The New Warrior
"Luxa, wait, Luxa! Don't go! Ares, tell her to stop. Ares, get Aurora, please, Ares, do something. Luxa stop!" Gregor tossed and turned in his bed, nightmarish pictures passing behind his eyelids. Usually someone came to wake him up, but not this time, not now, not now that he was on his own.
When Gregor awoke the next morning, he made himself a egg burrito. "Man, I sure wish I had some more money," he thought to himself. Gregor went back to his full size room now with a bed, a dresser, a T.V., a nightstand, and a bean bag, and got dressed for work. He pulled on a white polo and jeans with his new Converse, grabbed his wallet and walked out the door. When Gregor got to his car, his old, beat up, Jetta, he turned around to make sure his backpack was in the backseat. Gregor never went anywhere without being prepared, Gregor kept a backpack full of things that he may need in the Underland. numerous flashlights, food, a knife, duct tape, batteries, matches, water, and ChapStick were the basics. Recently Gregor had became a ChapStick fanatic, ever since his recent girlfriend, Melanie, had told him that his lips were always chapped. He was never a fan of Melanie, honestly he was kind of using her, she was popular, and gorgeous, and he just wanted to work his way up the social ladder during his senior year. He moved out during the summer, after his grandmother passed away. He didn't exactly move out, he moved a floor below his parents and Lizzie and Boots- who now called herself Meg. He figured he didn't need to be in the way of everyone anymore, and besides, his room was way too small to accommodate him anyways. Big changes were being brought to Gregor, between the girlfriend, the new apartment, the new job, the car, but things were still the same, mostly the way he felt about Luxa.
"Greg, you're late!" Gregor's boss yelled at him, "grab your vest and hurry up!"
Gregor liked the way everyone recently had been calling him Greg, he didn't think it was that bad honestly, he even kind of wished he would have changed it sooner, like back in 3rd grade, but now, it seemed only Luxa and his family called him Gregor, and he liked that, he thought it was nice how only the people he truly cared about called him that, something of a personal sort.
Gregor grabbed his vest and prepared himself for another eight hour shift at Albertson's.
On the ride home Gregor decided to go to the candy store to get Lizzie and Boots something special given it was Grandma's birthday tomorrow. Gregor missed her, but he accepted her death, she would be 87 tomorrow, her time had came he figured. At the candy store Gregor bought Lizzie a stuffed owl and a king-sized chocolate bar, and Boots a giraffe and some Starburst. As he was leaving the store, he noticed the giant rock that was an entrance to the Underland was glowing, as if someone had broke a glo-stick and wiped all the remains onto the rock. Gregor ran back to his car, tossed his new presents into the trunk, grabbed his backpack and ran to the rock. As Gregor got to the rock he realized that something was caught in the rock, he used his cell phone as a flashlight and looked at whatever was caught, it looked like it was clothing-spun from spinner silk-a shiner wing, gnawer whiskers, and blood. Gregor tried to grasp how this happened, he couldn't think of any reasonable explanation. Either way, he pushed the rock away to reveal the entrance, praising himself for joining a gym to prepare for track, because the rock would've been impossible to move otherwise. Gregor stepped down into the opening and started descending the stairs, wary of his surroundings. With every step Gregor could feel an unusual coldness emitting from the Underland.