Chapter 3

The days passed. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years. My life pretty much stayed the same. I never was perceived as being "normal". I had reached the age of sixteen, and I still had no friends. I grew into a fine young man. I worked out in my spare time, toning my muscles and becoming exceptionally strong.

Ever since that day where I tore apart Erik and the others, everything changed. They never looked at me the same way again. They teased me less and less; they always remembered what I did to them. In a way, they feared me. Honestly, it wasn't common for a kid to call upon magic like that.

And to think my life would get better. Oh, how I was wrong. Sure, they ceased their bullying. It seemed as if everything would be perfect, my main problem had been solved.

But the largest threat to my soul was still there, and it was getting more powerful each day: myself.

I still had serious doubts about my existence. I never knew why I was alive. I felt like no one wanted me there—I just didn't belong. I always had trouble believing in myself. I never thought I was good enough to do anything.

But one day, the hardest confrontation of all had come. It was the day I reached sixteen years of age: the age a Dalian boy became a man.

It was in the dark of night. I had been having reoccurring dreams of a horrid seen. Something so terrible, I awoke with a start every time, sweating profusely and shaking uncontrollably. They all depicted a similar seen—a creature comprised of the Shadows, robbing the souls of people. The victims were always the people around me, the ones who I cared about the most.

But on this night, the most horrific one of them all had fallen upon me. I was the one being attacked by the monster.

The wispy, ethereal figure hovered around my body. A wretched, eerie moaning emitted from the ghastly form. With an ear-splitting shriek, the beast charged forward, colliding into my body, robbing me of my soul.

I screamed. I got up out of bed, my sheets wet from my sweat. My hands would not stop shaking. I paced around my room. I looked in the mirror at myself. My brow was dripping with sweat; my face pale and cold.

I wandered back to my bed and fell on it, staring at the ceiling. The haunting cries of the monster echoed in my mind.

I felt as if I would die at that very moment. I was in a state of pure anguish. I no longer knew who I was. All I could feel was every negative feeling conjured by a human spirit. Sadness, guilt, tension, stress. The list went on and on. It soon became too much for me.

I howled in distress and fell to the floor. I lay on the ground, withering around like a fish out of water.

Every time I closed my eyes the haunting images of the creature invaded my thoughts. This nightmare was far worse than any dream; it seemed as if it was reality.

I decided to take action. I would not let this creature control me, whether it was real or not. I needed to cleanse it from my mind.

I closed my eyes, concentrating on defeating the thing. At first, all I saw was the blank sea of white in the depths of my thoughts. Then it came. The creature slowly formed, gathering up the Shadows. The black clouds accumulated until the full shape of the demon was created.

I had never strained my powers this much. This moment meant everything to me—I had to conquer this fear inside of me.

The demonic force approached me. A chilling wave ran through my body. The hairs on my neck pricked up, and goose bumps rose on my arms and legs. I kept my eyes shut and kept the matter at hand as my top priority. No matter how scared I became, I needed to stay strong.

The monster poised to strike. It made that high pitched noise, the noise it creates before it strikes.

I knew I had to act now. This was the moment where it would overcome me.

But it didn't have to go that way.

As if from instinct, I searched the chambers in my soul and mind. I traversed the many passage ways at a rapid rate, searching for the way to vanquish the opponent. At last I stumbled across the answer.

I tapped into the energy hidden within me, and released it. A brilliant, holy light spread out across the battlefield I had imagined. The light crept closer to the monster of the Shadows. It quickly encased the dark creature in a bath of light.

An atrocious moaning noise filled my ears. I covered my ears up with my hands. I forced myself to keep my eyes shut. I thrashed about violently; sweating even more than before. I screamed in agony as the light brightened to an unimaginable strength, and the moaning increased in volume. The pain was unbearable.

But I never gave in to the dark powers.

The light overpowered the dark force. Looking at the imaginary battleground, the dark ghost was gone.

I had done it. I had triumphed over the evil. I opened my eyes.

I was fine. My sweating had ceased; I could control my actions. But what exactly had taken place? It was merely a dream, but it seemed much real. That evil was a reality to me.

And for some reason, I was the only person capable of defeating that power.

The next week a terrible tragedy occurred. A baby, only a few months old, had passed away. No one knew how she died. Her mother left her in the crib at night, and the entire family began to sleep. The next morning, little baby Alma was dead.

The same thing happened the week after, except to a nine year old. His family went to sleep, and when they woke up, his life was gone.

The months went on. The deaths continued to occur. It started off as happening just once a week. Later on it rose to two lives lost in a week, and then to three. Soon it reached the peak of its damage, four lives a week.

All the while, we had never figured out what was going on. Our messengers reported this phenomenon wasn't taking place in the other villages and cities. It was truly a work of an enigma; everyone was clueless.

But exactly six months past my sixteenth birthday, I figured out what was happening.

It was the creature from my dreams.

I woke up at two o'clock A.M. I went to the kitchen sink to pour myself a glass of water. As I approached the room, I could tell something was not right. My father's room was downstairs, near the kitchen. As I was getting my drink, I could sense it.

It had returned.

I could hear the low moaning coming from his room. Putting my glass down, I walked slowly to the bedroom. I peaked inside; the door was open.

The monster was slowly creeping towards my dad. It continued to emit that eerie moaning. The wispy shadows it was made of slowly glided through the air. My father remained sound asleep.

Then it happened.

The beast let out that horrid screeching noise. It charged forth, plummeting into my father.

I watched in silence. My dad began to quiver and shake. He was experiencing the same symptoms I had long ago.

I could tell he was at the point. The monster was inside his mind, ready to commit the final act.

It was about to steal my father's soul.

But this is where I had stopped it. I had cast some spell that drove the beast away. But my father was devoid of this power.

I watched his shaking come to a halt. He was gone. My father, the man who raised me, was gone. Even though he may have been hard on me, I still loved him.

A single tear rolled down my cheek. Then more came, and I had a waterfall flowing down my face.

I was alone. My two parents had been robbed. My mother died one year after my birth. We went to sleep, and she was dead.

And now, my father had died the same way. Hell, the creature would have taken me too.

But I was different. I could withstand its evil powers, and I was able to rid it from my body.