Only appearing to those who possess The Power, darklings are creatures descended from wandering human souls; creatures that have an unnatural desire to destroy Nadia Raine. Distracted by his growing obsession for using his powers, Reid drifts away from the covenant and his duty to watch over her.

The Forsaken
Chapter One: Night Vision

"A true adventurer goes forth,
aimless and uncalculating,
To meet and greet unknown fate."

-Domino Harvey

The sound of low shuffling woke the girl's deep slumber. Her eyes fluttered open and blurs of shadows danced across the darkness of the room. After taking a moment to let her eyes adjust, the blurs gradually took actual shape revealing her desk piled with books and an empty bed where her room mate was supposed to be. She propped herself on her elbows and averted her attention towards the window where a dark figure stood scratching and pounding on the sill.

"What's going on?" she asked, her voice croaky with sleep.

"Bonfire party." The light of the moon revealed Gemma Grant's face as her mouth curved into a mischievous smile.

"It's 12:45..." the girl glanced over the glowing the red numbers of her alarm clock.

"Curfew is crap." Gemma's mouth clenched and knuckles turned white as she attempted to open the bolt tight window.

The girl groaned and sank her head back down onto the pillow and fell back into her sleep.

Gemma flipped her dyed deep red hair and continued to mutter curses. With one final push, Gemma popped the window open, letting cool night air whisk into the room.

"Catch you later, Nadia." she shrugged as she grasped a thick tree branch to climb down onto the ground.

Hours had passed and once again, the sound of low shuffling shook Nadia from her sleep.

"How was the party?" Nadia asked tiredly with her eyes still closed.

A hoarse wheezing sound echoed above her.

"Gemma?" her voice was stern in order to disguise the growing fear inside of her.

Hesitantly, Nadia opened her eyes and sucked in her breath as she saw a shadow on the ceiling above her bed. It's face looked like an old, decaying human corpse with a long hanging mouth and empty looking eyes staring down at her. Nadia's mouth opened to scream but nothing came out. It just hung on the ceiling watching her. Before she had the chance to move, the shadow convulsed and was just inches away from her face. The hoarse wheezing breaths buzzed in her ears. Grabbing her forearms with great strength, the shadow pinned her to the wall so hard her vision blurred with black and blue dots. Searing pain burned her forearms and a scream finally escaped her mouth.

Reid Garwin stumbled forward, his head pulsating with the girl's shrill scream. His body lurched forward, cold sweat trickled down the side of his face as he coughed violently.

"Are you okay, Reid?" Gemma Grant knelt down, grasping his shoulder with one hand and a drink in the other.

The scream gradually faded away in the background of a loud rock song's bass. Reid took a swig of beer and slowly stood upright, color slowing fading back to his face. Gemma's brown eyes searched his as he tried to steady his breath.

"I'm fine." he huffed, tilting his head up towards the night sky to feel the brush of cool air.

"Good." she purred softly wrapping her arm around his.

Gemma brushed her hair back and smirked as she pressed her body closer to him. The from- a -bottle- red-head was just one of many girls whom he's hooked up with at numerous parties. She made a gesture to kiss him but Reid pulled away. A darkling attacking someone was uncommon and the fact that it actually attacked a person without possessing The Power was even stranger.Reid wasn't even sure if this attack had already happened or if it was a vision of something that would happen later in the night. He had to find Caleb, Tyler and Pogue.

"I'll be back." Reid muttered as he turned and trudged up a sandy hill leaving Gemma with a confused and disappointed expression on her face.

Beyond the flickering flames of the bonfire, Reid spotted Caleb with an arm hanging around Sarah's shoulder talking casually with Pogue and Kate.

"Hey, Reid." Pogue laughed, giving him a slap on his shoulder.

"We need to talk." Reid said solemnly, his hands jammed in the pockets of his dark denim jeans.

Pogue furrowed his eyebrows curiously and gave Kate a quick peck on the cheek, "I'll catch up with you, babe."

Caleb on the other hand, was hesitant to leave Sarah. Ever since that incident with Chase during fall fest, Caleb and Sarah were attached to the hip. Frankly, that annoyed Reid. Pogue was protective of Kate as well but even he could stand to take five minutes of his time away from her. Sarah glanced at Reid's unfamiliar seriousness and unlooped Caleb's hand around her shoulders.

"I'll be fine." she smiled and walked away to join Kate who was now mingling with other party goers.

"Where's Tyler?" Reid asked, kicking at the sand.

Pogue nodded his head off in the opposite direction where Tyler stood several feet away...with a girl. Despite the seriousness of the darkling issue, Reid couldn't help but grin. Shy Tyler finally had the balls to talk to a girl by himself. Reid was aware he used his powers more than the others but he couldn't resist tapping into them to hear Tyler's conversation. For a split second, his eyes made a transition from gold to black and he instantly heard the conversation as if he were standing right next to Tyler.

"Reid..." Caleb warned.

With his new heightened senses he received from his ascension, Caleb was able to sense even the smallest uses of The Power. Reid shrugged him off casually and listened to the conversation.

"...so if I were looking for a guy to go skinny dipping with, you'd be up for it?" the blonde girl smirked flirtatiously.

Even from this distance, Reid could see Tyler was sweating as he stumbled to find his words.

Pogue cupped his hands around his mouth and in a loud booming voice yelled, "TYLER!"

Tyler jumped at the sound of his name and cursed inwardly as Pogue motioned for him.

"...Yeah I'd totally be up for it only..." Tyler made a pleading look over at the rest of his friends who just stood there, coaxing him to come over without even saying a word.

"I have to go...now. Umm...see you later?"

The girl rolled her eyes and joined a random group of guys hanging around a beer keg.

"Probably not." she called back.

Tyler bowed his head and made his way towards the rest of the Sons of Ipswitch.

"Thanks a lot, guys," Tyler said sarcastically. "This better be good."

Reid led them down the hill to a secluded spot underneath a high cliff where the light of the bonfire couldn't reach them. The ocean was a whirling pool of black and the sound of crashing waves drowned out the wild bonfire party. The spray of the ocean's salty water made Reid's hair stick to his forehead. The blond took a moment and paced around the sand, brushing away damp pieces of hair away from his forehead.

"I saw a darkling attack a girl from Spencer Academy." he announced finally.

The three boys looked at each other in shock and as Reid suspected, Caleb was the first to respond.

"Who was this girl?" Caleb questioned, his eyebrows knit together in the usual manner when something concerned him.

Reid closed his eyes and tried to remember specific details. With the same essence of a dream, the vision slipped away as he tried to remember it.

"Gemma Grant's room mate..Nadia." Reid answered.

"Nadia Raine? Shit. That's pretty random." Pogue uttered.

Nadia Raine was just one of those faces in the background they knew ever since freshman year at Spencer Academy. Unlike most of the population who attended the school, Nadia didn't come from a family with money and attended the academy on a scholarship. She was on the good side of all general cliques but was never seen at social events like these.Whether she chose not to come or wasn't invited was beyond Reid.

"What's the plan, Caleb?" Tyler asked

Reid rolled his eyes.Though The Covenant should have no appointed leader, Caleb always commanded the presence of one and everyone (excluding Reid) thought that it was official since Caleb had already ascended.

"...We hardly know her so we can't just drop by in the middle of the night..." Caleb's voice trailed off as he laid eyes on Reid. A light bulb illuminated in his head and his eyes widened with a plan.

"What the hell is that look for, Danvers? Are you coming on to me?" Reid humored.

"You're going to use Gemma to get closer to Nadia."

A/N: And I'm going to stop there:) What did you guys think? Trust me, it gets better. I always hate starting off fics!

P.S. There'll be a physical description of Nadia in the next chapter.

Read and Review!