Aura

Book I - Chapter One - Salem

            "Run," I command David to mentally instruct the others. "I feel their presence. Run faster, dammit!"

Inaudibly, he passes on the message. The eldest men grab the children into their arms and fly ahead of me.

"I am scared," one of the youngest whispers. Unfortunately, I cannot decipher who it is; every single one of us is frightened.

For a few precious moments, there is only the sound of our footsteps carefully hopping about the debris of the trees and the remnants of forgotten years. The moment lasts so long that I think we may have eluded the guards altogether.

Then I can see only yellow.

"Abigaile!" my fiancé, Robert, cries out. "Abigaile, run!"

I wish to listen to his words, but the light emanating from the sheriff's lantern has caught me in a trance as it grows menacingly bigger.

We live in Salem, Massachusetts; or what is left of the town. Life in this small colony was once quaint, simple; perfect. Robert and I moved here from Boston in the year 1690. Compared with that growing city, this was a haven.

People like us never truly feel accepted anywhere, but I had once felt safe here. There are two types of people in this world: Regulars and Talents. Regulars are the average people whose most extraordinary gifts may be an incredible singing voice. They are normal and are quite plain in my opinion. Then there are Talents, so called because we possess special abilities. Regulars refer to us as magical or supernatural. Ignorantly, they even refer to us as witches.

We lived here in peace until the trials began. One lone child of a wealthy man fainted, and they blamed their slave maid. She was a Regular. But nonetheless, the town put her on trial and the judge found her guilty of using Black Magic. They executed her a week later. As fear spread so did the accusations, putting much of the town on trial. Allegations also included the twelve of us that are the only true Talents.

The punishment was inhumane incarceration. I was the first of the Talents imprisoned. Piercing metal chains hung me from the wall of the chilled cellar. A flow of water constantly dripped upon my head. The pain of knowing I may never leave alive was unbearable.

The Regulars view my appearance as strange; a sin in their world, but an omen in ours. I have hair that flows in a tangled disarray down to the small of my back. Not only is my hair long, but it is as silver as the full moon on its brightest night. In the dark, it glows. Then there are my eyes. They are not as bright or as colorful as the moon; they are the moon. My eyes radiate the brilliance of the night, illuminating all the shadows people hide behind. They are the very fear that lives within the souls of all.

In the world of the Regulars, this makes me something to be feared. Just like the "witches" of these trials, this means I should be killed. However, in my world I am a goddess, sent to help all those in need. I was born with a purpose.

In this very moment, that purpose is to get all twelve Talents of Salem out of the now toxic town.

However, my mission to rescue my charges is failing. I stare hypnotically at the radiance of the ominous yellow light growing larger as it approaches me.

"NO!" I hear exclaimed loudly into my thoughts at the precise moment I feel my body fly, tackled from the right, flung into the air. At this moment, I also realize the exclamation had not been mine.