One, I just wanted to say I'm STOKED about this new season that is currently airing! Even though Aaron McGruder isn't behind the writing on this one, you honestly can barely tell. Now that that's over with, let me explain this a little bit without giving too much away. I wanted to try something very different, and very dark. This is supernatural, so expect to read about the whole good vs evil (in this case, it's evil versus more evil), but it's not going to be as cliche, thank goodness. There are some good stories on here, but I definitely was tired of seeing and reading the same "they've been friends forever, he likes her and she likes him, but neither of them won't admit it" type shit (again, no offense to the stories that are like that. I'm just that weird enough to try something out of the ordinary).

The Protected is about a boy who literally dedicated his life to protecting a girl. Thing is, this same girl who he's protecting has some fucked up things going on in her own life, not to mention she's pretty important in her world. Ah shit, I think I gave away too much already -_- oh well, please enjoy. Review and give suggestions if you like. I'm always open to new ideas, and I almost always interpert them into my stories!

Disclaimer: Imani, and all of the other OC's are the ONLY things that I own in this story. Nothing else :(

And...BEGIN!

I: Familiar Faces

Here I was again...having another one of these damn dreams. They always start off the same...me in a forest, surrounded by darkness. I hear cries in front of me and follow it, until I reach a girl, with her back towards me. Before I could touch her, she would either vanish into thin air, or turn into some grisly-looking monster. If she turned into a monster, I would wake up before it attacks me. This time, I found myself face to face with the monster again. It didn't say anything, it just kept looking at me, like it was waiting for me to become scared. I should've been...if anyone else saw it they would probably shit in their pants. But I felt like I had seen it before, like I had seen it outside of this nightmarish dream.

The monster made a loud noise and came closer to me, and we were face to face. I reached down for my katana sword, ready to take it out. It threw its head back and screamed, and I gripped my sword tighter. Bring it on.

–

"Boy! If you don't get yo ass up! You gonna be late for that school bus, and I'll be damned if I gotta drive you and your knucklehead brother again!"

Huey opened his eyes quickly and looked at his ceiling. He got out of his bed slowly and stretched, yawning loudly. Completely blocking out his grandfather's yelling lecture, he grabbed his towel off of his computer chair and made his way out of the bedroom, and walked to the bathroom next to it. He turned the doorknob and saw it was locked, banging on it afterward.

"Riley!" He groaned. "Hurry up I gotta get in there!"

"Wait, nigga!" Riley's voice yelled from the other side of the door. "Don't be rushing me!"

Huey banged on the door again out of frustration, making his way back to his room.

"And don't be banging on my doors, dammit!" Robert's voice yelled from a distance. "You don't pay for it to be banging on it."

Please, just shut the hell up, Huey thought as he sighed heavily. He was seriously considering just locking his door and going back to sleep, but he knew he couldn't. As much as he wanted to be apart of the stereotypical high-school senior ditcher, he knew that it wasn't in him. He had to be in school every day, until he was out of there for good. 5 more months...just 5 more months...

"I'm done! You can get your smelly ass in there now!" Riley called out.

Huey decided to not say anything and went back into the bathroom. The 10 minute shower he took was more than enough time to figure out why he was continuously having these dreams. Was it a sign? A message? The fact that he doesn't remember anything that's happened to him up until two years ago would be considered weird to anyone else, but it was the truth. He really didn't anything about himself, and it took him some time to remember who his brother and his grandfather was. He was out and dressed in no time, making his way downstairs to the kitchen.

"What did I tell you about drinking all of my juice, boy?!" Robert said to Riley.

"Come on Grandad, it was only a drop left." Riley groaned as he threw the orange juice carton in the garbage.

"Yeah well unless your buying orange juice yourself, don't complain about how much is left in my carton." Robert said. "Ya'll better get going, your bus should be pulling up soon."

"Ugh, I can't wait till you get your car, Huey." Riley said, standing up. "I'm too old to be riding the stupid ass school bus."

"You're only in 10th grade dummy. If anyone is too old for it it's me...all I gotta do is save a little bit more money and I'll get one." Huey said.

Huey and Riley made their way inside of their high school, parting ways as soon as they got there. Riley went off to hang with his friends and teammates from the basketball team, and Huey went about his own way. He was never the overly popular type, but people knew who he was. He was respected, and some people kind of feared him because they knew he knew how to fight. He made his way to his locker and was met by one of the only people he could actually consider a friend, Jazmine DuBois.

"Hi Huey." She said, as cheerily as she could.

"What's up." He answered, searching through his locker for his US Government textbook.

"Have you seen Jermaine?"

"Nah, he wasn't on the bus...he probably got a ride from somebody else." He said.

"Since he's not here yet, I might as well tell you first. A new girl is supposed to be starting here today." She said.

New girl? There hasn't been anyone new in this school since the beginning of the year, he thought.

"In the middle of the year?" He asked.

"I guess so." Jazmine answered, just as they both heard a slight commotion coming from the end of the hallway.

They both looked in the direction where the noise was coming from and saw a small crowd. When the crowd cleared, there was a girl walking down the hallway in their direction. She walked closer to them, making eye contact with Huey before smiling. She stopped walking when she got in front of him, but didn't take her eyes off of him. She looks...very familiar...he thought. The girl suddenly reached out and hugged him excitedly. He was in too much shock to hug her back,mainly because he couldn't figure out who she was in the first place.

"Huey! I can't believe..." She started, but saw the look on his face and stopped. Her smile faded, and she was sporting a sad frown. "You don't remember..."

"Uh, sorry?" Was all he could muster out.

"Y-Yeah, it's okay..." The girl looked down at the ground for a couple of seconds, before looking back at him and Jazmine. "Guess I gotta go find my first period classroom...hopefully you'll remember who I am soon.."

With that, the girl made her way down the hallway again, and towards the staircase. Jazmine looked at Huey, who was still confused as hell.

"You know her?" She asked him.

"No...I don't think I do." He answered. "That was weird as hell."

"Ya think? Because she seems to know you pretty well." She giggled, just as the bell began ringing, warning the students to get to their first class within the next 2 minutes. The crowded hallway began to disperse, just as all of the students started going their separate ways.

"I'll see you at lunch!" Jazmine called out as she started walking away from him as well.

"Sounds good." He said lowly, closing his locker and walking away. Not even first period and I'm already having a weird day.

Imani Mercury

Staunton Flats High School

Woodcrest, Maryland

8:20 a.m.

I knew this was going to happen...he really doesn't remember me. Maybe I shouldn't have came back this early...maybe I should've just stayed where I was before. I mean, I could make him remember, but then I'd hurt him...hopefully Huey will remember who I am soon enough.

"Hey, you lost?"

I turned around and saw another girl looking at me, smirking.

"Kind of, can you help me out?" I asked her.

"No problem. Where you headed?"

"English, Mister James."

"Shit, seriously? I have that old geezer for English right now too." The girl joked. "Come on, you can follow me."

"Okay."

I began following her up the stairs, and she walked through the doors of the second floor.

"You must be the new girl everyone's talking about." The girl said.

"Damn, is it that obvious?" I asked.

"Definitely. But only because there hasn't been anyone new here in months. I'm Bria." The girl said.

"Imani." I said back.

"So Imani, what made you transfer here in the middle of the year? Your senior year at that?" Bria asked.

"Uh...my parents thought it would be best if I went here for the rest of the year, since I just moved a couple of days ago." I said. There was only a sprinkle of truth in that answer.

"Sounds reasonable. Staunton definitely has its assholes, but this school is pretty aight." Bria nodded. We stopped in front of a classroom door and she placed her hand on the knob. "This is it. Watch it, James is kind of a pervert." Bria joked.

"Ha, okay. Thanks for the warning." I said as she opened the door.

That class went by like a breeze, and it seemed like everyone was watching me the entire me. No matter, this happened to me so much that I'm used to it by now. Mister James would sneak a look at me every couple of minutes as well...Bria wasn't lying when she said he was kinda pervy. The ending class bell rang, and I grabbed my bag and walked out of the room. I knew that I had another class in 10 minutes, and then a free period before lunch, so I decided that I was going to use that time to explore this new school more.

Being in a large,public school like this is very different to me. I'm used to either being home schooled, or in a smaller, more strict school setting. Everyone here seems like they're more carefree, and a little reckless too. This is definitely something I have to get used to.

Anyway, I continued to make my way back down to the first floor, where my Physics class was. When I got to the last step, I saw another boy getting ready to walk up the steps, and we both stopped. He was taller than me, by at least a good 5 inches (I'm already 5'7, so he was pretty damn tall), but he looked so familiar. The long, Snoop Dogg-like braids, the thuggish style...after staring at each other for a couple of seconds, I finally realized who it was.

"Imani?" He whispered.

"Riley? Oh my God!" I smiled sweetly and pulled him in for a hug.

He didn't give me the same, shocked reaction like Huey did, but he was still surprised.

"I can't...is it really you?" Riley said.

"Yes. You've gotten so tall!" I said.

"Wait a minute...you're the new girl everyone's talking about?! This is crazy.."

"I know, it's been so long since I've seen you..."

"Did...did Huey see you already?" Riley asked slowly.

I nodded slowly. "He doesn't remember who I am...look I have to get to class real quick. But we can definitely talk afterward if that's okay with you."

"That's cool." Riley gave me another hug. "It's good to see you again, Princess. I've missed you."

I smiled and said, "I've missed you guys too. You honestly have no idea...see you in a little bit."