Might as well put this up here...

Prologue


Naturally, one of the few times I couldn't use my heat powers, it happened to be a really cold day. Because I just have that kind of luck.

"Are you almost done?" I asked my companion, my breath rising as a wispy cloud. The black Belgian shepherd turned to look at me, narrowing her light blue eyes.

Maybe I would be if you didn't pester me every five seconds, she chided.

"Excuse me if I'm not used to being fricking freezing." I crossed my arms, burying my bare hands in the fabric of my black sweatshirt in an attempt to keep them warm. "Because it's fricking freezing, you know."

I'm sure it is. Now kindly shut up so I can actually think straight.

I leaned against the brick wall, sighing and working to quiet my mind. I'll admit that tracking down one signature out of billions across a number of universes was sort of difficult, but one this strong? Shouldn't have been that hard... Oh well. I had no choice but to wait.

Got it, my partner announced after a few minutes. Thank the gods. I hated waiting. It's a little far, so we'll have to stop in between. The spot I've picked has a waypoint to take us on from there, but there's no waypoint going up to it.

"Alright," I said, already feeling the exhaustion I knew was coming. No waypoint...no easy access. "Lead the way."
I closed my eyes, focusing my energy.

Three... Two... One.

A burst of light, an earsplitting crack!, and we were off.

Chapter One: Talking Animals


Sarah

My day had been going pretty well until the side of my house exploded.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I’d gotten up around noon to the alarm I’d set to keep myself from sleeping forever. Yawning and stretching, I crossed over to the calendar to check off another day before stopping a moment just to stare at the page. Despite the finals I’d taken and the celebrating I’d done with my friends that another school year was through, part of me still hadn’t fully realized that summer was here and, even though tomorrow was Monday, I didn’t have a ton of homework to finish. Of course, I knew I’d have a crisis sometime in the evening when I realized I didn’t do it yet.

Don’t worry, my companion thought, you’ll get used to it. The gray tabby was sprawled out on the bed, idly batting at the air.

Yeah, I guess so, I thought back.

Oh, right... It’s a funny story, really… The thing is, I’m insane.

I see animals that don’t actually exist. They look real and solid enough, but they have no physical bodies. Everyone has one following them around. They don’t eat or breathe, but they seem to sleep when their respective people sleep. They aren't always your typical Earth animals, either—I’ve seen hybrids and mythical beasts and extinct creatures. …Oh God, don’t I sound like the bloody frickin’ expert. It’s horrible. I hate it. They’ve haunted me for as long as I can remember. That was all well and good when I was a kid; everyone thought I was just pretending. But once I grew out of the pretending age and people started to suspect something really was wrong with me (not that they weren’t correct), I had to keep it all to myself. Didn’t take them long to forget. I wish I could do the same. It’s maddening. …Ha. Mad.

As for the cat, he’s been talking all these years. Commenting on things, giving advice. I used to flat-out detest it since it was a reminder of my…condition, but I’ve grown used to it over time. I can’t say I care anymore.

Now that I was awake enough to function, I headed down to the kitchen. I glanced at a few boxes of cereal, but I was sort of tired of the stuff. And our toaster was broken, so that wasn’t an option. There were those muffins… No, we were out. I’d decided that was what I wanted, though, so I went back upstairs to throw some clothes on. I grabbed my wallet from my bureau—I’d never find it if I didn’t always leave it in the same place—headed downstairs for the second time, and out the door. Mom worked until about six, so the small driveway was empty. I took a left in the direction of the bakery, cat at my heels. We had a neat little town. Classic, quaint suburbs, with nice scenery and an almost nonexistent crime rate. I was fond of this particular road, especially on a day like today. Warm, afternoon sunlight trickled through the leaves of the maples, throwing splashes across the pale concrete of the sidewalk and bright petals of the flowers. Birds twittered from the branches, and squirrels and chipmunks darted about across the ground. Yesterday’s rain made today smell like nature. I had to say, I was pretty glad we were out of muffins.

I entered the bakery, bought one of my favorite flavors, and turned back for home. Mood escalated, I went to eat in the sun room. It was a pretty open space; a few chairs sat around a small table in one of the corners, but it was otherwise unobstructed. Looking forward to a good summer, I relaxed into a seat.

This was the normal, enjoyable part of the day. This right here. I’d just been finishing up when things started to go downhill.

As I rose to throw out the bag and wrapper, I felt a faint tingling in the air, almost electric. My cat was alert right away, ears pricked. Our eyes met for split second, and then—

CRACK!

Dazzling lights filled the room, and a shout of pain rang out. Blinking, I lowered my hand from my face. There in the middle of the floor, soaking wet, was a boy. He looked somewhere around my age, though I couldn’t tell for sure. Not that I was focusing on his appearance so much as the whole “OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!” thing. You know, that one.

He started struggling to his hands and knees while I just stood, gawking like an idiot, my mouth flapping open and shut.


-WIP-