Sorry for the approximately 2 months of waiting... :S

I went on holiday so i didn't have time to update. Please forgive me! :O

Anyway, here it is!

DISCLAIMER: The 'Vampire Academy' world belongs to Richelle Mead. This is just my made-up world crossed with hers.

-Deni

"Ouch." I rubbed the back of my head and tried to sit up. I opened my eyes but my vision was collapsing and everything was spinning.

All I could hear were screams and the roar of a fire.

It was hot, no, not in the sense that Paris Hilton uses that word, but it was boiling. No… more than boiling, I was almost 'Well done'. My vision finally settled.

There were people running around frantically, trying to get out. The room was dark, with the only light coming from large fires that blazed from different areas of the giant room. Dark figures were slaughtering people.

Firstly, where was I?

And secondly, what the hell?!

I still remembered everything though. The book had sent me here. Somehow.

I struggled to stand up, but eventually did. Then someone pushed me back down. It was one of the dark figures. It had jumped on me, making me land on my back. It had a… knife?

The dark figure lifted the knife above its head, ready to strike. All I could see were its red glowing eyes.

It was a Strigoi. Wait, why would a Strigoi even need a knife?

I could feel my heartbeat in my head, seriously, I don't know how it's possible, but it has happened to me before. I could hear it, speeding up like the road runner, trying to get away from the coyote. My life didn't flash past my eyes though… sadly… yet. It would've been interesting to see it though… hmmm…

"Merrick! No!" I heard a girl shout. She stopped him and took his knife from him in one swift movement. He hissed at her. I got a better look at the knife in her hand. It didn't look like an ordinary knife. The blade was long and thin but looked… blunt?

"He's off limits." She told him with a stern tone. He got off me but she kept his knife. Her look softened when she looked at me and she reached her free hand out to me. I grabbed her hand and she pulled me up.

Wait; did she call me a 'he'? I looked at my hands. They weren't my hands. They were a man's hands. I… was a man?

"I'm terribly sorry about that fool, Zandicus." I looked back up to her and she smiled at me. She had red eyes as well. She was a Strigoi, one that had saved my life…

"Well, don't worry about your payment, you will receive it soon enough. What you did today, betraying your own people, was a very brave deed to do. Thankyou." She put her hand on my shoulder, but after I didn't reply, she looked at me strangely. Her 'thankyou' also seemed kinda off, like she didn't really mean it. I was getting strange vibes from her, and I was also getting the 'hibbly jibblies'… well that's what I liked to call them. After all, she was a Strigoi. She seemed of French descent with her awesome accent, and she had wild red hair that mimicked the movement of the fire, as the heat lifted it into the air, giving her an eerie but powerful look. She was also very tall, almost the height of me…. Or well Zandicus… whoever he was. She wore clothes that looked pretty old as well, well not of my time… wait. Did I travel back in time?

Since I am pretty much a sci-fi geek, this would be a nice and convincing conclusion. Hey, I could be the female Doctor who!

"Um….You're welcome…?" Ok, not the best thing to say… but… holy snap! I even sounded like a man. Jeesh, this was weird.

"Are you ok Zandicus?" She eyed me suspiciously.

"I'm not Zandicus, my name is Den-" Damn it, damn it, damn it! I almost let my real identity slip. Ah, crap.

"You're an impostor?" She came closer to me, I gulped.

"Uh…. No." Ok, I didn't sound very assuring… but how could I when I was just about to wee my pants??? She gave me a little evil smirk. Uh-oh.

She took a small step back and lifted the knife that was still in her hand. I got an even better look of it now. It had a gold handle, which I assumed was also made by that material and it had weird markings on it… just like the book!!!

I wasn't able to see them properly though, her hand was covering them.

"This is the Ancient Golden Dagger, the only thing that can kill an Ancient. But it's blunt so if I stabbed a non-ancient with it, it would take more force, and would probably be more painful," she ran the blade across her index finger, but nothing happened. It really was blunt.

"Yet, it is the only thing that can pierce an Ancient's skin, easily, without a lot of force. But since you're an impostor, what would be better than killing you with this dagger, bringing you more pain?" I suspected that the markings must've been some sort of magic that allowed them to be so powerful against the Ancients and them only. She gave me one last evil smile and was about to strike.

"Flora no!" A blonde, tall, and extremely muscly man shouted. Ha-ha, frankly, he was quite hot. Well I'm sorry, but even in a time that I could die, am I not allowed calling a guy hot when he clearly deserves the title? And thank this hot guy for coming in, at the best time ever. Jeesh, I was almost stabbed by that dagger.

"Jasper! He's an impostor! I must kill him at once!" Flora shouted at him.

"No! We need him alive. If he's an impostor, then the real Zandicus has escaped. This impostor should know his whereabouts." He retorted. Damn it… hot and intelligent? Oh and not to mention, evil? Oh crap…

"You know, I didn't just choose you to be my mate because you were and still are extremely sexy…" Flora purred at him. Jeesh, could they get a room? He smiled at her and held her in his arms. She returned his smile with a seductive smile of her own.

I took this as a chance to run. Heck, better yet if they just did it there, they would've given me more time.

I ran, really foolishly, as I didn't know where to go and there was fire almost everywhere, destroying things, burning them up, people too. The sight really was horrific. The thought of even doing it here, would definitely not be romantic at all, but I guess that didn't stop Flora and Jasper. Heck, they were evil, this scenery probably acted like an aphrodisiac.

I found a large fallen piece of something, which looked like a slab of marble and I took this as a chance to rest, to hide. I really didn't know where to go or how the hell to get back to my peaceful and un-war-like bedroom. It was really hot and the screams of people seemed non-stop. There were sounds of people crying and that sickening sound of someone being slashed or hit, just like in the movies. You know, how when someone gets punched, the sound is somewhat amplified in a movie? It really sounded like that. I never knew that it would sound like that in real life. Heck, it kinda sounded like a battle scene in Lord of the Rings.

I tried to block my ears and I sat down behind the slab, tucking my legs into my chest. Jeesh, I really was a man, I was much larger than my normal self. Everything was too frightening, this really was like Lord of the Rings, with all the killing… except this was real, and I was witnessing it first hand, saying that I was petrified would be an understatement. Where are you Gandalf?!? Frodo?!? Aragorn??? Help!

Sure, I was in a man's body. But I was still a little, cough, girl inside. I couldn't fight, let alone try and save people, no matter how much I wanted to, mostly because I was scared shitless, which made me feel extremely guilty.

Ok, I kinda swore just then, I only do that when something's really serious, and trust me, this was serious.

I tried to distract myself, by well, actually looking at myself. I was wearing a white cape that was joined at the neckline by some kind of gold circular buckle with a symbol on it. The symbol seemed to be in the same style as the ones on the book and dagger. I wasn't sure what the symbol meant at first, but then when I really studied it, to get my mind off my surroundings, a word popped into my head.

Soul.

The symbol meant 'Soul'. The symbol was inside a five pointed star, and it was a circle with two concentric circles in it. Simple, but in a way, beautiful, it had a glow about it. Underneath the cape, I was wearing ordinary male clothing, well similar to what I saw other men wear.

Wait. I read the symbol/marking/whatever it was. Maybe I could read these markings if I really tried hard to!

Anyway, I took three deep breaths, trying to motivate myself, and looked over the slab I was resting my back on.

The room suddenly felt cooler. But then hotter. And then I felt a breeze that slowly turned into a strong wind. And then, the ground started to shake.

I was looking around at what in the world could possibly cause all this weird weather, especially indoors, and then I saw them.

Pale figures, not dark with red eyes, but… pale figures, controlling the indoor weather.

Moroi.

There was more than one controlling one element, so they couldn't have been the ancients.

Just like a light bulb suddenly appeared over my head, I knew where I was, or more frankly, when I was. That didn't really make sense, but I hope you get my drift.

Then I realised that all the people I had called 'people' were all Moroi. The Moroi were doing their best to fight off the Strigoi, but there were just too many, and being that they didn't really know how to control their powers, most died from well… themselves. Their powers backfired in some weird way.

Moroi were dying, everywhere, my heart reached out to them, if you get what I mean.

This was worse than witnessing childbirth.

Seriously.

But where were the Ancients?

Rose had said that the Ancients died, except for one… which was my supposed father.

I looked around more, scanning the bodies on the floor, and trust me, there were a lot.

Then I found the four of them.

They were lying on the ground, in a circle around a box of some sort that was on a small pillar-like stand in the centre of their circle. They were wearing the same white cape I was.

But wait.

Did that mean that I was… the surviving Ancient… i.e. my father???

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA man.

I liked weird, but this, was too weird for any weirdo to handle.

I looked back to the ancients. The box they were around was opened. I scanned the throng of people again looking for Flora and Jasper. Hehe, 'throng', meant something like a crowd of people, thanks to my awesome English teacher for clearing that up. The word was awesome. Sounded like thong. Ha-ha.

Anyway, back to scanning the crowd… to my luck and surprise, thank God, Flora and Jasper weren't going at it like wild animals but were searching the throng as well… for, I was guessing… me. I wanted to get to the opened box in the centre of the deceased Ancients, though, and that was about 10m away… directly opposite from them. I didn't really know why I wanted to get the already opened box, but, something just told me that I needed it. I already came this far, why not go for it?

So I ran, sprinted, whatever, towards the box, and just my luck they saw me. Well, it wasn't exactly hard to notice a crazy and large man in a white cape running around like an idiot. I saw them coming towards me, like wolves, hunting their prey.

It was hard not to trip on a body on the ground, and knowing what a clumsy person I am, it was amazing that I didn't. The bodies gave my stomach a sick feeling, there really were many, and the box wasn't too far away from my slab, which meant that in that little distance, bodies almost filled the pathway. Not exaggerating here.

I got to the box and took it off the pillar-like stand. I was surprised to find that the box felt really smooth, and was made out of marble, but seemed like someone had polished it a gazillion times. Then I found weird markings on it, like on the book and dagger, on the inside of the lid.

I didn't have time to see if I could read these markings as well because Flora and Jasper were five seconds away. My heart pounded out of my chest, with my mind racing around and throwing insults at myself like 'You stupid, stupid girl! You should've stayed at the marble slab!', but it was too late.

I could never outrun them now, even if I tried, they'd get me anyway. I sank to the ground on my knees, feeling helpless.

I guessed this was it.

Goodbye world.

Goodbye my loving family.

Goodbye my awesome friends.

And goodbye to the incredibly cute guy named Matt.

I shut my eyes tightly, hoping, wishing, begging God, that if I did so, I'd somehow be transported back to my bedroom when I opened my eyes again. I started saying words in my mind, like when in Suddenly 30, Jenna had that magic wishing dust, and she was chanting something about being thirty and flirty, except I was chanting for my life, and in my mind… without the darn magic wishing dust that actually worked… in the movie… if you get what I mean. Oh wow, would you call that rambling? Ha-ha, so when I'm about to die, I ramble? That's pretty cool if I say so myself… but then of course, rambling was probably caused by how freaking scared I was! Am i even making any sense??? HA!

I continued to chant. I heard their footsteps getting extremely close. So close, I could taste them. Ew. Ha-ha ok, now that was an exaggeration.

Why was it that I made jokes when I was coming close to my impending death? Ha-ha Tautology? Mr Reis would kill me!

Hey! What if I was Dorothy and all I had to do was click my red shoes to go home?

Ok, I was going nuts.

Firstly, that would probably only be possible, but probably never would since I was about to die, in my dreams… if I ever dreamt about the Wizard of Oz. I haven't actually seen the movie. Cue shocked gasps. Maybe I should've put it on my list of 'Things to do before I die', but I guess it's too late for that huh?

And secondly, I was a man. And unless Zandicus, AKA my 'father' was a cross-dresser, then I'd doubt that he'd be wearing red high-heeled shoes.

The sound of Flora's really evil and skin-crawling laugh got me out of my silly thoughts and snapped me back to reality. She was behind me. And I guessed Jasper was too.

Ah crap. I really was going to die.

I shut my eyes even tighter, if that was even possible, and waited for… well… something-

And I didn't feel the heat anymore. Or hear the screams. Or feel anyone grabbing me.

I opened my eyes.

I was back in my room.

Relieved, that I had survived that strange experience, I let go of the breath that I was holding.

Then I looked down.

The box was still in my hands.

Haha wasn't that a funny experience?

As always, i hope you liked it! :)

Please review, i would love to know your thoughts, and if you want to be in it, or mentioned somewhere etc. just tell me!

On Facebook or in a review etc. :)

Kk, ttyl! Thanks for reading!

P.S. I was listening to Huang Xiaoming's album while editing this chapter and... *fan girl sigh*

LOL the album is called 'It's Ming'. All i have to say to that is, 'Why yes... it is. *wink wink*'

xD

Haha OH wouldn't it be funny if i put him in this story?

BWAHAHAHAA.

Nice.

P.P.S Who can guess how i created the name 'Zandicus'? Anyone? ;P