Chapter 1: Mind or magic?

The years did not pass as quickly as I felt they should have.

Five years gone by at a snails pace, I learnt all I could in an attempt to understand what was wrong, in the end I never found a certain answer, but It seems as though children are not usually aware, They do not comprehend the world, They do not see the eyes or fear there own existence.

The nurses say I should play more, I attempt to join the other children in there games if only to understand them, I quickly decide it is pointless as they scorn me and refuse to interact meaningfully, Maybe exercise would be a good idea.

I quietly brush the floor collecting the grime, dirt and grit in a pile to be scooped, The mistress of the orphanage promised me a book of my choosing to read if I clean the dining rooms today, This would likely be a few hours of work, but I must complete my task if I wish to access the book I desire.

The eyes have lessened recently, it appears something else has gained there attention, although they return when I find myself doing anything strenuous.

I think on the face again, It is mine, I am the one it is attached to, It is not correct, I think the world itself understands that, I do not desire this face, It is an identity that fails to identify me, a face in a crowd of faces is a pattern not an individual.

I feel the dirt slide off the dustpan into the bin, I suppose I have finished my cleaning.

I walk towards the mistresses chambers, she will likely accept my cleaning as sufficient

*knock - knock*

"yes dear!" I hear as the wooden door hits my face, Likely a failure on my part.

"Te cleanyin ish finyished" I say with blood dripping off my chin drenching the eyes below.

The mistress pales and stands straight "OH MY!, are you ok sweetie?" I hear as something is pressed against my nose.

I blow air through my nose clearing the blood out temporarily "yes ma'am, May I pick a book, the cleaning is complete"

She grimaces slightly but welcomes me in all the same "here take this" she hands me a cloth "I dinnie want you getting blood on my floors"

I dab at my nose with the cloth as I enter the Study, I rush over to the bookshelves glancing over the books searching for my mark, after a moment of frantic searching I find it 'modern military encyclopedia' a book easily as thick as a mans wrist and as tall as a mans foot, certainly something to distract me for a good while.

I sit down and open the bo- I freeze, The eyes, they are gone.

But while they fail to observe me . . . It seems the world has forgotten to observe itself, I like this feeling, the world standing still, allowing me to observe the time between times.

The pages slightly parted, the feeling of air freezing and blood stilling, something calming, unfamiliar, something I do not recognise.

But like anything good in this world it leaves before I can truly enjoy it, The air ripples over my skin, the pages settle and my blood flows, odd.

The book is good, the information is taxing enough to distract me and the eyes feel more like a heedless look instead of a angry or focused stare, thinking of the eyes I look around, it seems they are less numerous now, whatever distracted them seems to have kept there attention to an extent.

I restrain my thoughts away from the fountain of musings as I find something interesting . . . different somehow, 'magic' I read the title again to be sure, 'the ability to channel energy through cyphers, concepts and codes to produce an effect on reality, simplified by modern computational cores' astounding I wonder where this technology came from as the household applications of technology feel rather sparse I mean look around everything is . . . oh, th-the eyes are focused, glaring, golden irises burn with intent and approval, "Ideology is a fickle thing, Give a world a spectre of death and war . . . and they call it a god, give them two and they call them servants" the eyes do not speak, they radiate, I feel words that I fail to hear, My bones feed me the information needed to comprehend the signals my flesh hits me with, "dream well, I know she wont".

The book is finished, its late, I need to sleep

In my confusion and rush I fail to notice the single set of eyes watching me from the borders of comprehension, piercing blue eyes, filled with hate and confusion.

784 words, this is still a semi intro style chapter so its hard to reach my 1k word goal

I hope you like it, please give me criticism

Next chapter will be slightly different