• (Please give constructive comments!!)

    It was dark. That was all that I could think. It was really dark. I could hear my breath in the darkness, echoing off of what would be a large chamber. Exactly what was in this house? It looked normal from the outside, but if I judged from where I was now, I would think that some sort of …I don’t know what…lived here. I took a step, and a loud, echoing thump resonated through the shadows. Stepping again, I found my hand resting on a light switch. With a sigh of relief, I flicked the switch.

    It was the worst decision of my life.

    I was surrounded by large glass cylinders, all encasing what seemed to be liquid shadow. Tubes and pipes were protruding in different angles, crisscrossing in many places, like an unending maze. I walked closer to the tank closest to me, at the nearest shadow. I felt a pair of eyes watching me through the glass, and I shuddered. Whatever these were, they were alive. I soon saw two gleaming eyes pressed against the glass. Two wispy hands were gripping what looked like clear tubes, strange fluids pumping through them.

    A little along the wall, there was a computer attached to several generators, humming softly. I walked over to it, being careful not to attract much more attention. The owner may be dead, but the things that could be hiding here would be dangerous to alert. I sat down in the chair in front of the computer, bumping the mouse to activate the computer. A blue window popped up in the center of the screen, blocking any of the data that might have been seen on the screen without it. I grinned, and stretched my fingers.
    Hacking was my specialty.

    It was so easy, it was boring. His password had only been five letters, but they seemed to mean something more than what it simply represented. HADES. Maybe it was the name of his dog? Doubtful. But I shrugged, and started to scan his files. They were all different notes on the science of creating spirits, and ways to send them through the computers. I didn’t really understand. It was frightening, the data he had here. It spoke of a creature living in our world, the grim reaper of today. Hades was just that. But Hades was different.

    I began to read through the files that were just overflowing on the computer. I don’t know how long I spent in that basement. There was no clock to watch time with. I found the connection to the internet a couple of hours into my research and immediately sent all of the documents on the computer to the office. They would want to know about this.

    I don’t’ know what made me turn around. Maybe it was the change in temperature, or the faint rustling sound of the shifting form that had suddenly appeared in the corner. Either way, I turned around, chills shooting down my spine. I was holding a document in my hand, one that I had just printed off. The computer was still downloading the information to my office, and I stepped in front of it, to protect it.

    Glancing at the figure in the corner, I shuddered, terror clinging to my insides. I looked desperately at the document in my hand, wishing that it wasn’t true. But it was. The figure in front of me matched the profile picture exactly. I was now face to face with Hades.

    He grinned, his mouth splitting his face in half. “Master said that you would come here. Master told me to kill you if you came. You don’t know master very well, do you? He’s faked his death before. He did it now. All this information is a lie. None of it is true. His real data is already gone with him. This place is failure. No excuse for failure. He’s gone now. Hunting some girl named Ana Jacobson. She’ll die, no doubt. Die, stupid girl. She’ll die, now you’ll die too.”

    He lumbered over to me, slouching as he walked so that he wouldn’t hit the ceiling. I backed away from the computer the moment I heard the beep signaling a successful download. He came faster, his limbs amazingly nimble and agile for such a hulking shape. I turned and ran. There was nothing except for my beating heart, my pounding head, and my aching legs. There was no way to escape.

    The lights went out. I stumbled as I tried to move through the humming engines and covered tabletops. I crashed into a rack of chemicals, and jumped backwards to avoid the hissing liquid that was spilling all over the floor. Hades screamed as he hit the chemicals. I ran faster. He had gotten closer than I thought he was. I saw a light up ahead and realized that it was the sky outside.

    I used every last ounce of my strength to climb the ladder that was hanging in the frame of the hole. The smell of smoke and ashes were all around. I flew out the top, thinking of the gun I had in the glove compartment in my car. Flinging the door open to my Mercedes, I grabbed the B52 shotgun I had. The gun swung around, and met merely with his fist as it went slamming into the barrel, shattering the metal as if it were glass. I turned on the car as he shook his darkened blood off his fist.

    Before he could react I blasted down the neighborhood street at about 90 miles an hour. He tried to grab onto the car, but I was gone before his fist could close. Within minutes, I was back on the highway, charging down the street at top speed. After a few quickened breaths, I finally began to calm down. The car slowed to about 70, after I had been going at about 120 miles an hour, the only speed that I could reach in my red convertible sports car.

    I pulled into my spot at the office, smoothing back my hair before entering. Appearance was everything, after all.

    to be continued....