Once Apon a Lifetime

          “Ready, girly-girl?” Jerad whispered, holding out his hands. Despite my urge to strangle the tall, dark haired, green-eyed, handsome-- Horrible, I mean, boy, I nodded. “Ready as I ever can or will be.”

           “You have to take my hands for this, you know.” I narrowed my eyes, hesitantly entwining my fingers with his, of course I knew. No, I was not turning pink in the cheeks or face. At all. Not me. Even if I was, it was hidden by a shroud of darkness in which I was escaping my certain death. To my surprise, I was pulled against the taller boy's chest against my will. “I don't like to see you run away, but we don't want you dead, I guess. I'm going to miss you. Even your mind reading, teleportation, and blue light stuff popping from your hands occasionally creeps the life out of me. ” That about summed up my feared and fabulous, natural, magic skills, plus making objects move with my mind as well.

          “You, Jerad, are a nitoid.” I muttered. “Hey! That's totally not called for!” He said, squeezing me tighter. I pulled away, grabbing his hands again. “Let's get this over with before we get caught, okay?” He gave me a puppy-eyed look, before sighing and gripping my hands back. The feeling of power began to surge through my body. Up from my toes to my arms, into my hands and Jerad's.

           A blurry, silver-tinted blue light formed around our figures as it spread into the ground. Jerad, the only one not afraid of my magic work, had been my stabilizer for ages and now I was erasing the memory of myself from everyone in my home. The silly folk having never seen past the huge stone wall along all four sides of the tiny town. Unknown to Jerad an I, tonight wouldn't be a succesful escape, but of fatal disappearance here. One of the older council members had been awoken by the shimmering light and stumbled groggily outside into the breezy, summer night to investigate.

           The blue light was becoming a shade of gold, growing stronger by the moment. But in the same moment, the elder caught us in the act. “Everyone get up! The girl is tainted! She must be removed!” I made the fatal mistake right there. I ripped my hands away from Jerad's, the light gone with a loud hiss. Time seemed to freeze, Jerad's eyes wide, the older man's jaw slightly open, a few dim, yellow-y lights turned on in the other huts and structures. I couldn't move or stop it as the picture in front of me shuddered and began to fade away. The houses were the first to go, followed by the ground and sky, leaving total blackness all around, Jerad and the old man were gone.

            My name is Autumn Briggs. I once lived in the tall, impassable walls of Grathania up until the incident. One day, I found a hole in the walls and decided to keep it secret from everyone so I covered it with old leaves. After my parents passed away, I discovered my telekinesis, telepathy, and the the odd powers. Jerad was 15 and caught me testing out the telekinesis. Ever since that day, he was the stabilizer of my light powers. But when I became 16, someone nearly caught us, and I was accused of witchery. I was slated for death a few months later since magic like mine was considered an art of the cursed or tainted or evil. The village, Grathania, was erased 201,400 years ago today. Now it only exists in my mind, if even there.