Thank you to my wonderful editor, Code-Battle-Seraph, without whom this wouldn't be possible.
I come from a planet called Lorien.
My Cepan tells me it was virtually a paradise. People were always happy there.
Until.
Down from the heavens, or perhaps the bowels of hell, came creatures of horror. They killed all Loric in one night, stripped my planet of it's resources.
And now there on Earth. Looking for us. Hunting us. They want to do to Earth what they did to Lorien, and all that stand in their way are eight teenagers.
In the beginning, there were nine of us.
I can still feel the scar searing into my leg. We were living in Brazil, near the coast. I was 9, almost 10 then. Mareese has just picked me up from school and was driving the deserted road to our house when my left sock caught on fire. The pain didn't hurt so much as the implication: Number One was dead.
We left that night.
We were nine at the beginning.
Now we are eight, and I am Three.