• I held him close to my chest. His beautiful blue eyes were closed and his tiny little hands were still. I looked at him, he looked so beautiful when he slept. I started singing softly to him, "my lovely, sleep well, I'll love you in the morning, you will grow in the night, and be more lovely, to me...." I sang. I heard footsteps coming up the hallway, I looked up just as mother appeared in the doorway. "Hailey, it's time to eat, Asher needs to sleep." she said in her soft cow voice as she smiled. "I'm not hungry." I said. "He is beautiful isn't he? I see why you always want to hold him, but put him down and come eat before you starve yourself."Mother argued. I smiled and sighed, I stood from my rocking chair and put Asher in his crib. I walked to my mother and she wrapped her arm around my shoulders and led me down the hallway. My 3 brothers and 2 sisters were waiting at the dinner table. "I wish I could hold Asher, but I am to young and weak, he is cute though." Vanessa said as she frowned slightly. Seth and Bret smirked. I looked at Destiny and smiled, she smiled and looked back down at her plate. Something was wrong, I just knew it, Destiny always looked like that when something was wrong. I sat at my place and stared at Stephen, he was reading his book again. He always read his book. He only looked up from it to eat it seemed like. Father was late again. He was always late. I worried about him sometimes. "Mom?" I asked, " Yes sweetie?" Mother answered. "What's wrong?" I asked her. "What do you mean by that?" she asked me. "Destiny has that look. The look she gets when something happened." I said. Mother lowered her head and frowned. "Maybe later sweetie." she said, almost struggling. I shrugged and waited for the food. I leaned back in the chair and rested. I closed my eyes and thought of Asher. I smelled food and snapped open my eyes. There was salad and orange juice, and lots of other things. Seth and Bret started eating before all the food was even on the table. I looked at mother as she sat the food on the table. Her face wasn't like it usually was, it was frowning, not smiling. I KNEW something was wrong now. Everyone started eating soon and we finished with no conversation, in about a half hour. When we finished i asked mother again: "What happened?" and she frowned. She lowered her head and said " well...sweetie....I...your father was shot on his way home." Her eyes watered. My eyes widened. I turned on my heels and ran to my room. Asher was waiting there, unaware that he would never see his father again. I sat heavily in my rocking chair and cradled my head in my hands and cried, sobbed. I was like this for what seemed like forever. Then finally I heard footsteps coming up the hall. Then Vanessa appeared, "are you okay Hailey?" she asked in her innocent voice she used a lot. "What do you think!?" I almost yelled. "Well according to you she doesn't think at all because she doesn't have a brain." I heard Stephen say from outside my door as he appeared. I almost smiled at his comment. I looked up as he sat on a toy chest across from me. He took hold of both my hands and said quietly, "It'll be okay Hail, I just know it will. All you have to do is relax and believe it will all be better." I looked at him. My head was spinning and I felt like bursting into tears again. He raised one of his hands and put it on my forehead, "It'll be okay, just relax..." He said as my eyelids started feeling heavy, I closed my eyes and relaxed my body. I fell to sleep within the next 10 minutes.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

    I awoke with a start to screaming. I stood quickly and snapped into focus. I looked around and saw flames, I ran over to Asher's crib and picked him up, he was crying. I shushed him and got out of the room. But I went back in for the briefest of seconds to grab my prized possesion: a necklace that my father gave me.Then I ran out of the room and down the hall. When I reached the kitchen I saw Vanessa and Destiny holding hands and screaming. Seth and Bret were outside already and mother was looking for me. When they all saw me we ran outside and to the curb. I sat down and then remembered. "Stephen!" I screamed. I ran back into the house that was almost completely engulfed in flames. I saw him behind a couch looking calm. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him outside. When i got out the door I was choking on smoke and was sweating. Stephen looked calm and was not sweating or coughing at all. I was very surprised at him. I was very sad for our house. Everyone stood and Destiny broke the silence. "Where are we going to live mommy?" Destiny was but 7 and I was 13. "Don't worry sweetie, we can live with aunt Sarah." aunt Sarah was our favorite aunt. We started walking and the last I saw of my house was ashes and burning flames engulfing my beloved bedroom.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

    When we arrived at aunt Sarah's house she embraced us all. "Are you all okay? Your mother called about the fire." I was surprised, I guess I didn't notice when she called. I felt tears stinging my eyes. We went upstairs to her extra 4 bedrooms. Seth and Bret shared one, Me and Asher, and Stephen shared the biggest one, Destiny and Vanessa shared one, and Mother got her own. We settled quickly. Asher never knew his house burned down, never knew he would never see his father again, he was so ignorant, I wished I was a baby. I cried a lot when we first got there. I was laying in my new bed when Stephen came in, "how are you Hail?" He smiled. I looked at him and said: "horrible." He came and sat at my bedside. "I know, I bet you feel that way, I do to." I smiled slightly at him. "Hail, I..I have something to give to you." He reached in his pocket and pulled out something small and wrapped in cloth.He handed it to me and I unwrapped it. It was a pure blue stone that had veins of white all over it. The color was beautiful. I looked at it and smiled. Then I looked at him, "What is it?" I asked. "Well....it's a magic stone." He said. "It is for you, you are meant to have it." I looked at him akwardly. "What do you mean?" I asked him. "Well...it gives you powers, and...it is meant for you. The spirits, they told me to give it to you." When he said that I thought he was crazy. But I didn't say anything. My jaw just dropped and I stared at him. I stuffed the stone in my pocket and lay back down, my mouth closed and Stephen walked back to his bed. I just thought. "What kind of powers does it give me?" I asked Stephen. "I don't know. You just have to find out, it will show them in time." I thought about what would happen to me. I thought that I would never be the same. And Stephen would be my only guide.....