• PART 1
    1. The Dream
    It was late one night. I was sleeping fitfully after a harsh day roaming the streets. I was an orphan, I had never known my parents; it was like they never existed. Like my life hadn’t existed, as if my life had no meaning. For I was the outcast, the loner, the odd one out. I wasn’t what you would call exactly human for I was a being with human properties, and extraterrestrial traits integrated into a form which, at first might seem normal. But as you step closer into my world, you see that I’m different. You flee, like so many others. I had one experience with a farmer who had given me shelter for the night. I had fallen asleep in his hay stack beside the barn house, and while I was sleeping he came around and saw me ‘spontaneously combust’ as he put it. I couldn’t even explain the event to myself. The whole barn had been demolished, which was uncommon in human combustion. The farmer was taken by the medics and they had put him in a mental disorder ward. And all because of me. I was losing hope, and I was on the verge of suicide. I needed a meaning, a reason to stay here. I vowed to myself that one day, I would find out what my life was meant for, why I was brought here.

    I spent the night’s sleep in front of the private road leading to the White House. I awoke, and swiftly got up. I took an inert stance, as if someone was there. I turned around, and gasped in shock.
    “An aurora,” I speculated over the sight. Several colors swirled in an endless pattern around a crystalline beset orb. I finally got the thought in my head that this wasn’t an aurora. I had a sudden curiosity which befuddled me, for I was also strangely attracted to the mystical sight. Finally my curiosity got the better of me, and I climbed the gate. This, in the case that this was the White House’s gate, is hard to do. I held the cheaply spray painted iron bar. Huh, the prez is gonna have fits about this. It dissolved in my hand like I was clutching a piece of chalk with lots of force. Ashes were what were left of the bar. I eased myself through, and lithely stalked up towards the building. The guard was of course dozing off in his homemade recliner, so the getting in part was easy. A simple movement took the key from him and I was in. The White House was as elaborately furnished and decorated as you hear about it, but I just couldn’t help but think of the other things about the White House. Sightings of the ghost of President Lincoln. That chilled my spine. I tried to avert my thoughts to other things, but that thought just crept into the recesses of my head waiting for a chance to come forth again. Then there was a blinding flash in my peripheral view. My head snapped up and something just moved around the corner of the next floor. My fears had suddenly arisen with a vengeance. I pondered over whether I should follow or run away. I didn’t need to think long. The flash again. My eyes went shut and then nothing.









    2. The Immortal
    I hadn’t realized that the flash had sent me into the wall, and as I opened my eyes a pain in the back of my head was evident. I looked around, and there was no White House. The room was circular-no, more pentagonal, with marble pillars holding the domed roof u far above me. Each side of the pentagon harnessed an orb except one. They were of different colors, ranging from deep indigo and black to light blue and white. In the center of it all was an altar. It was carved of granite and lined with opal. The light from the roof reflected off the mangled colors of the opal giving the whole place a dull but strangely colorful hue. I had been staring at the room for the whole time that I hadn’t noticed the man in the balcony atop the black orb wall. I gasped, and realized that the bum I had endured must have done something with my thoughts and sight. This whole place is an illusion. I reasoned that I was still unconscious. But this place was so real….so…
    “He has arrived,” The black figure spoke suddenly. Then, to my awe, the other orbs started hovering. The mass inside began swirling, and the room was filled with bright, intense color. The swirls swooped out from the orbs, and onto the floor in front of me. They began taking shape, morphing into tall, spectral but alien-esque beings. Their bodies were out of this world. Their feet were spiked heavily, ad the size of human feet. Their arms were of similar etiquette with three fingers jutting out from hands that again were human size. The face was hidden behind a veil of the swirling energy from the orbs. The rest of the head was similar to a human’s yet again. The black one leaped from his perch on the balcony ad landed between the others and me.
    “I see that you have no memory whatsoever of our past, what we are, and what we are here for. I will guess that you have been seeking this knowledge….and you have found it.”
    “What?” My brain was whirling around with thoughts dashing everywhere.
    “What you say? I will explain,” He said that with a slight grin on his face. (The veil didn’t cover his face)
    “Millennia ago, there was no Earth. Light years away, there was another planet. This planet was the home to the first of living beings. They were born of the power of the stars. Surrounding this planet were five stars. They all were different colors. The white star was the oldest one there, and after a long life, it cataclysmically died. It turned into a supernova. The explosion from the supernova was so strong; it destroyed all the other stars, causing four other supernovas. The heat energy from these explosions was so strong that they went far from our galaxy to the Milky Way. I the Milky Way there was a mega planet 100 times bigger than Jupiter. The force from the supernovas actually managed to destroy the mega planet, which was made from the toughest rock that is not found on Earth. The huge chunks from this planet shot to different parts of the galaxy, smashing into solar systems and destroying planets. But, at the same time they created one planet. Planet earth. But enough of earth. Back where the ultra-destructive supernovas had exploded, the planet they surrounded was untouched. The stars had left a permanent imprint on the planet though. But not a physical one. An organic one. For each one had left a portion of the power each one had possessed. They became creatures born out of the energy they had. Since they were born of energy and that only, they had no heart, no mind, but only a soul. And above all that, they were immortal. “
    Here he paused, as if a sudden tiredness had come over him. His body slumped lower and his face looked up at me, ashen and weary now. His jet black eyes seeming to lose their fiery gaze.
    “All of them, except one.” He finally uttered. For some reason this sent a chill through my spine. And then he suddenly pointed to the empty wall.
    “All of them, except one” I repeated. I started walking toward the wall, but the black one stopped me.
    “No! You are not the one.” He gazed into my eyes, and I gazed back, and his eyes were filled with pure sadness.
    “He has gone, never to return. But, after he left, another was born. This One bore the powers of all the creatures born of the stars. Then it hit me. It was them. I counted them all. Four. Black, blue, red, and white. One was missing. I took a step back. The room became unfocused and blurry. The black one said, “Return to me when you have found him…..” Then he was gone. The whole scene disappeared, and I was back to reality. I realized I was on the floor, resting my head on the wall, still outside on the road. I hadn’t gone anyway. It was dawn, and the sun shone over Washington D.C. The sun… It reminded me of the black creature’s story. I wondered, and decided it was real. I mean, I was probably the weirdest guy on Earth, and I have this weird dream. What do you expect? I got up, yawned, and temporarily forgot that I was this hobo and started jogging down the sidewalk apparently going nowhere. Then I came across the school. A group of kids were crossing the street and they all looked oddly familiar. Then one pointed at me and waved. He smiled, and came over to me.
    “You look horrible-no offense-where have you been?” He inquired.
    “I…I have no idea what you're talking about.” I stammered hastily.
    “Don’t tell me you’ve gone mental or something! It’s me Mark! Remember?” I noted his Polish accent, and something popped in my head. I suddenly needed to find out who these people were. So…I faked it.
    “Oh right, Mark! I didn’t recognize you. Did you have a haircut?” I knew I blew it when a look of confusion stole upon his face.
    “Haircut? My last one was two weeks ago!” He said.
    “Heh, I knew that, just, um, seeing if your memory was working well,” Lame. I was probably the worst liar ever.
    “Oh, ok. Let me test you. Who is that fat kid there with long hair?” He pointed to an oversized boy with long hair draped over his shoulders. He looked like some kind of ‘Tarzan gone to the city’ actor and Tarzan suddenly started hunting down fast food restaurants instead of the occasional BBQ’ed monkey or somewhat. I tried to think. I had no idea who this freak fat kid was. He looked so repulsive that I had to look away for a while. I decided for a counter attack.
    “My memory’s fine. I checked it yesterday. How about you? Who is that kid?” I grinned smugly to myself.
    “Haha that’s Humphrey the nerd. I always beat him up after school for fun. It makes me happy. And I buy soda with his money.” He smirked maliciously at Humphrey. It looked like he was planning another attack on is prey. So I backed off, and started walking away from the school.
    “Hey Matthew! Get over here man!” I looked at the person who called me by that name. I didn’t even remember having a name.
    “Oh hey!” I called. I racked my brain for an excuse to get away. But, the lottery gave nothing.
    “What’s up?” He clapped me on the back. He was a tall, lanky guy, great sports stature. His clothes gave all that away. Nothing denim here. Just Nike sports shorts and shirt.
    “You on the team?” I asked nervously. I was anxious for the answer.
    “Um, no not yet. The tryouts are today.” The bell rang.
    “See ya! Wish me luck!” He said to me with a grin, and ran off. I turned around, and wasn’t surprised to see more kids heading over to me.
    “Hey, Matthew! Where have you been? You remember Teresa, um, Vince, and Mia right?”
    “Um, yeah,” I replied.
    “You seem…unusual today, no offense” Vince remarked.
    “Hi again,” Mia awkwardly shifted her feet and looked down.
    “Hey, we, um, need to go,” Kiara suddenly said. She and Vince strolled off. I saw a slight smirk on her face as she went.
    “That was on purpose wasn’t it?” I asked, keeping a straight face. I didn’t want to let my feelings loose now. Curiosity, anxiousness, déjà vu, and many more all tugged at my head trying to break free.
    “Yeah… hey can I meet you at first break by the wall? It’s the caved in part. We can sit in there.” She pointed to a section of the wall, slightly sheltered from view. It was caved in, and there were several ledges where we could sit.
    “Oh, ok,” I was feeling a little shy also. A memory tugged at me joining my feelings which were still relentlessly ripping my head apart. Then she was running towards the school, her hair billowing wildly in the sudden breeze. She disappeared into the crowd, and I speculated over her reaction. Different than the others. I slipped away from school grounds, crossing the road and entering the supermarket. It wasn’t full today which meant I had to be extra carful in my shop-lifting today. I slipped past the check-out counters, knowing that if they caught me I wouldn’t have a reason why I was here. After this was the toiletries aisle. I kept my eyes straight ahead, trying to look inconspicuous in the all adult crowd. The snack aisle. At last. I skipped the healthy stuff and went straight to the mini Doritos packs and as I walked by them, my hand shot out to grab one and I jammed it in my pocket.
    “Hey, kid! Gimme that!” A fat man who was sweeping the evidently clean floor pointed his broom at me, knocking some people off balance. They toppled over, smashing into shelves of Pringles and another into the refrigerator full of soda. I dashed into the Pringles disarray and grabbed a can. Next was the fridge. Nimbly leaping away from any hands, I snatched a Pepsi bottle and made for the door. All was chaos in the shop then. Shelves were being demolished; stacks of toilet paper and tomato sauce were obliterated by horrendous trolley surges from every customer. The manager just stood there asphyxiated by the sight. I ran into the street narrowly missed by a Toyota Corolla probably speeding by the looks of the tread marks produced by the car squealing to a stop. The driver roared something bad, but I didn’t pay any heed. I ran farther, aiming for the school, and trying to mix in the crowd there. Luckily for me it was first break, so I mingled around and sought the place Mia had told me to go to. As I rounded the corner of the school’s bulk, I saw her already there waiting for me. She saw me, and waved. I saw everyone else there too. The sporty kid from before, Kiara, Vince,
    Teresa and Mark. I guessed he took care of Humphrey. I remembered seeing him hanging from the top of the swings in the elementary playground on the way here from the store. I jogged over and sat down next to Mia and Mark.
    “So…what am I here for?” I asked.
    “Matthew…you don’t remember anything?” The sports boy pressed.
    “Shuttup Blake.” She turned to me. “Before you came to this school, what happened to you? Anything strange? Any event, a dream?” Mia struck the point home. I remembered the dream with stunning velocity. It was still clear in my head.
    “There was a dream... I found these things. They were like these alien creatures I think... there was a black one, and he told me a story. He also told me something else,”
    “What was it?” They all asked unanimously.
    “He said that there was one who wasn’t immortal. He said for me to come back once I knew who that was,”
    “He lied,” Blake said this. His voice rose a bit with that.
    “What?” I was stunned.
    “He isn’t an immortal. He died long ago before they came to Earth. That was a spirit of him. The orbs you I think saw were like jar things maybe trapping their spirits inside,”
    I turned to the others.
    “Is this true?” They all nodded.
    “So, I’m still not understanding any of this,” I was desperate for more right now.
    “Mia will tell you more after school,” Kiara said. She winked at me, and Mia gave her a dirty look.
    “C’mon we have to go!” Teresa said.
    “Bye, Matt,” Kiara said. I heard her whisper to Blake,
    “That used to get on his nerves, remember?” Blake snickered. I got up, and Mia went over to me and passed me an old sheet of paper.
    “Read it,” She said in a hushed tone.
    “Ok…” My voice trailed off as I opened it. On the top of the paper was: “To the brave warriors who fell in battle against the Dark Ones.” Then it put several names. Avon, Teresa, Mia, Blake, Kiara, Vince, RK, and Matthew. Under it there was a passage: the above persons are all dead except for Matthew, who disappeared after the Empire was conquered.
    I shuddered when I read my name. What had happened? Where did I go? I settled down in the wall crevice and lay down, soaking in all the information. Then, I heard a rustle to the left of the crevice.
























    3. Abilities
    My mind was in turmoil at all this that was happening right now. After all that, and then this stranger guy. A boy stepped out from the rose bushes (that must’ve hurt, hiding in there) and brushed himself off.
    “Hi Matt,” He sat down in front of me chewing on a candy bar.
    “Where’d you get that?” I asked.
    “Oh I sneaked it from the store a few blocks down.”
    “Nice,” I took out my Doritos, Pringles, and the Pepsi.
    “Nice catch. Hey I’m RK since you don’t remember,” He stuck out is hand. I shook it and felt a deep callous formed on his palm.
    “Why don’t you go to school?” I asked.
    “Oh, I hijacked a truck last week and was chased out of the town and expelled. Hah, idiots. I only wanted to run over this bird!”
    “Nice, so you're like a gangster thing then?”
    “Yeah you could call it that,” He grinned. “Hey, let me see that, his hand took the paper Mia had given to me and unfolded it. A frown formed on his face.
    “I remember this, after the Maxims were killed you ran off. The rest of us were left and then nothing. We were suddenly in this town with families again.
    “Tell me more, what are Maxims?” I pressed on. He was a good information source.
    “In your dream, remember the red creature thing?” He said.
    “Yeah…”
    “Before the first one died, he created more of his kind, and so did the others. They then separated and formed different colonies, and started warring with each other. The strongest weren’t the Maxims though. The Black dudes were. They called them selves the Protozous. I think that they’re nuts,”
    “Why?”
    “They thought they were the rulers of everything. Because their ancestor, the first Protozoan, was the first to be formed from the stars. Idiocy I tell you,”
    “So this war, did it end their world?”
    “We don’t know, because we were sent back to this world, which was then destroyed.”
    “Hey um, RK? It’s my turn to tell him,” Mia was suddenly there.
    “Sorry,” RK backed off and climbed the wall nimbly.
    “See ya around Matt,”
    “He can get pretty annoying sometimes, c’mon lets go,”
    “Go where?”
    “A walk,”
    “Where?”
    “Just shuttup and lets go,” She shoved me off my seat and I stumbled forward, and when I looked back there was a smile on her face.
    “So, what are you supposed to tell me?” I followed her into the park, which was already full of people.
    “The beginnings,” She replied.
    “Beginnings…”
    “After the blue one died, the first blue guy, there was some of his energy left behind on the planet. After the rest of them died, their energy was left behind also. The new blue creatures became smarter and made themselves sorcerers using this energy.”
    She told me they gathered energy and created another one from all the energies that were there. This one was immortal, but because of the multiple elements, he was sort of a multi personality thing. As wars started to tear apart the planet, they sent this One to Earth, jettisoning it into deep space. Then it landed on Earth. This was before humans, and he still is there. She then asked me if I could do anything strange. I told her how I could burn things up with a single touch and I demonstrated by frying up a leaf. I suddenly realized that I knew that it was me.
    “It’s me isn’t it?”
    “Yes,” She turned to me. “And that’s why you need the whole story. Now. We need to train you again, and you need to build a time machine,”
    “Was I that smart?”
    “What do you think living for millennia does to you?”
    “Ok, so I need to try something. Is there like a place in the forest where I can try change into alien form?”
    “I don’t think we should go into the forest at this time…”
    “Why?”
    “There are things in there. Fine, we’ll gather everyone up. C’mon.” She raced across the street with stunning agility and I quickly followed. We went to everyone’s houses asking them to come. We got together Blake, Kiara, Vince, Mark, Teresa, and RK who was shop-lifting again. Then we went back to the forest again. Blake was leading, and suddenly he dropped out of sight. I didn’t have time to stop, and I fell also. It was a tube of some sort leading underground. I landed on a floor of some sort, but there was no light.
    I got up, and the lights went on. I gazed in absolute awe at the room I was in.
    “Matt, take these and put them into the teleporter module-machine thing over there,” He pointed to a machine that looked so…part of the wrong time era. This was technology centuries ahead. But I didn’t have time to think about that. Blake stuffed these massive guns in my arms, and I staggered over to the module. They weren’t heavy, but they were stacked on top of each other precariously, and I hurried and set them on a platform. Blake pressed several buttons and the guns were gone.
    “C’mon lets get out of here, its dangerous,” He looked to either side of him, and stopped on his left side. I looked, but the lights went off again. A growl resounded in the back of the room, and the lights flickered on again. My heart skipped maybe-three or four beats? It was a beast of abnormally huge size, and wolf-like caliber, and it pointed its snout at me, and bared its razor sharp juggernauts for teeth. Blake reached in his pocket and brought out a silver knife. He lunged at the werewolf, aiming at the heart. The beast reached out and grabbed Blake’s neck. I couldn’t think clearly at this point. And then suddenly a fiery anger rose inside me. I didn’t realize that my body had gone up in flames, because I felt nothing except the anger. My heart pounded furiously, and I stalked forward. Blake took one look at me, and the widest smile that could fit on his face appeared. My right hand balled into a fist, and I felt something else there. I looked down, temporarily distracted from my reverie, and saw to my wonder a sword. The blade had a slender curve and was crafted from a luminescent metal that glowed a deep blue. Several shallow lacerations threaded through the center of the blade and down into the hilt. I looked back up at the werewolf, now a foot away. I grinned, and thrust the sword straight at it. But it was fast. It threw Blake to the side. This time it grabbed my neck and held me up high, I was strangling for my last breaths and I saw Blake get up, pick up his knife, and he stuck it in the beast’s heart. Blood spouted from the deep cut, and the beast slowly sank down. The werewolf dropped me, and I landed neatly on my feet, while the werewolf lay in a heap, slain, on the floor.






























    4. The First Attack
    Blake and I ascended the steps and met up with the others. Vince noted our reddish necks and asked.
    “Did you guys strangle each other?” He looked at our throats again.
    “Werewolf,” I stuttered out.
    “Oooh,” Kiara said.
    “Is it dead?” Mia asked.
    “Yeah! You should have seen him! He turned fiery again! But he didn’t kill it. We’ll have to get his skills up,” Blake smiled at this. I looked at my hands, and the sword was gone, and my body was normal. No burn marks anywhere. I saw that everyone had their guns strapped over their shoulders.
    “So, what are we doing now?” I asked.
    “We’re hunting!” Vince said.
    “…hunting what exactly?” I nervously asked.
    “Oh, the usual, werewolves, evil vampires, ghosts spirits, goblins, demons, djinn, and all that stuff.” He said. I gawked at all that.
    “No, really, if a werewolf is real, then those are too,” Kiara explained.
    “We’re only like 16!” I countered.
    “We’ve been hunting them for a while now. There are tons here. The most common is a crossroads demon.” Mia said.
    “Ok…and will someone explain what that is?”
    “They stay at places where four roads come together and form a cross.” Blake started.
    “Sometimes when people are in need, they make a deal with the demon, like I want a million bucks, but it comes with a price.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “Their life, usually,”
    “The people who make a deal with a crossroads demon are usually idiots,” Vince remarked.
    “Right,” Blake added. “And we have to save those idiots,”
    “Ok, so where are we headed to?” I asked. I noted that the sky was turning dark, and I had a chill again.
    “There’s a crossroads half a mile south from here,” Teresa said.
    “Ok, so let’s go,” I started to get enthusiastic here.
    “How do you kill one?”
    “We use the Colt which was lost until we recovered it in a tomb, use silver bullets, or trap it in a pentagram,” Blake said. Then we set off to kill the demon, and at the same time the sun set, darkening the forest, the mood, and the demon’s heart half a mile away. There was no trail, so we had to pick our way through with the machete. Finally we reached the site. The crossroads was a very old place, the road was dusty, cracked, and weeds sprouted from every hole. On the corner perpendicular to where we were standing, there was a graveyard, which was a very bad thing to have.
    “Um, you sure we should take this one down now?” Vince asked, looking worried. His usual happiness was taken away.
    “There is a graveyard there. The demon could have friends… so what’s the plan? Blake?” Everyone then noticed a black figure across the road.
    “B-blake?” Teresa said.
    “The figure didn’t move.
    “What is that?” I asked. “It doesn’t look like Blake at all, “
    The figure turned around, and we saw its face. Three screams pierced the silent night, and Kiara hid behind Vince. Teresa and Mia didn’t go anywhere, probably stuck there, and rooted by their fear. I saw the figure moving closer. It had no face, which made it all the scarier. I gulped, and Vince readied his gun with small, hasty movements. I looked behind it, and I saw a hand reach out from a grave. It groped around the empty soil (grass wouldn’t grow here for some paranormal reason) until it found a rock wedged into the ground. It started slowly pulling itself out, and it was out. These things had just crawled out from the iron grip of Hell, and were hunting us now. I saw more and more undead climb out of their coffins and out into the night. I looked up, and saw a full moon. My heart sank. I smelled the rotten smell of the corpses, and noticed the dangling, rotted flesh on their bones. Vince took aim and shot one, and it just got back up! No-Face was suddenly right in front of me, and I reeled back swiftly. Then one of the freakiest thing happened. The moon went behind a cloud, and the whole scene went into darkness.

    I sensed a different presence there other than the skeletons and No-Face. There was….the demon! It wasn’t a crossroads demon… it was different. It was different, as if created by a human’s mind…it dawned upon me. A ribbajack! I tried to see it but all I saw were two blood red eyes. Basilisk eyes.
    “Everyone do not move and close your eyes now!” I shouted at my friends. The twin eyes crept closer, and I could make out its body now. The body was full of jagged spikes sticking out everywhere and it was very very slimy. The head was with black hair veiling the face. It stepped ever closer to me. No face followed behind with a curved rapier in his shadowy grasp. It was dipped in blood, and I thought of Blake. Just then another figure appeared from behind the suddenly alive cemetery and raised a silver bulleted gun. He took aim, and shot. The shot shook the stillness, and I had realized the darkness had lifted when the figure appeared. The ribbajack yelped with the utter force of the bullet, and disappeared in a waft of smoke.
    “Blake?” I called out in a hoarse voice. The figure turned to me, and also disappeared. The ribbajack was taken care of, but No Face was now lurking somewhere in the forest. The gunshot had sent him away as well. The other undead had stopped rising and lay in massive heaps of skeletons on the road. I sighed, and turned to Vince, who was practically frozen. I looked at his face, his eyes now colored a bright red. Red?
    “Vince?” I asked. He didn’t answer.
    “He was paralyzed I think,” Mia speculated.
    “Paralyzed?” Kiara was evidently shocked.
    “The basilisk’s eyes on the ribbajack,” I breathed.
    “Vince opened his eyes!” Kiara gasped.
    “We’ll need to heal him somehow,” I said.
    “First let’s get out of here,” Mia pointed out.
    “Thanks, I forgot we were even here, “I replied. I grabbed Vince and slung him over my shoulder which I did with strange ease. The trek back was nerve racking as we kept letting our eyes stray behind us or beside us looking at the immense shadows that towered over us. We reached the hideout and dropped inside. This time I was pleased to be here as the heater went on. There was another room in the underground sanctuary. It looked somewhat like a rec room, because there was an ice hockey mini rink, ping pong table, and even a basketball hoop and court in the far back. A massive wide screen HD TV.
    “Whoa, nice pad,” I exclaimed.
    “Thanks,” Mia said. “You built it,”
    “I gaped at her open-mouthed. I then recollected myself.
    “Wow, I have nice taste then…sweet,” I leaped over the back of the sofa and landed with a bounce on the soft cushions.
    “What’s on?” I asked.
    “Nothing of interest,” Kiara hastily replied. She went into yet another room, and I asked what it was. Teresa said it was the medical room. I resisted the urge to lounge about and followed them into the room. I had left Vince upright by the wall just now and I just realized that Kiara had to drag him in here.
    “Woops,” I apologized.
    Kiara smiled. “I do need more exercise, haha,”
    “Ok, so wats up, doc?” Everyone shot a look at me.
    “What? Doesn’t anyone remember Bugs Bunny? Hop hop? Ring a bell?” I hopped around a bit to emphasize.
    They broke around, laughing.
    “I still remember you're sense of humor Matt, “Mia remarked.
    “Nice, another piece of the puzzle,” I said. Kiara had been searching in the cabinets all this while.
    “Um, guys, all the herbs, and stuff we keep in here is gone,”
    Her face had a worried look on it. I heard a giggle behind me and I twirled around in time to see a piece of white cloth disappear around the corner. I looked at the others, and Mia asked. “What did you hear? I didn’t hear anything,”
    “I heard a giggle, and then when I turned around, all I saw was a white cloth going around the corner,” I said. I slowly backed out of the room, looking both ways. The lights suddenly started flickering on and off. Then they stopped. I looked behind me, and gasped.
    “Aaah!” I stumbled from my fear. In the doorway of the rec room was a specter, its face was blood red (in fact it was covered in blood) and it was mashed up. The beady red eyes glared at me and it disappeared. I stumbled back into the medical room and shut and bolted the door. I was breathing heavily, and my friends’ eyes were shocked, too.
    “That was scary,” Teresa said. I looked up, and looked down the hall behind Kiara. It was there again.
    “There!” I cried. Everyone whirled around, and Kiara screamed. I suddenly felt the same anger I had felt in here with the werewolf. My body was then engulfed on flame, and my fear vanished. I stalked moodily to the thing, and readied my sword. I raised it above me, and brought it down. The ghost was training its eyes on Kiara the whole time so it didn't notice the sword lumbering down it looked up, its eyes boggled out, and when the blade struck, a shattering scream followed. The things body was dissolving, and a bright red light ensued that, and it was gone. I cooled down and checked that everyone was there and full in limbs.
    “Nice kill,” Mia remarked.
    “Um, thanks,” I said. Just then, the locked door smashed open, and Blake was there, his body soaked in blood.
    “Blake!” I rushed over and got him into the bed. Everyone else got bandages, cloth, a needle, and string. We took care of the gushing wounds, and I proceeded to sew up his ripped up neck. I had to be extremely careful here. Blake’s life force was so fragile here, and one wrong move meant death. Suddenly I realized I knew what I was doing (that probably sounded funny) and that I was remembering more and more. After the neck, there were more places to stitch. His right arm had a gash in it, his chest was cut open dangerously close to his heart, and his leg was scalded all the way to the ankle. It was after those long procedures that I finally endured his mangled left arm. Almost the bare bone was showing, most of the flesh torn off, and strands of the tough tendons and ligaments that had once connected the joints there. I suddenly had an idea. Amputation. And more memories came. Electronics. I was suddenly planning for Blake a bionic arm which served as a weapon as needed. I then turned to the others and herded them out of the room to talk.
    “Listen guys, as you can see, Blake’s left arm is destroyed,”
    “As we can see,” Mia said.
    “Yeah, and I’ll have to amputate,” I said matter-of-factly.
    Everyone gasped at that.
    “Amputate?” Teresa asked.
    I nodded. “It’s the only thing I can do, but the replacement will be better than any normal human arm,”
    “What do you mean?” Kiara inquired.
    “You’ll see,” I replied.
    “Don’t give us that!” Mia retorted.
    “Aw, come on, it’ll be a surprise.”
    “Fine,” They said unanimously. So I set to work on my project. I toiled for hours as the others blocked the entrance to each door and the escape route with salt. We were safe for now. Mia had found out on the internet that what I had killed was an escaped ukobach. It seemed as if all the demons were suddenly rising out from Hell. I couldn’t understand, but I had to put it off for now. Blakes arm was shaping well. I had already cut it off (there wasn’t much to cut off anyway) but left the bones as they served a nice, rigid foundation and central suspension to hold the metal. I had started welding the arm, and it was in shape. Next were the internal mechanisms. I had to form a complicated lattice of wires, machinery, and the apparel to make it work. Then I fitted it out with an energy blaster which worked with the same essence of a machine gun and the energy was an acid that I froze and molded into bullets. They would corrode anything. I then fit it onto his arm bones, securing it with lightweight sheet metal nails. The whole contraption was light, so Blake had it easy. I had put him under sleep while this was going on and when it was done he just stared and stared.
    “Wow, this is COOL!” He exclaimed. He rushed out to yet another room and it looked like a training room. He shot at little robots which scurried around him. He had great aim and they were all down in less than five minutes.
    “Congrats on the arm,” Vince said. He had recovered from the paralyzation while I was working. They slapped each other high fives and settled down for TV. I had also made it look more ‘skin-like’ so that the teachers wouldn’t nag about weapons at school.
    “Hey Matt! Get over here! I found something interesting!” Mia called from her laptop on the sofa. I sank down next to her in the soft cushions and looked at the screen.
    “Remember when the night just blacked out? Just before that happened, I saw the moon, and no clouds were near it. So something else blocked it out. I then found out about the dalaka. It has wings so big they can cover the moon.”
    “So the clouds I saw might have been dalaka wings?”
    “Maybe, it’s possible,”
    “I think there are way too many demons and dragons out. I wonder what’s making them do this stuff.”
    “I don’t know,”
    “Matt! I found out something else!” Teresa said on the next sofa perpendicular to us. I checked out her screen and saw the article on shadow people.
    “That looks like no face,” I murmured.
    “It might be,”
    “Again, there are way too many demons about!” I remarked.
    Then, a crash. I looked about.
    “Something’s here,” I said. I got up and walked cautiously over to where the sound came from. A section of the machines on the left hand side were smashed. On the wall to the right there was a message in blood.



























    5. Zagan’s Message
    I gazed closely at the wall, and tried to make out the writing. It looked something like this.

    Οι δαίμονες θα αυξηθούν και να περιλαμβάνονται η στόχος

    I told Mia to take a look. She gasped, and said that she thought it was Greek. She opened up a translator and took a picture of the writing. She then put it on the computer and somehow (I had no idea how she did it) she got the writing on a Word doc. She then put it into the translator.
    “It says that it means ‘the demons shall rise and bring the apocalypse,’” She read.
    “The apocalypse,” I repeated.
    I went back to the message on the wall, and wiped the blood off. Underneath there was a light. It blinded me for a bit, but I looked again and saw the name ‘Zagan’.
    “Sagan,” I breathed.
    “What was that?” Mia asked. I was surprised she could hear that.
    “Quick, search for Zagan,” I leaped onto the sofa and watched as she typed it in. She opened up an article on demons and things like that.
    “Zagan is a demon, one of the Presidents of Hell and he is the leader of 33 legions of demons,” She read.
    “33 legions, that’s enough to destroy…well….a lot of this world.”
    “So the apocalypse….” She then gasped. “We have to get ready for their attack,”
    “Zagan wants to destroy us,”
    “Exactly, I’ll go get the others,” She set off, gathering everyone from their activities. I quickly briefed them on our theory and told them about my plans of attack and defense.
    “He leads 33 legions, so…practically we don’t stand a chance,” I said.
    “So….” Mia continued.
    “So we need help,” I said.
    “Help from?” She provoked.
    “Heh don’t make me nervous, anyway,” I turned to the others. “We need supernatural help. From the good ones. No Face is a shadow person. He leads an army of them. He was just protecting territory then. He’s a nice guy. Well…thing…”
    “Yeah, u sure he’ll help us?”
    “Well, not exactly,”
    “Then don’t summon him, ok?”
    “Fine,”
    “Then…what do we summon?”
    “I’ve got an idea,” She smiled.
    “Um, ok,”
    “Wait, I’m seeing something!” Mia cried out. She picked up her legs and rocked back and forth.
    “What? What do you see?”
    “A…Alloces,”
    “What? I’m intrigued you know the name, but what?”
    Blake picked up from here.
    “Sometimes she sees things…visions of clues that help us. She doesn’t know where they come from. But, they’ve been helping us a lot,”
    “Alloces...i know that. He’s stronger than Zagan. 36 legions,”
    Everyone stared in disbelief.
    “He’s the Grand Duke of Hades,”
    “And Thunderbirds are coming,” Mia interrupted.
    “Out of your reverie?” I asked.
    “It was not a reverie,” She retorted.
    “So. Thunderbirds?”
    “Yeah, and a lot of them. They’re gonna help us. They also brought more. And I’m planning to summon djinn,”
    “Djinn?” I was shocked.
    “Yeah djinn…you heard me right?”
    “Yes,”
    “Good you’re not deaf,”
    “Eh, so what else is coming? And why?”
    “I don’t know why, but if they help us…who cares?”
    “Maybe they don’t like demons either,” Vince said.
    “Yeah, maybe,”
    “Pegasus,” Mia said.
    “Nice,”
    “And...”
    “Yes?”
    “Wait…I’m losing it,”
    “Phantom cats,”
    “Ooh, nice,”
    “That’s it,”
    “There might be more coming right?”
    “Of course,” The door blew open. Two vampires stalked in and didn’t notice the salt there. They stepped past it and instantly started burning up. The salt penetrated into their skin and burned immense lacerations.
    “Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!” Their screams pierced my ears and made me cover them. Then they were gone.
    “Hahahaha! That was fun!” A girl’s voice came through.
    “Avon?” Teresa called.
    “Hey people!” She said. I looked the two over. They looked exactly like vampires. Pale skin, thin, round, lush golden eyes and the haunting stare their eyes commenced when they looked at you.
    “Hey, look who’s here?” The other one spoke.
    “Hey Juno,” Mia got up. “Matt’s back,”
    “I noticed,” She seemed calmer than Avon, and when her eyes passed over me I felt a cold…something… in my head.
    “You’re vampires aren’t you?” I asked.
    “As you can see,”
    “Is it nice?”
    “You ask weird questions…it’s GREAT!”
    “Who were the other two before you two?” I asked.
    “Those were useless vampire wannabe scum,” Avon said.
    “Ooh, harsh,” I looked at the ashes from their bodies. “But true,”
    “They were recently bitten, the idiots,” Juno said.
    “They tried a hand at sucking blood, but, they sucked,” Avon put in.
    “Now what kind of blood do you drink?”
    “Don’t worry, animal blood,”
    “Good...hey do the vampires here live in a colony or something?”
    “Yeah…why?”
    “We need you to help us in the greatest battle of all humanity,” Mia and I said at (remarkably) the same time.
    “Hey!”
    “Okay…”
    “Let’s shut up,” Mia suggested.
    “Good idea,” I said.
    “Anyway, can they?”
    “We’ll have to see,” They left, and we turned in. There was a room for each of us, and I marveled that I had actually built this.
    I went into the mystifying dream world thinking about whom my life had just taken one of the most drastic turns ever.






























    6. Limns
    I startled awake in the middle of the night, and looked out the window that showed a view of the surface of the ground. The sky had something wrong with it. I couldn’t really make it out
    Because of my dizziness and my hazy sight. I was really focusing on it when something suddenly snapped into view. The sky was red. The clouds had disappeared, and I saw several things raining down upon the Earth. Firstly, there was the Pegasus. The mighty winged horse galloped on air, and charged into a nearby ukobach. Ukobach? The DEMONS?! They had come! I stumbled out of bed and ran outside into the main room. It was a while before noticed what was on the wall this time. It was a picture of ALLOCES! The Duke of Hades! It was a limn, drawn again with blood. The body of Alloces was that of a warrior, on a horse. He was shouting something… but I couldn’t depict the message his mouth was forming. Then I looked at the next limn. It portrayed hundreds of demons in separate groups. Legions. I then turned around, and a score of ukobach were there. I gasped, and quickly morphed. I decided to try out a new method of attack. I put my sword back in its sheath slung upon my back, and raised my hand, pointing to the ukobach. I concentrated, and a jet of the flame energy jettisoned from my hand. It struck with perfect aim, into the heart of the ukobach. I shrugged, and shot again. They were easy. Then their captain came. He bore a wickedly curved shamshir he must’ve obtained from the Middle East. He wasn’t a ukobach, but rather a hybrid between ukobach and human. I bet he was born of an incubus. He strode forward amid his dead soldiers. He pointed the blade at my throat, and I grabbed it. He flicked it upward with a mighty thrust, and the blade sliced through my hand. Strangely, I didn’t feel anything. It just swept through. I turned to him, and brought forth my own sword, and slashed at its heart. He countered, ad this started a complex network and pattern of parries and counters until finally I flicked his sword away and into the wall, just centimeters beside Blake, who had come out. He readied his arm and shot at the hybrid. His aim was perfect, as usual, but it wasn’t enough to dispose of it. I struck my blade home and the thing sank and disappeared ina wisp of blood red smoke.
    “What’s happening?” He asked.
    “Well, first of all the sky’s blood red, and second of all, its raining demons,”
    “Ooh, THE WARS STARTED!”
    He dashed into the other rooms and got everyone else.
    “Once everybody was collected, I told them to get weapons ready.
    “Got ‘em right here,” Avon bared her pearly white fangs.
    “Okay I didn’t need to see that,” Mia remarked.
    “Our help is also there. I caught a glimpse of Thunderbirds and the Pegasus,”
    “Nice…I got dibs for the Pegasus!” Vince called out.
    “Haha, he doesn’t really like a rider. He’s a proud being you know. Okay everyone ready?”
    “Check,” Blake said.
    “Ready for anything,” Kiara said.
    “Let’s go, but first, salt,” I got the huge mound of a bag and sprinkled some over each of us. Mia caught my eye as I was sprinkling it over her and looked at me curiously. I raised an eyebrow.
    “Nothing. It’s just, you seem, hollow faced, transparent almost,”
    “Okay…weird,” I replied. We headed for the door and stepped out into the oblivion. It was total chaos. There were bodies everywhere Thunderbirds and evil demons alike. The Pegasus was still soaring gallantly plucking up demons with its horn and tossing them plummeting to certain death. I looked around, searching for one of the demon leaders. Then I saw him amidst the very heart of the chaos. He was being hasseled by a group of vampires, and was slowly clawing his way out of the melee. He roared, and from the deep throaty sound that burst forth I knew that it was Alloces, the Duke of Hades. His gaze turned to me, and I morphed and ran forward. But before I could reach him. A bright blue flash struck it first. I looked at where Alloces was laying down, with a fiery wolf writhing and squirming, trying to free itself from the demon’s iron grasp. I took the sword out from its sheath, and was about to strike him when I felt a freezing sensation. I looked at my hands, and the flame was giving way to ice. The ice crept up quickly, and consumed my flame in a mere five seconds. I picked up my sword, no javelin now. My weapon had changed! It was now a probably 4 foot long, jagged shard of ice. The point glinted with an inner power. It looked like a gem was imbedded inside. The whole weapon gave off a white mist, which swirled and surrounded me. I then flung it at Alloces, and it sliced through its heart (if it had one) and the ice cloaked his heart. It manifested his body, and soon he was smothered in living ice. I stood there stunned by my latest power. Alloces fell, and a jet of fire streamed from his open mouth, swirled a bit in the air, and shot down straight into the earth. The wolf, crawled over to me, and slumped down beside my feet. I bent down and patted its back. The wolf was abnormally huge, and thick muscles enveloped each of its limbs. The fur was of the purest of whites, and with a deep blue streak from the muzzle, along the spine down to the tail. The eyes were of a demonic red, and glared out with a fiery intensity that I had never seen before. The eyes also seemed to be full of sorrow too, and I couldn’t understand why. Then I looked up, and saw what it was. The sky was red, not because of Alloces’ arrival, but because of a meteor. It was a huge one, and it was headed straight for the earth. I then was filled with the same melancholy in the wolf’s eyes. Earth’s life was done for. The demon’s arrival had brought around the apocalypse. There was no hope of living. Then I saw it. A massive pentagram*. It was right where the forest was several minutes ago. It was made with fire. Hell’s fire. The star inside had started swirling, and the flames were standing straight up, as they circulated around the shape of the star. I saw all of my friends all running toward the spectacle.
    I took off, with the demon wolf at my heels. The pentagram was still a couple hundred yards off, and I was getting nowhere close. I then had a brilliant idea. I shot the ice at the ground, and I leaped onto it. The wolf shot forward, as I did this clumsily. The ice walkway was rugged and full of sudden dips and slides. I struggled to get it flat, and finally managed to. I rode on my ice tsunami, and covered the distance quickly. My friends were already inside the pentagram, and it was rising up. My wave was only 20 yards away. The wolf leaped, and landed inside neatly. I was now ten yards away. The pentagram was rising up faster and faster. When I was six yards away, I had no choice but to jump. I readied the catapult off the ice, and jumped. The edge was only a foot away. My hands were stretched out in front of me, and I was ready for the pentagram. But nothing came. I realized that I had closed my eyes, and when I opened them, the pentagram was a meter above me, and I was falling down into Hell’s fire.