The Touch

Chapter 2 - The Beginning

In 2032 World War three had finally ended after years of fighting and with the obliteration of several countries and the demise of many populations. The World Government was formed after this making countries conform to one leadership.

This new World Government had been formed by religious members who felt that the world had shown so much hatred towards each other that now they would start a solution to bring everyone together under one religion and Christianity was chosen as it was determined to be one of the oldest and wider spread religions. Some protested at first as not everyone believed in this faith, but as the war had taken the lives of people from all walks of life and all different faiths, the Government decided it was best that people conform to one religion so there was no chance of any further uprisings.

At first this worked because people were desperate to have faith in something as many had lost their loved ones in the War. Churches flourished as attendance was compulsory and so did the bank balances of the religious heads. Everyone was required to pay money from their wages directly to this government run religious organisation and as people struggled to make ends meet the government leaders grew richer. It was no longer about worshipping God and finding peace for these leaders, it was about money.

In 2040 the world was shocked when a child was born that had amazing special abilities. By the age of three she had the ability to see into a person's life from their birth right up to the day that they would die, just by touching them on the wrist. This child was so accurate that people queued outside her house day and night just to try and find out where their lives were heading and what they could expect.

You see, if you had the ability to know exactly what was going to happen in your life, and had a chance to change the outcome or prevent it, would you? The answer for many of these people was yes, of course they would.

Soon several other children were born with the same abilities and each was as accurate as this first child.

By 2046 suicide rates were almost zero as people were able to get more answers from these children who were dubbed to have "The Touch" and their gifts were discussed throughout the world.

One of the most gifted children born with the Touch was Marlena Gael. Marlena was just an ordinary child born to a very ordinary family, but the extraordinary thing about Marlena was that not only could she see directly into people's lives just by one touch of her fingers to their wrist but she could also stall them for a brief amount of time and in that time the person had no recollection of what had happened to them. People were shocked by the accuracy of her visions and soon she also started seeing natural disasters and the date they would happen.

After she had predicted a major tsunami disaster off the coast of Indonesia and warned them of the dates, the Government evacuated everyone in those regions and ended up saving thousands of lives.

The church and government officials started to listen and take notice when Marlena became an Internet sensation. The wealthiest church and most powerful government official Reverend Abraham Blackwood saw an opportunity and proclaimed Marlena as a gift from God. By proclaiming her as a gift of God he also saw an opportunity for the church leaders to benefit immensely from any income that came from people visiting her, and it worked. People started listening and went back to attending church more hoping that their future children would also be born with the same gift that Marlena had. In fact there were queues of people who offered their child for Marlena to Touch as if by some magic way they would also inherit her special powers. Of course this would never happen, but when more and more children were born with this gift then the churches proclaimed that god was working through Marlena and blessing others with similar children. People started to listen and the church charged people for the privilege of being blessed by Marlena.