Chronos Strain

Chapter 1 "Dark Awakening"

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock ringing, snapping me out of the timeless void of sleep. I got up, shrugging off my tiredness as if it were a layer of dust, and began to get ready for school. As I put on a pair of pants, I heard a dark voice in my head saying that everything would soon change. Well thanks world, good to have another voice telling me not to fail my chemistry test. I was mildly disturbed by the voice, which I had never heard before. I decided to ignore it, as it was probably the exhaustion talking. It was not all that smart of me to put off studying until the night before. I regretted it now, as I was tired and could not remember how to find the average atomic mass of an element.

I went downstairs and entered the kitchen, pouring myself a bowl of Nutri-O's and sat down to eat.

Light shone down through the white curtains, bathing me in its golden rays. My sister, Viola, sat down, holding a plate of toaster waffles.

"Morning." I looked at my little sister, taking in her pale skin and icy blue eyes. She looked a lot like me, and was only 3 years younger.

"Good morning Davy." She smiled at me, and took a bite of her breakfast.

"Chemistry test today." I sighed

"Gotta hate tests. I am not looking forward to biology next year."

"You and your honors classes. Nice to know that I'm not the genius of the family." She wanted to be a doctor so that she could help others, and that compassionate little genius was going to be amazingly successful in life.

"Or the jock..." Her tone was teasing, and I knew not to take offense. She was shy girl, and I was glad she was comfortable enough to talk to me like so. It was true that I wasn't the smartest or most athletic, but my mom always said that I was street-smart, as well as the fact that I had the loyalty and kindness that most people wouldn't even know existed.

"Words hurt." We both began to laugh, and then ate our food in a smiling silence. No joke, I genuinely smiled for the whole two minutes it took me to scarf down my breakfast. Viola got up as I placed my bowl in the dishwasher, her not being quite the fast eater that I was.

She walked over and placed the red, white, and blue paper plate in the trash, (leftover Fourth of July stuff) and grabbed her backpack from the countertops. She walked towards the door, in her walk that someone made her look as shy as she really was, and sat down on one of the entryways comfy chairs.

"Your hair. You can't mean to go to school like that, can you?" She looked at me, and I realized that I hadn't done my morning grooming yet. My mornings were all different, so I was glad my sister, who is very much the schedule everything kind of person, was there to keep me from showing up to school at 2;00 in the afternoon--with pajamas on, nevertheless. Some days I would pick up my best friend Brandon, sometimes I would pick up Viola's best friend, Evelynn, and I would always have to drop Viola off at her junior high, and then make it to my classes on time.

I went to the bathroom and began to prepare for school. I brushed my teeth and my hair, preparing myself for high school, where appearances are everything. My brown hair was medium length, guided sideways in the front, while curved around my head elsewhere. I had eyes that seemed green, but couldn't seem to choose between green and blue, and seemed to be a different color every day. I wore simple clothing, T-shirt and jeans level plain, and thought that that looked better on me than anything else. Girls seemed to find me as cute, and I without a doubt was better looking than most of the guys at my school, who were often overrun with acne.

I grabbed my backpack, texted Brandon that I arrive to pick him up shortly, and left for our morning commute. Mom had already left for work, so I made sure to lock the door behind us. The Crow family could use some time without tragedy, and a robbery would not help. We left, and Viola sat shotgun, as she did every other day when Brandon was coming, and every day otherwise.