The Road Less Traveled

I linger in the doorway

Of alarm clock screaming

Monsters calling my name

Let me stay

Where the wind will whisper to me

Where the raindrops

As they're falling tell a story

In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me

Don't say I'm out of touch

With this rampant chaos - your reality

I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge

The nightmare I built my own world to escape

In my field of paper flowers

And candy clouds of lullaby

I lie inside myself for hours

And watch my purple sky fly over me

Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming

Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights

Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming

The goddess of imaginary light

-Evanescence, "Imaginary"

My name is Kuusooka. My friends call me Kuu.

They asked me to write this. My family, I mean, not my friends. Or not the friends who do not know the secret my family hides.

'Why not Mother?' I asked. 'Or Father? Or even my godparents?'

They were the ones it happened to. However many times I had heard the story as I'd grown up, they were the ones with the first-hand experience.

But Mother wasn't a writer. And Father said he was too busy training and teaching. That was his way of saying that he had no talent with writing either.

Of all of my many relatives I was the story-teller. My young cousins always clustered around me, clamoring for a story whenever we were visited or were visiting. My parents and aunts and uncles - and even grandparents - praised my ability to make stories come to life with only my words. It was rather embarrassing to tell the truth.

So here I am. Even though I'd heard the story many many times as I grew up, even though my parents had used illusions to show me, I traveled to Hogwarts to visit my parents' five Other friends and get their own views of what happened. I find it ironic that three of them forget Us the moment we're gone. But that's part of the story too.

It hurts sometimes. As far as we know, there's always been a Them and an Us.

My upbringing was rather unusual, even compared to Our standards. By the age of seven I had mastered the Level 2 and 3 magicks. I had nearly mastered the elements water and earth. A year later I mastered wind. Half a year after that I mastered fire. Now I learn the odd complex or little known spell. Mostly it's control and practice I need, as well as good reflexes.

I also visited Hogwarts regularly to learn witchcraft and wizardry. The Headmaster invited me.

Now at the age of 18, the same age my parents had been when this story began, I have become fairly powerful and continue the work of my parents, trying to bridge the gap so that there will never be a Them and an Us, only a We. It's confusing, isn't it? I don't want to give away too much or it'll ruin the surprise.

Where to begin?

I could start with the beginning, with a young wizard. But that's been written already and I will not tamper with what is not mine.

I could start with the beginning, when a young girl discovered a magical book containing 19 cards. But that has been written as well.

I think I'll start with the event that led to the discovery of this Us and Them. It begins, as it usually does, with Them, the wizards and witches. Their war had begun to be noticed by my uncle, and then Mother's discovery thrust them into the middle of the Wizarding World's conflict. They didn't know it, of course....