Sighted

Chapter 3: Not Enough Sense to Come Out of the Rain

Gin

      My boots splash through the standing puddles on the sidewalk. The rain from earlier has died down to just a trickle. I've been out, following the familiar pulls of magical energies in the city, looking for leads. The demon from a few nights ago has been weighing on my mind. He was obviously low-level, given how quickly he was dealt with. I'm concerned with my inability to track him in the first place, I wonder if he had someone protecting him.

      I know that my skills aren't lacking. I was born a chosen one, just like my mother and grandmother. I was trained by both of them since I could walk, in order to be ready to accept my powers and fight the evils of this world. I didn't have a childhood, I had a training camp.

      The past three generations of chosen ones in my family have been women, but that's just coincidence, it usually varies. I'm the oldest of my parent's children, but that doesn't ensure anything either. My mother was an only child, same as her mother, so they never really had a chance.

      There are plenty of sighted families, usually not as small as ours, ones with the chosen one of a generation appearing somewhere among a plethora of cousins. A lot of sighted humans don't even have anything to do with the magical and spiritual realm. However, in our little family, once I was born it was clear it was going to be me, and Owen was raised alongside me during my life's training. This is the only way we've known.

      Owen is invaluable to me. Even though he is younger, he is always on my side. Not to forget smart too, he is amazing, practically a genius. What he can do with a computer boggles my mind. It certainly helped that he received a formal education. While I was home schooled, with school work less prioritized than rigorous martial arts training and power control lessons, Owen attended regular schooling.

      He was incredibly advanced and managed to skip a few grades, graduating the same year that I completed my high school education. He went on to university, graduating a few months ago with a degree in computer science and engineering. He's been a large part of supporting us financially as well, since we moved to the city as well. I couldn't live in the city, away from home, without Owen actually.

      One of the biggest drawbacks of being chosen is the unemployment. It's hard to hold a job when I spend my nights, and sometimes my days, running after bad spirits and demons bent on destruction. Also, supernaturals that are in danger show up at all hours of the day, seeking my special help when they're in trouble. There is one fix that the universe provides but I'm not exactly sold on it. A soulmate.

      Every chosen has a soulmate. Personally, I think it's an incredibly broken system. I've watched my father my whole life, putting everything on hold for my mother's strenuous lifestyle. He's dropped everything to take care of injured werewolves or cursed spirits. He still workes full-time, running his own small restaurant, to support our family

     I also know he was up late most nights, worrying, waiting for my mother to come home. I haven't met my soulmate yet, and I am in no hurry. It's bad enough that Owen lives without a choice like me, I don't want to drag someone else into it.

      As much as Owen takes care of me, I am responsible for protecting him. My life is dangerous and I am as careful possible to keep the danger away from him. The irony that he is probably cuddling a demon at home right now, doesn't escape me. As long as Bowden is shackled, so to speak, he's harmless. Once that bracelet comes off, that's a different story.

      Currently, I am investigating who would be interested in attacking vampires. There is usually only one reason that a supernatural is targeted by another, and that is the transference of magical energy. Magical energy relates to the power of the being, and not the usual human energy like endurance and strength.