Pillar Dawn, Chapters 1-4 (standard:science fiction, 5307 words) [1/2] show all parts
Author: Clif Harris	Updated: Feb 19 2010	Views/Reads: 3151/1959	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
“My name is Sarah, and I’m a freak.” Sarah doesn’t know her past, and neither do her friends Aaron, Jake, and Jen. They live with her, wandering around without purpose in the world, but when Sarah meets her long-lost sister, her life takes a turn for the

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After that nice little summary of Jen, let me introduce you to the
nicest, kindest, most perfect member of my little family, Aaron. (If 
you didn't catch the dripping sarcasm of that statement, you need to 
see someone about your brain damage.) He's the kind of guy that leans 
against the wall in the corner of the room, staring at everyone else. 
He doesn't hate people; he's just the quiet type. He doesn't like to 
talk too much, but he's our leader. 

‘Why aren't you leader?' you might be wondering. Well, there are a bunch
of reasons, none I want to get into right now. Anyway, he's an 
excellent leader. He doesn't talk unless it's necessary, so we can 
speak our minds when we're figuring out what to do. He also has really 
good instincts, which have saved our butts a number of times. 

Man, I sound like I have a crush on him! 

Well, that's pretty much our family. 

I dodged the woman's bombardment of water and quickly shot a burst of
fire at her. It struck her chest and I heard her scream with anger and 
pain. 

“You're good.” She said to me, sneering. “But I'm better!” she almost
sent another wave at me, but I suddenly pelted fireball after fireball 
at her. I was oblivious to anything around me until I was knocked onto 
my back by a sudden wave of water from her. 

She leaned down, her face hovering over mine and whispered one word to
me. 

“Checkmate.” 

I looked past her shoulder and saw a figure rising toward the sky as
they rose up on a stone pillar. I squinted and saw that it was a man, 
the wind blowing his hair into his face. The wild look in his eyes and 
the devilish smile on his face stayed etched into my brain. 

II 

“Hey, Sarah, get your furry butt out here!” 

I slowly got out of bed and walked out of my tent. And yes, Jake did say
furry. I have furry orange ears that poke out of my blonde hair and a 
tail coming out of my pants. I also have claws and long, sharp canine 
teeth. I look like some science experiment gone wrong (and for all I 
know, I could be). Oh yeah, I can also create and control fire. Did I 
forget to mention all that? My bad. 

“Hey, where's the big boy?” I asked him. 

“Out in the woods. Is Jen still asleep?” 

“Yeah. She had that dream again last night.” 

You want to know what the dream was? No, you don't, believe me. 

“She's really freaked out about it.” I told him. 

“Still hiding in your guys' tent?” 

“Yeah, but I think she fell back asleep.” 

“Pack up, guys, we're leaving.” I looked up at Aaron, who had just
entered the clearing from the dense woods. 

“Why?” I asked him. 

“Someone's coming.” 

“What?!” 

Okay, if you're wondering why I'm so freaked out about someone finding
us, we're not too good at acting normal, on the account that me and 
Aaron look like-  well, like mutant freaks. 

“Get Jen up, then we're gone.” Aaron instructed me. 

“Who's coming?” I asked him, worried about what might happen to Jen
(she's only 11) for a split second, until I remembered that she could 
make a grown man cry, I've seen her do it. 

“Some girl, I couldn't see her very well, she was running too fast.” He
answered. I saw Jake's eyes light up when he heard ‘girl' out of the 
corner of my eye, but ignored it. Suddenly, the girl in question (at 
least, I assumed it was the same girl) emerged from the woods. She was 
pretty tall, with long red hair. She also had what looked like a 
cream-colored horn coming out of her hair, the same color as her skin, 
and a tail covered in fire. 

“Who are you?!” yelled Aaron, looking threatening and angry. 

She looked away from Aaron and looked over at me, our eyes meeting. “I'm
your sister.” 

Yeah, I'm just as confused as you are. Since when did I have a sister?!
Although, I had to admit that she did look kinda like me, and not 
because she had a tail. 

“I don't have a sister!” I yelled defiantly. 

“You disappeared when you were only 3 years old.” 

Luckily, I don't trust people. 

“Oh, so you don't look for me for 13 years, then suddenly show up and
expect me to believe you?!” 

“Me and mom saw you on the news a few days ago.” She told me. If you're
wondering what she's talking about, 3 days ago, we were passing through 
a small town when some creep started hitting on Jen and just wouldn't 
go away! (You can probably guess what happened.) 

“I've never even met you!” I yelled at her, fists clenched. 

“Sarah, I'm Kate, your older sister.” 

By now, I'm a bit freaked out about this situation. How did she even
know my name?! She was either really my sister that lost me a long time 
ago, or else someone wanted me, bad. “Prove it.” 

“How am I gonna prove that I'm your sister?!” she yelled at me. 

“I don't know, but until you do, stay away from me.” 

“Sarah, just trust me. If you come with-” she started to say while
slowly walking toward me, but Aaron was suddenly in front of me. 

“Leave.” He snarled, glaring at her. He loosened his mint green
overcoat, allowing his thick green tail to become visible, a sign that 
he was going to resort to physical force, if necessary. 

Kate got the general idea and slowly backed away, staring at me, anger
entering her face. The look sent chills down my spine. 

Somehow, I couldn't imagine the two of us becoming friends anytime soon.


As soon as Kate was far away from the campsite, Aaron spoke up. “We're
leaving.” 

“Sarah, where are we going?” Jen asked, still half-asleep. 

“I don't know, we're just following Aaron.” 

“Why did we leave?” 

“Someone found us.” 

“Who?” 

I love Jen to death, but her curiosity could drive anyone up a wall. I
didn't want to tell her about our visitor, so I told her the vaguest 
version of the truth possible. 

“A girl came to talk to me.” 

I quickly tried to think of an answer to the inevitable ‘why?' that
would come from her, but it never came. 

“Jen?” I looked over to her and saw that she had stopped walking and was
just standing there, eyes wide with fear. “Jen, what's wrong?” I asked, 
walking over to her. 

“Someone's following us.” She whispered. 

Dread filled me as I ran up to Aaron and repeated what Jen told me. He
dropped down to one knee, placing his palm on the ground, and stared 
down as if he could burn a hole through the earth. 

“There are no footsteps. She must be imagining things.” He told me. 

I walked back to Jen, who had started moving again, but still had that
helpless look on her face. 

“Aaron said that there isn't anyone else around here, you must be
imagining things.” 

“I guess...” 

We kept walking, and I could see her tense up every once in a while, a
sign that showed she still sensed something. 

“Sarah, I don't care what Aaron says, something is following us!” 

“Aaron didn't feel any vibrations other than the four of us walking,
we're safe. Jen, stop worrying, you'll be fi-” 

“Sarah, look out!” I heard Aaron yell. 

I spun around and suddenly dropped to the ground, unconscious. 

The last thing I saw before passing out was a dark figure floating in
front of me. 

I'm guessing that's why Aaron didn't feel any footsteps. 

I suddenly woke up, fully alert, looking around at my surroundings. 

“Everyone here?” I yelled automatically. 

“Me and Aaron already checked.” Jake told me. I realized that they were
only a few feet away. “Jen's gone.” 

I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up, my insides turned to
jelly, and it felt like I lost a limb, all at once. Why would anyone 
want to take Jen?  Then I remembered that she could ‘see' when she's 
blind, can control and make shadows, and that she can disappear and 
reappear out of the shadows like a ghost. 

My mind flashed to the floating figure. It's my fault she's gone. I
should have listened to her. 

“No, it's not, Sarah.” Jake said to me. I forgot for a second that he
could hear my thoughts. “We all blew her off, thinking she was 
imagining things. She's the most observant of all of us, which is 
saying something, ‘cause she's blind. None of us thought of someone 
being able to follow us without touching the ground.” 

“We're getting her back.” I said, forgetting that Aaron was leader, not
mean. 

“I think that's Aaron's decision, Sarah.” 

“Aaron,” I said, turning to him. “She's part of our family, we need to
help her.” 

“Did you think that I was considering not helping her?” he asked me. 

“Oh, I guess not.” 

“So, what's our plan?” asked Jake. 

“Did you get anything from whoever attacked us?” I asked him. 

“No. when I tried to read his mind, I got a blank. It was like he was
dead, had no brain, or wasn't thinking at all, each one of those is 
impossible. The only thing I found floating around in there was an 
image of your ‘sister'.” 

“What?! I knew I couldn't trust her!” 

“That doesn't mean she had anything to do with this.” Aaron told me. 

“Oh, I didn't think of that. So, that means they know each other, or at
least he knows her.” I reasoned. 

“Maybe she knows something about this guy.” Jake concluded. 

“Yeah. So, we should go looking for-” I started to say, but suddenly, my
head felt like it was going to crack open with a headache so bad, I 
started seeing spots. I couldn't control my body or even think 
straight, and fell to the ground. The vision of the thin trail in the 
woods faded, instead replaced with an abandoned cabin at the edge of a 
forest. 

III 

I realized that I was suddenly standing up. I watched as I walked into
the cabin, my legs controlling themselves. I looked out the window, 
unable to control my body. I watched as someone floated through the 
trees toward the cabin. As they got closer, I realized that it was the 
dark figure from before, holding Jen's unconscious body. He finally 
reached the cabin and traveled right through the wall. 

I hated every part of him, his long, dark purple hair, his tattered
midnight blue coat, and the way he held Jen as he traveled through the 
wall, holding her by the collar of her shirt. 

“Eric, what took you so long?” I asked him with a voice that wasn't my
own. I longed to lunge at him, punishing him for taking Jen, but I had 
no control over my body, so I had to deal with my burning anger, for 
now, at least. 

“Sorry. She was easy to get, the group she was with didn't even have a
chance.” He answered me. My anger was so strong by now, I was starting 
to see red. 

You see, when I get mad, I can't keep it in. you could say that it's a
consequence of being able to make fire. I have to let it out somehow, 
preferably in the form of a blast of fire. I couldn't do anything about 
it, though, because I can't control my body. 

“I also got a look at that other girl in the woods. Do we need her,
too?” he asked me, oblivious to the fact that I wanted to rip his 
throat out. 

“No, not yet. We'll need her later, though.” I told him. 

Suddenly, I felt everything shake violently as if there was a huge
earthquake. 

I suddenly awoke to Aaron shaking me, and my head suddenly felt like it
would explode. I heard a short cry and tried to look around for the 
source, then realized it was me. 

Horrified, I ran off, about ten yards away from Aaron and Jake. I was
glad that Jen wasn't there to see me like this. 

After a few minutes, the pain slowly weakened enough that I could
actually think straight. My anger at Eric suddenly came back to me, and 
I let out a stream of fire without thinking. 

“Sarah, what's going on with you?” Aaron asked me. I jumped when I heard
his voice right next to me. Apparently, he had come over when I was 
still curled up in a ball of pain, clenching my teeth with such force 
that I could taste blood. 

I looked at him, pain showing in my eyes, but didn't answer. My head was
still throbbing, but it didn't hurt as much as before. 

“You were out of it for a few minutes. Did that guy do anything to you?
He knocked you out cold without even touching you.” 

“I saw Jen.” I said quietly. Aaron froze. 

“Sarah, what are you talking about?” 

“When I fainted, I saw a cabin. I walked into it, but I couldn't control
my body. I talked to the guy who took Jen. I found out his name is 
Eric.” 

“Who is he?” 

“I'm not sure, but he acts almost like a ghost. When I talked to him, it
sounded like I sent him to take Jen. He asked about another girl in the 
woods, and I said that we didn't need her yet.” I told him, keeping my 
emotions under control. I reviewed the conversation in my mind. 

Aaron noticed my wide eyes and my face that suddenly went pale. “Sarah?”
He clearly thought I might cry out in pain or faint again. 

“We need to find Kate.” 

“Why? You don't trust her.” 

“She's the other girl Eric was talking about!” 

“How do you know?” 

“How many other mutant freaks do you know in these woods?” 

“Well, how do we find her?” 

“I know.” Jake said as he walked over, joining the conversation. 

“How did I not think of it before?” groaned Aaron. 

“Oh, I get it, Jake's psychic! That could make finding her a whole lot
easier.” 

“Yeah, and we can figure out whether or not she's lying about being your
sister.” 

After an hour or so of walking around in the woods with Jake listening
for any thoughts, he picked up a faint murmur. We searched carefully 
around the area for anyone. 

“Sarah, I've been thinking about what you said about your dream.” Jake
said, turning to me. 

“It didn't feel like a dream.” I told him. 

“Exactly. You watched yourself walk around and talk with a different
voice, right?” 

“Yeah, why?” 

“I think you were watching someone from their perspective, if only for a
few minutes.” 

“How is that possible? I'm not psychic.” 

“I have no idea; I haven't even done anything like that.” He told me. I
looked away from him and saw a figure sitting under a large tree. 

“Jake, I see someone!” I ran over to the figure, and saw Kate, asleep, a
smile on her face. “Kate?” I asked her, pushing her gently. Her eyes 
opened up slowly and she looked over at me. “Hi Sarah. What are you 
doing here? I thought you didn't believe me.” 

“Why were you smiling?” 

“I had a dream about the time me and you were lost in the woods.” 

“That's not something to smile about.” 

“We were too little to realize we were lost. We climbed trees and swam
in a creek. Do you remember how much fun we had?” 

“No, I don't remember any of that. I don't remember you, the woods, or
ever swimming anywhere.” 

“That was a week before you disappeared.” She told me. I could see tears
start to form in her eyes. 

I wondered to myself what happened in the two years before I woke up in
the woods with Aaron, Jake, and Jen when I was five. When I pulled 
myself back into reality, I realized that I had a few tears in my eyes, 
too. 

“Kate.” I started to say, blinking back my tears. “You need to come with
us.” 

“Do you believe that I'm your sister?” 

I looked over at Jake. He nodded slightly, indicating that she was
telling the truth. “Yes. But you're in danger.” 

“I am? How?” she asked. 

“There's a guy that's looking for you, but he's not coming for you for a
while. He already has Jen.” 

“Who's Jen?” 

I opened my mouth to tell the usual lie, that she was my little sister,
but I remembered that this was my real sister, and stopped myself. 
“She's my friend. He took her, just after you and me met.” 

“Is it my fault she's gone?” 

In my mind, I screamed Yes! If you didn't show up, we wouldn't have had
to leave! 

“No. the guy tracked us down. Come on, you're part of the family now.” 

“Kate, can I ask you a question?” 

“Sure, go ahead.” 

“Was I... always like this?” I asked her, referring to my tail and ears.


“No.” she answered, pain and sadness showing in her eyes. “No, you were
my little sister and my best friend. It was just terrible. I came home 
that day and I found mom in tears. I asked her what was wrong, and she 
told me that you disappeared. We looked for you for months, but we 
couldn't find you anywhere.” 

“Were you always like this?” I asked, curious. 

Suddenly, Kate burst into tears. 

“Kate! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-” 

“It's okay. I just don't want to talk about it.” She told me. 

“How did you recognize me on the news?” I asked her, risking another
tear-fest. 

“You have mom's eyes.” She answered me. We walked silently the rest of
the way back to camp. 

Over the next few days, we searched all over the woods, looking for any
sign of Jen or the guy who took her, Eric. We found the cabin from my 
dream, or whatever you call it. 

We didn't find anything, though. We were starting to lose hope of ever
finding her. 

One morning, while we were wallowing in self-pity, I was just lying
there, staring at the sky. 

Someone's coming. 

I looked over at Aaron, who nodded, confirming that he heard Jake's
telepathic communication. 

We quickly ran out of the clearing, but watched from the woods. A man
entered the clearing. He had on a nice-looking collared shirt and dress 
pants, a strange outfit for hiking in the woods. Call me paranoid, but 
I had the feeling that he came here looking for us. 

My theory was proved, in the form of a badge in his wallet that read
‘FBI'. “I'm with the FBI, and I'd like to ask you some questions.” 

No, duh. I thought you were with McDonalds and wanted to hang out with
us so we could be buddies. 

Suddenly, the man's eyes widened, and he looked around in a panic. 

I looked up at Jake, who was standing on a tree branch above me, leaning
on the trunk. He glanced down at me and smiled. 

“His name is Samuel Jacobs, and he really is with the FBI. He wants to
talk to us about how we're ‘special'. Do you think we can trust him?” 

“Well, you just said that he's with the FBI. Maybe he can help us find
Jen.” 

“Fair enough.” Jake walked across the branch, part of it hanging over
the clearing. He walked out until he was just above Agent Jacobs. “Hey, 
up here!” he yelled to him. 

Jacobs looked up at Jake and recognized his voice. “You! How'd you get
in my head?!” 

Kate suddenly walked out of the woods and into the clearing. “Obviously,
he doesn't know who he's dealing with.” She said. 

Her tone scared me a little. 

I joined the little party. “What do you want with us, Agent Jacobs?” 

“How do you know my-. Oh, I get it. This guy's psychic, isn't he?” he
asked, pointing up at Jake, who was still standing on the tree branch. 

“Wow, he catches on fast.” Kate said to me. I stifled a laugh. 

“So, Agent Jacobs, why are you here?” I asked him, a steel edge in my
voice. 

“Please call me Sam. Why are you kids like this?” he asked us. 

“Well, ‘Sam', we jumped into a vat of radioactive waste.” I told him. 

In my mind, his question brought back so many of my own. How did we
become like this? Who did this to us? Why did they do it? Why don't we 
remember? One of the questions I asked for my whole life was answered 
recently; maybe I'm on a roll. 

“Where did we come from?” I asked him. 

“Sarah, he just asked us that.” Jake reminded me. 

“Oh.” So much for my list of questions. 

“Do you know a boy named Clif Harris? Or a brother and sister, Jordan
and Alexis Crestfall?” Sam asked me. 

“I don't know any Jordan or Alexis. What happened to Clif?” 

“He and his parents disappeared two weeks ago.” 

Suddenly, Aaron decided to enter the conversation. 

“Are there any leads as to who did this?” he asked. 

“No. it's almost as if it was a ghost. There were no footprints, no sign
of forced entry, not even any fingerprints.” Aaron and I exchanged 
glances. 

“Are you sure you don't know anything about this?” he asked. 

“No. None of us would do anything to him; we've known him since we were
eight.” I told him. 

“Well then, if you would come with me, I'll take you to the safe house.”


“Safe house?! We didn't ever say we would listen to you!” yelled Kate,
fire in her eyes. 

“You are witnesses. We need to keep you safe.” 

“We can take care of ourselves.” I told him. 

“I insist that you come with me, who knows how much danger you're in.” 

“We've taken care of ourselves for eleven years, and we can take care of
ourselves now.” Aaron said, loosening his coat to let his tail become 
visible. 

Sam backed up a few steps, his face pale, but he still didn't get the
picture. 

To better convince him, I engulfed my fist in flames. 

“Leave.” Aaron snarled. 

Sam quickly ran off, his face stark white. 

“Good, he's gone. I don't trust that guy.” I looked up, searching for
the person who had spoken. 

A boy suddenly dropped down into the clearing, landing three feet away
from me. He had light brown hair and moderately tan skin. He also had 
red eyes, pointy ears poking out of his hair, the same color as his 
hair. He also had a long, thin cream tail tipped with brown at the end. 


“Hey, Sarah. How are you?” he asked me. 

“Clif! What're you doing here?!” 

IV 

“Agent Jacobs said you disappeared!” 

“Some guy took me and my parents.” 

“Where are they?” 

He looked away from me and answered, almost in a whisper. 

“Dead.” 

Don't ask him how. 

I heard Jake's voice in my head and turned, looking up at the branch he
was standing on. His face was pale, his eyes wide, filled with horror. 

I saw how they died. Jake thought it was necessary for him to relay the
memory to me. 

Once again, it felt like I was someone else. 

“Clif, run! Get out of here!” 

I was running as fast as I could, but it wasn't me doing it. I turned
around and saw Mr. Harris shot down. 

“Dad!” I yelled with Clif's voice. I felt anger and hate growing inside
me, but it wasn't my own. I spun back around and ran down the hall of 
the building, tears blurring my vision. Suddenly, a figure flew in 
front of me. I skidded to a halt, and saw that it was Eric. The anger 
in me was boiling, and this time, I could see the satisfaction of 
lashing out at him, even though Clif was the one doing it. 

“Why are you keeping me here?! What do you want from me?!” I screamed. 

“We want to see how you tick.” Eric answered. 

My hand curled into a fist and I lunged at Eric, but when it should have
made contact, it just went through him, the only result being the 
icy-cold sensation. 

He simply laughed. “You can't even touch me.” He sneered. “But I can do
much worse than that. 

Clif and I came to the same conclusion. I watched as I ran right through
Eric, shaking off the icy feeling. I sprinted down the hallway until I 
reached a large pair of doors. My arms opened the doors and I entered. 

I saw that it was a large room with desks and computers all over the
place. My legs walked me over to a desk and I looked at a few papers 
lying there. 

I picked up a few words as I skimmed one of the sheets, like ‘delayed
reaction', ‘complete mistake', and ‘natural-born'. 

I glanced at another page and saw a picture of a girl, about 12 or 13.
But what really caught my attention about the picture was that she 
looked almost exactly like me, just without a tail, pointy ears, or 
long teeth. 

I was still studying the picture when my large ears pricked up, and I
heard voices outside the room. I sprinted toward a door positioned 
under an exit sign. 

When the door opened, a loud alarm went off and I went down on all fours
and ran from the building toward the neighboring woods as snowflakes 
pelted my face. I heard a man yell and I looked back. I saw that he had 
a pistol pointing at me as I thought he looked familiar. A strong gust 
of wind blew snowflakes all around me. I finally realized why he looked 
so familiar as his hair blew into his face, obscuring his vision while 
allowing me to escape. 

He was the man from my dream. The man on the stone pillar. 

“Sarah, do you agree with that?” 

“What?!” I jumped at the sound of Aaron's voice and looked around. “Do
you agree that Clif should stay?” 

“Oh, yeah.” I answered, blushing with embarrassment. 

“Okay. Then, I guess we should call it a night, then. Clif, you're with
me and Jake. We'll make room for you in our tent.” 

“What?! I'm not giving up my space!” Jake yelled. Aaron gave him a
dangerous look and Jake made a ‘kidding' face. 

“Oh, no thanks. I'd rather sleep outside.” Clif told Aaron. 

“Okay, that's fine by me.” 

Once the others started walking over to the tents, I glared at Jake. 

“Why did you let me see that?!” 

“I thought you would want to know.” 

“Well, I didn't! Why did you think I would?!” 

“'Cause you like him.” He answered me simply. 

“What other people think is private. Don't go snooping around without a
good reason.” 

“I didn't. I could tell by the look on your face when he popped up.” I
thought about telling him about the guy I recognized, and the picture, 
but I didn't. 

“Oh, by the way, I have a surprise for everyone tomorrow morning!” Aaron
added as we were getting into our tents. 

You want to know what the surprise was? 

Phones. 

Yes, cellular devices. 

They're those phones that have a card with a certain amount of minutes
on them. Then, when you run out of minutes, you go buy another card. He 
also got a solar panel outlet type thingamajig. 

Do I know where he got the money? No. 

Do I want to know where he got the money? Also no. 

Do I think this is a horrible idea? Oh, yeah. 

“These should only be used in emergencies; we don't have much money to
spare.” 

“So, are we looking for Jen again today?” Kate asked. 

“Wait, Jen's missing?!” Clif yelled. 

“Yeah, that's why she's not here.” Jake told him. 

“I just thought that she wasn't with you...” 

“She was taken by some guy named Eric.” Jake explained. 

I noticed a flare of anger flash through Clif's eyes and noticed his
tail twitch at the sound of Eric's name. Had he personally known Eric? 
Did Eric betray him and his parents? I was getting more and more 
questions every day, but no answers. 


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