Young Writers Society

Lydia

Lydia Newman was new to this home but she trusted everyone in this home-almost. Raven struck her as odd.
Lydia ran up to Mrs. Willow. "Mrs. Willow! I heard a terrible scream from upstairs! I think it came from Raven's room!"

Miss Willow
"Oh no," she said, fear growing, "Ester, Lydia, you two, follow me now." She quickly bustled to where Raven's room was located.

"Why are you so worried?" asked Ester, confusion growing.

'You'll find out soon enough," replied Miss Willow, "Now go!"

Ester

She moved to that Miss Willow could take the lead.


Lydia

She stood behind Miss Willow, wondering what could be so horrible. But, knowing Raven, Lydia couldn't even imagine what could happen.

Miss Willow
When they finally arrived at Raven's room, it was eerily quiet. Miss Willow opened the door to find Raven, incapacitated, lying on the floor. Her eyes were open and her mouth frozen in mid scream. Her eyes were not black anymore, but pure white.

"She's gone into hyper dimensional shock," said Miss Willow, "We need to get her to a healer."

María

María stared at the girl in black. She didn't look quite so creepy now. Instead, María felt . . . what was it? She couldn't place it.

She grabbed a lock of hair and ran her hands through it, biting her lip as she stood awkwardly in the doorway to what looked like a dark gauntlet.

Pues . . . what a wonderful way to start off her time at an orphanage.

Raven
She couldn't move. She was frozen, staring up at the sky and Miss Willow. She'd warned Raven about this happening. Her parents... She finally admitted to herself that instead of being mad at the shapeshifter, she was scared of him. Scared of what he would do. Like what his kind had done to her parents.

She flashed back to the fateful day when her parents and her were caught by them. Her parents were tortured and driven to insanity by shape shifters. They even tried to kill Raven, thinking that she was a spider. Then, they'd thrown themselves off a cliff. Raven managed to escape and she was put into a coma for hundreds of years by... someone. She couldn't quite remember who.

María

She felt so useless. She didn't know where the healer was, and she couldn't help anyone at the moment.

Besides, the small space at the door felt so stifling. María backed away, sitting against the wall with her arms around her knees, and faded.

Ester

She looked in horrer at Raven, wondering if she was dead.

Lydia

"Is she frozen Miss Willow?" She checked Raven for a heartbeat about found one, though it was slower than it should be. "I could thaw her with warm water!"

Nero Sapienti:

He rushed to keep up with everyone, but his hesitation when they left caused him to fall far behind. When he finally caught up, Miss Willow was shielding who he guessed to be the creepy little girl from view and saying something in a hurried tone.

He sat down against the wall. What more could he do? He still wanted to talk to Miss Willow, but at the moment she appeared to be preoccupied. He crossed his legs. After a moment of doing so, he put his hands out.

And felt someone's skin.

He quickly turned to see who he had accidentally put his hand on, but there was no one there.

He gulped.

Then he tried to act less afraid and more like he knew what was going on. "Hello?" he asked, continuing to use a British accent.

María

María stiffened when el chico sat really close to her and accidentally brushed against her arm. He looked at her, but she knew that he didn't see her--or at least, he didn't know what look for, unlike the little girl from earlier.

"Hello?" he said.

María swallowed, and scooted away.

Wait. It would be rude to just stay faded.

She had survived her parents' deaths and watching her relatives steal her inheritance away. She had made it all the way here from España. She could do this.

She felt her body shimmer and return to normal. She met the boy's eyes, hiding her nervousness at a potential conversation to come.

". . . Hola."

Nero Sapienti:

He should have guessed the invisible person (who he may or may not have suspected to be a ghost) to be the girl who had suddenly appeared earlier. She had the same color eyes he usually had, and black hair like him as well. She appeared to be his age.

She couldn't do what he did. But he finally had found someone around his age who didn't fit the definition of a normal human being. She would understand him, wouldn't she? An isolated teenager were far apart and few. Meeting her was a chance he had never guessed he would have.

And while the creepy little girl had scared him, and the other little girl had seemed too young to get what he had gone through (and too young to hear about it), the girl across from him seemed like a good person to confide to.

Worse case scenario, he would bolt out of the building. It wasn't like Miss Willow knew his name, much less want to talk to him.

His form began to change. In a few seconds, he was back to normal. The girl looked a bit shocked. He hadn't shown someone before...Was he supposed to warn her or something?

"Nero," he simply said. The surprise turned to confusion. Realizing what the problem was, he added, "That's my name. Nero Sapienti." Small steps. He had introduced himself. Next was to say his power, right? And eventually, if she kept his trust, he would tell her his past.

That was a strange, foreign thought.

"I can change my form." His other curse was going to remain unknown. He wasn't going to show her - or anyone - all of his cards until the right moment. "Do you know anything about this place? I found it by accident, so I'm confused."

María

María was at a loss for words. Finally, she found her voice. "I--I got a letter from la señorita Willow. She invited me here. Somehow, she knew about me and helped me get here. I don't know much else about it, except it's a place for chicos like . . . us."

She hoped Nero didn't find her Spanish accent repulsive.

"Oh," she added, "and I'm María. María Romero. From España--ah, I mean, Spain."

She felt like crawling into a hole. How would he respond to her stammering?

Miss Willow
"No Lydia," she said, "Raven requires special attention."

Nero Sapienti:

He admittedly was frantically trying to recall his short time in Spanish 1 as she spoke. Not for the first time in his life, he wished he had a smartphone. Instead, all he got was a fliphone he had stolen from a store a couple of months ago.

Chicos means boys. No, that can't be right! She's not a boy. Children, maybe? And la señorita is the lady...I think so, anyways...España has to be Spain-

While he had been trying to use his very limited knowledge of Spanish, María had finished speaking. He stopped attempting to translate what she had said. He groaned - for the third time in less than ten minutes. She had been silent for over a minute. And the biggest jerk of the year award goes to...Nero Sapienti!

"So there's other people like us," he finally said. It was even stranger than the thought that María was a possible friend. Other people who didn't fit. Other people who society shunned and locked away - sometimes quite literally. They lived and breathed and ate and felt just like he did. "It's just so much to take in," he admitted to her. "If this Miss Willow woman turns out to be a good person, I think I'll stay here."

He leaned back against the wall, putting his arms behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling. Maybe I've finally found home...

María

María studied Nero.

"Well," she said finally, "Se--Miss Willow has been very kind so far. She helped me come here when--"

She broke off. Why was she about to share her past with him, when they'd only met for a really short time? She didn't even know anything personal about him.

Perhaps it was because he was the first in a long time who felt possibly like un amigo.

I'd better wait and see. Who knows what he's really like?