Susan Gardner had always been a bit different from her classmates. Her mother came from a long line of Japanese Shinto priestesses. She had defied this tradition and studied medicine in America where she met Susan's father. He was an Englishman who was also studying to be a doctor.
From sometime around her sixth birthday Susan had been able to see and differentiate auras. Susan's grandmother, who had moved to America to be closer to her daughter, was the only one who had believed this. Her parents tried to convince her it was some kind of sight disorder but her Grandmother had explained that it was a sign of her intense spiritual affinity. She further explained that it must be a result of her Shinto ancestry. Her grandmother seemed glad that she had inherited something from her mother's family. People always said that between her blond hair and lighthearted personality she was a spitting image of her father.
Despite her grandmother's explanation Susan had no real knowledge about the ability. It was useful sometimes. She could usually tell when people were lying to her by reading the fluctuations of their auras. She could also tell their general emotions and she had never lost a game of hide and seek. Sometimes her ability was a major hassle. In elementary school her classmates had started calling her a witch after she tried to show off her power. Back then her only friend was a boy named Toby Aceso. He didn't seem to care about any of the creepy rumors that kids had made up about her. He said magic and witchcraft weren't real and Susan had no desire to prove him wrong.
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Nowadays Susan was quite popular. Nobody in high school believed in witches anymore. She had drifted apart from Toby since they rarely had classes together. She still saw him in the halls sometimes though. One day when the final bell rang she was in such a rush to get out of school that she literally crashed into him knocking them both to the floor. She tried to apologize but Toby got up and ran off without a word. His aura was usually a vibrant orange but now seemed to be colored with heavy purple fear. Stranger still he was wearing a strange purple glove that seemed to emit its own dark aura. Susan was pretty certain the glove was against school dress code. More importantly its aura was the most frightening thing she had ever seen. Susan wanted to chase after Toby but her legs refused to move. She sat there for a few minutes trying to calm down. Students walked by her as if they hadn't seen anything unusual.
Eventually Susan decided to go home and question Toby tomorrow. Just as she was getting up however she felt a pulse of energy that erased Toby and his glove completely from her mind. As if in a trance she got up and began walking towards the strange energy.