Shadow Land: Chapter One

Shadow Land
There are many other worlds surrounding us that we will never find, nor will we seek. Lands that are right before our eyes, but most refuse to see. There are a few of us, though, who search for something more than our own world can offer. Something filled with excitement and adventure. Places that can be the stuff of nightmares or pure heaven.

Hazel Thornton was not your average fifteen year old. She was stunningly beautiful, with grey eyes and black hair that fell in a curtain around her shoulders. However, despite her beauty, she was outcast, considered a freak by her class mates. She stood out, though, and it had never seemed an option to shrink into the shadows. She spent a lonely childhood living in an orphanage with her nose in fantasy novels, while the other children mocked her from afar. But no one dared get very close to her. There had been rumours of incidents. She could make bad things happen to people she didn't like. The others all remembered how Hazel had changed people inside, turning their hearts evil. No one wanted to end up like that.

It was a dark cloudy day, and rain was threatening to fall as the ripples of thunder cursed the sky. As the rain began to lash out at everybody, most ran inside for cover, but Hazel sat under a tree, letting the rain soak her. She closed her eyes and tried to imagine what it would be like if she lived in another world. She sometimes wished she could fit in. But nobody was like her. Nobody at all. She often felt so lonely, as she let the evil inside her drag her into a pit of self-pity and loathing.

She sighed as a shiver sent chills down her spine. And that’s when she saw it. The golden bolt of lightning, striking the floor just ahead of her. The ground split with a shudder, and she could hear the thunder clapping, as though an audience applauding her. She stood up, trying to get away, but lost her balance and tumbled to the ground. The lightning whipped the floor again, and at the back of Hazel's mind, she remembered that lightning shouldn't strike twice in one place. The third bolt struck, but this time, straight through Hazel’s body. She screamed in agony, but the bolt stayed attached to her, as though claiming her body for its own. She writhed and wriggled, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t escape. And then, like a golden rope, the bolt coiled itself around her body and returned to the sky. That was the last time Hazel Thornton was ever seen by her class mates.