The Unknowns (Book 1)

The Unknowns

The Unknowns

Chapter 1

Once upon a time there lived a boy named Austin Creed. He’s lived in Georgia his entire life with his mom and dad until they both were taken away by the Hunters. Austin’s uncle took him in as his own, swearing he’d keep Austin safe from the Hunters as long as he could, but deep down his uncle, Trent Creed, knew he wouldn’t be able to take on the Hunters by himself. Trent misses his brother every day, but he had hoped that his brother would be able to escape the Hunters and would return to his son. As the days wore on, as years passed, he started losing hope his brother would come back. At Austin’s seventh birthday party there was a fire caused by the Hunters. They caught the house on fire with Austin inside of it, leaving him to suffer. Trent went inside the house, oblivious to the fire burning him as he ran, his mind was on Austin, Austin only. He found him in his room, fear written all over his face. The fire covered Austin head to toe, yet Austin was unharmed by the flames that surely would kill anyone in his position. Austin had discovered his first power. There’s much to be said, but so little time, so let’s fast forward to when everything really begins.

I felt the windy breeze hit me welcoming as I open the front door and head to my car for school. Winter is my favorite season by far. Maybe it’s because in Georgia the humidity can be brutal, as when it’s winter we can take a break from the heat.  My phone rings and I see my girlfriend’s face lighting up on the screen. I sigh and click the end button, not wanting to hear about the latest party she wants to drag me to. She only takes me to them to show me off as if I’m one of her first place tennis trophies.

She calls four more times before giving up, figuring she’ll be able to track me down at school. I roll my eyes at the thought of her clinging to me at lunch, whispering to her friend Janice about every girl that walks by our table.

I get inside my Jeep and start my journey to school. A light powder of snow is on the ground from last night’s “storm.” It hardly ever snows badly here, so when I hear about storms hitting Georgia, I don’t get too excited.  I park my car in one of the school parking spots, then trudge through the “snow” into the school. Kids are enthusiastically talking to one and another, acting as if they don’t hate each other secretly.

We all do it, even I do. When I see my best friend Craig, I feel a pang of guilt at what I just said. He’s a nice guy, he really is, but to him and all our other friends, popularity is the key to life. I’m not going to say it isn’t nice to be able to get what you want whenever you want, or being able to do everything high class instead of middle class, but to me, it’s all fake.

“Dude,” Craig says once he sees me. “Carlie keeps calling me asking why you won’t answer your phone. If I didn’t know better I’d say you were avoiding her.”

Craig raised his right eyebrow at me. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me dumping her so he could take a go at her. Should it bother me that I don’t care if he drools over her, or when we fight he begs her to dump me? He doesn’t have a chance with her, probably never.

“I didn’t feel like talking about the party tomorrow. We all know what she’s going to say. She’s going to say that in order for me to keep my status as head of the school I need to go to all the major parties.”

Craig rolls his eyes at me. “You take Carlie for advantage, Austin. She’ll be the girl making you soup when you’re sick.”

I laugh out loud. “I would love to see Carlie make me soup. She won’t even get her own drink; she makes Janice do it for her.”

Craig as always is oblivious to anything bad I say about Carlie. He hitches his bag over his shoulder and points to a girl with curly blonde hair. “Look, it’s her again. You’d think she’s hitting on me if she didn’t try to break my arm when I tried to hit on her.”