Four dark, cloaked figures stood around in a circle with a glittery, silver ball floating in the middle.
"Her father is dying," a soft femine voice said.
"So he's not like her is he?" a deep masculine voice asked.
"No, if he was he would be alive right now," she answered,
"But isn't she dying," he asked.
"No, like I already told you, witches and wizards feel pain but, they don't die by just getting into a car crash, it would have to be much worse; sometimes I believe I'm the only smart one here."
"But is she part of the prophecy or not!"
"Yes, she is not even close to dying!"
"So it is true," a childish voice muttered.
"Yes, now Chloe, Judy, go get the prisoner and bring him to me," the femine voice told the two smallest figures.
The two taller figures watched the two then the boy looked at the girl.
"Why d o we need him anyway," he asked.
"You want to be strong right," she started. He nodded.
"He is the one in the prophecy that will help her discover her powers, and we would have to make him bring her to us to give her, her magic."
The two became silent when they heard someone cry out in pain and someone being dragged. As the three came into view, they noticed, Chloe, the smallest, holding her whip by her side.
They both held a beautiful boy who was around 15 or 16 years old. He had muscles, not too big and not too small muscles, on him arms. His hair was similar to a short blonde flow with bangs going to the right side.
There was blood dripping down from his right cheek, where the whip had struck him.
The girl kneeled before him and pulled her hood down, revealing a beautiful girl with brown hair and brown eyes.
"Stephenie, why are you doing this," he asked.
"Oh, Brendy, you don’t know do you," she asked Brendan. He shook his head "no".
"Steph, I'll do it," the masculine voice said placing his hand on her shoulder.
She got up, her lips pursed. He knelt down in front of Brendan, and pulled down his hood.
"Damon," Brendan hissed.
Damon had jet black hair, with green emerald eyes with pale skin and freckles dotted in the nose.
"One question, what did you really think you were doing with Stephenie," Damon asked.
Brendan pulled his arms from Judy and Chloe's grip and placed them by his side and looked at him hands.
"She was going to help me ask Kira out," he muttered.
"Ha, wait... Steph, that's a good idea," Damon said facing her.
Stephenie just nodded with her lips pursed. Damon faced Brendan again, his emerald green eyes glowing.
"I want you to show her what you are, and what she is and bring her to me," Damon told Brendan.
"I already know about the prophecy. And I'm not doing it," Brendan said and Damon rolled his eyes, "I'm not letting you hurt her, you vampy."
Pain shot through his side and Damon groaned. He clutched his side, “You know that word is my weakness."
"Shut up, vampire," Brendan muttered.
"If you don't do what I say, by the Halloween dance, I will hurt her, just like what happened to Vanessa," Damon said.
Brendan said nothing, just glared at Damon and thought, how does he know about Vanessa.
It seemed like Damon read his thoughts because his teeth were glowing in the faint light.

“She’s been lying on that couch for three days, do you think she should move around,” Rachel asked Kira’s grandmother.
They sat at the dining room table, across from each other with cups of coffee in their hands. Rachel was a beautiful strawberry-blonde woman with faint wrinkles and little dark bags under her eyes, from working too late.
Kira’s grandmother was a chubby old woman. Her hair was turning from brown to gray and she had many wrinkles all over her body. She ignored Rachel and looked at her granddaughter.
Kira had a tan-colored cast and her body was wrapped around in cloth, which was showing through her white t-shirt. And a band-aid was placed on the left side of her forehead. Her broken wrist held little Ron, who was sleeping next to her.
Ron was blonde and had freckles on his nose and bright big blue eyes. He looked more like his mother than his own father. Grandmother got to her feet and waddled over to Kira. Grandmother gently placed her hand on Kira’s shoulder, shaking her and quietly said, “Kir, wake up honey.”
Kira started to move and so did Ron. She opened her eyes and stretched her arms over her head and yawned. She sat up and rubbed her eyes and the covers fell to the floor.
“Hey buddy, morning,” she said to Ron who sat up next to her.
Ron didn’t say anything; he stood up and went into his Grandmother’s outstretched arms. She picked him up and it looked like she was carrying an over-sized baby.
“Do you want to go to school today?” Grandmother asked.
Kira nodded slightly and looked at her hand and started playing with her lifeless fingers. Grandmother stood there for a few more seconds, thinking she should say something, but changed her mind and left the room carrying Ron upstairs.
Rachel sat at the table watching her dead boyfriend’s daughter play with her fingers. She couldn’t bare watch her anymore so she picked up her coffee and walked over to Kira and sat down next to her. Rachel placed her warm hand on Kira’s bare leg, sending a sensation through her body.
“You can’t shut out your Grandmother like that,” Rachel said quietly.
“No one understands, losing a parent,” Kira said after a moment.
“Really,” Rachel asked sounding not that surprise. Kira nodded slightly.
“Kir, they’re many kids who don’t have a family, even a sibling, and you don’t know how fortunate you are,” Rachel stated. “I went through it. Well I only lost one parent. My dad died from a heart attack and that left my family and I devastated. And then later my mom felt like she died along with him, so I pretty much had to take care of my sisters. I never had a grandmother like yours.”
Silence.
“Well, why don’t you get ready for school, I’ll drive you. And we’ll stop by Starbucks to get a coffee. Sound like a plan,” Rachel asked. Kira nodded and she got off the couch and headed upstairs leaving her dad’s girlfriend sitting there.

Kira opened the doors to Wichita High School and it felt different. Not because she hasn’t been there in what felt like forever, but everyone grew quiet as they saw her. It felt like a deserted town, no one speaking, no one moving. But she didn’t bother; she just looked at the ground and walked down the hall.
Whispers came from every end of the hallway, it did bother her a little but what her parents taught her from when she was little was never let anyone bother her. But this time it killed her inside. She looked to the right and saw the popular girl, Stephenie Connors, smile at her and whisper to her friends Jody Brynn, and Chloe Osborne, who laughed.
Glares continued down the hall, so Kira started walking quickly down the hall, passing everyone by and turned the corner. She stopped, stood there right in front of her, a few lockers away was Damon. His locked was open and he was standing there, writing something in his notebook.
Kira didn’t want him to see her like this, all bruised and broken, so she quickly and quietly tiptoed past him. As she turned another corner, she saw Brendan standing there. She had known him since 8th grade, always talking and hanging out but since then, it has all been small talk between them.
Even though Kira had admired him from afar, even though his locker is right next to hers, she never actually had real feelings about him since she was more into Damon. She watched as Brendan’s shirt sleeve grazed against him muscle as he reached up to the top of his locker and brought down a book.
She walked towards him and opened the adjacent locked next his. They stood in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. Brendan closed his locker, leaned against it and crossed his arms and said “Hi”.
“Hey,” she muttered, placing her backpack in the locker holders.
“How’s life been going?”
“Like a living hell.”
“Um… I’m sorry for what happened.”
“Me too,” she stood on her tip toes trying to reach a book, but couldn’t get it.
“Here,” he said, reaching up, grabbing the book and handing it to her.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Silence.
She looked at him more carefully now, afraid she would break into tears right in front of him.
“What is…,” she trailed off, touching a bruise on Brendan’s cheek. He winced. He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his face, but not yet letting go.
“Sarah’s cat scratched me,” he lied.
“Oh I guess you had a bad day this week too.”
“Yeah, I guess. Um… do you…,” he started but was interrupted by Damon coming up to them.
“Hey Kir,” Damon greeted, as he leaned against her opened locker door.
“Hi,” she sounded happy for once in a long time. Even though she didn’t want to see him lately, she was happy to finally talk to him.
Even though Brendan was standing next to them, he felt invisible to them. Don’t rip his throat out or anything, he told himself. Brendan didn’t know what Kira saw in Damon, and he didn’t want her to get hurt and Damon doing the hurting.
“So I heard about your accident. How are you feeling?” Damon asked.
Before she could answer, Brendan said, “She’s doing great.”
“Oh hey Brendan, didn’t you see you there,” Damon said.
Brendan rolled his eyes and made a noise in the back of his throat.
“So Brendan, remember the favor I asked you to do?”
“What favor,” Kira asked, turning to Brendan.
“Oh I have to his math homework for a week so he could…” he trailed off and looked at the poster of the Halloween dance, hanging across the hall. “Ask someone to the dance for me.”
“’Cause, little Brendy is a chicken,” Damon teased.
“Don’t you have someone else to bother,” Brendan snapped, Kira gently hit him.
“I have to go anyway,” Damon told them. They watched Damon leave, but when he was out of earshot, Kira turned toward Brendan.
“You didn’t have to be so mean!”
“He’s a dick!”
“A dick that’s going to help you to get your dream girl, so don’t be so mean to him,” Kira reassured him.
Brendan watched her walk away as the bell rang and said to himself, “If you only knew.”

“When is he going to show her,” Damon asked Stephenie, pacing in her room. Stephenie sat on her bed painting her nails black. Her room was all magenta colors. Her walls, her bedding, the curtains and the candles that sat on her bureau, bedside table and window sill were all magenta.
Damon stopped pacing and picked up a snow globe that sat on her bureau. The snow globe had the word Hawaii inside with a tiny surfboard that was sticking up in an awkward position in the fake sand. Stephenie jumped off the bed and walked over to Damon and taking the object out of his hands and placed it back on the bureau.
“He’s going too soon,” she reassured him as she placed her hands on his broad chest. “And I know a way that she can find out sooner.”
“How,” he asked.
She grabbed him by the hand and led him to a small 3-D version of the town. Stephenie picked up a small colorful building that read “Wichita Day Care,” is small letters.
“This-“she pointed to the object- “is the day care that her brother goes to. She heads there every day after school, and she is there right now.”
“So?”
Whatever is on this board is like reality television, but if I do this”- she pointed her black finger nail at the object and it lit up on fire, “this is also happening.”
“Ok?”
“If she wants to survive, she would probably use her powers,” Stephenie snapped.
“Oh,” he said finally getting it now. And he watched Stephenie disappear right before his eyes.

Ron clung to Kira’s neck as they walked through the shiny, clean lobby of the day care. The only room that didn’t have any kids drawing on the walls with crayons or toy trucks to trip over.
She walked up to the front desk and waited for the woman to get her attention.
“May I help you,” the woman finally asked. She looked like she was in her 60’s and she had faint wrinkles, maybe from over using the wrinkle free creams and she probably overused them.
“Yes, I’m checking out Ron Benedict for the day,” Kira answered.
“Okay, Ronald is free to go.”
“Thank you,” Kira said and walking away from the front desk toward the door, but then she stopped when she smelt something strange.
“Do you smell that?” a woman at the front desk told another, who was on the phone.
“Yes, it smells like something burning,” the other said, placing the phone on the receiver.
The fire alarm blasted, everyone scrambled out of the building, while Kira was standing there, not knowing what to do. Mothers and their children pushed past her and her brother, and they were pushed up against the wall. She couldn’t feel her legs, since she was in shock.
After a minute she finally understood what was going on. After everyone left, and she and Ron were left alone in the lobby, the smell got to her nose. It was smoke and she knew that fire was coming soon. She placed Ron on the ground and ran to the door. She grabbed the handles and pushed and pulled, but it wouldn’t budge, it was like it was locked.
Kira picked up Ron and ran down the hall away from toward the emergency exit, hopefully could at least get out of this burning building. She ran down the hall, passed colorful doors, walls, finger paintings, and macaroni art. She made it to the big door that had a sign that read “emergency exit.” Instead of putting Ron on the ground, she held him tight in her arms and she used her back to open the door. No use.
She ran down another hallway to try to find a door, an exit, anything to get out of there. Kira hopped over toy cars and trains that seemed to move. Was there an earthquake going on? She asked herself. She couldn’t run anymore, her legs were killing her with pain and she fell to the shaking ground.
She heard a loud sizzle above and she looked up. The red rope that held up the fluorescent lights had been caught on fire. The smoke made her woozy and her throat was dry and scratchy and her eyes were watery and full of smoke.
She gently pushed Ron away from her and she watched him curl up into a ball against the wall watching her. Kira watched him getting onto his feet and extending out his hand and a glow started forming in the palm of his hands.
She closed her eyes and waited for the excruciating pain that never came.

The time Kira had woken up, her stomach made a loud gurgling sound. Her blue curtains were closed, but the moon’s light escaped through them, making a majestic glow on her bed. She placed her hands by her side and tried to lift her upper body, but broke into a coughing fit.
Then she noticed Ron standing next to her bed, watching her with gentle eyes. His blonde hair was covered with soot.
“Rachel, she’s awake,” Ron yelled, and then soft banging footsteps hurried up the stairs.
A silhouette entered the dark room and a hand reached out in the air and turned on the air, making Kira go blind. Rachel looked tried; her green eyes had bigger, darker circles under them, and her luscious hair was now dry and ratty looking,
“Where’s Grandmother,” Kira asked.
“Talking to the doctor,” Rachel answered.
“What happened?”
“The day care went up in flames, no one knew how. But there was some boy who went in and found you there and brought you and Ron both out.”

The light blue walls were covered with ribbons from performing, horseback riding and gymnastics. Pictures hung on a bulletin board from tacks. The pictures were with her friends from years ago that she never took down. A purple, flowery guitar sat on one of the two beds with sheets of paper next to it.
Carolyn sat in front of her desk mirror, brushing her dirty blonde hair over her shoulder. She was in her pajamas; a blue tank and aqua short- shorts. There was a dark shadow of someone that was not yet a man but less than a boy.
“Have you told her yet,” Carolyn asked as if they were already in a conversation.
“No not yet, but soon,” Brendan told her.
“You have to soon before Damon gets hold of her and makes her turn away from us,” she said turning around, and he looked at his feet.
“What is it,” she asked.
“Damon wants me to tell her so she can make him stronger.”
“Don’t listen to him he’s an asshole.”
“I know but what am I suppose to do? If I don’t, he’ll hurt her.”
She walked over to him and said, “He’s going to hurt her anyway. Just tell her and keep her away from Damon.”
“Why don’t you tell her, you’re her best friend,” he insisted.
“No, I can’t. I’m not like you. Do you know what it is like to be different from your friends, that can do spells and stuff, while you could be served with lemon on the side.”
Brendan didn’t want to fight with her; he disappeared with Carolyn standing there with tears in her eyes.