Envelope
©2003 Elizabeth L. Clark

Even before I opened the letter, I knew what it was going to say.… I was shaking like a leaf in a Texas hurricane as I ripped open the plain white envelope.

There in black and white, sharp words on crisp, white paper was my doom. They knew... knew who and what I was. I read it over and over, searching for a clue to who might have discovered and turned me in.

There was nothing but them informing me I was to report to the detention center tomorrow morning at six am or they would come and 'retrieve' me by force.

Force? That meant men... guns.... I had to run... had to get away. They may know what I was, but not the extent of my abilities. I had yet to test them to their fullest, but would before this day was done.

I am follower of Diana and Sappho. I am hunted as are all my sisters. We are deemed deviant, tainted. They fear us, despise us for our power and our love of our own gender.

I crumpled the paper and swiftly put my house in order, in case the nights plans failed. All I could not carry was destroyed past saving. I waited until darkness fell before slipping away to one of the last wooded areas left to us.

There I spoke the words, drew the power into myself. As it filled me I heard them coming, knew they had been watching, waiting.

As I spoke the last word they came. Men in armour, guns at the ready. My eyes blazed as the area became alive with light and a celestial chorus.

They screamed in fear and fell to their knees as the winds became a powerful tempest. All who had gone before came, hands rending, tearing across the globe. This even I had not expected. Through me they ripped away the hate, the lies.

As dawn broke it ended and I slumped to the moist earth. The hunters were all gone. the land around me was lusher, glowing with majicks not seen in centuries.

One by one, my sisters and men unafraid of our beliefs appeared, dazed but smiling. As for me, I was transformed. I now felt the pulse of all that lived above and below. I was their avatar, their spirits made flesh.

Never again would there be hunters... never again would we die for their hate.