The Powers

Chapter 1

I woke with a start. The small of my back was sticky with cold sweat. Not again please. The air bed groaned as I sat up, brushing the hair off my face and rubbing my eyes. I don't want to think about it.

But the images came unbidden. The car hugging the tree in a lethal embrace. The bridge pulsing with light. The luminous flowers and trees by the highway. Mom and Dad waving, then disappearing into the bridge light.

I shook my head, black hair whipping around. I could hear the distant humming of night traffic outside, the squeal of tires on the wet road.

I unzipped the sleeping bag, got a glass of water and stood looking out at the roundabout. It was some ungodly time in the morning, but there were still some cars driving. Mainly taxis. This place was so different, alien, but yet not. The scar over my left eye gave a dull throb.

In my reflection it was puckered pink among the shadowy planes of my face.

Weird to think it's been almost two months. That was the wrong think to think. The stab in my chest almost crippled me. Damn. Don't think about it.

Instead I thought about the coming day. Or rather the coming hours. New school. Great. Just about the only thing my scatterbrained uncle managed to do. Enroll me in one and pick up a quaint navy uniform.

A plaid navy skirt below the knee, white collared stirt and a navy sweater with a creast embroidered on the lest breast. All of it was still neatly folded in a bag, in the corner of the living room. Along with the rest of my belongings.

The living room is where I sleep. I don't think Declan was ever planning on getting married, let alone having kids. And now he has me. Great. Another thing neither of us planned.

I'm not sure anyone would've planned this. Cos I certainly didn't on my whole family dying in an accident, start seeing things, then moving half way across the world to live with my estranged uncle Declan, in a one bedroom apartment overlooking a roundabout. Not to mention having to make my way from the airport.

Yea, that was fun.