard

We want equality but we're bringing the other side down
We want safety but we're fighting over guns
We want knowledge but we're allowing strife in schools
We want hope but we're destroying our country with hatred

Where is the antidote?
Where is the cure?
Are these problems real
Are we ever sure?

I'm no longer sure where this poem is headed
I don't have political views
I try to avoid getting involved in current events
But these things have been stuck in my head, I want to let them out

I'm looking on as if from the outside
I see the destruction we're causing
But I am not blinded to the good side,
The side that leads us to stand up for others

The side that tells us to pay for that person's food
The side that lets us forgive and forget
The side that leads us to professions such as doctors, nurses, policemen
The side that gives us justice and a longing for peace

A longing for peace.
That's what's driving us
We just want peace
We want to be okay

But there is hatred that seems stronger than peace
It seems to drown it out, quench it in blackness
But, in the small moments of the morning, in grey dawn light
In the last moments of sunlight, painted with gold, purple, pink streaks
In the stillness of the mountains
In the vast stretch of meadows
In the silence of the caves
In the life of the forest

Here we find peace, it is not gone
It has only retreated, hiding, till the day
The skies break open and we go home
It's only waiting

There is an antidote,
There is a cure,
There are problems, yes,
To be sure

But we can be okay
We can be safe
We can have knowledge--
We can have peace.

Poetry

There's poetry in my brain and I can't get it out
The worst writer's block I can have
Poetry is crashing like ocean waves in my head
And I cannot get it out

Something about the galaxies, yes
Inspired by Sun, by Sleeping At Last, that band I recently discovered
It's there--
"That we may fall in love every time we open up our eyes"

In those lyrics I find peace, because hey,
The universe was made for us,
The universe was made for me
So that I can be facinated by it, and by the nature of it's creator

Why not find peace in that?
I am loved by more than human hearts
Humans are fickle, they change easily, I know mine does
But the hands that created stars and galaxies beyond my imagination? They're so much more steady!

I love this band, they express my poetry better than I
I just can't get it out of my head, what to do?
Oh, look,
Somehow I wrote it

I wrote poetry! And listen,
The ocean waves in my head are quieter
It was driving me crazy
But look, these words on the page

They said what I wanted to say!
And I wasn't even planning on it
It just kind of happened
That's poetry for you.

Moon

(Inspiration: https://youtu.be/NALeI_SVNgE )("Moon" by Sleeping At Last)

Silver
Grey
Slate
Shadow

Round, glowing in my window
Peaceful against tossing tree branches
Obscured by a silver cloud, now reappeared
Sending threads of sound into the Earth

A soft song, ethereal 
Heard only by people like me
The sleepless, gazing out the window
The dreamless, with pale moonlight on their face

It brings peace to those with darkened hearts
Brought down by the earth's gravity
It lifts, with gravity undone,
The souls blackened by the dust of the earth

And like a soft rain
Its light falls on the skin
Brightens upturned eyes
Caresses broken hearts

Silver
Grey
Slate
Shadow

A round, glowing moon watches the night.

A Quick Post

Hello dear readers,

I'm super sorry I haven't posted in the past two weeks! Things have been really crazy around here, especially with us beginning to move. And last week, my brothers and I went on a mission trip. My original plan with today's blog post was to talk about that, actually, and I wrote about half the post before my brain went kaput. I will later finish writing that and post it, either tomorrow or next weekend. But for today's post, here's some poetry and aesthetic stuff.



Aesthete
I have poetry in my soul
And romance in my veins
And stars in my eyes
And words in my brain
And I have beauty in my hands
And an ocean in my lungs
And deep deep deep inside
A heart of tarnished gold
-KH




Crying
These are not tears
They are droplets
From my watering-can eyes
To help the flowers
In my fragile glass heart
To grow
-KH


I Wish
I wish I could write
The way I think about these things
Constantly, aggressively
Suffocatingly, sometimes
Un-understandably
Confused
Sensibly
Without rhyme,
Without reason
Raw, rarely edited
Pure, honest
Simple,
Complex,
Messy.
I wish I could write the way I think
-KH



Fear Me
I am stronger than you think
I am smarter than you believe
I am more beautiful than you can see
I am braver than you guess
I am more, I am strong, I am enough
It took me awhile to find this out
But because of that I am more dangerous
Fear me,
Because I know who I am
-KH

Mindstrike (Part Three)

Chapter Three

"Are you ready?"

Am I ready? To see them? To go back to life as it used to be eleven years ago?

"I don't know." 

Cadence watches me. It's like she can see my chaotic thoughts. Or maybe they're all too obvious.

It was so long ago. I've changed.

"You don't have to run anymore," she says again.

"I understand that. But..."
"I know." 

  Discord. That was the name of the man who pulled apart my family. He found out about me. By that time, I was done with hero-ing. I had a husband. I was expecting a child. 

He didn't care.

I was trapped. He cornered me between leaving my family or losing them forever. He taunted me. One night I woke up and he was in my house. Holding a knife to Jay's throat.
I left the next morning.
Jay understood. I explained everything and he reluctantly agreed that I had no choice. When Faith was born, I took her to him. From that point on, I disappeared from the face of the earth. I moved to a different town. I changed my phone number and any identification possible. I called myself Amira June instead of Rhea Silva. There was no trace of my past life. Up until now.

"I know," Cadence repeats.
I can't shake the feeling that she's experienced this herself.
"Are you sure they want to see me again? I've changed. Faith has never even seen me."
"Every night, Jay tells her stories of an amazing woman who saved his life and defended the world from evil. He never forgets a single detail from your height to the words you said. Faith spends every day hoping and praying to see this wonderful mother face-to-face."
I close my eyes. "I'm not that superhero anymore. I'm not Mindstrike."
"She will understand. Let her come and see you."
I look up at Cadence. "How do you know?"
She shrugs. "I've talked to Jay."
A sigh escapes. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"I'm ready."
Cadence disappears. A few minutes later, someone knocks on the door. I open it.
"Rhea?"
"Jay!"

The End.

Mindstrike, Part Two

Chapter Two-- Answers, Sort Of

I stand openmouthed for a second, shocked. I run outside, looking around. Long-distance transportation just isn't possible. She's around here somewhere.

"Looking for me?"

Cadence is leaning against my front door.

"How?" I demand. "How did you do that?"
She takes two quick steps forward, placing her hands firmly on my shoulders.

"You wouldn't understand if I explained it."

I step back, pushing her hands away. "What about everything else?"

She sighs. "You don't give up easily, do you?"

I cross my arms and shake my head. 

"Inside."

I follow her back into my living room, where we both sit back down where we were before.

"Your family misses you, Rhea," she begins, softly. 

I narrow my eyes, feeling all the pain of leaving them over again. 

"Did they..."

"No, they didn't ask me to find you."

I nod. "Good."

"Your daughter is all grown up now. She's the prettiest eleven-year-old you'll ever see."

"What did he name her?" 

"Faith."

I bite my lip. That's one of the names we'd discussed before I had to go. 

"He told her why you left."

"Has she shown any signs of--"

"She did not inherit anything from you."

A sigh of relief escapes me. 

"Why are you here?"

"They deserve to see you again."

I shake my head. "I can't. Ever again. It's far too dangerous."

Cadence leans forward, looking deep into my eyes, reading my thoughts. 

"Not anymore."

"I can't be sure of that. He... that... that monster can't be dead like they say. He's hiding."

"You don't have to be afraid anymore, Rhea." 

I struggle to breathe, frustration and sadness choking me. 

"If I go to see them, they'll get hurt."

"And if they come to see you?"

She asks the question in such a way that makes me look up sharply.

"You didn't..."

"They know where you are. But they won't come until you're ready."

I fall back into the deep softness of the chair. 

"Okay."

To Be Continued....

Mindstrike, Part One

                                                    Chapter One-- Questions

I am a mind reader.

No, I cannot read your mind. I have to be able to see you in order to read your mind, you know. And you're not looking at me, but the words on your screen. 

Anyway, that's not what this is about. This story is about how one day I met someone different and how it changed everything.

  Everything started on a completely normal Saturday. I had gone to the store for milk and sandwich meat. As usual, I was idly listening to everyone else's thoughts. Which isn't as creepy as it sounds, by the way. Anyway, it's usually all normal stuff.

Is he ever going to text back??

I hope she gets home ok.

All I have left is to pick up that medicine.

I know you're reading my thoughts.

I stop in my tracks.

Hello, Rhea.

Glancing around in alarm, I see a woman staring at me from the other end of the aisle. She looks only a year or two older than I, with a soft black baseball cap pulled over a mass of red curls. She's taller than me and is dressed in a black tee and dark jeans. Whoever she is, she doesn't want too much attention. 

I've been looking for you.

Stifling the urge to run away, I walk quickly to the woman.

"Who are you?" I whisper.

"Someone who needs to talk to you," she replies quietly. 

"Why?" I narrow my eyes slightly. 

Meet me outside in the parking lot.

The woman walks away swiftly. I finish getting my items and pay for them as quickly as I can. But instead of going out to the parking lot, I head to the other end of the store, to the gardening center. Nobody's here, considering it's November, and I'm free to slip out through one of the employee doors and avoid the parking lot altogether. 

Walking briskly to my house, I feel the tension leaving my shoulders. Whoever that woman was, she can't possibly know where I live. Nobody knows that.

I spoke too soon.

The woman is standing on my front porch when I arrive, waiting for me. 

Thought you could lose me, right? I'm a bit smarter than that.

I march up the steps. "Who are you?" 

"My name is Cadence Bellmonger. I've been looking for you, Rhea Silva." 

I set my jaw and open the door. "Inside.'

She follows me into the living room and takes a seat on the couch while I set my bags down on the counter. 

"What else do you know about me?" I demand, returning to pace in front of her.

"Your name is Rhea Silva. You can read minds. You've just turned forty-two years old. You used to have a family. And you're hiding from something... or someone."

I scowl at the mention of my family. "Why have you been looking for me?"

She meets my eyes steadily. "I can't tell you yet." 

"Then why are you here?" I'm trying to read her thoughts, but she's blocking all of my attempts with an image of calm ocean waves. 

You can't do that, you know. I've been trained to avoid mind reading.

I frown. "Who are you?"

"You've already asked that. In fact, you keep asking a lot of the same questions."

"And you keep not answering them." 

"I'll explain everything if you'll only answer a few of my own questions."

I sit in the big chair across from the couch. "Why--"

Cadence holds up a finger. "I told you I'd explain. Just answer my questions and I'll answer yours."

"And if I don't?" I lean forward, resting my arms on my knees.

"I have my own ways of finding out," she replies coolly. 

I sit back and cross my arms. "I'm not telling you anything." I look away, scowling at the floor.

Cadence says nothing. Eventually, the silence begins to bother me and I look back at her. Then I'm unable to look away.

Cadence is staring straight at me. Her piercing blue eyes are slowly changing from blue to light lavender to an impossibly deep violet. The air around her seems to darken with the intensity of her gaze. I find that I'm paralyzed, unable to move anything but my eyes. After what seems like forever, but in actuality is only a few minutes, Cadence sits back and the strange state dissipates. 

"I have my information," she says quietly. 

"What... what did you just do?" 

"I mindsearched you. I enjoyed it much less than you did." 

I bite my lip. "What did you find?"

"The answers to my questions."

"Are you going to answer any of my questions?" 

"Our deal was that if you answer my questions, I'll answer yours. You did not answer my questions of your own accord."

I stand up quickly, clenching my fists. "You know what I'm capable of. Answer me."

Cadence smirks-- and disappears.

To be continued.....