Page 8 - Student: dazed And Confused

Boy

"Sarah." I reached out my hand; she held it for a few seconds and then moved away
a few steps. That's why I thought I was dreaming. I was seeing my sister and holding her
hand. But her skin was warm and smooth, the way it had always been when she was alive.
She even felt alive. "How did you get here? How did I get here?"
"Adam." She smiled at me like she was really glad to see me. "I don't know quite
what's going on either, but everything's gonna be okay." Her voice was the same; it was
comforting and familiar and I wanted to believe her.
"I heard you when you spoke to me. At your funeral."
"I know. You can talk to the dead; you've always had that power. I just opened that
door to you. I used to do it too."
Maybe it was in the blood or the genes or something like that. Could be it was just
luck. But she can't have told anyone because nothing had ever happened to her. "Why
didn't you tell me?"
She laughed. "I thought you'd think I was loopy. I think I always knew I could do it.
They didn't speak to me until I was 16, on my birthday."
She trailed off and turned away from me. Out of the corner of my eye I could see
this man sitting down and drawing with a rock. He looked at me through these milky eyes
and stood up. Sarah looked at the symbols he'd been scratching, then looked at us both. "I
am the first."
I didn't know who I was speaking to so I looked at Sarah. "Where am I?"
"At the beginning. The place where our power began. It started with me, and I
carried it alone. You are not alone."
"Why doesn't anyone believe me?"
"You are beyond their understanding." The man was looking straight at me, as
though he knew exactly where I was standing, but I knew he couldn't see me. I sat down
with my back to the wall and blinked a few times. I even pinched myself to see if I was
asleep but it hurt and I knew I was awake. When I lifted my head again, there was a small
fire in the centre of the cave and the man was hunched up in a corner, looking scared and
nervous. Time had passed but I couldn't tell how much. It didn't matter.
"Speak to me. Tell me your name," I commanded, trying to sound authoritative. I
just sounded needy.
Sarah turned her head and stared at me. "I have no voice of my own. I was born
before the dawn of the spoken word. I have no name but that which I am. Alone."
"Why do I have this 'gift'?" I made little air quotes with my fingers but I don't know
why I did that. He couldn't see it. "Why do I have it, and what I meant to do with it? Why
did Sarah have it?"
"Your name is Adam," said Sarah/ The Man With No Name. "You are the descendent
of the first. You were born for our cause. To help, to listen, to try. Your sister was merely
deemed worthy."
But he let her die. "Where did it come from?" I asked.
Sarah looked at the man in the corner instead of me and she suddenly wasn't talking
for him any more. Somehow, he'd found the words to say. "Born. here. Ancient. primal
power."
"It came from him," Sarah repeated but I'd already realised that. "You were driven
crazy by them, weren't you?"