Starpepper | Teen Ink

Starpepper

August 16, 2011
By ConversingMute PLATINUM, Fowermound, Texas
ConversingMute PLATINUM, Fowermound, Texas
20 articles 8 photos 7 comments

New Leaf Texas, September 3rd, 1992:

Thin beams of sun-light filtered in through the cheap, pale-white blinds that now appeared black as they cast shadows against the dull illumination of the hospital room windows. Faint light tinted ever so slightly with a sort of opaque pink color washed across the room, infusing the cold, gray walls with a sensation of life. The air had the aroma of bleach and soap drifting through it. In this room far above the scurrying automobiles that dot the streets below, up on the sixth floor of New Leaf Regional Hospital, a life had begun. Nestled deep within the arms of the recently in labor, Mrs. Starpepper, lay a baby yet to be named. Alexis Starpepper was a strong, beautiful woman, yet deep within her blue, crystal-like eyes her heart was inconceivably soft with love. She was silent in awe of the young baby girl she held in her arms. This wasn’t any baby girl; this was her baby girl. As she starred deeply into tiny, pink face of her newborn daughter she contemplated on the thought of what she should name her. Should she pick a traditional name like Sarah or Marie? Maybe she should name the girl after her husband’s mother. Maybe she should name her something original, thought Mrs. Starpepper, but what? As Alexis Starpepper pondered on this thought, her husband, Joseph Starpepper walked in the room. He turned to his wife looking at her with great admiration and love. Then he noticed that behind her soft auburn toned hair was a look of distress.

“What’s troubling you honey?”He said with a mild, reassuring inflection.

“Nothing really. I just can’t think of a name for our daughter. I mean I’ve been thinking for a awhile, but nothing seems to fit.”

“Hmm, let me think.”
Mr. Starpepper stood there in that spot for what seemed like an eternity for Mrs. Starpepper. The air was wrapped in suspense, as she awaited his answer. Then after many eons of this pause he spoke.

“Well, I can’t think of anything; how about we write a whole bunch of pretty names on a paper and you close your eyes then point at one and that will be her name, no questions asked?”

“Sure, okay, let’s do that. I like that idea. That’s what we’re going to do. I’ve made up my mind.”
After they hastily wrote down names they began their silly ritual. She hesitated. Her hand hovered just above the paper to where it was unclear what she pointed at. Then her husband put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "I know you'll pick a good name. What ever it is it will be beautiful." Then as her hand tremble in shear anxiety, she placed her finger on a word. Their baby finally had a name.

New Leaf Texas, November 2nd, 1997:

The soft flowing fur of the energetic canine brushed gently against her leg. Cheyenne giggled a little as the long hairs of her dog caressed her thigh. She was lying on the ground now, as she was drench in the slobber of the affectionate Golden-Retriever mix. After a few minutes of the excessive licking of the blissful retriever, she slowly nudged it off and gradually got up on her feet. At the same time her mother called out to her from the kitchen porch.

"Cheyenne come here it's almost dinner time."

"Okay mommy, I'll be there in a second."

She rushed up to the steps of her house. It was a quiet, modest place; mostly with the appearance of the average suburban home. It had a plain shingled roof, and shuttered windows out front. The driveway wrapped around to the back in an almost upside-down "L" shape, leading of into a 2 door garage loosely packed with Mr. Starpepper's tools and appliances. This was the kind of home that brought with it a safe, secure feeling. Through its placid exterior to its simple decorations inside came a warmth that only a truly happy family could have; a form of love that can't be broken by anything.

As Cheyenne arrived at the kitchen table she was greeted by the pleasant aroma of fresh bread, and spaghetti. Her mom's spaghetti was her favorite meal. She could eat it every day if she was allowed the chance. The tantalizing tang of the marinara sauce, the garlic laden zest of the just-cooked Italian bread, the perfectly boils angel-hair pasta, she loved it all. After dinner the night progressed rather slowly for Cheyenne. First, they watched the television for a about an hour; nothing was really on. Then, they played a board-game. It was Monopoly. Even though Monopoly is a usually long-winded game this game was especially drawn out. By the time they finished the game it was Cheyenne's bedtime. Reluctantly, she brushed her teeth, put on her pajamas, and climbed into her bed. Her father came and read her a bedtime story like he did every night. Cheyenne fell asleep before the ending, as she often did. Little did Cheyenne know this night would be the last night of her normal life.

New Leaf Texas, November 3rd, 1997:

The world came alive rather quickly as Cheyenne rose out of bed early that morning. The sun's light blared in through her window and the horrible scream of her mother still resonated in her mind long after it awoke her. She ran down the stairs to the source of the indescribably horrible sound. As she stepped into the living room, her running was halted by the sight that lay before her. There, in front of her was the corpse of her beloved pet, Roxy. The world she knew began to fade into bleeding void of white nothingness. Her dog, no more than that, her best friend was gone, dead and she was helpless to stop the agonizing reality that seeped in all around her. The emptiness grew until it consumed her. She became engrossed in the pale-white pain that now made her surroundings. The world disappeared into the deathly silence. She no longer was herself. She was the vessel for the agony that poured from her veins. The pain became so strong that she lost her last grip on consciousness. She fainted.

Flakes of fragile snow tickled her nose as Cheyenne woke from her sleep. Her eyes began to focus on what seemed to be a frozen wasteland, but within a seconds time revealed itself to be the ice encrusted living room of her house. Everything was covered in a thick sheet of ice that appeared to come out in a circular wave like pattern from beneath her. She tried to get up, but was too exhausted to move farther than a sitting position. She looked around through the misty air at her frost –bitten surroundings. She wondered what could have happened to make everything so icy. Then her gaze caught a startling sight. Across the room there were three mounds of ice that seemed to have something within them. One was smaller than the other two that were on either side of it. It was much flatter than the other two lumps and seemed to be in more of a horizontal position than its snowy companions. Then the identity of the mysterious hills of ice struck her. She began to cry. The salty droplets streamed from her face as she bellowed in pure sorrow. The two death white hills that lay across the room were her parents. "They couldn't be dead, could they?" These words echoed through her skull as she gathered enough energy to drag on over to the phone. She had to call the emergency number she her parents taught her how to call earlier that year. The doctors surely could save her family. They can't be gone. She can't lose them. Rapidly she dialed in the number. It rang, she was impatient from her worry. They answered.

"Hello? What is your emergency?"

"He-hello, I'm Cheyenne Starpepper. I need help. Please help my mommy and daddy!"

"Calm down, just tell me what's a matter and I'll send someone to help you right away."

"My mommy and daddy are hurt real bad, and-and I just woke up and…"

"Shh, It will be okay. Now, where do you live little girl?"

"I live at 5736, Valley Gust Lane, please hurry!"

"We're sending someone over right now to help you. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you until they arrive?"

"No. I want to stay beside my mommy and daddy."

"Okay, well then I'm going to hang up now."

The phone clicked as Cheyenne set it down. She rushed over to her frozen parents. She laid down next to the icy mound that was once her mother. What if they're not going to be alright? What will she do without them? With these thoughts racing through her mind she began to weep. She cried until she finally fell into a slumber from the strain of the recent hours on her weak 5 year old spirit.

One Hour Later:

The sirens were screeching as the paramedics arrived at the house. The loud noise shocked Cheyenne into awaking. The ice had begun o melt beneath her but sill was quite solid in most spots. It stung her hands as she braced herself while she got up. She glanced over to the kitchen clock, which was one of the few places downstairs that hadn't been frozen by the odd flash-freeze of early that morning. It read 9:46 AM, an hour and a half after when she woke up to the barren ice-lands that now encased her living room. This was not surprising considering her neighborhood was at least 45 minutes of driving from the nearest hospital, not including possible traffic delays. Her heart skipped a beat as fire-fighters broke open the front door, which was frozen shut. As they came in they suddenly stopped in sheer awe of the bewildering sight that Cheyenne, by now, was starting to become acclimated to. After the initial stun of seeing the Arctic wasteland that was once a living room, the paramedics poured onto the scene. Cheyenne watched as they began chipping away at the mounds of ice her parents are buried in. Then out of nowhere a police officer came to Cheyenne and swooped her up into his arms. He tried to comfort the traumatized 5 year old, as he walked to his car with her in arm. Cheyenne couldn't help but feel safe nestled in this calm man's reassuring grasp. Even though she didn't want to be carried off away from her parents, she was so utterly tired and exhausted that she fell asleep in his arms before they even made it to the small police-car. Where he was taking her she did not know, but at the moment it didn't seem to matter. For the first time in the last 8 hours since she first awoke to those horrible screams, she felt peaceful. She hope this moment would never end.

Sandy-Glen Texas, November 4th, 1997:

Katherine Gavenhart was quite excited that morning. She never had a roommate before in all 5 years of her life here at Mrs. Pottsman's House For Forgotten Children, but she always hoped that when she did get one, it would be a little girl like her. She starred into the face of her room's new occupant, wondering when she would awake. She wished the girl, who she did not yet know the name of, would wake up soon. What was her name? Is she nice? What does she like to do? Could they become friends? So many questions flew throughout Katherine's head as she waited for the girl to open her eyes. Then after what felt like forever the mysterious girl opened her eyes. She opened them quickly and breathed in really quick, with an almost suffocated look on her face. This surprised Katherine, for she expected the girl to gradually waken from her slumber, because Katherine thought that the girl should have been exhausted surviving her parents death and everything. All the other children that have come and gone through the orphanage over the years for as long back as Katherine could remember all did. Then all of the sudden the girl exploded with a flurry of words in complete panic.

"Where am I? Who are you? Where's my mommy and daddy? What happened to me? How did I get here?..."

She was speaking far to fast for Katherine to understand. So Katherine told the new arrival to slow down. The girl finally settled after several minutes of Katherine's effort to calm the girl. Then Katherine slowly one by one answered the questions that she was being asked. (Well, at least the one's she knew the answers to, which weren't very many.) The new girl looked very frightened and confused. She had a pale, ghostly aura of distress amongst her. Katherine felt bad for the girl. The girl lost her parents and doesn't even know they won't be coming back. This was a dilemma Katherine never had to face for she never knew her parents. Katherine was abandoned at birth and just left on Mr. and Mrs. Pottsman's doorstep whether they wanted her or not, which they didn't. She asked the girl what her name was.

"My name's Cheyenne Starpepper."

“Ok, I'm Katherine Gavenhart. Nice to meet you.”
Cheyenne just starred blankly in Katherine's direction, not so much at her, but instead at hazy images that floated about her mind. Foggy still-frames and clips played through her mind, like distant dreams. She didn't understand them, but something about them left a dark, haunting, malevolent wave of emotions subtlety bouncing throughout her being. She saw another vision like the others, except this one was much clearer. It was of a little girl hunched over a large mass of golden fur. Cheyenne quickly realized that it was a dog. Small wisps of cool wind swirled around the girl in a faintly visible vortex. The girl began to cry and ball her fists unbelievably tight. An over whelming pressure could be sensed from this girl as she started screaming, growing increasingly tense with every passing second. She looked as though her emotions were about to burst from her, as if a physical entity were living inside her and it was clawing it's way out, almost to the surface. Then within less than a second's time the girl's screams just stopped and she went limp. She drooped over the dog like an old piece of rag-cloth. Simultaneously the once tame whirlwind of cool air that had been forming around the girl suddenly increased tenfold in both speed and force. Cheyenne could feel how cold it was becoming in the small, somewhat familiar room the girl was in. Cheyenne's hands felt numb and her lips frostbitten, she felt as though her whole essence was being frozen to the core. The cold, bitter gusts soon became a raging blizzard with winds that one could almost call hurricane-force speeds. By this time Cheyenne was so engrossed in the memory that it was like she was in the frozen, pure white flurry that enveloped every inch of that room. She could feel the emotional agony of the little girl deep within her heart. She felt the cold, excruciating, numbness of the girl's heartbreak. Then the girl looked up across the room through the blinding, solid-white wall of whirling snow and ice, and saw two dull, faintly visible figures facing the girl with a dead stiffness. Cheyenne could now not only feel the girl's deep, shattering pain that dug into her very soul, and the cold, sharp numbness creeping into the girl's body from the frost-laden air, but she could even see everything that the girl's eyes were seeing. Cheyenne didn't just see what the girl saw though, she held every emotion and thought that was born from the things the girl saw like they were her own. Then through a briefly existent space through the thick ,spiraling walls of the blizzard, the girl caught a somewhat clear glimpse of the dark, frozen figures that she saw a couple of minutes ago when she first lifted her head. Cheyenne saw them too, just the same as the girl did. Cheyenne recognized their faces. She knew who they were. Then every physical sensation that Cheyenne was feeling started to fade and the real world was returning to her consciousness. She felt the cold, bitter frost surrounding her begin to dissolve into the Luke-warm air of the orphanage. The deep, white winds of the rapidly spinning blizzard, that encompassed every inch of Cheyenne's vision, started to evaporate into the old, rusty-brown, wood-panel, walls of the orphanage bedroom. The cold, emptiness of the bleach-white floor began to melt back into the rough, sepia-toned be sheets that Cheyenne now sat nestled in. Her mind was slowly returning to the small, bedroom where she woke up this morning to the sight of Katherine's stout, little face poised inches from her's. The only thing her mind seemed to be clinging to was the terrible feelings of deep, cold pain that pulse through the girl's shattered spirit when she recognized the two dark, shadowy beings that had stood lifelessly across from her in the shattered void that filled the cold, bleak silence of that ice-encrusted room. The last threads that bound Cheyenne to the dreadful entity of this poor, broken girl were severed, and the girl faded into the dead silence of her lost world, only to be a dark, haunting memory to plague Cheyenne's thoughts. What haunted her most though, was that she now knew who the girl was; who the two people that stood lifelessly frozen in that room were. She even knew the name of the golden-furred canine, who's death the little girl screamed for. She knew where it was, and when. She knew everything about that horrible day; because the visions weren't dreams of some little girl's tragic events, they were Cheyenne's memories of her parents' deaths. They were memories of how Cheyenne killed her parents.

Now Cheyenne sat there on the stained, worn-out carpet of the bedroom, hunched over, with her head resting at her knees, weeping. She was leaning ever so slightly into Katherine's short, sturdy body. Her eyes were burning with tears as everything came crashing down around her. Her parents, her dog, her home, her life; they were all gone. It was all her fault. Her life was destroyed because she is some kind of freak, a monster. Why her? What did she do to deserve this? She was a good girl. She always did what her mommy told her to do. She never misbehaved, and she was always polite. If she didn't do anything, then why did this happen to her? It was all to much to think about so she just leaned into Katherine and cried her self to sleep.

Sandy-Glen Texas, July, 2001:
Cheyenne ran ahead of her friend to the yard, as she always did. Katherine had always been a little slower than her really energetic companion. They always did everything together. They were the best of friends. Cheyenne had dirty-blonde hair that dangled down slightly past her shoulders. Her eyes were a deep blue color. She stood a little higher than the average 9 year old girl, and a good 4 to 6 inches above her stout, thick-bodied friend. Katherine, whom Cheyenne sometimes called Kat was now plodding up behind her. Kat had short reddish-brown hair that was a lot more prone to tangling then Cheyenne's hair. Her gray-green eyes sparkled a slight golden color in the sunlight of the bright summer day. It was just barely August so it was still very hot. The sky was very clear; in fact there wasn't a cloud in it. Earlier this summer Cheyenne had opened up to Katherine about how she actually lost her parents, how she killed them. She told Kat about her powers and how much of a freak she is. She told her everything, partly because Kat was her best friend and the only friend she has ever had, but also because Kat had just recently told Cheyenne the truth about how she never really knew her parents contrary to the story she had always been telling Cheyenne since they first met. Although Cheyenne had already suspected that Kat didn't know her parents, she never said anything about it because she figured Kat would tell her when the she was ready. Cheyenne expected that Kat become frightened of her or hate her like anyone would hate a common murderer when Cheyenne told her the truth, but she didn't. Instead, she embraced the information with great calmness; she even kind of liked it. After she had exposed her darkest secrets, the trust between the two of them grew to a new, even stronger level than it was before. That they spent the rest of that summer trying to somehow resurrect Cheyenne's odd powers, but always with the same result, failure. They did so because, Cheyenne had promised that she make it snow for Kat, after she had begged her to many times. Since Kat had never seen real snow, and she believed that her parents must have been from somewhere up north for various self-justified reasons, this meant a lot to her. Cheyenne tried and tried, but over time her promise became more of a faint hope, one which continued to fade until it was almost completely forgotten.

Sandy Glen Elementary School--Sandy Glen Texas, Mid-October 2001:

Kat chased after her best friend in a quite pathetic effort. But Cheyenne stopped on the concrete ledge next to the swings so Katherine could catch up. They both took seats on the swing set like they often did during recess. They sat and talked about the usual trivial stuff, but this time, as they sat their talking about this and that, Kat, for some unknown reason, remembered her friend's long forgotten promise. She decided to bring it up.

"Hey Cheyenne, do you remember when you promised to make it snow this summer?"

“What? Umm, No. Did I?”

“Yep, you did. Do you think you could try again, just this one time, and if you can't we'll just give up on it?"

"Ok, I guess so...”
Cheyenne paused.
“What did you want me to do again?”

“Make it snow, silly! Like you promised last year. Remember?”

“Sorry Kat, but I really don't remember that.”

“Aww, ok...”

“I might not remember it, but tell you what. I'll make it snow right here and right now. I swear it.”

“Really?”

“Really.”
Then Kat gazed deeply into her best friend's eyes. For the first time since Cheyenne knew her Kat looked truly happy, and not just pretending to be happy for other people's sakes. Cheyenne was very nervous because she was afraid that she might let her best friend down. What if she can't make it snow? Kat will never forgive her. She'll never forgive herself. She had to make it snow she just had to. So decided to try.

Cheyenne sat there starring into nothingness, concentrating with all her might. This would be the time, this is it. She would make it snow this time; she just knew it. After several minutes of grunting, starring and concentrating, nothing happened. She had failed. Cheyenne felt so horrible for letting Katherine down. Why couldn't she do it? She hated herself for being such a failure. She began to cry. Everything seemed to disappear as her tears ripped open a void in her heart long since sewn up by friendship. She felt so empty. The nothingness began to consume her as every thing faded into white. Her heart felt so cold. Right as her final bit consciousness began to vanish she felt a tug on her shoulder. It was Kat. Cheyenne was thrust into the world again. Colors, sounds, smells, all rushed in around her. Then, she saw it. It was snowing. She had done it. It was snowing! She made it snow! She was so happy. She began to cry. Kat saw this and began to ask why.

“Hey Cheyenne, why are you crying? It's snowing. You did it. So why are you crying?”

“I'm crying because I'm happy, Kat...”
“Because I'm happy”

Hallison City Texas, Late-August 2006:

The slightly plump 14 year old trotted along behind Cheyenne who was actually still 13. Cheyenne was very skinny in comparison to her stocky, big-boned companion Katherine. Katherine was about 4 feet and 7 inches tall, while Cheyenne was right around 5 feet tall. They walked down the busy streets of Hallison city in search of something very particular, or rather someone. Three months ago they lost their home in the Orphanage after it had been destroyed by a rather unforeseen circumstance. Kat began developing rather odd abilities right before the accident. Her skin became really hard possibly harder than diamonds, but this wasn't the weirdest part. She began to be able to set off tremors by stamping her feet or jumping onto the ground, small "mini-quakes". (Which is what Cheyenne swiftly and firmly decided they would be called.) It wasn't until a month after her powers started to appear that Mrs. Pottsman discovered Kat's abilities, but when she did it was the last thing she ever did. Kat has been really careful ever since the accident and Cheyenne and her promised to never talk about it after they left town. They left town after they found out about a place that supposedly helps people like them. Problem was it was in a tree nursery in the middle of Hallison City, which is the largest city in the area with a population of approximately 1 million people. They were the epitome of the saying: Like a bull in a china shop.

They arrived at the quaint little building that the address they had been given directed them to. Cheyenne went up to the door and Kat stayed back a few feet just in case. She knocked on the door and was greeted by two little girls, named Ally and Ann. The two children were not much older than 9, but they carried themselves in a very mature and dignified manor. Cheyenne stood in the doorway and looked at them, studying them carefully. They didn't seem to have any malicious intentions so Cheyenne gave Kat the ok to enter. They must have been twins, Cheyenne figured, because they looked identical everywhere except in there facial expressions. One could tell that their personalities were polar opposites of each other. Ally, was a very energetic and out going girl. She was extremely hyper and talked a great deal, in a sort of never-ending staccato. She was too chipper for Cheyenne's tastes. Ann, on the other hand seemed like a shy quiet soul, who's always by her sisters side. She rarely spoke unless accompanied by her sister's voice. One probably would assume she was emotionally fragile. While Cheyenne sat there on a small couch in the middle of the buildings quaint, little entry room, thinking about the possible character traits of either twin, Katherine conversed casually with the twins about random, pointless subjects. Cheyenne sighed and looked around at the small entry room. It was a very odd place with mismatched furniture and weird trinkets scattered about. Cheyenne was starring around at the nick-knacks in the room, wondering how the came to rest in this old run-down nursery in the middle of the downtown Hallison City. Then Ally suddenly broke from what she was saying, like she just remembered something. Then, she called down an old brick-work stair-case to someone.

"Grandma, you got guests."

"Okay, I'll be up in a second."
"Would you like us to make them some tea?"

"Sure, that'd be nice."
Then they both sprang up and rushed over to a small table by the kitchen wall. On the table there was a small tea plant and a pitcher of hot water. They heated up the water in the microwave, and then set it down on the table. What happened next was truly odd. They stood in front of the plant, closed their eyes, held out their hands touching the soil and all of the sudden two of the plant's leaves began to wilt. The plant moved over the cups that were next to the pitcher and dropped the leaves in them, as if by magic. The sight startled Cheyenne and Kat at first but then they soon realized that it wasn't the plant it was Ally and Ann making the plant do what it did, and just sat there dazzled by the sight. This sight made Cheyenne a little uneasy and suspicious. Quickly she rose up from the couch and rushed over to the tea table. She stood right next to the twins, on the verge of having a meltdown, and asked them a flurry of questions.

“Ok, either you to start explaining what the hell is going on or I'm going to make you wish you had. How are you doing that? What is this place? Who that woman down there? What do you people want with us? You better not hurt Kat! Why is the plant moving like that? Is this some kind of trick?”
Before Cheyenne could even finish someone came up from behind her and tapped her neck right on the base of the spine. She did something that made soothed Cheyenne's rage instantly and made her understand everything about the situation It was kind of like she was being told the answers to her questions, except for the fact that it felt like it was her own brain telling her and not someone else. This lasted for 2 minutes, and the whole time Kat stood frozen in awe. She had know clue what was happening but it was breath taking. An old lady was standing behind Cheyenne with her palm gently placed on the base of Cheyenne's neck. There was a calm, blueish-white light being emitted from the lady's hand that seemed to be the very essence of tranquility. It was memorizing. Then the person that stood behind Cheyenne took her hand off of Cheyenne's neck and gently began to speak.

“Ok, are you better now?”

“Yeah. What did you do?”

“Oh nothing much, but that's not important. But, now you know where you are and that you're safe.”

“Well yeah. So we can really stay?”
Then Katherine interjected angrily.

“Would someone mind telling me what the heck is going on?!?”
In her soft, soothing voice the Old lady said, “Sure, let's all just sit down and talk about it.”

The old lady talked with them for quite awhile and explained a lot of things, mostly to Kat since Cheyenne already learned most of it from the odd neck thing. She explained that she is Ally and Ann's grandmother and that after their parents were killed in a car accident when the twins were only 9 months old, she decided to raise them. When they were two their powers began to develop. She was quite surprised by this because she thought she was the only one. After helping them to learn how to control their powers she decided to open her home to anyone else who was like them. But no one ever showed up so she gave up, but somehow Cheyenne and Kat must have stumbled upon an old add she had posted two years ago when she gave up. She explained how the twins have the power to manipulate or generate plant-life by touching the plant or the soil in which it is planted for up to an approximately 20 yard radius. She told them everything about her life and how things work in her home. Cheyenne and Kat just sat there attentively listening to every part. After they talked for quite some time with Ally and Ann's grandmother they reached a conclusion on what to do with the two teenagers. They finally had some where to stay. They had a home again, or at least they did for awhile...

Excerpt From Cheyenne's Personal Journal/Diary Written In Mid-July, 2015:

So far most of my life has sucked pretty bad. I accidentally murdered my parents when I was 5. I found out I had strange powers, powers that I didn't even want in the first place. My best friend stumbled on the fact that she had powers too, only to end up destroying the orphanage we lived in and killing it's owners. We ran away, and hitch-hiked to the big city. When we were there, and old lady, and her 2 granddaughters gave us a home to reside in and treated us like family, until we screwed that up to. Then, we wandered the streets for months trying to find somewhere we could stay. We ended up living in an old abandoned gas-station. Where my best friend Kat fell in love with a boy that was one of the leaders of a very bad gang called the Kings of Krows. They happened to “own” the area that our little gas-station was in. I didn't think it was a good idea for her to get involved with people like them, so I told Kat she shouldn't. We got in a fight over it, and her new “boyfriend” backed her up. She ended up betraying me. She trapped me in a gutter, knowing I'm somewhat claustrophobic and left in that jerk's car. I escaped, and went searching for her. I finally found some clues to where she was in some drug-house in the city's downtown area, which was a notoriously dangerous ghetto. I found out from a worn-out looking girl who had apparently sold her self for drugs laying almost motionless against the wall. She was breathing really heavy and said in a very slow, hoarse voice, breathing in between almost every word,

“You don't want to be here...Trust me...You don't want to be here...It's not worth it...”
I tried asking her if she knew where Kat was, but it only seemed to confuse her. So I tried explaining the situation to her and she finally answered coherently enough for me to understand.

“That boy's name...is Jason...he's in the house two...houses...to the right...but you don't want to mess...with...him. He's not...human...No normal person...can do what... he does... He...can...”
She foamed up at the mouth and died right there. I saw her eyes roll back into her head. She was only about 19 years old, but it didn't phase me too much. I've seen people die before; and in a lot worse ways I might add. I just walked back out through the side door. No one tried to stop me everyone in there was too far gone to notice me anyways. Before I left though I also learned that Kat's so called “boyfriend” had apparently got her hooked on some cheap type of crack and had been using it to make her stay with him, even though he was very abusive to her. I arrived at the drug house where she was supposed to be and met the “welcoming committee”. They let me in after I tossed one against the wall with a small vortex really fast wind. I didn't even have to do anything but think it that time. I was getting better. I bust open the door and there on an old raggedy, leather couch I saw Kat. Jason was crawling all over her like the sick little worm he was. He was doing things that I still can't bring my self to even write down today. This enraged me greatly, because even though she had betrayed me Kat was still my friend. I confronted the boy, and pushed him against the wall. I thought to myself that I'll freeze him slowly and make him suffer, so I tried. Something wasn't right though, he wasn't freezing and my hand was actually getting warmer. I tried harder but my hand just got hotter every time I did. Then it got so hot that I had to pull my hand off of him. It was in the 10 seconds following that where he shot at me like a rocket with his hands shooting out fire like a torch-gun that I realized he was like me and Kat. He had powers too. I was being rocketed straight towards a metal pole, about to become a skewered meat griller, so I kicked down desperately at his groin. I hit him square in the easiest spot to make a guy hurt, and we spiraled off course. We tumbled sideways crashing into fences and trees, and then hit a sudden stop as we were both slammed against the brick wall of a large storage warehouse. I was knocked out for a second by the blow. When I came to, I noticed he was still lying there less than a yard from me. I quickly scrambled to my feet and tried to regain balance. He awoke a fraction of a second after I started to do the same and shot a colossal burst of fire towards me, but missed and instead hit a really large commercial water tank. It heated up so fast that the top popped off it and steam shot up into the air. I didn't take time to look long but I knew that much hot water could work to my advantage. So I used my unlikely chance to try and take him out. Since I can manipulate the weather conditions near me I used this large amount of humid heat and rushed through a jet of cold, dry air that was collecting in the sky above the area, causing a miniature, concentrated version of a really bad hurricane to form around us. We were within the eye so as he was trying to get steady I shot a whip of wind at his feet and flung him out into the hurricane where he was ripped to shreds. I felt very triumphant for a brief moment until I realized that my hurricane had wiped out the entire neighborhood. I flew up high propelling myself with jet-streams of air and looked back to where the house that Kat had been in used to be, but she wasn't there. Then I spotted her about 60 yards from where she was earlier, so I flew over to her and dropped down by her side. She was covered in pieces of debris and rubble. I quickly moved it off of her. Then I saw it. She wasn't breathing; she was dead. I just stood up with a stone-cold, expressionless face and began running, leaving my dead friend behind in the worthless, scattered pieces of buildings and street-signs. I ran for day until I couldn't make my legs do it anymore and stopped on the outskirts of small town nestled near the Texarkana border. Then I just broke down and cried. I did that for a long time too.


Now as my 23rdbirthday approaches, and I sit in my peaceful living room with my 1½ year old daughter on my lap, I think back on the life I had and how my parents died because of me, and I finally realize what it truly means to be a mother. I realize what it means to have to live not only for yourself, but also for someone else, someone you created. I look down and see my daughter looking at me smiling. I kiss the top of her head once softly, and say three simple words to her, because this might the last chance I get to do so, “I love you.”

The End



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