Terese.
Can you hear me.?
Are you.ready?
The magnificent structure loomed before me, yet I still had miles before I would be in its presence. The sheer size of it was humbling, like standing before a god. The Golgotha, as it was called, was by far the most sacred place on the face of the planet. Suddenly, a chasm with a hissing river of lava appeared before me. I screamed and fell over the edge of the abyss, barely grabbing a protruding root from the rock wall just in time. The bubbling magma below frothed and hissed. Jagged, black symbols and pictures were carved into the stone. Flames leapt up and licked at me. I struggled to pull myself up onto the ground above, but sweat from my hands made the root slippery. I could not hold on. I plunged to the magma.
September 18, 2003 5:02am Friday
Terese's eyes hammered open. Icy beads of sweat covered her body. She threw the blanket off. It was September, but the nights were still warm. Terese looked at her clock and saw the time. What had she been dreaming about? She could never remember her dreams anymore. She stood up and got dressed, then went into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. She was an unusual girl, not only by her personality, but also by her appearance. Her face was elliptical in shape, with a round forehead and angular chin. She had widely spaced, intense, sharp eyes, reddish purple in color. Her eyelashes were thick and black, her eyebrows sleek and seductive. Her short, spiky hair matched the color of her eyes. Terese's ears were long and pointy, giving her the nickname "Arwen". She had natural fangs, but most people thought they were fake, because they were long and razor sharp. Terese's skin was light tan in color, and flawless except for the two scars that slashed across her cheek, down to her jawbone. She also had a pair of scars running along the sides of her spine, in between her shoulder blades. Terese did not know how she had gotten any of the scars, but she wondered every day. Her overall body shape was Caucasoid, like a martini glass. Terese's hips and shoulders were equal in width, with a short torso and long legs. Today she was wearing black baggy pants and a black shirt with fishnet sleeves. "DIE" was written in jagged white letters across the front of the shirt. Terese put some black eyeshadow along her upper and lower eyelids and brushed her teeth. She painted her nails, black as always, and then went back to her room. Her clock now read 5:49. She would have to leave soon if she wanted to get to school on time. Terese picked up her backpack and was about to leave, when Mikey, Terese's five-year-old brother, came bouncing after her.
"Teree! Don't go!" He whined. Terese smiled. Mikey was the one person in the world that Terese cared for the most.
"Oh, you. You caught me!" Terese laughed at Mikey. "But big sis needs to go to school."
"Can I come? Please?"
"No, Mikey. I already told you that you couldn't come."
"But."
"No "buts", I need to leave now or I'll be late." Terese said sternly.
"But."
"Have a good day." Terese said, giving him a hug. Then she left, locking the door behind her.
She hefted her backpack onto her other shoulder, breathing in the morning Colorado air. Clouds peeked over the Rocky Mountains. It would rain later. Terese made it to the intersection near her school, when an odd sensation came over her. She suddenly felt very dizzy; her vision dimmed, and there was a rushing sound in her ears. Terese fell onto the ground, breathing heavily and laboriously. A woman jogging saw her, and ran to Terese's aid.
"Are you okay?" the woman asked. Terese shook her head. Suddenly, a pain that Terese had never felt before, like her insides were being ripped out of her, tore through her body. Terese shrieked in agony, alarming the woman.
"Oh god." The woman said. A few cars slowed, curious. Terese cried out again and coughed up blood. "Someone call an ambulance!" The woman yelled, looking around. A few people stopped their cars and jumped out. A couple of them took out cell phones and started calling 911. Terese coughed up more blood. Quite suddenly, Terese's skin lost color and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. The last thing Terese was aware of was the sound of sirens, and then she lost consciousness.
September 18, 2003 10:29 pm Friday
The rain came down hard and fast. The temperature was below forty degrees Fahrenheit. The sun had set long ago, and darkness swallowed everything. The power to the city of Golden, Colorado had gone out, leaving the city in inky blackness. Jon pulled his car into the driveway of his house. He turned the car off, and sat back for a moment, listening to the drumming of the rain on the roof. Pushing his long, black hair behind his ear, he stepped out of his car and hurried to his front door. As he fumbled with his keys, he sensed that he was being watched. Slowly, he turned to look behind him. There was nothing there, but when he turned back towards his door, a cloaked figure stood in his way. Startled, he yelped and fell back. The shadowy outline stepped forward, towards Jon. It slowly brought its hands out from under the cloak. They were covered in black leather gloves. Jon got up, ran to his car and locked the door. The figure stood next to his window, and reached inside its cloak. Jon turned the key in the ignition, and was about to back out of the driveway, when there was a sound of grinding steel, a flash of metal, then silence. After a few seconds, chunks of Jon's car crashed to the cement and blood streamed down to the gutters. Jon's younger sister came outside, having heard the ruckus. The first things her eyes met were the mutilated car, and the cloaked figure, holding a bloody sword in one hand. Her heart stopped, not wanting to believe what she saw. But it was too true. The cloaked figure appeared to turn its head, and looked at her. It laughed. The voice was childish in tone, but frighteningly cold. It sounded as if a hundred screams of men and women and children had been woven into this one creature's voice. "No." She breathed. The figure laughed again and moved menacingly towards the girl. She backed up against the door, terrified. "Get away from me! Go away!" She screamed, covering her eyes with her hands. She slid down the door, sitting on the rain-soaked cement. "Please.go away." When she uncovered her eyes, the figure had vanished.
* * * * *
September 23, 2003
Wednesday
3:57 am
Terese woke in a stark white hospital room. There were wires on her head and tubes in her arms. Terese sat up and looked around. She seemed to be attached to a bunch of machines.
Terese's clothes were folded on the bedside table. She picked them up and got dressed after pulling off the needles and wires. She was just about to leave, when a nurse came in.
"Why aren't you in bed? You should be resting!" She said sternly.
"Why should I be resting?" Terese replied, a hint of defiance in her voice. The nurse made a disapproving face.
"You've been in a coma for five days. We still need to monitor your health." The nurse explained. Terese was taken aback. Where had the time gone? What could have caused her to go into a coma for five days? Terese saw no explanation. As far as she knew, she was perfectly healthy, and there was nothing obvious that could have caused her five-day blackout.
"I'm not staying here," Terese said. The nurse started to reply, but Terese cut her off. "I don't need to be monitored. I don't need to stay here." She said defiantly. She picked up he backpack that was the floor, and was about to leave, when a picture on the television caught her eye.
She turned her head to look at the screen.
"-was recently murdered. Officials are unsure of who his killer was, but are baffled at the way he was murdered." The newscaster said. Terese stepped closer to hear better. A police officer appeared, standing next to a slashed up car.
"The victim's sister claims to have seen the attacker, although psychologists who have talked with her believe that seeing her brother, killed in the way he was, may have traumatized her, so much that she may not even know what she saw. She claimed that the attacker wore a long, black cloak; with black leather gloves, which covered its hands. She said that it sliced right through the victim's car with a sword, killing her brother." The police officer indicated the car, which had been cut almost in half. Blood was splattered on the inside of the windshield, and there were reddish brown blotches on the cement.
"When the body was removed from the car," the officer continued, "The body had been sliced cleanly in half, from the shoulder to the hip. The victim's sister later said that the murderer had laughed at her with "a voice that could not possibly be human".
Terese stared at the screen, unable to believe what she was hearing, what she was seeing, unable to accept what her heart told her. She knew who had been murdered. She did not know how she knew, but was aware that she knew everything that had happened, every detail, like a memory. But how could she, when she had been in a coma when it happened? Did she have some connection with the murderer? Terese knew what, where, when and how it had happened. The time was 10:30 pm on Friday...the same Friday that she had lost consciousness.
She stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds, and then turned the TV off. The nurse looked at her with a concerned expression.
"Are you alright?" She asked. Terese turned her face towards the nurse, tears flowing down her face.
"...Jon is dead...he's gone..." She said. The nurse looked at her sympathetically.
In a sudden rage, Terese screamed in fury and put her fist through the television screen. The nurse jumped back in alarm.
"You can't..." She started to say, but a spark of electricity landed on Terese's arm, and ignited. The small flame crawled swiftly up her arm, and quickly engulfed her whole body. Terese cried out and pulled her hand from the screen. What alarmed her most was that she didn't even feel like she was being burned. It merely felt warm.
The nurse yelped in surprise and screamed for help. Three more nurses came in, and screamed.
"Get the fire extinguisher!" One of them yelled.
"Stop, drop, roll! Stop, drop, roll!" Another chanted.
"Smother it with a blanket!" A male nurse said.
"Leave me alone!" Terese cried in anguish, backing into a corner. A few more doctors and nurses came in, all telling Terese to "stop, drop, roll!" or telling somebody to get a fire extinguisher. But the more they chaotic it was, the more distressed Terese became. They were suffocating her.
Finally, Terese yelled "Enough!", and a blast of fire filled the room. So intense was the heat, that everyone in the room, everything in that room, was incinerated. Only Terese was left alive, stunned.
Chapter 1 Hidden Allies
September 18, 2008
Monday
2:09 am
Terese's eyes fluttered open. She moaned and rolled over on the cold prison bed. Her thin blankets did little to keep out the cold of the autumn nights. She curled up in a fetal position, shivering slightly. If only the prison had a heating system. But they didn't care about their top-security prisoners.
Five years ago, Terese has been a normal, happy girl...but then it happened. Terese shivered more violently as pictures ran through her head. Jon. His car...his blood all over the ground, running into the gutter with the rainwater. Metal shimmered near her. A girl sobbed for mercy...the voices...the fire, the deadly blast of fire that had nearly burned down the whole hospital, that had killed over 600 patients.
It was a devastating turn in Terese's life. She had been sentenced to life for arson and mass homicide. It was only the fact that Terese had been unharmed by the fire that she was not on death row. The police could not find even a scratch on her when she came out of the blazing building. She had even been on fire herself. And yet she was completely unharmed. For that reason, the courts let Terese live. There was something about her...something unnatural.
Tears began to run down Terese's cheeks. Oh how she missed her brother, Mikey. Her mother was another story. Ever since her father disappeared, Terese's mother had not been the same person. She cared about nothing anymore. She rarely left her bed. Mikey had grown up ignored and dependant on Terese, for it was Terese who had gotten the family on welfare and took Mikey to the park, to the doctor, to the dentist, and to the grocery store. Terese had been a mother to Mikey, and now he had lost her.
"The sixth element has awoken...I feel it in my soul."
"Yes...I feel it as well."
"We will free it tonight?"
"That we shall..."
"Do you think there will be any trouble? Perhaps the element cannot control itself yet?"
"There will be trouble, but there is no cause for alarm, not when it is us against humans, not with Golgotha on our side."
Two lopsided shadows, silhouetted against the moon, leaped across the sky. They jumped from building to building, silently, not making a sound. As they got closer to the prison, the power in and around the prison went out. Terese opened her eyes. It was blacker then pitch in the cold stone building without the lights. She stood and looked out her window. Guards with flashlights ran about in a panic. There was no light on the streets around the prison either.
Suddenly, a small tremor jarred Terese, almost causing her to lose balance. She looked out the window again, and, as she watched, more and more lights in the nearby neighborhoods and the rest of the city went out. Terese overlooked it and went back to her bed. The power would come back on by tomorrow morning. But what about the tremor? As far as Terese knew, there were not earthquakes in Colorado. Perhaps she was dizzy from lack of sleep, and only thought there was a tremor. She decided that that was it, and closed her eyes.
Terese was just getting relaxed when something odd started happening to her wall. She stared, confused, at the large stone that seemed to be sliding out of the wall. As the rock slid out completely and fell to the ground, Terese knew she was not imagining things. She stood back up and walked to the hole, which was large enough to crawl through. She had almost gotten to it when somebody poked their head in. Terese jumped back in surprise.
"Hello?" Terese asked uncertainly.
"Hello. Are you here for arson and mass murder?" Replied the husky voice of a man. Terese stepped back.
"Yes..."
"Good. Come with me. I'll have answers for you as soon as we escape the guards." The man said. Terese did not know why, but she felt like she could trust him. There was a feeling deep within her heart that she knew him.
"Okay...I'll come with you." Terese said. She let the man help her through the hole, and was shocked to see, where there should have been only air, since Terese's cell was four floors up, a horse-sized creature, like a velociraptor, clinging to the stone wall, it's claws embedded in the rock, with the man on it's back.
"Do not be scared. Let me help you on." The man reassured, holding his arms out for Terese. She hesitated for a moment, but let him help her on.
Suddenly, the raptor-creature unlatched from the side of the building, and fell to the ground below. Terese yelped and clung to the man. Suprisingly, the raptor-creature landed on it's feet, and started running at an immpossibe speed away from the prison. Terese slowly opened her eyes. The raptor-creature could have easily been going 50 miles per hour, and was gaining speed. As it ran, the prison sirens started going off, despite the power outage.
"Who are you?" Terese asked.
"My name is Lithatheos, Leo for short." He said.
"My name is Terese." Lithatheos nodded.
"Leo!" Said a woman's voice. Terese and Lithatheos looked behind. A woman riding another raptor-creature was catching up to them.
"What is it?" Lithatheos said to her.
"Helicopters! Coming in fast!" She replied.
"Dammit..." Lithatheos muttered. He was silent for a second, and then replied "Underground!". Just as he said it, a pair of helicopters started coming towards them. The woman looked back. The helicopters were getting closer. She looked back at Lithatheos, and nodded. Lithatheos nodded back.
"Rheah!" He yelled. At this word, the raptor-creature halted in it's tracks. The woman stopped right next to him. They turned towards the helicopters.
"Do not move and put your hands in the air!" Said one of the pilots from the cockpit. Lithatheos smiled and raised his hands. As he did, two pillars of stone shot up from the ground and smashed the helicopters. At the same time, the ground beneath them started sinking. As they went below the surface, a slab of rock slid over them, concealing the hole in which they were in.
"What is happening?" Terese asked as the ground sunk still lower. "We are going to the Caverns." Lithatheos replied.
"Don't worry about it." The woman added. "By the way, my name is Katelyn.". Terese nodded and looked upwards. As they decended, more slabs of rock slid over their heads.
Suddenly, the ground stopped lowering. They were enclosed in a small room, completly surrounded by rock.
"How..." Terese started to say, but was interupted by Katelyn,
"Just watch." She whispered. Lithatheos moved the raptor-creature forward, and as he moved, the earth and stone rearanged and made a tunnel. The tunnel was filled with earth again as they moved past. They moved in this fashion for over and hour, with Terese struggling to stay awake. Eventually, the tunnel opened up to a large stone room with torches on the walls. It reminded Terese of a dungeon, until she noticed the leather furniture set around the room. It was furnished like a living room, with a sofa, loveseat and armchair facing a large fireplace. A brown rug sat in front of the sofa, and a few landscape paintings were on the walls. To the right was an opening into another room.
Are you.ready?
The magnificent structure loomed before me, yet I still had miles before I would be in its presence. The sheer size of it was humbling, like standing before a god. The Golgotha, as it was called, was by far the most sacred place on the face of the planet. Suddenly, a chasm with a hissing river of lava appeared before me. I screamed and fell over the edge of the abyss, barely grabbing a protruding root from the rock wall just in time. The bubbling magma below frothed and hissed. Jagged, black symbols and pictures were carved into the stone. Flames leapt up and licked at me. I struggled to pull myself up onto the ground above, but sweat from my hands made the root slippery. I could not hold on. I plunged to the magma.
September 18, 2003 5:02am Friday
Terese's eyes hammered open. Icy beads of sweat covered her body. She threw the blanket off. It was September, but the nights were still warm. Terese looked at her clock and saw the time. What had she been dreaming about? She could never remember her dreams anymore. She stood up and got dressed, then went into the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. She was an unusual girl, not only by her personality, but also by her appearance. Her face was elliptical in shape, with a round forehead and angular chin. She had widely spaced, intense, sharp eyes, reddish purple in color. Her eyelashes were thick and black, her eyebrows sleek and seductive. Her short, spiky hair matched the color of her eyes. Terese's ears were long and pointy, giving her the nickname "Arwen". She had natural fangs, but most people thought they were fake, because they were long and razor sharp. Terese's skin was light tan in color, and flawless except for the two scars that slashed across her cheek, down to her jawbone. She also had a pair of scars running along the sides of her spine, in between her shoulder blades. Terese did not know how she had gotten any of the scars, but she wondered every day. Her overall body shape was Caucasoid, like a martini glass. Terese's hips and shoulders were equal in width, with a short torso and long legs. Today she was wearing black baggy pants and a black shirt with fishnet sleeves. "DIE" was written in jagged white letters across the front of the shirt. Terese put some black eyeshadow along her upper and lower eyelids and brushed her teeth. She painted her nails, black as always, and then went back to her room. Her clock now read 5:49. She would have to leave soon if she wanted to get to school on time. Terese picked up her backpack and was about to leave, when Mikey, Terese's five-year-old brother, came bouncing after her.
"Teree! Don't go!" He whined. Terese smiled. Mikey was the one person in the world that Terese cared for the most.
"Oh, you. You caught me!" Terese laughed at Mikey. "But big sis needs to go to school."
"Can I come? Please?"
"No, Mikey. I already told you that you couldn't come."
"But."
"No "buts", I need to leave now or I'll be late." Terese said sternly.
"But."
"Have a good day." Terese said, giving him a hug. Then she left, locking the door behind her.
She hefted her backpack onto her other shoulder, breathing in the morning Colorado air. Clouds peeked over the Rocky Mountains. It would rain later. Terese made it to the intersection near her school, when an odd sensation came over her. She suddenly felt very dizzy; her vision dimmed, and there was a rushing sound in her ears. Terese fell onto the ground, breathing heavily and laboriously. A woman jogging saw her, and ran to Terese's aid.
"Are you okay?" the woman asked. Terese shook her head. Suddenly, a pain that Terese had never felt before, like her insides were being ripped out of her, tore through her body. Terese shrieked in agony, alarming the woman.
"Oh god." The woman said. A few cars slowed, curious. Terese cried out again and coughed up blood. "Someone call an ambulance!" The woman yelled, looking around. A few people stopped their cars and jumped out. A couple of them took out cell phones and started calling 911. Terese coughed up more blood. Quite suddenly, Terese's skin lost color and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. The last thing Terese was aware of was the sound of sirens, and then she lost consciousness.
September 18, 2003 10:29 pm Friday
The rain came down hard and fast. The temperature was below forty degrees Fahrenheit. The sun had set long ago, and darkness swallowed everything. The power to the city of Golden, Colorado had gone out, leaving the city in inky blackness. Jon pulled his car into the driveway of his house. He turned the car off, and sat back for a moment, listening to the drumming of the rain on the roof. Pushing his long, black hair behind his ear, he stepped out of his car and hurried to his front door. As he fumbled with his keys, he sensed that he was being watched. Slowly, he turned to look behind him. There was nothing there, but when he turned back towards his door, a cloaked figure stood in his way. Startled, he yelped and fell back. The shadowy outline stepped forward, towards Jon. It slowly brought its hands out from under the cloak. They were covered in black leather gloves. Jon got up, ran to his car and locked the door. The figure stood next to his window, and reached inside its cloak. Jon turned the key in the ignition, and was about to back out of the driveway, when there was a sound of grinding steel, a flash of metal, then silence. After a few seconds, chunks of Jon's car crashed to the cement and blood streamed down to the gutters. Jon's younger sister came outside, having heard the ruckus. The first things her eyes met were the mutilated car, and the cloaked figure, holding a bloody sword in one hand. Her heart stopped, not wanting to believe what she saw. But it was too true. The cloaked figure appeared to turn its head, and looked at her. It laughed. The voice was childish in tone, but frighteningly cold. It sounded as if a hundred screams of men and women and children had been woven into this one creature's voice. "No." She breathed. The figure laughed again and moved menacingly towards the girl. She backed up against the door, terrified. "Get away from me! Go away!" She screamed, covering her eyes with her hands. She slid down the door, sitting on the rain-soaked cement. "Please.go away." When she uncovered her eyes, the figure had vanished.
* * * * *
September 23, 2003
Wednesday
3:57 am
Terese woke in a stark white hospital room. There were wires on her head and tubes in her arms. Terese sat up and looked around. She seemed to be attached to a bunch of machines.
Terese's clothes were folded on the bedside table. She picked them up and got dressed after pulling off the needles and wires. She was just about to leave, when a nurse came in.
"Why aren't you in bed? You should be resting!" She said sternly.
"Why should I be resting?" Terese replied, a hint of defiance in her voice. The nurse made a disapproving face.
"You've been in a coma for five days. We still need to monitor your health." The nurse explained. Terese was taken aback. Where had the time gone? What could have caused her to go into a coma for five days? Terese saw no explanation. As far as she knew, she was perfectly healthy, and there was nothing obvious that could have caused her five-day blackout.
"I'm not staying here," Terese said. The nurse started to reply, but Terese cut her off. "I don't need to be monitored. I don't need to stay here." She said defiantly. She picked up he backpack that was the floor, and was about to leave, when a picture on the television caught her eye.
She turned her head to look at the screen.
"-was recently murdered. Officials are unsure of who his killer was, but are baffled at the way he was murdered." The newscaster said. Terese stepped closer to hear better. A police officer appeared, standing next to a slashed up car.
"The victim's sister claims to have seen the attacker, although psychologists who have talked with her believe that seeing her brother, killed in the way he was, may have traumatized her, so much that she may not even know what she saw. She claimed that the attacker wore a long, black cloak; with black leather gloves, which covered its hands. She said that it sliced right through the victim's car with a sword, killing her brother." The police officer indicated the car, which had been cut almost in half. Blood was splattered on the inside of the windshield, and there were reddish brown blotches on the cement.
"When the body was removed from the car," the officer continued, "The body had been sliced cleanly in half, from the shoulder to the hip. The victim's sister later said that the murderer had laughed at her with "a voice that could not possibly be human".
Terese stared at the screen, unable to believe what she was hearing, what she was seeing, unable to accept what her heart told her. She knew who had been murdered. She did not know how she knew, but was aware that she knew everything that had happened, every detail, like a memory. But how could she, when she had been in a coma when it happened? Did she have some connection with the murderer? Terese knew what, where, when and how it had happened. The time was 10:30 pm on Friday...the same Friday that she had lost consciousness.
She stared blankly at the screen for a few seconds, and then turned the TV off. The nurse looked at her with a concerned expression.
"Are you alright?" She asked. Terese turned her face towards the nurse, tears flowing down her face.
"...Jon is dead...he's gone..." She said. The nurse looked at her sympathetically.
In a sudden rage, Terese screamed in fury and put her fist through the television screen. The nurse jumped back in alarm.
"You can't..." She started to say, but a spark of electricity landed on Terese's arm, and ignited. The small flame crawled swiftly up her arm, and quickly engulfed her whole body. Terese cried out and pulled her hand from the screen. What alarmed her most was that she didn't even feel like she was being burned. It merely felt warm.
The nurse yelped in surprise and screamed for help. Three more nurses came in, and screamed.
"Get the fire extinguisher!" One of them yelled.
"Stop, drop, roll! Stop, drop, roll!" Another chanted.
"Smother it with a blanket!" A male nurse said.
"Leave me alone!" Terese cried in anguish, backing into a corner. A few more doctors and nurses came in, all telling Terese to "stop, drop, roll!" or telling somebody to get a fire extinguisher. But the more they chaotic it was, the more distressed Terese became. They were suffocating her.
Finally, Terese yelled "Enough!", and a blast of fire filled the room. So intense was the heat, that everyone in the room, everything in that room, was incinerated. Only Terese was left alive, stunned.
Chapter 1 Hidden Allies
September 18, 2008
Monday
2:09 am
Terese's eyes fluttered open. She moaned and rolled over on the cold prison bed. Her thin blankets did little to keep out the cold of the autumn nights. She curled up in a fetal position, shivering slightly. If only the prison had a heating system. But they didn't care about their top-security prisoners.
Five years ago, Terese has been a normal, happy girl...but then it happened. Terese shivered more violently as pictures ran through her head. Jon. His car...his blood all over the ground, running into the gutter with the rainwater. Metal shimmered near her. A girl sobbed for mercy...the voices...the fire, the deadly blast of fire that had nearly burned down the whole hospital, that had killed over 600 patients.
It was a devastating turn in Terese's life. She had been sentenced to life for arson and mass homicide. It was only the fact that Terese had been unharmed by the fire that she was not on death row. The police could not find even a scratch on her when she came out of the blazing building. She had even been on fire herself. And yet she was completely unharmed. For that reason, the courts let Terese live. There was something about her...something unnatural.
Tears began to run down Terese's cheeks. Oh how she missed her brother, Mikey. Her mother was another story. Ever since her father disappeared, Terese's mother had not been the same person. She cared about nothing anymore. She rarely left her bed. Mikey had grown up ignored and dependant on Terese, for it was Terese who had gotten the family on welfare and took Mikey to the park, to the doctor, to the dentist, and to the grocery store. Terese had been a mother to Mikey, and now he had lost her.
"The sixth element has awoken...I feel it in my soul."
"Yes...I feel it as well."
"We will free it tonight?"
"That we shall..."
"Do you think there will be any trouble? Perhaps the element cannot control itself yet?"
"There will be trouble, but there is no cause for alarm, not when it is us against humans, not with Golgotha on our side."
Two lopsided shadows, silhouetted against the moon, leaped across the sky. They jumped from building to building, silently, not making a sound. As they got closer to the prison, the power in and around the prison went out. Terese opened her eyes. It was blacker then pitch in the cold stone building without the lights. She stood and looked out her window. Guards with flashlights ran about in a panic. There was no light on the streets around the prison either.
Suddenly, a small tremor jarred Terese, almost causing her to lose balance. She looked out the window again, and, as she watched, more and more lights in the nearby neighborhoods and the rest of the city went out. Terese overlooked it and went back to her bed. The power would come back on by tomorrow morning. But what about the tremor? As far as Terese knew, there were not earthquakes in Colorado. Perhaps she was dizzy from lack of sleep, and only thought there was a tremor. She decided that that was it, and closed her eyes.
Terese was just getting relaxed when something odd started happening to her wall. She stared, confused, at the large stone that seemed to be sliding out of the wall. As the rock slid out completely and fell to the ground, Terese knew she was not imagining things. She stood back up and walked to the hole, which was large enough to crawl through. She had almost gotten to it when somebody poked their head in. Terese jumped back in surprise.
"Hello?" Terese asked uncertainly.
"Hello. Are you here for arson and mass murder?" Replied the husky voice of a man. Terese stepped back.
"Yes..."
"Good. Come with me. I'll have answers for you as soon as we escape the guards." The man said. Terese did not know why, but she felt like she could trust him. There was a feeling deep within her heart that she knew him.
"Okay...I'll come with you." Terese said. She let the man help her through the hole, and was shocked to see, where there should have been only air, since Terese's cell was four floors up, a horse-sized creature, like a velociraptor, clinging to the stone wall, it's claws embedded in the rock, with the man on it's back.
"Do not be scared. Let me help you on." The man reassured, holding his arms out for Terese. She hesitated for a moment, but let him help her on.
Suddenly, the raptor-creature unlatched from the side of the building, and fell to the ground below. Terese yelped and clung to the man. Suprisingly, the raptor-creature landed on it's feet, and started running at an immpossibe speed away from the prison. Terese slowly opened her eyes. The raptor-creature could have easily been going 50 miles per hour, and was gaining speed. As it ran, the prison sirens started going off, despite the power outage.
"Who are you?" Terese asked.
"My name is Lithatheos, Leo for short." He said.
"My name is Terese." Lithatheos nodded.
"Leo!" Said a woman's voice. Terese and Lithatheos looked behind. A woman riding another raptor-creature was catching up to them.
"What is it?" Lithatheos said to her.
"Helicopters! Coming in fast!" She replied.
"Dammit..." Lithatheos muttered. He was silent for a second, and then replied "Underground!". Just as he said it, a pair of helicopters started coming towards them. The woman looked back. The helicopters were getting closer. She looked back at Lithatheos, and nodded. Lithatheos nodded back.
"Rheah!" He yelled. At this word, the raptor-creature halted in it's tracks. The woman stopped right next to him. They turned towards the helicopters.
"Do not move and put your hands in the air!" Said one of the pilots from the cockpit. Lithatheos smiled and raised his hands. As he did, two pillars of stone shot up from the ground and smashed the helicopters. At the same time, the ground beneath them started sinking. As they went below the surface, a slab of rock slid over them, concealing the hole in which they were in.
"What is happening?" Terese asked as the ground sunk still lower. "We are going to the Caverns." Lithatheos replied.
"Don't worry about it." The woman added. "By the way, my name is Katelyn.". Terese nodded and looked upwards. As they decended, more slabs of rock slid over their heads.
Suddenly, the ground stopped lowering. They were enclosed in a small room, completly surrounded by rock.
"How..." Terese started to say, but was interupted by Katelyn,
"Just watch." She whispered. Lithatheos moved the raptor-creature forward, and as he moved, the earth and stone rearanged and made a tunnel. The tunnel was filled with earth again as they moved past. They moved in this fashion for over and hour, with Terese struggling to stay awake. Eventually, the tunnel opened up to a large stone room with torches on the walls. It reminded Terese of a dungeon, until she noticed the leather furniture set around the room. It was furnished like a living room, with a sofa, loveseat and armchair facing a large fireplace. A brown rug sat in front of the sofa, and a few landscape paintings were on the walls. To the right was an opening into another room.