Black Bloodstains
Chapter 17: Stairway to Heaven

I feel something soft hugging my body. The sunlight dimly enters my room, and even if it one hundred fifty thousand million kilometers from earth, the sun manages to hit me right in the face. I sit up and rub my eyes, trying to get the drowsiness off me. Moving my hair away from my face I take a good look around while sighing. The things I bought yesterday are on the floor, my schoolbag is on the small table, and the scepter is standing next to the bed. I hear some mumbling on my side, and I find Sam’s sister hugging the pillow I used to be using.

I stand and stretch my arms, as the bone cracks the realization of the events that happened the previous days, hit me on my chest. Have you ever had that weird feeling, that out of nowhere you feel like a cold sensation running through your entire body? It starts from your chest area and then travels all across your body. I felt sick, tired, beaten up. I walked towards the mirror and looked at the stranger in the mirror.

Her hair seemed to be a bit longer, just reaching the tip of her breasts. Her thin cheeks and chin looked, her thin eyebrows and small nose, her full red lips practically the same color as her big red eyes. Every part of this stranger is slowly becoming part of an acquaintance. I moved my hand to reach hers. The cold surface of the mirror triggered something inside of me; I could see the reflection of the scepter next to it. I look back at the stranger’s reflection and saw it slowly morphing into the demonic version of it.

I wasn’t scared; I took two steps back to see the full picture. The horns returned, the black armor returned, my eyes shined with a fiery red, parts of my hair became red too, and the black fire once again covered me. I tried grabbing my horns, but it appears that only the reflection has them. The girl smiled and laughed. She had the scepter in her hands, becoming the metallic version of it. “I know you want to do it Elizabeth, it’ll solve all of your problems, and it’ll be so easy!” The reflection spoke up.

I canalize my energy in my hand and send a straight line of power towards the mirror. It shattered silently leaving fragmenting on many small pieces. I heard a much rougher laugh and noticed that each fragment of the mirror reflected the same reptile eye. Using the same energy, I crushed the mirror into a small sphere. I picked it up and threw it to the garbage can. “Guess I’ll have to buy a new one…” I saw to myself walking towards my school uniform.

I left the room and walked towards the bathroom. I stopped on Sam’s place on my way there. He was sleeping on his computer. He had a pen on his right hand and some sort of diary under his head. The laptop had an article about Wikipedia opened; maybe he was finishing some kind of homework? I left him be and entered the bathroom. I started the shower and left my uniform on hang on the towel rack.

I did my daily routine afterward. Toilet, shower, and the typical stuff in front of the mirror. I had a towel wrapped around my front as I combed my hair, removing all kinds of knots. The image in the mirror changed to my demonic form, thankfully it was doing the same things I did, or else I would have gotten confused on my combings. I just ignored it and tried to finish as fast as I could. Using the trick Laurie taught me I dry my hair by making two small flames on my hands, and passing them through my hair. I put on the uniform; even the undergarments seemed reasonable to me now and headed out the door.

Everyone seemed to be woken up by now. There was a ruckus coming downstairs, I could hear the pan frying up some kind of food, Sam’s sister was playing her music on her room, which meant she was preparing for school. You could definitely tell that those two are brothers. They do the same thing each morning; the only thing that changes is the genre of the music. Both sang their songs very loudly. I grabbed my backpack and took a long look at the scepter, before going downstairs to the kitchen. Sam’s mom was cooking something and barely noticed me when I sat down on the table. “Good morning aunt,” I told her quietly so I wouldn’t scare her.

“Good morning honey, if I wouldn’t have heard you, this egg would be in the ceiling right now.” She said laughing lightly. The newspaper was in the table, so to kill time I took it and decide to at least glance through all of the headers. It was the Times, and surprisingly enough it had an article about our town. ‘Drug Addicts Burn House Down.’ I dropped the newspaper as the memories return to my head. I put my backpack back on and stood up from the chair.

“Aunt I just remember I have to make an exam to catch up,” I told her coldly, as I slip through the backdoor. “I’ll be back later.” I left the house before she could even answer me. I walked directly to the school; I wasn’t in the mood to chat with someone on my way there. The streets seemed to be normal, nothing striking out of the ordinary. I was thankful that I no longer was allergic to the sun. I wouldn’t stand another one of those puking sessions, and the whole burning feeling on my entire body. Even with my slow pace, I managed to arrive at the school in no time.

The school was emptier than I expected. I wandered through the halls trying to catch some kind of memory from my past. Geoff’s memories were the only ones that appeared in my head. I stopped at the locker Geoff’s had for the past six years or so. I touched the dents and scratches made by several fights with Jackson. I put on the code, and it opened up as always. Everything was as I left it. The books, the notes, the pictures, everything I liked when I was Geoff were here. I slam the closet shut, feeling pain and anger coming from my body. “At least I got the skateboard back…” I told myself leaning my head to the nearest window.

I felt empty, or instead, I felt nothing at all. I head to the ceiling of the school. This place is always empty no matter the situation. Each floor I went through brought a memory to my head. I could see myself growing up on each level. Going through primary and middle school. It wasn’t my primary; it was Geoff’s. I reached the ceiling; the gentle breeze hit my face making my hair fly all over the place. I took a good look at the landscape. The sea, the dawn, the skyscrapers, the clear skies, everything was as usual. Have I’ve been an outsider in this ecosystem? Do I really belong here? Or am I just a threat to everyone around me? I looked at my hand and created a black fireball. Everything I’ve done with this power ends up in someone dying. How could I possibly use this for good? If it only harms whoever touches it.

I heard some ruffling behind me. I dissipated the flame by shaking my hand and looked back at dawn. I used my energy to make some sort of map of the place. “Oh shit!” A recognizable voice murmured behind me. I tracked the sound and made my energy surround the body. I couldn’t feel any kind of responsibility towards my actions, which means that this person has to be human. It didn’t take me long to make a complete scan of the body, and by the muscles and height, I quickly could tell it was Jackson.

Waiting for some kind of response I turned around and looked at his eyes. He was wearing his usual school attire, except for the apron filled covered with dirt at the front. How odd, his heartbeats accelerated as soon as I saw him. I tilted my head and looked at his out of place attire. When my eyes returned to him, he jumped in place. His heartbeat accelerated once more, I felt the sweat coming out of his forehead. Was he getting nervous? I pressed his lips stammering to say a word. “W-What are you doing here?” He asked me as his confidence pretended to return.

“I arrived a bit too early and just went for a little air,” I told him walking towards him. I stopped making my energy surround his body, and returned it to myself. My hair was blowing on the wind; I stopped some feet away from him. “And you? What’s doing the school’s superstar in the roof? And that apron? What have you been doing here exactly?” He got nervous. His fists clenched and I could hear him swallowing thickly. I saw his eyes quickly flickering at the small room on the ceiling. “I’m going to take a look there,” I told him before walking towards the room.

“You can’t go there!” He yelled trying to stop me. Knowing him, he’s going to run straight towards me. I predicted his moves and just took a step to the left. He ended up crashing against the door and falling to the ground. I walked past him and entered the small room. To be sincere, I never expected this thing inside the room. I didn’t even know that we had a greenhouse in the first place. The place was beautiful, plants hanging around everywhere, many different colors of flowers, fruits, and vegetables sprouting out in every corner, it felt as if you entered a diverse ecosystem.

“Wow.” It is the only word my lips managed to make after being amazed by this greenhouse. “D-Did you plant all of these?” I asked him stopping at every different flower or plant, each labeled with a normal and scientific name. Even the temperature was a bit more humid as if I entered the jungle or something. Before he could answer me, when I turned the corner I saw something that made me shout. “You have bunnies!” I screamed leaving my backpack on the ground and running towards the cage with two puffy bunnies inside. “I didn’t know you could be able to have a soft side.”

He chuckled as he walked next to me and opened the cage for me. One brown bunny practically jumped towards me, and I happily caught him before it fell to the ground. “It’s actually a funny story.” He told me as he moved away to get something on the other side of the room. “Before I came to town, I used to live on a farm with my grandparents. I guess I couldn’t leave that part of me behind, so I started this club with the help of the Biology teacher.” He returned with a snake wrapped around his shoulders. “And who are you calling soft, you big wuss? You practically screamed just by seeing Pepper over there.”

“His name is pepper!?” I squealed by holding him and showing him to Jack. “And what do you wanted me to do!? Just look at it! He’s adorable!” Pepper was practically hanging his legs above the ground, and from time to time his ears or nose would twitch. I hugged him realizing the big show I was doing. “But I can be soft, I am a girl you know…” Those last words stung my tongue. I couldn’t believe what I just said. I must have looked weird zoning out there, but after a few seconds I shook those thoughts away and looked back at Jackson. “I didn’t know you lived on a farm, and why did you live there?”

“I’ve only told this to a few people…” He said rubbing the back of his head. Meanwhile, the snake he had on his shoulders looked directly at me as if it were interested in what I was doing. It slowly moved away from Jackson’s shoulders and moved towards me. Since Jackson is several inches taller than me, the snake found no problem slithering to my shoulders and resting its head on my chest. “How odd… Is the first time he ever does that.” I looked down at the snake practically sleeping on my right breast, and then back at Jackson who was surprised at the whole scenario. “I’ve never seen Louie act so friendly with guests. And I’ve never seen a girl act so naturally around him. They usually don’t want to deal with Louie whatsoever.”

I smiled, feeling a combination of pride and at the same time taking Jackson’s compliment quite nicely. “Hey, if you like animals so much, we’ve got practically a zoo here in the back, want to check it out?” My smile grew wider. I left Pepper back in his cage and followed Jackson to the rest of the greenhouse.

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I barely slept yesterday. I spend most of my time roaming through old pictures and getting in contact with my camp’s counselor. Thankfully we’re three hours ahead from Seattle, so I managed to get in touch before he went to bed. I described Susan as detailed as I could to get as much information from him as I could. He did remember meeting a girl with black hair and weird red eyes, and she was indeed around my last years on the facility. I thanked him and ran directly towards my photo album. I scavenged every photo album in the house until I found the one stored in the attic. It was old and dusty, but at the front, with a marker, it read ‘Sammi’s Childhood Memories.’

I cringed at the name but immediately started searching for the photos of Camp Maple-Bear. It started showing up pictures when I was young, apparently the first one being my crying face when my parents left me there for the first time. I was like seven; it was a completely natural thing to do. Afterward a bunch of pictures of the daily activities I did there. Everything seemed reasonable until I reached the last two years. The group picture, taken at the start of the camp, there was a girl a girl who never appeared in the previous images. At the corner of the group, a shy looking black haired girl appeared. She wasn’t even looking at the camera when the picture was taken. But I could see, from the corner of her eye, her tainted red eye.

The next picture was a complete photo of Elizabeth, covering herself from the picture being taken to her. For some reason, it was labeled as ‘Best Buddies.’ Her eyes were indeed red, her skin was pale, she had the same facial features as Elizabeth, and it was indisputably Elizabeth as a young girl. The color and style of the hair even matched, a very dark tone of black and the waves that even today she has. I was in utter shock, the pictures seemed similar, and brought small memories to my head. All of them appeared to be distant, fake, yet real and close for the first time.

I continued roaming through them, each being an activity we both had been caught up doing together. Playing at the lake, making pasta figures, running in the woods, scavenger hunting, making a campfire, roasting marshmallows, every single activity we did them together. There was barely a picture in which we didn’t appear together. There was even a picture of Elizabeth and me falling asleep on each other’s shoulders. And the next year’s photos were exactly the same. Each of them showing Elizabeth and me being inseparable.

The last picture sort of hurt. Elizabeth was crying on my shoulder, her eyes were redder than usual; she had tears cascading down from her eyes. She was hugging me, I could see her hands grasping on my back. And to ad sad to the wounds the picture was labeled as, ‘Goodbye, let’s hope we meet again someday.’ My heart was crushed. I did meet Elizabeth before, and we were really, really close. And after all of that, I practically had a restless night, I ended up distracting myself by playing some games on my computer and searching for more information about Elizabeth.

And I woke up on my computer, like a typical day. I did my daily routine, and now I’m at my desk falling asleep on it. Thankfully the sun was shining brightly this morning, and the sun rays hit my office directly. No, I understand the whole process of recharging, since I’m not a night person I do need to sleep as much as I can to save energy. Shawn says I should be thankful for having the most natural recharging process; I don’t have to struggle like Kalyn by electrocuting herself each morning.

“Sam Johnson!” The teacher’s annoying shouts made me finally snap from my daydreams. “You spend all the class looking at the window! Does it have something more interesting than my class?” I simply slammed my head on the desk, preparing myself for the oncoming scolding. “What had we talked about in the parents' teacher meetings? Did you once more, ended up playing with your silly games until something am in the morning?” I was getting a bit annoyed by her, in fact, all day I had this constant pain coming from the left side of my head. I know I’m not prone to having a migraine. But this morning this burning sensation started traveling through the entire left side of my body.

I felt weird energy irradiating through me, it felt different than the one I usually make. This one felt, angrier, if that’s even possible. I stood from the chair and picked up my stuff. I glanced a look at the teacher before leaving the room. She acted completely different afterward. She remained quiet and let me get out of the place. Even my classmates became speechless; I managed to get to my locker with everyone just staring at me as if I became some sort of badass. I rested my head on my cabinet, letting the burning sensation ease through it. After some time it began to fade out, leaving behind some sort of afterburn feeling.

I closed my locker after leaving all of my stuff and picking up the books I’m going to use the next class. Lizzie Rigs appeared just at the other end of the door. It scared me, making the jump a few steps backs and dropping my bag. “Oh sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.” She told me as she helped me pick up the stuff that fell from my bag. “Sorry again, here’s your stuff.” She handed me some books and the things that fell from my pencil case. “Hey Sam, I wanted to ask you something… Have you seen your sister lately? She hasn’t shown up at school for a while, is everything okay with her?”

Wow, even The Lizzie Rigs is worrying about Elizabeth, how did she even manage to become her friend with the cold attitude she has, they’re like polar opposites. I remember having a crush with Lizzie when I was a small kid; we used to play together a lot before she moved to a house closer to her father’s work office. She lived on the other side of the street, and I spend several times playing on her backyard. “She was supposed to be here, she left before me, so I’m not quite sure about it,” I answered her a bit hypnotized by her eyes; they seemed to shine brighter today.

“I’ve heard that she was seen this morning, so she must be around here somewhere. Why don’t you help me find her?” She answered me with a cheerful smile, and I responded back with my attempt at a happy smile. Whatever happened between the two of us? She moved away around the time of puberty, or a bit before that. If I’m not wrong, we stopped talking when we hit that stage of boys only played with boys and vice versa. Puberty just put us a bit more apart from each other, and to top it off, the things we liked didn’t match up with the others. We became somewhat of polar opposites.

I realized she had been staring at me all this time. I just turned my head and open my eyes more. “Oh sorry, it has been a long time since I see you. And you look somewhat different… Have you been working out or something? Because your face looks a bit strange…” She told me closing the distance between us. Before I could reply to her, she turned around and started heading to the floors below. “Go search Elizabeth on the upper floors, she might be there somehow.” She said before leaving me alone on my locker.

I had time to search for Elizabeth, we’re going to have recess in a brief time, and so I can use that time to find her. I doubt she’s in some sort of classroom, knowing her she must be in a place where she can be completely alone. The library is on the first floor, so the only place remaining on the roof. What did Lizzie mean as different? Last time I checked I looked the same as I’ve always done. Well after my ‘death’ my face seemed to morph a little, I ‘ve gotten sharper details on my face. Was that enough to generate an actual visible change?

My hair has become longer; I notice it when it began to blow in the wind. Sheesh, I need to get a haircut soon, my hair is passing my neck by now. I once again felt the burning sensation on my left arm. I looked at it, and for a second I saw some kind of bluish flame. The left side of my head started to burn too. The pain diminished after some minutes. Something is happening to me, but I shrug it off as some side effect of my ghostly body. I saw the greenhouse in the distance; perhaps Elizabeth is there? There are plants and animals inside the greenhouse, and she does love animals…

“No that’s just too big! No way it can enter!” I heard Elizabeth’s voice shouting from inside the greenhouse. My perverted mind naturally made me think of various possibilities she could be doing. I ran towards the greenhouse, opening the door at a fast pace. I ignored all of the plants and headed directly to where Elizabeth’s voice appears to come from. “No way! Ouuuch!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. I busted the door from the room the sounds came from, inside Elizabeth and Jackson was staring at a snake who clearly looked that it has just eaten its meal. One part of its body bulged out in an obvious way. “Sam?” Elizabeth asked me realizing I haven’t moved from where I stood.

“Elizabeth! Where have you been all this time!? We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” I answered her immediately, trying to change the topic from me to her. I saw her blush and look to the ground. “We thought something might have happened to you, and we began to get worried. You weren’t around for the first three blocks, you really gave us a scare.” I saw her fidgeting with her hair, a bit uncomfortable by the situation.

“Wait a minute… Is it already twelve?” Jackson asked me exasperated. I simply nodded stepping away from the door. “Oh shit!” He yelled running out of the door if I hadn’t moved I would be run over by now. “I’m going to be late for my biology class! I’ll see you later!” He yelled as he left the Greenhouse. That left Elizabeth and me alone, the sun was exactly above the tend, gently illuminating Elizabeth’s face. Her eyes, her face, her pale skin, everything seemed beautiful about her. You could see a faint smile forming on her lips.

Out of nowhere she took two steps and hugged me. I could feel her crying on my chest. I jumped into conclusions thinking that Jackson did something to her. The angry thoughts brought the burning sensation back to my body, my arm, the side of the chest, and my left side of my head. “Were you anxious about me Sam?” Elizabeth asked me, looking directly to me. Her eyes were a bit red from her cries, yet they seemed to have a small glow, some sort of spark. I nodded and pulled the hair out of her face. She looked down, clearly embarrassed, yet I could see a small smile forming on her lips.

She hugged me once more; I felt her hands holding my clothes tighter. She then took two steps back, and I saw her staring directly at me. She had a big smile on her face, something I haven’t seen on her ever. “Thank you for taking care of me Sam.” She told me looking directly at me. “You make me feel like a small sister whenever you do that… thank you for being so nice to me.” She said before running away out of the Greenhouse.

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I had a warm feeling on my chest for the rest of the day. I felt that people cared about me. When I found Lizzie and her friends the first thing they did was them running directly at me, and hugging me tightly. “Were where you Elizabeth! We’ve been looking for you all week!” Lizzie asked me, completely exited. We sat on the table that these girls usually sit on. The cold weather of early January made these girls wear more clothing than usual. Lizzie had a pair of mittens and a scarf. Penelope had an entire pink set of winter attire, cap, gloves, scarf, and a bunch of other stuff. Diana, on the other hand, wore practically the same things as usual, but with a jacket, the advantages of being Russian I guess.

Getting all of the elements helped me to sustain practically everything. I was wearing the uniform as if cold was just a mere idea on my head. I do need to pay attention to the things I’m doing. Or I might end up with blue hair and two cups more significant than usual. We would have used the school cafeteria if it wasn’t filled up with almost every one of the entire school. Outside was even relaxing, the wind blowing in the distance, the few birds chirping, and the whistle the breeze makes when passing between the leaves of the trees.

“So Elizabeth… I heard that you’re going to try up to be a cheerleader.” Diana said as she sat down and munched down on her sandwich. “Where did that come from? At P.E. you had an air of a long distance runner athlete. Seeing your talent being wasted at cheerleading bums me out…” Lizzie and Penelope both reacted aggressively, and Diana expecting this outcome, laughed loudly.

“I don’t know if I should join the cheerleaders… I just said yes because I was in a hurry.” I said as I sat down. I felt my right arm suddenly burn all over; it vanished quickly, leaving no marks in my arm. “I mean… I’m only good at running fast. I mean, I can do the flips and jumps quite well, but I’ve always sucked at any type of choreography. I don’t even have enough time to go to a daily practice, I’ve already got a lot on my plate.”

“You should just go to the tryouts. Even if you don’t want to join us at least, you’ll have an entertaining afternoon.” Penelope said as she cuddled up with Lizzie. It must be somewhat cold outside since these two are hugging each other for warmth. I felt something odd going around me as if many different eyes were staring me at. I looked up and saw a glimpse of something moving along the roof. I looked around and saw the same figures walking across my line of vision as if they were trying to stay on the edge of my sight.

I stood up and picked up my bag. “Sorry, I really need to go to the bathroom real quick. I’ll be back in a moment.” I didn’t even let them answer before I was running away on the hallways. “I need to find somewhere secure.” I say to myself as I evaded most of the students through the hallway. People along the way began to freeze in time. “Shit!” I shouted looking for anyone that could help me out in this. Rather than searching in specific places, I left the building and went into the open. Probably there was someone I knew nearby.

”Target Acquired” I heard a robotic voice say out of nowhere. I searched everywhere around me trying to find the source of it. Some kind of heavy object suddenly tackled me. I rolled on the grass several meters, and some type of net trapped me. The loss was electrified, sending shocks of electricity all around my body. I felt the tingly sensation all around my body, which triggered the elemental switch making my hair blonde. Before I could react in any way, I got surrounded by a group of people all of them wearing the same wannabe military attire.

All of them pulled out their swords on me, pointing them directly at me. “Here is squad four, we captured the target. Prepare the extraction.” One of them with a communication device spoke up. “Guys, she’s the most dangerous target we’ve ever had to lock down. Don’t you dare to lose attention on her.” I moved around to count the exact amount of ‘soldiers’ or police officers they send to capture me. I could only spot a total of eight swords pointing at me, not counting the ones behind me.

“Perfect squad four, we’re moving to your location.” The intercom answered. “Beware she might not be AGH!” Someone or something interrupted the voice. I could hear it falling to the ground before ultimately losing the connection. The guys around me tensed up their weapons, I could see them turn as they tried they gripped the swords tighter. I heard more steps coming towards us. It felt as if more squads joined us. On the distance, I heard a helicopter approaching our location. This doesn’t look good.

I don’t know a lot of magic, I just know how to extend my energy and make it interact with objects around me. So I began doing the only thing I knew, creating holes on the grass to let my energy tentacles go underground unnoticed. I started moving them below the feet of the guys around me. Alice and company shouldn’t take long to arrive, and when they do, I at least have something to distract them. “Weapons in the air! You must be Elizabeth’s team. Any weird movement and I’ll take her life here and now.” I saw the leader pulling out his sword, which resembled more a katana than the rest of his comrades.

When the leader looked away from me, I decided to act. I pulled all of my tentacles out of the ground, grabbing all of them by the neck before they could even react. I made some sort of feet with my energy, so I would literally be standing on my own power. My whole body was trapped; I couldn’t even move my arms. So pulling out more tentacles I grabbed the swords from all of the soldiers around me, having a total of ten swords. I used the swords to open up the net making me fall roughly to the ground pulling out my own set of blades of my arms.

A massive squad of army looking men surrounded me. All of them with a weapon in hand, and creating some sort of spell on the other. Floyd, Laurie, Shawn, Kalyn, Sam, and a weird woman stood on the other side of the field. All of my teammates had some kind of armor on, and weapons on their hands. “We need to regroup Elizabeth!” The woman spoke up. She had Alice’s claws on her hands and had what seemed a heavy set of ice armor all along her body. “These assassins won’t hold back, so neither should you!”

I counted something along the lines of thirty men. Not scoring the ten that are being pulled to the ground with my tentacles. And the battle started, some fifteen men ran towards me. Before their spells could hit me, I surrounded my body in a thick cloak of dark energy. I got hit by several periods, which pushed me away, almost making a loose balance. Rather than trying to fight with my blades in my hands; I started swinging the blades in my tentacles around, trying to hit an enemy. It should be working since they stood behind and tried to run me with their own spells.

I think that the people that I was pinning down either died or passed out. Their swords disappeared out of nowhere. Leaving me free to any kind of enemy attack. I felt an immense pain coming from my shoulder, and when I turned my face to see the reason, I had a harpoon stuck to it. Another spear hit me on my other shoulder; making me fall to the ground due to the pain it was causing me. My legs came next, this time burying the harpoons on the ground. I felt the ones from my shoulders being pulled, leaving me wide open for an attack. In front of me, there was a mage casting its spell, about to fire at me.

Expecting for the worst, I close my eyes waiting for the blast to hit my chest. I heard a loud movement coming towards me, and I felt the ground shake as the thing got in front of me. The blast from the enemy never hit me, as I opened my eyes. I saw Kalyn standing in front of me, guarding me with a massive ass shield. Laurie managed to jump on top of her, and I saw her shooting her arrows as fast as she could. I felt the pain from the harpoons loosen up; I turn around and see the woman cutting away the strings and the spears with her own claws. She then created a sphere of ice that covered all four of us.

Laurie jumped behind Kalyn, and I grabbed me from my torso. “This may hurt a bit Elizabeth.” She said as she pulled out the remaining harpoon pieces off my body. If it weren’t for Kalyn, I would have been pulled back with them. Kalyn helped me to stand up, and I used her as a support for the meantime. “Alice we’re done here,” Laurie said to the woman who kept hold of the ice sphere, I could hear the walls being hit by weapons and magic spells. I wonder where Shawn, Floyd, and Sam moved so I couldn’t see them anywhere around me.

“Everyone prepare for an attack.” The woman said in a tone that matched Alice’s, but as if she grew several years older. I felt my wounds burning up, Laurie was splashing them with some sort of potion, which made them heal faster than usual. I took my blades out once more, feeling ready to stand up and fight again. Kalyn grabbed her shield and her sword, while Laurie picked up her bow from the ground. The sphere that surrounded us exploded outwards, hurting the enemies that stood on the other side. I ran along my friends killing the remaining enemies that tried to fight us off.

Shawn, Sam, and Floyd appeared moments later, all of them visibly hurt with wounds and burns around them. Shawn’s sword and Floyd’s ax shined red in blood, while Sam’s spear had some bloodstains here and there. Everybody was shaken, the woman became young Alice when we noticed no other enemy was standing up. “What was that?” I say resting on my knees trying to catch my breath.

“Bounty hunters,” Shawn said as they walked towards us. Even with the wounds all over his body, he walked as if nothing was happening. “You have a huge bounty on your head you know?” He said using his water energy to clean his wounds away, doing the same thing with Kalyn afterward. Laurie moved towards Floyd and helps her by treating her wounds. “What’s next boss?” Shawn said looking at Alice who was helping out Sam. “We took down the helicopter as you requested, Floyd and Sam took care of inspecting the perimeter afterward, in other words, we’re clear.”

“No, we aren’t,” Alice said looking around. “There must be someone still willing to fight since we haven’t returned to normal.” Sam stood perfectly normal afterward, so Alice moved towards Shawn and the rest. “We need to take care of the bodies. They know way too much to just let them live.” Ice began surrounding the ground in which Alice stood. Moments later they expanded towards the bodies that remained alive. Ice pillars appeared from the ground spinning and stabbing the people in the air. “You know what to do.”

“Elizabeth!” Sam shouted throwing his lance towards me. Surprised by his current actions, I remained standing up not knowing what to do. Either he missed me or wasn’t aiming at me at all. I turn around and see one of the soldiers with Sam’s spear buried on his left arm. He swung his sword with his right wing, giving me just enough time for me to block it with my blades. His grip was firm, so secure that I lost balance and fell to the ground. He laughed madly pulling Sam’s spear out of his shoulder. Alice and the company began moving towards us, giving me a distraction to do something to him. I tried to grab something from the ground to hit him with. Not looking at what I exactly caught. I stood up and swing it towards him. He expected my attack blocking it with his own sword.

But it didn’t matter.

For some reason, I managed to pick up the scepter from the ground. The scepter completely crushed his sword and went directly to his body. Like before his body exploded leaving nothing but a pool of blood behind. I felt his energy moving towards me, feeding some sort of thirst inside of me. I felt the remaining enemies trying to stand up and run away. I used my energy to look around the floor, and locate the remaining enemies. I quickly found them and impaled them from the ground, feeling their energy flow towards me.

I turned around and spotted my friends. For some reason, I could feel their energy floating in the air, and for a moment I contemplated if I that power would be better in my hands. Before I could do anything, a massive water shot snapped me out of my trance. “Good work Elizabeth, you took care of the remaining enemies,” Alice said walking towards me. “Let’s go back to base to regroup and to get you a fresh uniform.” I followed them quickly, as everything around us seemed to return back to normal.

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Alice sat down on her chair, sipping her third cup of tea of the past hour. “I thought we had more time!” She yelled as Sam brought over the third whiteboard. We were all sitting in the main living room, searching around for any type of clue that could lead the group of bounty hunters towards me. “She has never left my protected zone, the few times always under our protection… Agh!” She yelled making a mess out of her hair. “Shawn, have you recognized the team who attacked us?” She said before finishing her cup of tea.

“What Elizabeth and I found doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Shawn said pointing at the whiteboard filled with scribbles he and I made. “They are an independent group of bounty hunters, that function in a pyramidal structure. The team’s name is ‘Light-Fang’ probably making a reference that all of their members have electricity as their central element, and all of them wield a similar set of swords that resemble the fang of an animal.”

“The weird part is, that their uniforms and weapons, aside from their swords, are official weaponry and attire of both the Ice Empire and Light Kingdom.” I stepped in moving away from my blonde hair from my face. “I can confirm that all of them were electric elementals by the fact that I hadn’t returned to normal after three hours when I absorbed their energy after…” I struggle to say the last word, feeling a knot in my throat. “… Killing them.” I felt my body tingle after that word, getting a bipolar reaction of disgust and enjoyment.

“Their armor came from the Ice Empire while the chopper and several other artifacts originate from the Light Kingdom,” Laurie said holding the launcher that was used to trap me, and the harpoon guns used to pin me down. “The launchers electrified Elizabeth causing her to become an Electric Elemental, while the harpoons made directly of light energy, pinned her up easily due to how effective light weapons affect dark elementals.” Laurie then looked at me with a sad look on her face. “Sadly the only dark elemental apart from you is several miles away. Either we call one of your brothers to return you to your previous form, or one of us transforms you to another element.”

“I would rather wait for this to fade away,” I say immediately, remembering the pain I have to go through to change my element. And the fact that I would rather stay blonde than have a pair of gigantic breasts if Laurie uses her sap magic on me. “Is there anything we can do to keep me undercover? I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with an ax or a knife under my neck. Not only that, look at how you guys ended up because of me. Everyone had wounds and bruises because of the fight. I think I should just go with the military, so I can’t harm you anymore…”

“That doesn’t really matter Elizabeth,” Kalyn spoke up looking at me. “We’re a family, and a family sticks together. Even if we’re not connected by blood, we still care deeply for each other. We’ll do the same things for everyone, and we know that you’d do the same thing for us.” She ended up her speech with a joyful smile. I still feel bad by making all them suffer; I should just go and let the police capture me once more, I’m just causing more and more trouble.

Sam had this angry stare all the time. Was he mad at me? I hope he isn’t, he’s basically the closest friend I have, even if we became friends very incontinently. From time to time he would put this face, or merely stare angrily at the floor. He would also rub his left arm and press on the left side of his head. Shit! I might have caused a significant injury. I snapped out of my thoughts by Alice suddenly hugging me. She grabbed tightly on my clothes, and I felt her breathing heavily on my chest.

“Don’t you dare do that! I know what you have in mind…” Her voice came a bit distorted; I could feel sadness and desperation coming out of her. “We’ve missed you, everyone at home missed you. I’ve never seen mom so happy as when she holds you in her arms. Everyone here also cares about you. I’m sorry if I wasn’t able to say this before, but we’re all sorry by acting so coldly towards you. None of us knew how to treat you; we thought giving you some space might help you out. But after all of these events, we’re truly sorry for acting this way.”

“All of us care about you Elizabeth.” She said stepping away from the hug and cleaning her tears away. “We’ll try our best to help you out.” She ended up her phrase with a smile. I look around, and everyone was looking at me, all of them have a look of concern on their faces. I felt tears coming out of my eyes, as I felt my heart beating quickly. I also felt a warm sensation all across my body, I felt something I can’t quite describe. I started crying, but these were tears of happiness. I felt as if I belonged somewhere as if I had finally found a purpose in my life.

And it is here, with this small group of six persons. Even if I have a monster inside of me, these guys would accept me, would help me to control it. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future, but whatever it will be it is going to be on these walls, with me… friends. I hugged Alice, and she hugged me back. After a while, she broke up the hug and turn around to face everyone else. “Okay, team! Here’s what are we going to do next.” I could see her removing the tears from her face, as she stood up on the small table in the middle of the room. “There’s clearly something wrong without a defensive system, and we need to find a way to make Elizabeth’s energy level invisible to everyone else. I thought what we installed before was potent enough, but it turned out it wasn’t.”

“Shawn, Kalyn and Floyd, I want all three of you to go to where we set the perimeter beacons, check on them, and report anything strange.” They nodded and immediately left the room. “Laurie, you’ll help me out by creating much stronger beacon energy. While you Sam, you’re going to Claudin and buy all of the ingredients needed to do so. Laurie, make a list of what he needs to get.” Laurie grabbed Sam’s arm and ran away to her laboratory. Sam never lost eye contact with me and kept looking at me with the same expression.

“And you, Sis. Go back home, and stay low. I covered Sam’s house with energy blockers already, so you should be safe there.” She formed a block of ice, and with her claws she slowly began to chip it away, forming some kind of structure. “And Elizabeth, before you leave… I think you should visit this guy…” She takes out the exact card Donovan gave me yesterday. “He’s very close to the Tenebris family, and he’s actually the person who trained our brothers and me. He’s one of the father’s best friends since they practically grew up together. I think you should visit him when you became this demonic version of yourself you scared everyone. You had this aura of… anger.”

She hands me the card, and I hold it tightly, trying to not crumble it. “That Elizabeth might be very powerful, I have a feeling that you might get a hold of your powers if he helps you out.” She said before smiling at me. “Now get going, Laurie and I have a lot to do.” I put the card on one of the pockets of my bag pack and ran straight towards Sam’s house.

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I scream in frustration, kicking a rock that was on the pavement. Laurie gave me a map with the exact locations of the shops I’d need to visit so I could gather all of the ingredients for this energy blocker apparatus. So far I’ve collected a variety of metal pieces and some weird powders, flowers and a vast looking watermelon vegetable. Thankfully I brought a backpack with me, or else I’d be having a bunch of plastic bags pulling down on my bare hands. I was going to the last shop so I could get the last ingredient, something called a magma stone. It is underline and written with a different colored pen, which makes it a crucial ingredient for the whole thing.

Alice gave me quite an amount of money if you like to call it that way, but it mainly consisted of her passing me some kind of white energy material directly to my body. This felt different than any other type of energy I’ve taken, It didn’t power me up or anything, but it felt weird whenever I went to pay something since they did the same process but in reverse. Currently, I was walking on the streets of Claudin, I would get lost staring at the beautiful streets, and or the unbelievable buildings, but I have something else in mind.

I was mad, pissed at me. I was angry with me, crazy about how useless I was in today’s little fight. I couldn’t believe how much a burden I became on that fight. Except for the small part at the end, my spear barely touched something else other than me. I even got captured! Shawn and Floyd had to rescue me from the two soldiers who grabbed me from a corner. And that shit happened twice! The best thing I could do was to blow some wind directly to the guy’s face, pushing them back and making giving someone else less of a chore to slice the guy’s head off. But I didn’t want that, I only want one thing, and that is to protect Elizabeth. How the fuck would I be able to do that, if I can’t even defend myself!

The pain on the left side of my body seemed to be more active lately. The burning sensation occurred whenever a memory of what I did come to my mind. The weird thing about it is that people around me seemed to notice that. Whenever the burning sensation returned, people would freak out and stepped away from me. I didn’t scream in pain or anything, somehow these people can see something going on, or just feel some kind of raging energy. I still don’t know the limits this species has regarding human interactions.

I approached the last shop; it had an air of a grandma’s corner shop, with many plants and a variety of colors. Inside, there were aisles filled with many different kinds of plants, some sort of powders and even huge boulders. I walked to the cash register; there a forty-year-old looking woman with an apron attended me. “Hi honey welcomes to Natural Powders, what can I do for you?” She said very softly. Her long brown hair was tied up in a bun, and she was wearing a combination of brown and green clothing.

“Um… Can you give me like two or three magma stones? I’ve heard that you sell them here.” I answered her feeling the burning sensation coming back to my body. I didn’t pay attention to what the lady answered me, and I simply said. “Yes.” And gave her the best smile I could make. She walked to the backroom of the store, leaving me alone by the counter. Moments later she returned with a big box on her hands.

“I hope these are big enough for your Science project. I hope they help you out with…” She stopped suddenly, and if I weren’t distracted by my current state of well being, I would have noticed the second in which her eyes turned blue for a moment. “I’m so sorry, we ran out of stock…” She said in an apologizing tone, just as my headache and burning sensation dissipated. “But guess what! I know just the store that sells them. In the other side of the street when you enter the alleyway, there is this small shop that sells all of these weird items. You can get them there at a meager price.”

“Thank you!” I say picking up my pace and running to the other shop. I wanted to get back home as quick as I could, I tried to get help from Laurie and try to relieve this pain. Thankfully the streets were entirely cleared, I’m not sure what time it is in here, but since the streetlights are starting up, I guess it’s a bit late already. I got to the end of the alleyway, and stupid me ran away before even asking the name of the store. I looked around searching for the store that might sell this material, and instantly the one in the corner caught my eye.

It was the only one painted grey. Not sure if it isn’t some kind of a light reflection, but it is the single building that I’ve seen with this color. I seemed to be the only one around here, so I walked carelessly to the store. When I stepped in, I felt a weird sensation all across my body. The air in here felt… weird. I felt as if I just had entered through a portal. I ignored that sensation and took a good look at the store. It didn’t look weird it looked like a store that would sell random junk. I saw armor, food, swords, toys, it was a very odd combination of objects.

A lady carrying a box appeared out of one of the aisles. She probably didn’t see me and walked passed me. She left the table on the glass counter with a “huff” escaping from her lips. She wore a bizarre attire, it didn’t look like anything that these people dress around here, and it even seemed comical. She wore a long bright red cape, with yellow touches here and there. A gorgeous pair of yellow high-heeled boots that reached above her knee, a somewhat long dress that showed the right amount of cleavage, and a couple of those weird gloves that don’t cover the hand but rather the entire arm. Her blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail, and it rustled whenever she moved.

I didn’t realize it, but she had caught me staring at her. Weirdly she was doing the same thing to me. She jumped making the long sword on her left thigh move around. “Oh!” She said putting her hand over her mouth. “I didn’t hear you enter the store. My name is Anna! Tell me what can I do for you today.” She moved behind the counter, resting her head on her hands. She was beautiful, forcing me to stare at her big brown eyes for a while.

“Magma Stones!” I shouted snapping out of my trance. “The lady on the corner shop told me you sell them, is it true?”

“Yup!” She said bringing a box that was behind the counter. “I was about to store them, you’re quite lucky.” She smiled and jumped on the counter, sitting over it. “So tell me, why would you want to buy Magma Stones around this time, the fire festival is months away.” She closes her eyelids as if she were trying to guess in what way would, I use the magma stones. “Magma stones won’t work for what you’re trying to do.” She said stepping to the floor and putting another box on the table. “These babies work better for hiding people!” She winked at me handing me this box.

“Wait how did you know I wanted the stones for that?” I asked her ripping the paper list in pieces. “Have you been… AGH!” The pain in my head and body forced me to bend over the counter. I grabbed it in pain as I literally felt a chunk of my head being ripped away from my body. “Tell me… How did you know I wanted the stones for that?” I asked her bringing up my lance. She might be a pretty girl but she might know about Elizabeth, and I can’t let her live with that information.

“Relax Sam Johnson. I’m on your side.” She said snapping her fingers. I felt the objects around me starting to shift, moving their location. Immediately the pain disappeared, I no longer felt the burning sensation or the horrible headache. “In fact, we’ve been watching you for a while now. We know why you need all those items, and in fact, we’re also the ones that brought that little pain in your head.” She laughed softly.

I finally decided to look up. Everything was pretty much the same, except for the wall behind the counter. It was practically gone, leaving behind a colossal staircase leading upwards. “Don’t worry Sam, as I told you before we’re on your side. If you want to know more, you have to follow me!” She said starting to climb up the stairway. “Oh! Did I mention we could help you to make yourself more powerful? And I mean really powerful. Strong enough to even defend Elizabeth!”

And I ran behind her, ignoring my conscience and started to climb up the stairway. It was made out of the rock, not some kind of marble, but quite literally the type of stones you’d find on a mountain. I look upwards, and I couldn’t quite tell where this stairway ended. “Here goes nothing,” I say before running as fast as I could up the stairs.

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I looked at the card lying on my desk. ‘Henry Donovan’ the card texture spelled out. The card had nothing printed on it, having some sort of depth that allowed us to read his name. Alice is right, I do need to get a hold of my powers. And she says he’s a family friend, which means I can actually trust him. I’m going to keep getting in trouble, putting my friends on a lot of danger. And I can even be the source of danger! “Fuck it,” I said picking up the card and crushing it with my hand. I felt the space around me shift, I was definitely getting transported somewhere. I felt as if I was floating in the air, even my hair lifted up a little. Seconds later I landed on the ground somewhere else.

I appeared in some sort of reception. I recognize the style and the loud noises coming from the streets, which suggested that I was on Donovan’s building. There was no one else around me, thankfully. It was only I and the computer typing of the receptionist. I walked towards her, not sure what to do. She was a beautiful woman around her thirties but knowing how we age she must be much older than she seems to be. I put the rugged piece of paper on the counter, trying to get her attention. “Good evening, I came to see Mr. Donovan,” I asked her in the politest way I could.

“A bit early Miss Tenebris.” She said in somewhat of a sassy tone. She typed something on the computer, and almost instantly a loud printing sound came from under the desk. She handed me a credential with a picture of me printed at the front. “Use this to get to the last floor. Enter the elevator, swipe the card, and go to the highest floor. I’ll inform Mr. Donovan of your arrival while you’re going to his personal apartment.” She never even looked at me while she said that. I shrugged it off and headed towards the elevator. It arrived in seconds, and I was immediately on my way.

Everything had this golden look, this feeling of richness. The elevator had marble touches and golden highlights here and there. I swiped the card, and just above the one-hundredth twelve floors a new button appeared. Rather than having a specific number, it had the infinity sign printed over it. I pressed it and waited for the elevator to go up. It traveled almost immediately, giving me just a few seconds to take a look at my blonde hair and listen to some piano cover of Sweet Child of Mine.

The doors open living a world of imagination in the other side. Henry Donovan was standing there, with his cane and his blonde hair combed to the team. “Good evening Elizabeth.” He said slowly approaching me, again with his ‘I can conquer the world’ walk. “I’ve seen you’ve taken my offer Elizabeth, and you have no idea how happy it makes me feel of you becoming my apprentice.” He gestured me with his hand to follow him. “Come, let me show you around the place.” Marble floor, mixed with detailed wooden carvings, and if I’m not wrong, even the walls are made out of marble. There was a huge fountain in the middle of the hallway, and the place had this Japanese style. All the doors opened sideways, most of them made out of a thin piece of paper, and the details on doors, walls, and even the floor were outstanding. “Welcome to my home.” He said as we entered some sort of control room or probably his definition of the living room.

A gigantic wooden table with dozens of televisions each had a specific application running. It appeared as if it was continually scanning for something around the globe, and each TV showed up specific graphs of the continents. Large windows showed the landscape of Manhattan, and several sets of couches set behind those windows. We took the staircase down, and Donovan politely pulled one of the wooden chairs for me to sit down. “I bet you have a set of questions at the moment. I think it’ll be perfect for us to speak them over a hot cup of tea.” He said as he poured on a cup a delicious smelling tea fragrance. He poured himself one and walked towards the other end of the table sitting down in a very business-like way, making the fingers of one hand touch the ones of the other side.

“First things first.” He said taking a deep breath. “What kind of fight you got on today that forced you to become an electric elemental?” He said gesturing at my blonde hair. “That’s not the point, seeing that you appeared on the reception rather than on the living room means that you used the cards I gave to Alice. Which I hate because it ruined the surprise that I’m your godfather.” The look on my eyes made him laughed and slams his fist on the table. “Then she didn’t tell you that! That makes this experience much better!” He stood up and brought a TV closer to the table.

“I’m your godfather Elizabeth, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. And damn quite a goddaughter you are. Many friends of mine forced me to be the godfather of their child, and let me tell you that you’re the most interesting so far.” He took a sip of his tea and made his sword appeared. “Your father asked me to become your legal trainer, which means I’m going to show you battle techniques, swordplay, and magic. I taught all of your brothers before you so you can say I have quite the experience.” He pressed a button on a remote control turning on the TV. A picture of my blades appeared as well as many other people using the same weapon.

“Dragon Claws, the cool nickname of your weaponry. In actuality, they are called arm blades, quite a boring name for such a badass looking weapon.” He said as the TV showed footage of myself fighting against the gigantic armored dude, and many other warriors wielding it. “Tough weapon to use, and even harder to actually master. It gives you a lot of offensive potentials, but it lacks in defensive techniques. You’ll have to constantly be on the move in other to use the most out of these babies. Every day at eight I want you to use the card that my secretary gave you, to be transported here. I suggest you enter some sort of gymnastic sport so you could get some flexibility and agility.”

“That’s what your father told me to tell you.” He said shutting off the TV and sitting down again. “I do have something else in mind to talk to you about, involving your job in the incoming war. Saying this bluntly, Romoth is coming back, and there is practically no one able to stop him. The great ones had to give you their powers because they weren’t able to hold them back anymore. In other words, we’re completely and utterly fucked. Except that we have you. The chosen one, the hero of this story, savior of the lands, of space, and time.”

He slammed his hands on the table and looks directly at me. “You are the only capable fighter to bring an end to the upcoming war. Nations are already separating, the Light Kingdom is showing their dark side, and followers of Romoth are practically everywhere. And they don’t even know about him. Your great grandfather created magic; he’s the most powerful being that has ever existed on this planet. So strong that moments before his, quote on quote, death, occurred. He made everything, and everyone forgets about him, completely. There was no data about him, and everything he did got erased from everyone’s memories. People just see the second era as an unknown time, and ignored it completely.”

“And to be sincere, those are our assumptions…” He stopped dead in tracks and put his finger on his lip. “Before I continue, you have to promise me that you will not tell anyone about this discussion and about the things I’m going to tell you. Only a selected few know this information, not even Alice knows about this. You need to keep this to yourself, don’t let this information spread at any cost.” I remained in silence. I really don’t want to be joining a special kind of cult, I just want to get a hold of my powers so one day I’ll be able to stop Romoth.

“I promise,” I said coldly standing up and following him. He clapped enthusiastically, he guided me behind the wooden table, and he entered some weird combination on the wall and a secret door popped up. We walked inside as the lighting system booted up. It was some sort of runway or huge closet of weaponry. Left and right, weapons and weapons, all of them ordered by the style. Swords, maces, lances, clubs, daggers, even some I don’t know the names. They all had a shining aspect to it as if they were enchanted or something along the lines.

We stopped at the end of the hallway, where an incomplete armor set stood. It had pieces of the legs, parts of the right arm, and parts of the chest, no helmet seemed to be lying around. “Your father and I started this small collection when we were younger than you. We strumbled upon a few swords in his castle and decided to take a look at them.” He said moving over to some kind of lance and bringing it to me. “Turns out, these weapons were forged by the same person who forged your scepter.”

When I grabbed the lance, it immediately shined blue, sending some sort of energy wave through the room. All the weapons lighted up, and even the armor seems to be responding to this wave. “All of these weapons have been forged with magic, they’re energy on metal quite literally. Each of them having some sort of magical ability capable of doing things beyond your imagination. You already saw what the scepter can do, now imagine what would happen if these weapons fall in the wrong hands.”

The weapons quite literally floated towards me, and if the armor didn’t have that reinforcement, I bet it would be flying towards me right now. “So my hypothesis was correct. The weapons seem to be attracted to you. It’s obvious since you’re considered to be the reincarnation of Romoth…” He picked up the lance and put it back in his place. “That’s what your father and I have been doing for quite a while now. We, the Equilibrium Court, collected all that you can see in this room. We are a total of five members, counting myself, and you already met your father and your uncle. If you decide to join us, you’ll be able to meet the other two quickly.”

“So… This is my offer Elizabeth.” He said as the scepter suddenly appeared in my hands as if I managed to summon it. “We want you to join our cause, help us to gather as many artifacts as we can. We’re not the only ones looking for them; Romoth’s followers have collected them for some kind of ritual, while others are using them for their own will. Help us gather them, you’ll get stronger as you do so, you’ll become more powerful, more capable of the task you’ve been forced to take.”

He’s right… This is like some sort of super training. I’ll be able to finally protect my friends, to do the right thing. But, but, but, what if…

“What do you think Elizabeth?”

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This staircase sure is long. I’ve been climbing this up for quite a while now. And as I looked around, I could tell I was no longer on this world. I seem to be moving on some kind of void, or space without an actual definition. There seems to be no sun whatsoever lighting up this place. Everything has this dark tone of purple, massive rock-like structures are floating around everywhere. Gravity appears to function differently here. Looking back to where I came I could only see some kind of large cube floating on this space.

I would like to go back, I regret this decision of following this lady into my impending doom. But I was curious, how did she know my name? And will she really be able to make me more powerful? I want to be stronger, I want to be able to defend Elizabeth. And there’s also the fact that I can’t return. The staircase gets destroyed as I moved upwards. The store was many meters away by now, and not sure how gravity works in this place. I wouldn’t risk my life by jumping.

I clenched my fists and looked upwards. I don’t know where I am, but if it means I’ll be able to protect Elizabeth, I’ll have to take my chances. This place, this world, is not going to stop me. The floating islands flying around, and the dark void that seems to be below and above everything. There is no up or down, for me there is only one direction. Above the stairs. I ran as fast as I could above the stairs, ignoring the sound of the creatures around me.

I’ve heard them on my way up. They don’t sound like any animal noise I’ve ever heard before. And there was also this thing, this monster that seems to be flying around carelessly all over the place. I’ve never got to see him directly, just the shadow he produced as he passed above me. It seemed to vanish whenever I try to get a look at him. I ignored his loud roars and went directly upwards. The stairs seemed to be shacking, but I ignored it and continued climbing them, I have to get to the top.

The top seemed to be getting closer, but I didn’t stop my pacing. I ignored the sounds of animals, the earthquake, the sudden movement of the entire staircase, and the roars of the creature. I will get to the top no matter what. I took out my spear as I saw that the head was seconds away to be reached. I jumped and roared at the last step, preparing the lance for any kind of attack. I will defend Elizabeth no matter the cost.

Expecting for some battle arena, or boss battle I got quite the contrary. I ended up in some kind of room. There was a bed, a closet, a table, and a bookcase filled with some books and old toys. Anna was sitting at a hideous wooden table, there was a broken teapot and teacups spread around the seats. I panted pointing my lance at her. She calmly pretended to take a sip out of her empty cup. “So he was right after all. I thought you wouldn’t get past the door.” She said smiling coyly. “Sit down Sam, we have to talk about a grave matter.”

“Where am I?” I asked her practically shouting. My body didn’t hurt, I wasn’t fatigued at all, but the excitement and nervousness made me snap at her. “And who is this he you’re talking about?” She stood up and smiled. She started walking to the edge of this island and jumped down. I immediately tried to look to where she had gone, putting my face just over the corner trying to not fall down.

“Welcome, Sam!” Anna said appearing on the other side of the island, almost making me fall down. “Welcome to where all souls come to rest, welcome to the Underworld!” She said in an epic pose, making thunder and islands move all around the place. “And you, you Sam, you were chosen to become a Walker! He chose you, he was the one who made your body ache. He planted a seed on you so you’d be able to enter his realm unharmed.” She walked towards me, giving me her hand and helping me to stand up.

“Are you saying that I’m in hell? Did I die?!” I said a bit desperate looking around the area. It didn’t look like the hell I’ve seen in movies and games; it had an air of a limbo.

“When people die, their souls don’t go to a happy or horrible place.” She said sitting down on her bed. “Their energy goes here, no matter if you’re a normal human or someone like you, the energy will end up here. After a time, or when it is needed it’ll be sent back.” She let a butterfly stand on her finger, rather than a normal looking butterfly, his head and part of her wing was bitten off. Moments later it flew away as if nothing happened to it. “You’re perfectly fine Sam, in fact, you’re better than before. You’re a Walker, a mystical warrior's capable of jumping between worlds. And that’s because he chose you.”

Her finger pointed at something behind me. I didn’t say anything at first, but then two red eyes appeared out of nowhere, they stared directly at me, blinking as a silhouette of the creature looks. Red marks appear alongside his body, shinning red stripes. He roars in front of me pushing me back some feet. Like Elizabeth’s tendrils, this creature has them as some sort of wings, they end up with sharp red claws at the tips. The wings ended up looking like claws, red, sharp and black. The rest of his body appeared, showing some kind of serpent creature. Its body was grey; he had no limbs apart from its wings. The head came last, the eyes varied in tones of red; its mouth was covered by some kind of golden armor. Spikes of the same color formed around his tail and neck. It was gigantic, the size of a building. He roared once more, letting the armor move away from its mouth. Its big sharp teeth appeared, they were bigger than my entire body.

If I’m not mistaken, this thing is a gigantic dragon, and probably the ruler of this land. “You fucking show-off,” Anna said making the beast stop looking at me and drifted towards her. Anna casually set her hand on the creature’s forehead, petting it like an animal. “This is my best friend, and the ruler of this place Zoralth. He’s an elder dragon, and he has been hanging around since the beginning of time.” The creature looked back at me, was he curious? He didn’t look as if he had intentions of biting me off.

“This used to be such a pretty place…” Anna said looking at the dead trees and flying islands. “There used to be sunshine down here, the grass would grow, there was water, flowers, color! Not this purple grey tone.” She sighed and looked back at me. “Sam, there’s a major threat coming, everywhere. Here and to the other worlds. I bet you already know who he is. And Zoralth chose you to become his warrior. You’ll be granted unlimited power, abilities beyond your imagination! If you swear to keep this place safe from everything that can harm it.”

I know it was the creature’s doing, but a sword appeared out of the ground, in the middle of the island. It was golden; it looked like one of the creature’s spikes. The hilt was grey with a red line, and the crossguard was black. It had a more significant point and two sets of peaks at the sides. It floated in mid-air as if gravity didn’t affect it. “If you grab his sword the pact will be made,” Anna said petting the side of the creature.

“But why me? Why out of everyone else I’ve been chosen?” I asked her my hands centimeters away from the sword.

“He doesn’t want to tell me,” Anna said answering my question. “But he’s never wrong at anything. He always chooses the best decision possible.”

A picture of Elizabeth appeared in my head. She’s the one I have to protect if making this pact gives me the power to do so, and then it has to be worthy. My hand grabbed the hilt, and I pulled the sword closer to my body. Immediately the left side of my body burned intensely, far worse than anything I felt today. I wanted to pass out, but I took hold of my body and stood straight, thinking about the greater good of this. I ignored everything around me, the only thing I have in mind was Elizabeth.

I sustained this pain until it was gone. When I opened my eyes, everything seemed different. I felt, strange… I felt as if I was able to do anything I wanted. I looked at Anna and Zoralth. “It is done.” I heard him say on my mind. Was I able to communicate with him now? ”Embrace your new form” A crystal mirror appeared in front of me. The reflection was something from a horror movie. The right side of my body was normal. But the left… My skin was gone leaving only the bone. I could see the left side of my skull, with no kind of eyeball or content. ”This is your new form, your enhanced form. You will be shaped into this whenever the time accords to. My blade will only work with you, anyone else grabs it, the sharpness will disappear, and it’ll become dysfunctional. Any questions?”

I saw a golden flame appearing on my body. It didn’t hurt anymore, and it was as if it was part of my body now. A golden glowing eye looked on the empty socket. “What do I do now?”

 

 

End of part 1.