Chapter 1 - Bad Dreams
I opened my eyes and the fluorescent light burned into my pupils. The light was like the sun scorching my sockets and causing me to wince. Instinctively I closed my eyes and wiped my face, trying to stop the pinpricks of yellow that seemed to have etched themselves into my eyelids. As my eyes adjusted to the light I saw a corridor tiled with what looked like steel or iron. Reaching out my hand, my fingers connected with the wall and a shiver ran down my spine as my fingertips touched the cold metal. I allowed my hands to fall down to my side and I slowly began to walk down the corridor, my legs feeling almost weightless.
Turning my head left and right I noticed a person facing the other way. He was about 6' 6" with dark hair, unnaturaly pale skin and was wearing a jacket that had some sort of emblem that was stitched carefully onto the sleeve. Reaching my hands up to the lights I grasped at it. The light turned off as if the bulbs had just popped. Staring down at my hands I saw a small ball of light, bright yellow and about the size of a tennis ball. It glowed in my hand and gave me a strange sense of warmth and comfort as if I wasn't alone. I stared down at it and it spun slowly in my palm, each tiny spec of light a different shade compared to the next. I looked up again at the lights and using the same action as before, removing three more of the lights from their glass containers. This time when I stared down at my hands I was greeted by a globe of light, this time only just big enough to fit in one hand. Guiding my hands I split the light in half and put one in each palm.
This wasn't the first time that I had done something like this, even when I was a young child I used to sit in my room at night summoning light from the surrounding street lamps and guiding it around my room. Some people thought of me as different or special but most feared people like me, and even worse, wanted me dead. I shook my head waking up from my short flash back and I focused on the task at hand. I raised both my hands so that they were straight and the elbows almost locked into position. My hands started to glow and shine from the light within and I felt the light energy surge through my body causing my hand to pulsate. As I did this a beam of light shot out of my hand; almost forming a ray.
I watched the light progress and to my amazement when it reached the spot where the man was stood it passed on through. It was only then that I noticed that the man who had been there wasn't there. I could feel the energy flow through me, my legs began to buckle, and I almost collapsed. Putting out my hands against the wall I managed to steady myself and I stood backup feeling stronger.
I felt, rather than saw something move behind me and I span round searching for the source of disturbance but to my amazement I found myself looking once again down the empty corridor. I straightened out my arms again and began to spin around slowly on the spot checking every direction for the sight of a man or anything unusual, but found nothing out of the ordinary. That was when I stopped and wondered - what was ordinary? I'm standing in some sort of facility being chased by a person I don't know and I can control light. It was at that moment that I felt a hand reach up and tap me on the shoulder. I didn't turn a first but readied my hands, allowing the light to pass though me.
Finally having the courage to turn, I lifted my head up, spun round,and pulled my hands up into a fighting stance, my arms out stretched from my body. To my amazement I found the corridor as empty as it was before. The lights were still shining just as bright, but there was no movement at all. That was when I felt it. The unmistakable barrel of a gun. It dug in between my shoulder blades pressing into my spine. The owner of the gun was rasping into my ear and I could hear the menace within voice.
"It's time for you to die Callum..." he whispered into my ear. I began to shake and I felt tears of sweat just forming on my forehead and down my back. My whole body tensed, all of my muscle tightening and I breathed slowly clinging on to each breath as I knew they could be my last. I heard the mechanical click as a finger tightened on the trigger. A shot fired. I was dead before my body had registered the pain, my head lulled forward and I became just another body...
I jolted awake finding myself lying on my bed in the same old dark bedroom that I knew, the walls adorn with old band and film posters - most of which were torn and damaged. My body was covered in sweat and my sheets and duvet were sprawled everywhere; half on the floor and half on my bed. Everything was just as it was before. Well almost. As I gazed around my room I noticed two scorch holes about the size of two tennis balls burned into the wall directly in front of me, loose plaster crumbling onto the floor.
Remembering my dream and deciding that I must have done them in my sleep, I stepped over to them putting my hands into the holes feeling the paint rub against my skin. I turned around facing my desk and opened the drawer. I found another old poster and as I put it out, I looked at the picture printed onto the paper and noticed the huge bubble writing of 'Zaz' written across the top of the poster. I remembered the band from back when I was around eight and everyone wanted to be like them. It wasn't perfect but it would have to do. I stepped over to the wall and carefully stuck the poster over the holes so that my parents wouldn't see. If my parents found out I dread to think what they would do to me.
This wasn't the first time that I'd had bad dreams but recently they had become a lot more frequent and always took place in the same corridor, with the same man and they always ended in the same fire of the gun. I may not have been the most optimistic person in the world but this was a bit extreme. My eye began to flutter and I pulled the duvet over me. I lay back onto my mattress and allowed sleep to take me away...
