She crept through the shadows of the towering metropolis, the busy sky blotted out by the towering skyscrapers of power and commerce. Her violet jumpsuit, marking her as a normal, blended well into the deep shadows cast by the towers. The streets were littered with garbage as no one ever bothered to clean up the lower levels of the cities, where the normals lived. The towers and the Paranormals that inhabited them got all the attention. The normals are here to serve them.

Lydia glanced up at the towers and spat at them. Her contempt of the Paranormals was no secret. She glanced down at the knapsack she had slung over shoulder. In it was the hope for her kind. The way she can make everything right. The way she can put the Paranormals in their place. A smile crept across her face at that thought.

Lydia made her way over to the wall on the other side of the alleyway she occupied, constantly on the lookout for pursuit. They had to know the item was gone by now. She was surprised by how easy it had been to get in and out, but Theresa, who had raised her like a mother, had provided her with the proper equipment to pull off the job. She asked Theresa once how she got Lydia the advanced tech that no normal was supposed to possess. Theresa had smiled and said that it was best she not know.

Lydia raised her gloved hand & pressed it against the wall. The wall opened up at the touch of her hand, revealing a stairway down into the nether realms below the city. Looking over her shoulder one last time in search of pursuers, Lydia slid into the doorway, which silently closed behind her. The stairway wound down for awhile until it opened up into an enclosed hovel.

Lydia looked around at her home. Two bed mats rested next to each other in the far corner, with a basic food replicator installed into the wall next to the bed mats. A computer terminal occupied the near wall and standing before the terminal was a woman whose looks have long since faded away. She had short dirty blond hair and was of average height and build. She looked to have been pretty once, but age and hardship seemed to have beaten her.

Theresa turned to face Lydia and a smile crossed her face.

"Did you get it?"

Lydia nodded and opened up the knapsack. In it were two metallic wristbands that had electronic readouts on them, though there was no power coursing through them at the moment. Theresa grabbed one and looked it over, inspecting every detail, her smile enlarging as she saw more & more of it.

"Excellent."

Theresa put the wristband down and reached out with her hand to the computer terminal. Her eyes seemed to focus on a space just above Lydia's head for a few moments. Then, she pulled her hand away and reached out to Lydia.

"This is what my research has been able to produce. Definitely can provide some insights on how best you can proceed. Ready for it?"

Lydia nodded her head and stuck her hand out to Theresa. Theresa reached out and took her hand. As soon as their hands touched, the nanites in their hands began talking to each other and the file transfer commenced. As the file wasn't that big, it only took an instant to transfer.

"A text file?" Lydia stated inquisitively.

Theresa nodded.

"A journal written by Terry Stonewall about the beginning," Theresa responded.

Lydia turned away from Theresa and looked at the wall. She willed the nanites around her eyes to activate & the words of the journal was projected onto her eyes.

My sister Sherry believes that it all started the night we were conceived…