A/N: Well, with Out of Time nearly finished (all but the epilogue already written and betaed) I thought it was time to start a new story. That and I've had this idea for a while and have had fun exploring it so far.
The characters and fantasy elements here are owned by DarkElements10, but I have been given permission to use them, and this story takes place about a year after her story Mystic Melody. However, due to the fact that her story isn't over yet, this is a bit of an AU from that. That and I'm changing some of the fantasy elements to fit my idea for the story and to make it a bit easier to keep track of everything. This story does expect that you have some knowledge of the characters, but not of the various stories they have been in, so if you're confused, feel free to ask and I'll explain who everyone is.
Also, thanks to DarkElements10 for not only letting me use the characters, but also helping me to make sure I wrote them in character.
Enjoy…
Chapter 1: Vision
When the path before you is darkness,
When the road you traveled is gone,
Where do you go?
Can you flee?
Do you run?
I wish I could tell you.
I wish I could see the ground in front of me.
But I don't, I just keep going, the solid ground echoing with each step all I have left.
I hear their voices, their taunting laughter, and their ridicule.
For a second I think I see Riley's face in front of me, the darkness distorting it, but her eyes shine through, her fire dancing along her black hair. But then she's gone, just like the rest, only an illusion of a lost memory. I hear Sydney's laugh, the darkness turning blue for just a moment, before long that along with the sound is snuffed out, revealing that it too was only an echo of the past.
"Patrick!" I scream, though my voice is horse, I can barely hear a muffle come out of my mouth. "Where are you?" I ask, but this is even quieter.
But then I see it, the darkness fading to a memory, the bleakest moment before me again.
Blood.
Tears.
Hatred.
Darkness consumes him as he loses the will to fight.
He falls to the ground, his body bouncing, the taunting screams all around, cheering as he takes his last breath.
His hand reaches out for a savior too weak to come as his mouth echoes his plea. 'Noah, help.'
But as I reach out, trying to answer his plea, the darkness invades again, drawing him away.
I don't see him die, but I feel his pain just the same.
Soon I feel the gentle blanket of darkness bring me to the ground, the soft penetrating force drowning me, taking my breath away more with each attempt to move. I feel the constraints around me, bringing me deeper, away from the light, away from the sky with its wind blowing free. I struggle, trying to breath, but the darkness seeps into my lungs, choking me from the inside out.
And then I toss it away, my eyes opening to a world without fear, where the only thing covering me is my blankets, and instead of the complete darkness, light filters in my room from the closed blinds. I take a look at the clock, seeing it's almost noon, and realize I might as well get up, shaking my head, the thoughts and images still filling my vision, and the grasp of darkness still lingers on my skin.
But I sit in bed for a minute, thinking about that nightmare. I don't know; it was just so real, like I really felt Patrick's begging for help, or Sydney's laughter or seeing Riley like that. What if that really happened, what if I couldn't save him in time? Sometimes I wonder if I'm really strong enough to protect them when the time comes.
I try to push the dream aside, this is the first nightmare I've had, and it shouldn't be too strange to have dreams about fighting from time to time, nightmares even. We've nearly lost each other countless times to Core, and more recently to Zhane. Not to mention are other friends who weren't so lucky.
I don't know, that was all a year ago, so you'd think I'd be over it. Things have quieted down, we even finished our "Epic" album since then, so I should be dreaming about music, or girls, or all the places we went on tour.
Not about evil or darkness or death.
Unless…this is the sign of what's to come.
I just don't know.
Things have never been quiet for this long before. Patrick and I have nearly finished high school, Riley and Rhuben have started college, and Sydney is still just as smart as always, learning things after barely the first lesson.
Sometimes I envy that kid.
Upon feeling the sweet covering my body from the nightmare, I decide I might as well get cleaned up, hoping to clear my head of this nightmare. It probably just seems so real since I just woke up with it still being fresh in my memory, thinking about something else and getting on with my day will help. At least I hope so. Hopping out of bed, I grab some towels and clean clothes out of my closet and look at myself in the mirror, noticing that my hair is spiking up all over the place, and seeing how much of a mess I look.
Oh well, time to fix that.
But right as I turn from the mirror, I catch out of the corner of my eye the window in the mirror turning black. Instinctively I spin around, look outside, but I see nothing out of the ordinary.
I tense for a moment, hone in on my powers should I need them.
Even though it's probably nothing. Just my imagination going crazy after that dream.
…
Even after showing, getting dressed, and eating a somewhat nutritious breakfast, I still can't shake the chills from the dream. I have got to be going crazy, after all those years of fighting getting to me, besides, everyone else surely would have sensed something. But Sydney's just sitting on the couch fixing up the Wikipedia page on the Higgs Boson from the article that said it was responsible for 10% of the mass of particles.
Yeah, I didn't get it either, but I think I learned something from listening to him discuss the details of quantum mechanics and how those bosons interacted with the leptons and gluons and croutons. At least I think that's what he said they were called.
Still, if something was going on in the elemental world, Sydney would be the first one to know. With his computer set up as a server to monitor various conditions across the world, we made sure to always be at the ready should another threat come.
And even if Sydney missed something, what I saw looked like it was related to darkness, so Riley or Rhuben would have noticed it too, since they both are attuned to that element. But they've been out in the back yard working on what looks like some songs for our next CD.
"Hey Noah, look what I found now!" Sydney says, and I rush over to him, looking over his shoulder as he brings up a page with so many math equations that it gives me a headache just looking at it.
I stare for a second, waiting for some explanation.
"That's nice," I say uneasily after almost a minute passes. I'm sure the answer is right in front of me, but it looks like someone started pressing random numbers and symbols on the keyboard.
"You don't remember last week when I was helping Professor Chen with the atomic forces and general relativity paper?"
"Oh, so this is what that's from?" I ask trying to feign interest, though I really have no memory of that. Granted, this stuff goes so far over my head I have to wonder if Sydney's speaking English when he gets to going.
"Yeah, we went over the equations to find the inconsistencies in the set of equations, and guess what we found!"
"Um, I think I heal Riley calling for me," I say as I begin walking toward the door. I feel a bit bad, but it's too early in the morning for math induced headaches.
"Oh okay." His face falls for a second, but I see his eyes light up through the reflection on his computer, and with his hands typing furiously once more, I know he's caught up in a world of numbers once more.
To make it look like I actually heard Riley, though I'm pretty sure he knows that was just a lie, I head out back, and feel the heat of the day coat me in a layer of sweet despite the fact that it's not even noon yet. For all its wonders, Australia's heat can sure be a pain. Still, living on the outskirts of Sydney isn't' something I'd trade for the world.
I walk toward the table where Riley has her guitar and Rhuben is tapping her drum sticks on the table trying to get some kind of beat going. I notice several papers strewn along the table, some with lyrics, some with music penned, and some with lots of streaks of red ink, likely from Riley determining something wasn't working. She is quite good at expressing when she doesn't like how something is turning out.
I don't pay it much mind though, it's nothing uncommon to go through a dozen different ideas or versions of a song before finding one we can all agree on. And then there are others which no matter what we try end up in the trash after some hours of trying different things with it.
"Any progress?" I ask taking a seat beside them, though they both look like they've hit a wall.
"Ugh, I just want to throw my guitar through a window," Riley says and from the look on her face, I decide to inch back. I know she wouldn't hurt me on purpose, but it's normally a good idea to give her some distance when's she in a bad mood.
"Yeah, that might give us what we need," Rhuben sneers, though it's obvious she's just as frustrated as Riley.
"Mind if I take a look?" I ask, noticing they were trying to finish up a song I jotted down a couple lines for a few weeks ago.
Come with us in the land of the night
Don't be afraid we'll be your guide.
Tonight...
It's your night to run
It's your night to dream
It's your night to be all you wanted to be
As the hours pass, as the sun falls away
Look us in the eyes and take our hands*
Far from the best thing I had written, but many songs turn out the way. Some say the songs come out of nowhere, brilliance in them from the beginning, but that's far from the norm.
"We've been trying to find the right chord percussion to hit the chorus right, then figure we can use that to build the rest of the song," Riley explains, as I go over it, trying to place the notes with what was in my head as I wrote that.
"We want to try getting a strong beat going with the end of the chorus too, and that leads into the second verse," Rhuben adds, opening another bottle of water leaning back with her eyes closed
I wish I knew more of the lyrics for the song, it has potential, or at least I think it does, but whenever I go back to add more to it, I can't think of anything that fits. I had hoped that with my sisters working on it, they could come up with some ideas, or at least a good melody to get something further done with it.
But maybe this will be just be one of those songs stuck in limbo forever.
"Maybe we should see if Patrick could give us a hand," Riley suggests, knowing that seemed to be his forte.
"You know where he is, Noah?"
I shrug my shoulders, thinking he's probably still asleep or something, or in the family room. I hadn't seen him all day, but it's not like that's anything too strange. The house is pretty big, and I was too busy thinking about my dream to notice him. I don't recall seeing him when I woke up even though we share the same bedroom, but I might have been too preoccupied to notice even if he was there.
Wait a second…
What if…
Oh no.
Before my sisters can ponder my strange actions, I leap from the table, knocking my chair over in the process, but I just jump over it, running as fast as I can to the back door.
"The hell's up with him?" Riley says as I throw the door open, slam it behind me and take off toward our room.
I know this is ridiculous, jumping to conclusions, probably scaring my whole family in the process.
But if there's even a chance Patrick is in danger, then nothing else matters. I've seen how hesitation can lead to disaster before, how death can take a friend without notice, and I can't let that happen again.
I burst throw open the door to our room, and slam my hand on the light switch, sure to earn some wrath should he be sleeping or wanting to be alone. But as I prepare myself for him yelling at me, I am only greeted with silence and see the room is empty. After seeing this, I run from our room, and scan every room I can, the living room, bathroom, all of our bedrooms, but still nothing. Finally, nearly out of breath, I try the family room in the basement, but as I stumble down the stairs through the dark, and turn the lights on, I notice it is as vacant as the rest.
"What's wrong?" Sydney asks causing me to jump. I turn, not noticing he was behind me, and see Riley and Rhuben just behind him coming down the stairs.
I don't say anything, maybe it's nothing, maybe it's everything. I just don't know, so there's no way I can really explain it.
"Okay, burst through the house, make me spill my drink all over myself and nearly run over Sydney when he tried to talk to you," Rhuben says with her arms crossed. Was I really in so much of a hurry that I didn't notice my own brother? I mean, I know I was in a hurry, but was I that consumed with worry? "Spill it, something's up," she finally says as I sit against the wall.
I wish they'd just go away and leave me alone to let me figure this out. I know they won't though, they deserve an answer, and wont' go away until I get one. "Sorry I didn't see you Sydney; are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he says with a smile that could light up the room, putting me at ease just a bit.
"It was a dream," I say, looking down, sure they're just going to think I'm crazy for acting like this. Heck, even I think I'm crazy. "I saw him dying." The thoughts of Patrick fill my vision again, his pain, his powerlessness, and my own guilt.
But instead of reassuring me that everything is all right, they don't say anything, just look down, waiting for me to continue.
"You too?" Sydney asks looking up at his sisters, and the twins just nod.
"What do you mean?"
"I should have told you guys sooner," Rhuben says, sitting down on the floor, her usual smirk gone, and I can't help but feel my body begin shaking.
"Wait, so this happened to all of you guys?" Riley asks, and it seems we all just nod, and sit in silence, waiting for Rhuben as she opens and closes her mouth several times before finally speaking.
"I don't know when," Rhuben says, "But the elementals in this world can't exist much longer."
"What do you mean," Sydney asks, taking out a pen and some paper (from where I'm not sure), and I hang onto every word that she says. Of course, her element is darkness; I should have known I wouldn't be the first to see something like that.
"It came to tell me. We will fight, but even so, the last shadow will fall upon the elementals."
"What does that mean?" I ask. There has to be hope of some kind, there always has been before. Who is this last shadow anyway? Someone from the elemental world? A dark elemental here?
She just shakes her head, that sarcastic grin coming across her face. "What do you think I mean? We're all going to die."
She then points her finger at me as I think for something to say to counter her despair.
"And you will be the cause."
A/Ns:
*The song lyrics in this chapter were written by me, trying to come up with something that could be in the planning stages for a pop/rock band. Considering music is a pretty big part of the characters' lives, there might be more, but probably not much more.
I was actually a bit surprised by how this chapter turned out. I had a pretty good idea where I wanted it to go at first, but as always, my characters have a habit of taking me by surprise. Though I sometimes wish they'd tell me what was going on.
I've also been trying to write this whole story in first person. I've tried this before, but went back and forth between first and third usually, but will try showing the whole story in first this time.
