Chapter 1

I

Alena suddenly woke up and sat bolt upright in bed.

For a few moments, she couldn't quite figure out what had awoken her. Then she realized that she must have had the nightmare again.

She sighed and laid back down again. It had been the same every night for the last two weeks now. She would go to sleep and dream peacefully for a while. Then, however, the nightmare would recur.

It was always the same, every time. First she would see a pair of glowing red eyes, a flash of amazingly bright light, and then she would wake up. She wasn't superstitious or anything, but she was willing to bet that when someone has the same dream over and over, it usually means something.

Alena rolled over and pulled the blankets over her head and, hoping that she would not have the nightmare again, she fell asleep.

II

Phara climbed through the open window she had opened in the school's computer lab. Earlier the same morning, she had finally managed to figure out which school Alena went to. She had planned this several days ago upon her first encounter with the device called the computer. She would break into the school's student list, find Alena's name on the list, look at the last name, and find a phone book.

She went over to the computer closest to the window she had come through. She touched the machine with her hand, and it instantly sprang to life. After it had booted up, she made it so that the machine would not require her login information and made it go the student list. She had it find the name Alena, and was temporarily dismayed when it returned two results, but was relieved and amused when she noticed the first result's last name was Althen.

She walked to the window and climbed back out. Fate really did work in strange ways, she thought. Then she went to find a phonebook. She didn't imagine it would be too hard to find one.

III

Ghaleon, still invisible, followed Phara away from the school building. It had been an absolute stroke of luck when he had seen her coming out of a hotel some blocks north of the school. He would never have had a hope of finding Alena before Phara if he hadn't. She was too far ahead fo him. There was still the possibility that he would succeed, after all. He would merely follow Phara to the girl, and try to destroy her before she could talk to Alena.

These plans were foiled, however, when they reached the street corner. Phara suddenly turned around and cast a spell to make him visible.

"Ghaleon." she said.

Ghaleon gave her an appraising look and said, "Can I help you with something, Phara?"

"You can help me by leaving, Ghaleon. You don't really think you can win, do you?"

"If I didn't think I would succeed, I wouldn't be here now, would I?"

"I wont let you reach Alena, Ghaleon. I'm afraid the time has come to destroy you."

Ghaleon laughed. "Go ahead then, give it your best shot."

IV

Several people on the street suddenly stopped to look at the tall, pointy-eared man who had just appeared out of thin air. Then they noticed the looks on their faces and the small fireball in the man's hand and began to quickly walk away.

Most people, however, did not notice this, as they were too busy doing other things to pay attention. They were fully unaware that there lives were about to end.