Crystal Oblivion

Chapter 1

Drifting mindlessly through space was all that it had known for a long time. How long had it been drifting? It had lost count many years ago. All that it knew was that it had to keep on drifting until it found a planet to feed upon its life-force. Preferably, the creature wanted to go somewhere with a large amount of life forms and a decent level of technology.

Thus, the mysterious entity was headed straight towards the planet Earth.

Meanwhile, a high school student named Sara Lane was eating lunch outside. It was a nice day and she needed the fresh air. Besides, she didn’t feel like sitting alone at an empty table. It just reminded her to the fact that she was an outcast with no friends.

Sara never fitted in with the other kids, mostly because of her powers. Every now and then, she would suddenly get a vision about something that would happen in the near future. The visions were rarely clear, but were usually abstract or symbolic. Normally, she wouldn’t know what her vision was about until it was too late. Whenever Sara would get a vision, she would start shaking erratically for several seconds. Needless to say, this made other people uneasy.

Sara also had the ability to read other people’s thoughts. This power came in handy when trying to tell if someone was sincere when saying that they wanted to be her friend or if they were trying to trick her. Unfortunately, Sara didn’t have too much control of her powers and she could only use them at a random basis. Also, no one believed that she had psychic powers. She once tried to tell her parents about her powers, but they simply thought she was just pretending. Ever since then, Sara kept her powers as a secret from everybody.

As Sara continued to eat, something in the sky caught her eye. A strange shiny object seemed to be falling towards the ground. For some reason, Sara felt a strange presence within the object. It was as if it was alive, and it was probably really strong since Sara could feel it’s presence from far away.

Suddenly, a vision flashed in Sara’s eyes. The whole town was covered in a crystal-like substance. A mysterious and distorted ghost-like figure appeared and was walking across the area. The figure turned and moved its hand as if to beckon someone. Then the vision ended as suddenly as it began.

‘What was that about?’ thought Sara to herself. Something was going to happen soon, but Sara had no idea what it was. Maybe the strange shiny object she saw in the sky had a role in her vision. Sara quickly looked back up to the sky only to find that the object had disappeared. Before Sara could think anything more about it, the bell rang and alerted everyone that lunch was over. Shrugging, Sara headed to her next class.

In a field just outside Sara’s town, the entity from space began survey the area where it landed. Even though it didn’t really have eyes, it had the ability to sense its surroundings. The creature appeared to be a large ball about the size of a soccer ball with crystal-like spikes all over its body. Tiny pores on its skin released a light mist into the area around it. The droplets from the mist coated the grass on the field, and a crystal-like substance began to form from it. Soon, the area around the creature from space was covered in patches of crystals.

Suddenly, a farm worker arrived on the field. He had seen something crash into the field and decided to investigate. However, he was not prepared to see a weird ball-like thing with crystals growing on it and around it. The farm worker had no idea what that thing could be; so, out of curiosity and fear, he poked it with a pitchfork. When the points of the pitchfork touched the creature, the pores on the creature’s skin sprayed the mist directly onto the object. Crystals began forming on the pitchfork, and the man dropped it in horror. Then, he turned around and quickly ran towards the farmhouse and was screaming in his panic.

That night, Sara was curled on top of her couch while watching T.V. and petting her robotic dog, Sparky. Sara felt she needed a companion and originally wanted a real dog. Unfortunately, her mother was allergic to dog fur and Sara had to get a robotic dog instead. The robot was actually quite advanced and many dog-like behaviors. It also had realistic covering on it so that it looked more like a real dog than a robot. However, it was still a robot no matter how real it looked. Sara only grew more aware of this fact as time passed. Sparky didn’t chew on the furniture, pee on the floor, need to be feed, need water, and get sick. Some would say that this was good thing, but it only proved that Sparky was a fake. A fake dog couldn’t love Sara, no matter how much she pretended it could. It was no more real that the fake friendships she formed with those mean kids who made fun of her behind her back.

Trying to get her mind off of negative thoughts, Sara reached for the T.V. remote and began flipping through channels. Suddenly, something caught her eye and she stopped on the local news channel. Sara normally didn’t watch the news, but something compelled her to watch this time. She watched in shock as a reporter appeared on screen with an image of a field covered in a crystal-like substance in the background.

The reporter nervously began, “What you see behind me is a field outside of town that is completely covered in some sort of crystal-like substance. Eye-witnesses report that the crystals were caused by an unknown object that apparently fell from the sky earlier today. Officials state that residents should remain in their homes until further notice.” The reporter kept talking, but Sara had stopped listening.

‘So,’ thought Sara, ‘it seems that part of my vision is already coming true. I was right when I thought that object from the sky had something do with it. Will the crystals engulf the town, or is there a deeper meaning to my vision? And who or what is this ghostly figure in my vision? What do all these events mean, anyways?' What Sara didn’t know was that some of these questions would be answered very soon.