3:22 A.M. FEBUARY 6TH, 2011
37321, TENNESSEE, U.S.A.
"What was that noise?" Rayne said waking me up. I didn't personally hear it, but the noise seemed to startle her. "I didn't hear anything," I said, "It was probably just some deer or something. Come back to bed." She didn't seem convinced, so she got up and started towards the door. "I'm sure it's nothing, but I want to-" She was interrupted by what sounded like a gunshot. This time I had heard what had startled her, but I wasn't sure what the sound was either. "COME FACE ME YOU TRAITOROUS BASTARD!" A mysterious voice yelled from deep in the woods right outside my window. "Who the hell is that?" said Rayne. "I'm not sure," I lied, for that voice was Chihime no doubt. Rayne had never come face-to-face with her and if I had my way, she never would. I knew right then we weren't safe where we were. "We need to leave right now," I exclaimed urgently, "Follow me. This will be the fastest way out." Pointing to the window, I made my way to it hoping that going this way would keep our paths from crossing. "Wait, the yelling came from that direction, wouldn't it be better to use the front door?" Rayne asked. "No time, we would make it away from her quicker if we leave here." I said grabbing her hand and pulling her to the window. She ripped her hand back yelling, "HER?!?! I thought you didn't know who that was…." I had said the wrong thing. Without thinking I pulled the window open, grabbed her hand again and darted out the window. We landed much rougher than I had originally planned, but I hadn't thought of what to do now. Rayne wasn't going anywhere until I explained the situation. "Her name is Chihime. She is a Vampire from The Guard. I had originally agreed to spy for The Guard until I realized the United Forces weren't a bad group of people. Since I refused to keep giving them information, she is here to force it out of me." Silence lingered for a few seconds before she replied with a furious scowl, "You're a spy for The Guard???" "Is that all you heard?" I replied quickly, "Did you not also hear why she is here to begin with? I'm refusing to spy for them anymore. I would rather work with the United Forces." She stood there silent for a few seconds contemplating what I had said. Before she could reply I said pulling her hand, "We still need to get out of here regardless. We can sort this out later." She nodded reluctantly and followed. We ran for a bit before we heard glass shattering "YOU CAN'T RUN BEN. YOU MAY NOT BE HUMAN, BUT MAGE BLOOD HAS A DISTINCT SMELL AS WELL!" Chihime yelled from what seemed like my house. "She's not far behind us, she will outrun us. We will have to fight her." I said to Rayne preparing for the worst. We stopped and I examined the area. It was dark, leaves covered the ground, trees in every direction, and it had to be well below freezing. After a few seconds Chihime came darting towards us. She quickly stopped slamming her foot into a root nearly uprooting the tree it belonged to. I then knew the noise was not gunshots, but rather trees hitting the ground from Chihime's rage. "There you are." she said quickly turning her attention to Rayne, "Who is she?" She paused for a moment when she realized the United Forces crest on Rayne's pajamas. "Ahh, I understand now," She started again, "You've fallen for this whore. I had no clue the United Forces had a Succubus in their ranks. Well, there is an easy way to fix this problem." She reared back ready to charge us saying, "If I kill her, you will have no reason to defy us anymore." She started charge Rayne. "MOVE!" I said teleporting between her and Chihime. I quickly froze the moisture in the air between us into a poorly shaped shield. I embraced for impact. The ice shattered and a warm feeling filled my face. Before I realized what happened I checked to see if Rayne was okay. Apparently I had bought enough time for her to fly up out of the way. "BEN!!!!" I heard as everything went black. I didn't feel cold anymore my face was extremely hot, and my body was numb.
6:30 A.M. NOVEMBER 23RD, 2010
37321, TENNESSEE, U.S.A.
A familiar ringing greeted me as I woke. Flailing lazily about trying to stop it, I slammed my elbow into the edge of my nightstand. I then fell face first into my floor, flipped and slammed my toe into my desk. Deep in pain I found my phone and stopped my alarm. "Today's going to be GREAT," I said sarcastically. Footsteps came down the hallway, "Ben? Are you okay?" my mom asked concerned. "Yes," I sighed, "Today is just one of those days." She laughed and motioned for me to come get breakfast. I changed and followed her to be greeted by bacon and eggs. My mom really seemed to spoil me, although I feel I take advantage of that. She doesn't seem to mind though. "Do you have practice today?" She asked as I was scarfing down food. "Yeah, I'll be a little late getting home tonight." I'm on our school soccer team, so every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have practice. "Alright, I'll start dinner a little late then." I got my stuff together quickly shoving the last piece of bacon in my mouth. "Bye!" I exclaimed halfway out of the door, "Be careful!" She replied. There she was, my pride and joy, waiting for me to get into. My Mazda Miata that I had just gotten. Up until now I had been driving my mom's crappy old Lincoln Towncar. It felt nice getting behind the wheel of my own car. Today was special day, not only because I got to drive my new car to school for the first time, but for a reason I had yet to find out about. An event that would change my whole world.
I arrived at school expecting some attention because of my change in car, but no one seemed to give it a glance. My heart sank, I thought for sure someone would notice. As I got out however I heard, "Sweet wheels man!" My friend Dakota had apparently pulled up right behind me. He is a bit taller than me, has blonde hair, and kind of lanky. He pulled in next to me in his Nissan truck, covered in mud from the bottom up to right above the mirrors. He was the classic stereotypical "Redneck". He hunted and fished every chance he got. He isn't supposed to but he kept his hunting rifle in his truck at all times in case he ran across a random deer. We walked in together since we shared the same 1st period class. Shortly after we got inside, the bell rang and 1st period began. When we got to class a bunch of chatter filled the class. "Was it a stray dog?" "I heard it was some kind of wolf." "The trucks door was almost knocked off, it hit him so hard." I looked at Dakota wondering what they were talking about. He shrugged then asked Steve, "What happened?" He replied, "You didn't see it?" Dakota looked at him with an annoyed glare, "Would I be askin' ya if I knew what y'all was talkin' bout?" Steve chuckled, "Well coming south down the highway there was a truck that got nailed by some kind of dog or wolf or something. Got hit so hard its door almost fell off." Dakota looked at me like he didn't quite understand. I shrugged and asked, "How could a dog or wolf do something like that?" Steve replied, "Don't know, but my question is how did the dog run away after that? Surely it had to be extremely injured if not dead." Mr. Garrison walked in and we knew we had to post-pone the conversation. After class Leslie came up to me and said, "You had some questions about the incident this morning, right?" I nodded, "Well, I was there when it happened, the k-9 or whatever almost hit me. There were actually two things there. There was also another shady figure that seemed like it was chasing the k-9. I couldn't tell what it was chasing the k-9, but it moved extremely fast, faster than any animal I know of. It had a red colored silhouette though." I thanked her for telling me, although now I was more confused about the incident than I was before. The bell rang and I realized I had taken too long talking to her, so I had to rush to 2nd period.
We had a test today in Physics, so it was a nice and peaceful 2nd period. I was one of the first done with the test, so I sat there staring out the glass in the side door looking outside. "I wonder what kind of animal was chasing the dog." I thought to myself, "Surely it wasn't like a cheetah or something, because she said it had a red silhouette." "10 minutes left," said Mr. Evans. "What animals have a red color to them?" I thought, "Some sort of monkey is red, but a monkey isn't that-" Suddenly glass shards flew all over the room, and two creatures came flying across the room. After brushing off the glass that landed on me, I took a better look at the two. One was on top of the other, she was wearing a red robe of sorts that tapered down short to long closer to the bottom. Her hair was short, straight, and snow white, her skin was as pale as a ghost, and her eyes were blood red. She wore many spiky belts and bracelets. She had a cross hanging from both her belt and her necklace, and she wore knee high boots. She was on top of some sort of huge wolf. The wolf was black and with some sort of green symbol in its fur. It had green eyes and fluffy ears and extremely thick fur. The wolf growled and pushed the girl off of it, turned and darted out the door leading to the hallway. The white haired girl quickly jumped to her feet and instantly disappeared, almost as if she had teleported or something. Wind filled the room as she left, and without thinking I got out of my seat and ran out into the hallway. When I got into the hallway the white haired girl was at the end of the hallway, and right before disappearing again she looked at me, winked and smiled as she left. "BEN!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET IN HERE IT CAN'T BE SAFE OUT THERE!" Yelled Mr. Evans panting as he reached the door. He had apparently ran to the door just like me, but wasn't quite as fast, or in shape, as I am. I walked back into the class room and helped clean glass off the floor.
The whole class was in an uproar over what they had seen. "Was that the wolf that hit the truck this morning?" "Dude did you see that smokin' hot lil' lady?" "What were they? I've never seen anything like that." Mr. Evans had everyone evacuate into the hallway until we got the glass cleared from the room. About halfway through cleaning the floor the intercom chimed in, "~Attention students and faculty, Room 302 will be closed today for clean up. All students who attend Mr. Evans Physics class will be instead attending Room 247 until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation.~" I wonder if the other classes know what happened. If they don't then I doubt they will believe what actually happened. By the end of the day there will be more than 5 different stories of what happened. I let out a long sigh, "Ben, if you're having any trouble dealing with any of this I can excuse you to the guidance counselor for the rest of the day." Mr. Evans said to me. I shook my head at him, "I'm fine, I just wonder how many different versions of the story there will be at the end of the day." He laughed an resumed sweeping with me. The bell rang and after finishing up with Mr. Evans I continued with my day as normal.
Each period I keep zoning out thinking about what happened. In 6th period it got to the point where I was questioning myself whether or not she really smiled and winked at me or if I just imagined it. One of my thoughts was interrupted when I realized I had zoned out staring at my crush, Tawnya. Her hair of assorted warm colors shook as she giggled when she noticed me quickly turn away. I'm sure she had to have seen me staring. I couldn't think straight the rest of the period because I was so embarrassed. I would occasionally glance over at her, wondering if that giggle was due to some stupid face I was making or if she for some reason liked me as well. "Who am I kidding? She's too pretty to like me." I thought to myself as I returned my attention back to the teacher.
The last bell rang for the end of the school day, and due to what happened today soccer practice was canceled because of police investigating. Everyone was telling rumors of what happened today in Mr. Evans. Just like I thought there were about 7 different versions of the story, only about 2 of them were accurate. As I got in my car I remembered, "Ahh, my sweet baby, I get to drive you home today." I sat there thinking with my eyes closed leaned back with a stupid looking smirk. I opened my eyes to see 3 girls staring at me and laughing, one of which was Tawnya. "God….. I can't win for losing." I thought to my self as my cheeks grew red. "Bro, you gots some time to chit chat n' maybe get a bite?" Dakota said leaned over his seat looking down from his truck window. "Sure, I don't have practice today, it got canceled." I said. He nodded and led us out of the school. We ended up pulling into a burger joint. "So I heard you's in Mr. Evan's class when Red-eyed lady n' tha dog came barrelin' in, right?" Dakota said as he climbed out of his truck. "Yea, glass went everywhere, and it about gave me a heart attack." I said as we were headed in. We ordered some food and sat down to talk bout the incident. "So you think these "Creatures" as you call them are tha same things that dun' hit that truck this mornin'?" Dakota said as we sat down. "I don't know for sure, but they match the description that Leslie gave me this morning." I said as I stuffed my face. "So was that dog hurt at all, surely if it was the same dog it'd have some kinda' wounds, right?" he said. "No, it didn't seem hurt, and neither did the girl. Even though both of them came through the shattered glass though, neither of them were hurt by it as well." I said baffled. "Not even a scratch?" he asked. "Nope." I quickly replied. "Wow, wonder what they are then. Ain't seen none them round these parts, that's for sure," he said. After explaining everything, then telling him about my embarrassing encounters with Tawnya, we left.
I got home around dark and came in to the smell of food. My mom quickly asked, "I heard soccer practice was canceled, where have you been?" Having forgotten that she was fixing food I said with guilt, "I went to eat with Dakota after school." The look in her face sank and she sighed. "I completely forgot about dinner, I should have called or something," I apologized. "It's okay, but if you're hungry later it will be in the fridge."
After doing my homework I changed, took a shower, and went to my room to crash. I walked in and the lights were off, so I didn't bother turning them on, since I could find my way to my bed without light. I climbed in my bed, went to lay my head down, but when my head hit the pillow cold chills went all through my body. My pillow felt like it had been in the freezer. I real quick raised back up and felt around my pillow. It seemed really squishy and soft, but incredibly cold. I squeezed it a few times before I heard, "Well aren't you a bold guy," said a crisp female voice. "Don't you think you should know my name before groping me?" I then realized that I wasn't squeezing my pillow, but rather a girl's breast. I sprung back falling out of my bed, landing on some sort of fur. Shocked and disoriented I couldn't figure out what was going on, was I dreaming? Surely I didn't fall asleep that fast. "You know I never said stop, been a while since someone grabbed me so firmly," she said firmly as she stepped out of my bed. It was then I came to my senses and realized that I was on an animal of some sort. I got up and it soon followed with a stretch and a yawn. As my eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, I realized the girl was the same white haired girl from the school today. I then glanced down and saw that this was the same dog as well. "Who are you?" I asked frantically. "Well I'm Chihime, I work for The Guard. I've come to ask you to join our ranks. As for that ravage beast over there, I haven't the slightest clue." She said glaring at the dog. The dog growled at her, then looked at me. Right before I was going to continue, the dog began to speak, "I'm with the United Forces, and I feel you would better serve with us than with the guard. Their job is to kill our kind, yours and mine alike." Astonished I replied, "Y-Y-Y-Y-ou can talk??????" Chihime giggled, and the dog replied, "Yes, I am a Werewolf, of course I can talk. Have your parents taught you nothing of my kind?" Still trying to wrap my head around the situation I reply, "I thought that Werewolves were just some myth people made up for good stories." Chihime giggled a little more then asked, "Well then I suppose you don't believe in Vampires do you?" I looked at her for a second then realized it. White hair…. Red eyes…. I'm standing between a Werewolf an a Vampire. "Wait wait wait wait…. What is The Guard and the United Forces?" Chihime sighed, "I hate to sound like the Mut over there, but did your parents not teach you anything?" "What do you mean? My parents read me monster stories, but I never thought they were real." I said and Chihime looked at me puzzled. "Your parents were the last 2 Archmages left on Earth, and they didn't tell you about Werewolves and Vampires?" I looked at her even more puzzled. "Archmages? I'm not even sure what that is, as far as I know my mom was a cook, and my dad died in the military when I was young." Chihimes face lightened. "I see, those aren't your real parents. Your real parents must have left you in this couples care when you were born to shield you from this life." "This life? What do you mean?" I asked. "All sorts of "Creatures" were banished from Earth long ago, through a portal protected by "The Guard." We keep them from coming to Earth and killing humans for past conflicts. Although there are-" The dog cut her off saying, "They don't keep us from killing humans, they kill any of our kind that make it through that god forsaken gate." Chihime scowled at the dog, "As I was saying there are a few of us who are permitted to live on earth as long as we serve the guard in protecting the Earth. We feel that since you already live amongst the humans you wouldn't have a problem protecting the humans." What she said seemed fair. Up until now I had thought that I was also a human, so protecting humans seems logical. "The United Forces has a different goal than The Guard," the dog started, "Our goal is to unite the humans and creatures together on Earth, because our kind was banished to a barren wasteland through that portal. We have no intentions of hurting humans, and feel that we can bring them together with our kind to live peacefully." Chihime replied, "You know that will never happen, humans and creatures will never live together peacefully. On the other side of that gate there are numerous hostile creatures that would kill a human on sight for past mistakes, and humans don't trust creatures, some are even scared of most creatures." The two glared at each other for a few seconds before I finally said, "I'll need time to think about it." Both of them handed me an metal medallion with a crest in the center, one a shield, the other a circle with what appeared to be two sets of wings. "What are these?" I asked. "They are medallions of teleportation, when you decide which you would rather join, simply put the medallion on and press your finger to the center of it." Chihime explained. "I guess we'll see you when you've made your decision." They both then disappeared, being sucked into nothingness as they teleported away with their medallions. Finally I could sleep.
1P.M. NOVEMBER 27TH, 2010
37308, TENNESSEE, U.S.A.
A few days have passed since I was told I was something called an "Archmage," and Mr. Evans room is still closed off due to the investigation. I had done a lot of
Authors notes: ain't wasting time if no one's interested, want more tell me, full books wrote with illustration too