C1 Chapter 1

Lilith Adams sprang up from her bed with a loud gasp, clutching the sheets and for a few seconds, she was confused about where and who she was. She finally came to after a while, holding a hand to her chest as she looked out the window. Outside held the beginnings of a brand new day filled with promises and opportunities, the bright sunlight muted slightly by the mauve half open curtain and she watched as dust motes danced lazily into the room through the exposed side of the window.

It was that dream again. The one that had been plaguing her for months on end without any reason or cause. It just started suddenly and no amount of sleeping pills could help. She tried again for the umpteenth time to remember what it was that she had seen that terrified her so but she was left without any recollection and a burst of migraine.

She muttered a curse with a sniff and as she climbed out of bed, she heard a loud thud coming from the room next to hers.

“Oh, for the love of God”, She said loudly as she jumped off the bed and sprinted out of the room into the room next to hers. As she swung the door open she was met with the sight of her best friend and dorm mate, Cassandra Owens, sprawled on the floor of her meticulously designed room with her legs spread wide, her mouth hanging open and still blissfully asleep.

Lilith stifled a laugh and said, tapping her, “Casey, wake up!”. Casey scrunched up her face and rolled around still with closed eyes.

“Casey, you have class today, don’t you?”, Lilith said. Casey just groaned and rolled again. “You have a class at eight. Don’t pretend like you’re still asleep”.

Casey groaned loudly and sat up, holding her waist. “Why do I feel like I got beat up?”, She said, glaring accusingly at Lilith.

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Get ready, I’m not letting you skip class again”.

Casey got off the ground, frowning as she peered at Lilith’s face. “Are you okay? You look pale. Did you have a nightmare again?”.

“No, I’m fine. Just have a bit of a headache. An aspirin should do. Have you posted the ad for the empty dorm room? I can’t keep paying for a room I barely use”.

“Yeah, I did last night. But what are you talking about? You’ve turned that entire room into your own personal storage unit”, Casey told her with a raised brow.

Lilith pursed her lips, “I’ll get rid of my things when I get back from class. Oh, and don’t ride your bike out to school today”.

“Why, did you see something?”, Casey asked with a worried look on her face.

“Something minor, don’t panic”, Lilith said.

Lilith Adams was special. Her mum had told her so before she passed away in a tragic accident Lilith had foreseen. Or she thought she had. She could, on occasion, peer into people’s past, present or future, glimpsing into near or distant misfortunes that could or would befall them and it only required a touch of the hand, a hug, a bump when passing someone in the streets, any form of physical contact would allow her entrance into other people’s past traumas and future tragedies. But they weren’t always imminent or accurate, just like her mum’s.

Casey knew to take her words seriously. They’d been best friends since elementary school and she had avoided terrible things because of the visions that Lilith had seen.

“Maybe I should just skip class altogether?”, Casey asked, with a cute, wide smile.

“No. You’ve skipped enough classes already and you know that a 75% attendance is required for you to take your exams on this course. Wash up, it’s almost eight”.

“Tch! Fine, I’ll go. You’ll probably call my mum if I don’t”, Casey said with a playful sneer as she began to put her bed in order.

Lilith rolled her eyes again and exited the room to prepare for her own class. She showered and styled her long brun hair into a messy ponytail and dressed in a long chiffon shirt, baby blue jeans, a tote bag and a pair of gloves, she left the dorm, after making sure that Casey really was leaving for class.

***###***

Mikhail Smith sat heavily on the swivel chair in the Victorian styled office with his hands balled into tight fists as his guest left the room and shut the door behind them. This was the fifth complaint this week, of a member of the pack having halting episodes to their powers and it had almost cost someone their life.

The first time this happened was to a small werewolf whose powers were just in development and it seemed like it was simply because they just weren’t mature enough to have their powers under complete control and the second and third cases were similar and had no cause for alarm. That was until a powerful member of the pack went out to settle a crisis between smaller groups in the area and when the issue burst into a full-on fight, found that his telekinetic powers was only able to move small things in the area and trying to force it made his nose bleed and he gradually weakened. Thankfully, others around him noticed that something just wasn’t quite right with him and so they brought him back, bleeding and unconscious. And ever since then, people in the pack, irrespective of their strength or status began to experience halts in their abilities.

It was like something no one had ever seen before, even the doctors within the community couldn’t fathom what was the reason for the ‘disease’ that was affecting the werewolves in the pack. Information from other packs concluded that it was a widespread matter that wasn’t limited to just them. Some people wondered if the people affected would end up losing their powers and this rumor spread panic and fear among the people.

Mikhail was the leader of one the strongest and populous packs around and with this new development, pressure was mounting high and he was gradually losing sleep. He got up hastily from the comfortable leather chair and had a bout of dizzy spell. His eyes fell casually on the grand mirror to is right and in the split second he caught sight of a person smiling at him before a blink of the eye caused the image to disappear. His brows scrunched up as he held onto the chair to stabilize his movement and looked back into the mirror. But all he saw was the frustrated reflection of a scowling man staring right back at him.

He groaned and rubbed his eyes with a yawn. “I should be getting some sleep. I’m seeing things already”.