Hecate

1 ◊ I Blow Up My House

As the oldest kid in my family, I have to be the most responsible. Even if I'm only a mere fourteen year old delinquent with almost no morals.

I wasn't the smartest or the fastest or the strongest in the house. But I was the sketchiest. I was tricky. I had the mind of an evil genius. I had a third eye. I knew where stuff was, what they did, where they came from and stuff like that.

You need someone to plan a prank for you? I'm your girl! Need someone to down talk a bully and make them cry to their mommies? Come find me! Need someone to get you expelled from school and banned from Florida? My name will be the first thing you think of.

I was the most dangerous and the gloomiest in the house.

I'm Riley James. I'm Spanish-American. Spanish from my mother's side. I live in a nice little town called Agnos near Seattle. Truthfully, I don't know what the heck that means or how to pronounce it. I bet you've never even heard of it. It was founded back when I was eight - six years ago - by my Great Uncle Calvin Agno. Since he was a family member, we had to support him.

I actually think he's an evil weasel who just likes taking people's money. Whenever we used to visit his place, he'd give us kids the evil eye and tell us to go to our rooms and never come out until it's dinner or if the youngest of us is twenty. Of course, I - being the rebel I was - never listened and out of anger and pure irritation, painted his room pink and covered his office in glue. It was great. Though, unfairly, he then had to share a room with me.

I live on a huge stretch of land in a house built of stone and wood that was more like a castle than a house. It was a three-storey house with at least ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, seven entertainment areas, stables, an Olympic pool, a ballroom, three offices, a library and - for some reason - an Astronomy tower.

We also had a wine cellar, but we were told to never go there. I always thought it was because we weren't allowed to drink alcohol or be near it. Whenever the elderly people of our family drank something alcoholic, we weren't allowed to be around.

I have my dad's aqua blue eyes, my mom's pale skin and my Aunt Celeste's black hair. My grandmother always told me stories about people with features like mine. Upturned noses, high cheek-bones and upturned eyebrows. I always thought I looked evil and like trouble - to which, I was - whenever my grandmother told me that we were considered to be born heroes and have been raised to be warriors.

The only heroic thing I've done was release the lab frogs in the seventh grade from being dissected. And it wasn't even my idea. It was my job to do it because I was the smallest, skinniest and most daring one in the group of people who decided to do it.

I got detention for a month.

I lived with my parents, my Aunt Celeste, my two cousins, Great Uncle Calvin, my Grandmother, my younger brother, my oldest cousin Katarina, and my nephew. Basically, all the rooms we have are full.

Right now, I'm about to tell you how my life ended, just to birth a life I never wanted.

I mean, no one would want the life I'd get.

It's cool to be like me. It's thrilling. But it's a death sentence just to walk around with the amount of power I have carrying inside me.
I'm going to tell you how I became one of the most powerful people in the world in the span of a summer.