I wake up another painful morning like any other... Get up, take a shower brush my teeth, straighten my hair, touch up my roots (when needed) and get dressed. But something's different today, my liquid eyeliner seems a bit off as usual but nothing else. I walk down stairs creeping towards the alcohol cabinet and grab some whiskey, and shove it into my bag, as usual. "What do you have, Mariana?" Right on cue... "Nothing Hanna, just pens..." I sigh as she walks past me smelling like alcohol and smokes again, as usual. "You look like a damn whore." Hanna slurs " And don't call me Hanna, I'm your mother treat me as such!" I roll my eyes as she stumbles for the coffee machine. "Ok 'Mom', I was just getting some pens off the table." I reach for my sketch book with the army's emblem on it. "Where do you think your going?" She grabs my hair and pulls " You have things to do here." She let's go. I sigh knowing I'm not getting off the hook "I'll take care of it." She thumps me, basically slamming her pointer finger's knuckle into my temple "You'ed better, why can't you be more like your brother...?" She sighs walking away. 'Because he got an education and a job.' My dad walked out on us when my mom became a heavy alcoholic, it was "for the best" he has a new family across town. My brother had just finished university when he walked out on us. I was 8 at the time, nothing has ever been the same. My dad won't pay child support or Hanna is wasting it all on beer and cigarettes. I grab a knife out of the drawer, this side of town is really unsafe I fear for my life even when in bed and asleep. Hiding in the shadows, perhaps it's where I belong... My arm warpaint runs as I scrub the dishes. Hanna walks by tipsy as usual and she stumbles and knocks a dish off the counter "Watch what your doing!" She sneers, I sigh again and roll my eyes as I turn to get the broom. "Hanna sit down before you hurt yourself." I whisper as I sweep up the broken dish. "Shut up." She scowls and plops down on the sofa hangover and all, she pulls a bottle of beer to her lips off the coffee table. I wait till she falls asleep and I walk out the back door and slam it knowing she won't wake up. "Fuck you, and fuck this house!" I scream at the house from the backyard and climb over the fence. I hit the ground landing on my side on the pavement, I stand up and start running. I just keep running till nothing seems familiar. I throw my phone into the bushes after stomping on the screen several times till it doesn't turn on. I look in my bag deciding to keep my iPod. I take out my earbuds and plug them in. As I scroll through my albums I notice a person run by me as I smell salt and dirt. Then another person runs by. The buildings slowly melt into large piles of sand that slowly flatten out and harden. The sun beats down on my face I quickly cover my eyes from the blinding light. "Hello...?!" I shout my voice trembling with fear. I hear a scream then a whoosh. I hear it behind me then all of a sudden... I turn around and I pull the knife from my bag, but it's too late. The spear is already in my side. A dark figure stands over me with a skull faced mask and horns like the devil. The spears top spiked end was ripping across my side as I look to my left, a girl wearing all black her arms and legs painted as well as black dripped on her face. Her black short hair draped across her face as blood spurts from her mouth. She's alive and drowning in her own blood. She reached for her crude flail. She stumbles to her feet and begins swinging it... the figure dissolves into a dark mist and reappears in front of her, and she lets go after it reaches a high momentum, there was no possible way of it dodging. Her efforts where not in vain. She falls to her knees slowly and dies spitting blood as the figure is already slumped over. It's face is badly mutelated by the flail, flesh ripped off, it's lip torn, a spike, in its eye and the black on the weapon pierced into its skin causing puncture like tattoos. It's blood flew and sizzled on the ground like a deadly poison. I pass out from blood loss and pain. As I open my eyes the pain in my side has subsided, but not completely. I open my eyes and everything's blurry. "She's alive!" I hear a girl shout. I feel someone's hand on my neck feeling for a pulse. "Let's get her back to base, The Mystic will know what to do."I hear a deep male voice, I feel someone's hand on my waist and the pain shoots back and I scream. "H-how is she still alive...?" I hear a young boy say "her guts are hanging out!", I hear shuffling as I hear the flail being pulled off the creatures face. "We can't move her then, but if we leave her here alone she's as good as dead." I hear the man say "I'll stay." I hear the girl say. Everything fades to black once again. But now I'm on a train with a ticket in my hand. I lean away from the window shaking my head 'What the hell just happened...?' I look around I'm the only one on this segment. I look at my ticket "Ascot..." I read quietly to myself 'Why am I headed there...? This is where dads new family lives...' I notice the music on my iPod stopped playing. I pull it out and press play. "Estimated arrival time to Ascot 10 minuets." The speaker startles me I nearly drop the iPod. I lean on the wall and close my eyes but I can't keep them shut, something is still bothering me... "We have arrived at Ascot, please remain seated till the train comes to a complete stop." The train trembles as it comes to a stop.

I get up and walk towards the door. I reach for the button... As I touch it, it begins to turn into sand "No, no not again!"I shout as I fall to the floor. My blinks seem to get longer and eventually I fall asleep... I feel sand blowing onto my face as I hear the crunching of foot steps on sand "Hey! Over here!" I hear the girl call. I hear them whispering, "Why should we save her, she could be a F.E.A.R follower." I hear a new voice, "And if she isn't we're letting a sister die!" I hear the girl snap. "You should have gotten the Prophet." He sighs shortly after he finishes his sentence. "I will see what I can do." I hear the sand crunch next to my ear, "Take Verdant's body away from the girl, if she wakes up we don't want that being the first thing she sees." I hear mystic say. I force my eyes open but even so everything's blurry, I manage to move my head. I look over towards where Verdant was sprawled out, her blood is clear? Like water! 'This place doesn't make any sense at all!' I see the man pick up Verdant and walk away with the girl and boy. I see the mystic look at me, he reaches for my face. My muscles tighten as he places his hand over my eyes. A blinding light seems to absorb me. I look down a long hall the top half if the wall painted white and the other half painted black. "Where are you?" I hear a voice echo through the halls, "Hello?!" I shout out in hope of a response. "Where are you?" The voice asks again its a deep voice and slightly rough. "Who are you?", I turn a full circle to see a figure behind me in the hall and in front of me another of those... creatures... I back up and trip as it walks towards me as far as it seemed to be away, it seemingly disappeared and reappeared. "Come here." I hear the voice again. I look behind me and the figure has their hand held out. As stand up the black part of the wall bleeds into the white as I reach the figure I realise who it is... 'Andy Sixx, what the hell is going on?!' He has a cigaret in his mouth, this briefly reminds me of Hannah which I have left passed out on the sofa. I look behind me and the creature is inches from my face. I am so terrified I cant even scream as I stumble backwards and it raises its spear. I close my eyes knowing what's going to happen, but instead. " Do not be afraid." I feel someone's hands on my shoulders helping me to properly stand, "You can fight can't you?" I hear Andy's voice in my ear "Y-yes, but, I'm not fast enough..." I hear his footsteps on the stone floor walking around me and stopping next to me. I look at him and he raises his hand and grabs the creatures face and a black light quickly flashes out of its eyes and begins to bleed as it slumps over. "What are those things...?" I say looking at him with eyes of terror " They are not human anymore as you can tell," I look at it in the sockets where it's eyes where, Andy reaches over my shoulder and pulls off its mask. An ugly face stares at me, it's face appears to be melted and scarred black mist pours from its mouth and eyes. "They are monsters now, Shadows. Only the fighters of F.E.A.R are like this." His eyes seem to shimmer "Although this is a dream this shadow is very real, it's as dangerous as it would be in real life." He says calmly as the entire hall has turned black and he shoves his hand through the shadows throat and it slowly slumps over. "Andy, is this all real...?" I ask him as the shadows blood pools on the black floor making a white puddle the reeks of rotting flesh, "Andy...? You might have me mistaken for someone else." He turns on his heels and walks down the hall flicking his cigaret onto the floor and exhaling the last puff of smoke, "I'm The Prophet, the tunge and voice of the future." His gaze drifts around before drifting back to me "there's The Mystic, The Mourner, The Destroyer, and The Seer, I guess that is all we go by now... Our titles. Our names where numbers while we where in the Church of F.E.A.R all we are is numbers..." He lights a new cigaret now walking down the hall away from me, as he walks away the white from the shadows blood begins to move on its own accord and envelop the walls behind me I run to stay by his side but I can't move, the walls have gone completely white as The Prophet is no longer within sight, I fall to my knees no longer able to tell left from right the hall now feels like a room full of blinding and confusing light... I feel dizzy... I feel lost.

Finally coming to my senses I'm on my feet once more walking down a foreign sidewalk an address written in sharpie on my arm... "1624...? Dad's house?" My iPods dead, but I still have the charger I should wait until I rest to charge it... I begin to sweat so I take off my leather jacket and my satchel. It clinks against the concrete ground, then I remember the whiskey, "No sorrow left inside me, celebrate the moments behind me, they shine his holy memory..." I walk into the trees and sit on my jacket quietly muttering as I open the cap and pull it to my lips. "Youth... And whiskey..." remembering my mom drunk all those years ago, no wonder he left us... The trees around me begin to melt into sand, I take a small swig from the bottle before dropping it to the ground allowing my buzz to take away the panic. I feel warm hand on my sides as I force my eyes open, my guts are no longer hanging out and the hands are warping bandages around the open wound. The pain shoots back as the girl places her hand on the bandages to help tie it off. "Careful, you'll reopen the wound!" The Mystic says as he whacks her hand away. My vision is no longer blurry. Jinxx... Of course... Why didn't I think to remember their roles... But isn't Ashley The Deviant? Maybe he dosnt exist in this world? The mystic places a hand on my side I can't help but lurch forwards from the pain, the girl pins my shoulders to the ground as I see a glowing mist seemingly emitting from Jinxx's hands, it's iridescent and nearly nauseating to look at. The pain subsides as I feel cold wind blowing across my stomach "Scorpion, Vertigo and Garrotte I'm going to need help moving her onto the gurney, one of you needs to get Verdant to the mourner or the destroyer for a proper cremation."

I hear the older boy say "I'll retrieve verdant, she'll be harder to carry..." I feel two small hands grip my ankles, another support my waist, I feel hands slip under my head supporting my upper torso as I see black hair drape down with a pair of eyes starring directly into mine, something comes over me and I begin to scream the eyes morph into that of the monsters it's black blood dripping onto my face stinging my skin like acid. It's claws grip my face as another comes into view it's speech slurred and inaudible as the sand seemingly swallows me up. As the sand clears grass tickles my skin, I sit up trees everywhere, where the fucking hell am I... I can't hear any cars no people just wind, I sit up smelling salty air and a small crashing noise. The ocean..? No way. That's too far to walk. Seagulls fill the sky flying past me, on instinct I follow. After clearing the trees I feel hot sand radiating heat to my arms and face, there's a small hut to my left just inside the tree line, curiosity gets the better of me failing to notice the shadowy mist forming in the sea. I look at the curtain used as a door nervous as to what I might find, I place my hand on the edge of the curtain before pulling it open, crudely carved wooden toys litter the floor, a bird, fish, and a wolf.

A small fire pit in the middle of the square hut with two mats right next to each other with a basket that smells of rotting fish, this place must be old. I bend over to pick up a toy " Destin " carved into the foot of the wolf "Must be the kids name..." I hear the cloth whoosh as a small translucent child runs through the curtain it's speech jumbled and quick, the little boy has brown hair, blue eyes and a thin defined face. Destin... A woman enters the hut behind him maybe in her early 40s, she looks nothing like the child with her red hair and brown eyes, they don't seem to see me, the child runs through me as the woman gains a panicked look on her face picking up the child and putting him in the basket of fish which have seemed to regain their flesh, as the cloth door seemingly melts away turning into ash before it hits the ground; the woman arming herself with a hand made spear as the shadows storm the hut, their spiked weapons dripping with venom, I can hear their whispers now... "The child, or death." Hissing throughout the hut the three shadows ransack the hut as the woman charges at the one that spoke regardless of their superior weapons her speech warped but her scream piercing as the shadows spear enters her chest. The shadow uses one claw to grab her hair before she falls as I hear a small shriek and struggling from the fish basket the shadow pulling the boy out piercing his shoulder with his claws as the boys blood drips the the floor the woman struggles and screams her last as the shadow drops her onto its spear. The boy cries, not just from the pain but from the loss, the shadows surrounding him, two holding both of his arms the other uses it's claw, dragging it across his face cutting from his ear to his cheek it's own blood tattooing the perfect line as the boys blood drips to the floor he screams as he stares at me or... Behind me... I turn to see a shadow breathing down my shoulder I swing my fist at it, but it grabs my fist with a hand?

I examine the shadow's mask it's seemingly calming and it's color a dark green. It throws me to the ground onto a pile of bones that was once the red haired woman. It reaches for its mask removing it with a small white light emitting from it. It's the girl, the one that died... "Verdant...?" She stares at me blankly, "How did you get here?" She glares at me " The real question is how are you still alive?!" I back away wile still on the floor the bones seemingly have not splintered. "I'm not, you're dead." She puts her mask back on "Or not for very long it seems, someone is saving you." She pauses " What you've just witnessed was the prophets capture when he became # 6660, and Quell's number one threat." She picks up the bird toy "Poor Agin, she gave her life for him in vain, a child that's not even hers ..." My arm begins to tingle as I feel the dirt floor dispersing and opening up around me. " Stay away from F.E.A.R, stay away from Quell. If they kill you they own your soul if not put to rest! Please release me from this curse!" I begin to sink as shadow begins to emit from her, she falls to her knees seemingly going insane screaming bloody murder. "Beware the matriarch!" She finally screams as her face seemingly deforms it's self melting turning her into one of them... The floor finally eats me up as I awaken across the street from my dad's house rage filling me. I hate, I hate... I hate him! Dumb bastard thinks he can just leave us for 8 years and expect nothing to happen?! I see a window open I search for the knife in my bag... I pull it out grains of sand covering it... So, it is real...? I look at my stomach a large scar running across my side. How? How has it closed up so soon?

I place the knife back in my bag dazed and confused... "What the hell." The grains of sand hitting the ground seemingly multiplying in number the scar ripping open, the pain... It's unbearable! A man from down the road stares at me in shock, then begins to run towards me, his face full of fear as the sand swirls and disappears, swallowing up me into its darkness... "Her breathing has returned... The bleeding is near minimal." I feel cold wet hands on my side gently touching the now closed wound, as I come to my senses I feel a quick cut across the back of my neck.

"She's chipped still... Sedate her, we have to get it out." I hear several people murmuring, "Whats her number...?" Someone elevates my head and feels at my neck pulling the cut skin open. I scream out with pain as the adrenaline has worn off, I begin struggling beyond control, the only thing keeping me from lashing out are the strips of leather forming a crude binding to whatever surface I'm tied to and the blindfold. "Fuck!" The hands move from my waist to my shoulders pinning me to the surface as they pry something out of my skin. "GET OFF ME!" Fuck... My head really hurts... "Someone hold her down! I need to get that cut closed!" With that second of freedom I use my upwards momentum to break through the leather strap, memories of my family starting to fade, blurred like a window smudged with mud. My panic overtakes me as whispering echoes through my mind. "We expect a battle for humanity is about to begin, with each uprising a vague sense of safety will ignite in you, an unseen shadowy sliver of doubt, towards those who protect and defend you. Let the thought slip away and remain calm. Stay close to F.E.A.R, only WE can protect." this can't be real... I grab at the blindfold as they struggle to pin me down "Mystic! Hurry with that cut, I can't hold her down!"

I feel fingers slowly sliding across the cut on my neck my panic increasing with the tingling sensation followed by burning as my skin melds together. I feel a second person grab my shoulder and push me back to the surface, I have no control over my body as I begin kicking and screaming in a language that seems long dead. "Damn, the chemical pouch broke!" I can feel the closed cut burning. "They still have influence on her! Mystic, what's her damn number!?" 'Sounds like... The mourner... He had a name... What was his name...?'

I feel dizzy as the chemical wares off and I begin to see everything in a daze as someone pulls the blindfold off. I see the Mystics shocked face as he stares at a carved piece of metal with strands of wire before he quickly snaps his head up looking at the mourner. Silence befalls the small cloth hut until... The mystic snaps his head up "Get the prophet... Now!" The Mourner quickly leaves the hut as The Mystic rushes to my side looking me over, examining my face and arms before looking back at the chip as the cloth curtain is pulled open, The Prophet, The Mourner, The Destroyer, and The Dauntless storm through the door all staring at The Mystic, his jaw still dropped as faces of seriousness stare back at him "6669" the mystic looks at his equivalents. "She is inmate number, 6669" his shock is shared with the rest of the group, except for the prophet. He walks over to me "I know." His deep voice emits around the room. They all look at him their looks still shocked with a hint of anger "Why didn't you tell us?!" The Dauntless says stepping forwards slightly. "Cause' I've only just seen." He leans on the table for support, "she called me Andy, that's my code name in F.E.A.R." His energy seemingly drained, images of a dark cell and chains echo through my head. My energy level matches his, my head now pounding "Her memory is blocked, let me see that chip." The mystic steps forwards handing it to him, as The prophet turns it in his hands. " This chemical pouch was made to break..." He touches a small dent in the metal. "Didn't they 'euthanise' the 'defectives'?" The Mourner speaks up as The Destroyer gives him a glance "We lived didn't we?" He looks around "We learned to use our powers before they imprisoned us, either way she's a lot younger than us. She must've been a recent capture..." The Prophet turns around "No, these scars are far too old." He turns my face looking at my chin. 'Do I have scars on my face?' I look around my vision slightly improved, all their faces have black marks. The Prophet has a line from his ear to his cheek, The Dauntless' trachea with stitches and his face with two lines going from his neck to the sides of his chin, The Mystic has four pointed stars over his eyes

Scars... They must've been painful... "I don't remember any female 'defectives'." The Mystic looks back at me walking towards me with a quick pace. "Dauntless, hold her down," He looks at the Mystic puzzled but complies as he presses down on my shoulders "she still has a chip in her neck..." The prophet steps to the opposite side of the table as the Dauntless. "She's been chipped twice?" He looks at the mystic as he nods "You can still see it," he grits his teeth as he takes a scalpel off the table. "Mourner." He holds it out as The mourner lights a flame in his hand heating the metal as The mystic brings the scalpel closer to my skin. The prophet lifts my head and tries to keep my neck still, as I struggle to get a grip on myself. My drained energy keeps me weak as the scalpel is dragged across my skin. I struggle as The Mourner rushes to the table to hold my neck still as The Mystic begins pulling the chip out. "We need to move camp..." The prophet raises his voice "NOW." He looks around at the group as the mystic closes the cut. The rest of them scatter, he looks up from the chip to the mystic "This one is a old tracker model like ours..." The mystic takes the scalpel and begins to cut wires "From the looks of it, still active too." He turns it in his hands till the wires he cut fall out. "Rusted, Prophet... If she IS a defective... What is she?" The Prophet turns his head, "There's no way, we saw the others slaughtered before we escaped." He mutters something under his breath "And none of them were female either." My vision is blurred from the pain in my neck. Murmuring is enacting from outside the small tent "She's probably bait, unless we missed something, we should take her with us. See if she knows anything. I need to rally the groups" the prophet leaves without another word. I hear the mystic lean on the table as the old metal creaks under the wight. "Who the hell are you." My head is aching like someone beat my head in with a stone, the most I can do is shake my head. The metal creaks as he moves away from the table, "Later then." I hear a lid open then a needle pierce my skin. The blur grows "I'm putting you to sleep for now." As the dark grows, so does the image of bars and fear, the floor is filthy and the walls stone and uncovered. Nothing but a bed and a small unlit candle are in the room looking around there is only 8 other cells but I can see blood stains in 2 of the cells and the smell of rotting flesh stings my nose. I'm sitting on the bed and can't move just turn my head. I hear scratching from the darkest corner of the cell, she's just sitting there a tiny little girl. Her eyes red, and her hair black as the room around her but a small bit of color is barely visible. Red. "6669, what you've seen today will happen again if you try to join them. The shadows drag a small boy to the front of the cell, he has been beaten and bloodied. "No! Sethen! Sethen!" The little girl springs up crying as the shadow pulls out a knife and slits his throat "This is the punishment for escape, take a good look." I can't look away "No!" The pool of blood begins churning as a spoke would appear piercing the shadows head "NO!" The boy falls to the ground as they open the door, they grab her by the hair and drag her out I can only stare as the blood spike melts back into blood and the girl screams down the hall. The cell is the very last one in the row and has been walled off from the rest. "Sethen!" As I hear concrete slam against its self, the boy stirs "I'm... sorry...Scarlet..." As the final breath leaves him as I hear whispering down the hall. "We have to take her memory, she won't be able to use her powers. We need to do the same to the rest. Destin, Chiet, Schol, Keris, Oleta, the lot of em'. Matriarch sees me' as danger. She's right too, after what's Scarlet's done, she's killed 5 shadows this month and she's been sent to isolation." I see a boy place his hands on the bar after the voices fade. The bars melt and another begins to break the bars. "We gotta get out, NOW." The boys stand in their cells, they're about 14-16 year olds, their hair stained two boys proceed to break their friends out. "I'm sorry, Sethen." The boy holds a flame in his hands as the five bow their heads in mourning as he sets the boys body aflame. They look down the hall towards the screaming, "who was that...?" They look down the hall as foot steps proceed "We don't have time to find out, we need to get out before we have to fight our way out." The blue eyed boy leads the group down the hall as footsteps come from the isolation cell. "Go, go, go! Keris, light the hall! They can't travel through fire!" One of them turns creating a wall of fire between them and the shadows as they rush down the hall, a grin on his face as time stops The Prophet emerges from the fire. "They buried you deep, kept you separate. We didn't even know you existed. Then again you've never existed to yourself." He turns back towards the frozen boys as the building turns to sand and the blinding sunlight forces my eyes shut before opening to tattooed eyes staring back at me "She's up." The thin cloth separating me from the hot sand wrinkles as I sit up. Finally able to think, I look around at the crowd of 19-25 people busily setting up small tents some carrying wounded, I see the prophet storm up to me with a pale tired face sending everyone off with a simple glare. "You've brought the shadows right down on us, I know you're a defective and I know your friend, but why should we trust you?" I sit up still dizzy and sick "Because I don't know if I can trust you either, but I have no choice." I rub the back of my neck remembering the cut wasn't closed I'm not surprised by the dried blood and swelling. The other cut however, seems completely healed. The Mystic pushes through the crowd " Prophet, 76 casualties. 23 dead, 53 wounded. The Mourner is taking care of the dead's souls." The Prophet runs his hand up his face and proceeds to pull his hair. "Fuck." He turns abruptly "Fuck!"

His eyes shimmer with electric blue, "It's starting then," he looks up blankly at the sky "The war to end this has begun, and we are not prepared. Either The Matriarch's blood flows, or the rebel's blood forever stains the deserts sand..."

He shakes his head the voices ever so confusing in his head, "I can't understand them anymore, they're all screaming to be heard." He stumbles his energy fading as the mystic steps forward holding him up by the shoulders. "Block them out, before they drain you." He sits in the dirt next to me and looks at the sand covering his ears and closes his eyes, the electric shimmer fades as his 'defect' subsides. "Chiet, get the others." The mystic gives him a glance.

"We don't go by those names anymore." I turn my head looking around "Schol, Keris and Oleta..." The prophet shoots a look at me lifting his head from his hands, as the Mystic's jaw drops "She was in our F.E.A.R sector, that is why I need you to get them." The Mystic nods and walks off to one of the tents being set up. "You saw me digging through your head didn't you?" I shrug "Was that me... With the blood...?" He nods, "Your friend, Sethen..." He shakes his head "He tried to get out with Ire and Feglin., they got caught. We thought they just executed him because he was out of his cell already, if we had known you where there we would have done something." I stand up "I don't remember anyways,"