Chapter 1

Half past 3 on the grounds of Rathbourne High School is a very difficult place to be. Humans, with their short lives and unfulfilling dreams are always so hasty. Rushing here and there, to and fro, place to place has always got to be rushed. The children leaving the school in such a mad rush to get anywhere usually bring headaches to her. As if she needed anymore.

Katharyne Roth leaned cautiously against the school gates, keeping herself open to run if anyone tried to ambush her with well, anything. She had to concentrate. The voices, her voices were being unusually far and few between and quiet today. She brought her hands to her temples and started to massage them in a clockwise direction. Despite this being one of her very few moments of some slight peace, she knew it wouldn't last. An earthquake was due somewhere in the Philippine Sea and she had to keep as calm as possible before it hits. She didn't want to lash out at anyone. She didn't need another voice in her head to scream at her, let alone one that she caused.

76,053 people. Every one of them about to die. She sees their faces. She feels their horror, everyone of those people, she can sense and everyone of their body clocks, mere hours, minutes, some even a few seconds to live. Suddenly, it hit. She clasped her head between her hands, tears streaming down her eyes, her mouth open and closing like a fish, teeth bared, she dropped to the ground. Her stomach convulsed as, in her head, in the very depths of her heart and soul hundreds of people every second flooded in, knocking down any weak mental barriers she had dared to hope would work. Their eyes, their wails and screams as they made their last death throws for life. Mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandmothers and grandparents all screaming, all trying to beat back their fate, all inside of her head, screaming in unison.

Her condition shows no mercy, it never has. As every second, hundreds of people pour into her head. Time had no meaning to her. The pain of every one of those people that she felt would be enough to paralyse any single person who felt it and drive them so mad, they'd think they were in paradise. The obvious way to stop all of this would be to knock yourself out during this terrible ordeal. But the very genes in her body prevent her from slacking out and gives her no mercy. Her trait is unrelenting, it ensures that it drags on, pulls her through, makes her listen to individual cries and yet to all of them at once. Time has no meaning like this. So it wasn't surprising that she found herself stuffed some time later in some sort of skip, in the middle of the night, with absolutely no concept of when or even where she was.

Katharyne's eyelids quivered, however not out of sleep. It was never out of sleep. Almost directly above her, a waning crescent moon finally managed to peak through the thick clouds that were on the move. The wind was picking up. Katharyne could feel the temperatures dropping Celsius by Celsius towards zero and knew by instinct she had to move. Despite knowing this, she still kept absolutely still. Her head hadn't stopped spinning and heart has yet to slow down a beat. She knew after many decades of experience and instinct that she couldn't risk being exposed like this. Even the slightest of injuries or illnesses that could receive in this cold, alongside her current condition would be enough to make her an extremely dangerous person to be within sight of. Yet she still couldn't move. Like many times before, she felt like giving up, like she couldn't go on. But like many times before, when she tried, it gave her wave after wave of unbearable and excruciating agony. She had no choice. She had never had a choice.

Gritting her teeth and forcing herself to keep calm, she at last opened her eyes and sat up. The dim, almost inhuman world she saw around her lit up only by a single crescent moon, only remotely piqued her interest. She knew this place was still within the boundaries of the human world and she had seen similar place before. She squinted and peered through slit eyelids at the world around her. As far as light would allow, Katharyne saw she was in some kind of back alleyway, hidden from view behind a row of short, squat houses. There wasn't a single road sign nor landmark in sight. She cursed the people who kidnapped her. It wasn't the first time it had happened before, but when it does, it leave her fuming. Over time, the sick joke never ceasing to annoy her.

Suddenly and without any warning, there was a white flash that blinded her. Seconds later, her sight restored, she whipped her head around furiously, teeth bared. She found the perpetrator. A tall, skinny boy with mousy coloured hair, naturally spiky, stood approximately 2 metres from her left. He was holding a digital camera, inspecting the picture as it was loading onto the screen. This boy creeped her out. Not only was he able to impossibly sneak up on her, she was also disturbed and puzzled as to why he was walking about in the dead of the night, on his own, with a camera.

"So what's this supposed to be? Your night job?" she spoke with a guttural voice, through clenched teeth and hands balled up into fists. The boy looked up sharply, with a stunned look on his baby-shaped face. By the looks of him, he seemed to only be about 13 years old. This was going to be easier than she thought. With ease and with decades of training behind her, she expertly pushed herself up off the rubbish bags, placed her hands on the edge of the skip and flipped 180 degrees onto the ground. She stood very still, taking even deep breaths. She had to keep her composure. Sure she wanted to get back at the boy, but a dead body on her hands would bring trouble.

Slowly she turned to face the boy and caught his gaze straight on with eyes the colour of turquoise. He flinched, as all people did. No one could properly look into her eyes without reacting in some way other than normal. It was a trait she took a lot of pride in. Yet deep down, although too stubborn to admit it, it makes her feel extremely isolated. And alone. She took a step towards the boy who by now, was locked into place. He was terrified by the hollowness, the blackest of blackness that seems to emanate from her pupils. She couldn't help herself. This time she was actually going to have fun. "I can calculate," she said, her voice suddenly taking on a devilishly charming tone, "It would take 5 steps and therefore 2 seconds to walk straight from here," pointing at her feet, "To you." She slowly placed her right foot behind her and bent her knees slightly, all the time never relenting her gaze from him. "and less than half the time," she continued, "to jump you. Now if you were clever, which indeed i'm sure, somehow, you are, you'd give me your little machine there and run home, not saying a word. Fast." The boy took a second to recollect his thoughts before he flung the camera upwards and ran away shrieking.

She caught the camera in one hand and straightened up. All was silent. A loud chortle broke the peace as she whipped around to face the new stranger. Oh, as if she needed to see another weirdo right now, she thought as she caught sight of him half, swaggering and all smirking towards her.