What just happened….. I felt like I was being sucked into a hole but I’m still right here, next to the lamppost. She said she I would be safe, but I'm still standing right here. I’m screwed, that sergeant is gonna come down here and kill me. And then when he sees me come back to life he'll probably lock me up forever. The dark lady said I have no chance of beating him, there's no way out of this.

I hear doors smashing open, Out of the corner of my eye I can see that a group of soldiers are running out of the hospital and towards me. I need to do something now but I'm too afraid to move. Am I about to be locked up forever. Maybe I can cut a few, and in the panic run away. No there's to many of them.

My world goes black. “Don’t move. Do. Not. Move.”

She sends me back to the real world. Don't move...she’s insane. There about twenty feet from me now, is that…yes the Sergeant is coming my way too, but he's moving twice as fast as the others. Maybe she thinks if I stand still they’ll think I’m not fighting back and go easy on me.

But what are they waiting for, they can see me, there only a few feet away now too. Maybe their trying to assess my miracle, waiting for me to make the first move.

“Sergeant I'm sure I saw him right here, I turned my head for a second to call for backup and he disappeared”

Disapeared?

“Interesting, first attacking me from a distance, presumably cutting the patient in the room, and now disapearing….. were dealing with a unique miracle user”

I hear a gasps, hearing gasps from hardy looking soldiers is a little unsettling.

“Unique…."

One of the younger looking soldier starts stammering.

"But why would a unique miracle user be committing petty theft? Maybe he was just using some trickery to make it look like he has a unique miracle.”

The Sergeant starts staring at the shadow I'm standing in. Can he tell I'm here???

“….Perhaps that old man was lying, and he was not being robbed. I don't think this was some sort of trickery, the only miracle users that can affect sight are binders, and only a few in this country could make an illusion that could fool me. There's no way that kid is one of them. I saw his miracle, a black line that cut the air in front of me. It wasn't an illusion. How could he have cut the patient in the room if that were true.”

…He doesn't see me. He's staring right at me and doesn't see me. The dark lady is a genius, her plan worked. I have no clue what she did, but I’m right here and… I’m invisible.

Darkness surrounds me.

“Do not move. Whatever you do not move or that sergeant will kill you a 100 times over. You can only hide in a shadow as long as you stay completely still”

“I won’t move an inch, I promise”

“I can only hide you in a shadow for a few minutes. So lets hope they leave soon”

WHAT!

“Your so powerful please keep me here longer, If he kills me enough to trap me in the dark then I can’t find that kid you know that!”

“I can’t help it, keeping you in a shadow drains me and you, a few minutes in and we both won’t have enough strength to stay here. It will probably take you hours to recover from this already. You need them to leave and go somewhere safe to recover”

She lets me back in the real world.

The sergeants eyes open wide. His head jerks up and he starts looking around.

“Wait, I felt something. Something close by”

How….how could the sergeant…wait, back at the house, the rhyming man said something similar, about feeling me…Khalid did too….maybe its the dark, maybe I give off some sort of energy whenever I go there.

His stance relaxans and he voice calms down.

“I can’t feel it anymore, whatever it was its gone. Maybe it was some residual of his miracle. Listen men, these two orders take precedence over everything else. First, find the young man who escaped from the hospital. We don’t know his unique miracle well, but he seems to be able to attack at a distance so chase him like you would another ranged miracle user. Secondly, find that old man. He must know something about this boy too, maybe their accomplices of some sort, or maybe enemies. Either way we need answers from him. “

I hear a choruses of yes sirs, and the crowd quickly disperses. The Sergeant takes one more look around, and quickly runs back into the hospital. He covered 40 feet in a few seconds, he almost seemed…weightless while he was running. Wow, I wonder if his miracle lets him fly too….if he’s as strong as the dark lady says he is maybe he can. Miracles are amazing.

Now that the fear of getting caught is gone, I can feel the pain. I feel like there are weights crushing every part of my body, my mind is yelling at me to move. Tthis must be the strain the dark lady talked about. The coast is clear, so I dive behind a giant oak tree to the right of me.

I feel so much relieve now, the burning sensation in my muscles is slowly disappearing.

“The pain will leave soon, but it will be hard for you to use your miracle for a few hours. Use-able, but it will be even harder than it was before. You were almost in the shadow past your limit, a normal human wouldn’t of been able to withstand even that long, the damage I did to you is proving more and more useful everyday haha”.

I flashed in and out of darkness. I feel like I’m almost safer there than I am here. It almost doesn't even feel jarring anymore. So many people are after me in the real world now.

But first, I need to get somewhere safe, I can’t hide behind this tree forever. I see an alley way a few dozen yards away from me. Its raining now, would rather be indoors but can’t risk it. I sprint there, well try to sprint, could only muster up a jog. I got there though. I can see trash on cobble stone floor, looks like a mix of discarded newspapers and moldy food. The rain hitting the cobblestone is really activating the moldy food smell. But there’s no one else here, which makes it safe. For now. I can't bieleve I got out of that sitation. Maybe I should listen to the dark lady more, so far she's been right about everything...

There's another one of those 'Join the war effort' posters in here too, they must really be recruiting hard. I'll probably be here for a while, resting, may as well try and get some more answers out of the dark lady.

“So what about my other family members? I still don’t believe that they tried to, to,.. ”

I realized I'm speaking outloud to myself, still in the real world. This is going to get me into trouble one day.

“You look insane if you yell at yourself, so in the future just whisper, Or is that too hard for you too”

"Will do. But about my family, were you telling the truth about them trying to hurt me?"

“Kill, not hurt. Your in disbelief. You just can’t accept that your Father, brother, and sister want you dead. All of them tried to kill you. Maybe you think too highly of yourself, you’ve lost your memories, maybe you were an awful person, someone who deserved to die”

How bad of a person could I have been, there’s no way I could do something that would make my own family try to murder me. My dad went so far as to make that thing, that demon to make sure I stayed dead. But what did I do to make my family want to kill me the first place, dammit why can't I remember!

“What did I do to make my family angry at me?”

I can only see a faint outline of her body through the dark, but I can almost feel her cracking a smile. I’m getting to comfortable in the dark.

“Who knows, who knows. Well aside from me, your mother , your father, your brother, and your sister. So I guess everyone except you knows haha.”

I guess I shouldn't expect her to be helpful.

“And my brother and sister, do you know anything about them?”

“Okay fine. But what I’m about to tell you….might overwhelm you. I wanted to give you information in bits and pieces but…maybe your ready….Okay here it goes.”

My heart, it feels like its about to explode. What is she going to tell me. Is my family safe.

“Your brother looked younger than you, must have been in his teens. Your sister looked quite older, already well into her adulthood. More importantly, they both looked angry, and murderous haha.”

My heart was racing. I’ve never wanted to hit a thing so hard in my life. If only I knew a way to get back at her, it.

“Where did they go? After my mother fled, did they chase after her?"

"Your family clearly didn't know the extent of my powers, well aside from your mother that is. They thought that demon would keep you occupied long enough for them to go and bring back something that they thought would kill you permamently. Atleast that's what I heard them discussing. They were quite afraid of you, after they saw me bring you back to life. If they knew that they could just kill over and over and be done with you they could of saved themselves a lot of trouble."

Something they thought could kill me permamently....I wonder if that still possible. But I got to stop thinking about this, Khalid and all of the Sergeant's soldiers are looking for me, I need to get out of this city now. But to where. The lady said she we didn't need Khalid anymore, can she show me visions too?

"So where should I go now"?

"Now that Khalid has opened up your mind, shown you that boy, I can help you explore that vision, see details you may have missed before. Close your eyes"

Closing my eyes in the pitch black darkness seems pointless.

"Its already pitch black here, what is the po-"

"Do, don't ask. Do"

Fine.

"Okay closed, now wha-"

I'm suddenly back in that office, it's just like the first time, except instead of looking into my palms the image is in my head...but its different this time. Last time I felt like I was watching from afar, now I..I think I'm here. In the vision itself! I'm standing in front of the marble desk. Wow, I'm at eye level with the table. In fact everything in here is giant...what's going on. I climb onto the chair behind the marble desk to get a better view. The chair is giant too. I see that symbol again on the desk, like a bunch of triangles joined together, it almost looks like a diamond joined with a triangle. Wait, this symbol....I saw it somewhere, recently I know it. The door of the office swings open, just like it did last time. The old man walks in. His wrinkles and rough skin, he looks like he's been through a lot. From his expensive looking uniform I can this old man is clearly someone important. Wait, he's a giant too, I guess that explains the office.

"What are you doing balster? Get down from there before you get hurt"

Who is he talking to? I realize he's looking dead at me. What?

"Son, I said down. Now."

Is this apart of the vision? Is this like a dream? Maybe I'm supposed to play along.

I hop down from the chair, and find myself face to face with a giant mirror.

My heart skips a beat. This office isn't made for a giant, its made for adults. I'm a little boy right now...I'm the little boy from the vision Khalid showed me.

"What's wrong with you balster stop staring at that mirror and get over here were late"

I feel something....somethings happening. It's like a pressure building up inside of me, ready to burst out. It's painful now. AHHH

My eyes are open now, I'm not in the dark anymore. What the hell was that..... was that a dream?? Or did I....was I....was I in that boys body?

"Lady please explain to me what just happened. I need to know it might be important"

This time I whispered, but she didn't reply. Guess I'll have to ask her later. I look straight in front of me and see that poster again, the one about joining the war. Wait the old rugged man in the poster...Its him! The man from my vision. The symbol on his desk is the same one on the poster too! There's some text at the bottom of the poster I didn't notice before.

"This message is from his General Stormzer, who is valiantly leading the charge in Talsin, victory is around the corner!"

Talsin, is that where I need to go?