Chapter 1:

Taken

"Hey! Smarty! GetUpGetUpGetUpGetUp! You're almost late! GET UP!" Teela persistently yells into my left ear.

I take in a big yawn, with the memories of a strange dream briskly fading away.

"Ugh… what? Man, stop calling me that, Teech. You know I don't enjoy that, and you know my real name," I groan with a smirk.

"That's not fair! You said that I couldn't call you by your code name, but you just did to me! Just quit calling me Teech! I'm 14 you know, not 3 or something!" she snaps back.

My eyes creak open before staring into my sister's frowning face. No one could mistake her with those big blue eyes and blonde pigtails. Wincing at the blinding headlamp, I tuck my face into the soft, warm blanket, savoring sweet slumber. Smarty. Heh. Teela has been taunting that name because I'm a 5.0 student; and almost everyone who knows me is completely aware of my intelligence. Though, there is a sense of irony accompanying this: my memory is not incredible. Wait a minute, did she say I'm late?

"Late? Late for what?" I ask, running my hand slowly through my shaggy hair, then leaning on one elbow.

"Hello-o? You there?" she says sarcastically, knocking on my head. "Don't you remember? Oh, yeah, you can't… anyway, that, like, new college or whatever. You're kinda supposed to be there in 20 minutes. So get a move on!"

I draw in a deep breath to sit up. I peek down the hallway to see the television displaying the cover title for Death Note on Netflix. I believe Teela or my mom left it on last night. Trudging to the restroom, I snatch the comb from the floor along the narrow path that runs through a large pile of clothes left in the middle of the hallway. I stare into the mirror and think to myself "That is quite the hair you got there." Bringing the comb to my ghastly white hair, I remember how I was unfortunately diagnosed with the Marie Antoinette syndrome. Dr. Rye wondered if it came to me due to the huge emotional swing of my father's unsolved disappearance. It is reasonable: this condition is caused by immense amounts of stress. I don't recall much of him, because he vanished when I was 7 or something.

At least, that's what my mom says.

Teela, following close behind, nags why I'm "beautifying" myself and not leaving. Huh. It almost seems that she wants me to leave… or she just really cares about my education! :)

After being viciously shoved out the door, I slide into the driver's seat of my blue Saturn and bring my hand to the ignition, but I soon realize "Crap! Forgot my keys!" So I bound out of the car and race up the steps to the doorway, but at the near top of the steps I can sense something. You know when you're sitting in a room by yourself and someone silently creeps in and you can feel their vibe? That is what I'm feeling now, and it's a dangerous one.

Coincidentally, there was an ebony cadillac with blacked-out windows in the corner of my right eye. Right when I was about to forget about it and walk inside, an immense pain pounds into my forehead, and I shout out loud. I can make out a human's silhouette in my shut eyelids. This figure points at someone kneeling on the ground and moans very slowly but clearly

"You... are... mine."

My knees are sapped of vitality, and I am forced to drop. Surges of energy soar up and down both forearms, creating the illusion of a slowly depleting blue bar in my left arm. It appears to be filled with a liquid lighted with the relevant color, but with no physical matter, like it's abstract. Speaking of looking, I force my eyes open again to glance towards the car that could be the possible cause of these hallucinations. It's gone.

"What? Where could it have gone? It couldn't have sped away that fast, in such a compact neighborhood like Hayden!" my mind screams in between my ears.

Teela runs up and asks (once again) why I haven't left yet, and why I'm kneeling down, and that I'm 17 so I should be taking responsibility of my successes, so on and so forth. I respond "um… it's nothing" before standing up and striding inside to grab my keys.

"Geez. I need to get a freakin' grip. Ugh, whatever. Where is this college? Ah, I believe down this street to the Eastern Washington University."

I pull left onto the street previously stated in my mind. I glance at the speed limit. 50 mph. I follow it. Paranoid from the unusual vision, I peek at the side mirror. Huh? There it is again, the cadillac, speeding behind me.

Suddenly, the silhouettes form in my mind, this time with the person at their knees being pointed at by the standing figure. The standing figure then flexes his finger towards himself, beckoning the kneeling one to join. There is a verbal debate, but unfortunately these visions don't come with and audio input. The person (obviously doubtful due to the time it took him to get up) eventually stands up and joins the figure. I then snap back into reality only to unite the bumper of my car with the solid brick wall of the University.