Changeling

Thanks. Yeah, sorry they're a bit fillery atm but I needed to confirm some of her skills before. I tried to hint though

You'll see, Pip. If you can't already guess

The days passed, slowly, almost torturously so. I eventually began to feel I was suffocating, stuck in the same building continuously with the same rooms and the same plain walls. I'd never been that much of the outdoors type, but I missed it now.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes. I knew, of course, how dangerous it was out of a safehouse for me, now I was visibly an Atari and not human. That world and that life, wasn't mine anymore. I didn't belong in it any longer, and I had no other real one to join. The Atari, my people.....were scattered. Almost destroyed. I didn't know much of how or why, and Sky was cryptic if the subject was ever raised. I sometimes got the impression that was another touchy subject, and when I did I'd drop it.

But despite the danger, the urge to leave grew within me with each day, becoming a need. At the end, I snapped. Grabbing whatever coat and shoes I had nearest, I ran out of the building before anyone could notice and realise they should stop me.

I slowed down eventually, forcing myself to calm. After all, I hadn't left the house just to run in fear, to continue hiding. I wanted normality, even if it was impossible. My breathing slowly returned to normal as I walked the streets, face turned down and half-hidden. Just in case. Without really realising, I'd been heading for the riverside, and I ended up sitting on a low wooden bench there, gazing thoughtfully across to the other shore where I used to live. The waterway was busy as always. Families and groups of friends, out enjoying the spring sunshine or just wasting time; I'd done so many times in the past.

"Hey, Ariana! What are you doing here alone?"

I jerked out of my reminiscing as I recognised the voice, belonging to one of my old university friends. I automatically raised my head to greet him back, not thinking or realising what I had to hide.

"Wh...What's that on your face?" I could hear his voice shaking, and it was only then that I realised. Too late, I raised a hand to cover the mark, but that only served to draw more attention to it.

"You're not one of them, are you?!" His tone was disbelieving, disapproving and horrified. Previously, I'd have sounded the same; I'd have understood the underlying pity and sorrow which caused it. But now, a reflexive defensive instinct rose within me, driving away understanding and sympathy and sense.

"So what if I am?!"

"You sound.......proud," he whispered, eyes wide and expression even more horror-filled than before. "You're......what have they done to you? You're not the Ariana I knew."

I guess I wasn't. There wasn't any real possibility that I could have experienced the changes I had without having been drastically altered; it was life-changing and I'd had to adapt. But I still shuddered, seeing the loathing and revulsion on the face of someone I'd once cared for and admired, seeing his previous regard for me transformed instantaneously into rejection.

"No, I'm not," I admitted, my voice saddened. It hadn't really struck me until then how much I'd lost my old life. I knew from the start that I'd have to leave it in order to hide, but I hadn't fully believed that life would cast me away as if I were tainted.

I barely realised that my accepting attitude was frightening both him and his companions, more so than the mere presence of an Atari. One of them, a slightly younger boy which I didn't recognise, cast him an edgy sidewise look. He clearly wanted to leave. Another was staring into the water, trying to avoid my gaze like it'd harm or contaminate him. Therefore, it was he who noticed.

He tugged at the others' sleeves, trying to get their attention while still avoiding mine. He'd whispered only for their hearing, but I still overheard.

"The water's rising.....she's doing something....."

It was only then I realised that, due to my tension, I'd been unconsciously accessing. Had I been causing the river level to rise? So it turned out it was water......I was so pleased at identifying my first skill, I didn't notice the fear rising also, shifting, metamorphosing.

"Stop it, freak!" one commanded.

On the contrary, instead of making me stop, that command frightened me. And the water rose further.

"Stop it! We're warning you!"

I couldn't stop. Even when I saw them approaching, hatred overriding fear and giving them the brutal courage to come close enough. Even when I could taste their aggression, bitter and toxic on my tongue, and I knew intimately what it signified. Even when the first of a thousand blows rained down upon my body. They kicked me, punched me, blood pouring and bone splintering and the air forced out of my lungs. My eyes were filling with crimson, and I could feel the bones of my skull grinding, consciousness slipping through. Only then did my hold on the water fade and I unwillingly let the original source of their fear go.

Oh my..... Well...... All i gota say is.... Goddamnit, that was good!!!!

XXXXX

Thanks Bil yeah, my first real cliffie ending in this one

Well, its a very gud 1. Cant wait 2 c wot happens next. XXX

Yeah, totally agree with Bil. Twas very amazing. xx

Thanks Next chapter in a few days hopefully

Yay.

Woohoo!! Cant wait!! Lol. XX

I tried to pull away, but there were too many of them, surrounding me. Their fear had long since gone, burned away by the hatred and violence, poured into me. I'd never been so helpless. It was true that I, not them, was the powerful one, I was the one who could twist the laws of physics with my hands, but that didn't make a difference. All that did was drive them on. At first, I begged them to stop, whimpered pleas whenever I found breath to speak. But eventually, I realised they paid no attention to my words, and all I could do was wait and endure and hope they'd tire before it was too late.

I curled up, trying in vain to present them with less of a surface to batter. All that meant was that the parts of they could still reach received even more kicks and punches. I could feel their violence, pounding through my senses, and it was worse than the physical pain. It felt like it was burning through me. Telling me, over and over, that I deserved this, that I was a freak and I needed to die, and that maybe, just possibly, I would. Maybe they wouldn't tire. Maybe they wouldn't get bored.

Maybe that was the intention.

It was at that thought that I first truly panicked. It was then that I really realised that I could die there; that this could be it and my existence might be over, so short. I didn't follow the clichés, though. My life didn't flash before my eyes, and I didn't experience being outside my body, or see any angels or white tunnel. Maybe that just doesn't work for Atari. However, fear did pound through me, paralyzing me at first. My senses seemed to become more detailed, in a different way to how they did when I was accessing. I knew I wasn't accessing. I couldn't, too afraid to reach that necessary state of mind. The fear accelerated, climbing higher and higher in my mind, overpowering me. My heart was racing, I couldn't breathe, and yet again I was reminded. However, this time there was no alteration, no rush of power and energy, no connection. Nothing. Just the fear. Filling me so intently that my senses were closing up, and I could barely see my surroundings and feel the pain of my ever-growing injuries.

I thought I'd passed out, then. Either that, or my senses failed completely. All I knew was a never-ending blackness, an emptiness which reached out and echoed. There was a rushing sound in that darkness, a pounding. It kept growing, getting closer, louder, and more potent. Calling to me.

And I answered.

With my last strength, I reached out into that pulsating, echoing darkness, and I took first hold of the power which waited out there. The power which was mine. I couldn't tell what would happen, I just knew something would. Something drastic. Something huge. And I wasn't that shocked when I felt the waters rise and soar over the riverbank, forcing my assailants away while cocooning me protectively.

Eventually, the waters died down. I was alone, now - all those in the area had either been frightened away or carried away in the flood. However, I still lay there, curled up in a tight ball without the energy to move. I'd saved myself only temporarily with my use of the river, I knew that. I could still feel my blood pulsating away with every movement, with every breath. Each inch of my skin still felt raw and battered. In vain, I tried to heal myself, hoping desperately that my urgent need would let me somehow manifest a skill which I subconscious did know only belonged to the old blood.

There was nothing I could do. A part of me knew that, but another part, the same part which had struggled and fought and reached out to the water when I realised I would die here, was once again refusing to accept that helplessness. I wasn't a quitter. I'd never been one, and I wasn't going to become one now. I was refusing to die like this, killed by a bunch of over-frightened boys barely adult and high on testosterone, just because of what I'd been turned into and how different from them I'd become. That part was already reaching out, doing the only thing it could, in a desperate bid to save myself once again. Reaching out, searching, seeking out someone to save me. Calling out.

Was great Lowri as always.
Dont do cliffhangers again!!! It's cruel!!! Lol. XXX

Thanks. And sorry It's less of a cliffie this time though, isn't it?

U will b sory if u do another cliffhanger like that agen. Grr Lol. XX
Yea it less of a cliffy, i jus sayin dont do it agen cos i hate havin to wait 2 c wot happens nxt. I no i do the odd cliffy but i already knows what happens nxt in mine, i jus dont like it wen other ppl do it. Lol. XX

Action scenes need endings like that though

I know but its really unfair for impatient ppl like me. Lol

I'm impatient.

Hey, Lowri, it's absolulty fucking amazing. Well done!!!

Language Pipster!! Lol. XX

Sorry. Twas angry. xx

K, wil 4give u jus this once. Y u angry chicken? :'( X

my mum was being annoying.

And thanks. xx

Sory 2 here that chicken, best get used to it tho. Im 27 nxt wk + my ma stil acts like a twat. Lol. XX

I only 4givin u this once tho cos of extenuatin circumstances. Lol. X

Thanks Pip Yeah, I don't think mams ever stop being annoying

Probs not.

Oh, yeah, 27, Bil! Woah!

I no im gettin old Pipster so SHUT IT!!! Lol. XX

Just kiddin, Bil. Old is.... 35.