Gifted With Curses

Chapter 1

Coral

Pain flared in my stomach as an unseen force hit it, hard. I felt myself fly through the air before my spine hit the wall, pain searing down each vertebra in my back from the impact. Falling to the ground, a groan escaped my mouth. I was vaguely aware of the blood I could taste on my tongue - the acrid smell of it blocking my nose as the red liquid trickled down the side of my face.

Xenus stood over me, her eyes challenging and filled with rage. "What did you say?" Her voice was icy, sending cold shivers down my spine.

I couldn't back down, that would only make me seem weak, and that's something I would never let her see in me. Even when I was like this.

"I said, why do we always have to be the villains? Not everyone is as crazy as you and wants world domination!" I answered through gritted teeth, knowing what was going to happen now that the words had escaped my mouth.

The wind was knocked out of me as I was kicked against the wall again, a large crack appearing in the plaster. This time though, the pain lasted longer than before, making me suck in my stomach and hope I hadn't broken a few ribs. It was looking pretty likely right now, though.

Xenus, the worst mother you could ever imagine, glared daggers at me. "What was that?"

"Nothing," I whispered weakly.

My voice was low and croaky and it cracked as I managed to speak through the pain. Using the wall as support, I stood up slowly. I was faintly aware of plaster dust falling off me as it showered onto the floor, creating a layer of white powder on the ground around my shoes.

"Good," Xenus smiled wickedly, before turning and exiting the room swiftly. Probably going back to her study.

I hesitantly pressed my hand to my back as the pain slowly disintegrated, as if it had never been there. I sighed with relief and straightened up, walking through the dark corridors of my house to the front door. The apartment we lived in was small, and Xenus never left the lights on in fear that we'd be found. It was small with a kitchen joined to the tiniest living room you've ever seen. The only furniture we managed to put in that room was a small couch where I was forced to sleep. I would call it a big closet if anything though. My mother had one small room where I was forbidden to go (probably because it had all of those hideous plans in it) who cared though, not like I wanted to go through her mouldy papers all day long. I had done that once when I was young and had gotten one of the biggest beatings of my life that day, so as you can imagine I haven't done it since. Reaching the front door with less than ten steps, I slung my school bag over my shoulder and walked out the door, off to another day of school. Back to my fake life where my mother wasn't a witch, where no one knew who I truly was. Just another normal day. But nothing at all is normal about my life.

I'm a 13-year-old boy who, 10 years ago, developed powers and learnt the hidden truth of the world. How everything everyone thinks is wrong. My mum and I have to run around stopping us from being caught by flying away as quickly as we can from somewhere. At least, that's what we used to do. Now, all of the countries are joined by the bridges and hyper-speed trains that the future's technology provides. But only a few even know about the trains. It's some top secret information that the governments have tried to cover up, just like they try to do for witches - a species of human who develops three powers known as curses and are tracked down and hunted by witch-hunters. Witch-hunters are a species similar to witches that develop two powers known as gifts and protect the world from the witches. But to everyone in humanity, witches and witch-hunters don't exist, and they never have. The only country not joined by the train network is Tasmania, a small island off Australia that had become the home of the witch-hunters. It has its own personal train that they guard to ensure that it's a place where they could see if any witches were coming to attack them, an easy place to defend. I don't blame their precautions. Witches are known to be bloodthirsty and dangerous and if they hate anyone the most - it's witch-hunters. Most of the species are set on world domination so they can have power over everything, and they are free to ruin the perfect world. But I don't see the point in it all. What would I get out of it? Have hundreds of people hating and trying to fight me when I had to run the entire world? I could pass. For me, it just sounded like too much paperwork.