One day, a baby drew her first breath yet instead of crying she looked up at her parents and spoke. “I know what he made you do.” She said. The parents nodded their heads, they saw this coming, that is the reason they had her after all; in hopes she’d seek revenge for them. With the father’s incredible strength and mother’s immortal intelligence they assumed their daughter would be even more powerful.

                Thirty years ago, the future parents were walking down the street. They entered the back alley, the shorter way to their house, which they preferred to the busy street. Brandon, the father, something pushed against his head. When he turned, a gun was settled right between his eyes.

                “Do as I say.” The man said. He gestured to a younger girl playing in the front yard across the street, she wore a bright blue sweater decorated with clouds, she was the sky in his eyes. He couldn’t imagine ever doing her harm. “Call her over here, kill her with your bare hands or I’ll kill you and your wife.” Brandon started to plead and beg but the man insisted. He tried once more to talk his way out of it, find a reason why, but the man pushed the gun harder into his head and showed no sign of budging.

                “Hey, sweet heart,” Brandon said reluctantly “come here I want to show you this really awesome cloud I found.” She hesitated, staring at him for a minute, and walked over. “Lay down, and look up at the sky.” He said to her, tears streaming down his face; she didn’t seem to notice. Paisley, who was sobbing behind him, was the one with the gun to her head now out of the girls’ sight.

                He stared at her for a minute, taking a second to look at her features. Her blue eyes shone as the sun beat down on them. “Sir, what cloud am I looking for?” she asked. He knew he didn’t have any more time to think.

“Just look at the sky, you remind me of it.” And with that, he close his eyes, and struck her. She lay unconscious.

                “She’s not done yet.” The man said as he looked down at Brandon crouching over her. Brandon sat there, staring at her. “Again.”

He had to, he knew he did. Again and again he struck her. His tears fell on her blue sweater as he continued, her sky seemed to rain as he cried. His wife flinched with every blow, she didn’t want to understand what she was watching, noting made sense. When her little chest failed to rise, the man let them go. They ran home, and didn’t speak for months.

                Back in present day, Brandon and Paisley watched their little girl grow. She had the lightest blue eyes and the most curious personality. She could run faster than light, quite literally. She was trained in fighting by the age of five and continued to train. Not to mention, her undeniable intelligence. One day, at only age ten, she came to her parents in the living room. “I have an idea. If I run as fast as I can the opposite direction that the world is spinning, could I run back through time? I know I could.” Her parents contemplated the idea, and decided to give it a try.

                The next day they all gathered in the same alley of the incident. A little spot of blood was still on the nearby trash can, it made Brandon wince. The daughter, Rachelle, knew the whole story. She did notice the blood, but didn’t bring any attention to it. She looked back at her parents, they smiled. They knew this was best or her. Her current days consisted of being used for government experiments because of her abilities. She had been all over the news, she was an abnormal celebrity with no musical talent.

                She began to run, she felt her feet almost leave the ground and as she looked to her side she saw buildings begin to lose paint, people walking by either disappearing or losing their wrinkles. It was working! Her watch told her she had already run two years. She was defying everything people knew about time.

Time started to slow down but she kept running. She ran for hours, maybe even a day. Nothing could stop her. Finally, the watch she had telling her what year it was rang. 1986. She stopped and caught her breath but something had changed. She looked around her, her entire life had changed. She looked at her body, she seemed younger, a different person. She never believed she had lived a life before this one but apparently she was mistaken. As she looked down she saw a blue sweater decorated with little white clouds. “That’s silly,” she thought to herself “I’d never wear this even if I was paid.” She heard someone call out to her.

                “Hey sweetheart.” The voice said, it sounded oddly familiar. When she looked across the street, she saw the alley. She saw her mom and dad. “Come here I want to show you this really awesome cloud I found.” Her dad said. He didn’t recognize her? He honestly didn’t recognize his own daughter?! She was fascinated.

It didn’t click for her what was happening until she saw the man with the gun standing behind her mom. Anger spread across her face. She went to charge the man, with all her speed, but found she no longer could.

                She was a different person now, she had to think differently. She turned and ran into the house behind her, leaving her parents with the armed man. She searched the house for her “current” parents from the live she was currently living. She found them sitting in the basement family room. “Please tell me you guys have super brains or super strength or something. Please?! Do you guys do anything?!” They stared at her blankly.

                “Honey you know what we do, why are you acting like this?” they said in return.

                “Okay well apparently I forgot,” she retorted. “Please remind me?”

                “Well, we communicate with the dead. Honey, really, you know this. What’s going on?” they said.

                “Perfect!” She replied. “Summon, or, whatever you do, get me a ghost that can help me fight.” They nodded suspiciously but yelled to what seemed to be a wall but what did she know any more. Then she saw him, he was almost transparent but seemed to smile at her. He, too, looked familiar. He was familiar! It was her grandfather; she’d seen pictures but had never met him; a Vietnam veteran. She went to hug him quickly and fell flat on her face. She laughed at herself. She started to explain who she was and what she was doing but her interrupted her.

                “I know exactly who you are, Rachelle. I know the fight we have ahead of us, let’s go.” He said confidently. Rachelle nodded, she ran for the door, her grandfather gliding behind her. As soon as her dad caught sight of her, gun still to his head, his eyes lit up. Because he recognized her or because the ghost of his father was behind her, she didn’t know. Regardless, the jumped on the armed man. A shot was fired and a hole appeared in nearby wall.

                Her grandfather pulled her off the man and held him in front of his own face. He took a deep breath and began to exhale into the man’s mouth. The man froze, unable to move anything but his eyes, a power Rachelle had never seen before. Then again, she had never had a dead person for a successor before either.

                “You have about a minute to get ahead in damage on him,” her grandfather said to her, “I want to keep helping but my body, or lack of, won’t let me. I’m so sorry I won’t be there for you when you get back to your time, know that I love you and I’ll think of you every day. Fight hard, if not for yourself than for me.” He smiled. Her eyes filled with tears but she quickly suppressed them, she needed this minute.

                She struck the man, over and over again like her dad would’ve had to do to her. Being this new person she was unfamiliar, the memories of being killed streamed her mind as she swung. He began to gain consciousness slowly. She tackled him to the ground and limb by limb he began to fight her back. Being bigger than her, he slammed her to the ground. Her parents stood watching, speechless. He pushed her head harder and harder into the concrete, she screamed in pain. She second she screamed she felt it, with every blood curdling noise she let out into the world, a bit of her strength came back. After realizing that, of course she began to scream; louder and louder the sounds rang. She became strong enough to throw him back under her.

                She clawed at his face, blood already pouring from his nose and one of his eyes too swollen to open. The man, also screaming, hit her back. She winced. She ripped at his hair. The rolled around and hit the side of the building. She continued to scream, stronger with every sound.

                He rolled on top of her and struck her hard in the temple. Her vision blurred, her hand fell from his face and she began to feel herself slip. Her eyes barely open, she saw someone standing behind the man. She couldn’t see the person’s face, just their shoulders. The person hit him in the back of the head, hard. His eyes flashed blank, and he fell unconscious on top of Rachelle. As she lifted him off of her she looked up to see who had saved her. She was looking right into her own blue eyes; another her. The real Rachelle, from 2016, stood proudly there smiling down at her. She helped herself up, the concept hurt her brain but she was still grateful.

                She ran with herself to her parents, hugging both of them at the same time with her two bodies. She cried into their arms. Again, she felt it. With every sob, every emotion, she became stronger, more herself. She continued to cry, letting every fear she’d ever have of losing them out. She looked over at her mother, and grabbed her own hand of the Rachelle across from her. She let go of them and walked to the end of the ally.

                She looked back and smiled at her parents, glared at the man lying on the ground, and began to run. She built up her speed and looked over, watching herself run her heart out; the wind blowing through her hair. She kept running. After a few hours of running she felt her hand started to slip from her hand. She looked over and the other her was disappearing. “Stay! Where are you going?” she yelled to the little her in the ugly sweater.

                “My life is saved and now it’s yours to live.” Her voice replied, and she disappeared. Rachelle ran faster and faster, she began to cry. She wanted this all to be over with. As she ran she remembered the pain that little girl, well, herself, had felt. She thought about all the pain in the world, what she had done that day began to feel like nothing. All she had done was saved herself, nobody else. She cried harder, her chest heaving with every step she took. She knew she had to devote her life to saving people, she was such a small person and felt so helpless. She lost track of time and before she knew it she was back in the ally. She looked for the blood on the trash can, nothing. She looked down and at her feet was a stain, right where the man had died. She turned around and saw her parents.

                She no longer saw the trauma in their eyes. She hugged them tight. “We’re so sorry that was you… If we had known, we would’ve never gone back.” They whispered in her ear. She told them she felt like she had barely done anything, she just wanted to go home and forget. “Honey, no. You didn’t just save yourself. Yes, your mom and I were not in danger physically but mentally, you’ve saved us. You’re so incredible, don’t ever forget that. We love you so much, what you did today is just the beginning of everything you’ll do in your life. Please don’t take this lightly, love, you changed the world today.”

                Her life carried on, she was still convinced that day didn’t have that much significance. She was in high school now and the only thing that had changed because of it was the twinkle in her parents’ eyes. She walked into her history class and sat with some friends. The teacher walked in. “Okay, phones away kids. Today we’re going to watch a video recently discovered. The video you’re about to see may be a little disturbing but the reason it’s so significant is because nobody knows how this girl did what she did.”

Rachelle slumped in her chair, she hated videos, especially history videos. He hit play, and the video began. She looked at the title: “Unbelievable Fight Caught on Camera by Hidden Reporter.” That caught her attention. She turned her eyes to the screen. She saw it. She saw the little blonde girl in the ugly blue sweater. It all came flooding back, chills ran up her spine and she had to look away. She looked out the window, up at the clouds.

She did it, she was the sky.