Whispering Darkness

Chapter 1

The sun shined brightly upon the city known as Haven. Many elven-people traveled the streets by either walking or driving in their Zoomers which were flying vehicles. Haven City was actually founded by a man known as Mar, who fought viciously against horrid creatures known as the Metal Heads. In the end Mar ended up fighting to the death, but because of his great feats his legend lived on. While many of the people within Haven City had let the legend of Mar slip away from their memories, a group of people continued to let the legend live on. Because the people chose to live like their ancestors who were villagers, many considered them the poor of Haven City. But despite not having riches, the poor people of Haven City always found a way to survive.
A fruit vender with purple hair and wearing a black sweater, white apron, and brown pants and boots nervously fiddled with a wrench in his hand as he tried to repair his broken Zoomer's engine. He had been cutting through the slums in order to deliver the fruits on time, but his engine had overheated and forced him to land. His eyes constantly fidgeted in different direction, his mind grew more uneasy the longer he remained in the slums. Despite the fact the fruit vender was taking all precautions to make sure none of was around, he failed to see two young teen elves cautiously poke their heads over some crates they were hiding behind.

The first teen was a girl with shoulder-length blue hair that had three bangs hang in front of her forehead, green eyes, and wore a light-green dress with only one strap made out of blue transparent silk covered her right shoulder, brown gauntlets and sandals, and a red choker necklace with a silver pendant. The second teen was a boy with spiked silver hair and golden-colored eyes, wearing a forest-green tunic, light-blue pants, and brown fingerless gloves and sandals. The two teens glanced at each other before directing their attention back to the fruit vender's zoomer. Very carefully the young she-elf crawled out from behind the crates, making sure that her steps were as quiet as a mouse. The boy began to follow suit, hoping that the gravel beneath their feet would not give them away. They both continued to crawl quietly as they made their way over to the zoomer. Fortunately they succeeded in reaching their target without alerting the fruit vender.
The girl glanced at the two giant crates full of fruit that were tied down to the back of the zoomer with tightly knotted ropes. She didn't even have to look at the boy to see he was holding out a small knife for her. She grasped ahold of the knife's handle and began carefully cutting the ropes.

She tried to be careful but she had gotten too anxious, one of the ropes snapped open and the crate hit the ground with a crash. The fruit vender jumped at sound of the loud noise and quickly turned around to see the two teens picking up the crate off the ground.

"Hey thieves stop! Guards! Guards!" the fruit vender screamed.

The two teens quickly began running with the huge crate in their arms as fast as they could, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. The boy gasped when he saw a couple of Krimzon Guards which were large men wearing full body armor that was colored red chasing after them. The sound of gunfire filled the air as the Krimzon Guards shot at the two thieves. The girl panted as her arms shook with weakness; she couldn't give up hope. Finally she managed to find a small alleyway to escape in. The two teens ducked through the alleyway, barely being able to fit. Once they made it out to the other side, they both turned around to see that the Krimzon Guards were too large to follow them through the same path. The two teens laughed and smiled for they had succeeded in their task. Seeing they needed to no longer worry, the two began making their way toward their home.

"Wow, Harza you really cut it close there. We almost got caught." the boy said.

Harza smiled sheepishly as she replied "I'm sorry, Zen. I guess I got too anxious."

The two laughed in joy until they were approached by an older male elf that had orange hair and beard with blue eyes, wearing a red tunic with a long brown jacket and brown sandals. The man fell onto his knees and pulled the girl into a tight hug.

"Oh thank the precursors you're alright, Harza." he said before pulling back to face her and continued "You know you're not suppose to stray around the streets alone.

Harza let out a small frustrated sigh before replying "I'm fine dad and I'm not a child, I'm fourteen. Also I wasn't alone, Zen was with me."

Harza's father closed his eyes and shook his head. He wanted his daughter to understand why he was protecting her. But for the moment he was just glad his daughter was back safe and sound. When he let go of Harza and stood back up, he noticed the giant crate near them. He glanced over at his daughter to see the proud smile painted on her face and her hands planted firmly on the sides of her waist.

"Me and Zen got it. I saw we were running out of food so he and I managed to snag that crate full of fruit from a vender." Harza said.

Harza's father gently laid his hand on her shoulder but did not smile.

"Harza, I appreciate you're wanting to help take care of the family but we can take care of ourselves without stealing. I will let it slide this time but I don't want to hear anymore about you and Zen stealing." he said in a stern tone.

Harza's smile slowly faded; she had hoped her father would be happier than that. She wanted to show him how much of a responsible and mature girl she has become. She was convinced that she didn't need to be treated like a child anymore now that she was fourteen. Finally without a word she slowly nodded her head in understanding. With that done she bid Zen goodbye before walking with her father back to their home. She and her father lived in a small wooden hut along with Harza's mother.
A woman with blue hair tied into a bun with brown eyes, wearing a white tank-top, orange capris with a large yellow cloth tied around her waist like a skirt, white bandages on her forearms, and brown sandals stood in the doorway of the hut. She placed her hand on her chest and let out a sigh of relief upon seeing both her husband and daughter safe.

"It was getting dark, I was beginning to worry." Harza's mother said.

"Well we managed to make it back and we have food." Harza's father said as he held up the food full of crate.

His wife smiled as she stepped to the side and allowed the two to enter the hut.

That night Harza inhaled deeply as she lay in her bed. She was convinced that her parents didn't believe she was mature and kept treating her like a child. It frustrated her and she wanted to end. Her green eyes glanced up at the stars; she always wondered what the stars looked like in other places of Haven City. She had never explored the city before because her parents always insisted she would go no further than the city slums and to never travel alone. Harza closed her eyes as her hands clenched slightly. She had decided she would finally prove to her parents how mature she was; she would explore the city alone. Harza slept for a bit until she saw the first sign of daylight peeking over the walls surrounding Haven City. Very carefully she pulled the blankets off her body and sat up. She took slow and cautious steps as she made her way out of her room and toward the front door.

Her breath hitched in her throat when she heard her father snort. Unsure what else to do she remained frozen in place, hoping that if she remained still she wouldn't be seen. Nothing but silence filled the air until finally a snore came from Harza's father, revealing he was still asleep. Harza let her shoulders relax; she could still hear her heart beating rapidly. With that she finally made it to the front door and ran out of the hut. As Harza wandered the streets her mouth was open in awe and her eyes had examined every single detail. She had never been out in the open where the civilians walked. She stretched out her arms a bit and closed her eyes in satisfaction.

"I'm perfectly fine on my own. Why did my parents fuss so much about me walking the streets alone?" Harza thought to herself.

But before she could take another step she heard "You there halt!"

She turned around and gasped when she saw some Krimzon Guards head for her. Terrified she began to run in an attempt to get away. She could hear their boots slamming against the ground and their armor clanking around as they chased after her. The blue-haired girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her, watching as people gave her shock and confused looks as she sped past them. Finally her eyes managed to spot an alleyway near her. Without thinking she quickly turned into it but unfortunately she bumped straight into a Krimzon Guard. Before she could try to run again the Krimzon Guard grabbed her by one of her arms. Harza struggled and screamed as the Krimzon Guard pinned both of her arms behind her back and led her out of the alleyway. Harza begged for someone to help her as she was led up to the group that was chasing her, but no one would. Her eyes widened in fear when she saw a prison transport land next to the group and open up it's back.

"You're here by under arrest by order of the Baron." the Krimzon Guard said.

Harza tried to fight the guard that had ahold of her, but unfortunately she was unable to prevent him from throwing her into the prison transport. She slammed on the cold metal floor hard; her mind trying to process the fact she was being arrested for no reason. As soon as the door slammed shut she ran up to the bars; her hands tightly clenched around them. That was when to her surprise she actually saw Zen in the distant, seeing he was staring in horror. When he started to run toward her she panicked; she didn't want him to get arrested.

"No don't!" she screamed, causing Zen to stop in his tracks.

"Don't worry about me! Just get out of here! Tell my parents! Find a way to help me!" Harza yelled in a pleading tone.

The Krimzon Guards having taken notice of Harza's yelling managed to spot the young boy. Zen bit his lip when he saw the guards approaching; he didn't want to leave his friend behind but he would be no help to her if he got caught too. Without a word he took off running, as tears filled his eyes. It broke his heart to leave Harza but he had no choice. He only hoped that one day he would be able to find her and free her.
Harza let out a sigh of relief when Zen got away before quickly becoming terrified once more of her current situation. She watched as the prison transport lifted up into the air and took off. As she watched the buildings pass her by, her dread of the location she was being taken to growing every second. She closed her eyes and began to regret not listening to her parents.

The ride to the prison only took a few minutes but to Harza it felt like ages that she was sitting in the back. Her green eyes glanced at the large red building with the Krimzon Guard symbol on it; her hands clenched into fists out of nervousness and fear. When her transport landed she pressed her back against the wall as far as she could despite it doing no good. She watched the door open up and a Krimzon Guard enter. The guard grabbed the young girl harshly by her arm and began pulling her out of the prison carrier. Harza's feet scrapped across the metal floor of the carrier as she tried one last desperate attempt to escape by trying to stand her ground. The fourteen year-old she-elf was met with disappointment when she saw the guard was strong enough to pull her body along.

Her arms were once again pinned behind her back as she was lead into the entrance of the KG Fortress Prison. Harza coughed as her face was met with green smoke that littered the hallways. She could hear the screaming and the begging from the different prisoners being held in their cells and it terrified her deeply. Harza didn't dare say a word as she was guided toward one of the empty cells but what happened next scared her. One of the guards grabbed the skirt of her dress and pulled hard, ripping and tearing it off her body. Harza began to panic and struggled as the guard ahold of her kept her restrained. She kept fighting as her body was stripped completely of her old clothes. She wanted to desperately to cover herself up but fortunately to part of her relief the guard began to put new clothing on her. Harza saw they now had her dressed in a sleeveless dirty green jumpsuit that was the prison uniform while bandages were around her hands and feet.

Harza cried out as she was thrown down onto the floor of the cell, her knees getting bruised from the impact. Her body winced when she heard the cell door slam shut, leaving her alone in the dark.

Meanwhile in the center of the prison a large male elf with half of his face covered in metal with a brown beard, wearing a black and red tunic, silver armor and boots stared at an empty metal chair while some of the Krimzon Guards were carrying away a dead male prisoner. The prisoner's lifeless eyes were wide open, his mouth hung ajar, and a dark purple patch was on his chest.

"So another test subject died on us, Baron Praxis?" a voice said.

The Baron focused his gaze away from the chair, noticing a male elf with brown hair that was bald on top, wearing a white button up shirt, brown vest, black pants, a long blue coat, and tan boots.

"We need a strong enough subject for the Dark Warrior Project, Count Veger." the Baron replied, "I won't rest until I find a test subject that is able to live and manage to hold the form."

Veger placed his hands behind his back before saying "Well I'm sure you will be pleased your guards have gotten a new subject. A young girl, she may be strong enough to survive my experiments and if she does we'll see if she can hold the alternate form. After all so far the test subjects had died or successfully managed to transform but didn't have the strength to hold the form."

The Baron nodded his head in understanding; he wanted to finally get a test subject that would be different from the others. Not wanting to waste anytime he told some of his guards to bring the prisoner immediately to begin the experiment.
Veger tapped his fingers against the top of his staff thoughtfully; he knew the Baron was having guards snatch people to be test subjects in the Dark Warrior Project but he wasn't sure if any of them had the endurance to handle the alternate form.

Harza lifted her head when she heard the door to her cell open up. She let out a pained grunt when a Krimzon Guard entered her cell and grabbed her painfully by the arm. She was confused on why the guards had come for her as she was dragged out of her cell. Her green eyes glanced at the different guards, noticing none of them giving her eye contact. She was led through the dark hallways once more. Due to the darkness she actually misplaced her footing causing her to trip and fall on the ground. She groaned as two of the guards jerked her up by the arms, forcing her to stand back up. Harza was really beginning to dislike being dragged, jerked, and pulled around by the guards like she was a rag doll. But her annoyance was replaced with fear when she saw she was lead to a large room with a metal chair in the center that had bonds on it.

Her heart pounded in her chest as the guards dragged her over to the chair. She swung around her arms and legs, anything to keep from being placed in the chair that terrified her but it was no use. Harza cried out in pain as her back slammed against the hard metal of the chair; her arms and legs held down with metal cuffs slapping tightly shut. Her chest heaved as she took in quick and rapid breaths; she pulled against the bonds that held her down. She felt like screaming when she saw a male elf wearing a white lab coat approach her chair. Harza noticed the male elf was holding a shot that was filled with a strange liquid. She narrowed her eyes, examining the liquid within the shot's vile. She saw that it was a dark purple substance; her mind tried to process what it was till finally it clicked in her mind. Harza stopped breathing and began struggling underneath her bonds even more; she had identified the liquid as Dark Eco which was the most dangerous Eco on the planet. The male elf in the lab coat placed his free hand on Harza's head, holding it still and exposing her neck at the same time.

Harza tried to jerk her head out from underneath the male elf's grip but it was too strong. As the needle neared the side of her neck, she feared for what would happen next. Before she could even cry out in protest the needle was jabbed into her throat and the Dark Eco was injected into her body. At that moment Harza unleashed a glass-shattering scream. Tears streaked down her face, her green eyes were wide open, and her mouth was ajar as she felt the Dark Eco invade her bloodstream. She let out some choked out gasps and she tried to remind her body to breathe; her body felt like it was being burned from the inside. Harza's body twitched and spasmed; her scream turning into a hoarse whisper. Her surroundings faded to black as she slowly slipped into unconscious. The last thing she heard was a quiet voice that sounded much like her's whispering her name before passing out in the metal chair.