• THIS IS NOT THE FIRST PART OF THIS STORY!!!!!! THEERE IS A PROLOGUE WHICH YOU NEED TO READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T READ THIS UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE PROLOGUE!!!!
    -Juliet



    Chapter 1

    I stared at the barren road stretching far off into the night horizon, as if it met the starry sky. Fields surrounded me, barricading me from any sign of civilization, except for the two people standing a few hundred yards away. One was Dawn, smiling. The other one was taller than her by an couple of inches, and he had shaggy dark hair in his face. Something seemed off about him, however, and I was enticed to step forward, slowly, although my mind couldn't comprehend why. The closer I came to the two, standing there, waiting without a word, I could see the small details of their faces. Dawn's hazel eyes gleamed, and the breeze blew both of their hair slightly. The atmosphere felt so calm and refreshing, but it haunted me.

    My eyes stared with astonishment when I finally figured out what was wrong with the guy. His chalky blue-grey eyes stared past me, empty and blank. He was blind. He smiled, and I heard a laugh. "That's what they all think first." The words chimed in my head, although I didn't think them, did I? They had a different aura to them, unlike my own little voice, they were almost out loud. I looked at him in bewilderment, pausing in my approach. "I'm Cecil. You didn't imagine the voice. That's just me." Then, Dawn spoke.

    "Hello, Skylar. Please, join us. You can't stay away for long," she said, holding out her hand.

    "You really can't. Once Dawn sees it, it's almost sure fact." The voice rang out, but the sound came from in front of me, in sync with the blind boy's lips. He chuckled when I widened my eyes. I shook my head no without speaking. "Alright then. We'll be back soon, and see if you've changed your mind." Then, they began to fade, leaving me alone with the moonlit sky. Fading, Fading, Fading, gone.

    Then the starlight gave the sky over to the powerful sun, which streamed through my window as my alarm screamed at me to wake up. The dream's reality still startled me, especially Cecil's voice inside my head.

    I finished getting ready for school and quietly crept down the staircase to avoid a dispute with my parents. I didn't want them to start yelling at me and cause me to be late for school again. Luckily, as the note on the front door relieved me, my mom had gone to run some errands. My dad, I presumed, was already halfway to work.

    I climbed into the driver's seat of my car, and sighed when it wouldn't start, like it often did. Why couldn't my parents get me a car that worked all the time? Luckily, it didn't stall yesterday on my way home. Otherwise, I would have been stuck around those freaks all night, or at least until I could find someone willing to drive over and take me home. I pulled out my also unreliable cell phone, almost screaming when it had no bars. I rolled my eyes and stomped out of the car, slamming the door. I stormed back into the house and grabbed the home phone, furiously dialing Eve's number. It rang 4 times before the answering machine picked up, sounding her familiar voice. Ugh. I tried my mom's number. Fortunately, she picked up. Unfortunately, she wouldn't give me a ride.

    "You'll just have to walk," she sighed, "Anyways, it is your fault for not making sure that it's it good shape. Take it to the shop or something tomorrow." I didn't have any money to get it fixed. That's why it never worked, since they wouldn't pay for it.

    I sighed, and swung my backpack over my shoulder and grabbing a muffin while I did all of the other chores before school. It would be much better to be late to school than not do the chores, because my parents would totally chew me out and make even more bruises on the outside, and leave me broken on the inside, which I didn't want to think about that happening, since I was still recovering from two nights ago.

    By the time I made it to school, sweaty and irritated, I was almost 45 minutes late. When I walked into the office to check in and tell them about my tardy, a guy I'd never seen before was yelling at the secretary. He definitely looked like trouble, with jet black hair spiked furiously in the back. He also wore dark clothes with so many chains I wondered if he'd been chained to the wall of an asylum and somehow broken out. Even his fingerless gloves had little silver chains hanging on them.

    "Look lady," he growled. "Her car stalled out so she had to walk to school, and her mom couldn't get through to her cell phone to tell her I was going to take her to the doctor appointment." I realized that they were talking about me, although I'd never met the guy.

    "Sir, for the millionth time, you don't have authori-" the secretary started, and I realized he'd probably been harassing her like this for a while, seeing the fear and impatience in her eyes.

    "I don't freakin' care! I know her mother personally, and her mom called me to come pick her up. Don't make this hard lady. You don't want me to get angry." He stared her down, and then she realized I had entered. The man whipped around, and I could see him better. He probably wasn't even in his twenties, and his hair fell over one of his enraged hazel eyes. He didn't look too bad, besides the scary clothes. He definitely wasn't out of college, and I wondered how my mom could possibly know him. Most of her coworkers were in their 40s up, and she didn't have the job that he seemed suited for anyways.

    "Oh, Skylar, I was just about to call you down. Did you just get here?" She saw my backpack still resting on my now aching shoulder. I sat there, stunned, not knowing how to respond to all of this.

    "Yes ma'am," I forced out. The man smiled with an expression that betrayed his lips, showing his white teeth.

    "Hello Skylar," he cooed in a voice that obviously wasn't real emotion, and sounded more like he was comforting a toddler although he was angry with something else. It was strained and somewhat quiet, different from the rant he'd just given to the secretary. "Your mother forgot to tell you about the little check up, and we really can't be late. Let's just sign you out, and we'll be on our way," he said, still talking with fake warmth. He turned back to the secretary, "Right?" I know I saw him slip a twenty across the desk.

    "Sir," she sternly replied," I can't let you-"

    "Too bad," he handed her a hundred more. He closed her hand around it. "That enough?"

    She smiled. "Go ahead and take Skylar to her appointment, but please, next time have her mother write a note. That way we can avoid another situation." I didn't even know what to think. The secretary was letting me go with a stranger for $120?! He grabbed my wrist tightly and dragged me towards a large, faded red van without windows on the sides, besides the ones right next to the passenger and driver seats. The passenger door somehow flung open before we even reached the car, and he shoved me in.

    "Don't say anything. I don't want this to be any harder than it is. Sit quietly and do everything I tell you to, okay?" I nodded in fear, wondering what this was all about. He madly slammed the door, and got into the driver's seat. Clearly he wasn't even going to pretend to be nice. He quickly started the car, and as soon as we were on the road, he began dialing a number on his phone.

    "Sage, what the," he looked at me, "... heck were you thinking? Stalling out her car? You freaking idiot!" He paused, while Sage talked on the other side. "No! We changed plans!" he snarled, and paused again. "Yeah, I know you were trying some new stunt of yours with Andrew, and you missed the meeting." His face softened a bit. "Yes, she's in the car with me. Sage, you better go fix her car." he tensed up again, fury welling up in his face. "You burned it?! You, even in the first plans, were not supposed to burn it! You messed the entire thing up Sage! Also, you owe me 100 dollars." He hung up before Sage could protest. He drove in silence for about twenty minutes, and we finally reached the circus grounds I'd been at the previous day. Of course this guy was involved with this, why was I actually believing he knew my mom? "Get out," he said, and he yanked me by the wrist, yet again, in the direction he wanted me to go in. This time, he took me to a different tent than the fortune teller, which was larger and had more furniture inside. A short, balding man sat in a chair, and Dawn smiled at me from farther back. To my surprise, the tall lanky figure I recognized from last night as Cecil was actually standing next to the man, but his eyes stared at me this time, not past me, and he seemed to be concentrating on something about me, though I knew he couldn't see me. As soon as I was inside the tent, the man strode off, still acrimonious.

    'Hi Skylar," Dawn greeted me. "I hope Dr. Depression wasn't too mean to you. He can be mean." She must have spotted the bruises on my arms from my parents the other night, because her eyes widened. "What did he do to you? He is in so much trouble, the old freak! He shouldn't be hurting you, he was only suppo-"

    "That wasn't him, Dawn. That was someone else," I stopped her. Even though the guy seemed to be mean, I didn't want him to get in trouble for what he didn't do.

    "Oh," she said, "Well, whoever decided to do that to you are in trouble. I will find out who did it eventually."

    "Dawn," the stout man said with a slight French accent, "We need to get down to business." he smiled at me, and crinkles appeared around his eyes. "I'm Oscar Elston, the owner of The Elston Circus. We are a travelling circus of psychics, and Dawn has foreseen you joining us because of a special talent that you are currently unaware of, according to Cecil.

    "We would very much appreciate it if you would consider our offer. If you joined, you would get to live in our mansion, and we would pay for your food, clothing, and medical bills. You would also have a salary, which will vary on how you contribute to our performance. So, what do you think?"

    I stared at him, unable to believe he actually thought I'd join something that I didn't know anything about.

    "No thank you sir," I replied calmly. "I really don't think I should be going off with some strangers. I don't know you." I started to make my way towards the door.

    "Well then, we'll be here for another week, so if you change your mind, stop by. Anyways, if you don't know us, why don't you spend the day here? We'll give you tickets to our show, and let you go home afterwards," Oscar said, smiling. I'll also give you our phone number, so that you can call us. We can come and get you at any time. Esprit has no problem coming here to get you. He's a teleporter, you see." Again with the psychic stuff.

    "We can give proof of our abilities if you want us to," Cecil spoke out loud. Maybe I had just been imagining the voice in my head, "What would you like us to do? We can't prove Dawn's abilities in a few minutes, but I can tell you everything you're thinking right now. We could go get Mathias or Sage or someone else. They all have abilities, like you."

    "How do you know I have abilities? I can't do anything," I replied, even though I knew they couldn't provide a realistic answer. Cecil laughed.

    "I'm a mind reader. I can read what you're thinking right now, and I can sometimes tell which parts of your brain you're using. Psychics use more parts of their brains than most people do. Humans don't use all of their brains. You're using a part of your brain that other people don't. You aren't aware of it, but you are." He smiled. "All of us use different parts of our brains," he grinned wider, "Does that make sense to you?" I thought back to what I'd learned in science and on Discovery Channel, which always seemed to be on when my dad was in the house. I nodded. "Good. I can't really tell exactly what you can do, but you do seem to be able to control something outside of your own body, but it also runs into controlling your body. Kind of like Sage, but there are some differences..." he trailed off, frowning. "We'll figure it out. We usually do."

    "Now, please consider our offer," Oscar said, probably trying to distract me from Cecil's rambling. He wrote something down onto a scrap of paper, and handed it to me, "This is our phone number. Call us if you change your mind." He motioned for me to leave, and I left, stunned.


    End of Chapter One