Chapter 1 - Part 1

“ ‘The superstitious nature of the people of that time led to the belief that monsters would steal a person’s soul if they remained outside for too long.  Modern science has now proven that the atmosphere is toxic to a person’s health, which is why the early ancestors had short life spans.’

“Maybe that’s what’s causing it,” Howell muttered to himself.

He looked up from his data book and up at the hot, clear blue sky.  The rooftop that he was sitting on was part of an older building on the edge of the city.  A few hundred years ago it had been made illegal to build anything higher than Camern City’s ceiling.  The cost, special materials and government permission were near impossible to get and another factor in why no expansions have been made since the change in building code.  With a sigh, Howell turned and glanced out at the center of the city.

Even though the city stretched out and the far edge was lost in the glint of the sun, it was easy to distinguish the different sections of the city.  The slums, with their old, decaying buildings, were on the edges near the city walls.  They were barely five stories high and showed signs of neglect.  The richer areas of Camern City, which lay near the center, reached up to twenty stories and solar panels were positioned and specially maintained over the roofs.

As he studied the view from the decaying rooftop he was on, Howell’s grey eyes caught a flash of color.  Howell squinted as he tried to find where the splotches of color had gone.  He was positive now that he was not seeing the sun reflecting off the glass and metal encased city.

It had only been this summer that he had started seeing things, but he was now beginning to wonder if it was not his imagination.  He had spent the summer with his cousin, Dylan, and had only seen the flashes of color when Uncle Will had been flipping through news channels.

It was easy to say that it was just his angle of the television.  It was easy to say that maybe it was just a migraine.  He wanted to avoid thinking that he was going crazy, but now that he was back home the colors kept appearing in his normal sight.  Especially when he was outside.

The colors seemed pale, but their faint outlines could be seen out of the corner of his eyes, hovering around the edges of the city.  He could almost feel them as much as he saw them.  Not a physical touch, but like the feeling that he was being watched.  Howell could use the supposed toxic atmosphere as an excuse, but he had been sneaking up to the outside for years now.  Of course, perhaps it was just finally getting to him.

With a sigh, Howell turned back to his data book, ignoring the headache that the patches of color brought each time he saw them.  School started tomorrow and he needed to finish reviewing the summer reading.  His history teacher had assigned five chapters and she was notorious for giving pop quizzes on the first day.

Reminding himself that he only had two more years of high school left, Howell began reading out loud again.  He could read quietly, but he only did that at school.  His grey eyes only occasionally flicked to the book’s screen since he had memorized most of the chapters earlier in the summer.