Rebekah Ben-Yosef's POV

What is life's greatest question? Why am I here? Who will win the super bowl? Where should I go for lunch? Why do things keep trying to kill me? All are reasonable questions. Sadly, I can't answer any of them. I know what my father would say, "Stay strong in your faith, Rebekah." The problem with that though is my father is Jewish, I was too... but I sort of converted. So much for staying strong in that faith.

I can give the credit to my conversion to the Dollen family. Lydia Dollen, who was in my grade at school, began taking me to her youth group every Wednesday night. Of course I didn't tell my family that because telling Orthodox Jews that you are going to a Christian meeting, would be the equivalent of if I had Christian parents and I told them I was going to a Satanist occult convention. It would not go over well. But, by the end of my freshman year I officially became a Christian and... my parents found out. They threw me out of the house and told me I could return once I stopped thinking foolishness and left my new faith. I've been staying with the Dollen's ever since.

I truly do love it there, yes, there are many days that I desperately miss my parents and siblings, but at least at the Dollen's, I am free to believe what I so choose.

Caroline Dollen, Lydia's mom, is who I like to describe as heaven-sent. She's a single parent, has crazy hours as the deputy at the Kearney Police Department, and she is a foster mom. Lydia is her only biological child, which is no surprise since they are the spitting image of each other, but she had lots of other foster kids who may only stay the night, or they might be there for years, but she had only adopted three of all the children that she has had stay with her. Christopher is two years older than Lydia, but she adopted him when he was three, then there is Grace and Gabriel, a brother and sister who are three years apart who she adopted six years ago. I loved the craziness of living with them all.Ever since I read Anne Frank, I have had an obsession with writing, I related to the fact that she was a Jewish girl who was living in a difficult situation, although she had it way worse. I speculate that my love for writing came about when my father gave me a pencil. It was not an ordinary pencil in the slightest. The graphite was the color of bronze, and the wrapping and eraser glowed the same color, I've never had to sharpen this pencil a day in my live, and it is sharp. Once Lydia touched its point and it pierced her skin causing her to bleed so bad that she had to get stitches. She still distrusts all of my writing utensils to this day.

I asked my dad when he gave it to me where he had gotten it, but his response was strange, "It was your mother's." But, mom was alive and well, plus she didn't like giving me gifts, said it would spoil me. Yet my older and younger siblings always were spoiled rotten whenever Hanukah rolled around, of course now I've switched Hanukah out for Christmas.

One really good thing about Lydia is that she loves writing just as much as I do. Our favorite hang out spot is the public library, so yeah, maybe we are a little nerdy, but there is nothing wrong with that. But today was not quite as enjoyable, as we drank our caramel mochas and typed and edited each other's works, my dad's pencil placed through my bun of thick black hair so it was always with me, the whole library felt disturbingly eerie.

It was very empty with the exception of the few pre-historic old women who worked there. They looked so frail that I was surprised they could even lift a book. I'd left the table to throw my coffee cup away and check out this one fantasy novel Lydia had suggested, when one of the ancient librarians stopped me in my tracks."How may I help you, dearie?" She asked in a grandmotherly tone.

"Well, I was hoping to find a trash can and maybe check out this book." I answered casually, also slightly uncomfortable with how close the with how close the withered old woman was getting to me.

"Well, I'm sure we can help you with that, Rebekah Ben Yosef. You smell wonderful, by the way, quite the powerful scent. After all, you attracted so many of my sisters and I here. Very impressive." Then she and all of the other creepy grandmother's eyes changed into yellow slits, their skin became green and scaly, and their legs were now two trunk-like snake tails that they slithered on.

"שדים!" I shrieked in shock, whenever something really catches me off guard I slip into Hebrew. I accidently screamed "Demons!", but although I have never seen a demon before, I'm pretty sure this is what they look like. I started to quickly back away, but the snake demons moved faster than I thought possible. Suddenly, right before the scaly grandma could attack, a flying book hit her in the face.

I turned behind me to where the book had come from, and there I saw Lydia, rapidly grabbing the heaviest books off the shelves and sending them directly in the faces of unsuspecting, reptilian librarians. I guess her shot put in track really helped out. I know how to choose my friends.

It only dazed the monsters, but once they snapped out of it, it had only really made them angry. Unknown to us, one of the creatures had stealthily slithered around the shelves and was approaching Lydia from behind. By the time I saw it, it was too late to warn her. The demon held up an Encyclopedia Britannica and knocked my friend upside the head with it. I ran to her side, Lydia was on the ground, moaning about lizard people. The snake woman, who was now standing over me, hissed and grabbed my hair, yanking it out of its bun, which sent my pencil flying under the nearest table. Feeling a strong urge to grab it, but not wanting to leave my friend's side, I kicked the snake women in the shin, or should I say trunk, which surprised her enough to allow me the time to go diving for my pencil.

It felt warm in my hand. I twirled it in my fingers like I had a hundred times before as a nervous habit, but this time as the pencil twirled in my hand, it lengthened and grew until it was a six foot tall bronze spear. Whoa. Wasn't expecting that.

The spear was perfectly weighted and felt like it was something I was meant to yield. Though, I wasn't sure how that was possible since the closest thing to a weapon I've ever even held were scissors.

Spinning around, I stabbed and sliced my spears at the scaly librarians like a murderous baton-twirler. Those reptilian bookworms never stood a chance. Which is strange thing to say coming from me since I'm probably one of the least intimidating people in the planet. Lydia can vouch for this.

Looking around I saw that all the snake-like old ladies were dead, well, at least I'm guessing that's why the whole area, including Lydia and I, was covered in gold dust. Lydia, of course was still out cold. Lucky.

I was about to go and try to wake her up, when I noticed something even more disturbing. I was being watched.

Behind the glass doors of the library were four, staring teens. Two guys and two girls. Both guys were tall, but one was tan and muscular, while the other had shaggy brown hair and was dressed in only pink and red. What was that all about? But the girls, on the other hand, one was average height, very pretty, with dark brown hair, while the other looked around middle-school aged with bright red hair and she kept giving me a knowing look like she was watching my future like a movie clip. Creepy.

The younger was the first to approach me with the other following close behind her. She looked deeply in to my dark brown eyes with her Caribbean blue ones, and it gave me serious chills.

"Sorry we couldn't get here sooner, but I figured you could handle yourself just fine. Plus we weren't sure where to park a golden boar." The girl explained, but I hope by the look I gave her she realized how crazy she sounded.

The older pushed the younger girl aside and gave me a sympathetic look, "Look, I know this sounds insane, but you need to come with us, from what I saw, you seem to attract the same monstrous attention that we do, and from what I understand, there is a place where we will be safe."

"You're right... This is insane. You are all a bunch of strangers that I just met thirty seconds ago, and you want me to come with you to an unknown location because some librarians, who are in serious need of skin care treatment, tried to attack me. Maybe I just had too many late books and it brought out their demonic side." My reasoning didn't work on me or them. I know it was a bit of a stretch, but my logic never made any sense in stressful situations.

"Okay. I know that sounded just as insane, and maybe it might be safer to come with you to who knows where. But, its too hard of a decision to make completely out of the blue." I continued, wanting to conclude with saying something that didn't sound like I was a lunatic.

The pink and red boy came up to me and awkwardly put his hand on my shoulder, "Look, I was in your same position yesterday, but as absolutely mad this whole thing is, something in my gut knows this is right. Take a risk, for some strange reason I did. And I'm not even dead yet, so hey, that's a plus." I laughed nervously, but then found myself nodding. Was I really doing this? I think I would have agreed too, if the psychedelic middle-schooler hadn't spoken,

"We'll need to take her too." I was horrified to see that she was pointing at Lydia, did they have a death wish?

"Oh no, no, no... no. She is off limits." I stated stubbornly, placing myself in between Lydia and soon-to-be kidnappers.

But, before I could even protect my friend, I was hit in the back of the head with a very big and heavy hardcover book. Taken out by the thing I love most. They were cruel.