Aeolus’s Quest: Part One
A short fictional story
Normal was the only way to describe Andrea. She lived in a small suburban neighborhood complete with rows of identical white-picket-fenced homes. She went to school and had an after-school job at the Shake-n’-Burger, the town’s only cafe.
There was even a small touch of tragedy in her life. She never knew who her mother was, only that she died during childbirth. She knew her sister’s mother — she was now her stepmother.
The only part of her life that was not normal was her eyes. They were the brightest blue she had ever seen, perfectly sculpted on her face. Her eyes were big and slightly tilted upward like a cat’s. Her bright blue orbs contrasted against the darkness of her skin, which she inherited from her father.
Nothing ever changed in her life, so she should have known from the minute there was a slight change in the neighborhood that her life was about to flip upside down.
It was on a cool September night that she first noticed the man. She was about to go to bed early since she had a long day of school ahead of her. It was her junior year, and the stress from studying for the SATs and preparing for college made her feel constantly tired.
She padded over to the window to close the blinds, dressed in cotton shorts and a long…
