The Awakening

The house was a large ranch style tucked against the base of the mountains. It was humming with the noise of all the people gathered inside and out waiting for the event of the millenium. A comet approached unlike any in recorded history. The news and media have been reporting how various scientists are unsure of it's composition. Space agencies in the U.S. and Russia are talking about how eager they are to be able to analyze such a unique event. Grace and Robert Thompson aren't as eager. They have invited friends and family over to witness the moment that the comet which has been burning it's way across the sky for a week now, will eclipse the sun. Everyone there has expressed their excitement at witnessing it in such an unpolluted sky as northwestern Montana. Yet Grace and Robert can't seem to shake their sense of trepidation over the upcoming event. There have been accounts on social media of individuals expressing their doubts about NASA's seeming excitement over something they don't understand. When Grace first saw one of these videos she felt vindicated in her unease and yet shame at giving in to such fear-mongering. There were always those who wanted to cast doubt on the government or those who would shout their unwarranted and uneducated opinions to the world. Grace had never given those types a second of her consideration. Yet, she had fallen down a rabbit hole of videos of people who didn't think we should be celebrating something that could easily wipe life off our entire planet. It only got worse when Robert found her in her library asleep in her little reading alcove with the laptop next to her with the stream of videos on it. When she woke she found that Robert was there and watching one of the last videos she had watched. "I'm sorry, I'm just being ridiculous watching this stuff, but I just can't seem to be as excited as everyone else about it. I didn't want you to know. So, when you brought up inviting everyone, I went along with it, but I just can't seem to get over the feeling that it's not a time to throw a party." Grace said with the worry line between her eyes, gripping the bench she was sitting on. Robert's emerald green eyes looked up and met hers over the top of the laptop and she knew that he had felt the same way. "I know. I only brought up the party because Ella had asked if her friends could come over for it. It being so close to her birthday, I couldn't bring myself to refuse her just because I was being irrational." He looked into his wife's big brown eyes, leaned over and tucked a strand of her beautiful red hair behind her ear. "I love you. Everything is going to be fine. Ella will have a blast with her friends and it will be the best birthday party a girl could ask for." Grace closed her eyes and saw her beautiful girl's face. She had Grace's thick red hair and Robert's deep green eyes. At only 10 years old, she was already so pretty. An image flashed into her mind of Ella wreathed in flame, but it was gone as soon as it had come. Grace opened her eyes again. "You're right." She said and let out a deep sigh as she grabbed the laptop, closed it and set it on the side table. She held out her hand to her husband and he took it. She was back at the party, looking down at her and Robert's joined hands and looked out over the backyard. It was so bright with the comet's light added to that of the sun that you couldn't go outdoors at all without sunglasses or sunblock. Her and her daughter's fair skin was already prone to sunburn, so she didn't risk it. Robert suddenly laughed, so she followed his gaze to what was so funny. She saw that Ella had a roasting stick in each hand with marshmallows skewered on the ends, but these were engulfed in flames. Instead of blowing them out Ella was waving them in the air as she danced with them. "Mom, Dad, look! I'm a fire dancer!" Ella laughed and went on her tiptoes with arms stretched out and spun in a slow circle. Grace caught her breath. It looked as though Ella was encircled by fire. It was too close to the horrible image she had quickly pushed away but not forgotten. "Honey, you put those out now. You're going to catch Emma's hair on fire!" Ella stopped and looked to see her best friend Emma standing as close as she could and trying to get closer while avoiding flaming mallows. "Sorry Em. Guess I got carried away." She said abashedly. "It's ok El. I just wanted to dance with you." The two girls giggled and each took a stick and put out the flames. Robert looked over at Grace with concern written on his brow, "You ok?" She looked up at him, "Yeah, s**t . . . sorry, yeah. I just want this night to be over so we can get back to normal." Robert didn't say anything but gave her his crooked half smile, gripped her hand tighter and led her down to their guests. The next couple of hours were a typical July backyard barbeque. People were in and out of the pool, kids leaving half-eaten plates of cheeseburgers lying on the tables while they chased each other with sparklers. Robert looked at his phone and said, "It's time we got everyone ready." Grace agreed and he called to everyone to come grab a pair of the special glasses in order to be able to watch the event without burning out their retinas. He and Grace went to stand by Ella who was next to Emma, hands clasped and heads tilted back. Excitment was etched across Ella's face. Robert watched Emma look from the sky to Ella and for a moment he thought she was going to say she wanted to go back inside, but instead she seemed to take courage from her friend and looked back up. He held his wife's hand while the other rested on his daughter's delicate shoulder and looked up to the sky. What happened over the next few minutes was hard to describe. The eclipse started out as any other seemed to, with the last rays of the sun being snuffed behind the mass overtaking it from their perspective, but then everything was different. A sudden burst of what seemed like bright silver light emanated from the comet. It was beautiful and soft and gentle. He felt himself smile, but at the same time he felt Grace's hand in his spasm and grip his. He looked over and saw that she seemed to be almost paralyzed. He looked closer because he could swear her eyes had gone white, like milk spilled over glass. "Grace, oh my god!" Then the world was an explosion of silver light that had lost its softness completely. It was power and heat and fire and wind. He seemed to feel the heartbeats of the women he was holding on to through a link, the beat through them as one. There was a faint echo of another that was off tune from their own. He looked through the exquisite agony of what he was feeling to see who or what it was when he felt it was Emma. She was terrified and in pain and crying. Ella was grasping her hands and clinging to her with her head thrown back in rapture. She was glowing, his Ella was glowing from the inside out. The silver spears of electric light the soared down through the sky seemed to be absorbed by her skin, but instead of that same cold light she became brighter and warmer like the sun. Then Emma's legs gave out and she fell to her knees with her hands still clasped in Ella's. Ella screamed, "NO!" and the force of her voice seemed to reverberate through his bones. He was suddenly afraid of his daughter. He kept holding onto her shoulder, unwilling to let her go and unwilling to let go of Grace with the other. He saw the silver light was being absorbed by him as well as Grace, but their glows were a candle compared to Ella's blaze. Emma, on the other hand, seemed to grow dim. Her body couldn't seem to absorb it, the light, the power. Whatever it was, it was killing her. Ella looked down at Emma who was looking at her friend with tears streaming down her face. "You can't leave me! I won't let you!" Ella let out a primal scream of anger. It was a sound that expressed all her love and fear for her friend. It was pure emotion that could have only been expressed through an unjaded child. Robert watched in awe as his daughter's fire seemed to beat with intensity in her hands around Emma's and the other girls' arms started to be a reflection of that fire. It was dim and not quite the same, like what he could see in the still glacial lakes on the mountain at night reflecting back the stars. Emma was Ella's reflection, her shadow, a deep pool trying to reflect the light of the stars. Emma suddenly stood and circled her arms around Ella's waist and held on while her friend's fire crawled over and into her. Then Robert felt it. Emma's little alien heartbeat was now beating with theirs. He thought, "She is awakened." Then nothing.