We're All Connected

Chapter 2

Rivals

We had all changed the subject and were all walking to school. It was unusual for us to change the subject so quickly, unless it was something we all really didn't like. We were in the school grounds when the bell rung. We all walked to our class, we were all in the same class. There were 5 classes of our year level. Then in the other subjects, like PE, art, home Economics, drama, tech, computing, multimedia, etc, basically everything but the subjects we had to be in, were mixed with other students from different classes.

We all put our bags down and grabbed our pencil cases and diaries and walked into class. We all sat in our group. There was a long row of desks, made of two desks joined together in a row horizontally. We sat there, David, me, Jackie then Rob. That's how we sat all the time.

After school had finished, we all walked to our favourite hanging out spot. Every other gang in this town knew this spot was taken by us, and most of the time, we never had any worry. Sometimes we had to fight to keep this spot, but it was Rob and David that did the fighting, they never let us girls get involved in the physical fighting, even though they knew we could handle it. We stopped by our spot, which was a little hut, situated on the street just before the sea. It was an abandoned little hut that no one had come to claim. And don't worry; we checked with practically everyone before we moved our stuff into it. We all a key to the door, so we could lock it if anyone wanted to steal something in it.

We all sat inside, the door open wide. We sat on the couches that were in there, eating our packets of chips we kept stored in the cupboards. We had curtains on the windows, we had an esky against the wall, and the couches were on the next wall. We had photos hanging on the walls and we also had a bookcase filled with our favourite books. Mine were the mystery books, David liked the action books, Jackie liked the adventure books and Rob liked the sci-fi books. We all were different, but we managed to keep the group going strong.

"So, this is where you losers hang out!" said a deep male voice. We all gasped and jumped out of our seats, whirling around to see a group of people, three males and one female. The one that said that was the main male, the strong leader.

The female had bright long purple hair that was halfway down her back and was dead straight. Her eyes a glaring ice blue and her skin a tan/olive colour. She wore a white top with black writing and a black skirt that was just below her knee. She wore black platform shoes with white socks that were covering half of her calf (lower leg).

"Let's not toy with our prey." She said.

"Hahaha! I like your way of thinking Naomi!" said the second male. He was a bulk guy with chocolate skin and black short hair and brown eyes. He wore the same top but with a black tie around his neck and was wearing black tight pants with black platforms.

"Well, we all know Naomi's one evil girl Dimi!" said the third male. He was small and didn't look like much. He had really pale skin with shaggy brown hair and green eyes. He was wearing the same thing as Dimi.

"Now's not the time for play Benny!" said the main male. He had short, nicely cut blonde hair and he had topaz coloured eyes with his skin a lovely light tan colour. He wore the same thing as Dimi and Benny.

"Absolutely agreed Sam!" said Naomi. And that would be our arch rival group and to them, we were nothing but prey.

"Oh really?!" I hissed at them.

"Silence little brat!" commanded Sam. David growled and ran to where I was.

"She doesn't have to listen to your rambling, none of us have to, and in case you didn't notice, you're not in your home turf, you're in ours!!" hissed David. Jackie and Rob joined us and we pulled our toughest faces and poses.

"Oh really, I'm sure you'll find out this will be our turf very, very soon!!" said Dimi.

"Not if we have anything to say about it!!" said Rob.

"Yeah, you can't just come here and take something that belongs to us! You've got your own things in your own turf!" said Jackie.

"Ever heard of expanding your territory, and last time I checked, this hut wasn't legally placed under your name!" said Benny.

"Good one Benny!" said Naomi. I growled getting ready to pounce at Naomi.

"Naomi, you take the brat, Benny, you take goldilocks, Dimi, you take the freak with blue hair, I'll take the wise guy!" said Sam. Our group growled.

"Bring it on self obsessed girly-girl!!" I yelled to Naomi.

"I can handle anything you throw at me smart aleck!" David yelled to Sam.

"You honestly think you can take me out?" yelled Jackie to Benny.

"Come on, you think you can beat me?" yelled Rob to Dimi.

Sam launched himself at David, Benny launched himself at Jackie, Dimi launched himself at Rob and Naomi launched herself at me. My eyes widened as Naomi zoomed forward at me. She threw her fist at my face but I ducked just in time, then I lifted my left leg and kicked her square in the stomach.

I looked back at my friends to see David holding his own against Sam, Jackie taking care of Benny and well, let's just say Dimi was taking care of Rob.

"Rob!" I yelled out to him as Dimi punched him square in the jaw and he went flying all the way over to the wall. Suddenly I got a kick to the gut which sent me flying backwards a bit. I grunted and straightened myself up.

"Jackie! Once you're done with Benny, help Rob!" I yelled to her as she twisted Benny's arm over his back in a painful chicken wing position. I turned my attention back to Naomi as she tried to punch me in the face.

"What are you? The little leader of your pathetic group?" asked Naomi nastily.

"I guess you could say that! I'm the person that keeps us all under control and together, the one that sorts out the arguments, etc." I answered as I punched her in the cheek. She skidded a bit, and then wiped her face.

"Maybe you should spend more time worrying about yourself rather than your pathetic friends!" she told me. She was about to punch me but I suddenly saw something. It was a little white creature that had black eyes and a black glow around it. It twitched around like it had some sort of force trying to get it to do otherwise. I gasped, my mouth nearly hitting the floor.

Naomi saw and asked, "Does this mean you surrender?" I shook my head and pointed at her.

"Look behind you!" I told her.

"Yeah right, like I'd fall for that trick." She told me. I closed my mouth as the little monster stood behind her. It straightened it's hand out into a claw and got ready to strike Naomi from behind. I growled and ran at Naomi.

"Behind you!" I yelled as I pushed Naomi out of the way and got scratched across the face instead. Naomi screamed in fright when she saw the monster and this caused everyone else in the room to turn and look at us. Dimi and Benny squealed in fright like little girls and Jackie, Rob and David all rushed forward, so did Sam.

"Anna! Are you alright!?" asked Jackie, David and Rob.

"Naomi, you okay?!" asked Sam. Jackie and Rob helped me up while David held the monster off. Sam helped Naomi stand up.

"Anna, recognise it?" asked Jackie. I looked at the monster more carefully.

"It's from the dreams, with Katie and Cameron and Maria!" I answered.

"Anna's right! This is a creature from the shadows! They don't have actual names, but I think Cameron and Katie called them shadows." Said David as the thing swung at him and he dodged. I frowned, thinking of how Katie beat them.

I saw the monster jump at David again but he couldn't dodge. I growled and jumped in between.

"Anna! Are you nuts!?" yelled David as the thing went straight towards me. My eyes widened and I braced myself for impact, but it never came. I opened my eyes to see nothing all around me, everything was black and I was alone. No one was there and all around me was darkness.

"did I die?" I asked myself.

"no! You haven't died, not yet at least. Another spirit has taken control of your body and is using that time to save you and your friends. I just pray you can keep up, or else we're all doomed." Said a deep voice.

"w-who's there?!" I demanded. I had felt scared and lonely before, but now I felt absolutely terrified. During my time of loneliness I had prayed for nothing more than someone to be here with me, and now my wish had come true and I was even more terrified.

I suddenly saw the dark outline of a silhouette. He was rather tall, probably 6 foot, maybe 6 foot 1. He stepped out from the shadows and I saw he was dressed in a long white cloak, the same thing Maria had been dressed in. I knew it was a male because of the voice, but his face was covered by the hood of his cloak.

"you have a lot to learn about the ways of the world, and you do not understand the bigger picture yet. But I pray that one day, you'll save us, your kind and the world, from devastation. The shadows are your enemy, but you need to understand them properly. But maybe, after all the fighting and suffering, maybe they aren't the enemy after all, like we've always thought. Maybe there's a darker force at work besides Maria and her followers. I pray you'll find out, cause now, the fate of the world and the entire galaxy, rests on your shoulders. Good luck, young warrior!" he said then my vision froze and faded to white.

My eyes burst open and I found myself on the ground. I bolted up looking around me like I'd woken up from a terrifying nightmare.

David, Jackie and Rob were huddled together, terrified out of their minds. Sam, Naomi, Benny and Dimi were no where to be seen.

I rubbed my sore head and asked, "What just happened? I remember the shadow and stepping between David and it, but after that it's just blurry."

Jackie answered, "You suddenly possessed the weapon of Katie's, the light blade, and you suddenly ended up destroying every shadow in here. When we tried to talk to you, you turned your head and your eyes were a grassy green. We all became terrified then, because we realised something had happened to you." I stood slowly and walked over to them.

"If I told you I was in a dark realm and some guy in a long white cloak started talking to me about the shadows, would you think I was nuts?" I asked. They shook they're heads.

I sat down with them and we created a circle as I said, "he said I had a lot to learn about the world and that I didn't get the bigger picture yet. He said that he prayed I would soon so I'd be able to save his kind and the world and also said that the shadows might not be the enemy after all, or Maria, that there might be a bigger force of evil at work." Everyone's eyes were nearly popping out of their heads.

"wow, that must've terrified you." Said Rob. I nodded.

"I was in darkness, all alone and I thought for a second I'd died. I was praying for someone to be there with me, and suddenly he appeared and I realised my wish was foolish cause then I was even more terrified. But he seemed sort of friendly, and now that I'm over the shock, I think I've met him somewhere before." I said.

"Alright, that settles it, tomorrow, we skip school, pack our stuff, and we start our search into saving the world." Said David. We all looked at each other and nodded. Tomorrow we started our big journey, and there was no turning back!

Suddenly I wasn't so sure if this was a good idea...