"Concentrate!!"

"I'm doing it as much as I can" 

" Look, you are new here so I'm going easy this time. I'm your mentor. You do as I say if you want to live, or you leave this room and never come back. Your choice."

He nodded. Although he hated it, he knew she was right. It was do or die. 

"Good. Now concentrate!! Focus your mind on the task at hand. Think about nothing else. Let's try again."

He did as he was told. He forgot about everything but the task at hand. After a few minutes, it seemed to work. The birds stopped flying, the leaves stopped rustling. Though it was only for a few seconds, he'd finally done it. 

He'd stopped time.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Mark was a normal kid. He thought he had the best life ever. He had everything. Loving grandparents who treated him as their own. Friends who were there for him wherever he needed. He never wished for anything more than what he had. He was happy.

All that changed when he met Claire. She was the kinda person who grows on you. She opened the path for him to a life he never knew was destined to have and he discovered that he was so much more than merely normal.

But now his secret is out and his life and the lives of those he loves are in danger. Now he has to choose between his family and his destiny and the fate of the world depends upon his choice.

Timeless Teenagers

 Being without parents was usually seen as something to be pitied, something people were afraid of and didn't wish on others. Not for him though, he didn't mind it. Maybe if he wasn’t an orphan, he’d have suffered a lot in life. But he was. And he loved it. 


 He never knew his dad and he hadn't had much of an urge to. Of course, seeing other kids being picked up by their fathers and having games with them, he'd felt a sense of loss and jealousy, wishing for his father. But those moments were few and mostly he was alright living with his grandparents. He couldn't think of a life without them, they were the only parental figures he needed. His mother was never in the picture and the only thing about her that he knew was her name and that she lived in Europe. He had no interest in her. 


 He was happy; he had all the things a teenager could want. He was popular, had good grades, a loving family, and a luxurious lifestyle with enough money to buy whatever he wanted. He had the kind of life people wished and prayed and worked for. He didn't need anything else to complete him. 


 His father was an accountant in Europe, where he'd met his mother and he was born. He didn't remember his childhood there. All he knew from then was what he'd been told or what he'd pieced together from old photographs. He knew it was wrong to think of his father's death as a blessing, but there were times when he couldn't help the thought. His father wouldn't have been able to give him the kind of life that he had and he didn't mind losing his father to gain all that, even if that made him sound like a complete jerk. 


 It was his 16th birthday and he’d been looking forward to it for as long as he could remember. He had it all planned out and it was good to see it just as he’d planned. The two story house had been completely transformed. There were tables with snacks all over the lawn and in the living room. Chairs were scattered around too. The living room sofa, table, TV, etcetera, were moved upstairs. There was no remaining trace of the house he used to live in, save for the carpets that gave away his grandmother’s taste in interior décor. 


 By the time he’d gotten dressed and came down, many people had already arrived. Some he knew, some he didn’t. He went around getting wishes and appreciation for the party. The gifts had already been taken from people on arrival and upstairs by the employees so they wouldn’t be bothered. His friends were also moving around, talking to everyone and just having a good time. While he was talking to one of his classmates, his eyes fell on a girl who’d just entered. She was wearing a simple white shirt with black jeans and a leather jacket. Her hair was tied up in a bun and she looked like she was looking for something. Her eyes met his and she stopped. 


Chapter 1: The Party