THE BASEMENT [ORIGINAL - 2006]

The Basement It was an ordinary day today at school. I flunked that math test and didn't care, and I went to study hall for being a pest in class. I hate my teacher, Mrs. Kooper. She would always be looking for a way to ruin your recess. I didn't care about school. I just went home afterwards and played games on my emulator and that was about it. I did make a few kids bleed a few times in gym today. Anyways, my name is Raymond. And I'm the D student. Right now, we are just heading back to class from gym when I saw the principle talking to a parent I haven't seen yet, and I knew everyone here at Davis Road Elementary. So I snuck out of the line-up and started to listen in to their conversation. They were talking about a new student. The parent would not give the name of the student. The principle seemed annoyed, but she gladly accepted. The worsed part was.. the student was in grade 4 just like me, and there was only one grade 4 class in the whole school. Yup, couldn't wait. In the classroom, Mrs. Kooper announced that I would be in at recess because I snuck out of the line-up. No surprise. At the end of the day, I was just walking out of the school grounds when I saw a really strange kid standing near the fence. It looked liked he was wearing a cape! I walked around him and stared at him for a few seconds. He didn't seem to notice for a while, then looked at me. I then noticed that he had red eyes. He gave me a freaky smile, and I had had enough of the creepy boy. I ran home, not even daring to look back. The next morning, my mom woke me up super early and gave me a big breakfast. I threw my homework in the garbage, and lied my mom into writing a note saying that the dog ate my work while I was doing it. Bad, bad me. When I got to the school, I saw the boy by the fence again. This time, I stopped and glanced at him. He looked at me and started to slowly walk towards me. I freaked out and ran to my class. I looked behind me and the boy was gone. All afternoon I was thinking about the boy. I asked a few of the kids in my class if they ever saw him, but so many people hated me in this school that I got no answers. At recess, I asked my only friend, Ryan, for a few tips. "It's just probely some kid who wants to scare people." he said. "But he had red eyes.." Ryan interrupted my speech with "You can just go to a store were they sell things that you can put over your eyes to make them look scary for halloween or something." I pondered at that fact for a moment, and toke Ryan's advice for granted. Mrs. Kooper made just me take home extra homework. I almost wished she had never been born because she was out to get me all the time. There he was in his usually spot by the fence, the strange boy. This time, I just ignored him and kept walking. But the scary thing is, he started to follow me. I heard him jump from the fence and start walking, and I turned around and he was just standing there. Scanning me with his beady red eyes. I was really freaked right now and I started to run- he started to run. I dashed into a bush and peered thru the bush to see if he was still there. Coast was clear. I started to get up when I heard something behind me and instantly turned around. I screamed in shock when I saw that he was right there beside me. Then he gave me another one of his smiles again after an episode of staring, but this time, I saw that he had fangs. I screamed and blasted into the trees and started to the direction of my house. Then, I heard his devilish laugh from behind me and I was totally past the limited on being creeped out. My house was just around the corner. I stopped running and he seemed to stop too. I decided to take it simple and see what would happen. I could hear his heavy breathing from behind me and I shivered. I couldn't take it anymore. I picked up the pointiest stick that was nearest me and flung around, threatening to fling the stick at him. He hissed and put himself in a position that made him look shockingly big. I decided to start running again. I bolted into my house and locked every single window and door and waited. My parents weren't home and I was glad. I waited for about five minutes then peered out the window. He was staring right up at me. It was just freaking me out. The phone rang. I picked it up hoping it was mom or dad, and I hollered into the phone, and started to cry. All I got in return was very deep heavy breathing that made my heart thump. I ran to the window again and saw that the boy was gone, and was almost relieved. But I started to hear clicking noises down the hallway. I ignored them and just stood there. Totally terrified. I was crying like crazy too. The phone rang again and this time I heard "Raymond.. take care.. hisssss..." and then hung up. I decided to find out what the clicking noise was. As soon as I got to the hallway I saw him. He had the same cold, empty look on his face. I decided to stay calm. He slowly walked forward to me, in a way that showed that he was more terrified to me then I was to him. He reached forward and touched my shoulder, and I jerked back in surprise on how cold his hand was, and my shoulder actually had frost on it. I looked at him in hatred now. I actually pushed him down the hallway, down the stairs and out the door. I checked the window and he was just walking away as if nothing had happened. That is a day I would never forget. I just rushed to school after yesterday's terror. Mrs. Kooper was the snob she usually was, and I learned to ignore it after yesterday. But when I walked into the class, I saw that there was a new desk. The very first desk to be beside mine. Then I saw him. The boy walked in and sat at that new desk. I sat down and asked him why he did what he did yesterday. No answer. Great.. I had a creepy kid right beside me with no one who really cared about me in this classroom. Today was just a disaster. Not with the boy but with Mrs. Kooper constantly giving me detentions and time-outs. I hated her. My name was under the 'detention' sticker six times today, and I had to go to study hall because I poked someone in the back with a pencil, the eraser end to! Then I got framed for putting paint on Cody's chair, and I had to write an apology note to him, and Tia who cleaned it up, adding up to more detentions and time outs. I really hated her now. And now she had given me custodian duty. Lucky for the custodian he gets the day off because I have to do everything he would had had to have done. Stupid Mrs. Kooper. I called her Mrs. Pooper and Pooper Scooper now. After school, I got the keys to the janitor's closet and got out the gear I needed. A few kids purposely made messes in and around the school so I had to more work to do. The word that Raymond had the janitor duty spread incredibly fast because of a few girls, ecespicialy Mary. Stupid. I would give anything to move to a new school and try again. I got my mop and started to clean up a patch of dirt on the floor, when I heard someone walking behind me. It was probely just the custodian coming to do his dirty work and find that it was covered, but Mrs. Kooper told the custodian about me doing his job already. Maybe he forgot? Maybe it was a teacher or a student? But it was already 5:00 and there should be no teachers or students at school anymore, and I started to doubt that it was the custodian. The walking stopped and I could hear breathing behind me. I was scared. I slowly started to turn around when I saw the boy right up in my face. I decided to play it cool again and just returned to work. But the boy poked at me very hard and I turned around again. "Stop following me! You're weird and I don't like you!" I shouted at him very loudly. I then realized that he was now crying. Good for him I thought. Then out of the blue he hit me right in the back. I cried out from the wincing pain that he left. The boy started to laugh. I really hated him now. First, he creeps me out and follows me to my house, and now he is attacking me. And I knew it was going to get worse because he was sitting beside me in class. I grabbed the mop and tried to whack him with it, but he merely dodged as if it were nothing at all. The boy snickered and walked out the door in front of me. After what just happened, I dropped the stupid janitor job, tried my best to ignore the pain, and headed home, even though I knew that tomorrow the Pooper Scooper would freak out. My parents were not home for 5 hours after that. I was worried. I just decided to play some video games and watch T.V. and not dare to go outside, just in case the boy showed up. Mom and dad were never this late. Mom came home around 4 and dad came at just about 8. It was now 10:00 I read on the clock by my bed. I didn't even want to go to bed, because I knew this was the boy's doing and he could be lurking outside in the darkness. I just sat there in my bed with my bedside lamp on, waiting for something to happen. I fell asleep around 12:00, but was awakened to a scratching sound in the basement. I didn't dare check, it was the boy for sure. I just waited there. 30 minutes past and the sounds were still going. He was calling me down there I thought. Then it came to me that it could be mom and dad playing a prank on me and making me scared. So I grabbed a few spy gadgets and headed down the stairs. I looked at the door that lead to the creaky, basement stairs that lead all the way underground to the basement. No one had opened this very door in years. My grandparents gave this house to my parents when they passed away, and has not been opened ever since my grampa's 50th birthday my mom says. Who knows what kind of legendary things could be down there.. and what kind of deadly things could be down there. I would have opened this door a long time ago, but there a zero lights down there and it is very, very dark; at lease my mom says that, and I am forbbided to even touch this door. But it was 12:30 at night and they still were not home. Maybe the boy trapped them down there? I hesitated for a moment, then opened the door. It creaked with ever inched it moved, and chilling cold air blasted into my face. I could smell the long time it had been locked up.. I was instantly afraid. I could see nothing, not even the first step of the stairs. It was like the end of the world or something. I could hear faint sounds from below. "Raymond.. take care.. me.. afraid.. stay back.." I then realized that I was wildly shivering from fear and the icy cold air. I then remembered my dad saying that on my grampa's 50th birthday, they went down there to hide the presents, but they forgot to bring them back up and that they were still down there. Who knew how old those presents were now. I toke out my LED Ray on my spy watch and shone it around the basement and picked up the image of the stairs. The stairs were covered, COVERED in dust from many years of being un touched. Cobwebs lined the very high ceiling, then I realized that the basement was the biggest part of the house. I shone the Ray down and saw a few square objects, covered with dust as with everything down there. I shone it further and saw the boy. I was just about to turn back when he actually said something. "Come here. I will not hurt you." I suddenly felt a safe felling inside me and started to walk down the stairs. Every step creaked dramatically like someone made them to sound like that. When I touched the ground, and looked at the boy. He stared back with his red eyes and that empty look on his face. I shone the Ray everywhere, examining everything. Then the boy handed me a picture of someone. It was my grampa. I remembered another thing that my dad said happened on my grampa's birthday. He went to find the presents in the basement and never came back. That was why the presents never came back up, and why I was forbidden from the basement. I always thought that they were just trying to scare me. I started to walk towards the square boxes and whipped the dust off of them, sending a large cloud of dust in the air. The presents. I looked back at the boy and he said "Those are my.." then stopped. "What?" I said. He said nothing. "It's okay to talk you know." I told him, trying to reassure him into talking again. I looked at the picture of my grampa closely, then looked up at the boy. They looked so much alike. I stared at him in horror, when he seemed to look at me in question. "What's my name?" he asked me. Now I looked at him in question and shock. I flipped over the picture and saw one word that was almost impossible to read. "Gustler" I said aloud. He looked at me and nodded. "Ok Gustler. What in the world are you?" I blurted out. "The one who never made it." he said coldly. "What?" I said. He finally said something worth listening to. "I was trapped in a box. One of the many. But then when I was the next one, the factory shut down and I was left there to die. Luckily, a massive beast with the largest wings you could have ever seen.. freed me and brought me here.. I don't like him. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be trapped anymore I am tired of being trapped. It's like my destiny to be trapped all the time and I'm sick of it." I had no idea what he was talking about. I stared at him and gave him a really confused looking look. He continued with the story. "In my dark, horrible prison, a shone of light came. I was blinded from the light, and hid. A figure came down and threatened to open one of my.. presents. I attacked him and he was afraid and tried to run. I caught him and sealed him in a box that will never be opened. And if it ever was.. he will never come to be. Ever again his time has passed." I was still confused. I ran towards a stack of boxes and searched every single one. Gustler stared at me as I came to final box that I could not open. I the saw that it was glittering with ice, the only thing that was not dusty. I looked at Gustler. He pushed me aside and defrosted the box. The box started to move, then exploded at the size of the contents. It was a big blue ball with.. my grampa inside it! I looked at Gustler. "I can't." He said. I frowned and touched the ball. Icy cold. Gustler started to walk towards a small door that I never noticed. He opened it, and pitch black like the basement. "Follow me" he said. I followed him through the door, possibly leaving my house and my life behind. "What time is it... 3:30? Can I have some of those? Wait.. no.. just a little.. longer.. what.. where... am I?.." It was really dark, and there were swirls of purple every once in a while. I looked down. I was floating and it was only black down there. I looked around. All of a sudden, a mirror was in front of me. This felt so much like a dream. I looked into the mirror and saw a building, my school! Then I remembered the strange boy, but I couldn't avert my gaze from the mirror. It was my school, but it looked different. Older. Then I found out that it was just my eye sight dimming. Then I saw my friend Ryan and a few other kids walking around the schoolyard. What where they doing? Then I noticed a bunch of other kids looking around viciously in bushes and trees. And there was my teacher, doing the same. They were looking for something, but what? Then I started to hear what the group of kids were saying. "The last time I saw him, he was walking home from school. I have no idea what happened then. But I do remember this weird guy chasing him too! Maybe that guy toke him away! We have to go after him! But I don't even know who he is. He's the new kid in our class I think! Well tomorrow, we go and boot him off earth, after we make him tell us where Ray is!" Then I realized that they were looking for me. But why? I was the horrible kid who everyone hated. And even Mrs. Kooper was looking for me? This was definitely a dream. I banged my head with my fist but I never woke up. Then I saw Mrs. Kooper dive into a big bush to search, and some other kids were in trees. I didn't want to see anymore things that were not true! It made me feel guilty that I was thinking that this could be possible. I toke a fist and smashed the mirror with all my might, but the mirror backed off into the darkness, and in it's place, the boy. "This is all very real. A disaster is about to befall your home. But before you can save your friends, you must save my home." I looked at him and I knew this was just a big lie. I couldn't save anyone or anything. I was the one that got them in the danger. But I looked at the boy and saw that he was telling the truth. I could change everything around if I wanted to. But what could I do? I was only a little kid who failed everything but gym class. But as the boy continued to stare at me, thoughts of how could save everyone filled my head. I toke one final look at him, and said "What can I do?". "You save my world by getting out of here. This is my world. My prison, my dungeon that I cannot escape. The Basement. Your basement to be exact. But with your presence here when there hasn't been one in such a long time, will destroy my world. You must escape, then they key to save your world will be only inches away. But I cannot help you, because not even I know how to be rid of this place." And he floated backwards into the darkness as well. Then, green and blue started to swirl around the vast darkness as well with purple. I knew what the boy ment now. I had to escape. I had to save my home. So I ran forward. On and on and on without stopping and I found nothing. It seemed as though I was back where I started. Then I saw the presents in the distance. I ran over to them and opened all of them. Nothing was in them. Nothing. But a blue, icy ball leapt from one of them and into my face, burning at the ice's chilliness. I instantly started to defrost the ball. More then a few minutes later, white and brown where now swirling in the darkness. The ball defrosted and erupted into flames. I threw it into the air and it seemed to have hit something. The whole thing exploded. The swirling of colors increased and I started to get dizzy. Everything was a big mess of color and flames, sparks, and the darkness below me turned to more swishing color. I fainted on the spot. My bed, my room, my house, my home. I was back. I was lying on my bed and I could still imagine the colors everywhere as if they were trying to destroy me. I still felt a but dizzy so I stayed there and thought. Why was this happening to me? I'm no hero, and no one in my family is either, and my mom and dad.. I hadn't seen them since the incident with the boy. Where was he now? In the basement? In his 'prison'? Then I remembered what he said about my friends being in danger. He also said that the solution would only be inches away too. I counted in inches and I landed on my dresser. I searched the whole thing. The only thing I found that would be useful was my old play sword, but then I saw a small cushion with a jewel on it. I picked it up and examined it, put it in my pocket and sped out of my room. In the living room, still my parents were gone. I had to save them, if they were in fact still alive. I headed downstairs and saw the door to the basement. I wanted so very much to open it and talk to the boy, but I knew I should leave him alone. So I put on all my gear, and headed out the door. With no clue what awaited me at school. "Raymond you traitor!" I could hear in the distance as I approached the school. What was going on? I had no clue but it started to make sense once I got closer. I saw a weird kid, not the boy, but a new guy was there. Red blazing hair and really tall, I walked up to him and asked for his name and what he was doing here. His response was snickering, devious laughter that followed with my friends laughing at me and pointing. Was something wrong with me? I was excepting them to be glad to see me after all the searching they did. Wait, it all could have been my stupid imagination like I thought before. But I thought really, it had something to do with this kid. I asked him again, this time more serious, who he was and what he was doing. More laughter. This time my friends just looked at him. I asked my friends if they had been the least bit worried were I was, and they just looked at the kid. The kid laughed and they laughed too. This guy had problems for sure, that he needed to deal with soon or something bad would happen for sure. I just walked away. But then I remembered. The disaster. The kid. Was he somehow connected to the disaster? All I knew was that something fishy was going on right now. No body laughs like that. I went strait into the school and to my class room. And once again a new surprise awaited me. I saw a thin lady standing up strait and.. well, tall at the front of the classroom. She didn't look the least bit fermilular. She jumped up and down when she saw me. No body was EVER happy to see me. Never. This was really weird. Then I noticed as I talked to her, she couldn't talk. She just jumped and jumped and giggled and laughed and smiled. That was it. Then on a little closer inspection, it was Mrs. Kooper. Mrs. Kooper! I yelled at her. Then she seemed almost relieved. She grabbed a piece of paper of her desk and started writing. Raymond! This is terrible! We were all looking for you, when this strange boy arrived and said that what we were doing was foolish and we were wasting our lives away. We had never seen this boy before so we just ignored him and told him the story about you. He was enraged after that, and he toke away our ability to speak by just touching us. Then, he made us laugh and giggle and be silly when you arrived. And he thought I looked fat and overweight, so he made me work out endless hours on a treadmill. It was horrible. But since he has no more power left, you are our only hope! Here I was again with another rescue request. Apparently this kid was the disaster. At that very moment, he came in the room with his blazing red hair flying. Mrs. Kooper instantly started giggling and being silly, but the kid didn't buy it at all. He toke the paper and read it, then threw it on the floor and stamped his foot on it. He looked mad, and he defiantly was! He wound up and punched Mrs. Kooper to the ground. I guessed she tried to yell out that he was gonna get a detention, but she couldn't. She just laid there silently. I punched the kid back and again asked him who he was. Then I grabbed a pencil and was just about to stab him, when his red hair seemed to move. I got off of him. He was changing. Wings! He was growing wings! Then I saw horns. Fangs. Claws. And a sword. Oh my gosh.. I backed off, The Flying Red Dart instantly went over to Mrs. Kooper and sung some sort of song to her, then I recognized it as the Perish Song. She screamed and slowly closed her eyes. I looked at her in disbelief. Now people were getting killed, all because of me. I grabbed the pencil and threw it at him and he simply catched it. Actually by the way he looked, I wasn't sure if he was a boy or a girl anymore. This was it. The fight. I would die or it would die. I was gonna fight the Flying Red Dart, the one who tortured the strange boy for freezing my grampa. I was gonna get the truth. I was gonna save the strange boy from my basement, no matter how stupid my actions may be or what my school record is. I was gonna finish this once in for all! But there was one thing in the back of my mind that kept bugging me.. how could I face up to this guy?! He was big and really powerful. I understood what the boy ment now, and was instantly afraid. And I had five minutes before all of us would be destroyed by the Perish Song. I didn't have much time. I ran down the hall, and had no idea were I was going or what would ever happen to me. I heard the roar of that beast behind me and my super speed kicked in and I went strait into the janitor's closet. I locked the door behind me, but I knew it wouldn't hold forever. I turned around and saw the axe in the dark part of the room. I grabbed it, but stumbled at how heavy it was. Luckily I didn't hurt myself anymore than I already was. Then the beast came, and tore down the door. I was trapped. He drew his sword and revved back, ready to take a huge slice. With all my might, I threw the axe as hard as I could, and it hit him pretty good and he fell back, dead. At least for now. I couldn't kill him, I had to contain him or something. Then I remembered, the gym was massive after the princable ordered the builder to renovate it. I grabbed the rope in the closet and used the square knot and tied it to his tail. I tried to drag him, but he was way too heavy for me. I thought fast, and ran outside. Everyone was at the front of the school still. I ran to Ryan and tried to get him to talk, but after a few moments of no response I knew the curse was still upon them. I pulled him toward the door into the school. When we got inside and he saw the beast, he went into action and grabbed the rope. I ran into the closet and grabbed another one and tied it to his arm. I knew it would not be long before he woke up again. We began to pull. "We are going to pull this beastie into the gym. I have no idea what to do afterwards.. but.. we'll think of something.. lets just.. keep going..." Even with Ryan's help, it was really hard to pull the beast. As we pulled and the gym door was within sight, I noticed the necklace on the beast's neck. It was made of ice. Loads of thoughts flew into my head of what it could be, but I decided to focus on pulling the beast instead of some necklace on it's neck. We stopped at the gym door and I unlocked it with the paperclip in my pocket. The world could have been doomed if Jimmy hadn't had gave me the paperclip at recess a few days ago. The world also would have been doomed if my prank that I was going to use the paperclip with, worked out. I was trying to get into the principle's office, luckily we got caught or I wouldn't have this paperclip. We moved the beast into the gym, and I toke a few rapers from some gum I ate and covered it's head with them, hopping that their tasty scent would make him sleep longer. Ryan just shook his head at me. I looked at the necklace and decided to take it off. When I did, Ryan toke a huge breath. He could talk! I had lifted the curse! "Thanks' Ray I really owe you one for this whole rescue thing and killing the creepy thing.. but how are we gonna get rid of it anyways??" I thought.. I had no idea. But then I remembered the nature books I read in my grama's attic a long time ago. They talked about making portals. "I have an idea" I said, and we ran outside, to the forbidden forest. This forest was banned from all students. Some kid went in here three years ago and never came back out. His name was Justin or something, and I was the one who told him to go in there. And some girl by the name of Mary saw me push him in there, and she tattled on me and that is how I got my record at school. It wasn't my grades or my behavior, it was that situation. I used to be a very good student until that horrible day. Mrs. Kooper used to LOVE me and wanted me in her class. But it was the last day of school I did that, and I was going to go in Mrs. Kooper's class. Now she hated me like mud with a stick in it. The whole thing wasn't my fault. My old friend Daemion dared me to do it and he would give me five bucks, but he got expelled for some graffiti he did on the school. My old, bad friends are another reason I have my record. The forest was banned since then, but back then it wasn't that bad. Now if you go in there, you are expelled, if you ever got out. The forest had massive trees and you couldn't even see the sky. It was like a jungle. And at the very end of this place, was a huge, absolutely massive hole. That is what Justin fell in. The forest had vine-like things all over the place, and there were rumors that they would grab you. Mrs. Mckenzie, the principle, wanted to extend the fence to the entrance of the forest, but after she payed millions to have the gym re-done, she was basically bankrupt. That was a bad image to the school and community. Lots of teachers had quite because of that, and she is having a hard time getting more in. The school may be shut down soon. As we walked through the forest, we had to duck from all the vines everywhere, and dodge all the holes and climb the huge hill. I found all the stuff I needed for the portal, and we put them in a plastic bag we found. Everything was going smooth, until we heard roars from far, far away. Until now we never realized how far away from the school we were. We might had even been out of the community almost. Another thing we found out as we looked around some more, we were lost. The beast was awake, and was probely tearing down the two million dollar gym that almost got our school closed down. And we were lost in a dangerous forest. We were so done for now, and I would be the one to blame for it. Then as I started to get over ahead of myself, Ryan simply pulled out a compass and dragged me in different directions. I followed him. It was a long time before we started to see smoke in the trees. I was really worried now. As we kept on walking, it seemed like forever. We defiantly didn't take this long to get to were we were. We started walking into a heavy mist. It was starting to get hard to see. "We are so going the wrong way! Turn around!" I hissed, but Ryan kept going forward. I slowly started to see a building as the trees lighted up a bit. "See? I told you we were going the right way." Ryan declared. But then, the mist started getting really damp. Then we stopped when we saw a fire, and the school. We ran as fast as we could towards the school. It was in flames, and the beast was out of control. Firemen were trying to put out the fire, but the beast merely swiped them out of the way. It's eyes were burning red with furry, it was massive now, and was bigger than the school. The sky was red and I saw something different. I could see the clouds and space a lot more easily. The ozone layer was completely gone. And we were just two puny kids who couldn't even save a fish from going down the toilet. "Ray think of something!!" Ryan was shaking me like crazy. I grabbed my plastic bag and rummaged through the contents, all the stuff we had gathered. "You make the portal thing and I'll distract the monster!" Ryan grabbed my flashlight and flickered it around. It shone of the mist very well, and distracted the beast greatly. I smiled for the first time in a long time, and got to work. I began making the portal that would take the beast back to were it came from. Ryan continued to leap around with the flashlight, he almost looked like he was doing ballet! The portal was finished. I signaled Ryan and I held up the portal. Ryan shone the flashlight right at the tin foil, and light exploded from it. The beast became very angry and tried to fight. I reached into my pocket and grabbed some gum and started chewing on it as fast as I could. I spread it all over the portal's edges and the beast became very interested now. It sniffed and roared, it liked the smell of the ABC gum! It slowly walked towards the tiny portal, shaking the ground and making mini earthquakes as it went. Then, I threw the portal at it, and it was instantly consumed. It roared as loud as it could, and flapped it's wings like mad. Wind was gusting around and pulled us off our feet. The Flying Red Dart blared and roared.. it was a huge scene. Me and Ryan were separated-blowing off in tons of different directions. Then as I swirled near a tree, I tried to fly away from it, but my sweater got caught in one of the branches and my sweater tore. Luckily I had a shirt on. Ryan was no were to be seen. Then, I saw the beast getting smaller and smaller, shrinking into the portal. I tried my best to find Ryan, but this whole place was just a huge mess and I couldn't see anything but myself and the roaring beast being dragged into the portal. I was starting to feel sick from all of my whirling in the sky. This was total madness. I was flapping my arms like mad, trying to find Ryan when he might be dead by now. The really bad part about this entire story is that I saw blood flying in the air, coming towards a tree near the forest. There, I saw Ryan hanging from a branch. I flapped as hard as I could to get over there, but the Flying Red Dart toke one final blow of it's wings and a loud roar, and was dragged completely into the portal. The wind stopped. I dropped to the ground with a thud, once again wincing in pain. I fell from a really high distance. I was sure I broke my back, but I got up. I looked at the portal still floating in the air, and it disappeared. But that wasn't what I was concerned about right now. I was dead worried about my best buddy Ryan, hanging from the tree. I glanced around, looking for where I saw him. Maybe I was just imagining it, and it was just a joke. Then I scanned a nearby tree and picked out the image of Ryan. I ran over to the tree and began to climb the tree. The image of Ryan got clearer.. and enough that I could see that we was still alive, but his arm was cut badly. "Ryan!" I screamed. "Ray I need a bandaid or something right now!!" he responded. I reached the top and sat on a thick branch and dug into my pocket. I found a piece of tape that barley stuck anymore. I had nothing, even though I was the kind of guy who kept garbage in his pocket, but the junk had proven itself pretty useful through all of this. "Hold on Ryan I'll find something!" I jumped down the tree and ran to the massive hole in the ground were the beast was. I could still feel it's presence there, somehow. I knew were the duty's hut was, and that is were the lunchtime duties would keep all of their gear. I dashed onto the colossal playground, another thing that Mrs. Mckenzie had wasted her money on. I had to go through a series of tunnels and bridges just to get to the end. There was no way around this playground, you had to go through it. When I got to the last tunnel that would leave to the exit bridge, I stopped and noticed that there was a note on the side of the tunnel. I slid down and grabbed it as I went down, and read through it as fast as I could, Ryan was still in danger. Dear Raymond. You are doing well. Good job with getting rid of the Red. But I must warn you that something even greater than the Red is coming. It is called the Silfer Crimson. This monster is very spacious, be careful. There is a way to seal it away like you did with the Red, but I am at lose of that information. Good luck may change into good job, which could also change into good bye. I put the weird message in my pocket and ran to the tiny hut on the top of the hill. I grabbed the key from it's usual hiding spot, under the mat, and unlocked the door. I had been in here before, but something seemed different. I walked forward to the waist packs that contained a bunch of tools, but heard a scratching noise behind me. I turned around and stood still for a long time. Then out of the blue, the whole hut collapsed. Lucky for me the hut was imported from California and was made mostly of straw. I crept out of the mess slowly, more pain. I felt like an old man I ached so much now. I searched through the rubble and found some first aid kit packages. I retrieved a waist pack and strapped it around my waist. I grabbed some first aid stuff and stuffed all I could in the waist pack, and the rest in my pockets. I got rid of a bit off junk like pieces of paper, but I kept a few of them and my super-small pencil. I rushed to the playground and ran onto the field. I started to climb the tree with Ryan at the top, but then I heard clicking noises from the forest. I ignored them because I was used to this sort of stuff now, and continued up the tree. At the top, I applied the Band-Aids and other first aid stuff to Ryan's arm, and before we knew it he was feeling great again. "Thanks Ray. I REALLY owe you one now. How about my XBOX?? Or my computer? It's the latest Windows!" "That's ok Ryan. What we need to be doing right now is finding out what is doing those noises in the forest. Com'on!" We jumped down the tree and bolted over to the forest. It was then that I showed Ryan the note. "Weird. But I still don't like the part when he says he have to get rid of another guy." I seriously disagreed that the beasts were mere 'guys', but we continued into the forest. The clicking sounds continued. We were back in the misty part of the forest, and we were getting closed to the NeverEnding. Kids called the massive hole in this forest that. As we approached the NeverEnding, Ryan pulled out the flashlight. We stood by the NeverEnding, and Ryan shone the flashlight down it. We were expecting the flashlight to shine all the way down it's millions of feet's worth and see the dead corpse of Justin Bush, the kid I told there would be treasure down there, but instead we saw something else. "Water?! How the heck did water end up in there?" "Maybe Justin was a water god or something and we put water in the hole so no one could see him again. His rotting body." I looked at Ryan in disgust. But looked back down at the NeverEnding. The water moved around as if it were an ocean, and it had ripples. We continued to stare at it until the flashlight began to dim, and Ryan turned it off. We toke a few more looks at it and started to walk off, until we heard ear-piercing clicking noises. I struggled to cover my ears as hard as I could, and the water began to go crazy. The water exploded and a colossal beast came with it. The clicking stopped and I toke a good look at it. It at huge, spiky spikes all along it's back and was shaped like a torpedo, and it had massive teeth sharp as a pin, and they glittered with frost. It was very reddish in color, and also had a large horn on it's head. We were defiantly dead now. Ryan screamed and started running back towards the school. I yelled out to him, yelling and screaming as hard as I could to tell him to get back. I thought back to the first time I came in this forest and tried to remember were Justin hid his stuff, including a knife. I searched through the rocks and near the NeverEnding. I flipped over a rock and found his backpack. Bingo. I dug into it as fast as I could, and found the knife. I drew it out and ran up beside the beast, which was named the Silfer Crimson. I ran to it's head and toke a stab in it's eye, and actually pulled it out. The Crimson roared and Ryan ran over to me. "Oh my gosh.. what are we gonna do??!!" "RUN!!" I screamed, and I didn't need to tell Ryan twice. We were running wherever, no idea where we were even going. The beast was dead behind us, and it was catching up fast. We never even saw the NeverEnding approaching. Ryan stumbled and tripped over a rock and went flying. I catched his foot and held on as hard as I could. The Crimson was almost over to us, and I waited it to get close enough and threw the knife at it, and hit the bulls-eye. It screamed and fell to the ground, but of course would not stay there forever. Ryan was falling down the NeverEnding. I held on with all my might. "Please Ray!! DON'T LET GO! AHH!!" Ryan wailed as I was on the verge of slipping. "I won't let you go buddy! If you go I go with you! Hold on to the sides and try to climb!!" But Ryan's weight pulled me forward and my foot hit a small yet sturdy rock, and shocked me. I let go. Time seemed to had stopped at that very moment, as I listened to the blood chilling cries of my only friend, Ryan, as he fell to his doom. "NO!!!" I screamed and tears were pouring from my eyes now. I would not watch him fall. No! I tried to reach.. but everything started to just go away. I felt like just falling in there too. I heard the beast wake up behind me and didn't care. It was just like flunking the math test, I didn't care. I turned around and waited for it to hit me. It backed up and reared for the attack. I didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore. Then out of the blue, something went flying through the air and chopped the beast in a perfect slice. I started to walk backwards, totally freaked out. This could be another beast that was gonna finish me off. The beast was in pieces now, weak thing it seemed. Then I saw the creature come flying at me and I ducked down and buried myself in the grass. "Please just get it over with! My best and ONLY friend just went down the NeverEnding, and the school is destroyed, a bunch of people killed, the community ruined, my teacher killed, my parents are gone, my basement is lurked by a freaky guy, and EVERYONE hates me, even an old person hates me! I'm just some guy that never happened because this girl had to go and ruin my life.. I hate her! That goodie goodie Mary ruined my entire life! Even my parents when they were still here didn't like me! My sister went missing and never came back and they blamed it all on me so they REALLY didn't like me! JUST FINISH IT SO I DON'T HAVE TO LIVE THROUGH THIS ANYMORE!!" I pleaded, making a huge scene and crying like a baby. I almost felt embarrassed as I heard the creature was actually standing right there. I looked up and trembled at the sight of the worst person in the world, and could outrun a rabbit in running speed. I screamed just at the sight of her. The freakish, horrible grade fiver looked down at me in disgust and lots of hatred. It was clear that she thought I was the worst person in the world too. "Hi Raymond. What are you doing here." She said in that scary voice of hers. I felt like I was going to faint. It was her alright, it was Mary, the one who got me in all the junk I'm in now. She was the one who ruined everything. She was one of those really scary people that never really said much, but I totally underestimated her. She had a bunch of weird phsco friends as well, and I could see that they were coming to finish me off. I was really mad at her now. First, she is a big tattle and ruined everything for me just because of some kid going into the forest, and now she is here, making everything even worse. She also spread the untrue word about me and made even more people hate me, after all she is one of the leaders of 'The Club'. A creepy place were her and her friends hang out, which was out of the school grounds. But no one cared because everyone loved Mary and all the teachers gave her As when she should have gotten Cs. She was super popular too for a grade fiver. I was gonna explode now because she stole my perfect life!! "MARY!!" I yelled. "Geez you don't have to get all serious.. would you just, like, shutup for a while?" And she walked away to meet her friends who were waiting. No! I wasn't gonna sit here and watch her ruin everything even more. I had to get rid of her. I was tired of her bossing me around. I was just about to get up and run over to them and make them pay, but before I knew it she was back over here in a flash, and her friends slowly catching up. "Number one.. what are you doing here. Why do you even exist." She asked simply. Her friends giggled. "Mary.." I asked her. "Yes.. what?" Once again her friends giggled and laughed. I toke a deep breath and spoke the four words I never wanted to ask Mary. "Were is The Club." All the girls broke out in a massive laughter, one of Mary's friends, was laughing like a coyote. The girls noticed that, and stopped laughing and stared at her as if she weren't cool anymore. "Seat it or Beat it, Amanda." Mary scolded in the scary voice. Amanda looked very scared and stayed silent, fearing of what she would do to her if she spoke. One of the girls turned to face me. "Look, we don't tell snot-bags like you were the super-popular kids hang out ok? I'm pretty sure.." Mary cut her off. "This is something that I SAY NOT YOU!" she scolded once again, and even though she yelled it was still scary. The second girl stood silent too. Mary looked to the third girl and handed her a piece of paper and whispered something to her. Amanda saw me staring and yelled out, "Don't stare! P-R-I-V-A-C-Y HERE!" Mary instantly turned around and actually gave her a thumbs up. It was obvious that she was trained or something. She continued to whisper and tell her friend stuff after that. "Um.. where did you get that sword thing Mary?" I blurted out. She turned around. "Ok I have to tell you the truth here.. yeah.. well I was trying to tell on this guy that was drawing stuff on a tree.. and so the duty looked over at you and then she saw you pushing Justin.. yeah." Lier like she always was I thought, but I believed her. "So are you gonna tell me where The Club is or not?" Laughter from everyone except Amanda. Mary smiled at her and then she joined in with the snickering laughter. Then one of the girls grabbed my arm and started to pull me towards the fence. The rest of the girls still giggling and being plain silly. Being dragged FAR, FAR I mean FAR out of the school grounds, I was beginning to wonder how they got to and from The Club so fast in time for the bell. Maybe the teachers didn't care. But being dragged around in a wagon was NOT fun at all. The whole time the girls were constantly making remarks and snobbing at me. Mary also promised that I would have a new name too. Just what I needed. As we got near a prickle bush, I saw a sign that read, THE CLUB. It looked like it had been there for ages. As we got closer, I saw there was a pathway through the prickle bush. A long one. One of the girls stopped and pulled out a prickle so that I would get hit by it. Everyone except me laughed. I tried to dodge the prickle vine but got hit and started to feel more pain. They laughed even harder when they saw that I was hurt. I tried to punch the girl that was dragging me but she simply dodged all my blows. Then in the distance, I started to see a huge house. We got up to it and I was extremely jealous that I never was allowed in there. It was really big, and was made out of perfect wood and wasn't rotting. Mary pulled a key out of her pocket and opened the door. They let me out of the wagon but made me put clean shoes on. Dumb. But wen I looked in The Club, I knew why it had two capitals in it's name. There was a huge flat panel TV screen and popcorn all ready to go. It was the biggest TV I had ever seen. Not even a rich person could afford this really! Then I saw pink and blue laptops on desks and they all had Internet Access. I walked over to them and the girls giggled. I moved the mouse and saw that it was the future version of Windows, one that wasn't going to be released until three years or something. I looked at the TV again and saw that it also had every device you could ever get for a TV, a DVR, DVD with VHS.. loads of stuff. Then I saw that there was a mini kitchen here, with a fridge, dishwasher, huge table, and cupboards that were loaded with tasty food. "Look over here!" Amanda pointed to some stairs. An upstairs! I went upstairs and could here the girls enjoying themselves downstairs, already turning the TV on. After seeing all that I was extremely jealous of them now. I didn't think Mary was dumb anymore either. This was amazing. I found myself in a lounge of some sort. It had a window. I could see the school from here, ashes and nothing. At least I could see any activity from here. I saw that there were even more opportunities for entertainment is this little room. I started to go up more flights of stairs until I reached the third floor, their bedrooms. There were five rooms right here, when I only saw four girls. There were names on the door: Mary, Amanda, Sasha, and Emma. I looked at the fith door and managed to read the old letters: The Keepers. I imediantly opened the door and saw three girls sitting on the bed, watching TV on another big screen, this time it was smaller than the one downstairs, it just fit the room. The girls turned around but then just looked back at the TV. They didn't care. I walked in and they turned the TV off. I then noticed there were three pink and blue laptops as well, along with a bunch of other fancy stuff. But one thing caught my eye, a blue ball that seemed to be swirling around and was sitting on a coushin on a pedestal. I saw that the girls were staring at me. One of them, the tallest, stood up. "Welcome to.. The Club. There is no more room. You'll have to stay in room 19 on the fourth floor next to Reid's room." She sat back down and turned the TV on again. "Wait. I know the other girl's names, what's yours?" They seemed annoyed now and turned off the TV again. The tall one stood up and did a little dance. "I'm Bridget!" and the she sat back down. The smaller one stood up. "I'm Sarah.. jump for joy.." then sat down again. The average-sized one stood up and did a flip in thin air. I got the feeling that Mary was teaching them to do these sort of wicked moves. "I'm Melaina!" She seemed really cheery. But she sat back down. Bridget turned the TV on yet again. They were watching a celebrity channel. "FINE FINE.." Bridget stood up and led me out the door. "Were is Reid's room?" I asked. "I'm taking you there. WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?!" I decided to stay silent. We headed up another flight of stairs until we reached two more rooms and another large window. I looked out the window and I could see the whole community from here, then noticed the telescope. This would be LOADS of fun, if they would let me stay. Maybe Bridget was just teasing me. "HERE IT IS." She pointed to the door beside the one farthest from the window. Bridget reached into her pocket and toke out a key and unlocked the door. She went inside and grabbed a piece of paper and a felt, and passed them to me. I wrote my name on the paper as cool and neat as I could. I handed it back to her and she rolled her eyes. She was defiantly annoyed with me right now. She toke some pink tape and pasted the paper on the door. Then she pushed me into the room. I saw the huge TV, and one red and blue laptop with Internet Access. I was happy with all this stuff in here, and a cool looking bed too. "As you can see.. this is the boy's floor. You are the last one that's ever coming here. Reid is cool so we let him in.. YES YES.. anyways here is the stupid schedule for breakfast and all that other stuff.." She threw a piece of paper in my face. I looked at my bed and saw that I had a mini spyglass and the window right above my bed. I was overjoyed. "Oh yeah.. whatever you do.. don't get Melaina hyper it can get really bad. I'm warning you.." then she stormed off down the stairs. After I heard her get back into the room, I heard the TV click on and the girls giggling. I was accepted into The Club, the ultra-cool Club. The Club. I couldn't believe how cool it was.. it was like living in a massive suite. I couldn't wait. I looked in the closet and found cool-looking clothes and PJs. I slipped them on because it was already 12:00 midnight and I knew the girls would be up for hours with the TV and the laptops.. and all the food. But after all the exhausting pain I had to go through, I wanted a rest. I sat on the bed and it was so comfy. I was in heaven! I toke a few looks out the window and saw that everything was safe. I got under the covers and closed my eyes. Finally a good sleep at last. It had been days since I had had a proper sleep and I was glad I could finally relax. I totally forgot about the Silfer Crimson. I decided to relax in my room for the time around 6 and 7, and the girls were already up watching TV and all that other stuff. I looked in the door and toke out a fancy blue and red notepad, and a super-fancy mechanical pencil that never ran out, some how. I toke down some notes of what I knew about The Club, once used to be a big mystery to me, but no longer. I discovered that the girls all lived here in The Club, and it looked like some ugly old tree from the outside no one could EVER guess. And the pathway was super hidden, you could know it was there and still wouldn't find it. It had four floors. But the one thing I didn't know is how The Club came to be. All this expensive stuff. And why did they live here? Weren't their parents worried? Well my parents were gone as well so I could almost understand. I put my notepad away and put some super-cool looking clothes on and went into my very-own bathroom. I looked around a bit and found some products. I used a whole bunch of them. I looked in the mirror and couldn't even figure out who I was looking back at now. I looked through the closet and through all the built-in droors and found every game console and system ever basically, at least the 'in' ones. I played a bunch of the games and then went on the computer afterwards. I heard Bridget stomp up the stairs and bang on Reid's door and yell. Then I heard shuffling in the next room and someone talking to themselves. My room was next. Bridget pounded on the door, and yelled. "BREAKFAST GET DOWN HERE NOW." and then she stomped off. I opened the door and got to the third floor and saw Melaina walking about. "Hasn't Bridget yelled at you yet? You should get down there fast before she comes back." Then she simply skipped down the stairs. I heard Bridget coming and dashed down the rest of the stairs. Bridget banged on more doors and woke up everyone. Mary and the rest were already at the table and had junk-cereal all ready to go. "Where's Reid?" Amanda said to Bridget as she thumped down the stairs. "I'll bang on his door again just to make sure." and with that, Bridget stormed up the stairs. "Oh my god." Mary said aloud. The girls bursted into laughter. I helped myself to loads of junk food and cereal, and then I had another bowl of Lucky Charms. "So RayMOND.." Amanda started. "This is Sasha and Emma. Amazing isn't it?" everyone giggled and Sasha looked like she was ready to jump up and slice me with the sword behind her chair. I was scared of her now. I looked up at Mary, who was still laughing, and asked her a load of questions. "First, were did you get the swords. Two, how do you teach everyone sweat moves. Three, who is Reid. Four, do you live here, and why. Lastly, what is wrong with Bridget?!" Everyone stopped laughing and everything was silent. Mary stared at me, thinking up answers for all the questions. "Um.. ok.. well for one the swords are Armageddons and we found them here. It wasn't easy but I managed to teach everyone how to do backflips and other cool stuff. Reid is.. yes we live here. There is nothing wrong with Bridget." I was expecting laughter, but nothing. It was dead silent now. I heard Bridget boom down the stairs and she bolted over to Mary and whispered something to her. They instantly ran up the stairs together, and Amanda and Emma followed. I was left alone with Sasha. I pretended to act normal and continued to eat my cereal, but I knew she was staring at me. I looked up and she actually looked devastated. "What?" I asked. She looked down and then turned her head away from me. I kept on eating my cereal. I heard the girls talking upstairs, and heard the name 'Gustler' being said, and 'Reid'. I got really suspicious. I remembered the crystal that I found in my old room. It was still in my pocket. I jumped out of my seat and ran towards the stairs, when I heard Sasha talk. "No." I turned around to face her and saw that she was crying. I really didn't want to be around her anymore. I continued up the stairs. Below me I could hear crying, and above me, Mary saying "Oh gosh there goes Sasha again.." and laughter. The girls were in The Keepers room, door locked. I tried to listen in, but it was almost impossible. I headed up to my room, when I saw that the room next to mine's door was open. I walked over to it and peered inside. It was a huge mess in there, as if a bomb just went off. I could tell the other girls didn't like him so much, and Bridget was expecting the same from me. I heard someone coming up the stairs. I hid behind Reid's door, then saw the note on the cabinet. I picked it up quickly and read it. Dear Bridget Thank you for taking the time to clean my room. You can be happy that this is the last time you will be having to. Clean it out, is if I were never there, I am gone from this place. Not because of your attitude, but because of that one girl here. Goodbye, I hope to never see you again. Bridget came in at the very second I had finished reading it, and saw me. "What are you doing?!" she yelled. I passed her the note and she read through it. After she had read it, she threw it down and gave a sigh of relief. "I am SO glad he's gone! I would always have to clean up after him. And after he's bye bye, I get another pig to deal with." I looked at her. She actually smiled. "Will you be nice to me?" I nodded. She did her little dance and a flip and then skipped away and down the stairs, laughing the whole way. Then I heard Mary and the others burst into laughter. After a long day of TV, video games, and eating junk food, it was already midnight. Everyone was asleep. I was starting to wonder how the girls never even looked closed to being fat after all the junk food. I asked Mary that question and she said it was from moves and sword play. Interesting. I was already in bed and just falling asleep, and The Club was silent. I heard someone, downstairs. It was very quite but I could hear it. I crept out of bed and snuck down a few stairs before I heard crying, two people. I arrived on the third floor, wasn't coming from here. Lower. I was in the main room, and I could see two people in the living room. I slowly walked in and saw Bridget and Sasha, singing a song. I felt like I wanted to walk away right that second, but as I turned away, something in the room light up. I saw it, the blue ball on the cushion. I was interested now. I bent down and crawled on the floor and hid behind an orange couch. As they continued to sing, the blue ball glowed more, and started to float. Then they stoped. The ball started to turn into something. Then I realized that Sasha and Bridget must be The Keepers or something. The ball looked like a miniature person now. It started talking to Bridget. Then a hologram appeard, and a picture of the Silfer Crimson. I totally forgot. It could be out of control, already destroying everything. But Mary had already killed it, and the hologram made that clear. Sasha drew another creature, obeying the mini-me's orders, and drew the Flying Blue Arrow. Mini-me pushed a little button on the hologram and there was a little pause in time it seemed. Then a mini quake. Another beast had been awakened. Bridegt and Sasha.. were bringing these beasts here? But it was by the mini-me's orders. I slowly started to crawl out of the room. I looked back and the blue ball was gone. Bridget and Sasha were sitting on the couch, they noticed me. I stood up. Their stares made me run away though. It was hard to sleep that night, because Sasha and Bridget were singing the entire night. I woke up to noise the next morning. This time, Sarah came to my door and told me that everyone had just massacured the Flying Blue Arrow. She didn't seem impressed, it must had been easy. Breakfast was quick today, Mary and the others had gone outside to practice the sword-whatever and more moves. I stayed inside and toke down notes, reminding myself I was only here to investigate. I remembered seeing Bridget, she had brown hair, and Sasha and red hair. But that night I could have sworn they had black hair. I tried my best to remember the scene last night. The blue ball. They kept it in their room. I put my notepad in my pocket and walked up the stairs, looking out the window along the way. The door to The Keepers room was unlocked and I went in. I headed over to the cushion and spied the ball. It swirled around.. it was black and it had purple swirls. That's it. The boy's prison. I was in it, and it was black with purple swirls. I peered a little closer and saw him. Just standing there, with the presents. He floated around then dissapeard. Gustler was the one behind all of this. He was making Bridget and Sasha suffer and making them do his commands. All this time I had been fooled by him. I wrote this all down in my notepad. I picked up the ball and searched for him. Nowhere to be seen, coward. I threw the ball on the floor. Not even a scratch. I placed it back on the cushion and went through the room. I found nothing, the room was clean. I heard someone come in. It was definatly Melaina, she was skipping and overjoyed. I ran down the stairs and saw that it was Emma. She looked at me weird and then dug into the cupoards to get something. "Do you know what's going on?" I asked her. She turned around, but continued to wipe a bowl clean. "Yeah I know what Bridget and Sasha have been doing latley. In the living room, every night. The blue orb." I could get some answers here. I toke my notebook out and wrote more stuff down. "Do you know what's in the orb?" "Are you some sort of detective or something? Anyways yeah some guy named Gustler." Wrote that down. "I'm not a detective I'm just trying to figure some huge mystery out." I noted to her. "Then that means your a detective." I didn't write that down. "What do you know about Gustler?" She responded and didn't seemed annoyed at all. "Um.. not really.. but I think my sister knows. Sarah is my sister." I wrote that down. "What is your last name, Emma?" She turned around after putting the bowl away and grabbing another one to clean. "Prestwich. Why?" I stared at her in shock. I've seen her before. I know I have.. "What?" "Nothing.. nothing.. where is your sister, Sarah?" Emma actually looked happy to have my company. "Outside. I bet you anything she is picking flowers or something." she giggled. I wrote that down too, not the part when she laughed though. I could see Mary trying to teach Amanda how to laugh like a cool person. I laughed at that. Sasha was doing swift moves and slices with her Armageddon, I almost got my head chopped off. Bridget was practicing a dance. Melaina was with Sarah. This was a wild scene, really. I went to Mary first. "How do you know how to do this stuff?" She looked at me quickly then turned back to Amanda. "Shutup for a few minutes, then come back." I left them alone. I walked over to the small flower patch, were Melaina and Sarah were picking flowers. I walked over to them and Melaina whispered to Sarah. "Hi! Im Sarah! Want some flowers?" Sarah was obviously the youngest. Melaina was smiling. This felt really weird. "Sarah can I talk to you.. alone?"She stood up and winked to Melaina. She followed me into The Club. Emma was still there cleaning up the place after last night, and Sarah waved to her. Sarah was humming the whole way up the stairs and it started to drive me crazy. When we got to the third floor, we entered The Keeper's room. She sat down on the bed and I toke out my notepad. "Ok I have a few questions I need you to answer." She smiled. "One. How did you and your sister get into the club." "Well Emma was friends with Mary, then she showed us were The Club was after um.. our parents went away." I wrote that down, and reminding myself that my parents went missing as well. "Ok. Number two. What do you know about Gustler?" "Oh oh! I read about him in one of Mary's books! It was about this guy called Samus or something and the Gustler guy went missing. It was BORING!" I so wrote that down. Gustler.. in a book? "What was the book called?" "I think it was Samus and the Windstrike Borrowing Mission or something like that anyways." I wrote this all down. "Do you know about what Bridget and Sasha.." she cut me off. "Yep they told me already. But Mary knows more than I do." It seemed that they had told everyone, and maybe they would tell me. "But do you know why?" "No. Ask Mary that she.." Amanda came bursting into the room. "Come outside now! Major problem here!" Sarah ran through the door. "What's happening??" "Shutup and just hurry up!!" I jumped down a few stairs, until the power suddenly went out. Amanda and everyone were already out of The Club. Outside I could hear the girls screaming and yelling, and the slashing of swords and weapons. I stood absolutly still. It was almost pitch black. - I just want to warn you here that if you are reading this in the dark or at night, you should stop and wait for the morning or something. Because the next part here is extremly scary, you might get really scared. - Then, I heard something in the kitchen. My heart was pounding and I was totally afraid. I could hear someone walking. Then, Bridget came slowly around the corner, but she glowed purple and had burning green eyes. I felt like I was going to wet myself I was so scared. She slowly started walking up the stairs, not moving her gaze from me, her eyes were fixed. I started walking backwards. She kept on going. I turned around and threw all my power to my legs and ran to my door on the fourth floor. I ran inside and locked the door, and blasted under the covers. I started to feel safe, but then I heard her stop at the door. I heard a few clicking sounds from behind the door. Then they stoped and it was quite again. I was releived. Then, the closet slowly started to open, and freaky Bridget was there. I knew I was gonna faint now. Still staring at me, she sat down on the bed. The lights started flickering on and off and Bridget turned normal to freaky with every flick. The lights went dark and she was in freaky mode. I was screaming now. This was a total nightmare. Then she opened her mouth and gave the scariest smile ever. Her glowing green teeth started melting and looking like long icicles. She started to melt as well. As I fainted, I could hear the shrilling scream of Mary, outside. I woke up in my bed, Bridget was gone. I was still scared to move. It was dead quiet and still no power. I slowly got out of bed and opened the door. The way it was and still quiet. I moved down the stairs and got to the third floor. All five doors were closed, they were all unlocked. I opened the Keeper's room and no one was inside, and the blue ball was gone. I opened Emma's room, totaly clean and no one inside. I didn't bother looking anymore. No one was here. I heard someone outside and flew down the stairs and out the door, being careful just in case Bridget was gonna come around a corner or something. I rushed outside and saw Sasha lying on the ground, blood everywhere. She was talking to herself. I ran over to her and tried to talk to her. "Sasha what happened?!" she was gonna die soon. She slowly turned to face me. "It.. cameee.." "What came?" "The beast was freed from the ball.. all in danger.. trree.. dddowwn.." I tried to help her, I still had the duty stuff. She stood up and I followed her back into The Club. We walked upstairs and went into Mary's room. She sat down on the bed. I handed her the duty pack. I looked around Mary's room and saw a super-cool looking laptop and two plasma TVs that were massive and built into the walls, and one on each side of the room. Her bed looked the best too. I saw wallpapers everywhere, one of her favorite band Evanesence, and a picture of her teacher, Mrs. West. The power tried to flick back on, but something was holding it back. Sasha was in serious pain. "Now tell me what happened so I can fix it." "You can't fix it. This thing is huge, trust me. I can tell you a bit of information right now to help you. This creature hunts and kills in the darkness, and if it sees light it will not hide from it, but destroy it. It went to the power station in Ladysmith and toke out all the lights. You will need to go there first and get them back on to keep it away for a while and.. do anything. Then you need to seek it's lair, which I do not know of it's location.. and save the others. All I know is that Mary is in great danger. She will probely not survive.. why didn't you come out and help?" I was too busy writing down chunks of information into my notepad. It was loaded with good info now, I could solve this case once in for all, but I said that last time and it just got me into more trouble. "Well.. I was just about to wen the power suddenly went out. I tried to move, but Bridget came around the corner.." Sasha looked at me in utter shock. "What?! Don't tell me she went all weird and scary on you did she?!" This was obvious. "Uh.. yes.." "Oh no. Bridget is still here somewhere. Listening in. She is with.." before she could finish, there was a hurr sound from far below. "...him" The boy. I knew he was all behind this. I would find him and destroy him with all my might. I wasn't going to let this go on any longer. "So.. go to the power station and get the power in Ladysmith running again. Then, find the creature's lair and save Mary and the others.. don't worry if Mary has already died when you get there. But you must take the ultimate weapon we have. Come with me." I followed her out of the room. She walked up to the fourth floor and walked into Reid's old room. The room was still a disaster. There was a huge purple and green puddle on the floor. "That's Bridget. She can't handle the sunlight very well." I was officialy scared of Bridget now. She melted on the floor because of the sun. She was probely a vampire, for sure. Sasha opened the closet, exposing some ladders. "Come up." I followed her up the ladder, on the way up it was totally dark and only a few dark purple lights along the way. It was like something you would see in a Haloween fright house. It was still dark when we got to the top, and there was a stand in the middle of the round, dark room that was lined with ultra-violet lights. There was a dim light shining down on the stand. On the stand, there was a little icon thing floating in the air. "Grab that. It will give you the Varia Suit, which can withstand the ultra-heated lair of the Dark Fall. And you will also aquire the Arm Cannon, capable of firing the these beams; Ice beam, Plasma, Power, and Wave. You will need these beams to open certain energy-powered doors in the lair. The Varia Suit comes with an alternet form as well- the Lock Jaw. This form is able to create trip-wires that can damage enemies, and can get through small holes and entrances. Oh yes.. the first part of the Dark Fall's lair is filled with water. The suit comes with something called the Gravity Booster, which enables fast movment in water, and you can even float around in water with the included Aqua Pack." I looked at the icon and couldn't wait. I turned and faced her. She nooded her head. I simply touched the icon and it flew up my arm and I could feel a surge of power and energy. Light was everywhere, sparks flying. The light died down and the sparks stopped. I looked down on myself and saw that I was now clad in armor, the Varia Suit. It's cool looks undescribable, I saw the Arm Cannon attached to my arm and the easy control panel was used to fire missiles and beams. I tried jumping and touched the ceiling with ease. "Whoa.. how is this possible.. how do I get into Lock Jaw mode??" As soon as I said Lock Jaw, I shrinked down into a small Lock Jaw. I could still talk too. I was hovering around on the ground, and I said the word trip wire in my head and I could make one. I tried saying bomb and I could lay mini bombs. This was so cool. Awesome. I said to myself 'biped' and I went back into full form. "And that on your left arm is called the Grapple Beam. Just by me saying that you know what it's used for. I pointed the Grapple laucher at the ceiling and I was flying over to the ceiling, but banged up against the wall and fell. I looked up at Sasha and stood up and faced her. She looked really tired. "What's wrong?" She toke a huge breath and then she started to change. Her hair turned a dark black and her eyes were red. Her skin was really white too. I was starting to get creeped out. Then I saw two black braclet-like objects form on her arm. She showed them to me and said: "I'm a prisoner to The Club. I cannot leave this place. But I can at least break you free of this horrible place." She grabbed my arm and I noticed the black objects. She sang the song that she sang in the living room with Bridget. I could see the braclets breaking off. They snapped in two peices each, and clattered to the ground. I suddenly felt the urge to leave this place. Sasha fell back onto the floor. I was to scared of her now to do anything. "This place is haunted by the ghost of someone that fell down the NeverEnding.. not Justin.. someone else. She used to be the leader of the club, but she said to Mary that if anything happened to her, Mary would take over. And she did. But now she haunts this place.. making sure Mary does a good job. Mary did what she did to you and she got angry. Ever since then strange things have been happening. We have been hearing sounds from underground.. and one day Bridget was changed forever. She is alergic to the sunlight and she changes over night. The girl that owns the NeverEnding.. she placed a curse apon this place. Any one who dares join it will be cursed.. and the girl who fell down.. her brother was Gustler." I was terrified now. I didn't bother writing anthing down. I didn't even have my notepad. "If you don't mind me asking.. how did The Club come to be?" Sasha sighed and began another long story. "One day, wen we were all in kindergarden, this rich girl came to our class. She always had the best. Limos came to pick her up, butlers came to serve her at school. She would always have a butler with her at school. Everyone was jealous. Then something happened and her parents just.. dissapeared. So she had all of their money. Gustler was sealed away in a box and token to a factory and who knows what happened to him their. So the sister spent loads of the money on making The Club. She invited only the cool people. We were now in grade two and The Club was a huge secret. Then the word got out and that is when people's parents started going missing. The Club members parents were gone so they just lived in The Club, happy. Then three years later, Mary saw someone doing grafiti on a few trees, right were you were pushing Justin into the NeverEnding. The duty saw you, and called you in. That is how everyone started hating you." That part was obvious. She toke another big breath and started again. "But a week after that.. the Leader walked into the forest and fell into the NeverEnding. That is when it got strict that no body, NO BODY could go in there or even near. They would be expelled if they did. So Mary toke the position as leader of The Club, and that is when everything went bad. Now go. Get out of this evil place while you still can.. and save Mary from herself before it is too late." And with that she closed her eyes and just.. died. I didn't stop to cry. I ran down the stairs, jumping at incredible hights and rolled down the rest of the stairs in alt form. I rushed outside and jumped over the massive prickle bush and before I knew it, was far away from The Club. I knew were the power station was. I rolled into alt form and rolled about Ladysmith. The whole town was diserted. I rolled passed the primary school, deserted. Everything was empty. Lots of buildings were scorched or drenched with water. I found the power station and went into biped. I dashed through the place and arrived at a small house. The door was locked. I pressed the missile button and the door blew open. I simply walked inside and eyed the power box. I opened it up and flicked on all the switches. I could hear the whole station powering up. Then I walked outside and the entire town glowed with light. I already had a pretty good idea were the entance to the beast's hideout was. I walked down the empty streets and started down the road to the lake. I used a lighting system and lighted the way. There was an abandoned warehouse down here, that had a massive hole in it that lead to now where. Everyone who went down there never came back up. I came accross the storage place, also abandoned. I ignored it and simply went along the dark path. Then I heard the gate to the storage place open up. I turned around and it wasn't even moving. I was freaked out now. I snuck into alt form and just hovered along, hoping I wouldn't be seen. Then I saw the warehouse in the distance. I kept on going, then heard someone walking behind me. I flew into a bush and peered out. I watched a shadowy figure walking along the path that I had come through. It started walking towards the bush. I slowly backed out of the bush and hovered along the sidelines. The figure was now searching through the bush. I toke this time and dashed along and turned the corner. It was pitch black dark now. I saw the old warehouse and went into biped and opened the door. The door was really creaky. As soon as I was done opening it, I heard someone running this way. I jumped into a tree and saw the shadowy figure again. It was searching for me. It eyed the warehouse and looked into the trees. I tried to make myself look small. It walked away. I waited for a while then jumped down. I crept into the warehouse. The door shut and locked behind me. I heard the running and I crouched down. I heard it stop at the door and try to open it. It was fermly locked. It swore then walked away. I had to be really careful now. I noticed the huge hole in the distance and tip-toed over to it. I looked down it and saw that it was filled with water, just like the NeverEnding. I jumped down. I was flying, flying down the hole at a super-fast speed. My ears were poping. I tried to hold in a scream so the guy wouldn't come and blast the door down and come down the hole and get me. It was a long time before I started to see light, and a floor. I landed hard on my back, but no damage and no pain at all. I got up. I used the gravity boost and floated around in the water. I came accross a purple door and used the Wave beam on it, and it opened up. I went through endless hallways before I come accross a special door, and blasted it with a missile. The seal on it opened up and I threw a Power beam shot at the door. The door opened to a very shocking sight. The water was suddenly gone. There was flames and lava flowing everywhere. I felt really hot. If it weren't for this Varia Suit, I would had been toast withen seconds. I heard the hurr sound from all over the place. I was directly under The Club. Then four ropes came down from the ceiling. They each had one member of The Club attached to them. They were hanging on for their lives. The ropes flew back up and I saw Emma, Sarah, Amanda, and Melaina reappear in magma cages in the walls. I couldn't see Mary anywhere. Maybe she was already dead just like Sasha had said. I heard devilsh laughter, then Mary's blood chilling scream. I looked to the sound and saw Mary in some kind of machine. It was activated. "Mary!" I ran over to the machine but it rose up high. I jumped up onto one of the ledges and tried to talk to her, she tried to talk back but she couldn't stop screaming. Then there was a big earthquake. I tried to position my Arm Cannon at the machine, but the place was shaking like wild. I turned around and heard roars and screams from behind the large wall. There were three shakes, and each one growing in intenseness. Then the whole wall blew up and a mighty roar broke out. All the lava cooled in the room and everything went dark. I tried to see the now broken wall, but everything was too dark. Some torches along the wall lit up. There was a whisper in the air.. "Dddaaarrkk Fffaaallll.... rriisseeee!!" then the hurr sound continued. The wall was visable now. There was a green light emiting from the huge gap in the wall. Then the entire side of the room broke into peices, and I got down trying to protect myself from all the rocks flying everywhere. I looked up as they stopped and saw another huge hole in the ground below me, and green objects that are indescribable floating all over the place. There was green light emiting from the hole. I heard Emma yell out; "It's the Dark Fall!!" there were huge signs of fear in her voice. I looked at the green light and drew my Arm Cannon at it. This, this was it. I wasn't gonna go through this anymore. I was starting to get sick of having to fight more and more and more.. endless battles and fights and more mysteries afterwards. I wanted my normal life back, that's all. I heard it trying to talk. "Good daaay loorrrrd taa ssyyyluuuuuuxx..." I started charging my plasma beam. "Orr I cooouulldd bbbeee thheeee ooonnnneeeee...." I fired. It simply went right through it and hit the wall on the other side. I tried my Wave beam, I began charging. "Oooorrrdeerrssss...." I fired again. I tried to catch onto the green ghost, but still went through and hit the wall. Now I tried my Ice beam. "Recorderr of peeeaace anndd eventssss..." I fired, but it still went through and hit the wall. I quickly charged my Power Beam and fired.. but still noting. Missiles did nothing either. Then the ghost started glowing purple, and I heard the machine whirl back into action, and Mary screaming. Then I realized that Mary was the Dark Fall, just completly out of control.. controled by someone else. The boy, this was so his doing. Then the ghost charged up power, resulting in severe screaming of Mary, and blew out a massive beam of energy, heading strait at me. I tried to jump, but the beam moved as I moved, and I felt like I was gonna explode when I was hit. I slammed up against the wall, and fell on the ground, into a big pool of lava. I was burning in the lava, and I was trying deperatly to jump out. I started to sink. Then I heard Emma break free of her prison and the Dark Fall roaring after her with energy beams, and more of Mary screaming. Emma grabbed my hand and pulled me out. "Thank you SO much. How can I ever repay you.. how about my computer, or my XBOX? It's the 360 version!" "Uh.. no thanks. We have to get Mary out of that machine to stop the Dark Fall." "What exactly is the Dark Fall?" She was already running to the machine before she could answer. Emma was trying to break the machine with her armageddon. I ran over to the bottom of the massive ghost, and fired a few Wave beam shots. They actually caught on, but no damage. Perfect for distracting. I continued firing, the Dark Fall was enraged. Roaring, it swooped down and tried to hit me, but I side dashed just in time. It went through the wall and returned through the other wall. I charged a Wave beam and blasted. Bulls-eye in the face, or whatever it was, and it screamed and flew back into the wall. I turned around waiting, but it came out the same wall it got in, and pushed me right into the wall. I started charging my Power beam instead, and hit it right as it started coming out of the wall. The Power beam was super-effective, and the ghost flew around in circles, then back into the wall. I starting running to the other wall, but it came back into the room and flew strait through me. I could hear voices as it did. "Speak now.. in my presence.. no eyes.. blind eyes... ice is dying." then the ghost continued flying. I was really dizzy and was losing my balance. The Dark Fall toke this as a good opretunity to strike, and it started charging. Yep, Mary was screaming really, really loud now it was ear peircing. The whole room was shaking from the massive charge the ghost was creating. I tried to move, but I just kept on falling down. Then as the place was shaking violently, I saw a purple and green puddle form from the far side of the room. Before I could wonder what it was, the Dark Fall released the beam and it hit me. I felt like I was going to die at that very moment, the blow was so powerful I almost did, but I kept holding on and putting max on my suit sheilds. I felt my energy severly depleating. Then it almost felt like something was leaving me. I started to see flashing lights behind my eyes. I saw my energy reach zero on my visor screen. I felt myself leave. Then the purple and green puddle threw itself onto me, and my energy refilled. The Dark Fall stopped the beam and a huge roar flew throuout the room. It was loud and blew out my hearing. I could barely hear anything, I was just glad to still be alive. I looked down at the purple and green puddle and saw it change into Bridget, normal form. "Oh my.." I started, but she cut me off. "Distract it. Now!" I went strait into action and started firing and shooting everything I had at the Dark Fall. I went into alt form and layed a Power Bomb, and a massive explosion shoke the room. The Dark Fall was severly effected, and blew back and simply floated in the air. Bridget pushed me aside and started walking up the stairs to the tallest platform in the room. As she went up, she spoke very fast. "It's not dead yet. I have to sing the song to it and put it at rest, it has been angered by what Mary did, and is now using her power to destroy us all." I kinda understood that part now. I looked at the machine and saw that Mary had been saftly removed. She was now with Emma at the tall sidelines recovering. Bridget reached the top of the platform and stood strait and tall. I never knew she was that tall. She started singing the song, the exact same one she had sang in the living room with Sasha. It sang back, and it had the voice of a guy and a girl combined. It was scary, but I stood there and watched. The room dimmed and I saw a ghost of Sasha fly through the wall and through the other side. She re-entered the room and flew beside Bridget and joined in. The Dark Fall started flying over to the hole that it had came from. When Bridget and Sasha reached the last word, the Dark Fall fell down the hole. The room went totaly dark, except for the tall platform. Bridget dimmed into a ghost, and Sasha and Bridget flew through the wall together, giggling along the way. The other Club members broke out of the cages and I joined them on the top sidelines. Mary looked at me. "Thank you.. if it werent for you we would all be dead." The girls already made there way to the door. I stayed behind and sat on the tall platform. The boy came into view right beside me. "It wasn't you.. then why was all of this happening?" He looked at me then sat down. "My sister, Samus, gave me my prison by getting rid of our parents, and blaming it on me. So I was sealed into the ball. The ball was cursed and was giving orders to the girls, Sasha and Bridget. These beasts were brought on by the Dark Fall, the one that was haunting The Club. It isn't Mary who the Dark Fall was angry at.. it was my sister Samus. And it thought that I was involved, so it sealed me away and I was mutated. I know you have been hurt badly by this long journey.. and at the lost of your friend. Mary will not live no longer.. the curse has been with her for too long. She will haunt the school were she died for the rest of eternity. I did not bring apon any of this clamity, I was simply trying to find someone that could fix everything. When I saw you, I knew everything would be changed. And it has. Congratulations, Raymond, you have successfully saved the world. And now, you may pretend this had never happened." He dissapeared and everything went black. Shortly after, I woke up floating in the air, going no were. I heard a voice in the distance. "Speak now, in my presence.. no eyes.. blind eyes.. the ice is dying.. deep down.. down in the Earth.. I need to contain.. terror. Knows you.. and sees you.. too late." "Raymond, wake up you are going to be late!" I slowly opened my eyes and saw my mom. "What.. mom!" "Come on Raymond! The school has already called to see if you were sick or coming to school! Get up breakfast is waiting for you!" And she walked out the door. I sat up, my Varia suit and all the stuff I had was gone, and I was in my pajamas. I felt something in my pocket, the crystal. I put it on my dresser and got dressed. I walked out into the kitchen and ate my breakfast fast. Mom was getting my backpack ready. I wondered.. was everything really just forgotten? The girls would defenetly know still. I grabbed my backpack and my mom pushed me out the door. I saw the school and it was flame and scorch free, as if the Flying Red Dart had never been there. I approached the school, expecting everyone to hate me, but they were running up to me, just like a year ago. Everyone liked me again. They walked with me to the door of my class, and I saw Ryan. I ran over to him and me and Ryan and a bunch of other kids talked about stuff, I never said a peep about what happened. The girls from The Club pushed through the crowed and gathered around me. I looked at them to check if they knew, and they winked at me. They dragged me away from the crowed. "So you still remember about.. ya know." I asked. Sasha spoke first. "Yes.. but we havn't seen Mary anywhere.." I sighed and told her the bad news. "Mary is a ghost now, apon us. She has had the curse to long and now she will just haunt the school. Is The Club still there?" All the girls toke a moment to think, then nodded. "No. The Club is a curse itself and it has been.. it dissapeard." "I'm sorry about Mary.. at least everything is back to normal." The bell rang and I rushed inside. As I walked in, Mrs. Kooper was standing at the front of the classroom with 'the look' on her face. I was expecting some sort of punishment, but she smiled wen she saw me. I hung up my backpack and got the supplies I needed, got a chair and sat down at my desk. Mrs. Kooper went to her desk and toke a shiny pencil out and put it on my desk. "For my *best* student!" and she walked away, checking agendas. I got my wish, my life back. Everything was fixed. I heard someone talking behind me, coming from the cloak room. I turned and saw the ghost of Mary. She waved at me then flew into the wall. After I saw that, I promised myself, that I would never make the same mistake ever, ever again.