Well, I think you've had it with my little rant/self-and-Co-writer-promotion.
Disclaimer: We don't own any X-men whatsoever, even if we wish we did. But we don't so don't even bother to sue us. The only one's we own are Rose, Belinda and anyone who you don't recognize.
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Chapter one – the marketThe air is filled with thousands of smells. The market is filled with all kind of people, young and old. The little cafés are packed and children are hanging by their mothers' skirts while they haggle. Mountains with snowy peaks stood majestically in the background. The mountainsides were covered by green trees and here and there were waterfalls. Some waterfalls were small; others were more than 90 feet high. The water came from springs high up in the mountains and was fresh. It looked like it was taken from a postcard. The lower hills were green and during spring flowers in almost every colour covered them. The strong smell of spices reaches my nose and I keep on walking to avoid it. The smell of curry, cinnamon, chilli, cardamom and other spices filled the air as I came closer to the salesmen. I see a small fabric-shop and start walking towards it. But before I reach it I hear my name being called out. As a reflex I turn, expecting to see someone I know, but I forget that I don't know anyone here. I hear my name again and look around to see who it is, and that's when I see him. An old man, he's gesturing to me to come closer. And I do, drawn to this strange old man. He motions to me to sit on the chair beside him. I sit down, watching him closely and with suspicion.
"Who are you and how do you know my name?"
"Who I am is of little importance my child. And how I know, well that is a long story."
"Why were you calling my name?"
"I was calling your name, because I needed to talk to you, Rose."
I sat there looking at his face, so old yet not. His blind eyes were almost completely white. Questions started twirling in my head. He started telling me about things from my past. He talked about my childhood, my family and things no one could know about. Or so I thought.
"You fell of a swing as a four-year old. You got hurt and had to be taken to the hospital. About two year later you and your family moved to Europe."
He then moved on to more current events. He yet again brought up things that no one else could know about, like some of the things she had been thinking about these last days.
"After you graduated you worked for a while, but decided to do a little travelling before you went back to school. You came here because of your roots are here. You thought that if you came here you would get away from the problems at home."
I looked at this man, surprised and the only thing I could think was:
'How the hell did he know that?!'
Before we went our separate ways he reached in to his pocket and took out something. He handed me the thing that was in his hand and I looked at it. I couldn't believe my eyes.
"It's… It can't be…" I couldn't say anything. My voice failed me.
"It is. You never thought you would see it again, did you?"
"How? Where?"
"Listen to your heart my child. It will lead you to the right path."
With that he got up and left. I watched him be enveloped by the crowd and then looked at the thing he had given to me. It was a gold necklace with a heart shaped ruby. My father had given me one just like it when I was a child. But when I was 14 years old I had been in the park with some friends and had dropped it. But I didn't notice it till I came home some hours later. Now after all these years it was returned to me by this strange old blind man.
* * * * *
'Damn it's warm!' I said sitting up on the bed. I had been twisting and turning for quite some time now, I couldn't sleep. Not only because of the heat, but because of what the old man had told me a few hours ago. After I had talked to him I wandered for a long while before returning to the house I was living in at the moment. His words kept repeating themselves inside my head. Especially the last thing he said. I had decided to tell someone about what had happened and that's why I got online, to talk to my online-buddy Belinda.
The house I was staying at was on the edge of the town. I had enough and picked up my blanket and some other things and walked up to the roof. On the way up I grabbed my bag that had my mini-disc player and some other things in it. Up on the flat roof I spread out my blanket and sat on it. I lit the oil lamp that was there and took out a book from my bag that I had brought up with me along with a pillow. I took out the mini-disc player and a book that I had brought with me from home. I read for a little while, but got bored quickly. I lied down on the blanket and turned the oil lamp off. I laid there for more than an hour listening to the music coming out of the headphones. The night sky was clear and the stars were beautiful. I fell asleep to the sound of the gentle cool breeze blowing thru the trees.
While I was asleep the stars seemed to slightly fade and a chill wind came from nowhere. A dark shadow appeared from nowhere. It bent down over me with a grin spread over its face. Shortly thereafter a dim light appeared and devoured the young woman, moving her to a place she never imagined existed.
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The one thing I could think of at that moment was 'Bored'. It was another drunken party that we were not supposed to have, I thought university would be more than booze and loud music, obviously I was wrong. I had a heap of English papers to do and I needed to do them soon. This group of unruly guys and girls filling up my room were not helping, teenagers and alcohol don't mix, trust me! Don't get me wrong, I love me friends, but they are such a pain in the arse!
I was relieved from my boring conversation with Matt about bottle caps with a shrill noise from my active computer. I made my excuses and left to sit in front of my laptop, it was an instant message from my friend Rose. Finally someone with more that one brain cell to talk to!
[Hey, how are things?]
~Boring old England as usual, everyone is drunk again, where are you this time?~
[North-western Iran, by the Iraqi and Turkey boarder. Exploring the wide world!]
~Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in!~
[Lol, anyway, I gotta tell you something really weird]
~What, you mean more weird than usual? :op~
[Oh shut up! I met this really weird blind man, he knew EVERYTHING about me. I was seriously freaked out!]
~Wow, that is weird~
[You're telling me! He even had the pendant that I lost when I was 14 in his pocket! And he told me to follow my heart. I still don't know what he meant]
~Whoa, now that was freaky~
[Yeah, but I've got to go know, Internet is costing me money, talk to you later, bye!]
~Bye!~
I removed myself from the computer screen wondering about that strange encounter. How could an old blind guy known so much? And what on earth did he mean by follow your heart? I walked back to the sofa, twisting my charm bracelet around on my hand as a walked. My eyes fell on the heart shaped charm and my whole body froze, not consciously but of its own accord. A vision flashed in front of my eyes of an old blind man, holding a small blue dragon in his hand, stroking over the scales with his fingers. A shooting pain ran down my back as I continued to look at the heart on my wrist. Then everything stopped. I felt extremely dizzy and I swayed on my feet.
"Whoa, Bella, you okay?" Matt asked as he caught my arm and helped me sit down.
"I don't feel too good," I groaned, rubbing my temples.
"Hey guys, Bella's feeling sick, maybe we should go!" he shouted about the noise of the stereo. Everyone agreed to this and once everyone had said their goodbyes they left. I turned off the stereo and decided that a nap would be best, maybe later I could work on those English papers. I flopped down onto the sofa and drifted off to sleep in the hope that my dizziness would go.
Belinda fell fast asleep on the red sofa in her room, completely unaware of the chill that had seeped into the room. The lights went out around her and she was plunged into almost total darkness. As she slept a dark shadow loomed over her, a smile of intent gracing its face. A light then consumed the unknowing young woman, taking her to somewhere she did not expect.