Children of Eden and The White Devil

1) This is New York

They sit on a throne, three times their size. Their arms barley scrape the sides, their legs dangle meters from the floor. Their head doesn't even reach the middle of the chairs back. They look out of place. Like a jigsaw piece being rammed onto a piece from a different jigsaw. They occupy about a third of the chair. It looks ridiculous, devastatingly disastrous, like a squirrel in the ocean. But then again, they are out of place. They are so far from home, so, so, far, and yet, in front of them kneel the current residences of this palace. They kneel before them as if they are queen. It would seem respectful. If it weren't for the scene that lay before them. They kneel before them. The first row - the leaders. One with green wings, another with peaceful white wings, and the last with pitch black. They stare at the leaders with disgust. They look at the rest. Pathetic creatures. Row after row of winged humanoids, row after row of horned men and women. Row after row. And behind them, the corpses of thousands of men and women, some with wings, some with horns. They fill the floor, covering it in a soft blanket of flesh. Giant smooth white pillars stand perfectly on the sides; they hold nothing up, cast your gaze upwards and peer into the dark abyss that smiles back. Cast your gaze just above the irregular person sat in a throne too big, a body hangs, impaled to the wall, its foot hangs limply just above the chair, its red wings flap in the wind. Look a little higher. Just a tad, just above its head, ignore the nail.

Five words.

"I

Am

Your God

Now."

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“It was this that I woke up to.” I look at the person sat in front of me. They stare… no not a stare… a curious gaze. They, the person, sat opposite me, looks at me with a curious gaze. “Even today, I look back, and I remember everything about it. Not just in a ‘remembering the last time I remembered it’ sense. But, I remember it as if I’m reliving it.” A shiver shudders up my back. I try not to react to it; pretend I don’t feel the fingers clawing their way up. I try. I really do. But, sometimes, the fingers are too hard to ignore.
“Everything okay, Artemis?” The person asks. I stare at the person; their brown hair sits limply on their head, their green eyes sending cold, emotionless daggers at me. A glass table sits in front of the couch, a bowl of sweets on top. An armchair on the other side. A desk behind that, and behind that, a bookshelf full of books that look like they've never been read.
“Yeah. Just a shiver.” I say glancing down at the couch. A face stares back at me. Not exactly a face. Just a shadow of one. A shadow face from a Shadow Person… one of seven Shadow People. The other six stand around the room, looking quite ominous. As far as I’m aware, I’m the only person who can see them. Not that I’m complaining. They tend to come in handy. “Where was I?” I ask looking up from the face.
“A dream about a ‘New God.” The person answers. Not emotionlessly, but, I must say, they sound as dead as me. And hey. I might actually, be, dead.

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The dream startles me awake. I don’t wake covered in sweat, or with a racing heart. I wake, oddly calm. Like I’m floating in water. The sense, that everything, is going to be all right. I mean, why wouldn’t it? I’m in New York, on holiday with arguably my closest friend. But still, something about the dream didn’t feel right. It felt – feels, too real.

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“I really don’t know how to tell this. Like, if I say it how it happened, I’ll sound as mad as the hatter. But if I don’t say it how it is, then it’ll be pointless.” I throw up my hands in frustration. “What did the ill cannibal do?”

“I don’t know Artemis, what did the ill cannibal do?”
“He threw up his hands.” I watch as the person… ima call them Desk-Head, due to the fact, they have a head, and a desk, and as of now, no name. I watch as Desk-Head doesn’t react, they’re as dead as the day they died.
“Just tell it as it was.”

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By the time I get to the dining room, Dante and Dad are already tucking into pancakes. “Did I or did I not tell you, they wouldn’t be up before eleven.” Dad laughs. Dante looks at me with a face that screams ‘Help me please.’

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“See, that’s completely and utterly useless. It literally does nothing for anything.” I look at The Shadow People, who stare blankly back at me. They don’t really do much. From time to time, they might say something. But they’re never constantly doing something, apart from standing there.

“Tell it however you want.” Desk-Head says, lifelessly.

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Think Ryan Reynolds in a dark suit, holding a cane topped with a crystal globe. That’s who this man is. He walks down the street without a care. And of course, it was Dante who pointed him out. How I missed this guy – beyond me. We aren’t the only people to notice this guy. Almost every man, woman, boy, and girl, on the street, stares in awe.

When Dante first pointed him out, I didn’t even care. I thought, ‘Typical day in New York city’, not that I would know what a typical day in New York was like. But now, every single person on the street stares at this person, as he walks, elegantly down the street. It’s not the fact that he stands out, or he is incredibly hot. It’s more of the fact that, everyone in front of him, just seems to move away – part like the red sea did to Moses. That is what causes everyone to stare at him. Not, the incredibly egocentric flamboyantness that this man expels. But the fact, that people near him, seem to have no ability to stop themselves from moving. If this wasn’t scary enough, to top it off, the man appears to be shimmering. Not a, heatwave shimmer, or a mirage. But in a celestial sort of way. Something about this man radiates celestial energy. I’m not exactly sure how I know what celestial energy is, but If there is such a thing, this man radiates it. And every single person, seems to notice.

Unlike Dante, who has his eyes set on getting food. I’m much more interested in following this guy. Who is he? What does he do? Where the hell is he going?

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“I realise now, that if I’d just listened to Dante, and gone to some shitty restaurant, then none of this would’ve happened. I mean, don’t get me wrong, in a way, I’m sort of glad it did happen. But at the same time, I wish it didn’t have to happen this way.”

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The man, appears to have a destination, but he meanders through the street. Stopping every now and then to glance at himself in the store windows, to which he produces a radiant smile. He doesn’t seem to know we’re following him. Now, if I were American I’d probably say something like, ‘we’ve been following him for three blocks’ or whatever, but I’m not American, and have absolutely no clue what that means.
“Dude.” Dante says stopping and pointing.
“What?” I follow Dante’s finger with my eyes; he stands in the middle of pavement, pointing out a neon sign that flashes annoyingly in the midmorning light. It flashes a simple message – ‘The best food in New York’. “Dante, seriously. Strange guy” I say flapping my arms in the general direction of the strange man. Unfortunately, to my hatred, the ‘strange guy’, happens to have crossed the street, and is now walking into the restaurant. Dante doesn’t even need to say anything, he just looks at me, clearly telling me – ‘I told you so’.

Inside the restaurant is even more annoying than the outside. At least outside, you could look away from the neon and ignore the pulsating colours. Inside though, is a different story. You know how in films, whenever they go into a strip-club, it always has this weird hue to it, and everything seems to glow. Yeah, take that mental image; increase the brightness by tenfold, and add one hundred pulsating neon signs. That’s the inside. No matter where you look, there’s a neon sign, flashing some stupid slogan.
“Jesus Christ.” Dante says winching.
“Don’t complain.” I say, “You wanted to come here.” Before Dante can reply, a waitress appears at next to us.
“Right this way please.” She says; her voice layered with silk. Dante, who appears to have completely lost his head, beams at me. He follows the waitress eagerly. She leads us to a small table below a neon sign pulsating a vibrant and obnoxious pink. “My names Janet and I’ll be your server for today.” She says revealing an immaculate smile, “What would you like to drink?”
“Coke please.” Dante says quickly. I stare at the fool. If it were possible, he’d probably have hearts throbbing in his eyes. Thank God it isn’t.
“Same.” I reply casually.
“Two cokes coming right up.” She beams. As she walks away, Dante whistles quietly.
“Dude, you seen the ass on her?”
“Dude. What. The. Fuck.”
“Just saying. I’d tap that.”
“You’d tap anything.” I say, quickly I follow it up with, “Where’d that strange guy go?”
“Right there, see?” Dante tilts his head towards the other side of the room. He’s right. There, in a corner table, is the strange man. His cane leaning up against the chair.

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“Not a chair chair. The kind of chair you get that covers an entire wall in a restaurant, like a couch, but not as comfy. Y’know, restaurant couches.”

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His cane leans up against the chair. And for the first time I get a glimpse at the top. A crystal ball, not just a ball, an intricate replica of Earth carved into what I assume must’ve been a hella expensive diamond. Janet walks up, and the man’s face turns sour. I’m not a scientist or anything, but I don’t need to be one to notice that Janet’s body shifts, she goes from upright, and proper, to a fearful, shivering mess. She and the man share a brief conversation then she moves on. The man looks around the restaurant. I glare down at my hands. “Fuck sake.” I mutter.
“What?” Dante asks concerned. I show him my right hands finger nails,
“I literally did these yesterday and the polish is already coming off.” I grumble.
“Priorities dude.” He says as Janet returns holding two cokes. I half expect him to make a move. He smiles a shit-eating grin at me as Janet walks away. From under his glass, he produces a slip of paper. Written on it, was a number and the words ‘call me’.
“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” I groan. I look away from Dante, unable to believe what had just happened. I focus back in on the strange guy. He stands as a woman approaches. They embrace and he kisses her cheeks. The woman is wearing a dark green dress, and her long brown hair cascades down her shoulders and back. She sits opposite the man – facing me. I examine her closely. I notice a necklace. A simple gold chain attached to a circular ball. Which, I come to realise is, another replica of Earth.

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“When I say replica. I don’t mean the kind of Earth you’d see in a toy store. But, like a literal replica of Earth. Something about these Earth’s screamed ‘I’m real’. It was as if they’d shrunk down Earth and attached it to jewellery.”

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The strangest thing, wasn’t the fact, that two people, both had crystal replicas of Earth, but rather, that the entire restaurant is empty. Asides from, me and Dante, strange guy and strange girl and of course the endearing waitress, Janet, the restaurant is deserted, not even a fly buzzes. Just as I notice this, Janet appears again,
“Are you two ready to order.” She asks, her voice slithering down my spine.
“Yeah.” Dante replies eagerly, “I’ll have the triple cheeseburger please.”
“And for you?” She asks looking directly at me. At, well, to be honest, I wish I hadn’t looked at her. I look up at her, and at first, I think I’ve gone mad. Her face shifts and shimmers, never settling. As if I am looking at her through a rippling pool.
“I’m good thanks.”
“Alright, one triple cheeseburger coming up.” Then she leaves again. Another man enters the restaurant, accompanied by a woman. The man wears a plain suit, nothing fancy like Strange Guy #1. The woman wears a green skirt and a simple shirt. They walk over to the woman and Strange Guy #1. Both of whom stand, Strange Woman accepts a kiss to the cheek from both. The man simply extends his hand. Strange Guy #2 and Strange Woman #2 take turns accepting this hand. They all sit. Four people, all strange.

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“I want to explain that a bit better.” I laugh nervously, I glance out the window, a storm cloud lingers a couple miles out, “Basically, there’s four people now. Two men, two women. All of them have some sort of crystal Earth.” I rub my temple, “Right, Strange Guy #1 is now Bob, #2 is now Fred. Strange Woman #1 is Sam, #2 is Alex. Okay. Cool.” The Shadow People stand looking at me, if I could see their features, they’d probably be contorted in confusion, “Bob, has a cane, that has a crystal Earth. Fred has a ring. Sam has a necklace. Alex has an earring. They also have, like, something else. Bob has necklace with a lightning bolt. Fred has a necklace of a bird. Sam has a bracelet of some weird spirals. Alex has a necklace of a snake. Plain and simple. All fashion gurus.”

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“Uhhhh…. Dante…. I think they’re a cult.”
“You what?”
“Look! They all have little Earths.”
“So? This is New York, weird stuff happens.”
“Where’s your burger?”
“Huh?”
“We and them, are the only people in this entire restaurant. How come your burgers taking so long?”
“Cause they’re making it perfect?” Dante shrugs, “Dude just chill. They might be a cult, but what they gonna do.” Just as he says that, Janet returns, holding a plate. “See, dude, there’s my burger. Is all good.”
“I sure hope it is.” Janet says beautifully.
“If it’s as good as you, it’ll be too good.” Dante says winking. I don’t know what Janet does, she might blush, but I ain’t looking. I’m too focused on the four strangers staring at us. All four of them stare us. Their faces pulled into expressions of flabbergasted confusion. Even Bob no longer radiates energy. They watch as Janet walks away, then they notice me staring. Quickly they turn away and burry themselves in conversation.
“Be quick Dante, for the love of God. I want to get the fuck out of here.”
“Fine.”

Dante finishes his burger, a lot quicker than I expected. Just as well, cause the foursome of evilness is about to leave.
“Come on. Hurry the fuck up.” I say quickly. Dante puts a tenner on the table and hurriedly follows me.
“Call me!” I hear Janet yell after us – or more accurately after Dante.

The foursome aren’t hard to follow. Strange Guy #1 is back to radiating celestial energy. And the crowd parts around them. They seem to be knee deep in conversation. If the crowd didn’t part around them, I bet that people would still stare. I mean, I’m not sure, this is New York after all.

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“I would love to describe them to you. But, I just can’t. Something about them was so, so immensely beautiful that it’s impossible to describe.”

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They lead us down the streets of Manhattan. Swerving this way and that. They clearly have a destination in mind.

The destination becomes glaringly obvious as we approach a mall. Max would have a perfect explanation for why it’s called a mall, I can hear her now, ‘It’s called a Mall, cause it’s sort for, them all.’

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“Who’s Max, Artemis?”
“Oh right, yeah. She’s a friend from Parlor.” I see it in Desk-Head’s face that, that wasn’t a good enough explanation. “Parlor Falls, where I’m from. Me, Max and her twin James, Dante, Chloe, Ellie, Siobhan, Callum, and his twin Connor. Were – are? Best friends. Well, Chloe was. But she’s dead now.”
“I’m sorry to hear. How did it happen?”
“Suicide. Three years ago.”
“How does that make you feel?” Desk-Head asks, and for I second, I swear there’s sympathy in their voice.
“Sad I guess. It hurt a lot when she died.” I feel tears brimming, “A lot.” I repeat blinking back tears. “Her and I were best friends. Cliché best friends; did everything together, always together. Then one day she was dead.” I rub my eyes.
“It’s okay Arty.”

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The Mall the Evil Foursome leads us to, is a glistening reminder of the world we live in. It’s huge. If it weren’t in New York, surrounded by skyscrapers, it would be spectacular. It still is spectacular, not for its size, but for its looks. It looks like modern architecture mashed with renaissance, plus a bit of futuristic here and there. It didn’t look bad, but not good. It stands out, which I suppose is good.

As we enter The Mall, I half expect the doors to make a Star Trek ‘Whoosh’ noise, but they don’t.

We stay close to the Evil Foursome, but not close enough that they’d notice. This kind of stalking, I realise, isn’t that hard. You don’t even need to duck and weave, just stay casual. And hey, we’re a thirteen year old, and a fourteen year old.

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“Fourteen and Thirteen?” Desk-Head asks curious,
“Yeah, this was 2016. I was thirteen, Dante was fourteen.”
“How old are you now?”
“What’s the date?”
“April 10th.”
“Yeah, I’m going to need the year as well.”
“2018.”
“Oh wow, only been seven days.” I look at The Shadow People; they stand dumbly. “I’m sixteen.”
“Seven days since?”
“Since the last thing I remember.”

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Me and Dante follow the Evil Foursome through The Mall. It really isn’t that hard. People still part as the group walks, which makes our job easier.

One thing I notice as we walk – The Shadow People. All seven of them, walk besides us – besides me. Three to my left, four to my right. Dante just in front of me to my left. The Shadow People have never once done anything like this. I mean, they did once. What’s more, it wasn’t only the seven Shadow People besides me, there are hundreds. All around us. They fill The Mall. Each Shadow Person following a normal person. Case in point, a mother pushes a baby in a stroller. A couple meters behind her, follows a Shadow Person, also pushing a baby. All around me, the scene is the same. One person, one Shadow Person. Now this, this spooks me. I’ve grown up with The Shadow People, they’ve always been with me, from my earliest memory. Always following me, never speaking, well, they did, but only once. But it’s always been seven. And as much as I can tell, the same seven. There has never been a time, ever, when there’s been more than seven.

I’m so lost in thought, that it takes me a while to realise that one of the seven Shadow People has deviated. And by that I mean, has gone. Now there’s only six. A shiver runs up my spine. Something bad’s coming. Something very bad.

“I don’t know how I knew. I just did. And boy was I right.”

The Evil Foursome disappear around a corner.

And of course me and Dante follow.

We turn the corner. And are faced to face. With nothing. Just a corridor. It doesn’t lead anywhere. No sign of any Evil Foursome. No shops. No doors. Nothing. Just a corridor leading to a blank wall. If this wasn’t weird enough. A voice tears through my skull.
“WHY ARE YOU FOLLOWING US?” It yells. If my brain could rattle, I bet it is. Unfortunately, I never get to reply.

As soon as the voice is done yelling. Another noise rips through my head. A noise, I would never forget. This noise is followed by, a giant heatwave, and a thousand screams.

The next thing I know, I’m lay on the floor with a girl looking over me. The girl looks weird. Not young, but not old. At an age, I cannot place. She has a blue beanie over her black hair that has blue tips. Black hair with blue tips. Strange. But then again. This is New York.

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2) Palace of The Gods

”So, yeah. This is where my story starts.” Those clouds in the distance, look quite threatening, I don’t know why, just something about them, gives me the shivers.

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Once the ringing in my ears stops. I open my eyes. I expect to see something horrific. Blood splattering the walls, organs everywhere. The kind of thing you’d expect to see after an explosion.

Instead, I am more than the pleasantly surprised to find myself stood in a room. Hell, a cathedral. The room is massive.

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“That doesn’t get it across.” I think for a moment. Desk-Head stares patiently at me. “Imagine two modern day cruise ships; put them into a plus sign. Then connect the ends of each ship, forming a square. That’s the room.” Desk-Head nods as if they can possibly understand how big this room was. But I’m not done. “Now, inside that square room put eight chairs in a horseshoe shape. Then scale those up, by, uh, I don’t know… one thousand. Forty times bigger than the biggest human. Then fill seven of those eight chairs, with giant men and women. Four women, three men. Each one… glowing.”

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I stare at these seven people. And by God, they stare back. I would bet any money, they look more perplexed than I do. They stare at me in utter bewilderment. Eyes full of curiosity, maybe even anger – or is it fear? Whatever they stare at me in. I stare back. Now, entering a stare contest with giant, presumably supernatural beings, is not high my bucket list.

It takes a couple of minutes, but finally, one of the women speaks. She sits on the first throne from the centre. Her throne comprised of human bodies. She herself has fiery purple hair. Literally. Her hair is on fire. And is purple. A bright, vibrant, purple.
“And you are?” She asks with a soft voice.
“Artemis.”
“And, what are you?”
“Human?” I ask, confused on why this is a question.
“Why are you here, Artemis?”
This question stumps me. Where the fuck am I? God only knows.
“Well? Why are you here?” A man shouts. He sits in the foremost throne, a throne of effervescent white. His voice, isn’t unpleasant, but isn’t exactly pleasant. It sits halfway between sexy, and dickhead.
“I…. I… I don’t know.” I say blankly.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” He snarls.
“I think they mean, they don’t know.” Says another man sat on a transparent crystal throne. At a closer look, I notice little planets floating inside his chair.
“Well, if they’re here. There has to be a reason.” The first woman says. “And whatever reason that might be, we have to obey.”
“Why? Who’s going to stop us?” Sexy/Dickhead says,
“We are not getting into this argument again. You know who.”
“Fine.” Crystal man says. The room falls silent. Crystal man speaks again after a minute of uncomfortable silence, “What are we doing?”
“Gifts, and then send them on their way?”
“Why not. If it gets them out.” Sexy/Dickhead voice says grumbles. He stands, he approaches me, and with every step he takes, he shrinks, until eventually, he is my height. “Artemis, chosen of the Humans, I bear you my gift.” He taps a finger onto my forehead, “See clearly now, see what is hidden.” Then he walks back to his throne, growing with each step. The next person to approach me is the woman with purple hair. She steps up to me, smiles sweetly. She puts her hands together, and then pulls them apart. A knife appears, floating in-between her hands,
“Kill in my name.” She says handing the blade to me. Shyly, I take the blade. It feels perfect in my hand – as if it’s meant to be there. Then comes the man from the throne of planets. As he walks, a ball of water forms in his hand.
“The first water in all of creation. Use it wisely.” He hands me the water.

A woman with brown hair approaches, she hands me a bag, “The best hiding spot is in plain sight.”

Another woman, this one with green hair hands me a small marble, “Three souls for one. Just add water.”

A man with pink hair hands me a gold coin, inscribe on it is a beetle, “When you’ve got nowhere to turn, and no one to go to, get a bus.”

Finally, a woman with blue hair approaches me. She stands before me, like all the people before her. “Good luck Artemis, I think you’re going to need it. My gift to you is my blessing.” She places a hand on my cheek. “Good luck Artemis Kaliaski.” Then the foremost man clicks his fingers. The last thing I hear is the words
“What even is a Human?”

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“So, like, yeah.” I look down at the floor, “What happened next?” I mumble to myself,
“What was that Artemis?”
“Nothing, nothing.” The clouds outside seem to be doing gymnastics, that or I’m losing it. Or have lost it. Whichever it is, my story isn’t over yet. It hasn’t even begun. I look outside, ignoring the cartwheeling clouds, outside to the road. To the houses lining the road, to the cars going past, to the carpark, to the people walking down the pavement. To the world that I once knew.

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The next thing I know, I’m stood in a courtyard. I think, or is it a graveyard? I’m really not sure. There don’t seem to be any graves, but something about this place gives off a feeling of ‘Hey look! We’re all dead’, despite this feeling, the courtyard is quite nice. A gleaming tree – and by that I mean, it literally gleaming, shining like surfaces in those Cillit bang ads – stands in the centre of the courtyard, its pink petals shiver in the wind, its crystal bark stares at me. Hell, the entire tree stares at me, including something hiding in the branches. Before I can see whatever it is hiding from me, a voice shouts from behind me.
“Hello?” A soft voice, a nice motherly voice. I turn to face said voice, and I almost lose it. The woman standing in front of me is an exact replica of my mother. Right down to the very dress she wears. It was my mother’s favourite summer dress.
“Mum?” I whisper.
“No?” The woman asks confused. Then she nods, “Right. Right. Step away from the tree please.” She orders. I step away from the tree – as if she’s controlling me. “Any better?” She says as her form swirls, like mist caught in a hurricane.
“Yes.” I say as she settles into a figure with glowing red hair, and a simple plain white dress.
“Right. I’m Janus. Um, and you are?”
“Artemis.”
“Right, if you’d come with me. Much appreciated.” And with that she starts walking away, and without my say so, my body starts following her.

We step out of the courtyard; I take a cautionary glance behind me. The tree remains in the centre of a grass circle. Whatever is in the branches is still watching me. We step into a covered walkway.
“Inspired by the Greeks.” Janus says, “Or where they inspired by us?” she muses, “Oh well, this isn’t a tour.”

The walkway leads us to a flight of stairs, which leads us to a marble landing. Janus walks over to another staircase, this one leading downwards. Instead of going down, she stops, and simply stands there overlooking the courtyard.
“Welcome to The Palace of The Gods.” She says plainly. The stairs in front of us lead back down to the courtyard. Three sets of stairs lead up to us. One from the centre of the courtyard, one from the left side, and one from the right. Only the side two are covered. Janus turns and heads towards a door, “Come on.” She says. And for the first time, I notice the giant castle stood behind her.

The door, being roughly big enough to fit an elephant, leads us into a grand hallway. “Vikings.” Janus says pointing to the pillars holding up a ceiling. She points at the floor, “Aztec’s based their calendar off that.”

She leads me through the hallway, until we reach a grand ‘lounge’, a giant rectangular fire lays in the middle, its flames leaping towards the roof – good thing you could fit a couple stacked elephants in here, otherwise this place would’ve burned down ages ago. A giant man sits draped in a brown cloak, on a throne, overlooking the ever-burning hearth. A club leans against the throne.
“Janus. What is this?” He asks crudely.
“This, Dagda, is Artemis. And I believe they seek guidance.”
“Well, bring them here, let me see them.” He says beaconing me with his hand. I stand in front of him. “And who are you?”
“Artemis.”
“And Artemis, what is it you seek?”
“I don’t know.”
“What are you?”
“Human.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Well, Artemis of the Humans, it is my honour to welcome you to The Palace of The Gods. Don’t break anything.”

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“Artemis, you’ve been through a lot. It is completely reasonable for you to come up with such a story to deal with what’s happened.” Desk-Head says; I know they mean good, but Goddamn, even God would hate this person. I don’t even need to say anything, I look at them, and they catch my drift – shut the fuck up and let me tell the story.

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Dagda smiles, as if he’d just saved my life. “If they seek guidance, The Seer would be a better place to go.”
“I know.” Scolds Janus. “Was just making sure twas all okay.” She turns to me, “It’s getting late, lemme show you to a room.” She starts towards another door, “Wait!” She shouts stopping, she turns to me, “Do Humans eat?”
“Yeah…”
“Are you hungry?” She asks. I don’t even need to answer – I do answer, but not with my mouth. My stomach grumbles. “Take that as a yes.”

Janus leads Dagda and me into a dining room. It’s not a simple room. Etched into the wood panelling of the walls are intricate pictures, depicting stories. High above my head hang thick wooden beams, supporting the roof and the walls. In each corner of the room is a pillar, they also covered in intricate pictures and patterns. In the centre of the room is another pillar. This pillar is split in two – the first half reaching about a metre, then a fireplace, then the rest of the pillar. Around the centre pillar is a circular table.

Janus plucks a bell from a shelf and rings it. “To tell the others.” She says to me. Then she gestures for me to sit down. Which I do.

Within minutes of the bell being rung, four others appear. A man with bright blond hair and blue eyes. And three women. One with red hair. One with Brown hair. The last with blonde hair.

We all sit around the table, Janus included. They chat away like family. Until finally Dagda taps his glass and stands.
“Today we are joined by Artemis of the Humans. We honour them as the first ever human to find Hy-Brasil.”

One by one, the other people in the room greet me – the man tells me his name is Lugh. The woman with red hair is Macha, and her two sisters, Nemain – the one with brown hair, and Badb – the one with blonde hair.

The atmosphere as we eat is that of, happiness and pure content. Why they’re all so happy eludes me. But it is contagious. And soon I find myself laughing with them.

One thing I’ve noticed since I started telling this story is that The Shadow People shift uncomfortably. Not a shifting of weight from one foot to another. But they shimmer, sometimes they disappear altogether before remerging somewhere else. I stare out the window. A bus passes by. I recognise it, why wouldn’t I?

I lay in the bed staring at the ceiling above me. The bed is eh. Not comfortable nor is it rock hard, somewhere in-between.
“That’s strange.” I say to the empty room. Carved into the ceiling are the initials R.G.G. I’m not entirely sure what’s weirder, the fact that Dagda said I was the first human here but yet there are human letters here, or the fact that these initials might not be human. Either way, I’m inexplicably drawn to the letters. “R. G. G” I say aloud. I sigh and roll over onto my side. I see a screw lay on the floor; and idea sparks in my mind.

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3) Crystal Earth

The next thing I know, I’m being torn from a peaceful sleep. Janus stands in the door, “Wakey Wakey eggs and bakey.” She says, “Showers to your left. Meet me in the dining room when you’re done.”

The showers are warm and soothing. The dining room is less so. Something about the atmosphere today reeks of fear. Janus sits at the table, “I’m afraid there’s no time to eat.”

We walk through the courtyard, past the pink pettled tree. Janus leads me across a gravel path; it takes us on a winding route towards the hills.

The gravel path abruptly stops being gravel and becomes a dirt track. All around me are mountains. They stand tall and ominous, their tips breaching the clouds. Ripping gashes in them. Grass stretches out all around us. We walk along the dirt path. It leads us into the cliffs. Something shifts in the tall grass besides us. Janus doesn’t notice. More things move. The grass shifts as something approaches.
“Janus… there’s something in the grass.”
“No monsters out here.”
“You sure…” I ask, as the thing in the grass gets closer.
“Yes.”
“Cool, cause there’s something in the grass.” I whisper. Janus stops, turns and looks at the grass with a confused look. A snout pokes through the grass. Raising slowly. Finally, it breaches the grass. A deer stares back at me. Another deer appears right next to it. The deer step out from the grass. A two-headed deer steps out from the grass. “What the fuck…” I whisper quietly. The deer has two heads, the body of a tiger, a snake for a tail, and the legs of an elephant. “Is this what passes for normal here?”
“No.”
“No? Then what the fuck?”
“Probably Gaia messing around, or, literally anyone. Most likely Gaia though, she loves to play jokes. It’s nothing to worry about, probably harmless.” As if on cue, the deer heads snarl at us, exposing long, big, and thick teeth complete with sharp points. “Righty. Off with you.” Janus says flicking her wrists at the thing, sending it flying over the mountains.

After hours of walking. I say hours. But the sun never moves. The wind never changes. Finally, we reach a temple. Pillars as wide as four men and as tall as thirty hold up a pyramid shaped roof. A set of humongous doors sit squarely in the centre. Janus walks right up to the doors, and walks in, doesn’t even knock. “I come bearing gifts of frankincense and myrrh. The only gold is my presence.”
“And who have you brought?” A voice echoes around the temple. I can’t describe the voice, it sounded exactly like you would expect something called the seer to sound like.
“Artemis of the humans.”
“I see. Bring them to me.”
“Where you at?” Silence follows, “Right, be a mysterious bitch, guess we’ll have to find you in the giant-ass temple.” Janus turns to a door, pushes it open, “First try, suck on that Aphrodite.”
“Come forward Artemis of the humans.” The Seer says. I step forward. A small figure turns around, “Ah, such youth, so much potential.” The Seer says, their breath stinking of fish. “I may be blind, but I can hear quite well. Now let us see what you are.”
“That’s a question.” Janus whispers.
“Artemis.” I reply weakly,
“Not who, what.” The Seer says.
“Human.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“You most certainly aren’t human. But you are not not human. Human but not human, something else lives within you, something I haven’t felt for millennia. Do you feel it Janus?”
“No.” Janus says monotone.
“Most definitely not human. But not a God. What are you? A curled finger stretches towards my face. I recoil. “Don’t fear my child, I want to merely observe your future.”
“Of course you do.” I mumble. The finger touches my face.

I find myself in a huge room. Two giant tables in the centre, a fireplace in the centre of a stonewall. Huge pillars support a roof covered in paintings depicting great battles, men and women clad in vibrant armour. By the fireplace are four people, two men, two women. One of the women sits in a rocking chair by the fire. Her white hair shines ominously in the flicking red of the fire. She rocks gently back and forth.
“You speak of the prophecy as if it is the word of God.” She says calmly. One of the men – the one with blond hair responds.
“It is!” He argues.
“It is not the word of God. There is no reason for why we can’t.” She pauses. She looks at the man with brown hair. “Something has escaped. We need to be prepared.”
“I agree.” Says the second woman.
“But Crystal Earth!” The man with blond hair splutters.
“What of it?” Says the woman in the rocking chair.
“We cannot interfere with the events that have already been set in motion. It is not our place. It is not our war. Coatlicue, you must understand this. This war has nothing to do with us.”
“Silence!” Coatlicue responds – her white hair glows brighter than the fireplace, “This ‘prophecy’ is not the word of God. There is no reason for it to happen. We all swore to protect this universe –“
“We swore to protect a prophecy, which you’re claiming isn’t real. Odin was right –“ He shouts. The woman’s hair changes, her entire head changes into a ball of writhing snakes.
“Odin is a fool.” She hisses, “We do as we will. The prophecy talks of The Four; and as of right now, they are useless. We will do whatever we have to if it means stopping this war.” Her face starts to settle, the snakes wriggle back into a humanoid face-shape, and the skin starts to reform. She looks at the man with brown hair, “Ra, find whatever has escaped, do whatever you must.” She turns to the woman,” Danu, protect Artemis Kaliaski at all costs.” Finally, she turns to the blond haired man, “As for you Zeus. Do as you will, join Odin, or stay and prevent a war. Either way, your task is the same. Protect this child.” Then she looks at me. Right at me. “This child is of utmost importance. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Zeus and Danu say in unison.
“Where to?” Danu asks,
“New York.” Coatlicue says. Then they shimmer, and three of the Evil Foursome stands in front of me. Dressed the same as they were in New York.

The Seer stumbles away from me. Her face scrunched up in pain. “NO!” She screeches. “How?” Tears cascade down her face. I stare at her in confusion. Janus stares at her too. The Seer collapses to the floor, and there she stays, sobbing uncontrollably.

Janus takes me outside, “Sorry about that, she’s old, gets overwhelmed easily. Never seen it this bad though.” She glances back at the temple, “Stay here, I’ll be back in a couple minutes.” Then she leaves me.

I stand in the foyer. The wind blows gently, somewhere crickets chirp cheerily. The sun shines peacefully. Clouds drift along the sky.
“So, how was your first time?” A voice says behind me. I turn to face the voice, a girl stares back at me, her blues eyes glisten with flecks of pink, “I suppose you have questions? About what you just saw, I mean.” She continues.
“Yeah.”
“Shoot.”
“What the fuck is going on?”
“This is The Other World. Bordering Heaven, Hell, and Earth. That tree in the palace is the Goddess Tree, which is one of the things that connects all of these places.” She sits on the floor and leans against a pillar, “It took me a while at first, so I’ll give you the run down. God’s are real. But they prefer the term Deities, the term God is saved for the big cheese. Who might or might not exist. No one’s sure. There’s a prophecy stating that several beings, called The Four are destined to ‘save or destroy the universe’. They also might or might not be real.” She laughs, “There’s a lot of might or might nots.”
“What are you?”
“Human, female, sixteen years old. Called Dawn. Born in Auckland, lived most of it there, some in South Africa.”
“So, you’re human.”
“One-hundred percent human.”
“How are you here then?”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone said that I’m the first human to be here.”
“Right yeah. They don’t know I’m here. Not meant to be here. But need to be here.”
“Why you being so cryptic?”
“Cause if I just up and told you everything, there’d be no mystery.”
“YOU TWO!” A voice yells at us. Dawn freezes up. “Stay right there.” And the next thing I know there’s a sword pressed against my neck and a man with blond hair stares at me. “Who are you?”
“Artemis.” I stutter, afraid if I move too much I’ll end up slitting my own neck. The man looks at Dawn,
“Oh me too?” She says, “Dawn. And you are?”
“Lugh.” He says lowering the sword, “What happened?” He asks Dawn and me. Dawn shrugs, nods to me, and says,
“Ask them.”
“What happened?” Lugh asks me more firmly,
“I saw The Seer?” I say nervously.
“Is that all?” He growls.
“Darling, darling.” A woman with brown hair sings as she enter the foyer, “Leave the poor children alone. If The Seer saw something, don’t you think we’d know by now?” As she says this Janus comes out of the temple. Something about the way she walks throws me off.
“Oh good, you’re here. Macha, where are your sisters?”
“Coming Janus. Something up?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, Nemain and Badb should be here any minute.” While she’s saying this, two crows land on the marble floor, then they transform into two women.
“Good, good.” Janus mutters, “Macha, Nemain, Badb, Lugh. We might have a problem.” Janus says. She stops, looks at Dawn, and asks, “Who are you?”
“Oh, Dawn” She bites her lip as if stopping herself from saying something.
“What’s the problem, Janus? Is it the type I can kill with my sword?” Lugh says brandishing said sword.
“Almost certainly not.” Janus muses, “Macha, go to Dagda. Tell him to come here, as quick as he can. Get anyone else you can.”
“Janus, what’s going on?” Asks one of Macha’s sisters.

“Now, you might be like, ‘there’s so many people’, I can’t keep track. It calms down soon; like very soon.”
“Explain to me what The Seer made you see.” Desk-Head says.
“I saw, four Deities. Zeus, Danu, Ra, and Coatlicue. Who are, ‘protectors’ of a prophecy that The Seer had at like the start of time. I don’t know. The Prophecy says that four people will either save or destroy the universe.”
“But why?”
“Fuck should I know.”

“Something very bad.” Janus says. It might just be a coincidence, but when she says this, the sky darkens, the wind stops, the crickets stop chirping, and air turns cold. “Something very, very bad.” As if a reply to this, the ground rumbles.
“Gaia?” Lugh says in shock.
“No, no. Worse. Way worse.” Janus almost weeps. The ground lets out an almighty groan, as if it’s about to split around. “Even Gaia is scared. God help us.” A crack of lightning rips across the sky. The ground stops rumbling. Thunder shatters the silence. The world around us seems to move. All the darkness swarms to one place, knitting itself into a figure. The darkness that had blotched out the world is now stood in front of us. And I swear to God it’s smiling. The Darkness seems like it’s made of smoke. It swirls as if caught in a breeze.
“Shit.” I hear Dawn say. Lugh makes a lunge at The Darkness, but he goes right through it.
“Bow to me. Your new God is here.” The Darkness says. Not says, thinks directly into my head.
“Time to go.” Dawn whispers into my ear, she places a hand on my shoulder. And the world goes black.

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4) Unto Dawn

I stare into the darkness. I can feel my eyes are open. But I can’t see anything. It’s as if that thing sucked all the light out the world.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.” I hear Stacey say before a door closes.
“Stacey?” I yell after her. I move. Too far. I fall out of the bed and slam onto the cold floor. A machine starts beeping. A constant drone. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. I hear the door open. “Stacey?” I whisper. I feel hands grab me and lift my back onto the bed. The constant drone evolves into a regular beep.

I lie there, in a place I can’t even describe. White shapes surrounded by blue. The sound of scuffling feet. The sound of heels clicking on a marble floor. Click, click. The sound of a clock hand ticking. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. I feel like im in a pool. I feel as light as a feather, as free as a coyote, as alive as a coral reef. I can’t move. I lie there. In a place, that makes no sense. Shapes curve this way and that; they intersect each other at random intervals. I lie there. In a place that should not exist. It flows around me like a river around a pebble. The room spins every now and then. Sometimes it does a summersault this way and other times it rolls that way. The room’s never still. Something’s always moving, be it a random shape or the entire room. The shapes come and go as if they don’t belong anywhere. I watch them as they flow into the room and stay for a minute and then back out. In, out, in, out. Shake it all about. There is always a few shapes though – these ones don’t leave. They stay here constantly. They have a strange curvature to them, as if they’re not real. Are they real? If the room isn’t real they aren’t. In, out, in, out, in, out. The shapes never stop. Always coming in and out, in, out, tick-tock, in, out, tick-tock, tick-tock, in, out, in, out, tick-tock, in, out, An insufferable noise that never stops and never quietens. A gently beep hums through the air like a bee in the wind. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Tick-tock, beep, in, beep, out, tick-tock, in, beep, out, in, beep, tick-tock, out. Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep. Tick-tock. I can’t stand it anymore. A constant drone of noises that won’t give up. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. Beep. I can’t. Tick-tock. In, tick-tock , beep, out, I can’t, beep, I can’t, I can’t, in, beep, I can’t, tick-tock, I can’t, out. A constant noise. I can’t. It hurts. Tick-tock. Shut up! Shut up! I scream.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The clouds outside have stopped doing gymnastics. Instead, they linger there, like mischievous teens. They watch me through the window, same as I watch them. They are full to the brim with rain. Soon, they’ll be here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The world stops doing cartwheels. It settles. I can feel my body. I know that my eyes are open, but I can’t see.
“Artemis?” A voice says.
“Yes?” I croak.
“Do you know where you are?”
“No.”
“Hospital.”
“Why?” I almost weep.
“You and Dante Smith were in an explosion.” The man says weakly.
“Is he alive?”
“Yes. You both got lucky...” He stops, “It’s been two years.”
“Oh… I can’t see.”
“I’m sorry.”

Time passes. As it often does. But something about it seems liquid like. Like I’m swimming in it. I hear the door open.
A silvery voice “Hello, I’m with –“she is abruptly cut short, silence… “Artemis, we don’t have long – you don’t have long. You need to get out of here, and hide.” The voice has changed.
“Who are you?” I ask the darkness.
“Dawn. And you need to run.”
“How can I run, when I can’t see?”
“Follow the lights.”
“What lights?” Silence, they’re gone. What lights? There aren’t any fucking lights. How the fuck am I supposed to run?

Run? How the hell am I meant to run? The door opens again.
“Artemis?” I hear Dante whisper.
“Oh my God. Dante.”
“Thank God. They refused to tell me what happened.” He says. I feel his weight sit on my bed. “I’ve been in a coma for two years.”
“Same. But I’m blind.” As I say this. I see something. Not with my eyes. Well yeah, with my eyes, but in a third eye sort of way. A ball of light appears above Dante illuminating his red hair. His brown eyes that are normally full of life peer back at me.
“I’m sorry.” He whispers. A Shadow Person steps into view. It tells me one thing. ‘Run’. I hear it. Like I did all those years ago…

“Dante. We need to go. Now.” I say ripping myself from the memory,
“Why?”
“Trust me.” I say as the ball of light glows brighter. I slap at my arms, trying to find an IV.
“There’s no drip.” Dante says reading my mind, “I have some clothes that’ll fit you.” He says. I feel his weight shift, then it’s gone, “I’ll be quick.”

Within a couple minutes, Dante returns. He places what I assume to be a bag on the bed, along with some clothes. “Jeans and a hoodie.”
“Keep an eye on the door please.” I order. I slip into the jeans; I feel them hang short. The hoodie fits fine. “Right. Let’s go.” I say moving towards the door. I run my fingers along the wall. The ball of light floats just ahead of me. Dante opens the door. A ball of light sits on the floor. This one doesn’t illuminate anything. It sits there, like a beacon. A beacon. ‘Follow the lights.’ How had she known? Who was she?

The light outside the door isn’t the only light. Every five meters or so is another one. They lead us through the hospital… around corners, down stairs. Dante never questions how I know where I’m going. He just follows. No one questions us. I wonder what we look like? We’ve been in a coma for two years… that makes me fifteen and Dante… “What’s the date?”
“March 17th” He answers quickly.
“Happy birthday for those two years.” I laugh.
“Funny.” Says, I picture him smiling, “Happy birthday to you too.”

We walk in silence the rest of the way. No one stops us. I mean, why would they? But at the same time why wouldn’t they? Surely, the entire hospital must know of the two children who were blown up and in a coma who’ve just woken up. But then again, with me following the lights, they probably make us seem like we know our way around, so why couldn’t we just be children visiting?

Stepping out onto the pavement is a surprise. The fresh air smacks me violently in the face. Air as fresh as you can get in a city. The noise of the road outside is alarming. I have no clue of where we are.
“We still in New York?”
“Looks like it.”
“Good thing one of us has eyes.” I laugh. The laughter is me trying to shake off the feeling that something’s wrong.

Despite the feeling of dread, I follow the lights. The stay on the floor, glowing, but not illuminating. They pulsate gently. I look at each one as we pass it. Each one seems to have something inside of it. Something magical. Looking closer, each ball has a galaxy in it. The lights lead us… somewhere… many cars, lots of people; I can feel them all around me.
“Times Square.” Dante says. The lights take a right and Dante grabs my shoulder, “There’s a door there.”
“A door?” I ask confused,
“Yeah, it’s a café. Why do you want to go to a café?”
“I’ll explain later.” I reply,
“It’s open.” Dante says. I step into the café. The smell hits me. Pastries. Pain au chocolats. Croissants. Crêpes. The lights lead me through the room, “Careful!” Dante shouts after me, I stop “Sorry.” I hear him say after, “There’s a table there. Here let me.” I hear a chair scrape across the floor. A ball of light appears above the table, illuminating it, and the chair. Just the table and chairs. Couldn’t show me the entire room. Rude. I take the seat. “Want anything?” Dante asks,
“Crêpes with chocolate please.”
“Ok.” He says. I hear another chair scrape across the floor. Too close to me to be another table. I look up. Dawn sits opposite me.
“Hi.” She says, “How the lights treating you? Good I hope.”
“What do you want?”
“Hey, lose that attitude. I saved your life.” She says in mock horror.
“Who are you?” I hear Dante say from next to me, before I get a chance to answer, Dawn speaks,
“Hi, Dante, I think you should sit.”
“Do I know you?” He asks,
“No. But I know you. Sit, please.” Dawn says, even though she sounds calm, I get the feeling she really isn’t. “Look, I can’t stay long.” She raps her fingers on the table, “Right. Artemis, you might remember something about The Four, and a prophecy.” She falls silent. I realise she’s waiting for an answer,
“Yeah.”
“Right. So an explanation. The Four are –“ She starts, but I cut her off,
“You’ve told me.”
“Oh, I have?”
“Yeah, in The Palace of The Gods.”
“Oh, right. Then why am I here?”
“Beats us.” Dante chips in, “but you could explain to me.” He says. Dawn takes a sharp breath.
“Basically, whilst you were in a coma, Artemis here was out meeting Gods, me, and learning about a prophecy.”
“Right.”
“That prophecy being that four being are destined to either destroy or save the universe.”
“Right.” Dante says again but louder. Dawn looks at me,
“Why you here?”
“The lights brought me here.”
“Then why the fu –“ She groans, “Oh, that’s why. Could’ve told me it was the 17th.” She lets out a sigh, “Eat up. Got a long day ahead of you. Good luck.” She says; I watch as she disappears from the light; she dissolves into the darkness.
“Who the fuck’s she?” Dante asks,
“She told you. Dawn, I met her in The Palace of The Gods.”
“They aren’t lying.” Dawn says reappearing, “I forgot to give you this.” She says placing a bag on the table. The bag I had gotten from that giant woman. What had she said? Something about a hiding place, ‘The best hiding places are in plain sight.’ Then Dawn’s gone again. I take the bag; slip it open. Inside the bag are the gifts. Including the dagger.
“What’s in it?” Dante asks curiously.
“Nothing.” I say shrugging. A girl walks past the table, close enough for her to be illuminated. Close enough for me to see her.
“Artemis.” She says in that all too familiar voice, a voice I thought I’d never hear again. Then she’s gone, and I’m out my chair, slipping the bag over my shoulders, and charging through the café. I see her step through the door. I charge after her. I slam open the door. And I stop. I feel the ground below me change. It goes from hard, to soft. And for a brief second I’m terrified the grounds going to open up and devour me. Someone crashes into my back.
“What the fuck?” I hear Dante yelp, “Double what the fuck.”
“What?”
“We’re at that arch. You know the metal one in America.”
“The Gateway Arch?”
“I mean sure.”
“That’s in Missouri…”
“Is that far?”
“Don’t know.” I say confused, “How?”
“I followed you after you decided to leap from your chair.”
“Did you not see her?”
“Who?”
“Chloe.” I say.
“No.” Dante says quietly. If I could see his face, I bet it wouldn’t be happy. Chloe is a touchy subject for us all. “Arte-“ He starts,
“Don’t.” I say. A hand touches my shoulder. “Dante, I said don’t.”
“That’s not me.” I hear him say from in front of me. I feel my heart plummet. Who or what has it’s hand on my shoulder?
“Dears, would you mind helping an old lady?”
“Uh…sure.” Dante says.
“Thank you dears.” The lady croaks.
“Artemis? Come on, I want to find out how we got here.” Dante says taking my hand.
“Yeah… Same…”

The soft ground soon shifts to a hard floor. I hear cars whizz past me. “Where to ma’am?” Dante asks politely.
“Just to a café dear.” She says shrilly.

As we walk down the pavement, I get the feeling we’re being followed, not that I can check. Even if I could, I doubt I’d see anything. Just this feeling. The lights on the floor are back, they lead me somewhere. I can hear him. Not Dante. But whoever is following me. Just the silent noise of their feet hitting the floor. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. A steady pace. Just far enough behind to be inconspicuous. Tap. Tap. Their footsteps land softly on the concrete. Softly. But terrifying. Dante pulls me along the pavement, blissfully unaware of the follower. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Dante pulls me to the left. A crossing? I feel the heat of cars near me. I hope that I’m wrong, that they aren’t following me; my dreams are destroyed as I hear their footsteps again. Tap. Tap. Still no closer. Then we’re back on the pavement. Then a doors opening and we’re stepping inside. The warm air strikes me across the face. I take a deep breath and pray. Nothing. No sound of footsteps. Thank God.
“Thank you dears.” The lady croaks.
“Drink?” Dante asks, “I think we deserve it after traveling across country.”
“Sure.” I say, my heart finally settling. Dante leads me to table and we sit. A ball of light appears above the table, illuminating it, Dante, and the window.

Close enough to the window to be illuminated by my magic ball of sight. Is a face. Kind of a face. A mask. No, a hooded face. A face hidden behind a black hood. Not well enough hidden. I see the face. And I really wish I don’t. It’s an old face. Not eighty-years old, old in the sense that it’s decaying, and maggots squirm around in the flesh. One eye’s gone completely. Their nose is just a hole. It smiles at me. Exposing a set of destroyed teeth. One of its front teeth is missing, and a worm dangles from where it would be. The figure taps something on the glass. A sliver blade that glints in the light. A pair of hands grab my neck. Dante screams. I scream. I feel the hands pressing into my neck, squeezing the life from it. An explosion ripples through the room. The hands go limp and drop from my neck. I spin around as best I can in the chair. An old lady sits behind me, blood covers the window next to her. Everyone in the café lets out a shriek.
“I think it’s time you ran, Artemis.” A voice says, I turn to it, a girl stands holding a pistol, “That’s not a sugg-“ She starts, but the sound of the door opening stops her, “Well shit.”
I turn to face the door, but unfortunately, the ball of light doesn’t reach it. Despite this, I’m pretty sure I know who just walked in. Mr Decay and his murder boner. “Hey over here!” I hear the girl shout, “Ignore the children, look at me.” She shouts, “I don’t even exist yet.” She carries on, apparently to no avail, “Look at me.” She orders. She steps back into the light. I see her raise her hand and drop her sleeve, exposing two diagonal lines with curved ends meeting at a point above another set of identical lines, above several dots. “Look. I don’t belong here. Come get me.” Another explosion rocks the room, at the edge of my sight, I see a man stood behind the counter, holding a shotgun, he points it at Mr Decay, I assume. Then the man with the shotgun explodes. “Nah, ah, I don’t die here.” The girl says, “And neither do they. The only person to die is you.” The girls says pointing a finger towards the man. A chain of sparks wrap themselves around the finger, before leaping from it, and presumably striking Mr Decay. And hopefully killing it.
The girl looks at me, her face stern and commanding, or would be if it weren’t for the dip-dyed blue tips of hair hanging over her face, “Now are you two going to run or are you gonna sit there looking dumb? If not, follow me.” She commands, I look at Dante; he looks at me.
“Shall we?” I ask.
“Don’t think we get a choice.” He replies fearfully. The sound of sirens pierce the silence.
“Hurry up you two.” The girl says; she looks past me and out the window, “What day is it?”
“Friday.” Dante replies.
“Date?”
“27th March, 2018…” Dante asks confused.
“Shit. Fuck. Uh. Well, why don’t you two, just sit here a little longer.” The sirens grow closer. “Yeah. That’s the plan. Stay here. I’ll be back sometime around the 30th… hopefully.” She opens the door and steps outside.
“Wait! What’s your name?” I shout after her. She stops.
“If I told you that, it would ruin the surprise.”

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5) The disappearance of Artemis Kaliaski and Dante Smith

“What do you mean they’re gone?” he yells, “They were both in a coma up until last week! And you’re saying Artemis and Dante, just woke up from a coma. And walked out? I put them in here for you to look after them, not let them walk out from right under your noses.” He jabs a finger into the doctors’ chest.
“Please Sir, how far could they have gotten?”
“I don’t know, you tell me, you’re the doctor.”
“Not far, the nurses tell me she had nothing on her feet and no proper clothes”
“Nothing on their feet? Dante had a bag full of clothes.” David yells.
“I – I – I don’t know.”
“Where are these nurses, I want a word.”
“Anything detective.”

David collapses in despair at the incompetence of medical staff at keeping two teenagers safe. Now, because of someone else’s mistake, his child, his only child, is missing. A petite man, built like a professional rugby play, waddles in.
“Hi. John said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Are you one of the nurses who saw Artemis and Dante the day they disappeared?” David says putting on calm façade.
“Yes.” The nurse says nervously.
“Ok, have a seat, you’re not in any trouble, I hope.” He clicks his neck, “Now –“
“Jackson sir.”
“Now Jackson, did Artemis and Dante have anyone with them?”
“No sir. They were by themselves.”
“Drop the sir. At what time did you see them?”
“Three pm, I had just started my rounds.” A brief pause, “I had just check their rooms, everything was as it should’ve been.”
“Did anything seem at all out of place?”
“No.”
“Take me to their room.” David commands

“And you are sure they didn’t have any help?” David asks his voice full of confusion. He stares at the “You’re telling me two teens snuck past your security?” An exasperated sigh escapes David.

He enters the room. He runs his hand across the wall to his right, following the decaying wallpaper. He does a quick double take, “Has this rot always been here?” He asks the nurse. The nurse observes the line of rot trailing from the room and out into the corridor, and from there along the corridor, down the stairs, and from there presumably out into the world.
“No…” Jackson replies. David looks at the empty bed, remembering the day he saw his child lay here, unmoving, unthinking, and dead to the world. He remembers the days and the nights he spent sat at their side, waiting for them to wake up. Wishing for them to wake up. The first night here, he turned to God, he prayed to Heaven for his child to wake again, so he could hear their laugh, see their smile, even if it were for a day. For a night. An evening. He just wanted to hear their voice once more.
“Please God, I’ll do anything.” He prayed this message every night; willing anyone to answer, an angel, a demon, God, The Devil himself. Anyone. No one did reply. He spent weeks crying and crying. He paid for everything to make sure his child was comfortable. He paid for every experimental treatment. He did everything he could. But they wouldn’t wake. Soon he gave up hope, he kept them alive though, didn’t want to lose the last part of his family. But even the kind man loses patience. He left one night, just as the sun was peeking its head over the horizon. By the time, the sunlight slithered through the blinds; he was gone. He never came back, he couldn’t face it. Couldn’t stomach it. He made sure everything was paid for, made sure everything was good. He made himself a promise; he would catch whoever had planted that bomb.

David inspects the room. There’s a hole in the fabric of the bed, burned right through. Burnt into the floor are a pair of footprints, barely distinguishable from the dark floor, but none the less, they’re there. He takes a sample of the footprints, of the bed, of the rot on the wall, placing them in separate plastic bags.

Before David leaves, he hands Jackson something.

David isn’t sure where Artemis could’ve gone. They have nowhere to go, no one to go see. Nothing.

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6) Chloe?

When the police arrive, the ball of light hovering above the table pulsates brighter, illuminating the entire café. And I see the extent of the disaster. The police swarm into the café, filling it. They stare confused at the body in front of the door, they stare gob smacked at the blood plastering the walls. Then they stare at us – Dante and I sat in a booth with granny brains covering the window next to us. I can see it their eyes, the disgust, and confusion. None of them understands, they ask questions to the other patrons but the stories they tell are unbelievable. But one thing all the stories have in common is a woman with bright red hair who caused it all. And us. In every story we appear, as the teenagers who were friends with the girl. Soon enough we’re questioned.
“What happened?” One officer asks. We don’t say anything. What did happen? A random girl, who clearly knows me, but I don’t know, killed that guy… that thing on the floor. Also I died, met a bunch of Gods, pretty certain the worlds ending and that everything wants to kill me. One by one the officers come up to us, asking us the same predictable questions, we don’t offer an answer to any. Instead, we sit there, Dante in stunned silence. Me, in deep thought. I watch, as the witnesses are lead out the café one by one. Until it’s just Dante and I sat in a café with a handful of officers. A huge block of a man enters. He sits down opposite us, produces a bag of peanuts from seemingly nowhere. He sits there staring at us while he munches away on peanuts.
“What happened?” He asks eventually. Staring at us, his eyes brown and empty. His short shaved black hair stands on edge. Everything about him is square. Quite literally. Square haircut. Square eyebrows. Square face. Square body. A walking talking square. “Peanuts?” He asks offering another bag to us. “Guess not.” He says. “Me, I love peanuts. Can’t get enough of them, always gotta have a bag on me or I have the wildest of cravings. Funny thing, when I was your age I was actually allergic to nuts – all nuts. But now I can eat any kind of nut without any problem. Crazy stuff happens.” He sits back and looks at us as if trying to read our minds. He thinks we did it. “Where your parents?” He asks. Where is my dad? Dante was with my dad and me, so, his parents are still in Parlor?
“Dead.” Dante offers up. What? Had more happened than I realised?
“I’m sorry to hear.” He looks at me. I look back at him. He pops a handful of peanuts into his mouth and crunches down on them. “How about you come back to the station with us and get cleaned up, having a coffee and some chocolate.”
“Do we get a choice?” I ask.
“No.” He says standing up. He nods to another officer. We’re escorted, quite forcefully. Outside on the street there’s a crowd of reporters clambering to get unseen footage of the believed terrorists.

From inside the crowd I hear a voice. A small quiet, barely noticeable voice. But it’s there. A small unmistakeable voice. A voice I haven’t heard in a long, long time. “Chloe?” I whisper.

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7) Follower

He stares at the wall before him, a bunch of string leads from one photo to another. Cliché but he doesn’t care. It clears it all up. All of this confusing mess. It all revolves around the centre. Artemis Kaliaski. His child. His missing child. From them strings of yarn come spiralling off. To Dante Smith, a troubled teen with no connection to the outside world. To a mall in New York. To a hospital. To Barcelona. To Paris. To a small town just outside London. To Chloe Maxwell. To James and Max Ritargo. To Ellie Pascal. To himself, David Kaliaski. The world has become a topsy turvey place. Chloe dies, sending Artemis spiralling down a rabbit hole. They take a holiday to New York. Artemis is blown up in what is believed to be a terrorist attack, but no terror organisations have taken responsibility two years later. Artemis is dead for thirty-eight minutes before entering a coma. Scattered terrorist attacks litter the globe. The quiet town of Parlor descends into chaos. Every child vanishes; Max and James vanish. Ellie drops of the face of the Earth. A federal investigation into the disappearance of the children of Parlor yields no evidence and the case is shut with nothing else ever being said. Artemis wakes, and manages to disappear. Terrorists obliterate Paris, and no group claims responsibility.

He doesn’t understand. Something about all this doesn’t sit right in his mouth. He stares at the wall in utter bewilderment. Maybe he’s looking for a connection where there isn’t one. Maybe these are just purely unconnected events. His wife, Marianne always had a saying, ‘Coincidences are God’s way of winking at you.’ Are these coincidences or are these connected events? He isn’t sure. He has no way of telling. Artemis and Dante haven’t been seen in several weeks. There’s no new evidence suggesting foul play in the mystery surrounding Parlor. No evidence to suggest that anything out the ordinary is happening. But he knows. He knows he knows. But what is it that he knows? The sound of the phone ringing shatters his thoughts. He looks at the phone. He recognise the code. St Louis, Missouri. He picks up.

“David?”
“Yes.”
“We have them. Both of them.”
“I’m coming.”

The drive from New York to Missouri takes fourteen hours. Deep down he knows that this isn’t it. This is just the beginning of something bigger. He knows it. But he doesn’t accept it. He wants it to be the end; he wants his child back. But he knows that it’s not going to be that easy. That this isn’t what it seems.

He’s right of course. By the time he arrives in Missouri it has already happened. By the time, he gets to the police station in St Louis. Let’s just say there is no police station. Instead, there’s a pile of smouldering rubble, several hundred dead, a handful missing. And no sign of Artemis or Dante.

Paris is gone, 2.2 million dead and hundreds of thousands more missing. The world is changing. All around him, he sees it. People swing banners claiming the end is neigh. Wars are ending. Governments pulled out of Syria. The Middle East was left to its own accord. North Korea overthrew the Kim dynasty. Despite all the good changes, all the News talked about was the bad. The Vanishing of Parlor, as they had so lovingly called it, had thrown the quiet town into the medias glare. Paris, Parlor, and now Missouri. How many people had died? Twenty million? More? When will it stop he wonders, will it stop, or is this the end?

He sits in his car watching the emergency services excavate the police station. They work tirelessly to find survivors. David already knows that they won’t find anyone. Who ever wants Artemis dead will stop at nothing to do so.
“Let’s just hope it isn’t now.” He sighs. He knows it’s not; that they’re not dead, that they escaped. All that had to be done was to wait for the next sign. Whatever it might be.

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8) Mr Black and Mr Green

“I think it’s best if I explain who Chloe is. Mostly for the sake of understanding.” I stare out the window. The clouds have stopped dancing. They linger in the sky. As if waiting to pounce.

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I’m sat here in the cell. Dante crumpled on the floor. Me, thinking. And the more I think. The less I like it. All of it began with Chloe. The Chloe I dreamt of, that I dream of. The Chloe that I long to forget. The Chloe that I can’t forget. Chloe the one who held my heart and squeezed. The Chloe who began all of this; all the death, all the fear and confusion, all of it is down to her. I feel like it’s time to start writing my obituary. Why? I don’t know. Just feel like it.

My name is Artemis Kaliaski. I was born in Parlor Falls, England, on the 19th of December 2002. My best friends are, in order of most to least. Chloe, Max, James, Ellie, Dante, Siobhan, Connor, Callum. Ellie was born in France; her parents are French. The rest of us were born and bred in Parlor Falls. Not the most amazing place. Just a, I don’t really know. Too big for a town, too small for a city. Whatever it was… is, it’s just outside London, close enough that most people work in London. Despite how close we lived to London, I’ve never actually been.

I was born in Parlor Falls, and I shall die in St. Louis, Missouri. And what a trip it has been. From being a child in England, to meeting Gods, to a jail cell in America. Doesn’t really sound great. The one thing I know for sure is that if I don’t die here, something bad is going to happen. Either today, or tomorrow, or in twelve years’ time. Something bad is coming.

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“I thought you were going to tell me about Chloe?” Desk-Head says sceptically.
“Oh, right, yeah.” I take a deep breath, “Chloe was my best friend. That’s all you need.”

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“Dude… now what?” Dante says quietly.
“We wait.”
“For what exactly? For magical strangers to come save us?” He spits venomously. I guess he’s right. Dawn and that other girl… seem to know stuff that we don’t. I would put money on them turning up in the next thirty minutes. I hope they turn up. Cause I honestly see no way of getting out of this. They have us dead to rights. I think? Good luck us. And future me, if you’re looking back on this, can you like time travel to now and tell me it all turns out okay? Please? As if on cue,
“Artemis?” A voice whispers, “Don’t speak, but if you can hear me, nod.” It says, which I eagerly do, “Ah, good. Now, we have a little surprise for you. In ten second, two officers are going to come in, just play dumb.” Then it goes quiet. Dante doesn’t seem to have heard the voice. Now the next question is where the fuck had it come from? I don’t get time to explore. The door grinds open, two officers step in.
“Artemis.” One says in a gruff monotone voice, “Come with us.”

I’m escorted, quite forcefully, through the station, through another set of doors and into a room with a desk and a chair. A mirror faces the chair. It must be a miracle. There’s no other reason, but the ball of light. My only way of sight, is following me. Just ahead of me.

“Wow. An interrogation, for what?” I ask aloud, knowing quite well that they can hear me. “Also, you forgot to take these off.” I say shaking my hands towards the mirror. “Would be quite nice if I could move.” I kick a chair out from under the desk. “Also, also, could I perhaps have a drink of water?” I ask directly to the mirror. No one enters the room carrying a glass of water. No one shouts at me; no one does anything. I sit there, handcuffed to the table, nothing to see, nothing to do. The handcuffs dig into my skin. A clock sit above the ‘mirror’ its second hand ticking by slowly. The minute hand twitches from place to place. The hour hand moves like a cat stalking its prey. I watch as the seconds tick by. And the minutes drift past. Before the hour is up the door opens. I hear it, I hear the handle creak, and the hinges croak. The door slips open. Nothing on the other side, just a picturesque plain white hallway. A cold breeze washes over me, and the door closes.
“Just a scare tactic.” I whisper to myself, not wanting to admit that I was a bit spooked. The door clicks shut with a sharp metallic ping, which echoes around the room.

When the door next opens several very formal looking people, two in suits and a third in a pencil skirt with a red shirt and black blazer accompany it. The woman sits next to me, places a briefcase on the table, and pops the latches. The two men, one in a green suit, the other in a black, they sit opposite me. They stare at me, as if daring me to speak first. I stare back.
“Artemis Kaliaski.” The man in the black suit says, his suit is complete with a black tie that squeezes against his neck.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Before and at the café.” He says; I look at them blankly. “We know you were there, we have several eyewitnesses.”
“I’m not entirely sure what you want a blind person to say.” I reply sarcastically. The two suits look at each other. The woman produces a sheet of paper; I glimpse my name written at the top. The suits read it, and then they stare at me.
“Alright.” The man in the green suit says; he one wears a green tie that hangs loose around his neck.
“What did you hear?” Mr Black says,
“Shooting, lots of shouting and screaming.” I reply honestly.

The Shadow People are in the room with us. I say The Shadow People, but there’s only two, one behind each of the suits. They watch us peacefully and calmly. They don’t flinch. They don’t move. They stand like statues, watching us, hearing us.
“Where were you the 24Th of May?” tie asks. He doesn’t have a face. None of them do. They all just have dark masses where their faces should be. 24Th of May? What month are we in?
“I don’t remember.”
“That’s today.” The woman whispers into my ear. The men stare at me. Their eyes examining my every move. They’re waiting for something.
“Where are we now…” I ask.
“St Louis, Missouri.” Mr Black replies.
“I was in St Louis, Missouri, on the 24Th of May.” I say smugly. The suits look at each other and then at pencil skirt. They know something that they’re not telling me.
“What is your relationship with Dante Smith?” Mr Green picks up,
“He’s a friend.”
“When did you meet him,” He continues. I’m not entirely sure when.
“We grew up in the same town.”
“What town?” Black tie asks curiously,
“Parlor Falls.” As I say this, I see their faces shift. Both men go from stern to extremely stern.
“Oh.” Mr Green says softly. His face is the least stern; he has a baby face. I wonder how old he is. Twenty something? Good looking too. Too bad. I look at The Shadow Person stood behind him. It looks right back at me, right into my eyes. It nods. A small courteous nod. A nod to signify that it’s time.

The two Shadow People don’t look that scary. But as I watch them move, I realise, ‘Oh shit. These bitches aren’t friendly.’ And I’m right. These bitches are not friendly. One of the Shadow People, the one behind Mr Green solidifies. Into a form. A giant white monster. The other Shadow Person doesn’t change. I don’t need to think about why. I know why. It’s presence sends a shiver through my entire body.

To me, it was quick. Like a jack in the box. However, Mr Black and Mr Green, they aren’t so lucky. Or are they luckier? They explode. Much like the man in the café, but more violently. The woman besides me screams. Can’t blame her. If my throat wasn’t clenched tight, I would’ve screamed too. Unfortunately, for her, screaming doesn’t help. I hear her bones snap. Every single one of them. I hear her body contort. I don’t dare look.

An explosion rips through the building. I feel its heat. But I don’t see it. Thank God. The Shadow flicks its hand at the handcuffs, and they click apart. Then it looks at the door, and it goes flying outwards, I hear it connect with something. The Shadow leaves, gesturing for me to follow it.

I step out onto the door, I dare not look what lies under it, I can already guess. And I wish I couldn’t. The Shadow leads me down corridors, through more doors, all of which it sends flying outwards. I follow it pathetically. It launches a set of doors outwards; they connect with a crunching sound. Again, I know what it hit, but I wish I don’t. It doesn’t even stop, it keeps on walking. Or floating. We walk down I corridor I swear I had seen before. We reach a set of doors. Blown outwards, resting gently on top of something. We pass through another set of doors. Down another corridor. To another set of doors, which are blown outwards, raised slightly on something. It doesn’t even pause. Through another set of doors, down a familiar looking corridor. It stops. It clicks its fingers and the walls around us crumble. The only walls to remain standing are the ones leading to the outside. With a shake of its head, it leads me towards the cells. One of which still contains Dante, He sits there on the floor, rocking back and forth. He lifts his head as I approach and just stares in disbelief. I glance through a window, and I see them. I see three sisters stood next to each other. I look through other windows, through each window I see someone. A man with blond hair. A man in a dark robe. A red haired and red-eyed woman. They surround the entire building. Each one just waiting.

We reach Dante. The Shadow walks past him and to a door, which it proceeds to send flying into the night. It gestures for me to follow it. I do, and Dante follows me.

We escape into the darkness. The Shadow disappears as quickly as it had appeared.

We run away from the building. We climb a hill. We turn and look. The building crackles, fire spews from everywhere, a bolt of lightning rips through the air smacking into the building. Bright flashes of light penetrate the darkness.
“What. The fuck is going on?” Dante asks, his voice trembling.

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"I believe you do deserve an explanation." I look at Desk-Head who sits, finger poised, calmly, collected.

Desk-Head listens calmly as I tell the plot, they don't ask questions, or interrupt. When I’m done they lean back in their chair and let out a deep breath.

"And Dante?" Desk-Head asks.
"Simply a means to an end."
"Chloe?"
"Forever." This simple word sparks a response in The Shadow People. While the word drips from my mouth, they react, they shift their gaze from the rain-covered window, to me, and then to Desk-Head, then they stare at each other. I see their lips moving, I don't hear a noise. I trace my thumb over the ring; I feel the word etched into it. 'Chloe'.

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"You know that feeling you get when you think you're being followed? The strange sense of foreboding and fear." I explain, "It's like that, but ten times worse. That's what living with The Shadow People is like, and there’s' nothing I can do to avoid them." I trail off. Explaining Them is a lot harder than I imagined. How do you explain the concept of dark entities that follow you constantly, rarely speak, but always seem to be listening? "It's like there's someone else in your head at all times; you aren't aware of them there, but you can sense that they are, like an odd tingling every now and then." I look at Dante. He stares blankly at me, I know he's trying to understand but he just can't grasp it. "Forget it" He reaches out and grabs my hand.
"No. I want to know." He squeezes my hand gently. "What are they doing now?"
"There's four watching the road, two on the left, two on the right. Four are watching around us." We sit in a bus shelter, waiting for the next bus, which doesn't arrive for another hour. What kind of bus station runs buses at three am?

We had walked, from the remnants of the police station, for miles, before we stumbled upon a bus shelter sitting idle by the side of the road. I don't know where we are, hell, I don't even know what state we're in.

The Shadow People had pointed out the bus shelter long before I saw it. They told me to head this way.

"They're just watching?"
"No. The four at the road are looking for the bus... and the others are looking for Gods."
"How can you be so calm after all this?" He asks weakly. Honestly, I don't know. I guess any other teen would be freaking the fuck out, but instead, all I can think about is how cold I am, and how warm Dante’s hand is on mine. No cars drive along the road. Nothing stirs. No birds, no crickets, no mice, no wind. Nothing. Just Dante and me. "You okay?" He say softly.
"Yes." I say, although I’m not quite sure if I sound it. I turn my hand around and interlock my fingers with Dante’s. He leans his head on my shoulder. We sit like that for a while, like two lovers waiting for a train in Paris, instead of two dishevelled teens waiting for a bus in the ass of nowhere.

In the distance a pair of lights appear. They curve gently around the bend and glide towards us. It may have been my imagination, but I swear The Shadow People had to flag it down for it stop. But they can't have. No one can see them but me.
"Shit. Do you have any cash?" Dante whispers as the bus grinds to a halt.
"No." I pat my pockets with my free hand.
"Fuck."
"Leave it to me." I say standing as the buses doors swing open.
"Where to? Be it Olympus or Hell, I can take you there." The driver says.
"As far from here as you can." I say staring at the overweight driver. His grey eyes look straight into my soul, the remains of his grey hair hang loosely from his head. He looks like he could have been ex-military if it weren't for all the fat.
"That'll be Santa Monica with a couple stops along the way." He says cheerily. How someone can be cheery driving a bus at three am is beyond me. As we turn to find a seat, a giant wobbling arm stretches out in front of us. "Payment."
"We hav-" Dante says glancing at me.
"Here." I shove my hand into my bag; I grope around until I feel the distinct gold coin against my fingers. I place the coin in the driver’s hand. He turns it over in his hands, inspects the decal.
"I haven't seen one of these in a long, long time. Where did you to say you were headed?"
"Santa Monica." I reply quickly.
"Alright. Sit back and relax, we'll be there in around sixteen hours, with plenty of stops. Toilets at the back. Full buffet down the stairs to the right. Beds up." He says gesturing wildly with his hand. As we settle into a couple of seats at the very back of the bus, Dante can't help but comment.
"Full buffet? Doubt he needs to eat anymore." He jests. The driver had recognised the coin, and full buffet... down stairs... on a bus... Again, it could just be my imagination but I swear to God that one of the seven Shadow People had been stopped by the driver and was only let on when it pointed towards me. The doors hiss shut, banging ominously in the quiet. Sixteen hours on a bus. Fun.

The bus passes the first couple of stops due to the lack of passengers, but as the sun starts to rise, the bus starts making stops. First an old lady, then a businessman, and so on and so forth.

By mid-day, the bus had accumulated twenty or so passengers and deposited them elsewhere. Now, the bus is empty again. The driver expertly weaves through inner city roads. I have no clue where we are, everything is so foreign and abstract. I’d fallen asleep at some point of the journey with my head against Dante’s shoulder.

Time moves rather quickly on the bus. The only sense of it moving is the growing pain in my stomach. Hours pass. The sun dips behind office buildings.

The bus pulls up at an empty stop. He turns to the few occupants of the bus. "Got a school pick up in fifteen." Then he looked at me and Dante, "If you want something to eat, now would be a great time." I slip my hand out from Dante’s, and gently ease his head off my shoulder.
"We haven't got any money though." I say quietly to the driver.
"Take this." He produces the coin I had given, minus a small chunk. "Every time you successfully use it, a small chunk is taken to pay. Only certain places will accept it. You're lucky it was me driving. There's a store just across the road that accepts these." He says pointing.
"Thanks." I take the coin.

I walk briskly into the store. I grab us a couple sandwiches and bottles of water. As I approach the counter, I grow fearful of the coin, would it work? I don’t have long to think though, the shop’s quiet and there’s no queue.
"Twelve-ninety please." The cashier says. I hand the coin of gingerly. Just like the driver, he turns it over in his hands, inspects the decal. Then rips a small slither from it. "Thank you." It had worked, just like the driver said it would. "Stay safe." The cashier shouts as I reach the door.

Back at the bus stop, a group of kids have crowed around the stop.

As I reach the bus, the driver slides open the doors and a stampede of children, from year seven all the way to year thirteen board the bus. A couple of the smaller kids glance at the seat next to Dante. And to my surprise, I see a Shadow Person sat on it, and on the seats in front and behind. Once The Shadow Person in my seat sees me, it stands. I slip gently into the seat. The kids glance at the seats near us, give it a thought, and then decide against sitting in them. The kids pile on, filling the bus, with noise and smell. A Shadow Person stands in the middle of the walkway, and the kids filter around it.

As the last of the school kids swaggers out, the sun has started it's descent behind the hills.
"And we're away. Ten hours to go. The beds and the buffet are now open." The driver looks back at Dante and me. "I wasn't kidding about that stuff."
"Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I’ve seen." Dante says nudging me. We slip out of the seats, careful not to disturb the sleeping elderly lady in a seat towards the front. Apart from her and the driver, the bus is completely empty. As we reach the stairs, I get a strange feeling of peace, of tranquillity.
"What the fuck." Dante speaks my mind. The stairs go up. And down. "Aight. I take it back. This is the weirdest thing I’ve seen." He looks at me. "You go down?”
"Yeah. Fuck no. I'm going up, to some place normal."
"I'll go down then, I guess."

At the top of the stairs, I can hardly believe my eyes. Weird isn't it, after all I’ve seen, a bus with beds takes my breath away. The driver wasn't lying, there really is beds up here. And so far he's two for three. So chances are there is a buffet downstairs. A lone figure on a bed catches my eye. The body shudders accompanied by a sniffle, and I realise that the body is crying. I also realise, the body is that of a young boy, no older than ten. I sit down next to him. I don't know what to do, he ain't my friends, my son, hell, I hadn’t even known he was on the bus, I don't even know what he is... I place my arm around him and pull him into an embrace. I'm not sure what it was like, a stranger, on a strange magical fucking bus, hugs you. What the fuck do you do? You could what this kid did, and place your arms around the person and hug back. It’s comforting, having the arms of someone smaller and weaker wrapped around me. For the first time in a while, I feel safe. It’s like this hole in me that I hadn't noticed was there, is suddenly filled; and once it’s filled, I realise what I’ve been missing for years. I can’t hold it in. I rest my head on this little boy’s. A tear rolls down my cheek. The world I’d grown up in, the one with Chloe, with James and Max, with Ellie. That world no longer exists, I hadn't really thought about it since I woke. But now, it's all there, memories of us laughing, memories of Chloe smiling. Memories of Max and James viscously fighting, even though they were twins. Of Ellie just sat there, watching and laughing. God. Of Chloe’s' laugh, of her beautiful smile, of the jokes she would tell. The tears drip from my cheeks.
"Cascading like a waterfall." I mumble to no one in particular. It makes it worse, realising I’m crying. I've met gods, I’ve died. And now I’m crying over nothing. I look out the window; resting my chin on the kids head, I try to smile. I kiss him on the head. If I had a brother, I would've wanted something like this.

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As the buildings of the city slip into the distance, the kid slips his head out, and takes his first look at this weird stranger who had hugged him, who is also in tears. What he sees isn't really much of a surprise. A basic face. Eyebrows, blond hair, blue eyes, ears. The true surprise is what those eyes hide. He can see it straight away. Those pale blue eyes hide a nasty secret.

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The kid slips his head out and stares at me. His brown eyes a deep red. A giant bruise surrounds one and drips down his cheek, before eventually meeting a gash across his lip. I stare at him, unsure of what to do. He’s barley ten, and someone had the audacity to do this.
"Who did this?" I say, running my hands through his hair and pulling his head to my chest. The boy doesn't speak. A new barrage of tears escape, not for lost friends, but for a boy I had met less than ten minutes ago. I gently pull his face away and look at it. It isn’t just a bruise.

From his right eyebrow stretches a giant slash reaching all the way to the left, a giant black bruise occupies the temple and the surrounding eye, along the cheek, and down to a gash stretching across his lip to his chin. I'm not a doctor, but I wouldn't be surprised if the eye socket is broken, or at best dented.

I don't know how much the kid saw. My bag, which I had left downstairs, is suddenly by my feet. I don’t even need to look to know who had brought it up. I could sense them. I pluck my bag from the floor. I slip the ball of water from it. The kid stares at it mystified. I cup my hand and reach into the ball; I pull out a smaller ball of water. I smear it across the boy’s forehead, he doesn't even flinch. Right before my eyes, the giant slash, that would have needed stitches, begins to knit itself back together. I repeat the steps, pull out a smaller ball of water, and smear it across the cuts, watching in disbelief. I do this until the water is gone, and the kids face has returned to its normality.

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The boy looks at this strange person, and he watches as a shadowy figure appears behind them along with a bag, places it at the foot of the stranger, and disappears with a smile. And then in a moment that could have been taken directly from a sci-fi, the stranger pulls a ball of water from the bag. Then proceeds to smear it on his face. If it wasn’t for the utter disbelief and shock, he would probably have been in a lot of pain as his skin knits back together, as broken bone knits itself back together.

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Once the cuts are gone. I see it in his eyes. I know instantly who’d done this. Maybe I always had. Now, I see it in his eyes. I know.
"Who did this?"

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Could the boy trust this magical stranger? Six hours ago, he had boarded a bus with one story, and then found it had a floor dedicated to beds, and now a stranger with a magical ball of water and a shadow had just healed him. His life had been shattered. He had nowhere to go, and no one to go to. What did he have to lose?

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I storm down the stairs; I stride purposefully towards the driver.
"We need to make a stop." I demand.
"No stops until Monica, sorry."
"We need to make a stop." And this time he looks at me.
"Alright, one stop."

I sprint out the bus. I'm across the road by the time Dante steps out.
"Artemis? What's going on?"
"Get back in that fucking bus." I whirl around.
"What's going on?" He repeats.
"Get back in fucking bus. Now!" I glower at him. Sheepishly he obeys.

I reach the door. What do I do? Do I kick it in? Sneak in? I take a step back and survey the house, looking for a way in. No luck. I climb over the gate and walk around the back. A small window hangs slightly open. Just enough.

I pull the window open. I climb through. The darkness that greats me is like family. I feel it breathe deeply as I enter; I feel its arms wrap themselves around me.

I make a quick stop at the kitchen. Not that I need anything. I have what I need in my pocket. I feel it pressing it against me.

I look around for a sign of where to go.

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The Shadow People watch as Artemis pads gently through the kitchen and into the lounge. Of course they know what’s going to happen. They had known this was coming for a while. However, Artemis does not; they have no clue what’s coming. The Shadow People trail Artemis up the stairs, down a corridor, and stop at a door.

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The door stands, rather weakly. It knows that nothing will stop me. I slip the item out of my pocket; I feel its handle fit perfectly into my hand. I slowly open the door. The moon shines through a small opening in the curtains. I see what’s in the bed. Hell. I know its name. It doesn't deserve it though. I stand at the end of the bed. Can I do this?

Before I have the time to answer, a voice answers for me.
"What the fuck? Who the fuck? How'd the fuck you get in?" A surprised voice whimpers.

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The Shadow People watch as the man sits up, he can't see Artemis, but he can see the glint of silver in the moonlight. Artemis steps forward into the light.
"What the fuck do you want? If Frank sent you, scamper back to that cock sucker and tell him to fuck off." He looks at me. "What the fuck? How old are you? Jesus, Frank’s getting kids to do his work now." The man doesn't seem scared. "Alright, you've had your fun, now fuck off."
"I ain't going anywhere." I don't know what the man sees or what changes, but the colour drains from his face.
"Oh God. Please no."

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The kid sits on the bus. He watches through the window as the stranger storms across the road and towards a house. He knows what they’re going to do. He'd thought about doing it plenty of times, but he never could. He smiles.

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I gently close the door. As I reach the stairs a small whimper distracts me. I back-track a couple of steps, and ease open a door. Two girls sit huddled on the floor, the eldest glowers at me, a spark of anger flourishes in her eyes, and then it dims, and tears spring from her eyes. The door clicks shut behind me. The sounds of the night embraces me. It hugs me. I step out onto the street. A light flickers above me. I walk back to the bus.
"Alright, I'm done." I say to The Driver.
“Righty-ho.” He says cheerfully. The doors squeak shut.

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The kid watches as the stranger sits down opposite him. They wipe something with a cloth. He doesn’t need to see what it is. He can guess.

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9) A Tail

David can’t believe what he’s looking at. What had started as a normal breaking and entering has quickly evolved into the scene of something brutal and ritualistic.

He had had two choices. Follow Artemis and lose his job or carry on with his job and lose Artemis. He doesn’t know if he had made the right choice. Although he had chosen, he still prays that eventually Artemis would fuck up and he'd be able to find them easily and bring them back. He missed his child, he really did, but following a ghost is a difficult task.

The scene had started out simply.

A friend of the victim had called up saying they hadn't been seen in days. Then follows a routine check-in.

His phone had rung at three-am. He had prayed it would be news of Artemis. Instead, the chief greeted him. He'd given David the address and ordered him to be there quick.

And now David is stood in the door regretting his choice.

The 'simple' scene is grim.

He’s stood at the end of the bed.

Nothing could prepare anyone, not even Hell.

If you looked at the torso by itself, you would probably think it was an animal attack.

"David..." A small female voice echoes around the house. He takes it as a bad sign. The voice leads him into a smaller boy’s bedroom. A football bed is in one corner. A cupboard in another, and that’s it. But that isn’t what the voice was alerting him to. He sees it almost instantly, but he doesn’t want to look at it, he’s had enough of the blood.

A note is written in awful writing, barely legible.
'I deserved this.' Then a picture of a teddy bear. He could guess what it meant. He grabs the teddy bear and tears it open. A camera stares back at him. He doesn’t want to know what was on it, but he has a job to do.

"The man, identified as Alexander Cevolt." David can’t let his emotions get the better of him. "The man deserved to die. We all agree on that." He stares at the faces in front of him. "But the way he was killed was beyond brutal and unnecessary. We as officers swore an oath to uphold the law. And despite the death of this animal, we must follow this oath. Our primary job is to find his murderer, before, he or she, kills again." The crowd doesn’t really seem to care, they know their job, they wouldn't try as hard; this man had deserved to die.

They disperse to carry out their jobs.

David knows they won’t try as hard, he won’t either. But they had to pretend. He returns to the master bedroom. A criminal like Mr. Cevolt, would've had some type of security.

He finally finds what he was looking for in the form of a tiny fish lens camera tucked away in the top right corner. This placement of the camera gives a perfect view of the room.

As he watches the scene unfold, he can’t believe his eyes. The door opens. A figure creeps to the bed, a glint of metal. The man sits up, words were exchanged.
"If Frank sent you..." David jots the name down.
"What the fuck." Alex whispers. The figure has stepped out of the shadows. David knows who it is straight away.
"I aint going anywhere." The figure whispers. David isn’t sure if what happens next is coincidence or something more. But as the figure spoke, a flash of lightning lit up the night sky, illuminating the figure. And more importantly, what is stood behind them.

A devil. That’s all he can think of as he watches the lighting flash. He has watched the same scene over and over again, but still it’s no clearer.

The lighting flashes. The figure - Artemis becomes visible for the briefest of seconds. The thing behind them also does.

He jabs the pause button and stares at it.

The floor, walls and ceiling around Artemis suddenly sprout rot. And behind Artemis stands a white figure three times as big as Artemis, its wings the width of the room, its horns scrape the ceiling. Its clawed hands the size of small cars. It stands behind Artemis like a guardian. The man has also apparently seen it, his face drains of all colour and he pleads.
"Oh God. Please no." His voice echoes around David’s head. Artemis doesn’t even flinch. David has to stop before the murder began. He starts it again. The lightning flash. Artemis is illuminated. And the devil is with them.

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The kid knows what the stranger did, but he doesn’t appreciate how much was done, but he knows, he knows that his dad is dead. However, he doesn’t know that this simple act of anger, not only caused the death of his dad, but the death of another father, the start of a manhunt, and the end of the world. No. This ten-year old boy does not know this. No one knows this. What the kid does know is that, as of tonight at Eight-forty-six pm, his dad is dead, and he’s free. Another thing he doesn’t know is that his sisters were in the house, and had witnessed it all. The only people to know this, are, Artemis and David Kaliaski, Jessie and Alexandra Cevolt, the entire Missouri Police Department, and of course, Alexander Cevolt.

The kid sits and watches the stranger collapse onto the bed. He is intrigued, to say the least. A stranger had done what he had wished to do, is this a dream? Did the stranger actually do it? If he feels remorse, the kid doesn’t realise. If he feels guilty, he doesn’t realise. Actually, if the kid feels anything, he doesn’t realise. All he knows, and all he cares about is the fact that his father had been killed, and he is free.
"AHHH!" The boy screams in sudden realisation. The stranger sits up and stares at him.
"What?" They say, not annoyed like his father would've been, but curious, maybe even worried. For the first time in sixteen-hours, the boy spoke.
"My sisters." A simple sentence, a statement more than anything. But even the smallest of words can have an impact.
"What?" The stranger now seems extremely worried. Seems. The kid knows that it’s a front, a facade.
"They were in the house. I forgot about them." The boy starts crying. Not unusual for the boy. "I forgot about them. I left them alone with that bastard." He spits the insult out. Then with realisation, "They'll find the body." He sobs. The stranger hardly reacts. They don’t even seem to care. But, the stranger knows they have to say something.
"They'll be okay." They say, sitting next to him. A Shadow Person on the left, a stranger on the right. The boy isn’t sure which one is stranger.

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I stare at The Shadow Person as they sit beside the boy. It’s a weird occurrence, but what’s even weirder, is that the boy seems to notice The Shadow Person, hell, he could’ve shaken its hand. How the boy had forgot about his sisters is beyond me.

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The boy knows he'd fucked up. "Please."
"Please what?" The stranger ask calmly.
"Don't hit me." The words sent a shiver across his body.
"I would never." The stranger pulls him closer. The boy wonders if this is true, could someone who had just killed his father, not hit him? "It'll be okay. They'll be okay. I promise."

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David Kaliaski knows he’s in trouble. He could 'forget to mention the evidence' and then 'lose it', or he could turn it in. The first idea is more appealing, but he knows it’s wrong, and he could never forgive himself. However, the second was less appealing; if he turned it in, the board may deem this a good time to put his work under scrutiny, and may go as far to say he isn't suitable for this case, but if he was allowed to work it, he'd have all the help he could ever want to track down Artemis. He had another choice. Easier, yes, but a choice all the same. He pulls out his phone.
"It's me. We have a lead." A quick call, nothing else was needed. "James, come here." A scared bobby appeared at the door - he'd been the one to find the body. "Take this down to the team." He hands the camera to him. David hopes he made the right choice. When Artemis was caught, they would stand trial for murder, but with a good lawyer, they might be able to get an insanity plea. What ever happened, it did not look good for David and Artemis Kaliaski.

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Dante appears at the door.
"Where have you been?" I ask, I mean, it's a fucking bus, he was downstairs, but again, this is a magical bus, so, he could have been anywhere.
"Making calls." He replies simply, pulling a face at the scene in front of him. "My Aunt says it's cool if we crash there." He stands awkwardly. "Who's he?" He finally asks. Good bloody question Dante Smith, good bloody question.
"Ben Cevolt." The boy snivels, he'd been in tears since remembering his sisters.

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The boy isn’t sure what to do. His sisters were in a house with their father, who is now dead. He is on a bus, which appears to be single story, but apparently has a floor dedicated to beds. He is with the murderer, who apparently has a boyfriend. While he is 'nice' and 'cosy' on the bus, his sisters are trapped in a house with a dead asshole. Then the new boy asks his name. A series of thoughts occurs: 'Do I use my real name?', 'What are the benefits of lying', 'Who's this new boy?', 'God what do I do?', and a barrage more. He decides on using his real name. What more could happen? He'd been beaten, and abused since the day he was born. What more could happen?

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David watches as Zoe Dorkins plugs the camera in and loads up the footage. He watches as her face goes from confused to morbid. He watches as the lightning flashes and The White Devil appears. He watches as Artemis, his Artemis, kills in cold blood.
"David." She starts her voice cracking. "I'm sorry." She doesn’t know what else to say
"It's okay." He mumbles. "I want to catch them. Whatever it takes and whatever it may mean."

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"I'm Dante Smith." Dante says kneeling by the bed. "You've already met Artemis Kaliaski." He absolutely butchers my name.
"Kali-as-key." I correct. I don't know how he manages to pronounce it wrong, but he does. "He's stupid, don't listen to him." I whisper to Ben. Who, against all odds, smiles. "Better make the booking for three." I say to Dante. "Would you like to stay with Dante and me?"

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Ben isn’t sure. It’s a strange offer. Especially from a murderer. But then again. He has no one else. Well. He has his mother in New York. But that’s kilometres away.
"Where?" He asks.
"Santa Monica." Dante replies, "She has a giant pool, with a great view of the ocean." He speaks softly. Does Dante know what Artemis had done?

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David looks at the two girls, no older than eight, huddled on the stairs in blankets. "What do they know?" He asks Zoe, the newly appointed head of this investigation.
"They saw the whole thing."
"Jesus Christ." A voice gasps, "I could barely stomach that shit on camera, but to see it in person. Fuck me."
"Keep your voice down, McMillan." Zoe orders.
"Do they have anyone to stay with?" David asks.
"Yeah. A mother in New York."
"I'm heading that way, do they need a lift?"
"Thanks, beats me driving down there." Her voice shivers. "One more thing. Don't let your emotions get to you David, this may be your child, but right now they're a murderer, nothing more."

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The concept of a giant pool appeals to me. In a childish sort of way, splashing in the pool. Dante in trunks.
"How much longer, Dante?" I ask.
"I don't fucking know."
"Well go find out."

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Ben is royally confused. One minute he was running from home and onto a single story bus with two floors. Then he was being comforted by a stranger with a healing ball of water. That same stranger then proceeded to murder his father. Then he was invited to stay with said murderer and their boyfriend in Santa Monica. All of this while his sisters were stuck in that house.
"My dad's a cunt." He speaks again. The stranger seems shocked, they don’t speak, instead they pull him closer. And for the first time in his life. He feels safe. Strange, he feels safer with a murderer more than he did with his own father. But then again, Benjamin Cevolt, did not know, could not even dream of what is coming. Or what the stranger truly was.

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"Alright everyone." Zoe shouts, instantly grabbing everyone’s attention. "Alexander Cevolt was murdered sometime between eight-thirty and nine pm, on the 29th." The room is in silence. "Now, we have a key suspect, who is on camera butchering Mr Cevolt." A brief pause. "Artemis Kaliaski." A murmur rises from the crowd. "Yes. That is David's child. But you, I, and David will do all we can to catch them. They are number one priority." A uniform whispered into her ear. "Another key suspect is Benjamin Cevolt, Mr Cevolt’s son, and Dante Smith" Another murmur arose. "I want all of you to work your hardest. We want them alive."

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10) Goodbye

Benjamin Cevolt, Dante Smith, and Artemis Kaliaski, sit on beds. Artemis and Ben on one, Artemis hugging Benjamin, keeping him safe and warm. Dante on the one opposite.

"What now?" Dante asks. I don't know what to do.
"Beats me." I say.
"Six hours until Santa Monica." A robotic voice echoes around the bus.
"Well, at least we know how much longer." Dante laughs, a dry, humourless laugh. I stare at Dante, his brown eyes and red hair seem old, and lifeless. I doubt I look any better I realise. Hell, I probably look like death incarnate. I feel like death. Ben on the other hand, feels like a ball of life in my hand. Having him curled up next to me, feels good. I feel like a new mother cradling her baby. I am an empty pit and Ben is a brother big enough to fill it. Ben lets out a yawn. When did I last sleep?
"I think it's time we sleep." I say.
"Yeah." Dante agrees.

I slip down the stairs. The Driver had mentioned a bathroom. I may not be able to beautify myself, but I sure as hell can try.

The bathroom is exactly where The Driver had said it was, at the back of the bus. I don't know why, but when I open the door, I am surprised. You'd think after everything that had happened, I wouldn't be surprised by this.

The bathroom is not the shitty one you'd expect to find on a bus. It’s more or less what I’d expect to find in a palace. Thirteen stalls - rooms. Each the same, a bath, a shower, a sink, one of those things to wash your ass, a toilet, and a motherfucking sauna big enough for two. Perhaps I would be able to beautify myself.

I stare into the mirror. The piece of shit that stares back at me is most definitely me. Blue eyes, blond hair. Crooked nose. Full lips, a little scar on the right side of my lip. The only thing that worries me is the emptiness of my eyes. Normally when I look into a mirror and into my eyes, I would at least see something. But this time, nothing stares back. My eyes are as lifeless as I feel. I don't even know why I think this, they're just eyes, my eyes. A Shadow distracts me from the emptiness of my eyes. A singular Shadow Person stands behind me. Clearly watching me through the mirror.
"What the fuck do you want?" I'd had enough of them. "Come on. Spit it out wanker." Spittle sprays the mirror. The Shadow Person just stares at me. "That's what I thought cunt." It doesn't even flinch. "You know what? Fuck you! The only time you fucking speak is when you tell me my best friend is dead. The only fucking time you cocksuckers speak." I grab the sink. "You two faced, ass fucking cunt. Go fuck yourself, and tell you daft friends to join in." Apparently, it gets the message. It leaves. I stare at my eyes. Now they have life in them. Not the life I’m used to seeing. But life. The white eyes stare back at me. Pure white. I wipe the tears from my face. I look at the sink. Where I had grabbed the sink, corrosion and rot. It had torn through the ceramic within seconds. I look back to the mirror. Into my eyes, the white fades revealing my normal blue eyes. “What the fuck.” I whisper.
“Do you want to know?” A voice asks. The voice from the jail. The one that had saved my life.
“Yes.” I sob.

I stop next to The Driver.
"What is this bus?" I ask.
"I guess you mean all the magical stuff?" He doesn't even glance up at me. "I used to be a Ferryman of The Dead, but after that was shut down, we had to find other work. I set up this bus, magically infused, usable by humans, monsters, and what not. But the magical stuff is only available to... well, magical beings. And your friend, and that poor boy... I know what you did, he deserved it."

By the time I get back upstairs, Ben and Dante are already fast asleep. I climb into bed next to Dante; I slip under his arm. He wriggles, and pulls me closer.

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A voice wakes me. An old voice. I open my eyes. The voice matches the person I thought it did. Her brown hair spread across the pillow. Her green eyes wide. Her small lips move elegantly.
"Do you ever realise that when you look up at the night sky, we could actually be looking down into the eternal abyss of nothing? Like which way is up?" She looks over at me, her eyes wide, the stars twinkle in her green eyes. I look up at the night sky, the stars glint back at me. And I do think about it, am I looking down? Or left? Maybe even right?
"I had never thought of that. But now, every time I look into the night, ima think 'Well fuck. Which way am I looking?' Thanks."
"Glad I can blow your mind." Her voice soft. She wraps her arms around me and pulls herself closer. She rests her head on my chest. "Man. Space is fucking beautiful. Look at all those fuckers." She points at the stars. "What I would do to go to space."
"What would you do?" I ask.
"Fuck a donkey."
"You nasty, nasty fuck." We both laugh. "You wouldn't even fuck James, never mind an ass."
"Aren't James and an ass the same thing?" Maxine says from across the roof.
"Fuck off." James’ voice flows through the night. We lie on the flat of Chloe's house. Wrapped in blankets. "I'll have you know, im a cat. Not a donkey."
"No. You're a slut. That's what you are." Chloe shouts.
"Seriously though. Bloody Charlotte? Outta all the girls you coulda picked to take to the dance, you picked her? Like the fuck." I laugh.
"Alright bitch, who you taking?"
"We all know who's Artemis is taking." Chloe laughs.
"Yeah. Your sister James." I look at him.
"You lay one hand on my sister and I’ll beat your ass. I don't want you as an in-law. Hell fucking nah." His face was the exact reaction I was expecting.
"Who are you taking?" Chloe asks quietly so Max and James wouldn't hear.
"I don't know. I don't think ima go." I whisper, rubbing her arm.
"Oh."
"Aye yo, Max, a quelle heure?" James shouts kicking his sister.
"Ellie isn't here James, you can stop practising." I laugh. "Damn whore, you'll take whatever comes your way."
"At least I got shit coming my way."
"Its 11:56." Max finally says.
"I'll call Ellie." I pull out my phone, I call Ellie Pascal. She picks up within a couple of rings.
"Sacrebleu. I thought you'd forgotten about me." She hisses.
"Hi to you too. James has been practising his French, just for you." "Ah, Oui, oui, bonjour mon amor, tu est tres beau ajourd’hui." James says, trying his absolute hardest.
"C'est belle pour une femme. Pas 'beau', je ne suis pas une paysage, tu putain. Ca-va Artemis? Chloe, bonne? Et Max, qui est Alex Lloyd?" She says. We all stare at the tiny phone in confusion. We do not have a shit at what she just said.
"Ah oui, oui, baguette, crossiant, pain au chocolate, fromage." Chloe says with her best, and probably quite racist, accent.
"Aight. Shut the fuck up. It's almost time." Max shouts.
"Chill out Maxine, it aint like we'll miss it." James says,
"Don't you call me Maxine. I'll beat your fucking ugly head in."
"Shut the fuck up!" Ellie shouts, unfortunately, due to her being on a phone, it sounds like a small cat.
"Wait. Lemme turn the volume up." I say.
"Wanker." Ellie whispers. "Shut the fuck up!" She tries again, and this time round it can be heard by everyone. And when Ellie orders, we do. "Ten." She starts.
“Too early Ellie.” Max giggles, “Let us do it.”

“Ten” Chloe hollers.
"Nine." Max shouts.
"Eight." James screams.
"Seven." I whisper.
"Six." Chloe yells.
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
"Two."
"One." We all yell. And right on queue. Fireworks launch into the sky. At this time, for the past fifteen years, a festival has taken place, and every time at midnight, they launch fireworks. And it just so happens to coincide with Chloe's birthday.
"Happy Birthday." Max, James, and Ellie shout. James pulls out some confetti launchers, pulls them, showering both Chloe and me in confetti. Pleasantries are exchanged.
"Happy Fifteenth." I whisper into Chloe's ear. She rubs her head into my chest. "I couldn't ask for a better best friend." If I couldn't see her, I would still be able to tell she was smiling. I could feel it in her body.
"Thank you." She giggles.

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I wake in a cold sweat. I look at the roof of the bus. I swallow a lump in my throat, and force back tears. It isn't the first time I’ve dreamt of them. I often do.

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"Do you still dream of them?" Desk-head asks. They'd been quiet for a while now. I had almost forgotten about them.
"No." I look up at them. "I wish I did. I miss them. I miss Chloe. I miss Max. I miss James. I miss Ellie. But most of all. I miss how simple it was. Just us, the only problems were school, boyfriends and girlfriends. Now, it's just me, and a whatever is going on. I miss it. So fucking much."
"If I could wave a magic wand, and anything could happen. What would you want?"
"To be able to say goodbye." I didn't even pause to think. I knew straight away, what I wanted. I had wanted it since she died. I had wanted it ever since. "I would do anything to say goodbye to Chloe."

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11) Satuska

Dante stirs. Not awakening, but he rolls over and his arm stretches for me. I slip out of the bed. Ben sleeps peacefully in the other. He looks like a baby wrapped up in blankets. I can't remember how long it had been since I had properly slept, but it looks like I’ll have to add an extra day to the sleepless pile.

I sneak down the stairs. No one looks up at me; no one seems to care. The Driver had said the bus was open to Magical creatures and Humans, so were the people on board people, or not people? There was no way to tell, without asking of course, but that would be rude. I tap on the glass that separates The Driver from passengers. The Driver slides the window open.
"Yes?" He asks politely.
"Are the people on this bus human or, you know...?” I trail off, unsure of how to ask.
"The only humans on this bus are your friends." He says laughing, "Anything else?"
"Yeah. Is there anything to eat?"
"There's a bloody buffet downstairs." He closes the window. Fuck. I had forgotten he'd mentioned a buffet. It seems kinda crazy, the thought that a bus had a downstairs. Weird but wonderful. The Shadow People, all seven of them stand by the stairs. I don't even glance at them when I walk past. They don't deserve my attention, they never did, but now they definitely don't deserve it. They follow me down the stairs and into the buffet.

Again. I wasn't sure why I was surprised, but I was. By buffet, The Driver wasn’t kidding. A literal buffet. Hundreds of tables and chairs. A couple dozen people. The conflicting smells of a thousand different foods. From the ceiling hang little placards with countries on them. France. England. Brazil. Russia. China. Australia. Each country has their own little stand serving their food. There must be at least two hundred stands, and each with at least thirty different foods. The smell should have been horrendous. Again, I am surprised. The smell is nothing different from that of the rest of the bus.

I look around the room, tables, chairs, stands. The people are the most interesting. A couple of winged... things, sit at one table. And on the other side of the room sit a couple of things with horns. For all the Supernatural I’ve watched, I could never have been prepared to be in a room with monsters. As I step off the last step and my foot hits the floor. The smell also hits me. Now I can smell the conflicting foods and feel the heat from the hundred stands. As my foot hits the floor, every single head in the room turns towards me. A couple of gasps murmur around the room, I swear to God I heard a couple of... things, say, "Ain't that a fucking human?”.
I stroll towards the counter with a sign reading ‘America’; I wasn't sure what I was expecting. But I mean, it was bang on. Hamburgers, pizza, KFC, McDonalds, pancakes, bacon, steak. The typical 'American' food.
"How's this work then?" I ask the... the server? I don't know what to call it. It sure as fuck ain't human.
"You take the food you want. Then you pay. Don't you humans have restaurants?" The server clearly isn’t pleased that I chose to eat at his counter. It’s also clear, that for whatever reason, monsters hate humans. Not like I don't blame them, we are a shit species.

I settle down at a table as far away from everyone that I can. Which is kinda hard when you're on a bus. A magical bus. Still, none the less, it is difficult. There’s a lot of tension in the room; it’s obvious. The horned creatures seem to be muttering about the creatures with wings, and vice versa.
"A goddamn, motherfucking, unicorn." I whisper. Sat no more than fifteen tables in front of me, is a goddamn unicorn, pointy horn and all. It’s weird, to see a horse sat at a table using a knife and fork and eating a steak.

"Three hours until Santa Monica." The tinny voice mutters. None of the other patrons seems to care. How many of them will get off at Santa Monica? Will any? A hand touches my shoulder; I look over my shoulder at the thing that had laid its hand on me.
"Humans aren't allowed here." Its voice slurry, almost as if it were drunk, "So why don't you do us a favour, and fuck off." The scales that cover its body bristle as it says 'Fuck off’; it was almost as if those words inflicted pain in it. I just stare at it. I don't need to do anything. It sees my eyes, but more importantly, it sees what's behind me. I know something is with me, I had felt it as I tore into Ben's father, as the blade pierced his skin. I felt it; it was stood behind me, watching. Now, I feel it again. It stands behind me, and whatever it is, it's enough to scare off a drunk monster, and force silence throughout the room. The room stares at me, wide eyed, gob smacked.

A couple of minutes later, maybe twenty, or thirty, Dante appears with Ben. They spot me easily, kind of hard to miss the only other human teenager in a room full of monsters, all of whom were giving me a wide berth.
"What's their problem?" Ben asks pulling up a chair.
"They don't particularly like humans." I reply simply, the boy doesn't need to know.
"How's this work?" Dante asks.
"You go up to a counter, choose your food and sit down."
"What about paying?"
"I don't know." I do know. Of course I do. I was literally told that it involved paying. But Ben and Dante didn't need to know, they had no money.

Dante and Ben return both with plates stacked with bacon and sausage.
"Dante, how long has it been?" I ask.
"Since what?"
"The mall." I say, his face drops.
"Twenty-one months." He says quietly. Almost two fucking years.
"Holy shit. I'm sixteen this year!" The air escapes me. Ellie is sixteen; Max and James are sixteen. Chloe would have been sixteen. We would all be sixteen. I wonder what they're doing, Chloe in Heaven, Max and James in Parlor and Ellie in France. Shit. We've come a long way. From sitting on roofs laughing, to a magical bus. From worrying about a stupid dance, to cold blooded murder. A scream rips me from my thoughts. I look at Ben and Dante, who both stare at me.
"What the fuck was that?" I laugh.
"I don't know." Dante and Ben say in unison. We aren't the only ones to have heard the scream. Every single person in the room is staring at the stairs. A loud bang fills the room, followed by another scream. The room falls to silence. Everyone stares at the stairs. More bangs. More screams. The sound of boots on the stairs. We all watch as a person rounds the corner. A gun in hand. They raise it and squeeze the trigger. An explosion ripples around the room, a bullet slams into the head of a horned creature, sending blood spraying over the table next to it. The person storms into the room, flanked by more people. All with assault rifles.
"Nobody move." A voice yells. No one moves. I move. I don't even have time to understand what I’m doing. Soon I’m on my feet, staring at the officer who had shouted.
"And who the fuck do you think you are?" I shout. The man stares at us, he grabs a walkie-talkie.
"There are children on this bus." I hear him mutter. "You told us it was just monsters, not humans. Alright." He looks at his squad. "Orders are orders. Everyone on this bus dies." He points at me, "Apart from them." And with those simple words, the room erupts. Winged and horned creates, put aside their differences and charge towards the soldiers. The soldiers barely have time to react before they’re being slaughtered. There are more soldiers than there are wings and horns. Soon, all the wings and horns lay on the floor, only a couple of soldiers are on the floor. The rest of the room takes this to mean 'Stay fucking still’; they sit there, in their chairs, unmoving.

The White Devil appears, it stand in front of us. And before my men or me can react. It's upon us, tearing through our armour and into our flesh. And before you can say 'Fuck' everyone is dead, everyone but me. My legs lay a couple of meters to my right. I stare at them blankly. It doesn't hurt. The White Devil stands before me. I had heard rumours about it. We all had, but to actually see it, is something else. A teenager stands in front of The White Devil. The teenager stares at me. They don't scream or shout, they don't cry, they don't even seem perturbed by what had just happened.
"Who are you?" The teenager speaks with a soft voice, hard to believe that this child had just ordered the death of twenty men. The White Devil growls at me. "Who sent you?" The teenager speaks again. Then they notice the writing on my armour. "What’s Satuska Industries?" They ask, with the smallest hint of emotion. I spit blood towards them. It splatters weakly against their shoes. And that’s when I notice it, the shoes are already covered in blood, dried blood, this teenager has killed before. It becomes clear, Satuska had known what was on this bus, and had lied to me, they had told me it was full of monsters. They had known. I had been lied to. My entire life spent training, just for it to end like this. The White Devil. They had known. They sent us in unprepared. Unknowing. Sent us in to die like cattle. And die we did. Slaughtered. Butchered.

The last officer finally died. He hadn't said a word. The only information was the name, 'Satuska Industries'. Dante and Ben had fled with the rest of the restaurant, leaving only me. The man died with a smile on his face, blood seeping through his clenched teeth. I step over the bodies of twenty men and women. I climb the stairs; I step into the bus. The people, who were unlucky enough not to have been in the buffet, had been executed, military style, bullet to the head. I look around for The Driver, or his body. I glance over the dead, none of them The Driver.

I step out into the dark night, the cold breeze slithers over me. It runs its hands through my hair. The moon shines brightly. You know in books when they say the moon glistened, or some other dumb shit? I had never understood it, no matter how long I looked at the moon; it never glistened. But now, with only the moon to light the ground, I understand. I look around. No one else is around, literally no one. The bus is the only other thing. I realise with a jolt that the doors in the restaurant probably led to different places, and the only way to get to where I was, was through the bus. I step back onto the bus, I reach the stairs, and to my horror, there are no stairs. No up and no down. I rush to the toilet; I push open the door, a shitty bus toilet. Fuck. The bus is a normal bus. With a couple dead people on it, and I was the only person near it.
"Fuck." I scream to the sky. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." I look around. I don’t have a shit where I am, I could be miles from the nearest human. Dante and Ben could be on the other side of the world. The only other people near me were, of course, The Shadow People. They watch me as I scream into the sky, as I collapse to the floor. I stare at the sky. It's beauty astonishes me. Somewhere, out there, is life, and somewhere, some place, something else is doing the same as me, staring into the darkness, and wondering. Soon the night transforms into a memory.

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"What'ya thinking 'bout?" Chloe asks, her head presses into my chest as she rolls over to face me. Max and James lay on the floor engrossed by some shitty movie, Ellie lay next to James, quite close, but that isn’t unusual, they always seem to be close. They aren’t dating, they don’t even seem to like each other, but they’re always close. Hell, we’re all always close. If I stretch my foot out, I can kick Max in her buzz cut head, if I stretch the other, I can kick James and Ellie at the same time. Chloe rests her head on my chest, like always; it seems to be her favourite place to lay.
"What'd'ya mean?" I ask mimicking her.
"You've gone quiet." She looks at me. It's not like I could tell her what I was actually thinking, that if I hadn't know Max for my entire life, and if I didn’t know every single little thing about her, and her twin brother wasn’t one of my best friends, I'd probably find her quite attractive. No, I definitely couldn't tell her I was thinking that. None of us exactly understood why she shaved her head, when she told us she wanted to do it, we all told her it was stupid and not to. But against our better judgement, a day later, she walked into school with a shaved head, not completely bald, but the military cut. A couple of boys had taken the piss out of her new 'hair' cut, which ended as well as you'd expect. Max and James had been doing some sort of martial arts ever since I met them, granted, James was useless and had given up long ago; Max on the other hand, seemed to have some sort of natural talent for hitting people. I notice Chloe still looking at me.
"Oh, no, im just tired, that's all." I whisper, brushing hair out of her face.
"Go sleep then." She says pulling a weird face. She rolls her head back to the TV.

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"Back then, the days we spent together, the nights, I never thought about Chloe, Max, James or Ellie. I just accepted that they were my friends, I never once gave it any thought that one day we might not be friends. I had always taken it for granted, never once told them how much I loved them." Here I sit. In a stupid office, with a stupid person without a name, talking about memories and monologuing to some unknown person. The Shadow People watch, they always watch. Watching, watching, waiting, watching. I don't understand them; what they are, who they are, what they want, what they're doing. I look at one now; it stands there. Hair dangling over its shoulder, it’s either a guy with long hair, or it’s a girl. It stands monotone, just there, its body conveys no emotion. I look at another, short hair, not a single strand dangles. They all have their differences; different hair, different ways of moving, but they all share one similarity; they convey no emotion. They just stand and watch. And the only time they speak is when something bad is happening or going to happen. But their voices, aren’t voices; it’s like a feeling, when they open their mouths, it isn’t words I hear, I feel them speak, it shivers through my body, scratching at memories, peeling away thoughts, sending neurones firing. When they speak - when I feel them speak, it’s like everything I have ever known and loved, ceases to exist. The feeling tears through my body and makes me wish I were dead. That's what it's like to hear The Shadow People talk. "And now, that they're gone. And the world I once knew is up in flames; now, I look back onto memories, and wish I had told them that they mean the world to me. I'll never hear their voices again, see them smile, feel Chloe's head on my chest, watch Max make stupid choices, watch through gritted teeth as James flirts with anything in a dress, watch as Ellie achieves brilliant grades effortlessly. I'll never know if she suffered... if they suffered."
"You talk as if they are all dead." Desk-head says. I stare at them. God. They’re an asshole, I hate them so much.
"They are dead. Chloe is dead. Max, James and Ellie. Could be alive. But I’ll never know."
"Why won’t you know?" Desk-Head looks at me, at me - No, Desk-Head looks through me. "Why don't you, as soon as we're done here, go out and find them." Desk-Head continues to look through me. They're right of course, why don't I just leave and go find them. Is it cause I don't want to? I can't bear the thought of facing them? Why don't I just go? I could just get up and leave. Right now. I could stand and leave. Never see Desk-Head again. A choice. I toy with the ring on my finger, sliding it off. I cup it between thumb and forefinger. I place it on the table. It clinks against the glass.
"Chloe gave me this ring, on my twelfth. On that day, she made me promise, made me promise that no matter what happened, I wouldn’t run. I wouldn't leave, I wouldn't get up and walk out. Those are the words she made me say, 'I won’t run. I won’t leave and I won’t get up and walk out.' She made me say those words, three years before they would mean anything. She made me say I wouldn't walk out. It was as if she knew that one day, I would face that choice. I made the promise. I told her that no matter what happened I wouldn't walk out."

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I sit up. I brush the dust off my clothes. I made a promise. I promised Chloe I wouldn't run. I wouldn't leave. I wouldn't get up and walk out. "I will never break that promise." I say to the sky. I stare at what's before me; a bus full of dead people, and open land. Literally nowhere to go. I look down the road. Nothing, no head lights, nothing, not even a street light. Nothing, but the distant twinkle of lights. Far. Very far. But on a clear night like this, you can see straight down the road, and out to sea. I don’t know where I am, but I know that Santa Monica is close to the sea. Or at least I think it is. I’m not sure. But, miles away there are lights. Be it a petrol station or a town, hell, some sort of monster nightclub, would do. I don't care what it is. I just need somewhere. I take one last look behind me: no cars, no lights, and nobody. I start the long walk towards the light.

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12) Santa Monica

Dante and Ben step, more accurately, are pushed, through a door. The surge of monsters spills out into the street. Dante loses sight of Ben, and of Artemis. The crowd pours onto the sidewalk, and as quickly as it had pushed Dante and Ben out, it subsides. All the monsters donning disguises, and walking into normality. It’s a marvellous thing to watch. Watching a couple hundred monsters storm out through a single door, quickly putting on their disguises, and then vanishing into the crowds of Santa Monica.

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The monster community is small. Not small, as in its only got a couple hundred members, it has nearly three billion, but small as in you could go through an entire city and not find a single monster, then go to the next city and go through that one and find several million. The monster community seems to group together. Only a couple hundred cities have a monster community, but those cities are filled with monsters. Santa Monica just happens to have one of the densest monster communities in the entire world. So for all the monsters who fled from the buffet, it was quite a relief to find themselves in Santa Monica. But for Dante and Ben, being in Santa Monica is beyond bad. Dante and Ben were removed from the buffet so quickly that they had both lost sight of Artemis and each other. And being in a city with over thirty-nine thousand monsters, a hell of a lot more humans, both increases the chances of a current fugitive being spotted, and for said fugitives who have no clue where anything is, to get lost.

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Despite the early plans to go to Dante’s Aunts, neither Ben nor Dante knew where the fuck the Aunt lived. Dante had arranged to meet her on the beach, but he had neglected to tell Ben or Artemis this information over breakfast. So as Ben was hustled through the doors and away from Dante, he only had one thought on his mind, "Where the fuck do I go?" And as the crowd subsides, Ben realises he’s now the only remaining person on this pavement.

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Dante stares in bewilderment, he looks all around, he doesn’t have a shit where he is, and he’s a million miles out of his depth. The only city he'd ever been to was New York, and that was on holiday. Being thrown into a new city, by oneself, is usually not high on the list of great things. Dante knows he has a couple of choices. He can leave Artemis and Ben behind and join his Aunt, or he can join his Aunt and then find Artemis and Ben. The second choice is obviously the one he wants to do. But he doesn’t have a fuck where he is, or where he’s meant to meet his Aunt.
"Fuck." He whispers into the night sky. The moon glares down at him.

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Ben watches as the crowd from the buffet disperses, going this way and that. And before he knows it, all evidence suggesting a large crowd of monsters, has vanished. Ben leans against a wall, in his mind, all evidence is pointing towards the idea that in a couple of minutes Artemis would walk through the door. Unless... no. He couldn't even think it... unless Artemis Kaliaski, is dead. Despite this horrendous thought spiralling through his mind, he remains calm; he keeps his composure. He looks around at his surroundings, trying to identify anything that might help him find out where he is.

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Dante knows he has to act quickly; he looks around, looking for a place to hide perhaps, a place with a vantage of the door, so he could see if Artemis comes through. Unless of course Artemis is dead.

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Artemis Kaliaski, is not dead, in fact, they have never felt more alive. Artemis had made a promise to Chloe, and they do not intend to break said promise. They assume that Ben and Dante have been deposited by the door into another part of the world. And Artemis prays that it just happens to be Santa Monica. They also pray that the light they’re moving towards, is also Santa Monica. But without the knowledge of where the fuck they are, not that it would have helped, Artemis had always been useless at geography, it’s quite hard for Artemis to know if they were even moving in the right direction.

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Ben watches as a horse-drawn carriage trundles along the road. He stares gobsmacked at what the 'driver' is wearing. He finally takes in his surroundings. The buildings are new, not modern new, but new, as in freshly built. He glances around; all the buildings seem new. He spies a couple coming out of a building. He runs to them.
"Where the fuck am I?" Ben shouts as he reaches the couple. They look at him, bewildered, and slightly disgusted. Ben quickly realises he’ll need to change his tactic, "Please. I lost my mum, and I don't know where I am."
"Santa Monica..." The women offered, before being shot down by a stare from the man.
"Don't talk to him; he is clearly a pick-pocket, or a hooligan." Ben hears the man whisper to the women. The man grabs the women by the arm and drags her away from Ben. Ben's assumption that he had arrived in Santa Monica is correct. But, this isn’t the Santa Monica he knows, it’s nothing like it was on TV. He sees a little alleyway that has a fire escape positioned so he’d be able to watch the door. In a hurry, Ben sprints towards the fire escape, and straight past a newspaper stand. Ben climbs the fire escape, and sits, and waits.

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Dante looks around; he’s decided to stick around, at least for a bit, he sees an alleyway with a fire escape positioned so he would be able to watch the door. He climbs the fire escape and sits, and waits.

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Ben, waits, and waits, and waits, and, waits. And before long, the sun is rising. He had known it was coincidence that he’d ended up in Santa Monica, he also knew that if Artemis had tried the door, there was almost a zero percent chance that they would also end up in Santa Monica. Ben drops down from the fire escape. He sees the newspaper stand, and a horrendous thought occurs to him. He grabs a newspaper and looks at it. He scans it, trying to find it. There, in the corner, a date. As he reads it, he felt his heart give way, the date reads, nineteen-thirty-two.

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Dante watches the door for hours; soon the sun is rising. And he knows that Artemis is either dead, or had simply taken a longer route. Dante thinks about writing a note for Artemis, but quickly realises that if Artemis is dead, there was no way they'd ever find it. Instead, Dante decides to find his Aunt. They'd arranged to meet on the beach at eight-am, a hour after the time The Driver had predicted they'd arrive in Santa Monica. Dante knows his best hope rests in finding his Aunt and then finding Artemis and Ben.

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Ben wakes up in a cold sweat. His thoughts are; 'Thank God, it was all a dream.', then 'Where am I?', then a more forceful thought, 'if it was all a dream, then my dad’s alive'. This thought alone is enough to scare him into moving. He leaps out of bed, and crashes into a table, knocking off a pot of broth.
"Hey!" A young voice shouts, "Mammon, il est réveillé." The voice shouts. Ben looks around, dazed in confusion, he sees a young girl, about his age, sat on a chair. Another person enters the room, a much older and larger woman.
"Bonjour? Tu parles français ou American?" She asks.
"American." Ben repeats, this being the only word he understands.
"Okay. I'm Stephanie" she says, "That's Camille." She says pointing at the girl in the chair.
"Where am I?" Ben asks, "I don't mean to sound rude, but I don't where I am, or who you are."
"It's okay. You're in Santa Monica. Lucky for you we found you; you were passed out on the street."
"Mammon, qui est-il?" Camille asks. Ben knew he should understand what they are saying; he had spent the past 10 years of his life learning French. Still, that accounts for nothing when you wake up in a strange house, with a stranger who suddenly starts speaking the language fluently.
"Camille wants to know who you are." Stephanie translates.
"Benjamin Cevolt." He says automatically.
"Strange name. Where you from?"
"Missouri." Again, he speaks on autopilot. It only just occurs to Ben that if the year really is nineteen-thirty-two, then these people may not have heard of Missouri, if it even exists in this point in time.
"Sounds European." Stephanie muses, "Olivia will love to meet you." She pauses, "Do you have family here?"
"No." Ben says. He doesn't, if the year really is nineteen-thirty-two, which it is starting to seem like, then he is fucked, he has no family, no money and no clue of how this world works. For all he knows, he could be sold off at an auction.
"Well, you're welcome to stay with us for as long as you like." Stephanie says.
"Quoi?" Camille asks,
"C'est bon pour lui pour rester ici."
"AH, Mammon, mais pourquoi?"
"Parce que, il est ton âge, et il n'a pas une famille, et on est une famille.""Mammon!" Camille protests.
"Arrête." Stephanie says firmly, and Camille obeys. "Désole, for that, Camille is very shy around strangers, but you are welcome to stay."
"Merci beaucoup." Ben says politely.
"Merde, tu parles Français?" Stephanie asks wide-eyed. Ben just stares at her, he speaks French, a tiny bit, just enough to say 'Thank you' and 'I would like.' He would never have survived in France. "Non. Where did you learn to say that?"
"Sch-" Ben starts, before realising he was in nineteen-thirty-two, and he wasn't sure if this time had schools, especially schools that taught foreign languages. He had to think quickly. "My families from Europe and their family stretches back to France, Germany, and Spain, and I learnt a couple of phrases from my grand-parents." He hoped this lie would hold out.
"They must be rich if they have ties to France, Germany, and Spain." Stephanie says, as if trying to catch him out on his lie.
"No, just workers." He says. Camille sits up at this.
"Worker?" She repeats, "Workers." She says sounding out the letters. "Travail!" She says triumphantly.
"Très bonne mon petit poisson." Stephanie says rubbing the little girl’s hair. Ben takes a good look at Camille, she’s clearly all there, just didn't understand English, she’s also quite pretty. "Olivia will be home soon, come help me and Camille clean, and then fresh clothes for you" She looks at what Ben's wearing, "What are you wearing? European clothes." She says in disgust. "Quick, quick."

The food’s made, the house is clean, Ben’s in 'fresh' clothes, and Camille’s excited. "She hasn't had veal before, and the chance to try something new is spectacular to her." That was the only explanation Ben receives. He isn’t sure what veal was, but he thinks if he asks, he wouldn't sound European.

Ben quickly realises there’s no way to tell the time. He has no clue if it’s mid-afternoon or six in the evening. The only way he could tell is by the light shining in through the window, there are no clocks in the house, and definitely no mobile phones. Stephanie and Camille are good fun. Camille likes to laugh, and Ben can make her laugh by doing almost anything.

Ben guesses it’s around six when Olivia arrives. A slender man, comb over, and overalls. "Bonjour mon chéri et mon petit poisson." He looks at Ben, "Et qui?" He asks. Ben’s unsure if he’s asking him or Stephanie, or even Camille. He looks at Olivia uncertain, but luckily Camille comes to the rescue.
"Il est, Benjamin Cevolt." It sounds weird the way she says his name, but she also seems extremely happy with herself for being able to say it.
"Ah? Et?" He looks at Stephanie, obviously understanding Ben didn't speak French. "Il est un garçon, qui, Camille et moi découvre dans Santa Monica, et il était très malade, donc, ont pris lui ici." She says, then she leans in a whispers something into his ear.
"Ah oui. Oui, c'est bon." Olivia kneels down in front of Ben. "Stephanie tells me they found you ill in Santa Monica and brought you here. Then she told me you don't speak French, and are European and have no family ici. That true?" He asks.
"Yes sir." Ben says, he was unsure about the sir, but it made Olivia smile.
"If you stay here there's no need to call me sir." Olivia says, "Olivia, or dad, will do just fine."
"Okay, dad." Ben said, it felt weird saying that word, dad, especially to a man he had just met. But, hey, there’s nowhere else to go

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13) A Blue Café

Saying the walk to the light is long and tedious, would be an understatement. I stand, more than two kilometers from where I started, and still, the light seems no closer. Nothing seems any closer, the only thing that seems to have changed, is how far away the bus is, so I know I am moving. But every time I look up from the ground to check on the light, it's no closer. Several times, I have wondered if it's a light at all, maybe im just seeing shit. I have also explored the possibility that the light is a Shadow Person, but all seven are stood beside me, and, why the fuck would A Shadow Person be that far from me? They are never more than fifty meters away, and for that to change now, would be beyond spectacular, and worrying.

To say the landscape around me is invigorating would be a joke. There is no landscape, no hills, no sheep, no cows, literally nothing of interest. Just flat land. Honestly, my visit to America has been the worst holiday ever. And I say that having had had a holiday where my best friend killed herself. I let out a laugh, a cold, heartless laugh. It echoes through the night. I look up at the sky. Or do I look down? I smile. I look at the moon; it sits there, in the sky, on its throne, watching me. Why do I say it's sat on a throne? Cause it fucking looks like it alright?
"Who the fuck am I talking to?" I shout to the sky. I half expect the sky to shout back telling me to 'Shut the fuck up', but it doesn't, instead it remains exactly how it was. Boring, empty, infinite space. Quite wonderful when you think about it.

I glance up from the floor, and to my astonishment, the light has moved. It seems closer now, barely noticeable, but when it's the only thing to look at, you notice.
"You see that God? I'm fucking winning!" I yell this to the moon. Ha. Lunatic derives from a belief that the moon installed insanity. Look at me now, yelling about God to the moon. A bloody lunatic.

As Artemis walks through the dry landscape having the time of their life, Dante is not having the time of his life.

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Since climbing the fire escape to watch the door, however many hours ago that was, nothing interesting has happened. A couple of drunks have gotten into a fight, but that had ended quickly. Dante keeps one eye on the door, whilst keeping the other peeled for something, anything, interesting. So far, he has counted ninety-six cars that had passed; the same one more than three times. Forty-six people walking around, twelve drunks, and a group of sixteen teenagers, the eldest he had guessed to be sixteen and the youngest twelve.

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However, in ninety-thirty-two, Ben, is actually having the time of his life. Since coming here, fourteen weeks ago, a lot has happened. He has become part of the family of Balatrise, he is now known as son of Stephanie and Olivia Balatrise, whenever such formalities were required. He’s become friends with the local boys and girls, quickly fitting in, he adjusted to life, quite easily. Most nights though, he lies awake, thinking about Artemis and James, have they noticed he disappeared? Were they alive? And sometimes, 'How has my life here impacted the world I came from?' Did he inadvertently stop Morgan Freeman from staring in Bruce Almighty? Is his name honored on some wall somewhere for some heroic deed? The thought he least liked, 'Will they try to rescue me?’ Each night is the same, come in, eat, play with Camille, go to bed, and stay up for hours thinking. Each day is the same; wake, wash, eat, school, homework, play, come in, eat, play with Camille, go to bed. It isn’t repetitive though, if anything Ben prefers this life to the one he had had with mobile phones, and internet, and video games. The weekends are tough though, working around the house, helping in the farm. Work he would never have even thought about doing fifteen weeks ago.

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I look at the sky. Watching the stars overhead. The moon has slipped behind a hill. The sun has its hat on. I don't know how far I’ve walked, or for how long. My legs are numb, I think my foot started bleeding a while back, but now it's stopped. I can't feel my legs or my feet anymore, and yet they keep going. One after another. With each step, I get closer to the light. I can see my progress now. Every time I look up, the light is closer. Ever so closer. I wonder what it is?
"What do you think it is?" I ask The Shadow Person closest to my left. They don't answer, they keep walking. "I think it's some sort of strip-club that allows teenagers without an ID in, and I can get all the free drinks and food I want. And hookers." The Shadow Person doesn't even smile. "Tough crowd." I say to the sky. God. I've been alone, what, three hours? And I’m already going mad. If The Shadow People start talking, then I really do have a problem. I look at them as I walk. Something about them is different. I can feel the difference, but I can’t put my tongue on it. I look at the light, and my eyes leap out of their sockets. The light’s no more than two-thousand meters away. I look at The Shadow Person, "Race you." I say, and I start running. "Last one there's a rotten egg." I yell into the inky blackness.

The light drifts into vision; it illuminates a building. A lone building, no Santa Monica, but a building at least. There's one person inside. I stumble through the door. Before I can say anything, a familiar voice speaks,
"Took your time. I expected you here half an hour ago." The voice says. I turn to face the voice, dreading what it’ll see. I pray I’m wrong, but alas, I’m not. A girl sits, with black hair and blue tips; a beanie sits atop the hair.
"You gotta be fucking shitting me." I say.
"Watch your language." The blue haired girl says.
"Watch my language?" I gasp, "Last time we were in a room together you killed a guy! And I was arrested for it!"
"Shhhh. Do you want to get arrested for that again?" She says, I don't even need to say anything. "Now sit. We got some talking."
"Nah. You got talking to do. And paying." I collapse into the seat opposite. And before The Blue Haired Girl can open her mouth, a waitress is besides us, ready to take my order.
"I'll take the biggest stack of pancakes I can have, with bacon, a coke, and some water. Please." I order.
"I'll have a coffee." The Blue Haired Girl says. Once the waiter is out of earshot, she speaks. "I expect you have some questions."
"Of course I have questions." I basically shout.
"Shut up. Keep your voice down, we don't know who's listening."
"Who could be listening!" I whisper furiously.
"Satuska Industries. God. Shadow. Just to name a few."
"Yeah on that. Who the fuck or what the fuck is Satuska Industries? I was just fucking attacked by them."
"We know."
"Who?"
"The Children of Eden." The Blue Haired Girl says, as if it's meant to mean anything to me. "Don't worry, it'll make sense eventually." She says after seeing my blank stare.
"Nah. I want sense now."
"Well. You don't get a choice." Sparks crackle along her hands. "Now." She says as the waitress returns with a coke a jug of water, and a coffee. "Satuska Industries is a mega-corporation based in Shanghai, they recently launched a task force to hunt and kill monsters." She notices the blank look, "That's as much as I can say. Next."
"Who are you?"
"Can't say."
"Fine." I sip my coke; it feels great. "What is going on."
"What day is it?"
"March, uh, fuck. March 27th, I think."
"Alright." She sips her coffee. "Basically. Twenty-one months ago, you were caught in a terrorist attack, inducing a coma. Whilst in that coma you visited a plane of existence called The Other World, there you met Dagda and presumably The Seer. The Seer saw something in you that shook the universe, shaking spider-webs off the universes most deadly. One of those visited a deity that goes by the name of Shadow." She sips her coffee, looking at me. "Following?"
"Yeah."
"Good. This deity, Shadow, attacked you in The Palace of The Gods, you were returned to Earth. You woke up blind. Met up with Dante. A café. Another café. Shadow frees you from jail. You board a magical bus driven by The Driver, an ex-ferryman of the dead. There you meet Ben Cevolt; you learn his father was abusing him, so you kill Alex Cevolt. Satuska Industries attack the bus. Dante and Ben leave through a side door, ending up in Santa Monica, you leave through the front door, ending up here." She coughs as the waitress returns with a huge stack of pancakes and bacon. "And now we're here."
"Where is here?"
"The fuck should I know?"
"Cause you're here."
"So are you." She says smirking. "Anything else?" I glance at her wrist, and where, last time there was a tattoo, this time there isn't.
"Yeah. What am I? I'm told I’m not human, so what am I?" This seems to stun the girl; she pauses.
"Be right back." She says standing and rushing to the toilet. Ten seconds later, she's back "Yeah. I can't tell you that." I glance at her wrist again, and there, the tattoo.
"What are The Shadow People?"
"The what?" She sounds surprised.
"Yeah, The Shadow People. Can you not see them?"
"No. I can't. Anything else."
"How do you know so much?”
"Yeah. I definitely can't tell you that."
"One last thing. Are Max and James and Ellie alive?"
"Yes. All three of them. Chloe is currently in Heaven."
"Heavens real?"
"Yes. And Hell, and Purgatory, and the Afterlife."
"The Afterlife?"
"Yeah, if you make it into Heaven, you get a choice between Heaven and the Afterlife. The Afterlife is basically, you choose where you're born and you are born into a world full of other people who chose the Afterlife, you get to choose your age, but you can't choose what you look like." She looks at me. "Chloe chose that. She said it was because." She pauses "she hopes that one day she'll meet you there."

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14) Code Blue

"You know Chloe?" I stutter. I can’t believe it. "How?"
Blue Haired girl reacts surprisingly; tears form in her eyes. "Long story short, I’ve met her a couple of times." She blinks back the tears and sparks dance across her fingers. "She's a great girl. You were lucky to have her. I'm sorry." She rushes to the toilet.

I stare into space. This strange Blue Haired Girl with lightning at her fingertips knows Chloe. Knows about Heaven, and knows about everything that has happened in the past twenty-one months. Thoughts rush around my head. Mainly involving Chloe. The idea that she chose to live life again, and... and if what this stranger said, about her saying that she chose to live life again because she hoped one day she'll meet me in it, then, then I don't know. My entire life has been shattered. I've lived my entire life not believing in Heaven or Hell, or God, or anything. And now, I know there's a Heaven, a Hell, an Afterlife, Gods. Another question to ask Blue Haired Girl pops into my head. The waitress comes over and says something. I don't hear it. I don't even respond. All I can think about is Chloe. I can see her sat in front of me, smiling and laughing. I can see Max and James, and Ellie too. They live. I live. Chloe lives on. The idea that somewhere out there, Max, James, and Ellie are alive, fills me with a burning happiness. But the fact that Chloe lives on in the Afterlife is what I can't believe. Blue Haired Girl reappears, she sits down.
"Chloe speaks a lot of you." She says gently, "Every time I see her, it's always Artemis this, Artemis that." Her eyes bloodshot, "She loved you, you know?"
"How many times have you met her?" I ask, shattering the thoughts.
"Only a handful, six at the most."
"Since when?"
"Since..." She seems unsure of how to answer. "Since she turned twelve... and a couple of times after she died."
"Since she turned twelve! That was four years ago! You were in Parlor!"
"I didn't live in Parlor, I passed through a couple of times, and each time Chloe always saw me and spoke to me.
"What were you, some kind of secret lover?"
"No, no, no. She loved you Artemis. Her and I only spoke, for very brief minutes. And since she died, whenever I see her, it's always you we speak about. Always you. Don't you understand, that even in death, you're all that's on her mind." She says. I don't understand. If this stranger had know Chloe since she was twelve, why didn't I know? Did Max, James and Ellie know? "She never lied to you. She didn't tell you, cause it was nothing. We'd be walking down the street and bump into each other. See each other shopping. We never purposely met." She speaks her voice faint. "She loved you Artemis, you were her best friend. She loved you. Artemis?" She taps my hand with a finger, sending sparks shooting through me.
"Ow!" I yelp. "After she died, how do you... you know?"
"I can't explain."
"You've been to Heaven?"
"Yes, a couple of times." She stares out behind me. "Artemis, we really need to go."
"Why?" I look behind me. Four armed officers have walked in, they don't look our way, they just sit down and order coffee.
"Satuska." Blue Haired Girl whispers. "We need to go." She seems frightened. We hurriedly step out of the booth, we stride towards the door.
"Hey! Where you two going? You haven't paid!" The waitress shouts.
"Don't look back." Blue Hair hisses. I hear the sound of the officers turning.
"Hey! You two stop! She's speaking to you!" One of them says.
"Keep going. Don't stop. Don't look back."
"Hey!" A hand grabs my shoulder, spinning me around. "Pay the nice lady and we might let you off." The officer doesn't recognise me. Why would he? His colleagues on the bus were dead. Another officer grabs Blue Hair's shoulder and spins her around.
"Oh fuck." He shouts as he recognises Blue Hair. All the officers recognise Blue Hair. They reach for their guns, but before they can do anything, Blue Hair raises a hand and electricity leaps from her fingers, wrapping itself around the officers, and, well, frying them. The smell of burning hair and flesh fills the restaurant. The waitress screams.
"Run!" Blue Hair shouts. We sprint through the doors. Five other officers are stepping out of their cars as we enter the parking lot. They stare at us. One grabs a radio.
"Code blue!" He yells. That's as much as he can manage as two-hundred thousand volts of electricity sizzle through his body. His body launches one hundred-meters. The other officers raise their guns; only four bullets are fired. All four narrowly miss us. Then the officers are on the floor sizzling like sausages.
"Can you drive?" Blue Hair asks leaping into the car.
"No." A thought occurs to me. "Can you?"
"Sort of." She says turning the key.
"Good thing the keys were still in the car." I say and with that Blue Hair slams the car into 'go' and speeds towards the exit. We sail across the road, with a sharp pull of the steering wheel we break onto the motorway.
"This thing feels like a whale with an eating disorder. Unless all cars are like this."

We speed down the motorway; no other cars were on the road. The radio speaks to us. Asking stuff like, 'What's the situation?', 'Report', the kind of things you'd expect to hear in a movie. Then more seriously, "Code Blue. All stations, Code Blue."
"That's me." Blue Hair yells with joy. "I'm code blue. Blue for my hair. And for my lightning." She sends sparks crackling across her fingers, "Did you know that I can make them any colour I want?" And to prove her point she sends red sparks dancing across her fingers, followed by orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally violet. Soon a rainbow is dancing across her hands, moving at such speed it looks like one. "Not only does this kill, but it also contains memories, allowing me to make it do absolutely anything, as long as I remember it." And with that music starts playing. "Do you have a cell phone?" She asks, and for the first time, I remember the cell phone that I had when I was blown up. Did it survive?
"No."
"Eh. Perhaps Dante does." We sit in silence for a couple of songs.
"That tattoo, what is it?" I ask.
"This?" She says pulling down her sleeve.
"Yeah."
"Oh. It's a tattoo.” She points a finger at the window and lets a bolt of lightning fly. It engraves the tattoo into the glass. "The four lines represent The Four, and the triangles represent some bullshit that triangles are the strongest shape found in nature." It’s two triangles minus the bottoms, one above the other, with a little curve at the end of each of the four lines.
"How old are you?" I ask.
"Why?"
"You just murdered like thirty people."
"You've killed around the same amount." She thinks for a second, "I turn sixteen this year."
"What's your name?"
"Would ruin the surprise, but most people call me Blue."
"Alright, Blue. Where we going?"
"Santa Monica of course."

We drive effortlessly down the road. Of course effortlessly is an exaggeration, Blue really has never driven a car, and it also seems like she’s have never played Mario Kart. I have questions bobbing around my head, each one slightly different. I know I could ask anything I wanted, but I can’t think of the perfect question. No question that I have seems good enough. And the more I think about the questions, the less questions I come up with. Eventually I give up on asking questions. I stare at the cuts engraved in the window.
"What are The Four?" I ask.
"Now, I would normally look at you. But seeing as I can't drive for shit, you're gonna have to make do with these sarcastic words." Blue replies instantly. "The Four, are a group of Four people. They can be anyone." She stops, “They’re born, but they remain normal humans until the universe is in great peril. Then The Four's powers appear. But if during the time of The Four, the universe doesn't fall into peril, then The Four remain human and die, and then as soon as The Four die, another set are born. And so forth and it repeats. But, if the universe is in danger, then The Four get their powers and their destiny is to either destroy the universe or save it." She pauses, "And right now, The Four are a group of idiots with no clue on what's going on. And due to the not knowing, we don't know where they are, so we can’t do shit." She draws a smiley face in the glass.
"So what, The Four are universe destroying, or saving, deities?"
"Yes and no. The Four were created at the same time The Elders were. And since then The Four have been on Earth 'Safeguarding' it, but there has never been a time when they've been needed, until now. And now we can't find them."
"What are The Elders?"
“Ah…” Blue says, “Uh… The Elders are eight beings created by God. One of those eight – destruction decided to destroy everything. The other seven were like nah. Split themselves, creating the minor Gods. Zeus, Poseidon. Them lot.”
"What can you tell me about you?" I ask. Blue sits there in silence for a couple of minutes.
"I work with The Children of Eden, and that's all that I can say."
"Can't you give me something about The Children of Eden?"
"No."

The radio buzzes.
"All units report, we have a possible sighting of Code Blue, heading west, outskirts of Santa Monica. They are armed and deadly, kill on sight. They are believed to be travelling with Code White, utilise extreme caution."
"Uh oh.” Blue says glancing in the mirrors. "That sighting is most definitely not a possible. We might have a problem."
"What kind of problem?"
"As in, the bad guys are right behind us." She says, I look behind us, and sure enough, a group of five cars are right behind us.
"Well, do something then." I hiss.
"Do what? Zap 'em with lightning? These cars are built to resist electricity, due to me. So as long as they're in those, I can't do squat."
"What's Code White?"
"Dunno. And I ain't just saying that, I seriously don't know."
"Unit Nine-Three-Five. Hurry the fuck up." A voice crackles over the radio.
"Is that us?" I ask.
"I assume so." Blue says stepping on the gas. The car leaps forward, nearing one-hundred-and-forty miles per hour. "I was not expecting this to go so fast." She squeals in delight. "I can't drive for shit, but this may at least make it fun." We hurtle down the road, with the other cars right behind us. They don't seem to have realised that we're in the car. Within moments of Blue speeding up, I can see the lights of a city twinkling. "Santa Monica." Blue whistles, "My least favourite place in the whole world." By now, the moon has set, and the sun is half-way to its highest peak.
"Nine-Three-Five, who is in the car?" The radio buzzes.
"And not a moment too soon." Blue says grabbing the radio, "This is Code Blue speaking. Surprise boys." As soon as the words Code Blue are said, the cars behind us swerve so quickly that three out of the five flip. "Three down. Two to go." A wailing sounds. "These cars have sirens?" Blue gasps, "Aye, Artemis, try to turn ours on."
"Don't we have bigger problems?"
"Nah. They ain't gonna ram us while we're in one of the most expensive cars in the world. These babies cost almost three million." Blue is right of course. The cars behind us make no attempt to ram us, instead they just follow. "You bullet proof?" Blue asks.
"What?"
"Never mind. How about shatter proof?"
"Whatever you're thinking about doing. Don't do it. I'm human." I say. Blue looks at me, with a face that seems to be saying 'seriously'
"You can't be that fucking naive." She says slamming on the brakes. Normally slamming on the brakes whilst going a hundred miles per hour would cause serious injuries, and most likely death. The car stops, almost instantly. I am flung forward and my head smashes against the window. Blue’s sent flying through the glass and across the road. I watch as the cars brake and face us. Blue lies in the middle of the road covered in blood. The world goes black, just for a split second. Then it's back, Blue stands in the middle of the road, no blood, no broken bones. She stares the cars down. The officers know if they step out they'll be fried, but as long as they're in the cars, they're fine.
"Wankers." I hear Blue shout. She runs over to me. "You okay?" I hear her say. I can't feel anything, so I doubt im okay. "Aye, you'll be fine, just a bit of blood." She grabs my arms, yanks me out of the chair, and dumps me onto the floor. She points a finger at me and lets a couple of sparks leap onto me. I feel them wiz over my body. And before I know it, I can feel, I can hear properly, I would say, and I can see. But even the sparks don’t fix that. The Shadow People stand in the middle of the road, as if daring the officers to get out. "We'll be fine." Blue says, then the world goes black.

When I wake, I find myself quite comfortable. I open my eyes and am surprised to see Dante staring down at me. "Surprise." I say.
"Blue! They're awake!" Dante shouts, "You okay? I heard about what happened, hell everyone did." He whispers. Blue appears at the door,
"Alright fuck off lover." She orders. Dante walks out, head hanging, like a sad puppy. "How are you?"
"Good." I say, and I’m surprised to find, that I am in fact feeling quite good.
"Sorry about the car. Had to do something."
"How are you okay?"
"I get some tricks up my sleeve." And to prove her point she sends sparks across her fingers. "Good thing I can heal with these as well. They can literally do whatever I want them to do. It's incredible."
"How long was I out?"
"Like three hours. Don't worry you didn't miss much. Satuska left after a bit, I brought you here."
"Where is here?"
"Dante's Aunt's."
"How did you know where this was?" I don't remember Dante ever telling me. "Do Dante and you know each other?"
"God no. I met him two hours ago, and since then he hasn't left your side."
"Where's Ben?"
"Who?"
"Benjamin Cevolt. Dante and I came here with him."
"Dunno. Why don't you go down and ask. It's not like you're crippled or anything. Might be a bit dizzy."

I stumble down the stairs after Blue. Dante and his Aunt are in the kitchen making food.
"Pancakes alright?" The Aunt asks, "Call me Shellie."
"Alight Shellie." I say sitting down, "Dante, where's Ben?" I look at Dante; he looks sheepishly at the floor.
"I don't know. I lost him coming out the bus."
"Fuck."
"Language." Blue and Shellie both say in unison. They look at each other, and Blue laughs. I look at Blue,
"Is she part of... you know..." I say gesturing to my wrist.
"God no."
"Part of what?" Dante asks.
"Blue'll explain later." Blue says.
"Who's Blue?"
"I'm Blue you tosser."
"Oh." Dante says quietly.

Breakfast. Lunch. Whatever time it is, goes down well. Blue fills Dante in on Satuska, but neglects to mention gods or anything. Does mention The Children of Eden, but doesn't reveal any new information.

"We need to find Ben." I say to Dante.
"Of course. But where do we start?"
"I don't know. When'd you last see him?"
"In the buffet. Then im out a door and you and him are gone."
"He could be anywhere." I hiss. Blue appears at the door,
"Try in those." She says throwing a book at me. I read the title.
"Care homes in Santa Monica. What?"
"Don’t ask. Just an instinct." Blue says leaving.
Dante must see something on my face, because he asks with fear in his voice, "What?"
"Blue, she hasn't been wrong yet."

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15) Care

So far Blue hasn’t been wrong… not that she’s been right about much. The more I think about it, the more I realise, this girl knows more than she lets on. That’s what made me say ‘She hasn’t been wrong’, she knows.

Dante and I are just about to leave when Blue decides she wants to come with us, saying that she’s never seen Santa Monica but has head it’s very interesting

As none of us can drive, and we don’t exactly want Shellie escorting us about, we call a taxi.

Blue leans over to me, “Who the hell is this Dante?" She hisses,
"He's a friend?"
"Yeah but where exactly did you pick him up?"
"We grew up together..."
"In Parlor?"
"Yeah." I say,
"What are you both still doing here, why haven’t you gone home?"
"When I woke, someone called Dawn came into my hospital room and said that him and me need to run."
Blue gasps, causing Dante to look over, "Dawn? You kidding me? You sure she said Dawn?" She whispers,
"Yeah, pretty certain, it's not every day you meet someone called Dawn. Why, do you know her?"
"She's part of Eden." She says. "Damn. I haven't seen Dawn in a long time. How was she doing?"
"I don't know, it's not like she hung around for a chat."
"Typical. How'd she look?" Blue asks. I stare at her.
"Really?"
"What?"
"I'm blind."
"You what?" Blue gasps.
"You didn't know?"
"Hell nah. When'd that happen? Why do you act like you can see?"
"After the mall. Cause I can." I pause, trying to think of the best way to explain it, “A ball of light hovers around me, and like, yeah.”
"As you do." She laughs, then more seriously, “Look outside. What do you see?" She points outside. I look.
"I see... What…?"
"Precisely! Santa Monica has one of the highest monster populations, but no one knows. Incredible. There's sixteen monsters for every human here. It's mad."
"Why aren't they hiding?"
"They are. Like, some people for some reason can see through the disguises. Kinda random but hey ho."
"Can you see them?"
"Yah."
"Dante?" I ask loud enough for him to hear,
"Yeah?" He sounds worried.
"Look outside, what’d’ya see?" My voice reminds me of Chloe. Blue seems to have recognised that as well, she stares at me sadly.
"People. Buildings. What am I looking for?"
"Nothing. Nothing."
"I'm sorry." Blue rests her hand on mine, "I can get rid of the memories if you want." She says. I look at her, her eyes filled with sadness.
"Why would I want that?" I ask pulling my hand away from hers.
"Because they hurt."
"They..." Yeah. They hurt, but is that enough reason to wipe them from my mind? "No. They're my memories. I want to remember them, and I never want to forget."
"Okay."
“We’re here.” The driver says pulling into a car park,
“Keep the car running, please.” Blue orders.

We step out of the car and stare at the building. It’s a mix between hospital and some sort of beach-side house. One side seems to be a beach shop, while the rest is a home for the old.

As we enter the care home, the smell of old people hits me. And a hundred pair of eyes stare at us. Blue looks at Dante.
"Prolly best if you go. I don't exactly look like the kind of person to be visiting her grandparents. And Artemis, is well, looks pretty evil."
“What?" I say looking at her.
"You look like a murderer with a taste for old people."
"How about you go back to whatever hole you crawled out off." That strikes a nerve, and Blue shuts her mouth. Dante takes that as a sign that the discussion is over; he walks to the receptionist. Blue and I stand awkwardly at the door. Dante returns a couple of minutes later.
"Nothing." He says.
"What did you ask?" I ask.
"I asked for Ben Cevolt saying I was his brother James Cevolt."
"Aight. Onto the next." Blue says spinning on her heels. She steps through the door and stops. Dante and I follow. Blue stretches her arm out and stops me.
"What?" I hiss. Blue points at a car, the car had the letter H.S.K written on the side. "And?"
"Satuska." Blue whispers. "Slowly. Act normal. Dante stand on the right. Artemis keep your head facing him." Dante shuffles around us in the door. "And go." We walk out from the door, Dante on the right facing me, Blue in the middle looking forwards, me on the left facing Dante. We make it to the car unnoticed. Blue collapses into the back. "I needa get rid of this blue hair, makes me stand out like a red pigeon"

Blue points at the pavements. Mixed in with the monsters are Satuska soldiers, lots of them. "Two for every monster."
"If they hunt monsters..." I don't even need to finish.
"Luckily Satuska is unaware of where monsters hide or how they hide, so they think everyone here is normal. Dumb asses." She says smiling. "Now we gotta be extra careful. Don't exactly want a fire fight." She says. A thought occurs to me.
"Didn't you say you'd be back on the 30th?"
"I did." It sounds almost like a question.
"Yeah It's the 28th."
"Ahh. Oh well." She says looking away.

We go through six care homes without any luck. None have heard of a Ben Cevolt. By the time we get to the tenth home, we're all quite bored. Blue and I tried playing eye-spy for a bit, but that became increasingly difficult, as we had to duck down more and more to avoid being spotted by Satuska. And eventually the crowds became too thick to choose a person or monster as our spied object.

By the time we get to the fifteenth, I start to wonder if Blue is wrong.

By the twentieth, I’m furious.
"We have spent all day looking in care homes! When he could be on the streets!" I yell. Blue zaps me with some sparks.
"Chill dude." She pauses, "Dante, you got a phone at your Aunts?"
"Yeah..." He says uncertainly.
"Why don't we just call the care homes?"
"You gotta be kidding me." I stammer.
"Hey, you didn't think of it either." Blue says

When we get back to Dante’s Aunt’s, she’s gone out. Dante takes Blue to the house phone.

From the lounge I hear Blue speaking,
"Yes hello, this is Jessica Cevolt, I’m looking for my father Benjamin Cevolt. My brother put him a home a couple of weeks ago without telling me, and I’m worried sick." She says into the phone. "Oh okay. Thank you." She hangs up. “Hello, yes, this is Francesca Cevolt, looking for my brother Benjamin Cevolt. No okay, sorry."

She goes through five other homes, each time the story changes, until eventually, on the twenty-seventh home, she gets something. "Yes, hello, this is Dianna Cevolt; I’m looking for my daddy Benjamin Cevolt. Oh, he is? Wonderful, thank you so much." She hangs up. "Hell yeah.” She shouts, There's a Benjamin Cevolt in that one."

Twenty minutes later, the care home creeps into sight. It would have been ten, but Blue made us stop at a costume shop. She bought herself a blonde wig. "Gotta hide somehow." She pulls the wig on. It looks ridiculous. We pull into the car park. "Aight. Let's go find us a Benjamin Cevolt." She smiles.

We step into the care home; the smell is hideous, kinda like what I’d expect rotting flesh and bleach to smell like. We stroll up to the receptionist. He looks at us confused. He stares at Blue's loose fitting wig.
"May I help you?" He asks.
"Yes, we're looking for Benjamin Cevolt." Blue says making her voice several octaves higher.
"Room nine-three-five." He says looking up from the computer.
"Thanks darling." Blue says before walking away. Me and Dante look at each other, his face says what I’m thinking, 'Is this girl okay?' We follow Blue through the building before finally reaching the door. "I think you two should go in alone." She says. I look at Dante. He looks at me. We open the door. An old man stares at us.

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Benjamin Cevolt had completely forgotten about Artemis and Dante, and of his sisters, his father, and his mother. The only people he needed to know were his sister Camille, his mother Stephanie, and his father, Olivia. He'd spent the first year wondering everyday if they'd ever come find him. But as time went on, he gave up hope. By the fifth year, he had forgotten. By the tenth, he didn't care. Thirty years later, he was married with a beautiful baby boy. Forty years later Camille died of cancer, leaving him alone with a child. 86 years later, and he was ninety-six. On deaths door, left to rot in a care home. His child had grown up and dumped him. Not that he blamed him, Ben had been a shit father, and he knew this. His son became a father, and he was dumped in a care home to die. Ben never had any visitors, apart from the nurses. He isn’t religious, he doesn’t particularly believe in a God, but each night he finds himself praying for something. Anything. Today his prays are answered. As his door swung open slowly, he thinks, 'Who could this be?', as he sees the people stood in the doorway, he almost dies right there and then.

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I stare at the man in the bed. Easily recognisable. I will never forget the look on his face. A mix of surprise, relief and pain.
"Artemis. Long-time no see." He wheezes.

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Ben sees the children; he recognises them instantly. How could he forget the face of the stranger who had murdered his father?

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"What happened?" I ask.
"Old age." Ben croaks.
"But how? You were ten-years old two days ago!"
"I have lived out my life. I married. I had a child. My child had a child."
"I'm sorry." Dante whispers.
"It's not your fault boy."
"How did this happen?" I demand,
"I arrived in nineteen-thirty-two. And that's where I lived." He wheezes, "The bus." He says. The bus. It clicks. Ben wasn't merely transported to Santa Monica, he was also thrown through time, landing in nineteen-thirty-two, where he lived out his life. And then it happened again. He found a set of black metallic doors, silver decorates each door; at the top of each door is a spiral, from the end of each spiral comes a line that leads to a spiral at the bottom, and behind it was a world he no longer recognised – the future, or more accurately the present. Then he returned to his time nineteen-thirty-two to die of old age in twenty-eighteen.
"I'm sorry." I say, I take his hand, "So sorry."
"It aint your fault either. It's no one’s fault." He smiled, "Funny thing” He coughs, a dry wheezy cough, “My wife looked an awful lot like my grandmother." He coughs. A head of blonde hair peeks around the door.
"Hurry the fuck up. We might be having a problem soon." Then Blue sees the man, "I thought you said he’s ten?"
"Who's that?" Ben manages through rasping breaths.
"Blue" She says entering the room, "And you are?"
"Benjamin Cevolt."
"Ah. Cool. Artemis a word." She says. I step aside. "I thought you said he was ten!"
"He was! But instead of ending up in 2018 like Dante, he ended up in nineteen-thirty-two."
"Ah, yes as you do. Okay. Cool. We've found him. Now we might have a problem."
"How so?"
"Well basically. A bunch of Satuska guys just went into the room opposite, one was saying something about visiting his mother. So yeah."
"How's that a problem? We'll just wait for them to go."
"One of them saw me and looked at me strangely, I don't know if he recognised me, but he knew something was up." She hisses. Dante appears beside us.
"He wants to say goodbye." He whispers.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"He's dying Art. He doesn't have long."
"Oh." The thought that a ten-year old kid I met two days ago is now ninety and about to die of old age, is incredible, weird, but at the same time, interesting.
"He fucked his own Granma." Blue blurts out. She sees our confused looks, "He said 'She looked an awful lot like my grandmother.' like what the fuck. He's his own granddad."
"Blue! Have some fucking compassion! He was trapped in the past!"
"Pft. Fine say goodbye. But we need to leave soon." She looks at Ben. "I can kill him." She says softly, noticing the horror in our faces, "Painlessly, make him remember his favourite memories of his life so he's happy, and send a tiny little spark into his heart. It'll seem like a heart attack. He'll die painlessly and happy." She explains. I look at Dante; he looks at his feet.
"I think that would be for the best." I say. I look at Ben. The kid I held in my arms two days ago is now an old man, soon to die. It was weird, knowing that Ben was his own grandfather, and Ben’s father was also Bens son. Must have been destiny or something.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

16) Forever

We peek around the door. The Satuska soldiers are still in the room opposite, they’ve left the door open. I see a man sat on a bed holding a women’s hand, the others stood around chatting.

We slip through the door, trying to be as silent as possible, whilst also trying to not make it obvious.
"Hey there baby." A voice says, at first I think he's talking to me, "Hey, im talking to you." A hand grabs Blue's shoulder, the hand, and the person connected to it go flying down the corridor. I look behind us.
"How come as soon as you put a blonde wig on, men think you're theirs? Like the hell?" She shouts pulling off the wig. The man’s friends stare at us in confusion. The Satuska soldiers poke their heads through the door to check on the commotion. They look at the men,
"Run along." One of them says brandishing a gun. The men hurriedly obey the gun wielding man. The officers turn to us. Blue has somehow managed to get her wig back on. "What happened?" The one with the gun says.
"He grabbed me, so I fought back." Blue says shielding her voice by putting on a perfect Scottish accent.
"Alright, you're free to go, don't worry, we don't care, guy was probably an ass." He glances at the body on the floor, "Jeez, where'd you learn to fight?"
"School." Blue says swirling around.
We burst through the front doors.
"Holy hell." Blue shouts to the sky. "How did that work?" She laughs.
"I don't know, but let’s not hang around."

Getting a taxi in the middle of Santa Monica during rush hour isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. "Dumb asses." Blue giggles, as we turtle our way through traffic “I cannot believe that just happened." She pulls the wig off and throws it on the floor.
"You just killed a person! Can you not seem so happy about it?" Dante yells. Silencing Blue.
"What's next?" I say, breaking the silence.
"I don't know." Blue says.
"Me neither." Dante says meekly, "Home I guess."
"Let's go shopping first." Blue exclaims. Dante looks back at us.
"Aren't you wanted by some International Task Force?"
"Yeah, so? What they gonna do? Attack us in the middle of a public area and draw attention to the fact that they're operating on allied territory? I think not."
"But, they have, twice before."
"Yes. But not in a public space where there'll be thousands of witnesses."
"Alright. Shopping it is." Dante exhales, he clearly isn't happy with this prospect.

Shopping. It’s one of my most hated things. That and chicken, fuck chicken. However, the prospect of shopping, and finally being able to get new clothes, appeals to me. Blue on the other hand is more than ecstatic at the idea of shopping. Dante is less than pleased.

We stop and start our way through rush hour; by the time we arrive at the shopping precinct, we had left the care home almost an hour ago.
"Why don't you get a new beanie?" I ask Blue, "That one looks like it's a hundred years old."
"No." Blue says bluntly giving me a death stare. "I need to get my hair done. The blue's fading."
"I need new clothes." I look at Dante; he doesn’t say anything, he’s probably pissed that me and Blue are so happy about shopping after killing a person.

Blue leads the way through the maze of stores, she gawps at everything, it’s almost like she’s never been shopping before. She spots a hairdressers at the end of the maze, she paints that as the end destination. We follow her into stores; she picks out an electric blue hoodie, and beams as she tries it on. She looks at me, "Still got that coin?"
"Yes." I reply, pulling out the gold coin with chunks missing.
"Sound."

When we reach the checkout, Dante has new jeans, shoes, and a handful of t-shirts, Blue has picked out the electric blue hoodie, new ripped jeans, a watch and new shoes. I’ve picked out a plain hoodie, and jeans. We plop the lot on the checkout, and the clerk looks at us. I wonder what he looks like to Dante, but to me, and to Blue, it’s a green scaled creature with pointy ears.
"A goblin." Blue whispers to me.
"Cash or card?" The clerk asks.
"Coin." Blue says handing over the gold coin. The clerk looks at is, then at us. A genuine smile appears on his face,
"Always glad to serve fellow community members." He beams. He takes a chunk from the coin; it doesn't even make a dent. "Stay safe out there, lots of Satuska."
"Thank you. You too." Blue says happily. She slips out of her hoodie and puts on the new one. "Oh my God, it's so soft." She coos.

We reach the hairdressers.
"How do we know if it takes coin?" I ask.
"Here." Blue says pointing to a tiny carving on the doorframe, barley noticeable, "It's always in the top right corner, if it accepts coin. Always. If it aint in the top corner, it's a trap."
"They must have picked up on that."
"Nope." Blue laughs. Dante seems utterly confused. Two days ago, it was just him and I, and neither of us knew what was going on, but now, it’s me and a new girl, both of whom seem to know what is going on, and have decided not to tell him. He’s not pleased about the arrival of Blue. "I dunno how long this'll take." Blue says.

Blue goes up to the counter and starts talking. Dante and I sit down on a couch.
"Sorry about Blue and stuff."
"What?"
"You know the part where you don't understand anything that's happening."
"Yeah, thanks, I would love to know."
"What do you want to know?"
"What is Satuska. What the hell is 'coin'. What was that clerk saying. What was that little picture on the door. And who the hell is Blue."
"Right."
"Arty." Blue says, I barely get a chance to look up before she's throwing her beanie at me, "Don't lose it."
I turn back to Dante, "Satuska is some sort of mega-cooperation that has a Task Force dedicated to hunting down monsters. Coin is this." I pull out the gold coin, "It's what the monster community uses as currency, the buyer hands it over, and the seller takes a chunk that represents the price. The clerk was a goblin, who told us to be safe. The picture on the door was sign saying that this shop takes coin." I look at him; he seems to be following. "Blue is... well... I don't really know, she's been following us for a while. I first saw her in the mall... and then at the cafe... then at a truck stop after The Bus."
"So, she's a stranger?"
"Yeah. But she knows about everything, from the mall, to the gods, to whatever I am."
"What do you mean, whatever you are?"
"Basically, I’m apparently not exactly human, but no one will tell me what I am.” I explain. Dante let's out a sigh.
"You aren't even joking are you?"
"No."
"Twenty-one months ago, I was normal fourteen-year old, then I was blown up. We were in a coma for two years. Then we go from New York to Missouri just by walking through a door. Blue appears killing a women and a man. Then we're arrested, then… some people attack, then we board a magic fucking bus, then armed men attack. Then Ben dies of old age, and now we're here. And while all that's going on, people are dying all around us. And you don't seem to care, and neither does Blue."
"Yeah, I know it's a lot, and it's rather insane, hell, some days I still think im in a coma." One thing I have noticed, is that since Blue appeared, The Shadow People have been less prominent, almost as if they're hiding.
"Man. My life's screwed."
"Hey, at least im in it." I say smiling at him. He smiles weakly back. I lean my head against his shoulder.

Blue appears at the door. Her hair clean and freshly dyed. The black now blacker than ever and the blue matches her hoodie
"All done." She says smiling. "Pass us my hat. And the coin." She beams. I throw the hat and the coin at her. "Thanks a bunch."

Thirty seconds later Blue returns, she throws a bag at me. "This is from the hairdresser. When she saw the coin she was surprised as all balls, she thought we were just normal kids. Then she gave me this to give to you. Something about something. I don't remember." She shakes her head.
"What is it?" I say producing a small bottle from the bag.
"I don't know. Try it." She shrugs. I take the lid off and smell it; it doesn't smell like anything, I take a swig. Doesn't taste like anything. I pour a drop onto my hand. Doesn't feel like anything. "Well?" She says.
"I dunno, it doesn't seem to be anything."
"Has to. Community members don't just go around giving out bottles of water."
"You try." I throw the bottle at her. "Didn't you use any?" She asks.
"Of course I did."
"Well the bottles full."
"What."
"See for yourself." She throws the bottle back. She’s right, the bottle is once again full. I take the lid off and tip the bottle; I let the water cascade to the floor. And right before my eyes, the bottle refills itself. Blue gasps, "You got yourself a magic water bottle." She mocks amazement.
"Brill, just what I wanted."
"You bathe in it, idiots." A voice shouts from across the maze. All three of us turn to face it. A... a something, was across the way looking at us. "Bathe!" He yells again.
"Goddamn Elves. Prolly right though.” Blue says,
"He looks like a normal human." Dante mutters.

By the time, we get back to Shellie’s it's already gone nine o'clock.

Shellie is in the kitchen cooking, "Welcome back. Curry okay?"
"Yeah that’s good!" We all shout back in unison.
"Shoes." Dante says. We slip our shoes off. We crash down onto the couch in the lounge. Dante flips on the TV.
"Aye, put the News on." Blue orders. Dante flips it over to the News. A reporter sits behind a desk, something about Paris.
"Tragic that." Shellie says from the kitchen, "All of those lives. Gone." Her voice full of sympathy.
"fourteen days ago Paris was caught by an unprecedented explosion, levelling the entire city. No organisation has yet to claim responsibility." The reporter says.
"That's depressing." Blue says. Dante goes to change the channel, "Nah, stay on it." Blue says, I just look at Dante and shrug.
"Two months ago the small tourist attraction of Parlor Falls was rocked by a tragic event, every child disappeared." The words have no effect on me. I hear them. I understand them. But they don't make any sense. Parlor? On the main News? Every child? What. Blue looks at me. The reporter keeps speaking, "As of today, there has been no News on the location of these children." Max and James. Oh God.
"I'm going for a bath." I say standing.
"Use the magic water." Blue says quickly.

I stare at the bath. The bottle in my hand. I unscrew the cap. I tip the bottle over the bath. The water flows, and keeps flowing. By the time the bottle should have become empty for the sixth time, I’m amazed. A bottle of water has just filled a bath with warm water. I slip into it. The water laps over my shoulders. It drags me down.

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I walk down the road. The Shadow People are near me, like always. Something feels wrong though. I don’t know what. Just something’s off. I glance at The Shadow People, they don’t react, they never do. I keep walking. I reach the shop. A voice rings through my head. It shatters all thoughts I had. It tears its way through my skull, it claws at my chest, at my heart, at my brain. “Chloe!” It screams. Over and over and over again. I fill with a sense of dread. I turn and run. I sprint across the road, cars honk at me as they brake to avoid me. The Shadow People run beside me. We hurdle a fence, landing softly in the grass. We dash across the pitch, a group of kids yelling at us for interrupting their game of football. “Chloe!” The voice perforates my heart. I see her house at the end of the street. “Chloe!” The voice keeps yelling, “Chloe! Chloe! Chloe! Chloe! Chloe! Chloe! Chloe!” Over. And over. And over. And over. I burst through the front door, no one yells at me to stop. I crash up the stairs. “Chloe!” The voice screams, it reverberates all around my head. I slam into her bedroom door,
“Chloe!” I scream.

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The tears stream down my face, they splash against the water. I sit there, neck deep in the bath, with tears streaming down my face. I can't feel anything. I'm numb all over. I watch as the water ripples with every tear.

I slip into my new clothes. I can't feel anything. I watch the water spiral down the drain.

I stumble down the stairs. The News is still on. Dante and Blue look at me. I only catch a glimpse of what’s on TV. A picture of me, Dante, Ben, and Blue. The reporter speaks, "Be on high alert for these four individuals, they are to be considered armed and dangerous. Any sighting of any of these four are to be reported immediately. They are armed and dangerous. Avoid at all costs." As the reporter says this, the front door comes crashing in. An armoured man, flanked by more men, bursts in. I don't even get a chance to react.
"On the floor!" The man screams aiming the gun at me. In one fluid motion, Blue leaps over the chair and slides across the floor, slamming into the doorframe, she raises a hand and five bolts of lightning leap from her fingers, striking each of the men in their chests; they fly backwards. The one with the gun flies through the open door and smashes into another group of men.
"Run Artemis Run!" Blue yells as a bullet smashes into the wall above my head. I turn and face the men. "Artemis run!" She orders. I ignore her. The men stare at me; the colour drains from the faces. "Code White." I hear Blue whisper. Something slashes the men, tearing chunks from them, they fly against the wall with such force they go through it. Solid brick tumbles down onto their bodies. The rest of soldiers outside are knocked aside like bowling pins. They scream as one, and then they too are dead. Shellie screams, as a soldier appears at the kitchens French windows, he aims the gun at me, pulls the trigger. The bullet explodes from the gun. Shellie screams louder. The bullet smashes into her head. Knocking her flying. Blue points at the man and electricity crackles from her fingers, easing its way through the bullet hole and striking the man in the chest. He's dead before he hits the floor. The men at the front scream, guns go off. But they don’t stand a chance.

Within minutes of the raid, every single officer who had been involved is dead. Fried or brutally torn apart. The smell’s a mix of acidic, copper, and of Curry. Blue stares at her hoodie.
"I got blood on it." She squeals in disgust, "It'll take forever to come out." She looks down at the blood sprayed over her jumper, "Man. This was new as well!" She yells kicking a body, sending it sliding across the floor, leaving a trail of blood. She kneels down next to the corpse, "Not Satuska. They weren't prepared enough. And these guns? What are these?" She asks holding up a small gun. Dante appears in the door, his face sickly green; he looks at Blue holding the gun in thumb and forefinger. "Like what? Look's like a paintball gun." She says tossing it aside. The gun connects with the wall, and a shower of bullets leap from the barrel. "Cool." She whispers, picking up the gun again.
"Why do you need a gun?" I ask. The blood lapping at my shoes.
"I don't. But Dante needs something." She tosses the gun towards Dante. His face goes from green to white as the gun sails across the corridor. He catches it gingerly and almost drops it in his attempt not to hit the trigger.
"What about me?" I query. Blue just looks at me with that 'You can't be so naive' face. I stare at her. Crouched down surrounded by bodies and blood. She pokes another body with her foot. The corpse moans.
"We got a live one!" She shouts putting on a Texan accent. "Help me move him." She orders.
"Why?"
"Gotta know who they're working for. Unless you'd like me to just execute him?" She shoots me her best innocent eyes. "Better be quick though. Some bad stuffs coming."
"Bad?" Dante meekly asks.
"Satuska bad. They'll be here in five - ten minutes. Maybe three if we're lucky." She grabs the guy by the armpits, "Get his feet." She smiles. She clearly enjoys all the death. I grab the guys feet. We heave. The guy most weigh over ninety kilos with all the armour on. We manage to prop him against a wall. "Look at the good all that armour did." Blue kicks the guys legs. "Bloody useless don't'ya think? So, why don't you tell us who you're working for and maybe I’ll decide to save your life so you can go back to living." She stares at the guy, who gurgles in response. "What was that? Sorry can't hear ya." She kicks the guy in the ribs. "Who sent you?" A spray of blood splatters against Blue's jumper. She steps on the guys torn leg. "Who do you work for? Tell me and I’ll let you walk."
"I'm dead anyway." The guy struggles through blood soaked teeth. Blue shoots a spark onto him. The spark travels to the guys chest, duplicating itself, and then knitting the gashes together.
"Feeling better? Maybe if you would just tell me, you could walk out of here with your life." Blue glowers at him. The man looks amazed. Colour seeps back into his face. He looks down at where the cuts were.
"Who are you?" He asks, blood dribbling out his mouth.
"I ask the questions." Blue kicks him the ribs again. "Who the fuck do you work for?"
"L.A police department." The guy has decided to play ball now that he knows he could actually walk away from this.
"Kidding me?" Blue asks. The guy wasn't sure if this was a statement or a question. Blue kicks him the stomach. "Kidding me?" She asks again.
"No! We got a tip that you three had been spotted here." The man manages through gasps. I look at where Dante is. He sees me looking and walks into the kitchen. I spin on my axis, leaning on the doorframe. I watch as he crouches down next to his Aunt.
"I'm sorry." He whispers. I turn back around a face Blue and her unfortunate hostage.
"And y'all just decided to storm a house in full combat gear to arrest three teens?" Blue clearly doesn’t believe this.
"Yes! We were told you were dangerous. But we never expected this." He looks at the men littering the door.
"I believe you." Blue says. As she says this a pair of headlights appear in front of the house.
"Step out with your hands up." An amplified voice shouts.
"Well. We gotta skedaddle." She rips the handgun from the man’s leg holster, deftly tossing it to me. She sends more sparks flying towards the man, "Run along now. We got a date with the devil." She smiles. She turns to me. "Go on then, up the stairs." We reach the second floor just as armoured men swarm the front door. They surge through the ground floor.
"Clear." A chorus of voices shout. A man swaggers in through the door.
"Help me up." The police offers says stretching out his arms. The man looks at him. He points a sawn-off shotgun at the guys knees, and pulls the trigger. The officer screams as parts of his knees and legs splatter across the corridor. At that range, the bullets tore straight through the knee, completely severing it from the thigh.
"Where’d they go?" The man asks. "Answer, and I’ll call an ambulance."
"Up!" The policeman screams through the pain. The man points the gun at the mans head and shoots. Brains splatter everything. Where there was once a head, is now nothing more than a stump of a neck. The man gestures, 'up', with his head. The armed men swarm up the stairs towards us.
"Well damn." Blue says casually. I stare at her. "Lez go." She says standing. Dante and I have no other choice but to follow. "You said there was a pool?"
"Outback." Dante struggles.
"Left, right?" Blue shouts.
"Left." Dante gasps. The sound of twenty boots on marble stairs sounds like a small army. We follow Blue through a door and to the window.
"Fancy a dip?" Blue asks throwing open the windows. She climbs the rail, and jumps. She lands ungracefully in the pool, sending water everywhere. Dante looks at me. His face ghostly white. Then he too jumps. I look behind me. I see the shapes of men storming across the landing towards me. I jump.

The fall isn’t very far. And it’s over within a second. But still, falling from the second floor, maybe thirty meters up, into a pool, with no previous experience, is not advised. I smack into the water. A bullet smashes into the pool nanoseconds after me. It whizzes past my head and smashes into the side. A hailstorm of bullets follow. After a second, the bullets stop. I kick off the floor and glide towards the side. I grab the edge and heave myself out. I stare out towards the beach. I see Blue jumping up and down on the sand. A bullet hits the sand next to her, sending her leaping into the sky. She looks at the sand, then at the soldier that had shot. She flips him off. Another bullet smashes into the ground, barely a centimetre from her toes. She yelps, and sends a bolt of lightning towards the window. It thunders into the soldier, exploding, setting everything in a five-metre radius on fire. The man screams as he tumbles over the railing and collides with the concrete ground, less than a metre from the pool, where he would have been fine. I sprint across the slippery tiles towards the beach. A bullet hits the wooden steps between my legs, sending a shower of splinters up my legs. Another one hits the flower to my right, sending soil flying. Within seconds, bullets are raining down towards me; they hit everything around me.
"You must have some good bloody luck charm or something shoved up your ass." Blue yelps as I reach her. "Poor sods can't shoot."
"Where's Dante?" I gasp.
"That way." She says pointing along the stretch of beach.
"Let's go then."
"Nah. I wanna watch this." Blue giggles. I look at her. This girl stood beside me, is a straight up psychopath. I look towards the house, wondering what she had done. I needn't wonder long. A group of soldiers run towards the pool. But as soon as they place one toe on the soaking floor, they shiver and shake, frozen in place. Then they collapse onto the floor in violent spasms. "Daft." Blue laughs as soldiers are electrocuted. The men, who hadn't set foot on the ground, stare at their friends as they spasm. "And, what's more?" Blue asks, pulling a small remote from her pocket. "Surprise." She yells flipping a switch. The shockwave smashes into me. It picks me up and launches me towards the sea. I hit the ground, hard. My vision blurs, I watch as Blue lands next to me. She smacks into the ground beside me. I hear several things snap. The house until recently had belonged to Shellie Smith, is now a giant fireball. Trees on all sides are engulfed in flames. The sound of sirens in the distance penetrate the sound of the fire and the sea. It sounds almost peaceful. The sound of the crackling fire. The water lapping at my head. The sound the waves make as they crash into the beach.

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I stare at Chloe. She really is beautiful. I’ve only just started to realise just how beautiful she is. Her hair flaps in the wind, making her look like one of those models in a perfume ad.
"Jeez man, never seen a girl before?" Max asks kicking sand at me.
"What?" I stammer. I tear my eyes from Chloe and look at the shaved head looking at me.
"I can basically see the drool hanging out your mouth from here."
"What drool?" I ask, lifting my arm to wipe it away. But in doing so, I’ve also removed the only thing supporting me. My head smacks into the sand.
"You fucking wanker." James roars. Chloe turns around a looks at us.
"What's so funny?" She asks confused by James' sudden outburst.
"Nothing." Max, James, Ellie and I say in unison. I watch as she turns back around and her t-shirt drops to the floor. A handful of sand smacks into my face.
"Look away perv." Ellie hisses. I do as she says, even though Chloe is my best friend, and had recently become quite hot, I had no intentions of seeing her topless.
"You know I have bikini on under this right Arty?" Chloe giggles. Ellie bursts into laughter, James howls even louder. "And it wouldn't be the first time you've seen me nude."
"Yeah! When we were like five!" I stammer, I realise I must be bright red. James can't control himself, he's rolling around in the sand with tears in his eyes.
"Enough." Max order slamming a fist into his stomach.
"Alright, alright. No more." James manages through deep breaths and gritted teeth. I watch as Chloe runs towards the water and leaps in effortlessly. The water grabs hold of her and pulls her in, and for a horrible moment, I think she would disappear forever. She reappears; her head breach the surface, wet hair clingy to her face.
"Come on in. It's brilliant." She shouts, splashing water at us.
"It may be summer. But this is a British summer." Ellie shivers.
"It isn't that cold!" Chloe protests.
"She's right you know. It's probably warmer in there than it is out here." Max says pulling her t-shirt over her head. James buries his head in the sand.
"Come on! A little warning next time please!" He shouts into the sand. He sits back up, spitting sand.
"Serves you right you little shit." Max says cuffing him around the head.
"Just cause you're half an hour older doesn't mean you get to bully me."
"No. You're right. I get to bully you cause I’m stronger."
"Yeah right."
"Where's your phone?" Max asks, trying not to smile.
"There..." James says point to an IPhone sat on a towel. He doesn't clock why Max had asked, until it’s too late. Max rams her shoulder into his stomach, winding him. She picks him up and throws him over her shoulder like he's a kite. She marches towards the sea, and tosses him in. "You fucking cunt." James screams. We all laugh as we watch James thrash about. "Right though. It is hella fucking nice in here." He shouts angrily. Max jumps in after him. Ellie follows quickly after. And then me.

After splashing about in the sea until the sun started to dip, we finally clamber out, knackered and out of breath. We crash out next to the pile of sticks.

Within twenty-minutes, the sun has set, a small fire burns brightly, and the sea laps gently against the sand. We sit around the fire in a circle. Chloe lies with her head in my lap, I lean on my arm, whilst the other plays unconsciously with her hair. Ellie to my right. Max to my left and James opposite me. We’ve been joined by a couple of other friends. In total, there were nine of us. Chloe, Ellie, Max, James, Siobhan, Callum, Connor, Dante, and me. A group of adults sit further down the beach, enjoying a fire like us. Unlike us however, they’re surrounded by beers and champagne. And unfortunately they just happen to be our parents, who are now sharing embarrassing stories of us. The day had been great, by British terms, the sun had shone, the weather was good, and not a cloud in sight, and it had been warm. The night’s going the same way. It had been a good day. Spending a day at the beach had sounded like an awful idea when it was suggested three months ago at a barbecue. But, I’m glad we'd been dragged along. At first, it had started out as parents only, but the invitation had soon stretched to us. We had spent the entire day at a beach near Cornwall. It’s a private beach though, owned by Connor and Callum’s family. One of their dads works as a military contractor, helping create newer and deadly weaponry, whilst the other is a software engineer. So, it was safe to say, he’s fairly wealthy. When people found out he had two dads, there had been a lot of bullying. But that soon ended once Max appeared and badly beaten one of the boys who had been endlessly bullying Connor.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stare at the fire burning in front of me. I watch as the flames crackle and smoke billows. It’s larger than I remember. And what is that noise? It’s like a whining dog. An explosion rocks my world. I watch as people are sent flying. My world shakes and I watch as a cloud of flames leap into the sky. Sirens rip through the tranquillity of the fire. A fist hits the side of my face. A girl sits on me, a beanie hangs off her head, and blood drips down one cheek. She grabs my head and screams. Pink sparks leap from her fingers as she presses them into my face. They dance across my face, playing out memories.
"Artemis!" The girl screams, "We need to go." A fist smacks into my face. "Wake the hell up." Another fist. "You lazy son-of-a-bitch" Another fist. "I didn't travel half-way around the world just to watch you die like this." A fish. No wait. A fist. No. Totally a fish. A fish sits on my lap wearing a beanie. "Tosser." It screams as its fins grab the side of my head and smash it into the ground. "Wake. The. Fuck. Up." The world clears up. The blurs disappear. The fish become a girl. Her brown hair waves in the wind.
"Chloe?" I whisper, cupping her head in my hand.
"No you slut. Blue." Chloe yells. Blue? What kind of name is Blue? Who's Blue? Blue? Blue. The name clicks. "Artemis you cock stain."
"Blue?" I sit up, knocking her off me.
"Finally. We needa go."
"What happened?" I say staring at the flames billowing from the house.
"Long story." She giggles. A menacing little giggle. "Lez go." She grabs my arm and pulls me up.
"Dante?" I ask looking around.
"Long gone." She sees my face. "Gone to a safe-house. Don't worry, your boyfriend hasn't abandoned you."
"Boyfriend?" I say as we stumble along the beach.
"Yeah. Aren't you two together?"
"No." I shake my head.
"Fuck. I owe Dawn a tenner."
"You were taking bets?"
"Everyone was. A lotta people are gonna lose money for this bullshit." She laughs. We stagger across the beach, the sand makes the journey precarious, and difficult, even on a better day I would have struggled to walk along the beach. But Blue has an even harder task, she has to support my weight and walk across a sandy beach, in the middle of the night, with nothing on her feet. We stumble our way across the beach for miles. The beach spans the entire cost, and before long the flames are invisible, the sound of sirens gone.
I notice the watch she had bought earlier,
"Your watch. It's completely wrong."
"I know." She struggles to speak.
"Why?"
She doesn't answer, she just carries on walking, forcing me to walk as well.

"How much further?" I ask as we take what must have been our thousandth step.
"Twenty-five meters. Literally right there."

We stumble into the house.
"Thank God. I thought you were dead." Dante shouts. A new head appears next to him, a pair of blue eyes with pink flecks stare out from under long red hair. Dawn.
"Dawn Artemis. Artemis Dawn." Blue gestures as she struggles with me. "Someone take this sack of shit to the lounge."
"Blue what happened? It was meant to be a one-day thing. Not spend two days with them and then go shopping and blow up a house." Dawn says her voice full of venom.
"Dawn sweetie." Blue says staring Dawn down, "You've been in this game long enough to know that sometimes plans go to shit."
"To shit? Is that what you call this?" She gestures to me lying on the coach, to Dante, and to a TV playing the News, "This isn't shit. This is a disaster. You'll be lucky if you're skinned alive."
"What they gonna do? Kick me out when I know so much? Put a bullet in me when im so damn invaluable?"
"You may invaluable, but you are not above the law. The mission was to watch and report. Not interfere and kill." Dawn is a head taller than Blue and bigger in every aspect. Electricity crackles all around Blue.
"Try it bitch. See what happens." She hisses as Dawn takes a step back. I watch the scene unfold from the safety of the couch. It’s a spectacle, Dawn’s bigger than Blue in every way, muscle, height, size, and probably strength, and Blue’s pretty damn strong. As they argue, Dante and I watch on in confusion.
"To shit." Dawn huffs as she walks away.
"Run bitch run." Blue shouts after her, she looks at me, "Sorry about Dawn, she a bitch." She giggles, "Did you see that explosion? It was huge! Aint the biggest I’ve done though." She winks at me.
"What the fuck?" Dante screams. Blue looks at him confused, amazed and startled.
"Chill out man. Just a little C4. And some guys with a murder boner."
"You're the only one with a murder boner!" Dante yells, "You lunatic!"
"Hey. Feelings dude." She clutches her heart in mock sadness, points a finger at Dante, and zaps him. He collapses to the floor, "Feel better tomorrow." She grabs him by the ankles and drags him across the floor, when she reaches the stairs she stops, looks up them, then at Dante, "Fuck it." I hear her say, follow by a thump, then another thump. Dawn walks in shaking her head.
"Sorry about little miss psychopath. I have this theory she was dropped on her head as baby, then her parents didn't show her enough love, and then was bullied in school, creating her." She looks at me, "I know she can be a bit murdery. But beneath it all she's a really nice girl." She shrugs.
"How old is she?"
"How old do you think she is?"
"She said she's sixteen, but she's too small."
"Damn right she's too small. She's fourteen."
I stare at her in horror. Dawn notices, "She was picked up young, grew up in Eden, and well, growing up with that lot, can't be good for anyone. But she's the best operative we have, been on countless missions, saved billions of lives, stopped several thousand terrorists, and destroyed just as many cults, and organisations. All of that before her thirteenth. Talented girl, but can go off the rails." Dawn steps into the kitchen, "Want a cuppa? Hear you Brits love this stuff."
"Sure."

Dawn reappears minutes later with two steaming cups of coffee.
"Thanks" I say taking a blue mug. We sit in silence. A loud thump followed by Blue shouting some obscenities breaks the silence. "What are you?" I ask,
"Me?" Dawn looks shocked that I had asked that.
"No. Eden." I notice the look on her face and realise she had been joking.
"The Children of Eden. Um. Organisation that works to save the world, by any means necessary, be it blowing up an orphanage, taking down a plane, sinking a cruise ship, or infiltrating deadly organisations."
"You said Blue grew up in Eden and that growing up with them was bad."
"Eden refers to our... campus, if you will, where members live, and missions are planned. Unfortunately, the people The Children recruit aren't exactly the kindest, or the brightest, most just like blowing stuff up. And that suits us. Sometimes kids are picked up from the streets. Sometimes it goes all right. Most the time it goes fine. And sometimes you get Blue." She didn't need to say more.
"How'd Blue get picked up?"
"Long story." Dawn says, but she realises that sitting in silence would be awkward, "Lots of people died. She was left alone and living off the streets.” A loud bang erupts from upstairs.
Blue screams something at the top of her lungs. "Dawn!" She yells. I look at Dawn who just shrugs; "Get your ass up here now, and bring Arty."
"Better sort Miss Needy out." Dawn laughs putting her mug down.

I follow Dawn up two flights of stairs; we find Blue crouching in the middle of a room surrounded by weapons.
"I open the cupboard to get some jeans and these leap out at me." Blue gestures to the guns strewn on the floor, “What are they doing in my closet?"
"Had to do some reorganising due to our guests." Dawn said blankly.
"So you shove half the world’s weaponry in my closest?" She shouts, picking up an RPG, "Like, why the hell we ever gonna need this?"
"You never know." Dawn shrugs. Blue looks ridiculous in an electric blue hoodie, black hair with the blue tips, a dark red beanie on her head, with an RPG, almost the same size as her resting on her shoulder.
"Why not shove this into the cupboard in the hallway?" She says point the rocket launcher at Dawn.
"My clothes are in there."
"Why aren't your clothes in your room?"
"Closet’s full."
"With what? Enough condoms to supply all of North America for sixty-two years? You got the biggest room with the biggest closet, how can it possibly be full?"
"Got a lot of clothes."
"Can you put that thing down?" I say as Blue points it at me.
"It ain't loaded." Blue says, and then she turns back to Dawn, "How can you have enough clothes to fill a closet the same size as my room?" Blue screams at Dawn.
"If you read the briefing you'd remember that I work as a tailor. And sometimes I bring my work home. I can't exactly stuff the guns into a cupboard full of my work stuff."
"Dump 'em in Arty's room then. It ain't exactly like they have many clothes."
"Artemis' room doesn't have closest big enough to hold all that. Yours’s is the only one that can."
"God damn it" Blue throws the RPG down, "Where my clothes then?"
"In the spare room. Which is now your room."
Blue storms past us. "Artemis come. I have something for you." Blue gestures with her head towards the room.

I step in behind Blue.
"This may hurt. Like, a lot. But I was told to give it to you." She opens the closet and stairs at it. "Dawn where's my box?" She yells.
"In the bottom drawer!" Dawn screams back, clearly fed up with Blue. Blue reaches down and pulls open the drawer, revealing a tatty box with a carving in the top. She slides a key from around her neck and opens the box.
"Close your eyes." Blue giggles. I oblige, scared of the wrath that would befall me if I don’t. She presses something into my hand and closes my fist. "Okay. I better go." She steps towards the door, "I'm sorry." She closes the door. I open my hand.

My heart catches in my throat. I rack my brain for an explanation. I collapse onto the floor. My legs splayed out in front of me. I stare at my hand. A silver chain, with a ring attached to it. I stare at it. Tears drop from my face. I look at the ring, the same ring. Exactly. I pick it up. Exactly the same. How? I run my hand over the ring, feeling the inscription. "Forever"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

17) Shadow

How is this possible? How did Blue get her hands on this? When did Blue get her hands on this? A million questions roll through my head. I stare at the ring. A simple gold ring, with a simple engraving. Could she have forged it? She must have. There’s no other way. But I know. I know this is the same ring. The same ring I had given Chloe a week before she died. The same ring that lay with her six feet under.
The
Same
God
Damn
Ring
It can’t be though. I had made sure it was on her when she was buried. I had made sure. I had watched as its glint disappeared. I climb onto the bed, I bring my knees to my chest, I hold the ring in my hand. I lie there. Curled up, confused, with tears streaming down my face.

"Why did you give Chloe the ring?" Desk-Head asks. Again. I had forgotten they were there.
"She gave me one so that she'd always be with me, 'So I’ll always be with you', is how she said it. I gave her a ring to say 'forever', she would be with me forever. No matter the distance, we would always have a part of one another." I look through the window. The clouds are over us. The rain has started. It lashes down. Biblical is the only word I can think to describe it.

A scream. I hear Blue yell. The door creaks open and I glimpse Blues' beanie poke around the door, I pretend to be asleep. She creeps in a sits on the end of the bed, "I'm sorry I woke you. I didn't mean to. It's just I can't help it, ya know. I'm sorry. She made me promise I’d give it to you." She pats my leg, "Also, you seemed all cosy and shit so I put the duvet over you and put the necklace around your neck, cause that's where necklaces go, not in your hand." She gets up to go.
"How?" I rasp. She stops by the door.
"When I last saw her. Upstairs." She points up. Not up to another floor. But up up. "I'm sorry." She closes the door behind her.

The thought that Blue isn’t kidding about going to Heaven and meeting Chloe, is strange. How can a fourteen year old go to Heaven, meet a dead person and bring back a ring? I know she isn’t lying. It’s in her eyes, the sadness, the guilt. The truth is also in them, she really did go to Heaven. And that scares me. Heaven’s real, so Hell’s too. I’m going straight to Hell. I wouldn't even get a chance to beg Saint Peter, I’m going straight down.

I slip out of the bed; grab a jumper from the closet, pulling it over my head. I feel the chain around my neck; it digs into me. I look at the ring; it glints at me. I slip it under the jumper. I look in the mirror, the person who looks back at me, isn’t who I was three years ago. Hell, it isn’t who I was a month ago. Everything has changed. From hair, to my eyes, to my nose, to my smile, to my laugh, to the way I think. Everything. The person who stares back at me, is a murderer, has met gods, watched people die, watched as a thirteen year old murdered. Three years ago, I was laughing and joking with friends, I was fucking normal. Three years later, the only people I have are a murderous thirteen year old, a sixteen year old who doesn’t seem pleased with being here, a person of unknown age; who acts as a mother to Blue. My world has become so twisted. I don’t even know what day it was. What month or what year. It’s all just a shadowy blur.

The sounds of an argument draws me out,
"Piss off Dawn. I can, and I fucking will, do what I God damn want."
"Blue calm down. You cannot go off wondering. Our mission was to watch and report. You've already disobeyed the briefing, disobeyed me, and disobeyed Frank! And I swear to the lord, if you disobey me this time, I will make sure you are skinned alive." Dawn yells her voice calm, but loud and powerful. Silence follows, Blue says nothing, nothing moves. Dante slowly opens his door; he looks at me and mouths 'What's going on?' I simply shrug.
"I'm sorry." I hear Blue whisper, barely audible.
"It's okay." Dawn says, I imagine them hugging like mother and daughter. "You two can come out now." Dawn shouts up the stairs. I glance at Dante, who returns my confused look and shrugs.

Blue’s sat on a couch watching the News, Dawn stands in the kitchen making something.
"You know the problem about living with a fourteen year old?" Dawn asks as me and Dante walk into the kitchen, "She can't bloody cook. So I do all the cooking and the laundry. One of these days, I’m going to teach her to do both. So she can do it for me."
"Yeah bloody right." Blue shots at Dawn, "We've both had my cooking before, and hated It."
"Only thing she' good for is being a spy." Dawn says shaking her head, "Making pancakes, assume you two want some?"
"Yeah." Dante and I say in unison.
"Got some jelly in the fridge. Blue what flavours the jelly?"
"Lime," She pauses, "Orange," she says in a shitty French accent, "An, those red things with a green top."
"Strawberries, Blue, strawberries."
"Yeah those shits."
"Girls a maniac." Dawn shrugs at us, "Go sit down, I’ll be fine. Make sure Blue doesn't break anything."

We step into the lounge; Blue is curled up in a blanket on the couch, her electric blue hood up.
"We're on the News." She beams pointing to the TV. We’re on the TV, the News shows Shellie’s house, still smouldering,
"Three of the teens have now been identified as, Artemis Kaliaski, Dante Smith, Benjamin Cevolt, the fourth, and most dangerous, is still unknown." A picture of Blue appears on screen, "She is said to be the ring leader, and the most dangerous of them all. If seen, avoid at all costs, and dial the number on screen." A number pops up.
"What's on TV?" Dawn shouts from the kitchen.
"The News about us."
"I meant film wise."
"Oh. I don't know."
"Find out. I'm not going to sit there watching the News about you three."
"Fine." Blue flips to the TV, "Fast 8?"
"No. Think good films."
"28 Days later?"
"That's more like it." Dawn says appearing with four plates of pancakes, "They're still hot so be careful."
"Yes mother." Blue replies sarcastically eagerly taking a plate, "The plate’s hot too."
"Did tell you."
"Thanks." I say as a take a plate.
"Look at that Blue. Maybe you could learn some manors off these two."
"Shut up. The films starting."

I stretch out across the couch, my feet resting in Dante's lap, Blue stretches out as well, resting her head on my ribs. Her feet don't even reach Dante. If anyone is to walk in, who didn't know us, they could mistake us for a family. Dawn on one couch. Blue and me stretched out on the other, with Dante squished in the corner.

Just as the characters in the film enter a supermarket, a knock on the door rips us all from the film. Blue looks over at Dawn. Dawn looks at Blue.
"Who else knows we're here?"
"I mean it is a housing estate, so someone could have seen us move in. Or saw me and Artemis arrive." Blue shrugs, "Go answer It."
"Good idea Blue." Dawn says sarcastically, reaching under the couch and pulling out a pistol, she pulls the slide back; a satisfying click fills the room. Dawn walks to the front door with the pistol behind her. When Dawn reaches the door, Blue reaches under our couch and pulls out a bag of jewellery,
"Put one of these on." Blue says taking a ring for herself, I take a necklace, Dante takes a watch.
"Why?" Dante says frowning at the watch.
"Hurry up." Dawn hisses from the door. As soon as she see's all three of us have started to put the jewellery on, she opens the door slightly. She shares a couple of words with the person. She gestures with her hand, I realise she's asking if they want to come in. "We just made pancakes, and there's some left." Dawn steps back from the door and throws the pistol at Blue.
"Tosser." Blue hisses as she slides the gun under the couch. A man and a woman follow Dawn through the door.
"Kids, these are our new neighbours, Frank and Jess." She gestures to us, "Frank and Jess, the kids, Alex" She points at me, "Ryan," She points at Dante, "And Jasmine." She points at Blue who tenses up and mutters something. The couple stare at us, and for a dreaded second I worry they recognise us. Blue nudges me,
"Disguises." She mouths, she repeats the same with Dante who clearly doesn't understand, but nods in agreement. I do understand, just like the monsters of Santa Monica, we're hiding in plain sight. Dawn leads the couple into the kitchen and starts chatting. Blue unpauses the movie.

Twenty-minutes later the characters arrive at some military base, but none of us are really paying attention, we're engrossed in the conversation, Dawn, Frank and Jess are talking about the supposed terrorist attack just a couple miles away. Clearly, referring to Blue's show of C4. Frank and Jess are clearly conspiracy nuts, they talk about how it's all part of a bigger plan, and soon there won’t be a United States of America as the terrorists will either have claimed it, or blown it up. Frank blames the Muslims, while Jess blames the Chinese. In reality, it’s closer to home, it had been a fourteen year old girl, who lives in America. Dawn pretends to be the elder sister of us, called Samantha, our parents are supposedly at work. I have suddenly become sixteen, Dante becomes my twin, and Blue becomes twelve, Dawn is now nineteen. Frank and Jess don’t inquire further about our 'parents' but do wonder if we came from money, saying,
"This area is super expensive, most the time it's famous people, or people who came from money, who buy houses here."
Dawn just smiles and pretends to not know.

They chat for a couple more minutes before Dawn shouts at us to come say hi,
"Sorry they're kinda shy." Dawn says as we sheepishly stand at the door, "Well come on, they don't bite."
I act first; I stretch my hand out and shake Frank's hand, "Alex, glad to meet you." Jess refuses and handshake and instead hugs me. Dante follows my lead, shaking Frank's hand, and hugging Jess. Blue’s a lot less comfortable. I stand behind her, placing my hands on her shoulder, "Sorry about my little sister, she's very shy." I say ruffling her hair. I hope her disguise isn't wearing a hat. We stand awkwardly at the door until Dawn shoos us away.

We crash back onto the couch. Blue punches me, "I'm not a child you know."
"Yes you are. You're twelve." A say ruffling her hair again.
"Stop it." She punches my arm again, "Not funny." The look on her face tells me not to push it any further, unless I feel like being electrocuted.

Another knock at the door shakes me to my core. Dawn looks through the door, joining the kitchen and the lounge, at us, her face whitens, and she looks at Blue.
"Jas. Answer that will you?"
"Fine." Blue huffs. She steps out into the corridor and looks through the peephole, her shoulders tense up and she bends her knees. "Arty. Gun. Now." She says sternly, not taking her eye from the peephole. I sense the dread in her voice. I reach down and pick up the gun, Blue clicks her fingers at me, "Throw it." I toss it towards her; she manages to catch it without looking away. She thumbs the safety; she opens the door a crack. "Yes officer?" She puts on a little girl voice.
"Where your mummy and daddy?" The man says crouching down.
"At work."
"Who's looking after you?"
"My brother Ryan, Alex, and my sister Sam." She says weakly, Dawn appears beside Blue,
"What's the problem?" Dawn asks.
"We're checking all the houses after the explosions."
"But that was miles away." Dawn says.
"Safety. Will still haven't caught the suspects."
"Are you saying they could have come this far up?"
"It's a possibility we aren't ruling out. Mind if we come in"
"No, of course not, please come in." Dawn swings the door open. Blue shields the gun with the door. The man enters, followed by three others; I glimpse other soldiers knocking at the surrounding houses.
"Shouldn't be long ma'am." The last soldier says. The first soldier reaches the kitchen,
"Who are you?"
"Frank and Jess West, we live next door. Is everything okay?"
"Better go home, just for now." The man says. The second soldier pokes his head through into the longue,
"Found the other kids." He says.
"Is it just you four at home?" The last soldier asks.
"Yes." Dawn answers.

The men sweep downstairs, checking in closets and behind chairs. When the reach the stairs I see Dawn nervously talking to the first soldier,
"Yes ma'am it is necessary, and we'll be as quick as we can." He and the other two start up the stairs, followed by Dawn and then Blue, still holding the pistol. They reach the first floor. I hear doors open and close. Another door opens, then footsteps, then the sound of another door, followed by a loud thump, then a gunshot, followed up rapidly by another two.
"Blue!"
"They'd found the guns!"
"Could have at least zapped them! Everyone heard those gunshots."
"What they gonna do?"
"The mission was to watch and report. Now look at what you've gone and done!" Dawn yells, "Artemis, Dante, stairs, now."
Dante and I leap from the sofa and rush to the stairs.
"Here." Dawn says, throwing a compact sub-machine gun at me, and a shotgun at Dante. "Be careful, those are loaded." She returns to the room, "Blue put that down. It's unnecessary."
"Fine. But I’m bringing it with."
"If you can carry it."
Dawn appears by the kitchen door. A knock at the door.
"Blue hurry up." She yells up the stairs, the sound of something thumping down the stairs. Then the sound of something big hitting the door. Blue appears in the kitchen holding the RPG, she grins at me,
"This is gonna be fun." She points it at the door.

The door explodes inwards, Blue fires. The missile whizzes past the soldier, knocking him off his feet, and connects with a car. An explosion rocks the house, car alarms fill the night. Dawn fires a spray of bullets into the door.
"Come on. That's our queue to go." Dawn rushes to the backdoor.

We reach the back gate before the first soldier shoots. The bullet smashes the ground barely a meter from my foot. A hailstorm of bullets follow. All missing us by centimetres. Then the bullets stop. I glance behind me. All of the soldiers have vanished. Gone like a puff of smoke. I run into something. Something hard, and solid. I look at what I hit, nothing. I reach a hand out and it connects with an invisible barrier. I touch to my left, wall, to my right, wall, behind me, wall. I look at Dante and Blue. We're all trapped. I look around for Dawn, there's no sign of her.
"Artemis Kaliaski." A voice booms, I recognise it instantly. The same voice I heard in Missouri, on the bus, but now I recognise it some more. I had heard it in Parlor. Yelling at me to check on Chloe. "Look what you've got yourself into. My oh my. Masquerading as human with these two? Pathetic." A Shadow steps forward into the light. Not one of my normal shadows, but something a whole lot eviler. It looks at me, "What a shame. You could've been so strong. But you chose to run around playing spies with these humans. What a waste."
"You shit!" Blue yells shooting electricity from her fingers at the invisible wall, “Ima kill you so badly!” She yells.
"My, my. What do we have hear." The Shadow floats over to Blue, "What are you?" It asks.
"Your worst nightma-" She stops. The Shadow reaches its hand through the wall and grasps her neck.
"Go on? You were saying?" It squeezes. The colour drains from Blue's face, her lips move, she squeaks, "Can't quite hear you." The Shadow says pressing its head to the wall; Blue's face goes blue. The sound of an engine roaring makes The Shadow look away. A four wheeled drive leaps out of the night.
"Humans. So silly." It says. It looks at me. "Watch, Artemis, as I crush your friend’s throat." The sound of bone breaking punctures the night. It sounds like a... I don't know what it sounds like, other than a bone breaking. Then Shadow lets go of Blue and her body crumples to the floor.
"Get your hands off her!” Dawn yells from the driver’s seat. The car hits The Shadow, and passes through it. Shadow just laughs. It looks at me.
"That's more like it." It smiles. A giant white shadow leaps towards Shadow. A White Devil. Clear as day, horns, wings, the whole lot. It rams into Shadow sending it flying. The walls surrounding us shatter like glass.

We sit in silence. The car glides across the motorway. No one speaks, no one has the energy, and no one knows what to say. Dawn drives in silence, Dante sits next to her, in silence. I sit in the back, in silence. Blue lies in the boot, in silence. I watch as lights flicker past. We sit in silence. The Shadow People watch in silence. Silence is all there is.

The little girl, the fourteen year old, known simply as, Blue. Is dead. Her neck snapped. You'd think Dawn, who had acted as, mother, sister and friend, for Blue, would be the worst off. She seems fine, despite the tears running down her face. Dante is shocked; there are no tears. I lay in the back, no tears, no emotion, nothing. Just emptiness. She had died. Cause of me.

I imagine it now, Blue sitting up in the boot, asking why we're all so quiet, confused at the tears. Dawn would swear at her, then we'd all laugh at the shit joke Blue had played on us.

It never happened of course.

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18) Gods Prayer

The silence is unbearable.
"I'm sorry." I whisper to nothing and no one. No one responds. No one looks at me. No one looks at anyone.

Fourteen hours later, the car bounces across gravel and grinds to a halt

The numbness of my hand is the first thing I feel, the back of my hand is being pressed against the door and my head rests on my palm, pressing my hand deeper into the material. The darkness that surrounds me is comforting and peaceful. Nothing punctuates the darkness.

I feel my soul shift as Dawn switches the car off and climbs out. She slams the door, places her hands on the roof, and screams. A loud, horrible scream. It ruptures the darkness. She slams her fists into the roof.
"The idiot." She shouts; she leans against the car, "The idiot." She mumbles as she slides down the door and hits the gravel. I slip out the car, Dante stays where he is, staring into space. I walk around to Dawn; I collapse to the floor next to her. I place an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry." I whisper, tears stream down my face. Without Blue, the word lacks happiness, her annoying jubilance lightened the mood, but now, the mood is dark and dull, like the night sky above, but less beautiful. Dawn leans against me and starts crying, deep sobs.

We stay like that. Dante in the car staring into space. Dawn and me collapsed on the floor, in each other's arms, crying. Without Blue, it seems like the entire world has a hole in it. The entire world and me.

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"It wasn't the first time I lost someone. And it’s not the last." I stare at Desk-Head. They sit there, unmoving, like a statue. A fish tank sits behind them. A clock ticks above them, tick-tock, a digital clock sits on the desk, beeping every minute, beep. Beep. Desk-Head takes deep breaths. In, out. Beep beep. In out. Tick-tock. Beep beep. In out. Tick-tock. Beep beep in out tick-tock. Beep beep in out tick-tock beep beep in out tick-tock. It’s a repetitive pattern. Over and over again. The same. Never late, never early. Beep beep. In, out. Tick-tock. Over and over and over and over and over and over again.

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The sun starts to rise. It pokes its head over the hill. I finally see where we stopped. I look up at the ginormous building, a grand building, a mansion, a manor, call it what you want, it’s big. Huge windows straddle the even bigger walls. A grand oak door stands prideful in front of me. It reminds me of an old medieval door that you’d see attached to a castle.

I look at it. Bewildered. Confused. Amazed. Scared. Happy. A range of emotions, all ending with, 'The fuck?' It’s a simple question, but my mind has yet to come up with an explanation. Dawn pulls herself away from me; she looks at the building, then at me, noticing my face.
"We own this." She sniffs; she pulls a set of keys from her pocket and unlocks the door.

The inside is exactly like I remember it was. The grand doors lead into an even grander hallway, a fabulous chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

My mind races back to the day I arrived here, in New York, in America. Barely days before all this began. Dante staggers in behind us.

The place is covered in dust. Not just a thin layer, but the type of layer that accumulates over years without being used.
"Since the mall no one's been in here." Dawn says openly, she swings open a set of doors leading to the dining room. I step into it. The last time I had set foot in this house, I had been thirteen. My dad had sat on the chair closest to the door. When I was last here, I’d barely seen the house. The dining room is giant. The dining table to my left, grand oak. A fireplace in the furthest wall, directly in the centre. Couches to my right surrounding a coffee table, looking through a giant window, with long red curtain covered in dust. Bookshelves line the walls from window to door and the fireplace.

The kitchen is exactly as I remembered; I smell the food that Isaac had prepared. I look back into the dining room, Dawn stands on the rim of the fireplace, five metres off the floor, she grabs a brick and pulls it out, exposing a hole behind it, she reaches in and pulls out a pistol. She throws it to the floor, reaches in, pulls out boxes of ammo, another pistol, more ammo, a box, and two sub-machine guns. She leaps down from the fireplace and kicks all the stuff into the middle of the room.

Dawn repeats the process in every single room of the house. All twenty-six. Plus all six bathrooms. Thirty-two rooms in total. Each time she reappears with guns, ammo and a box.

An hour later, every secret stash lays on the floor of the dining room. Sixty-four sub-machine guns, six shotguns, twelve assault rifles, nine snipers, one hundred grenades, sixty smoke grenades, sixty-four pistols, thirty-two boxes, and a shit ton of ammo.

She stands proudly by her collection.
"I think that was all of them." She mumbles. Dante and I stare at her and the pile of weaponry she created. "Help me out." She reaches down, picks up a box, opens it, and tips it on the floor. Money falls to the floor. Stacks of it.
"Holy shit." Dante says. Holy shit is right. The stacks are thick. I crouch down and open a box. Six stacks of five-hundred dollar bills each stack containing at least fifty notes. One hundred and fifty thousand from one box.

It takes us a further hour to empty all the boxes and stack them evenly.
"One million and two hundred thousand, Euros." Dawn says counting the Euro pile. "One million and two hundred thousand, Dollars." She moves to the next, "One million and two hundred thousand, Pounds. And finally, One million and two hundred thousand Yen."
"Holy shit." Dante repeats.
"Four million and eight hundred thousand, in total." Dawn says,
"That's a lot of money." I gasp.
"And that's just one safe house." Dawn beams, being surrounded by weapons and money seems to take her mind off Blue, it takes all our minds off Blue.
"How many are there?"
"In the United States alone, around two hundred and fifty three."
"Fucking hell." Dante says almost inaudible.
"One billion, two hundred and fourteen million, and four hundred thousand. In the US alone." Dawn smiles from ear to ear, "Now that's a lot of money."
"Are there houses all over the world?"
"Yes." Dawn pauses to think, "Around two thousand safe houses in the world, maybe more."
"Holy fucking shit." Dante whispers.
"Nine billion and six hundred million. Give or take a few billion" Dawn's smile grows wider.
"Holy shit." Dante and I gasp in unison.
"How?" I ask.
"Perks of working for an International Organisation that doesn't officially exist. We get to do whatever the hell we want, in whatever country, and most the time we get paid, and if we don't, we just steal their stuff and sell it. Also, the founders of The Children of Eden were all multi-billionaires so they put most of their money into it." Dawn smile fades, "Blue would have loved all these guns."

I stare at the pile of money and guns. It looks staggering. Four million and eight hundred thousand worth of notes sit there. And enough weaponry to take on a small army.
"When we were last here, was all this here?"
"Yes. This safe house has only been used once or twice, so most of this stuff is all original."
"If you own it -"
"How did you get to stay in it?" Dawn finishes, "We rent out most of the bigger safe houses, brings in a profit."
"What if someone found all this?"
"What, do you go around poking at bricks in a fireplace often?" Dawn replies sarcastically.
"No."
"Thought not."

We eat like kings, baked beans for me, tinned tomato soup for Dawn and Dante, and after dinner me and Dawn settle down on the couches in the living room to watch a movie. Dante skulks upstairs, and presumably goes to bed.

Dawn says that the only time the power is turned on, is when the place was being rented out, so we are stuck watching shitty DVD's through her laptop.
"Last time I was here, there was a butler called Isaac?" I ask as the credits to the third film roll.
"We hire them for the time the place is rented. Simple, easy, and clean."
"Oh." I say, as I realise that the story Isaac had told of Lady Virgil was made up, probably on the spot. Dawn notices the look on my face.
"What's wrong?" She asks gently.
"Isaac had told a story about the ghost of Lady Virgil haunting this place." I reply; Dawn lets out a short laugh.
"Lady Virgil used to own this place; she was found hanging from the chandelier the day before we were set to buy it off her. The place fell into the possession of her youngest, Grayson, we were about to buy it from him, but he died, the same way Lady Virgil did. He had no children or heirs, so we just went to the marketer, and were like, 'Yeah we'll buy this.' It was a mess. Took six years longer to get this place then we had expected." She gets up, "Come I’ll show you around."

She leads me into the corridor.
"The dining hall was built as an extension to a house built in eighteen-ten, the corridor was built ten years later along with the lounge. By eighteen-twenty-five, there was the kitchen, the dining room, the cellar, and the lounge. The house fell under new ownership in eighteen-forty and the owner built the second floor." She gestures to the staircase, "This was built in Ireland and brought to here in eighteen-thirty-nine."

We arrive on the second floor, "These became the staff rooms for a bit, until the third floor was built." Dawn says gesturing to the six rooms on the second floor, we continue to the third. “The family rooms remained on the second. The third floor was spare rooms. And the fourth floor was workers.” She says as we step onto the fourth floor. She stops by the closest door.
"How do you know so much about this or do you know this much about all the safe houses?" I ask Dawn, she stares at the door, before opening it.
"This used to be my room." She whispers,
"What?" I stammer.
"After Eden bought it, it was turned into a school for a bit. Then we started renting it out." She leads me into the room, "And this was my room. It was the same. But I had a little piano in that corner." She points to the furthest corner, "That was the only difference."
I stare at her in disbelief. "All the rooms were the same, apart from the little trinkets we all brought from homes, and memories of past lives." Dawn stares emptily into the room, "I remember the day I arrived. How different my life was back then." She sits on the bed and stares out the window that overlooks a pool, and then a forest. She smiles faintly at me. Dawn pulls out Blue’s box, "This was Blue's, it contains anything and everything from her." She reaches in a pulls out a pencil, engraved on it are the initials, R.G.G, "No one knows what they mean, she died being the only person to know her name. In a way it's beautiful, her name, and only she knows it." She puts the pencil back and pulls out two photos, the first one shows a little girl, barely nine, but almost certainly Blue, she’s surrounded by friends, and wears a football kit. The other is less understandable, "She was like a sister and a daughter to me." The picture shows an older Blue, maybe twelve, and a Dawn, "I was thirteen when she arrived. And since then, we grew inseparable, when she went on a mission, I had to go as well. I hated it at first, pretending to be the sister of this child, pretending to be someone I wasn't, lying to neighbours, faking a life until the mission was done." She frowns, "But I’ve come to like it. Being a sister to Blue became life, in and out of missions, I was her sister, and she was mine." Dawn gets up and leaves.
"Where are you going?" I whisper as she reaches the stairs.
"She needs to be buried."
A simple sentence. But the implications are immense. A thirteen year old, needs burying. A girl who had be like a sister and daughter, needed burying. The sentence catches me off guard, and my head tumbles into the clouds.

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I stand there. Watching. The sun shines brightly, scorching hot in English terms, but barely fifteen degrees. The day is going to be beautiful. It shouldn't be though. It has no right to be beautiful on a day like today. Today, is the darkest day. My soul feels empty, as if someone has burrowed in and hollowed me out. I guess everyone here must feel the same. We’re all here for the same reason. For the same goddamn reason. I wonder what God's doing? Is he watching us? Does he care enough to watch? Does he have a plan? Is this part of his plan? The idea of God had seemed so batshit crazy. Now though, it’s the only explanation. But what God would demand a life? A life of a thirteen year old, what kind of God would demand such a thing? A shit God. A God who had no right to rule. Despite the beautiful day, everyone around me is depressed. All for some reason, but due to the same thing. Me because she had been my best friend... she was like family... I hadn't even got to say goodbye. For others, like her parents, because she was their daughter. For Max and James, because she had been their best friend. For the priest, because it was his job. For family, because she had been family. She had been family to us all. To me. To Max. To James. To Ellie. She was part of our family, and we, a part of hers. Any other day, and we would have been messing around in the park. Not today, today we watched as her body was lowered into the ground.

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We follow Dawn into the forest. Reaching a small clearing. The bushes around us are wild and big, they surround us on all sides. The grass is barely ankle high. A tree with pink petals stands proudly in the middle of the circle of bushes. It casts its hands into the sky shrouding the clearing with its fingers.
"This was her favourite place." Dawn mumbles, crouching down by the tree, "She would climb up high, and hide from us. I always found her here, by herself, in the tree, watching." She looks at me, "It's only fitting she should be buried here."

Soon, the ground opens up and swallows the small body of Blue. And soon the sun starts to set, casting an orange glow in the clearing.

We stare at the little mound of earth, a small hole left uncovered.
"Blue, was a daughter, of someone somewhere, she never knew them. She found people, like her, unlike her, found friends. She found a family, and a family found her. She wasn't just an order to watch, to keep safe. She wasn't just whatever the mission needed her to be, she was more, she was a teenage girl, who the world took too soon, she was beautiful, she was smart, she was funny and amazing. But most importantly, she was my sister. My daughter, my friend." Dawn places the box in the small hole, "To the God above. To the child below. To the holy spirt and the ones we don’t know. Let Blue pass on safely. Let her reach Heaven. Let her prosper. Let her be the one atop the Ivory Throne." Dawn says.
“Blue." I begin, "I didn't know you very long. I'm sorry. If you see Chloe before I do, tell her thank you, and if you don't, I’ll tell Chloe hi from you."
Dante doesn't say anything, he just watches. Dawn covers the little box.

Dawn heads for the little path out of the clearing.
"Where you going?" I whisper. I look Dawn in the eyes, and for the first time, I see it. The flecks of pink twinkle in the sunlight.
"I'm gonna start a war.” She stops, “You coming?”

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19) An Agreement

Dawn says it like it’s an easy thing to do. ‘I’m going to start a war.’ Makes it sound as easy as baking a cake. Dante doesn’t say anything. He just stares at the small mound of dirt. I wonder if he’s offering a silent prayer. The tree behind me. Is it the same tree? The one from The Palace of The Gods, Dawn had said it connected Heaven, Hell, Earth and everything in-between. The Goddess Tree. I realise the little girl hiding in the tree, all those days ago was Blue.
“Yes. I’m coming.” I say, “Just give me a minute.” I turn back to the tree. Its pink petals glint at me; something sits in the tree watching me, I can feel its eyes boring into me.
“The Goddess Tree.” A voice says… The voice says… the one from Missouri. From Parlor. From the bus. The one that has always been in my head. “Connects everything. She had to die. Some things are inevitable. You of all people must realise this. This is destiny. And you cannot run from It.”
“Blue.” I start. I stop. What do I have left to say? “I’ll make it right.” I whisper. Dante places a hand on my shoulder,
“Dawn’s waiting for us.” He says softly. A crack of lightning tears across the sky.
“The Gods aren’t happy, Artemis.” The voice says, “You want to go start a war. Unaware that the war has already started. It started three years ago. Quietly, unnoticeable.”
“Let’s go.” I croak.

My backpack sits on the dining table. The gifts nestled safely inside.
A knife.
A coin.
A small ball of water.
A marble. What had I been told? Something about just adding water.
“What’s in the bag, Artemis?” Dawn asks,
“Look.”
“I have. It’s empty.” She frowns, ‘The best hiding spot is in plain sight.’ I laugh.

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Outside, a flash of lightning shakes the window. The rain pours out of the sky; smashing into everything. The few people that are outside scramble to get under shelter. The rain pelts into cars. It crashes into the window. Desk-Head looks at me. I look at Desk-Head. The Shadow People look at Desk-Head.

The world is tearing itself apart. The voice was right. The war started years ago. No one cared, until today. Today, the Gods care. Too bad, they didn’t care when Chloe died. When Blue died. When I died. When Dante Died. When my Dad died. When Ben died.

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“Shouldn’t we bring the guns?” I ask.
“No need.” She replies simply.

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Currently, David Kaliaski is in Santa Monica, outside Shellie Smith’s house. Or what used to be a house. Today, it’s just a smouldering pile of rubble. Artemis and Dante had been seen here. With two girls. Artemis, Dante, and one of the girls are all over the news. It claims they’re terrorists. There’s murmurs of a cult. The Children of Eden. David had heard about them before. Years ago. Then again when Paris was destroyed. Then The Vanishing in Parlor, talk of the cult resurfaced. Until today, David was sceptical of the existence of The Children of Eden. Every time something happened, people mentioned the group. But there’s never any proof. How could a group, operate in so many countries, over so many years, and never leave a trace? It was all just a conspiracy. Crazy talk. Or that’s what David used to believe. Today, his belief changed. The Children of Eden are real. And somehow Artemis is involved.

One wall of house remains. A singular beige brick wall. Painted on it, is four lines, each with a curved end, forming two triangle, one above another. And below it. The words, “Today the world shall know.”

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To Dante, the events of the past few days have left him empty. He stares at Artemis, their blonde hair flapping in the wind. Their blue eyes, empty. Dawn sits at the dining table talking to Artemis. They chat like old friends. It would be a chat if they weren’t planning on starting a war.

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“Where to?” I ask,
“New York.” Dawn replies. The Shadow People, all seven, stand next to me.
“What’s there?”
“Hopefully, The Children of Eden.”

I rummage around inside my bag, looking for the marble; I find it, it’s smooth surface feels tarnished and dirty. I take it.
“Destiny, Artemis. Destiny.” The voice whispers in my head. I look at the marble, pink fluid flows around inside of it. Two thirds full. Just add water? I have no clue what it does. Does it do anything?

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To Dawn, the past few days, have played exactly like she’d been told. Like Blue had been told. The only part that through a spanner in the work was The Shadow that killed Blue. That wasn’t meant to happen. And without Blue, Dawn can’t get back. That’s the true horror. Without Blue, Dawn is stuck here. The next part of the plan isn’t planned. Dawn knows that if she survives this, they will know that she attacks, and will be prepared, so she won’t survive. So they won’t be prepared. Dawn shakes her head, she’d found that thinking about her job makes her head spin.

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I watch as Dawn climbs into the car and starts it. I look at Dante.
“Last time to back out.” I say,
“No. To the end.” He says stepping into the car. I look at the sky. There are no clouds. A clear blue sky stares back at me. A bolt of lightning rips across the sky. No thunder follows. A silent lightning bolt. The lone lightning bolt is joined by hundreds more. They ripple across the sky, making no noise.
“Is this your plan?” I say to the sky. As if to answer me, a bolt of lightning, bigger than the rest, crackles along the sky. It stays. It floats there, in the sky, crackling. A gash in the sky.
“Come on, Artemis.” Dawn shouts honking the horn. I climb into the car, and with one last look at the sky, I say a silent pray.

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After what had happened to Shellie Smith’s house, the scene is ablaze with media. And David knows, that it’s only a matter of time before the graffiti on the wall is photographed, and spreads across the internet. Until eventually, the entire world knows. What they would know, David isn’t sure. Is the graffiti really work of a cult? A cult that until today had remained secret? Had never left any evidence? Until today. Could it really be? Why now? Why not after Paris? Were they responsible for Parlor?

He’d gotten the call in the early hours of the morning. Mrs Milne. Siobhan’s mum. Followed by another call from Connor and Callum’s fathers. The children were back. Appeared in their beds. None of them knowing where they’d been. Then he got a call from the Ritargo’s, Maxine and James still weren’t back. Only a handful of children hadn’t returned. Max and James were two of them. Soon the news of the children returning reached the media. And the news was ablaze with the story. And now, a new story might blow it out of the water. A story of a cult. David looks to the sky. And what he sees confuses him. A bolt of lightning tears across the sky, but it doesn’t disappear, it floats there. Like a rip in the sky. He notices more lightning, hundreds of bolts flying across the sky. But no noise. Is this what the writing means?

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The trip to New York from the house, takes about an hour. We turn into a road. Central Park to our left. The trees shimmer in the cold March morning. Dawn pulls into a car park,
“Right, this is our stop. The rest we do on foot.”
“What are we looking for?” I ask; Dawn pulls down her sleeve, revealing a tattoo. The same one Blue had, two triangles, above a bunch of dots,
“It might be marked with this. But I’m not sure. You’ll probably know it when you see it. Look for something that looks…” She pauses, “Out of time.”

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Dawn had said to look for the symbol. And so Dante keeps his eyes peeled. They walk down the pavement, the cold March wind blowing at them, sending shivers up his spine. Something that looks out of time. What does that even mean? That’s when he sees it.

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Dawn sees it. How could she miss it? Hundreds of people are looking at it.

Painted onto a window of an H&M, is a symbol. A triangle, above another triangle. Below it, the words, “The Four have risen.”

Dawn isn’t sure what the words mean. But if The Four is referring to The Four she thinks it is. Then, it’s over.

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David feels his phone buzz. He checks the display. A text from an unknown number, “The World Knows.” He feels his heart sink. The news is out.
“Boss, you seen this?” He hears a voice shout, Frank runs up to him, he holds his phone up so David can see it. On the screen is a news article. The New York Times, an article published ten minutes ago. The leading picture is of a two triangles. One above another. And the words, “The Four have risen.”

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Chloe is by all means, quite dead. She knew it. The moment she woke up in a strange office facing a strange person, you'd have to be an idiot not to understand. She knew she was dead; she'd been dead for quite a while.

When she first arrived in The Office, she was surprised; it was nothing like she had imagined. A glass table sits in front of the couch, a bowl of sweets on top. An armchair on the other side. A desk behind that, and behind that, a bookshelf full of books that look like they've never been read. The Office doesn’t seem like a place where God would reside, but it has to be God, doesn’t it?
"Are you God?" She asks, the person smiles,
"You humans always ask the same question." Their smile seems false, "Do you know where you are?"
"Yeah. I'm dead."
"Yes."
"How?"
"Do you want to remember?"
"No."
"Okay."
"What's next?"
"A choice. Heaven or The Afterlife."
"What's The Afterlife?"
"You choose a place to be born, and an age, and then you are dropped into a world full of other people who have chosen The Afterlife. You get to live another life, a life after life."
"Do you only get one?"
"No, as many as you want. And after each, you will be asked to choose between Heaven and The Afterlife, but be wary, if you choose Heaven you cannot unchoose." They gesture towards a door, “Through there is your choice; Heaven on the left, The Afterlife on the right. Take all the time you need."

Chloe stares at the doors, she stands alone in a corridor now, almost alone. A small hand taps her on the shoulder. She turns and faces the person.
"First time?" The person asks
"Yeah."
"Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"You?"
"Third." The girl replies, from under a beanie pokes black hair with blue tips, "Names Blue."

Every time Chloe died, she faced the same choice, Heaven or The Afterlife. The first time, she walked straight back in, the second she did the same, and the third. But as she died for the fourth time, a small hand taps her shoulder. A girl with black and blue hair looks at her.
"What are the chances?" The girl beams, it takes a while for Chloe to remember,
"Blue, right?" Chloe laughs,
"Yeah. What life you on now?"
"Fifth. You?"
"Sixth." Blue looks at the girl before her. She knows exactly who she was, she knew from the first moment. Blue knew almost instantly that it was Chloe Maxwell. Of course, Blue recognised her; she'd met Chloe back on Earth several years prior. Chloe didn't remember that fateful night that she met Blue. The two girls shared anecdotes of The Afterlife, it turns out they had both been in the same world their last life, the chances of that are almost zero.

When Chloe's sixth life rolled around, she’s amazed to see the girl again.
"Blue? What the chances." She said. The two girls chat like they old friends, jokes about their previous life. Before Blue steps into the door, she says something, and that something stuck with Chloe through her next life.
"Artemis says thank you." The little girl vanishes into nothingness. Chloe’s taken aback.

As her sixth life grows to a close, Chloe prays she would see Blue again; she looks at the ground hundreds of meters below her quickly rushing to greet her.

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I stare at the window. So does everybody else. Dawn seems to be in shock. Dante’s just confused.
“What does it mean?” I ask quietly.
“That I failed.” Dawn says simply, “The worlds still going to end.” As she says this, Dante gets our attention, he points across the street, to a storefront. Inside the store windows, are TV’s, each one playing the same thing.

We step across the street. The TV’s are easy to hear. Not that they’re extremely loud. Rather, everything has stopped. The crowds are silent. The cars have come to a stop. Everyone watches. Silently. Listening. Watching.
“We’re getting the same report from all over the world.” The reporter says, the camera cuts to a picture, “London… Tokyo… Berlin… Washington… Amsterdam… Mexico City… Sydney…” The camera changes back to the reporter, “They all say the same thing, ‘The Four Have Arisen.’ What it might mean, we don’t know.” The reporter stops, and the camera changes once more, showing the sky – more importantly the lightning that crackles across the sky. “An unexplained weather phenomenon is currently occurring. The entire world can see it.” The reporter looks scared, “We’re being told to tell you, that this is not an alien invasion. There’s nothing to worry about.”

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David stares at his phone. Countries all over the world are reporting the same thing. The same symbol, with the same words, ‘The Four Have Arisen.’

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Chloe wakes with a start. As it always is. She sits across from the person. The same person as it always is. The only difference is that they look worried. As if, something’s wrong.
“Everything okay?” She asks,
“Yes.” The person replies, “Another day, another choice, and what is it this time Chloe?”
“Afterlife.”

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Everyone looks up. Who can blame them? I look up, at the lightning. Dante looks up. Dawn just stares at the floor. ‘The world still ends.’ How fun.

I’m pulled from my thoughts as a hand grabs my shoulder, I notice Dawn tense up next to me, a hand on her shoulder. Dante too. Dawn doesn’t try to fight back.
“We need to talk.” A man says behind me. The world spins, like being inside a washing machine. Then it goes black.

I open my eyes. The world hadn’t gone black. I’d closed my eyes. Dawn blinks tears from her eyes. I look around. Yes, I look. The ball of light is nowhere to be seen.
“Artemis. Dawn. Dante. Good to finally meet you.” A woman says. Coatlicue, “Please, sit.” She says. Suddenly there’s a chair below me, and my knees are bending. A table appears in front of us, Coatlicue sat opposite, along with the others, Ra, Danu, and Zeus.
“Good to see you again, Dawn.” Zeus says,
“Zeus.” Dawn spits, she looks to Danu and smiles, “Danu.” Then at Coatlicue and Ra, “And I can only assume, Coatlicue? And perhaps Ra?”
“Quite correct, Dawn. But you’re not the reason we’re here.” Coatlicue says, and then she looks at me, “We’re here for you.”
A voice speaks inside my head, “Don’t listen to them.”
“As you know. There is a prophecy.” She starts, “That says that four people will save or end the universe. We all had our own opinions on this. I personally didn’t believe it. Just like I choose not to believe the myth of God. But, now, I know that this prophecy is true.” She looks at me, there’s pain in her eyes, “There are four people.” She looks at Ra, who takes over,
“You wouldn’t have survived, if it weren’t for us.”
“Don’t believe their lies.” The voice says, “You know who saved you. Their blessing. My sister. She saved you. Not these fools.”
“We protected you. We made sure you survived. Now you owe us.” Ra continues.
“I owe you?” I stammer,
“We saved your life.”
“Didn’t save Chloe though. Or Max and James.”
“Chloe wasn’t our choice.” Ra pauses, “She’s part of something bigger. So are you. This is your destiny, Artemis. You can’t run from it.”
Zeus interjects, “We can, and we will save Max and James. If you promise to do one thing for us.”
“Too late. They’re dead.” I snarl.
“No. They’re in Shanghai.” Zeus says, clearly my face doesn’t show belief, “We can show you.” He says, he look to Coatlicue, who clicks her fingers.

I find myself in a room. A bleak room, no windows. A mirror sits in the centre of one wall. A chair in the middle of the room. Strapped to that chair, is a girl. She looks tiny and fragile.
“Max?” I gasp.

Then I’m back with Dante and Dawn.
“See.” Zeus says, “They’re still alive. And we’ll keep them that way, if you promise us something.”
“What?” I rasp.
“That if the time comes. You’ll stay and fight. And save the universe.”
“No pressure.” Danu says, almost laughing.
“Save the universe? That’s your demand? And Max and James’ll survive?”
“Yes.” Coatlicue says, “You have our word.”
“I want a promise. A deal. A dead. A contract.” I say,
Zeus, Coatlicue, Danu, and Ra, look at each other. Coatlicue nods, Zeus clicks his fingers, a loud crack shatters through the air. He looks up, and the roof dissolves. “As long as that lightning is in the sky. You have my word that no harm will come to Max, James, or Ellie.” He says. I look up. In the sky is lightning. No more than last time. But the one bolt that had hung there in the sky, now glows. A bright vibrant blue. A rumble of thunder shatters across the sky, “Odin is in agreement.” He says.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David flinches as the ground shakes, and a bang rips through the sky. He looks up.
“The Gods are angry.” The officer next to him mumbles. David looks at her,
“I think the worlds about to change.” He mutters.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“One last thing.” I say. I slip the marble out of my pocket, and place it on the table.
“What’s this?” Coatlicue says confused,
“I was told, ‘Three souls for one. Just add water.’ There are two souls in there.” I don’t need to finish,
“And you want a third?” Coatlicue finishes,
“Yes.”
“We can’t help you there.” She clicks her fingers.

The chaos of New York City attacks me. Everyone around us is in a dazed panic. A water pipe has burst in the road, spraying water into the sky, and creating a sinkhole. People rush around, helping people out of the hole. People stare confused into the sky. A man stands on a street corner, looking at the sky. He leans backwards, falling into the road, just as a bus passes. It screeches to a halt, its hydraulics mixing in with the screams of witnesses. All of this, I see with the ball of light. My sight’s gone again. I look at Dawn, she lets out a sigh; “We need to get off the streets.” She orders. Dante and I don’t need to be told twice.

We hurry through the maddening crowd, Dawn leading the way. I look where we are; I’m not sure how far we’ve come. The Empire State leans over me. Dawn swings the doors open. And we step inside. The idealistic lobby stares at me. Dawn approaches the front desk, “80th floor.” She barks at the man. He puts a hand over a phone,
“The buildings closed today ma’am.” He says,
“I don’t care if World War Three is happening outside. 80th floor please.”
“Ma’am. The building is closed.”
“And I don’t care.” She hisses,
“Ma’am –“ The man starts, but he doesn’t get to finish, Dawn presses a knife into his throat. I grab the marble in my pocket. Is this the third soul?
“80th floor. Now.” She says. The man presses something. Which I assume, isn’t the button for a lift. Four burly men appear in the lobby,
“Ma’am.” One says, “Put the knife down.”
Dawn spins around, “Do you know who I am?” She shouts, “No, I don’t suppose you do.” The four men stare at each other. “Great. The old fashioned way it is then.” She says. She rams the handle of the knife into the receptionists head; he slumps forwards. The four men charge forwards. Dawn throws the knife at one; the handle connects with the man’s skull, he collapses. The other three continue forward. Dawn runs towards one, which surprises the man; she pirouettes and rams an elbow into the man sternum, then follows it up with another elbow to the back of his neck. He drops. The last two continue their assault on Dawn. She effortlessly dispatches them.

“What’s on the 80th floor?” I ask as the lift doors close,
“Hopefully, someone who can pay.”

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

20) Las Vegas

The lift doors ping open. We step out onto the 80th floor. Dawn leads the charge through the floor.

I stare out a window, looking out over the roofs of New York. It’s a sight to behold. Far below us are thousands of people, all with no clue of what’s happening. The sky above us ripples.

Dawn bursts through a door. I follow behind her.
“Ah, Dawn took your time.” A man says. Dawn freezes in her tracks,
“Sir?”
“Yes. Who else were you expecting?”
“You knew I was coming.” She says defeated,
“Of course we did. We knew from the very start.” The man, who speaks, is a tall, slender man, who has long brown hair pulled into a ponytail. He wears a tight fitting suit. “And you must be Artemis Kaliaski.” He says looking over Dawn’s shoulder at me, “I’ve heard many great things. Too bad about what happens.” He looks over my shoulder at Dante, “And Dante Smith.”
“If you knew, why send us on this mission?” Dawn mutters.
“Sit.” He gestures to a conference table, “All of you.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“If that’s your choice, you know the door.” The man says. Chloe does know the door; after all, she has been through it five times. This time would be her sixth.
“Is there a greater meaning?”
“To what dear?”
“My life.” Chloe says. The man looks sorry,
“Yes. You’re death began a chain of events, that must happen.”
“So you made me to die?”
“My sweet, you misunderstand. I never made you. I didn’t make humanity. I didn’t even make the universe. Earth created itself. Evolution created you. This isn’t my plan. I have no control over the events that happen.”
“What must happen?”
“You needn’t burden yourself with such things. Go enjoy your rebirth.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We sit around the table, the man at the head, Dante, Dawn, and I, sat on one side.
“If you knew. Why send us?” Dawn demands,
“Now, Dawn, we mustn’t skip formalities.” He looks at Dante and me. “I am Frank Miller. Leader of The Children of Eden.” He looks back to Dawn, “Now you may speak.”
“Why the fuck did you send me and Blue on this mission, if you knew she was going to die?”
Frank takes a deep breath, “Because, as you well know Dawn, certain things must happen, and cannot be avoided.”
“What does her death accomplish, sir.” She spits out the sir,
“More than you will ever know.”
“Enlighten me.” She sits venomously,
“Don’t forget who you are speaking to.” Frank says, “What’s our motto?”
“Jovir cy jotir.” Dawn says quietly, “hijo mitta wer.”
“And what does it mean?”
“To raise or destroy. No matter what.” She mumbles,
“And?”
“That no matter what happens, we shall do our best, and not ask questions.”
“Correct.” Frank says harshly,
“I deserve to know.” Dawn demands, slamming her hand onto the table. Cracks spread across the glass,
“Maybe in the future. But as of right now, you don’t.” Frank raps his fingers against the glass, “I want you on the first flight back to base. As of now, Dawn Hoppensburg, your mission is complete. You preformed exemplarily, and will receive a hero’s welcome.”
“But I failed?” Dawn says confused, “The world is still going to end.”
“No. You did what your mission required you to do. And completed it without question.” Frank smiles, “Now, if you will excuse us, I need to speak to Artemis and Dante.”
Without question, or argument, Dawn leaves. “Do you have any questions?” Frank asks.
“Yeah. What the actual fuck is going on?” Dante shouts. Frank just stares at him,
“After all of this, you still don’t know?”
“No. And I’d like to.”
“Fine.” Frank leans forward, “Artemis is part of a group called The Four, who were prophesied at the start of time, to either save or destroy the universe. God, created eight beings, The Elders. These Elders each have a part of the universe, Love, Destruction, Life, Death, Land, Water, Time, and Creation. The Elder Destruction, decided to try to destroy the universe. The other seven, stopped Destruction by splitting themselves, forming the deities we know today. Every God you’ve ever heard of, is real. I lead a secret organisation that works to protect the universe, by any means necessary. We work for any government and operate all over the world. We also protect The Four.”
“You’re not lying are you?” Dante asks,
“No.” Frank says softly, “Now, it’s time for you to go.”

“What’s this?” Dawn asks as Frank hands her something,
“A plane ticket.”
“McCarran international? That’s in Las Vegas. Why there?” Dawn questions, “Right, right, no questions.”
“Better get a hurry on if you want to make your flight.”

We step out into the mid-afternoon sun that fails to shine down on us. The initial panic after this morning has subsided. The crowd has thinned, but there are still hundreds of people walking the streets. The sinkhole has been closed off. Cleaners work to wash the symbols off windows.
“We really need to hurry.” Dawn says, “The drive to Vegas is forty hours. The plane leaves in forty-eight. Good thing we have nothing to pack.” She laughs, for what I believe is the first time.

I stare out the window. The rain pours down. On the floor, there’s about five centimetres of water already. I look up to the sky. The lightning bolt sizzles. Zeus’ Tear as people had taken to calling it. Meteorologists still have no explanation for it. Unbeknownst to them, the name is a lot more fitting then they think.
“Nothing interesting happens on the drive to Las Vegas. We barely even speak.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Kaliaski’s phone rings. He looks at the caller ID.
“Yes?” He says,
“They’ve been seen in Las Vegas, with Dante, and a red haired girl.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Las Vegas sucks. I can whole heartily say that with all my heart. It sucks. We arrive in Las Vegas in forty-two hours. Leaving us six hours to wander and explore. Not that there’s much we can explore,
“Anything here take coin?” I ask,
“No, this entire place is human. Monsters avoid this place as best as they can.”
“Why?”
“In the past two minutes, I’ve counted ninety-three Satuska soldiers.”
“Oh.”
“I suppose it’s a good thing Frank gave me some cash.” Dawn says smiling,
“How much?”
“Enough for a good meal.” Dawn says. In all of this, Dante just listens in. He’s turning into a right Shadow Person. Not speaking, just watching and listening. Speaking of Shadow People. Where are they? I look around for them. The ball of light hovers above me. I can’t see The Shadow People. They’re nowhere to be seen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David turns on his sirens. That should make the trip quicker, he thinks to himself. Hopefully he can make the four hour drive, in under that. Hopefully. Any longer and he risks missing Artemis again. And he refuses to miss them again.

He speeds across the motorway. “I will not miss them.” He says.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Four hours later –

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” Dawn says, “I’ve never been good at goodbyes.” She laughs nervously, “I hope to see you again. Hopefully not on another mission.” She hugs me, “And Dante. Keep an eye on Artemis for me.”
“Will do.” He laughs,
“Now, you two stay safe.”
“With Zeus watching me. What could go wrong?” I laugh.
“True. Watch out for him though, he’s a tricky bugger.” She takes a deep breath, “Goodbye, Artemis. Goodbye, Dante.” She says with one last smile. Then she steps through the gates.
“Goodbye, Dawn!” I shout after her. But she’s already gone. Boarding the plane to wherever. I look at the departure board; I scan for Dawn’s plane. There. New York. That makes no sense. Why?

“Now what?” Dante asks.
“I guess we make our way home.”
“Is the adventure over?”
“I think so.” I smile, “I hope so.”

Making our way home. That’s the new plan. How? I don’t know. We just need to get home. Back to Parlor. Then we can call it quits. Forget about all this. About Dawn. Blue. Gods. The Four. The Children of Eden. All of it.
“No, Artemis.” The voice says, “You can’t forget about this. There is no escape. There is no plan. There’s one way home.”
“I know.” I whisper to the night.
“What was that?” Dante asks. I give him one last look. I look into his brown eyes. And for a brief moment there’s peace. Then he realises what’s about to happen. He must see it in my eyes. His eyes widen. Pure, unbridled fear. “No, Artemis, please.” He begs. I push him. He tumbles backwards. A lorry honks. It tries to swerve. I will it not to. I see the drivers face contorted in fear, surprise, and fear.
“One last soul.” I say as Dante connects with the lorry.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chloe stands looking at the doors. To her right, the afterlife. To her left, Heaven. A hand taps her shoulder, she turns,
“Blue?” She beams in surprise,
“Hiya Chloe. Long-time no see. What life’s it now?”
“Going into my seventh. How about you?”
“Eighth or ninth. I’ve honestly lost count.” Blue smiles, “How’s the world treating you?”
“Alright I guess. I can’t complain. I just keep ending my life.”
“I feel you.”
“I can’t explain why, y’know.”
“I do. I was the same for my first few.”
“How do you keep ending up here?”
“Long story.”
“We’ve got time.” Chloe says sitting on the floor,
“We do, don’t we?”

“So you aren’t dead?” Chloe gasps,
“Well, I wasn’t, but I am now.” Blue laughs. Then she stops abruptly, she looks down at her hands, which are shaking,
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Blue sighs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stare at the fountain in front of me, marble in hand, facing a choice. I know the correct choice. But can I really make it? After all, I could have my one wish. No. This is the right one. I drop the marble into the water.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blue stares at her hands as the start to vanish. “Looks like I’m not dead after all.” She smiles, “I’m sorry, Chloe, I truly am.”
“It’s okay. Go back to Earth. Kick its ass for me.”
“Aye, aye Captain.”
“And tell Artemis. I love them.” Chloe says. Then Blue’s gone. Chloe looks at the door. “I hope you join me.” She whispers to nothingness. She stands. Opens the door. And looks into the light. “I can’t wait to see you again.” Then she too is gone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn stands looking at the mirror. The girl who stares back at her isn’t the same one who left for this mission… what is it now? Three months? Coming up to three. She had left Eden three months ago, Blue in tow. And now, she’ll return with a hero’s welcome, minus a Blue. She looks at herself in the mirror. Her red hair, tatty. It used to be blood red, she thinks; now look at it. Barely red. Dawn lets out a sob.

“Dawn?” A voice says, pulling her from her tears. She turns to face it.
“Blue?” She screams.
“Yeah?”
“Holy shit?” She weeps. She rushes towards Blue and hugs her,
“Uh, hi? How long was I dead for?”
“Five days.”
“A record.”
“Don’t you try to break it.” Dawn sobs.
“I won’t.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watch as the marble sinks and hits the floor. Will it work? I wonder. I hope it does. A siren pierces the night.
“Here they come.” The voice whispers. I have a name for this voice. Shadow. It’s always been with me. I remember it clearly now. It was this voice that warned me of Chloe. That gave me correct answers during tests. The first voice I ever heard. It’s always been with me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn and Blue step out of the bathroom. “You’ve got to be shitting me.” Blue mutters,
“What?”
“What’s Frank doing here?”
“What do you mean?” Dawn says. Blue points, Dawn follows the finger, “Fuck off.” Dawn shouts. Several heads turn towards her, all of them shooting her distasteful looks.
“Dawn, Blue.” Frank says as they approach, “Glad to have you back Blue.”
“You knew.” Dawn scolds,
“Of course I did.” Frank smiles, “I think you’ll be needing this.” He says handing Dawn a passport. Dawn takes it, two tickets slip out, Blue notices.
“Where we going?”
“Home.” Dawn replies.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I watch as the officers step out of their cars. They surround me.
“Put your hands up.” A man shouts through a megaphone.
“Follow their instructions. Wait for mine.” Shadow says. I raise my hands. Three officers approach me,
“Hands on the back of your head.” The man shouts. I obey. One of the officers grabs my hands,
“Now.” Shadow says. I obey.

I stare at the scene before me. Forty or so officers stare back at me. Well, they would, if they were alive. More sirens pierce the night. Not police. Satuska.
“Time to go.” Shadow says,
“One last thing.” I say. I step over several bodies, until I stand over the one I want.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

David Kaliaski stares at the person standing over him. It isn’t his child. It might look the same. But it isn’t Artemis.
“Goodbye, David.” The person says. The devil standing behind them raises its claw.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And that brings us to today.” I say. I look at Desk-Head, who stares at me… in fear. The Shadow People watch as I stand. “That’s my story. You asked to hear it. I told it.” I walk towards the door, stopping just before it, “Goodbye.” I open the door.

Two doors face me.

One on my left.                                                                                                         One on my right.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Epilogue

Artemis watches the fireball engulf them. The mall vanishes. Then, in a period of time, that feels longer than forever, but shorter than a blink, passes, and Artemis opens their eyes. They find themselves in a grand theatre. They’re on the stage, in the centre is a black sleek piano. It reflects the light into Artemis’ eyes. Artemis – I… I blink and look around. How did I get here? The mall? Dante? The explosion? I try not to think. I ignore the clambering thoughts and approach the piano. I cautiously sit at the chair, I raise my hands and begin playing.

Another nonsensical period of time passes before a voice stirs me.
“Artemis?” The voice gasps.
I continue to play, but I look up. “Ellie?” I reply in as much surprise as her, “What?”
“I can ask you the same fucking question.” Ellie splutters.
“I asked first.”
“I’m older.”
“I was just blown up.”
Ellie frowns, “Arty, that was almost two years ago…”
I stop playing, “What?”
The sound of clapping stops Ellie from replying. Ellie and I look around the theatre, trying to find the source,
“Bravo.” A voice calls, a sly voice.
“Who’s there?” I call weakly,
“Your lord and saviour.” The voice says materialising by the piano. A man, about thirty, dressed in casual clothes.
“Jesus Christ?” Ellie asks,
“No.” The man says frowning, “The one who incites fear into children at night.”
“A paedophiliac father?” Ellie chimes in,
“Silence you insolent child.” The man says.
I watch as Ellie goes to say something, but she doesn’t, her mouth opens but nothing comes out.
“That’s much better.” The man smiles, “I’m the one who brings fear to everyone.” The man says, “And you two are part of my disciples.” He says.
“We are?” I ask, thoroughly confused,
“Yes my young child. You are the most important. Death.” The man says, “And you Pestilence, are the most deadly. I have yet to find the other two, War and Famine. But I think I know where to look.” He clicks his fingers. In front of me is Max. Max stares down into the sky. “Watch.” The man says; his form shimmers until he’s Max. The real Max watches as the fake walks up to her. The real Max runs a hand over her short hair; she whispers something. Then she’s gone, and me, Fake Max, and Ellie are back in the theatre. Fake Max shimmers until it’s the man again, “War.” He says. He clicks his fingers again. And they find themselves in a room, bare rock walls and two beds. On one bed is Max, on the other is her twin, James. The man smiles, “Famine.” He says. He clicks his fingers again, and I scream. They’re on a bridge, high above a river. Chloe stands in front of them, her brown hair flapping in the wind. She looks directly at me, but doesn’t see them. Then the wind picks her up and drops her. I rush to the side and looks over, I scream.
“Chloe!”
“And the key to my release. My siblings locked me away. She freed me allowing me to begin my revenge.”
“Bring her back!” I demand turning to the man,
“Join me. And I can do one better. I can bring her back to life. And you can be together.”
I don’t say anything, “And you Pestilence, what do you want?” the man continues, “There has to be something.” The man probes.
“I said there’s nothing.” Ellie says. She blinks in surprise, as if she’s amazed she can speak. The man is clearly as surprised as her.
“What?” He says in fear,
“What?” me and Ellie say in unison,
“Nothing.” The man says quickly. He clicks his fingers and they’re back in the theatre. “So, Death, what’s the choice?”
I look at Ellie, “I’m in. What about you El?”
“No.” She says,
“Then you’re decided.” He smiles, I’m going to enjoy killing you and that damned tree.” The man says cracking his knuckles.

Then the world is black, and another period of time passes. Then I wake. I open my eyes, and find myself in a cathedral, surrounded by eight chairs and seven gigantic people.