"Hey, loser! Betcha can't catch me!" one youth taunts, his eyes dancing, the basketball bouncing a drum's rhythm against the pavement.
The boy's sister, a striking young girl with curly black hair and vivid blue eyes curls her lip defiantly, and lunges at her brother.
He turns swiftly makes a shot at the goal hoop. Swish! The young girl is still running, and she accidentally catapults into her brother, sending the two children falling onto a dew-encrusted lawn.
They roll on the ground, each trying to hold the other down long enough to claim victory. The boy roars in triumph as he flips his sister over and grabs her shoulders, holding her down into the moist ground, her black hair splayed out behind her head. But he forgets to be wary of his sister, who is more muscle than he is, despite them being of same age, and she knees him in the stomach just hard enough to throw him toppling onto the grass as she casually rests a foot on his neck.
"Hang on, you can't win! I'm the boy, and daddy says that boys are more stronger than girls," the boy pouts, his blue eyes widening in false innocence.
"Maybe so, but he also says that girls are cleverer," his sister gloats, her tongue fumbling over the word 'cleverer'. "You can't talk your way out of this one, Chris!"
"Shh!" The boy, Chris, whispers, eyes stretching wide, putting a tiny finger to his lips. "listen!"
The growling of pavement and crunch of gravel meets the girl's ears and she laughs critically. "That's just Daddy, silly!"
"But he's home early," Chris sounds worried, and this startles his sister into searching the long driveway for signs of her father's familiar BMW.
"There he-" she begins but breaks off abruptly as she sees her father's car hurtling towards them at a breakneck pace, and several black Cadillacs follow. The girl screams and in her shock she trips over her brother's neck and falls onto hard pavement, right in the path of the BMW, which skids to a halt right at her head.
The door to the car opens and a tall man dressed in a semi-formal suit jumps out and runs to his daughter, grabbing her and embracing her.
"Don't do that ever again! Chris, where are you?" as his son runs up, squealing in delight at the sight of their father, the man drags him into an arm too and begins to run into the house.
"Ow! Daddy! Put me down, Daddy, I can walk for myself!" the little girl protests, thumping her little fists on her father's strong arms. Bullets fire and the children scream in unison as their father ducks his head, running through their giant house.
Another bang, this time louder, makes the children's father shout in pain and fall to the floor, the children scrambling out of his arms hastily. Chris pulls a flaming arrow from his father's back and frowns, puzzled.
"Run," the man grunts to his children, fighting for breath but losing life quickly.
"Daddy, I don't like this!" the little girl complains, tugging on her father's hand and sticking out her bottom jaw. "Make it stop!"
"My little Irie," the father manages to laugh shakily and ruffles his daughter's black hair affectionately. "Don't worry about me, but you need to run!" a sudden rushing of wind has the jumpy children screaming again, as a thunderously tall woman with ankle-length scarlet hair and flaming silver eyes appears out of nowhere before them.
"Lathenia!" the man spits from his vulnerable position on the ground at the woman's feet.
"Michael!" Lathenia hisses, and the children both shiver, terrified. "Tonight this ends, and my revenge shall be complete!" And with those words said, she draws a sword from her cloak and stabs the man in the heart, causing the children to scream once more.
"I don't like it, daddy!" Irie wails again, tears flowing from her cheeks. Chris merely stares at his father's corpse in shock, remembering that if he and his sister had decided to stay at their friend's house earlier, they wouldn't be here right now.
Lathenia turns her scorching silver glare on the two innocent children, who both flinch and tremble violently, wondering what would happen to them now.
"Well, well, Chris… Iris!" Lathenia says smoothly. "It is time for you to choose your destiny. I will be waiting for you!" she turns her gaze onto Irie only with an expectant gleam in her eye, and continues staring at the little girl as the woman disappears.
The children are alone.
The time has come, an eerie voice comes from inside the children's minds and they turn around, looking for the source of the words. A new prophecy has arisen. The voice chants, and Irie daringly calls for the voice to show itself.
Chris's eyes narrow in dismay. "I don't like this! I want daddy to wake up and make everything better again!"
"Shhh! The voice is back!" Irie snaps.
Speak the name in your heart to choose your destiny.
"What does that mean?" Irie asks.
"There has been a name I've been longing to say for quite a while…" the boy shivers. "But it's a wretched name!"
"Me too!" His sister says, eagerly nodding. "what's the name you've been thinking of!"
"You first," the boy says shyly.
"no!" Irie snorts.
"You!"
"You're older!"
"Yeah, by, like, one minute!" the boy rolls his eyes, appearing to forget about the horror of hearing men banging on their front door, earnest to get in. "okay, we'll say in on three!"
"One," Irie mutters.
"Two," Chris's eyes suddenly gleam.
"Three!" they both chant.
"Arkarian!" Irie squeals happily, as her brother yells a different name.
"Lathenia," the boy says, looking startled to have whispered the name aloud. Instantly, the children begin to glow, and they shriek as they start to fade, grabbing at each other's hands, but Irie finds she can't connect her hand with her brother's, and Chris's eyes look frantic.
"Don't go!" they both yell, before both of them disappear.
A new prophecy has begun.
