Open Minds: The Fog

Chapters One and Two:Lexi-In Which We Begin

Chapter One-Lexi(First released trial)

*Author's Note: Hi, I'm Pac and I write this story. I'd like you to recognize that I accidentally made the first chapter way too long. I'm sorry. I promise the others are about half this size. Please bear with me <3

Lexi liked her phone as an alarm clock. It woke her at eight every morning with birdsong, just lively enough to keep her up. When she hit the button and did her morning business, it shut up. When she hit the button and continued to sleep for a while, it shut up. It did not yell or hit back.

She did not, however, like Diana Mocoras as an alarm clock. Diana, as opposed to lively birdsong, pounded on Lexi's door, yelled, opened it, and rolled her out of bed. Oh, and yelled some more.

"Get up, Bitchlet, there's a job for you," Diana snapped. "Some mission from... Pule." She whispered the old man's name and sneered at Lexi.

Lexi patted her bedside table, looking for her contacts case.
"No time. It's urgent." Diana delicately picked up a pair of rectangular glasses and placed them on Lexi's unwashed, un made-up, freckled face. "Lets go," she snapped.
As the two walked down the many flights of stairs to get to the Centre Room, Diana explained the mission. Kind of.
"Someone submitted a report of a big Tipped after some Spig over in Oregon. Pule and your special brother and his special girlfriend want the world's most mediocre child on the case, I guess." Diana sneered and flipped her perfect black hair. Lexi tugged her own, which was curly, brown, and short, self consciously.

Diana and Lexi trotted into the Centre Room. It was big, an entire floor of a Seattle Skyscraper, full of cubicles and rows leading to an open space in the middle. There, an old man by the name of Dr. Pule, pale and bald stood supported by a silver cane. Beside him were two taller, younger individuals.
One was Lexi's half-brother, Cambridge. He was thin and blond, with rectangular lenses and a know-it-all air about him. He failed to notice Lexi and her companion, being deep in conversation with Dr. Pule. The other was the leader of Lexi's regiment and Cambridge's girlfriend of long standing, Allison Haunch. She was of average height, black, and generous in her feminine traits. Her enormous afro was loose today, out of its usual cornrows or headband.

"Lexi!" She smiled. "You're finally here! I assume Diana told you everything?"
Diana shuffled awkwardly. "We were busy. With stairs. No time."

Allison frowned and Cambridge looked up from his conversation. "What?" They said in unison.
"All that time and...?"
"You took the stairs and...?"
Allison massaged her temples. "Diana, just go. We can forget this, just go."
Diana blanched. "But I thought I might-"

Allison glared at her, face suddenly forbidding, like a librarian who's caught you yelling. "Diana..." She warned. Diana left without dwadling.

Lexi watched Diana leave and turned back towards Allison and her still conversing companions. "What's the mission?" She asked, eager to be out working again for the first time in months. Lexi had come to SAEPTA's headquarters in Seattle at only six, and been entered into the mission pool at ten. Now nearly fourteen, Lexi still didn't have a team to work with like almost everyone else. She hoped that doing missions as well as possible might win her that privilege. Lexi was a Finder, her ability was to see and feel energy from spirits and projections. This meant she would be an essential part of any basic team, if only she had one.

"In a town outside Portland, some powerful Projection is being tailed by a Tipped. All we need is for the Projection to be kept safe and brought to the Portland building. Remember: This mission does not need any violence towards the spirit, but it looks powerful, so..." Allison trailed off, waiting for Lexi to catch her drift.