Summer was beautiful in Bahari. The sun would cause the water to seem even more alive, glass patterns and stardust rippled in the waves while the foaming horses raced towards Song and her sister, Emily. The twins would run about the sandy beach, occasionally pausing to settle any disputes between themselves but mainly sharing each childhood joy with each other. Both would tire themselves out as much as they pleased, allowing themselves to become caked with sand and dirt only so they could refresh themselves in the cool waters. They knew that after a day at their beach with its rock pools and swirling sands, they could always count that after running home through the meadows and woodland, Mother would take them in and serve them with freshly made lemonade and her baking.

Mother was a curiosity as well as a love for them; her hands were always deep-rooted with soil and dirt, her apron covered in grass stains. After feeding them she would talk to them for a long, long time, allowing them to fiddle with her naturally green hair as she spoke. To them she was everything; all they could remember from their birth was this tall, willowing woman and her husband, Shadow. They had taken them in after their mother had died and cared for them as if they were their own children, their father was a dear friend of theirs, they said, and their mother had done them a great service. None of this mattered to the children, for none of the hurts of the world had yet made their mark upon them. They were as innocent as the fish that swum unwillingly into Shadow's nets, all they knew was happiness. They made no connection between Mother's hair and her gardening skills, the way plants seemed to grow from her hands, and Shadow's seemingly impossible ability to blend in with the boat in which he sat was commonplace.

Song was a small child, always shy. She seemed dwarfed by her younger twin in both the willingness to make friends and size. Anyone who saw the blonde next to her blue-haired sister would ask Emily how her younger sister did, but Song didn't mind. They were best friends, leaders of the gang of village children who took over the beach and the meadow every summer. Ever since they were younger they had shared everything, and all the people in the village made sure to say "hey" when they went by. However Song did notice that they said this to her more than her sister, in fact some strangers would avoid Emily altogether. When she asked Mother about this, she would say that some people weren't able to accept change, and that she and her sister were always going to be a bit different from others. Emily said that it didn't bother her, so she let it alone for a while. But then she noticed that it happened more often, and she started to look at things around her with a more critical eye, noticing that everyone stared at both of them wherever they went. Even the children whom they played with were a bit more cautious around them, suddenly people seemed to be changing.

"Mother, why do people stare at Emily?"

Mother paused for a while; Song noticed that as she did the flower she was touching shrunk a little.

"Why do you ask this again?

Song couldn't tell if she had done something wrong or not, Mother's eyes weren't sparkling like they usually did, and there were dark rings underneath them. Now that she looked closely at her she realised that she looked tired and unhappy, and wondered why this was so.

"Well, people seem to be almost scared of her and me. It's almost as if we weren't natural."

Maybe it was just Song getting older, but she began to wonder about Mother's hands and their constant greenness, and also about how Emily's and Mother's hair were both coloured different from everyone else. In fact, she was the only one who looked anything like the other kids. Even Shadow, who looked the same, was different. Maybe this was why they stared, but she still didn't really understand why, or why they stared at her as well.

She looked up to see Mother staring at her, almost as if she had read what was going on in her skull. She sighed and shook her head

"As I said before, people stare because they don't like people who are different. They don't want to embrace change, and this change scares them. People have always been like this, and unless something big happens you should get used to the staring."

"But there's nothing wrong with me."

Mother seemed to flinch.

"I thought that you were asking about Emily."

Song said nothing.

"So, are you saying, or not saying, that you think that we as a family are weird, and that you shouldn't be stared at for it?

Song shook her head, Mother nodded gravely.

"People will stare, get used to it. Don't ask me again."

Song watched as she turned back to her plants and how as her hand reached out to touch them, the plants flourished. Then she walked away to go and find her friends, her heart sinking with the sudden weight of unwelcome seriousness.

By their twelfth birthday, some things had changed in their lives that were irreversible. For a start Song had noticed that the children talked to her sister less and less, and that in turn her sister talked to her less and less. Something seemed to bother Emily; Song did not know what it was for her twin no longer told her anything. She had developed an aloofness, she was quiet and spoke only when spoken too, almost acting as if depressed. A week before their birthday when Emily came downstairs for breakfast, her beautiful blue hair that came down to her waist was almost gone. She had come to breakfast wearing a hat, and when asked to remove it her parents had gasped, all that remained of her hair were small, blue tufts. Mother had run out of the room crying. Song had no idea what to do, when she asked her friends at school what went on they merely stared and then walked away.

Secondly, her parents seemed afraid of something. Everyday when she came home from school she would find them in the living room deep in discussion, or with their eyes peeled to the news. People in the town were talking about them, and Song had tried to hear what they said but when they saw her they walked away. She took to reading the newspaper when people had left them out to be collected. All she could gather was something about a group called the Morlocks and a Sinister, but she could not see what this was in relation to her parents or herself.

But despite the changes, their parents still saw their birthday as an affair. Although they didn't have a party, Song and Emily missed school for the day and the family had a day talking at home and walking on the beach. Mother and Shadow tried to be happy and also they all tried to cheer up Emily, who was now even more upset. They also had made a great effort with the presents, Emily's beautiful new silver bracelet and carved wooden box were matched only by the necklace that Song was given. She loved it from the moment she saw it, a thin leather thong with a circular pendant made of sea wood to go around her neck. Both of them smiled and hugged their parents, even Emily seemed happier than usual. They ran up and down the beach like in the old days, dodging the surf and trying to find Shadow, who would melt into a space and leave one part of himself visible. Mother picked each one up and threw them into the sea, ignoring their screams of dismay as they hit the water with a splash.

As evening came, Song was sure that she didn't ever want the day to end. The family stayed on the secluded beach to watch the dragon-sun meet the sea before walking home. They laughed and joked along the way, occasionally bursting into song and laughing more at the look on Emily's face when they asked her to join in and sing.

But the family stopped as screams filled the air around them, and having located the sound ran towards it. It was the village. People were running in every direction, men desperately trying to save their wives and children, dogs barking hysterically and babies crying all around them. They stood in horror as they saw houses collapse before their eyes, suddenly bursting into flames or just falling down as if they were the sandcastles that they had left behind, knocked over by the tide.

The children looked up to the adults, whose faces had drained of colour.

"They knew" said Mother, Shadow's face tightened as he nodded.

Song didn't like what was going on around her, terror filled her as the undesired noises and sights filled her mind.

"What's happening?" she asked, her voice a shrill whisper.

Looking to Emily, she saw an expression of disbelief cross her face. They stood near to their house, the flames occasionally spiralling upwards fiercely as if answering her question for her.

"What's happening?"

Her parents did not answer; they merely stared at each other as if sharing a deep, saddening knowledge.

"What's happening?"

Song felt tension build in the air about her, her breathing became broken as she fought the panic rising inside her, eventually breaking into a run to escape it, only to stop suddenly as she was knocked unconscious, her eyes closing to an image of flame and the beam that had struck her head as she had run through her door. Then all was black.

Swirling mists surrounded wreckages of houses, water falling from the sky causing sparks on the boiling hot surfaces left scattered on the ground. Sounds of moaning filled the air, the moaning and creaking of old houses left to burn too long added to the noise of people's moaning, a deep, low and terrifying noise: the sounds of ghosts and wraiths. Survivors meandered through the debris, looking for anything that was left behind, searching every house for anything that could be valuable, moaning and crying as they went.

One house they left untouched, the house of "those meddling mutants, the stupid Morlocks." No one bothered to wonder about what had become of them, none of them caring. Occasionally someone would stop and look sorrowfully at the saddest house, the one with nothing remaining, the one that was probably all that was left of the pursued, shedding a tear for the lovely family who had lived inside. Around midday more and more people passed it by, finding nothing of value to salvage from their own wrecked houses, they had come to search the house of the mutants.

Swarms of people crawled over the wreckage, lifting up beams and shattered flooring to see what could be found underneath. One person had managed to find something, a beautiful hand-carved wooden box, but that was all. The people eventually left, those who remained joining them seconds later, claiming that the house had moved. Dismissing this as mutant trickery, the townspeople left to find a new home.

At the house, it was true that something had moved; a persistent tapping noise from under the beam was then followed by the beam moving up and down slowly. After what seemed like hours, the beam was thrust aside. Then bit by bit, things were pushed aside, creating an increasingly larger hole in the ruins of the house. Eventually, a girl could be seen slowly edging herself out of that hole, throwing herself outwards onto the muddy ground. She lay there for a while, tired out from the effort put into escaping her death, allowing the mud and the raindrops to mingle in with her clothes and soak her skin, not caring whether or not her blonde hair had now become brown, for she was alive.

After what seemed like years, Song made herself get up. Ignoring her empty stomach, she put her head back and drank some of the rain that fell towards her. All she could think of was the imperative to find her family; she knew that they were around somewhere, looking for her. There was no time to rest. Ever so slowly, she picked her way out of the town and went towards the woods where she knew her family would be hiding. But as she arrived, all she could see was destruction and signs of a battle were everywhere. She screamed as she saw their bodies, side by side were the mutilated remains of her parents, both with expressions equal in fear and pain. Blood was spattered everywhere, and as she looked closer at the bodies she saw to her horror that they had been skinned. The stench of boiling, fire-torn flesh reached her nostrils and she retched, unwillingly taking in the sight of torn limbs hanging from the nearest tree. Moments had passed before she couldn't take it anymore; crying and screaming she ran from the woods, her tears mingling in with the mud and the rain. She threw herself down into the mud, throwing up and tearing at her hair.

It was a long time before she got up again, and as she did she realised that her sister would be dead too. Beautiful Emily, who had been her sibling and her friend from the moment she was born, whom she had recently rejected and allowed to be persecuted by the children at school. For she knew what had been wrong now, why Emily had become withdrawn and why she had cut off her hair, she had been different. The pain was too great for Song to bear, slowly she sat up on the grass, sobbing and moaning. Then, letting back her head, she screamed. The scream filled the area around her, bouncing back from the walls and becoming more and more terrible as it went on. When she had screamed as much as she could, she collapsed again, sudden moaning and crying noises filling her ears. She didn't know where the noises came from, but she could hear everything around her, the creaking of the houses, the rain, the sound of the sea, and the moaning and crying of people in pain. Song tried to block out the noise, the horrors that surrounded her; but she could not.

Pursued by the noise she ran, fearing the effect that her screaming had upon her. She ran and ran until she arrived at the beach, with nowhere else to run. There she knelt down and screamed again, this time noticing the power that came out of her as she did so. Through tear-filled eyes she saw the cliffs tremble around her, the noise also affecting the sea, causing the white horses to gallop towards her in a frenzy. The sand around her rose up as if in a wind, and pebbles on the beach tore themselves apart with her pain. The villagers who had left heard it, and mistook it for a demon pursuing them and ran away. The scream came out long and loud, steadying, but then as if her soul had been let out, Song collapsed onto the sands, and the beach went back to its usual state.

She lay there for a long, long time, not noticing the band of men crowding around her until it was too late.