Tempus

Chapter 1

My eyes burn from smoke pouring in. My vision swirls out of focus and I try to blink. I am weak. My body lays beneath me in a heap, burning in agony.

"Please God no!" A woman screams. I struggle to get up and manage to support myself with my elbow . I search for the direction of the voice. I hear the woman scream again. I turn in the other direction that's when I see her. The woman. She sits against a wall,rocking herself, and.......crying? What's going on? my brain screams. That was when I saw the black figure standing over her with something heavy in his hands. It is also black.

"You did this to your self!" The figure speaks, twirling the object in his hand.

"Please....plea *cough* please" The woman struggles to speak. I want to hear more but the smoke fills my lungs stopping me from breathing the ever so sweet air. I collapse back to a laying position, no longer to support myself. The odd people talk more but I am unable to hear over the crackling coming from the fire. I am helpless and scared. No, not scared. Terrified beyond sanity. The edges of my vision turn slowly black,narrowing my sight. Minutes turn to hours of me laying, still, lifeless. Until, strong hands lift me from my ankles ,dragging me towards them. I try to fight, to put up a struggle, but it is no use. This person is to strong for my young body. The unknown person swings me over their shoulder. I hang their like a rag doll, but, right before I'm taken out of this fiery room, I gain enough strength to tilt my head up.

The same man stands over the same woman but this time he is holding the object to her forhead. I feel myself tense.

"BANG" goes the object.

A sudden pain strikes my chest. As if someone stabbed a needle directly into my heart as I watch the now lifeless woman fall to the ground. I felt like...

Like...... I new her... Without a warning a shrill sound escapes my throat. A scream? No. It couldn't be. My scream doesn't sound right. In fact it sounds at least five pitches higher than my normal voice. Almost childlike...............

A strong hand pulls apart my grasping arms and Strap me to the bed suddenly

"Calm down Raven!" My Grandmother yells, struggling to contain me. My eyes snap open and I breathe. My Rapidly moving body calms and I lower the rest my back against wall behind me. I take deep breaths as sweat pours down my forehead. I wipe my tear stained cheeks and sigh.

Another bad dream.

-- Next morning --

"Don't forget flour!" My gray eyed Grandmother calls from the front door.

"I wont! Do worry" I yell back, jumping on my bike. "Love you!" I scream glancing back to see her small wrinkly body leaning on the front door frame.

"Love you to! Be careful!" She presses her lips into a thin line while she fiddles with her fingers. I could tell gran was scared. She always gets scared when I leave the house. I love my Gran. She was like a 2nd mother for me my little sister Emma and my older brother Jake. You see my mother had died in a freak car accident when I was only 3. So it didn't really effect me but it did my brother who was 10 at the time. And I never had a dad or met my dad, or in fact, never got to hear anything about him. Which is quite strange but every time I ask Gran she gets sooooo depressed and walks away or just changes the subject. I don't favor hurting the poor old woman's heart so long ago I took any questions I had in a box and through them in a river that was my mind.

"I'll be fine!" I smiled reassuring my safety. She nodded. Then I turned away I rode off down my street.

I lived in a low income high crime neighborhood. Full with sketchy people and broken down old houses. I rode down the eery sidewalk looking back to see my house slowly fading away in to the foggy mess that was my town.