Acidic air clung to the sides of my throat, eating away. The sky was

pitch black and the once green plants were now just ashes on the side of

the road. The gravel was stained a deep red from the blood spilled and it

glinted in the fires light. I hurried to my feet, turned on my heel and ran. Salt

was pasted to my face as I realized that the road was endless. Blowing a

piece of blonde hair out of my blue eyes, I strayed toward the end of the

road, only to come face to face with a wall of fire.

I let out a high-pitched scream of surprise and stumbled backwards,

falling hard on to the sharp gravel. The red gravel sunk in to the side of my

already throbbing leg. Another cry of pain escaped my mouth, as I touched

my hand to the dark red blood.

Then I saw him. He walked through the blazing flames, blonde hair

hanging in his face. Black circles were permanently scorched under his

eyes. He smiled as if enjoying my pain.

Dread and confusion nagged at my brain but I pushed them back. I

turned to see that I was surrounded by fire.

Making a last minute decision, I plunged through the wall and

crashed hard against the gravel on the other side. Pain seared again, but I

took no notice. All I wanted was to get out of this horrid place.

I jumped up and sprinted down that endless road.

"There is no escape," I heard him laugh. I dreaded the fact that he

was right.

Satan had finally trapped me in the depths of Hell.

The phone rang, startling me and pulling me away from my

nightmare. I groaned and glanced at the clock. 4:00am. Who would be

calling at 4:00 on a Saturday morning? I could only think of one person.

"Hello," I yawned, pulling the covers from my legs.

"'Morning," a voice answered on the other line. Yep, it was none other

than Lena. We'd known each other since forever and been best friends

since.

"Lena, it's 4:00 in the morning. What do you want?" This had better be

good.

"I was wondering if you could come to the mall with us later?" she

vibrated. You could tell she was on caffine.

"Couldn't this wait until later?"

"She couldn't wait to call you. In all she drank four Mountain Dews

and a bottle of chocolate syrup for god knows why," another voice sounded.

It was Demi and from the sound of her voice, she was exausted. We had met

on the bus in first grade, when she had moved to my little town of

Springfield, from St. Louis, Missouri. She was my other best friend.

"And it was good," Lena finished. "So will you come?"

"I don't know," I answered. "I can't exactly ask my parents right now." I

imagined my parents being woken up on a Saturday. Dad's pale face turning

red with rage and Mom screaming from lack of sleep is not the best way to

start off the weekend.

"Please," Lena begged.

"Please don't leave me hear with this hyper, sugar-crazed freak,"

Demi pleaded.

" I'll have to call you later," I reminded myself not to give in.

"Let me put it this way; if you don't come, I'll beat you to a pulp," Demi

threatened.

"No," I said flatly. See, wasn't that easy?

"Why not?" Lena whimpered slightly.

"I have plans later," I lied. The relaxing day that I had planned was not

going to happen if I gave into there threats.

"With who?" Demi interrogated.

"Skyler and I are going to the tennis courts later," I was making it up

as I went along.

Note to self; tell Skyler to come to the tennis courts later.

"Great!" Lena sounded unnaturally excited. "We'll make it a triple date."

"Wait…" I started, but she had already hung up the phone.

Later that day, I had made arrangements to be at the tennis courts by

two o clock.

"Leah!" Skyler called as my mom dropped me off. "Over here!"

I smiled and twirled my racket, hoping silently that Lena wouldn't

show up with Demi, C.J and Mark.

The tall, uncut grass tickled my ankles as I walked toward him,

blonde hair swaying in my face. I shivered, as a gust of wind blew up against

my back. March wasn't the best month to play tennis.

Positioning myself at the end of the court, I served the ball with my

old beat up tennis racket. Focusing all of my attention on the ball made me

forget about Demi and Lena.

After about a half an hour, I needed a break. I turned toward the

wooden bleachers to see a man dressed in a robe sitting beside my

backpack.

The smiled warmly and I screamed. I didn't even know.

"Leah, why are you screaming?" Skyler asked.

"Th-there's a man in a white robe sitting beside my backpack," I

stuttered. The shock was starting to ware off, although the creepy man just

kept starring. He was pale skinned, with a long white beard that ruffled

when he talked. He had striking blue eyes, and was so skinny that you could

see his ribs through his robe.

"Actually it's a toga," he corrected. My bad.

"What are you talking about?" Skyler asked in his "you're crazy"

voice. "There's no man there." I stood dumbfounded and confused. How

could my boyfriend not see this creep sitting right in front of me? All I knew

was that if I didn't play along I'd be dumped like a sack of potatoes on

Monday. Off to loony ville for Leah.

"Your right," I agreed falsely, still staring at the man, who only

blinked. "I guess I'm just dehydrated."

I followed Skyler over to the bleachers and grabbed my water bottle.

It was refreshingly cold on my dry throat. The man stared at me intensely. It

reminded me of chucky right before he was going to kill. Scary right?

" I'm going to the restroom," I told Skyler, pointing toward the middle

school. I motioned for the man to follow me.

"I can't go in the ladies room," he sounded, standing up from the

bench and following me. As we got far enough away I noticed that every

time I was in the shade there was always a strand of light on the toothpick.

When we were out of ear shot I said, "I know. I just needed an excuse

to leave. Now lets get two things strait. Who are you and why are you here.

The key between two

Must be destroyed

If you do not

Two will become one

And Earth will be destroyed

Ok Confucius, in English please. I was getting really annoyed.

"My name is Odg and I have come to warn you of this prophesy," he

explained. I still didn't get it. I mean what was there to get? A man shows up

on my date in a toga to warn me of some prophesy. I was bogus. " You are

the center. You are the key. Satan wants you."

The mention of Satan ran a chill up my spine. How had this man

known about my dream? Or the past month of my dreams for that matter.

Even as I thought of dreams, I realized how exhausted I really was.

I quickly changed the subject.

"Well, it's been nice meeting you but Skyler is probably wondering

where I am," I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

"Oh, one last thing," Odg continued. "Watch out for your parents."

The he vanished.

Wow Dacha Vu.

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