"Seth! Wake up you'll be late for your first day of school!" a voice yelled.
"I'm coming mom!" Seth said rolling out of bed. He pressed his hand to his head.
"Ugh, Another day of mind noise" he muttered to himself.
Everyday had been the same for him, thousands of minds pressing against his almost over whelming him. He took pain killers every morning to dull it but that was starting to not work.
"Bye mom" he said kissing her on the cheek and grabbing some toast. He ran towards the bus
planning to sleep through his classes.
******
Rex was pulling up behind the dumpster beside the school.
"Come on Melissa." He said holding out his hand. She grabbed it with her leather gloves like always.
"Rex stop trying to hide your excitement. It's annoying." She said.
"Sorry" he apologized sheepishly.
"So this lore sight, what's it say?" Melissa asked.
"Come on cowgirl. I don't have to be a mindcaster to hear the sarcasm in your voice." He said with a wry smile. She chuckled at her nickname and pulled out her CD player.
"You're lucky your not. You don't have to deal with the mindstorm that is Bixby High" she said putting the volume on max.
"Alright let's go" he said as they walked into Bixby high.
******
When the lunch bell rang Seth snapped awake and walked out of class. He popped two Advils and walked to his locker. He grabbed his lunch and headed to the chaos that was the lunch room. He looked around and saw the kids in black he'd seen before.
They seem the only one's like me around here he thought.
He'd surveyed everyone's thoughts and there's were the only one's that were on the same thoughts as his. Especially her he thought looking at Melissa. He walked over and sat down towards the end of their table.
"Uh can we help you?" one of the others asked. After a quick search he found her name.
"No Dess, just hanging" he said.
That made her jump and he smirked. From what he could pick up from their conversation and their minds they were planning to meet at midnight in the badlands.
"Hey Melissa can I ask you something?" Seth asked.
"What?" she replied her voice flat.
"Why the gloves and shades?" he asked.
"Because I can jackass" she said turning away.
He got up and walked toward her. This brought shivers up her spine which wasn't like her. There's something wrong about him. I can't read his thoughts. Even with the crowd I should be able to read them at this distance. She thought scared.
"Why?" he asked touching a finger to her forehead.
Her thoughts rushed into him and his into hers. The maelstrom of two minds touching was like being in a hurricane. He went with it while she resisted causing her pain. She was scared at being touched he mused.
The thought reached her a second later making her flinch. The experience was frightening as it was exhilarating. Suddenly they were apart and he was standing panting hard and the guy, Rex, was holding her careful not to touch bare skin.
"What's your problem?!" he said.
"So that's the story. Sorry Melissa but we needed answers" he said.
"We? We who" Jonathan asked a little shaken at what had just happened.
Jessica was holding his hand tightly scared out of her mind. "Us" he said pointing at his chest.
"I'll explain at midnight" he said grinning and walking away.
"He'll pay for this" Melissa said her voice weak.
******
The familiar blue of tinge of the world and the sweet silence was utter bliss for Seth. He felt that Melissa felt the same way. That and she wanted to kill him.
"So who the hell are you?" Dess asked. "Okay our names are Seth and Aturo. We were born Seth but a while back because of the mindcaster thing we went insane. So we invented this second personality to keep ourselves sane. You guys are probably the only ones who know about it. Well that's not completely true but hey" He said.
"I feel touched" Melissa said bitterly.
"Ha lame joke" Seth laughed. "It wasn't a joke." She said her glare saying it all.
"Look we'll have to settle this another time" he said pulling out a metal rod.
He spun and swung it hard hitting a darkling.
"Fine, but we'll get answers from you soon." Rex said pulling out his hunting knife
Seth spun again and hit the darkling with the metal rod so thin it looked like a sword. He cut through the darkling blue sparks singeing his hand. Rex stabbed up with his hunting knife and killed the other darkling.
"Enlightenment" Jessica whispered. The flash light turned on and its beam of light shot out cutting down the darklings one by one.
"So who are you?" Rex asked sitting down. "I told you Seth Roads a mindcaster." He said looking him in the eye.
"Why'd you do that to Melissa?" he asked the anger clear in his voice.
"Because we needed answers, and she seemed like the best way to get them." He said his voice cold.
"You still haven't told us what you mean" Dess said.
"Huh?" was her reply from Seth.
"Why you keep referring yourself as we" she said clearly annoyed.
"Oh that he" said grinning. "Fine I'll show you" he whispered.
The light from the dark moon seemed to shine just on him. His shadow extended then rose forming another Seth. He looked just like him in every way accept the only color that shown on him was a dark purple. It walked away stretching.
"You really got to that earlier" it said its voice an eerie quiet yet somehow echoing.
"Sorry but something came up" he said casually. Everyone else was frozen. It gave off an evil presents like death.
"What the hell is that thing?" Dess whispered scared out of her mind.
"This is Aturo" he said still grinning. Aturo gave a little bow then jumped over and grabbed her hand. He kissed it lightly and she shivered. He grinned and jumped back landing near Seth. The two of them stood next to each other looking like a mirror image.
"Is that a darkling?" Jess asked.
"Yep" he replied his grin never leaving his face.
"How the hell can you exist like that?" Melissa asked. "It's a long story" Aturo said.
Then they began to speak. It was eerie, where one left off the other began finishing each others sentences in a cycle. Aturo began their speech.
"When I was a darkling-"
"-a couple hundred years ago-"
"- a midnghter like you-"
"- mortally wounded him-"
"-close to death I found a human-"
"-and hid in her womb-"
"-laying dormant-"
"-passing from child to child-"
"-until I was born-"
"-where I emerged-"
"-as my other half-"
"-only to appear at midnight" they finished a dark grin looking creepy.
Aturo leaped away like an Acrobat laughing. Dess let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and sank to her knees.
"What the hell?" she asked breathlessly. Seth walked over and extended his hand. She looked into his eyes and saw clear blue eyes. He looks human but how? She thought. She took his hand and got up.
"That was Aturo and I've had to live with him for eight years" he said his voice distant.
Dess shivered. "How can you live with…that for eight years" she said remembering the horror she felt being around it.
"I got used to it after the first year." He said shrugging.
"Wait are you a Mindcaster or an Acrobat?" Jonathon asked recovering form the shock first.
"Both. I'm a Mindcaster and he's an Acrobat but with don't use each others powers" he said.
"Wait, what does he eat?" Rex asked.
"You're fast. He eats cattle and occasionally humans." He said simply. The fact that he said it made Dess take a step away from him.
"Don't worry it stays in his conscious and doesn't flow into mine. In fact he sleeps from 7:00 a.m. to about 7:00 p.m. depending on the seasons. Some how he always knows when the sun goes down." He said looking at the fast setting moon. Midnight ended seconds later.
"We'll talk again later" he said walking back towards town and everyone followed him back towards town.