I can't believe that I'm this far into rewriting this story. It's starting to get good isn't it? I hope you guys are enjoying my characters. Well here goes.
The Maze
It was Saturday, finally a day with no school, no work, just some relaxing and doing some shopping. I was at the mall with Jessi and Kristen. We were in the food court at the moment. I was looking at the menu as Kristen paid for her food.
"I'll have a small coke and a small fries." I told the guy at the cash register. He nodded as he rang it up. I handed him my money and waited for my food.
After getting my food I joined Kristen and followed her toward the table Jessi was sitting at. I took one look at all the food sitting in front of her and felt sick. Jessi had ordered a hamburger, large fries, large coke and a milkshake. I think she was also planning on getting another hamburger too.
"How can you eat all that? And still have some room left?" Kristen asked sitting down.
"I just open my mouth, put some food in, chew it and than shallow." Jessi said around a mouth full of food.
"Gross." I gagged.
I ate my fries and glanced over at Kristen. She was watching someone on the other side of the food court. I followed her gaze. She was watching some guy. He had spiky brown hair with blond highlights. I could tell what color eyes he had. As I watched two other guys walked up to him. My mouth fell opened. I closed it fast. One of the guys that had just walked up was a tall blond. I felt my self start to blush. It was Nala (1), I mean Alan. Nala was just a name that Jessi had come up with as a code name. I happen to have had a small crush on him. I glanced over at Jessi to see if she had noticed the guys yet, only to see that she had. The remaining guy was also tall but he had brown hair was a bit long. This was the guy that Jessi had a crush on. Jessi always started to blush when she was around Adam.
I was going to say something when Adam looked our way, which caused us three to look somewhere else. When I glanced back they were walking our way. I felt my face grow redder.
"Hey Jessi, Stella." Adam said in greeting as they stopped at our table.
I looked up at him. Jessi was taking small bites from her hamburger.
"Oh hi Adam. Hello Alan." The second greeting came out almost as a whisper.
"Hi Stella." Alan smiled. I felt my heart beat like mad.
"Want to join us?" Kristen asked.
"Hey Kristen." Adam said pulling up a chair. Alan and the other guy sat down as well.
Jessi made a small choking noise, causing me to look at her. She was still red. Her face was doing a great imitation of her hair.
"Hi." Kristen said to the person we didn't know. I looked at her to see her trying to keep a straight face. "I'm Kristen."
"Oh I'm sorry. This is Brian." Alan introduced his friend.
"Hello." Brian said softly.
"These are my friends Stella and Jessi." Kristen introduced us to him.
"Hello." Brian said again.
"So are you new in town?" I asked Brian trying to get a conversation started.
"No. I lived on the other side of the city. We just moved over here to Cross Roads." Brian said. He glanced at Kristen who was staring at him. "Is she okay?"
I looked at my friend and held in a giggle. I glanced at Jessi to see her acting the same with Adam.
"She's fine. Just staring off into space." I kicked Kristen under the table.
"Huh, oh sorry. I was just thinking about something." Kristen took a drink of her soda.
"So what's everyone doing?" Alan asked.
"Nothing." Us girls and Brian said together. This caused us to start laughing. Alan and Adam joined in.
Jessi was trying to drink her milkshake with out choking on it while Kristen was staring off into space again.
"I got an idea." Everyone looked at me, "How about we go do something fun? We can go to the that new maze thing that just opened."
"That's a cool idea. I've been wanting to go over there and see what is was like." Adam said nodding.
"Lets get going than." Jessi was getting up, picking up her tray.
"Okay." We answered also getting up.
I threw my stuff away and followed Kristen. She was talking to Alan. I looked over at Jessi, who was talking to Brian. Adam didn't seem to mind that no one was really talking to him. We walked out of the mall and toward the buss stop. We weren't there for more than a few minutes when the bus pulled up the curb. The doors opened letting people off. We waited, than got on our selves. As the doors started to close the bus pulled away from the curb.
Neon watched as people walked up to the ticket window with smiles on their faces. He grinned to himself. They wouldn't have those grins later. The traps were sent, now all that was need was the prey. He grinned once more.
As we stepped off the bus I gasped. The maze was bigger than I thought. It was all made out of wood. There were platforms rising above the rest of the maze in four different places.
"Stella, come on!" Kristen called to me. I had fallen behind the others they were already at the ticket window.
"Coming!" I called back. I run over to them.
"How many tickets please?" asked the woman behind the glass.
"Six. Hand over your money guys." Jessi said holding out a hand. We each handed her our share of the tickets price.
"Here you go. Thank you." The lady handed Jessi six tickets and some change.
We walked over to the entrance.
"Let's go in teams." Alan said suddenly.
"Okay but how are we going to decide?" Adam asked.
"Let's pull strings." Kristen said.
"How about papers instead?" I asked pull a piece of paper from my pocket.
Everyone nodded. I tore the paper into three pieces. If you got the short one you were on one team. We did this three times. Kristen, Alan and Adam had wound up on a team. They went in first. Jessi was kind of upset that she hadn't been on the same team as Adam.
"We'll beat you guys!" Alan yelled as he followed Kristen and Adam inside the maze.
"Sorry." I said to Jessi.
"It's okay. Since I can't be on his team I'm just going to beat him at this." Jessi smiled at me.
We waited for a bit before we went inside our selves. As we went in a door closed behind us blocking the way out. We rounded one corner when Jessi took off, running ahead of us.
"Jessi! Come back!" Brian yelled after her.
We rushed after her. Jessi was too far ahead.
"One down three to go." Kristen said in a singing type of voice.
They had already made it to the first stamp stop. We each had one paper that had four squares on it. You had to get four stamps that spelled out 'maze'.
"Let's get going. We can win this." Adam led the way down the stairs.
"I think that's the way toward the next one." Alan said pointing toward his left.
Kristen and Adam followed Alan as he went down the left pathway. As the walked that way they turned another left only to find a dead end. They turned to go back the way they had come but found a dead end. Someone had put a wall there. They were closed in what looked like a box.
"What? What's going on?" Adam said as he pushed against the wall. It didn't move.
"Some things going on here." Alan was also pushing on the wall.
Kristen was about to say something when she heard a weird sound. She looked around wildly trying to find where the sound was coming from when the dirt under her feet rumbled. She looked down at her feet to see the ground split open. Kristen tried to back up but it was no use. She along with Alan and Adam fell down into the dark hole.
"Help!" Kristen yelled as she fell.
Brian and I finally caught up with Jessi at the first stamp stop. She had the paper so she had gotten the stamp. As we were walking down the stairs Brian stopped. I looked at him. He had a far away look on his face.
"Brian? You okay?" I asked him.
"I don't know. I felt something." He had his eyes closed.
"Felt something? What something?" I grabbed Jessi's arm to keep her from taking off again.
"Something evil, wrong just happen. This way!" Brian rushed past Jessi and me.
I glanced at Jessi; she gave me her raised eyebrow look. We took off after Brian. As we followed him we turned and turned again. As we turned the last time we ran right into Brian. He had stopped and was staring at something. We glanced around him and saw that we had run into a dead end.
"Dead end. We went the wrong way." Jessi said.
I turned back to go the way we had come and gasped. My gasp caused Brian and Jessi to turn and look at me. The reason why I gasped was that a wall was behind me where one hadn't been before. We looked at the wall for a moment. Jessi looked at me. She had a question on her face that I couldn't answer, not with Brian there. As I looked at Jessi I caught a movement out the corner of my eye. The wall that had been the originally dead end had vanished. In its place was a dark star case. Jessi and I shared a look.
"The evil feeling is coming from down there." Brian whispered.
"What do we do than?" I asked. I tried to make the question sound like a normal question.
Jessi and Brian stared at something behind me. They wore a look of fear on their faces. I didn't want to turn around. As I stood there I felt something breathing down the back of my neck. I gulped and turned around.
A monster was standing behind me. It was a huge cat with foot long teeth. It licked its lips. As I stared at the cat it opened it's mouth and roared. I gagged, talk about bad breath.
"Run!" Jessi yelled as she turned and started down the stairs.
I followed her as Brian ran after us. I could hear the cat's footsteps coming after us.
"I told you there was something wrong!" Brian yelled as he passed me.
"Oh shut up!" I yelled back. I was trying not to fall down the stairs when Jessi stopped all of a sudden.
"Why am I running?" Jessi asked. She reached into her subspace pocket and pulled out her senshi pen. She held it up with a yell, "Rose Power Make Up!"
As Brian watched the light show I heard him gasp, "Tuxedo Jessi!"
"Move you two!" Tuxedo Jessi said pushing her way past Brian and me.
"Someone help!" a voice called from down the stairs.
I looked at Tuxedo Jessi than back down the stairs. I prayed that Tuxedo Jessi would be able to handle this by herself.
"Brian, come on." I started down the stairs.
"But what about Tuxedo Jessi?" he asked following me.
"She'll be okay. I hope." I said.
"What'd you mean you hope?" Brian asked in a panicking voice.
I threw him a look. He didn't notice it. We ran down the stairs as shouts and yells echoed from behind us. The further we went down the fainter they became. Soon I saw a small light growing bigger. We were coming to the bottom of the staircase. As we finally reached the bottom I stopped short. Brian crashed into me. I tripped forward.
"Why'd you stop?" Brian asked as he grabbed my arm.
"Look." I pointed. He followed my pointing finger and I heard him gasp.
In front of us was a square room. What looked like a computer screen lined one wall with a keyboard console sitting under it. The two other walls were lined with cages. Some of the cages were empty while other held people. One cage in predictably had caught my eye. It was sitting on the floor in front of the others. It looked like it was waiting in be put up in line with the others. Sitting inside, holding the bars, was Kristen. Alan and Andrew were lying next to her, knocked out. I looked back at Kristen. Her eyes told me what she was feeling. She had a cut across one cheek and a smug of dirt across her forehead.
"What on Earth is going on?" Brian turned to look at me.
Before I could say anything Kirsten started yelling and pointing. She was pointing at something behind us. We turned around to see something that made me groan. The cat was standing behind us holding Tuxedo Jessi over one shoulder. It was walking up on its hind feet. The cat tossed Tuxedo Jessi to its feet. She looked dead but I could see her chest slowly rising. I did breath a sigh of relief at that. But what was I going to do? Tuxedo Jessi was knocked out and Kirsten was locked in a cage. I glanced around looking for something to throw at the cat when my gaze stopped on Brian. He was staring at the cat and Tuxedo Jessi. But the reason that had stopped my gaze was the mark on his forehead. Glowing on the middle of his forehead was three stars in line. One small star was glowing a bit brighter than the other two (2). Brian was a sailor scout? Is there even such a thing as a male sailor scout? These were the thoughts running through my head as my moon necklace and crescent moon on my forehead glowed. A senshi pen was forming in front of me. I held out a hand to catch it as it fell.
Just as I caught the stick the cat roared. I jumped aside while Brian went the other way. The cat had swung a huge paw at us. I backed away from the cat as it fell to all four feet. It stalked forward swinging it's head back and forth, looking at Brian than at me. I risked a glance at the senshi pen I still held in my hands. It was orange in color with; I swear it was the weirdest thing, zebra on top (3). I looked up in time to see the cat leap toward me.
"Brian!" I shirked as I tried to back up. He was trying to get to the cat when I called his name. As the cat swung a paw with huge claws at me I threw the senshi pen at him. "Catch!"
As the senshi pen flew through the air I tried to get away, but no such luck. As I turned to shield my face I felt the cat's claws slice my jeans and rip in to the skin underneath. I screamed.
"Stella!" Kristen yelled banging on the bars with her fists.
The cat turned away from me as I fell on my butt clutching my bleeding leg. It turned toward Brian, who had caught the senshi pen. He was gripping it with a tight fist.
"Orion Power Make Up!" Brian held the senshi pen above his head.
He was covered in an orange light. As he stood there in the middle of the light he held his arms at his side. As we watched three stars, like the ones on his forehead, formed above him. The three stars shot away from him, each leaving a white streamer behind them. The three stars than started to circle around him at a dizzying speed. As the circled around Brian the streamers wrapped around him. When the stars reached his feet they detached themselves from the white streamers. The streamers in turn changed color and form. The streamers had formed an orange tuxedo. The three stars flew back at Brian, landed and formed a belt. Brian was standing there in an orange tuxedo with a white tuxedo shirt under the jacket. An orange stone shaped as a button lay at the collar of his shirt. No mask covered his face, unlike Tuxedo Mask and Tuxedo Jessi.
"I am the mighty hunter that stands in the night sky, I'm Sailor Orion!" Sailor Orion raised a fist up.
He jumped toward the cat, his cape blowing behind him. The cat hissed and jumped away from him.
"Sailor Orion…we need…to get Kristen…free." I gasped through my pain.
Sailor Orion nodded his head to show that he heard me. He held out a hand, pointed toward the cage Kristen was in. "Nebula…" a bright light had formed in his palm. It grew brighter and brighter. "Blast!" the light shout away from his palm. Kristen slid away from the bars, throwing an arm up over her eyes as the light hit the bars. With a loud clang the bars fell away. Kirsten crawled out of the cage.
"You're going to regret locking me in a cage." Kristen growled as he got to her feet, "Libra Power Make Up!"
The pink light went around Kristen transforming her into Sailor Libra. When the light show disappeared Sailor Libra rushed over to me.
"Stella!" She tried to help me up, but I pushed her away.
"Tuxedo Jessi." I panted. Libra looked over at Tuxedo Jessi who was starting to wake. She rushed over to her, or well tried to.
The cat jumped between Libra and Tuxedo Jessi. I saw Orion sneak around the cat. He knelt beside Tuxedo Jessi as she tried to push her self up. She moaned. The cat swung its head around and gazed at them.
"Zodiac Equal Sparks!" Kristen used the cat's glance to attack. The cat hissed as it leaped away. It landed by me, but didn't even glance my way.
Orion helped Tuxedo Jessi sit up as Libra turned toward the cat. She looked pissed. She charged up for another attack but stopped when the cat ran in front of me. I heard Libra mumble something.
"Who are you?" Tuxedo Jessi asked Sailor Orion as he helped her to her feet.
"Never mind that! Stella needs help!" Sailor Orion said pointing.
Tuxedo Jessi saw the cat standing in front of me. I was trying to move away from the cat but wasn't having much progress. I saw Tuxedo Jessi glance at me. I mouthed the words, "go for it." at her. She nodded ever so slightly.
"Hit it all at once." Tuxedo Jessi said softly.
"You sure?" Sailor Orion asked, worry written across his face.
"I'm sure." Tuxedo Jessi didn't look at him but started to power up her attack, "Rose Power Strike!"
"Zodiac Equal Sparks!" Sailor Libra followed Tuxedo Jessi.
"Nebula Blast!" Sailor Orion also yelled.
The three attacks flew at the cat as I rolled up into a ball. I heard the cat scream. I opened my eyes as I dust fell to the ground where the cat had been standing. Tuxedo Jessi rushed to my side.
"You okay?" she asked.
"I am now." I smiled at her as she helped me to my feet.
Neon looked down at his feet. He was standing in front of Water Buffalo. Pissed off was one way to put how mad she was.
"Neon what happen?" she growled.
Neon didn't answer her. She knew what happen with out him telling her. He had failed once again.
"You failed me!" Water Buffalo snapped.
"I'm sorry…" Neon started to say but was caught off.
"I don't want your 'sorry' I want Tuxedo Jessi and her scouts dead. Do you hear me Neon? This is your last chance!" she snapped.
"Yes mistress." Neon nodded.
It was three in the morning when my phone rang. I rolled over and trying to get a good grip on the ringing phone. Jess, Kristen and Brian had brought me home after the battle. We had left before the other had woken up. Had caught a taxi from the maze and come straight to my place. They had left me here after Kristen had cleaned the wound. It wasn't as bad as we had thought. I would be sore for a few days as it healed.
"Hello?" I asked sleepily once I managed to get the phone to my ear.
"Stella?" it was Jessi.
"Jess, it's three in the morning. What's wrong?" I yawned leaning back against my pillows.
"Stella, I had a nightmare." Jessi's voice came down the line.
"A nightmare?" I yawned again.
"It was something about a battle. I was on a slide. I must have been 4 or 5 at the time. There were five other girls with me. I think it was the girls you told me about. Even the pink hair girl. We were playing when suddenly a blast rocked the playground. Four people came running toward us. I didn't see their faces or anything. But four of the girls were gone. It was only I and the pink hair girl left. Another blast rocked the area. I was starting to cry as another blast caused a wall to fall inward. The pink hair girl was crying and hugging something. The only thing I could see was that it was black. As I looked back at the dust I could see people walking toward us. I started to scream, while the pink hair one ran toward something behind us. I was too frozen to move. As the people started to move toward me the four, who had taken the four girls away, came back. With them came two other people. One went to help the other four people, while the other came to my aid. It was a man. I clung to him as he carried me away from the battle. I was glancing at his face when I woke up." Jessi told me about her dream (4).
"Did you see his face?" I asked sitting up in my bed.
"No, but I feel like I know him. Like he is part of me or something." Jessi sighed.
I sat looking at the phone for a minute. What do I tell her? I can't tell her who the man was. She had to see his face first before I could tell her.
"It's okay." I finally said, "It's just another memory. Don't worry about anything. You were taken somewhere safe."
"Oh, okay. Well I guess I'll see you later than. Sorry about waking you. Night." Jessi hung up the phone.
She was getting closer to seeing her father's face. It was only a matter of time. What was I going to do?
Okay here we go.
I wrote this story in middle school (1) and I did have a crush on a guy named Alan. Jessi's crush is real too. And Jessi did give Alan the code name Nala.
I thought long and hard about what to make Brian sign (2). I than thought about how people find Orion in the sky. They look for his belt that the star Beetlejuice sits in. So there you go.
Okay I had to keep this (3). Brian had this pen in middle school that had a zebra on top of it and thought it would be funny to have it as his transformation pen. So it stays.
This one is actually in a story that I wrote (4). Once I'm done with this one and My Friend. Why Did You Leave? I'll write it.
Hope you like this chapter. Enjoy!
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