The Protectors

Chapter 1

It was six years after Hunter's graduation and he was in Mia's room sitting on the window seat. This was his usual spot this time of morning; he found the Earth's sunrise breathtaking and wonderful. He looked over at Mia who was still sleeping soundly and curled up in her blanket. Her blonde hair was sprawled out onto the pillow and it shone as the rays of light hit it perfectly.

The sharp lances of sunlight penetrated the sheer, blue curtains and impaled her tired, emerald green eyes as she awoke. Shivering, goosebumps appeared on her arms from the cold night before. The morning air smelled of bacon and burnt toast. Mia's mother, Claire, was trying to cook again.

Mia didn't even get to wake up properly before the loud clacking of her mother's stilettos rang through the hallway and seeped through her thin walls. She sat up slowly, pulling her white duvet around her shoulders for extra warmth as the days were getting colder.

The annoying sound of heels hitting hardwood flooring became louder as her mother approached her door. The white, wooden door swung open, the metal hinges on the door squeaking in the process.

"Mia!" her mother shouted as she burst through the door. Her red painted lips were turned downwards in a frown and her immaculate eyebrows were furrowed in frustration.

"Well good morning to you, too." She sassed back to her mother.
Claire crossed her arms over her chest as she yelled, "do you have any idea what time it is?"

Mia looked around her room with a bored expression. "Time for you to let me get back to sleep?" She answered back rudely. Mia's eyes flickered to the corner where Hunter was standing, she couldn't see him because of magic chains they gave to every Protector.

Even though she couldn't see Hunter, it still looked like she was seeing something. "What is it?" Claire asked, turning her head in that direction as well. She shook her head and looked back at her mother.
"Nothing, I thought I saw something," she said, thinking it was just her imagination. Her mother nodded slowly and looked back at her.

"Get downstairs with your brother and Grace, you have school in half an hour," Claire demanded and Mia sighed. She had totally forgotten that she had school today; she would rather curl up in a ball with her comforter and watch movies than go to school so early in the morning, who wouldn't?

She dragged herself out of her comfortable bed to the bathroom where she was dreading the cold shower because the cold night before would give no hot water and she highly doubted that the water heater was on.

When she had finished her shower, Mia threw on a grey tee shirt, a pair of comfy jeans and a pair of black toms. She grabbed her phone from her bedside table and made her way down the creaking stairs and into the kitchen.

She scrunched up her face in disgust at the smell of the burning bread and she picked it up with her thumb and forefinger.
"Even Katniss Everdeen won't eat bread that is this burnt, mom." She told her and her mother rolled her eyes.
"Then why don't you get a job so that you can go buy your own food?" she said and Mia just laughed as she grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the counter.

Mia leaned against the counter as she took a bite of the green fruit. Her soon to be step sister, Grace, was looking through some new magazine and her older brother, Aiden, was watching a video on his phone.

"Aiden, can you please drop your sisters to school?" Claire asked as Aiden nodded. "Let's go, guys," he said as he got up from the table and grabbed his keys. He was only two years older than Grace and Mia; he was nineteen and he went to a community college a couple of blocks from their school. Grace placed the magazine on the table as she grabbed her bag quickly from her room and skipped back out into the kitchen.