This book is more of a fantasy book guys and it might all seem a bit confusing at first but try to bare with me, I'm gonna reveal more about the storyline as we go along so anything you don't understand right now will be revealed as the book goes on. There's a bit too much to reveal all in one chapter, but it will all make sense by the end. Hope you enjoy it, I'm planning on making it into a trilogy if people like it, so let me know what you think, all opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

I jolt awake and sit upright. I rub my eyes which are being strained from the depravity of sleep and let out a massive yawn. Another nightmare. I wearily glance over at the digital clock stationed at the desk opposite my bunk bed through the bed's railings. It's 2 o'clock in the morning! I have to be up in three hours for training. The thought of my daily lessons combined with a lack of sleep makes me want to pull my duvet over me and sink away from this horrible place.

My roommates, Richard and Kyle, are fast asleep with one below me on the bunk I'm on and one to my far right on their own single bed. I envy them having the luxury of a goodnight's sleep. I've been having a lot of nightmares recently. They mostly consist of my Dad being killed or dying in some form or another. I was only two when he died...well killed technically. And it was only here that I was told the truth behind that death. I grew up without him, but then again it would never have been much different anyway. Circumstances would have meant that he would of always been distant from me, his death only sped up the inevitable. Still I find myself thinking about his death recently, it never seemed to bother me however it racks my every sleep as of late.

Where I am now is in a training centre for people aged 14-16 where I learn to fight, survive and kill amongst other things. It is part of a larger complex in which much more serious acts take place than training children about things they will not yet be able to comprehend. I am part of a top secret underground organisation named "The Shield". When I say top secret, I literally do mean top secret, as in very, very few people outside our organisation know of our existence. We are spread out across the globe and all of our bases are underground. This is how we live when we are not fighting, underneath and in complete secret from the people we protect. Although worldwide, our organisation only numbers around 300 combatants, nowhere near enough to complete the task given to us.

I am at the shield's base in America, where I have been for the past two years of my life, learning to kill, and sustain my life for long periods in harsh environments, and to be able to face down the horrors of another realm. Indeed, this is not the life I would have chosen for myself. I was kidnapped and brought here at the age of 14. It is a law of the shield, the son or daughter of a member of the shield must join their ranks, whether they wish to or not, and my father was a member of the shield. I hate this, all of this. Living underground, not able to see my mother or grandmother or any of my family and friends. Constantly tied here, knowing I've got to face a life of fighting and death. I'm not excited, that's for sure.

The Shield and its members are tasked with defending our world from the onslaught of the Slephi. They are a race of vicious and primitive spirit-beasts that inhabit the Damathos realm. The Damathos realm is an entire world parallel to ours, in which the laws of psychics that our world abide by are non-existent. It is a realm of extreme psychic energy where only those who have adapted to it's environment can truly live there for the rest of their lives. Whilst there are many such spirit-beasts inhabiting this realm, the Slephi are indeed the most dangerous as they have developed a way to cross into our world with the sole intent to kill humans. It is up to the Shield to stop them wherever they appear.

Once again, I'm stuck in long thought when I should be trying to sleep, I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I lye back down, pull the duvet over most of my body up to my head, and allow myself to drift off.