Euphoria:

I woke up with my face so close to Mason's that I almost jumped out of my skin. Almost. His arm was draped over my side and we were facing each other. I knew that if I moved, he would wake up as he's a light sleeper. There was no doubt that this situation was awkward, but it was still nice. His skin was warm, and the air around us was turning frigid. Which was…unusual considering our room was always stifling hot. I looked at the walls and was shocked to see what I saw. I slowly and carefully took Mason's arm off of me and scooted away. He stirred, but didn't wake.

I got up and walked over to the side of the room, almost slipping on the floor as I went. The whole room was covered in ice, every square inch of it. I started to panic as I watched it start to cover the door.

"Mason!" I screamed. He jolted awake.

"What?" he moaned.

I couldn't say anything. I was frozen to the spot as the ice began to creep up my legs. It kept going up my body making me colder and colder until it almost wrapped completely around my mouth. Mason sat up then and gasped when he saw what was happening to me. He leapt over to the door and tried to open it before the ice engulfed it entirely, but it wouldn't budge.

"Mason… help… me." The ice covered my mouth then and I couldn't say anything else.

"Euphoria!" he shouted and he ran over to me. The ice seemed to recoil when any part of him touched it. He grabbed the ice that was covering me and it disappeared only to try to engulf me again. He pulled me over to the door, forced it open, and shoved me through it. There I collapsed. Mason ran out of the room, slamming the door. He ran over to me and sat me up, wrapping his arms around me. I happily leaned into him and I was still breathing heavily.

"Shh.." he murmured for at least ten minutes. "It's okay."

Then I pulled away.

"What the heck was that?" I asked.

"I don't know." He said. "But it sure was scary."

I was still shaking and Mason tried to hug me again to calm my trembling body but it didn't work. I was still too shocked to do anything but sit there. Then Samantha and our foster father, Dan, walked into the hallway and saw us sitting there, our arms wrapped around each other.

"Guys? We heard screaming and came as fast as we could." Samantha said.

Mason and I got up and quickly stepped away from each other.

"Nothing's wrong—"

"Everything's fine."

Dan and Samantha exchanged a look and I knew that they didn't believe us but were going to let the subject drop. When they returned to their room and Mason and I looked at each other. I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We needed to leave. Now.

Later that day, after we had packed all our bags, we made plans to leave in the middle of the night. We would leave now but that would definitely rouse suspicion as we both had at least two bags and that was way too much for just a leisurely walk outdoors. We were going over the plan again, just to make sure we had everything memorized.

"Okay so tonight, after everyone has gone to sleep, we will grab our bags and bring them downstairs. Then we will quietly open the door, remember, the door creaks. We will put our bags outside as quietly as we can, and then lock the door from the inside before closing it. Then we're home free!"

Even after Mason explained it to me, I was still skeptical. If this didn't work, we'd be grounded for probably two years at the least and we would never figure out how to get to Eusebeia.

"I don't know, Mason. Are you positively sure that this will work?"

"Of course it will! How could it not? It's simple."

I chuckled to myself. He was always so impulsive. Someday, that was going to get him into trouble.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, nothing."

He gave me a questioning look and turned to the nightstand where we kept the book about Eusebeia.

"Here." He handed the book to me. "Maybe you'll find something else useful in there."

"Maybe." I said. "But I swear I've looked through that whole book. There's not bound to be anything new in there."

"Well look anyway. Who knows?"

"Okay. But don't be disappointed when I don't find anything."

For the next four hours, we looked through the book again. We found nothing. There was a page that had a corner slightly ripped open, but I figured that it was just because it was an old book and old books rip.

A little while later, our foster parents called us down to dinner and we hurriedly put the book away. We wouldn't want them coming up and seeing us with it.

When we got downstairs, our foster parents greeted us with bowls of steaming hot parmesan chicken and rice, along with steamed vegetables and a large chocolate pie for dessert.

"Okay, what do you want from us?" Mason asked. Both of us were too wary to say anything else.

"Want from you?" Samantha said innocently. "Just to have a nice dinner with you guys!"

"Sure. And we want to have our house infested with termites. Seriously guys, what gives?" There goes Mason. Always has to get to the point.

"Alright, alright you caught us." Dan said. "You guys have been acting really weird since we found you in the hall yesterday. Is everything okay? Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"'Course nothing's wrong! Euphoria just had a nightmare and got so scared that she ran out the door screaming and I went out after her and comforted her. She's still a little shaken."

I wasn't too thrilled by Mason's explanation but I'd just have to live with it. It's not like he made me pee my pants in the story or anything.

Dan seemed satisfied with the response though and shrugged while scooping up a portion of the chicken parmesan. Samantha however, still looked unconvinced. Well that and worried.

"Euphoria? Was it really a nightmare? Or is Mason trying to cover something really sinister?"

"Samantha!" Dan exclaimed.

I sat there shocked. Samantha was never like this. She was always kind and compassionate and of course she got mad, but she never came right out and said it. Samantha turned to Mason again.

"So what is it? Did you set a bomb in the house? Set your room on fire without us noticing? What?"

"Samantha, stop!" Dan said.

"No Dan!" Samantha screamed as she stood up. "These two have been troublemakers from the start and they need to go!"

That's when I knew. I stood up as well, and faced her, staring her right in the eye. She flinched. When I spoke, my voice came out different, almost…powerful.

"You're not Samantha. Tell us where the real Samantha is and then leave, or I will be forced to terminate you." Wait. Had I seriously just said that? Since when did I talk about terminating people?

"Whoa, Euphoria." Mason said, getting up and putting a hand on my shoulder, "Calm down, okay?"

I glared at him, and he immediately backed away. Then I turned my attention to Samantha, who was grinning, baring her teeth in a vicious smile that did not belong on my foster mother's face.

"You are right, I am not Samantha. You catch on quickly. But you are still a weakling, and you will not defeat the dark forces that took over your—or should I say our—kingdom. We will own Eusebeia and you will never, ever, win it back. I will erase your foster father's mind and he will not remember this encounter. But for now, you must die."

"Well I won't go down without a fight. But before we start this thing, I want you to tell me where Sarah is, immediately, or I will surely kill you, no second thoughts about it."

Samantha, or should I say the thing that inhabited Samantha, laughed shrilly, the sound ringing throughout the house and startling Dan out of his chair and causing Mason to stand up beside me.

"You silly girl, speaking as if you could really overpower me. There is no chance of you ever defeating me so I would not use that threat if I were you to get information. But I will answer your questions anyway as you will not live to do anything with the information. Samantha is currently in Eusebeia, locked in the prison located in the Lost Circle."

"The Lost Circle? I've never heard of that place."

"Of course you haven't worthless child. The way you might recognize it is the small clearing that the rulers used to inhabit on Eusebeia."

"You didn't." I whispered.

"Oh yes we did. Did you really think that there was any place in that world that we wouldn't touch. Foolish girl. We turned the 'Sacred Hut' as people called it, into a prison. Samantha is being kept there, most likely being tortured and slowly and painfully killed."

From the corner of the room, Dan made a strangled sound at the news.

"SILENCE!" The fake Samantha said as she sent a green jet of light flying out of her hand and straight towards Dan, who immediately slumped to the floor, eyes closed, and appeared dead.

"What did you do to him?" Asked Mason, finally speaking up.

"Nothing serious, just put him to sleep. At most he will have a horrid headache when he wakes up. Now stop talking to me boy! I was talking to the girl."

Mason instantly quieted down.

"Excellent choice." She turned back to me.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice just as strangely strong and powerful as ever.

"I am Arianna. Queen of the dark forces and the true ruler of Eusebeia. I am half demon and half dark fairy. I have come to kill you. I do not wish to do it painfully. I will do it quickly and you will not feel a thing. But if you struggle, I will slowly torture you until you die a slow painful death."

Mason stepped forward and, ignoring my warning glance, spoke up. "Half dark fairy? How can you ever expect us to take you seriously after that?"

"Mason." I said. "Fairies are the most manipulative beings in the universe. Being dark and evil just makes them worse." Wait, wait, wait, hold up. How the heck did I know that? I didn't even believe in fairies let alone know random facts about them.

"Exactly." Arianna said to Mason. "Now if you know what's good for you, I wouldn't speak any more. Do that, and I may just spare your life."

Mason snorted. "Sure."

Arianna shot another jet of green light in his direction and he quickly moved away, missing it by inches.

"Mason, stop." I said and he followed my direction without any questions.

Arianna glared at me. "I do not want to kill you. If you just cooperate, I will take you to Eusebeia as a prisoner. But if you're good, we just might spare your life."

"Spare my life? You'll be lucky if I spare yours!"

Arianna just laughed. "Ah, such a stupid girl. It's a pity really, that I have to kill you."

She clearly had no more patience to talk and she shot a jet of green light in my direction and I dodged it just in time. As she kept shooting those shots of power at me, I had to keep dodging them, and ended up running all around the room at least three times.

"Euphoria! Do something!" Mason shouted as he ran over to join me.

"I can't do anything! I don't even know what she's doing!" I said. Even if Mason knew what to do, he couldn't do anything. If that story really was true—Arianna really gave us all the proof we needed—then he was just a mortal. I was the goddess from it, shouldn't I at least have some instincts or something?

"Wait!" I shouted. I pointed out the window. Arianna—obviously not knowing the existence of practical jokes—followed where I was pointing and I used the little time I had to turn and talk to Mason.

"Mason! The book!" I said.

"What about it? Shouldn't we be concentrating on trying to defeat Arianna, not reading?"

"Just get it Mason! I saw something in it! Trust me this time!" I said.

He looked at me for a minute and after an excessive amount of shooing, he ran upstairs and returned with the book in almost an instant. By that time Arianna had turned around.

Mason looked at me, "I'll hold her off, try to find it!"

I watched as he ran and distracted Arianna, who immediately started to attack him. I flinched whenever it came close but he just laughed and mocked her. Then I remembered what I was supposed to be doing.

I don't know how I had been able to think during all that chaos, but I was able to remember that ripped corner that I saw earlier. If I was lucky, it was something important. All I had left to do now was hope that it wasn't something useless. I flipped to the page and started to rip the corner further. As I ripped I saw words underneath. Another page was under this one!

When the whole page was revealed, I started to read.

"Euphoria! Hurry! I need help here!" Mason shouted. I looked over and saw that Arianna had him cornered and that he had no way of escaping her.

I looked back down at the page and hurriedly read the first half of the page and found something useful. The writing was as if someone had carefully torn the page open and written in it. The most useful information on the page was: Euphoria, if you're reading this, you are probably at a loss. The only way for you to defeat Arianna, the queen of the dark forces is to shoot the same light that she does. Yours will be gold. You just have to think of what you want to happen. Think hard. It will come to you.

I don't know how the person knew my name, or how they knew that I would be battling Arianna, but I took the advice nonetheless. There were other names in the book, and how to defeat them, but those could wait until later. Right now, Arianna was my one and only focus.

I turned to her and held my hand up.

"Mason. Move aside." I said and he looked over at me. He obviously didn't know what I had planned but he trusted my judgment and moved to the other side of the room. I closed my eyes and thought, Erase her mind. Make her think that she never came here. That I don't know what I am. That she has no reason to stay here any longer and fight. Make her return to where she came from.

I opened my eyes and saw Arianna's eyes widen. My hand started to seem like it was glowing within. It spread until my whole hand was engulfed in bright gold light. Then, as suddenly as it had started, gold light shot out of my hand and hit her with surprising force, and that small surge of power ended.

She got up dizzily. "I don't know why I'm here. Who are you? What's going on? I'm going home." She shook her head and turned and walked out the door.

Mason ran over to me. "How the heck did you do that?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "It was in the book."

"Wow. I guess it was useful." He said.

Then I randomly gathered him in my arms and hugged him. He stood still for a minute but then hugged me back.

"What was that for?" He asked.

I smiled. "Well you helped! Without you, we most definitely would have died."

I grabbed the book from where I left it on the table and turned back to him.

"Come on. It's pretty clear now that we have to leave."