The Branded Hunters Trilogy: The Masked Musician (On Hold)

Chapter 1: The Nightmare

I whistled a simple tune, but with my power. My tune was probably the most beautiful thing you've ever heard. But if I wasn't to careful, you would do things you wouldn't want to do. But I'm always careful, I would never do something as careless as that.

I remembered like it was yesterday.

I was finally old enough to live on my own. To see the world, and how it really is. You might be thinking, what kind of parents will kick out their 16 year old daughter to live by herself? But that's how it is, we must learn how to be independent. My mother and father would be very proud of the person I have become.

I packed a very light backpack, filled with necessities for my travels. And my violin that I carried everywhere. I made a quick whistle, calling for Fidget, my loyal friend and pet marten. My father and I rescued him when we found him half-dead in the rain. Thanking for our kindness, he stayed with us as our pet. He scurried up to me and sat on my shoulder. His brown and caramel fur glistened as he proudly sat by me. His long bushy tail fidgeted, tickling me a little. I think you can guess why he's call fidget now. Martens are slender and agile animals, you are considered lucky to have a loyal marten. But Fidget, he was different. He was a horned American marten, very rare in America. He was probably abandoned by his family when we found him, but I adored his cute horns that poke above his head.

My father sighed. "Today's the day, she's abandoning us."

"I'm not abandoning you, I just want to see what's out there." I looked out the window.

My mother hugged me. "Visit us, will you Melody. And find a man in your life."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe in a couple of years, right now that's not my main priority."

"But it is for me, so look at the mirror one last time."

"But mom..," I groaned.

"No buts Melody Richardson."

"Fine."

I looked at the mirror. I have black wispy hair that went up to my shoulders. I had a light tan, tall, agile and athletic. I looked at my green eyes, they were as green as emeralds. But there was a something I hate about my look. My birthmark, it surrounds 2/3 of my right eye. It looked exactly like a treble and bass cleff. If I close my eye, you can see the complete picture because the mark also was on my eyelid. It looks like a face tattoo, but I'm not planning to get one until I'm 17.

My birthmark was related to my power obviously. I have the power to control sound, to play music. You might thing wow, is that all? But there is more to that than you think. I can travel in sound waves, I'm faster than the speed of sound. I can make sonic waves and booms. But then there's my music, somehow when I control music notes, I can control anyone who listens to it. When I was younger and figured this out, I used to do harmless pranks on the other kids. But I learned that my power was more stronger than I thought, I vowed to be more careful when I accidentally almost drowned a defenseless cat. I can do this with any instrument I can get my hands on, I can even use my voice. But not only that, I can make people lose their hearing too, when I was furious at my father when he missed my birthday, I made him go deaf for a week. Though I had to admit, it was funny hearing his work conversations when he didn't figured out what I had done.

My father, he's actually a horrible man. He's really nice to my mother and I, and also his close friends. But everyone hates him, even if they don't know him, they hate him. And me being his daughter... I'm just as hated. I've been kidnapped, held ransom and almost killed. Parents wouldn't let their kids near me, even my own teachers despise me, giving me awful grades and not helping me on my homework. Because of that I was home schooled with my mom. What has my father done to make this happen to me? Everything. He tricked clueless people into giving him his money, he sells stuff in the black market, illegal stuff. He cheats, he steals, he kills. Making him a #1 in America's Most Wanted. We always had to move, hide and cover our tracks. But what mostly puzzled me is why he wasn't assassinated yet, he has a bounty of 20 million. But I really think it's me, no one would want a child to be traumatized from witnessing an assassination. So even though I'm excited about leaving home, I'm dreading on it too.