I twisted my hair into a ponytail, tucking it under my cap and lowering the brim. Then I took a final look around the room full of strangers, wondering which of them would help me escape, and which would try to kill me.
I slowly walked around the perimeter of the ball room; cautious of whom I made eye contact with. I stopped at a startling young man, around my age, but maybe a few years older than me. He seemed familiar to me, and for some reason I was drawn to him. His face, his features, his smile, his eyes, all so beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes away from him. I have to admit, I was drooling a bit. His curly dark hair fell just above his eyes, he had a small mole on the side of his left cheek, he had dimples the size of quarters, and his eyes…..ooh his eyes were an ocean of blue with just a hint of green mixed in. I didn’t realize I was staring until his gaze fell on me. Instantly, his smile disappeared. Swiftly, he walked over to be, he was about a head taller than me. “I know what you are,” he whispered, bending down to look me in the eyes. Panic bubbled up inside me and he could sense it, because a smile appeared on his face. I ran as fast as I could down the hall to the stairs that led to the basement where the rest of my ‘people’ hid.
“Did you find him?” Clover asked, running to my side
“No, he wasn’t there. I couldn’t tell which had pure hearts and which were just evil.” I said, trying to catch my breath. “She found someone else,” Chasity whispered. Everyone turned to her, eager to hear what she saw. “She found a boy….but not just any boy, this one is complicated. I can’t see clearly what he is thinking and I can’t feel any emotion from him...” she closed her eyes to try and concentrate. “He is restless, impatient, but…determined…to prove himself worthy of something but I can’t…it’s too...” suddenly she flew back, slamming into the wall, and falling to the ground. I ran to try and help her up but Kyle, her soul mate, was already lifting her off of the floor. He carried her to the couch hidden behind the staircase. “What is it? What did you see?” he asked, pulling a blanket over her body.
Her body was shaking furiously with terror from what she had seen. Her eyes started to roll back in her head; she whispered something that only Kyle could hear, then she passed out. “What did she say?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer I already knew.
He kissed her head, stood up and faced us, “They found us.” He said.
I guess you could call us abnormal. That was our label for the majority of our lives. I don’t consider us to be anything but unique. Each of us, all 9 of us each have our own special set of ‘gifts’ that set us apart from your average human being. I mean don’t get me wrong, were not some blood crazy freaks that transform into man eating monsters, prowling the night for a couple in the park, we don’t sparkle in the sun, nor do we burst into flames when we are not in the dark. Honestly, if you met us on the streets, you would thing we were just like everyone else on this dreaded planet. However, the difference is we choose not to hide our special abilities. Only recently has our lives ever been in danger for who we are.
I will share with you all of my brothers and sisters:
Ethan (age 21) is the first ‘other’ I found. He has the amazing ability to manipulate anyone at anytime. Once you stare into his eyes, hell, you’re hopeless. He can convince you to jump off a bridge if he wanted to. He has this way of instantly making a connection with you, making you feel safe so you have complete trust in anything he says. This is how he got out of jail time when he was younger, how he got all the girls drooling at his feet in high school. But once he met Clover, everything changed for him. Now he doesn’t use his ‘powers’ if you will, for fun. He uses them to better our lives, as well as save them. I found him wondering the streets convincing everyone who passed him to give up all the money in their wallets.
Clover (age 19) is the most sensitive of us all, and I’m not even kidding about that. All her senses are 10X better than anyone I know. She can count all the tiny pieces of sand on the beach, she can hear fishes swimming in the ocean when were all the way in Arizona. She can smell all of the different ingredients used to make any kind of food at Olive garden. And, if you say her hair looks bad, she’ll start crying. Now, I’m not saying she is a wimp or anything, because I guarantee you, if you get her angry, she’ll beat you down in less than 2 seconds. I found her beating the s*** out of a girl who called her a world class freak.
Jade (age 18) can control the elements. She can bend metal, shoot fire and water from her hands and can bury you under a pile of dirt with the snap of her finger. She likes to think of herself as a super hero. She is such a little kid inside; she walks around with a cape on her back just so people will notice her. I found her lying on the bench at the city bus stop.
Chase (age 18) is the ‘bad a**’ of the group, always getting into trouble. His ability is that he can disappear into the air. He turns invisible for about anything, so sometimes it seems like it’s 8 in the group instead of 9. He mostly gets in trouble for sneaking into the girl’s locker room. Of course, his sister, Chasity, is the one that always catches him.
Chasity (18), in my opinion, is the most talented one of us all. Her and chase are twins. Her ability is to read minds, in a way. She senses the emotions of others; she has the strength to be able to become a part of them. When she really concentrates, she can see how others see, feel how they feel, think what they think, and for a moment, she becomes them. She is able to do this anytime, whether they are across the world or right next to her. Their parents kicked then out when they were 16. I found them sitting outside the local grocery store, begging anyone for food.
Kyle (age 19) is her soul mate, so he claims. He has speed, strength, smarts, ‘the total package’ (Chasity’s phrase). He can lift any weight without even trying. He can run from Arizona to England and back in less than seconds. He graduated from college at 12. And, he has amazing muscles if I do say so myself. I found him at the park, playing basketball with a homeless person.
Kim (age 16) is the youngest of as all. She can control things with her mind. She’s able to do all these different things, she can completely take apart a gun just by staring at it, and then she can put it back together. She can carry tons and tons of books everywhere with her but she’s never really holding them. They’re just floating behind her. I found her at the library.
Eli (age 17) was also kicked out of his parents house when they found out he is able to shape shift into anything. They said they couldn’t have a monster as a son. But he is the sweetest person you will ever meet. He is the kind of guy that will drop what he’s doing to listen to your problems. He has such a big heart. He’s funny too, he likes to shape shift into me and imitate me. Even I can’t help but laugh at that. I found him living with a kitty in a box in an alley behind the movie theater.
And then there’s me! Lenah (age 21), I’m the one who brought us all together. I have the ability to see the future. Chasity is an amazing artist, so whenever I have a vision, she snoops inside my head and draws what I see. We’re a tag team. This is my coven. We all trust each other; we look out for each other, were all each other have. It’s been that way for almost 3 years.

A couple of months ago, someone like us came to our cabin in the woods, beaten. Bruises hugged her body like a blanket; thousands of cuts threatened her very life. She came with a warning. We helped her inside, Eli helped clean all the cuts and jade made a huge dinner. She told us of how she was attacked by those who thought she didn’t deserve to like because she was different. “They thought I was sent by the devil to destroy all mankind. That’s ridiculous! The man who was leading them, he brain washed them all; he turned my own mother against me. He convinced her that I should not have the right to the abilities that I have, that if everyone else cannot do the things I can, then I should be killed. I barely got out alive. I could sense that you guys were like me, and I wanted to warn you.” We all exchanged looks, we knew what was coming. I had a vision the previous night, there was a fire, someone died but I couldn’t see who. Clover stood up suddenly, “someone’s outside” she said. She walked to the back door, Ethan and Chasity right behind her. She smelled the air, a look of disgust snuck onto her face. She spun around quickly, “Everyone get out of the house now!” she shouted, we all ran to the door when suddenly, the back door exploded. Fire roared through the doorway, into the living room and into the kitchen. By the time we all got outside, our whole cabin was lit up in flames. “Where’s that lady?” Kim asked, looking around, but we never found her. We’ve been living is this basement ever since. Our friend, Claire, welcomed us with open arms, and being an average human being, that was a big step. Last week, she went missing from this very home. We were gone, out shopping for food, clothes, and more things we needed to make our new home actually feel like a home. Once we got back, the whole house was destroyed. There were two notes taped to the fridge, one for us, and one for Claire’s family. The one for us read “we know you’re here. You’ve already lost your house, your dignity, and now your only hope at surviving. You can’t hide forever, were coming for you. “The one for her family read “hey, went to Prescott for a while, don’t know when I’ll be back. All the things needed for the party this week is in the coverts. Please do not try and contact me, love Claire.” Her parents didn’t know we were there. They would have treated us like everyone else. Either way, we were preparing for battle. It was us, against them.
Okay, so back to the present. As were all freaking out, the basement door flies right open, revealing the man in the ball room, behind him, a mob of people in fancy dresses and tuxedos. “All of you, outside right now.” He said, turning around and walking through the crowd of unfamiliar faces. I walked up the stairs, my family close behind, into the ball room. Ethan was looking around the room, looking for an opening to work his magic. As they crowd surrounded us, Chase turned invisible, but someone threw pink paint on him. “What the he** are you doing! What the he** is this pink! Did you seriously just throw pink on me! Clover! Beat him down!”
“Chase! Shut up!” Chasity said, slamming her elbow into his gut. “What do you want with us?” I said, looking directly into the man’s beautiful eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious, I want all of you dead. But you…” his eyes drifted to Chasity, “now you’re special. I think I might want to keep you around a little longer.” Instantly Kyle’s hands flew up and wrapped around her arm, pushing her behind him. “There is no way in he** your getting her.” He growled under his breath. His arms were in front of him them, he shoved the man and he went flying into the wall, crashing into the mirror, shattering it into pieces. Jade flew up into the air, breathing fire onto those who were edging closer to us. Some of the guests started walking to the windows, throwing themselves out, and falling down the rocky mountain side. As clover was fighting everyone who dared to face her, Kyle went to the man, lifted him up by his hair and threw him outside the window with the rest of the pathetic losers that fell for Ethan’s spell. Soon, we were all left alone in the room, except for the few dead bodies lying around the floor.
“Is that is? Really? I didn’t even break a sweat…pathetic humans.” Chase said with a smirk on his face. “Yeah you didn’t break a sweat because you didn’t do anything, lazy ass,” Ethan said, playfully punching Chase in the arm. As we walked to the front door, a screeching noise filled my ears. I dropped to my knees in agonizing pain, I didn’t know what was happening. Then I saw it, the vision that scared me to death. “What is it? Chasity, what does she see?” Kyle asked “I…I don’t know I can’t see anything it’s just fuzzy.”
Once it was all over I was breathless. “It’s not over…” was all I could say before blackness fell over me.