Introduction

Joe couldn't take his eyes off the girl on the street. He felt like he knew her or something and there was this connection he felt towards her that he just couldn't explain.

"What do we do?" Joe asked his friend, unsure of how to proceed.

"We have to go talk to her," Kurt suggested.

"I don't know, man. This article says that she ran away from home and that her mom is offering a lot of money to whoever finds her. If we approach her all of a sudden, she might get scared and take off," Joe said.

"You're right. We don't want to scare her off so we need to be tactical about how we do this," Kurt added.

"Totally! But what if it's all just a coincidence and she has nothing to do with me? What then?" Joe asked, worried.

"I don't know, Joe. I don't know but for now, we need to have a little faith," Kurt said and touched his shoulder.

The boys left the cafe and crossed over to the other side of the street. They hid behind a dumpster and watched the girl.

She was cleaning the display glass window that was outside the shop which seemed to be a jewellery shop. She was also wearing an apron and the guys discerned that she worked there.

"Lydia, hurry up with that! I don't pay you for just cleaning windows, you know," A man inside the shop shouted.

"I'm almost done, Mr Johnson," She shouted back and continued cleaning the display window.

A few yards away, the boys were spying on her from behind the dumpster and Kurt accidentally kicked a soda can whose noise alerted Lydia which made her look in their direction.

Kurt and Joe took cover behind the dumpster, hoping she didn't notice them.

"Do you think she saw us?" Kurt asked.

"I don't know. Let me check," Joe replied and slowly stuck his head out again and was glad to see that she was gone.

"She didn't see us. She's gone back into the shop," Joe said in relief.

"Actually, I'm right here," Lydia's voice suddenly said from behind the boys.

"Jesus Christ, you scared me, girl. You can't just be sneaking up on people like that," Kurt said defensively with his hand on his chest.

The boys knew they'd been caught spying on her and the only way out of facing the consequences would be to play dumb and act oblivious.

"And I suppose spying on people is okay then?" She asked with her hands folded on her chest.

"What? What are you talking about? We weren't spying on anybody," Joe denied.

"Oh really? Then explain why you're both hiding behind this dumpster," She demanded with a raised brow.

"We...we, were looking for something we lost, right buddy?" Kurt said.

"Right," Joe agreed.

The two of them got into the dumpster and pretended to be looking for something through the trash but Lydia wasn't buying it.

"Are you two planning on calling my mother so you can collect the bounty on my head?" She asked with all seriousness.

Kurt shot Joe a look and he understood what it meant. They decided to drop the act and tell her the truth about why they were there.

"We're not here for that. You're not going to believe this but we just found out about you minutes ago and saw you here at just about the same time," Joe said as he and Kurt jumped out of the dumpster.

"My name's Joe and this is Kurt. We were spying on you but not for the reason you think," He said.

"What's the reason then?" She asked.

The boys looked at each other, unsure of how to tell her because, in reality, they had nothing to tell. The only thing they had as a conversation opener was that she and Joe were born on the same day.

"You see, my buddy here is um, looking for his family and we think that you are somehow connected to him in some way..." Kurt said.

Lydia was looking at them suspiciously. They were acting unusual and she felt like she couldn't trust them.

"And how are we connected?" She asked, slightly sarcastic.

"We have the same birthday," Joe pointed out.

"So what? A lot of people share birthdays," Lydia said.

"Also, the same day you ran away from home, we ran away from the orphanage," Kurt said.

Lydia's eyes widened as she heard this. They were in an orphanage? Well, so was she before Miss Eunice adopted her. There does have to be a connection, right?

"You were in an orphanage?" She asked Joe in surprise.

"Yeah, since I was a baby," He answered.

"Wait here!" Lydia said and ran into the jewellery shop.

She took off her apron and told Mr Johnson, the shop owner that she'd be back soon because she needed to take care of an emergency. She grabbed her backpack and walked out.

She went over to the boys and asked them to follow her. They walked into the alley and she was in front of them.

"Where are we going?" Joe asked her.

"Back to where I stay," She answered without looking back.

"Hold up, we're not going anywhere with you until we know for sure that you're not just another dead-end," Kurt said cautiously and they stopped walking.

"Fine! You want to be sure if you and I have a connection? Show me your palm," She said to Joe.

"Why?" Joe asked but she didn't say.

Lydia walked over to him and took his palm in her hands and saw the birthmark on it.

"You have it too," Lydia said with a relieved smile on her face.

"What do you mean by 'too'? Kurt asked.

Lydia let go of Joe's hand and removed the glove on her right hand and showed them that she had the same mark that Joe did.

"I have the mark as well," She said and put her gloves back on.

"Which means you have..,"

"Weird powers? Yeah, I do," She answered and continued walking.

"Do you know what it means or how we got it?" Joe asked from behind her.

"It's a birthmark borne by children who were touched by a goddess from another realm," She said casually.

"Wait, what?" Kurt asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I read about it in a book," She said.

"What book?" Joe asked.

Lydia stopped walking and took off her backpack. She opened it and took out a large book and handed it to Joe.

"This book..." She said.

The book was large and on the cover, it had the word "TROLEYADIA" on it in large font.

"It was written by some guy named Philip Jameson and he studies ancient traditions of lost cultures. When I first saw the book, I thought it was just another children's book but after flipping a few pages, I found this," She said and opened to a particular page that had a picture of the mark on their palms.

"Well, I'll be damned," Joe said.

"This isn't a fictional book, boys. Everything written in here is true," Lydia said with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Tell us more about what's in it," Kurt asked.

"I will, but we have to get to my place first. We can't discuss this out here in the open," Lydia said.

She put the book back in her backpack and zipped it up. As she turned around to continue walking, she saw a weirdly dressed man in front of them.

He was dressed like a ninja but his suit was blue with golden lines instead of black. He was also wearing an Oni mask or at least, it looked like one. He looked like an assassin that was here to hurt them but they weren't sure if he was.

"Hi, there, man," Kurt said to him nervously and stood behind Joe, "maybe he's on his way to a costume party," Kurt said.

The masked man pulled out a sword from his back and swung it around before taking a fighting pose

"Or maybe he's just here to kill us," Lydia said.

The marks on their palms began to glow and it hurt a lot. Joe winced in pain as he held his glowing hand while Lydia took off her gloves because her hand was also hurting.

The masked man saw their palms and it was the confirmation he needed before he proceeded to attack.

He raised his sword and started running at the kids who were panicking as he got closer.