Sight

CHAPTER 1

My heart thudded against my chest, pounding noisily against my ribcage, as if promising me it would never stop. But I was tired of false promises, of having my hopes raised just to be slaughtered like a cow raised for butcher.

"You are nothing to me!" I hollered into the raging wind. "You will never hurt me!" Black shadows whipped around me like they were trapping me in their own tornado. My brown hair whirled around my face, and I struggled to keep my feet planted on the ground.

The wind howled, and the shadows grew thicker and thicker, closing in around me. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't speak. My head began to

ache. I sighed in relief as the shadows stopped whirling and disappeared.

Then I heard it, whispering quietly in the dark forest. My body tensed.

"Kenzie, Kenzie, Kenzie...." It whispered my name in a hollow voice. "Kenzie, Kenzie, Kenzie," the voice grew louder, until it was screaming in my ears. I sunk to the ground, covering my ears with my hands.

"No!" I shrieked. "NO!!!" The voice rose, until it seemed right beside me, a shrill scream in my ears. I lashed out, but there was nothing but air beside me.

Suddenly, a vision filled my head. I was running, running, running, through the forest, straight to something.

Or was I? No, it felt like I was running from something. But what? Who? Why?

I streaked forward, glancing over my shoulders often. I could hear shouts echoing up from behind me. My head whirled.

•Get out! Get out!• I thought. Suddenly there was a flapping, and I was rising through the air, into the clouds above. I am human, though! I can't fly!

I looked around desperately, gazing out at the vast land the swelled out beneath me.

"Kenzie," I muttered. "Kenzie."

I blinked. I was back in the forest. What had happened? Why could I suddenly fly?

"That wasn't me," I muttered in realization. "I was someone else." I gazed up at the dark, miserable sky. "I was something else." But what?

Suddenly, the shadows closed in around me, and I let out a high-pitched scream of agony before I woke up in my bed, breathing hard, in a cold sweat.