In the Beginning

In the beginning, we were nine. We left when we were young, almost too young to remember.

Almost.

There were meant to be ten, but the last child didn't make it.

I am told that the ground shook, that the skies were full of light and explosions We were in that two-week period of the year when both moons hang on opposite sides of the horizon. It was a time of celebration, and the explosions were at first mistaken for fireworks. They were not. It was warm, a soft wind blew from off the water. I am told the weather: it was warm. There was a soft wind. I've never understood why that matters.

What I remember most vividly is the way my mother looked that day. She was frantic, and sad. There were tears in her eyes. My father stood just over her shoulder. I remember the two,tiny baby girls in his arms. My sisters, whose names I still don't know, to this day. There were hugs. There were words said by both of my parents. I don't remember what they were. Nothing haunts me more.

It took almost a year to get here. I was five when we arrived. We were told to assimilate ourselves into the culture before returning to Lorien when it could again sustain life. The nine of us had to scatter, and go our own ways. For how long, nobody knew. We still don't. None of them know where I am, and I don't where they are, or what they look like now. That is how we protect ourselves because of the charm that was placed upon us when we left, a charm guaranteeing that we can only be killed in the order of our numbers, so long as we stay apart. If we come together, the charm is broken.

When one of us is found and killed, a circular scar wraps around the right ankle of those still alive. And residing on our left ankle, formed when the Loric charm was first cast, is a small scar identical to the amulet each of us wears. A warning system so we know where we stand with each other, and so we know when they'll be coming for us next.

The first scar came when I was nine years old. We were living in a small town near Tokyo. I woke up screaming in the middle of the night, in agony, terrified as the scar seared into my flesh. It was the first sign that the Hollows had finally found us on Earth, and the first sign that we were in danger. Until the scar showed up, I had almost convinced myself that my memories were wrong, that what Zangetsu had told me was wrong. I wanted to be a normal kid living a normal life, but I knew then, beyond any doubt or discussion, that I wasn't. We moved to Yokohama the next day.

The second scar came when I was twelve. I was in school, in the Tohoku Region, participating in a spelling bee. As soon as the pain started, I knew what was happening, and what had happened to Number Two. The pain was excruciating, but bearable this time. I would have stayed on the stage, but the heat lit my sock on fire. The teacher who was conducting the bee sprayed me with a fire extinguisher and rushed me to the hospital. The doctor in the ER found the first scar and called the police. When Zangetsu showed, they threatened to arrest him for child abuse. But because he hadn't been anywhere near me when the second scar came, they had to let him go. We got in the car and drove away, this time to the Chubu Region. We left everything we had except the Loric Chest that Zangetsu brought along on every move. All twenty-one of them to date.

The third scar appeared an hour ago. I was sitting on a pontoon boat. The boat belonged to the parents of the most popular kid at my school, and unbeknownst to them, he was having a party on it. I had never been invited to any of the parties at my school before. I had always, because I knew we might have to leave at any minute, kept to myself. But it had been quiet for two years. Zangetsu hadn't seen anything on the news that might lead the Hollows to one of us, or might alert us to them. So I made a couple friends. And one of them introduced me to the kid who was having the party. Everyone met at the dock. There were three coolers, some music, girls I had admired from afar but never spoken to, even though I wanted to. We pulled out from the dock and left the bays of the Kinki Region, going about half-a-mile out. I was sitting on the edge of the pontoon with my feet in the water, talking to a cute, dark-haired, yellow-eyed girl named Senna when I felt it coming. The water around my leg started boiling, and my lower leg started glowing where the scar was embedding itself. The third of the Lorien symbols, the third warning. Senna started screaming and people started crowding around me. I knew there was no way to explain it. And I knew that we would have to leave immediately.

The stakes were higher now. They had found Number Three, wherever he or she was, and Number Three was dead. So I calmed Senna down and kissed her on the cheek and told her that it was nice to meet her and that I hoped she had a long beautiful life. I dove off the side of the boat and started swimming, underwater the entire time, except for one breath about halfway there, as fast as I could until I reached the shore. I ran as fast as any of the cars moving along the roads, keeping inside a tree line. When I got home, Zangetsu was at the bank of scanners and monitors that he used to research news around the world, and police activity in our area. He knew without me saying a word, though he did lift my soaking pants to see the scars.

In the beginning, we were a group of nine.

Three are gone, dead.

There are six of us left.

They are hunting us, and they won't stop until they've killed us all.

I am Number Four.

I know that I am next.