This is a story about a beautiful girl. That was born in the wrong body. She wasn't a she to the world. All they saw was a boy with problems. Long hair and pink shirts. They made fun of her every day. So she started to cut. But it wasn't eased into like most of the broken ones. No she drove head first into it. Soon her arms became covered in two rows of horizontal lines. The lines were read and angry and some had already began to scab over.

People are scared of her, because they do not understand what it's like being an outcast. Not fitting in, not being cookie cutter. Not being a boy because she knew she isn't one. Not being a true girl because she was born with the wrong parts. People laugh at her, and write words on her locker. During P.E she doesn't want to change with the boys, but the school won't let her change with the girls. She feels alone, confused, and unwanted.

I hear roars and screams in the distance. A shiver creeps up my spine, even after all of this time, hearing the " changed," makes me shiver. The dark sky shines bright with the flicker of the stars, it's probably their feeding time I think. I rest my head against my pillow softly, trying not to disturb Jesse. I close my eyes, remembering how it all started, the apocalypse, the end, Armageddon, whatever you like to call it.

It was a crisp, clear sunny day, the air was warm. My alarm buzzed loudly as it did every morning at 6:35. I reach for my phone and check my messages. It dings in my hand. The message reads- "Good morning baby see you at school meet me at the old farm after school? ---love Jesse. " I smile through puffy eyes, my Jesse. My love. We were both  17, but we had been dating since 15. I walked downstairs, to soon realize the news was blasting, my family huddled around it in horrific facial expressions. I shuffle over in my jammies. "Claire, the chinease have dropped some biological disease on us, they say it changes people into horrible mutant creatures!" My mom looks terrified but I laugh, very funny, I think. But it was real, they released a terrible disease that had a 98% mortality rate. My family and Jesse rushed to our farm 200 miles out in the deserted country. The infected did eventually make it to us, we shot what we could, but they got mom and dad. When I watched them get bitten by one of them, and then changed into one of them I was horrified. Jesse had to shoot them, that hurt really bad. It was hard at first to have to gather and hunt, even farm our own food. It took almost all of our time, that and the changed patrol. 

I wake up, the memory flashes have made me sweat and tremble. Jesse wakes up, dang it, he needs to sleep. " Claire, baby are you ok?" I try to look normal. "Ya just another dream ," I say. He hugs me and we fall back asleep.

               *******

The bright sunrise beams in from the cracks of our treehouse that is now our home because it became to risky to stay in the farmhouse. I get dressed and meet Jesse at our patrol post, my sister is below us, doing the farm work for the day. "How many today?" I ask. He smiles and says, "Two but we got a survivor too." I laugh. " Wow survivor, that doesn't happen often." I look down and sure enough a little girl, about five stands by my sister Ellie. Looks like Ellie already fixed her up, they are talking and laughing. I look across the treelike and notice one of the changed running tirades Ellie and the girl. My gun jams. It gets closer. "Jesse three o'clock!" boom! " That was close ." "Ya". He hugs me and brings me in closer to his sandy blonde hair and green eyes. This is how our life will be now, fighting, looking for survivors, and trying to stay alive and look for a cure. My sisters a chemist, so far she hasn't gotten any human trials, but one day we all believe and have faith and hope god will help her find a cure. We will shelter the living, and rebuild this planet. I look at Jesse. " Do you think there's hope?" he looks back at me and says, "Yes, I do believe there is. We will keep fighting, finding survivors, one day we may find a cure," he says. I smile, because its true. This may be the apocalypse but that doesn't mean we won't try to bring the world back. And so we will begin. We all will eventually die, but a few survivors must remain, to rebel against extinction. There will be the few who bring a new beginning to the end. 

We are the few......We are what remains....The ones who bring life after the end

“Sera, would you hurry up with my guitar?” I asked, my voice impatient. All these people were waiting for me to start playing, or I assumed, as the atmosphere around me was quiet.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” she replied, then proceeded to mumble under her breath, “Bossy.” Her disembodied voice was coming somewhere above me, which meant that there was a guitar floating in the air. Oh well, not as though I hadn’t explained that one before. People usually ignore it anyway.

I sighed. “I’m not deaf, you know.”

She chose to ignore my comment and told me, “Well, take it!”

Of course. She forgot, again. I would have take the instrument by now except for one little problem. I’m blind. Yeah, a blind girl playing an instrument. It’s not that hard, truly. All you have to do is be ear trained to hear the notes and know where to place you hands. And don’t look all surprised. I know you do, even if I can’t see your face. Tons of people have done it before.

Reaching up above my head randomly, my hand collided with something, making a thwack sound. I tried to find the neck of my precious guitar and grab it from Sera, but she seemed to be doing something weird up there. What? Was she dancing? I snapped my fingers to try to get her attention and the motion stopped. I swear. Ghosts are so forgetful it’s insane. And the longer they’ve been gone, the more of their former lives they forget. Until, they are only left with a vague memory of who they once were.

I cleared my throat, hoping she would catch onto the fact that I was having trouble. I hated making the fact that I can’t see obvious, especially to anybody watching, so I usually tried subtle signs first. She continued to float clueless, humming a tune I didn’t recognize. Was it that song I was singing earlier?

Birds chirped and filled the air with their song, but that was all the noise I could hear. No Sera, at all. Wow, she really could be dumb sometimes. Or would I just call her blond? Wait, I thought she was a brunette, like she’s pointed out endless times. Then, I’d roll my eyes and tell her it was just a figure of speech.

Okay, lets try the obvious approach. “Can you hand it to me? I can’t see. Remember?” I spoke deliberately slow, as though she were a toddler that had asked what they had done wrong.

“Ohhhh, yeaaaah.” I assume she frowns and then says, “I forgot. Sorry, Mel.” Like she hadn’t forgotten a thousand times before. She then opens my fist and places the neck into my palm.

Wow.

The entire display between us was only minutes and the crowd I suspect is forming around me hadn’t said a word. Probably thinks I’m some kind of schizophrenic or another kind of crazy. But, they’ve come because despite my weird appearance, I play good music that really speaks to the soul. And it was good that people recommended to visit me to their friends, otherwise I would be stuck without something to do, and someplace to live. Apartments and food were not cheap, even for sixteen year olds who were living away from their parents. Oh, wait, my parents were dead.

“How many people are there?” I whispered to Sera.

“Maybe…” There’s a pause as she counts. “Twentyish.” Hmm… Not too bad, but not the best I’ve ever had either. Better make this a good one, or I might not be eating well tonight.

I turn my head to where I hope the people are and address them. “Hey, ya’ll! I hope you like this next song. I wrote it the other day.”

My fingers started to play the melody of their own accord as my head bobbed to the beat, voice aching to be let out of my throat.

You say you’ve lost part of your soul

But you ain’t got nothing on mine

It’s been broken, so many times

The pieces are hard to find

I don’t think there’s any left, anymore…

Sera leaned in my ear and whispered, “They like it, keep going.” That gave me some more confidence and I started the chorus, my favorite part.

In this haunting melody, I close my eyes and memories pass by.

In the night, words are whispered by

Angels of death that make shadows weep.

Each note played is deep and dark.

Each note struck is sorrow and hope.

And this gripping sadness, I can’t seem to shake.

And this horrible nightmare, I helped to make.

These things whispered in my ears, they are nothing.

I can still feel the chill in my bones.

Did you know you could shiver, when you’re dead?

The last line drew to a close and the crowd started to talk excitedly. Finally, one repeating word reached its way to me through the mass of whispering. The whole area picked it up until it was a chant. “More. More More.”

“Hold up, you guys. I can’t just give away this music for free, ya know. A blind girl needs to eat.”

The crowd quieted as I gestured to the open case lying next to the bench where I had been sitting.  Almost as soon as I said that, I heard the jingle of coins hitting each other and even the crinkle of bills being pulled out of wallets. Okay, so maybe before I lied... I did tell people I was blind because I'd learned that it warrants more sympathy and then more cash for me.

LikeI told everyone... I had to eat.

"Hey, how much do we have right now?" I hisses out ofthe corner of my mouth to Sera.

It took her a minute to count it all up. Must have been a lot or she could be taking her time. I hated it when she left me in suspense. "Umm... Mel... we have twelve dollars."

"That's all we-" I started to screech before Sera smacked her hand against my mouth.

"Sh... That's not all we have. I was about to tell you that we have one hundred and twelve." Okay, that was a lot better. That was a lot of money for twenty something people. That's like five apiece. Was I really that good to everyone?

"Thank ya'll for being so generous!!  Then, I beamed, sending a huge grin to everyone. I could just tell instinctively that most were grinning back. "You wanna hear anymore?"

A roar burst out. I'm going with that was a yes.

Then, as the sweet strummed started up again, I started to sing the second verse. To me, it wasn't as good as the first one, but that didn't matter. This crowd would have been happy with anymore music I gave them.

They say that you can see the future.

If you looked deep into his eyes.

But, I don't believe in fairy tales, I don't believe in lies

I didn't know what else there was anymore

In this haunting melody, I close my eyes and memories pass by

In the night, words are whispered

By angels of death that make shadows weep

Each note played is deep and dark.

Each note struck is sorrow and hope.

And this gripping sadness I can't seem to shake

And this horrible nightmare I helped to make

These things whispered in my ear are nothing.

I can still feel the chill in my bones.

Did you know you can shiver when you're dead?

"It's five," Sera interrupted before I could start the third verse. At first, I didn't comprehend the words she had said, but as soon as they clicked...

"Oh crap!" Trying for a calmer tone I faced everyone. "Sorry folks, I gotta run."

The only response I could hear was a collective sigh, as I was already up withy case in hand. Sprinting as fast as I could, Sera could barely keep up. Granted, she could have just teleported hime , but she never leaves me alone. I'm with her literally 24.7.

I sprinted down the street, guitar gripped in one hand and Sera holding the other one, leading the way. Normally when walking, I would stumble and trip, but this way was easy, even when I was running at full speed. Of course, Sera leading the way helped too. I could only focus on getting home before the clock struck five, before the door could be locked for the night, before I was forced to sleep outside.

My house was strict, and breaking one of the rules led to consequences that I’d rather not explore. “We have to hurry!” I yelled over the wind rushing by my ears. Sera merely nodded her expression one that said I know.

Finally, we arrived, and we were both breathing hard, even though it wasn’t necessary for Sera to take in air. But, I guess it was habit for her to do it. I grabbed for the doorknob, and it wouldn’t budge, the door was locked. For a moment, I was stunned; I’d never had to deal with this before. I didn’t know how to deal with it! Great!

“What time is it?!” I asked anxiously.

“Umm…” she started. “It’s 5:04.”

I was late! What was I going to do? I wanted to band my head against the brick until I was bleeding, until I was broken into a million pieces. Instead, I pounded my fist against the door, desperate for Ms. Ausway to let us in. Or to let me in, because Sera could just float through the door, but she wouldn’t leave me out here alone.

After what seems like forever, I heard the click and took a small step back to avoid being hit in the face.

“Who are you? What do you want?” she bellowed, and then looked down at me. “Ahh, look what the cat dragged in. Did little Miss Melody finally decide to grace us with her presence?”

I nodded.

“Well, too bad! You were late!” She started to close the door, while I frantically tried to come up with something to say.

I blurted it out. “One hundred!”

She stopped dead in her tracks and blinked slowly, cocking her head to the side like she wasn’t sure she heard me right. “What?” A dumbstruck expression passed along her face.

“I made over a hundred dollars this afternoon by telling my latest clients that I was blind…”

She stepped aside and motioned for me to come in. I followed her into the kitchen where all the other girls were clustered around the table, chatting quietly. As soon as Ms. Ausway’s rotund body stepped into view, everything grew quiet, the silence almost overwhelming.

“Hello, girls. Guess what Melody told her clients today!?” The silence grew when no one answered and a greedy smile appeared on her swollen lips. “She said she was blind! And everyone believed it!” She clapped me between the shoulder blades, hard. “I’m proud of you, my little con artist.”

I let my gaze gloat around the room and the look on their faces- Katina’s, Laura’s, Shannon’s and Sydney’s- was one of shock. I could understand why: I never lied, not if I could help it.