The Sun Child (The Sun Child Saga Book 1)

by Mihalitsianos, Monique

  You said you loved her, you idiot, the voice of my conscience says, more forcefully than it had spoken last night in the middle of the heat. Suddenly what it said troubles me.

  I don’t know what part of the woods I’m in, so I look at the position of the sun in the sky. I run through trees, jumping over rocks and fallen logs, dodging branches, until I reach the northern limits. Finally I reach my apartment in town, sweating sweating lightly from the run, my breath coming in short, sharp bursts, suddenly wondering how many spells I’ve been under lately and if it’s really all that good for my health.

  The Draft

  I reach my place and notice Shane is standing at my door, looking down at his feet, his eyes glazed over as if he’s miles away. “Hey,” I say.

  “Hey…” He answers, his voice raspy. He looks pale and gaunt, and there are bags under his eyes.

  “How long have you been standing there?”

  He shrugs.

  “You look like shit,” I say, realizing I’m not the only one affected by our little experiment from two days ago. He just grunts. I open the door and let him in.

  “I hope you’ve had breakfast, because there’s nothing here to eat.” He waves his hand as if that isn’t important.

  “Are you okay?” I say, starting to feel concerned, even though I’m still kind of pissed off at him.

  “No. I feel terrible.” He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. “I tricked you into killing that man. And I thought I could deal with it…” He wrings his hands anxiously. “But I can’t. I haven’t slept since I dropped you off.” He sighs and puts his face in his hands. “It felt so…wrong.”

  I can’t help but feel sorry for him. It’s the first time he’s had to deal with anything like this. Immortals protect humans, they don’t kill them. Not even the evil ones. And he didn’t even get to feel the physical pleasure afterwards.

  “It will pass.” I say in a low voice, but he doesn’t look at me.

  “Now we know the limits of your kind’s powers are expanding, and they already freak the shit out of us as it is.” He sits down on my mattress and puts his face in his hands. “Everything’s just so messed up, and I don’t know how to deal with it.”

  I feel something withing me cave, and all the anger I was directing at him dissipates, like a thin cloud of mist. “Listen, why don’t you stay here and try to sleep?”

  He shakes his head. “I have to draft. It’s what I was sent here for.”

  “You won’t get anything done in the state you’re in,” I say. “Go ahead and sleep. And don’t worry about our powers evolving. For all we know, I’m the only one this has happened to.” I really hope I’m right, because if I’m not, all of us are in some deep shit. “How old are these new Immortals supposed to be, anyway?”

  “Sixteen, seventeen. High schoolers. But I can’t let you go alone; what kind of leader would that make me?” He says. But then he looks down at the mattress, and his eyes actually close for a second before he jumps and opens them again.

  It surprises me that he’s letting himself be this vulnerable in front of me, and wonder whether he’s manipulating me into getting his job done for him. But I know self-torment when I see it, and Shane is definetely suffering.

  “Okay, you’re staying,” I say, making up my mind. “You actually just fell asleep for a second there.”

  “No, Daniel.” He says. “I can’t let you do this.”

  “It’s just drafting,” I assure him. “I’ll go to the school and see what I find. They’re kids; how hard can it be? Tell me what to look for.”

  He considers for a second, and then sighs. “Look for jittery teens who don’t know how to handle their newly acquired superhuman strength. You know humans, the supernatural freaks them out.”

  “Then what, I just talk to them?”

  Shane murmurs something in the positive, and then stumbles to the bed face forward and is out.

  I think back to the countless times I’ve had to knock kids unconscious and kidnap them into our tribe, and my stomach churns. In comparison, talking is good. .

  I take a shower and get dressed before heading out. I’m not very hungry, so I skip breakfast. It’s still early. The school isn’t open yet, so I go to the park to kill some time and soak up some sunlight.

  I should feel guiltier about what happened on Saturday. I should feel guiltier than Shane, since I’m the one who killed the man. But I don’t, not anymore. Isabella’s spell must have been strong indeed. Either that or I’ve morphed back into a callous and cold-hearted fucker.

  Either way, it feels good to not be drowning in guilt for once.

  There aren’t too many people in the park. A few early joggers, some dog-walkers, and the regular yogis practicing their morning class. I sit on one of the benches in the middle of the park and arch my back and neck toward the sky. The touch of the sunrays on my skin feel like little bolts of energy sporadically zapping me in different parts of my body.

  I’m in the middle of this refreshing ritual when something catches my eye. There’s a boy, no older than sixteen, sitting on another bench a few feet away from me. He’s reading a large text-book, his brow furrowed in concentration, his fingers gripping the covers until his knuckles turn white.

  I normally wouldn’t have noticed him, but now I can’t help but observe him slowly tearing the bind of his textbook apart. Finally it snaps, pages flying everywhere.

  His face whitens, and he glances around until his eyes find mine. He looks like he just got caught doing something very bad. I look away quickly, but from the corner of my eye I can see him getting down on his knees and picking up the pages.

  I get up and walk over to the boy’s bench, stoop down and helping him pick up the remaining pages on the ground. He stuffs them into his backpack with jittery hands.

  He laughs anxiously. “Thanks, bro. They don’t make these like they used to, do they?”

  Poor kid.

  I smile at him. “What’s your name?” I say, standing up.

  “Kyle Steele.” He says, standing up and strapping on his backpack.

  “Listen, Kyle…” I say, then pause, suddenly realizing I don’t have a clue how to do this. “Why don’t you and I take a seat?”

  “Okay.” He answers warily, walking back to the bench he was sitting on before. I sit beside him.

  “First of all, don’t freak, all right?” I say. “I’m going to ask you a few questions.”

  “Why?” He says, frowning. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  I take a deep breath and decide to proceed despite the bumpy start. “Since when have you had supernatural strength?”

  He goes completely white.

  “I want to tell you that you’re not the only one,” I say quickly.

  “What do you mean, not the only one?” He asks in a low voice.

  “Well, there are many others who are just like you.”

  “Are you like me?”

  “I am not,” I admit, “But more on that later.”

  “Dude, what the fuck is going on?” He laughs nervously.

  Okay, this isn’t going as well as it could. “I promise you’ll get answers as soon as you give me more information.”

  He sighs, eyebrows coming together as he tries to remember. “I’ve been breaking stuff randomly for the past couple weeks, and once, when I was just joking around in school, I punched one of my friends on the arm and dislocated his shoulder.” He goes red in the face. “Of course, he got really pissed, and all my friends looked at me like I was on steroids or something.” His lips tremble.

  Oh no, please don’t cry. It would be so uncomfortable if he cried.

  “Everybody has alienated me since then. I swear I didn’t mean to hurt him.”

  “It’s okay, Kyle,” I say. “I believe you.”

  He breathes deeply. “It comes and goes for the most part,” He says. “Like, I’m really strong for a few days, and I have to watch out, you know, in case I hurt anybody, and then I’m
just normal for the next few days. Is something wrong with me?” His voice trembles.

  “Nothing is wrong with you, Kyle,” I say. “What you’re going through is completely normal. Well, normal for some people, at least.”

  “Which people?”

  “Erm…have you experienced any supernatural speed?” I ask, changing the subject.

  “Speed? No… Is that supposed to be happening?”

  Honestly, I don’t know. I nod anyhow. “Not until your strength is fully developed, though.” It’s a good enough scientific guess. “Do you feel any different?”

  Kyle shakes his head. “Only the days I’m stronger, it seems like everything around me is made of clay, you know? Like everything’s so fragile or malleable, like my stupid textbook.” He answers. Then he turns desperate. “What am I?” He looks at me with pained, fear-filled eyes, and I decide I’ll tell him already and put him out of his misery.

  “You would be what my kind calls an Immortal,” I say. “And I am Daniel Maze, a Child of the Sun.”

  “Immortal?” His eyes widen.

  “Not in the literal sense of the word,” I say quickly. “You won’t live forever. But your super strength is a power that only manifests in certain people. From what we know, it’s completely random. Some people get it; some people don’t.”

  “And you’re…what did you call yourself?”

  “I was part of a supernatural tribe called The Children of the Sun. I’m not anymore.”

  He frowns. “A tribe? What kind of tribe? Do you have super strength too?”

  “One question at a time,” I say, beginning to feel overwhelmed myself. He’s so absorbed in our conversation that he’s barely blinked this whole time. “We call it a tribe because people with the same supernatural powers stick together. You know, for support and everything.” I leave out the part about we’re forced to abandon our families. Shane can handle that particular issue later.

  “There are only two tribes. The Immortals and the Children of the Sun. You guys have super strength, and we…we are healers. And killers. We can also run really fast.”

  “Killers?” He yells.

  “Shhh… Lower your voice.” I look around, but no one seems to be listening to us. The park looks as tame as always. “Yes, killers.”

  “Why aren’t you a part of your tribe anymore?”

  I look at him hard. “That’s a story for another day.”

  He puts his head in his hands. “So now you’re with the Immortals?”

  I consider his question. “In a manner of speaking.”

  “Do you guys get along?” He says. “I mean, the tribes or whatever. Are you friendly?”

  I laugh. “The opposite, actually. We’re mortal enemies. The Immortals believe that what The Children of the Sun do is wrong, killing people and whatnot, even if those people are evil. So they’ve taken it upon themselves to destroy all of us. All of us except me, of course. Apparently, I’ve become some sort of legend in their circles.”

  “Because you decided to leave your tribe?” He prods.

  I nod. “You guessed it.”

  He sighs and puts his head in his hands. “So I’ve got these powers. And now what? I have to join this…this group of other people like me?”

  “You know what, Kyle? This guy called Shane is actually the Immortal sent to find you guys here. He’ll be able to answer your questions better than I can.”

  “How did he know I was here? How did he know I was going to develop these powers?”

  “Well, supposedly, there are quite a few of you here who are going through this kind of change. There are witches who work for the tribes and are in charge of sensing this sort of thing.”

  “Witches?!” he yells again, his head snapping up.

  I sigh. This is going to be a long day.

  -*-

  I tell Kyle everything I can.

  He whistles lowly after I’m done. “Didn’t see this one coming.”

  “Yeah, it’s a biggie, for sure.”

  “So…” He eyes me from the corner of his eye. “You’re basically a bad guy gone good.”

  “I guess you could say that,” I say, shifting my weight on my seat, not entirely pleased with how easily he adopted his own tribe’s morality right after hatching from the egg.

  “How many people have you killed?”

  I look at him sharply. “That question is off limits.”

  He raises his hands. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to offend you or anything…”

  “It’s cool.” I say quickly. I forgot how annoying teenagers were, thinking briefly about Henrick. “I’m on your side, remember? I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that what my kind does is wrong.”

  He stays quiet, avoiding my eyes.

  I look down at my watch. “It’s almost eight. Don’t you have to go to school?”

  “Yeah, I should probably get going.” He says, standing up from the chair. “You know, I was so immersed in the changes going on with my body these past weeks that I didn’t stop to see if there were other people going through the same thing. I didn’t even think of it as a possibility.”

  “It’s called adolescent self-centeredness, a common suffering amongst your kind.” I say, “Feel free to keep your eyes open for any strange behavior from now own. Come on, I’ll walk you to school.”

  A sort of sadness creeps up on me as I watch him as I watch him trod along me, just a kid out of puberty. He doesn’t know his entire life is going to be uprooted in just a few short days. But at least he has those few short days to assimilate everything.

  All I got was a direct hit to the skull.

  -*-

  We reach Rickshaw High School, and I stop about 20 feet from the main door, below a large tree. Crowds of teenagers loiter around the school grounds. My hands start to perspire, and I take in a few deep breaths.

  “Not a particular fan of human crowds?” Kyle asks, raising an eyebrow.

  “Now you choose to be observant?” I say, and he bites back a smile.

  “See you,” he says, “I’ll keep my eyes open.”

  He walks through the main doors of the building just before the bell rings. I stand there for a while, watching the kids slowly disappear in packs of twos or threes through the building doors until I’m left alone on the grounds.

  Well, the moment passed.

  I have to get in the school somehow if I plan on drafting more Immortals today, and I’m not about to go in and request a visitor’s badge. I study the square building with its brick walls and flat roof, and then it hits me.

  I’ll climb.

  I walk to the right side of the building, near the football field, where there’s less of a chance somebody will see me. I make sure no one’s around and take a few steps back before running toward the wall as fast as I can.

  The moment my right foot hits the wall, I start running upwards, avoiding windows and using the crevices in the wall to support me and push myself up. I have to do this with all the speed I can conjure. Otherwise, I’ll fall, probably to my death.

  Luckily, the building isn’t very tall, which means it doesn’t take much effort, and I reach the rooftop before even breaking a sweat. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, but every time I do, I feel a little queasy afterward.

  And there it is: The door on the rooftop that leads to inside the school. It’s unlocked, thank God. I don’t feel like knocking down doors so early in the morning.

  I open it quietly and walk down the stairs, my footsteps barely making a sound. I reach another door, which is also unlocked, and this one opens to the cafeteria. There is no one in it so early in the morning except for this skinny blonde girl who’s sitting at one of the tables. She is dressed in black from head to toe and has really heavy eyeliner on.

  “Who the hell are you, and why did you just walk into the cafeteria through the rooftop door?” She says.

  I narrow my eyes at her. “Rude,” I mutter under my breath.

  I decide to ignore her
and walk away, when I notice the heavy dents her fingers pressing down of the table are leaving.

  She looks down at the table as if she just realized what she’s doing, and then up at me again, furiously. She stands up and hurries away.

  “Wait!” I yell after her. She freezes in place and slowly turns to face me.

  “It’s okay.” I say lamely. Come on, Daniel. Is that really the best you can do? “Why aren’t you in class?”

  Well, I’m just getting savvier by the second.

  “I asked who the hell are you.” She snaps.

  “I’m Daniel.” I say. “I saw what you did to the table with your fingers. No ordinary feat, huh?”

  Her eyes become slits.

  “I’m actually not surprised by that. In fact, I was kind of expecting it when I decided to come to this school.”

  Still silence.

  “Can we talk?” I ask, pointing to the chairs in front of me. For a moment, we just stand there in uncomfortable silence, and then she finally sits down, never taking her snake-slit eyes away from me.

  “What’s your name?” I ask, sitting down next to her.

  “Piper Dupont.”

  Her skin is very pale, and the heavy eyeliner accents her gray eyes eerily. She looks like a specter, all fair and cold.

  “Well, Piper, I’m Daniel, like I said, and what I’m about to tell you will probably not make sense at first.”

  “I have superhuman strength.” She says, cutting me off. “It started about a week ago. I’ve learned to control it since then.” She continues, “I know it’s something supernatural, and I’ve been waiting for an explanation ever since. I all but demanded it from the universe. So if you’re here to tell me about it, I’m all ears. Make it quick, though. I’ve already cut too much class.”

  I stare at her in silence for a few moments, and then clear my throat. “Well then, allow me to begin.”

  High School

  “You have superhuman strength, as know, and soon you’ll have superhuman speed, if you learn to channel it correctly.” I finally say. “I’m here to recruit you to be part of a supernatural tribe called The Immortals, for a secret mission to destroy a pack of fire eaters, the offspring of my kind, the Children of the Sun. We need to destroy them because they cause death and havoc wherever they go, and worst of all, they don’t even do it quietly.”