Chapter 1
The soft pitter-patter of rain on my face alerted me to the fact that I was outside. My eyes flitted open and I stared up into the dark, rumbling clouds as the rain began to pelt me. What happened? My whole body was numb except for the feeling on the rain upon my skin. I racked my brain, trying desperately to remember something, anything. The only thing that I could remember was the sunny skies above me, and anything before that was a great span of white, ending at my basement and a beautiful blue light. It bothered me, the great white area, like something important had happened but I couldn't remember it. All I had now was the rain and the numb and the cold.
I felt the numbness start to spread upwards, starting with my feet, pushing the cold and the rain away. And with the numbness, the darkness came, starting at the edge of my world, and then quickly spiraling inwards, until the only light was just a speck in my world, and then it too was gone, and then the peaceful darkness was all I knew.
"Molly?" A soft voice called to me from nowhere. Go away. Yet the voice still persisted. "Molly!" It was louder and more urgent this time. I felt somebody grab my arm and my eyes flew open as I let out a bloodcurdling scream. It was as if my entire body was being ripped apart and each raindrop that hit my skin was a knife, or made out of acid. Yet the worst pain was focused on my right shoulder blade, where it felt like someone had taken a blowtorch to it.
"Molly, listen to me, are you ok?" Ed's voice sounded far away and weak through my unending shrieks of pain. Through the horrible pain however, I could make out that Ed was soaked, but not just from the rain. His hands were drenched in blood, so drenched in fact that the rain still hadn't washed the blood from his hands. Where did all of that blood come from?
"Shit Molly, I need to get you out of this rain." Ed's voice was calm and even, yet his eyes betrayed the fear that he was feeling. What is happening? Ed bent down and tried to pick me up when his hand brushed my shoulder and the fire quickly spread outwards until the pain became too much and the black reclaimed my world once again.
It was different this time though. The black began to fade into a stark white, with only the Gate breaking up the monotony. Ed bravely took a step forward…Wait Ed? That is when I realized that I was remembering what had happened during the great white area that had been missing from my memory.
"Take us to Risembool, take us home." Ed said in a commanding voice that didn't betray the nervousness that I'm sure he was feeling. He stood back and the Gate suddenly creaked open, revealing thousands of purple eyes staring back at us. Then, long black arms snaked out and wrapped around us, pulling us into the huge stone doors.
I gasped. The arms felt horrible; cold and clammy like they were dead. Fighting the urge to rip them off I looked up at Ed, and while he looked uncomfortable he stood still, as if he knew that he had to put up with them in exchange for passage through. Suddenly, a bright light distracted me from Ed. I looked down at my arm to find that the arms had transformed themselves into child-like things with deep purple eyes. Alarmed, I looked up at Ed, who was being pulled along by the arms, like Al. Scared, I looked over at Mo, who was desperately trying to push the children off of her. I heard her yell out for help, yet Ed and Al had already moved out of sight.
I felt something on my shoulder move, distracting me from Monique. One of the many "Gate Babies" had crawled onto my shoulder and was now nuzzling and sniffing it, as if it was trying to decide whether or not I would taste good. Scared, I went to move my arm and try to brush it off, yet I found that it was being held back by the others. I started to fight and struggle, yet the things held me still.
I suddenly heard Monique let out the loudest scream that I had ever heard. I looked up to she her writhing in pain. Now thoroughly terrified, I started to fight harder, yet it was useless. Without warning, the thing on my shoulder sunk its teeth into my flesh and thousands of images rushed into my head, along with more information then I could possibly ever need. It felt like my head was going to explode. Nothing had ever hurt like this, including the bite from the little "blood sucker' that was still latched onto my shoulder. I let out a scream, yet nothing changed and the thing fiercely held on.
Finally the Gate seemed to end and I found myself falling onto the ground in the middle of a large field. Thankfully a numbness spread over my body, like a soft layer of snow on the ground, driving off the pain. I must be going into shock. I thought as I stared up into the bright blue sky above me.
"Please, you have to help her." Ed's voice sounded far away, yet it did enough to bring me somewhat back into reality.
"Ed…" Someone's voice responded, and I felt myself being transferred into someone else's arms when, once again, someone touched the spot on my shoulder, causing the pain to flare up and the world to go black.
Chapter 2