Chronicles of the Kiridians

For it is written in the Chronicles of the Kiridians:

There will be a king, and this king will rule his people with an iron fist

His reign will bring great terror to his people

Wars will be waged

Lives will be lost

But do not give up hope

For every great evil, there is an even greater good

A hero will arrive to stop the evil

And only this hero can do it

I laugh.

I can’t help it. There is no way that Raina is sane when she is saying things like that. Joey and I used to joke around and call Raina the princess of crazy, but I didn’t realize that she actually held the legit title. But the longer I laugh the longer I wait to hear everyone join in, and the longer I wait for them to join in the more they look at me with different expressions.

“Guys, she’s full of it, right? How can I be Lena when I’ve talked to her? That’s crazy. I can’t even believe she entertained that idea-”

“Kara,” says mom. “I told you that was me on a LOTUS,” she looks at me apologetically and stands up. She walks toward me and reaches out her hands, but I back away from her hitting my head on the wall. “Kara, you have to understand when we saw Raina we were confused. We thought we had a few more years before we told you who you were or the story of how you came to be, but prophecy doesn’t go by other’s timeline,”

“Oh my gosh,” I say. “You’re crazy too! She doesn’t even look like me!”

“Kara, I can control what you saw in the LOTUS. I didn’t want you to see the similarities and freak out,” says mom gently.

In a matter of a week, my whole world has changed. My parents are no longer who I thought they were. I have saved two alien royal family members, I’ve snuck out of the house, I’ve skipped school, and now I’m being told I’m an ancient alien warrior.

“I knew you didn’t believe Raina,” says mom. “I knew that you were going to need a push because I know you. So I tasked you with the prophecy.”

“But dad talked about the sword and the green flash of light!” I say. “How do you explain those things?” I say. “How do you explain how every time I needed her and called out she answered and helped?”

“Lena has powers,” whispers Raina.

Her face is an unreadable expression as she sits on the couch staring at me. Her eyes move up and down from my head to my feet over and over again. “Lena has the ability to summon things. Specifically her sword. While it made complete sense at the time that she sent it to you, I’m starting to think that maybe it’s you, Kara,” she says.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I’m sorry I can’t do this.”

I run. I run as far and as fast as I can. I don’t even know where I’m going, I just know that I needed to get out of that moment. It was like I built this glasshouse that was who I am, and I was just waiting and biding time before someone through the first stone. Now that it’s crumbled around me, I don’t know where to go from here.

Who am I?

I run until my feet hit the wooden dock of the lake Joey and I used to play when we were younger. I can’t tell how long I’ve been running, but I know that they weren’t able to keep up. I walk to the edge of the dock and sit down with my legs dangling. The sun is starting to set, and the weather is actually less humid tonight than It has been.

I look down at the water and see my reflection. On the outside, I look like the same girl. My hair is still brown and falls down to my shoulders. My eyes are still green like they have been since I was born, my freckles are lightly tossed around my face.

But this reflection is deceptive.

Why I look the same, everything else inside of me has changed. Everything that I knew was ripped out from under me, and now I’m searching for what’s next. I don’t think I can believe them. That can’t be me. I’m just Kara.

The screeching of a tire stopping on the dock plays behind me, but I don’t turn around. I don’t need to know who was smart enough to get on the bike and follow me. It’s been the same way since we were kids.

“So you’re an alien with superpowers, now? Man, I have the coolest friends,” he jokes as he sits down next to me on the dock. I punch him in the arm, but can’t help but chuckle as he puts his arm and around me. I sink into his shoulder and begin to cry. I cry for everything. For my parents, for Raina and Brodie, for who I supposedly am. For the first time since all of this started, I feel a release.

“You’re okay,” says Joey. “Just let it out.”

We stay like that for what feels like forever until I start to pull away. I wipe my eyes and turn to face him as he gives me a gentle smile. “This can’t be real, Joey,” I tell him. “None of this seems possible.”

“But isn’t it?” asks Joey. “Kara, for as long as I’ve known you, you’ve always said you were more than this town. You told me that you were going to get out of it, and when we were kids you told me you were going to change the world,”

“Joey I was a kid!” I say

“And how many kids get to grow up and actually do it, Kara?” he says to me. “Your ticket was never college. I could never see you doing any career forever. I know you couldn’t. You’re the top of our class and you still don’t know what you’d do. I just know that when I look at you I see greatness. I’ve seen it since we were young. You have a destiny greater than yourself, Kara. It’s greater than me, it’s greater than Raina and Brodie, it’s even greater than Earth. You were special enough to be prophesized about. So tell me what it is that’s not making sense to you?”

I’m scared.

It’s one thing to say that you’re made for more than a small town. Everyone says that. Everyone believes it, but when it all comes down to it does it actually change for them? I’m a sixteen-year-old girl who was told she’s going to be the sole warrior who fights an evil King. How do you let that sink in without feeling some sort of backlash internally?

“I’m scared, Joey,” I respond to him.

“That’s my line,” he says with a smile. “You’re the girl that stops us in the middle of a cave tour.” He winks and I embrace him as we sit at the end of the dock. “You’re the strongest person I know, Kara. I’ll be here with you every step of the way.”

“Okay,” I say pulling apart from the hug and wiping my eyes. “Let’s go hear the rest of it.”

“Okay good!” he says jumping up. “I’ve been dying to hear the rest of this story! I really want to know how you got here!”

“And you’ve ruined the moment,” I say playfully. “Now are you going to drive me on the handlebars of your bike or am I walking home?”

“Hop on to my swag wagon,” he says smiling brightly as we walk back to the end of the dock where his bike is. He gets situated and holds the bike steady as I stand on the front pegs and we make our way back to the house.

As we pass the houses on the streets leading back, I can’t help feel the ball of nerves sitting at the pit of my stomach. I take a deep breath as Joey pulls into the driveway of my house. The window is open and I can see Raina and my mom sitting in the living room talking, while Brodie and my dad have a giant piece of paper on the living room coffee table and are feverishly scribbling things on it.

“You ready?” asks Joey as I get off the bike.

“No,” I say to him as we walk back to the porch of my house and open the door.

The house goes silent as Joey and I step in. All eyes are on me as I walk into the living room and stand in the entryway. “Okay,” I tell them. “I’m ready to hear the rest.”

Raina gets up from the couch and runs over to me and locks me in a tight hug and smiles. “Kara, literally nothing is going to change. I’m still here. We are still fine. You’re still the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“Thanks, Raina,” I say to her.

“But seriously, do you want to be called Lena now?” She starts to giggle profusely as I roll my eyes and smile myself. “I’m only kidding, Kara,” she says. “You’ll probably always be Kara to me.”

She walks back to the living room couch and my parents look at me from where they both are. For the first time in my life, I’m seeing who they are, and while at first, I was upset about it, now I’m happy that everything is out in the open. It won’t be easy to move past all of the confusion that this situation has brought on, but I’m ready to start.

“I’m ready to hear the rest. How did I get here?” I ask them.

Mom and dad go back to the couch and sit down. They motion for me to sit down on the couch across from them, and everyone gathers around in the center of the living room. “We don’t know the full story,” says dad. “Your mother and I had a lot of things going on at once. They had just told us that the disease our daughter had was irreversible-”

“Wait,” I say holding up my hand. “You guys had a daughter? Wait,” I say looking at them. “I’m...I’m not your real daughter..”

My parents look at each other and then back at me with a smile. “Kara, you are our real daughter. We had you from the time you were a baby until now. We’ve given you everything, and would fall on a sword for you if given the chance and need.” says my father. “But yes, we had a daughter, her name was Nova. She was sixteen, and while Kiridians have a long life and advanced technology, there are diseases that even the best of medicines can’t heal,” says dad with a frown.

“But biologically, no,” says mom. “You’re technically not our daughter by birth if that is the answer you’re looking for.”

I nod. It’s a tough blow to take, but it’s just added on to the tip of the iceberg of what has been told to me today. “Nova had Echlosteristis,” says dad. “It is a nasty disease that attacks the heart, and slowly starts moving your heart to where your brain is. It’s preventable with surgeries, but we caught hers to late.” There is sad silence in the room and mom and dad look at each other.

“But that’s not what you asked for,” says mom. “We had a lot going on with the prognosis, and then the alarms went off. We ran out and we found you, Lena, lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. Nova, your father and I rushed into action. You were the heroine of legends, Kara. We got you in the house and began to panic trying to stop the bleeding.”

“It was Nova’s idea,” says dad, his face beaming with pride. “She remembers hearing legends of Chronicles when we took them to school. There aren’t many legends out in public, but the one of eternal life was. As elders, we had all of the instruments the book speaks of, and we loaded you up in a cryogenic chamber and we read the passage again and again. We finally understood what it was saying. We had to go to the center of the planet, where the ground meets the core, and do a sacrificial ritual.”

“Oh my gosh,” says Raina covering her mouth. She looks at me and then bites her lip. “It was-”

“Yes,” says my mom with tears. “Nova was the one to figure out what had to be done to get the lengend to come true. She had us sacrifice her, our greatest love who was dying, to save you, Kara.”

I start to feel woozy as I look at my parents in awe. “You mean,”

“Yes, you are a product of the ritual.”

The ritual that everyone is so fearful of. The ritual that is so evil that a man had his own children flee because he wanted to kill them, is the only reason I was alive. “Wait, does this mean I’m immortal?”

“We don’t know,” says mom. “We watched you turn back to a baby after using the knife on Nova. The core swallowed her, and your age started to revert before our eyes. We picked you up and knew you wouldn’t be safe, so we fled to earth. Nothing was tying us to Kiridia anymore.”

“So the legend won’t even grant my father eternal life?!” says Raina. “He won’t even remember anything from his old life!” says Raina stomping her foot. “So what?! He’s going to kill his kids and get turned into a baby and all of a sudden he lives another lifetime? What good is that? He’d have lost his greatest love!”

“This isn’t about the ritual anymore, Raina,” says Brodie. “This is for defying him.”

“Kara,” says Raina. “You have to stop him. You have to end this terror once and for all. My people, your people,” she says emphasizing the word. “Are counting on you!”

Does she know what she’s saying? Does she know that by asking me to end her father’s reign she’s essentially telling me to kill him? I don’t even know how to fight! Had that sword not been there when Ralph shot, I wouldn’t be here today.

“Kara, we don’t think the King knows who you are,” says Mom. “I feel had he known he was fighting Lena it would be very different.” A green light appears on her head as she talks, and I look at her curiously. I stare at her for a long time before I look over to my dad and see the same green dot on his forehead. It’s like a laser being pointed..

“EVERYONE DOWN!” I scream

I jump to the floor, pulling Joey down with me as the green lights fire into the house. Glass breaking, floor snapping, and furniture ripping fill my ears as everyone begins to army crawl to each other on the floor. My mother and father get on top of Raina, Joey, Brodie, and I as the lights continue to flash around us, until the stop.

My father slowly pokes his head up from where he is on top of us, and the sound of the front door being broken down sends all of us into a fright. “Well, Lena!” says the familiar voice of Brandon. “You I have a unfinished business. Ralph is dead. The king wants your head, and I am going to bring in the king’s children.”

He walks into the living room followed by six men. Each holding a blaster and pointing them at us as we lie on the floor. “Stand up slowly,” he instructs us.

My father grates his teeth as he gets up off the ground and holds his hands in the air. “Brandon, there’s no need to be hasty. You can still stop this-”

“Quiet, Kyle! You’re a traitor to this planet!” screams Bradon as his once calm demeanor has been shed. The rage behind his eyes is visible as he stares at me with pure hatred. “I SAID STAND UP!” he tells us.

We all get up and stand with our hands in the air as he motions for his guards to come and tie our hands together. One by one we are grabbed by our arm and forced to walk toward the front door. “Getting a little reckless here, aren’t we, Brandon?” asks my Mom. “People will talk.”

“No, they won’t,” says Brandon as he walks forward and opens up a car door parked in the driveway. He starts to move us into the car and looks at us with a crazy look in his eye. “We already knocked them out. There’s no one that can help you. You’re going to Concordia,”

He closes the door and I watch as Raina’s face pales. I lean sideways and look at her with questioning eyes. “What is Concordia?” I ask her.

“Concordia is my father’s ship,” Brodie answers. The same paleness has fallen on him as his sister’s face. “Buckle up, Earth kids. We are going to space,”