***
At 9:45am, I received a text from Sean to say he was on his way. After a quick check in the mirror, I quickly ran down the stairs.
“Bye.” I shouted to anyone who was listening as I ran out the front door, slamming it shut behind me.
I didn't have to wait long, as I saw his car pull into my street.
“Hi.” I happily sang as I climbed into the passenger seat.
“Hey you.” He leaned over to kiss me. “How you feeling?” He turned back to the road as he pulled away.
“Great.” I smiled, and I meant it. Every time I saw him I felt blissfully happy. “So where are we going?” I looked around, hoping for a clue.
“You'll have to wait till we get there.” He winked.
We hadn't been driving for long when we turned into a small car park, surrounded by lots of trees.
Before we'd even parked the car just stopped. Sean tried to start it again, but nothing happened. He hit his steering wheel with mild frustration.
“Where the heck are you?” He said more to himself as he looked through the window, towards the trees. I had no idea who he was talking about and before I could ask, the car started to move forward, making me scream.
“It's okay.” Sean tried to reassure me. “Look!” He pointed out of the windscreen as the car stopped, and there I saw Kelly, Paul and James laughing as I slowly started to understand, but not completely. “Not frigging funny!” Sean shouted as he jumped out of the car.
I stayed there, glued to my seat. I was feeling pretty shaken up, still unsure what had happened exactly. I could hear Sean still shouting, but I had tuned out what was being said. I was still trying to get my head around what had just happened. I hadn't even noticed my door opening as Sean knelt down.
“Erin?” He soothed as he tried to remove my hands from where they firmly gripped the seat. “Erin?” I slowly looked towards him as I realised he was there talking to me. I smiled at him as he managed to release my hands and reach over to undo my seat belt.
Quietly he helped me out of the car, shutting the door behind me.
“Erin, I'm so sorry.” Kelly stepped in front of me and reached out to give me a hug. “I forget you're not used to us all and our powers.”
“You did that?” I pointed towards the car
“And Paul.” She nodded with a nervous laugh.
“Cool trick.” I smiled, making everyone laugh.
“You okay?” Sean whispered as Kelly went back to high five the twins.
“Yeah.” I sighed with a smile as I turned to look at him, “I'm fine, just a bit shocked.”
“Sorry, I should have explained in more detail what they can do.” He walked to open the boot of the car and pulled out a bag and a blanket. “Kelly's just learnt to focus her powers on one object. Before she would stop everything electrical for miles.” He laughed at this thought as he locked the car. “She can still do that, but it causes problems with most people not knowing about us.”
We started to walk slowly, following Kelly, Paul and James.
“Who pulled the car?” I was intrigued by it all. All I could do was produce flames, but to turn off everything electrical was cool, in my opinion.
“That would be Paul.” He started to point to the twins, like he was trying to figure out who was who. “I still can't tell them apart.” He laughed. “And James,” By this time he'd given up trying to decide who was who. “He pushes things away.” I nodded with understanding. Things were just getting more and more interesting. I'd never thought my summer holidays would ever be like this. It was like a real adventure, plus I got to spend it with the best looking person in the world.
We'd finally stopped as Sean put the bag down and started laying the blanket on the floor. I'd already noticed there was another blanket next to this and a pile of sporting items, as Kelly picked up a football and volleyed it.
Watching where the ball had gone, I stood there, slowly turning around, taking in my surroundings. We were in a huge open field, with a large lake. I could see for miles around, even if it was mainly fields and hills. It was all so breathtaking.
“Wow, it's beautiful.” I smiled as I finally turned to look at Sean, who was now sitting on the blanket. I sat down next to him, half facing the lake whilst watching Kelly and the twins playing football.
“Nice isn’t it?”
“It sure is.” I turned to look at him. “What's that in the lake?” I pointed towards a large, what looked like a rock, protruding in the centre. Sean followed to where I was pointing.
“That's the reason we are like this.” I looked back at him to check he was actually looking at what I was pointing at.
“You like talking in riddles, don’t you?” I wasn't slightly annoyed that he wasn't giving me a straight answer.
“It's the reason I brought you here. So I can explain.” He defended as he emphasised on the word can.
“I'm listening.” I said when he paused.
“I'm not sure what it is exactly, no one does. But several hundreds of years ago it wasn't there, and then something fell from the sky.” He waved his hand up and down as he explained. “The people of Galladale came to see what it was. Now bear in mind there weren't as many people living here back then and they didn't know what it was, some even swam out to get a closer look.” He paused again as he looked towards the lake. “If you look closely it looks like a giant lump of coal.” I squinted my eyes to look at it.
“Oh yeah.”
“People said they could hear a humming coming from it. One person leant her face closer to try and listen, but she got too close and it must have been hot, because she ended up burning her face.” He paused to reach up to my birthmark. “Her left cheek.” I almost flinched at this thought. “There was a man close to her and he was able to cool her cheek, but she was scarred for life.” It all sounded a bit farfetched, but I knew it must be true. “Anyway.” He continued as he lay down on his back. “Everyone started to get sick. They didn't realise at the time, that they were changing.” He pulled me down next to him. “From that day, Galladale was never the same. At first people worried about the next generation, whether their powers would be passed on. After only a few decades this had only happened once or twice, so they thought it was something that would die out. They didn't know that whenever someone died the child born on that day would inherit their powers, even if not blood related.”
“Wowsers!” I looked up to the sky, trying to take it all in “Does that mean everyone who lives here knows?”
“No.” Which made me roll onto my side to look at him. “Some people refused to talk about it and were relieved when it skipped so many generations, so there was no need.”
“But there will be some who have heard the stories.”
“Yeah, but we all thought they were myths.” He laughed “Me included.”
“So how do you know all this?”
“My Poppa had heard all the stories, as his parents were like you and I. So of course he knew it was the truth. My Dad had been told the stories but as he grew up he just thought of them as bedtime stories.” He laughed as he sat up to pick up the football that had just landed at our feet and threw it back towards the shouting trio.
“I wonder why my parents didn't tell me?” I said mainly to myself.
“Like I said, they hoped it would miss a generation."
Then I remembered them telling me the same thing.
“You know what is funny?” Sean interrupted my thoughts. “My Mum had no ties to Galladale, so my Poppa isn't sure if it's a first that someone from outside gave birth to not one, but two of us."
“I hadn't actually thought about that.
“Sean?” I heard Kelly shout as she was waving him towards her.
“Not now.”
“Who discovered theirs first?” I nodded from him to Kelly.
“Good question. My Poppa noticed mine first, then a few weeks later spotted Kelly's, after she was throwing a paddy over me being distant." He laughe
d as he looked at his sister “But she says she had been able to do things like that for a long time.” He pointed through the trees, where we had walked through, to the car park. “Which is plausible, cos she has been able to control her powers quicker than me."
“What about the twins?”
“Apparently they've been like that since birth and they used to fight all the time.”
“Then they met Kelly.” I said with understanding
“Well, not really. They were in her year at school. Not that she noticed them.” He laughed. “They used to follow her around and fight over her.” He laughed shaking his head like he didn't understand their fascination with his big sister. “But when she figured out her powers, she noticed them.”
“Is she with either of them?” I was intrigued, but this made Sean laugh. “What's so funny?”
“She's with both of them.” I stared at him with a disgusted expression, making him laugh even more.
“And they know?” He nodded, trying to control his laughter. “And they don’t mind?”
“Not at all! It actually made them get on better. Apparently before them there was only one person who possessed both their powers and when he died, Paul and James were born, so the powers were split.” I was understanding that, but she was with both of them. I shook my head in utter disbelief. “You'll get used to it, and you will see there's nothing gross about it.”
“I don't know about that. I couldn't share you with anyone.” He smiled at this and leaned over to kiss me.
“And I wouldn't share you with anyone either.”
We lay there for a while, in each other's arms, until Sean sat up.
“Anyway.” He pulled the bag he'd taken out of the car onto his lap. “I brought some food, so we can have a picnic. You hungry?”
“Starving.”
Erin The Fire Goddess: The Beginning Page 23
