It is lonely in the forest.
My father was a kind man he never stepped out of line the day before my tenth birthday, my father sat me in a chair and kneeled in front of me resting his hands on my knees.
My siblings were upstairs playing together like always they had left me out of their games. My father looked me dead in my eyes.
'My beautiful girl tomorrow is your birthday! And as a Weasters it is tradition for me to tell you a secret.' He smiled and winked tapping the side of his nose.
'What's the secret dad?' I assure you I was not expecting what he told me next.
'When I die you and your siblings will receive something called Francesca, Francesca is like a superpower! Do you remember the superheroes on tv?'
'Yes, papa they had cool capes!' my father chuckled tipping his head back gently.
'Yes, they did dear, but do you remember the villains?' I nodded my head the villains were always my favourites they were always so powerful and smart. 'Well with your Francesca you get to choose if you want to be a villain or a hero, I chose hero, but you can choose villain if you want to' I giggled at him.
'But dad why did you choose hero? Villains are funnier!' He tapped the tip of my nose laughing.
His phone rung in the other room. He got up still laughing at what I had said as he left the room.
A couple of minutes later, he called my name from the room I jumped up from my chair and ran into him hugging his waist. 'Hi dad!'
'Hi honey, Hua will be coming over soon.' He ruffles my hair.
'Yay!' I run upstairs into my bedroom and grab all my experiments.
The next day came around my birthday was amazing I had a chocolate cake and got a couple of good presents. I remember being in the back seat of the car with Hua, but after that I have no true memories all I know is what I have been told, my father had been driving and an intoxicated girl had been driving on the wrong side of the road, both the girl and my father were killed that night and mother did not honestly care.
Over time me and my siblings, Alashbah the oldest and Zhuang the youngest all grew to hate our mother, and with that hate came Francesca. As my Francesca grew, I could turn small objects into rock but then it became more serious when I accidentally turned our mothers' cat, Fluffy to stone. My mother was hysterical and refused to talk to me after that.
...Zhuang had just started preschool when Alashbah ran away from home at the age of seventeen, me and Zhuang were walking home from his preschool when we saw a police car outside of our house, I picked Zhuang up and ran straight into the living room only to find our mother crying into an officer's shoulder.
'Mum what has happened?' I hugged Zhuang into my chest tightly, I did not want him to see our mother in this state.
My mother lifted her head from the man's shoulder and gave me her messed up smile, 'nothing sweetie go up stairs and I'll tell you later.' I did as I was told, at the time our brother had not reached out to us, so we had no idea where he was or what he was planning.
Alashbah, or Al's Francesca is what he calls "ghost" he can become invisible, read people thoughts, and "possess" people by entering their body, his Francesca is the strongest out of all of us. Because of his power to read thoughts he can create a mental group chat of people so usually when he is in trouble, he reaches out to us.
Around an hour later the police car reversed off the driveway and our mother came into my room, Zhuang was sleeping in my bed whilst I sat at my desk doing my homework from the week before.
'Mother what is going on?'
'Come here first!' She often yelled at me. I walked out into the hallway and closed my door behind me.
'Did you know that your brother ran away last night?'
'What are you talking about? He was in his room this morning.'
'Well obviously not he was seen walking along the road at four in the morning, and now his blood has been found smeared on trees in the old forest!'
'What are we still doing standing here? What if he's in trouble?' I went to go back in my room to wake up Zhuang, but my mother grabbed my wrist digging her figure nails into my skin, I winced at the pain.
'We are not going to search the forest for that bloody fool! And if you even think about it, I will lock you in your room with Zhuang!' I lower my head, I knew my mother too well to know not to disobey her.
I go back into my room and reach out to my older brother, ^Al' are you there. ^
^of course I am, what's up? ^ He sends me a mental image of where he was, he was running through the forest but stops abruptly pushing his body into an invisible state as a stranger walked pass him.
^nothing really but mother is furious why have you left us alone? ^ I show him my memories of what happened the moment before.
^sorry Ru' but I could not take it anymore, and you should not either if you want to follow me with Zhuang, I have left a trail of blood on the trees if you follow them, we will find each other. ^ I take my time thinking of his offer. ^Ru' I know what you are thinking, and I completely understand you can get Hua and come once you have finished your project if the blood disappears before you get here, I will give you directions. ^
...I have now witnessed the work of our project and have seen what it can do, it has taken us two more years since I spoke to my brother to perfect the serum I have reached out for Alashbah moments before I went to Hua's house to bring her with me. Zhuang is only six years, old but I trust that mother will take some care for him, if not Alashbah has promised to come back for him when he is older.
Alashbah helped us get to where his base is, it is small and not well equipped for our plan, but it will do for now.