Candles on the Water

Chase

"Emily," Melpomene said gently, "I can't say anything unless you come with me."
All the kids looked around with each other now. They waited for someone to raise their hand, or walk away.

Chase took a deep breath. "I'm in."

Emily

She exhailed. If Chase was in it, then so was she.

She silently raised a hand. "I'm in too."


*ugh.. Sorry, all I got*

John
"well I'm in" John said as others began to agree also

"I already said I'm in" I repeated.

The others agreed, one by one they all agreed, slowly. Eventually we were all rallied around the woman, who had enough manners to not even introduce herself yet.

**Umm its short, but we need something new right now**

Kari.

She had confirmed her support by nodding her head. She had realized she knew all of these children, but not by name, just as a kind of fuzzy memory of a dream.

The others were all forming friendships and she noted this. At some point she was going to have to say something, but she wasn't sure what to do. She had always been the one in the background. The one nobody noticed. Inwardly, she sighed.

John looked around at the other kids one stood out even though normally she wouldn't she looked like she wanted to join in but in a way didn't no how John walked up to her "hey" John said "I'm John it's nice to meet you, and you are" John said hoping to make a new friend.

Kari

She froze, unable to speak or move. She hadn't seen the boy come over to her and now she had to say something, anything.

"K-kari." she managed to spit out after a moment or two. Staring down at her shoe laces she backed a little into a shadow. She felt safer there. John continued to look at her. "Umm, hi?"

He smiled at her. She gave him a lopsided half smile which showed how shy and uncomfortable she was. She was beginning to wish the earth would come and swallow her up. Perhaps being the one nobody noticed was a good thing?

Chase

Chase smiled as one by one, everyone joined in. Some kids were talking with each other now. He looked over at Emily, who was looking down, playing with a piece of grass. The John kid was talking with one of the other girls. Ellie was sitting by herself with tears still in her eyes. Those were the only ones that he knew there name, even though others had spoken.

"So why don't we start by introducing ourselves to everyone," the woman said like she was reading Chase's mind. "My name is Melpomene."

"It's okay I don't bite, I get punched in the nose by other people" John looked her up and down not sure if she appreciated his pathetic stab at humour "you could at least pretend to think that crappy joke was funny it took me about six minute to come up with" John said only half sarcastically. John waited for a response.

"My name is Kate." I said. We all sat in a circle with Melpomene, everyone uncomfortable except her. She seemed to radiate confidence, but all I could do was envy her. I felt lost and confused wanting my parents, so I decided I would try to trust her and find my parents.

Everyone stared at me for a moment until someone spoke up, introducing their self to the group.

" I'm Abigayle," Abi introduced herself looking at the ground not meeting the other kids' eyes. When she looked up Kate was looking up at her, like she was trying to figure her out. Ellie looked at her also and smiled. To the other side of her a boy spoke up, taking her lead, " My name's Jake." He looked at the other kids including Abi and smiled.

Emily


"I'm Emily," she said. Her eyes scanned each and every one of the kids faces, memorising them. It seemed as if she had met them somewhere, but she wasn't sure.

Emily clutched Chase's hand.

"Thank you." I said. And I meant it. "take my hand your training will begin." Knowing what to expect, they formed a chain and the world dematerialized. We reappeared in a old cement walled room. It was like a dungeon of old. I walked over to my storage chest and pulled out 11 goggles. "These are the training devices we used to use." I said wistfully. I remembered my friend and I, working together to defeat the virtual creatures shown in the goggles. "When you put these on they will take you into a virtual game. It trains you to fight the real creatures that are going to fight you. Remember, just because you're children doesn't mean they'll cut you some slack. They are here to kill whatever gets in their way."
"What are they?" a nervous girl asked. I hope that last minute regrets aren't forming in their minds. "You'll find out. But before you try this out, open your bags. They are much like my rucksack. You should find a large book. Open it to page 1,056, ordinance J5."

Abigayle

Following the woman's instructions Abi began to dig in her bag, pushing pens and her blue notebook out of the way. At the bottom of the bag lay a book about four inches thick. Carefully, and with Jake hovering over her shoulder she searched for the page.

Ordinance J5?I thought Page 1,056

I turned through the pages as i tried to get to the page while holding the extremely heavy book at the same time.