Book 1: Awakening (The VIth Element Series)

Chapter 1: Alex

As far as I could remember, birthdays had always been filled with love, happiness and joy. They were a time when the whole family would gather in either gigantic or tiny congregations to celebrate the anniversary of a loved one's birth. They were a time to rejoice in the notion that a person had grown one year older (if they wanted to be reminded that is). Finally, birthdays were a time of laughter, when presents would be shared, songs sung and past memories revisited. Therefore, on my sixteenth birthday, I woke up early and raced downstairs in the hope of being greeted with the traditional song of 'Happy Birthday.'

As I entered the kitchen, all that I was met with was darkened rooms and freezing cold floors.

No family!

I was taken aback at first but then, thinking about it, I decided that they had probably forgotten to set their usual alarm. I decided to wait. I waited...and waited...and waited until, an hour later, a dark thought dawned upon me. My family had completely forgotten that it was my birthday.

Holding back my tears, for part of me still thought such ideas were foolish, I got washed and dressed, doing my best to keepmy emotions together. As I made my way downstairs, to the smell of toast and eggs, a small spark of hope deep inside my heart was ignited. Surely, if my parents and older brother were awake now, that would mean that they would have remembered such an important date and, as soon as they saw me, congratulate me on living another year?

As I cautiously made my way into the kitchen, I was welcomed with the usual response.

"Morning Alex." My mother's voice sounded exhausted. "Good night?"

"Mmmm," I mumbled, frowning as I sat down to breakfast, watching my mother yawn and stretch. I threw my older brother Matthew, who sat opposite me and my father, who sat next to me, a hopeful glance but both, ignored me.

Matthew was too preoccupied in gazing into space and my father was too absorbed in reading his newspaper.

I will not cry, I told myself as I picked at my piece of toast, barely eating anything. It's only my sixteenth birthday. I will not cry.

"What do you have as lessons today?" My mother asked me, plonking her behind onto the seat facing me, before taking sips of her tea and looking over the rim of her cup with expectant eyes.

I will not cry.

"Science first thing," I replied, remarkablymanaging to keep my voice level. "Then, English and Music."

Suddenly, the sound of the school bus hooting made my mother and I jump. Leaping to my feet, before either Matthew, my father or my mother could say anything else, I grabbed my school bag and raced out the door. 

How could they have forgotten the importance of today's date? My brain screamed at me as, with shaking fingers, I climbed the stairs to the bus, before making my way to the back, out of sight. My birthday, like the norm, happens on the same date every year. Therefore, the confused part of my brain argued. How could they have all simply forgotten this fact and acted so "normal" when I entered the kitchen this morning?

They may have been abducted by aliens in the night? This was a voice from the incomprehensible area of my mind. Consequently, their behaviour would make complete sense then. Alternatively, they could've simply gone to bed last night fine and then awoken the next morning with amnesia? Sometimes, these things happen unexpectedly.

"God spare me." I whispered to myself, losing the will to live as more voices of the same illogical nature swamped me with their numerous, absurd theories.