The first chapter (Feel free to give tips!)

 

1.Erin

   As the heavy rain poured down on to my face, I clung with my life to his hand. “Don’t let go Lucas!” The bridge under us creaked as a reply. I shifted my gaze from the river to him, but the Lucas I knew had already faded away.

   His face was bruised from all the trees we’ve ran through, he seemed to want to pull me back, wanted us to survive the storm, but I lost that spark.

   “You are just a filthy Lumen Erin, that’s all you are, and all you will ever be.”

   And he let go.

{===}

   I still remember that night, how I had to crawl my way to the shore, how I saw my 8 year of life pass in front of me.

   I was just a little kid, I lived in the woods for weeks, always scared that Lucas would come back, realizing I was still alive. I may have escaped him, but even now, after 10 years, he still takes place in my nightmares.

   “You are just a filthy Lumen.”

   “Erin!” I shook my head and turned my head to Noah. “Finally, you were gone there for a second.” We were in my room, cozy and safe from Lucas, safe from the woods, I took a deep breath of relief.

   “What do you want Noah?” Noah rolled his eyes, his eyes were sparkling from the morning light, a blue sea, something I haven’t seen in quite a while. “Well, what I want doesn’t matter now, its about the people, we are low on stock, again.”

   I groaned “But we just went for supplies!”

   “That was a week ago,”

   “So?!”

   Noah pulled me from the bed. “Lots of people and lots of Hunger Erin, that’s all.” We went out to the corridor, people coming out of their rooms, a smile took place on my face, I was glad that there was this safe place for every Lumen, away from every Tenebris out there, I never wanted to think about what would happen if the building was found.

   Noah and I made our way down and to the doors, the guards turned to us. “Supplies again, Noah?” Noah brushed past them, ignoring their question. I gave them a nod as we went outside, a small sign of gratitude for guarding the doors, yet I knew they would leave us all to die if they could save themselves.

   We followed the main road to the town nearby. “I heard there is going to be a festival soon.”

   “Something about a Tenebris slitting open a throat of a Lumen?”

   “Quite possibly so.” We continued without making a conversation again.

   I thinked back on the first day I met Noah, he was sitting in a corner of a room, covered with blood, and two corpses in front of him. He was 10 when we got to him, I was only 12. He told me that the Tenebris guard had killed his mother, so he killed the guard. It was his first time ever using his abilities as a Lumen.

   Noah sneezed. “Its quite cold out here, no?”

   “You want me to light a fire?”

   “It doesn’t matter now, we’re here.” We went in through the gates, hiding our faces as good as possible, and headed towards the marketplace.

   The town was still asleep apart from markets and few people buying food for their home. I turned to Noah. “Did you tell Willow to bring over the cart?” He looked startled, then tried to smile. “Noah I swear to god“

   “Just kidding! Of course I told her. She’ll be waiting at us at the north exit.”

   We went inside a bakery, inside was warm and cozy, I just wanted to sleep. The shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, but there was a customer inside.

   A Tenebris guard.

   Noah and I exchanged glances and sat down at chairs. Noah whispered, “Why don’t we just kill her?” I shook my head, “Noah don’t be ridiculous. Just act natural, we are here for food not for murder.” Noah sighed and pouted, the shopkeeper returned, and the guard got up.

   “Lex Mullins?” The man looked at us and at the guard, “That’s me.” The guard aimed at him with her gun. “You are under arrest.” The man threw his hands in the air, startling the guard.

   She shot the man.

   Noah and I stared at the guard. She turned to us, now she knew our faces. Noah talked before I could stop him. “What was he under arrest for?” We couldn’t say anything about the poor man’s death that was uncalled for, that’s how stuff worked. She shrugged. “Being a Lumen.” She passed us and exited the bakery, leaving us and the body alone.

   Noah was ready to commit murder, so I grabbed his arm and pretty much dragged him out of the bakery, I didn’t want to be framed for a murder of an innocent man.

   We continued our way to other markets, trying not to talk about the man that was murdered.

{===}

   By night we had visited 10 markets and went to the cart 10 times, we were on our way to the last market when I heard a little thump, I stopped and Noah turned to me “Something wrong?” I listened carefully.

   There was only the wind, then the sound of people nearby, then I heard it, the same thump, this time followed by shuffling, I turned to the nearby alley, Noah looking at me confused. Then the sound stopped. “Didn’t you hear that sound?” Noah laughed and patted my back “You my sir have a good imagination but no, I did not hear anything.”

   He went inside the market, leaving me to stare at the Alley, and I could swear I saw someone staring back, ready to jump me and possibly kill me, but it didn’t happen, I quickly ran inside, I did not want to be alone.

   Inside Noah was trying to make a deal with the market owner, I decided to leave this to him and sat down, looking outside from the window.

   A girl and his mom walked down the street, the girl crying about some doll she lost. A man drunken walked the same street, a Tenebris guard, a homeless woman, a teenager. They all had one thing in common.

   They were free where we were tortured and killed.

   I jumped when Noah grabbed my shoulder, I turned to him. “Let’s go Erin.” We made our way from the marketplace to towns square. Noah gave his backpack to me. “Hey, I want to do something really quick, can you like… give me five minutes?” I grabbed his backpack. “Alright, not questioning where you are going.”

   “You always question where I am going.”

   Noah walked to the south streets while I went to the north. It was my first time walking the streets alone in this town. I thought about the Tenebris guards hungry for our blood, patrolling the streets just to get a glimpse of us.

   It made me feel like a cat hiding from big bad dogs, and I hated it. I had powers too. They should fear me. They should be the one hiding from me, what made them better anyway?

   One thing was certain though, on my own I was nothing against them. So, I should know my place and hide away, gain my strength.

   Just a filthy Lumen

   Before I realized what I was doing I was standing in front of a guard’s watchtower. I came here didn’t I? I’m going to end it. I concentrated on my hands. There was nothing for a while, just the wind in my ears.

   Then a faint flame, and it grew with the wind, then my hand was in flames. I touched the wall, setting fire to the place where I touched, I started running my hand on the wall, setting the tower alight.

   The guard won’t have to be cold thanks to me.

   I heard him sound the sirens, and I stepped back, looked at what I did, looked at the face of the Tenebris guard as he pulled out a gun. I started running away. The bullet missing me by a hair.

   I made a big mistake.

   But I haven’t felt this free in my life, so what would happen if it was a mistake?

   I heard Willow scream.

   That’s what would happen if it was a mistake.

   I jumped the wall, seeing guards kicking her down, they didn’t kill her, but if I didn’t do something they would, soon.

   I had to do something. I can’t let them just kill her. I need to stop them. I must stop them…

   I ran out of my cover, and just then, I heard a loud explosion.

   The guards immediately turned to the bomber perched on top of the wall. “Ka-boo-m.. no that wasn’t good… you just got smoked! No that’s even worse…” Then I realized that the bomber was Noah.

   I would ask him how he got the bomb, but not now, I ran for Willow, not even bothering with asking her how she was, of course she isn’t okay, you never are if you are a Lumen.

   I grabbed her and we made a run for the cart. “They’re getting away!” Shouted one of the guards, and Noah exploded another bomb next to them, but a guard was already near us.

   He was a Celeritas, which meant his power focused on speed. Just like Lucas I thought before he landed a fist on my face. I knocked back on to Willow. I heard another explosion behind. Didn’t you want to fight them Erin? Go get him now, won’t you? Instead the guy got a bullet in his head.

   The guy slumped on to me, and I almost, almost felt pity for him, then I let his body fall. I turned to Noah who was walking to us. I realized he killed the other two guards, and even though he killed three people, he was grinning wide, something was always pretty creepy about him anyways, now I learned that he had a really big potential to be a serial killer.

   His smile faded away with Willow’s disappointing look, she came to him, made sure he was okay, then started to kill him in a river of questions. “Where the hell did you get those bombs and gun from?! You could have gotten killed, are you nuts?! Why did you kill them!?”

   Noah took a deep breath. “Where I got my stuff is not your concern, yes I could have been killed but I am alive, and I killed them because if I didn’t, they would kill us instead.” He grabbed his bag from me, then dropped his bag on to the cart. “Now can we go?!”

   As Willow went to the horses, I went on the cart, it was my fault Willow was jumped, we could have been killed for a stupid reason, so I promised them quietly, I won’t do it again, and we were on our way.

{===}

   I knocked on Noah’s door. “Come in” I heard him say and I went in, he was sitting on his bed on the ground. It was dark, so I lighted his lamp with my hands. He looked at me and the lantern then back at me. “What did you want?”

   I sat down on the bed too. “Where did you get those bombs from?”

   “It doesn’t matter now, they saved us, didn’t they?” I sighed. Noah was always reckless. “Noah, we don’t want a fight, we just want to live.”

   “Oh we will live, but not like a bunch of cowards.” He got up from the bed.

   “How much more time Erin? Are we just going to wait like meat on a bait for them to get us?!” I got up from the bed too, he grabbed a bomb and shook it in front of my face. “They won’t listen to us if we act like what they expect, so what do we do? Make them listen to us!”

   “What about all those innocent lives you are going to put in danger”

   “We are already in danger Erin! We need to protect ourselves so let me protect us!” He put the bomb next to the others.

   “Was that where you went today? To grab bombs?”

   “Yes, but what did you do?”

   “What?”

   “Don’t act dumb Erin” He turned to me. “You were late to the meeting place, and I for sure did not sound that siren.”

   I was quiet. “What happened now Erin, huh? Not so much of a leader now are we? Look, I am the guy who kills and has fun from it, so if you don’t want me to kill you next, stay out of my way.”

   He pushed me out of the room. I had never seen Noah angry, “You lost a friend big guy, you happy?”

   “We were never friends.”

   “Tsch,” He slammed the door on to my face and locked it.

   I stared at the door for a while, hoping maybe he would open the door, and I could apologize, but he didn’t, so I went to my room.

   That’s when I heard a familiar smell in the hall.

   Fire