My bus stop was about a half-mile away from home. As I stepped off the bus my whole body just seemed to droop. I knew what it was the stress of the past few weeks catching up to me, my dad being sick, the doctors unable to tell what was happening and now what in my mind I had started thinking of as the blue screen of death hanging over me. As I trudged down the sidewalk I spotted a new flier on a telephone pole.

I stopped to read it:

Lost Cat

Calico Cat Missing since Saturday

Reward

If found please call 555-646-7588

There was, of course, the obligatory picture. It was a cute cat. It made me think of my own cat that we’d lost a few years ago moonlight, moon for short. Every few months there would be another flyer with a picture of a lost pet on a telephone pole or a stop sign. Just one more thing weighing me down.

We lived in an older section of Castle Hills. I looked at the house as I stopped to check the mail. There it was my refuge from a crazy day, or maybe my prison for an even crazier night. It was a red brick ranch on a crawl space. I smiled remembering my dad praising that when he had to do some plumbing repairs. I tried to look at it with a critical eye, but it's hard when all you see is home. I saw my mom's car was parked under the carport. I was surprised I knew she was supposed to have worked late but I felt my spirits lifted. “Maybe, I said to myself as I walked up the driveway. I looked down as I went up the two stairs to the stoop and saw a painted object in the shrubs. I sighed. “Mom the roaming gnome is back,” I said as I put my bag on the peg by the door.

“Hi, Victoria.” I heard my brother Victor call out from the dining room. He was slouched at the table doing his homework. He looked over at me with a startled look. “Toria what happened?” I regarded him carefully. Did he get secret messages that only he could see?

I regarded my brother he was dark-haired like me with the same dark eyes. Though not a beefcake he was athletic. I was glad for once that he was two years behind me in school.

I waved my bandaged arms at him. “I got in a fight at the hospital.” I sighed dramatically. “One of the interns mouthed off at me and so I popped him a few.” I lied with a straight face.

“You what?” he shouted.

I laughed as I saw the whites of his eyes. “No seriously, I was attacked by some kind of rodent. It had gotten into dad's room and I had to kill it when it attacked me. Don’t Worry Vic it’s okay.” I said displaying my impressive war wounds.

“Moms heating up your favorite,” Victor said as he looked back at his book and gave a big sigh then bent over to look in his own book bag.

With a sniff I sighed. “It smells good. I’m Hungry.”

“And hey Toria?” He said as I had started to turn to the kitchen. I looked back at him and saw his hands move quickly and jerk something out of the air. “Happy birthday.” He said smiling. I glanced down and saw a small package in his hand. With a smile, I hugged him. Out of the corner of me eye, I once more saw the small flashing notification.

“Thank you, bro. I love you.”

Walking into the kitchen I found mom huddled over the stove putting the last touches on my favorite dinner, chicken casserole. “Hi, kiddo what happened today? The hospital didn’t really tell me much.”

“Wait, what?” I asked in confusion. “There was some kind of big rat that got into dad’s room it attacked me.” I said in confusion. “They called you, remember?” I looked at my mom with incredulity. Mom was in her late thirties but looked older from stress and the lines under her eyes from a lack of sleep. Mom was shorter than me by three or four inches with dark shoulder-length hair. Usually, it was above her shoulders but now it was far longer than I could ever recall it being. That was before her father's accident. “Did they say anything about how he was doing?”

“No.” She said shaking her head and looked up at me before she drew me into a hug. “Your dad’s a fighter. He’ll be with us soon. He just caught a bad break is all.” She smiled “Now go wash up.”

* * *

Later after we had eaten, after cake, and presents, after homework and dishes. I found myself sitting alone on the back porch. The air had grown cold and crisp. I sat in the porch swing rocking to the slow rhythmic flashing of the notification. I held my breath then once more I acknowledged the notification.

Happy 16th birthday!

You have 24 hours to complete set up and registration,

or the system will initialize with default settings.

Do you wish to enter Set up?

Y/N

You have to understand, after the fairy incident, I was a little nervous telling my parents hey there is some mysterious blue box that seems to be threatening me with default settings. Oh and the only proof, a bluish glint in my eye according to a friend of mine. Yep, perfectly sane. What happens if I went through and said yes and nothing happened, would that prove I was insane? What would happen if I went through with it and something did happen? I was feeling sick to my stomach.

Terrified as to what would happen I thought yes. As I did I started to see lights flaring up around me it looked like light was flowing up from the ground and as it went it seemed to build a souring structure that engulfed me. Thick pillars grew from the floor and the sky up forty or fifty feet into the air, the whole time I whipped my head left and right watching as the magical structure grew around and encompassed me. My eyes grew wide as I looked around and realized.

“A library? I’m in a library.” I said aloud, in wonder.

The ancient walls were lined with vast shelves lined with tomes, scrolls and things that I lacked the words to be able to describe. In the center, I saw a great globe that stuck out of the floor, a ray of light shown down bathing the North American continent and the pacific region in light.

“Where am I?” I asked the silent room in wonder. My words echoed loudly in the room.

“Welcome to the Akashic Library Victoria Vivian Leighton.” A feminine sounding voice said.

Startled I replied, “Where…” I started to ask as I looked around myself, I even stood up from the swing and tried to look around the library to find the voice. “Are you?”

“The Akashic library is everywhere and nowhere. We reside in each individual and encompass the tenth dimension” The voice said. I felt her jaw drop, what could happen next? Noah Wyle in an old suit?

“That is impossible,” I said I could feel myself start to panic, I really was insane.

“Only improbable.” The voice said in what I thought of as a snide tone.

“Why am I here?” I said thinking of the vast knowledge this Library must hold. “I mean why me?” came out of my mouth as I spun around looking at the library.

“The question is not why you. Instead, ask why not you.” At that note, I saw a glimmering on the globe and found myself walking to it as if I was being drawn into the light. “To answer that question we must begin at the ending.” I found myself staring at a spot on the northeastern section of the African continent a circle that looked like a target in the Sahara desert. “Long ago there was a land of knowledge, science, religion, faith, and magic that existed in a far offshore.”

“But how am I involved?” I pleaded.

“The great city fell, its people scattered in a great diaspora when there was a great inundation that sank the city.”

“Wait! Atlantis?” My jaw dropped. “You’re talking about Atlantis?”

“Yes, that was the name given to it by Plato. Though the city was lost over twelve thousand years ago. Today we are still faced with the consequences of that loss.” The voice echoed. The last word as it seemingly built into a crescendo. “The last great experiment opened cracks in the world's reality. The surviving families bound they and their descendants to eradicating the evils and creatures that came from the horrific accident.” A chill crept over and washed over me even as the voice paused.

“I’m Atlantean?” I asked in a shocked tone of voice. “Do like sea creatures come to my call?” I said jokingly. Oh God, I thought, let this be a dream.

“The scions are many things.” A window opened before my eyes, I saw figures there. “War wolves.” A figure of a man stood there a wide barrel chest then he changed and a beast stood there with the head of a wolf on two legs. Another figure stood a young girl, fire flying from her hands. The forms grew and flowed before me showing all kinds of possibilities. Then they stopped dissolving into particles of light that reformed into an image of me; dark hair, brown eyes, and an inner light I’d never seen in myself.

“The Akashic library is a part of the Akashic field or that is to say we are the same.”

“What is the Akashic field?” I asked as I stared at the light sculpture of myself. I reached out a hand to touch the figure and as I did it moved to imitate me perfectly.

“It is known by many names: Magisphere, Prana, Mana, the force across your world there are over two hundred and fifty-two words that describe it in the known languages. Nearly three times that many if you factor in the dead languages of civilizations past. But it all comes down to one word. Magic.”

I shook my head in confusion, my hair whipping around. As I did so the image did the same. “No. No, no, no you can’t do that. Magic isn't’ real.”

The voice snorted. “Magic is as real as your Santa Clause just ask Virginia.” Okay, I definitely sensed amusement in the voice. “You Victoria Vivian Leighton have been called by your bloodline oath to take up the call and become a hunter on this the sixteenth year of your birth. And on your fourth birthday.”

“Is my mom a hunter? My father? Is that what happened to him he was hurt while hunting?” I asked.

“Your biological parents were both hunters of the highest renown. They have fulfilled their oaths. Their passing was a great loss.”

“Wait! What the fuck!” I yelled. “My parents are alive.” The library was silent.“MY parents are alive!” I felt something inside of my soul lurch. Did this thing just tell me I was adopted on my birthday?

“No, we have the video of me being born,” I said. My voice was more confident as I remembered the video. “You have the wrong person.” I threw out in desperation. Then laughed. “I’m not who you want. I’m not a hunter.”

“Victoria Vivian Leighton do you believe an entity that is all, and knows all, would make an error as fundamental as mistaking you for another.”

My world collapsed around me. An entity that knew all and was all the cosmic consciousness was calling me to do battle. “It is noted that you have been separated from your people. I am authorized to enable a learning and assistance construct to aid in registration. Do you accept?”

Who was I, who were my people? Shocked I nodded vigorously. “Yes, yes I need help. Maybe a psychiatrist.” I quipped boldly as another figure took shape. It was a small woman about a foot tall.

“Hi, Victoria. I’m Lacie and I’m here to help you through your first few days.”

“You’re a pixie,” I stated and eyed the creature warily. The small woman just smiled. and cocked her head. I examined her carefully she was short with a short pixie cut blond hair bob. She wore a short green dress that sparked a memory. “Wait a second, you’re the pixie that was in my mom's garden.”

“Yep, that's me.” She said brightly as she put her hands together and pushed her arms put and down while laughing. “Now let us take a look at your statistics and see how many points you may have to work with.”

“I really hope I’m going insane,” I said.

“Oh your not insane. Unless an insane person's invisible constructs can talk to them.” Again the small tinker bell-like form laughed its wings beating to seemingly keep it in the air. “Let me display your stats here.” A list came up and I found myself looking at a numerical representation of my mind, my body and seeming my life.

Statistics

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 15

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 18

Charisma: 11

Luck: 18

Extra Stat Points:5

“Wow, That's actually very impressive. Well except for your charisma. Did your parents have to put a pork chop around your neck to play with the dog?” Lacie said cruelly.

“What, do all the stats mean?” I asked as she looked at them. Surely I was better than an eleven.