It all started the day I met Brian. I was 15, he was 22. He was the big brother I never had... Amazing how things worked out that way.
When I was 15, I was into two things: music and my boyfriend. My boyfriend, Josh, was my life, and when things got a bit rough, I fell back on my music.
Shortly after I refused to "stay the night", I found him with my best friend... Literally. I packed the essentials and left town, taking nearly two thousand dollars with me, all from my family's accounts. We were rich, I knew they wouldn't miss it.
From Michigan, I headed down south. I had no idea where I was going, I just numbly followed my feet. I found myself in South Carolina within a month. I was tired and dirty, my eyes red with stress and lack of sleep. He helped me up and offered to take me to his place. Before this, he had introduced me to his boyfriend, so I knew it was safe.
He showed me a life I had never witnessed- a gay man's struggle to find himself. I talked to him for hours at a time, attempting to solve this tangled web he deemed his own.
Shortly after my 16th birthday, I had a dream unlike any other I've ever experienced. It felt real.
I was 12, my hair still brown unlike the red I now colored it. I was walking along the beach with a boy I didn't recognize. He asked me to make the gray sunrise beautiful. I didn't know what he meant until I looked up towards the sky and saw the most stunning aray of colors combined like I had never even imagined. It took me a moment to realize that I had done it.
By the time I woke up, Brian was already dressed and heading out the door. I was smart enough to skip school whenever I pleased. That day, I took my beat up 1992 black convertible and headed out to see a movie. Halfway there, a sudden flash of bright light blinded me momentarily, causing me to swerve into a semi next to me. The last thing I remembered was a sickening crunch of metal, then it was all black.
I woke up to soft singing, a female voice. It was a girl I didn't recognize, with jetblack hair and hazel eyes. I coughed and she jumped, then turned around to face me.
"You're awake." she stated, giving me a once over.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded, hugging my knees to my chest.
"Someone you'll recognize when everyone else comes." she smiled, spinning 5' frame around.
"What's your name?" I asked, turning my head to get a better look at my surroundings.
"You'll know in about 15 seconds." the girl smiled. I counted to 15 slowly in my head and once I reached 14, a puff of something that resembled glitter brought 6 more individuals to the room. One was Brian.
"Eli!" I cried, the quickly shut my mouth. Eli? Where had that come from?
Slowly the other people faced me. I looked each one in the eye until I got to the last girl. Her eyes were a golden yellow.
One of the boys came up to me and touched my shoulder. A race of memories came rushing through my mind as I turned towards him slowly.
"Zac..." I whispered. He pulled me into an embrace, giving me a slight kiss. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me up against him.
"Lana... Are you remembering?" the girl asked. I nodded slowly, clinging to Zac.
"Before Medwin killed us... Rose and Lana drank a potion to allow them to retrieve their powers when the timing was right. The timing is now. Medwin has no idea we exist. The only reason the rest of us are here is because we are a unit. Together, we are everything." Caledonia spoke to the group of myself, Zirconia, Eli, Zac, Taylor, Isaac, and Rose.
"You have all died to protect your human 21st century identity. Once our battles are fought, no matter what the outcome, you will return as the same person as you left and right before your body died."
"What if we don't want to go back?" Taylor asked. I looked at him, amazed. He was nearly 19 now.
"You have the option of either returning, creating your own world which would take all of us, or dying." Eli informed him.
"What are we going to do first? Train? It's been nearly two centuries since we've last used our powers." Isaac said.
"Yes, but first we must remember how to be a unit once again. We've all had different lives, scattered across the USA. Isaac, Taylor, Zac,. Your true human bond kept you together. You are the lucky ones." Caly said.
"Where are we going to stay?" Rose asked. Caly snapped her fingers and we were next to the 18th century mansion we had claimed ours. We walked through the door and into the living room.
"Claim your rooms upstairs." Caly dismissed us. All of us quickly climbed the creaky stairs and went into our already chosen rooms. Once in mine, I found it to to be exactly as I would have had it.
'Zac?' I asked telepathically, thankful I could still remember how to commnicate that way.
'Lana... Yes?' he answered back.
'Could you come in here, please?' I had lost him once. This time, he wasn't leaving my sight.
In a flash he was by my side, inspect the walls of my room which were colored every imaginable shade you could dream up.
"When I was 11, I realized there was something different abouit me. I swam better than an Olympian, and as scary as this is, I could read other people's thoughts. On my 15th birthday, I told Taylor and Isaac. Taylor admitted to being able to control the Earth and to heal others, something I had never witnessed. Isaac confessed to causing many wind storms around the around when he was mad. He was also able to move things with his mind, something he used to terrify me when I was little and unable to realize what was happening." Zac walked over to my bed and invited me to sit down.
"We're in a totally different life and we just remembered who were are... Kinda scary, eh?" I smirked. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders.
"Maybe this time we'll remember." He kissed my forehead and started to finger my now redish pruple hair. "Think you could do something about this?"
I quickly changed my hair color back to normal and as it grew nearly a foot, I smiled.
"Much better."
Part 2: Eli, written by Brian
Never did I think anything like this could happen. I have died and yet I am still living. Actually in a way that statement is true and false. It is true I am alive, but without Brent, my boyfriend, here I am as dead as the wood we stand on. As I thought of this I was walking with the rest. I saw how personal the rooms looked. They almost looked like we did them ourselves, and if you think about it we did. I saw all the rooms but one were taken, but I didn’t enter that one because it didn’t feel right. I started up another flight of stairs at the end of the hallway.
At the top of the stairs was a bedroom that I guess was the attic at one time. It was my room. The weird thing about it was it was just like my personality or at least my personality now drab, dull, lifeless, etc. On all the walls were shelves of books and all of the books seemed to have a magical essence to them. The walls of this room were a dark brown. The bed was a double bed, with nothing fancy about it. I the corner was a chair with the weird lamp it looked like a candlestick with a crystal stuck in the top. There was a closet next to the chair.
I opened the doors to the closet and found just clothes hanging. But then I found a sketchbook in the bottom somewhat hidden from sight. I opened it to find sketches of people that must have lived in this house with me. As I flipped through I started calling the people by name. There was Maeve, Lana, Zac, Zirconia, Taylor, Caly, Isaac, Rose, and then last was Dermott. How I miss him. He was my best friend. The only one who knew the really me. The only one who really knew my true feelings that I never showed. Sometimes I feel I should start that back, but then I think of Brent and how he hates it when they are cooped up.
At that moment the pressure built up. I threw my arm to the side and yelled out, “What am I to do?” As I did this a bolt of lightening shot out of my fingertips, through the door, and down the steps. Next thing I hear is this huge explosion. I ran down the steps to find everyone staring at the Grandfather clock that used to stand proudly. They all looked at me with these expressions of shock.
“All I did was throw my hand like this and it shot out,” I said, as I was about to show them.
“Hold it I have died three times now. I am not about to have it done to me again by you,” Lana yelled as she dodged where my hand was going. I smiled at her then leaned against the wall.
As my hand touched this really weird mirror on the wall it started to glow. As we all stared at it a pictured formed. It was Brent. He was sitting in our room staring at a picture of me with tears falling down his face. Then the mirror picture started to move. It moved to where we were looking right into his face. He had his glasses propped on top of his head. His beautiful smile was replace by the worst frown I have ever seen. His deep brown eyes that used to sparkle with joy now only had the shine of more tears in them.
“Brian, I miss you so much. Where did you go? You said you were going to the store for a minute, and you never came back. They found your car on the side of the road, but no sign of you. I miss you. Please come home to me,” Brent was saying to the picture. He then turned and laid himself down on the bed and wept.
After seeing that I couldn’t take it. I pushed myself past everyone and out the door. I ran in a direction that only fait knew where I was going. I hoped that it would take me to a town or at least were I could get a car to drive back to Brent. I had no idea where I was or how to get back to him, but that was not stopping me.
“You know you are heading the wrong way if you are trying to find a town. If I were you I would turn and head North, or back to the mansion,” a voice said to me. I stopped and looked around, but there was no one for miles. Only a bird flying above me. I watched it circle then start to come towards me. I was about to fear for my sanity then I remembered.
“Hey Dermott, next time you go to talk to someone make sure they know ya there. Okay buddy. Now get down here,” I thought or said mentally to him.
“Yes sir, or shall I call you your majesty,” he said with a glint in his eye. If my memory serves that usually means he is happy. He landed on my shoulder and kept talking, “Now, before you go and scare Brent half to death you have to remember by the time you get back to him he is going to find out you are dead. Then how are you going to explain the dead love of his life walking in without a scratch?"
“Then I will just go spy on him. Just to see how he is doing,” I said still walking toward the north. Which happened to be the direction of the Mansion.
“And what happens when a neighbor or someone you know sees you. You lived in a really small town everyone knows you. So how are you supposed to get to see him,” Dermott asked.
“Okay okay I get the picture. I will go back to the mansion with the others. Are ya happy now ya pest,” I asked him with a smile on my face.
“I might be a pest, but I have gotten you out of some tight jams before,” he said as we walked into the house.
“How can I forget? Even though I try all the
time,” I said as I let him fly up to our room with me
right on his tail. I waved to the rest as I passed by
them. I wonder what they are talking about. I guess I
will just have to ask later. Right now I got some hawk
tail to kick at a game of wits.
Part 3: Rose, written by Kim
I really have no idea how or why I'm here. Let me explain it to you this way...
Yesterday morning I was sitting in my English class having a great time with my friends and then the next thing I knew I was standing in a beautiful mansion with several other people. I thought maybe I was dreaming so I decided to have a little fun with it.
Everyone in the house was picking which room they wanted to stay in. I ventured up stairs to find a room. I rested my hand on the door knob before I decided to open it. I sighed and then thought a bit. I slowly turned the door knob and as the door opened I was almost frightened to see how much the room resembled me and the things I liked. The walls of my room were dark blue. There was a computer on a small desk in the corner and to my suprise there was a baby kitten playing with a ball of string on the floor. I picked up the kitten and examined her more closely. She was black with a little bit of orange and white. She was the most adoreable creature I'd ever seen in my life.
I looked at her collar there was nothing on her identafication tags. "Hmmm.." I thought outloud "You look like a rascle." Imeaditly on the id. tag the name Rascle appeared.
"Hello Rose" the cat seemed to say in a tiny voice. I was so frightened that I nearly dropped the cat on the floor.
"Whhhatt?" I stuttered.
"Hello Rose." This time I was sure that he said it. Then I thought to myself again this is a dream, but somehow I just couldn't get myself to belive what I was thinking.
"Oh my..ok I don't know hoyour talking to me but would you PLEASE stop calling me Rose?" I said trying not to be scared. Just then a voice popped into my head.
"Rose please come down for dinner."
"Damn," I said to myself "Where did that voice come from?" I ran downstairs and everyone was sitting at the table.
"Ok my I was just imagining it" I thought. The voice popped into my head again
"No you weren't Rose." I looked at the table.
"Umm..ok I'm leaving, nice uh..meeting you all" I managed to say.
"No please dont go, please!! If you go we'll all die" a girl said. Then this memory came rushing over me.
I saw all these people and myself sitting in a room laughing and sharing stories, but it seemed to be a long time ago, a very long time ago. The walls in this memory were all plain white and there were simple pictures hanging on the wall. I decided not to leave that very instant, even though I was very creeped out. From out of nowhere I began to tell everyone in the room about the memory I had just had and how I was hearing people talk to me in my head.
Normally I'm a pretty shy person, I keep to myself unless I'm good friends with someone and know them very well, so I don't know what made me tell them about something that would make any normal person think I'm crazy.
"Sit down" someone said to me "Let me
explain."
