"A what?" I asked, an acute stress reaction passed through me. My eyebrows curved up and eyes enlarged wide enough to look down carefully at the thing shimmering on my palm.

"A Cornelian," Tyrell Kissler repeated, "also called Chalcedony gemstone. I remember once doctor telling me it's the most uncontrollable, most disobedient stone. And the master of such a stone is going to have a rough time with it."

Even though I heard what he said, my brain wasn't able to acknowledge it. I was still staring down at the thing. I could feel the energy radiating out of it as if being ready to charge, only waiting for a signal. I let out a sudden sigh, opened my mouth to speak something, but I snapped it shut and gulped a huge pile rising in my throat.

"Man, I can't say how happy I am, finally finding you," he said adjusting his cap. "And you have been right under my nose, all this time. Celina might now stop taunting me. Don't forget to remind me to teach her a lesson."

I finally took my eyes off the stone. His talkative nature was really getting onto my last nerves.

"Don't you think you are off the topic?" I asked slightly getting irritate, "Who is Celina? Why don't you tell me everything what's going on?"

"Oh! You are right. My bad. You were staying so mum that I thought you wanted me to keep going. Why don't we go inside and chat, now that we have met," said Tyrell looking at my house, "Your relatives might not doubt me anymore."

I was skeptical to let this guy into my house, but my curious brain needed answers. I slipped the stone back into my pocket and gestured him to follow me inside. My aunt was sensitive towards the any kind of noise. She can even name the airplane flying thousands of miles above in her deep midnight's sleep. I didn't want her to know that I was bringing in a stranger in the middle of the night. So I urged him to tiptoe behind me.

"Can I have some water?" he asked loudly when we were climbing the stairs to reach my bedroom.

"Sshhh!" I said hurriedly, watching my aunt shift in her sleep, "Stay quiet. I'll get you some. Go to my bedroom, second to the left and don't touch anything and for god's sake stay quiet."

"Alright," he whispered moving past me, "Can I breathe your air?"

He was still a stranger and it was pretty tough for me to leave the stranger alone in my room. I trotted silently to fetch a bottle and ran back to my room, before he does anything suspicious. I closed my bedroom's door behind, slightly startling him. I found him standing against the window, checking out the surroundings. I handed him a bottle of water and said, "You could have sat on the chair."

"You asked me not to touch anything," he said taking a sip.

I rolled my eyes. I was not sure whether I liked his so called sense of humor.

I pulled the chair for him and I myself sat on the bed waiting for him to put down the bottle.

"So, what's going on?" I asked when he was finally done, "Who are you? What is this stone doing in my pocket? Who put it in there? Why is it..."

"Whoa!! Hold on," he said shutting me up, "One question at a time dude. I was not that eager, not even Celina I guess. Man, you are desperate, aren't you?"

"Of course not," I said sarcastically, "People keep finding stones in their pocket each and everyday, don't they?"

"Okay fine, don't be mad. But let me tell you, your curiosity didn't kill the dog," he smirked before taking a deep breath he said, "Hayden, you are one of us, you are a Samagraha."

I frowned, "What is Sama-whatever?"

"Samagraha," he repeated, "It's a name given to each member of group who are different, a group of twelve actually, born on ninth of every month. Now that you are last, left out Samagraha, you birthday must be probably on August the ninth."

"Yes, that's my birthday," I said, "But you are wrong about me being different, last time I checked I was pretty normal."

"Nope," he said casually, "Think. Haven't you felt anything strange in the bar?"

I should have already realized that he knew something about me when I spotted him for the first time near the bar. Where I was fighting all my insane actions there, he was casually observing me as if he was well aware with that fact that I might act in such a way.

"Yeah I did," I said, finding the right words "I burnt the hound after I heard someone asking me to fight."

"Um-hmm. That was me. Pretty cool, don't you think?" he asked proudly raising a single eye-brow. "I told you to fight."

"You?" I asked aghast, but now that he told me that, I felt like his voice was similar to the ones I heard, "But you were not there inside the bar. You were standing outside...far away."

"Oh no," he said scoffing, "We don't need to be there in person to speak with each other. I told you we are different."

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"Because of the stone," he said pointing at my pocket, "The gemstone that you got in there is precious. It gives us powers of our own, including it helps us to communicate telepathically."

"How do you know it belongs to me?" I asked interrupting him.

"Because the stone emerged from your pocket" he said, "See, the stone decides its owner. It dwells on its owner. It can only work with its right owner. It goes both ways actually. We need the stone and the stone needs us."

"How did it get in my pocket?" I asked. I was not surprised that the questions came out of my mouth relentlessly.

"Can't tell that exactly," he said shrugging, "Although I heard that it just appears because it is meant to be. And yeah, no matter how much you try to throw it, it will just reappear. So don't even think about doing so." He suddenly started laughing and continued, "You know, once I forgot my stone in my room, and went to take a shower and it suddenly popped into my mouth."

"Er...what?" I asked.

"Yeah, it usually does. It just likes to stay in a closed spaces. If it couldn't find a pocket anywhere, it simply attacks the mouth."

"Oh! Okay," I said not exactly sure, what he meant. But suddenly something struck me, I was happy I was distracted.

"You just mentioned about your stone. Can you show it to me?"

"Of course," he said. He buried his hands into his pocket and pulled out his stone.

It was one of the most spectacular stones I had ever seen. It flashed every color of the spectrum with much more intensity than mine. I had seen diamonds and rubies, my mom owned some, but this stone looked beyond incredible.

"This is magnificent. What is it called?" I said not exactly recognizing what that stone was.

"It's an Opal," he said stringently, "Beautiful, isn't it? I was born on September the ninth"

Before I could contemplate more about his stone, he put it back into his pocket. I still couldn't believe all this was happening to me. Some guy from nowhere, appearing before me, showing me some weird stones, and telling me I was different. In eighteen years of my life I never felt this strange before. This was crazy, total crazy. The more I thought the more my head was bursting with excruciating pain now. I had enough for today and I needed some sleep.

"Alright," I said finally, "It's really nice to meet you and all, but I still don't know who you are and what you are saying. I am really sorry to say I am not at all interested in whatever this is all about. So...I think it is time for you to leave."

"Fine," he said flinging his hands into the air, "I don't blame you to feel so grumpy. I felt the same at first. We all went through the same. But I want to warn you. Now that you have the stone, you need to be more careful."

"And may I know why?"I asked, hoping he would leave soon, the throbbing in my head increasing by each minute.

"It's dangerous to wander around the streets with that stone of yours. don't you think? You need to master it, or else people around you might end up getting hurt just like the dog in the bar. And yeah, if you want to learn more, which I am positive you would want to, come to this address," he got up trying to reach my diary.

"Hey, that's private," I cried jumping from my bed to snatch it away from him.

But he was fast. He held it first and opened it. I stood akimbo watching him scribble something in the last page of the diary. After he was done he shut it hard and forced me to take it.

"I gave you the address of the academy where people like us live. That's it. I don't mean to invade in your personal life. Now I'll leave and thank you for being so patient with me."

He was walking away. I felt slightly awkward to insult a guest. He didn't seem harmful, he was just trying to help me. I gritted my teeth and I looked back.

"I am sorry," I said in a lower voice.

"Don't be," he said standing at the door pulling it slightly ajar, "I told you its natural to feel like that. But before I go I must tell you this." His face stiffened and his voice went stern when he said, "You better come down to the address I just gave you. We get all the help we need. We are trained to use our stones. You know what, It is actually better to get trained and master the stone before we mix up the normal people. If you be foolish and ignore this...I don't think you need any more complication in your life than you already have."

We stared at each other for a moment. He then gave me an assuring smile breaking out stare and walked out of my room.

I took out the stone from my pocket. Tyrell said it never leaves our side. My heart was accepting it but my mind wasn't. I decided to keep the stone away from me. So, taking a deep breathe, I placed it in the drawer of my study table, making up my mind to deal with it in the morning.

I jumped into my bed hoping for some peaceful sleep but before I drifted off I didn't forget to open my diary to look at the address Tyrell Kissler had written.

The Abhilashreya

34-Milano Drive, Tampa Bay, Florida

33684