Prologue

Time is relevant or so the humans say, the ones that have taken over the world for a couple of centuries believing that they have all the time of the world. Time is being so miss appreciated in this era as it had been since the world started moving. Why to do it today since tomorrow would be other day?

However, what would you do if you know your time is coming to an end? Interesting question, isn't it? Time is relevant, but for how long would it be a simple thing in consideration for plans? When would you start loving time as I do? Probably only when you know your time has come!

Chapter 1

From Pain, Awakening.

It had been a week since I came to this city; I always wondered why did we have to move here? But my mother said this place was perfect for us. We barely finished fixing the house; it looks still well… horrible, just to not say something else, but with a bit of work, it'll surely look comforting in the end. At least, I hope so.

The first week in school, making new friends is always hard, but hey Rome wasn't built in one day. My name, you ask?

"Alexia Rowell." The professor called out as a blond haired female raised her hand. "Here." This is my story.

The young woman had been having a hard time caused by the recent move from her original hometown, this was a better place, but still the separation from a homeland is hard. A week had passed and things didn't seem to get better, except that she had gotten used to her classmates. At least, they weren't as annoying as the last ones and there was Alexia walking through the hallways to get to her next class when suddenly she bumped into someone and fell to the floor. "Oh, sorry. I wasn't paying attention." The blond said a bit embarrassed, hopefully no one saw anything down her skirt.

"Don't worry." A male voice replied a bit emotionless. "Oh, Leo. How're you? I hadn't seen you in the last days!" Alexia tried to pop out a conversation while she picked some of her books. The young man helping her to stand up once she was done. He was slightly taller than her, considering the fact he was a year older. "Uhm… well, we just hadn't happened to meet. That's all." He replied. "And you hope I'd believe that I'm su-", her phrase got caught by the ring of the next class and the thought of getting late got over her, hurrying to get to her classroom immediately. "I'm late! We'll finish this conversation later, skipper!" The blonde yelled.

The rest of the day advanced as usual, but she didn't have the luck to meet that guy again; then, the recess came. "I can't believe Leo is skipping classes." The blond commented to her other two friends a redhead and a brunette; they had decided to always take the place next to the school's gym due to that fact that the wind rarely blew there so they wouldn't have to protect her skirts from being lifted by it. "He is not." The brunette said. "Actually, I think he is having some sort of problem with the student's council, isn't he?" The redhead commented with a few doubts about it. "What? Catherine, are you sure?" Alexia asked a bit hesitant. "I think I heard something about it… Didn't he put a frog on Elizabeth's purse?" The brunette added. "Leo? That's a bit too childish for him, don't you think?" The blonde argued. However for some reason her inner self was happy about it, Elizabeth is that kind of girl everyone hates for the merely reason that she believes she is the greatest person alive. However, she can really put someone in trouble. "Annette, if you ask me I think it was James' the one who did it, but she blamed Leo because he was next to her." The redhead explained, now that she gave a small thought about it. "It sounds more believable." Annette accepted. Soon the recess ended.

That was probably the reason why Leo rarely appeared in the school. Alexia, often wondered why he seemed absent minded most of the time like if he was really deep on his thoughts or remembering something. It was true that he was foreign and everything but still his behavior was a bit strange, still, neither she nor her friends could deny that he was one of the hottest guys of the school; mainly because he had that English accent.

Finally, the classes ended, but Alexia found something unusual on her locker a letter directed to her from… her mother. Carefully, she opened the small paper container and unfolded its content. What the letter said would surprise any daughter and specially her.

Dear Alexia,

I'm afraid that what I have to ask you might be hard to do, but since your father disappeared. I refused to let anything happen to you. You must understand that your safety is first before anything in the world for me for that I must ask you to do exactly what this letter says.

Along with this letter, there is a small silver pendant in the envelope, whatever happens don't lose it. It'd be the only thing able to save you.

It a matter of seconds, she pulled the small silver pendant out of the envelope. "Save me? From what?" The blonde muttered.

Now, my daughter… the hardest part comes after this. Don't come home and go away and away! Never turn back and leave, leave from the darkness that has been haunting our family for years. Please, Alexia, just go and ever return.

With love, your mother.

That last part let her shocked for a short while, and then she giggled a bit believing it was some sort of joke, but it wasn't, placing the envelope in her backpack and putting that silver pendant around her neck, she continued following the way outside. It was strange that the ring just had sounded and the whole place was already abandoned. Not a single soul in the whole street or even a car. That surprised her a little, but she still continued her way back home. Maybe, her mother would like to explain the situation, but still the whole city seemed abandoned now. Not a single soul showed for the time she advanced through the city. No people, no animals, no cars, just nothing. That started getting into her, she was… feeling nervous. It was also the first time she made like 10 minutes to her place.

Abruptly, she opened the door and called for her mother. "Mom! Mom!" However, there was no reply. "Please, don't do this to me…" The young girl muttered as she made a step in the stairs to the second floor when she suddenly noticed a dark figure in the dinning room. Hesitant, she made her way there, letting the creaks from the wood floor to announce her. "Good afternoon, you must be Alexia." The figure said; it was a man wearing a black coat with a black hat that covered his eyes. His voice was strong, like the one of an old man, but at the same time he sounded familiar for some reason. "Y-Yes. That's me; do you know where my mom is? I need to speak with her."

"Unfortunately, your mother is not here anymore." The man said and slowly approached the young woman. "Th-then I'm afraid I must ask you to leave, I ca-cannot receive visitors if she is not home." The blond said, hesitant, but keeping a distance between her and the man; what was he doing there? Alexia had never seen him before. "Silly… you can't give orders here anymore. This is now… my kingdom!" The black coated shouted with a rather fierce voice and suddenly the whole place started shaking. 'An earthquake?' the blond woman mentally yelled at herself and decided to abandon the place at the instant, leaving the man there, but hearing his evil laugh during all the way out. She wasn't good in sports, but she managed to abandon her house in a couple of seconds only to be terrified for what happened next. Her home, the house she and her mother had worked hard was sent up flying in some sort of crimson explosion, which made the young girl fall. A tower erected in the place where her house stood; a clock tower. The sound of bells chilled on her ears causing her to close her eyes and cover her ears, an extremely loud sound.

12 o'clock the time where everything started. A crimson magic circle covered the entire city until its surroundings and a vortex of the same color swirled all over, taking the whole city into perpetual night and horror and that was just the beginning.

When the blond opened her eyes, she was now in a room, a wooden room. It wasn't her home or any place she remember, but with a simple glance at the window she could see it. The clock tower was erected in the middle of this place. She still doubted if her mind was just playing tricks, but it didn't seem so. 'I must be sleeping', she thought and tried harder nipping herself. It did hurt, but she didn't wake up which meant… this wasn't a dream. "I must be crazy; this cannot be real!" She expressed out loud. However, her attention got dragged by a horror scream coming out from another place from the house followed by strong strikes from some sort of metallic thing; it sounded.

The young girl, hesitant, went down and recognized the voice from the person screaming, it was Ariel, a student from two years below her who loved to play the violin. "Ariel, hang on! I'm coming!" She yelled out, but it was too late when she made her way down, only to see her friend going flying down from another small stair with her skull crushed. She froze at the scene; her first time seeing a corpse. It can be frightening if someone doesn't see it coming. It was then, when she saw it. A gigantic man, around 2.3 meters of height come from the same room from where the victim flew, his skin was pale, big arms and his head covered by some sort of leather mask. His arms carried a gigantic metallic hammer all covered by blood. Did she need to bring up conclusions? Their eyes met and a cold feeling when down her spine. She felt a mix of emotions, but her body wasn't responding.

The creature, she couldn't really call him human, simply grinned and raise his hammer, in search of a second victim and finally, she reacted. Scream, just after scream as the hammer aimed for her, Alexia simply threw her to the opposite side and barely evaded the hit. She just stood up as fast as she could and automatically started running as the murderer swung his hammer around missing for very little. His movements where slow, but a simply hit would surely part her body in two. "Somebody help me!" The young woman yelled out between screams, but focused on running for her life more than in anything else; the other followed and crushed everything right behind her, it didn't even sounded human, moaning and groaning like a beast would. The blonde couldn't even stop to catch her breath or she would be death for sure.

A door, a way out or a dead end, at this point she didn't have many options and tried for it. Thankfully, it was open, her way out, but then again, there wasn't anyone around as her eyes could see. "Please, please, someone…" She muttered, but didn't even have time to say anything else when the man popped out from the door. Alexia screamed and the persecution started again. Tears filled her eyes, but she couldn't stop now also, a bad step and it'd be an eternal sleep for her. She actually wondered how much time she would be able to keep this, since she wasn't a runner and didn't have a great condition. However, before she even noticed it, that man wasn't following her, but was that good or bad? Her purple eyes turned from one side to the other of the old-fashioned city, quite a beautiful view, but there was no one around.

The fear was once more taking over her, when she started running trying to find someone or something, but she only ran into someone and before she even saw who was it, she threw a scream. "Hey, hey, take it easy." The voice of the other calmed her as she raised her sight. "Le-Leo? Oh, my God, Leo. I'm so happy to see you." She expressed embracing him like if he was some sort of superhero or something that really took him off of guard. "O-K… now, would you mind explaining me what's going on?" The young man asked her as he escaped her embrace. She was a bit suffocating. "I-I have no idea, but we must go away from this city. There is a crazy man with a hammer, I-I saw him kill Ariel." The blonde say fast and all confused, her body was shaking and she was really nervous. "OK, OK, calm down and tell me slowly what happened." The brown-haired said and held one of her arms; she seemed close to by in hysteria. "I-I… I don't know. There was a man in my house and then that tower appeared the next thing I see was Ariel dead at my feet. I-I'm scared, Leo." She said and broke down in tears, embracing him once more. Still, he didn't really know what to believe. However, something was sure it was related with that tower.

0 and a quarter; let's play hide, seek and die.

Will be continued.