Chapter One: Jada Kingstone

Jada lay wide awake staring at her bedroom ceiling. Groaning, her eyes drifted to the dimly lit clock to see it was already one in the morning.

Why couldn't she just sleep? Because, she thought, nighttime is the best time of the day.

This happened all of the time, at night Jada would feel energized and giddy. But during the day time she was tired and could barelly get through school.

Am I a vampire?she asked herself, not for the first time over the last three months since her nocturnal senses kicked in.

Stop being paranoid, Jada told herself, I don't glitter in the sunlight. God, she really needed to stop watching scary movies and Twilightright after each other.

Jada's eyes scanned the bumps and ridges of her bedroom ceiling as she tried to find a way to fall asleep. She'd already tried counting sheep. Nope. No warm milk helped. Who had come up with thatanyways? It was a dumb idea, Jada had almost made the microwave explode! It didn't work to try and become even more tired so she'd pass right out when her head hit the pillow. No long runs in the middle of the night, then coming home and hitting the pillow, she was still buzzing with energy.

It didn't work when she'd tried to suffocate herself as a last resort because she was so frustrated with herself. Never try that, by the way. Nothing worked, she'd finally come to that conclusion. No matter what, whenever that sun went down, Jada Kingstone was full of unrequented (SP) energy.

For the final time, Jada tried falling sleep. If I don't, then I'll just watch TV until morning, she promised herself.

After ten minutes of contant shifting, deep sighs of frustration and a couple of pillow punches later, Jada drifted innto a restless sleep. Followed by a nightmare.

That was the thing, even when she did sleep, Jada still fell into a nightmare that scared her so much, she was sure she'd pass out from fear. And it was always the same. Even though it was probably impossible to faint in a dream. Jada would soon find out.

She stood in the woods. A canopy of leaves blocked out most of the sin, though there was not much sun to be seen, only a hazy grey sheet of clouds. It was hard for Jada to see more than five paces ahead of her. And the temperture was humid and settled over her skin like a blanket she thought might suffocate her.

She knew it was certain death to continue on, Jada did. She didn't know where she was going, but her feet did. Jada's stomach twisted inf ear, somethign she wasn't use to feeling. Her head wanted to turn around and look at something-or someone- that was behind her, though she knew she couldn't or she'd chicken out of her quest. Whatever her quest was.

What was she moving towards anyway? Why was she scared? And why was she feeling guilty about it?

Jada didn't know what to expect as she stumbled upon a dark blue glow coming from behind a huge oak tree. Cautiously, Jada let her head peak out from behind the tree, as she swallowed back a lump in her throat. What was that blue haze?

A man stood in the center of the small clearing, straight ahead of her. Jada couldn't tell if the man was radiating this blue glow or if it was coming from a seperate source. She didn't care, all she knew was that she was here to save something. But what?

Speaking of the man, he had snow white hair, like the cotton-like clouds on a spring day, that fell to his shoulders, thick and rim-rod straight. He had on a sky blue tuxedo, it was perfectly pressed without any wrinkes. His hands were claps behind his back, showing off his calloused, leather brown skin, which contrasted form his suit.

Was he even alive? From the way he was standing he seemed more like a statue than anythign else.

Jada's eyes drifting around, her heart was pounding and fear froze her feet to the ground. She wanted to run, but she coudn't, from both the fear, determination and rage this man boiled up inside of her.

The clearing was almost empty, besides a boy sitting in heavy chains to the right of the blue-suited man. He was bloodied, hunched and looked like he'd been through Hell and back.

For some reason, Jada's heart clenched in fear for the boy. His blond hair was matted with dried blood. And something else deep inside of her sturred, what was it? A protectiveness? Or something else?

"You'll never succeed," I heard the boy say in a scratchy, weak voice. There was silence before the man actually made a sound. He chuckled and ran a leathery hand through his hair.

"You think so?" The man turned towards him, and now Jada could see half of his face. He looked young enough, maybe a bit over thirty. He was handsome, but the smirk on his face and the stormy grey of his eyes, made goosebumps develop on Jada's arms. "Well, child, you will see how easily the gods fall."

"They will not fall, you cannot get Jada to come after me, she doesn't care for me enough," The boy said, his voice was broken still, as if speaking that name hurt him physically. Even more than the way he looked then. He shifted and looked up, Jada gasped slightly, trying to keep as quietly as possible.

He was grotesque, his nose was broken and bent to the side, and dried blood covered over half of his face, a deep, jagged cut ran down from his left temple to the middle of his cheek and his eyes were half shut because they were so swollen but the bright blue-ish color of them glistened with the life that was still inside of him.

Both of their heads jerked towards the sound of Jada's gasp and she jumped back to the tree, flattening herself as much as possible against the trunk, barelly paying any attention to the branch that dug into her spine. Silence fell over the clearing, it was odd to Jada because most forests were filled with noises of life. Birds churping, deer and other animals running through the woods, even the trees were silent. It seemed like nature was holding its breath to see what was going to happen.

Finally, after minutes of silence, Jada recovered her wits enough to look around again. The man was back in his original position, looking like a statue, but then his head cocked to the side, his hair falling over one shoulder. "They have arrived." He said, his voice was gravelly and showed he was older than his looks said he was.

Just as he said it three ten foot giants of men entered the clearing to the man's left. They were dressed in huge clothes, normal enough besides the fact that they all smelled like they lived in a dump. What threw Jada off was the fact that they all had only one eye and baby-like faces. A word popped to Jada's mind from histroy class. Cyclops.

That was impossible though! Cyclops didn't exist. Calm down, Jada, She told herself, this is only a dream. But something inside of her doubted it. If it was a dream then why was it so vivid? Why were her feelings so strong?

"Greetings, master," One Cyclops said, he waved a hand once, as if robotic. Its voice was deep, but had a child-like feeling about it. As if it had gone through puberty too early or something.

Jada listened closely, trying not to gag at the new stench.

"Hello, Junkman, have you gotten the items?" The man in the blue tux asked, his voice was commanding, but a bit less harsh than the way he used it on the chained boy.

"Yes master-" he wasn't cut off, but Jada was pulled into the woods silently. Someone had a hand over her mouth, muffling her screams of fear. What was happening? Frantically she tried to get loose, to run away, to try and defend herself. The person that held her had one arm around her waist, holding her to him or her and the hand around her mouth was like a steel wire. She couldn't get away. As she started to relax, giving up and let the person take her away, both hands slid to Jada's throat.

They were going to strangle her! She started thrashing violently, survival clouding any thought within her brain, but it was impossible to get free. She already had too much oxygen gone, she couldn't do anything, but let this mystery person kill her.

So she gave up. What else was there for her to do?