The Writer's Café

I've always been able to see things, things in the dark that people mistake as shadows.

I know better.

They're not shadows but they're not humans. Not entirely...

All I really know is that no one else can see them except those with a "Gift" like mine. I'm not the only one though luckily. There are many others scattered around the my home state, Texas. Some you may know of because you lock them away in an insane asylum. Those are the ones who don't know how to stay quite. How to stay hidden. How to stay sane.

My name is Cassandra, yes I know of that its the name of a profit that everyone said was crazy and she ended up being right about everything... well before she died. I tend to look on the bright side of things, at least she was right.

Here are some things that you should know before we continue this story im risking everything to tell you;

No I’m not insane, though on some levels I could use a little therapy but who wouldn't if you saw shadow people in your house?

No I’m not a extreme fantasy role player, though come on a little dressing up now and then, is that so bad?

And last thing you should know is; No I’m not in an asylum. I know how to keep my mouth shut.

I've had 15(0) years to practice.

Okay so maybe you should know a little about us, The Seers and our aging problem. No we are not immortal or invincible. The oldest seer is 32(0) and her partner, Theodore who died of old age at 86(0). We age a year in our appearance every 10 years, or less for those who just develop faster. I look like I’m 15, though I say I could pass for a 17 year old if I put my hair up.

Melanie ( the one who I said was 32 and is the oldest one. The next oldest is some swedish guy who is like 28(0). So not impressive seeing how he still doesn"t know english after all that time of practically travling the whole world twice!) is my partner.

Partners are like your family, Mel acts as my parent and helps me when we are assigned a shadow creature to hunt.

Soon I hope I can have my own partner, when I turn old enough to act as their guardian. New seers are being discovered or rescued from insane asylums much more often now and the odds of me getting a partner are very high.

Mel says I’ll make a wonderful mentor with a little more training.

Okay so I'm guessing you probably want to know about the parents of us seers?

Why aren’t the parents helping or guarding? Why aren’t they seers too? Where is that pizza I ordered before I sat down to write this thing? The guy said 30 minutes and its been 31 and 53 seconds.

Oh wait that's me, oops. Hmm I’ll leave this in the story, makes it sound more realistic.

Which it is, it's deadly real.

Now where was I, of yeah the parent thing. Now you see, to be a seer isn't a gene you inherit but rather an event that happens to you. Mine, was well lets say it could have been worse.

A lot Worse...

I like it!

I was 13 years old. Just 13.. not crazy look like I am 13 but I am a lot older.

My father was worried about the civil war that was being fought in America. He had contacted some old friends who had a rather large estate in England and had told my Mother and I that we were to go live with his friends over seas in London until it was safer in the south where we lived. My mom said that we needed to go, if we didn't then something could happen to our family's plantation and she couldn't live with herself if something happened to me.

So we went, I was on the boat there when they came. The shadow people. Of course then I couldn't see them at all. I was a blind human just like the rest of the boat. They cut the pipes down below and made the heating shoot up, messing with the wood and soon the whole under deck was in flames. The seers finally came to stop the shadow people, but it was too late. The boat was sinking, along with me in it.

I saw the flames and what looked like thick clouds of ash moving here and there from flame to flame, they weren't ash clouds I soon learned. They were the shadow people, they were moving from flame to flame to help fan the flames. Shadow people love it when humans are scared and in pain, they feed off of it. I was running trying to get to a life boat and off of that sinking ship, confused and dazed on where my father and mother were. Water lapped at my feet and I remember my stockings being damp and the only thought running through my head was; Fathers going to be mad if I catch a cold because of wet stockings. I don't know why that thought was going through my head when I should have been thinking about my life and how I was going to get off the ship, maybe I was in shock that this could possibly be happening to me. I was the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who was also a business man in London. Nothing bad was supposed to happen to me. That didn't stop it from happening though.

I was about to make it to the life boat where the rest of the crew, passengers and my Parents were waiting, moving there hands urging me to run faster. Run I did, I felt like my feet were barely touching the ground at how fast I was running. They were touching the ground though because I soon tripped on a turned over crate. Falling down a large crash sounded from cargo falling and the giant crate on my now broken leg.

I looked up and saw the crest fallen faces of the passengers as they looked at me trapped with a crate on my leg to heavy to move. The captain who had made it, looked at me then the boat of people and back to me with a grim expression. He knew then that he had to save who he could or they would all die. My Parents sobbed and my Mother tried to climb out of the Boat but the Captain held her back and she called out my name,”CASSANDRA! I love You!!”

With that the Captain dropped the boat into the water and left me on the sinking ship alone with the moving ash clouds and these people running around seeming to try and fight them. None of it made sense to me what so ever. My parents were gone and I knew in my heart I was going to die alone. It made me furious when I saw the strange people and I lay there sobbing for help thinking shouldn't these people be trying to find another life boat? Or could they try and help me even, a small 13 year old girl who's leg was trapped under a crate.

Finally one of them noticed me but at the same time so did one of the ash clouds. It headed towards me and I felt a stench wash over me filling my noes with the scent of death and fear.

As they both came near I started to see the ash take a form. It was human in shape and from the looks of it a girl. She approached me and soon I saw that in her eyes their was movement, the movement I would soon learn of human souls that she had taken in her life time before she became a shadow. The stranger snarled at the girl in ash and pulled out a blunt looking poker with symbols carved around the side.

“Die in the depths of hell you escaped from!” With that she plunged the pointer into the girls chest.

Into her heart.

Blood didn't fall though as I lay their cringing under the crate, instead black shadows seeped out as the girl cried out in pain but made no noise. With a crack that made me flinch she was gone with only the poker to show that she had indeed been there. The stranger lifted the crate off of me and held out a hand. My Leg was stinging in pain and I felt woozy, my head heavy and my body on fire.

Neither one of us saw the last sliver of the girls shadow slide into me, into my own heart. Gasping I lay on the ground trying to breath but I couldn't, the blood loss getting to me finally.

The stranger widened her eyes and picked me up calling out to the other people on the ship who had stopped fighting the now gone ash clouds, “ She's a chosen lets get off this sinking ship now.” That last statement rang through my ears the world blacked out with all the air inside of me gone. I was dead before we reached their boats.

Though with my death came the birth of me, a seer.