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Chosen Angela Cornell Magnolia Vampire Series Book 1 October 2011 Chapter 1 We moved again over the summer, which meant moving in the most miserable heat and humidity you could imagine. We enjoyed living in Arkansas so the move to Elmwood in Northwest Arkansas was a good decision. The weather is a little cooler than the southern parts of the state and Elmwood, near Jasper and part of the Ozark Mountains, are beautiful. We visited the Ozarks several times before and I looked forward to starting over there. Our moving wasn’t only for the climate change unfortunately. I will be 18 soon and finally a senior in high school. In the past, my mother home schooled me when attending public schools became difficult for me. We moved every few years, which made it difficult to make friends. I think bullying and taunting me became a common practice at any school I attended. I never understood why I was chosen for bullying because the only difference in humans and me is DNA and that’s not a good enough reason. I possess “special abilities or powers” mere humans do not. Recently, the abilities have been magnifying. We all decided now would be a good time to move to a more secluded area. If I learn a little control, I might not be so conspicuous to the human population. I did well in hiding the abilities during childhood although the occasional accident did happened. One of the least favorite abilities is the visions, either in dreams or occasionally by touching someone. In the past few months, my dreams have become more intense and violent which causes me to react in strange ways. The current move is due to my reaction to a dream. I was being chased by disgusting, uncivilized vampires. Attempting to escape capture, I made a wrong turn and ended up at the dead end of a dark alley. I became trapped and eventually surrounded. As the vampires began their attack, I sat up, still groggy from sleep, and raised my hands to stop the attack. Electricity flowed out of my fingers like touching a plasma ball. Needless to say, the electricity was not part of the dream and I demolished the room. Glass flew everywhere and my furniture splintered and scattered. My parents ran in the room in a panic and stopped dead at the sight of the annihilation. Hence, the deciding factor for another move. They said they had been expecting something like this. However, their expectation wasn’t shared with me. Over the next few weeks, the dreams became worse. Everything had been removed except the bed. I had blown out the window so many times; we stopped replacing the glass. I tried my best to direct the electricity out the window but I wasn’t always able to control the direction. My room looked like one of those condemned buildings you find in dilapidated neighborhoods. I caused holes in the ceiling, so the insulation hung down, and the walls had very little sheetrock left, only pieces hanging on by a single nail. The dreams didn’t happen every night but they were coming more often. On occasion, pleasant dreams occurred but those were far and few between. I still can’t distinguish between the premonition dreams and regular dreams, so I tend to be leery of all of them. The last dream I had before our move involved a gorgeous male vampire, unlike the horrible ones in previous dreams. I was mesmerized by his beauty, kind soul, and gentle ambience. Over the years, I convinced myself romance was not in my deck of cards. However, after this dream, I’d hoped I was wrong. I wanted this one to come true. The moving day arrived and I found myself a little anxious. I was ready and prepared but also had some dread with the whole process. As soon as the movers left with our things, we began our trip. The drive to Elmwood took a good four hours. I dared not fall asleep in the car. My parents made sure I stayed awake so we wouldn’t be blown to smithereens. I knew the route well since I dreamed it more than once. I tried to make a game out of the visions simply out of sheer boredom but after awhile, guessing what came next became tedious since I never missed. I’d hoped for any little surprise along the way but that didn’t happen. We drove slowly through Elmwood. The town seemed familiar to me, not only from my visions but also because most small towns had the same layout; one main street with small stores on both sides of the street. We hadn’t been to Elmwood before but I still got a strong sense of belonging, one I didn’t get often. Finally, at the edge of town, we turned left on what would be the new road to home. The road was a steady, curvy climb uphill like going up a mountain. Duh, we lived on a mountain. We pulled into the driveway and sat for a few minutes, silent, looking at our surroundings. A newly planted adult Magnolia Tree stood tall in the front yard. I smiled because one of the few things my mother remembered about her childhood was a beautiful huge Magnolia tree in her back yard. She talks about the sweet fragrant blooms and says she can still smell them in her memory. Therefore, every place we lived had a Magnolia tree, either already growing or added, for moma. I jumped out of the car when I saw the swing hanging from the ceiling of the front porch. A swing was one of the things I asked for and ta-da, a surprise! As I moseyed through the house, I thought how nice having the furniture and boxes unloaded for us this time. I walked up the stairs and turned to walk up the small attic stairway. At the top of the stairway, was the attic. I chose the attic for sleeping and the other bedroom to keep my things safe. Looking around the attic, I began to smile. My parents had the room customized. Someone built a new set of glass double doors that opened up like in a barn loft. I pulled open the doors overlooking the most beautiful mountains and valley range. After asking about the doors, I found out the glass had been replaced with plexiglass so I wouldn’t harm myself during a dream. We spent our first day unpacking and setting up the house. The movers did a great job but we still had to unpack most of the boxes. The bedrooms were all upstairs so we were going to do a lot of climbing while unpacking. I finally asked moma if she would mind tracing (magically transporting) the boxes to all the rooms. After setting up most of my room, I took a shower and put on my favorite sleep T-shirt. I sat on the bed thinking about my dream vampire since his face swam around in my head all day. His eyes haunted me for some reason. I saw him the one time but I’ll never forget his face or those eyes. Thinking about him being a vampire, made me think about my family history. My great, great, grandmother, Natasha Victoria Salizar, lived her entire life as a Vampire. She married Anu Desmond Fleming, a full blood Elf. I reached up and rubbed my pointy ear thinking, “Hmm, these must be from Anu”. For some reason, none of their children was born as vampires. |