Liam was always told he was a weird kid. Mostly by other kids, but he knew the adults thought so too. Most would think it was his silver hair or eyes, but it was the strange occurrences that always happened around him.
His parents first noticed it when he was a baby. If they left a bottle of milk out of reach and walk off to do something else, they would return to find it in his hands with him innocently drinking it.
They would find toys that they swore were put away out of reach in his possession, and if they took the toys away, they would just find their way to him later.
Or maybe it was his accelerated growth. He was able to walk at eight months. By a year old he could form simple sentences. At two years old he was reading books on his own. At this point they would find books that they knew had been on the bookshelf previously on his hands.
They were concerned enough to bring in a priest from a nearby village to check him out once. They only told him that Liam was a strange child, and they just wanted peace of mind. The priest found nothing wrong with him, so they put it out of their mind.
He was a gifted kid. Maybe a genius. He was a little weird, but all geniuses were, right?
I started education early. I was three years old when my parents decided to send me off to school. My village had a school that was taught by a matron, old Ms. Vivienne. She was the oldest person in the village and had six kids of her own. Her kids had all left and her husband had died years ago, so she took it upon herself to teach the village's kids.
My parents had a hard time convincing her to take me in, considering other kids started their education at five years old. But my parents noticed that I quickly grew bored in our house. I had read everything and done everything to do in our house. Not that we had many books, books were uncommon in villages like ours. We lived "off the grid," whatever that meant.
There were rumors about me in the village, the kid that looked and acted weird. I noticed that no one else had eyes or hair the same color as me. My parents made sure to keep my hidden abilities secret and told me I should be careful not to use them. The adults kept their distance, and their kids mimicked their behavior even if they didn't understand why. MS. Vivienne wasn't the type to let that bother her though. Once she saw that I could keep up with her other students she took me in and treated me like anyone else. It was nice.
She taught us math, reading and writing skills, and a few survival skills such as which plants were safe to eat, and which weren't. She made sure the older students learned useful skills. She taught girls how to knit and sew, how to cook and clean. She made sure the boys learned useful skills from the men around the village. Woodcutting, crafting and the basics of hunting. Everyone learned how to farm since farming is easier with more people. When we're all older we'll pick a craft to specialize in, but for now everyone was taught the same thing to get a feel for what they were good at.
I liked Ms. Vivienne. I liked learning, and I liked doing things.
I did not like the other students. Rather, they didn't like me.
The younger ones (although they were five or older, so I was still the youngest) were fine just ignoring me. They left me alone, and we rarely interacted. It was the older kids that were a problem. One, Dave, always looked to cause me trouble. A snide comment here, a stolen snack there, there was rarely a day Dave left me alone. After a few weeks I approached Ms. Vivienne for help, but she settled for giving me advice instead.
"You'll have to figure out a way to solve this problem yourself," she told me. "Bullying rarely stops when adults intervene. Instead they get sneakier and meaner, and it gets harder to catch them."
I decided to take her advice, even if I thought there was something wrong with it. I was three, and Dave was ten! The next time Dave tried to take my snack I told him to stop. He laughed and hit me, then took my snack anyways. My parents could tell I wasn't in a good mood that day even if I hadn't told them what happened, and my father took me aside.
He told me much of the same Ms. Vivienne said. If I was being bullied, don't back down. Once they saw that I wasn't afraid of them they would eventually leave me alone and bother someone else. I decided to listen to him also, after all my dad couldn't be wrong right
What my father forgot to consider is how cruel children could be to those different from themselves. The first time I stood up to Dave I was just pushed down and ignored. The second time he hit me again. That day I decided to hit him back. That only made him angrier, and this time when he pushed me to the ground, he jumped on top of me and started pummeling me.
In the haze of pain, the only thought in my mind was that I wanted the pain to stop. A stray punch hit my nose, and when I heard a crunch something inside me snapped. It felt like something inside of me exploded outwards, and Dave was blown off against a tree. He hit it hard, and while he wasn't hurt permanently as soon as he got up he ran away, a look of fear in his eyes.
I walked home, tired beyond belief and a bunch of questions in my mind. I always knew I had weird abilities, but never really understood them. Now I knew I had to. What if Dave told someone? What if I hurt someone else, or myself, else by accident? By the time I got home I resolved myself to spend the next few days trying to understand my abilities. Now though, now I was hungry.
I never even noticed that by the time I got home my nose had stopped bleeding.
The next day I convinced my parents that I was sick and couldn't go to class. I had never been sick before so there was a lot of fussing about by my mother. Eventually she decided that no, I was not dying, but she relented and allowed me to stay home if I stayed in bed. That was perfect, it let me experiment in private.
Once I was sure my parents were busy, I got started. As I reviewed when my abilities happened I noticed a pattern; it was always when I wanted something to happen. Usually it was when something was out of reach, but yesterday it was when I wanted Dave to stop hurting me. So, I looked around the room and found a toy of mine on the floor. I concentrated on a feeling, telling the toy to come to me. Nothing happened. Not ready to give up I spent a few more minutes trying to move the toy. Still, nothing happened. I looked around the room and tried the same with other toys. Nothing happened, and I was beginning to get frustrated. What happened yesterday with Dave came to mind and I had a brilliant idea; I'll jump off the bed and somehow stop before I hit the ground.
That didn't go well. I smashed into the floor and scraped my knee, which started bleeding. I started crying, which caused my mother to come rushing in. I told her that I fell off the bed and hurt my knee, but she pointed out that it was fine. I stopped crying once I realized she was right; there was no blood, and the pain stopped. I barely registered my mother telling me to be more careful as she left the room, too caught up in my thoughts.
The same thing happened yesterday with Dave; he broke my nose, yet it healed itself. I thought back on how it felt when I pushed him off me. It felt like something inside of me reacted and exploded. So maybe whatever these abilities were came from inside me. Now, how to reach it?
I closed my eyes and tried to see if I could feel anything. Nothing happened for a while, but I wouldn't let myself get frustrated. If what happened with the toys is any indication, growing angry makes it harder to tap into whatever this energy was. I cleared my mind as best I could, and after a while I could feel…something.
The whole world fell away, and I felt as If I fell into my mind. I could see a glowing blue ball floating in front of me. It was small, just a little smaller than me. I could feel some sort of connection with it, but it felt…odd. Like something was blocking it. This is the source of my strange abilities. So, I decided to touch it.
Yet as soon as I touched the ball it sucked my arm in all the way to the shoulder. For a moment nothing happened, and when I decided to move my arm away the ball changed. It grew smaller, flowing into my arm as if it was water. When the whole ball was gone there was a bright light and I was back in my room.
Except now there was a glowing blue ball in my palm. I moved my hand around and the ball stayed attached, even when I turned my hand upside down. I saw a toy on the floor and thought about grabbing it, and the ball decreased in sizer by almost half. But then the toy moved over in front of me, and I grabbed it.
This is where my strange abilities come from. And the ball seemed to be how much energy I had left. As I used my abilities, the ball grew smaller as it was used up. I thought about moving the toy to the other side of the room and the rest of the ball disappeared. As the toy moved over I smiled; I had figured it out! Now I could control my powers and choose to use them. Any further thought stopped when my vision started blurring. I could see the floor moving up to meet me, and before it reached me my vision went dark.
When I woke up the sun had set, and moonlight streamed in through the windows. I was tucked into the bed and realized my parents had checked up on me at some point. Any further thoughts were interrupted by the gnawing pain in my stomach. I was hungry. No, I was starving. It felt like I hadn't eaten in days, and I got up to look for food. Apparently, I had woken up just in time because both of my parents were in the kitchen preparing to eat. We talked for a bit before eating and they asked if I felt better now. It seems they thought I slept the whole day because they thought I was sick. I felt a little bad about lying to them, but I was sure not telling them was the right thing. While my parents never punished me for my abilities, they never seemed completely comfortable round them. Now that I had a way to control them, I could stop them from happening accidentally. That should make them feel at ease.
I ended up devouring two whole bowls of the soup my mother had made, eating more than I had ever eaten before. After that I told them I was going back to sleep as I still felt tired. When I got to my room I waited until I could no longer hear my parents in the kitchen before deciding to use my powers again.
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind again, and this time I was back in front of the ball faster than before. I reached out and lightly touched the ball this time. It tried to flow into my arms again, but this time I seemed to have a little control over it. I let it flow into me slowly instead of in a rush like it had before. When it was all gone there was another bright light and I was back in my room again.
The ball was in my palm again, but this time it looked bigger. It wasn't by much, but while it was the size of my palm before it was closer to the size of my whole hand now. I decided to try something different this time and try to absorb the energy into me. The ball was absorbed in my hand, and after a moment both of my hands started to tingle. I could feel myself slowly growing tired; it seems the longer I used this energy the more tired I felt. I picked up a toy soldier to see if the energy would do something and I crushed it in my hand. So, it seems to make me stronger.
I would have to practice on what I could do with this. I was excited though; I have superpowers!
That night the house was filled with the bell-like laughter of a happy child.
The next two years flew by in the blink of an eye. I continued to train with my powers, which I now called magic. I drained my powers every day, and slowly my capacity increased. Some days I practiced moving things, telekinesis. I moved past just moving things within my line of sight. I started to summon things from across the house, sometimes in completely different rooms. Instead of traveling to me, one moment they were in another room, and the next they were in my hand. After a year and a half of this I could summon items in my house from anywhere in the village.
Other days I would practice enhancing myself with magic. Reinforcement. I would use it to run faster, or to become stronger when I needed it, like lifting a heavy object. After a year of using this power I discovered a second ball of energy in my mind. This was a pure white ball, about the same size of the blue one when I first discovered it. When I absorbed that one I discovered it coated my body in a pure white aura. It had the same results as my reinforcement magic, but with a better effect. I started using this for reinforcement exclusively, allowing me more magic power to use for other things. I couldn't use this energy, that I called aura, for anything I used magic for, like summoning. I could use it to help myself heal quicker, and I could also reinforce myself more with less energy. I started to reinforce myself constantly, using a small amount at a time.
My classes with Ms. Vivienne continued. She refused to teach me what the older kids were learning, even when I proved I could learn at their rate. She kept me with the younger kids and told me I would learn when it was time. I grew bored quickly, so I looked for things to do. I didn't want anyone to find out about my powers, so I started skipping class most days. My parents punished me for it at first, but when I showed them that I knew everything Ms. Vivienne was willing to teach me they relented. If I stayed safe and came home on time, I could explore the village.
That got boring after a week. There want much for a child to do in the city, so I started looking for things to do out of it. My father taught me the basics of hunting. I was too small to use a bow, so I improvised. I found scrap metal lying around and crushed them into pellets. I would use reinforcement to coat my fingers in aura and take aim. I would flick the pellet at the animals, and it travelled quick enough to kill them before they could react. It took me a whole week of practicing before I could accurately hit a target, but when I did I could kill any animal. Usually I only found squirrels, foxes or rabbits. Occasionally, I would get lucky and find deer. My father also taught me to gut animals. While I could carry a whole deer back home myself with reinforcement, gutting them reduced the weight. Plus, it also made great bait for small predators like foxes.
One day while hunting I found a clearing in the forest with a small cave. I decided to make a hideout for myself. I cleared brush, moved rocks, and made the area more comfortable. It was far enough from the village to offer me privacy, but close enough that I could run to the village in a matter of minutes. I decided to start practicing my powers here. I still used magic to summon things from my house, usually snacks when I was hungry. I'd use aura to climb trees, or race to and from the village timing myself. Any leftover magic or aura that I had at the end of the day I would pour into the ground at the clearing. After a few months of this I noticed that it seemed to help the surrounding life. Trees grew bigger, produced more fruit and more flowers grew. Animals avoided the area and I wondered if other people did too, because no one ever seemed to travel near there.
Some nights I would sneak out and come to the clearing to watch the stars, and eventually decided to build a straw bed there. I slipped up once and fell asleep there and had to rush home in the morning. Thankfully neither of my parents noticed I had left, but I was careful never to fall asleep there again.
My powers were slowly growing stronger and I even had a secret base for myself. Life was good.
I was hunting a boar. Even the merchants that occasionally passed through the village rarely had boar, so this was a rare opportunity. I'd only had boar once before when my father happened to catch one. Once I caught the boars trail I climbed a tree and started tracking it from up in the branches. The sun was setting so I had to hurry, and moving through the trees helped with me move faster and covered me. Once I used aura to enhance my eyes I could see the trail as if I were on the ground. And few animals travelled through the trees, so the boar would not be expecting me.
Eventually I caught up to the boar at a stream. While it was drinking I pulled out a pellet and situated myself. Once its head was in my sights I coated my fingers in aura and took aim. With a flick the pellet flew off towards the boar, It became a blue and a shriek could be heard as it travelled through the air. The boar turned towards the sound, but before it could react the pellet pierced through the side of its head and impacted the ground behind it.
With a chuckle I hopped to the ground and walked towards the boar. I started to butcher it, my mind filled with thoughts of what my mother would cook when I brough it home. By now the sun had dipped below the horizon and the moon was shining bright. I hoped I wouldn't get in too much trouble for being out this late once I brought the boar home.
As I was elbow deep in guts I felt a chill run up my back. I could feel the temperature grow colder every second. I looked around but could see nothing out of place. As the feeling grew stronger I used aura to enhance my eyes and looked around again.
This time I saw it.
Two glowing orbs in the darkness. Once I looked towards them they shined brighter, and I felt a haze in my mind and I could no longer move. The orbs began to draw closer, and once they cleared the trees I could see the creature for what It truly was.
A beautiful porcelain face. Two ruby colored eyes, gleaming with malice. Two sharp fangs jutted out and it had a pale skin tone, just like I corpse. I had heard stories of these things.
Vampires.
Why was one here?! Before I could think any further the creature started talking.
"My, My," it said, "what is a lost little lamb doing all alone here, away from its flock? This is far from your village for a young child to be. I'm sure your parents have warned you not to stray too far, naughty one. Don't you know there are things that go bump in the night?"
"No matter," it said as it crouched in front of me. It used a single long fingernail to caress my cheek, and I felt my asshole pucker as pure fear flooded my mind. "While the rest fight over your silly little town I have you all to myself. I do hate sharing."
There were more of them? I need to escape and warn mom and dad and the others. But how? Maybe if I coated my body In aura then maybe I could fight off whatever magic the vampire used and run off. The village was behind me, on the other side of the stream. I slowly trickled aura throughout my body and I could feel the haze start to lessen. The vampire didn't seem to notice, so I could catch her by surprise and run.
Without another word the vampire grabbed hold of my chin and started leaning into me. This would be the only chance I would get.
I flooded my body with aura and pushed the vampire. I felt my magic react as well and explode outwards from my hands, and the vampire went flying much like Dave did so long ago. I turned around and ran towards the village, pouring as much aura into my limbs as I could. The trees became a blur as I sped through them, and I heard a scream of rage from behind me. Against my better instincts I looked back to see if the vampire was catching up, but she was still on the other side of the stream, glaring at me. If she wasn't going to chase me then that was better for me.
I couldn't hear anything as I neared the village, so I thought I had gotten there in time. But the sight that greeted me stopped my blood cold. Bodies littered the streets in piles, each looking pale and empty like they had been drained dry. I could see a half dozen figures in the streets hovered over other bodies. One figure had Claire, a girl form my class not much older than me, in its grips. From the twitches in her body I could tell she was still alive. That wouldn't be true for much longer.
I had to find my parents.
Before I could move a hand grabbed my shoulder and threw me backwards, slamming me into the tree. While my aura took most of the hit the breath was still knocked out of me. A foot slammed into my chest and pressed down on me, and I screamed.
"Did you really think you could escape me so easily little one," the same vampire from before said. "I admit I'm surprised a filthy animal like you could use magic, but even animals have their own diamonds in the rough. I do have a question though, before I drain you dry. Did you mean to use running water as cover, or was it an accident? I admit that most of your kind probably can't entertain higher thought processes to use water against us, but maybe your magic makes you special? After all, you were able to resist my charm, even if it was a weak one."
Her foot moved off me and I thought maybe she would want a response. But before I could speak she lifted me up by the shoulders and slammed me into the tree again.
"No matter," she said. "You won't be alive long enough for it to matter."
She roughly grabbed a handful of my hair and forced my head to the side, then her fangs sunk into my neck.
Two needles pierced my neck and I could hear my blood be drained. The thought that my very existence was being drained filled me with dread. As my eyes darkened and my limbs grew heavy I desperately tried to escape. I raised my arm and grabbed her face, and the magic inside of me pulsed. A bright light flashed from my hand, and with a scream the vampire dropped me. As I fell I body twist.
With a resounding crack he disappeared.
It felt like his body was being pressed upon from every direction. His eyes felt like they would pop out of his head, his ears felt like they would sink into his skull. All of a sudden the feeling stopped, and he crashed into the ground.
He had no clue where he was. Off in the distance he could see a large city, much larger than his village was. He pumped aura into his body and tried to walk towards it, but after taking a few steps he fell onto the floor. He was simply too tired, he couldn't move. As he wondered if this is where he would die a bright golden light flared to life above him. It was so bright he had to shield his eyes, and as it grew closer to him he felt his eyes darken and fell unconscious.
Gabriel had no clue where the child came from. She was in the Vatican to speak with her followers when she felt magic flare outside of the city bounds. Whoever was using magic was either untrained, or uncareful. Both were a problem. She bid goodbye to her parishioners and disappeared in a golden light.
She appeared above where she felt the magic be used. She did not expect to see a small child, bleeding and looking a step away from death. She descended towards him, and when she reached him she began to inspect his wounds.
They were clearly from a vampire attack. But she would know if any vampire were anywhere close to Vatican city. Perhaps the magic she felt was some form of teleportation from the boy.
No matter. She poured light into the boy and watched his wounds begin to heal. He still had a pulse, so he would recover in time. She headed back to the city intent on getting care for him.
The child would live. She would make sure of that.