All too soon, my parents had come to retrieve me from my grandmother's side. I was very reluctant to go once I felt that strange sensation from the painting. I felt as if I never wanted to leave Grandma Katie's side. After my exclamation however, she had quickly stored the painting in its box and insisted that I leave. She had put her hands on my back and bustled me from the room without too much of an explanation. That's when my parents had come back, and after having seen my grandmother "forcefully" removing me from her room, decided to leave themselves.

The car ride home was one of dueling emotions. While my parents talked in the front seat about how my disillusioned grandma's sanity was slipping further and further from her grasp, swift visions flooded my mind.

There was one of a black-stone palace in a courtyard full of shrubs and flowers blowing in the breeze. Another of walking into a dark forest and being accosted by bandits with a blonde-haired and blue-eyed girl. A third was one of a beautiful wedding procession of two people with…animal legs!

I woke with a start and a little cry of alarm. The car was just pulling into our driveway and my parents turned and looked at me in alarm.

"Are you all right?" My mother asked me.

"Your grandmother didn't…do anything to you did she? She didn't give you any pills or anything?" My dad asked.

"No! Of course not!" I cried, alarmed that they would make such an assumption about my grandma. Although, to them, I suppose she was the estranged senile old woman they liked to pretend didn't exist most of the time.

"Can I go back and visit her?" I asked my parents as we climbed out of the car.

There was a moment of silence as I followed the pair of them up the stone steps that wound their way through our front yard towards the porch and my mom searched for the house key on her key ring.

Once the front door was open, my mom spoke in a careful tone of voice, as if not wanting to hurt my feelings, but wanting to prove a point nonetheless.

"If you want to Aaliyah, I don't suppose we can't stop you. You've got your license and your own car. But I don't want you to go believing any of that woman's crazy stories. She's going a bit loopy in her old age and I don't need another family member buying into all that nonsense of fairytales and make-believe magic." And with that, she disappeared into the kitchen through the small entryway hall. I could hear the scraping of chair legs on the wooden floor and a thump as her body collapsed into it. My father shuffled after her.

A strange feeling of excitement bubbled in my chest. Knowing that I wasn't going to be barred from visiting my grandmother was great news! I turned sharply to my right and took the stairs two at a time before emerging onto a landing that branched off in two separate directions. My room and a spare were on the far left end and my parents' room was to the right. I kicked open my door and collapsed onto my light blue duvet still rumpled from my excited scramble this morning.

The sun was wavering in the sky when I pushed aside the blinds on the window beside my bed to look out. Our house was a nice two-storied one in a decent neighborhood. We had nice enough things and were well off with money. We were close to the beach too, which I of course loved, being something of a beach bunny. However, one thing I didn't enjoy all that much was the way that all the houses in this neighborhood looked the same. I couldn't stand the conformity of all the buildings in this area. It drove me insane. I gazed around at all the identical gray-shingled, two-story houses I could see from my window and waited for the sun to go down. I was asleep before the sun set completely.

A child walks paths long lost
One path which leads to a fallen kingdom
She alone must help them all
Those who live are but seldom

Legends haunt her as she goes
O'er oceans and o'er the seas
Where one before her had yet to go
Whilst at her back at pitiful pleas

A new danger lurks in the dark
Biding its time to strike down
Katie's grandchild who has dared
To come to try and take its crown

My dreams were a crazy whirlwind of nonsense. I was buffeted by all sorts of emotions like an uncontrollable fear of dark tunnels beneath cities of short people with peaches on their head, total head-over-heels love as I got my first kiss from a boy with long black hair, and joy at seeing long-lost friends I had never actually met myself.

All these things banged around inside my mind while I dreamt until that eerie prophecy snaked its way through my mind. A dark, seductive voice whispered it into my mind and suddenly, all the visions I had been having of people and places I had never seen nor met vanished in an instant. I was floating in darkness absolute. For some reason I was scared to take a step in any direction. I was rooted to the spot with complete terror. I could feel my heart pound and sweat beads pop up along my brow. I saw a fuzzy shape start to appear along the sides of my vision in this dark place. But I didn't turn my head. The fear had me pinned that badly.

When the shape had finally acquired enough of a physical presence, I saw that it was a man. He had a wider head than was normal for most people. It was framed by long, lank blond hair and a caveman-like brow that hunched over deep-set black beady eyes that assessed me and thin lips that smirked. He was taller than I was. I gave a gasp when I saw the horrible wounds that disfigured his chest and…pretty much every other part of his body as well. Caked-on blood and shredded skin hung off the man as if he had been long dead. He opened his mouth to speak.

"This is the scrap that the gods have chosen to save the world?"

Strange. The longer I stared at this man the longer I felt as if I should know who he was. My throat was closed tight with fear however. I couldn't speak a sound as the rotting man walked once more around me. I knew without a doubt I didn't want him to touch me. I had an even worse fear of that happening.

"Feh. She has nothing to fear. But, I'm sure she would appreciate a bit of help from her great-great-great-grandfather…" The man was reaching out a long, broken finger towards my head. Where the fear had previously rooted me to the spot, when I saw that finger moving towards me a horrendous scream ripped itself from my throat and I woke up to be covered in a layer of cold sweat. I thought my heart was going to burst from my chest.

"That was the Yuke! The one who took over River Belle Path!"

Early the next morning I got dressed in a pair of slim tan cords and a brown tank top and told my parents that I would be visiting my grandma. I saw my mom's mouth go into a slim line and my dad's brow furrow, but there weren't any severe complaints about what I'd said. So I ran back up to my room and grabbed the keys and my cell. I debated whether or not I should call my grandmother before I went over there, but hopefully she would be awake. It was early afternoon, and if my judgment of the elderly was correct, she should have been up for several hours already. So I decided against asking my parents for the number to reach my grandmother and left the house, my heart still aflutter from the scary dream I'd had about the dead king the night before.

I definitely had some questions for my grandma.

I didn't know whether or not to knock when I got to the little house on the corner of Elm and Oak where my grandma lived. I stood for a moment, shifting from one foot to the other, various questions getting tossed in my brain before the door opened and there stood Katie, her short white hair recently fluffed I could tell, from curlers. She stared at me for a moment, probably wondering why I had come back when most of the family seemingly forgot she existed.

"Can I help you with something?" she asked, keeping a firm grip on the door as if she planned on slamming it in my face.

I sighed and braced myself. "Grandma, I believe you!" I told her again.

There was that same curious expression on her face as the day before, but when no biting comment followed my statement, it vanished and she stood aside to let me in the door.

"Come. I don't like being out in public much anymore. Come, Aaliyah, and we can speak more openly inside." She told me. She turned and lead me into the little living room area where she'd had her leather couches and chairs arranged in a circular pattern around a glass table which held a single well-worn copy of her book I noticed. We sat down across from eachother in one of the chairs and she asked me what it was that I believed exactly.

I realized at that moment that I had forgotten my own copy of Echoes so I reached for my grandmother's copy in front of me. I saw her arms tense up, but not move when I held the book in my palms and skimmed the pages for the ending where the Yuke who had taken over the kingdom of River Belle Path was fighting my grandmother. I pointed to the text which described his face. It was a good description of the man who'd appeared in my dream the night before.

"I saw this man last night grandma. And I want you to know that I don't think you're an insane old woman, but an honest, courageous, and tough one who fought to save the world mentioned in this story. I want you to trust me. And I need your help." I told her.

RAC: Woo! I'm liking this so far. So much mystery...not xD. But yes! The Yuke king yet lives! Sort of...And I've still managed to work Katie into the story again even tho she's a senile old bat LoL. I didn't have any use for Jakob at the moment, so he's dead...Sorry bout that. But yes! The story continues!