June 1st, 2010
Lucinda watched her younger sister distastefully. The hefty girl was covered in a thick layer of sweat, with rivulets of perspiration pouring off her chin and onto her already soaking wet shirt. She would have been less disdainful, if she had any confidence in her overweight sister's ability to commit to anything for more than a day. True, Heidi had been keeping up her current workout regime for close to a week now, which was much longer than any other attempt, but it wouldn't last.
Lucinda turned onto her stomach, letting the sun cook her back, which had the bonus of removing the sight of her sister. While she was half Hawaiian, her skin was still extremely light. Their father was a noncommissioned officer at the local base, and she was pretty sure that having an overweight daughter disturbed him almost as much as it disturbed Lucinda.
With a grimace, Lucinda turned the volume of her mp3 player up so that she wouldn't hear the panting grunts from her hopeless sister. At sixteen years old, Lucinda was two years older than her younger and only sibling. Even though Lucinda was in high school, the Junior High was on the same grounds, which meant her cheerleading teammates might realize her unfortunate association to such a creature. Every time she looked at Heidi, it was a reminder of the horror she could become if she let herself go.
The sun continued cooking her back as she lay on the lawn in the backyard of her home, contemplating how long it would be until her sister gave up and started eating ice cream by the gallon again. Summer break had only started a week ago, and Heidi was still holding firm to a workout regime that Lucinda wouldn't have wanted to try to keep up with. Heidi had also switched out her old diet of saturated fat for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Aside from the sheer intensity of Heidi's resolve, Lucinda had noticed a strange feature to her sister's eyes. Though she rarely made eye contact with her overweight sibling, something about Heidi's new sense of presence had drawn Lucinda's eyes to Heidi's gaze the previous day. It had seemed like another presence was staring at her out of her sister's eyes. There wasn't anything particularly menacing about that presence; it had just been piercing in a way that had Lucinda quickly averting her own gaze. Something in that stranger's gaze was filled with such power and wisdom that she had briefly felt like an insect in its presence. She had made a point of not making eye contact ever since. She had almost convinced herself that she had imagined it.
One Month Later
Leilani watched her daughter, Heidi, across the dinner table with worried eyes. Summer vacation had only started a month ago, and in that short time her youngest child looked about half her former size. She had initially been proud of Heidi's commitment to exercise and eat right, but now Leilani worried her daughter was losing weight at an unhealthy pace.
Her daughter's appearance wasn't the only change—Leilani almost felt like she was looking at a stranger when she looked into her daughter's eyes. There was an intensity burning in Heidi's dark-brown eyes that made normal communication uncomfortable.
There had also been a strange altercation that had taken place between her daughters a week ago. Lucinda had accused Heidi of stealing one of her shirts. Heidi had nonchalantly acknowledged the theft and apologized for not asking first. Lucinda had reacted with immediate violence, striking out with a viper-like slap at her younger sister. Without flinching, Heidi had merely moved her head aside slightly to avoid the blow. Enraged, Lucinda launched into a full frontal assault, both arms swinging wildly. Faster than Leilani could follow, Heidi pinned Lucinda to the ground in a painful contorted position, calmly explaining to her older sister that if she attacked her again she would stop being so gentle.
It wasn't just the calm manner in which Heidi had warned her sister to back off—it was the complete certainty in her voice that she was capable of delivering on her promise. After seeing how quick her youngest daughter had moved, Leilani believed it. Where had she learned to fight like that? As far as Leilani knew, Heidi had never taken any self-defense lessons.
Heidi was far more affectionate now as well. She always thanked Leilani for dinner and hugged both parents before going to bed for the evening. Even her stoic husband had begun to thaw towards his formerly reclusive daughter. Heidi had even taken to doing more than her assigned chores in the evening, which gave Leilani a chance to chat with her daughter more than she had in years as she worked alongside her to clean the kitchen.
Some of those conversations were the reason Leilani was worried. Heidi talked about metaphysical ideas completely incomprehensible to Leilani, but somehow she always had a basic understanding of the broader concept by the time Heidi finished. Heidi would discuss subjects that ranged from complex chemistry to quantum physics, tying multiple disciplines together as seamlessly as a conductor conducting an orchestra. Even James, her husband, had started hanging around to listen to Heidi's ideas in fascination.
Occasionally, she would make eye-contact with her daughter, and there was the strangest sense that there was more than one person staring back at her. The other entity did not seem malevolent in any way. In fact, quite the opposite—the new presence radiated benevolence like a beacon in the night.
With a sigh, Leilani shelved her worried thoughts and focused on enjoying the delightful side of her daughter's new personality.
One Month Later
James sat in front of his commander at the base, absently swishing a glass of brandy around in small circles. The two of them had been friends since they were children. That friendship had led them both to enlist at West Point Military Academy, where they were both accepted. When Roger had become Colonel Clegg, James had immediately requested a transfer to work under his command. James had been promoted to Colonel Rockwell shortly after but had declined a commission in favor of working alongside Roger.
"So, she's been showing signs of an altered personality since the start of her summer break?" Roger asked with a contemplative gleam in his sharp eyes.
"Yes, right after her second day away from school," James replied, frowning slightly as he tried to recall anything that might be significant about that date. "I remember she woke up in the middle of the night with a shrill scream. Leilani and I ran to her room to see what was wrong. Her eyes were completely glazed over, and her skin was flushed. When she finally regained focus, she assured us it was just a strange dream, but from that moment on, it was like she was a totally different person."
"That's interesting," Roger murmured, staring down into his own drink as he chewed his lower lip.
"Why?" James asked sharply, suspicion clear on his features.
"I received a memo from Wing Commander Jensen that they were going to be doing some exercises over the Dugway Proving Grounds that involved some JDAMs," Roger replied slowly. "I had Kracke take a squad out to film it, mostly to give them some entertainment. They brought back destroyed electronic equipment. According to Kracke, a fleet of Bones flew over and dropped what looked like flares, except they were about a thousand times brighter. Kracke said they lit up the whole desert like it was daytime. I haven't heard anything official yet, but he said all of the Bone's looked like they almost went down as well, like some kind of EMP took out their engines. That was on the night of May 25th, at 0300 hours."
James sat very still, remembering vividly the red light of his alarm clock showing 0300 on his nightstand after Heidi's screams had awoken him. "Yep, that was the same time she woke up screaming. Any idea what they were dropping?"
Roger shook his head, his face growing even more serious. "Not a clue, but they've been carting a lot of weird stuff back from Egypt, of all places. Some of it went to Los Alamos, but most of it went to Hill."
James grunted. He had been with the military long enough to know that most of the information the public received regarding military activity was heavily sanitized. Military scientists were playing with technology decades ahead of mainstream science.
"This may sound weird, but does she seem to have an altered personality, or does there seem to be more than one personality present?" Roger asked carefully.
James narrowed his eyes. "When I look into her eyes, I feel like I'm being watched by two people. One of them is my daughter. The other is something completely alien, and more than a little intimidating. That's not to say threatening—it just seems to carry a much greater aura of gravity than anyone I've ever met. Why? What are you thinking?"
"I'm not sure," Roger replied pensively. "This is all strictly unrelated to anything I've heard through military channels. You know how my dad kept detailed journals of all his 'hallucinations' as we always called them. He used to warn me that there were certain places in the world where the Ancients could return if the conditions were right. I assumed he was batshit crazy, but he did mention that he had met people under another entity's possession, and that they gave the impression of being two distinct people in one body. Like I said, that's probably just crazy talk, but I thought I would ask."
James nodded thoughtfully. Roger's dad had been a very unique individual. James wasn't the type of person to believe in psychic phenomena, but sometimes Roger's father had an uncanny ability to tell you things about yourself that there was no possible way he could know. He had claimed to see spirits, as well as interact with them. He claimed little signs would appear above some spirits, designating the entity as evil or good. Some of the strange interactions he described in his journals were so bizarre that James wrote them off as drug induced hallucinations. Now he wondered if there was some truth to the visions Roger's father had so vividly detailed in his journals.
Three Weeks Later
Wendy shook her head as she watched the last of her students leave for the day. To say her students sucked would have been too complimentary. She had been teaching Orchestra at the local high school for three years now, and insufficient funding for the fine arts had driven her to spend a good chunk of her trust fund on instruments and studio equipment for the classroom. She had concluded at the end of the last school year that if her students didn't have the proper tools to motivate them to learn more, then they would have no interest in doing so. She had outfitted the classroom with a full complement of orchestral instruments, as well as a sound proof studio for recording tracks on a Mac running Logic Pro.
The students had certainly been excited to see the shiny new instruments, especially the electric guitars. She just hoped that excitement turned into a commitment to master their respective instruments. She surveyed the array of new equipment with satisfaction, pleased with her decision to spend her Trust fund on something worthwhile.
"Excuse me," a voice chimed from the door.
Wendy looked back at the door. A young woman with naturally tan skin and silky black hair stood in the doorway. She must have been at least half Hawaiian. She was easily one of the most beautiful young women Wendy had ever seen, with almond-shaped brown eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips. Wendy found it hard to look away from those captivating eyes. It didn't feel like she was looking into the eyes of a young woman who was probably barely fourteen—there was an ageless wisdom in those eyes that made Wendy feel like the younger woman.
"How can I help you?" Wendy asked curiously.
"I go to the junior high, but I was wondering if I could come in after school to learn how to play some of these instruments?" the young woman asked, her eyes never losing their strange intensity. She held up a small tablet. "I have all the video tutorials already loaded on this tablet, so I won't take anyone's time."
Wendy pursed her lips as she studied the young woman thoughtfully. Normally, she would have declined such a request and suggested using the junior high's music room, but there was something so compelling about this young woman's request that she suppressed her initial reaction. After all, she should welcome any future additions to her orchestra with open arms. The sooner the young woman started learning to play an instrument, the better.
"I suppose that would be okay," Wendy replied slowly. "So long as I can get a signed note from your parents acknowledging your intention to stay here after school."
"I'm sure that won't be a problem," the young woman assured her with a small smile.
Wendy nodded, unable to take her eyes from the young woman's riveting gaze. "What's your name?"
"Heidi Rockwell," the young woman answered.
"Well Heidi, feel free to try one of the instruments today, but I'll need that signed note by tomorrow," Wendy informed her.
Heidi nodded wordlessly as she surveyed the room full of instruments. Her eyes fell on one of the cellos and stopped. "Do you mind if I start with the cello?"
"By all means," Wendy gestured toward the cello, watching as Heidi walked over and sat down behind the cello.
Heidi must have already watched a demo on how to arrange the cello, because she handled it perfectly. She set her tablet on the music stand, plugged her headphones in, then started watching videos.
Wendy tried to focus on her own work, but her eyes were continually drawn back to the strange young woman. Heidi was already working on scales with a precision that many of her second year students would have envied. Her technique was impeccable. Heidi must have had at least some prior experience with stringed instruments to catch on so quickly.
Two hours later, Wendy reluctantly arose from her desk and walked over to where Heidi was now playing elements from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Heidi looked up and immediately stopped playing.
"Closing time?" Heidi asked, already placing the cello back on the stand and gathering her tablet.
"I'm afraid so," Wendy answered regretfully. "How long have you been playing stringed instruments?"
Heidi looked over at the clock. "Two hours."
"So, you've never played an instrument before today?" Wendy asked doubtfully.
"Never," Heidi confirmed. "I spent the last few days of summer vacation familiarizing myself with the theory though."
Wendy stared at the young women in bemusement. Could Heidi really have exceeded her best students in less than two hours of touching a cello for the first time? Normally she would have assumed the young woman was lying, but those eyes...there was something so...strange, for lack of a better word, about Heidi's eyes. There was a maturity in Heidi's gaze that made Wendy feel like a child in comparison.
"Well, that was some pretty impressive progress for two hours of work," Wendy praised her.
Heidi tilted her head slightly as she looked back at Wendy. "Was it?"
Wendy blinked, slightly taken aback. "Um, yeah. Definitely. You were playing better than some of my students who have been playing for years."
Heidi paused in surprise. "Oh. Well...it just all seemed to make sense, the way each note flowed from one frequency to the next."
One frequency to the next? Wendy thought with perplexity. Is she visualizing the sounds?
"Thanks a lot for letting me practice in here," Heidi said into the silence. "I really appreciate it. There is something about music that draws me in."
Wendy nodded, understanding the allure of music all too well. "No problem Heidi. How often do you plan on coming in to practice?"
"Daily, if I can," Heidi replied hopefully.
"You'll get no arguments from me," Wendy laughed ruefully. "I'm ecstatic to have someone so interested in music. Most of the other students are drawn to sports and drama. It's hard to find students in this town who are interested in orchestra. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow."
"Have a good evening," Heidi smiled at Wendy warmly as she left the room.
"You too," Wendy replied, a smile on her own face. Hearing Heidi play the cello was more than enough vindication for the personal expense she had incurred on all these instruments..
Three Weeks Later
Autumn tried to focus on what her history teacher was saying in the front of the class, but her eyes kept drifting over to where Heidi sat. At the end of the last school year, Heidi had been at least a hundred pounds heavier. It was incomprehensible that Heidi could have lost so much weight in such a short time. Her once-round face was now thin, with high cheekbones and almond-shaped dark-brown eyes. She had obviously hit a growth spurt over the summer; she was at least five and a half feet tall now. Her chest-length, midnight hair fell over one shoulder, accentuating a long, slender neck that reminded Autumn of a gazelle.
Autumn was at least a hundred pounds heavier than Heidi had been at her heaviest. She tried to ignore her own weight and pretend that it didn't bother her, but she knew that it still weighed on her self-esteem on a subconscious level.
Mrs. Reinich, her history teacher, was drawing illustrations of a pyramid, along with dimensions of individual building blocks. She was barely five feet tall and petite, with shoulder length light-blonde hair. She had to stand on a stool to reach the higher areas of her chalkboard.
"Even today, people who have tried to duplicate the feat of building a pyramid with the same materials have failed," Mrs. Reinich was saying. "Even with all of our technology, we cannot build a structure that a primitive culture built over forty-five hundred years ago."
"Forty-five hundred years ago?" Heidi questioned with a tilt of her head. "You think the pyramids are only forty-five hundred years old?"
Mrs. Reinich raised an eyebrow at Heidi. "That's what our Egyptologists tell us. You have an alternate theory?"
Heidi stared back at her, nonplussed. "Egyptologists? So, are you only referring to the pyramids in Egypt? Even so, they are over twenty-thousand years old. Why do you say their architects were primitive? This civilization is still using finite resources that are toxic to nearly all of the biology inhabiting this world. The last techno-civilization was using clean energy that was symbiotic with the inhabitants of this world."
Mrs. Reinich was staring at Heidi with a puzzled crease to her brow. "Where did you hear such an outlandish idea? Are you suggesting that pyramids were power generating stations?"
"Power harnessing stations," Heidi corrected firmly. "The energy is already generated by the earth's energy grid. The pyramids are merely conduits for directing and stabilizing the energy current broadcasting from within the earth. Of course, they are no longer functional without a proper hydrologic system flowing beneath them, and the energy grid has drifted out of their radius, but they are still remnants of technology that was more sophisticated than anything employed by the extant civilization."
"Just out of curiosity, what website did you read this on?" Mrs. Reinich asked quizzically.
Heidi tilted her head again. "Website? I don't believe this information is on a website at this time."
Autumn could tell that their teacher was starting to get weirded out by this bizarre conversation. There was an effortless confidence to Heidi's assertions that made it difficult to doubt her words. A strange presence had steadily grown as they discussed the pyramids. Heidi's words were accompanied by vivid imagery of a great civilization whose memory had nearly vanished through the annals of time.
With obvious effort, Mrs. Reinich regained some sense of control. "Where did you hear about this theory?"
Heidi blinked several times, and the presence vanished. "What theory?" she asked, confusion in her voice.
"Your theory about the pyramids," Mrs. Reinich prompted, watching her carefully.
"I'm sorry, I must have spaced out," Heidi muttered with a blush. "I'm not sure what you are talking about."
Everyone in the class was now watching Heidi in fascination. A boy several rows away made a cuckoo call while another boy swirled his finger in a crazy spiral at his head.
"That's okay," Mrs. Reinich replied kindly as she turned back to the chalkboard and continued their lesson, albeit with far less confidence than before.