Chapter One

Silas Watcher was bored with life. As such, he liked to think it was all a big mistake, or trick; that he was bigger than the place he lived, and the people around him. Yes, surely that was it. It was through some great miscarriage of justice that he found himself in such a bland, tedious place. But he knew better, really. Things didn't work that way. Afterall, it wasn't as if destiny had gotten its wires crossed. He just hated it there.

Not gifted or special, as he longed to be, that realization didn't stop him from blowing out the candles on his cake every birthday wishing something extraordinary would happen, and that he'd suddenly find himself in an interesting, fantastical place. Until such a time as the wish was granted, he'd simply have to exist (it really wasn't living) in that bland old house in droll, rural Autumn Grove where, until Tuesday, nothing exciting had ever happened.

Silas wasn't a boy wizard or supernatural hero like in those books he read. He was never a strong-willed, right-hearted boy wonder about to be clued-in to his secret destiny by a wise old man who'd help unlock the great potential within. That was something out of those movies he and Kick Harper usually tried to sneak into because, between the two of them, they weren't even special enough to scrounge up the eight dollars for a movie ticket.

He often wondered where he would fit in to those fabulous make-believe scenarios if he were somehow transplanted onto the page, or into the celluloid. Where would Silas Watcher be in all that fiction? Who did he identify with? He didn't have superpowers, and if he did he'd never wear a costume. Are you kidding? Spider-Man, Superman, Batman -- all kind of cool, he thought, but in real life kids his age would mercilessly label that attire "faggy" once off the comicbook panel. And besides, of the three of them the only one he could ever realistically aspire to be was Batman. He couldn't fly, couldn't spin webs out of... wherever Spidey spun them from... But Batman was just a guy who worked hard to be a strong, ruthless, fighting machine with brilliant deductive reasoning. Of course, thought Silas, since he was in no danger of becoming a wealthy heir to any fortunes any time soon, he guessed he'd cross Batman off the list, too.

Nope. Silas Watcher was not a superhero.

But what of the so-called ordinary kids who happened into extraordinarly situations? That Potter boy, or a kid called Skywalker. Indeed..the writers had probaly expected every kid to be able to identify with them well enough. And Silas did, for about fifteen minutes, before he realized Harry got a magic wand, and Luke got a lightsaber... and all Silas was left with was a jujy fruit stuck to the sole of his shoe when he left the theater.

Truth was Silas was just a plain old kid in a plain old town he couldn't stand.

That was until four days ago, when, for the first time in his life, Silas was happy he lived in Autumn Grove. It was his 16th birthday... although it wasn't birthday cake or ice-cream that suddenly grabbed his attention. In fact, that day, he got his wish before he'd even had the chance to blow out the candles.