Somewhere in the universe, a planet was dying.

The planet was Esphera, Earth's twin. Here lived people like on earth, who wore pants, shirts and dresses; they went to school and had emotions;they had their own currency. There were no cars here, but they had instead hovercrafts- spade-shaped vehicles that floated in the air. Most people on the planet were too poor to buy a hovercraft, one of the most expenisve items in Esphera.

But the thing that sets Earth and Esphera apart is the children.

Children on Esphera are all born with a special power-like invisibility-that vanishes at age 16. After their power goes away, they live a "normal" rest of their life.

Esphera was being taken over bởi the dark lord Nix. Few new what Nix looked like. Most villagers assumed he was a demon hoặc evil entity sent to destroy Esphera. Few had met him and survived.


Meanwhile, as wars raged in the dark desert regions, the people in Glensville were living a normal life. People relaxed in their cabins. People flirt and fought and fell in love. Children grew up and had fun with their powers. All except one.



-2-
Rachel let her dark brown hair flow over her shoulders as she watched her Những người bạn have fun with their powers. Keisha was turning invisible and reappearing, her sleek blonde hair the color of the sun, her eyes blue and mischevious. Rachel envied her superpower and her beauty, but didn't admit it.

Hawthorne was attempting to spray Keisha with water from the shimmering pond. It was his power to make water to his bidding. Rachel would have liked his power, too.

Lenore's power, thought Rachel, isn't as good as the others. Rachel watched Lenore shapeshift into a fuzzy hamster. It didn't look that useful, but she'd tình yêu to have had it.

Meanwhile, Thomas overlooked the scene from the treetops, where he sat casually in the branches, idly tossing leaves onto the ground. Thomas, hoặc "Tom", had the ability to leap twenty feet in one bound. Rachel put her head on her knees. It wasn't fair! Why was she the only child in Esphera without powers?!

Suddenly, Lenore was tiếp theo to her, lying casually on the cool grass.
"You look upset." Lenore observed. Rachel didn't answer.
"Is this about your birthday?"
Rachel nodded grimly. Her birthday was in one month. Since she was four, she believed her powers would hiển thị up one day. They never had.

"Well, if it makes bạn feel any better, we'll throw bạn a great party!" Lenore đã đưa ý kiến excitedly.

Rachel grunted as Lenore shrunk, getting furrier and furrier, until she was just a tan chuột đồng, hamster scuttling away. Why couldn't it have been Lenore, She wondered bitterly, Who had no powers? Why was it her?

Hawthorne accidentally splashed Thomas, who, sopping wet, leapt towards him and knocked him over, causing him to slip through the mud backwards into a small pond with a splash. Thomas laughed.
"Water-you doing?" Thomas laughed hilariously at his pun, but everyone else just gave him a funny look. He shrugged his shoulders as Hawthorne clambored out of the water.
Suddenly, Rachel noticed an old woman dressed in light gray standing bởi the tree, watching her in an odd way. Rachel blushed slightly and got up, returning to her log lều, cabin for the night.

******************************************

She reached the wooden door and reached to open it. Where there should have been empty space, Rachel's arm hit something. She jerked her wrist back. "Come on, Keisha, let me go in."
Keisha appeared, her misty blue eyes staring into hers with a curious sort of stare. She leaned against the door with a yawn.
"Keisha......" Rachel whined. Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
She turned around, and there was the woman in gray. Her eyes were tired and weary.
"What is your power?" The woman asked.
"Erm...why would I tell you?"
"Is it true bạn seem to have no power?"
"Does that make me some kind of FREAK?!" Rachel glared at the old woman.
"Follow me." The woman's gray cape swished in the late night wind. The ghostly glare of the moonlight lit up her white hair. Rachel followed, behind her invisible Keisha.

***********************************************

"You do have a power." The woman told Rachel as she leaned against a large cây trunk.
"I don't."
"You were born," đã đưa ý kiến she, "At the exact moment when Nix's army declared war."
"And......." Rachel asked.
"You have the power to defeat him."

"Are bạn insane?!" Rachel turned to leave. The woman's withered hand snatched hers.
"I am not insane. bạn must listen. They are coming for you. They will kill you. bạn must leave tomorrow night at exactly midnight."
"Okay..." Rachel said, wriggling her hand out of the woman's wrist. Like she'd listen to a delusional old lady.


*************************************************
They were having a sleep-over at Rachel's house, in her small room, the night after. Keisha arrived first, in the non-spectacular fashion of walking through the door.
tiếp theo came Lenore, who'd shapeshifted into a chuột đồng, hamster and squeezed through the door.
Third came Hawthorne, who also came through the door, carrying a bowl of water. The water floated out of the bowl and was promptly dumped on Keisha's head. Keisha grabbed his collar, but a laughing Rachel pulled the two apart.
Thomas stood on the green grass, seeing the window to Rachel's room a mere ten feet above. He bent down, summoned his strength and leapt towards the window-he was going to make it!
BOOM!
Thomas fell back down as his face was smushed against the closed window. Rachel couldn't help laughing-it was such a great night!

Soon, they were in a circle, telling ghost stories.
"And then," Hawthorne continued, "the little boy thought he heard something walking-"
Rachel gazed out the window. Hawthorne kept making his story go on longer and longer. First, it was about a ghost in a house. Then, it was about how the house got burned and made a monster. Then, the monster was killed bởi the villagers. After that, a villager caught a disease and turned into a monster..........

Rachel gazed at the sky. It was midnight. Everything was still. Quiet. Tranquil. Peaceful.


Suddenly, she heard a thudding sound, followed bởi a scrape. It was coming from outside.
Thud. Scrape.
Thud. Scrape.
THUD. SCRAPE.
THUD! SCRAPE!
Creak.......
The door to her house was open, and suddenly, she heard the thing speed up. THUDSCRAPE! THUDSCRAPE!
It was coming up the stairs. Slowly. Loudly. The others were noticing it now, too. Keisha ran over and locked the door and bolted it, and everyone stood back.
It was silent. Absolutely silent, as if even the air was holding its breath. No one spoke, no one breathed. It was eerie, unreal. Slowly, slowly, the doorknob turned.....
THUUUUUUUD! THUUUUUUD!
Something was repeatedly banging on the wood door, and the wood was cracking. One of the rusted locks broke willingly and clattered against the floor. THUUUUUUD! CRIK!

The door was slowly becoming weaker. Soon, it would yield and break in. Rachel tried to scream, but found she couldn't. All she could do was run to the window. She tried to pry it open. She moved it an inch, and then it stopped. It was stuck!
"Help!" She cried, trying to pull it up. One of her finger got cut on the sharp edge.
THUUUUUUUUUUD! CRIIIK!
The door wouldn't hold much longer.
Her Những người bạn rushed over, and soon all of them were pulling upwards, but the window wouldn't open.

"JUST BREAK IT!" Rachel cried.
THUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUD! CRIIIIIIIIIK!
The door was just about to break. A thick jagged crack ran through the middle and side. A pale hand reached through and began undoing each lock, one bởi one.......