Author's Note: Hi all, I started writing this story some years ago and recently picked it back up again. The first few chapters will thus be quick updates and then drastically slow down, but hopefully your lovely reviews will keep me motivated and on track! ;) And as I want to make a career out of my writing, that is something I need to be able to do. Anyways, I hope you enjoy and I will happily accept any constructive critism. Oh, and don't worry, only the Prologue will be short! -Tahari
“Mom are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” I turned my head from the steering wheel of our blue jeep to look over at her in the passenger seat next to me.
“It’s only a small bump on the head, Jess, nothing to worry over. Why don’t you just keep your eyes on the road and concentrate on your driving, you’re starting to drift over the line. Maybe you should pull over and let me drive, you’re still not used to driving at night.”
With a muffled curse I quickly brought my eyes back to the front of me and swerved the car out of the opposing traffic lane, “Mom, stop trying to downplay your injury, a concussion is serious business. You’re not driving. Besides, I do have my license now. The state of Washington obviously believes I’m fully capable of driving on my own.”
“They didn’t test you at night,” she retorted dryly. Her phone beeped and out of the corner of my eye I could see her open it to read the new text message. “So just when were you planning on telling me about this trip to Seattle you’ve apparently been planning behind my back? Or were you just hoping I wouldn’t find out?”
I winced, “I was going to talk to you about it, Mom, I was just waiting until after you finished that big project at work. You’ve been so stressed out over it I didn’t want to give you any more worry.” Sincerity oozed out of my voice.
“And you wanted to wait until I was in a better mood, hmm. Maybe you were hoping I would forget all about that debacle at your school last week.” She accused dryly, her lip quirked in amusement, “Did you also plan on informing me that you’d invited your boyfriend along?”
“I’m going to kill Shelly!” I muttered under my breath. Why had I thought I could sneak this past my mom again?
“Oh don’t blame Shelly. You’ve known for years that girl can’t keep a secret to save her life. She’s as transparent as glass. Although I can’t say it isn’t useful.” she grinned at me.
“Shouldn’t someone with a concussion be less coherent?”
“Guess not. Now don’t try and change the subject.”
“Look mom, Jeremy’s a gentleman, he wouldn’t try anything without my permission.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“It’s how much you’d permit that worries me, “she muttered.
“And anyways,” I continued louder, pretending I hadn’t heard her comment, “Shelly, Amy and Hank would all be going too, so it’s like we’d have our own personal chaperones.” I turned my head fully to fix pleading puppy-dog eyes on her, “Please mom, I really want to go.” As I begged, my attention again off the road, I didn’t notice as the car began to swerve for a second time into the oncoming lane of traffic, only this time it wasn’t empty.
“Jess watch out!”
I snapped my eyes back to the road only to be blinded by the lights of a semi-truck barreling straight at us, his horn now blaring. I panicked, turning the wheel too sharply to the right and throwing the car forward in a jarring full speed roll over. Time seemed to slow down as we spun end over end, light dancing on the walls and the odds and ends in the car being thrown about. My beautiful mother was screaming, her grey eyes thrown wide in fear and her blond curls bounced everywhere, dancing crazily from the forces. Terror filled every cell in my body and I was vaguely aware of my mouth screaming incoherently, while my mind screamed for someone, something, anything to save us. And from somewhere deep inside of me, from a place I’d never before even knew existed, I felt something answer. It was like a bubble bursting out of me. Warmth flooded through my veins from that hidden center and dust motes of blue light seeped from my pores. They gathered together, coalescing into a shield that glowed, surrounded me, and slowly expanded outward. Then the truck hit.
In a distant corner of my mind I realized that the driver had obviously tried to avoid us because instead of being hit head on by the cab, we were instead struck by one of the huge trailer wheels. It crunched into our roof at full force, crumpling it like tissue paper, and only met resistance where it encountered the strange blue shield around me. In horror, I watched as the bubble expanded too slowly to fully cover my mom before the tire’s impact. The roof crunched into her head with a sickening sound, and then suddenly, the glowing shield was there, protecting her from further harm. The world came to a halt as I saw blood pouring out from her dented head, cracked white skull poking through hair streaked red, the backdrop of pale blue light highlighting it in perfect contrast. Tiredness crashed like a wave over me and the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious was the blue glowing shield, flickering out.
* * *
Dressed in an expensive suit and tie, a tall man strode confidently out of the Yakima Police Station. He slipped a pair black shades out of his pocket and onto his nose, flipped open his cell phone and dialed his superior, “Sir, it’s Hastings here. I believe we’ve found a live one. Jessica Langden, age sixteen. She and her mother, a Cathy Langden, were involved in a rollover collision with a semi-truck that the officers on scene have informed me should have been fatal. Their vehicle was a complete wreck, except for a strange area of undamaged space centered around the young driver. The girl received only superficial injuries and her mother, despite a critical blow to her head, was also far less injured then she should have been. I saw the pictures, sir. The top of their jeep was directly impacted above them by one of the truck’s large tires at 50mph. No one should have been able to survive that.”
A smooth baritone voice exited from the phone, “Where is the girl now?”
“At the local hospital with her mother.”
“Alright, get Green placed as one of her mother’s nurses to keep an eye on her. If she shows any signs of being an awakened, you know what to do.”
“Yes, sir.”