I'm sitting in the living room, watching TV with my twin sister, Sara, who only hopes to Kindle – so much that she writes stories of her adventures of a Magus – when my phone rings. I check my phone, just to see who it is.
No.
The publishing company is calling. I thought my book didn't have to be ready until next month! A little nervous, I pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Karli Dell?"
"Yeah."
"We were calling to see how your book is coming along." I sigh a sigh of relief.
"It's almost done. I could finish by tonight."
"Good, because the manager of the company moved the ready date to next week."
There it is.
"Okay, I'll get to work ASAP, I promise."
"Please do. Goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Great. Now I only have one week to finish my book. I mean, I could finish by tonight if I tried, but summer vacation is almost over, and I want to make sure that I have everything ready. Plus, I'm expecting a call from Lee Murrell about what's happened recently, and he tends to carry on conversation. I haven't even Kindled yet and it's already interfering with my life.
Sara's phone rings now and she just picks it up, not even bothering to look at who it is. All I hear is:
"This is Sara."
"No, not yet."
"What?"
"No, I have to–"
"It's my aunt!"
"Fine."
"Goodbye."
Dad is standing right in front of us. He probably rushed over when he heard 'aunt'. See, Dad has super strength and speed, and his twin sister, Lexa, is our aunt.
"What happened?" Dad asks.
"The Darkhands are looking for Aunt Lexa and they think they've found her. Lee told me to let you and Mom know and to be ready to defend. Also, Serena Kindled just recently. He thinks she's what the Darkhands are looking for." Sara says. Her and Lee have talked so much that they're on a first-name basis.
"I'll let Melanie know." Dad dashes upstairs, where Mom is most of the time, planning lessons for her algebra class that she teaches. Next thing we know, they're gone.
I pull out my laptop and start writing my book. I estimated at about ten pages left to write, but when I look at where I left off, I realize I am going to need much more. My new estimate: 30 pages. I'm going to need much more than a week to finish this. Why did the publishers have to move the date? Can't I have more time?
My phone rings. It's the publishing company. I answer.
"Hello?"
"Hi, I am calling to inform you that the date has been moved to two weeks from now, the manager just got called and his brothers are throwing a surprise birthday party for his dad, and it's going to be big. They're going to need the next week to plan it."
"Okay, good, I just found out I'm really going to need to write another 30 pages."
"Goodbye."
"Bye."
Sara turns to me. For once she looks up from the book she is reading.
"What just happened?"
"I just got more time on my book."
"And were you hoping for more time?"
"Yeah. You don't think–"
"Yes, I do."
Just then, our dog shows up and starts licking her.
"Isn't Karla so cute?"
"Yeah, but I wish she wouldn't always start licking me when I'm having a serious conversation. Hint, hint." Sara says. Karla walks away.
"Um, Sara, maybe you didn't just notice what happened."
"Oh, I did. Wait a minute."
"We Kindled."
"Now what?"
Go help Aunt Lexa.
"Aunt Lexa!"
"But, we aren't prepared yet! We haven't even started training. We haven't learned to use sigils, stream, illuminations, nothing!"
"Sara, we have to. Our friends and family are in danger, and we need to help them."
"We're going to have to stream."
"I'll try, it shouldn't be too hard." I stand, ready. What would my gateway be? Writing! Of course! I try with some effort to open my gateway. I imagine a stream of Light. Then I imagine me jumping into it.
"Sara, open the door or a window or something." Sara opens the door.
"Karli, are you sure that we should be doing this remotely?"
"I'm postitive."
"Ready? One, two, three!" I say confidently. I get a running start, and jump into the air. The world around me turns royal blue. I'm doing it! I approach the window, and crash into the wall.
"Okay, maybe we should do this outside."
"You think?" Sara says. We head outside.
"Okay, we'll go together." I tell Sara.
"How did you do it?"
"I opened my gateway and visualized me hopping into a stream of Light. Then I ran and jumped."
"And crashed into the wall." Sara laughs.
"Okay, let's go. I'll grab you, just in case. Ready? On three. One, two, THREE!" We run and jump into the air. The world turns blue again, and we stream (I guess you could call it streaming) along the way we know by heart to Aunt Lexa's.
When we arrive at Aunt Lexa's, that's when I realize Sara and I don't know how to stop streaming. This is going to be hard, considering I can barely even control where I'm going.
Karli, you know we're eventually going to have to stop. The message comes into my mind.
I know, but how?
We should probably just crash, that's the best way to go.
Okay, but then where do we crash?
Well, if we keep streaming and crash into a Darkhand, we would do more good than crashing into a wall.
True.
We try our best to go down and crash into a Darkhand, and I manage to make it, but Sara hits a wall. The Darkhand falls to the ground. It is terrible timing, because I crashed into the one that Lee happened to be battling.
"What exactly do you think you're doing here?" Lee says in his southern accent.
"I don't know, but apparently Sara and I Kindled after Mom and Dad left."
"And why did you come?"
"Because, well, I'm not sure. A thought slash feeling kind of told me to come here and help Aunt Lexa."
"So Karli's a Seer." Lee says quietly.
"What's a Seer?"
"Listen. I'll explain later, but if anything like that happens again, don't ignore it. And how did you get here?"
"I tried to stream."
"Why would you do something like that? You could have ended up in another state!"
"I knew I had to be here, and Mom and Dad left their phones, plus, it's kind of hard to pick up a phone when battling."
"Whatever. Just get in and battle! And stand by Serena no matter what!"
Wait. Serena? Why?