"Dad, why are we moving?" I asked my dad while on the airplane. "And why to Australia?"

"I got a new job there at the Beardy Street Hospital. I mean, it'll get us some more money and we can live in a real house!"

That would be my dad. A complete optimist. I knew the real reason we were moving to Armidale is because my parents both got fired and we needed money to stay alive. Then one day, my dad got a job interview invitation, and got the job.

Oh, by the way, I'm Kyle. I'm a typical thirteen-year-old, except for one thing: my family is rivals with another family. The Arcious-Larcious family. I'm not talking about Simpson/Flanders rivalry; I'm talking blackmail, theft, and murders. That is one of the reasons I didn't want to move to Armidale. Armidale is in New South Wales, and that's the Arcious-Larcious family's turf. I didn't think my dad cared, but my mom was totally not with the move. The only reason why she agreed to move was because we needed the money.

Anyway, once the pilot said that we would be landing in Armidale in twenty minutes, I was immediately terrified and clenched my fists. I imagined a man, dressed all in black, on the ground, waiting for our plane to land. Then he would wait until I got off the plane, and then shoot me between the eyes. The man I was thinking of was named "The Awful Aussie". He is part of the Arcious-Larcious family, but he has no one to live with, no friends, and his family doesn't support him. That was because he went crazy after OD'ing on a drug, opium, I think, and killed his wife and first child. But I was just being stupid. There was nobody on the runway but the guy who waved the glowing sticks so the pilot knew where to land.

Once we landed, and got to our house, it was around midnight. So I got on a bed, scared but tired, and instantly fell asleep.

The next day, my parents announced that they were going to a welcoming party. And I would have to stay home with the neighbor's daughter and sons. Their names were Jay, Tay, and Sonya. So they came over and we went straight upstairs to watch TV. After about an hour of TV, we went outside to play basketball. Sonya was great, but Jay and Tay sucked. Tay and Jay kept double dribbling, and kept throwing the ball out into the woods behind my house. When I went to go retrieve the ball, I felt something grab around my leg. I fell facedown on the mud, and my karate instincts kicked in. I grabbed the hand on my leg, and rolled over, which should flip whatever I'm holding over my back. Just as I thought, a shadow flipped over my back and hit a tree. Its leg was twisted badly, so that it looked like a sixty-five degree angle. I ran towards it, kneed it in the face, and tried to again, but it gripped my knee, struck me in the neck, and pushed me away. I was thrown in the air, and then hit the ground, dazed. When I looked up, I didn't see anything. I ran out of the woods as fast as I could, told Sonya, Jay and Tay what had just happened, and we ran inside and locked the doors. We rushed up to the attic, locked that door, and started to watch TV again.

Five minutes into an episode of South Park, an emergency broadcast came on, telling that the Awful Aussie was in our area, and that police were looking for him. The broadcast ended and we heard a knock on the door. We exchanged glances. Tay yelped and hid under the couch. Jay ran over to a closet and shut the door. Sonya shrugged and locked herself in the bathroom. I was all alone. The knocks got louder. Crap... What will I do? I decided to go to my room, grabbed a knife to keep it in my pocket unless it really was the Awful Aussie. I walked down the stairs, slowly, and looked through the peephole on the door. I couldn't see anything. Knife in hand, I opened the door and I was greeted by a deep, warm voice.

"Hello son, are your parents home?" It's a policeman. Thank God...

"Um, no actually," I replied trying to hide the knife in a flowerpot.

"Well, I have some bad news. There is someone named the Awful Aussie on the loose, and"—

"Actually, I know. I saw the news broadcast."

"...What? You did? We only play those on news channels or channels for people a little bit older. We don't want to scare the little ones."

"Um... Yeah... South Park."

"Oh. Well," the policeman looked a bit shocked. "I'm going to need you to stay inside. Don't go out for anything, and keep all of your doors locked."

"Thank you, sir."

"Just need you to stay safe. Oh, and by the way, nice flowers." He said, winking at me.

"Oh. Yeah. Thanks, sir. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, son."

He closed the door. I locked it. After running back up the stairs, heard another knock. Assuming it's the policeman again, I opened it. Three hulking figures filled the space in the doorway. One was dressed all in red, one dressed all in white, and another dressed all in black. The last one's nose was crushed, and he looked to be leaning on one leg. He grinned at me. And winked.

I had a flashback to the woods. Kneeing a shadow in the face. His leg curved at an acute angle. I stepped back, and the one in white spoke. His voice was smooth, and he never stuttered.

"Hello Kyle. Your mother sent us to guard you tonight. You see, your mother and father are in the hospital. Working, of course. They will be back tomorrow at the earliest."

They pushed in, and introduced themselves. The one in red was Red Ed Dead. The one in white was William Hens Ignacious Tom Erth, and the evil-looking one in black was named Benjamin Larcious Anro Carlos Krinket. Something about his name sounded familiar, but I was too stunned to remember. They carried me upstairs, and I saw Tay, Jay, and Sonya were sitting on the couch.

"Hey, Kyle, what took you so—" Sonya looked up and dropped the bag of chips. She jumped up off the couch and punched William Erth somewhere that would hurt a lot.

Will didn't even notice it. He picked Sonya up, set her down on the couch, and explained to her that they have come to protect us. I tried to get comfortable, but something about Ben Krinket was bugging me. But I don't know what...

At eleven o'clock, Ben - lets just call him Black - told us we needed to get to sleep. Red and Will – let's call Will White - were already asleep. Some bodyguards.

"But it's only eleven!" Jay protested.

"You need your sleep." Black was not going to budge.

"This is crazy! It's still the summer! This would be ok on a school night, but school is not in session!"

If only Jay hadn't said all that, he would still be alive. I wish that Jay had never opened his mouth. I really do.

"Shut up. Just do what I say."

Jay mumbled a lot but agreed. There was only one couch in the attic, and we were arguing about who got it. It could fit two people, but one person still had to sleep on the ground. We did rock-paper-scissors, and Sonya and I won.

"Hmph. If you think I'm sleeping in the same bed as you, then you are wrong," Sonya said.

That probably saved my life.

I woke up in the middle of the night, and heard a strange hissing sound. I realized that it was the TV, and turned it off. I shouldn't have done that. I heard Jay screaming in pain, and then I heard a gruesome, wet, snap-crunch-snap sound.

The screaming had stopped. I looked around the room to see if anyone had heard that, but no one had. I realized that Black was not where he had sat against the wall. My memory was jolted. Benjamin Larcious Anro Carlos Krinket. Benjamin Larcious Anro Carlos Krinket. Benjamin Larcious Anro Carlos Krinket. Arcious-Larcious family. Black was part of the Larcious family. How could I be so stupid?!

But it was too late now. I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. I remembered how I felt when I heard those footsteps. I was terrified out of my mind. He had actually killed one of my best friends. Because Jay had whined about going to bed, he had been first. But I knew I was next.

As I realized what was happening, I began to panic even more. The sounds of my own heartbeat seemed louder than actual thunder. I knew I must call for help. But as I opened my mouth, I saw his shadow in the doorway. I shut my mouth, hoping he wouldn't see me. See, if Sonya had been on the couch with me, my legs would have been hanging over the edge, and Black would have seen them immediately. But because Sonya didn't sleep on the couch, I could fit without any part of me hanging off. He didn't see me right away, and he hesitated. Which gave me the opportunity to leap off the couch, grab a fire poker (yeah, we have a fireplace in our attic), and beat him repeatedly over his head with it.

He crumpled, but swiped out at me before I could knock him out. He hit my ear, and a burst of pain exploded in my head. I was flung into the TV, breaking the glass and waking everyone up.

Red reacted by picking me up and running for the window, I assume to jump out and save me. But a golden rod burst out of his neck, and he started coughing out blood. Black had stabbed him with the fire poker.

Red kicked Black's bad knee, and Black fell down. The good news was that Black could barely move. The bad news was that the fire poker was pulled out of Red's neck, and he was drowning in his own blood. I got up and told Tay and Sonya to run and hide, but they insisted on helping. Black had gotten up and was fighting hand-to-hand with White, but it looked like White was losing. Sonya sprayed Black with Mighty Molly's Mace spray, and Tay grabbed another fire poker and hit Black over and over with it. None of this bothered Black. It only seemed to make him annoyed, and he threw White out the window, then grabbed Tay's fire poker, whacked him in the neck, and threw him out as well. Sonya ran out of mace, and tried to run. Black picked her up, broke her arms, and threw her down the long, hard, wooden stairs. When she reached the bottom, she didn't move. Black advanced toward me. I cowered and curled up in a ball. I was punched in the nose, and my head jerked back.

Black said he wanted me to see something. He opened the closet, and three bodies fell out. My mom, my dad, and someone who looked just like my dad, except that he was only fifteen or sixteen. They were bloodied and tied up, but alive.

"You see what my family is capable of, Kyle? We can wipe out entire nations, and we can squash them like a bug. I'm going to tell you our dirty little secret." Black leaned in close to my ear. His breath smelled like blood. "We aim for the neck," he whispered.

He picked up the person who looked like my dad, and slammed his elbow against my dad's mini-me's neck. Black laughed as Mini-dad's eyes bugged, he gasped for air, and then blood flowed out of his mouth. He was dead.

"And guess what else?" Black said. "We know a lot about pain." Black squeezed my dad's neck, and dad blacked out. Black roared with laughter, hiccupped, sneezed, then dropped me and started vomiting blood.

White had dropped down from the ceiling and had stabbed him with a knife. White pushed Black out of the window, and into the waiting arms of a SWAT team. White explained how he was part of our family, the Argos family, and was related to dad. Dad explained who the boy was. He was my long-lost brother. That was the real reason we had moved here. To find him. I never learned what had happened to Jay, but Tay, Sonya, White, and I all had to spend three months at the hospital. Jay, Tay, and Sonya's parents never were heard from again. Until one day, when I received a random text message saying: "Sydney Opera, Sydney Opera, Sydney Opera. Find them or they will join the phantom."

I got that text twice a day for three days, before I realized that it was a clue to where Jay Tay and Sonya's parents were. And I knew where I was going next.

END OF BOOK ONE

Argos Chronicles