The room was completely empty except for two chairs. One was occupied by a young man. There was nothing special about him. He was your average man, but somehow he seemed different. Whether it was the way he held himself or the way his eyes seemed to know more than his years should; I don't know why, but I was entranced. I stood there for what seemed like hours, just watching this person in front of me, waiting for him to say something. With a refined movement, he beckoned me to join him.
I took the seat across from him and continued to scrutinize this person, wondering how we got here. When I could take it no longer, I spoke.
"Tell me."
"Tell you what?" his voice came back to me in a smooth and even timber, unsurprised by my sudden outburst.
"How it started."
"They say that your history was written from the horses back or by some men in coon skin caps, but I know better. I saw the whole thing. There were things you could never have imagined. Things that would have never been without us. I could tell you things that your books will never say because the truth is hard to understand." He answered as if he had told this story before.
"So was it the big bang or divinity?" I joked, not believing any of this.
"This world has never been just a place; a dead zone or a star like your books say. This world has always had something." His voice showed no change.
"What do you mean 'something'? Like aliens?"
"First there was a light."
"A light?" I laughed. "Like a star? But you just said that …"
"This light is not what you are thinking." he said, trying to get me to understand. "This light was neither a star nor like the ones above your head which are nothing more then a parlor trick. This light is alive."
"Now wait a minute. How can a light be alive? It's only heat."
"See. That's where you're wrong. This light is so much more than that." he was starting to raise his voice.
"How do you know that it wasn't just a light?"
"Because we were that light."
"We who?" I demanded, now fed up with the cryptic answers.
"There is more in this world than meets the eye. Have you ever been fascinated as you watched something burn or just stood in the wind and the rain, feeling content." he was looking at me, waiting for a reaction that I assume he found because he soon continued. "We are part of the oldest magic there is."
"Magic?! Now you have got to be kidding. You want me to believe that you have some kind of magic powers and have been around since the turn of the world!" the disbelief was evident in my voice.
"My magic is real and has been passed down from generation to generation." As he states this he hands me a book that look as if it would fall apart at any moment. "I, like you, Areathena, am just one in a long line of gifted individuals."
It was the summer before everything changed. The party across the street had been going strong for an hour now. The music drifted across the street, filling the hot air in the park with a base beat. The light breeze caught a few strands of my dark, chocolate- like hair, pushing it across my eyes, as I watched the sky change from light blue to black silk with diamonds of all sizes, just listening to the crickets as they started to sing a beautiful song.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked as he handed me a bottle of water and pushed the swing I was sitting on.
"I like it out here. It's calm, and the weather is just right." I guess the tone of my voice must have clued him in to what was really going on in my head. "Yeah, it is."
I smiled, knowing that he would understand. "Quiet too." The sadness was apparent in my voice. "How long before they realize we're missing?"
"I don't know. Could be minutes, possibly hours." At this I giggled and shook my head.
He stopped the swing and whispered in my ear. "What's so funny?"
"I was just thinking how sad it is that the birthday girl can sneak away from her own party, and that it may take hours before her family realizes she's gone." After saying it out loud, my giggling got to the point that I had tears running down my cheeks.
"What is so funny about that? I find that sad!" Looking over my shoulder, I gave him a sad smile that only seemed to prove his point.
"Yeah, well that's family life for you."
He abruptly turned my face and forced my eyes to lock with his, which made me glare at him. "What was that for?" I pushed his hand away from my face.
"A family is not just supposed to forget you, Thena! Every member is important!" the anger in his voice didn't surprise me. We've had this conversation more times than either of us could count. "Let's buy that place in the country and start our new family. You said that the others were nearly ready, so what's stopping us?"
This is how it always ended, the talk about the coven that I, Areathena, was the head of. The power is passed down not always through families. It is from the death of one of the five that brings the birth of another. We each have a pendent that will end up in our possession, but the fifth one gets something more. They get the knowledge of the other four in the form of a spell book, and the task of bringing the other four together.