Part 1. of the Gaia's Lullaby Series 

“No! No! Please!” she cried out. This couldn’t possibly be happening to her again. “Don’t let them take me!” she cried out to her parents. But she got no response, only blank stares.

She was confused. Why weren’t they doing anything? Had this been their plan all along? To make her a beloved family member, only to eventually take her back to where she came from?

Her eyes filled with tears, as she looked in disbelief. How could they do this to her? The door of the van slammed shut as the engine began to roar. This was the last time she would see this family again. She’d once again enter the system, where the wait for new parents would mean her being tossed around through temporary families.

“Please don’t do this to me!”

——————

“Kay wake up. Kay. Kayy! KORA!! WAKE UP!!!!!.”

“Wha?” Kora rolled over, dazed and disoriented. Where am I, she wondered.

“You were doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“You know, that thing you’ve been doing every night for the past year where you start thrashing and screaming. Girl, you’ve got a good set of lungs on you. It’s a miracle you haven’t woken up mom and dad.”

Right. The nightmares. For the past year, Kora had been getting these horrible nightmares. Having spent 5 years in foster care, her worst fear was that someday she would end up back in the system. Every night, her peaceful slumber was disrupted by the same dream. Strange men in suits would come to her doorstep, drag her outside, and throw her into the car. And every time, her family would just stand by without saying a word, just staring at her, their expressions blank. She’d cry out to them for help, but receive no response. And then, she’d be taken away.

Every night for the past year she’d have this nightmare. And every night, it would be exactly them same. There were never changes to it. Just her being taken away by strangers in suits.

“So, do you wanna talk about it?”

“Not now, Jess. Besides, I thought Jenny was nosey one.” The twins, Jess and Jenny, were Kora’s adoptive sisters.

“Alright. But this is really starting to freak me out, K.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m fine. Now go to sleep.”

Silence. That’s the one thing Kora loved about Jess. Not only was she quiet, but she followed orders well. Not to say that Jenny was disobedient, but she could get carried away from time to time.

As she rolled over once more, Kora began to wonder: Was there some hidden message behind this dream?

--------

BEEP. WOOSH. The sound of the freshening spring breeze, rustling through the twin’s open window.

BEEP. VRRROOOMM. The sound of cars cruising by the house. The sound of children, waiting anxiously to hop on the school bus.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.THE BUS! Kora shot straight up, and turned to silence her alarm. But, as she reached over, something quite peculiar happened. It was as if out of Kora’s hand came an intense gust of wind, knocking everything off of her night stand.

Confused, she climbed out of bed and bent over to pick up her things. But, as she reached down to pick up her lamp, it happened again. Except this time, it wasn’t wind. A burst of energy shot out of her hands, just strong enough to shake her bedroom floor.

Startled by what had just happened, Kora grabbed her things and bolted out of the house.

--------------

“Thank you for joining us, Ms. Kora. Now please, take a seat.”

Great. If there’s one thing that Kora hated more than walking in late, it was being called out in class. All eyes were on her as she quickly made her way into the back of the class.

“Here comes the mythology geek.”

“‘My name is Kora and I loovvveeee Mrs. Alex. Oops. Did I say Mrs. Alex? I obviously meant Mrs. Alex’s class.’”

This is what Kora had to endure every day. The constant mockery because of her love for this class, Greek mythology. Aside from her, the class consisted of all seniors. Although the class was only a semester long, this was Kora’s 4th time taking it. There was something about Greek mythology that simply fascinated her. She found that she could relate well to each of the gods, almost as if she knew them personally. Each of the had their own unique back story. Some, like her, were raised by other parents. The only difference was that they eventually found their birth parents.

Kora had given up hope of doing so after she found out her parents had died in a car crash just days after she was given away. Though the cause of the crash was unknown, Kora knew it was useless to look into it. They were gone, and there was nothing she could do about it.

School continued without any sign of improvement from Kora’s perspective. After mythology came math, a class which Kora absolutely despised. After waiting patiently for the hour to pass, she ran to Latin, another class which she enjoyed but was constantly bullied in.

“Quaerenti rustico. Ego sum Kora, omnipotens princeps geeks omnes!” (Out of my way, peasant. I am Kora, almighty ruler of all geeks!)

“Deformis!”

“Bardus!”

“Your parents did the right thing by giving you away,” said Sara, who went out of her way to make Kora feel miserable. “You’re so hideous that they were traumatized by just looking at your face. In fact, they’re just as ugly as you. They gave you away because they didn’t want to traumatize you.”

With that, Kora had had as much as she could take. She ran out of the room, tears streaming down her face. But the bullies did not stop there. Instead, they followed her outside with the intent to continue to torment her.

“Hey! Come back here. I wasn’t do---”

“Stop!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. With that, she swung around, placing her hands just inches away from Sara’s chest.

And that’s when it happened again. A surge of energy passed through Kora’s body, exiting from her fingertips. And Sara was now laying on the ground at the opposite end of the hallway. Kora fled the scene.

Lunch hour came, which meant Kora could finally escape from everything. Although students were forced to eat in the lunchroom, Kora had found a secret passage through which she could escape to the parking lot. She strongly disliked eating alone, but it was much better than sitting in the madness of the lunchroom and being laughed at.

As she sat outside, Kora’s thoughts once again drifted to the events that occurred both before school and during Latin. Although she had no idea how she had done it, she wanted to know if she could do it again. Kora recalled what had happened, and did her best to replicate the events in the same order.

She laid down on the floor, curled up as if she were asleep. Jumping up, she reached over to grab her phone, which had been laying on the ground next to her. Only this time, nothing happened. She tried again, and nothing happened. She tried again, this time focusing on the object itself, but still had no success. After 5 failed attempts, Kora gave up. Maybe she had just imagined it all. Maybe it was all just a dream. After all, super powers don’t exist. Right?