Young Writers Society

"Ah..." she said. "This is ancient. It tells of an average girl whose life is perfect and then one day it all goes wrong." My eyes widened and I listened intently. Aza glanced up at me for a second, then continued. "She meets vampire slayers and hunts with them. One of them turns out to be a vampire and she and three others take her and her best friend to another dimenson to save it from something evil.” She looked up at me. “Sound familiar?"

"That...that sounds exactly like my life...it's amazing, the resemblance..." I murmured.

"It sounds like your life because it is,” Kitsune said. “Or, at least, we believe it to be."

"Okay, so...back up. What is this evil thing she's supposed to save the world from?" Conqet asked them.

"We don't know," Luranno said. "We were hoping we could wait it out and see."

"Actually," Aza broke in, "I think I know what it is...A-a long, a long time ago..." she started, but she couldn't finish. "Please excuse me," she said.

Aza walked quickly out of the room, holding her fingers over her mouth and her eyes tightly shut. Everyone in the room exchanged concerned glances. After a little while, I looked back down in the book. Seeing this, I knew for sure that I was the one who was supposed to fulfill the prophecy. The girl in the book was blonde, she had a friend with white hair, a friend with blue hair, and the three boys had brown hair, blue hair, and black hair. I flipped the page. This page, however, made me rather doubtful. My eyes narrowed when I saw it.

In the picture, the blonde girl and the brunette boy were kissing, and behind them was a bright silver moon. I glanced quickly up at Daikon. He was sitting on the floor, cross legged, eye level with Rayne, who was also sitting on the floor, staring right back at him. They weren't doing anything, they were just staring at each other, like they were having a staring contest.

'Surely this isn't the boy I fall in love with??' I thought to myself, quite shocked. I looked back down at the book.

"How old is this book?" I asked.

"About five hundred years old," Nukum said.

"Hmm...and you think this is about me? This book was created in the 1500's!"

"Well, if you, by any chance, happen know anyone else who has a life similar to this one, please, don't hesitate to let us know!" Luranno yelled, pointing at the book. I glared viciously at him.

"Hey, come on now," Kitsune said. “Calm down everybody. It's been a long, hard day for all of us." She laid a hand on my shoulder and glared at Luranno. "I think now would be a good time for us to show you two to your rooms," she said to me and Conqet. She smiled.

"Good idea," Conqet said. I nodded in agreement. Rayne yawned sleepily. "Did Aza tell you where our rooms are?"

"Yes, of course. Aza loves us. She treats us as if we were her kids." Kitsune responded. Nukum coughed. "Oh yeah," she added. "Nukum is her son..."

Nukum grinned satisfactorily. Conqet looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He looked away, apparently embarrassed. Kitsune grabbed my wrist and started pulled me down another hallway. Nukum bowed before Conqet and let her go out before him. She eyed him on the way out, looking a bit freaked out. He followed, and Daikon and Luranno rolled their eyes as they followed. Rayne pushed passed everyone and trotted next to me. I was very amused with Kitsune and the fact that she was pulling me along. I laughed as we walked down the torch-lit passage. We finally came out in a broom closet of some sort, and out into a brightly lit marble hallway. Kitsune turned down the hall and stopped short at a room that had two doors leading into it.

"Larara, this one is yours," she said, stepping out of the way as I reached for the bronze door handles. My mouth dropped when I saw the inside.

The walls of the room were solid gold. The tiles on the floor were solid gold. The base of a round coffee table was solid gold. The fabrics on two love seat couches were black silk. Every door knob was a giant diamond. A rectangular, black, fuzzy rug sat underneath the couches and coffee table. All the doors were painted gold. The coffee table had a diamond top on it. The two couches faced each other, and a big black arm chair, made of the same silk as the love seats, was next to them both, and it faced a beautifully carved fire place. Windows lined the far wall. Over each window was a black silk curtain. Next to the window farthest to the left of me, there was a door. On the opposite end of the same wall, there was a second door. It was entirely my favorite color combination: black and gold.

"I'll just leave you to explore your new room. C'mon Conqet, your turn," Kitsune said.

"Oh goody!" Conqet exclaimed happily. "After seeing Larara's room, I know mine will be good!"

I slowly walked over to the far door to see what was behind it. I poked my head inside the door. It was my bedroom. It was similar to the entrance room, aside from the size and furniture in it. The walls were still solid gold, although the floors were black carpet. The bed frame was made of cherry wood and it had a gold silk comforter on it and black sheets, which were also silk. Windows ran along the same wall, and had the same black curtains covering them. The bed was on the wall facing the windows. A cherry wood desk sat against the far end of the wall with the windows on it, and a gold chair with white silk cushions sat in front of it.

I smiled broadly, then walked over to the other door. I opened it to find a bathroom. The bathroom was exactly like the other two rooms. Gold floors, gold walls, gold bathtub, gold shower, gold sink, gold toilet, cherry wood vanity, gold chair, black silk cushions, gold lamp, black silk shade, you get the idea. I was completely satisfied. It was as though they knew black and gold was my favorite color combination.

I walked back into the bedroom and flopped down on the fluffy bed. I then noticed another door. This door, however, was made of cherry wood. It was on the wall next to me, opposite the entrance door. I got up and opened the door. Inside was a paradise for a dog. Cushions, treats, toys, the whole nine yards. At that moment, Rayne and Tyranny ran in. They checked out the beds, toys, food dishes, and the like. I smiled and closed the door. I walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair in front of it. I looked all around my new room. When I did so, my eyes fell upon another door. Well, two doors actually. Two gold French doors were just off to my right. I slowly stood and walked over to the doors. I gripped the diamond handles and pushed the doors open. They lead out to a balcony overlooking the land. It was absolutely gorgeous, especially in the light of the sunset. I stared in rapt awe at the land of Junia. I couldn't help but smile. For an instant, I felt as though I never wanted to leave. But not-so-deep-down, I knew that someday, I had to. It was my duty...or something like that. But I also knew that before I could go back, I had to deal with the problem here first. Whatever that problem was.

It was then that I remembered something. I had made the decision earlier to check on Aza when she walked out of the room. She seemed so upset. I left the balcony and walked over to Conqet's room, which was right next door. I knocked on the door, and Conqet quickly answered.

"Hi!" she squealed. "Omigod! This is soo awesome! Can you believe this? I can't believe this! My room is so awesome! I mean, don't get me wrong, yours is really cool too, but did you see my room? This is so awesome! I can't believe this! This is amazing! Did you see the balcony? Omigod! This place is gorgeous! I don't ever want to leave!" She had been rambling pretty much the entire time because I stopped listening after Conqet mentioned her room, so I was looking around instead of listening to my friend.

Conqet's room was exactly like mine, except for the colors. Everything that was black in my room was the same in hers, but everything that was gold in my room was silver in Conqet's. Also, everything that was made of cherry wood in my room was made of oak in her room, and all the handles were giant pearls instead of diamonds. Nothing in her room was made of diamond, not even the coffee table top - it was simple glass. The floors were different, too. They were white and they were carpet.

"Hey, Conqet. I was just going to go see how Queen Azora is doing. Do you want to come with?"

"Yeah...I'll go," she replied, calming down a bit.

Because it was our first day in the castle, Conqet and I had to wander around for about half an hour before we finally found the queen. She was sitting by a window, staring out at her kingdom. We walked up to her.

"What is it, girls?" Aza asked, without turning around.

I jumped, a little surprised. "Oh, nothing...we just wanted to see how you were, because you seemed really upset earlier."

"Yeah," Conqet added. "Are you okay? You looked like you were crying."

Aza looked at us. "Upset? Yes. Crying? No. Definitely not. I was angry. I was furious. But not crying. I'm okay now, though. Thanks for the concern."

"No problem," I said. Aza turned back to the window. We started walking away, but I stopped. I looked back at Aza. "One more thing...um...you never finished that sentence just before you left. About the big thing that's coming that I have to save Junia from. What were you going to say?"

Aza looked at me with a hint of fear in her eyes. She sighed, put her head down, closed her eyes, and said, "I will tell you. But now is not the time. I – I can’t. Not yet."

"But...I'll need to know before it happens!" I said, almost shouted. Aza didn't respond.

"Larara," Conqet whispered. "Stop. Leave her alone. Trust her."

"But..." Conqet shot me a stern look. "Oh, alright. C'mon."

We turned and headed in the opposite direction. Actually, it was more like wandered in the opposite direction. We had absolutely no idea where we were going. Finally, we made it back to our rooms. We said a temporary good-bye until we met up for dinner that night.

At dinner, I noticed that Aza avoided my eyes. She talked and laughed and looked at everybody else, even Conqet, but when her eyes met mine, she turned away quickly. Aza excused herself from the table early. I began getting suspicious of a couple of things. The first was Aza's behavior at dinner, and the second was because the king still was nowhere to be found. After dinner, we all – including Rayne and Tyranny - went to the library to relax and enjoy a nice fire. Here, I asked Nukum about his dad.

"Nukum?" I asked.

"Yes, Larara. What is it?"

"Where...where is your dad? The king? I haven't seen him. I thought he might be at dinner tonight, but he wasn't there."

Nukum hesitated, then answered. "He's away at the moment. You won't be meeting him any time soon. He's gone away to a different part of our world to take care of very serious business matters. Don't worry about him though. He's fine. Don't worry about my mother, either. She's just going through a hard time right now. This is a, special, anniversary for her. A rather bad anniversary, actually."

"What do you mean?" Conqet asked.

"She still hasn't told you, has she?" he asked them.

"No..." I said. "We asked her today, but she said that it is not the right time yet. She said that she couldn’t.”

“Hence the anniversary,” Kitsune said.

I shrugged. "Well, I'm going to bed now. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"I'm going, too. I'm pretty tired. It's been a long day," Conqet said. We both walked towards the door.

"Yeah, you guys should go to bed. Big day tomorrow,” Nukum said. "Good night."

We around. "Big day tomorrow?" we asked at the same time.

Before Conqet or I could get an answer, Luranno and Daikon closed the double doors. We looked at each other, then started to walk away, when I stopped. My face fell. I turned and ran back to the door.

"What are you doing?" Conqet snapped.

I knocked on the door. Daikon opened it.

"Um..." I said. "Could somebody show us back to our rooms? We don't know our way around yet...still..."

Daikon raised an eyebrow, then walked out and closed the door behind him. Without ever speaking a word, he walked down the hallway, with Conqet and me following close behind. When we finally recognized the area that we were in, we sighed with relief. Conqet was a little freaked out, so she ran when she saw the doors to her room. Daikon stopped walking when he saw this, and I took a few more steps forward before stopping. I guess I took too many, though. I wound up standing next to Daikon, which actually turned out to be very uncomfortable. He glanced down at me, and I looked back up at him. We stood that way for quite some time, or, at least, it seemed like a long time. The silence was broken by a bark. I turned my head around instantly, but Daikon stared at me for a couple seconds more before turning to see the source of the bark. Rayne and Tyranny were standing behind us. Rayne’s mouth was half open. She looked very cute, but kind of stupid at the same time. I smiled at her. Unlike Tyranny, Rayne was standing still, in a normal position. Tyranny, on the other hand, was crouched, as though she were ready to pounce. The expression on her face was very serious and slightly mean. She was on the brink of snarling and bearing her teeth. Rayne had gained respect for Daikon now, but Tyranny hadn't just yet.

"You guys don't need to worry," Daikon said to the wolves. He then turned to me, but I kept my eyes on the animals. "I hate you, but I'm not going to hurt you," he said.

I flipped my head around quickly with a huge smile on my face. He had a smile too, but his was evil. "Really? I hate you, too!!" I exclaimed sarcastically.

Daikon's smile quickly vanished and he glared at me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rayne's friendliness melt away, and she, too, took on a fighting stance. Although I said it with a sarcastic tone, I did mean what I said. I hated Daikon with a hatred such as I had never felt before.

"It's okay, guys. C'mon," I said, turning my attention back to my dogs. "Let's go to bed."

I snapped my fingers at them and they ran to me. I walked up to the doors and pulled them open. The wolves ran the first few meters, but when they came within feet of Daikon, they stopped running and slinked against the wall until they reached the doors. Daikon reached his hand out to Rayne for her to sniff. When he did this, though, Tyranny growled and snarled at him. Rayne didn't, but Tyranny was mad; very mad. Rayne looked up at me with a look of plea on her face. I gave her the go-ahead to sniff him and let him pet her. She inched toward him, sniffed his hand, and allowed him to stoke her head. She licked his hand before running into my room. Daikon stood slowly and stared at me. I flashed him a brief, but sarcastic, smile before walking inside.

Now comfortable in my room, I walked over and flopped down on one of the couches. I happened to be on the couch that faced the door to the bedroom, and I laughed when I saw what was sitting on the floor in front of it. Rayne and Tyranny were on the floor, side by side, with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Tyranny had her head cocked to one side, staring at the door, and Rayne was scratching at it. She looked determined, as though she really thought she could dig through it. Suddenly, she stopped. Both wolves looked up at me and cocked their heads in the same direction at the same time, with faces that said, 'Aren't you going to open it?' I laughed again and got up to open the door for them. Once the door was open, they ran straight ahead to the door that lead to their room. They stood there for a few seconds, then sat down at the same time. After another couple seconds, they both cocked their heads in the same direction at the same time. I laughed and opened the second door for them. Instead of running this time, they walked in and laid down on a large pillow, side by side, where they quickly fell asleep.

I walked up to them and kissed them both on their heads. It was then that I looked up and saw yet another door. I sighed, then stood and opened it. Seriously, how many doors could one room possibly have? I hadn't noticed it before because it was covered with the same wallpaper as the walls surrounding it. The handle was still a diamond, but the rest of the door was drab and boring. I opened the door and found an empty room. There were black and white stripes painted horizontally on the walls. I looked over and saw a switch on the wall. I flicked it and watched in shock at what happened when I did so. The lights came on, obviously, but something else was happening. The wall opposite me rose up into the ceiling and the two walls next to me slid backward into the wall behind them. They revealed rows and rows and rows of the most beautiful clothes I had ever seen. My jaw dropped in sheer astonishment and disbelief.

"Oh...my...God..." I gasped.

I took a couple steps forward as I marveled at the sight in front of me. I walked around, looking at each piece of clothing that hung in front of me. The room had opened to an enormous size - a little smaller than my room back in Malibu, but not much. When I was done, I flicked the switch again, and the room went back to its original state in the exact same way it changed. I then crept out, so I wouldn't disturb the dogs, and got ready for bed. I jumped into the fluffy, silky bed wondering what sort of things I'd be dealing with tomorrow. Tiredness overcame me before I really got to think about it, and I fell into a deep sleep.