Chapter 1

My name, for those who don't know me, is Nathaniel "Darkness" Corway, The darkness thing I'll explain later, you're not ready for it yet. People called me Nathan. They learned never to call me Nate. I hate that name, and with a vengeance. Anyway, the first rule in my household, the first up in the morning, makes breakfast for everyone. So guess what? I was the cook. It never surprised me that as soon as people smelt the famous smell of breakfast cooking, that it pulls them out of sleep and drags them downstairs to sit them at the table in a zombie like state. I had learnt to cook the hard way. My mother was always busy with her work and my father had passed away three years ago, so I was the oldest at seventeen and was the one to look after everyone else. Guess what, with great responsibility, come great power, and I control my family with that power. It was so amusing to see my family get up in the morning to find I had burnt all of breakfast that day. They were faced with smoldering piles of burnt charcoal. But over time, by skill shad improved and I could cook quite well, having some offers to work at restaurants with my skills. But I turned them down. My family needed me more, and my mom provided enough income for the entire family.

There was my little sister, Danielle, who was fifteen and had long golden-brown hair that was like our mothers, but she had dad's eyes, the piercing ocean green eyes that always stared at you until you give up and admit something. She was very good at making people confess to crimes. Then there was my younger brother, Jake. At the age of thirteen, he was still taller than his sister, but came up shorter than I did by at least a full heads length. He was one of those kids who like to go around pulling stunts, being the dare-devil of the neighborhood, he had a reputation to uphold on his crazy antics, and normally came home once a month with a broken bone or two. People said he was really brave, I say he's either that, or very moronic, but hey, he is my little brother, what are slaves for? I mean family for? See what I mean, with the responsibility, comes power, but be warned, power corrupts. I know that for a fact. I am still fighting those urges for total household control, and winning. See unlike most people, I don't want the power, I was given it with no instruction manual and had to learn to drive it the hard way, with mighty crashes and major accidents.

"So what's for breakfast?" Jake asked me, "Not charcoal I hope."

"Ha, ha, very funny Jake," I replied sarcastically, "You don't want rat poison in your food do you? Because you know, that can easily be arranged."

I smiled at Jake's reaction, it was so amusing each time he tried to insult me with that horrendous past time. But it was even more amusing, because he knew I held total control of the food and that it probably could be arranged. Heavy clomping footsteps came down the stairs as the second zombie awoke from its slumber.

"My god," Jake gasped, "what it that repulsive thing?"

"Shut up Jake," Danielle replied, throwing a slipper at his head, "Only because you looked in the mirror every morning."

Danielle crashed on the table and immediately rested her head in her arms and fell back asleep again. Another thing I should have mentioned about Danielle, she isn't a morning person. About the only way to wake her up fully in the morning was to throw her in a lake that had recently been frozen the night before until you broke the ice with her. Another way I held control of my family, I could easily re-create the same situation as the lake, in the bath tub. It's called fill with water, then add ice cubes.

Chapter 2

After breakfast I had finally gotten everyone ready for school. Danielle kept Jake and me waiting for half an hour before she was ready. Thankfully I get up early enough to make sure we are at school on time. I honestly don't know what I would have happened to those two if I wasn't around. I kicked them out the door and walked out myself, slinging my bag up onto my back and locked the house up. Our Mother was never around when we got and hardly ever home before we went to bed, and trust me that's late. I have an average bedtime of around midnight to two o'clock in the morning.

"Nathan?" Jake asked me suddenly, "Can you drop me off at school on your motorbike?"

"I was going to walk," I replied, "Like a normally do. Why do you need a ride, you catch the bus everyday to school?"

"It's because he wants to impress a girl," Danielle said, "Am I right Jake? OR was it the fact that you asked a girl out, she turned you down, like any sensible girl, and now you want to show up on Nathan's bike to impress her?"

"Yeah, that right," Jake replied sharply, "It's better than asking Nathan to drive you to school so you can impress the guy you have a crush on."

"Alright, shut up!" I shouted sharply, "I said no-one is using my motorbike today. Jake you can catch the bus, Danielle and I will walk to school. It won't hurt us. Danielle, you don't want to grow unattractive to you?"

That got a small look of horror on Danielle's face and a small laugh out of Jake.

"And you idiot brain," I said turning to Jake, "You better keep up your reputation of a dare-devil; you don't want to become another fade out stunt man do you?"

That left them quiet while we walked to school. Jake had to catch the bus because he still went in intermediate school, which happened to be half way across the neighborhood. Danielle and I went to the same high school which was about ten minutes walking from our place, if you took the old shortcut along the path by the train tracks. An image of the dream from last night flashed through my mind but I pushed it aside. Now wasn't the time. I dropped Jake off at the bus stop and continued on my way to school, Danielle walking along with me.

We walked in silence along the path next to the railroads towards school. I looked closely around the place, seeing if there was anything that might help me with my dream. Then I realized the rails were on the wrong side. They were on my right. In my dream they were always on my left, coming home from school.

"Is something on your mind?" Danielle asked, and I realized I had fallen behind.

"No," I replied, "Nothing much. Just about a dream I had. It's nothing."

"What was the dream about?" Danielle asked.

"So who's this guy you have a crush on?" I asked changing the subject deliberately and, as usual, she took the bait, just as I hoped.

"I'm not going to tell you," Danielle said, blushing profusely, "No-one knows who it is, and I won't tell anyone."

We walked last the few minutes in silence until we reached the school. People were lounging around on the grass and footpaths outside the main building as per usual before school starts. This was the part of the day I hated about school. It seemed that I was popular at school with the girls for some reason. More specifically a small group of about eight or nine girls. But that wasn't the worst of it, oh no the worst of it was…

"Nathan!" A voice shouted. A voice I knew well and wished I didn't, "Over here!"