“Good form, Roxy!” My uncle Chancey praised me.

God, I hated that period of my life! My uncle Chancey had me training my powers from day to night with minor breaks. Each day, my sister Augusta and I would train our sound and music magic like dogs. Today, we practiced our spells on prisoners, the ones that do not have any supernatural or magic abilities here. It was easier to prey on these outsiders, since they will not fight back.

My voice hurts. Doing these siren spells does a number on you, leaving my throat strained. I heard a girl crying. Running over to the source of the yelling, I grabbed the girl’s hand and observed her body. Noticed something on her arm, there was a bruise. I waved my hand to my uncle and cried, “Uncle, can we please stop?! Gussie’s hurt! Can we, please?”

Gussie was Augusta’s nickname that we would always call her.

Instead of concern, my uncle’s cold eyes glared at me intensely. I hold my crying little sister close to me to calm her down. He walked up to the both of us and said, “Girls, do you think the Outsiders will care if you got hurt?”

“Uncle, I…” I was about to protest until he pulled his wand.

I gulped in fear when he was pointing the wand out in both my sister and I. 

“Do they?!” my uncle Chancey yelled the question, moving his wand away and twirling it in his hand.

My body shook with fear when he raised his voice at us. Always hated it when he did that.

“No, Uncle…” I bowed my head down in shame.

“Your parents let their guard down and they got killed. We wouldn’t want that to happen to you, girls, would we?”

“No, Uncle Chancey…” The both of us muttered.

Grabbing my sister, there was nothing we could do but silently go back to the corners of our training areas. I heard the sniffles coming from Augusta, while we went back to train in our own corners. Opening my mouth again, the hoarse sound came out, trying to sing a tune, hearing the screams of pain from a person in another room.

Suddenly, I woke up in a cold sweat, staring at the ceiling in my room: Was I dreaming again? My eyes moved to where the clock is; near the bedside. The time showed that it was six o’clock in the morning. Rubbing my eyes, I got up from my bed, checking on my girlfriend, Casey. The girl was still dead asleep, hugging my satin, silk pillow close to her. She would have still looked cuter if she did not snore so loud!

Heading to the kitchen, I turned on the faucet to put water in my cup. Filling it up, I hastily drank the water as I walked over to the kitchen table. So many thoughts ran through my head, still thinking about that dream again. That same damn dream I have every night! I put my hands over my head in frustration, putting my head down on the table. Dosing off once more, it became nap time for me.

Hours went by until someone shook me awake again. I shot up, feeling more alerted when I saw my girlfriend. Casey was wearing her black and gray pajama set, with a pink satin bonnet wrap on her head. She moved away from me, then touched my shoulder in concern.

“Rox, you okay?” Casey asked.

Brushing my hair away from my face, I answered, “Yeah, I’m fine…” 

“Good, because you got out of the bed early and I got…” She spoke until we heard the doorbell ring.

“Who in the hell comes over here around this time?” I thought to myself.

“I’ll go check on the door.” Moving off of my seat to find my red robe on the living room couch, I put it on. After tightening the rope of my robe, I headed to the door, then looked into the peephole just as a precaution. A young man with black hair, wearing a black tank top with ripped navy jeans, standing against the wall. Rolling my eyes, annoyed, I knew who this MF is. Opening the door, I put my body in between the door, blocking the visitor from coming in. That aura coming from this man… Feeling that disgusting aura he carries around made my blood pump intensely. However, I tried to keep my nerves down and put on my best morning mood. In my singsong voice, I asked, “Marky, what brings you here this morning?”

The man’s face cringed when I sang in that sweet voice. His face turned red and scrunched up, showing his disapproval of my childish voice. The man opened his mouth to answer, “Knock it off, Roxy. Call me by my name, Mark. You know better by now than to call me Marky when I hate it.”

“Oh, Marky, but I just love it when I call you that! Why don’t you come in now?” Pissing this asshole off is my favorite pastime. 

Letting Mark in, the man just stomps inside of my place, pushing me aside. My face went sour when he did that and thought: “How rude!” Instead of saying hello to my precious girlfriend, he just plopped himself onto my couch without a care in the world. This was such typical behavior for this man to do that. I am glad I only “fake dated” him for only a couple months, just for the publicity. It is a shame, because he is pretty good in bed.

I watched Mark grab one magazine on the table, flipping through the pages. It seems like this man wanted to push my nerves, but I will not let him have it. Casey entered the living room with her breakfast plate in hand. Her face went blank when she saw Mark, just lounging in our living room, before she sat herself down in one armchair.

I could notice the bitter look on my girlfriend’s face, not pleased with Mark’s surprise visit. This means that he was here for one reason.

“What does Master Farris want?” My voice changed from pleasant to serious in a minute.

“It’s not just what Farris wants. It’s what the Rise of Light recruitment committee wants, Rox,” Mark told me.

“What does the committee want then, Mark?” Casey played with her food, using a fork in hand. “Rox has done a lot from her side. How dare you come over here to this place when you haven’t been doing your part to contribute to the cause! Screw that! You left Roxy hanging the last time you two worked together!” She wanted to go on more with her rant until I put up a hand up to silence her.

My eyes motioned back to Mark, who was putting up a magazine page with a picture of two young women and three men posing together. Reading the article, it says: “Five Raising Indie Bands You Need to Watch Out for!” Then the article shows pictures of other bands. I grabbed the magazine from Mark’s hand, not caring that he flinched in response. This magazine article piqued my interest slightly, but why would Mark want me to know about a couple of Indie bands?

“You’re going back to tour in the Crocecia Sector for a couple days, darling? I have been looking up at the music scene over there in the Supernatural Towns. Some of these bands I convinced  them to join our cause. But there was one band that I could not be able to it,” Mark explains, lifting his legs and putting it on our coffee table.

“And it’s my problem, why…?” Crossing my arms, then glaring at the man in disgust, I am not in the mood for this dick’s behavior today.

“The committee wants me to switch gears and deal with the anchor town music scene area. Clare Point View’s local music scene is popping again and I’m one of the few familiar with a couple of Supernatural bands that I know can convince them to our group’s quest for utopia.”

“Oh come off it, Mark! You only want out of this task because you have family in that rat Outsider town.” Casey slammed her fork down into a piece of sausage on her breakfast plate.

“That rat Outsider town is where your damn work is at, you…” Mark spoke out, until I had to come between the two of them.

“That’s enough!” Still eyeing the magazine and waving my hand, I could not help but look at that same band. From the article, the band, The Hexes, hails from the Supernatural City named City Square. The group members in the photo are: Nick Leblanc, Electra Star (Amelia Alecsandri), Toby Alecsandri, Nicola Brooks, and Gabriel Brooks. Amelia is someone who stood out to me the most in the picture. Her bright blue eyes from the page spoke to me. Focusing on her eyes, it feels like I have met her before.

I glanced over to Mark and said, “I’ll take this task.”

“Rox, hon, you don’t have to take this task. We have other things we need to attend to,” Casey tried to talk me out of it.

“No, we can make time, and I want to meet this group after my concert in Downland. I want you to make sure you will make time for it in my schedule. Is that clear, Casey?” I told her in a sharp tone. 

Casey was not just my girlfriend, but she was also my manager. While she could input her opinion, my word was always final. All Casey could do is nod in agreement with me. Glancing down at the photo again, this girl’s cheery face stuck in my mind. Her smile reminded me of my little sister, Augusta.

The little girl that I knew and loved a long time ago, but Amelia was not that little same girl that I knew. The memory of those Outsiders who murdered my dear sister still haunts my mind every day for years. Pushing the magazine aside on the coffee table, I headed to the kitchen to get some breakfast for myself. Maybe getting something to eat would take my mind off the horrible memory of my past a bit.