Reader

Chapter 1

Sitting on the lush hills between our settlement and the recognized village was one of my favorite past times. It was such a nice day, so I'd kicked off my shoes before laying down to stare up at the clouds. I let my mind drift away from my responsibilities and focused only on the lazy clouds overhead, and the birds chirping away as they looked for a morsel to eat. My best friend, Willa, liked to join me for afternoon daydreaming, as she called it. We could sit out there for hours after our lessons, talking about nothing in particular. I loved our talks, especially when we both discovered boys. And the dumb things they would do to get our attention.

Then things changed, and Willa really started noticing boys. While she was going on dates, I was learning more about my role in the future. My so called romantic future had already been planned, my parents had arranged a marriage for me when I was four. Recently Willa's boyfriend, Lance, had been joining us when I decided I wanted to go sit on the hill and Willa would tag along.

Their making out interrupted my thoughts and I wished Willa would just not come out here with me.

I came to clear my head, and to spy on the village on the other side of the hill. In the past, I would venture down into the village and listen outside the windows of their school. I liked listening to the lessons taught at the school, I liked laughing because I knew the truth.

The favorite subject in the school was history. They liked to teach the children in the recognized village that the mind readers and mind controllers came forward to help with things after the solar flare that turned off the power.

What a lie.

The mind readers and mind controllers came out of the shadows, where they had lived for centuries, and took over the world.

My family is part of the underground resistance. It's been this way for the past seventy-five years. The power has been back on for the past seventy, but the world is a changed place from how things were. The mind controllers, or Assertives, are still in control. I myself am an Assertive, an extremely rare one.

My father can control minds, dominate so to speak. My mother can read minds. I inherited both. My sister, Katerina, can create illusions. She gets that from my grandfather. I'd rather have her power, because it's really cool. Even if it doesn't work on me. And talk about frustrating people.

I'd laid there on the hill for about a half hour when I just couldn't take any more of the kissing noises that were coming from behind me. Pair that with the giggles coming from Willa, and I was about to lose my lunch. Getting disgusted with Willa, I stood up. I dusted off my skirt, I loathed pants and refused to wear them, slipped on my shoes, then turned to walk toward the forest at the bottom of the hill.

"Where are you going?" Willa called after me.

"I need to be alone with my thoughts," actually, it was the last thing I needed, but I just didn't want to talk to her about it. At all. Once she started dating Lance, she seemed to forget all about me.

"Just let her go," Lance's voice floated down to me. He hated me, and the feeling was mutual.

Lance was like me, he could control minds. He'd tried on me several times, but I'm immune to that as well. I wore a ring with golden beryl in it to protect me against that kind of thing because Lance isn't the only one who's tried over the years. I had a bracelet made of amber to protect me from others who could sense my kind. With it, I came off as being a normal girl. Lance could never figure out why he couldn't manipulate me, I seemed regular to him. So much for him being able to get rid of me after he and Willa had tagged along with where I went. If he really wanted to be alone, don't follow me.

I disappeared down the hill, but didn't go into the forest. Instead, I walked back to our village.

When I was five, we'd moved to this village. Mom and Dad said it was to be closer to the Assertive who was really a mole in the government. He was there to filter information to the underground. He could also offer protection to me, because apparently there were plenty of people who would love to get me and just charge right in and take over.