The smoke is too thick. I have to part it like curtains just to reveal another curtain of smoke. I watch Rebecca as she stumbles and falls over the dead bodies of the Thouf children. Demons, monsters, scapeenels, angles, vampires, and wolf children, all dead. The war was too great; it has banished peace from the other world. Rebecca stops. Looks down and cries. She picks up a body and screams. “Samuel” she whispers. She looks down at the boy again, cries, get up and stabs a scapeenel that has managed to live. She looks over at the thick smoke hiding me. “Hello?” she asks. Hear voice almost seems fed up, tired, and in need of great medicine. As I step out of the shadows, her face shows in shock. She looks back as if trying to find the little boy. He has vanished. She steps backward, “Samuel?!” Then, she faints.



*


Six months ago I was a regular freshman attending Bill Brook High school. I had a normal life and I had average grades that I was struggling to keep. A B- is not something to be proud of in my house. With a sister that has gone to college for 8 years and each year pass with straight A’s and a brother that is the most successful lawyer in Bill Brook. My mom is most successful sales woman and my dad is a pilot for Bill Brook International Airport. My parents are gone half the time and the other half they are home I lock myself in my room, buried myself in a book and tune out their X-Treem abdomen work out sessions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


So as a freshman I am considered the lowest life in high school. That’s why it was so surprising the day Samuel Godds, a senior, the quarterback, and possibly the hottest guy in school walked up to me and asked me to homecoming! I stood there like I had just been frozen in time. “Well?” he had said with a tweak of hope in his voice. “Um. Um. Um. Um.” I stood there for a few more seconds trying to tell if it was my imagination. “Yes!” I barely got the words out of my mouth. “Great. I’ll pick you up round’ 7:00 on Saturday then.” He winked, spun on his heel and walk leisurely to his next class.

~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Saturday rolled around I was more nervous that I had been in years. To top that off I couldn’t do my make-up correctly. I kept smudging the mascara; the eyeliner wouldn’t draw right on my eye lid, and the hair clips would not stay in my hair. That’s when I did something I vowed I would never do. I asked my mom for help.


~~~~~~~

As I sat in the hair dressers deciding if this was a good idea or not my mom picked out my hair stylist, my hair style, and my make-up. I didn’t even know they did make up at the hair dressers! “I can’t believe you got asked to homecoming! And by a senior! I never thought this day would come! Well, at least not with you.” I just sat there and gave her a blank stare. I may have looked cold on the outside, but on the inside I was willing myself not to cry. She always made me feel like a peice of worthless trash. “Oh, honey I am soooo proud of you!” She was beaming brighter than the sun. “Thanks mom.” I tried to say it with no tone what-so-ever but I was too proud. My mom had just said she was proud of me for the first time!