The Adventure Begins Chapter 1

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Angela leans her head back against her seat as she listens to the hum of the tires of the bus as it travelled over the asphalt. It relaxed her enough that she didn’t need to concentrate so hard in keeping her shields up and keeping other people’s thoughts out of her head. It took her a long time to learn how to block them. It also didn’t help that her parents were hardcore Baptist Evangelists.

She remembers when her powers first started to manifest. She was just ten years old when she started hearing her teacher’s thoughts. It frightened her a lot at first, but the scary time came when she told her parents that she was hearing voices inside her head. Her parents’ thought she was crazy and had been possessed by demons, they called her a child of Satan and locked her in a closet for days and tried all sorts of ways to chase the demon out of her. They made her drink holy water every day, but they hadn’t realized the water had become contaminated. The contamination had caused her to lose her eyesight. It took everything she had to fool them enough so she could be released from the closet.

Her mother was tough on her as she was forced to deal with her blindness, if she didn’t do what her mother told her to do, she would be whipped with a switch her mother brought in from the tree right outside their home. She had scars on top of her hands and back from the beatings she received. She secretly practiced at night in her locked bedroom to learn how to use her developing psychic abilities to allow her to see through other people’s eyes. She didn’t know how she was able to learn about a technique like that, but it was the only recourse she had, if she wanted to see. The first time she did it, it felt weird to her. She practiced as often as she could, when she was alone.

She also learned she could influence people with her abilities as well. If she just gave them a gentle suggestion, she could get them what she wanted, but if she pushed too hard with her suggestion, she knew they would resist. That was how she managed to get one of the older ladies in her parent’s congregation to buy her a bus ticket and send her to Charlottesville, VA. She had learned that there was a group of Wiccans that lived up there, which could help her with her abilities. How to get in touch with them was another matter however she had to try. Her abilities were getting stronger and she didn’t know how she could deal with them, normally she would have searched the internet or the library for help. However, with her being blind, there would be no way she could do that. Her parents weren’t about to spend the money to get her a keyboard or even a new computer for her to use. She was lucky that there was someone in the congregation who was able to teach her how to read Braille.

This trip of hers, took allot of planning and cunning on her part. She sneaked into her parents’ bedroom at night and made suggestions to them to write a letter permitting her to travel along and to let Ms. Williams watch over her. Once that had been done, she made small suggestions to Ms. Williams for her to take her to the bus station and buy the ticket she needed. Between the letters from her parents granting her permission to travel by herself on the bus and the money she managed to get from her parents to take on this trip, she figured she would have enough to live on for a week if she had to.

The bus driver had been nice to her during the trip so far. She had peeked inside his mind and discovered that he had two daughters and two boys and really enjoyed his job. Sure, there were times he wished he were on a different route, but he didn’t mind this one too much. The other passengers on the bus each had their own places they were heading, one or two of them were going to visit their families. The others were on vacation and the rest were heading to college or Washington D.C.

Angela sighs as she listens to the raindrops hitting the bus roof and her window. She snuggles deep into her seat cushion and bundles up under the blanket the bus driver gave her when she came on the bus. She mentally relaxes and drifts off to sleep, she dreams of an open field filled with horses and green grass with a white picket fence. She could feel the wind as it brushed against her cheeks as it blew. she could feel the warm sunshine beaming down on her as she walked the field in a summer dress. She could see again and watched as the clouds over her passed by forming different shapes in the sky. A smile forms, on her face as she stands there in the field, watching the sky.

Angela wakes when she feels someone touch her lightly on the arm. She sees the field and everything around her disappear the black void returns.

“Angela, it’s time to wake-up. We’re here at the bus station.” Henry looks down at her. He had been watching over her since she first boarded the bus back in Richmond, Va. She reminded him of his youngest child. He felt sorry for her, since she couldn’t see. Why any parent would let a thirteen-year-old blind girl travel by herself, he’ll never know.

Angela stirs when she hears Henry’s fatherly voice. She could feel his concern for her safety from his touch on her bare skin.

“Thank you, Henry.” she sits up and stretches.

She reaches for her cane and slowly gets up out of her seat and with Henry’s help exit the bus and into the station. Angela immediately scans the bus station with her mental gifts. Feeling everyone’s thoughts almost overwhelm her. There were so many of them. Some of them were normal and others were different. She had never felt anything like these thoughts before. They were different, primal in a sense. She slowly turns till she feels the strength of the thoughts become sharper. She searches for a normal person nearby to look through their eyes.
She wanted to see whom she was feeling, because she had never felt any one’s thoughts like this.

Angela has a familiar warning as she thinks about doing what is thinking. She’s learned to listen to those warnings. She decides to head outside the bus station and flags down a cab.

Charley notices a small, young girl with lightly tanned skin with long brown hair that came down to her waist, tied in a ponytail, wearing a purple polo shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. She had on a pair of black sunglass and had a white cane strapped to her left hand and a dark brown backpack on her back. She seemed to be waving her hands and looking directly towards him as he comes closer to her. He pulls up close to the curb and watches as she opens the passenger side door.

“Thank you, sir” she said, climbing into the cab.

“You’re welcome.” Charley couldn’t help but notice that she addressed him as sir. How did she know he was a male instead of a female?

“Your kind of young to be travelling by yourself.” Charley looks at the young girl.

Angela just smiles, she could read his thoughts so clearly.

“Yes, sir I am, but I am looking for someone to help me with a problem I have and they work in this city. Is there an antique store by the name of Out of Time Antiques?” Angela held her cane close to her body. She had a bad feeling that something was going to occur soon.

“Yes, ma’am there is, is that where you would like to go?” Charley just looks at the young girl and wonders why she would want to go there.

“Yes sir. I need to speak to Mrs. Cassandra Powell.” Angela couldn’t figure out why, she suddenly knew this woman’s name, it was as if like something or someone was guiding her to this woman.

“I know Mrs. Powell, she and her husband are good people. They do a lot of charity work around these parts and host a summer camp out at their ranch for trouble and handicapped youths.” Charley pulls away from the curb and heads down the road towards the street that he knew would take him towards the antique store.

Angela listens intently to Charley when he spoke about Mrs. Powell and her husband. She wonders if that was why she had been sent here to her.

“What type of work does her husband do?” Angela was interested in that fact.

“He’s a member of the JADE taskforce.” Charley knew about the task force because some of his fellow cab drivers acted as informants for them, letting them know about certain drug dealers, weapon suppliers and rough supernatural creatures that broke the law.

“What is JADE?” Angela had picked up what it was from Charley’s mind, but it would have been rude for her to acknowledge it.

“It’s the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement, it’s composed of police officers from several different police departments and other agencies. Allot of the officers or detectives come from the Charlottesville Police Department, Albemarle County Police Department, University of Virginia Police Department, Virginia State Police and agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration. They sometimes have agents from the FBI and ATF working with them. A cousin of mine who is a SWAT officer works with them sometimes. Cassandra’s husband is a detective and he normally deals with the supernatural creatures. There was an incident just last week that JADE had to handle. I tell you, ever since those vampires came out to everyone; life hasn’t been the same since.” Charley had known for years that there were things that made his skin crawl, especially at night with some of the weird fares he had gotten over the years, now that the vampires have come out to everyone, he will no longer work the night shift.

“Is there a large supernatural presence here?” Angela knew her father’s friends had killed off the supernatural presence where she lived.

When her father and mother found out that there were vampires living in their town, they made some phone calls to friends of theirs at another church, her parents didn’t know that she knew about them. She knew they were called the Hunter organization, she also knew the money her father’s church collected went into supporting their group and their activities.

“Unfortunately, yes. They own or operate at least ten or twenty of the businesses around town. One of the biggest nightclubs around these parts is owned by a male vampire, he’s supposedly of European royal descent and is considered the head vampire of this area, to whom all the other vampires should answer too. Personally, I think they should just ship to Europe, him and the rest of the vampires that live here.”

Charley hated him; because the vampire he was talking about bought the cab company for which he drove and raised everyone’s rental fee. They were barely getting by before then, but now he had to work extra hard to earn his rental fee and have a few dollars to take home each day. He was lucky he had his military retirement check to get him by, but he knew the rest of the drivers weren’t that lucky. This was their only job.

Angela winces when she feels Charley’s anger, strong emotions like anger, hatred, lust and jealously were hard for her to keep from affecting her, that’s why every Sunday when she was forced to sit through her father’s sermons, she would sneak several sips of the cheap wine before it was watered down for communion. She managed to keep a flask of Mad Dog 20/20 in her backpack to help dull the pain of strong emotions she had to face. The drawback to drinking too much that she found out by accident one day it allowed her to see more possible future events. Normally she could only see maybe a day or so ahead. However, if she was really drunk she could see further ahead and more avenues of possible events that were clearer than they normally would be.

“Do they cause a lot of trouble?” Angela adjusted the way she was sitting in the cab so she was leaning up against the right-hand side. That same warning, she gets when there is danger near her was being persistent right now.

A few seconds after she moves away from behind Charley and before Charley could respond to her question, another car slams right into the door behind Charley. She braces as the cab spins around and she could feel how afraid and scared Charley was as he tried to control the cab.
Angela heard the glass break, as she shielded her face with her hands to block the flying glass fragments. Tires squealed as the brakes were applied and she heard Charley curse as the airbag deployed to prevent him from hitting the steering wheel. There was a strong smell of anti-freeze and smoke in the air. She could hear and feel people’s anxiety levels near her and Charley. She could hear sirens as they got closer to her. She was feeling scared as she felt unknown hands grab for her. Her cane wasn’t anywhere nearby.

“You’re coming with me my dear.”

Angela felt an unknown hand tighten around her wrist as the unknown person tried to pull her out of the cab.

“No!” Angela kicks at the person trying to grab her.

The hand that was holding her tightens its grip to the point where it felt like whoever or whatever it was, was going to break her arm.

“Stopping fighting little girl, my Master wants you and you will be coming with me.” Daniel knew his master wanted this girl, why he didn’t know, but he knew his Master said that she was important to him.

“No!” Angela kicks harder. Her foot strikes Daniel’s face and she feels his grip let go of her.

Daniel lets go as soon as he feels her foot strike his face, he screams as his nose breaks and blood run towards his mouth.

“You little bitch!” He tries to grab her foot again, but misses.

“Get away from me.” Angela brings her feet closer to her body to keep them out of his reach.
Daniel could hear sirens coming closer and people rushing to help.

“This isn’t over, little girl.” Daniel turns and runs away from the crash scene.

Tears stream down Angela’s face as she trembles, she felt his anger and knew she was in danger. She needed to get to Cassandra Powell now.

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Comments

A good beginning......

D. Eden's picture

To what appears to be a great story line. But as I have expressed previously, you desperately need the help of a good editor. Your talent is obvious, but the spelling errors, the syntax issues, and the simply wrong words make it much more difficult for the reader to truly appreciate your work.

It seems like you are using spell check on your work - but as the program itself is flawed it turns out a flawed product. Quite often a misspelled word is not corrected as it is still a word - just the wrong word. Or often, the wrong tense of the right word. Proofreading your work would help, but the use of another set of eyes is always beneficial.

Having said that, I am greatly intrigued by the idea you have started here. I have enjoyed several of your other works, and this one appears to be yet another.

D

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Sorry

Your right I should had sent this story to be edited before posting it. I'll try to do better with the next chapter and see if I can get this one edited as well.
I really do appreciate all the comments everyone post about my stories. You guy/girls have been a big influence on me to want to post these stories.

Thank you for you comment.

Scarlett.jpg“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
― Toni Morrison

It's much better to be posted with flaws

WillowD's picture

than to not be posted at all. I've seen a lot of stuff published on Amazon that need a LOT more work than your stuff. I haven't had time yet to go back and read all of your old stuff but I've been reading all of your new stuff for several weeks now and I've gone back and read some of your current series from the beginning. And I'm sure you would be publishing a lot less if you were waiting to try and find a proof reader or and editor. Thank you so much for all of these stories.

Oh yes, I am absolutely delighted to see the part about "the next chapter".

This looks to be another

This looks to be another wonderful little story, and I can see why Daniel's Master would want Angela, if he is aware of her "talents". He could easily rule over many, many others using those talents for himself.

Do You

mountaindrake's picture

The tie in to Do You Believe in Magic? I remember a little blind girl being mentioned and we have the hunter organization. Have a good day and enjoy life.

Have a good day and enjoy life.

Looking forward for more.

I wonder where this is going? Interesting to this little Drow.

Attention getter

Jamie Lee's picture

This first chapter sure gets the readers' attention. Even makes one want to take the mother out to the wood she'd and help her remember what it feels like to be beaten. Only with an axe handle.

They blind their own daughter with contaminated "holy water" and beat her to get her to learn how to deal with her blindness? Are these AH's that ignorant?

So the car crash was done on purpose to get Angela? Hope Cassandra felt the crash and Angela's fear, so she can get to Angela sooner than not at all.

Others have feelings too.