This is the first chapter of my upcoming novel, Minutes to Twilight. |
This is the prolog and first chapter of my upcoming novel: Minutes to Twilight. Any attempt to steal or claim this work in any way will result in legal action. Prolog Earth. From this distance it looked so beautiful. Just like the council had described it. And now it was in Twilite's field of vision. Twilite is not the name of a human. Oh no, in his mind he knew he was something better than that. Or at least he used to be before he was forcefully brought to this dimension. The enemies of the council had used some sort of superweapon to move Twilite's planet into this universe. They were so close to winning the war too. Only to have it stripped from their grasp. Or so the council said. Twilite didn't trust the council much anymore. He just wanted to survive. He didn't care about trying to fight back. He didn't care about all this "glory" stuff. Look at what happened to those that obtained it. They died. It didn't matter that he was the last born of the race. He just wanted to live. After all, he was just a teenager. But to do that, he would need a host. This stupid dimension had forced its rules of physics on him. He had to trade his normal body in for a virus-like existence. He was running out of the energy needed to survive even in this lessoned form. In order to sustain himself, he would need to "infect" one of these humans. The council had said to infect someone in a powerful position among the humans. They figured it would be easier to regroup that way. When the specified time came, they would begin sending out their special radio frequency. That was the signal to attempt contact with each other. It wasn't the best plan (it had its flaws), but it was all they could come up with at the time. Twilite wasn't about to do that however. He would possess the first stupid human he came upon, and that would be the end of it. He would teach that human how to use his power (since he lacked the strength to use it without a host body), then he would make the human gain enough wealth to purchase a happy life. And the council would never find him. It was too easy. As he sped towards Earth, he noticed an odd object that appeared to be orbiting it. He found that he take it's computer over quite nicely. It reminded him of their race's technology back on his planet. This was very primitive though. Easily hackable. After he secured access to it's program, he found it was transmitting to a location on the Earth. He attempted to triangulate that connection's receiver back on Earth. Success. And luckily for him, it was directly in sight. He used the last of his energy to attach his crystalline form to the object. Then he hijacked the program on-board and changed it's orbit. It put the satellite onto a crash course into downtown New York City. Chapter 1 Sirens. Just my luck. I was just one mile away from the dropoff point too. Damm. I picked up the two-way radio lying in the passenger seat of the Ferrari I was driving. "Seth calling home base, come in, over." A familiar voice answered, "This is home base, over." That voice just happened to belong to my boss, Francis Smith. Francis is just your average corrupt car dealer, but he's just about the closest thing I have to a parent right now. I replied, "I'm being followed. I'll try to shake them and ditch the car. Don't expect me back for lunch. Over." Francis said, "Good luck Seth, and don't die on me. You're my best salesman. Over." Tossing the radio into the backseat, I clutched the steering wheel, and looked at the gas gauge. The gauge held steady at full. I'm definitely gonna need a full tank for this one. This ought to be fun. I took one last look at myself in the mirror. A brown-haired, brown-eyed, skinny sixteen-year-old returned my gaze. I was definitely looking the part of a homeless thief. With an average nose and ears, no fat to speak of, bedhead hair, visible ribs, an oddly muscular body, and a look of insane enjoyment on my face, I was ready for just about anything the police could throw at me. My name? Seth Davis. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm driving a stolen Ferrari. I was about to "drop it off" at Francis's car lot (where he would take a few key parts out and resell it) but the police interrupted that. I'd have to shake them if I had any chance of getting paid this week. Not that I really needed the money or anything. I had about $20,000 dollars saved under my mattress (which happened to be inside a closet in Francis's body shop). So here I am driving down a weirdly empty street in downtown New York City with about three cop cars behind me. No biggie. I'd shaken off 5 cops before with relative ease. This time should be no different. All I had to do was drive down a few alleyways, make a few turns, drive down some more alleyways, and if the police were gone by then, pull into a restaurant for about an hour. Not that hard if you ask me. So there you have it. I'm a thief. A teenager who is so pitiful that he has to steal rich people's cars for a living. A teenager who likes doing it too. But I'm also a teenager who doesn't have a social security number. That fact right there strikes me as odd. Why would I not have a social security number like the rest of America does? I'm not entirely sure. One of the few things I'm sure about is that I'm an orphan. I was unexpectedly abandoned by my father, Rick Davis, about two years ago. However, unlike all the rest of the good-for-nothing fathers out there, Rick Davis was different. He was a good father. The best I could ever want, except for the fact that he left me for dead. He'd done more for me than any other person could (comparatively speaking that is). For example, he had home-schooled me. He taught me Calculus, history, chemistry, physics, trigonometry, geometry, algebra, everything about history, and pretty much everything that an orphan can't put to practical use. He did teach me his "street knowledge" though. How to hack a computer, hotwire anything, how to pickpocket, how to follow people, etc. He said that these where the "tools of modern life" as he called them. But none of these things could help me at this moment. Being chased by three police cars isn't much fun. Especially when these are unmarked cars. That meant the government was after me now. And here's where I made my first mistake in a long time. I turned into an alley as usual when I was evading the heat. At the end of the alleyway was another unmarked car. I tried to back out before the cars behind me pulled in but it was too late. I was caught like a rat in a cage. I've had a good run. Looks like it's time for prison... I stopped the car and sat there. Soon enough the first car behind me opened it's doors. Two men in black business suits (with mirrored sunglasses of course) got out of the car and pointed their pistols towards me. The taller one yelled, "Get out of the car with your hands up!" So I proceeded to do so. "Walk towards me slowly," commanded the shorter man. I did as I was told. I didn't have anywhere I could run too even if I felt like it. The only exit was a door in the side of a building about 30 feet away. It was too far to get away safely. When I was about 10 feet from the car, the tall guy pulled out a small object, and he pointed it at me. I realized that it was a taser only after he had fired it. I hit the ground and went into very, very painful convulsions as the prongs hit my neck. Did I mention that's the worst pain I've ever felt? I couldn't move even if I tried. The taser was still shocking me to death but the policemen didn't care. Through my extreme bouts of pain threatening to knock me unconscious, I could tell that there was some kind of commotion going on. The policemen were looking at the sky. My eyes followed their gaze. Streaking strait towards us was a falling satellite. END of first chapter. Comment, Discuss, [insert words that are synonyms with chatter]. I'd like criticism (of the constructive kind). I just hope my two years of effort are worth something... |