The Legacy

1 - Inexplicable Things

I walked down the halls of my highschool for the very last time. The bell had just rang, and students celebrated graduating and the beginning of summer vacation by dumping their books and papers into the trash cans. I felt like I should feel something more. Excitement? Nostalgia? Maybe I should have felt sad that highschool was done and I wouldn't see any of these people again. 

I couldn't muster up any of those feelings, though. Honestly, I never felt apart of the whole "highschool" experience in my four years here. I never made any friends, never went to any parties, never did anything social. I just never felt like I belonged here. 

So, I worked hard and got by, motivated by the thought that maybe I would be excited to finally be out. I would finally figure out who I was, since I definitely didn't feel like I belonged in that school. But... nothing. I guess the question I was asking myself now was, what next? That wasn't an exciting question for me.

I didn't live far away from school in this small town, so I walked home, like usual. I turned right off of the main road and walked down the long dirt road. I turned into our driveway and walked up to the little house I grew up in. My parents died in a car accident when I was really young. My grandmother took me in and raised me. Whenever I would bring up my parents, I could tell it made her sad. She never wanted to talk about the accident, but she told me other stories of them, happier stories.

I opened the old, rusty door and walked into the house.

"Grandma, I'm home," I called out. Another reason why I didn't do anything social in highschool was that I always wanted to be at home. For the past few years, my grandma's health had gotten worse, so I made sure I was always there when she needed me.

"In here sweetie," I heard her call back. I walked into the living room to see her sitting in her usual place in her favourite chair by the window.

I walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"How was your last day?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Fine."

She smiled at me. "Why don't I make us supper to celebrate?"

I smiled. "Sure grandma."

She started to try and get up. I reached out. "Let me help you."
I grabbed her arms and helped pull her out of the chair into her wheelchair. Once I finally got her situated, I tried to ignore the growing dread that her health was getting worse.

I pushed my grandma into the kitchen.

"Let's see what we have in the fridge," she said and I pushed her in front of it and let her start looking through it.

"I'm going to go change," I said and walked out of the kitchen to my bedroom. I had just pulled on some leggings when I heard a crash. I ran out of my room and to the kitchen as quickly as I could. Images of my grandmother on the floor rushed through my mind, but when I rounded the corner to the kitchen, I froze. My grandma was not laying on the floor, but was instead standing up on her tiptoes without any help, and was grasping at her neck as if she couldn't breath.

"Grandma," I shouted and rushed to her side. I looked over her face that was getting redder by the second. Was she choking on something?

She clawed at her neck and looked at me with wide eyes. "Th- they-" she gasped. F-found you," she choked out. "R-run Isla." Her eyes moved from mine and looked over my shoulder. The struggling look on her face was replaced with fear. I spun around to see a tall man with a long black coat walk around the corner. He had his hand extended in the air as if he were choking someone, and it was pointing at my grandma. I looked at my grandmother as she stared at the man in fear and gasped for air.

"What did you do to her?" I shouted. The man continued to stare at me. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" I asked, my voice shaking in fear.

"I want you, Isla Preston." he tilted his head to the side. "You look so much like her. Like your mother."

My blood went cold at his words.

"I'm not going anywhere with you," I said. My grandmother started making a choking noise. She reached out to me and grabbed a hold of my wrist. She closed her eyes and whispered something, and then a jolt of electricity stung my wrist and then travelled throughout my body. I jumped back in surprise. She let go of my wrist and then her whole body slowly started to relax. I looked down at my skin where I had felt the jolt and saw a small symbol of the sun marked in ink on my skin. What the hell just happened?

I looked back at my grams and noticed she was limp. I shook her shoulders and then looked back at the man. "Please, stop this," I cried out.

"Stop this!" I screamed again. Suddenly, he dropped his hand and my grandma fell to the floor. I fell down onto my knees beside her.

"Grandma," I whispered as I shook her body, silent tears streaming down my face. She wasn't moving. "Grandma," I said again, this time raising my voice. She couldn't be gone. No. 

I pressed my ear against her chest and felt it rise slowly. She was still alive. 

"Isla Preston," the man said. I heard him take in a slow, deep breath. "I can finally feel your powers now. Come with me."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. This man was crazy. The feelings of desperation and sadness turned to anger.

I wiped my nose. "No," I gritted out through my teeth.

I could see the anger on his face. He reached out his hand and tried to grab me. Instinctively, I reached my hands up to protect myself, and then the whole house shook.

It was as if everything happened in slow motion. The only thought on my mind was to protect  my grandma from this crazy man. As I brought my hands up in front of my face, I could feel a ball of warmth travel up my arms to my hands, and then burn in my palms. I felt energy vibrate in my hands and then a force so strong shot out of me, it threw everything in my path backwards. The wall in front of me cracked, dirt flew everywhere, the chair was thrown against the wall, windows smashed, and the man was launched away from us and hit the wall with such force he was instantly knocked out. I fell back onto the floor from the force, and coughed as dust and debris scattered on me. I wasn't sure what just happened, but I felt like I had run a marathon.

I didn't have time to try and figure out what happened. I sat up and turned to my grandma, still lying on the floor.

"Wake up," I whispered as I tried to catch my breath. Her eyes slowly opened.

"Thank god," I whispered to myself. "I'm going to call for help," I said. Her hand shot out and grabbed my arm before I could stand up.

I looked back down at her. She was looking right at me. "No," she whispered.