Shielded

Prologue

  Flames licked the lifeless bodies lying in the earth, their familiar faces half-buried in dirt, soon to be joined by the ash that danced towards them from the sky.
  Children who were never accepted now lay around her, their bodies burnt and scarred, their unblinking eyes staring at the blonde-haired girl standing in the middle of all this destruction.
Behind her, a building of previous grandeur stood crumpled and destroyed, fire overtaking it's many rooms and flowing out of the broken roof. Smoke billowed from every gap, through every crevice.
  What happened here?
  The girl's nose upturned at a metallic smell suddenly floating through the air towards her and she instinctively looked for the source. She thought it could be from the burning building, but when she looked down, she saw that her front was wet with the unmistakable crimson liquid.
  Despite the horror that was in front of her, the first thought that entered her mind was that this was someone else's blood, that she had killed all these people, her friends. But it wasn't someone else's blood. The smell was coming from a deep gash scored into her abdomen and reaching the top of her ribcage. There was no pain, but the sight of blood and pus oozing from her body was enough to make her sick.
  Steering her gaze away from the wound, she turned to face the burning building, or what was left of it. The front of the house had crumpled in on itself, trapping anyone in the first ten rooms upstairs as it took out the staircase. She heard screams of fright, of pain and of anguish all emanating from the once beautiful house.
  And in that moment, she could do nothing to help.
  Taking a deep breath that she hoped would fill her with confidence, she slowly made her way to the front of the building. It was buried in a forest, unknown to most and treasured by those who lived there. It was a safe haven, a place where everyone could be themselves, without fear of judgement or threat. Now, it was clear that it may not have been as safe as they had once hoped it to be.
  The girl was at the foot of the porch steps, taking in the cracked concrete and shattered glass. Peering in through the gaping hole that was once a set of large oak doors, she saw a flicker of movement.
  Three figures, moving slowly and surely through the wreckage. From her position, their features were not visible, silhouetted against the bright flames in between them and the girl, who had expected to see three middle-aged criminals or soldiers perhaps. After all, the girl thought, it would take a lot to cause this much destruction.
  But she was taken aback by what she saw.
  They still stood in the shadow of the smoke, but the girl could see that they were not who she thought them to be.
  They were teenagers, children around the same age as her.
  How could three youths like herself have caused this? And more importantly, why on earth would anyone destroy something so valuable to their own kind?
  Thousands of questions raced through her mind, but before any of them could be answered, a lilting voice pierced the silence behind the girl. She jumped, but soon found comfort in the voice, for it was one that she came to know so well.
  "Alice," The voice said, "I think it's time you woke up now."
  When the girl turned to face the direction of the voice, she felt the familiar lurch in her navel as she sat bolt upright in her bed, not at all surprised to be waking from yet another dream.
  To her left, Professor Linfoot sat in the sleek, silver desk chair, her hand clasped around a wet flannel in her lap, which was previously pressed up against the blonde-haired girl's forehead as she lay in bed.
  "Ciara notified me that you were dreaming again." She said calmly, and sure enough, Alice saw her friend Ciara placing a full glass of water on the table beside her. "Tell me everything you saw."
  Alice slowly moved her arm from beneath the covers and moved it over to the nightstand, where the glass of water now sat, waiting for her to pick it up. She drank the whole thing before she spoke, "There's not much to tell, it was exactly the same." She placed the empty glass on its coaster and gave Ciara a faint smile before she fell back against her pillows.
  "Are you sure nothing was different?" Linfoot asked, placing the flannel back in the bowl of water before returning her hands to her lap.
  "Yes," She sighed, "the building, the bodies, the people in the house-" Her eyes widened and she sat upright again, a chill washing through her body.
  "What is it?" Professor Linfoot asked, shifting her chair a little closer to the bed, a worried look strewn across her kind face.
  "There were three of them this time. There's usually only two, a boy and a girl, but tonight there were three."
  "Alice, is there any chance you saw their faces this time?" The Professor had her hand on her knee, supporting her upper body as she leant forward slightly.
  "No, it was too dark to see anything but their silhouettes." Alice replied, lost in thought, "Professor, does that mean anything?"
  Linfoot smiled reassuringly in reply, "I'm still not entirely sure that this will definitely happen, Alice, but we should still record it just incase. You are still relatively new at this, but we can't play it too safe." She sat back in the chair and reached for the bowl and flannel, "You should probably get some sleep, tomorrow is a big day."
  And with that, she stood up and walked confidently out of the door, closing it behind her and leaving the two girls to slip back under their covers and go to sleep, completely unsure whether or not it would be disturbed by another dream.