LIGHTS OUT [ORIGINAL]

Lights Out It was a really rainy day today. I sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote off the table and pressed the on button. No power. I walked into the kitchen and glimpsed the candle on the table. I opened up the cupboards and looked for something to eat, I was starving and grama still wasn't home. Our cat, Sammy, came up the stairs and placed herself right next to her food dish, she was hungry too. "Ok ok.." I opened up the cupboard with the cat food in it and toke out a can. I skitted over to a droor and retrieved the can opener and returned to the can to open it. Sammy meowed the whole time until I scooped the cat food into her bowl and she dug her face into it. I searched the fridge and found some juice. I made up a bowl of cereal and returned to the living room, where another candle was placed on the coffee table. I looked out the window, and grama was not to be seen. "I'm starting to get tired of waiting.." I mumbled to myself. I toke the candle and walked over to the stairs. It was dark down there. I started walking down the stairs, and each step I toke was a big creek and I could here Sammy meowing. I reached the bottom of the staircase and turned the corner. I sat down at the computer and was glad it was a laptop, but I still had no Internet. Anyways I guess it's time I introduced myself. My name is Kelsey, and I'm in grade three. I had just moved into a new school after my old school mysteriously burnt down. Other kids say it's because a teacher spilt coffee into the furnace in the teacher's lounge. I lived with my grama and grampa because my mom had to go to school again. My grampa was already in bed, but my grama had gone out to deliver something to my mom far away, and she said she would be back by now. I wasn't really allowed to stay up this late, but gramps was asleep and grama was out. My sister, Meghan, went with grama. One thing my grama was famous for was her babysitting, but she only put signs up in the school. We had a few kids coming here but I only knew two so far; Breanne and Brody. Breanne had a little brother Braden too. I could hear the rain outside increasing in power and pounding up against the windows. Our computer wasn't all that great. I just tried to play my sister's game and it crashed.. Windows 98. So it was the latest but Meghan downloaded way too many songs and she even had Napster, which was illegal but my grama didn't care. It was basically loaded with viruses too because of Meghan, she was practically on it all day and all night, most of the time chatting with her friends who stayed up really late. Another thing my grama was famous for was her house, no it wasn't new or really cool looking, it was old. Really old. It had been standing since who knows when. But there was a scary part that comes with most old houses, a crawlspace. New houses don't have those anymore, at least most of them didn't. But my cousin's brother went down there to get Braden's car and he never came back up, and that was the last time they came here. But grama's day care business continued. I don't even know were the crawlspace is. Breanne knows, but won't tell me. She likes to call it the 'Hidden' or something like that. The crawlspace is as long as the house, and goes really far underground so you need to use a ladder to get down there. Pretty spooky all right. The power tried to flick back on, but flicked off again. I heard grama outside getting mad, and soaked. I ran to the front door and opened it. "Grama! Meghan! Doors open come on!" I yelled. I saw grama and Meghan was already far ahead of her and at the door, complaining on how wet she was and that her outfit was just ruined. "Get up stairs. Now." Meghan grabbed my arm and dragged me up the stairs and into her room. "Ok you will NOT believe this." She reached into her pocket and toke out a piece of paper. "Ok you know what the BEST place in the world is that Disney World can't even match up to?" "No there's nothing better then Disney Land!" She didn't look very happy. "No I said Disney World not Land and anyways there is so something better than those." "Ok fine. What's better than that?" Grama yelled that Meghan had to clean up the mess down stairs and hang her coat up, and a bunch of other choirs that I didn't have to do. "Coming.." she got up, opened the door and slammed it behind her, she left the piece of paper sitting on the bed. I picked it up and it sayed; 'ReDart. Cool people ONLY.' "Ok.. how could some thing called ReDart be better than Disney Land??" Grama came in the room. "It's really late now sweetie time to go to bed!" Then Meghan dropped something and made a huge crack that instantly got grama's attention. "Uh-oh. You're going to have to go to bed strait away tonight. No bed time story." She walked away, closing the door behind her and yelled after Meghan. I could hear her saying that she was really sorry, but grama was pretty mad. She must had broken a vase or something. I was really tired so I went to bed strait away just like grama said. I couldn't wait for tomorrow, it would be my first day at my new school, Glen Lake. "Good morning, good morning! And how are you this morning?" My grama always woke me up to that. "I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine!" I would always respond. She laughed and opened up the curtains. "Get dressed it's almost eight! First day to school today! Breakfast is waiting too!" She walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. She really didn't need to tell me again! I was already packing my back pack and putting my lunch into it before I even had breakfast. Grama had already got the Alpha Bits with marhsmellows all ready. I sat down and ate lots, I loved the marshmellows. "Oh no it's eight thirty! Meghan!" grama stormed down the hallway and went into Meghan's room. It actualy turned out that she was already down stairs waiting. Grama rushed me and we were out the door and into the truck in a flash. Meghan just had to sit in the front. "Today after school, you will be meeting a few new kids for daycare. But their parents will be picking them up some time but you two will continue to have sleepovers until your mom is done work." Grama informed us. The school was really close to grama's house and we were there in a few seconds or even one minute. Grama parked the truck and told us more news. " Kelsey, you are in Mrs. Morison's class. Division seven I think. Meghan, Mrs. Hayward, division three. You have to go line up in your grade at the front of the school. Just walk around and meet some new friends, but when the bell rings you have to line up in your grade line ok?" We said together; "Yes gram." She let us out and told us good luck. We watched her drive away and we ran to the front of the school. Meghan was already running towards kids her age, and I was just standing there. I tried to find my grade, and stode in one of the lines. A girl came up to me and said, "Are you in grade three?" I responded, "Yeah." She just walked away. I remembered the line and walked around a bit. The same girl came up to me again and said, "You can leave your back pack in the line you know." Then walked away. So I threw my bag into the line and started to walk around a bit. I had no idea where Meghan had gone to. I saw that girl again, but she darted into the under-cover. I followed her as if I were in a video game and was at the tutorial part. I walked over to the under cover and she was right there. "That's the gym. And that's the school, but that door goes to the part of the school were the big kids are." And she just walked away again. I just went onto the playground that I saw. The girl just happened to be over there. She walked up to me and said this, "Ok this is the primary playground, and this part of the school is were the littler kids are." She pointed to this end of the school, then ran over to the diserted area. She yelled me over there. Yeah I went over there. "This is where our class lines up. That is our classroom." She pointed to a wall that must be our line up for reccess, and then at a window, and ran away. I decided not to follow her anymore. I saw the forest just above the playground and started to walk over to it, then the bell rang. I ran as fast as I could to the front of the school. I grabbed my bag and followed the line into the school, led by some lady. We were at a far side of the school, but not at the very end. I saw a door and looked through the window in it to see that it lead outside, and I saw the place that the girl had shown me were we lined up. I walked into a classroom and the lady told me to sit down at a desk. I saw that weird girl and decided to stay far away from her. I toke a desk that was beside a small cabnet thing. Then I saw this really weird girl walk up to me, not the other one but a different one and she smiled at me. She scared me a tiny bit. When everyone had say down, the lady stode up at the front of the classroom. "Hello class! I am your teacher, Mrs. Morrison. This is a grade three class, and I would just like to make clear a few rules." She went on.. and ON about things that she was 'expecting' from us and stuff that we couldn't do. I saw a boy a row away from me actualy fall asleep. I just put my head down on my desk and lived through the whole thing. She finally stopped talking and handed us all a book that had a picture of a brown cover of an old book on it, and had a changing picture of a two kids reading a book, then where in the story. "This is your agenda, class." Mrs. Morrison announced. I flipped through a few of the pages and saw a calendar before each month, a story problem, school advice, virtues, and a bunch of other stuff before each month. And the planning pages had little boxes with lines in them for each day, and along the top and bottom of the planning pages were more stuff that you could fill in, and even activities that you could do on the internet and interesting facts. This agenda was pretty much loaded, better than my old school's. Then Mrs. Morrison started handing out peices of paper to us. When everyone had one, she told us that there were felts and drawing tools over on the round table, and said that we could start making our name tags. The bell rang when I was almost finished, and she let us go outside. The weird girl that smiled at me in class came up to me. "Do you wanna play on the playground?" Then before I could say anything, the other girl came shooting out of the door and interupted. "Hey did you know that the duty said that grade threes are alowed on the intermidiate playground? Come on let's go!" The girl that I was talking to was already following her, so I decided to tag along. We passed the gym and a few classrooms, and a really big rock, two portables, two fields, and finally made it to the intermidiate playground. It was so much fun. The monkey bars.. there were tons of them all in a row down the playground. Then there were these big old tires that you could jump on, and other ones that you could climb. I learnt that the girl that I had met in the lineup, her name was Amber, and the other girl was Brooklyn. Amber went and showed me a really weird stump that was on a really high hill by the fence, and the fence was broken and I could see old car parts in the bushes. I really didn't like it up there. Brooklyn just liked to hang around and talk, not much action. But I found that Amber was pretty annoying how she always wanted to do something. The bell rang and everyone was running towards their lineups like crazy, and it was chaos of screaming and yelling. Brooklyn and Amber simply walked to the lineup like it was nothing new to them. In the lineup, I met even more people in our class. I watched teachers come outside to lead the classes inside the school, and I watched as we were the last ones out there. A boy named Brett picked up a rock and lobbed it at our classroom window, and striked. Mrs. Morrison instantly came out. "Hey at least it worked.." Brett mumbled at the back of the lineup. Mrs. Morrison was enraged and promised Brett a detention, and lead us to the school and into the classroom. I really didn't like our teacher, she was really mean and Amber was framed for writing a bad word on the chalkboard, which actualy no one in our class did it was someone from another class. Then Mrs. Morrison got mad at me for whispering to the guy beside me if he could lend me an orange felt for my name tag. She was always getting mad no matter what, and before lunch she told us all about homework and what it was, and that we would soon be having to take home, homework. Then.. because of something this boy did everyone had to stay in at lunch. And while we were in at lunch, she punished us and actualy gave us math. She forced multiplication into our heads and expected us to learn it just like that, and said she would be giving us a test next week. She kept on telling me that I wasn't putting enough 'detail' into my work and made me re-do so much work it was driving me mad! I started to hate Mrs. Morrison. She also explained to everyone about these happy notes that she had and she gave them to students that behaved. I knew I would never get one of those happy notes. It was almost the end of the day when she made everyone write a load of stuff in our agendas and pack everything up and clean up the room, then she let us go outisde for a while. I met up with Brooklyn and asked her were Amber was, and it turned out she had been sent to the office for the incedent with the bad word on the board. I didn't take long for the bell to ring and Mrs. Morrison let us go. I ran to the front of the school and saw Meghan already with grama. "What took YOU so long huh?" Then in the truck I told grama all about Mrs. Morrison and how bad she was, and it turned out that Meghan's teacher wasn't any better than Mrs. Morrison. Grama left us at home for a bit while she went to pick up the day care kids, which she had totaly forgot about. Meghan dragged me into the living room and showed me a piece of paper. "What is THAT?!" I looked at the slip of paper and it was an invetation to some cool-people club of some sort. "Are you going?" I asked her. "Oh yeah I am so going! It says right here that you can sleep over there and they have TV and Internet Access whenever! And imagine all the junk food too.." I really wanted to go to it too. "Can I come too if you go? If grama lets you?" She stared at me as if I had asked a really stupid question. "Are you joking?! This was sent to me not you, and I don't care what grama says I am going no matter what ok?" She really wanted to go to this club, fine. "Fine. Be that way. Grama isn't going to let you go, no matter what." She rolled her eyes then got up and stormed down the hallway, then grama opened up the door. "I'm back!" she yelled in a friendly way, which is what she always did when she came back from anywhere. Then Meghan came in and jumped down the stairs and into the basement, and I heard her go on the computer, then pick up the phone. She was probely going to tell ALL of her friends about the club she was going to. Grama went into the kitchen and gave Sammy a treat, then I heard someone, lots of people outside. "Oh, that must be the kids.." Grama said as she walked down the stairs and opened the door. Then I heard something downstairs, someone talking, really weird-like though. I ignored it and went to the door and saw four kids. "There'll be more coming in a few days!" grama smiled and lead them into the house. I knew what was going to come next, and it did. Grama yelled to Meghan to get off the computer and phone and come upstairs, then she would seat everyone on the couches and chairs, then she would do a big introducing ceromony. "This is Breanne and her brother Braydon, and this is Brody and over here is Jaqueline." Grama pointed to everyone there. "And kids this is Kelsey and her older sister Meghan!" grama smiled again and let us all go. Meghan went over to Breanne and they instantly got into a conversation, then headed downstairs. Brody flew down the hallway then into the bathroom, and Braydon went blasting into the toy room. I ran down the hallway and closed the door to my room, just to be safe. Then I started talking with Jaqueline, but it was easy to tell that she wanted her mom right now, and she didn't want to go anywhere. I got bored and went down the stairs, and saw that Meghan had closed the door and put a big sign on the door that said, 'DO NOT DISTURB'. I backed off and went back up the stairs and told grama I was hungry, but she said that I had to toughen up and then continued with her kniting. I decided to drop to excitment and just shuffled down the hall and into my room, and played my GameBoy for most of the day, until I started to hear noises. It was a really bad day, I know. I went to bed early, I didn't want to be around the day care kids anymore. I talked to Brody and I managed to make friends with him, but I was still bored. Breanne and Meghan were downstairs the entire time, and the only times Breanne came up is when she had to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, and I never talked to her once. I was already in bed and fast asleep, and just could wait for tomorrow, more torture from Mrs. Morrison and a boring day after school with the day care kids. It just wasn't going out the way I wanted it to. It was really quiet, and all the day care kids had gone home a long time ago, and it was only me, Meghan, grama, and grampa in the house, asleep, except me. I stayed up in my bed and just stared out the window to Langford. It was a nice peacful moment, until I started to worry about tomorrow and what might happen, and what was this club that Meghan was going to go to? I forced all the thoughts to go away, and continued to stare out the window. I looked at some trees and made pictures out of the branches, and I could hear grampa snoring. It was never completly dark in my room, even with the window closed. There would always be light filtering through the cracks in the curtain, but I always kept it open to see the trees. I was thinking about the swimming lessons I told grama I wanted to do, when I heard a bang downstairs. It was a loud bang, but no one woke up. I sat still and waited. Another bang. Every ten seconds there was another bang. It sounded like someone was hitting something, or something was hitting something. I didn't dare move. I was totally afraid. I slowly got out of bed then peered into Meghan's room, and she was there. Grama and grampa were in bed too. The banging was still going, so I decided to check it out. I tippy-toed down the hallway and saw Sammy sitting on the top stair. She looked back at me and I was really scared now. I purposly scared her away, it was really scary. I slowly staggered down the stairs, and the banging was louder. I was just about to turn back when I saw that the door was closed, it was never closed. Then this loud veeeeuuum sound rocked the house. This was like a horror movie. The door slowly opened, and I saw a black lump on the floor. I didn't even really look at it, I flew up the stairs screaming my head of, bolted down the hallway and into my room, slammed the door with a huge bang and blasted under the covers. My heart was pounding and I was totaly afraid. No body woke up. So I stompped up the stairs and in the hallway, slammed a door and I was screaming the whole time and nobody was waking up. It was really weird, and freaky. I tried to calm myself down and I turned to the ever-calming window. But even that didn't work. I could hear someone walking slowly down the hallway. I heard it approach my door and I was beyond freaked out. My door slowly opened and a shadowy figure loomed in the entrance. I screamed and grama turned the lights on. "What on earth are you doing?!" It was grama. I heard Meghan groan in her room, and grampa groaning too. "Well there were these banging noises and.." before I could finish, grama sat down on the bed and closed the door. I told her everything. She nodded and told me to try to go back to sleep. She turned the light off and closed the door behind her. I could hear her telling Meghan nothing was wrong, and telling grampa the situation. I stared out the window until I finally fell asleep. That was a night I would never, ever forget. The next morning, I looked out the window and saw trees's branches blown off as if a big wind storm had just gone by, and there was. There was a really bad wind storm last night my grama told me as I sat down to eat my breakfast. And apparently it was so bad, there was no school. I thought to myself how I was gonna waste all the spare time ahead of me, but it was better than having to deal with Mrs. Morrison. I asked grama some more questions about last night, but she said it was probely just Sammy pushing the door open. Meghan thought I was way too scared of stuff and just laughed. It was really boring as usual, Meghan sat on the couch and listened to her CD player, while I was in my room playing more of my GameBoy. Grama just did her kniting, and made us macoroni for lunch, what she usualy made us, what else was new I thought. Meghan never wanted to do anything, so I decided to take a trip downstairs. I headed down th stairs and saw the open door, and a pillow was lying there on the floor. So that is what I screamed at and ran up the stairs making a huge racket about? Meghan was right! I do get scared too easly. I headed into the craft room, were the entrance to the crawlspace was. I glanced down and stared at that freaky door, when all of a sudden the wind storm instantly picked up and I could her the windows rattling. I freaked out and turned around and began to head out the door, when I heard loud bangs from behind me. I turned to face the door again and noticed that the sounds were coming from the crawlspace. I heard grama yelling me to come up stairs, and she didn't need to tell me twice. I backed out of the room and I was out of there in a flash. I blasted up the stairs and flew into the kitchen. I faced grama, Meghan was not there. "Is Meghan down there too?" Grama looked very paniced. "No I was just about to ask you were she was!" She now had a very concerened look on her face. The power began to flicker. I ran into the living room and watched in horror as a tree snapped and came tumbling towards our house. Then I heard a door slam downstairs, and locks locking. All the doors and windows in the house suddenly locked. Something didn't want us leaving, that was for sure. Then there was a shreik from downstairs, and grama was crying out. The tree just missed the house and fell onto grampa's car. "Oh no.." she said under her breath. Meghan was in danger somewhere, and the whole house was shaking from the storm. I screamed as a bunch of sticks came flying through the window and I nearly got hit. I dragged grama and she followed, to my room. We stumbled down the hallway, triping and stumbling, and I grasped the doorknob on my door and yanked open the door. The room was un-damaged, and the storm stopped at that very second. Grama gasped when she saw Meghan lying on the floor, phone in hand. "She tried to call the cops!" I picked up the phone and someone was still there, and I yelled into the phone. "Sorry mam I have no 'dea what you'd be talking about.. some storm do hinky? Well anyways we havn't had a storm in years 'en Langford!" and hung up. This was really weird. It was like only we got the storm and no body else in this whole city didn't even feel anything. I ran over to Meghan and shock her awake. Grama was running into the kitchen, fixing things up. "Meghan what happened? Why were you in my room?" She turned to look at me. "Oh I was going to out your GameBoy back when it just striked and I reached for the phone and asked for.. anything!" she got up and left the room. I knew I had already put my GameBoy away. Something really, really weird was going on. And I was going to find out no matter what. I got into bed at the end of the day and turned off the light in my room. I turned on my bedside lamp and played some GameBoy because I really wasn't in the mood for going to sleep, and I wasn't tired. I got to this really hard part, so I turned it off and put it on the table, and turned off the light and stared out the window. I was expecting some noises or anything unusual, but nothing. For a little while that is. I listened really closely and I could pick up the noise of voices downstairs. I toke a Fisher Price flashlight from the toy room and crawled on the floor to the stairs. I didn't want grama to see me or she would get mad and make me go back to bed, and that would ruin the whole mission. I got up when I reached the stairs, and Sammy was in her usual spot. I just walked over her and continued down. I could her noises, and someone talking. To someone else. I saw that the door was wide open from the last time I opened it, and the pillow was still on the floor. I wanted to prove to myself that I was way too scared of dumb stuff, so I bent down and picked up the pillow, but dropped it and backed off. It wasn't a pillow, it wasn't Sammy. The object left slime all over my hands. I kept walking backwards and trying to wipe the slime off, but I bumped into something. It was probely grama or Meghan coming to scare me, but I turned around and I should had fainted right there. I tall looming black object that was shaped like a person stood right there. I turned around and saw that the small black object was moving towards me. I stifled a scream and turned around again to see that the other tall black object was coming for me as well. I was cornered. I looked up and saw more tall black people and objects were on the stairs. They seemed to be talking to each other. They silenced and one of them said something, and then every single light in the house went off. It was pitch black and I couldn't see the freaky people anymore. But something grabbed my arm and pulled me down the stairs and towards the door. "Watch out for the dog." I could here right beside me. I tried to pull away but this guy was really strong. I did in fact watch out for the 'dog' and was dragged into the family room. There was a window in here, so light filtered into the room. I could see that one of the black people was dragging me onto the couch. I sat down, totaly afraid. Then the figure seemed to take off a hood and it was a normal person, a boy in fact. "Who are you.. what are you ddoing??" I asked it, I was shaking from fear. "I'm sorry. We come from your crawlspace and I have a complaint for you. You havn't given us food in such a long time, and our pet dog is dying. Please do something about this now." I looked at him and wondered why he was all of a sudden, throwing comands and complaints into my face. "Uh.. what? Well I'm so sorry but I'm not the owner of this house and I don't even really live here so I can't do anything about your problems. I don't even know who or what you are." He put his hood back on. "Ok I'm sorry I bugged you then. Please tell your grandmother about us waiting for her response. I'm starving.. I would kill for food." I backed off and slid down to the other side of the couch. "Not you.. I don't mean it that way. I'm a normal person like you, and I have to warn you about something." I stared at him, not daring to say anything or even move an inch. I could hear somebody walking around upstairs, it was defenatly grama wondering why all the lights went out, and were I was. She was looking for me, and if she saw me talking to this creepy guy way past my bed time, then she would flip. "My grama is looking for me. If she sees me talking to you at this hour then she will freak out!" I whispered to him. He got up and went to the door and signaled the other freaky people outside, waiting on the stairs. I could hear them walk silently up the stairs and into the kitchen. Then I heard a gust of air or something, and the freaky people walking. The boy returned and sat down on the couch. "What did they do?" I asked him. "Well we do not want your grama or anyone finding us talking, so they have sent her back to her room and put her to sleep again, for at least five hours." That didn't seem too bad so I forgot about grama. "Ok. What did you need to warn me about?" I didn't feel so afraid anymore. I sat normaly and listened to him talk. "Well you know that club that your sister was invited to?" I nodded. "Ok well I have to tell you something about it. This club is called the ReDart and the kids from Glen Lake made it, deep in the swamp. And were one tall tree stands, ReDart lies just in the tallest, biggest tree in the swamp." I wondered what was so wrong with that, but I kept on listening. "Yes yes I know what you are thinking. What is wrong with that? The swamp is a cool place to be and you can find awesome animals and snakes in there, but you don't know that swamp at night." I looked at him in confusion. That swamp was deserted and empty. No one ever went in there unless they wanted to risk trying to catch a snake without being bitten by one. What could be so wrong with it? Wait, he just said I didn't know the swamp at night, and that was very true. Yes I don't know the swamp at night.. but what could be so wrong with it? Is it haunted or something like that? He laughed so loud I was afraid that it would wake up grama or Meghan, but no sound at all from upstairs. Then he stopped laughing and looked at me again. "No. That swamp is indeed haunted, but not by a ghost. By a snake lord." A snake lord?? There was no such thing. Maybe he was just joking with me or thought I knew nothing. "That's impossible." I mumbled. He looked serious again. "Good, you are smart. Yes there is no such thing as a snake lord, but there is such thing as a giant snake. Now don't get doubtful. I speak the clear truth. But to make things more clear.." He was cut off by the yell of Meghan standing at the door. All this time we had been talking she had been standing there listening to the whole conversation. Then following her yell, I could hear grama groan and get out of bed, and grampa yawn. "Meghan! No! It's not what you think! Stop!" but it was no use. She snickered back. "Pft! Do you have any idea what time it is?! Anyways no matter what you and you freak friend say, even if he haunts me if I do go, I'm going to the ReDart no matter what!" Then I could hear the stairs creek from someone slowly walking down them. Meghan smiled and turned around and started up the stairs. Then I heard Meghan scream and come running back down, and she jumped onto the couch and grabbed a blanket and shielded herself with it. I played along with her and huddled towards the end of the couch, but the guy stayed there and surveyed. The creek of stairs continued, and the boy got up and looked up the stairs, then came dashing back onto the couch. "We have to go. Now." It must had been something bad for sure. He headed towards the fire place and reached into one of the holes in the bricks that was under the fire place and retrieved a rope. I whispered to Meghan; "What did you.." "Shh! Stay silent!" The boy hissed back in warning. It must had been seriously bad then. Then the creeking stopped. I strained to hear if it was still walking, and could hear shuffling around the corner. The boy flung the rope up the chimney and it stuck to the top. "Cmon." Meghan went first, she let go of the blanket and started climbing. Then like a horror movie, a single pair of pants came around the corner, walking on it's own with no body. I held back a scream, but the boy broke in. "It's OK to scream now." And with that I screamed. It was so terrifying I was lucky I didn't faint or anything. It was so weird seeing a pair of pants just walking towards us. Meghan called back down to signal that she had gotten up safely. "Hurry!" He didn't need to tell me twice. I grabbed the rope and started climbing, but it was really hard. I looked down and saw the boy, and the pair of pants was already right in font of him. I wondered what kind of damage it could possibly do, but when I heard the boy wail I kept on climbing, not even daring to look down and see what the pants did. I joined Meghan at the top. She grabbed the rope. "No! What about the boy?" Too late. "He wanted us to get out and run, and we are going to. And we don't want that freak thing to come up and follow us, even if it is just grampa's pants." And with that she threw the rope off the roof, and went flying into the back yard. "Meghan! Now how are we going to get off?" She wasn't THAT smart. She walked over to a tree and started climbing the branches down, and a followed. It was so hard to get down that old, rotten tree without a branch braking on you and you stumbled. But we got down and Meghan and I ran to the entrance of the culvasac. "We should run to the school and see if anyone's there!" Meghan blurted out, and I wanted to do the same thing. We ran as far as we could, staying to the shadows and in the bush, but we slowly walked the rest of the way. We did not want to bee seen by anyone. We came across a really old house with lights on. "Don't even look in there." And I didn't even look in there like she said. We cut through someone's property to get to the school fast. All the lights were off, and it was dead quiet. "What if someone sees us?" Meghan didn't even respond to that dumb question. No one was hear and everyone was asleep. "We need to find out what time it is." Meghan walked over to a classroom window and stood on a tree branch and looked in, trying to find the clock. I walked up to her and she mumbled "Oh my god.." then jumped down and told me it was three o' clock in the morning. NO one was going to be awake, for sure. The playground. Meghan was already running for the playground, not caring if I came with her. So I toke this opratunity and walked over to a very-deep ditch by the front of the school were parents parked there cars and trucks and vans.. whatever they drove. I looked down and saw a massive remains of a big machine of some sort. I slowly edged my way down the ditch and landed at the bottom, and it was super dark. I headed towards the big machine parts and tried to figure out what they might had come from. A monster truck? Then It looked a lot like the twirly spider ride from last year's summer fair. Why in the world would they dump it at the school? Unless it wasn't them who dumped it. I moved closer and examined it a bit more. It wasn't even a bit rusty, that was strange. Then I could have sworn I saw something move far ahead in the bushes. I started to move back and bumped into the wall of the super-tall ditch. I turned around and looked up to see that is was almost impossible to get back up, and where had Meghan gone off to? I turned back to the far off bushes and saw that there was something indeed moving in the bushes. I stood totaly still and watched, and it was moving closer. Now I could hear it coming towards me, and I turned and climbed up the hill the best I could, and when I held onto a root to look down I saw that whatever it was was really close. I grabbed onto roots and ascented up the hill as fast as I could. I was almost at the top when I tripped on a root and lost my balance. I reached for the top but kept falling. My foot caught onto a root and I was hanging upside down. I looked down and saw a black object with beady yellow eyes staring right back up at me. I didn't dare scream, but it was way to hard to hold back this time. Then the beast growled and walked closer to the wall of dirt. I guessed that it couldn't climb. "Hehe!" I called out to it, and tried to flip up and start climbing again, but it was no use. Then I heard some one yell out; "Kelsey!?" It was Meghan looking for me. I called back, and I heard her rush over. "Hh!" she gasped and started climbing down. "No! I'll get up myself!" I yelled at her, but she kept on creeping down the steep hill. She grabbed my foot and yanked it loose of the root, and she managed to still hold on. "Don't! Don't!" I continued to say don't!' until she had safely brought me to the top. "What was that thing?!" She looked down and the creature was gone. Meghan and I were talking while we were on the swings, and I told her all about the twirly spider ride that was down there. She told me that she went up the hill that lead to the broken fence and saw weird drawings on the trees, and the car parts that were usually in the bush were gone. This was seriously weird. Meghan went and checked to see what time it was, almost five o' clock in the morning. "We are not going back to grama's. Not after that. And I have an idea were we can go." I threw her a look of shock. "What!? We can't just leave here! What about grama and grampa? They would be dead worried about us! And we are NOT going to that dumb club that you wanted to go to either!" She rolled her eyes. "Geez I wasn't even going to say ReDart! I was gonna say that we should go to live with Auntie Dorris and Uncle Lewis in Mechosin until we sort this out. And for one, grama and grampa are doomed with walking and living pants walking around in their house, and weird people haunting it!" I thought she was completely insane. Live with Auntie Dorris in Mechosin was the weirdest thing she had ever come up with. And freaky people lived there, that is what Amber told me. "Ok I guess that isn't too bad. But how in the world are we gonna get there without being seen? And by the way, havn't you heard the rumors about really scary people living there? Ya know.. they live up in trees and stuff like that, and.." she cut me off. "That's all a big fat ugly over-weight lie! Now come on I know a perfect shortcut. We will NOT be seen. I guarantee it!" We jumped off the swings and walked over to the far end of the school were the intermidiant playground was, and Meghan pointed out a sign. "See that sign over there that says Deli Shop? Well we just cut through those trees there and end up in Colwood. Then we take the Gallopping Goose trail all the way to Mechosin. It's the only way. If we take the main road through Happy Valley, someone will see us. But if we take the trail, we won't be seen." It sounded like a good plan to me, so I followed her through the fence and we went through some trees. It wasn't long before we saw the Deli through the trees, and it was still open. "Why in the world would it be open at this hour?" and as if on que, the lights in the Deli shut off and a door slammed. We tip toed fast through the trees when we saw a man walk out of the Deli and headed for his car. "Get down!" Meghan hissed, and we dove into the bushes, and peered out a bush. The man was looking our way, and started walking towards us. I huddled closer until I was completely covered by the bush. Meghan was already in a big shrub. The man was walking along and passed me. Then he started looking through some of the bushes. He got close to Meghan when he shrugged and went back to his car. We waited until he got inside and drove away, far away. We slowly emerged from our hiding places, and Meghan's hair was a total mess. "That was so close." Meghan said. "We have to keep going before anyone else comes." So we continued through the trees, until we reached the outskirts of Colwood. There were no shops open, and the whole place was silent. We walked over to a gas station and saw that it was closed, but the door was wide open. Meghan went inside and I could see her grabbing stuff off the shelves, and grabbing a bunch of plastic bags from behind the counter, and filling them with food and other stuff she had gotten. "What if someone finds out and we get a criminal record?" I asked her as she stepped out. "Nah no one's that stupid to just leave the door open unless they didn't care!" As we walked towards the trail, Meghan and I were already feasting on the junk food and CrackerJacks that she toke from the gas station, and there were already still tons left. We approached the trail. It was really dark. Meghan sat down on a rock and grabbed a pack of batteries out of the bag and a small flashlight, two of them. She put batteries in each of them, and we started down the trail. Even with a flashlight, the trail was seriously spooky. There was the sound of a stream silently running at the sides, and everywhere you looked it was dense forest. The trees curved and you could look up and see the dark sky. There were tracks on each side of the trail as if bikers had gone through here during the day. But at night, this trail was named after creepy. Galloping Goose trail was pretty scary to me. The batteries in Meghan's flashlight was dimming so she changed the light. It was getting really dark out now and super scary. I didn't think I could take it anymore. And once again, like in a horror movie, I could hear an owl hooting. Meghan.. I whispered. What? I didn't answer. She obviously wasn't scared. As we continued, I could see mist in the distance. I told you it was gonna be creepy in this place! I cautioned her. This is only the dumb trail. Doesn't mean the whole town is going to be like this! Now we were walking in the light mist. The flashlights were holding up well. Then we came across a large tree that had fallen over. We climbed over it and kept going. Don't you think that was a little creepy at least? I asked Meghan. She shook her head. Then we came across a road. Ready for the second half? I groaned, but kept on walking. The second half was more than just down-right scary. It was terrifying. We were starting to see people in trees, and strange voices in the woods. I was basically crying right now I was so scared. We were almost out of batteries too. We were right back in the deep woods again, and we had to cross a bridge made out of wood and there was a small stream underneath it. We neared a sign and Meghan read 8KM we had walked. I thought she said this was a shortcut! There was rustling from above in the trees, and we looked up to see someone fly over to another tree. I was right! The rumors were right too. Scary people lived here that haunted people in the night. As we walked further, we saw an old house in the woods, and an old wooden fence was rotting away to nothing. The trees were still tall and gloomy, but Meghan ran towards a small path that lead through a thorn bush. I followed her over to it, and saw it lead out to open road. Thank goodness we are out of that place! Then Meghan turned around. Shush! They are asleep and we don't want to wake them! I stopped her. Who? She rolled her eyes and said; Auntie Dorris! And everyone here! No! You saw that there were people in the trees and.. ugh! Meghan ignored me and we headed up the path and onto to the clean road. Once again, everywhere you looked was trees and woods, everywhere. Down the road to the right was more darkness and trees, and to the left were old houses and old wooden fences surrounding them. I saw Auntie Dorris's house, and another dense woods behind it. We approached her house and saw the vegitable garden and, the woods. We looked at Aunt Elenor's house that was just across from Aunt Dorris's and saw the old farm in the back, and, the woods. It was insane how much woods there was. Meghan and I walked up to Aunt Dorris's house and Meghan said in a low voice; Welcome to Mechosin. The curtain was closed, but I could see light in the house. Meghan went up to the door and knocked. No answer. Uncle Lewis probely just left the light on. Meghan didn't dare knock again. We are gonna have to wait for the morning, then when they're awake we'll ask. I shot her a look of shock again. What?! Were the heck are we going to sleep then? Let me guess in a tree?! Meghan just walked towards the woods and I followed. What do you think you're doing? She didn't respond. She turned on her flashlight again and we walked into the forest. I saw the old saw mill that was never really used anymore, but sometimes Uncle Stuart would use it when he was going to make a bonfire. Speaking of bonfires, there was the bonfire pit and an old rotting bench with a few plastic chairs around it. There was also a really old fireplace or whatever it was just sitting there too. It looked like one of those olden days fireplaces. There were stacks of wood everywhere, and an old cottage at the back of the forest. And the really scary thing is, there was an old outhouse here too that my great-grampa used when he used the saw mill all day when he lived here. Now it was never used. I didn't dare open the door ever, but one of the daycare kids was playing frizby hide-and-seek and decided to hide it in the toilet in there, and obviously he won the game. But I had never been in these woods at night, except if it was bonfire night and the bonfire was lit and everyone was here. But with no bonfire and family members except your sister there with you, it was very scary. And to make matters worse, I could see people in the trees. Meghan let's go back.. but she didn't listen. Someone dropped something down and it landed hard on the ground. I ran over and picked it up. It was a flute of some kind. Meghan tried to grab it from me, but I backed away. I tried to blow into it, and the sound that came out was actually nice to listen to. Then there was chatter from above in the trees, and a bunch of other flutes joined in. Give it to me! Meghan begged, but I refused. I blowed into it again, and they followed the sound. Meghan dragged me out of there in a flash. Look Kelsey. I tried to warn you when we were coming to live with grama about this place. But did you listen? The kids in the trees are kids that you don't want to mess with. I walked away with her, tucking the flute into my pocket. Meghan pounded on the front door until Aunt Dorris came to the door. With a ton of explanations, she let us stay for as long as we wanted, and she believed the story about the walking pants and the freaky people haunting the basement. I thought that she must be used to scary things happening. She gave us our own beds, but in the same room. It was grams's old room, she was living in a place called the Priory now. It was dead silent. Meghan was fast asleep. I tried to stay up and think, but something was telling me to go to sleep now. Now. Now. Now! Aunt Dorris offered to take us to Happy Valley school if we wanted to, but the last thing we needed was homework and mean teachers when we were in this position. What kind of cereal do you have? I asked her. Meghan was still asleep. I have Raison Brand, Corn Flakes, and Rice Crispies. She toke three boxes out of the cupboard and laid them out on the counter. Of course I toke my favorite one, Rice Crispies. She got the bowl and set it all up and I was already eating it when Meghan came in. She toke the Corn Flakes. Meghan was yapping and yapping it was insane. She wanted to know if Aunt Dorris had a computer (That she could mess up and download stuff with and infect with viruses), which she didn't. Then Meghan went on about the people in the trees and the weird flute. Oh don't worry that's normal. As for the flute you should put it somewhere safe! Don't lose it! I just had it safely in my pocket. After breakfast, Meghan and I went outside to look at the place in daylight. The forest wasn't scary anymore, it was actually fun to play in and the strange people were gone. We climbed the ladder and went into the old cottage and discovered a super-old GameBoy that worked when Meghan put batteries in it. This is so awesome! Maybe if we ask, Auntie Dorris will let us live in here! Meghan nodded and started sorting stuff around. There was enough room for a bed and a few other tables. Meghan dragged a medium-sized table into the center of the room. I was dumping stuff that we didn't need or want out the huge gap at the front of the cottage. The really cool thing about the cottage was that it was a storage for stuff downstairs and it ws like a loft upstairs. The back wall was there, but there was no wall in the front, so we could look out and see the trees and nice scenery. You had to use a ladder to get to the loft too. As we continued moving stuff around, we discovered an old computer that had a big tower thing, and by the sticker on it we could tell it was Windows 98! Why in the world would someone trash the latest version?! Meghan said, shocked. Well if we do get it up and running you are not going to mess it up ok? She turned to look at me. We aren't gonna have Internet. she noted. After we made the loft look better, we went back to Auntie Dorris, and she actually said yes. Uncle Stuart came home from the farm across the street and helped us load stuff into the cottage. There was no power in the cottage, but Uncle Stuart got a generator and plugged in a few lights and set up the computer. He brought the furnature up into the loft and we were moving it around like crazy. We had a nice carpet in there, too. Then Uncle Stuart got our help and moved two beds in there as well! It was a lot of hard work, but now the cottage looked great. Thank you! we were thanking him like crazy. He left to go back to the farm and Aunt Dorris brought lunch to us. We went into the house and got sheets and blankets for our beds. When we returned to the cottage, we made our beds and Meghan was already on the computer. Before we knew it, time had blown out the window and it was already ten o' clock, and Meghan went to bed. I was in bed too, but I was awakened by noises outside, and the rustle of trees. I sat up and glanced out the wide opening. I made sure that Meghan was asleep, then I sat on the ledge and watched. There were people, kids walking towards trees and climbing them to the very top. One of the saw me and climbed up the ladder and looked around. All these people were only kids. I weird boy sat down on the ledge and toke out a flute, and started playing it. He must had thought I was one of them or something. I got up and grabbed my flute off the bed side table, and played it too. He looked at me in shock. Then he grew bigger, wings, claws, and a beak. He transformed into a crow and flew off. I stayed there. Petrified of what I just saw. Were these kids normal? Was there a connection on him turning into a crow, and the music of the flute? I looked the flute over in the moonlight and saw the small black design of a wolf on the side of it. I had to investigate more. I climbed down the ladder and walked around a bit. I saw a small cat wondering around in the bushes, and I walked over to it. It meowed and I picked it up. Then it started to feel heavier. I dropped it, and it turned into a tall, weird girl. I started to back away when she handed me a piece of paper. Wha? Can I see your flute please? I could barely get the words out I was so scared. She didn't say a word, but showed me her flute, and turned it over so that I could see the small black design of a cat. Then she put it away and turned into a cat again. Meowing like an inocent little kitty, it just stood there and looked up at me. I just walked away, and turned around to see the cat darting away. This was really weird for sure. I headed back to the cottage and Meghan was still asleep. Good. I had to find out the purpose of this flute. Then I toke a look at the piece of paper bundle. It said GUIDE' on the front in big, red letters. I opened it up and a few pages came fluttering out. I looked at the one that had the big number 1 on it. I read the instructions. Introduction The flute you are holding is called the Orcarina. It had the ability to turn you into whatever is ingrained on it's side. I know I sound like a mad man, but please believe me. My words are the sworn truth. It is saied that an Orcarina will drop from the trees and be yours to keep. Your Orcarina is your own. Signed: Lanna Yes whoever wrote that was defenetly a mad man for sure. That was insane! Impossible! But then I remembered the boy playing it, then turning into a crow. Then I saw the cat darting up the ladder and into the loft. It sat down and flicked it's tail. Play it. It said to me. The cat could talk. That was weird. The cat put a paw on the second piece of paper. Follow that. It had a bunch of musical notes on it, and a picture of an animal to go with each one. The cat pointed out the one with the wolf picture next to it. Now play it. I tried to play the song, but it was really tough. Everytime I failed the cat would say Ok. Try again. And I did. Then I started to get the hang of it. I was so carried away that I didn't even realize that I wasn't normal anymore. I looked to see the cat smiling, and the guide was telling the truth, and whoever wrote it wasn't a mad man. Just like the guide said, I was a wolf now. I couldn't help screaming, but instead I howled. Then I heard Meghan move in her bed. I turned around and saw her staring right at me really weird-like. The cat hissed and Meghan flew right back under the covers. We have to go now. The cat jumped off and landed perfectly on the ground. What? I called back to it. Just follow me. I leaped off the loft and whent dashing after the cat. It felt really, really weird. We ran right out of Aunt Dorris's property and we headed right. Passing the path that lead to the Galopping Goose trail, and down the road. There were other animals all over the place, in the trees, darting, on the road, in the bush, talking. Then we arrived at another short trail, leading to a small farm. The cat walked over to a bush and placed itself there. I followed it and sat there too. Ok enough. Explain this all to me. I said to the cat. The cat laughed. You already know! Anyways, my name is Winter. What's yours? No body had a name like that. That isn't a proper name ya know.. I mumbled. Yeah of course! Animals don't have people names, so we are named something else. Something magical. Think of one! I thought really hard, scrolling through cool, yet scary animal names to fit what I was now and where I was. How about Luna? Winter suggested. Yes! Ok! That was a pretty OK name wasn't it? The entire night me and Winter stayed there and talked for a really long time. It was starting to get light again. Winter had told me all about their ruler, Lanna, and how he discovered the Orcarina. She also talked about the enemy, Melethasant, and that she lived in the talest tree, and in the scariest, oldest house. Which no one could find. We were dashing as fast as we could back to the cottage before it got any brighter outside. When we arrived, I asked Winter a pretty lame question. Will Meghan remember? Will she know? Will she ask my questions? I don't want her to know. I know I know. She won't remember. I promise. Only people with the Orcarina will remember what they see at night here. I felt releived, until I wondered how to change back, and I asked Winter that question. Just close your eyes. It's simple. When I opened my eyes again I was sitting on the ledge of the loft, holding the Orcarina. Normal again. Winter dashed away, through the thick forest. I didn't even feel tired! I just got into bed and pretended nothing had ever happened. The same pattern was going on for weeks. I would always meet Winter at the farm, and I had met some new friends. And Meghan never found out, but Aunt Dorris and Uncle Stuart and Lewis knew everything. They even made Orcarinas when Lanna needed more. Auntie Dorris showed me how she made them, and how she put the animal design on the side of it. And of course Meghan was still asleep the whole morning. She woke up finally around eleven, and I attacked her with questions, nothing related to the secret of course. �Well I was just really sleepy ond... YAWN.. yeah..� I had asked her why she was in bed for so long. I got outside and went into the forest. I was in the loft, on the computer. There were some old documents from the person who owned it before. They were all about Lanna and his findings, and that he went to the Arctic. But there was one document that was most interesting. It was named: �Peace Broken�, and I opened it and was shocked from what I saw. Friday 12th, 1997 So what could go wrong? Everyone was happy with the new ability, and no one was left out. Many were learning how to create Orcarinas, and harnessing their full power. But one wicked and evil witch from the darkest of the darkest area of our land, was displeased of what it was capible of, and rejected it completely. Many tried to tell her that she was very wrong, but she didn�t listen. Instead, she came up with an evil idea, to modify the Orcarina to her desires. And of course it worked, and she destroyed everything she could. The whole place was a disaster, many killed. But a guardian of the fire came from far away and rebuilt the land. Even though everything has been fixed, the evil sorcerer lives on. Her incredible powers continue to frighten, but she has escaped and is now hiding, ready and planning. Her name brings fear to everyone. Please, shut your mouth and keep silent. I thought that the last sentence was quite rude, but this document meant something. I didn�t even know who had wrote it. But I saw that the processor was Mariner Write, a paid program. I looked into it a bit and found the registration data, and found out that it had been pirated. I looked for names and more data, and found a name that I in fact knew: Amber Hunt. I didn�t dare make any documents available for Meghan to browse, so I locked them up in a password-protected folder. I had asked Meghan if we could visit the school, but she said no, and I couldn�t walk all the way back to Langford on my own. Everyone had gone out to the fair that was going on, and it was only me and Meghan. I waited for the night to fall. Meghan was doing work in the garden around two o� clock AM, and everyone else was of course, asleep. I sneaked away in wolf form, and left a big teddy under the blankets to fool Meghan. I met up with Winter on the feild, and told her about the computer. �That�s really weird.. you say that�s what her name was? Well I don�t know. Remember, animals don�t have people names, so it�ll be really hard to find her. If you found her computer there, then she must be around here somewhere, and there must be some seriously valuable information in that computer if she were to just trash the latest version.� At least she felt the same way I did. �Yes there is some good information on there.. speaks of Melethesant too, in one of them that I found interesting. There was some other stuff on Lorel and Lanna and how they adventured in the Arctic, it was like a journal of some sort.� Winter�s eyes widened. �Lorel?! You mean the polar bear? Nah he would never come here. They use something different to become animals in the North. I find it strange that this friend of yours knows so much about the legends. I should come to take a look at that computer some time.� �Wait. I have a sister, Meghan�s her name, and she stays up really, and I mean really late at night. She could see us, and she is on that computer on a regular basis.� Winter sighed. �Well.. you could always write the good information down, and bring it to me. Or you could make her go to another one of those fairs. They have loads of stuff going on there that I know she will like.� It was worth a try. �Why don�t we search for your friend and get answers from her? Eh?� I totally agreed. I followed Winter back down the path, heading into the main town. There was a small, old general store that looked like it had been standing there for ages, and the only restaurant in the whole neighbourhood. There was a sign that read, �HELP ME� in big red letters. It said something else during the day. There was also a house, a rather small house, and the door was wide open. �This way.� Following Winter into the house, a saw the only thing that was in the whole house, which was bigger and had more objects in it in the day. There was a nice sofa and a few chairs surrounding a tiny desk with a strange looking computer on it. There was no mouse, only a small keyboard on it. �Take a seat.� I leaped onto the sofa, which was really comfy, and lied down and watched Winter fiddle with the computer. It wasn�t Windows, it was something that I had never seen before. Still there was a large blue window on the screen that read, �TYPE REQUEST HERE NOW� �Ok. Tell me. This friend of yours.. do you know what her favorite animal is?� I thought back. I remember seeing her backpack, and a dragon keychain. She had a bunch of shirts with dragon designs on them. Infact, everything she owned or wore had something dragon-like to it. �Dragons?� Winter turned to face the moniter and clicked on �DRAGONS�. I perked up to look at the screen, and saw only one, single name on the screen filed under dragons. The name was Guinevere. �What?! That is a seriously weird name for a dragon if you don�t mind me saying.. who would ever think up a name like that?� Winter said, shocked. �Ok know that we know who and what she is.. how exactly do we find her? Dragons are supposed to be really big.� �Yeah that is the hard part. There is a massive mountain fortress of the water, and many powerful ones go there. She has to be there, that is the very lair of Lanna. Who knows if he would let us in.� I jumped off the couch and headed out the door with Winter. �And we have to get there before the sun comes up.� We started running right, down a long dark road. �Right.� We passed a trail that had a big yellow barrier at the entrance, and a huge field were other animals were talking. It started to get brighter. �Luna look! There�s the fortress!� We dashed across a long bridge over water and we were now at the beach. In the far distance, there was a large, towering mountain that looked like a tall jagged tooth. There were small windows that had light coming from them, and there was a little port at the front of it. And sure enough, there was a dragon flying around the top, then somehow flew inside. �How do we get over there?� I asked, and a small reply came from under the bridge. �You talk to me.� Me and Winter looked under the bridge slowly, and saw another cat, it looked like a tiger. �Ok then sir. We wish to go to the Citadel. Could you somehow take us to it? It would be so-� but the tiger cut her off. �I can so take you over there. If you�re well and ready to pay.� Winter looked at me, asking if I had any money. �Nah, guys I take you over there free of charge..� �Where? How? I don�t see a boat anywhere?� The tiger laughed a sinister laugh. �I would take you over there for free.. if I even had a boat!� Then the tiger burst into laughter. �Let�s go.� The tiger stopped laughing. �Wait. I know how you can get over there though, without a boat.� We turned around and listened. �Well?� The tiger cleared his throut. �There is a wood grove in the Galloping Goose trail did you know that? The only light in that place at night. Find the old, beaten fence that doesn�t seem to guard anything, and follow the blood trail. That will lead you to the grove, which will take you to the Citadel.� �Can you tell us more? About the Galloping Goose?� �I guess I can. That trail came to be when a brave griffin had stood up to a dragon, the only one here to be exact, and there was a huge ceramony. So, this griffin was proud with himself and decided to take a stroll through the most deadliest forest on this whole island, thinking confident that he was too tough for the world now. But the griffin was wrong, dead wrong, and it ended up getting him dead too. He was in the hidden third part of the forest, that lead to a small goat farm. You would never suspect anything horrible or dangerous to come from here, but no body lives at this goat farm, it�s abandoned. But the goats still lived somehow. That somehow, is because they are actually dead. That farm is haunted, my friend. The griffin ignored the farm, and the goats toke neglect from that, they were so used to everyone petting them. The �leader� of their ghostly tribe, ScapeGoat, followed the griffin down the path, he was now in the restricted area of Mechsoin, and was still believing that he was too good for the trail, and the spooky legends. ScapeGoat had a special ability, to drain the life out of you, and that is what he did. The griffin walked the entire trail, from the start through the hidden third part and the restricted part, then got killed. He is no longer a legend because of his foolishness, and he is just someone that never happened.� Winter gave him a confused look. �Why was it named the Galloping Goose then? Was a goose involved?� The tiger shock his head. �No, there was no goose, involved that is. The griffin�s friend was a goose and went down the trail to find him, and prove himself. That added even more hatred and laughter to the griffin�s actions, now that his goose friend had tried to save him, and shared the same fate. So they named it the Galloping Goose trail, to remind everyone and the griffin and his goose friend, about their foolish actions.� I couldn�t help laughing. The tiger gave an approval that it was OK to laugh at the griffin and the goose. �What was the griffin�s name?� I asked the tiger. �Shockingly, his very name was Griffin. Can you believe it?!� All of us broke out in laughter, but the tiger stopped laughing. �I must remind you, to seek the grove, you must face the ScapeGoat.� And with that, he disappeared into a black puff of smoke. �What?! We have to fight some scary ghost-goat that many have gotten killed by?� �Luna, only two have been killed by it, and they were both dummies so that basically explains it. It can�t be that bad, we�ll just stop and say hi so they won�t attack us.� �Yeah but maybe ScapeGoat haunts that restricted area, and will just attack us because he�s tired of visitors.� Winter sighed. �Well I guess we won�t be going over to the Citadel then.. let�s go home..� I instantly changed my mind. �Never mind let�s go!� Winter and I were walking towards the trail, when I remember the incident at grama and grampa�s house, with the walking pants and the strange people haunting the basement. �Winter, do you know anything about weird people clad in black that you can�t even see their faces, and they live in your basement?� She laughed at that. �Oh don�t worry. They just look for somewhere to live and they stay there, stealing stuff and claiming that they deserve money. They�re harmless, seriously. Even though they appear to be scary, they are huge softies. They make weird things happen in the house though. Walking or floating pieces of clothes has been a popular trick with them. It�s always scary, seeing a shirt floating over to you. Why you ask?� So the boy was just trying to get us out of the house with his dumb walking pants joke. It was just a trick to get us out of their way, he probelly had one of his dumb friends do it for him, and he acted scared and acted that he was getting killed by it, just to get us out of the house. How retarted! I explained all the events that had been happening in grama�s house before they had came here. �Really? I know that�s really scary but you gotta think, it�s easy to tell that he was faking it. That�s what they always do, invade houses, get everyone out of them, the rule them, then wear them out so much that they get destroyed, or no one could possibly live in it anymore, then they find a new house. It�s how they work.� �Well what are they?� �No body really knows what they are. There�s the trail.� I looked up and saw sure enough, the start of the trail. �Won�t it just lead us back to Colwood?� Winter shock her head and laughed. �No silly! Remember there is a secret way to get to the hidden third part?� �But do you even know how to get there?� �Yes.� I dropped the conversation. It was dark and not even a tiny bit of light was coming from the sky. We had lots of time before the sun would come up, but if we went far and couldn�t get back in time, what would we do? I didn�t even bother asking. There was nobody in the trees or in the bushes today. �Must have been another attack from the ScapeGoat I guess. That�s the only time this trail is deserted.� �Maybe he�s made and will kill us for sure!� �Don�t be silly! If we are quiet and we stop to say hi, nothing bad will happen, OK?� I nodded. I still didn�t feel OK about going into some scary trail were lots of animals and people get killed. When we reached the bridge, I was just starting to walk over it when- �Over here!� And Winter guided me through a path I hadn�t seen before. It was even darker and creepier then the main path, and was narrow and the trees covered the whole sky, meaning you couldn�t even see the sky. It was really damp too. And there were stumps that glowed, and little sprites were flying around, seriously making the place even more scary. But Winter told me they would not cause any hard and it would all be over soon, the third path was known to be the scariest. But this path was long and the amount of sprites increased until they were everywhere, and the path was turning into a big, dark farie land. It was dark and gloomy through the entire path, but the sprites started to go away and there was no more glowing objects, and the trees began to part, and light was up ahead. We entered a lighted area, and another path ahead of us. There was a big farm to our left, and the one and only dead goat farm to the right. �Let�s stick around for a bit ok?� We headed over to the goat farm and dug up some grass and jabbed it through the fence to the other side, where the goats feasted on the grass like pigs. We stayed there for thirty minutes chatting and feeding the goats, not even daring to ask about there deadly leader ScapeGoat. �Haha! Well it was nice to hear your story, but we have to be on our way now.� Winter and I said goodbye and waved a paw at them. They made noises and called out, but we were already booking it. �Come on we have to get through here. Now.� �Hold up, Winter! The tiger said that the portal place was in the fourth path! We can�t just leave!� �And he also said that we had to face the ScapeGoat in order to find the grove!� �So all that worthless talk and pulling up grass was for nothing?� �Maybe after seeing us treat his goat followers nice, he will soften the blow.� �Whatever. Look for the fence that seems to guard nothing!� But we were stopped when the trees suddenly died away and we could see the sky again, and it was a nice dark blue. There was a few bushes to the side, and I could hear a stream to the right in the bushes. But to the left was a massive, absolutely huge rock hill that went strait up, and was very tall and covered a lot of area. And standing on the top, was a single goat. �Luna.. why is there a goat.. up there..� I shivered. �ScapeGoat.� The goat gave out a big roar and jumped down, and we backed away. �ScapeGoat I am. In fact..� before it could finish, we were already dashing away for it. �Come back here you fools!� It called back to us, catching up fast. �Come on hurry!� But the ScapeGoat was already apon us. �Now I will finish you!� Winter hissed and kicked up a tornado of dust which blinded the ScapeGoat. It kicked and yelled. �Fools! You will not.. escape!� It ran right out of the dust storm and galloped towards us at great speeds. I jumped into a bush and pulled out a prickle. I waited for it to get close, then jumped out and pounded right onto the goat�s back, stabbing with the thorns. It wailed, but kicked me off. �Come on!� Winter didn�t have to tell me twice. We were off, with the goat retreating. �I knew that would do it!� �Don�t get to high, it�s a ghost remember. It�s probely just giving us a head start.� Then we were back in the dark, and there was a small clearing in the woods, and a rotten fence. �There it is..� it reached far, but nothing was behind it. It was guarding nothing. I simply pushed it open and we started walking. It was dead silent. Then there was a pool of light, and none of the trees were open, meaning you couldn�t see the sky. �That must be it.� As soon as Winter stepped in it, she disappeared. I ran into it, and flew upwards at a hyper fast speed. Then before I knew it, I was sitting on a dock, the Citadel. Winter was already at the door. �Come on! It�s not long before sunrise!� I looked up at the sky and noticed that it was getting brighter, and I could hear the faint sound of cars in the distance. �Hurry.� And we quietly burst through the doors. Meanwhile back at the cottage, it was dark and silent. Meghan was wakened by someone walking through the woods. �What now..� she said sleeply. She got out of bed and walked over to the edge of the loft and sat down, and sure enough there was a dark object that was shuffling in the grass, towards the cottage. Meghan watched it carefully, but it was just black and you couldn�t see anything else. Then the object was just under Meghan�s feet when it sprung up to the loft, it was a small cat. �Hi kitty!� Meghan leaned over to pet it. But as soon as she touched it, everything went black, she didn�t even notice that Kelsey was gone from her bed. �What are we going to do?� Winter said. I was thinking the same thing, how in the world would we face up to a big dragon, let alone find it? �Let�s just keep going OK?� The Citadel was ancient-looking and had stone walls, and the steps were mere boards that were held up with two chain ropes each. And they were far apart so you would have to jump, or go falling down the black pit below. �I can hear someone yelling up there. Think it�s ok?� �Of course it�s not ok but we�re still going.� Winter shock her head. �I still can�t believe the dragon�s name is Guinevere isn�t that weird? That isn�t really a dragon name don�t you think?� Winter laughed, but silently. �I think it�s pretty!� The way she said �pretty� I knew she was just joking. �Hh!� went Winter, we had reached the top and no one was seen. The yells of a man somewhere continued, but now we could hear roars of a dragon. Two dragons. One sounded like it was in pain and the other in anger, and there was a large crack of a whip. �Hurry!� �We don�t even know were they are!!� �Too bad we�re not just going to sit here.� We followed the sound of the whip and yelling, but only ended up at a dead end. �Now what?� The answer came strait away. The roar, and this time the man screaming and yelling, and there was a sound of big bars shattering. The dragon was free. Then the dragon roared and all the torches flickered out, and darkness followed. �I�m serious. What now.� There was now the sound of the dragon flapping it�s wings and walking around, atempting to break the stone wall because you could feel the whole place shaking. �Luna!� �Keep walking.� �WHAT?!� �Just walk!� Before long we were at a large wooden door at the very end of the hallway, and there were loud noises coming from behind it. �Come on.� I pushed it open and the first thing we saw was a black and purple dragon charging at the wall, and a pink and yellow dragon trapped in a cage. It was a wild scene. Winter went ahead. �Guinevere!!� �Winter no! Don�t!� But it was too late Winter went charging to the black dragon and tried to communicate. �Are you Guinevere?!� she screamed. The dragon roared, then gave up trying to bust the wall. It gave a wail, then collapsed. �Oh no Winter..� I warned. I jumped down to investigate. It wasn�t dead, that was good. �Wake up..� Winter whispered. �No you�ve done enough damage!� �At least I stopped it from hurting itself!� Over our fighting, the dragon opened it�s eyes and stood up. We were still fighting when it roared to let us know it was awake. �I am Guinevere.. what do you want!!?� It was angry for sure. �Um.. we can get you out of here if you..� Winter said with a start, but Guinevere was enraged. �What?! That�s IT?! ARGH!� And roared very loud. �Calm down! We only need to ask you some questions!� Winter begged, but it was no good. �Shutup if you know what�s good for you!� The dragon in the cage started bauling. �No! No more fighting!� It screeched. �What�s going on?!� I yelled to it, but no response. It seemed to be dead or it had fainted. �We have to do something..� �The Orcarina. Try it.� �I don�t have it with me!� �Now what?� The dragon laughed. �You should had said, what now..� The dragon in the cage woke up. �Sing to it!� it yelled, then fell back again. �What?! We can�t do that!� �It�s too late. Look.� Through a small hole in the wall, we could see the sky brightening. �We have to go.� �You can�t leave.� Guinevere said as we darted out of the room. We flew down the board stairs, but a suprise awaited us. �What happened to the door?� Yes instead of a big wooden door, there was only stone wall. �We break the wall.� Winter pawed an ancient shovel and heaved it at the wall, and it started to chip. I helped and charged the shovel at the wall, but to no avail. We did break the wall, only to another obsticle. �What the heck?� A clean white wall was there, with a scribbled number nine on it. �Nine? Nine what?� Winter asked. Guinevere seemed to have calmed down. �I have no idea.. let�s ask.� �No Luna are you kidding? After it threatened to kill us?� �It didn�t say it was gonna kill us!� I said with a laugh, while jumping up the boards. �Besides, what could it possibly do to us? It�s just a big softie.� �You have no idea what you�re saying! Nothing, nothing can stand up to Guinevere or any dragon. Not even an earthquake or a big wind storm or a blizzard. Those are the sort of places they live even! The only reason Griffin stood up to her was because she didn�t want to hurt a weakling.� �Fine. Any ways it looks like she isn�t mad anymore.� �Not for long..� Winter cautioned. We opened the door to see Guinevere trying to bust the cage and let the other dragon out. Guinevere turned, wide-eyed. �Leave! Before she comes!� �One, there�s no door. Two, Who�s coming to get us now?� I asked. �Doesn�t anyone listen? I said you can�t leave. It least the normal way. Someone dies tonight.� �What?!� I blurted out with a start. Guinevere retired from trying to break bars and looked up as if she were thinking. �Nine.. ever think of it? Nine.. bongs. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.. bongs. Doom and gloom. Do you know what that means?� Every time she said a number, she would swish her tail. �Uh.. someone.. dies??� I was really worried for Meghan now. I hoped that she had gone to her stupid club and ran back to Langford and lived happly ever after at grama�s house. The end. But that wasn�t the case. �You have to leave. Now.� Guinevere made fire, then blew it at the wall, burning it completly. �Get on.� We followed instructions. Before we could explain were we needed to go, we were already in the air, going at super-fast speed. Before we knew it we were diving at the location of the cottage. �Meghan�s going to be dead isn�t she?� �I hope not..� Winter replied silently. We could see the cottage, but then Guinevere stopped. After a long pause, Winter said, �What?� Then we could hear a faint sound in the far distance. She turned around and headed the other way. �Wha.. what.. where are you going?! Hey!� Not only were we going in the completely opposite direction, it was also getting brighter out by the minute. �Whoa no!� We were basically screaming our heads off, when the sound started to get clearer, someone singing. �Oh my goodness gratious! Come on who cares!� �Well someone cares.� Winter noted. The sound was coming from the old, haunted church. �Oh no! I am NOT going in there! No no! Hold up! Hey hey! Ahh!� Guinevere ignored me and went strait for the church. The sound faded, then continued somewhere else. Before we could say stop, we were off again, heading for the sound which was now coming from in the woods. Guinevere flew off, perking her ears to pick up the location of the sound. We were flying in the trees now, and me and Winter were ducking the branches. Winter was screaming at the top of her lungs it was so bad, but I was too. Then we broke free of the trees and were in an alcove, with a pool of light emitting from it. The voice was coming from the light. It was a really weird song for sure.. why had Guinevere been so attracted to it? �It�s hypnotizing her!� Winter yelled. Can�t wake up until I�m sleeping.. lost on me.. because it was something I would never be.. �I�m scared..� Winter squeaked. It was really scary music. Dun dun.. din din.. dun dun.. and the dun duns were really low and spooky. If I just stay here.. close my eyes can you still see me.. obsolete.. very few are summoned to be.. still see me.. I can�t wake up the sleeping.. incomplete.. the conceqense of something to be.. The music continued, and Guinevere seemed to be tranced. But I continued to listen. I knew I had heard this before. You can keep trying.. only sleep when you�re flying.. see for miles.. something that I wanted to see.. I can�t wake this dream.. my protoform is obsolete.. incomplete.. the consequense of something to be.. The music was still it�s scary, freaky self, I felt like I was surrounded. Winter was crying. Now the voice was ahhh... ahhh.. ahhhahhhhhhaaa!! Even scarier than before. But now the voice was chanting. Becoming X.. Becoming X.. Becoming X.. Becoming X.. And now it seemed the Guinevere was changing. �No! Fight it off Guinevere! Guinevere!� I ran over to her and tried to pull her away from the light. Now the voice was saying: Protoform X.. Protoform X.. Protoform X.. Protoform X.. Over and over again. Guinevere glowed until she was floating in the air, lifeless and only white. The voice ahhhhahhhhhaahhaaed over and over again. Then I started to see Guinevere change shape. It went so dark.. the light of the day died down into black. Now the music changed into a weird sound that sounded like.. no idea. I didn�t even bother listening to the voice. The only thing that was interesting was.. I want reflection.. I�ve seen attention see through me.. The horror.. I am.. call on me.. spin spin anti-dermous.. call on me.. Now the voice was crying. Then the crying turned into a scary Ooooooooo... sound. I wanted to leave so badly, but I couldn�t leave Winter and Guinevere behind. Then green light flew onto Guinevere, and then she seemed to turn into a normal person, but somehow looked different. The singing continued. Then I noticed that Winter was now a bright gold colour. �Winter! What happened to you?!� �Just because it�s dark, it�s still day. I am now.. Summer.� I couldn�t take it anymore. This was just too darn scary. The voice continued chanting �Protoform X� over and over until the song changed. Now the song was.. Take me down.. six feet underground.. the ground beneath your feet.. I�ve got a head full of doubt.. down here.. so far off of losing out.. around here.. I�m open, to fall from the sky.. call me down.. I couldn�t take it anymore. I charged for the light. I stepped in and froze. An image of a non-human person was singing to Guinevere. She had a long black cape that covered all of her except her head, and she had a black crow on her shoulder. She had black horns and yellow eyes like a cat. She looked like some sort of witch, but then I knew I had seen her before. She was the dark, evil witch of the movie Sleeping Beatuy. But she didn�t even exist! It was just a movie! Or.. was it? Too late. She noticed me and I was locked out of the vision. Now the music changed to a more scary format, and the light around Guinevere dimmed, and she fell to the ground. She deffenetly was not a person. Clad in black armor, but not like a knight�s, but black, weird armor. She now had a strange helmet that covered her whole head, and a black visor. She looked like some sort of dangerous robot. There were also two yellow glowing lines on each shoulder, and more glowing yellow lines on her helmet, but it wasn�t a helmet, it was her head. There were small black and yellow wings on her back as well, and long black hair that didn�t really look all that real. The voice came back. You are Protoform X.. Guinevere. Your name is Protoform X. Then the voice left and the light disappeared. �Guinevere!� I screamed, and ran for her. She slowly got up, but was in shock. �I guess I hid from her for too long. Now look at me! I�ve been turned into X.. and this armor is made totally out of anti-dermous!� �What is anti-dermous?� �I virus. I�m not supposed to have anti-dermous, I�m supposed to use protodermous! But Melethesant created the anti-dermous and makes her evil troops out of them.� �Does that mean you�re evil now?� Guinevere screamed and the wings on her back grew large and she flew away. �Now how are we going to get out of here, Summer?� Summer looked at the small flicker of light that was floating in the air. �Touch that.� I followed Summer and touched the ball of light. Before I knew it, I was flying in a flow of light, and Summer right ahead of me. �So tell me..� I started, but I flew right ahead of her, out of control. I tried reaching my hand out of the light tunnel, and it must had come out somewhere else. I pulled it back in and continued floating. There was music in the air.. nicer than the evil music back in the music. I knew this music well.. it was nice. I let myself drift off in the light tunnel, knowing that I would come out somewhere better. Year 2001. The Sky Singers were chosen. They sang with the almighty Holly, and they were named the Sky Singers until they died. They remain today. They can calm the fierce, if only they were not so shy.. there hasn�t been a single note from one of them. But one of them.. doesn�t know her ability. She toke it seriously. Never underestimate the power of the past and what has happened, because you are a slave to yourself in the future... There was a clam breeze in the air, and it was damp air. I could feel that I was lying down on wood. I opened my eyes and looked up to the blue sky and trees, and I sat up. I was sitting on a small wooden bridge on a lake, Glen Lake. Langford. Summer was gone, and everything dark and gloomy was gone, and I was glad. It was time to move on. I walked along the lake, and soon walked up the road into the Langford I knew. I entered Churchwood Place, and saw grama�s house. I ran to it, and saw grama working in the garden. She looked up and saw me and was instantly in tears. �Kelsey!� She rushed over to me and hugged me. �Where have you been this whole time?!� �It�s a long story grama. I just need something to eat.� �In the kitchen! Help yourself!� She continued tending to her garden. I rushed up the stairs and through the sliding doors, and was greeted by the dog, Ebony. I went into the kitchen and threw Ebbies a bisket. She went into the living room and devoured it. I ate everything in the cuboards until I was full. I feasted on the Kool Aid and all the stuff that used to be for the day care kid�s lunches. I sat on the couch in the living room and turned on the TV. I thought I could finally relax and forget about all the stuff that had happened. But then I remembered, Meghan. As soon as I thought about Meghan, I could hear, far away, in the old church in Mechosin, the church bells. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. I listened close, but that was it. Meghan was dead, my sister had just died. Then I flicked to the news channel, but the TV just turned off. �Dang cables! Probely came loose!� But before I could take a look at the cords, there was a loud yell outside. Grama. Oh no, maybe it was grama that was going to die not Meghan. I rushed outside and looked over the sundeck to see that grama was gone, and her gardening tools gone. �Grama..� I said quietly. I started to walk down the stairs. �Grama.. grama..� I said slowly and quietly. I reached the bottom and she wasn�t anywhere to be seen. Then I heard snickering laughter from next door. I hated those people. They were weird, and their backyard was a wreck, and their front yard�s grass was totally dried out. There used to be nice kids living in that house, but now it was ruled by freaks. I approached the front door, and it was locked. I put my ear to the door and listened in. I could hear someone talking. �It�s wonderful daddy! What does it do?� The responding voice was harsh and evil. �It take�s away grown-ups. Pretty nice eh?� �Yes daddy!� The little girl voice laughed and giggled. �I�m going outside to ride my bike!� I ran away from the door and ducked behind a bush. She walked out the door and grabbed the ugly looking bike from the front yard. She got on it and started riding around in circles. I slowly got up and walked towards her. �Hi!� she piped. �Um.. hi. I am to ask you about the thing that your daddy made.� She frowned. �Why?� �Just because ok?� �Ok.. well he says that it steals grown-ups! Isn�t that SO cool?!� I was shocked. So this was what had taken grama away? �Can I look in your house?� She smiled again. �I have lots of Barbies!� I faked a smile. �Yeah.. I love Barbies! Let�s go play!� She tossed the bike aside and skipped over to the door, and I slowly followed. She opened the door and beckoned me to come inside. I left my shoes on just incase I had to make a fast escape. Just like it�s outside, it was extremely ugly inside. I don�t even want to discribe it! The �daddy� was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching TV and eating chips and pop. �Who�s this?� he barked. �My best friend!� the girl piped. Once again I faked a smile. The dad grunted and nodded. The girl shreiked and pranced down the hallway, and I slowly followed. As soon as we entered her room, there was only a bed, and loads, LOADS of Barbies on the floor, actually they were the floor be the looks of it. �Come on let�s play!� she continued to pipe. She dove head first onto the pile Barbies. �Oof!� she made sounds, then continued to pipe. I held back a laugh because I was afraid that she would cry and bring the �daddy� in the room, and that I would be kicked out. �Look.. why did you say that I was your best friend when you don�t even know my name?! I don�t even know your name either!� I said as she picked up a Ken barbie doll and started to dress it. ��Cause you are! I met you in grade thirteen and then we were friends forever! Remember? My name�s Stacy! What�s yours again?� I couldn�t help laughing. �For one, there is no grade thirteen and I have never seen you before!� She started crying. �Oh no I�m sorry! Don�t cry!� But it was no use. She continued crying even harder and harder until it looked like she was melting. She was! �What the heck are you doing?! I was just KIDDING!� Before I could say �kidding�, she was already a puddle on the floor. Before I could think of what I was gonna do, there was the sound of big boots thumping down the hall. I went for the closet and got inside. �Stupid! No no no no! Stacy! Daddy�s here! Girl! Stacy!� He was in tears. �Argh! Wherever you are, cursed child I�ll kill ya! I�ll kill ya!� Then he stormed out of the room. I slid out of the closet and crawled down the hallway. The guy was on the couch watching TV still. I tip-toed down the stairs, until I arrived at a black door with a poster of a Nascar racing car on it. Number three black racecar was on it, which was my grampa�s favorite. I opened the door and I felt the whole house shake, and the guy getting up and yelling out swears. I ran down stairs and was now in a dark room. There was a machine off to the side in the corner, and there was a little screen on it. I looked and saw the image of grown-ups floating around in the air. And I saw grama. I didn�t dare say anything, I could hear the sounds of boots stomping and swear words flying, and birds flipping. I turned around and saw my mom. �Mom!� I couldn�t help yelling. �Shh! Ok. Kelsey. I know I can�t be around to help you, but I need you to go to Sooke and find your daddy OK?� �Mom? How will I find him?� �Just follow..� Then the door slammed upstairs, and someone was walking down the stairs now. �Mom! How can I save all the grown-ups?� �Well they say if you still know your dad..� Her voice got smaller and smaller and she did too. She was still talking when she was just.. disappeared. Then I heard the Beep! of the machine behind me. I looked and now saw that my mom had been added to the machine. I was so mad, but now the guy burst through the door and was way angrier than I was. �WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN HERE?!?!� He was yelling really loud. �Well I came down to take my shoes off when I saw that there was an adult loose. I made her get back inside the machine and I was just getting up to go report this to you..� I said slowly. He still looked like he was going to explode, but I could see that he was calming down a little bit. �Well Missy, you killed my baby girl, and now you trot down her and mess with my machine! What the heck did you do with it?!� I stood absolutely still. �Get outa here!� And cleared the way for me to exit. I slowly walked out, and opened the door and instantly bolted back to grama�s house. I unlached the gate and burst into the backyard. Grama was nowhere to be seen. I shuffled about the yard, to see if there was anything else to explain her abrupt dissapeirence, but nothing. It was like everyone just got up and left. It was suddenly got a lot darker outside, so I decided to get inside the house. I started to climb up the stairs when I thought I heard someone talking. I stopped and looked around, and listened. Nothing. I continued up the stairs and slid through the door, to a huge suprise. Ebony was lying down on the floor, dead. I tried not to scream, there was blood all over the place. I stood there totally shocked when I heard the bangs coming from downstairs again. Now there was shuffling, and someone whispering. I moved forward and stepped around Ebony, and looked on the dining room table to see a gun. I instantly turned around and headed for the door, but it was gone. The sliding doors were gone, just like that, and just a wall in it�s place. �Oh my god..� I said under my breath. Then I heard the floor creak behind me and I slowly turned around. Nothing! I slowly walked into the kitchen and looked out the door to see that the front door was also gone, and it was just a wall. I didn�t dare go down the stairs. Instead, I went down the hallway, looking into every room to make sure that nobody was watching. When I reached my room, I saw that the window was wide open, a perfect escape. I opened the hallway closet and grabbed every single blanket and pillow in there and dropped them on the floor in my room. I pulled the covers and the blanket off my bed, including the teddies, and added them to the heap of blankets on the floor. I opened up the window more and picked up some blankets, and threw them out the window. They actually landed in a good spot. I threw everything else out, then headed for my grama�s room. Luckly there was nothing dangerous or alive in there, and I toke all the sheets and blankets off their bed. I returned to my room and dropped the blankets on the floor. I sat down on my bed for a small break. Everything seemed safe, and quiet too. Then I looked out the window and noticed something that wasn�t there before, a tree. There were usually only three trees out there, but now there was a fourth one. I looked closer and it looked like it had eyes and a face.. and it had arms that seemed to be holding something, another tree! I stopped looking out the window and dumped the rest of the blankets and pillows out the window, adding them to the pile on the ground below. Then I thought, I can�t just jump down there! I remembered that there was a long, good rope in grampa�s workshop, downstairs. I was so not going down there, not after the noises, the scary people, and the doors disappearing! But it was either I went down there and got the rope and escaped, or I stayed in this haunted house forever. So I faced the facts and walked out of my room, getting the flashlight in the toy room. I aimed the flashlight beam down the stairs, looked safe. I started walking down the stairs, when I noticed that the stairs were creaking more than they should. I backed up and stood at the top of the stairs again. I turned around and eyed the kitchen, and out the kitchen window. What used to be a happy, joyful daytime was no pitch black out. I still had to get that rope no matter what, so I faced my fears and went down the stairs. Every step creaked so loud and dramatically it was as if they were going to crack right open and you would fall right down. When I reached the landing I looked down at the last case of stairs and saw the �dog� or pillow at the door, waiting. I turned around and glanced at the plain wall that used to be a door. I felt around the door and I felt a doorknob. I understood what was going on, the door was still there, it just looked different! I grabbed the doorknob and turned it, opening the door. I stepped outside and shut the door behind me. I was out of that house, finally. I was not going back there either. I ran down the path, but stopped when I saw some guy standing where I had dumped the pillows and blankets, and he was holding up one of my teddies. �Are these yours?� By the look on his face I knew it was time to run. I dashed onto the yard and jumped over the shrubs and started running for my life, and the guy was right behind me. I went for my friend, Desteny�s house that was just across the street, and turned the corner and around the house. I saw a bush and dove for it, and the man came around the corner. �I know where you are! I�ll find you!� Through a small crack in the bush I could see him walking around, with a stick. I stayed totally silent, watching. �I�ll keep all of your teddies and blankets for myself too! Haha!� I really didn�t care about the blankets and the teddies. But now he was yelling. �Come on out, Southern hobo!� I knew I wasn�t a hobo, but I had no idea what he was talking about. He looked more like the hobo! I picked up a medium-sized rock that was right beside me and threw it around the corner. It made a little noise when it hit something on the other side, and the guy ran away towards the sound. I got out of the bush and started running again. It was a long time before I stopped finally at the deli shop on the way to Colwood. I was totally out of breath from all the running, and I couldn't even move any more. There I was, sitting out in front of the deli, that was in fact still open. I had enough energy to turn around and look into the store, so I did just that. I saw a man standing behind the counter, scrubbing dishes. Then he looked up and I turned away so he wouldn't see me, but it was too late. I heard him yell and start walking, and I forced myself up and started running again. But no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep going. I collapsed into a bush and stayed still. I could here the doors of the deli swing open and the crunch of gravel as the man walked outside. Then I discovered that this was the same guy that me and Meghan had ran into before. Then I remembered. Meghan. She was still at the cottage in Metchosin. I listened but I could hear nothing, nobody walking or shouting. I peered through a crack in the bush and saw that the man was no where to be seen. I slowly got up and dashed away. This was just a big nightmare, and I had to get out of Langford again. And where was I supposed to go? What was I expected to do this time? Was I supposed to go to Sooke and try to find my long-lost dad that hated me? What did this even mean and how could it save anyone? I felt really tired and I knew I had to crash somewhere for the night. Then for some weird reason, a picture of the Galloping Goose trail formed in my head, and the words: 'Go there.' as if I was being ordered to go there. I looked at the entrance to the trail and thought. I thought I was just imagining things. But I knew I couldn't go back to grama's. Not now, not after all the scary things that had happened there. So I stopped thinking for once and headed towards the trail. I looked down the trail and it seemed oddly safe for some seriously, really weird reason. I looked up to the sky and saw that it was totally dark out. Then I looked back to the trail and felt a sudden urge to go down it. The last time I had been down the trail I was scared, but now it seemed fine. �Hi.� I heard someone say. I looked up and someone was sitting in a tree. I kept walking. Then the voice continued: �I know where Hex is if you are looking for her..� I didn't know who this 'Hex' was so I ignored the person in the tree again. Then before I knew it, the person was right in front of me as if he or she had just done a magic trick. �So?� It was a girl. �What?� She gave me a really scary look. �My name is Elizabeth.. where are you from?� This was really weird. �Uh.. what do you mean.. I.. uh.. come from Langford?� She laughed, still scary. �Oh so that must mean.. why are you here then?� This wasn't making any sense. �South West, Eliz...� I turned to see where the voice was coming from, and it was an old tree talking. The girl clapped her hands. �Oh really? So does that mean you've been-� she was cut off by the talking tree. �I wish you would stop your constant yapping and bickering, Elizabeth.� The girl stopped talking, looked at the tree, then jumped up high and into another tree. She stayed silent. I looked up at her to see if she would respond, then she looked down and asked me questions. �...So does that mean you've seen Protoform X before? Are you friends with Melethasant? Can you climb a tree? Are you afraid of water? Really?� Then the tree cut her off again. �Asking pointless questions get nobody anywhere, Elizabeth.� Then the girl was silent again. After a long period of time she started talking again. �So does that mean you can climb trees? Can you jump up to a tree? Oh my are you serio-� once again the tree cut her speech. �That is the obvious part, Elizabeth. You already know the answers to those questions, Elizabeth.� The girl was furious. �Stop saying my name over and over and over again and acting like you're some almighty god or something! Besides, I have not seen her climb a tree yet!� Now the tree was angry. �Silence! Stop this useless fighting!� �Well I wish that you would grow up, you hobo! I can do and say whatever I want and what could you even do to stop me? Think about it!� The girl jumped down from the tree and picked up a stick, and held it out to me. �Hurry! Turn the stick into a wand so I can kill Mr.Pearson!� I looked at the stick, wondering what the heck she was talking about. �Have you lost it? I'm not some sort of witch or something!� The tree was swinging it's branches around now. �Stop this! Silence! SILENCE you fools!� �You're the fat ugly foolish troll around here! Plus! You've got the ugliest name in the whole wide world you hobo! You don't even have a job or a driver's license!� Now the tree was yelling and screaming. �You'd better watch it! I can kill you with one swipe of my branch and you'll be dead!� I was starting to get mad at this tree now, or as the girl said it's name was 'Mr.Pearson'. I grabbed the stick and held onto it tight. As the tree continued to fight and scream, the girl seemed to be jumping up and down, jumping for joy. �Ok give it back now so I can fry him!� I kept staring at the tree and she grabbed the stick from my hand. She pointed the stick at Mr.Pearson. �Dark Burst!� I looked at the stick and saw that some sort of huge purple and black charge was forming on it, and that it was now being hurtled towards Mr.Pearson. �Yeah!� The girl chanted, but the tree was in a huge panic. �You have NO idea what you are doing! You can kill us all!� But it was too late. The charge had hit Mr.Pearson, and there was some sort of big purple-black portal shaped circle that was pulling everything in sight towards it. �Run! Now!� The girl didn't have to tell me twice, we were already running for our lives into the trail. When we turned around we saw Mr.Pearson being pulled into the portal, and dissapering. �He was so annoying! He bossed me around all the time! But thanks to you he's finally dead! Thank you!� I looked at her in shock. �By the way, can I keep the wand?� �Uh.. sure..� She laughed. �So can you climb a tree?� I was so sick of that question. I would show her, make her shutup. I eyed a tree, then jumped. It was really weird because I was going higher than I should have, and I landed in the tree. �Oh dear! Yay that means you can stay in the forest without someone kicking you out! Yay!� She jumped up into the tree too. �Listen, I don't get what you are talking about..� Now she was giving me the shocked look. She turned and looked around to make sure nobody was watching, then she turned back to face me. �You mean none of your parents told you yet?� �Well my mom isn't around and my dad and mom got devorced and I'm never around either of them. I lived with my grama.� �Lived with as in you don't live with her anymore?� �Yes but..� �Stop.� I stopped talking. She looked me right in the eye and nodded. �Ah that must have been really scary.� �So you somehow know what as been happening?� She nodded again. �Yes of course! I just read your mind.� She was really scaring me now. �So that means you know about Meghan.� �Yes. But you can't go there now. It's too dark and they are sure to capture you if they see you.� �Who are they?� �The scary West people. They don't want anyone past the bridge when it's past midnight. They will capture you and probely kill you, or make you their hostage.� �What about you. Aren't you one of those scary people?� �No. I'm from the South West, you are too.� This didn't make any sense at all what she was talking about. �What is that supposed to mean?� The girl made a circle shape with her hands and some sort of shield formed around the top of the tree. �If you don't get that either then look around at the other trees.� So I stood up and looked around at the other trees and saw that there were also blue shields around them. �What are they for?� �Protection. Lately there have been killer owls and bats flying about that will actually eat you alive. I'd be careful.� �Were did they come from?� �Oh, from the South. Deadly animals like them always come from the jungle. Some scientist was doing a study and messed it up. Look there's one of them owls.� I looked up and saw a gigantic owl flying around, and it was colored bright green, yellow and blue. �Is that supposed to be their camoflauge or something?� She giggled. �In the jungle yes, but out here you can spot them easly. Sadly nothing will eat them so it does no harm to them. The bats are normal colored, though.� I sat down, but watched the owl swoop down and bang against the shield. �Don't worry it can't break it.� The owl was clawing and hooting at the shield, then finally gave up and flew away. �Go sleep on that branch over there.� I didn't feel like talking to her anymore so I climbed down the tree a little bit and sat down on the branch. I didn't want to think anymore either, so I just went to sleep on the branch. I woke up to the sound of someone talking below the tree. I guessed that it was maybe five o' clock in the morning. I looked up and saw that the girl was still asleep, so I looked down and saw that there was to people talking. �You know what happened the last time we tried to get over there! We nearly got creamed by those freaks!� �Oh come on! They're probely asleep by now and they won't even notice!� �No way, Leslie. Remember that one other time we snuck past the bridge and we went to that house and saw that dead girl? Well judging by the color of her hair she wasn't one of those freaks. They killed her because she shouldn't had been there!� Then I knew that they were talking about Meghan, dead. �Well so? She died because she didn't know that she wasn't supposed to be there! Well we know what's coming for us and we have the proper gear to fight them off!� �What gear are you talking about?� �Whatever! Why do you always have to be a party pooper, Amber?� Oh no. Amber was down there talking to some other girl and I was bound to be seen. I tried to stay still, but slipped off the branch instead. I landed in a few bushes, making loads of noises. �Hh! What was that!?� Once again I tried to be still and silent, but my arm landed on a stick, breaking the stick and making more noises. �Oh no now look what you've got us into! Their after us for sure!� �Stop yapping! They'll hear us! You!� I got up and started to slowly walk towards them. �Amber.. Amber.. do a scan.. just to be on the safe side..� I stopped walking a stood still. A loud gasp came from the two girls. �Leslie, look.� �Oh my god.. 5000 Dark Energy?!?! Lets get outa here!� I could hear the girls running for their lives. Leslie and Amber.. Amber never mentioned that she had a friend by the name of Leslie. I didn't want to stay here anymore. I got up and started to walk away, when I saw a stick lying on the ground. I picked it up and the purple and black charge formed around it again. It also seemed to change a bit, it looked like some sort of magic wand. I decided to keep it, and I continued down the trail and out of this place. That was the second time I had left Meghan behind, and I promised that it would be the last. I was in Langford again, and it was about seven in the morning and I was hanging out by the bus station. I had only a little bit of money on me, I had used up about five dollars to buy some snacks and a pop. I had all the food and ten dollars in a plastic bag I had gotten for free at Fairways Market. I knew that the bus to Sooke came around seven, so I was waiting for it to come. When I went to the book store in the mall, the nice lady had given me a free book, The Faraway Lurs. It was pretty interesting! �Going to Sooke are we Kelsey?� I turned to face Mrs. Morrison. She had a very mad look on her face. �...Yeah.� �Why are you not in school?� I made up a good lie. �Well I was sick for a very long time, yes. And my grama has to go see my mom and she thought it would be nice if I came too and saw my mom for the first time in a long time.� �And where is grama right now?� �In the mall.� �Where is your mom?� �In Sooke.� She sighed then got up. �Well, ok then. But make sure you come to school tomorrow ok? Don't make me call your grama and tell her that you need to come to school ok?� I nodded and she walked away. That was a close call! Then I could see the bus in the distance. I got up and held on to my bag and waited for it to come closer. Other people that were waiting also got up and headed towards the front. I stayed in the back because the bus was a double-decker and the back people usually got to be on the top deck! The bus pulled up and I read the sign on the front of it: Langford � Sooke. I was led onto the bus by a man who asked me where my mom was, and I said already on the bus and waiting, and I was lucky because he didn't even bother to check to make sure I wasn't lying. I got to sit at the very front seat on the top deck, by myself. It turned out that the driver already knew that I was with nobody and I deserved to be alone. The bus turned on and we started to move. I opened up my book and started to read to pass the time. It would take a long time to get to Sooke on a slow bus, even though it wasn't all that far away. I got hungry after a while and ate some of the food in my bag, noodles that you could eat right out of the bag, and some poptarts that were really cheap, only 75 cents a box. I heard the man that had led me onto the bus come up the stairs and walk up to the front of the deck. �Do you want me to call your mom?� I turned to face him. �No. Please don't.� �I understand. It's ok. I just wanted you to have this.� He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fifty dollar bill and handed it to me. I toke it and but it into my bag. �Thanks.� He smiled and nodded. �I know all of those stories of kids who ran away from home. That will last you a long line of food for a long time. Oh and by the way, if you ever need any more money, swing by Walmart. They give free money to kids who need it.� And he walked away. I pulled the fifty out of my bag and gazed at it. I had never, ever had this much money before, and I was going to go to some toy store and spend lots, but I would save some. The plan was that I would use this fifty to supply me with food for my time in Sooke, with no home no nothing, and when I came back I would go to Walmart, get some money, then buy toys. It was a good plan and I felt good about it. I heard the intercom beep on and a voice speaking. �Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Remember folks, if you are from the North or the East you will need to have a pass. If you require a pass, please come to the front of the bottom deck and get one. Only twenty five cents a pass! If you are from the South then you can stay seated.� The speaker beeped off. This deal with the South, West, East and North didn't make any sense. Was it a game or something? I didn't see any difference. The intercom beeped on again. �Oh yes I have received a comment from one of our passengers! If you were from the North, you would have been shot by now! Wait a second! That is very rude and not sutable for the young'uns on board! I will watch my mouth from now on! Sorry folks! Let's turn on some classics to forget about it!� The intercom beeped off. Now boring old people music flooded the bus. It was extremely boring and I was waiting for a passenger to go up and complain. Finally the intercom beeped on. �Hello folks! I have just received a complaint from one of the passengers! It's about the music being too retarted for them to bear! Oops! I did it again! I swore! I'm sorry folks it will never happen ever again!� The intercom beeped off, and the music ended. There was cheering from everyone in the bus that he had turned the music off. Then the intercom beeped. �Hi it's me again! Mr. Walnut the bus driver! I have received a comment by airmail! That means someone made a paper air plane and threw it at my head! Anyways here is the comment! Oh well I'll be daft! There's a CD in this air plane and it comes with instructions! It says PUT THE CD IN THE PLAYER. PRESS PLAY! Well I'm going to do just that! Anything for the passengers!� The speaker beeped and there was a sound of the driver turning the volume up and putting the CD in the player thing. Now there was Fantasia music filling the bus, and people laughing and singing along. It was pretty funny. Then there was the sound of cameras taking pictures. It must had been really funny to see him freak out! I looked down through the window and through a mirror and saw his shocked face and I wished I had had a camera too. He was having some sort of mental breakdown and there were men trying to calm him down. Then one of th men pressed a button on the player and the music turned off, and the CD ejected. The driver calmed down, and the intercom came on again. In the mirror I saw someone get up and hand another CD to the driver. There was also the wine of a little boy saying �I wanna listen to my music daddy! No!� and then the kid started crying. I knew what was going to happen and what we were going to hear if the driver put the CD in the player. No offence to him but Mr. Walnut was pretty stupid for sure. I looked out the window and saw that we were passing the old wood store that I didn't know the name of, and starting to get into Sooke, but we still had a long way to go. I looked at the mirror again and saw that the driver was going to start talking again. �Ok folks! That was a pretty dangerous CD that we had running there but I have yet another one! It says.. Teletubbies and Barney Bash on the front! This sounds interesting!� I laughed so hard along with everyone else on the bus. I looked in the mirror and saw Mr. Walnut putting the CD in the player and sitting back. Then Barney and super-cheesy kiddy music flooded the bus, and loads of people laughing. The Barney theme song was playing at a super-high volume, and I checked the mirror and saw that the driver was having another one of his fits. I just couldn't stop laughing! He was basically yelling and screaming and swinging his fists around, trying to fight of the men that were once again trying to calm him down. He finally hit the eject button and the music stopped. I saw that someone had gone up to the driver and whispered something to him, then walked away. The intercom beeped on. �Pant.. pant.. pant.. OK.. folks! This is Mr. Walnut speaking! As you can see there are little TVs about the bus and there should be one for each seat! I am accepting requests for movies! Any movie!� Beep. I knew this would be helarious. This bus driver didn't have a clue what he was doing or saying! And every time he had a fit someone had to take over for driving the bus until he was finished being stupid. This guy shouldn't be a driver because he could kill everyone on the bus! I checked and saw that someone was handing him a DVD disk. Beep. �Attention folks! Due to an issue I am no longer accepting requests! Wondering why!? Well a passenger gave me a disk that says Jesus Was Wrong, which sounds very un-sutable for the younglings! As a result, I am not putting this disk into the player! Instead, let's watch some Shania Twain music videos! Or, we can watch Three's Company! Put up your hand!� Everyone on the top deck didn't do anything. �Ok folks! Shania Twain it is!� Beep went the intercom and the TV in front of me clicked on. It toke a few seconds for screen to come up, and now I was watching Shania Twain music videos. I was expecting it to be funny, but I fell asleep after a while. I woke up to the sound of loud rock music blaring, and I guessed that the driver must be having another fit. I didn't even bother looking to see if I was right or not, it was too stupid for my liking. I looked out the window and saw that we were in Sooke, and the Shania Twain movie was off, and the TV was going bazerck. The driver was going insane and a man came up and silently addressed us off the bus. When I was on the bottom deck I saw that there was vomet all over the floor where the driver was, and he was clawing and spitting. He was also screaming at the top of his lungs. As I past a man he said �He hasn't had his pills yet. We are calling his wife and he was been fired from his job.� I couldn't help laughing at that! I stepped off the bus and started walking. I looked around and saw lots of opretunities! There was a Thrifty Foods, Cost Capital, Dollar Store, and a nice looking toy store. I couldn't wait. I man stopped me and asked me, �Where are you from?� I guessed I was from the South or something. �The South.� The man smiled and nodded. �Have fun in Sooke!� And he chuckled as he walked away to ask the same question to the next person. I headed for the Coast Capital. I knew I couldn't carry around money loose, with the risk of losing sixty dollars. I walked in and headed towards the desk. �Hello, how may I help you this fine day?� It seemed that being from the South, nobody cared if you were on your own. �I want to set up a bank account please.� The lady pointed towards a desk and another lady waved back. �That desk over there.� I walked over to the desk and sat down at the chair. The lady swivled in her chair and faced her computer, typed a few things, click click, type type, then faced me. �I guess you would like to set up your very own bank account?� I nodded. �Don't worry. If your from the South West then you deserve to be alone. Ok then let's get started. What is your name?� �Kelsey Nissan.� She handed me a piece of paper and a pencil and I wrote it down, and she typed it onto the computer. �This is so easy and fast isn't it? The last thing I need to know is what you want your password to be.� She handed me the piece of paper again, and I wrote it down. My choice was grama's phone number. �Ok since the password has to be only five numbers your password will have to 47849 ok?� I nodded. She continued to type on the computer. �Now what kind of account would you like? Wait.. first tell me how much money you have with you right now that you would like to deposit.� �Sixty dollars, mam.� She laughed. �You don't have to call me mam, you can just call me Catherine. Sixty dollars, I can set you up a Silver savings account. Is that ok with you?� I nodded again. She typed and clicked. �I'm guessing that you don't have a house..� I nodded. �I can issue you a card right now I guess. I rarely do this..� She reached into her desk and pulled out a savings card. Catherine swiped it through a swipe-thing on the computer and typed in more things. Then she toke the card and swiped it again, and again and again. Then she grabbed another thing out of her desk. She turned a big circle thing and squeezed the handle, while a long strip of words was coming out of the slot. She tore of the strip and toke of the plastic on the bottom as if it were a sticker, and stuck it on the card. Now she opened up a printer-like device and put the card in it, and closed the lid. �Interesting hey?� I smiled and nodded. The machine made noises and flashed lights. Catherine toke of the lid and toke out the card. She typed a bit more, clicked, clicked, then handed the card out to me. �I know it's a little weird, but your card is set and ready to go! You can go and use the machines out there and deposit your money right away!� I toke the card and examined it. It had my full name on it, and a fancy icon on the front, it was all blue and had big letters on it saying COAST CAPITAL SAVINGS and underneath saying Silver Savings in silver letters. On the back was a clean black strip. �You swipe that strip in the cash machines and any kind of machine. Go ahead and try it on the machines out there. Oh yes, take this. It'll tell you how to use ATM machines and other sort of machines that will use that card of yours. Thank you for signing up with Coast Capital savings!� I thanked her and nodded, and I got up and walked away. I toke another look at my card and smiled. It was so cool to have my very own bank account, in little time at all. I walked through the doors and stood at one of the machines. I was the only one there. I looked at the booklet that Catherine gave me, and saw that there was another ten dollar bill hidden inside it. I now had seventy dollars! �Yes!� I said silently. I was loaded and it would last a long time, and I could go to any store basically to get even more! Yay! I pushed the OK button and put my new card into the little card slot. I pressed the DEPOSIT button and punched in fifty dollars. I needed twenty for more food and other stuff. I reached into my bag and got the fifty dollar bill and put it into the machine. A thank you message came up and saying that the transaction was complete, thank you. The machine spat out my card and I was already on my way out the door. I eyed the Thrifty Foods store and headed in that direction. I knew that before I thought about what I needed to do in Sooke I should get some food and gear. It was nice and sunny outside and I hoped that it would stay that way. When I was at the door there was a little pin that had dogs in them. I also noticed the sign that said 'free'. I knew that I would end up taking one, later on that is. It wasn't all that busy in the store, and nobody was staring at me for being alone. I grabbed a basket and headed for the dry food section, isle seven. I got some of those really good noodles that you could eat right out off the bag, along with some cookies. I found my favorite kind of crackers and got those too. I calculated all the prices as I went. I ended up in the meats section and couldn't resist getting a Lunchable. A man walked up to me. �Where are you from?� �I looked up at him. �Oh, ok then I guess your fine then.� And he walked away. That was weird. I dropped by the cereal section and got my favorite cereal, Fruit Loops. Everything I had gotten added up to about seventeen dollars. Perfect! I was heading towards the checkout when I saw Amber. I rushed over to her and tapped her on the back. �Oh hi Kelsey! I see you found out that you where from the South West and you got away from your family too!� I explained to her what had happened at grama's house, and how she had disappeared, and the doors disappearing, and turning into a wolf and talking to animals and living in a cottage, I told her everything. I also told her that I met her when she was a dragon. She looked very shocked. �So you are Luna.. I never would have guessed. Then you already know about that happened in the alcove.� I nodded. �Ok. When you're done getting food meet me out at the front ok?� And she continued walking down the isle. I hurried to the checkout and gave the clerk the money, and I ended up with maybe two dollars change. I kept that in my pocket. I threw my old bag in the trash and got a new one from the clerk. She didn't even ask me once that I was alone with no parents. I walked out the door and saw Amber by the dog pin. �Hey!� I shouted to her. She smiled and pointed to the dogs. �Hey, they're free. We should come back some time and take one.� I nodded. �Amber, where are we going to stay? You know, build a house or something.� �Don't worry about that. I come here lots and I've already made a house. Come on.� We started walking away from the store. �Amber.. what does it mean to be from the South West?� She looked at me in shock. �Well just so you understand right now, if you are from the West in any sort of way, for example the South West, then people don't care if you're alone. Most likely you ran away from home because you felt like it, or you were forced to run away. People can see it in your eyes. In your case, you were forced to run away from home.� I understood know why that man in the store toke just one look at me and didn't care. �So does that mean they hate us?� Amber laughed. �Oh of course not! They understand and they just don't want to bug us, that's all.� At least something made sense around here. �But hey, you said that you met me as a dragon. I'm not a dragon, I'm a cat. But you must have met Protoform X in dragon form, that's what I think. X is the only one with a dragon form.� Now there wan another thing that didn't make sense at all. �Who is Protoform X?� Amber looked shocked. She looked at the road we were about to cross, and didn't respond until we got across. �You mean nobody ever told you the story? About the war or anything? You know nothing about what's going on right now?� Now I looked shocked. �War?! What war? Are people getting killed?� �Lots of people are getting killed. And it's for a pretty stupid reason.� �What?� �I'll tell you the whole story when we get to the house.� We passed a hill like road and were now walking through some sort of bog, a swamp. There were several little huts here, and you could see the light of small fires in them through their windows. �Number 18. See? It's over there.� She pointed in the direction that was right at the water, and there was another one of the huts there, but this one was on the edge, right at the water. We approached the hut and Amber pushed the door open, and we stepped inside. It was a single room that had a few bales of hay to sit on, and a small fireplace, with a lit fire in it. Amber and I sat down on the hay bales, she was giving me a very freaky look. �Ok.. tell me the story..� �Well just to let you know, this place is called Torvus Bog, and it's bigger than this. There are islands all over the place that have even more houses on them. Lots of people come here from Langford. Mostly on school days.� I understood that part, about coming here on school days. �Ok well.. get on to the story.� Amber reached behind the hay bale and retrieved a book. It looked old and tattered. �Look, I'm not supposed to have this book here. It's supposed to stay locked up someplace in the South. Don't say anything to anybody.� I nodded. �I won't.� She flipped through a few pages and then stayed on one page. She scanned the page, then held it up for me to see. I dropped my shopping bags and looked at the page. There was a picture of a tall, freakish looking.. thing, really, that seemed to be holding something in both of it's hands. It also had weird, spike-like objects on the top of it's head, but they weren't really spikes. It had glowing green eyes, and weird feet. And by the way I'm saying this you would be thinking that it's some sort of beast, but it looked a lot like a person. �By the way you're looking at it, you don't know who this is.� I shook my head. �This is Hexadecimal. One of the guardians of Langford. She really doesn't like Langford, so she lives in Metchosin. She comes from the Hex family, and Hexon is her brother. He lives in Langford, in Langford's side of the Galloping Goose trail. Does this make sense?� I nodded. �What is she holding?� I asked, and pointed to the object in her hand. �That, Kelsey, is her face. At least one of them.� I looked up at her with a shocked look. �I know this sounds weird but.. she can't just change the way her face looks, I have no idea why, so she uses a bunch of these masks to change her face. Freaky right?� I really didn't want to meet her, never. �Really. She's super weird and totally insane.� Amber flipped the page. There was a picture of a guy in armor, but it wasn't like a knight's armor. It looked a lot different than knight's for sure. �I know what you're thinking.� I looked again at the figure and the armor I still would like to call it looked like the kind of armor you would see in a video game like MegaMan or something. He looked really cool. �And I also know what you're thinking right now. This is Protoform X, she is the ruler of the South.� Ok, so it wasn't a he. �There isn't much I can tell you about X right now, except that she's the most powerful creature in the South, and has over a million Dark Energy. I'm surprised that she isn't from the West.� �So she's from the South West?� Amber nodded. Amber turned the page again. �This is Lanna.� I looked at the picture and saw that this guy had the same armor as X did, except the color of the armor was black and yellow. �And here's another thing I left out about X, when she goes into the West and it's like, past midnight, her armor turns black and white.� �So the armor itself is black, and the glow is white?� She smiled and nodded. �Same with Lanna. Lanna is a warrior from the West, and he is an enemy of X. Seriously.� Once again Amber turned the page. Now there was a picture that I knew. It was the same lady that I saw when Guinevere was being tortured by that same lady. �I know her..� Amber didn't look shocked at all. �Yes, that is Melethasent. She is the evil dark witch that likes to cast spells on people. She used to live in an old cottage but now she lives.. who knows where she lives no to be honest. I think she is the queen or the ruler of the West, I'm not sure.� Then I saw on the page right beside the one I was looking at, a picture of an old tree. �Oh, that's Mr. Pearson. He was reported dead a day ago.� I couldn't help laughing at that. �Yeah Kelsey you know that's a bad thing to do. Using Dark Energy on a simple tree!� I stopped laughing. �Anyways onto the story.� Amber snapped her fingers and the fire went out. It was dark. I could hear Amber opening a droor and getting something out of it. Then there was a sound of a match egniting and light filled the room again. Then Amber dropped the match on the floor. �Amber! What are you thinking?! You'll burn us all!� But it was different than I thought. A large fire formed in the center of the room. �Nothing bad will happen, the hut won't burn down. It's not just a fire either.� Amber began the story. �A long time ago..� a picture formed right above the fire. It was Vancouver Island. �The whole island was covered in one large OverDome.� Then a force field formed around the island. �Everyone got along great, and there were no wars or rules if you came from somewhere else, and you didn't need a ticket to get into Sooke if you were from the North or the East. Understand, Kelsey?� I nodded, and another picture formed. It was Langford, the park in Langford. �Then one day.. a Hunter Ship crashed in the Langford park.� In the picture of the park, a ship came down and crashed right onto the water fountain. �Latios, the commander of the Southern forces was alarmed and came to scan the ship.� A blue, bird-dragon like creature was flying into the park and was holding some sort of device. Latios held it in the air, and it scanned the ship. Latios seemed to talk, and give orders. Then the door to the ship opened and a figure emerged. I could tell that this must be X, but she looked way different than the picture in the book that Amber showed me. �Everyone was shocked, but glad. It's name, Protoform X, was a high-protoform, and was capable of destroying almost anything.� There was a picture of X destroying a building in one missile. �But when the Federation did another scan they found out that X had extremely high levels of Dark Energy and Phazon, and that she came from the South West. However, they made her the ruler of the South.� Then there was another picture of Vancouver Island. �Meanwhile, the Eastern Federation was trying to make a deal with the South. The deal was that the two of them would work together to destroy the North, it appeared that the East loathed the North, and claimed that they also had a plan to destroy the South. But on the day of the agreement, there was a bomb dropped in the East, killing many.� Now there was a picture of a huge, massive explosion in a place I had never seen before. �The bomb hit a place in the North East called Ladysmith, and the East had blamed it on the North originally. But the Northern Federation fought back. They claimed that they had seen a few warriors in the South creating a bomb, and that it was them to blame.� There was a picture of a few people arguing against another group of people. The third group of people cheered and went to the first group. �The Eastern Federation bought that lie and joined with them. They already created a weapon and a massive army, and threw a big attack on the South.� The picture changed to tanks, guns, and war plains dropping bombs all over the place. �But they had no idea that Protoform X was coming. When she arrived she wiped out the entire army, the plains and the tanks, everything. The North wanted to send out more troops, but the East refused. They both retreated.� The picture changed and now I could see the remaining tanks and troops retreating. �Little did they know that the war was far from over. A while afterwards, there was a tracking on another ship heading towards Langford.� Before the picture could change, or before she could utter a single word, there was a loud crash from outside. �Now what?!� I said, but Amber was already heading out the door. The fire died down to nothing, and I followed her. Outside, there were fires everywhere, and a large ship had crashed down on the swamp. �Is that..� I began, �Run!� Other kids were running for their lives as the door to the ship opened, and three figures came out. �I think we should follow them..� But Amber stayed put. We watched as the figures emerged from the ship. One of them was holding onto someone, which the figure threw to the ground. The man that was thrown whimpered and cried, and the one who threw him merely kicked him to make him shutup. The next figure came forth, holding some sort of book. This guy was scary. He had a long dark cloak, and was holding some sort of book in one hand, and a kind of wand in the other. The last man stepped forward, and he looked the same as the other three. They all wore black cloaks, and held onto books and wands. The three ignored me and Amber, and pointed their wands up to the sky. They looked down at their books and started chanting something that I couldn't understand. �What are they doing?� Amber backed away and closed the door behind her and we were back in the hut. Amber looked shocked as she aimlessly walked around the room. �Who are they? What are they doing?� I said as the chanting continued outside. Amber sat down on a hay bale. �D you know who they are?� I asked desperatly. �No.. no.. I-I've never seen them before!� �I turned and looked out the small window. The ship was gone and all the fires were also. �Amber.. the ship.. it's.. gone!� Amber got up and looked out. �What the..� She turned to face me. �You're looking for your dad aren't you?� I nodded. �Is that a.. bad thing?� She looked away. �I know were he is.� We were out of the hut the next morning. Me and Amber were by the bus station. �Where are we going? I'm supposed to look for him in Sooke!� Amber chuckled. �No no we are staying in Sooke, just going to a certain area in it that we can't just walk to. It's called Area One.� The bus was coming around the corner. I was hoping that the guy from last time's bus ride was there. The bus pulled up and I saw him, Mr. Walnut. I started laughing so hard, along with a few other people that were boarding the bus. This time, me and Amber got a seat, really close to Mr.Walnut. I smiled and waited for the fun to begin, and filled Amber in with the details about Mr. Walnut. Everyone got on board and three tall men in black and white suits and ties moved in and stood beside the driver, and I knew why they were there. The bus started moving, and Walnut was already turning on the intercom. I few people laughed. �I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen. This is going to be a sivelized bus ride. No music or TV, no laughing or smiling.� I didn't realize that I had fallen asleep. I woke up and looked around. Walnut was calm and relaxed, and everything was dead silent, nobody talking. I also realized that there were basically nobody on the bus anymore. In fact, it was just me and Amber. The men in the suits had left Walnut, and he was on his own. I looked at the clock that was just above us. It read 8:00 almost 9. �It's been about seven hours I guess.� Amber started. I looked out the driver's window and saw that we were almost driving through another swamp. I very deep and thick swamp. There was no light, no nothing. The trees loomed over and were bent and looked freaky. Suddenly the bus stopped. �Get out.� Walnut demanded. We stayed still. He turned around and we instantly got out at the sight of his face. The bus was already driving away. �Corrupted. Something is wrong.� �What?� �Mr. Walnut was corrupted by someone.� I looked around and I saw in the distance, was in fact a house. �That's the House. Seven people have died in it since it was built.� This whole land that we were in.. Area One. It was one huge, dark, gloomy swamp. �Well..� �Well what?� I decided not to say anything else for the whole trip. Wherever we were going. �Come on we don't have much time.� We were now walking towards the house. We instantly stopped when we heard screams from the house. �Hold me...� Amber said, we were both shaking. �I think we should get out of here..� I warned, and Amber started to turn around and run away, and I followed. "Why were you even heading over there?" I asked her. "I don't know. Just to check it out." Just to check it out?! I thought she was insane. Then an ear piercing scream sounded from far, far away. Not from the house. "What was.." Amber cut me off. "Hexadecimal. She must have killed somethin' or somethin. Come on let's see what's wrong with her this time.." And now we were heading towards the dark forest. The screams and yells and insane laughter continued as we tredded through the damp forest. "What exactly are we going to do when we see her? Run for our lives like me should?" Amber laughed. "Ah.. good idea.. but no. We're gonna calm her down." "WHAT?!" "Now be quiet now or you'll get her even more angry." I gulped. This was not going to be good. No. One of us was going to end up dead for sure. There was an image of somebody sitting down on a log. This was not an ordinary person. This thing was red and had a weird cape-like something down it's back. It looked like a cut up cape or whatever it was. I was instantly afraid. "Ahh!" I screamed, and Amber shook her head. "What.. what is that.. thing!?" I blurted. The 'thing' changed it's expression again to a sad face. I stood ther shivering and hiding behind Amber. "How rude of you! Where is Protoform X?" It asked. I knew it was a lady by the way it spoke. "Kelsey.. this is Hexadecimal." I screamed again. This time she changed her face to a freaky, scary smile and she now had fangs. I screamed again. She laughed. Nobody laughs like that. "Now now please don't scare her. She doesn't know a lot about the war or anything really." I looked over Ambers shoulder and saw that the weird lady was trying to stare at me. "What's wrong, Hex?" She got up from the log and walked over to us, with a weird smile on her face. "There's no Dark Energy here.. I'm going to die soon.." Amber seemed sad! I laughed to see what her reaction would be. Hex did nothing. She was the same hight as me and Amber, seriously. When I looked at her I actually felt sorry for her, and somehow saw her as a friend. I stepped away from Amber and faced her. She held out her hand. I looked at Amber and she looked totally shocked. I couldn't believe I was doing this, I toke her hand. She instantly jerked away and sighed. For some reason, I wasn't scared. I held my hand up in the air and a dark swirl formed in the air right above my hand. "Uh.. Kelsey.. do you know what you're doing?" Amber cautioned. I honestly didn't know what I was doing. I lowered my hand and the black swirl started darting around in the air. Hex grabbed it. "Thank you." She said, and seemed to absorb it into her clawed hand. "Wow Kelsey! Your actually nice to someone who's totally insane and you would be totally scared of! You deserve a golden award!" Amber clapped her hands. "Well, we're looking for Kelsey's dad so we can save all the people that had been sucked into some machine back in Langford. Care to join our team?" Hex nodded. I gave Amber a look to let her know that I was not impressed. Not at all. We were long out of the forest now, and we were walking along a big swamp. Chatting along the way. Amber yapped all she wanted, but I talked to Hex most of the time. She sayed that she didn't want to see the future, or even leave this place. She also claimed that she and X had seen the future, and it was not good. They were going to tear down trees and destroy the swamps. She had even let me see an image of the Langford yet to come. I was afraid. I defenetly didn't want this to happen. After a long while of Amber yapping to herself and thinking that we were listening, and Hex showing me pictures of the future, Amber finally decided to stay quiet when she found some neat looking rocks. "These are rare, you know. You can store a whole lot of energy in these rocks. See how they glitter like this? Kelsey? Hellooo?" But we weren't listening. "I see you are also afraid of the future.." Hex whispered. I really concidered her a friend now. I nodded, and she sighed. I noticed that she did that quite a bit. Amber noticed too, and she made mean comments once in a while. Amber was still my best friend though. "Kelsey! Would you please stop ignoring me!" I turned to look at Amber and smiled. "I'm sorry." She rolled her eyes, but laughed."Well I guess I do talk a bit too much that it drives people insane. Where are we going anyways, Hex?" "To find Kelsey's father. What else would we be doing." Amber thought for a moment. "I don't know.. how 'bout looking for X?" Hex turned and looked at Amber. "I don't want to hear that letter, or name unless we see her. Please." I looked around to check were we were, and saw nothing familular. I turned to Hex. "What's wrong?" I remembered all the times that Amber had asked her this and got no response. "X went missing on our last mission. We were going to find out why people were going missing in the South." Hex whispered so Amber wouldn't hear, and Amber had resumed to chatting her head off. "So X is in the machine?" "No. She's been taken prisoner to the sea." I knew that that was not a good thing. "What does that mean?" I could see that Hex was fighting back tears. "By saying that, Davey Jones has held her prisoner. You know what they say.. he is the sea." It was starting to make sense. "So that basically means X is a hostage to the East, right?" I asked. "Hey what are you guys talking about?" Amber asked. "Politics." Hex said. I didn't know what that ment, and by the look on Amber's face neither did she. I could see a small boat in the distance. Hex turned back to face me. "In a sense, yes." I nodded. "How can we get her back and anyone else who is a prisoner?" "That, I do not know." Hex grabbed my hand and started to cry. Amber started to laugh. I was furious with her now. I clenched my fist and saw Dark Energy charge up around my hand. I threw it at Amber, causing her to stumble back. "Hey I'm sorry ok! Sorry!" We approached the boat and Amber started. "Ok. Your dad is in the East, working on a ship. I know it'll be dangerous, but we need to get an item called the Deep Sea Tooth from him, which he guards, and that will free everyone from the machine." Amber said. "How do you know all this? He's my dad and you don't even know him!" I asked. "I just know ok. Now come on we have a long boat ride ahead of us." We got into the boat and Amber grabbed the paddles. "Well I guess I'll be doing all the hard work..?" Hex and I both nodded. Amber sighed and started to row. She stayed silent for a long time. Every question I asked her, she stayed silent. I guessed that it was already about three hours we had been at sea. Amber was taking a break, as in she was asleep. I talked to Hex for a long time, and she teached me how to use Dark Energy and how to kill people and other things. She also told me the full story about the war. Hex and Amber were already fast asleep, but I was totally freaked out now. As I looked around at the water, it seemed different somehow. I was shivering at how cold it was, and it was impossible to sleep. I groaned and Amber instantly woke up. "Amber!" "Oh.. uh, hi. Kelsey.. yawn.." and she went back to sleep. Then in the far distance, I could see a light. Maybe it was another boat? But the lights were in some sort of pattern it couldn't have been a boat's. I tried to shake Amber awake, but she just groaned. Then I could hear sirens. Hex and Amber both started to wake up. "You guys! Someone's found us! What'll we do?" I begged, and Amber started to look around. Hex was already floating around in the air, and charging up some sort fo energy beam. "Don't fire. I think it might be the coast guard." "What?" I asked. "Actually I changed my mind. Fire at will!" Amber yelled, making sure the guards heard her. I could hear them shouting in the distance "We're under attack! Call for backup!" but Hex was already blowing up their ship. In a matter of seconds, it was only ashes, the people dead. Hex returned to the ship. "Why did we have to do that?" I asked Amber. "If they found out that we were from Langford, they would surely kill us. Can't you tell by the atmosphere that we're in the East now?" I looked around and looked at the water and I knew that something was different. "You're right.. how are we going to find my dad? You don't even know him!" Now Hex was talking. "I've seen the future. I know he is there. Parksville is the place." I shivered at the name of the place. It was small and desolate, a perfect place for fishing and huge ships were there. There were only cabins there, no houses. No big stores either. Only a few corner stores and a restaurant. "But.. that place is scary!" I said, followed by Amber's laughter. "Oh it's not THAT bad! We'll blend in easy. Now hurry up and get some sleep!" It was early dawn. The sun hadn't rose yet, and it was silent. The only sound that could be heard was Amber rowing the boat, taking breaks from time to time. Hex was humming, but she stopped when Amber looked at her weird. I sat there, starving. It had been a long, long time before I had eaten something, and I was totally starving to death. In fact, only me and Amber were hungry, Hex didn't complain. Once in a while, Amber would make corny jokes or stupid remarks. I simply ignored everything she said now. The fog was getting really thick, and I could hear a fog horn in the distance. It made me think about one of the camping trips I had been on with my grama. Then I rememberd Meghan. What had become of her? "Amber.. do you have a friend called Leslie?" Amber turned around, shocked. Then she smiled. "You were the one in the trail right? I knew it." I turned away. "Leslie is someone that I ment in the North. She hated the North, so she lived in Langford for most of her life. She said that the people there tried to use her as a sacrifice to their god or something." Amber added. Then Amber turned and smiled at Hex. "Doesn't look like anything in the book hey?" And she started laughing and pointed at Hex. This time I did nothing. Hex simply floated away. "Amber.." I warned. "Hey I was just joking! I'm right though, aren't I?" I turned away from her and stood up, and screamed as loud as I could. Amber was laughing so hard I could hear her over my screaming. I was so tired of being on this stupid boat, waiting for something to happen. I closed my eyes and toke in a huge breath, and started screaming again. I guessed that we were going insane because we had no food or water, and Amber had been drinking salt water. My mom told me that you can go crazy and so illusions if you drank salt water. I opened my eyes and stopped screaming. I also noticed that Amber had stopped laughing, and she was totally silent. Not normal. I turned around and was just about to ask why, when I noticed that I was flying in the air, and Amber was right below me. She was freaking out now, and now she was screaming. Amber started running around the small boat, screaming her head off. I saw Hex in the distance, but decided to stay put. "Amber! Listen to me! You've gotta snap out of it!" I yelled at her, but she wasn't listening. Now she was laughing in a freakish-evil way that made me want to get away, so I did. I flew towards Hex, and saw that she was really mad. "I know Amber can be really, REALLY stupid sometimes, but she'll stop it sooner or later.." She stayed silent. I could hear Amber start up the laughing again. "I SEE LONDON I SEE FRANCE! I SEE KELSEY'S UNDERPANTS! HAHA!" I was really ticked off now. "Ugh! Ahhh!" I screamed. Hex was already going crazy. She charged up a beam and fired at the boat, and the whole thing exploded. There was a moment of silence. I covered my mouth with my hand and gasped. Hex didn't look the least bit shocked or worried. We both turned to face each other. "Oh my.. God." I said. We looked down at where the boat once was, and waited yet again for something to happen. Then Amber came shooting up through the water. She could fly too. "Hey! What was THAT all about!?" I laughed at Amber's question. "Well at least it got your head out of the salt water! Ha!" We both laughed at Amber now. We ignored Amber's bickering, and headed towards the island in the far distance. "Weigh the anchor! Fast! Step to! Hurry up me lads!" The captian shouted out orders as Mike, Kelsey's dad hurried to obey them. All the other crew members were rushing to haul in fish, or help weigh the anchor. Mike was one of those people that had to weigh the anchor. "Come along now, hup two three four! Hup! Cum'on fatsos! Hup hup hup!" I burly sailor approached the captain. "Uh.. hey zur.. we don't have thee time we'se need to leave ur port, zur. Them jolly stupid goards are after us, zur." The captain grunted and turned away, holding onto the barrel of rum. "We'd best get a move on then!" "Aye, zur. Right e'way. Zur.." The captain continued to shout out orders, and now Mike was ordered to go down to the hull and laod in the new fish. With the help of fellow crew mates, the whole net was carried down with ease. Now it was Mike's turn to load the fish. Scooping up five fish at a time into two huge, smelly fish storage units that were the biggest you could have ever seen, it seemed like it would take forever. Foremole was coming down to check on the progress. "Progressin' zur?" Mike sighed. "Slowly, matey. Tell Drake that it'll take longer than he wants.." "Well if that'd be thee case, I'll be un me way 'bout now." and he headed back up to the deck, slamming the door behind him. The loud intercom beeped on. "Attention all warriors and sailors of the grand East! Invaders! Gather yer weapons and head out of yer ships and get our an' fought!" and it beeped off. Mike dropped the job and headed up to the deck. "Drake! Invaders in Area 6!" Captain Drake grunted. "Then we'd be headin' in that direction just 'bout now, how's ye say? Hehe.." Mike nodded and started gathering the crew together, and finding guns. "All hands on deck! Cum'on bub! Ye too!" Everyone was running for their stations, or helping gather weapons. When everyone was in place, weapons and cannons loaded, the ship started to sail. "Sail! Ye over there! Put yer backs into it! Get ye move on! Cum'on!" Mike was bilging down below deck. Even through the floor Drake's commands were as loud as ever. Through a window in the wood, Mike watched the shore come closer. He was glad that the news was heard before they set sale for Tortuga. We were running for our lives from the guards of the East. Amber stopped screaming, and we started flying into the air, charging up dark beams or energy beams and firing at the guards. They didn't give up, they had guns and they had good aim. Amber got shot, but luckly Hex had an ability to make force fields, so we were all safe. The guards, discouraged that we would ever drop the shield, broke up and ran back to wherever they came from. We looked around for a place to hide. "We are so not safe right now!" Amber warned. "Well I thought you said that we would blend in perfectly!" I noted her. "Look, we don't have time to argue right now! We have to get a move on and find the right ship!" We fly about, trying to stay out of sight, and we scanned the vast sea in search of the black and yellow boat as Hex described it. We were really trusting her now, and Amber stopped making fun of her, finally. We didn't have time to stop and eat at the fancy restaurant either. We headed towards the grass lands and seeked out a cottage. We fly inside and made sure that it was empty. We sat down on the couch, and looked out the window, and saw a faint image of a boat approaching. "So we're just aloud to walk in here and call this place home?!" I asked Amber. "Yes, actually. Now, I think that boat way over there in the distance.. that's got to be the one." Amber walked over to the window and picked up some binoculars and looked closer at the ship. I listened hard and couldn't hear anyone approaching. I got up and searched through the cuboards and the fridge, searching for food. And luckly, there was lots. I got out a big silver plate and piled loads of food onto it, and set it onto the tiny living room table. Me and Hex were totally digging in, but Amber continued to stare out the window. I put down my glass of water. "Well?" I asked her. Amber put down the binoculars and ate loads of the food, then sat down on the couch. "That's it. That's the ship. The captain's name is Drake, you might have seen him in Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire." I owned Pokemon Ruby and I knew I saw him in that game. But were they really the same guy? No way. "I saw we wait for it to make port. Then we board the ship without anyone noticing, and find your dad." Hex added. "I think his name's Mike.. the last time I saw him at least. That was in Sooke when he was working on a ship there, before it sunk." "Wow." Amber said. I knew by the way she said it, she was faking it. Hours had past, and basically all the food in the cottage had been devoured. We were watching TV and everything, and still the ship was far in the distance, and it had been a while since we last talked about it. Amber was in her 'room' looking out the window. I thought that she was asleep or something. Hex had gone outside for a while to check on the status of the ship. She walked in the door, panting. "What happened?" I stood up and walked over to her. She walked over to the couch and turned the TV off. "Well.." I asked. "They know of our arrival and they are going to destroy us." I could hear Amber yelling "WHAT?!" down the hallway. She ran into the living room and flew onto the couch. "You're kidding me! Even her dad?" "No. I never saw Mike on board. He must be already on land. Looking for us." Amber was really worried now. "But.. but, but will he kill us? Would he?" I shook my head in disbelief. Amber looked like she really did care and she was thinking hard. Then she perked up. �You�re lying.� I turned over to her in shock. �Amber!� I warned her. �Why are so protective to her? What�s the deal here? She�s not the real deal anyways!� Now I turned to Hex. �It�s true. I�m a clone of the real Hexadecimal. I�m Hexadeonawhy..� Amber burst into laughter. �Shut up! Haha! I tried to tell you all along.. but who wouldn�t listen.." I threw an apple at Amber, it missed and broke the window. The whole room was silent. Amber gasped. "WHO CARES!?" I yelled. Amber stayed silent. I got up. "We can't just sit here and fight about my dad and his ship, and about whether she's a copy or not!" "Sorry.." Amber said quietly. "Let's just go." I said. I lead everyone outside. Amber instantly dropped the scared act and went right into action. We started flying towards the harbour, and saw the ship. People were already running out of it. "There he is." Hex pointed to a guy with a baseball hat and was holding some sort of machine gun. He could hear yelling from the ground. "In the name of Shulla, we, the crew of Captain Drake, command the intruders to come forth!" I recognized the voice. It was my dad. People were chanting the word Shulla over and over again. Then the sky turned dark, like a rain cloud. A beam of light came down from the sky and an image of a massive, beast appeared. It was just a dark image, you couldn't see it. It was merely a shadow. Then the shadow came forward and roared. "Do you know what that is?!" I asked Hex. She shook her head. Shocked. "That's the Eastern Guardian. Shulla. It lives far underwater. It can kill anything." Hex said. "So every.. place has a Guardian?" I asked. She nodded. "So X is.." "No. X is only the ruler, not the Guardian." I looked back to the shadow, and saw that it was heading back towards the sea. It flew right into the water, making a tremendous splash. Water crashed all over the place, and the three of us were blasted backwards at the wave. Amber was yelling. "No! Eastern people are not affected by waves! It's a trick to find out where we are!" I dove into the water and tried to see. I could see that the other people were standing on the ground as if nothing had happend, even my dad. I could also see that they were running around, still on the ground, looking for us. I came back up for air. "You're right. Their still on the ground! They can breathe underwater!" Amber nodded. I dove under again to see what they were doing now. Now I saw that they had some sort of spikes on their arms, and they were swimming around like fish. And I saw one of them coming this way. I came back up. "We have to start flying! Now!" We desperatly tried to fly, but we were stuck in the water, and waves were still crashing onto the land, submerging us in the water. I waved my arms around and tried to see, but it was no use. The waves were getting worse by the second, and we were sinking. I tried to swim back up, but the minute I was close to the top a wave came and pushed me back down. I landed ontop of a room of some building. I was going to pass out any minute now. I could see Amber, trying to escape as well. Then it came to me that this Shulla beast would continue to splash waves so we couldn't get to the surface, so we couldn't breathe, and we would pass out. Then the waves would stop and they would easly find us. The waves seemed to have calmed, and I took this operatunity to try to swim back to the surface. I got back up, but only for a matter of seconds before another wave came. I gave up trying to get back to the surface. I looked around and tried to find Hex. She was probebly far away from the water now. I couldn't see Amber anywhere either. Then I saw someone coming after me. Everything went black. I woke up to the sound of dripping water. I sat up and looked around. I seemed to be in some sort of basment. Then I heard footsteps, then the sound of someone starting to fly. It must be Amber or Hex. Or not.. yes. It was Amber. She was holding onto some sort of light. "Kelsey. Something really weird is going on. I can't find Hex." Then there was the sound of someone talking. We slowly stood up and started walking around the large room. "And now that I've found you.. we will never be defeated.." Behind a few crates, was Hex. She was holding some sort of stick that glowed, and she was actually talking to it. "I think she's going insane.." Amber started, then Hex noticed that we were watching. She held up her free hand and blasted Amber to the other end of the room. Hex did nothing to me. She continued to talk to the stick. jayda3.jpg �Then she turned to me. I was expecting some sort of bizzare attack that would kill me, or make me join Amber at the very back of the room, but instead she showed me the stick. "It's the Power Rod.. we can kill anything we want now!" Hex said as if it were hipmotizing her. "She's going insane!" Amber yelled from the back of the room. I ignored Amber and looked at this Power Rod whatever. It seemed to have some sort of energy flow inside it's glass casing. The two ends of it were silver, and there was a bit of silver plating in the middle. "So.." I asked. She wouldn't stop looking at it. "Ok then." I said. Still looking at it. Amber ran up to me and started dragging me away, and Hex was STILL looking at the Power Rod. "What are you doing?!" I asked Amber once Hex was out of sight. "Look, I know she's a copy of the real Hexadecimal, but she can still go completely insane like her! She will KILL you if she goes into insane mode!" Amber said quickly. "I don't believe you! She wouldn't kill me!" Amber shook her head. "I guess all this work was for nothing then. Fine, get your head blasted off!" And Amber walked away out of site. I returned to Hex, and she had stopped looking at the Rod. Now she looked sad. "Don't listen to what she says." I said. "There is a factory in the North that can clone anything. And I mean anything. Hexadecimal went there, trying to stop Protoform X from falling for the trap. She did succeed in that mission, but she was trapped in the factory. They cloned her, and now there are loads of clones of her out there. The only one that's not like her one bit would have to be Hexalaynia. She is the ruler of the North. Very dangerous, but she seriously wouldn't even hurt a fly." Hex said. Lots of people must like this Hexadecimal person if she had powerful clones running around freely, that had the power to destroy anything. There must be a lot of clones. "What is the real Hex like?" I asked. "I don't know. She tried to kill me when she first saw me. She is so angry and has so much hatred towards all of her clones, that she is sealed away in a chamber far underground. They say that the more angry she gets, the more powerful she is. She can destroy entire star systems at this rate. But she is sealed away in suspended animation." Hex said, and she seemed almost sad for Hexadecimal. "Who sealed her down there? How can she be freed?" I questioned. Hex still answered. "She was so powerful that the South was afraid she would go crazy and might destroy everyone. So they got X and another guardian that is long dead, Zero, to trick her to going to a cave. Western Cave was it's name. Dark Waves struck her and it was then that she was frozen, forever. Then they took the cave and dumped it down the Pitfall Valley, and covered it up with dirt. Now the Western Cave is near the center of the Earth. And the only hope of ever bringing her back again.. is uniting all the clones and excavating the Western Cave. Then a brave warrior with a pure soul must revive her. Only X can do that." I thought for a long time about what Hex had said. "Where are we right now?" I asked. "In the ship which your father is on board right now. We have been taken prisoner, and we are in the detention cell. Or whatever you call it." I knew that it would be a really long time before anyone came to come check on us, or if anyone would even come. Maybe we were left here to die. I gazed out of the small window and saw fish swimming around in the water, and the occasional shark or other large sea creature. Hex was always talking or blabbering about the Power Rod, and the one thing she said that really creeped me out was when she said "Now my nightmares can begin!" She was singing some sort of freaky song now. She must hate being here I thought. I hadn't seen Amber since the argument either and I was starting to get worried. Then there was the sound of footsteps. A door swung open and there was the sound of someone being throw to the ground. Maybe it was Amber. "Go hump a cow freak!" The voice yelled, and the door slammed. The guy that had been thrown to the ground yelled, then started laughing. Hex stopped the song and everything was quiet. I knew that it wasn't Amber. "H-hello??" I asked whoever. Then a blinding light blasted the whole room, and an ear piercing scream bounced off the walls. I instantly got up and looked around the corner to see someone standing up, a shadow. The scream sounded really freaky, not normal. I ran over to the figure, trying to cover my eyes from the light. Hex floated over and stayed silent. The light started to die down just when I saw the figure change. The scream stopped, but it still echoed in my ears. I couldn't see it anymore, the only thing I could see were two pairs of completely dark blue eyes. I started to walk backwards, away from whatever it was. Hex started to freak. I stumbled on something and fell back. It was Amber's flashlight, perfect. I turned it on and shone it at the creature. It looked like some sort of ghost, but it had legs and arms, but it's hands were cut off and were floating near were they should have been. Then it's eyes turned red and it opened it's mouth, and it had dark jagged teeth. It flew foward and right through me. Hex seemed enraged and started attacking the ghost. I turned the flash light off, and the ghost's eyes burned dark, blood red. Then I noticed that Hex was trying to contain it by throwing crates at it. It just flew right through them. Now Hex held the Power Rod up into the air, and the ghost seemed to stop and it dropped to the floor. We walked over to it and watched it scream it's head off. "It's dying.." Hex cried. This was really weird. "Well.. what is it? A ghost? Dead person.." I started. "It's Nightmare!" she shreiked. It got up to it's feet and flew around, then right through the wall and out of the room. "What's Nightmare?" I asked. "Nevermind. We need to get out of here. Before they come back!" Hex was in panic now. "And how are we supposed to do THAT?!" I yelled at her now that she had flown to the other end of the room. I too was starting to get tired of being in this room. So I followed her to the end of the room, and heard a huge BAM from where she was. When I got closer I saw that light was filtering into the room now, and she had blasted the door open. "Maybe you could have done that a long time ago?!" I scolded. But I didn't care. At least we were getting out of here. Amber must have escaped some how to get her revenge, and we would find her somewhere. As soon as we entered the hull, we saw a man throwing fish into some sort of huge container. We hid behind the railing of the stairs and watched. He was humming some sort of sailor's song. If he saw us we would be doomed for sure. He got up and headed for the stairs. The stairs we were hiding at. We looked back and saw a door, and we ran for it, luckly it was open. It was the washroom, and he must be heading this way. "Into one of the stalls, hurry before he comes in!" And we hid in a stall, and we heard the door swing open and the man whistling. He tried to open our door, and when he couldn't he asked in a weird sailor voice, "Well well well! Who's in their! You need primission from Drake to be in here! Aye?" I turned and looked at Hex. She spoke in a weird sailor voice as well. "Shiver me timbers! Oh course Iye got thy prem'ssion from ole Drake me man! Wot do ye think Iye am? An intruder?! Blast it I already threw 'em into their cozy prison, mate! Nouthin to worray 'bout!" I was shocked that she managed to do that, and I gave her a thumbs up. The sailor laughed. "Oh yeah mate! I re'mber now! Thy shall still be down there, and nobody'll check up on them aye!" and he laughed again. I don't even want to describe all the details of what he did next when he walked into another stall. We sneaked out, with Hex talking in the pirate voice so nobody would think that something was wrong. We giggled silently as we headed towards the door to the main deck, and quickly hid beneath the stairs and behind a few crates. We watched the sailors stacking crates and the captain, Drake, yelling out commands and insults. It must suck to work here I thought. Then I saw him. My dad. He was trying to mend a sail. "That's him." I pointed out to Hex. She saw him and smiled. "Let's take him." She said. "What?!" I was shocked. "Here's the plan. We fly far out of site, then we silently and quickly fly up to the masts. We seal his mouth shut, I can do that, and we secretly fly away with him." Hex's plan was pretty much on the chaotic side, but it sounded pretty good too."But where do we take him?" I asked. "There is an island near the Fantasy Strait not far from here. We'll take him there and tell him the story, and force the answers out of his head. I can do that." I laughed quietly at the part wen she said she could make him give us the answers. Then I thought about Amber. "What abour Amber?" I asked. "Nevermind her. I know where she has fled to. We'll find her soon enough, don't worry." Hex said. We quickly flew at the speed of light away from the stairs and far up into the sky where no one could see us. "Can't you make us invisable?" I asked her. "Sorry. I know that is one of Hexadecimal's abilities, but I wasn't one of the many who got it from her." Hex said. We flew down near my dad, and Hex silently said some sort of spell, and Mike's mouth turned into a zipper, and it zipped shut. I could tell that he was trying to scream. We flew down and gathered him, and flew into the air again. Then I heard someone yell from below. Before we knew it, cannon balls were flying towards us. We simply flew higher and higher into the sky and the ship was only a little black spec in the water. Now I could see a small island ahead of us. Mike had stopped trying to break free because he knew he was too far away from his ship now. Nobody could save him now. Haha I thought. We dove down towards the island, and landed like a meteorite onto the ground. I looked behind me, coughing from all the dirt, and saw the huge skid marks we had made. "..... What is taking so long...I have waited...............Bring her in." A loud bang echoed through the room. "We....must...stop them..soon, if the plan is to work.." The large doors opened and two guards marched into the room. They were carrying a girl, then threw her to the ground. ".....Where is she..." The voice said. Meghan coughed and tried to sit up. "You won't find her!....Agh!" But she collapsed. "Hehe...get her out of here...the all of ye!" The guards bowed and left, slamming the door. The voice laughed. "As I gain strength...we shall talk about..'her'...tell me..EVERYTHING!" It wasn't long before Amber came crying back to me. We tried to interrigate Mike, but he swore he knew nothing. We had let him go because he would only be delaying us because he couldn't fly. I was standing near the edge of the island with Amber, who was in total shock. "What now.." I groaned. "No no no Kelsey! I'm SERIOUS. I seriously saw him..and I know he hates her! We have to get off this island now if we should survive!" I looked around. Amber had said earlier that in her little travel back to Langford that she had seen one of the clones. She discribed it as looking like some sort of robot, and it had the family gene, the spikes on it's head. She wouldn't stop yapping, so I flew back to the house back at Torvus Bog and flipped through the book. We decided that Hex should stay on the island so she wouldn't get all worked up about another clone running about. Sure enough, we found a clone that fit Amber's description. This clone was called GigaHexadon, and apparently it had been living in Langford's sewers for a few centuries. But here we were on the island again, and she was saying that we had to leave now. But I did admit there was starnge quakes every now and then. I nodded and we started to walk back to where we had setup camp. Hex was nowhere to be seen. Then the ground started to shake again. This time it was a whole lot worse! Me and Amber where already seperated, being bounced into the air and trying to stay in the air. We finally got into the air. "I TOLD YOU!" Amber screamed. "I'm sorry I'm sorry OK? Let's just get out of here while we can OK?!" I didn't need to tell her twice, she was already flying off towards Parksville again. I caught up to her, panting. "Why would we wanna go back there?! They tried to kill us last time!" Amber stopped. "You're right. So shall we go check out Langford's new party host?" Amber said. "Well I sort of was expecting to stay here a bit longer.." I started. Amber gasped. "We have been with these phsycos long enough! We should move on right?" Amber said. So I agreed with her, and we stared at the part of Vancouver Island that was far in the distance. When I looked really close, I could see the tall mountains were covered with snow. We were out of the air now. Instead, we were now trecking through snow. I could barely see ahead, and the snow was really deep. We hadn't seen anyone for hours. Before we got here, we could see the North clearly and were heading for it. Then a snow storm hit us and sent us down to the ground, the outskirts of the North. We had actually seen a few people, but they just walked past us, giving us a weird look like we were stupid to them. The weirdest part was.. those people didn't look the least bit cold. "........." None of us said anything. It was way too cold to do anything but walk. "..........I am..." We both turned around to find where the voice was coming from. It sounded like it was the wind talking to us. "D..D...Duncan.." It said again. We turned around again, then looked around. Nobody. It was the wind! ".....The snow.." Again. So this was the snow talking to us. I tried to say something, but I couldn't speak. It was freezing. This was not making any sense. "..I am...A...Arte...zzaaa.." We couldn't stay still anymore. We kept on going. "...Now entering...D..D..Dun..can.." The snow said again. I could see cars in the distance. A bridge. Water. Was this 'Duncan' a place? Now I could see the water, and the could started to go away. Wait.. if it was freezing out right now.. then why wasn't the water frozen? Why wasn't I frozen? I looked ahead and saw a bridge, and cars going accross it. I looked to the side and saw an old, wooden sign. It read: 'Frosty Forest'. No duh! I still didn't want to try saying anything, because it was still pretty cold. The snow was lifting, and I could see people, cars, buildings, and a big building that said: 'SafeWay'. Then I remembered FairWays in Langford. Maybe this was a grocery store too? Oh no. I totally forgot about Hex. Then I didn't even notice that Amber was already climbing up a path and onto the bridge, I ran after her. When we got accross the bridge and walked a little farther, I couldn't stop looking around. This whole place was like some sort of North Pole. It was. I could remember Hex telling me that the North's element was snow. There were so many shops, so many cars it was insane. But I knew we couldn't stay here for long, in Duncan. After all, since we didn't belong here there would be people out to get us for sure. We had to get away from the cizilization. I felt really tired it had been days since I had gotten a decent sleep, and I was starving. We stopped by the SafeWay and managed to get some free food, but now we were far away from any sort of shop. Now we were walking in the trees right beside a high way. We passed a sign. It was huge, nothing I had ever seen before. It read: 'Chemainus' or something like that anyways. There was still a blizzard going on, but it had gotten a lot worse. Before long we were back near the buildings. Now this town looked old. BANG! We went flying backwards, and hugged a tree. Moaning and groaning, we slowly turned around and saw nothing. Did someone punch us really hard or something? We fidgetly looked around, then tried to get back up. We slowly walked towards were we were hit. "What was that?!" Amber sayed. I moved my arm forward, then a powerful force pushed me back. I looked around and saw that a bunch of people had been pointing guns at us. "INVADERS!!" They shouted. "Hurry! Fire every last bit of dark energy at the barrier, and the people!" Amber yelled. I drew up a whole load of dark energy, and screamed as I blasted it at the army. There was so much, SO MUCH dark energy that I couldn't see anything but black and purple. I could hear Amber yell "OK!" so I stopped. I looked ahead and saw that the people had turned to ashes. "Now the barrier." Amber said. I turned and faced the invisible barrier, drew forth more dark energy, and fired. I was blown backwards at the force of the shot. I must have passed out. A strange sound, like someone breathing weird filled my head. It was quiet at first, but then it started to get louder. I opened my eyes and saw that whatever I was firing at had shown itself. It was infact a huge, massive barrier, but it wasn't giving away at all. I could hear someone yelling me to stop, but I couldn't. Instead, I saw some black shadow of a person come out of nowhere, and fly towards the barrier. It too fired dark energy at the barrier. When I saw that it was starting to flicker and disappear, I tried to stop the beam again. The last thing I saw was the shadow come flying towards me. Darkness followed. "..sey..Kel..ey..Kelsey! ...ke..wake up!" It had been a few hours since I woke up. We were'nt in Chemainus any more, we had been teleported back to grama's house by the cops. Now we were on the computer, looking for information. We had decided that the journey ended now. We had to find Meghan. I told Amber all about the ReDart place that she was going to go to. Amber said that we should at least check it out, and we were going to wait until nightfall. Grama and grampa had disappeared, and I was sitting in my room. What was going on? I played my GameBoy, and finally beat the Pokemon game that I was playing. Amber was just like Meghan, using Napster, and blasting some songs. I heard Amber sing along with a lot of them. Now it was dark out. I tried to read the analog clock beside my bed, looked like it was around ten. Amber suggested midnight. Goodnight, I thought, and set the alarm on my clock. Fell asleep. Swish! I suddenly awoke to a strange sound. I looked around fidgetly, it felt like someone was watching me. Someone was here. Then something started moving along the floor. It was a shadow, but not standind up. Instead, it was slithering along the floor. I was totally freaked out, maybe it was the 'dog' that the boy was talking about last time. No, I checked and saw that this thing was completly flat, moving along the floor, a shadow. It slid under the door, and the strange feeling disappeared. Bang. Bang. Bang. The sounds from before. The.. crawlspace. Amber. Where was she now? I checked the clock. Almost midnight. Then I could hear someone walking downstairs. Now the sounds where coming from the hall. Bang. Now the bangs where coming from somewhere in the hallway. This all seemed like a huge nightmare. A loud boom sounded from the door, and the shadow re-entered the room. It seemed to fly towards me, but then it was gone. I instantly got up, screamed, and searched under the covers. I stood on tippy-toe on the carpet, my heart beating so fast I almost suffocated. Then Amber ran down the hall and opened the door, and a gust of air blasted into the room. "What happened?!" Amber yelled. All of a sudden, it seemed as if every bit of air I had was lost, and I stumbled forward. I turned to see were the sound of another boom came from, and the shadow was flying out the window. Amber turned at me, totally speechless. "Are you okay?!" and as if on que, a loud, blood chilling scream came from everywhere. It was like lightning, so loud, and booming. It kept screaming, over and over again with the same booming lightning effect. Suddenly, I saw the shadow fly through the window and come for Amber. Then, an image of the swamp filled my head. It was just like it was right now. Really tall, dense grass, and cool-looking trees dotted the landscape. The movie played in my head, and I now saw the Langford Lake, and the long wooden bridge that crossed the whole lake. Now the swamp came back, but something was wrong. All the grass and trees were all gone. In their place, a massive building, more buildings! Only a small pond remained. There was a huge wired fence that guarded a colossal working machine, and gravel was everywhere, un-finished buildings and huge blocks of cement were everywhere. Then I knew what I was looking at. The swamp, in the future. I screamed at the sight, and was brought back to my room. Amber was lying on the floor, but she rolled over and got up. "What just happened?" I asked her. She was gasping for breath. She tried to talk, but she was totally out of air. "The swamp. Amber. The swamp! Something is going to happen there! We have to save Meghan!" I yelled as loud as I could. Amber looked at me with a dazed look, then seemed to snap back. "Something is still here from last time, and it probebly wants us out of here!" She said quickly. I totally aggreed with her, and we were rushing out of the room in a matter of seconds. Sammy was gone from her usual spot, and same with Ebony. Suddenly Amber stopped walking. I looked around to see what was the matter, but nothing seemed unusual or out of place, she just stopped. I poked her a dozen times, and she finally seemed to notice that I was waiting for her. "I'm sorry." She said, shaking her head. We started moving down the stairs now, and Amber kicked the front door open. It was un-locked, and wasn't even closed. "Seems as if they've really set up shop in this house." I said, talking about the creeps that scared me and Meghan out of the house with their stupid floating pants. Police sirens sounded from far in the distance, but seemed to be getting closer by the second. We were walking down the road that led to the school, but there was a path somewhere around here that led to the swamp. Just looking through the trees and past houses we noticed a strange-looking tree in the swamp, had to be ReDart. Owls hooted in the trees and dogs barked as rain started coming down lightly. I wondered if Meghan was peacfully living with Auntie Doris and Uncle Lewis and didn't even bother coming back for ReDart. Even the name of the club sounded so stupid I couldn't stand it. What even was a plasma-screen TV? All these things that Meghan had talked about that ReDart would have I had never heard about. As we neared the swamp, the sound of crickets chirping grew louder. Yes, there it was. We saw the old yellow gate that lead to the swamp, and we rushed over to it. There was a massive tree that stood out the most because it had little bits of light coming from it's branches. We cleared the gate and started making our way through the tall grass. Amber shrieked, and claimed that a snake had slithered past her. I wasn't supprised, this place was loaded with snakes, lizards, and all whole bunch of fish in the pond. As we drew closer to the strange treee, more lights could be seen, and it was as if the tree were special and it had magic powers or something. Music. The sounded of loud music playing now filled the air, and we ducked down into the tall grass. "Is that a.. that's a person!" Amber whispered, and sure enough the image of someone walking was clear. A stared at the base of the tree, and saw a door. I nudged Amber and pointed the way, and we started slowly creeping over to the door. I looked up and could now see that someone was watching us. I dragged Amber away and we huddled against the tree. "What?!" Amber said. "There's someone watching us. I saw them with my very eyes!" I whispered. We both fell silent. There was a faint sound coming from inside the base of the tree, and the door opened. An average sized girl walked out. She looked like she was wearing a black coat, and seemed to be holding something. She turned around, and I closed my eyes and waited for her to yell to her friends that we were down here. But that's not what she did, infact she did the exact oppisite. "Hi." the girl said as she walked towards us. I slowly looked up at her, and she didn't look scary at all. Amber lifted her head and stared. "I'm Lindsay! Aren't you.. Meghan's sister Kelsey? She told us all about you." She said. So Meghan was here the whole time. I can't believe she didn't even bother to try to find me when she knew that I could have gotten killed! Could she at least went to grama's? I was so mad that she just decided to give up and come to this stupid ReDart place. Amber spoke up, "How long has she been here?" She asked. "Hmm.. I think she came here.. maybe three or four days ago." Lindsay said, but she piped up again. "Oh oh oh oh! You know there's this girl here and she's from the future! I know who looks just like me in the future! It's so awesome!" She said. I turned and looked at Amber, letting her know that we shouldn't go in there. Meghan was sure to freak out, or worse. "Sorry.. but we can't join your little party. We just wanted to know if Meghan was here or not, and she is, so we'll just be on our way." I said, got up, and brushed the dirt off my clothes. Amber stood up too, still staring at Lindsay. I actually thought that there was somthing weird about her. She toke her back pack off and shuffled through it, then pulled out some sort of device and handed it to me. "What.. is it?" I asked. Lindsay smiled. "A SoulReader. I have no idea what it's for. It was just lying around, so, yeah." I toke it from her and examined it. It looked cool, and sure enough there was an on button, which I pressed by the way. The music that was coming from the tree had changed, and it was the strangest music I had ever heard. I know, I always had to deal with Meghan and her bizzare tastes in music, but this was very different from what I heard on the radio, or from Meghan. The person's voice sounded strange, and one person would be singing and that exact same person's voice would over-lap their own voice. I didn't make any sense, and the beat was.. whoa. It was extremely hip and I knew it would be stuck in my head. I looked back at the SoulReader and saw that the screen had been turned on, and there was some sort of viewer on the screen. I used it like a camera to see if that was what it was for, and it seemed almost like a modified video camera. But when I moved the view to Amber or Lindsay, they glowed blue and text appeared that said 'Pure'. Amber moved and looked at the viewer. "What does pure mean?" I asked as I looked up from the viewer. "I don't know, remember I said I didn't know what it was for!" Lindsay said. I put the viewer in my pocket. Then I thought, if we left, then where would we go? We couldn't get into the North, so we were stuck. But maybe if we asked this girl from the future, then maybe we could get some answers. Amber continued to stare at Lindsay. "Oh cut it out! You're scaring me!" Lindsay said. "Can we stay here for a while? We need to talk to this girl from the future about how to get into the North." I asked. Lindsay's face lit up, and she nodded. We moved over to the door, climbed a bunch of stairs, the stopped when we saw a huge dance floor. I saw Meghan instantly. "If we're quiet and quick, we can sneak past them." Said Lindsay. We were now fast walking down a long hallway, and through a door. "It's about the North." Lindsay told the girl that was sitting on the bed in the room we had just bardged into. Lindsay walked in and sat on the dresser, and addressed us to come in as well. "Close the door." The girl on the bed said. Amber slammed the door, still staring at Lindsay. You're right, it was starting to creep me out now. I sat beside Lindsay on the dresser, Amber tried to sit on the window sill. The girl on the bed looked up at me. The look on her face told me that she was sad. "I'm Sophie, and I came from year two thousand and seven. A terrible fate awaits Langford in that time, so that's why I'm here. What did you want to know?" She said. I turned and look at Amber, and she was still staring. Amber finally said something. "Haley.. you look just like her.." Sophie looked very shocked. "How do you know this." She said coldly, which made me want to run away. Amber stopped talking, and Sophie turned back to me. "It's impossible. There is nothing for you there, and yes I do know about your quest. I will tell you everything." "At Maurader's Cliff, Capricorn lives. He is the one who is behind the plot. He has a servent by the name of Goth, who does most of the dirty work. Caprcorn's plan is to take advantage of the lunar eclipse, and banish light from the world forever. How will he do this? Simple. Make one hundred thousand sacrifices on the night of the eclipse, and their lord will rise again and destroy the sun. Their lord, Cama Zotz, he has the special jewel called Lights Out, which gives him the ability to destroy the sun. You must head over to Maurader's Cliff as soon as possible. For the eclipse is tomorrow night!" Sophie said. Amber and I were stunned, finally finding out what was going on. Sophie also told us that Hex had been sealed away in Pitfall Valley, which made Amber happy. Apparently Lindsay wanted to come with us, and Sophie actually suggested that she did, and that we would find out why. "Stand together. I can teleport you to the Cliff. Beware.. Protoform X guards this place.. and would risk his life for it." Sophie said, and we stood in a circle while Sophie did some sort of spell. Amber's teeth chattered in fright as Sophie spoke words from a book on the dresser. She held her hands in the air, then back to us. There was a flash, then the sound of music in the background stopped. There was an erie silence, then Sophie disappeared into thin air. I didn't dare move. I glanced over at Amber, and she looked back at me. Finally, Lindsay broke the silence. "What?" She said. And magically as if on cue, the whole room disolved, it looked like it just started to melt away, leaving darkness. And the added sound affects to the melting made Amber faint. But we realised, as we watched her fall, that she kept on falling until she was out of site. "Amber!" I yelled after her, and toke a step. I started falling too. I tried to turn over to see what Lindsay's reaction would be, and saw that she was too tumbling down towards me. The blackness around us started flashing different colors, and the sound of a computerized voice filled the dark void. "Accessing Sector Three. Accessing Sector Three." The voice repeated, and now the sound of lightning bolts thundered through the nothingness. We were still falling. But suddenly, everything stopped, the sound, and we floated and stopped falling. "Beep. Beep. Fatal Error. Cannot access Access Point Three, version two thousand seven. WEP lock detected." The voice said. The sound of a computer, a large computer, shutting down or some machine turning off, filled the room. We stopped floating and dropped onto something. A few dim red lights turned on, and we found ourselves in a strange tunnel. A massive metal door covered the whole end of the tunnel. Amber was bawling now. I got up and looked behind me. A wall. One big, wall. I began to cry, fearing that I would never see grama ever again, or even get back to Langford. And that I would never see my mom again, or never get to talk to my dad. It was all over. I walked up to the wall and discovered a small hole. By peeking through it, I saw another tunnel. I ran away from the wall in horror, and fell onto the ground. Now both of us were bawling. But Lindsay approached the metal door. "If you wish access to Sector Three, supply the answer to these riddles.." The voice returned, but it was a different voice this time.It sounded twisted, like a snake. Lindsay walked right up to the door. The voice came back. "Oft I must strive with wind and wave, battle them both when under the sea. I feel the bottom, a foreign land. I'm lying still, I am strong in the strife. If I fail in that, they are stronger than I, and wrenching me loose, soon put me to rout. They wish to capture what I must keep. I can master them both if my grip holds out. If the rocks bring succour and lend support, strength in the struggle. Ask me my name!" The voice said. Amber and I looked wide-eyed at Lindsay, waiting to see what she would say. "An anchor." She said. There was the sound of one of the locks on the door receiting. The voice again. "The wave, over wave, a weird thing I saw, Through-wrought, and wonderful ornate: A wonder on the waves, water become bone." Another pause. "Ice." Said Lindsay. Another lock disappeared. She turned around and smiled at us, as if these riddles were easy. "Weight in my belly, trees on my back, nails in my ribs, feet I do lack." The voice said. This time, a longer pause. Finally, Lindsay said: "A ship." Another lock went away. "The part of the bird, that is not in the sky, which can swim in the ocean and still stay dry. What is it?" This time, an instant answer. "It's shadow." Another lock was now gone. Me and Amber stopped crying and actually felt happy that we had Lindsay's help now. But where exactly were we going? "Final quiz. What does man love more than life, fear more than death or mortal strife, what the poor have, the rich require, what misers spend, and spendthrifts save, and all men carry to the grave?" Pause. Amber sniffled. "......" Lindsay stayed silent. But Amber actually said something. "N-nothing.." She blurted out. The final lock disappeared, and a thick mist engulfed the tunnel. We both stood up, and tried to wave away the mist. The door opened, and light filled the tunnel, making the mist light up. "Beep! WEP code breached. Access granted." The normal computer voice said. We stuck close to Lindsay as we walked through the door, to who knows where. I woke to the sound of crows cawing, and light snow falling onto me, like tiny pins laced with frost. As I opened my eyes, I saw that I was lying in snow. I looked up and saw that on both sides of me, there was a line of skeletin trees. The sky was completely white. In front of me, all I could see was white. I was in some sort of snow world. I saw Amber lying a few feet away from me, and Lindsay was in front of me. I didn't have a clue of what to do, so I poked Amber awake. A few minutes later, we were all awake. Lindsay was in a huge panic. "This isn't the right place! No no no no NO!" She screamed out no, and it echoed about seven times. Lindsay was right, where were we? The memory of the tunnel and the room melting didn't leave my mind. I huddled close to Amber because I was cold. But after a while, Lindsay calmed down about being in the wrong place, and now had the same smile she always had. "So.. are we just gonna sit here and wait for the sun to die?!" Amber said, teeth chattering. Lindsay didn't respond. She turned around and faced away from us. There was a boom sound from behind us. Me and Amber turned around instantly, to see a figure in the distance. I was so scared. It looked like.. a pig. Another figure stood beisde it, a cat maybe. The picture was still frightning, for they were just standing their motionless. Even though they were standing still, I still felt a danger of them being there. Suddenly, the picture of the pig and the cat grew larger. Closer. It was so sudden that I thought that it was my eyes playing tricks, but no. The picture continued to grow closer, and larger. Amber started to freak out, and I mean, freak out. "Ahh.. ah! Ahhhh!" She screamed, and started thrashing out. The figures backed away, but still didn't move an inch. "Amber! What's wrong?! Amber!" I tried to make her stay still, but something was clearly wrong. Lindsay got up and walked over to us. I could still see the figures in the distance behind her. Amber stopped moving. She curled up into a ball and started twitching. "What's wrong with her? Is she just scared?" I asked. Lindsay grabbed Amber's shoulder and shoke her. "Kelsey. This is the land of nothing. What you see in front of you is someone's DarkSoul. In this world, a DarkSoul cannot move, only zoom in and out of vision. That DarkSoul just attempted to call Amber's DarkSoul out into this world. She must be contained." Said Lindsay. I looked around quickly, then remembered that day when I saw that vision of the future. Maybe that DarkSoul used to be mine. "Um.. Lindsay.." I started, but suddenly Amber screamed and the snow landscape dissappeared. The whole scene turned black, just like when we were falling before. But this time we were'nt falling, but just sitting in some black void. "Maybe we'll get to the right place this time!" Lindsay said. But nothing happened, we just sat there not moving nor falling. "Like I was saying.." I started again, but again interupted. A loud boom echoed the darkness, and light started breaking the darkness here and there. Soon the whole void was bright. Boom! Boom! Boom! With each boom, the void flashed. I covered my eyes and Amber screamed. Where was I going to wake up THIS time I wondered? I could here silence, other than Amber and Lindsay whispering, and Amber occasionally asking if something was her fault or not. I didn't want to open my eyes yet. Then I thought of grama and all the other adults. Had they really been freed or not? What was happening to them wherever they where, and where they happy? I opened my eyes to see a small corridor, red walls and green carpet. Strange music could be faintly heard. Behind me, a wall. No way out. In front of me, a tall red door that blended into the wall. I stood up, and Lindsay and Amber turned to look at me, and Lindsay smiled, but Amber looked like she had just seen a ghost. "Ok. We are officially at Rink2, Sector 3! Let's go!" Lindsay said. I stopped her before we could go any farther. "We were supposed to go to Merader's Cliff remember! This is still the wrong place, or does this place lead to the Cliff?" I asked. Lindsay laughed. "Oh you didn't really fall for what that Sophie said to you back there? Of course this is the right place. Why, if we were at Merader's Cliff, we would totally be in the wrong place! Sophie lied to you! She isn't really from the future, either. She is a DarkSoul. A powerful one, able to walk our world. She is the DarkSoul of someone from the future." Lindsay said. I was just about to ask a load of questions, but she started again. "There is a plot, that was started by the owner of Sophie. But the people in the future knew that the plot would never be acheived by where they where. The plot.. to reformat everyone on this planet to have Western programing, and everyone would have a DarkSoul. So this person.. sent Sophie into the past to start the first part of their plan, which she accomplished quite well. Now she has returned to the future. Their plan is almost complete." Lindsay turned and pointed at the red door. "Behind this door is where Sophie completed the first part of the plan." Now Lindsay pointed at the door again. "This is year 2003's control panel. From here, you can control anyone, anything that existed in this year. Every year has one of these control panels. But don't be fooled. These control panels are not just one small room. For behind this door is one large land. It could be inside a building, or even and endless field of grass and flowers. Anything. Only thing I know is that this year's CP is inside a building." Lindsay turned back and faced me and Amber. "Sophie got into the control panel and implanted a virus in everyone that walks this earth for this year. And as the years go by.. the virus will remain with us. When we reach year 2007, which is the year Sophie is from, their plan will almost be complete. All they need to do from there is activate the virus.. then their world of darkness and shadow will be complete." I could see that Lindsay was on the verge of tears. I turned and looked at Amber. Sophie had lied to us to make us not interfier with her plans. "Then why did she send us here?" I asked Lindsay. "She needed more energy to get back to 2007. She sent us here for no real reason other for herself to get back to the future." Said Lindsay. She turned and headed towards the door. She grasped the doorknob and looked at us. "What you are about to see.. is an illusion. Do not believe what anyone says here, or anything that you see. What Sophie has done has changed the surroundings beyond this door." And with that she turned the doorknob slowly, then opened the door. A massive room. The wallpapers were red, but the floor was a fancy tile work with sparkles. Ladies with big dresses and fake hair walked about with their heads up, with a mean look on their faces. Men walked around with fancy tuxedos and were holding wine glasses. This place seemed busy, but something seemed strange, almost fake about this place. I sticked close to Lindsay as we started walking forward. When we walked forward, the door slammed behind us, but nobody looked at us. We pushed through a few crowds, and got to even larger area of this place. I looked up and saw a colossal disco ball hanging from the ceiling. Now skylights turned on and the lights turned off in the room, and now the skylights and the discoball lighted up this place. I stayed silent. I turned and looked around the place, and noticed for the first time that there were swimming pools everywhere. This almost seemed like a swimming pool center or something. People jumped into the pools here and there. Amber twitched, which got my attention that something was trying to talk to her DarkSoul or something. I looked around and looked for anything that caught my attention, but everything seemed normal, well not actually normal but fine for this place at least. Suddenly, Amber screamed and latched onto an old lady that was standing near us. The lady squirmed, trying to get her off, but Amber only bit her hand and slashed at her face. I walked back a few feet, grabbing Lindsay's arm and dragging her away from Amber. Amber laughed an evil laugh, and rose her hand into the air. I watched in horror as her nails turned into long, red claws. Her eyes flashed red, and she turned back to the lady, and slashed at her arm. The lady, broke free and jumped into the water. Amber turned back to us, and I instantly turned around and jumped into the water too. I started to swim instantly, with Lindsay slowly catching up. Amber jumped in behind us, and I started to swim as fast as I could. I looked down, trying to find the bottom of the pool, but there was no bottom. I knew that I would reach a wall soon, so I dove down deeper. Lindsay swam ahead of me. We went on and on and there was still no bottom to this strange pool. I looked up and saw Amber, but she didn't look evil any more. She just stayed in one spot, looking totally shocked. I nudged Lindsay, and pointed up to Amber. Lindsay nodded, and we started swimming back up. I grabbed Amber's hand, and we reached the surface. We were back in the room, nothing seemed different and the lady that Amber had attacked had gone. We swam to the nearest wall and got out of the water. I turned to Amber. "What happened to you?!" I yelled at her. She started to cry. "I-I don't know ok!" She stood up and started walking forward. We followed her, and saw a large green door. Lindsay walked ahead and touched the door, and looked back at us again. "This.. the control panel. I think we should quickly get out of here before anything.." She turned and looked at Amber. "...anything bad happens." She turned back to the door, and we walked up to the door to. Lindsay turned the knob, and opened the door. But she instantly pulled us into the room and slammed the door behind us. She turned back to the door and locked it. "That was close.." She said. "What?" I asked. "The 'people' here are very protective of the CP. Come on, let's go." We walked down a long dark hallway, the walls were big mirrors. Every once in a while, there was a blue statue of a dragon, their eyes glowed a blood red. There was another door. Lindsay rushed forward and opened it. We were finally here, I thought. We walked in, this time a small room. The walls were mirrors, even the floors. There was a big computer in front of us, and there were a series of keyboards and other electronic stuff. The walls had screens on them. Lindsay walked forward, and started typing on the keyboard to the main computer. Amber and I rushed forward to her side to see what she was doing. The screen lit up, and a little movie played. A girl was walking with a crowd of big kids that looked like they where in grade six or seven. They walked on, but the girl started to walk behind them. The crowd stopped, and they grabbed a skipping rope off the ground. They started playing a game of skip, when a little girl ran up to them. One of the really tall girls in the group picked up the little girl and swung her around in the air. They all looked like they were having fun, except that one other girl, she was sitting on a stone bench, watching them play. Then she stood up and tried to join in, but the tall girl but the little girl down and punched the girl in the face, sending her back to the stone bench. But she still didn't give up. She returned to the crowd, but this time the tall girl grabbed her head, punched her three times, then kicked her in the stomach. The girl ran away, at least tried to. She collapsed from being hurt so much. The video started to fade away.. An icy silence filled the room. Lindsay was crying her eyes out now. Amber looked really sad. I could of sworn that the girl look like someone I knew.. but I threw away the thought. Lindsay smacked the screen and screamed. Amber turned away and sat on the floor, crying as well. I looked at Lindsay and asked: "Do you know her? Was that 2007?" Lindsay yelled again, then looked at me. "Yes, it is.. ah that was me in year 2007!" She hit the screen again. I was extremely puzzled. Lindsay wipped away her tears, and started typing again on the keyboard. I watched the screen. She opened a time flux program, then entered in the password. Now she went into a security center, and looked at recent events. I saw it, it read 'Imput virus DSS'. Lindsay clicked it, and hit enter on the keyboard. A progress bar popped up, showing that it would take two weeks to clear the action. Lindsay sighed in relief. Amber stood up, and walked over to the computer. "How do we get back?" She asked. Lindsay smiled, for the first time in a while, then opened another program on the computer, called teleporter. I knew what she was going to do. She entered in Langford, but for the year she put in 2007. I grabbed her arm "What are you doing?!" I pulled her away, and put in 2003, and hit enter. The whole room flashed once, and before we knew it we were in the front yard of grama's house. I looked around, and smiled. I rolled around in the grass, and saw that Amber was estatic as well! Lindsay actually laughed and smiled. "I guess I was just thinking the impossible. Thank you.. Kelsey. For saving me.. and putting up with me. I must go back to my house now... bye." And with that she started to walk away. Me and Amber looked up, and watched her walk away. She stopped, turned around, and smiled her usual smile. I smiled back and waved, and Amber yelled back at her. "Thanks Lindsay! You're one of the best friends I could ever have! Thank you so much!" Amber yelled. I smiled at Lindsay, and she smiled back. "Oh, you havn't seen the last of me.. I go to the same school as you, remember?" Me and Amber laughed, and yelled our final goodbyes. Lindsay walked away, happy that she had changed the world. I could hear the front door behind us unlocking, and me and Amber turned around. Grama stood at the door way, and Ebony and Sammy Sam stood at her side. I smiled and ran towards grama, and Amber followed. Grama hugged me, and acted as if she had never been in a weird machine at all. Grama invited us inside the house for lunch, and me and Amber nodded and hurridly entered the house. We sat down at the kitchen table, and told grama everything that had happened. I felt so happy, happier than ever. But grama had told us what it was like in the machine, and I knew that what had happened was still very real and had happened. "My mom? What happened to her?" I asked, and saw a very concerned look on grama's face. "She choose to give her life to free everyone. She.." I held my hand up, signing her to stop. I knew that that was something that she would do. But now, I had a life ahead of me with my grama. I felt saddened, and excited at the same time. For I knew that I had even more fun adventures and friends to meet in the years to come.