It was peaceful there. The blinding azure summer sky hightened the green of the grass as I lay there on it, eyes half closed, feeling my retinas stinging from the light but not caring. Completely alone. Nothing and no-one to ruin my mood. I felt I could have just stayed there in that oblivion forever, until...

A crushing weight suddenly fell on me, pinning every inch of my body to the grass. I tried to move, but my body was tightly pinioned to the floor. Something prevented me from opening her eyes, no matter how much I struggled and strained. Terror filled every inch of my being as I struggled to throw off whatever force that was restraining me. But then a voice that seemed to come from everywhere spoke, and somehow every ounce of fear and apprehension I felt left me, seeming to drain rapidly from my body. It seemed to have no tone or accent, or even any discernable sound to it at all, as if the words were being inserted into my head.

"Don't fear your destiny," it said. "Concentrate. You can overcome all that opposes you. You have been chosen."

By now, Gez had decided that the voice was some kind of joke. She fought against it, enraged.

"Get off me! Stop talking in riddles and let me up!"

"Concentrate...you have the power to free yourself."

Pure anger filled her body, and with a blood-curdling yell, she felt the weight lift as if by magic. Her screams mingled with a loud ringing noise that filled her ears and sickened her with dread.

*BRINNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!*

The darkness and cold seemed to seep into her bones as she became aware of her true surroundings. She snaked a hand out from the covers of her bead and bashed the snooze button of the alarm, shivering as her bare hand came into contact with the ice cold air. Bloody winter. Getting up didn't seem the effort, she knew that it would just be another day at school like any other. Still, there was no escaping it...she threw the covers back and pulled the light cord, shivering. The light blinded her as she shuffled out of her room, squinting.

As she washed, dressed, ate, she felt as if a veil of mist was clouding her vision. She felt as if she was still drifting below the surface of conciousness, her mind always somewhere else. Where, she didn't know. Shaking her head, she tried to concentrate on her surroundings and organise the day ahead in her mind. Double physics first lesson...followed by maths. Then there was biology after lunch and...the fog returned to her mind. She squinted, gathering her thoughts. History? Yeah, history. Maybe the confused, oblivious mist was better than reality after all.

She didn't enjoy school. That was no news flash, granted, but still. Thursdays were particularly unenjoyable. She had never appreciated or liked the mathematical or science based subjects. History was the only decent lesson of the day. She sighed and closed her eyes, allowing her head to droop. What had started off as a chance to momentarily rest her eyes pulled her downwards towards unconciousness again. Feeling her attention slipping, Gez jerked her head back up and shook her head determinedly. She grabbed her discman and jammed the earphones on, hoping something loud and angry would wake her up. It never did.

The walk to the bus stop was surreal. Gez felt as if she was asleep on her feet and walking in a dream. Her head was light, and she barely noticed her surroundings, trudging along the same path she took every day of the year. The dream she had had before kept replaying in her head as she tried to find a meaning behind it. Usually Gez forgot her dreams before she could analyse them, but this one had been so vivid and obscure, not like her normal dreams which were just fragmented thoughts pieced together. This one seemed to mean something. She was wondering exactly what when her legs suddenly seemed to give way. She fell to her knees with a groan, and felt something force her onto her front, pinning her from behind. Before she could cry out, the same soothing words came to her, pushing their way into her brain, undetectable to anyone else.

"Don't fear your destiny. Concentrate. You can overcome all that opposes you. You have been chosen."

"What do you mean, chosen?!" Gez screamed internally, unable to speak, her jaw sealed with the same unseen force as her eyes. "I haven't been chosen for anything!"

"Do not fight your fate. Concentrate. Focus your anger on what overpowers you."

"FATE?!? What the fuck do you mean by fate? Get OFF ME!!!"

"You are capable of more than you know. Stop fencing in your mind with doubt and set yourself free."

Gez felt pain rip at her temples and she growled with the sudden agony. This added to her rage, and she struggled with the force, concentrating all her body and mind on removing it. An odd tinging feeling at the base of her spine made her jolt upright. Shocked at the fact she had the power of free movement back, she spun round, looking for whatever force it was that assaulted her. The voice chuckled.

"Excellent work. I suppose you are one of the chosen after all. Although you wouldn't know it by looking."

Gez's 5'3 frame stiffened, her fists and jaw clenched in defiance, head flicking wildly from left to right and throwing her windswept gold-brown hair from left to right, strands sticking to her face as she attempted to locate whatever it was that had attacked her.

"...Fuck you." was all Gez had to say to this. "Fuck your fate, fuck your destiny and fuck your screwball methods of torture. I don't know who or what you are but leave me the fuck alone!!" Gez was screaming now, fists clenched tight, turning on the spot in search of the attacker in a blind panic and rage. A silver flash caught the corner of her eye, but before she had time to react her mind took over, and the object curved around her head and dropped into the palm of her hand.

"How the..." she began. She knew that she was responsible for the object changing course, but she didn't know how. She looked down into her palm and saw that it was a small shard of metal, razor sharp and honed to a fine point. It could easily have ripped through her skull if she hadn't have moved it. She stared in wonder, puzzling over how she saved herself.

"Think fast. Here's another."

This one was a bullet. Time seemed to slow and the bullet appeared to be moving in slow motion. Gez felt the side effects of her honed reactions as a sharp jolt of pain surged through her temples once again. She howled in pain but forced her mind on the bullet, still travelling towards her, and suddenly became aware that time itself had not slowed but her perception of time. The increased reaction speed made it seem so. The bullet streaked past her head and up into the air, tracing intricate paterns above her head as she put her full concentration into it. When the pain in her head became too much to bear she allowed the bullet to fall to the floor with a dull ping.

"What's going on..." she clutched her head as she slumped to the floor. But the voice had gone. And so had the bus.

The bus was currently driving from the stop, the driver not bothering to wait for anyone despite the fact he was early, as usual. Gez began to run, knowing it was in vain. A rock caught her foot and she tripped, sprawling, bracing herself for the impact she never felt...

The ground rushed beneath her feet at a blistering speed, and her surroundiings greyed to a blur. The next thing she knew she was lying nauseated and in a heap with her hand on the doorhandle of the bus. She heard a loud scream of "What the fuck?!" Before the bus screeched to a halt and the door hissed open.

She ignored the harsh words and sea of bemused faces, stumbling to her seat on autopilot and collapsing. She turned the volume of her walkman up to maximum and drowned herself in the music, not understanding what had just happened to her and not wanting to. She shut out the world and drifted into unconciousness.