More Human Than Human

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Chapter 1:

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The world is a strange place. Though it's forever constant, our knowledge of it is always changing. We are so certain about some things… we trust in them.

We trust that Earth contains the only living beings in the known universe.

We trust that our natural resources will never run out.

We trust that all humans are human and never anything more.

That is a lot of trust.

But there are few, a very few people who challenge these things that we take for granted, that think outside of the box to see many things the world, if ever shown, would not accept nor understand. These people are not afraid of the truth behind the 'trust'. They're the people that have found traces of alien life. They're the people who are watching the air get polluted and the pure water run out, but know they are beyond being able to stop it.

They're the people who have sought out those more human than human. This is about one of those people.

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Her name was Olivia Burroughs, 'Liv' for short. She's grown up in England, though she was the first of her descendants to do so. Most of her family lived in a small town in Massachusetts, called Ipswich. Her accent was considered to be quite posh, even for England, so she had always grown up with a lot of attention from friends and even boys.

But her first love was investigative journalism. She was loud, outspoken and quite the go-getter when it comes to an unknown or curious matter, and she read mystery novels religiously. Her father (now her mother's ex) also happened to be a detective, and she admired her father very much. When she was small, they would often go over case files together when she would come and visit Ipswich.

She was always told she looked rather like her father, at which she didn't take offense, since she loved her father dearly. And it was spoken in truth: she did have the sharp features like he did, and his jet-black hair and popping green eyes. The only thing she seemed to have inherited from her mother was 'the full lips and big hips' as her father would tease.

She was a born philosopher and a fantastic arguer, which is why she moved to Ipswich to move on to Harvard to pursue law school. Her mother was a lawyer back in England, so she figured once she had her degree good ol' mom would give her a fantastic 'in' for a high-paying job.

Liv fit into the Spenser Academy great, since her family came from vast wealth and the administration treated her great—even if she got a more generous grade than she deserved. But who was she to complain?

Also, she made friends fast. Her roommate Charlotte was a handful, since Liv and her disagreed about almost everything, but 'Charlie' introduced her to more down-to-earth and easygoing people, whom she made more compatible friends with. She even found herself a boy that had captured her interest.

But here is where things go downhill.

One day, her new boyfriend Paul invited her to a popular town diner and pub called Nicky's. It was a nice place, with many things to keep your fun level going. The night went wonderfully, especially when some blonde girl cranked up the jukebox to a good tune that got everyone dancing, including Liv.

Now, Liv was never much of a drinker, but Paul, probably hoping he would get in her pants later, filled her up on one too many. During the dance, she began to feel sick, so Paul graciously led her out back and around the corner, into a dark alley so she could puke freely in the dumpster and not have wait for the line at the bathrooms.

Paul reluctantly left her, promising to go round up our friends and bring the car around, and made her vow not to move from that spot. She agreed, glad to be left alone with her infirmities and feeling embarrassed that she had let myself go too far with the beers.

That's when she heard it. There was a slam at the back door, so she thought that Paul had come back already and went around to see him.

Once she realized that it wasn't Paul, she quickly recoiled back into the alleyway and out of the sight of the strange boys exiting the diner. It wasn't like they would have noticed her anyway, because they were already quite wound up with a disagreement with each other.

"What were you thinking?" one said, obviously angry. He was the tallest, and most stylish too, wearing a thick corduroy navy jacket, his hair perfectly disheveled.

"We were just playin' 'em," a shorter boy with blonde hair poking out from under his cap replied coolly. He was the closest one to her, though his back was facing her. He was obviously the troublemaker of the group, with punk fingerless gloves and a black beanie, and had no doubt caused the ruckus.

"Yeah, com'on, Caleb," his brunette, spiky-haired friend defended him. "They were suckers for it!"

The blonde got in his accuser's face, very closely and with rage in his eyes.

"Why don't you quit being such a pussy?" he growled through his teeth. He tried to leave but his tall friend grabbed at his shirt.

"I'm not finished with you yet," the one named Caleb said.

The blonde did not like this, and grabbed at the boy's wrist and yanking himself from his hold.

Suddenly, something odd happened. The first boy began to crumble under the blonde's hold, as if in pain. She saw something else odd too. The blonde's eyes that she was so certain were blue just a second ago, had now fallen to a dark black. Liv stifled a gasp at the sight.

"Reid," Caleb pleaded. "Stop."

Suddenly Caleb yanked his arm from Reid's hold and sent him sailing into the wall behind him. Liv gasped and instinctively ducked behind a crate to keep him from seeing her. Her mind became a fizzle, not know what to make of what she was witnessing.

"What will it take for you to get it?" Caleb scolded his fallen friend, who was struggling to get back to his feet. She found that amazing that he would even try, after a crash like that…

"IT'S ADDICTIVE, YOU MORON!" Caleb went on. "You've seen what it can do if you abuse it—you want that, that's your business—but if you Use in the open like you did tonight you risk exposing us all… and that I won't let happen."

He said the word 'Use' like it had some hidden meaning, a code word for something she wasn't aware of.

The blond was on his feet by now, his eyes still as black as ever, standing with his feet apart and his hands clenching the air at his sides. He was gathering the strength for something.

"My power is greater than yours," Caleb warned.

"Not until you Ascend!" Reid argued.

'Ascend'—another foreign code word that held some significance she wasn't aware of.

"All right, go for it, tough guy," the first boy challenged as if he was doing the blond a favor.

Reid tried to attack his friend with a levitating metal barrel, but he was immediately deflected and sent sailing back again with some invisible force, right into some crates full of empty recyclable beer bottles.

The blonde was determined, she had to give him that, because he was struggling to get right back up again, only getting more angry with each blow against him— and his pride. Caleb immediately prepared to send him flying again.

"Stop it, this is crazy!" a taller boy with longer hair and a muscle shirt held back Caleb, trying to plead rationality into him, but he wouldn't have it.

"It's for his own good," Caleb passed it off, and spoke to the blonde again, spitting out his words with repugnance. "Keep Using like you did tonight— like you did last night!"

He said it like a dare. He said it like a man who was telling someone to go get drunk then drive home—it was an ill wish of some sort.

"When you Ascend you'll be as good as dead!" Caleb shouted.

"So I fixed her car—big deal!"

"Don't play me, Reid… I'm talking about later and you know it."

"The hell, I do!" he argued. He got closer and lowered his voice, though his fury was still evident. "I didn't Use 'later'."

Liv then saw a light on the wall near to her, then heard Paul's car pull up to the front of the bar. She tiptoed backward slowly and silently, having decided she had most certainly heard enough. She got into Paul's car, and told him to drive her back to the dorms a little more hurriedly than she had meant to. She didn't mean to rush him, but she was frightened out of her mind and wanted to put some distance between her and those freaky boys as soon as humanly possible.

Paul seemed confused but obeyed without question. They never said a word to each other the whole way back.

Thanks to the liquor, Liv fell asleep quite quickly. She was glad for it— because she didn't think she would've gotten a wink of sleep otherwise.

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It's her own fault really; the natural born investigator in her always urged her to never stop until she discovered the truth. Little did she know that door was better left unopened.

She tried to forget it, she really did. She tried to pass it off as the beer making her hallucinate that night in that alleyway, but she wouldn't believe it. She just couldn't let it go.

As soon as she heard that those boys went to the same school that she did, and even attended some of her classes, she took it as a sign and went on the case.

She asked around and found that those four boys were four of the most popular students in school. It was easy to find out who they were, since seemingly everybody knew about them:

Their ancestors were the founders of the town and of the school, thus they were known as the 'Sons of Ipswich'. They went everywhere together. They were state swimming champions. They got good grades, and hot girls. Almost everyone she asked was convinced that they were the perfect set of populars, save for troublemaking personality quirks.

The rest she found out through research and her own assumptions. The Chronicles of Paganism was one she found to be especially useful:

They were mysterious. They had been seen in sticky situations, but nothing seemed to show on their permanent record. Their ancestors were equally mysterious, seemingly invincible in former battles where they should have been doomed, rich when they should have been poor, and otherwise completely suspicious.

She should have known this wasn't a thing to be snooping around in, but she just couldn't stop. She always had to know more, to find the proof. She thought about it day and night. Even Paul, who grew bored of her when she had stopped hanging out with him because of her intense research sessions, didn't bother her in the least when they broke up, because her head was so filled up with these wondrous things.

The blonde, she soon found, was especially fruitful to spy on, since he used his Power more than the others. Though sadly, he never used it long enough for her to get a snapshot of him with her cell. He was too good at hiding it.

She should have known her luck would run out, but she still could not stop.

She followed them out one day in her small car, until they stopped at a large, abandoned barn. After they had gone inside, she parked several hundred feet away and walked down through the fields to the barn as well. The door was left open, so she proceeded to enter slowly and cautiously, poking her head inside the door for any sign of them. It was eerily quiet inside, and the boys were nowhere to be found.

She opened the creaky, complaining door a little wider to allow the rest of her body inside. Still, there was no sight of them, though her heart pounded right through her ribcage, scared out of her wits that they might jump out from behind a hay bale and yell: "Gotcha!"

Thankfully, she came completely inside, and still no surprises.

She began to scan around, wondering where they had gone, when she froze at the sound of voices. They seemed to be coming from below her, but she couldn't be sure how that was possible.

She followed the voices to a hole in the ground, where she heard the boys speaking of something she couldn't hear at first, but then when their voices began to rise, it became quite clear.

"Com'on, Caleb!" said a deeper voice. "WE'RE TALKING ABOUT KATE!"

His voice seemed to be becoming louder, and she heard noises like footsteps and realized he was coming out. She quickly dove headfirst into a large haystack to hide herself.

"POGUE, WAIT!" his friend called after him, but the first boy had already run outside, and she soon heard a motorcycle zooming away into the twilight. She heard two cars soon follow, but only two, and she knew that there were four boys, so she felt it best to wait just to be sure they were gone.

After many minutes of silence, she poked her head out. She was alone.

She set off to where they had exited from, kicking around the hay until she could see the handle to the trapdoor. She let herself inside.

Down the stone stairs were many candles, and a round table with a pentagram shape carved into it. Five stone chairs seemingly carved out of the walls themselves sat at the five points of the star.

But what really caught her eye were the shelves and shelves of ancient books. One after another she seized the book, gobbling up their words greedily. Most of them were books on spells and strange things like that, but an especially big one proved to make it all worthwhile.

The more she read, the more she understood; the more she realized what the 'Sons of Ipswich' truly were.

She set out for home after replacing everything exactly where it was back in that cave, her mind completely flabbergasted, trying to wrap itself around this new information and comprehend it.

She should have known her luck had just run out.

On the drive back she saw two men in the road, one laying on the ground badly injured next to a broken motorcycle, and the other standing over him as if to admire his handiwork.

Liv screamed and swerved, trying to avoid them, and crashed straight into a nearby tree, her small good-for-nothing car crumpling into it like it was made of paper.

And that's when 'Liv'… died.

Or, she should have. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar face standing over her. It was a boy, not half-bad looking, but with an evil grin all over his harshly shaped face. Was this heaven or hell? She could only wonder.

She saw that she was still on the side of the road. The boy had taken her out of the car and laid her on the wet ground. Motorcycle boy was off nearby, still unconscious on the empty street.

"Fortune seems to be smiling upon me today!" the creepy boy standing over her said cheerily. "Let me explain it for you, my dear…"

She tried to open her mouth to ask who the hell he was, but no sound would come out.

"Oh, no," he said assuredly, shaking his head. "Voice or body movement won't come back for another few minutes. Patience! You've just come back from the dead, after all."

She grew wide-eyed and looked down in confusion, not feeling any pains from the accident's certain injuries, and realized that she had no injuries.

"See, I revived you with the great and almighty Power," he explained. "Of which, I am of the understanding, you know all about. As such, you are now my dead slave…"

He stroked her face.

"Much prettier than the last one I had—some random boy I killed from school. He served his purpose, but you will prove to be even more useful, I think. Not like you have a choice. Did I mention you were my slave?"

Liv blinked in reply, not knowing what she would say even if she had a voice.

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I'm not planning on making this story very long, but who knows? Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue