Maela felt so alone, as she sat in her room. The light of the day had completely gone, and now the darkness closed in on her, as it almost felt like tangible fingers grasping at her. A heavy sigh left her lips as she lifted her head and gazed around the room, her soft blue eyes alighting upon each thing individually as she took them in. It was a sparse room, but she liked it the way it was with her dresser that housed her clothing and with a small jewellry box on top of it, as well as her brush and a few other items. Her shelf that held her books, and a few trinkets that she had bought at market when she'd had the money or birthday presents. So overall it wasn't an unpleasant room, but at the moment it was a prison, her prison...Although with the suddenness of the situation she knew exactly why it was happening. With another sigh she would flop over onto her bed, crossing her hands beneath her blue and blonde hair as she stared up at the ceiling and thought over the reasons for it.
She had been born special, although no one, not even she herself had known until she'd hit her 18th birthday. On the morning of her 18th birthday, exactly at dawn which had been the time she'd been born she had been awoken with a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. Something impossible to describe either than it felt as if everything was brand new, that she was seeing the world through drastically different eyes. She became aware of things that she hadn't been before. Maela's powers had fully blossomed. Ever since she had been a child she had always been a little bit different, not in largely different ways, but when she awoke that morning they became obvious to her. She had always been good at sports as she was naturally physically fit, as well she had always been insightful and intuitional. Situations that she was in, she had seemed to know exactly what was going to happen, or what the end to it would be. At the time it had all become obvious about her life, she realized that they were not just coincidences. Maela was different from everyone else that she knew. She could predict short time futures, read peoples thoughts and hearts, and many other things that were overlooked as coincidences. And as she turned 18 these 'coincidences' would increase. Including the prophetic dreams that she'd had now and then.
And it was due to one of these dreams that she was placed in this situation. Maela had, had one of her prophetic dreams shortly after she realized herself, and it was of one of the girls that she was on good terms with. In the dream, the girl that it was about would approach Maela and asked her to go and hang out with her by the river. And of course, since she was friends with her, she would agree to do so, and travelling on the path towards the river they would get to one of the main paths that interesected and would have to stop when they heard the sound of horses coming their way, waiting for them to pass by. However tragedy would strike when they waited, for across from them would be a small child playing with a ball and just as the carriage got close enough the child would accidentally lose their ball, running across the path to get it. Luckily the driver would see the child running into the path, and would veer to miss them, but in doing so would lose control of his horses and they would head straight for Maela and her friend. Maela herself would be missed, but her friend wouldn't be able to react fast enough and would be run down by the horses, killed on the spot. With a start, Maela woke from the dream, tears in her eyes as she realized that this was definitely one of those dreams and she knew she had to prevent the girl from getting killed. Thinking on the problem for a moment she would decide that the thing to do would be just to say no to going to the river with her friend. And with a smile she'd go back to sleep, feeling safe about it.
It wasn't the end to it however, proving to be a lot more of a difficult situation. As soon as she was asleep again, the dream would repeat, except it would show her what would happen if she said no to the girl about going out to the river. Even though Maela had said no, the girl would still go to the river, and although she would be safe from the carriage, when she got to the river she would play around and would slip into it, and would drown due to the powerful current. Maela had once again woken with a start, and would try to figure out another solution to keep her friend from dying, but no matter what she thought of she would have the same dream and her friend would die. Until she had come to her wits end in trying to figure out what to do to prevent the girl's death, and on a limb she would decide that maybe, she could push the girl in front of the carriage at the same time the child lost their ball, timed so that she'd be in the path of the carriage before it swerved. After deciding that she would fall back to sleep and would have no dreams after that, sleeping straight through the short time she had til she had to get up.
As she had dreamed, Maela would be asked by her friend to go to the river, and she accepted. While they walked towards the river, Maela was silent as she thought about this, realizing the girl would probably hate her after she did what she had to do to save her life. It was always what happened when Maela had to do that, coming off weird or strange so many times just to stop people from dying. Well, after the short time it took to get to the intersection she had watched for the carriage and it would almost seem as if everything had slowed down as the child's ball bounced from their hands and they started to run after it, and the horses got to the right point, not too soon and not too late and she would step behind her friend and shoved her hard out into the road. As she had foreseen it, the horses would swerve to miss the child and would pass right through the spot the girl had been standing, barely missing Maela, that she could see the detail of the wooden carriage, and the frightened expression on the drivers face. It didn't take long before nearby people in the village came running over to the scene, some having seen what had happened, and after she'd dusted herself off, Maela's friend had stormed back over to Maela, anger evident in her face.
"What did you think you were doing, pushing me out in front of a carriage like that?! You could have gotten me killed!" The girl would cry out in anger, shaking. Maela would give her a sad look and turned her gaze to the ground, as she tried to find a way to say what she needed to without coming off as crazy.
"Well...I was trying to save you. I know it sounds crazy, but I had a dream that the carriage was going to hit you, and the only way to save you was to push you out in it's path, so when it swerved to miss that kid it wouldn't hit you. You saw how close it came to me, passing through where you had been..." Maela had whispered the words, still loud enough for the girl to hear, but she knew even as she said them that she wouldn't be believed.
"You honestly think that doing something like that, just because you had a dream is ok? You ARE crazy!" She would practically yell in anger before turning on her heel and storming away. After the girl had stormed away, Maela had turned around and even amongst the whisper that she knew were directed at her she'd slowly make her way home, feeling utterly terrible. She had wanted to help her, and hadn't wanted her to die, but now...everyone thought even more that she was crazy. It probably didn't help any that it was thought that insanity ran in her family line due to what had happened with her uncle only shortly after she was born.
It had seemed terribly quiet, and she had a strange feeling as she got home, but she had brushed it off as she'd made her way to her room depressed. She'd sighed heavily as she stepped through the doorway of her room and stopped in surprise. Any item that could be considered dangerous to herself or anyone else had been removed, and just as she realized that, her bedroom door would slam shut and she'd hear it being locked. Panicking slightly she ran to the door and pounded against it.
"What's going on?!" She cried out as she tried to get out, tears forming in her eyes, wondering what was happening and why. She could hear sobbing out in the hallway behind the door and knew it was her aunt that was crying.
"I'm sorry sweetie, but we can't let you be a danger to yourself or anyone else. We're going to have to keep you locked in there until we can figure out how to beat this," Her Uncle's voice would come from the other side, nearly breaking as he spoke to her. Hearing those words she would slide to the floor, placing her back against the door as she broke down and cried. Someone had managed to get to her house first and told her Aunt and Uncle what had happened, of course making her sound nuts. After they had left her to herself, and after she had cried for awhile, she had wiped away her tears and moved to her bed where she lay down and stared at the ceiling, measuring her options now.
Later on, she heard the lock to her door become unlocked and she'd sit up to look over and see what was happening. Cautiously her door swung open before her Uncle came in, holding a plate of food for Maela. A smile spread on her face as she saw him.
"Uncle, you-" She would begin to speak, but then she saw the look of fear in his eyes, and knew that it was useless to say anything to him. Her head would drop and she'd just stare at the floor, waiting as he entered far enough to leave her the food and then hurriedly made his way out. Maela didn't know what to do or think, her own family, the people who had brought her up were now terrified of her. She would have cried but she had already cried so much, and just felt empty, but knowing she needed food she went to the plate and ate what she'd been brought, moving her utensils slowly and methodically, not eating with any real interest. Once she finished she had lain back down onto her bed, and went back to staring at the ceiling as she thought about her options. Which brought her up to her current situation, as she wondered what they planned on doing with her, if they were just going to keep her in her bedroom.
Sighing lightly she came to a decision, one that was very hard on her to make. Maela decided to leave and to run away, she knew she wasn't insane and if her own family wasn't going to give her a chance she didn't think that she could ever look them in the eyes again. With that out of the way she rolled off of her bed, onto her feet and knowing how late it was out that her Aunt and Uncle would most likely already be asleep so she could get away with sneaking out. Walking up to her door she would place her hand onto the doorknob and extended her awareness into the object, one of the things she'd learned she could do, along with using telekinesis to move the mechanism so it would come unlocked. Once she was done that she would quietly open her door and silently made her way down the hall to the kitchen. She checked that they weren't inside first before she slipped into the darkened room and went over to the pantry, with a bag that she'd brought from her room. As quietly as she could she would inch the door open, stopping at any squeak or noise it made, and listened for any reaction in the rest of the house, before she finally got it all the way open. Sorting through the food she grabbed some things that she figured her Aunt and Uncle wouldn't miss too terribly and placed them in her bag, before she went over to her cupboard that she knew contained their jar of emergency money. A soft, and regretful smile lit her lips as she took it down and took some of it, also stuffing it into her bag, before she found a piece or paper and writing utensil to leave them a note. A single tear would well up in her eye, sliding down her cheek and onto the paper as she scribbled her message, hurting from having to leave, and hurt her only family left. Her note would read:
Dear Aunt and Uncle,
Thank you for caring for me for all of these years, I truly appreciate it, but due to the fact that I'm different then everyone else it has become too much of a problem. And after today I'm convinced that even you both will never believe that I am not insane. It may be hard to believe but I've been having prophetic dreams and the only way to save that girls life today was to push her into the path of where the cart would have been had it not swerved to miss that child. I am only sorry that no one will ever believe that and I'll never be able to see you again. I love you both, and goodbye.
Maela
When she was done writing her note she would place it out in clear view on the table and shouldered her bag, pushing her blue bangs out of her face before she walked out the door of her house. Reaching the end of the pathway that led to the small building she would turn to look back at it, another tear dripping down her cheek and chin, hitting the ground before she turned away and continued walking. After Maela had turned away, a glimmer of blue would surround the area in a barrier of sorts, only appearing for a quick second, to signify the protection of love that was placed around her family's home. Not even Maela herself knew she could do this at the time, and it showed just how much she truly cared for them.
As she made her way towards the forest she would recall the night she had overheard her Aunt and Uncle speaking about her in the kitchen, when one night she couldn't sleep due to the headaches she would sometimes get. Strangely enough she hadn't gotten them as much since she came into her abilities and used them more, but it was fairly common before she'd had her birthday. Maela had gotten up to get some tea to soothe her ache, but when she'd neared she'd heard the voices of her guardians, causing her to stop in her tracks and listen in to see what they were talking about so late at night. They'd been sitting at the table over tea themselves, her Aunt having her hands wrapped about the cup for the comforting warmth while her Uncle had his head dipping down over it in the manner he did when bothered.
"I'm so worried about her, the headaches have been getting worse for her, occuring almost every day now," Her Aunt had spoken softly while looking at her husband, concern in her eyes.
"I know, I know. But what can we do? We don't know yet if she'll even be inflicted like her father's brother had been. It could just be stress, all teenagers go through it," Her Uncle's reply had been just as soft, as he shrugged his shoulders lightly, his eyes firmly on the liquid beneath him.
"I don't want her to go insane, like her Uncle was. Saying that he knew the future and all that other weird stuff...I miss my sister so much sometimes. I wish she and Maela's father hadn't died, they would know how to deal with this better than we can," She had sighed and looked downwards in defeat.
"Honey, I'm sure we've done a good job raising her as the best that anyone can, and I'm sure that they wouldn't have known what to do anymore than us. But we do have to decide what we're going to do if she does end up showing signs of insanity, like trying to kill someone like her Uncle did and then claimed he was trying to save their life," He'd raised his head as he had grabbed his wife's hand and squeezed it in comfort. In response she'd nod and sigh as she looked back to him.
"It's too bad that no one could ever help him, getting mauled to death by wolves so badly that his body was unrecognizable," Maela's Aunt would state softly, voicing some things that Maela had never known before since it was so rarely talked about.
"Yes, and even worse was how Maela's parents got themselves killed by trying to prove that it wasn't really him and that he was still alive out there. I understand grieving for one's brother...but...it's still a shame. So, with Maela, if she does anything of the like...should we keep her confined so she can't hurt herself or anyone else?" He finished filling in the rest of what Maela hadn't known, stunning her as she realized that she'd been lied to for so long about it. Strangely though she hadn't been mad, just disappointed about being lied to, even though she understood. After that she had returned to her room, forgetting entirely about her headache, but she'd never say anything about what she had learned, just keeping it to herself.
Due to her hearing that conversation it gave her a reason to believe that her Uncle, her father's brother was still alive. Everyone had thought he had gone crazy and tried to kill someone, just like what had happened to her and so it gave her a strange sense of kinship to him, even though she hadn't met him since she was pretty much a newborn. It wasn't much to go on, but she decided she would try to find this Uncle of hers, who more than likely understood what she was going through and would be able to help her deal with it and learn to control it. It didn't exactly make her happy again, but it gave her a purpose as she continued into the forest that they'd found her Uncle's body in, disappearing into the darkness of it's branches.
She walked for what seemed to be forever as the night wore on and finally she reached a point that she couldn't continue walking anymore, as she fought to keep her eyes open, and her legs felt like unmovable lead. Looking around she found the comfiest looking tree she could and lay down against it's trunk, hugging her bag close to her as she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
