Chapter 1

New York City. The Big Apple. For a 20 year old young lady who grew up in a small town from the Midwest it was absolutely amazing; and yet a little overwhelming. It was a cool, clear afternoon as Jenna walked through Central Park. Excitement in her eyes and a smile on her face, while her long, platinum, blonde hair swished side to side at the middle of her back. It has been eight months since Jenna started saving money for her month long trip to NYC and she was finally able to reap the benefits of all her hard work. She was only three days in to her trip and already she was trying to scrounge for things to do. She didn't want to follow a tour guide around; she just wanted to experience the great city on her own terms, to be able to work on creating art, find inspiration.

The young blonde sat by the silent carousel in the park with her sketch pad just adding the final touches to her newest creation. She smiled looking at the colorful animals on the paper that seemed to be spinning around the center of their home. Suddenly a sharp pain shot up her back, causing her to spring up to perfect posture, as she hissed through clenched teeth. This has been happening quite often lately. It would come and go all too quickly, but no one seemed to know as to what was going on. When she would try to talk to her parents about it, they would just look at each other and say. "Oh it'll be okay, sweetie. It's a hereditary thing; I went through the same thing when I was your age." It seemed pretty strange, but she would just try and push it to the back of her mind.

Suddenly there was a loud bang, bringing her out of her thoughts. She looked around and noticed that she was completely alone in the dark park. When had it gotten dark? The blonde looked at the clock on her phone; 10:30pm. BANG. There it was again. She decided to go investigate, because what if someone needed help? Jenna quickly packed up her art supplies, threw her bag over her shoulder, and headed off in the direction of the noise in a brisk pace. As the loud sounds continued, she was easily able to locate the source of the sound. But what she saw caused her to stop in her tracks. There were probably ten figured clad in gray and black clothing with a red band tied around their heads. They surrounded some sort of weird machinery. Panicking, Jenna quickly hid behind a nearby tree without making a sound. Suddenly a sharp pain shot into her eyes and heated up. 'Not now!' She internally screamed. That's never happened before. Thankfully it went away quickly. But now a more pressing matter re-emerged into her mind. How the heck was she to get out of here? She peeked around the tree, none of them had turned their attention away from the machine. So none of them had seen her, good. There was a tree not too far away from her. Quickly taking another look at the dark figures once more, she darted over to the next tree and hid, waiting a few seconds strategically planning her next move. Again, quick checking around the tree, she moved again. Plan, check, move, plan, check, move. Everything was going great. Soon the mysterious scene was well out of eyesight. She took off running. The park was no longer safe, she had to get out. She scolded herself for not paying attention to her surroundings. She should have known better—it's not safe for a young woman to be out in New York City alone, at night.

Where was everyone? This was supposed to be the city that never sleeps, but there was barely anyone out and about. 'This is just too weird.' Finally she was out of the park. Her breathing became a little more even. But something told her she still wasn't safe. Quickly crossing the street she briskly walked towards her hotel; unfortunately it was 7 blocks away—and NYC blocks aren't exactly like the ones back home. In one swift movement she slipped her smart phone out of her pocket and checked the time; 11:45pm. Guess it took her a little longer to get out of the park than she thought. 'Why are there no taxis around?' The frantic thought crossed her mind. Suddenly she heard a rustle behind her. She stopped dead in her tracks her eyes turning to the side, followed by her head. No other sound… Her heart began to race. What if one of those figures in the park actually saw her? Without a second thought she quickened her pace. Another rustle. Her eyes grew wide. Without looking back she took off in a full sprint. 'Get to the hotel, get to the hotel, get to the hotel!' She just kept repeating to herself.

Her blonde hair slapped her back as she skidded to a halt at the corner and looked around, realizing that she couldn't remember how to get to the hotel. All she could do was run, just keep running. Every once in a while a light thud would sound behind her, a few footsteps… Her heart beat faster and faster, her breathing thick and heavy, and legs becoming increasingly worn. Without even thinking she turned a corner, only to find that it was a fatal mistake. The walls of the buildings rose up on either side of her with a wall of another building in front of her. 'NOT GOOD!' She exclaimed, eyes wide with fear. Quickly, she ducked behind a dumpster trying to stay completely silent. Just, listening. A familiar pain shot through her back 'NO!' She viciously bit her tongue to stifle a scream welling up in her throat.

Suddenly the blonde was quickly lifted into the air by her top. She was almost afraid to open her eyes, but when she did, her breath caught in her throat. It was one of the figures from the park. Next thing she knew, she was flying through the air and crashed against the brick wall. Her back felt like it had been stepped on by a sumo wrestler, not to mention the air was completely knocked out of her lungs. She forced herself onto her hands and knees trying to get herself to breathe.

"I s-swear—I didn't *cough* see any *gasp* anything!" Jenna was quickly lifted into the air again and tossed against the other wall of the alley. She knew she had to defend herself; she hated being the typical damsel in distress. Staggering to her feet she ran towards her attacker, fists clenched ready to strike. As she closed in on her target, they simply stepped to the side and she ran herself right into the wall. Turning around she realized that her vision had gone blurry, a faint burning behind her eyes. She blinked hard and quickly shook her head in an attempt to get any amount of vision back. It was almost as natural instincts kicked in when she realized that she was running at the dark clothed figure, just being able to focus on the red band around their head. But two pairs of hands roughly grabbed both of her arms causing her to be incapable of moving. She tried to break free, but she had gotten so weak from all the brick walls. Phwump. "ACK!" A pain filled her stomach as the figure viciously socked her in the stomach. The punches flew like lightning all over her body. Pain surged through the young woman's body, the fingers that held onto her dug deeper and deeper into her arms. She clenched her eyes shut as they began to increasingly burn. 'Why is this happening?' tears flowed from her eyes. Her eyes felt like they were on fire. She tried to fight back any more tears, to fight back showing any signs of the immense pain coursing through her body. Her body began to quiver with the blows. The black figure reeled their fist back, preparing to throw a blow to her head when…

Jenna's eyes burst open as the familiar pain surged through her back and all over her body stronger than it ever had before. Arching her spine back, fist clenched, and eyes wide, she let out a blood curdling, ear piercing scream. Her arms were released and all three shadowed figures backed away covering the sides of their heads. She became silent, straightening her back and neck she looked at her three attackers. Strange…she could see them much more clearly, like someone had turned on a flashlight. For the first time she could get a good look at them, 'Ninjas?' she slightly cocked her head, were they…cowering? Why are they cowering? Her body felt very light as she knelt there on the cement, staring at the ninjas; it was almost as if she didn't even have a body. She couldn't even feel the ground beneath her, everything was silent, but even the tiniest sound seemed to echo in her mind. The three ninjas looked at each other, then—the one who had been attacking took a step forward, and did a spinning kick into her chest. Sending her flying back against the wall, as if in slow motion. She could hear the swoosh of the leg cutting the air, the thud and smack of the foot coming in contact with her chest, and the soft sound of the air whizzing by her ears. She felt nothing. But as soon as her back made contact with the wall, everything seemed to come back to reality. She landed face down in a puddle, and all the pain seemed flood back into her body at once. Her blonde hair draped across her face as she gritted her teeth attempting to turn on her side, coughing up blood. Her vision was blurry, barely noticing three black blobs looming above her body. One of them lowered themselves closer to her limp body and roughly taking her shoulder and completely flipping her onto her back. It was hard to make out, but it looked as if they had pulled out—a syringe? Filled with some sort of blue liquid. It seemed impossible to move, so whatever was in that syringe was going to go into her…

But it never came. The red banded, black blobs suddenly disappeared from her sight. She looked around wearily, just moving her eyes. Then let her head fall to the side, there were green blobs darting back and forth knocking the familiar black ones around. The syringe laid in the puddle near her face. She tried to focus to see if she could get a better look at it; but a green hand reached into her view of sight and picked it up. She could feel the figure kneel next to her on the ground. She strained to hear what they were saying but they sounded to distant. The limp young woman felt a hand slide under her head, cradling it and turning it up to face them. She didn't know what to think of this gesture, it felt kind and comforting, but then again what if they cause her more pain—but then again…how much worse could it be..? She looked up, 'a green head?' a purple band around it where the eyes should be. How she wished she could see more than just blobs right then. Three more green figures moved in behind the one that cradled her head staring down at her, each with a different colored band, orange…blue…..red…. Everything started to go dark….

'Is it raining?' Her mind wandered as she felt water drip onto her face.