In a land far away, a land of peace, misery and fear are inevitable, and darkness threatens the existence of the six...
Chapter 1
"We're goin' to Hawaii!" I exclaimed.
My siblings all screamed...loudly. Except for one, Kallen. But then again, I never hear him scream, or make any noise louder than the rare shout. So that meant eight siblings--three boys and five girls--all in one smallish room together, screaming their heads off. It made it all the worse since the triplets--Landor, Gage, and Belenika--were there. They screamed the loudest.
"Finally!" Gage shrieked shrilly at the top of his lungs.
Landor cried out, "Hip, hip, HORRAY!"
"OMIGOD!!!!! OMIGOD!!!!!" Belenika screamed, bouncing up and down.
Trying to quiet everyone, my older sister, Willow, boomed, "Settle down!" Everyone fell still and silent, staring at her. "Thank you," she said. "You were literally bursting my eardrums." She stood and left the dining room, muttering under her breath.
"When are we leaving?" Ethir raised the question.
I squinted at the seven year old past the blinding summer sun that shone through the dining room window. It was early summer, but yet the sun protested to be blazing hot. I could feel it now, at ten-o-three in the morning, burning my already sunburnt face. "A couple of days," I told Ethir.
He grinned. "Awesome."
Twelve year old Ladian stood and washed her dishes quickly, then put them away just as fast.
"Careful," Teniquwa warned. "Don't break anything."
Ellis punched her eighteen year old twin playfully on the shoulder. "Lay her off, Ten-Ten," she laughed. She stood up and took care of her dishes. Teniquwa followed suit. "We're going to pack!" she called over her shoulder as the two bounded upstairs.
The only ones left at the table now were the triplets, Kallen, and I. The triplets ate quick, whispering to each other. I became suspicious. What were they planning now? They got up around fifteen minutes later and took care of their dishes, then went outside.
"That doesn't look good." That was the first thing Kallen said.
"That's what I was thinking," I agreed. "Uh...Kallen?"
"Hmmm?" he mumbled, turning to face me.
I giggled, reaching around his back and pulling back a lock of his black hair that had fallen into his cereal with the motion. "Silly, you got your hair in your milk. You don't want hair cereal, do you?" I told him.
My seventeen year old brother gagged, nearly choking on his cereal. After swallowing rather forcefully, he pushed his bowl away from him. "Ugh, I'm not hungry anymore," he joked. He left the table and began to wash his dishes. "Anyway, what is it?"
"What's what?" I was confuzled.
"You know," Kallen looked at me gravely, "what did y wanna tell me when you said, 'Uh...Kallen?'."
I stared at my own soggy cereal, setting the spoon down. "I was just wondering. Do you consider yourself to be a...
freak?"
Kallen froze, surprised. "We-well, I don't know," he shrugged. "Do you?"
I nodded glumly. "Yeah." Why did I think myself to be a freak? Let me explain. I have
pointy ears. And so do my siblings. We were adopted, separately, from the same family, as mother and father had always told us. So, we technically were siblings. They were kind to us, but with our family as big as we were, we were poor. And yet, they still adopted all ten of us.
Then came the fateful day, a year after Ethir was adopted into the family. The night was dark, moonless, and rainy. No stars shone their cold, hateful light upon the Earth that night. All was still. My eight year old self lay fast asleep in bed, when suddenly I was awoken by a crash of thunder. And, I swear, almost drowned out by the thunder, a scream could be heard. One of pain and fear. I raced down the stairs to find the baby blue walls and light purple flooring of the living room splattered with wet dark red.
"Mommy!" called I. "Daddy!"
No answer.
"Mommy!! Daddy!! Where are you?!"
I was once again denied an answer. I called and called. My older siblings came down and attempted to calm me, but they were also terrified. And I knew, I would never see my sweet, caring foster parents ever again...
"Eve? Eve!" It was Kallen's voice in my ear, Kallen's hands that were shaking me out of that horrible, unwanted memory.
I opened my eyes, just now realizing they were closed. My hands, unconsciously balled into tight fists, cramped. I released them, gasping, covered in cold sweat, my cheeks stained with tears I never knew I shed. "Kallen..." I moaned.
"Eve, are you alright?" Kallen asked in concern, sweeping his long bangs out of his face and tucking them behind his ear.
I nodded. "Yeah."
"It was the memory again, wasn't it?"
"Uh-huh." I sighed deeply, then decided to change the subject to a more cheerful one. I eyed his hair. It was waist length, thick, scruffy, and black. His bangs came down to his shoulders, and obscured his abnormally pale face from view. "You know, you really should consider cutting your hair shorter," I suggested.
Kallen straightened back up, shaking his head defiantly. "
No, Eve," he replied. "That'll never happen."
"It'll be much lighter!" I pointed out.
"I can deal with the weight. I'm used to it."
"People won't look at you oddly in school anymore," I said.
"I don't care if people look at me oddly. I just ignore them, and they get used to it."
"It'll be much cooler in the summer," I sighed irritably.
"So?"
I rolled my eyes, standing and taking care of my dishes. Nothing would convince him. "Fine, have it your way," I responded. "But at least try out shorts."
Kallen looked puzzled. "I thought we were talking about my hair, not my clothes," he said.
Kallen's choice in clothing: A loose black short sleeved T-shirt and long black jeans with no shoes whatsoever. He had a weird despising towards shoes. Actually, we all did.
"I like my style," he protested.
"Whatever," I answered absently, when suddenly came a loud
BOOM!!!!!
Willow/19/Female
Ellis/18/Female 
Teniquwa/18/Female
Kallen/17/Male
Gage/16/Male 
Belenika/16/Female
Evergreen/15/Female
Ladian/12/Female
Ethir/7/Male