Grave of the Shadows (Starting!)

Reyna Lennar
I sit up. I can sense that something is wrong. I run to where Justia's room is, and see almost all of the Shadow Children waiting outside. What's wrong? Then, I hear chanting. I hate chants. I hate magic. "Guys, let me through please." I say, and I reach the door. I look in, and see Justia laying there. I turn away. She reminds me so much of my little sister before she died. I sob, and run away. I run through the door, and outside. The only thing on my mind was Run, Reyna! Run! Run as fast as you can!

Justia Connors
I wake up to the sound of chanting. I squirm. I HATE magic.... I hate charms... STOP LIAM! I try to say something. I whisper instead.
"Liam," I croak,"Stop! Please. I hate magic. Please, stop!" I lean my head back, but hear him chanting still. "Please. Liam. PLEASE!!!" He stops, and turns away, saying something about getting a wizard. "No! Please don't- I don't want magic... Please!" Then, I lean back on Celeste. "Celi, where's Rodr? I need Rodr." She motions for Rodr to come closer. I reach up my arms, and he hugs me tightly. "I'll be fine, don't worry about me." I say, quietly. He nods, and turns away. I look up at Celeste, and she tries to smile. "Celi-" She interrupts me.
"Shhh. It's okay Justia..." She says. I point at my foot. Rodr sits down, and grabs my foot. Then, he sees what I've been trying to tell everyone. There's still a tiny piece of rusty nail in my foot. He looks very concerned, and whispers to Liam. Suddenly, I turn dizzy again, and start seeing things. Then, I black out again, and remain unconscious.

Alexa Noel

Liam left so quickly that he didn't even hear Anna say she wanted to go with them. She followed anyway, and he didn't say anything. Justia was waking, probably from the magic, and everyone started to crowd back into the room. None of them noticed Reyna take off, not even Liam and Celeste, who were usually so careful about watching each of us. Caleb had come in with Jackie, but he just stood there staring, not sure what to do. Anna had glanced at him before leaving, a look that to me said take care of Alexa.

"Caleb?" I whispered. He looked down, and I realized I was still wearing his shirt. He gently pulled me closer and wrapped me up in his arms.

"What is it, Alexa?" Liam shouted some last minute instructions, but I don't think anyone payed much attention to him. I didn't know how to answer Caleb, so instead I led him away from all the others where I didn't have to hear them. Before leaving I heard them say something about a nail and rust.

"Liam wants to get help from a Night." I bit my lip after speaking, I never liked to talk because of how many people might be listening. "What if they kill us, too?" The question hung in the air, a crystal ball waiting to be dropped. I saw every muscle in Caleb's body tense up, and he drew a sharp breath. Jazz stood a little ways away, staring through the doorway at Justia. A spider was dancing back and forth on the ceiling, and the whole house swayed and creaked with the fear that was clutching at all of us.

Suddenly Caleb took my hand and started running. I raised my eyebrows questioningly, and he shrugged. "I don't know where we're going. But I need to get out."

Kyle Knightly

My eyes never closed as I lay in bed waiting for sleep to take hold. Sleep didn't want to come. I hadn't tired myself out the day before and now I regret it. No hard work means no sleep. I don't know why I have problems with the dark but I do. I see ghosts flying around me terrifying me. I try to tell myself that I'm too old to be scared of the dark but even my intelligent mind can’t convince me that ghosts don’t exist. I think I feel an icy finger touch my back and instantly shudder. A monster with red eyes and enormous teeth flies straight at my face. In the daytime I tell myself that these things don’t really exist, but at night it’s a different matter. A snake slithers ups my chest, a vampire sucks the blood out of my veins, the ghost of an old man pulls my eyes out. I almost scream. I jump out of bed, grab my jacket, and race downstairs. I don’t stop until I’m outside under the moon. For some reason it’s not so dark out here as it is in my room. I sit with my back against the house and look at the moon. As long as I concentrated on something bright, darkness couldn’t take a hold of my mind. I must have drifted off because the next thing I know I hear screams and pounding. I sit upright and instantly the ghosts appear again. I run, not knowing where I’m going. I’m running from those ghosts, I’m running from myself, I’m running from darkness and danger, I’m running…

Jazz

Something was wrong, I felt it. Waking, I walked down the stairs and looked at all the big kids, noticing that Liam and Jackie were missing. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and walked into the room where everyone was.

"W-where's Jackie?" I asked, looking around.

Spoiler

Captured? No, the Shadows are going to ask the Nights for help. Once they reach the palace you can jump in.

Liam Knightly

Before long we were standing at the massive palace gates. They were locked, as always, and I realized how difficult it would be to even get in and be heard by the Nights. Rumor was they never listened to their citizens.

Anna and Jackie stood on either side of me, both nervously glancing around, as if expecting soldiers to come and take us away immediately. I then saw the foolishness of my expedition. What had I been thinking? Yet I couldn't turn around and go back, not without some way to help Justia. I motioned to the girls, and we all fell back into shadow.

"Well?" I murmured, "What do we do now?"

Anna Noel

We made it to the castle without much of a problem, but we already knew that wouldn’t be an issue. The real problem would be getting the nights to listen to us. We weren’t really on good terms obviously.

I looked around nervously, shifted my gaze from Jackie to Liam and then all around us, ready to defend. Liam asked us to fall back and we obeyed reluctantly. The only reason we did listen to him was because we had immense faith in him. He’s Liam! He must know what his doing…

Tess

I could feel my head start to hurt due to all the commotion that was going on. Right as I was about to walk out of the room, I ran in to Jazz.

"W-where's Jackie?" He asked, looking around.

"Umm...she's out right now." I say with a slight smile on my face. He was younger than me. Therefore, I had to make sure he was taken care of and I remember Liam explain to me something about how when you sound confident then it makes other people feel better.

"Oh," He said looking a little defeated. "When will she be back?" Before I could even answer, Justia let out a moan and his attention was immediately. "What's wrong with Justia?"

"She's not feeling well. I was just about to get her the left over soup. Would you like to come?" I asked, hoping he would fall of it. He nodded enthusiastically and we walk downstairs together. I hand him the bowl of soup and we head back up. Jazz then hands the soup to Celeste, who smile and says thanks.

Rodr then gets up and goes to Jazz. He says something in a soft voice and they walk out of the room. I then proceed toward Celeste. "Do you need me to do anything?" I ask softly.

Spoiler

Sorry, just got a small vacation. Just tell me if I need to change anything.

Celeste Conners

Tess comes up to me as I gave the soup to Justia.

"Do you need me to do anything?" She asks, smiling a bit.

I smiled back, "Nah. Thank you though." I said in a whisper. I stroked Justia's hair back and started putting it in a braid, humming a song.

Jackie Rockwell

"Well?" Liam said. "What do we do now?"

I opened my mouth to reply, but no sound came out. The palace gates were...intimidating. They were absolutely massive--at least two stories tall, and made of wrought-iron bars as thick as a person's arm. A giant lock held them shut, giving the entire place an aura of foreboding.

"Well, for starters," I said, my inner orator sense taking over, "we should act like we know what we're doing. If we look important, people will think we're important, and maybe they'll let us in. Like this." I struck a pose--feet spread, arms crossed, head tilted to the side, looking down disdainfully at nothing in particular.

"And when we get in, what do we say to them?" Anna asked.

"Ah..." I hedged. "I'm still working on that part."

Kyle Knightly

I woke up. My head was throbbing. I looked around trying to remember where I was. Trees surrounded me on every side and the morning light was creeping through branches overhead. I reached up to touch my forehead and put my hand back, sticky with half dried blood. What had happened? I remembered the ghosts and the screams. I remember running but nothing else. I looked up to see a tree limb with a red mark on it. In my haste I must have ran right into the tree! That’s ridiculous. I look down at myself, still in my pajamas. I rolled my eyes and whisper obscenities under by breath. I slowly stood up and held onto the tree to keep my balance. My ears were buzzing and the woods around me seemed to spin. I slid back down into a sitting position and black out.