Star

Dawn should have arrived hours ago, but the sky was still as black as night. Because I knew that sunrise was close, I hurried back to my temporary living accomedations, but it still looked like it should have been late at night. As I walked along the sidewalk, people stepped out of their homes, many of them still wearing their nightclothes, and looked up at the sky.

All of them wondered the same thing; where was the sun? Beside my shoulder, Teru asked, "What do you think the meaning of this is?" I shook my head and told her, "I'm not entirely sure, but I know it most likely has something to do with the Akuma."

From somewhere behind me, a woman let out a blood curdling scream that made me turn around. The people around her were looking up at a roof, and I saw the outline of a creature up there. A news team had been nearby, and one of them got out a massive spotlight.

They pointed it up at the roof, revealing the black, leather skinned demon. It snarled, baring its teething at the people below. People screamed when they saw him. I pulled my saber out and said, "This shouldn't take very long." Teru nodded and followed me as I ran towards the pandemonium.

The Akuma dropped down to the ground below and growled at the gathered people. Why they hadn't run yet, I had no clue. The Akuma swatted the news team's spotlight away, covering himself back with the darkness. But I already knew where he was at, and when he reached out to grab the stunned camera man, I sliced my blade into his arm, severing it from its body.

The arm dropped on the ground, and the Akuma turned to look at me. A wicked smile formed on his face as a new arm regenerated in the old one's place. "Wh-what? It shouldn't have grown back!" I yelled and sliced into the demon again. He only repaired whatever damage I did to him.

It was like my saber was nothing more than a regular blade, and not one with a powerful blessing etched into the metal. This Akuma shouldn't have been able to heal itself so quickly because of the blessing. The Akuma let out a cry and slammed its arm into my side, sending me flying across the street.

When I stopped tumbling along the ground, I quickly forced myself to stand up. The Akuma charged at me again. I yelled at Teru, "Quick! Do something!" She nodded and mumbled the incantation to shield my presence from Akuma.

The monster stopped a few feet short of me, and looked around. I was invisible to him. He sniffed all around me, trying to find the slightest bit of my scent. When he couldn't find anything, he growled and ran off. Teru then started to fall. I caught the Kanko before she hit the ground.

"Teru! What's wrong?" I asked frantically. She opened her eyes and said, "My powers. They're weak for some reason. I wasn't even able to hold the spell for very long either." What was happening? First, the blessing on my saber was worthless.

Now, Teru's powers were weakened. She floated out of my arms and asked, "You think it has something to do with this darkness?" I was sure it did. Everything about this screamed unnatural. My eyes then caught sight of something in the sky.

Where a sun should have been, there was a black circle. An eclipse? No. If it was an eclipse, then there would have been a ring of light around the circle. That, and our holy blessings and powers wouldn't have been failing us. "A blackout," I whispered to myself.

All around me, people were screaming and running down the street, but I stayed there and gazed up at the black sun. The only thing that broke me from my trance, was Teru, who was pulling on the end of my cape. "Master Star! We need to find safety!"

She was right. As of right then, we were at the mercy of the very things that once feared us. Until we could come up with a plan, it wasn't safe for us to be out in the open. As we started to run, I realized that my saber wasn't in its holster.

It would have been pointless to go back for it. The blessing was worthless right now, and it was nothing more than a fancy piece of steel. So, I just kept running, ashamed that I had been reduced to the prey by the creatures that once feared me.

Shun

Kuda and I were running back to Wardington. As we got closer, screams got louder and louder. All along the road connecting Wardington to Bay City, cars were bumper to bumper, and people were even running on foot to get away from the city.

One person noticed I was running towards the chaos, and tried to stop me. "What are you doing! Are you crazy! It's the Armageddon back there!" they screamed at me. I shrugged them off and kept running. I reached the city limits, and even from there, I saw the carnage.

Akuma were everywhere; the streets, rooftops, and so forth. The city was covered with them. I told Kuda, "I don't think I have enough left in me to kill them." I would be lucky if I killed one without passing out from weakness. Kuda nodded. "I was thinking the same thing, Master. Would it be better if we just turned around and left? There's not much you can do here."

Turning tail and running would be the smart choice, but there was something that was bothering me. "No. I'm not going to leave until I make sure Alice and the others make it out safely." If they were still in the city, then they were caught in the center of this madness.

Kuda sighed. "How did I know you would say something like that?" I smiled and told him, "Cause you know me so well. Hey, look on the bright side of this. You might finally be free of me after this." Because I was sure that I wouldn't be fortunate to make it out of this mess alive.

Kuda looked at me and said, "I don't know if I consider that a bright side anymore." I smiled. It was good to know how much Kuda's views on me had changed since we were first paired up. I started to run against the flow of people, searching for any signs of the others.

I had to make sure they didn't slip past me on the evacuation route. But the darkness made it difficult to see the faces far away from me. People began to scream, and I saw why. An Akuma dropped down from a roof and into the mass of running people.

I formed my sword in my hand. If I killed him, then I would most certainly be too weak to do anything. So, the most I could do right now was lead it away. "Hey! Ugly!" I shouted over the panicked people's screaming. The Akuma turned and hissed at me.

He charged at me, and I ducked to the side and was able to slice a chunk of his leg off. It screamed in pain, then turned back to me, rage in his eyes. I smiled and said, "Yeah, you want me? Then you're gunna have to chase me."

I turned and started to run. The Akuma was chasing after me. Kuda held on tightly to my shoulder and asked, "Now what, genius? You got him to follow, so what are you going to do next?" I grinned at him and said, "Not sure. I'm kind of just making this up as I go."

Kuda stared at me in disbelief. He then looked back and forth and me and the Akuma that was chasing us. He shut his eyes and said, "Lord, help me." I took a sharp turn into an alley, and the Akuma continued to run down the street, not knowing that I had made a quick detour.

I told Kuda, "See? Everything worked out." He was latched onto my shoulder, eyes wide with fear and body tensed. He then turned and looked at me and yelled, "Don't you ever do something that stupid again! I thought I was going to die! Have you lost your mind!"

I clamped his mouth shut. If I hadn't, then he would have never shut up. "Quiet down. Do you want to have more Akuma after us?" He shook his head, and let him go. "Alright then. Now, let's see if we can find Alice and the others, then get the hell out of here."

Alice

When I woke up, it was still dark. Thinking that I had woken up late at night, I checked the clock. It was eight in the morning, and should have been daylight. I quickly changed into my clothes and ran downstairs to see what was going on. The others were already down in the lobby.

I ran up to them and asked, "What's going on? Why's it so dark?" They shook their heads. Julie told me, "Murucho thought it was an eclipse, but it's not. Nobody knows what's going on. I'm kind of getting scared." Runo patted her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

Dan and Murucho were at the glass lobby doors, looking outside. I walked up behind them. "Guys? Any clue as to what's going on?" They both turned around and shook their heads. If Murucho couldn't even give us an explanation, then this couldn't be good.

I heard a snippet of somebody else's conversation. It was between two women. One of them mentioned something about monsters popping up around the city. Monsters? Are they talking about Akuma? A mad laughter then brought the lobby to a state of dead silence.

Everyone turned and looked at a man who was standing in the center of the room. He had a creepy smile that made him look insane, and his eyes were pitch black. I then started to look around and saw that we were surrounded by people with the same smiles and black eyes.

They're in here. Their bodies then started to twist in ways that they shouldn't have been able to. Bones cracked and skin tore as whatever was inside made its way out. I ran over to the others. People screamed when the monster burst through at last.

Standing in the place of what once looked human, was a tall, skinny monster with black skin. He dragged his long, sharp fingers along the tile floor, creating a screeching sound. We covered our ears from the painful noise. I looked around and saw that the other black-eyed people had shed their skin and revealed themselves as to what they were.

The Akuma in the middle smiled, showing his jagged teeth. He then yelled, "Feeding time, brothers!" Panic immediately set in amongst the already terrified people in the lobby. They started to run towards the door, but there was an Akuma blocking the exit.

Dan yelled, "What the hell is going on?" I heard Julie and Runo scream. One of the Akuma had then cornered and was walking closer to them on all fours. He lashed out a forked tongue, running it along Runo's arm. A cut was left behind, and it reminded me somewhat of the faint scar that had been under Shun's eye.

But this was no time to be reminded about pointless things. My friends were about to be eaten by that monster, and I wasn't going to let it happen. I looked around and grabbed a floor lamp that had been plugged into the wall.

I yanked the cord out of the socket and held the lamp like a baseball bat. I ran up to the Akuma, and swung, hitting him in the face. The light bulb inside the lampshade, shattered, and glass stuck in the monster's eye. Black blood came pouring out like tears.

The Akuma screamed in pain and stumbled away from Julie and Runo. They sat there, huddled in the corner, tears running down their faces. They were scared. We all were. I grabbed their wrists and said, "Come on! We have to find a way out of here!"

I pulled them up and dragged them along behind me. I started to look around for Dan. He had a chair from the hotel's restauraunt and was swinging it at an Akuma that had him and Murucho cornered. The Akuma swatted down at the chair, knocking one of the wooden legs off.

Dan quickly reached down and stabbed the chair leg into the Akuma's torso. The creature screamed and pulled the piece of wood out of its chest. Again, the black blood came cascading out. I yelled at them, "Dan! Murucho! Come on!" They looked around until they found me.

I waved my hand for them to follow me. I ran into the stairwell, and pushed the heavy metal door shut when everyone was inside. I saw that there was a latch that could lock the door, and I turned it. Odds were that the little lock wouldn't do much against the powerful Akuma on the other side of the door, but it was the best line of defense we had.

I turned around and saw Dan and Murucho were trying to calm Runo and Julie down. The two girls were crying their eyes out. I probably would have been too if I didn't know what those things were. I knelt down beside them and said, "You guys have to cut the waterworks now. We have to get out of here without being killed."

They looked up at me, and I could see in their eyes that they were wondering how I could be so calm in this situation. The two girls wiped the tears away and stood up. "Hey! I may have found a way out!" said Murucho. He had found an emergency exit map screwed onto the wall.

He pointed down the stairs and said, "According to this map, there's an emergency exit door a few flights below us." Something rammed into the metal door, causing it to bend slightly. "Then let's take that exit," Dan said, voice urgent and filled with panic.

Four, long black claws then sliced through the metal door as if it had been paper. The five of us ran down the stairs, looking for the emergency exit. But I couldn't help but think about Shun. He said he was an Akuma. Is he really one of those things?

chapter titled based off the song Get Out Alive by Three Days Grace. aye. monday. -.- even when i have no school, i can't stand it. oh well. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~