Dawn
Dawn arrived as the sun crept over the mountains. Steven Hentz, a boy about fifteen years of age with green eyes, scanned the crowd through his shaggy blonde hair, already knowing that the whole town was there. There had been a fire at the Parslo Mansion three days before. Mrs. Parslo along with her eldest son, Joseph Parslo the 3rd, burned with the house, but Mr. Joseph Parslo Jr. had been murdered on his way down the road to get help. The only survivors were the maid, Natasha, and the two younger children, Jeremiah and Sylvia. There was rumor that the rising of ancestral magic played a part, but the rising of ancestral magic was only a rumor itself. The three that made it out of the fire had just begun to recover from the shock, and the funeral wasn't helping. Jeremiah, the Parslo's second child, still seemed out of his ordinary character. People described the way he carried himself: as one would when scared of them self. He seemed uncomfortable with himself, and was often mistaken to be concealing something. Many people dismissed it as the shock's effect for failing to get everyone out of the house and that it would go away with time.
The funeral was nearly silent as the morning came. The only sounds that broke the silence were the talking when someone paid their respects and the weeping of those who couldn't hold it in. One person from each family went up to pay the respects of the people whom lived within their home. The respects were being paid to all of those who lost their lives even though there was only one body. One by one a person got up and paid the respects for their family. Steven's father went up to represent him, Steven, and Kate, Steven's sister. During the proceedings, before the funeral ended, Steven looked over towards Sylvia and watched her weep. She was dressed in a long black dress with a black over coat that looked like it was very thin. Her long blonde hair flowed down well past her shivering shoulders and almost to he shoulder blades. Steven Felt a sudden need to go over and comfort her, but he knew that that would be an inappropriate thing to do. He just stood where he was and watched her weep struggling against the urge.
Once the proceedings were over a few people went over to talk with Jeremiah and Sylvia. Everyone knew that saying anything about the reason why they all were there wouldn't help any. Many people just said that their assistance was available whenever needed. Allen Marcy, the head justice keeper, walked over to say a few words. He went to Sylvia first and knelt down so that he could look strait into her eyes and said a few words. Her only response was more sobs. Then he went over to Jeremiah. When he placed his hand on Jeremiah's shoulder a wondrous look entered his eye. He leaned in close enough that he suspected only him and Jeremiah would hear and whispered, "Your fatha was first, now it's you. You're tha nex in tha line. You've got tha devil in ya too."
Jeremiah nose cringed when the old man spoke as if his breath reeked of some stench. Within a moment his expression changed to one full of anger and fear. "You! The light smell of liquor… The raspy whisper… You sent those cloaked men to set our house our fire! Didn'ch you? My father was first?! I'm the next in line? What do you mean by that?! Are you going to kill me like you did half my family?! Huh?!" Jeremiah had exploded. Many people were thinking back to the behavior he had had recently since the fire and thought that he had known something he hadn't told. Nearly everyone at the funeral was watching now, but Jeremiah didn't seem to care.
"What are you talking about? I was no where near your home three nights ago." Mr. Marcy managed to keep his voice for the most part calm, but there was a hint of worry in his tone.
"Right! There's no way you weren't there! That's the only part I didn't know and now I do! What do you mean the devil's in me too?! What does it mean and why did you have to kill my family over it?!" Jeremiah remained furious and oblivious to the calming touch of Keile, his father's sister.
"Jeremiah, I'm still lost here. I said that the devil was in you? When?" Mr. Marcy had a puzzled look, but only the three of them had been within earshot when he said it and they didn't know Steven had heard. So Jeremiah had no way of proving that he was lying now. Mr. Marcy was the head justice keeper, Jeremiah had no way of being believed over him. Especially after the way he had acted over the past few days.
"Don't play games with me! You just said it, standing in the very spot your standing now!" Now Keile was pushing at Jeremiah trying to get him away from Mr. Marcy, but he wouldn't budge.
"Mr. Marcy. I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." Keile tried to keep a good tone to help influence the mood of the conversation, but when that failed she turned and joined the aggressiveness of the conversation, "Mr. Marcy! Leave the Premises of this graveyard NOW! Jeremiah turned around and come over here." The pair of furious "men" looked down at the small petite figure that was yelling at them and paused as if they were questioning whether to take her seriously or not. After a moment Keile gave the two of them a look that could scare the devil and then walked back over to Sylvia.
Steven resumed his walk over and thought it wise to talk to Sylvia first. "Hey… Uh, Sylvia. You do' in ok?"
"Ya, I... I'm fine. Just a little hard to grasp the fact that all this could've happened within one day. Well from when the fire started till when they were..." her voice trailed off, but Steven knew what she was going to say.
"Well if there's anything that you guys need just ask. We'd be glad to help." Steven placed his hand on her shoulder as to comfort her. As he did a strange feeling flowed through the two of them. Sylvia looked up and stared him strait in the eye with a confused look. Steven looked back and met her gaze into each other's eyes with a similar look of confusion. Energy was flowing trough them. From one to the other and back. His dark green eyes and her light green eyes were locked together, and neither of them could drop the gaze. They were oblivious to the noises around them. Then, as quickly as it had come, the connection was gone. They both looked at each other awkwardly knowing that by the expressions on their faces hat neither of them knew what had happened or why. Neither of them knew how much time had passed or if someone had noticed.
Jeremiah came over to Steven as he was walking back towards the crowd where his father was. "Hey, it's Steven Right?"
"Ya."
"Well I saw you talking with my sis and just want you to know that now is not a very good time to be hittin' on her. Just wanted you to know."
"No. It wasn't anything like that. I was just telling her that if you guys need anything that we're here."
"The two of you sat there staring at each other for quite some time. That was all you said?" An amused look appeared on his face. "That's not exactly my idea of how to have a simple conversation."
"No…I…I understand that now is a bad time and I neither have nor have had the intensions of hittin' on her." Steven knew that it was rude but with that he walked away.
Before he got to the crowd a firm hand grabbed his arm and spun him around. "What do you think your doing? I wasn't finish..." Steven turned around and looked him strait in the eye and now with an irritated look in his eye. The energy flowed from one of them to the other as it had done with Jeremiah's sister, but this time the energy was stronger and fiercer. It stung every time it entered Steven's body and relieved him when it left. They were frozen and when they became free a cocky expression appeared on Steven's face.
"That, was what happened between me and Sylvia." And yet again he walked away.
"Steven. Jeremiah." A soft voice trailed fro back over to where Sylvia was sitting. Steven turned around and saw that she was walking towards Jeremiah. Steven walked back over to Jeremiah who gave him a dirty look and walked toward the nearly there Sylvia. It took her a minute because she just stared back and forth from one of them to the other. "It happened to you again when you touched Jeremiah didn't it?"
"Ya, but it hurt with him. With you it was gentle."
"Wait what are you talking about? Sylvia, that's what happened when you two were staring at each other?" Jeremiah was finally putting the puzzle pieces together.
"Well, yes. Do you think it has anything to do with what Allen said?" Sylvia was becoming worried. If someone killed their father for this reason then why not them too?
"Hey. Look!" Steven was pointing over to the gate of the cemetery where Mr. Marcy was standing glaring at the three of them with a resentful look on his face. "I think it does have something to do with what he said. And I must have something to do with it 'cause he wouldn't know unless he knew what the shock thing meant."
"That means that he may want to kill us too. We're going to have to keep a look out. Should we mention this to Aunt Keile? I have a strange feeling that she knows what's going on." Jeremiah was curious about what had happened and made no effort to hide it.
"Jem? You want us to just ask people 'cause you think they might know what's going on? Aunt Keile will think that we've gone crazy. That's out of the question."
"Wait. Jeremiah, why do you think we should talk to her again?"
"Well, I'm not sure I just feel that I or we should talk to her. I had this dream before I woke up during the fire. Well it was exactly what happened when I woke up. Now I have this feeling that we should talk to Aunt Keile. It all makes no sense to me. I think that we should. What do we have to loose?"
"Our aunt's trust. If she thinks we're crazy then she won't believe anything we say." Both the boys were ok with the idea and blankly stared at her, "Fine. You can tell her, but don't include me until you know that she knows what's going on. I mean it. I don't want her thinking I'm crazy, I've..."
"Shh! Here she comes." Steven cut her off as her aunt began walking in their direction.
"Ok now. What are you three doing? I know guilty faces when I see them... Well?" Aunt Keile was only about 5'4'' tall and thin. She was the type of person who no one would want to take seriously at first glance. She had long strawberry-blonde hair a little longer than her shoulders, and the face described by many as the face of an angle. She was practically too good to be true if you were a male bachelor looking for a bride. Her slender face showed annoyance at the moment as the teens remained silent.
"Well um. Jeremiah and I were just asking Sylvia if she knew what it was when you touch someone and a... A shock I guess you could call it. Where you can't move and..."
"Did this actually happen to you two?" Aunt Keile's face became filled with joy. "Did it?"
"Well it happened when I touched Sylvia and then again when I touched Jeremiah. But with Jeremiah it sorta hurt. I was more, painfully aware of the feeling energy flowing through our connection." Steven spoke up hoping that their aunt knew so that Sylvia wouldn't kill him.
"All three of you? No, I don't think your crazy. Here one by one I'll touch your shoulder." Aunt Keile seemed to be overjoyed when she found out that it had happened. One by one she touched all three of their shoulders. Every time there was that shock. Keile's shock was soft and gentle like Sylvia's. Once all three of them had gone through the trance with her she seemed to be back to normal. "Now, well we can talk about this later. There is reminiscing to be done, but don't get me wrong your father would have been glad of this. For all three of you if he only knew. But I'll explain later, I promise." She spun around and went back over to join the group of people for the funeral.
"Well I probably have to go. My dad and Kate are probably waiting, Bye." Steven was pondering the many questions that were darting through his mind.
"Hey, Steven. See if your sis has this… whatever it is." Sylvia had begun to walk the same way as Keile soon followed by Jeremiah.