Tunnels

Prologue: Bitter Memories

By Saxifrage

I stared at the large, gray stone before me. Just stared. What more could I do, anyways? It had been impossible for me to cry… Impossible for me to tell her how much I missed her. She wasn't there to hear me anyways.

Slowly, I lifted my tan and elegant hand to trace the letters on that stone, the stone that marked her existence. Tianna Moore, it read, Her strength of will and heart will forever be remembered. I looked away sharply. No, those words didn't really explain who she was.

Tianna Moore was the most beautiful girl anyone could lay their eyes on, and every man who had eyes felt attraction to her, not because of her beauty, but because of the power you could see in her eyes. And she had power, indeed she did.

I brushed my brown hair away from my eyes and turned to walk away. I have power too. It comes from being something that very few people knew about, something that was a birth-given right. But after Tianna's death, I had refused to be what I was anymore. I had denounced my right as a Goddess.

You're probably thinking that I'm insane, or that I have started to believe things that aren't true because of one of my best friend's death. But whether you believe me or not, I have the power that all Daughters of the Moon have, the power to fight the Atrox.

But it's not enough. I thought sourly as I walked away from Tianna's gave sight. The grave yard was small and peaceful, surrounded in weeping willows and colorful flowers. If it was enough, then Tianna would still be here.

Suddenly, my cell phone started to vibrate. I vaguely looked at the caller ID and realized it was my best friend, Vanessa. I bet she was able to weep, I was angry, and a little hurt that for some reason, my grieving was denied me. I left the call unanswered.

The worst part about nobody knowing about the Daughters of the Moon, was that everyone thought Tianna committed suicide. I couldn't handle everyone's sympathy, and people telling me that it's not my fault she wanted to end her life. And I hated my best friends for going along with it! Vanessa, Serena, Jimena knew the truth, but they just let everyone think that Tianna would do something so unworthy of herself!

I ran through the streets of LA as quickly as I could, dodging people and ignoring greetings. I wanted to get to her bus station and go home; Visiting Tianna was just too much for me.

My phone started vibrating again, and I growled at it and turned it off. I hated them at the moment. I hated them for being able to grieve, but instead forgetting Tianna as quickly as possible. I hated them for being Goddesses themselves and that each of them had taken a part in her death.

Vanessa was the one who had led the spell to release Tianna's soul from her body, enabling her to be dead. Serena's boyfriend was the Prince of the Night, the highest ranking Follower of the Atrox, who hadn't explained to Tianna what the becoming was. And Jimena… I hated her most of all. She had told Tianna to go to the Atrox to destroy his form. I could never forgive them, and I haven't since the day Tianna died over a month ago.

Since that day, I have been skipping school more than ever to be with my mother and visit Tianna's foster siblings, one who was staying my house, and another who was slowly dying in the hospital. Tianna had been a foster child herself, and it angers me to know that her foster mother was really yet another high-ranking Follower of the Atrox. I think I must have been the only person to know how she felt about fostering, since my own mother adopted me.

I smiled sadly, remembering the horrified reaction that Kendra had had when she had found out the truth about me. I remember at how Kendra had first thought that I was an alien because I have the freaky ability to travel through time. After Kendra had started to translate a manuscript that I had inherited, called the Secret Scroll, Kendra had assumed that the evil creature it described was me. But the truth was (though I had once believed I alien to this world also) that I was in fact a goddess, a Daughter of the Moon. Once Kendra had figured this out, she had had no doubts concerning me.

Before Tianna's death, I had often wondered about Vanessa's parents, and Jimena's and Serena's, too. They never really talked about their parents, and it had often hurt me to know that they didn't trust me enough. That was another way that Tianna and I had bonded—we both had pasts that were dark and had shared them. But despite their secrets, I had always wondered and worried what their parents would say if they ever found out about their true identity.

What would Vanessa's mom say if she saw her daughter expand her molecules until she became invisible: just a giant cloud of miniscule dust? How would Serena's father react if he finally figured out that she could read and manipulate minds? Would Jimena's grandmother have thought her premonitions were witchcraft? Or now she's a reincarnated goddess, that Jimena's evil? Why didn't Tianna's foster parents ever notice her power of telekinesis? And why didn't anyone wonder why we all had moon amulets—each given to us by strangers when we were young—that we would never take off?

I scoffed at that last thought, as the bus finally pulled up and opened its doors. I didn't wear my moon amulet anymore. As I had said before, I have rejected my identity. Sometimes, though, I would finger it in my pocket, wondering what it's true meaning really was. (Though I didn't want to be a Daughter anymore, I knew I couldn't go somewhere without it—it was the only thing I had that would alert me to danger.) Our former Guardian, Maggie, had always told us that it really had no power; that the power came from inside of us. Somehow, I couldn't believe it. The colored stone just seemed to have a mind of its own.

When I got on the bus, I caught my reflection in the window—something that horrified me. I looked beautiful, with my long, strait brown hair flowing gracefully down my back, my honey-colored eyes, my soft, tan skin, and my petite figure. It disgusted me; I didn't look like I was grieving at all! And who deserved to be beautiful when Tianna had been called away from her body?

I sighed angrily, and stared out the window of the bus, watching the stores disappear from my view, as new stores and restaurants entered my vision. Briefly, I saw Planet Bang, and the long line of students waiting in line to enter it. I looked at my watch and realize that it was five-thirty and that today was Saturday; of course people would start lining up to get into the popular dance club. There was a time when I would have done everything my time traveling power would allow me to do to stay out all night before returning to the daytime to finish my homework. It had worn me out on many occasions.

I remembered the first time I went there, and the first time the entire Goddess posse was there. Tianna had been wearing baggy cargo pants and an extremely cute white top that said Time is never wasted when it's wasted on a party. Serena had—

Wait a second. I thought suddenly, my eyes bursting open in surprise. With that last thought had come a flash of a memory that I recognized but had forgotten. It was after—or maybe during?—Tianna's funeral… I thought hard and soon the fuzzy memory snapped into focus.

--

"Catty," Serena said, her bright green eyes swelling with tears. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I mumbled. I was too busy focusing on Tianna's stiff, beautiful face that lay pale and sorrowful in her open casket.

Vanessa, who was left of me, tried to grab my hand to squeeze in comfort, but I pulled away. "Catty," Vanessa begged. "Please, please, don't be like this."

"Be like what?" I asked evasively in a soft voice.

"Don't lock yourself up in a casket along with Tianna. She wouldn't want that." Vanessa whispered.

"Whoever said I wanted a crazy thing like that?" I asked angrily. Who gave them the right to judge how I felt?

"You know what we mean." Jimena said. "We love her too, and will miss her, but we have things to do. We have to fight, not give in."

Jimena's hand closed tightly on her necklace, which was the head of Medusa. The necklace had always creeped me out before, with the snakes on its head almost slithering at times, and the eyes glinting with promised power. Jimena had claimed that it was possible that it was just like a moon amulet, but with different power, but I had never understood that. What I did understand though, was that Jimena was now making an allusion to my own moon amulet which was concealed in my purse.

"I'm not giving in, I'm giving up. There's a difference." I growled. I walked away from my friends huffing. I saw my boyfriend, a tall, handsome boy with light brown hair talking quietly with Derek, Tianna's red-headed and cute ex-boyfriend, and went over to him.

"Hi," I said softly to Kyle, staring into his soft brown eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked. It was the same words that Serena had used, but they sounded different from his lips… Somehow serene and sincere.

I nodded, and he gently kissed the top of my head. I turned to Derek, and he motioned for me to follow him towards the cover of a weeping willow. Tears had streaked down his freckled face and his blue eyes were swollen. He looked unashamed of his tears, but shame still lingered in his eyes. "I hate myself." He told me quietly. "I broke up with her…for—for no reason at all! I hurt her… I was s-stupid—a jerk." His voice revealed his struggle to keep from sobbing openly.

"She loved you." I told him soothingly. "She really did love you."

"I know… B-but it's still my f-fault. I-I should have b-been there for h-her. M-maybe I was j-just afraid of her." Derek searched for a handkerchief in his pocket. I waited patiently as he blew his nose before I inquired my question.

"Why were you afraid of her?" I was curious… I knew I shouldn't be, but I was.

Derek paused hesitantly, going over his thoughts in his head carefully before he answered. "She's beautiful, inside and out. Better than me. I thought maybe she wanted someone more handsome than me, more powerful."

Something that he said sparked my previously numb memory. Power?

My eyes widened in realization. "Power!" I exclaimed. Derek jumped at my sudden outburst. "That's it! That's it!" I hugged Derek and ran off to find the other Daughters.

When I found Jimena I immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd (ignoring the rude glances,) towards the weeping willow and told her to stay. Derek had left the hiding spot at that point, but it didn't matter. I had to find the other daughters. When I finally did and had also established them beneath the tree, I exploded.

"Why didn't I think of this before!" I yelled.

Vanessa looked shocked. "What? What are you talking about? We should be at the funeral!"

"I thought you didn't want to disrespect Tianna." Jimena said darkly, glaring my way. I brushed her glare off and smiled at her.

"There won't be a funeral if our plan works." I said smartly, smirking at my brilliant plan.

"What plan?" They asked simultaneously.

"Well, it's simple really. Tianna died three weeks ago right? Well, I haven't gone back that far before—not without help at least—but I assume it's possible!" I mumbled loudly, babbling as I paced the tree. "If someone lends me their power—or maybe it'll be less strenuous to take tiny bits from everyone, cause then you guys would still have most of your powers and wont be vulnerable—I can go back in time—you guys should probably come so trouble doesn't arise—and save Tianna from death! Then everything will be okay!" I turned to see their reactions to my obviously brilliant plan.

Vanessa looked worried, even more worried than her usual "I-don't-like-time-traveling" look, and kept glancing at the other two girls. Jimena looked grave, and crossed her arms (in an attempt to seem big and tough) as a tear trailed down her cheek. Serena looked sadly at me.

"No," She said softly.

I looked at them, and shook my head. "I'm sorry, I think I just hallucinated. But what do you guys think? We should figure out the when and where."

"No," Serena repeated. "No."

"WHAT?" I cried. "What do you mean, 'no?' This could mean we can save Tianna!"

"No," Jimena agreed. "It's too dangerous. We don't know what we'll do. We might destroy Tianna's soul, instead of revive it."

"We have to try!" I exclaimed, shocked at what I was hearing. How could they possibly give up the hope that she could be saved? I turned to Vanessa, my best friend since I was five. "Vanessa! You agree, right? It there's a way—"

"N-no…" Vanessa whispered, tears streaming down her face.

"But we can save her!" I yelled. "We can save Tianna!"

"We don't know that." Serena insisted.

"And," Vanessa began, her voice and courage slightly rising. "I thought you had said you were giving up."

I glared. Best friends? If they were the best of friends, they would do anything that might help their supposed best friends. "I can't believe it. Some best friends you guys are." We stood there for a minute, glaring at each other.

I turned to walk away. "Well, I'm going to do it, since I seem to be Tianna's last friend." I said softly, and turned to walk out of the willow's leafy refuge.

Then something hit me as a wave of confusion and fierce headaches. Then my excited mind turned numb, as it had been before my revolutionary idea. The next thing I saw, I was holding Kyle's hand, telling him that I no longer wanted to be a Goddess.

--

Tears jumped to my eyes as the memory ended—none of the angry emotions I had felt before seemed to exist at the moment, I was just hurt at their betrayal of Tianna, and of their betrayal of me. Serena had never before used her power so severely on another Goddess. And now I could feel the return of the headache Serena had caused.

But none of it made sense—why wouldn't they help? What the hell was so important about Tianna's death that they understood and I couldn't?

Chris, my late boyfriend, had died at my hands, but I had understood why he had to die—he told me himself that I had to follow the path of my inherited Secret Scroll even if it meant the death of him. I had found peace in that: Chris had expected me to do it; it was possible it would save humanity. I had taken the first step no one before had dared take before, the first step to end the Atrox. I loved Chris and it pained me to see him disappear, but I knew why.

With Tianna I didn't know why.

Then why don't they just tell me? It was a mystery I couldn't solve. But I knew what I had to do:

I had to save Tianna.

A/N:

I have corrected most of the mistakes I found in this chapter, so I hope it's better than before! Sorry this chapter is so sad. It'll get funnier in the next few chapters. There'll be some angst here in there, I'll admit, but it's mostly intended as a humor fic. Please review! And by the way (due to an unpleasant review), my new policy is: Don't Like? Don't Read. Don't Bitch.