Susie finds a shining pebble in her garden and wakes a power she never knew she had. When night falls, a strange shadow slips back through the trees.
Susie lived in a small yellow house with a bright blue roof, and her favourite place in the whole world was the garden behind it. One sunny afternoon, she was there with her cat, Fluffy. She hopped over muddy puddles, laughed at the splashes, and raced around the big oak tree.
Then something caught her eye. Half-buried in the grass was a pebble the size of a plum. It was purple, smooth, and shimmered like it had tiny bits of rainbow light trapped inside. Susie picked it up. The pebble felt warm in her hand, almost like it was waking up.
"What are you?" Susie whispered.
Just then, Fluffy gave a worried mew from high up in the oak tree. She had climbed too far and could not get back down. Susie hurried over, pebbles crunching under her shoes. She stretched out her hand, and the strange pebble gave a tiny pulse.
Her fingers began to glow.
Susie gasped. The light spread across both her hands, bright and gold. When she reached up again, she felt stronger than before, like her arms were filled with warm sunlight. Very gently, she lifted Fluffy down from the branch and set her on the grass. Fluffy blinked, then rubbed against Susie's leg as if nothing odd had happened at all.
Susie stared at her glowing hands, then at the pebble. A superpower. She could hardly believe it.
As the sky turned orange and then blue, she slipped the pebble into her pocket and stayed in the garden, hoping for one more magical surprise. That was when she saw it: a dark shadow sliding out from behind the oak tree, slow and quiet, getting closer and closer.