The village of Blackdell hadn’t changed very much in the last century. The same rolling hills marked the horizon of the sleepy English village with thatched cottages and regularly attended bowling greens. Whilst most homes there may now hold a laptop or television of some description, the attitudes held within the village remain tremendously old fashioned.

A tangled mess of red hair sprawled out behind Janie’s head as she lay back on her bed praying to anybody that would listen that her mother would forget all about her and leave her to remain in the safe haven she had created. Her bedroom was the only piece of space where she was free to be herself. Deep red walls hidden behind blue tacked posters displaying punk rock bands and superheroes, heavy black curtains designed to block out as much of the sun as possible and several bookshelves filled with electronic cables, treasured ornaments and the odd comic book; her room was her paradise.

Hours of her time had been spent in her room and if it wasn’t for college, family functions and her mother’s career she most likely would never leave. Never being the sociable kind, most of Janie’s friends could only be found on the internet, dwelling in the dark areas of Tumblr and internet forums.

“Janessa!”

With Fall Out Boy blaring out of her speakers at full volume, it didn’t seem very likely that Janie was to be forgotten. However, the music did help to drown out her mother’s infernal screeching. Out of all the people Janie had ever met, none could quite imitate a banshee nearly as well as her mother could. Really, the woman should go on some kind of talent show, it’s quite an impressive impersonation.

“JANESSA!” this time there was no ignoring the woman, not when she was storming through your door and angrily unplugging your stereo system, causing a ringing silence to settle over the room “What have I told you about playing that mindless noise?”

“Its music mum” This argument had been spoken so many times in the last few years, Janie was bored and it hadn’t even kicked off yet “Good music! Very good music!”

“This is not music” she snapped angrily picking up a pair of socks that Janie hadn’t quite found the time to take to the laundry basket “Cliff Richard, The Beatles, Michael Buble; now that is good music…honestly what must Phil and Valerie think”

“Probably that someone in this household has reached the twenty first century and stopped playing crap all the time”

Mrs Kent’s hand soared through the air and struck her daughters cheek so hard that Janie was sure that it must be on fire. After all of this time she really should have gotten used to this yet her mother still managed to catch her off guard. Her mother’s eyes were icily blue, cold and bearing no sign of the love a mother was meant to hold for their daughter. “Get dressed”

It was probably not the wisest idea to provoke her mother further in the mood that she was in but Janie had never been able to hold her tongue around her mother. As much as she feared her mother, the woman drove her to points beyond anger. “I am dressed” She pulled rose from her bed but didn’t risk getting any closer to her mother. She wore a slightly too big Ghostbusters tee, black skinny jeans and soft yellow socks that she planned to tuck within her boots. The boots that her mother loathed, studded and falling apart with laces that refused to remain tied. Her mother looked her up and down like a piece of dirt that had been smudged across her favourite bed spread.

“You are not leaving this house looking like that” venom dripping out of every word before opening her wardrobe and pulling out a simple cream coloured dress and black cardigan with bronze buttons and throwing it across the room at Janie “Put this on. Quickly. Before I send your father up”

The door slammed shut behind her but the air in the room now felt heavy, almost suffocating. A freak tornado had come in and ripped apart her island paradise. Janie didn’t possess the strength to create another fight and whilst her mother may scare her she knew that her mother would never deal anything more than a slap to Janie’s cheek. Her father…her father was old fashioned. He believed there was only one way to teach an insolent child a lesson and that was with a swift and sharp beating with the end of a belt.

So Janie dressed and prepared to leave the house with the rest of her family. To parade around the village fair smiling and laughing with one another, pretending to be the happy, perfect family that helped her mother to win elections.

“Why is it always you two” Officer Andrew Dobbs said dropping a pile of papers on the table in front of the two teenagers. The taller of the two, a young boy of around eighteen with a cocky grin and long dark hair that fell into his eyes. He wore a plain black t-shirt and jeans though had somehow managed to lose one his socks. This was by far not the strangest discovery he had ever made within the confines of a police station. He slouched in his chair seeming more interested in the appearance of his fingernails than what Dobbs was saying to him.

Beside him, his partner in crime sat. Half his height with her blonde curls tied back into a ponytail with only a few loose strands hanging beside her ears. Freckles were sprayed across her face like pebbles on a beach. Her arms were crossed over her chest in an attempt to hide her bruised knuckles from the officer and whilst she also didn’t make eye contact with Dobbs it was for completely different reasons. Whilst the boy gave off a very clear I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude, the young girl merely seemed upset.

“You know better than this” Dobbs said looking at them with a look of sheer disappointment “What gets me is you are both good kids, you both have the potential to do really well in life. You could have good careers, get out of the Institute and make something of yourselves”

“As if” the girl, Tori, scoffed “None of that is ever going to happen whilst we are still second class citizens, while we can’t go anywhere without facing prejudice”

“You are not second class” Dobbs looked at Tori, his voice sounding sympathetic. Tori turned and met his eyes, she wasn’t angry at him. It wasn’t his fault after all and out of all the members of authority that she had come across – and in latent years she had met a fair few – he was probably the most understanding. He did genuinely care for them and wanted to help “You have the same rights as everybody else in this country”

“In theory” the boy, Elijah, spoke for the first time. His voice sounded tight and constrained, his eyes remaining focussed on his nails “but in practice we all know it isn’t true”

Dobbs looked very uncomfortable. It was true; Titans were treated differently than anybody else. Fear of the unknown and ignorance had created a divide in the country between those without abilities and those who do, known as the Titans. People needed very little excuse to kick a Titan off of their property or to report them to the police for something or other. The system was unfair and latest political movements were trying to remove some of the rights that the Titans were entitled too. If people weren’t careful, the segregation was going to grow out of hand.

“It doesn’t matter if we get good grades and work hard” Tori spoke again “The moment an employer see’s that we are a registered Titan any hope of a career is thrown out of the proverbial window”

Dobbs leaned across the table “Not everyone thinks like that, there are still people in this country who know that you aren’t any different from the rest of us…you guys need a little more hope in humanity”

There was a loud knock on the door interrupting them and causing Dobbs to sit upright and look at the door, waiting for an answer.

“Miss Henderson’s and Mr Owens’ guardian is here” a trainee officer said poking his head around the door looking slightly nervous about his interruption “Apparently they are in quite the rush at the moment and has asked…if you please sir-“

“Yeah we’re done here” Dobbs said waving his hand dismissively as the two youths pushed their chairs out from under the table and began to leave “Just remember what I said you two, there is always hope”

“I’ll believe that when I see it” Elijah said as he pushed past the trainee officer and exited the room. It was in Elijah’s nature to be rude, he had never been one to particularly care what others thought of him and if someone got in his way he wasn’t afraid to shove them aside.

Tori came scurrying behind him, her short body making it rather difficult to keep pace with Elijah’s long strides. She smiled kindly at the trainee officer as she passed, whispering “sorry” as she left the room. The trainee officer flinched away from her slightly. Sure she was apologetic and polite now but he had seen her hours earlier when she had been brought it. Appearances were very deceiving.

The village fair had to be moved inside the village hall rather than the Bowling Green as was originally planned thanks to good old British weather. The heavens had opened and rain was now pelting down against Blackdell. This meant, of course, that Janie spent the first hour having to hear the same conversation starters repeated over and over.

“Isn’t the weather awful?”

“Rain like this in July! Winter is going to be dreadful this year”

“Like cats and dogs out there!”

If she had to make small talk with one more person asking what she thought of her mother’s campaign, how proud she was of her father’s new dentist surgery or whether she was looking forward to her sister’s upcoming wedding she was going to pull her hair out. Her mother was a liar and her campaign was a pile of horse manure. She honestly couldn’t care less about her father’s surgery and as for her Olivia’s wedding she would rather use a hedgehog as toilet paper than watch her narcissistic excuse for a sister walk down the aisle and marry Darren. Janie had been sure it was impossible to find another person on the planet as self-absorbed and egotistical as Olivia but apparently not.

The only highlight of that wedding would be if the hair spray fumes surrounding Olivia’s head got a little too close to an open flame.

After about two hours of awkward conversations and avoiding people as much as possible, Janie found herself trailing behind her family onto a small, crudely constructed stage in front of the on looking crowds. A sea of pastel colours sat before her all looking up with admiration. But not at her, towards her mother. If this village knew of the dirty little secrets hiding in the Kent family closet, they wouldn’t be smiling nearly as brightly.

As her mother waffled out nonsense about ‘conserving the red squirrels of Blackdell’ and ‘the need to improve pass rates’, Janie found herself completely zoned out. She only had a few more months. A few more months before she was eighteen and her parents wouldn’t be able to stop her from leaving this god forsaken place. She would go to university in a city far away and get a degree in art. Start producing her own comics and build a reputation as an artist.

“Janessa, they are talking to you” her mother’s voice was light but sharp as a razor blades edge, her constrained anger dangerously close to the surface. She turned back to the crowd smiling broadly “Sorry, she was up all night reading…teenagers”

Janie wanted nothing more than to be invisible. She hated attention being focused upon her. She wanted nothing more than to fade into the background and be forgotten. The pastor and his wife, their post man, her family GP…everyone she knew was in that audience. Practically the entire village had turned up to witness this.

“What Mrs Bates asked, Janessa” her mother said very carefully, talking very slowly as if she was seven years old once again and not understanding what she was being asked to do “is how proud you are to have a strong and successful mother for a role model, would you like to explain”

Oh God. That was not something she wanted to explain. She was not proud of that woman and she most certainly did not consider her a role model. How could she possibly look up to a woman who used violence and threats to keep her children in line? Janie was no parent – she hadn’t even been close to a situation that would risk her becoming one – but she knew that was no way to raise a child.

She wanted to disappear. She wanted the world to swallow her up right there and send her tumbling into a big black emptiness. She sucked at public speaking; normal circumstances would have been difficult enough. But having to lie to a crowd of people about something as personal as this? Whilst her parents stood by, watching and judging every word that would come out of her mouth and her every move?

She felt her heart racing against her chest and her pulse pounding within her veins. She felt like a rabbit in those last remaining seconds before the foxes jaws clamped shut around its throat. Basic instincts kicking in, fight or flight? Did she stand up and make the bold statement that her mother was nothing to be proud of or smile and continue the pretence? She had to say something. Anything.

She opened her mouth to speak but no words would come out, instead a strange choking sound emerged from the depths of her throat. ‘Speak! Speak now!’

There was a gasp spreading through the crowd, a sound of shock and disgust. Her mother’s face drained of colour, now causing her to resemble an embalmed corpse. She turned to the left and saw a murderous look in her father eye whilst to her right her sister had jumped from her seat looking terrified. ‘What did I do?’

But the answer was being murmured already. One word being passed in suppressed whisper.

Titan.

Tori and Elijah sat in the backseat of the Volkswagen, waiting for Miss Harrow to return to the car. The two teenagers sat in silence at either end of the car. Let out a hefty sigh Tori turned around, sending daggers towards Elijah.

“What?” he asked shrugging his shoulders “It wasn’t me that played the power card, remember”

“I did that because he was going to bloody punch you!” Tori said defensively “Because you provoked him, you pushed and pushed him to the limit; if I was him I would have punched you too!”

“I’m touched you wanted to protect me” he said mockingly holding his hand over his heart “but I’m pretty sure there are better ways to break up a fight than sending a thousand volts of electricity running through their body”

A tense silence fell over them as Tori turned back around to look out the window again, not wanting to look at the smug look of victory that was undoubtedly spreading across his features at that point “It wasn’t a thousand…”Elijah only laughed slightly in reply “Why the hell do I hang out with you?”

“Because you love me really” Elijah said rustling his hands through her hair much to her irritation “…and if it wasn’t for me you probably would have electrocuted half the institute on your first day there so you sort of owe me”

“I think I’ve paid you back for that one on numerous occasions” Tori toyed with the hem of her dress which still smelled suspiciously of bourbon. That was another lecture waiting to happen when Miss Harrow returned to the car, the dangers of drinking and how they must be more aware of the effects of alcohol.

“Ah, you didn’t deny that you loved me though!” he said poking her in the ribs slightly before pulling his phone out of his pocket. A small groan escaped his lips “Travis is pissed”

“Oh I wonder why?” she said turning around to look at him in disbelief “He must be being unreasonable. After all your as innocent as a lamb, right?”

“You know, I keep telling him this but for whatever reason he just doesn’t listen” Elijah locked the screen before replacing the phone in his pocket again “I’ll text him later, if he asks my phone died”

“Your unbelievable” the young girl sat shaking her head, watching as Miss Harrow approached the car. Tori tried her best to look apologetic, which wasn’t difficult considering she truly was sorry for how she had behaved the previous evening “…Miss Harrow?”

“I know what happened Tori” Miss Harrow said placing the keys in the ignition “I understand why you did what you did but it doesn’t make it right. You’re both getting tagged for a month”

“I’m sorry” Tori’s voice came out very quietly, more of a whimper “It-“

“Won’t happen again? We’ll see about that one, eh” Miss Harrow pulled the car out from the parking space and made her way out of the police stations small car park “At least you had the respect to apologise”

Elijah was far too busy looking out the window, looking rather confused as they passed the cathedral. He quickly read a road sign before leaning forward to address the driver seat “The institute is the other way, where are we going?”

“I’ve just received a phone call” Miss Harrow sighed as she turned her sat nav “A newly awakened titan has been reported, afraid your both going to have to come with me on this one”

Elijah sat back in his seat and closed his eyes, willing sleep to come. This one going to be an extremely boring time if he didn’t find a way to pass it and was there any better way than to spend it unconscious? He straightened his spine out and stretched his legs as far as the driver’s seat would allow him. His muscles ached from the previous night’s escapades and he could feel sleep tugging against his eye lids.

He would be fast asleep in three..two…one….

“Hey!” a sharp jab to his ribs caused him to wake up suddenly “If I can’t sleep then you can’t either, you got us into this mess and now you can suck up the consequences”

“But I’m tired though” he complained rubbing his eyes weakly “I’m not charged up like you”

“Oh, just grow a pair will you?” Tori complained, poking him once more in the ribs. Luckily, she was a guilty as charged nail biter, particularly when she was anxious, so it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it could have if another girl had been the one to poke him. He just smiled cockily; it was quite entertaining winding Tori up like this. She had a fiery temper and whilst her hair had returned to its usual sandy blonde colour, her eyes were still a vivid shade of purple.

“Calm down, okay?” he said as calmly as he could “It’s over now, you don’t need to turn violet on me”

Her shoulders relaxed slightly but she still seemed very tense. After a moment she quietly muttered across “They turn fuchsia actually, not violet”

Elijah chuckled slightly. ‘That’s typical Tori for you…’