Pieces of Darkness
By,
Sugar and Sorceris of Spirit
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Chapter one: Illusion of Reality
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Mia's fingers flew friskily across the key board with lightning speed. The only problem was, the wrong letters were hit every other word. Mia finally had had enough frustration and slammed her hands down on the key board. She leaned back in her rotating chair rubbing her temples. The guys had been keeping her from work at home with the outrageous noise and the late night calls from girls. Just because they were on summer vacation didn't mean she was too!
Mia had quit her job at the university and started a new job at a research center. After the battle's with the Dynasty it had left the university destroyed and demolished. She wasn't able to work therefore no pay. With six people in a house along with a rather large white tiger it was hard to feed them all with such a low salary. So she was forced to quit. She soon got a job at Shienjiu Research Center. The pay was good and that hours were flexible. She was practically her own boss.
The guys had been going out on late night dates and not returning until 1 to 2 o'clock in the morning and Mia was always up worried sick about them. This past week she hadn't been so uptight about them getting home late, it seemed almost routine now. The loud music, banging of dishes, yelling and fighting is what got to her. She needed space to work so she had been pulling late nights at the office. She had discussed a small guest house for her to work at with one of the guys. They quickly disagreed saying it would be to dangerous. The Dynasty could come back and at the location she wanted the house they wouldn't be able to hear her if she was attacked. Then the subject of flooding by the lake and more and more reasons for a `no' answer. They agreed not to be so loud but they never kept the promise.
Mia glanced at the clock to see it was already nine. She spotted the gem she had found earlier and stood up. She wrapped her warm hand around it and lifted it up. It's smooth cold surface felt almost below zero degrees against her hand. She looked it over noticing there was nothing wrong with it at all, completely flawless. The round purple gem glinted with each ray of light that landed on it. She had found it one day while taking a walk in the woods with White Blaze. Looking out her open door she noticed her friend's light on in her office. Deciding the research paper could wait a bit she moved out her office and across the building.
The center was a three-story building. It was square and had a walkway to get to the other side of the building. The walkways stood suspended 2 or 3 stories high. If you looked down over the railing you would see the offices below through the gapping hole. She quickly rushed over the walkway her fear of heights growing but soon faded once she reached the other side. She rapped her knuckles against the door and her friend, Carol White, looked up with a huge smile.
"Mia! What a surprise! Why are you here so late?"
Carol wasn't young, but not yet old. She looked about 37 or 38. Carol had been working with Shienjiu Research Center for almost 20 years now and came to be one of the highest employees there was in the building. Mia ranked third but she didn't care, it was an honor to be working with such qualified people.
"Living with teenagers is a bit of a hassle," Mia said shaking her head, "you can't get any work done."
"Oh but Mia, you are still a teen yourself," Carol said shaking a finger at her. Mia laughed a bit nodding her head. Yes Mia was still 19, a teenager yet an adult.
Being home schooled helped her graduate early and get a job with her grandfather. She's treated with great respect like any other adult, but still felt like a child in heart. She didn't know if she had learn all of life's lessons she needed to learn before she was a true adult….but yet even true adults learn new things everyday.
"So what brings you here my dear?" Carol said turning back to her work on ancient swords. Mia opened her hand and looked down at the stone.
"Well…it's just this weird gem I found…I was wondering if you could take a look at it…I'm not really good with stones," Carol looked back at her with a smile.
"I can do," Mia handed her the stone and Carol placed it on the table along with her swords. "I'll return it tomorrow okay? You should head home…you look like death it's self," Mia laughed.
Carol was always the blunt one but Mia knew she looked bad. The guys hadn't giving her much time to rest, always out and about even thought her job did keep her away most of the time. Sleep was a luxury to her now, only getting about two or three hours of it a night. Yet she still managed to pull herself out of bed every morning for work and to wake the guys.
"Thanks, I'll save my papers onto a disk and see if I can finish it tonight at home," Mia said running a hand through her hair scratching her head along the way.
"No, you save the file to the computer then go home, get something to eat then off to bed with you, no more work…you're working yourself way to hard," Mia laughed a nodded.
"Yes mother," she teased and Carol waved her off. Mia left and packed up for the night. She locked her office and headed down the three flights of stairs.
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Carol sighed pushing the papers she had jotted notes down about the swords away from her. When she told Mia she looked like death it's self she had completely understood. Her body wanted sleep, it needed sleep! She couldn't understand how Mia could go for three days at a time with out sleep. Yet then again there was a rather large difference in their ages.
She rustled around in some papers then noticed the stone sitting at the corner of her desk. She picked it up and ran her hands along it's smooth surface. Unable to tell what type of stone it was she placed it in an item scanner. As she started it up she gasped at the sound of breaking glass. Her body spun around to see a picture of her and her kids laying face down on the floor.
"Oh dear!" she quickly picked it up and placed it on her filing cabinet. She scooped up the shards of glass and threw them away.
Beep Beep Beep!
The scanner beeped with readiness and she knew it could blow out if it sat on and unused for to long.
"Oh shoot," she jumped up and had it scan her item. The sound of footsteps came up a long the halls but she ignored it, suspecting it was the janitor. Fascinated with the answer that the scanner came up with. "Unknown?"
Someone tapped on her shoulder and she held up a hand to single one moment. They tapped again she sighed and turned around.
"Ye-" her words cut short by her blood curdling scream.
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Mia stood shaken by the site. The room looked untouched except the swords and cases that were scattered around. Carol's limp body lie on the floor being zipped up in a body bag. She took a deep breath and stepped in. The detective looked at her and moved quickly over to her side.
"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to please step out," he replied calmly and smoothly.
"No," came Mai's firm reply. He looked shocked, never had someone refused to leave. He seemed young about 20 or so.
"Ma'am," he warned tossing a glance and a head shake at the police officer that had taken a step forward towards them.
"I want to know what happened," Mia replied almost in a whisper. Her eyes glanced around the large office. She couldn't believe it, she had just seen her last night!
"Were you a friend of Ms. White?" he asked. Mia nodded crossing her arms over her chest as if they were some kind of comfort blanket. "When was the last time you saw her?"
"When are you going to answer my question!" Mia snapped obiuosly disturbed but the sight of her friend's office and the news of her death. The man gave her a sympothic look.
"I'm sorry," he said bowing his head a bit, "it seems as if she was strangled to death," Mia nodded biting her lip.
"Who would do such a thing…" her words trailed off in mid-sentence.
"Do you know anyone who would want to hurt Ms. White? Anyone from her past, or anyone she was in a fight with?" he questioned.
"I didn't know her that well…I just started working here a couple months ago. She never talked about anyone who was mad at her…she was a loving person, always cheerful, no one here hated her," Mia answered the question.
"Detective Jones, you might want to take a look at this," they both moved over to the scanner screen to see a picture of the stone Mia left with her.
"What is it?"
"It's an item scanner," Mia answered the question even though it wasn't directed towards her.
"The item on the screen can't be found anywhere in the office, we think that's what the person wanted," the officer continued.
"So someone broke into the building and came all the way up here just to get the stone, not likely, there has to be more," Mr. Jones said shaking his head.
Mia had stopped listening after she answered the detective's question. `The stone, where is it?' she thought. Chills ran up and down her spine at the thought of the stone having to do with the cause of her death.
"Miss?" the detective placed a hand on Mia's arm scaring her out of thought. "Are you alright?" Mia looked into his chocolate brown eyes that were full of sympathy.
"Y-yes, I'm fine, I have to go, I can't stay here," Mia replied moving out of the room and down the flights of stairs. `This can't be happening,' she thought leaving the building.
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The small purple gem that once was in Mia's possession now sat on a mediocre size velvet blue pillow. Gold lining kept the pieces of purpleish blue cloth together. In the middle of it sat the one stone.
A girl stood in the shadows watching the stone. She detached herself from the shadows and stepped toward the stone. Her velvet black hooded robe hid her face but allowed her brown hair to spill out the sides. She started to laugh as the picture of Carol White's office came up in front of her.
"Foolish mortals….Reality is nothing for you, this is my world now, this is my illusion," she began to laugh and laugh like a hyena giving no care of the innocent person that lay dead.
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