Life sucks. That's common knowledge. It may suck for an hour, day, month or even a year. Life sucks when you stub your toe. It sucks when you get a bad grade on a paper or fail a test. Sometimes you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed and the whole day just sucks. It sucks wether its hating the past or dreading the future. But for me my whole life sucks.

Sure, it probably didn't always suck. There probably was a time when my over all life was fine. The time before I was five, or in other words, the times I can't remember. But after five years old, my life royally sucked.

Let's start with the day I was born. My mom didn't really want me, but she had me anyway. Her and my dad lived together and seemed happy enough from what I heard. For three years I have a normal life. I was a happy kid.

Then around age three my mom moved out of our house. She lived in a house a few blocks away. Months before she left, my mom and dad had been fighting. From what I heard, she needed space. One of the only reasons she stayed for so long was because she didn't trust my dad to take care of me. She visited every other day, and it wasn't like she was really gone, my dad said.

Cut to when I was five. My dad started to drink. It wasn't that bad at first. He would only get drunk once a week when I was asleep, but it slowly got worse. It went from one day to two days to every other day. He would be  drinking whenever he got a chance. My mom couldn't stand him any more and moved a few cities away. She wanted nothing to do with us anymore. The deal they made was that she would pay for my school and give my dad a certain amount of money every month if we never went looking for her or tried to call her. She wanted me to come see her once every other month. I would arrive there at 5, eat dinner, spend the night, eat breakfast, and leave by 9. My dad would drop me off at the end of the block and I would walk down to her house.

As I got older I started to hate my mom. She could have stoped my dad from drinking, but she just left. When I see her she acts like I'm her new neighbour, not her daughter, occasionally not even looking me in the eye. At my dad's it became survival. At first, when I was 5 or 6, he would just yell. Sometimes at nothing, sometimes at me, sometimes the neighbours dog. Most of the time I would hide under my bed. As I got older, it got worse. Around age eight I started cooking. I had to spend more time downstairs as I got older. I couldn't escape to my room as much. Most of the time when he got home and started drinking I would still be downstairs. I would have multiple bruises and cuts at a time.

But hey, I don't want you worrying to much about me. I've learned how to live with him. I take care of myself well enough. After 16 years you get used to things.

"Hurry up with dinner Amber!" Dad snarled. I sighed.

"It's almost ready." I shout back. I pull the casserole out of the oven. The hot air fills the room, adding to the smell of beer. I set the table and put the casserole in the middle.

"It's-" I start to say.

"Ya, ya, I can smell it. Took ya long enough." He said, getting up from the chair and leaving the tv on. He sat down at the head of the table and I chose a side. We ate in silence, as we usually do. He doesn't like to miss his shows on tv. I finish eating and go to clear my plate.

"Take mine too girl." Dad snarled. Without looking him in the eye I take his plate to the sink. After he left the table I put away the extra casserole in the fridge and walk upstairs.

"Where you going?" Dad asks when I leave the kitchen.

"I have homework to do." I replied.

"You can do it after. I won't have my kitchen covered in dirty dishes." He growled. And yet you let your living room be covered with bear bottles. I thought

"I'll do it tomorrow. I have a English essay to right." I said calmly. Dad got up.

"You talking back to me girl?" He asked. I could smell the alcohol in his breath.

"No I was just-" I started, panicked.

"Because you know I don't like it when you talk back!" He reached out and grabbed my wrist. I let out a whimper. He had no trouble holding me a few inches off the ground.

"Now you better go clean the kitchen girl. If I find you anywhere else." He said, slurring the last few words. He let go of my wrist and I sunk to my knees. I didn't get up until he was back in the chair. As fast as I could, I washed the dishes and put them away in the cupboard. I slipped out of the kitchen unnoticed and ran up the stairs. As I closed the door I felt tears start to fall down my face.

I hated it. I hated having to deal with him, I hated having to take care of myself, I hated not having a mother that cared about me. Falling to the floor, I put my head in my hands and cried. I hoped the tv was to loud to hear my sobs. Then suddenly something strange happened. A bright light filled the room. I jumped up and scrambled against the wall. As I stared, I saw a man start to form out of the light, like it gathered together and was a person. I yelped.

"There's no need to be afraid my dear Amber." The man said calmly. He looked to be about 25 and was dressed in a tight, white t-shirt and baggy, grey sweatpants. He had tan skin and black, shaggy hair.

"Who are you?" I squealed.

"You may call me Cahaya, though names are not important."

"How did you-. What are-. Huh?" Was all I managed to get out.

"I assume your first question would be what am I. Most people do not appear put of thin air, but I'm not a person, not really. For lack of better words I am a genie. Though 'trapped spirit' would also work." He stated calmly. I just starred at him, shocked. He took advantage of my stunned silence and kept going. "Like a genie, I have the ability to grant wishes in way. I grant a person superpowers, to be used for good reasons. Unlike a genie, I was once a person. My brother and I were punished, so to say, for the wrongs he did. For hundreds of years we have fought, along with others. He wanted to rule the world, I tried to stop him. Now we need your help. More and more people join his side."

"And how do I know you aren't the bad guy?" I questioned.

"Because if I was the bad guy, I would have offered you power, wealth. All I am offering you is a chance to make the world better, to make your life better."

"What's the catch?"

"The catch?" He asked, making a face.

"I get powers but, let me guess, they only work for a year? I have to live in some top secrets base? There's always something bad to go along."

"To only thing I ask is for you to fight side-by-side with me when the time comes, to fight the bad. After that, you may do whatever you wish." This must be a dream I thought. A nice dream, but still a dream none the less. "I will give you 4 powers. Chose wisely.

"Wings," I said immediately. "I want to fly." He nodded in understanding. You see, my plan was, if there was even a little chance this was real, to leave this place the first chance I got. Flying would make it easy, and besides, I had always wanted to fly like an angel

"For the second one, telekinesis." He nodded again. "Super hearing for the next one." I paused.

"You have one left." He said, but I didn't really know what I wanted for the last one.

"Invisibility." I replied finally.

"As you wish." He snapped his fingers and I fell back backwards, blacking out.

«~/~\~»

I woke up in my bed with a pain in my back. Rubbing my eyes I realized that I was in my bed. Suddenly everything from last night came back to me. But I had blacked out and fell on the floor. It must have been a dream, it's not possible for any of that to have happened.

I touched my back just in case. Nothing was there, though it still hurt. I cursed myself for having even the slightest bit of hope. Sadly, I got dressed and headed downstairs. Dad didn't go to work until 9, so he didn't wake up infill 7:30, which gave me enough time to leave the house before he woke up.

I quickly grabbed some fruit before heading out the door. It was fairly quite and the ten block walk to school didn't take long. The birds were singing louder than usual, but other than that, everything seemed normal enough. Nothing had changed. I was convincing myself more and more that nothing shade happened last night. I got to school and pushed open the doors. The halls were starting to fill up with people, most of them just standing around talking. The noise hit me hard, like a gong ringing in my ear. I took a step back and ran into the wall. After I recovered from the shock, I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head to try to block out the sound. It didn't really work, but it kept people from noticing me.

My head continued to hurt. Nothing screamed to help. An hour before lunch, I asked to go to the nurse. When I got up, a wave of nausea washed over me and I almost fell over. The teacher didn't seem to notice, so I gathered my books together and hurried out of the classroom.

I didn't even bother to go to the nurse. Everything was loud, and I don't think that was something she could fix. Instead I burst through the front doors and started heading for home. I took the back streets, making sure not to be seen, and it was quieter. My steppes were staggered and I was sweating. I was halfway home when a dog barked and I screamed. It sounded like it was right in my ear, going straight to my brain.

Tears came down my face. I heard things I shouldn't been able to hear, like the tv from down the street, the cars on the highway, even history class back at school. It wasn't possible. I was delusional. I started to run, my backpack hitting against my back, my legs felt like jelly. I was shaking so hard.

After what seemed like forever, though it was only a few minutes, I reached my house. Flinging open the door, I threw my backpack to the side and went to the bathroom. I took my temperature. 98.7, I wasn't sick. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked sick. My usually tan skin was now pale. My chestnut hair was sticking out in places. There was sweat on my face and I was shaking uncontrollably, though I didn't know if it was from fear of sickness. I splashed my face with cold water, trying to clear my head. When I turned on the water it sounded more like waterfall then a faucet. I screamed again.

Thinking I just needed to rest, I headed upstairs. Everything was still so loud. It hurt my head and I was surprised my ears weren't bleeding. I threw of my hoodie, revealing the bruise around my wrist I got yesterday, but I didn't care. I flung myself on my bed, face wet with tears and sweat. Laying there I wondered why no one else had seemed to be bothered by any of the loud noises. It couldn't just have been me, right? I thought. Then it hit me. Last night, during what I assumed was a dream, I asked for super hearing. Was there any chance that that had actually happened?

I jumped out of bed, wincing at the noise, and ran over to the mirror on my dresser. I was shaking still, though I didn't know now if it was from excitement or fear. Ripping of my shirt I turned to look and my back. My back was covered in a giant tattoo of wings. With my pounding head I forgot all about the pain in my back. Wings, I thought, But how do I get them? Suddenly a pair of wings appeared out of the spot the tattoo was, which disappeared right away. The pain subsided. I stood in shock. They were beautiful. At the top, it was a dark brown that slowly got lighter and then faded into white. It was easy to see in the white, but even the brown had specks of black. I stretched them out and then flapped them. They must have been at least 11 maybe 12 feet (a/n that's 3.3528 maybe 3.6576 meters btw) at full length.

This couldn't be real, could it? It must all be a dream, I must never have woken up. But still, I went with it. What were the other two? Telekinesis. I folded my winged back in so I could turn around th a room. My eyes landed on a bouncy ball. Sticking out my hand, I willed the ball to rise up off the table. Sure enough, right before my eyes, it lifted off the table. In shock I lost my concentration and the ball fell, bouncing off the table.

"That's not real. It's possible." I mumbled. But there had to be some truth. I didn't have the imagination to think up something like this. "There was one more, invisibility." But I never got to see if that worked too because I passed out, right there on the floor. Now I don't know whether it was from the ringing in my head of shock from every thing that happened in less than five minutes, but I fell backwards as black started creeping into my vision.

«~/~\~»

I woke up and felt something heavy on me, something that felt like a limb, so I did the only logical thing I could think of. I karate chopped it. I felt a sharp pain. Looking down I realized it was a wing, my wing. And for the second time today, I was forced to recall the events before I blacked out.

Now I was sure everything was real. You don't wake up twice in a dream. But that would mean I could fly, levitate objects, hear things miles away, and turn invisible at will. I got up off the floor (I would advise not sleeping on the floor. It gives you horrible cramps in your wings) and stretched. My back popped and I shook out my wings. Man that sounds weird, like how do you casually talk about wings like they were arms.

I wasn't even fully awake when the noise started again. Cars honked and there was an siren that seemed like it was right outside my house. Ok, maybe I can make it not seem as loud. I thought. My head was still pounding from earlier today. I tried to block out the noise, focuses on what was going on right here, right now. The noise slowly faded away and I smiled. I could control this, use it only when I wanted to.

And then I heard the door slams closed. Crap, what time was it? I glanced at the clock. It was 6 o'clock. I had slept for most of the afternoon. Dad had just come home and dinner wasn't even started. I panicked when I heard his steps walking up the stairs. I didn't know how to hide my wings, so, desperately, I just willed them to go away. And they did, right away, in the blink of an eye, they were gone. In their place was the same tattoo as before and the unpleasant pain returned.

Without having time to grab a shirt, I jumped into bed and pulled up the covers. I tried to steady my breathing as my dad walked in. Well, "walked" is a more calm word, in reality he barged in like a hungover bear.

"Amber why isn't-!" He started, but stopped when he saw my in bed. "Stupid girl, sleeping all day." And then he left, closing the door.

He must have known I had gone home from school. Either that or I was good at looking sick. Either way, he let me rest and went back downstairs. I didn't dare get up, though I did will the door to close. This whole telekinesis thing was pretty cool.

Only after I heard my dad's steady snore downstairs did I get up. I must have fallen asleep for a little bit because the clock went from 7 to 9. At ten o'clock, I slid out of bed. I wasn't going downstairs, no, that was to risky. I wanted to go for a test fly. I went over to my bedroom window and opened it. The cold air made me shiver an a I realized i still didn't have a shirt on. Not knowing how a shirt would fit over my wings, I just let it be. I figured that when I needed to hide my wings, they were "hidden" beneath my skin, or something like that. It explained why my back hurt when my wings weren't out. I also thought that they switched between hidden and visible by me just willing them to.

I thought about my wings, right there on my back, and sure enough I felt the weight on my back. I pushed my head out the window, tucking in my wings so I could fit them through the window. This was crazy. I was about to jump out the window and fly. A little laugh escaped my lips.

"Well," I mumbled, "here goes nothing." And I pushed off the windowsill. Opening my wings, I felt the air rush under them. For a split second I freaked out and started wildly flapping my wings, slowly moving upward. The wind whipped my face and I shivered, bringing me back to reality. The flaps of my wings grew steady and I moving. I turned, not knowing where I wanted to go, and decided to head to the park.

I moved fairly quickly. The night was cold and by the time I reached the park, I was shivering badly. I landed gracefully on the grass. And by gracefully landed on the grass, I meant I stumbled, had to much forward momentum, and landed on my face. Like I said, very graceful.

I jumped up and brushed off the grass and dirt. Wrapping my wings around me to stay warm, I looked around and saw no one. Good. I walked over to the swings and sat down. I didn't bother swinging; I just sat there. In reality, I didn't know what I wanted dot do here, so I just sat there in silence. I sat there for a while, looking up at the stars. When I finally looked down at my phone to check the time, it was 11. It had taken about 15 minutes to get here, and apparently I had spent 45 minutes just sitting here.

I jumped up and started running, trying to get a good take off. I pushed off the ground and flapped my wings, lifting off the ground. The park began to slowly fade from view as I got higher into the air. Once again I was filled with the amazing sensation of flying. My heart was pounding from adrenaline and excitement. The wind whipped my hair back, stinging my eyes.

When I finally got back home I realized that getting back inside was harder that getting out. It was hard to jump back inside without either hitting my wings on the wall of fall down a few feet, but eventually I managed it. I closed the window and sat down on my bed. It was only then that I realized I was breathing hard. Smiling, I fell back on my bed. Better or for worse my life had changed, though now I had a sweet pair of wings.

Hey, hoped you enjoyed the first chapter. Vote and comment, it lets me know you like the book. Like, seriously, it means a lot to me, so if you like it, let me know. Thanks for reading and enjoy.