The Other Life (new WKW)

Chapter [Ni]

-Grace-

"Hey Grace! You got a letter!" my little sister, Katty, called up to me from downstairs.

"Bring it up!" I yelled back.

"Get it yourself!" she shouted.

I sighed, got up from my bed and set my writing aside. I suddenly realized who it was from. I had auditioned for a place in SONG-Eye a couple of days ago. The Society Of Naturally Gifted Individuals is an elite group for the best of the best, for naturally gifted people of which talents had little 'side-effects'. I had to join; they'd teach me how to use my abilities properly and I'd get to know my power more. My talent's a little abnormal, but then again what SONG-Eye talent isn't?

I first found out about my talent 4 years ago, in the 7th grade when I was 12 years old. As a class, we were assigned to write a poem about an animal. I chose to write about tigers and how powerful they were. I made sure to use words that would make the reader or the listener feel the fear its prey would feel, the hunger that the tiger would endure, all of that.

When my teacher asked me to read my poem out to the class, I stood at the front of the classroom and read it. About halfway through the poem I noticed everyone was looking so scared. At first I thought that was a good thing, I made them really feel just by reading the poem aloud with strong emotion in my voice, but shortly after that when I read the part about the zebra feeling the pain of the tiger's claws and teeth dig into its side, everyone started to scream and wince in pain, everyone clutching their sides in agony. I realized then that I had the power to make people feel what I wrote about.

I tested it on Katty a week after, reading to her the scene in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where Romeo finds out that Juliet is "dead". She wept like crazy and she wasted a whole box of tissues, crying out 'Juliet! Come back, Juliet!' Ah man. Good times.

I hurried down the stairs and snatched the letter from the kitchen counter. Throwing myself on the couch, I opened the envelope.

"It looks pretty old don't you think?" Katty asked.

"Yeah, it looks really formal," I agreed.

"Hey, what's this?" My older brother, Ryan, snatched the letter from my grasp.

"Hey, no fair, give it back!" I yelled after him.

Ignoring me, he ran out into the back yard, shoved the letter in his back pocket and climbed onto the roof without a ladder. Luckily, I was quick enough to snatch the letter from his pocket while he was still climbing. As soon as I did, I ran back into the house, to my room, locked the door and the windows and read the letter.

To Miss Grace Nelson

We were very pleased with your audition yesterday.

However, you did not provide us with a codename. You have until tomorrow at 1800 hours to provide us with an adequate codename suited to your talent.

Call-backs are the same time as the deadline tomorrow.

Good luck,

Lady Serpentine, Head of SONG-Eye.

Ah man, a codename? Well, my talent has something to do with empathy, so why not find something related to that? I dropped onto my bed and switched on my laptop.

I opened up Google chrome, clicked on the search box and typed in: Google translate. Enter. Click, click, click, and click. My fingers tapped in, e-m-p-a-t-h-y. Translate; Empatia; empathy in Portuguese. Bingo! I wrote on my arm in Sharpie:

[EMPATIA]

Perfect.

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