August 1996 (seven years later)

Angel’s mom kept telling her to stay down and make absolutely no noise. They were in an old, abandoned, dusty apartment. Being scrunched down in the corner of a tiny room made little Angel feel even more uncomfortable but she knew not to make any noise. The room they were in was a secret room. The only way you get there is by going through an unnoticeable closet and crawling through a small opening. It was not big but big enough for a large man to crawl through. The room itself was the size of a walk-in closet. I guess you could say that it was an extra closet. A secret closet.

“Angel, honey, I need to leave but just for I little bit, okay,” her mom would say.

“No, don’t leave me,” Angel cried.

“Shhh… don’t cry baby, I need to go, but you have to promise me something.”

“What is it,” Angel whispers.

“Promise me that you will stay in here and make no sounds. Do not open the door for anyone and if someone does come in here, you must let no one know you are here. Wait here for mommy to come back and remember to be careful. Do not leave this room. No matter how long it takes. I promise you that I will be back in a few hours. Do you understand?”

The little girl nods. The mother prepares to leave the room and she begins to crawl out of the entrance.

“They have dad, don’t they,” asks Angel.

Angel’s mom gives her one more look and says I love you to her. Before she knew it, her mom was gone.

Angel sits there in the tiny room all by herself for about three hours. She was tired and she knew that sleeping would be unacceptable but she tried anyways. Just as she’s about to close her eyes and let go of all her worries, Angel hears a noise. The door. Repeatedly someone pounds on the door but Angel crunches up even more in her tiny space. She hopes the pounding would stop and those horrible people would just go away and for about a second, the pounding does stop.

The next second, someone breaks the door down and all Angel could here was voices and footsteps.

“Search everywhere… Do not stop until you find her... Find her or the boss will be furious. And we all know how he gets when he’s pissed!”

Angel pretended to be an inanimate object. Like a toy. Toys do not talk or move or breathe. Angel did not talk or move and only made tiny breathes occasionally. The men continued to search. They searched the entire apartment for about an hour. There was not much to search for this place only had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room and a kitchen. Luckily, this secret closet was hidden very cleverly.

“We have searched this whole place and there’s no sign of her!” one man said.

“Well what the hell are we supposed to do now? You know how the boss is going to feel about this!”

“It is almost morning, it is time for us to go back,” said another man, “We’ll continue searching later. But obviously, there is no one here!” that is when the men left the apartment and Angel got a chance to sleep it off.


She had not slept for days so by the time Angel woke up, it was late. The next day. Her mom said that she would be back to get her. She promised.

Angel rushes out the room and out the door out side. The streets were silent and the men were nowhere to be seen. Her mom was nowhere to be seen.

“Mother! Mother, where are you? Please Mom!” Angel Dellae yelled. The helpless little seven-year-old was looking for her mother. Her father was taken away and she knew it. The night had been a blur. Now she was walking down the streets of Oregon, begging, pleading for her mother to come to her. It was pitch black and pouring rain. It was now ten o’clock and too late.


Angel Dellae had a perfect memory. She remembered every tiny, little, unimportant detail of her life and she wished that she had the worst memory so she could not remember some of those details. Some of those details did not need to be remembered. She had gotten her wish.


“Mom! Please come out! Where are you? Mo” she had gotten her wish.







* * *



Beep…beep…beep. Angel lay unconscious in an unfamiliar place. After a good four hours, she began to gain consciousness.


“W-w-what happened?” she asks.


“She’s awake!” a woman’s voice yells.


“What’s going on? Who are you?”




The woman explained that she was a nurse. She told Angel that she was at the hospital from a terrible hit-and-run accident. The little girl lay in the hospital bed, shocked and speechless. She tried to think about what happened. She tried to remember how she got here. She tried and tried to remember but could not. She did not remember the accident; she did not remember being hit by a car. She did not remember anything at all. When the nurse asked her for her name, Angel did not know what to say.


“My name… yes it’s… umm…it’s… I do not know. I really do not even know who I am. I do not remember the accident. I don’t remember what happened … I don’t remember anything… at all. ” The nurse looks at her in shock, realizing that she had lost her memory. Angel begins to feel a horrible shock in her head, and starts to scream. She was in horrible pain and agony. She held her head in her lap and just shrieks. The throbbing pain was coming from her head and all of a sudden, she looks up and says, “Angel.”


By the time the nurse could hear her, she had already called for a doctor.


“Angel. Angel Dellae.”


“What?” asked the nurse.


“That’s my name. It’s Angel Dellae, yes! Angel Marine Dellae.” A tall man walks into the room. He had to be the doctor.


“What’s going on? I heard a scream.”


The nurse explained how Angel didn’t remember anything. That was her screaming in pain. After she was done screaming, she remembered her name. The doctor recorded this on the paperwork he held. “How do you spell your full name,” asked the doctor.


“My full name is Angel Marine Dellae. A, n, g, e, l, m, a, r, i, n, e, d, e, l, l, a, e.” The screaming begins again when Angels’ thrashing head pain returned. This time it was much worse because she fell unconscious shortly afterwards.



I remember Angel Dellae as a baby. Her life was not good. In fact, it was horrible. Now, it would all change. There are thing about herself and her family that she would never know about. Or would she?


The doctors ran many tests on her. She was in a coma. It was two and a half weeks to be exact. They tried everything to wake her up but it was no use. During her ‘hibernation’, her mind erased even more of her memory. When she woke up, they asked her many questions, none of which she could answer. Detectives searched for any signs of her parents that they did not tell her were missing. The police looked through every file, every record, but there was no sign of anyone by the last name Dellae. No one dared to mention anything about her parents, the accident, or what happened. She did not remember and they wanted to keep it that way for a while. The search continued for her parents or any relatives but it was dropped after two months of looking. There was no other option but put angel in foster care. Everyone worried about her but no matter how hard they looked; there was no sign of her parents.

Her memory did not come back to her. She still does not remember what happened that day or her whole life. The memory will forever be lost. I do not know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The memory of the voices from the apartment had faded far away. All she knew was that she was now a foster child.

(8 years later)

One day, Angel Dellae was adopted by a nice family. The couple had one child who was a small boy. A good family. A mother. A father. Now Angel would be apart of this family and she was very happy about it. The family took her home to their huge mansion in their limousine. Angel went to a private school and they were the most amazing family that Angel could ever dream of. Dream of.


One lonely afternoon, Angel was walking home from school and it was very dark. The streets were empty and she was frightened. Very frightened. The roads were so empty that she didn’t bother to look both ways when a car was racing by and…


Angel screams. She was on her bed. Sleeping, dreaming. (Now you know what I meant by dream of). Angel looked at the clock to see that it was almost five o’clock in the morning. She attempted to go back to sleep but too many thoughts ran through her head and her room mate, Zenida, was snoring like there was no tomorrow. Quietly, she sneaked out of her room and slyly tiptoed downstairs to find her foster mom in the kitchen. She was making herself some cereal.


“Morning, Josephine,” mumbles Angel.


“Angel Dellae, its five o’clock in the morning and you should be in bed right now!” replies Josephine.


“Sorry, I just had a nightmare and I couldn’t go back to sleep.”


“Huh, I never remember you having nightmares! Only your crazy fantasy dreams.”


“I know. It was a first.”


Josephine asks what the dream was about. “Well, it started out as a cool dream but then I was walking home from school and got hit by a car.” As Angel says this, Josephine pauses. She looks at Angel with that look. Angel knew what that look was and she wondered why Josephine would be giving her this look at four o’clock in the morning. This was Josephine’s ‘we need to have a serious conversation’ look. “Angel, just go sit down on the couch. I will be there in just a moment.” Without talking back, Angel obeyed Josephine as she was supposed to and sat down on the couch. Angel was fifteen now and she had enough of those talks with Josephine. They were really getting old.


Josephine lied to Angel about her parents and told her that they were dead. The reason she would tell Angel such a horrible thing is that she was afraid that Angel would run away one day to find her parents. It would be too dangerous for her so Josephine lied.

This was Angel’s house. This had been her home for eight years. Even though Angel might not know this, it’s better than what she had before. Even though there are ten other people living here, Angel liked it. They were her family, her only family. Angel saw Josephine as though a grandmother (she was too old to seem like a mom). Everyone else was her brothers and sisters and she was grateful for that.

Josephine Moreno was a widow. Her husband died out in the army four years ago. They moped around for about a year but they became used to it and faced the fact that they couldn’t change the past. That’s how Angel looked at her life. It is what it is and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. She faced the fact that her parents were dead (or at least that’s what she thinks) and moved on.

Angel does go to a public school and has been ever since two year ago. That is when Josephine could not handle any more home schooling. “That is it! There is just too many of you and there is only one of me! You are going to a public school from now on!” Josephine would say.




After a few minutes, Josephine stepped into the living room and sat down next to Angel on the couch. “Angel, there is something that we need to talk about.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Listen, I know this hard for you, having to deal with the fact that you don’t have parents. And I am really sorry that it had to happen this way and to a perfect girl like you.”

“Josephine, we already had this talk a million times.”

“That’s not the point Angel. What I’m trying to say is that there’s a chance your parents aren’t dead. You see, long ago, when you were seven years old, someone found you on the side of the road, unconscious. You were hit by a car and when you woke up at the hospital, you couldn’t remember anything. Then you wiped out at the hospital again, in a coma! So you really were hit by a car and I was afraid that if I told you that your parents might still be alive that you would run away to find them. I am very sorry Angel but the only reason that I did that is because I love you and I wanted to protect you. ”


“But whatever happened to my parents?”


“Nobody knows. No one knows who you are or who your parents are. There were no records of you or your parents anywhere. It was like you never existed.”


“So no one knows anything about me?”


“No, not really, and I’m sorry that it had to happen this way. And since you are now fifteen, it’s time for you to know. But promise me that you won’t run away. You are a very special person and I would never want to loose you.”








* * *



It must be hard for Angel. I know it seems strange but the reason no one knows who she is or where she is from is that she is from a place that no one knows exists. Therefore, who ever is from that place ‘doesn’t exist’. I am also from that place. I am also sorry that it happened this way, to a young girl like Angel, but Angel is a special girl. A very special girl.

It was breakfast time and now all of Angels’ ‘siblings’ were up. There are ten kids total and this foster home. Let’s start from youngest to oldest.

First, there was Dustin. Little baby Dustin was a one-year old who was abandoned a few months ago. He is such a cute and lovable baby but cried like there was tomorrow.

Next, there was Fiola who was three years old and her parents are both dead. Her dad died from lung cancer and her mom killed herself. I think she is better off here. Her parents were people who abused everything including Fiola and drugs.

Then there is Jordan and Jacob the seven-year old twin boys whose parents also left them. Apparently, they were two bad kids who got in trouble with the police and their parents hated them and didn’t want them anymore. They did have eleven other siblings who were just as bad so I don’t know why they made such a big deal about it.

After that are the ten-year old triplet girls: Faith, Hope, and Destiny who were forced to go to foster. Their family was poor and their parents sold drugs and did other things to get money. After their mom committed suicide, their dad went crazy and was put in a mental ward.

Then… there was Zenida. She is almost thirteen years old but we’ll get to her later.

Next of course is Angel who is almost fifteen and has a questionable past.

Finally, there is Lenny who is seventeen. He is the kind of person who seems to be a big bully but really is a sweet and caring person. He cares for his brothers and sister but he doesn’t care about anything else including school or life. Three years ago, he was put on suicide watch for trying to cut himself. The cut was deep. Deep enough to kill him but luckily, he was saved. Ever since then he’s been trying to be a better person and ‘work on his grades’ which they all knew would never happen. He is soon planning on getting his own place down south and getting a job. But they all knew that wouldn’t happen either.




Breakfast was always silent. No one ever said a word at breakfast time.


Today, Josephine decides to break their traditional routine and say something, “Why is everyone always so quiet at breakfast?”


“Perhaps there’s just nothing to say and no words are needed right now,” Zenida quickly replies. She said it seriously, emotionless, and miserable just like most of the things she says.


“Oh, stop being so miserable all the time Zenida,” says Hope, the talkative one.


“Yeah, have some other emotions,” Faith says.


“You know, they’re right Zenida,” Destiny adds. Whatever is the only word that comes out of Zenida’s mouth. To make it even more exciting, the baby starts crying and everyone start to talk over each other, this soon turns into yelling. With the baby crying and nine people yelling, Josephine has had enough.


“That’s it! If this is what happens when I suggest some small conversation, then we will not say a word at breakfast time, understand!” Everything fell silent as it always is and will be.


“Well Zenida started it,” Hope sneers. Zenida stopped eating and slammed her fork against the table. Big mistake on her part. Josephine hates it when anyone provokes violence in the house. I think Josephine is a hippy.


“Zenida…” Josephine starts, “That is enough, and I will have a talk with you after breakfast.”

“Great, another talk. Will that ever end? We have talks every day! What are you my therapist?”

“Zenida… if you keep acting like this you will have a therapist. Now hush.”


Angel looked down at her plate and starred at the food. She was the quiet one in the family. Never talked back and minded her own business.

When she looked up, she wasn’t in her dinning room. She wasn’t even in her house. There was a completely different kitchen and a completely different room. Angel rubbed her eyes and concluded that she was just imagining things. When she looked up, nothing had changed. She was still in the other house, sitting at a table.


Across from her, sat a young, pretty woman who looked so familiar. Angel examined her. She swore she had seen this woman before. She had a unique look to her. Long blonde hair with highlights, and brown eyes, which faded from a light brown to a darker brown. She was tall, skinny, and very pretty. Angel was so focused on the woman that she didn’t notice a little baby who was sitting right next to her. A little baby girl. Everyone else was gone. The mother was feeding the girl in a high chair and Angel was sitting at the table, too. The woman took no notice of Angel at all, even though she was in plain sight. The kitchen phone rang and the woman groaned as if annoyed and then got up to answer it without even a glance at Angel.


“Hello,” the woman answers, “Yes…” she sounded worried, “No, it can’t be... but how… I know but… okay… but… hello. Hello! Damn it!” She was worried and began to panic. Angel knew it was a man’s voice on the phone. The woman left the room and the baby girl was left in the booster chair.


Angel heard the woman crying in the other room. The baby was confused. She looked down and stared at her food. She then began to lift her head in Angel’s direction.









“Angel? Are you okay?” asks Josephine. Angel was panicking and the others thought she was having a heart attack or something.


“I-I’m fine. I’m not hungry. Please excuse me. I-I’m going to my room!” Angel quickly got up, put away her dishes, and left the room, as confused as ever.

Angel went into her room and shut the door. She wondered what happened at breakfast. Who were that woman and the baby? Why had they taken no notice of Angel? Why was the woman panicking? Who was on the phone? She knew she had to tell someone about this.

Angel stayed in her room for a few more minutes and once again, she sneaked out to go downstairs. Josephine was just sitting down in the living room preparing for the talk she was about to have with Zenida. Whenever someone does something rude, inappropriate, or when she is just concerned about something (like the Angel situation this morning) she has them sit with her in the living room and talk. Everyone else was dismissed and was playing outside. They had just sat down and Angel was eavesdropping at the top of the stairs. She was interested in what Josephine was about to say to her and how much trouble she was going to be in.


“Zenida…” Josephine started, “I know it’s been hard for you, well it’s been hard for all of us. You need to understand that your behavior at breakfast was unacceptable and you know that nothing that might lead to violence is acceptable in this house. We have gone over that an infinite number of times and you know it. I know it wasn’t that big of a deal, you slamming a fork, but the next thing you or one of the younger ones might throw a fork in someone else’s eye. I know that for you its especially hard but just know that you are not the only one here who has been through some hard times. You need not to be miserable every minute of your life. Don’t sit around all day doing nothing. Go outside and get some exercise! Do something useful. I know it could be better. However, it could be a lot worse. You could homeless, starving, in a war, running from your life, come on Zenida, just try okay?”


“Alright,” Zenida agrees. Not in the most convincing way but Josephine does not want to continue arguing so she drops the whole and just slightly smiles. With hesitation, she gets up and leaves the room.



Zenida and angel are friends. Good friends. They were good enough friends for Angel to talk to Zenida about everything that has been going on today. Angel knows she can trust Zenida. Angel knows she the kind of person that wont tell a secret and that you can talk to. Sometimes, Angel pretended that Zenida was her therapist. The thing is, Angel talks to Zenida about anything, but Zenida never even told Angel what her story was. She goes over and sits next to Zenida. Her head was down in her lap and her long black hair covered her face. Zenida was kind of a Goth. Today, she wore all black with purple jewelry.


“Hey,” Angel says.


“Hey… You heard everything, huh?’


“Yep…sorry I…”


“I don’t care. I would have done the same thing if I were in your position. Besides, I knew I would have to have that talk with Josephine. It’s always like that. It is hard. To know that your parents may still be out there. It was horrible when I lost them and so sudden. I never told you the story but it’s very short. We had a normal life except for that fact that we moved around every month. I always knew my parents were hiding something. Keeping something secret from me. Well I was still very young. I was seven years old when I came home from a normal day at school and they were gone, disappeared, missing. No one found them and after many months of searching, they gave up. And here I am.”


“That is so… strange,” Angel, says, “Listen, if I tell you something, you promise not to tell anyone?”


“Of course.”


“So… this morning I woke up from a nightmare at four o’clock in the morning. In the nightmare, I was hit by a car. When I told Josephine, she and I had had our own little talk. She told me she lied to me about my parents. She told me that they were dead for sure. However, this morning, she confessed. She told me that there might be a chance that my parents were still alive and… I really did get by a car when I was seven years old and I lost my memory. Like you, my parents are missing and they gave up searching.”

There was a long pause.


“Umm… wow Angel. I- I am really sorry. That is so unbelievable.”


“It’s true. Oh, and you know how I kind of freaked out at breakfast? Well… I know this is going to sound weird and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t believe me. I was seeing a completely different house and there was some lady and a baby-sitting there. Then she was talking on the phone with someone and she was panicking. But… they didn’t notice me there at all even thought I was in full view the whole time. It was like I was invisible.”


“Well it couldn’t be real! You must be seeing things, illusions.”


“Yeah you’re right, just an illusion. But how? Why?”


“Maybe it’s because of the news you received this morning. I mean, if that was me, I could totally see why you would be going a little crazy…no offense.”


Angel sighs.


“I wonder what ever happened to our parents. Everyone probably concluded that they were dead. Nevertheless, I always believed that they were still alive…and maybe we’ll see them again someday. Somewhere and somehow,” says Zenida.


“We could. And I’m sure that we will.”


“And Angel,” Zenida starts, “Thanks.”


“For what?”


“For believing, too, for being a good friend, and for having hope. Thanks.” Zenida and Angel both smile.



As you can tell, these girls have a lot of hope and I have hope for them, too. And maybe they will see their parents again but maybe they won’t.

That night, when they were getting ready for bed, a strange thing happened. It was all according to plan.




Angel shared a room with Zenida and Fiola. While the other two were brushing their teeth, Angel went over to her window and opened the window for a nice, cool breeze. She watched the full moon and the brushing of the trees and the whistling of the wind. She watched the round and kept watching until she decided to shut the window and go to bed. As she began to close it, she saw a small figure coming from the distance. She squinted to see what was coming towards her and she saw that it was a squirrel. It came up to the window and climbed to where Angel was standing. She had noticed that it had a note tied to its tail so she carefully untied the note making sure she did not hurt the little squirrel. When Angel got the note, the squirrel left and ran away into the darkness where he came from. She opened the folded piece of paper.



Dear Angel Dellae,

You now know about your strange past. Your parents are still alive. I know this is all new to you but you need to know that they are in Michigan and you must also go there. I know that you are in Oregon and that it is far away but I know exactly how you will get there. Tomorrow I will send another note. Zenida must come, too. This involves her.





Sincerely, L.A.


p.s. if you want to send me a note, just write it and drop it out of the window.




Angel was confused but also scared. She wondered whom this strange note was from and how in the world that person knew her name or where she lived. She thought that she had a stalker. She closes the blind quickly and cautiously, watching for any movement in the darkness. She didn’t panic; she was actually too shocked to do anything about it. First the dream, then the hallucinations, now this?

Let me just tell you that Angel does not have a stalker.


She didn’t know what else to do. Besides, her head hurt and she didn’t want to deal with any more surprises. So she got out a piece of paper and began writing.



DEAR L.A.,

WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? HOW DO YOU KNOW ME? WHY AM I SUPPOSED TO GO TO MICHIGAN AND HOW? ARE YOU SURE MY PARENTS ARE ALIVE? HOW DO YOU KNOW THEM? HOW DO YOU KNOW WHERE I AM AND WHO ZENIDA IS AND THAT I FIGURED OUT ABOUT MY PAST TODAY?






ANGEL DELLAE, A.D.


P.S. WHAT DOES ZENIDA HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?




Angel folded the note and dropped it out the window. Once again, the squirrel came. This time, he took Angel’s note and had another note tied to his tail, which he let Angel untie carefully. She opened the note and started to read.


Angel,

I know that you have many questions but I am sorry that I cannot answer them right now. I can only tell you that my name is


Lucyena Arvanda.

I will explain more very soon. Goodnight,







Sincerely, Lucy A.




Lucyena Arvanda. Lucyena Arvanda. Angel thought that name was extremely familiar.








* * *



Yeah, so now you know my name. Lucyena or Lucy if you prefer. I like both of them. This is my first time in about seven and a half years that I was able to communicate with Angel in some way. Now her journey must begin before it is too late.













* * *



Angel woke up in the middle of the night with a dry mouth and a need for water. She creaked downstairs to the kitchen and filled a glass. After she was done drinking, she noticed that the kitchen was completely different. Here we go again. She then went into the living room and saw that it was also not the same. There sat a girl about two years old. The same woman from before was there, too. The difference was that this time there was also a man there with them. The house was not the same house before when Angel saw the woman and the baby. The man and the woman were obviously the mother and father of the little girl.


The mother began talking, “Jake, this isn’t working out. We can’t just keep hiding forever.”


“I know…,” said the man named Jake.


“He could be anywhere! He could be stalking us right now!” the woman said, “We need to get out of here for our daughter.”


“Angelica, please,” said Jake.


“One day we may lose her because of this! You know how special she is! Then what will happen? We could lose everything! We are lucky to be alive right now!” Angelica said.


“Angelica…” started Jake.


“Don’t ‘Angelica’ me! We do not belong here!” said Angelica


“Then what are we going to do? Go back? That was even worse then going here!”


Angelica was trying to say that they couldn’t go back, until they are interrupted by the phone ringing which she got up to answer. “Hello… oh Lucyena, it’s you. What is going on...? No! How…? Okay, we will…okay…I see…I know Lucy; we need to get out of here for Angel. She’s only two and has to go through this…yeah, I know…bye…”


“What happened?”


“Jake, we need to leave, now! Lucyena said they’re coming in this direction!” Angelica yells.


“Should we pack anything?”


“No, there’s no time. We’ll go to Lucy’s brother’s place and he’ll have what we need.” Then Angelica got her daughter, turned off all the lights and they all raced out the door. They had not noticed Angel standing there at all.


Angel went over and turned the lights back on. The house was back to normal. What in the world? Still in shock, Angel went back to the kitchen and drank about five more glasses of water.




That was the same woman and baby. The woman said the little girls’ name was Angel. If the girl was Angel, then that must have been Angels’ parents. She smiled at the thought of seeing what her parents looked like. With a flash back to reality, her smile automatically turned into a frown. She wondered what that whole conversation on the phone was about. She wondered whom they were running from. She wondered why they had been hiding. She wondered why Angel was so special and she wondered if she would ever again really see her parents in real life.

Long, long ago, we had a normal life. My people and I had a normal life. However, that was fifty years ago. The good times. Now back to the reality of today.







* * *



Angel lay in her bed and thought about what her parents had said. ‘Hiding…doesn’t belong…they are coming…stalking…’ she repeatedly asked herself the same questions. Who? What? When? Where? Why? She wondered if that really happened when she was only two years old. Was she just imagining it? Angel finally fell asleep after two hours of thinking about what happened.



In the morning, Angel woke up at eight o’clock. She yawned while she said good morning to Zenida.


“Morning, Angel.”


“Hey, is Fiola still asleep?” she asks.


“Yeah,” Zenida answers. They both go downstairs expecting to find Josephine. Instead, she was not there and Lenny was in the kitchen preparing breakfast.


“Hey Lenny, where’s Josephine?


“She had to go run some errands. So I’m in charge.” Lenny answers.


Angel and Zenida went back to their room, knowing that Lenny would call them down when breakfast was ready. Angel knew she had to her friend about what had happened the other night. The note even said that Zenida was involved somehow. However, even after everything that happened last night, Angel still somewhat believed that the whole thing was a dream.


How is it even possible? She thought. All of a sudden, Angel has an epiphany and realizes that she had proof. The note, which Angel had received yesterday, was still in the drawer beside the bed.


“This is going to sound ridiculous, Zenida, but I assure you, and I have proof. You see, last night while you were in the bathroom, a squirrel came up to the window and it had a note tied on its tail. I grabbed it and I read it.” Angel goes over to the table and pulls out the note. “See, I have the note right here and you need to read it, too.”

Zenida reaches over, takes the note from Angel’s hand. She hesitates before she reads it and thinks that Angel was insane. A squirrel, yeah right. The lazily unfolds the note and begins to read it. When she was done, she slowly put the note back on the drawer and looked up at Angel with a look that says, are you crazy? “Who is this and what do they want from us?”


“Well her name is Lucyena. Does that sound familiar to you at all?” Angel asks.


“Kind of. Like I have heard it somewhere before but…”


“Well apparently, she wants us to go to Michigan.”


“And why should we do what this stranger says? Are you serious Angel, it is so obvious that this whole thing is a stupid prank. Are you really going to believe what this creep says? For all we know this could be some forty year old loser who stalking us. Which in that case, we should go talk to Josephine and call the police. ”


“She knows our parents. And the note says that we are in danger. I don’t know what that is supposed to mean but it can’t mean anything good!” Angel knew Zenida had a point but everything just ties in. the dream, the news she had received the previous morning, the first hallucination, and the second one. The note ties in to everything and she was right.


“So you expect us to run away just because a piece of paper tells us too. It can mean something, but it is more likely to mean nothing. For all we know this creep could be stalking us right now. I mean how she would know where we live or what our names are. I would say to go to the police and have this weirdo arrested.”


“Listen, Zenida, in the middle of the night, I got up and went down stairs to get a drink. You know how I freaked out at breakfast the other day because I thought I was seeing things. Well it happened again. This time, there was a family in the living room. It was the same woman and baby but the baby was a little older, this time, her father was there too. The mother’s name was Angelica. The father’s name was Jake. The little girl’s name was Angel. It must have been me! They were saying that they were hiding and running away from someone and then, the phone rang and it was that Lucyena person speaking. She was telling them that they had to leave because whomever they were hiding from was coming towards them. Lucyena was helping them and she was their friend. So I am saying that if my parents trusted her, then I will trust her to.”


Zenida just stared at Angel with disbelief. If your friend was telling you all this nonsense, I bet you wouldn’t believe her either. Zenida honestly thought Angel was just suffering from some kind of shock. She did receive the new that she had been lied to for eight years about her not-so-dead parents.


“I know this really happened in the past. Just like yesterday at breakfast. It happened. The woman was my mother and the baby was I! I am remembering things by seeing them, Zenida! I’m scared… they were worried…they said that they could lose me and they did!” tears start to pour down Angel’s rosy pink cheeks.


“When I lost my parents, it was like I was seeing them everywhere. Calling my name. Saying, ‘we’re so sorry’ and ‘come back to us’ and ‘be careful’ but the thing is it went away. I was just so shocked that I had lost my parents and I was hearing things. I was depressed, scared, and super freaked out. Therefore, what I am saying is that it is normal. I was just like you. Don’t get sucked into this illusion. Soon, you will get over it and move on with your life just as I did. ” Zenida says.

“But Zenida, did you really get over it? I mean, you still think about them and wish that they were here with you. You never get over and move on with your life. This kind of thing follows you forever. And unlike you I actually want to do something about it.”



KNOCK! A rock had just hit the window. With curiosity, the girls stood up and walked towards the window with great fear. What if it was the stalker? To their surprise, there was no person but the squirrel was standing there, with a note, starring at them with those little eyes as if it was saying hello. They opened the window and the tiny creature jumped onto the windowsill.


“You have no idea of what it took me to get this note,” said the squirrel.

Zenida screamed, “No, no! Squirrels cannot talk! See Angel, its contagious! Crazy is contagious!” ”


“Well, this one can! Ha! My name’s Bill.”


“Man, I must be dreaming!” Zenida shouts.


“Um I don’t think so,” Bill the squirrel says, “Hello, Angel, good to see you again.”


Angel was too speechless to say a word. There was a shocked look on her face the whole time. It looked like she had just seen a ghost or worse, a talking animal. Bill handed them the note. He also gave them an envelope, and a map. Angel look did not change. She was statue, completely frozen. After about twenty seconds, Angel snapped back to reality (or whatever this was) and stared at the squirrel.


“Are these from Lucyena?” Asks Angel.


“Yep, from Lucy!” he replies.


Zenida scowls “So what exactly does this Lucy want from us?”


“It is not exactly what she wants from you. It is that she wants to protect you and to save you from what your parents have been running away from for all these years. Both of your parents.”


Zenida gives him a look that says; please just kill me now. She puts her hand over her mouth and stares at Angel once again with the ‘are you crazy’ look. She sighs and looks back at the talking creature, which she now wants to throw out the window, never to see him again. The only words running through Zenida’s mind were; why couldn’t I be normal?


Without saying anything, the squirrel leaves the room right when they all hear Lenny call down from downstairs, “It’s time for breakfast, everyone!”


Angel and Zenida slowly walk over o the door when their little sister, Fiola, calls out, “Wait for me, guys! I want to go too cause I’m hungry!”


They had both completely forgotten that Fiola was even here. They wait up for her and all go downstairs together.

Everyone was already at the table when the three of them arrived. They sat down cautiously and began to eat. Lenny had prepared a good breakfast. Omelet, bacon, sausage, toast, and a side of fruit and a snack for all of them. All were enjoying it. This time, Fiola broke the silence.


“I saw a talking squirrel in my room!” Suddenly, everyone looked at her while Angel and Zenida looked at each other. Uh-oh.


“Fiola…” Lenny starts.


“It’s true. He came into our room and talked to Angel and Zenida! I saw! I saw! I saw!”


Speechless expressions covered the two girl’s faces. They both sat as still as statues and pretended they did not know what Fiola was talking about.


“You must have been dreaming, Fiola,” Destiny assures, “Because squirrels cannot talk.”


“It’s scientifically impossible for a simple minded animal like a squirrel to say anything.” Faith adds.


“Yeah, no animal can talk. Except for parrots. I want a parrot very bad maybe I could get one for our next birthday. I could talk to it all day long and it would be so much fun and I would never get bored and…” Hope is a very talkative person as you can probably tell.


“Shut up, Hope, you’re so annoying!” said Jacob.


“Yeah!” Jordan adds.


“You guys don’t tell Hope to shut up. You know how Josephine feels about anybody talking like that.” Lenny states.


“Yeah guys! You know it’s not nice to tell someone to shut up even though Hope does have serious talking problems and doesn’t have the wonderful ability to close her mouth!” Faith exclaims.


“Yes I can! I can close it whenever I want to! Right now, I just do not feel like it. So how about that parrot idea, huh? It would be so fun and I would never get bored and so what that I am a little talkative? What are you losers going to do about it? Force my mouth to close! I do not think so!”


“See what I mean? It is impossible fro her to shut her mouth and I have proof! While Destiny and I are sleeping, we are woken by Hope’s midnight conversations with herself!” Yells Faith.


“Yeah that is true,” adds Destiny.


“I do not talk in my sleep!”


All of a sudden, the baby starts to cry extremely loudly. Fiola gets back to the point and says, “Doesn’t anyone care that I saw a talking squirrel?”


“No you did not!”


“Yes I did to!”


“NO YOU DIDN’T!” screams Hope.


“Seriously just shut your trap, Hope!” Destiny yells.


Hope pushes Destiny knocking over her glass of milk, which spills all over Faith. Faith takes her bread and throws it at Hope, causing her to knock over her plate. So then, Hope takes all her food, which scattered around the table and throws it as hard as she can at Faith who accidentally pushes Jacob and causes his food to spill everywhere. Jacob pushes Faith who pushes him back and then Jacob knocks over Jordan’s food. Jordan takes a glass of milk and dumps it all on Jacob’s head. So he took an egg and threw it at Hope who pushed faith who knocked over a plate of food onto Lenny. Then Jordan took some pancakes and threw it at the triplets but ended up hitting Angel and Zenida. Than Jacob took an egg and accidentally hit Fiola in the eye when he was aiming for his brother.


“THAT IS IT! EVERYONE TO THEIR ROOMS! I AM CALLING JOSEPHINE!” Lenny screamed so loudly that Angel and Zenida were surprised that no body would call the cops for all of the noise. Of course, everyone dashes to their rooms without a word.


Lenny calls Josephine as he said he would. She comes rushing home so quickly that she gets there in about ten minutes. Josephine and Lenny discussed what had happened.



“Hope! Faith! Destiny! Jacob! Jordan! Get down here right now! Lenny, you should just go to your room for now.”


Lenny does as told and marches straight off to his room. The five mischievous kids that Josephine had called down had arrived into the living room. Josephine ordered them to sit on the couch and they did as told.


“I had to go run some very important errands and I left Lenny in charge. He prepared a wonderful breakfast and you five ruined it all! You broke three dishes, which you will be replacing. You ruined a mean and you made a huge mess, which you will be cleaning. Your behavior this morning was completely unacceptable and it will never happen again do we all understand? Hope, you need to learn how to shut your mouth! Destiny and Faith, you need to learn how to stop talking back! Jacob and Jordan, you just need to learn some respect! You all are grounded fro two weeks!”


“What!” Hope yells in worry.


“Okay, fine, not two weeks. Three! Thanks to Hope!”


“Aww man, that’s not fair,” screams Hope once again. The other four were looking at her in a murderous way. A look that said, what have you done, you idiot!


“No? You are so right! Three weeks is not fair at all! Four weeks! Now go clean the kitchen and apologize for what you have done! You people are unbelievable! Now go!

While Josephine was screaming at the others, Angel and Zenida went to check out the stuff they had gotten from a squirrel.




Dear Angel and Zenida,

You must set out on what you may call a ‘journey’. You may not know this but you are in great danger. You must fallow my instructions very carefully.


First off, you need to call a taxicab tomorrow. Make sure it is at night so nobody hears you. Your plane tickets are for Colorado. There, you will meet my good friend, Jenira. She has short blonde hair and is very tall so look for her once you have arrived to Colorado. She will take you to her house, she will give you a few things, and you will stay there for two days. I will send another note while you are in Colorado. You must go, for your parents are waiting and if you stay, you will be in great trouble. You must escape. (I will explain more later)







Sincerely L. A.







Zenida opened the envelope to find two plane tickets for Colorado and a thousand dollars!


“She really expects us to do this, huh?” Angel says.


There was a light tap on the window and the girls found themselves staring at the little talking creature once again. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones in the room.


“Oh my gosh, there’s the talking squirrel! I see it! I see it! I told you people there is a talking squirrel!” Fiola yells.


“Fiola, please, you must be quiet.” Zenida whispers. Great now everyone will think Fiola is crazy too. Zenida then opens the window and lets the little creature climb up to the windowsill.


“Hello, sorry to barge in like this”, says Bill, “But Lucyena wanted me to tell you in person. She wanted me to tell you not to tell anyone where you are going, even if you trust that person. Absolutely nobody, understood?”


“Right,” Angel replies.


“Alright, well I better get going now. I hope to see you girls very soon. Goodbye.”


Angel and Zenida decided to leave a note for Josephine for when they leave. They knew that this journey would be dangerous, but they had to find out more about their past. Angel needed to know what happened when she was young and Zenida needed to find out what happened to her parents and what dark secrets they were keeping from her. So many questions had to be answered and they are going to do what ever it takes to get those answers. They weren’t going to lie to Josephine. Besides, they did not want her to think that they have been kidnapped. That night, they put their thoughts together and made a letter for Josephine, which they would place in her bedroom right before they left.


Dear, dear, Josephine,

You will wake up this morning to find that we are not here. Please do not panic. We promise that we will try our hardest to return. We have gone away to find out about our past and we know exactly where we are going. DO NOT send anyone to search for us because you are sure not to find us anywhere. We are not lost and we will be okay :) we love you very much and appreciate what you have you done for us. I know it will be hard for you but you need to know that we are old enough to care for ourselves now. If we did not think we could do this, we would still be home right now. Even if this all works out, just remember, this place will always be our home no matter what.

















We love you,

















Zenida W.



















Angel D.






P.s. Please tell everyone at home goodbye for us. Tell them that we will be back soon. We are so sorry. We love you all so much. Thank you. And do not worry. Trust us.



The girls put their hearts into that letter. That letter to Josephine was written in tears. They really appreciated everything that she has done for them. It was so hard for Angel and Zenida to accept the face that this is not where they belong. That their parents are alive. As soon as they find out those deep, dark secrets, nothing will ever be the same again.







* * *


I know Zenida and Angel were scared. They were scared of what was going to happen. Unfortunately, they have to leave. They need to know, they must know.

Zenida and Angel started packing the next day for what ever is coming their way.

“Whatcha doing?” Fiola asks them.

“Nothing, Fiola, don’t pay attention,” Zenida replies. They pack lightly. Each packs a few shirts, three pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts and sunglasses. They went and hugged and kissed Fiola until she couldn’t take it anymore. They tell her how much they love her and everyone else here. No matter how many times Fiola asked what was going on, they kept telling her they loved her and for her to be a good girl when they went away.






* * *


I guess I never gave a good description of the two girls.

Angel is a beautiful girl. She has wavy dark blond hair that runs down to her back. Her eyes are dark brown with a mysterious look to them. The brown in her eyes faded from a light brown to a dark browns. Her pupils are always very small so the shading in her eyes is noticeable. She’s a tall, average sized girl but if you saw her, you could automatically tell, something was different and unique. In a good way.

Zenida is also very beautiful. She had a much more mysterious look than Angel did. Her hair is much longer than Angel’s is and it is pitch black like the nighttime sky. It is straight and runs down to her lower back. Her eyes look a little like Angel’s only dark green. It sometimes looks like they are wearing makeup but they are not.

As for me, I have dyed and highlighted my hair an endless number of times for important reasons of disguise. Off topic.







* * *



It was eleven o’clock at night and everyone was asleep by now. Well except for Angel and Zenida of course. They called a taxicab and waited for its arrival. While waiting, they remembered that they had written a note to Josephine so they quietly went over to her room and placed the note next to her bed on the nightstand. There was a moment after they placed the note at her bedside table. They took that moment, looked at Josephine, and told her they loved her so much. When that deed was done, they went back to their rooms and waited quietly. Not a word was said during this time. The cab arrived at eleven thirty two. They grabbed their small load of luggage and climbed out the window. Zenida had huge doubts about leaving and whether or not she could trust anyone out there. Angel seemed to know what she was doing. Nothing seemed to stop her from getting out that window and leaving to go to who knows where.

Once, they got in the cab, they gave the driver money and Angel says, “Airport please.”

“Kinda far away. Gonna cost a little extra,” said the driver. It was a woman about twenty or twenty-one years old. Zenida had given her a ‘little more’ and they went off.



Angel sighed and put her head down in her lap. Something was troubling her inside and she knew it.

When she looked up, she was not in a taxicab, driving to the airport. She was in a different car. It was small and uncomfortable. She was sitting in the back with a small girl about two or three years old. As soon as Angel saw the girl, she recognized who she was. The same little girl in the kitchen. The same little girl in the living room. It was her, Angel. The car was driven by none other than the man Angel saw that one night. Sitting with the little girl and her mom (who was sitting up front with the man). It was Angel dad and Angel’s mom (Or so that is what she concluded).

Little Angel begins to say something, “Mom, are we there yet?” she asks.

“No honey, not yet.”

“Where are we going?” the little girl asks again.

“Please, Angel, be patient, please!” says the dad. The girl fell silent. The older Angel looked out the window. They were driving on a strange road. An empty road. A strange, empty, familiar road. They made a turn and soon, they came to a forest.

“MOM!” Little Angel screamed.

“Angel, please!”

“No, someone’s fallowing us!” she yells. Her mom looks back and sees a car behind them. By the look on her face, you could tell that she knew who it was.

“Jake! They’re behind us!”

“Dammit! Will those morons ever leave us alone?” her dad screams. Suddenly, the car swerves around, turning four times and then turning once again into another road. Little Angel and big Angel grab onto the door handle as the spin around and both felt nauseous when the fun was over. They had lost the followers but almost flipped the car!

“What the hell is wrong with you? You could have killed us!” Angelica screams

“We needed to lose those morons somehow!” Jake yells back. They kept going straight then turned a few times. The tank was almost empty so they arrived at a near by gas station.


With a blink of an eye, the older Angel went from one place to another and everything was back to normal. She was once again sitting in the cab, on her way to the airport.

“Angel,” Zenida says, “Are you okay?”

“No!” she snaps.

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

“So where are you young ladies headed to so late at night?” The driver asks.

“Oh, nowhere.” Zenida answers.

“Well you must be headed somewhere. Well my name is Della and you can tell me.”

“The airport that is where we’re going!” Angel snaps again.

“Gosh! Cranky now, aren’t we? Well…okay. What’s wrong? You’re not in the mood. What’s your name?”

“Please. I don’t want to answer twenty

Questions right now! My…umm…head hurts! And my friend’s head hurts too. Right, Zenida?”

“Right.” They were all silent for the rest of the ride. Angel glances at Zenida a few times to indicated something was wrong. Zenida was just confused. Della grew more suspicious but didn’t say another word. To Zenida, Della seemed like a spy, watching them. When they had arrived at the airport, Della started again, “So I guess you two must be off. But where would two girls like you be going at this time?”

Ignoring Della, Zenida replies in a happy tone, “Bye, thanks for the ride!” They get out of the cab, grab their bags, and walk away. Della watches the two girls leave. She waves at them with a smile when they look back. After the girls disappeared, Della was still in the parking lot. She drives off after ten minutes had gone by. As she drives, she reaches into her pocket and grabs a cell phone. With strong hesitation, she dials a number. It rings for about seven seconds.

“What!” A booming voice answers.

“I’m sorry but I couldn’t get a word out of the girls.” Della says.

“Of coarse you didn’t because you are a worthless piece of trash!” The other line of the phone hangs up. Della drives on with tears coming down her face and worries about what would happen to her since she failed her mission. On purpose.



You are probably wondering who this person is on the other line of the phone. Well, let’s just say that it’s not a person. A monster you could say. A monster.

I remembered what Bill had said about not telling anyone where we’re going so I did not tell the strange woman named Della where we were headed. Besides, I not in the best mood ever right now. The whole thing with the car left me in a shock. The thing is, it felt so real. As if, I was actually there in the car with my family. We almost flipped the car and I practically got a heart attack!

Anyways, you know what’s strange though, that woman who was driving us in taxi looked extremely familiar. Had I seen her before? Perhaps it just went away with the rest of my memory.

Zenida and I walked over to the benches where we sat down. We looked at our tickets, which were for five o’clock in the morning. It was now two o’clock so we would have to wait about three hours. Fantastic.

“So what happened in the taxi? You Kinda freaked.” Zenida says. Now I have to tell her. I really just didn’t want to talk about it at all.

“Well I had another one of my memory illusions.” I put it in the simplest terms I could.

“Yeah? What happened this time?” Should have seen this coming.

“We in a car. That is, little me, mom, dad, and well, me. Someone was following us. They were behind us in another car. We had to lose them and my parents were worried. We almost flipped the car and that’s why I started to freak out and get all paranoid. However, we got away. We lost the followers and then went to a gas station to fill up.”

“That’s it?” Typical Zenida to say something like that when I just had another nervous breakdown in a taxicab.

“What do you mean ‘that’s it’? We almost crashed and who were those people? Those followers?”

“Well how am I supposed to know?” Zenida says in a sarcastic way, “And by the way, what was with that driver asking so many questions?”

“Well how am I supposed to know?” I reply in an even more sarcastic tone. I was sort of getting annoyed with Zenida now. Once again, she should know that after that, I am not in the best mood ever. I bet if that happened to her, she wouldn’t be either.

“Yeah, whatever.”

I could tell she was annoyed with me too. “Well, Bill said not to tell anyone where we were going so I didn’t tell her. Besides, Della was suspicious. I wonder what she could’ve wanted.”

“She wanted to know where we were going, obviously.”

“But why? To stalk us?”

“Probably,” she says.

Zenida and I waited for an hour and a half. We used some of our money to buy food. While we waited on the bench by our flight door, I noticed a boy was coming towards us. His eyes glistened and his hair shined as he walked. To me, he was the most handsome boy I had ever seen in my life. My breathing stopped as I starred at him in amazement. Brown hair and blue eyes. His look was mesmerizing. Overall, he looked about fifteen or sixteen years old but there was something about him that seemed older. Like maybe nineteen or twenty. He wore a black cloak over a black shirt and dark jeans. Something about his look was mysterious. But I absolutely loved it. For a second there, I thought he was actually coming to next to us but I knew it was too good to be true. Until he did. With his hands in his pockets, he sits down and looks at us. I take a deep breath and prepare for whatever was to come our way.

“Hello, ladies,” he says in a mysterious but soothing voice. It was beautiful. Both of us were too nervous to speak.

Zenida broke the silence, “H-h-hi!”

“And what are you girls doing here so late? Or early, I should say.”

“Oh, just taking a flight,” I quickly murmur. I was still hypnotized by him.

“Where would that be to?” he asks in the most wonderful voice I’ve ever heard.

“Oh, nowhere, just Colorado. Oh, my name’s Angel. What’s yours?” I ask him, not realizing what I just did.

“Ace. Ace Skelon.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ace,” Zenida says in a way that she want him to leave. I think she really does. I don’t. A slight smile appears in my face. A connection develops, as if we’ve met before. Somewhere, somehow.

“Well it was very nice to meet you too,” he replies, “It was nice to see you too, Angel.” He gently gets up and walks away. I watch his feet move step by step. Slow motion in my mind. My eyes wander from the ground to the top of his head.

“Quit checking him out, you idiot! What is wrong with you?” She yells so loudly that people turn around and stare in a way that someone would stare if a mother were giving her child a beating in public.

“What,” I mumble very quietly not to attract attention as Zenida did. People begin to look away from us, the two crazy girls. I bet those people are thinking that we’re two drunks who ran away to hang out at the airport. Oh, what do they know?

“Oh nothing, you just told that complete stranger where we were going, smart one!”

I bite my bottom lip and squish my eyes together to close. I hadn’t realized what I did. He was just so… hypnotizing and interesting. I sighed and looked back at Zenida. I guess I couldn’t find the right words to say because the only word that came out of my mouth was a giggle and the word, “Oops!”








* * *


Ace Skelon walks away from the girls. He reaches in his pocket and grabs a cell phone, dials a number, and waits.

“Ace,” a dark voice answers.

“The girls will be in Colorado,” says Ace.

“Thank you Ace, you are much better than that stupid Della. She failed as always. I am starting to think that I should do something about it.”

“Just give her another chance. I will make sure she will not fail again, master.”

“Well, alright. However, this is the last time before I get rid of that useless girl. And I am only doing this because you completed the mission and you completed it right.”

“Thank you, master.” Ace shuts the phone and keeps on walking. He sighs and looks back for about ten seconds. His unique eyes close and open. He continues walking, with the most serious look on his face. His eyes shed no tears even though he is tempted to. As he walks by a group of teenagers, some of the girls stare at him with blank faces but he just rolls his eyes and gives them a look that says, I do not give a crap that you people are looking at me. Away into the distance, he goes with his head down and his hands in his pockets.

It was now time for Zenida and me to board the plane. We handed our tickets to the woman at the counter and hopped on to the plane to Colorado. No words came out of her mouth the whole three hours so I did not bother to start a conversation.

We arrived at the Denver Airport in Colorado.

“Now we have to find this Jenira lady,” Zenida says in an annoyed tone. I guess she was still mad at me for what I did back in Oregon. I don’t think she should be making such a big deal about it. What would a teenage boy be doing as some sort of spy?

“And we have to watch out for any stalkers since you told,” Zenida added.

“Well he could have figured it out by looking at the flight times and stuff. He could have more easily watched us board the plane and ask someone where this plane was going to.” I only hoped that no one would follow us because we would be in huge trouble. Now where is this Jenira person? “Well Lucyena says in her note that Jenira has short blonde hair and she’s tall.”

“Well, that narrows it down to a million people!” says Zenida.

“Angel, Zenida, is that you?” a voice says from behind us. We both turn around to find a pretty blonde woman who was about a foot and a half taller than we were. She looked about twenty years old. “So are you Angel and Zenida?” she asks again.

“Well are you Jenira?” asks Zenida. She sure did fit the minimum description we got of her.

“Yes, I am Jenira. Lucyena told me you were coming to visit. Oh it’s been so long since I’ve seen you two.”

“You’ve met us before?” I ask her.

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t remember. You both were just babies. I will explain more later. First we need to get to my house.”

There was something strange about this woman. It was a good kind of strange, though. We left the airport and went out to the parking lot. Jenira led us to her car, which was a minivan. I assume she has a large family.

“Do you have a big family?” asked Zenida. It’s as if she just read my mind and said my thoughts for me.

“Why yes, yes I do. I have five kids. It’s not too big of a family. Why I know some people who have over ten kids. But yeah, two of my children are adopted though.”

“Wow.” I guess I just couldn’t find the right words to say.

“Yeah, three boys and two girls. And my husband and I of course.”

“Don’t mind me asking but how old are you?” Zenida asked. Now I am happy that I have no vocabulary right now or something like that might come out of my mouth.

“That I cannot tell you right now.”

“Sorry about asking.”

“No, it’s fine. I will tell you later once I’ve told you other things.”

“How old are your kids?” I ask.

“My children are five, seven, nine, twelve, and fourteen. Oh I am so excited that you are here!”

“We have a long way so thanks for letting us stay with you.”

“No, no it’s absolutely no problem! So anyways, how have you girls been?”

“It has been hard for both of us,” Zenida answers.

“Yes, of course. You have to go through all this nonsense.”

We were silent for about forty-five minutes when we arrived at Jenira’s house. It was a little too big to be a house but too small to be a mansion. We slowly walked over to the front door and waited for Jenira to open it. As we walked into the house, I noticed that the family was just about to eat lunch.

“Everyone, our guests are here so don’t behave like a zoo!” Jenira announces. She insists on us sitting down and eating with them and we do. “Girls, this is my husband, Kevin,” she says, introducing us to her husband who was juts as youthful as she was, “This is Kelsey and Jocelyn, my two adopted girls.” Kelsey had short hair like Jenira’s but brown. Jocelyn had had shoulder-length black hair, which was very curly. They were both very pretty even thought they weren’t really Jenira’s daughters. “And these are my three boys, Logan, Tyler, and Derek. Logan is seven. Tyler is fourteen and Derek is only five. Kelsey is twelve, and Jocelyn is nine.”

I smiled as I shook every one of their hands and said my hellos. This whole time, something was bothering me at the back of my head. Something that was slowly eating away at my mind. I attempted but failed to get this out of my head. Ace Skelon. For some reason, all I could remember was him.

Jenira says, “Everyone, this is Angel Dellae and Zenida Williams. After all the greeting was done, we sat and ate lunch. When we were finished, Jenira led us to the guest room where we would be staying. “Girls, I think you better sit down.”

We did as asked and prepared for a long, painful, but revealing story.

“It all started long ago. You see, there is another land that is not Earth but similar. It was called Maridia. This land is beautiful. There are forests and ocean but not like here. There is more color, more layers of beauty, more sound, more feeling, and more nature. There are way more species. The plants are out of this world and there is just more freedom. It was the place where both of your parents came from and where you were born. It’s the best place you could ever dream of. I mean, you don’t even know until you’ve been there. Until you have breathed in the air and smelled the scents and seen the sights. There are no problems like pollution or global warming. A place of freedom. Pure, wonderful freedom. Like Earth but a whole different Earth. A new Earth reborn. An Earth where real magic exists.

“So we were all living peacefully, until it happened. Until the evil came. An evil that you girls couldn’t imagine. It was called The Red Skeleton. You could say that its hobby is causing people misery. It has horrible powers. Powers that are unbelievable. Powers of disguise. Powers of turning people into monsters and powers of getting inside your body and mind, and killing you.

“Back to the place for a second. There is a portal. A portal that only we can enter. You must know of Lucyena by now, right? Well, she was sort of the leader of all the people. She was like the ruler of the land. A queen, you could say. This is because she had greater power than all of her people. So she made this portal so that we can escape from The Red Skeleton and get away from our own paradise. It was only because of The Red Skeleton. The portal lead to Earth and that is how we are all here right now. Lucy was going to close the portal as soon as everyone was out to trap The Red Skeleton in Maridia. Everyone was scared and so many people were already dead. The plan was almost successful but just as Lucyena was about to close the portal, the Red Skeleton came and made his way to Earth with the rest of us. Lucy used all of her power to try and stop him, but unfortunately, it didn’t exactly work as well as hoped. It really did help us though. All of her power caused the Red Skeleton to transform into human form. He is stuck in this human body for now but the spell is sure to wear off. As a human, he calls himself, Devalor. His main goal is to rule over Maridia and now Earth. He’s got Maridia guarded by his servants. He used to have Many servants. He actually made the servants, pretty much. Those poor people…”

“How,” I ask her.

“Whenever The red Skeleton enters your body, he can either kill you or leave your body turning you into a vampire, forever his slave until his curse wears off. And unless he wears off, his curse will not.”

“Vampires?” Says Zenida in a tone that says, are you crazy?

“Yes, vampires. Believe it or not, but it is true. There are three kinds of vampires; The Entered, The Bitten, and as my family and I and Lucyena are; The Bitten.”

“Wait, wait, wait! You are a vampire?” I yelled.

“Yes, I am. So anyways, The Entered are the vampires that The red Skeleton made. he enters them. The Bitten are the humans that get bitten by a vampire and are turned into one. And The Born are the full born vampires when they turn sixteen. My husband, Kevin and I are born. My three boys are born. Jocelyn and Kelsey will have to be bitten. However, not all the people of our world are vampires. Some are elves, some are goblins, some are even wizards, which are very rare. There are dragons, goblins, and werewolves. All the things that the humans fear in their sleep but wake and convince themselves that they aren’t real. Well they are real. You two are very special. When your powers are fully developed, you will become one of us; more than you are now. You girls are wizards.

“Us?! This is ridiculous,! It is so dumb!” Zenida exclaims, “There is no way!”

“Yes, you. Believe it or not.”

This becomes too much for me. Way too much. I feel like getting up and leaving. I mean, does she take this whole thing as a joke? With my fists clenched, I sort of lose it and begin to yell uncontrollably, “Oh yeah, prove it. Prove it to me that vampires are NOT fictional characters! And Wizard and Elves and Dragons! That is a bunch of nonsense! I mean give us a break! You have absolutely no idea what we have been through! You would never understand! You have a perfect family, and what seem to be a perfect life! I got hit by a car when I was seven! I don’t remember anything! I don’t know who my parents are! And I see things, okay? Now we come here all of a sudden and you are telling us bedtime stories! I’m sorry for yelling, but just prove to me that what you’re saying is true and then I will have a reason why I shouldn’t get up right now and just walk away!” I know I got a little out of hand but trust me, you would understand how frustrated I am if you were in my position right now. I did feel somewhat bad because Jenira was now just staring at me with a face that said, I cannot believe that you just did that. She expression changed and went to a, oh yeah, I will give you proof look. All I thought was, bring it on, lady! Who do you think you are to us?

Jenira once again changed the look on her face. Now to a grin that I could read like the palm of my hand. She started to smile with her teeth showing.

I wish I had a picture of what my face looked like right at this little moment. My eyes probably looked like a fish and my mouth opened as wide as a lion’s. I looked over at Zenida who’s face was the same as I imagined mine to be. My mouth slowly closed. If I could use just one word to describe how I was feeling right now, it would probably be dumbfounded. Don’t eve ask why because I would feel too stupid and embarrassed to tell you. Oh well, I will anyway. Here it is. Man, this is harder than I though it would be. I’ll just spit it out; JENIRA HAS VAMPIRE TEETH! They weren’t just like teeth that were a little pointed. They were perfectly shaped and looked as pointed as a pair of cone-shaped knives! And they were bigger then her other ones so you could completely tell they were real!

She smiles again and giggles at our astonished faces of disbelief. Her mouth closes and when she begins to talk again, I notice that her vamp teeth are gone!

“So, anyways-,” she starts when I stop her.

“Wait! What happened? Your teeth are gone!”

“We can control when our teeth come out.” She states.

“But don’t vampires drink human blood?” I had so many questions that I hoped she could answer.

“Yes, but we can survive up to two week without drinking blood. When we absolutely need to, we drink our own. Just a little, like from a tiny cut and that should sooth the cravings. If that is not enough, we take it to the next level and go hunting for animals. It is not as good as human’s but we deal.”

“How can you come out into the sun?” asks Zenida. She read my mind there.

“The Born and the Bitten can come out. It does no harm. The Entered, however, cannot.”

“Are vampires more beautiful then the normal humans? I ask.

“I guess you could say that. But it’s mostly just that our look hypnotizes people. But we do have a little gift of beauty. Especially the Entered vampires. Lucyena is said to be the most beautiful of us all. Not only in looks but she is a beautiful person even though she refuses to reveal her true skin.”

“What about us? Do we have any special powers like in the movies?” Asks Zenida who once again is reading my mind. She was just going through my list of questions and seems to say them before I can.

“I cannot predict the future but I can tell you that you girls will have more power then…”

I cut her off. “How in the world do we come into to any of this?”

“That is where I was just about to get to. So anyways I was saying that Lucyena was the ‘queen’. Both of your parents were good friends with Lucyena. When you two were born, you were somehow connected. We did not know how but you were. Together, you had a great power. Much more than the rest of us and this was just was babies. Our kind, their powers fully develop when you are sixteen years of age, also the age when you turn vampire. Lucyena decided that one of you were to be the next ruler, but she would wait till you were old enough. We predicted that when you two got older, you will have as much power as Lucyena. Possibly, even greater. So you can see why you girls are very important to our kingdom. But here’s the big huge conflict, all that Devalor has ever wanted, was to rule over everything and take over the kingdom and have everyone bow to him and be his slaves. But to succeed in his little plan, he needed more power. So he can take over the world. And kill. And destroy. Your parents would do anything to protect you so they came to Earth. In fact, your parents were the ones who suggested the idea of running away to a whole different place. So Lucyena opened the portal and all of our kind went here to escape. We are still in hiding, and we have all given up our minor powers to blend in with the humans. No matter what, we would always be vampires. Our true skin. The Red Skeleton’s servants were searching for you and your parents everywhere all throughout your wasted childhood. Zenida, the servants found your parents but you were not there so they kidnapped them. Angel, they found your parents and you were also not with them. The Red Skeleton was furious. He almost killed them but they luckily escaped in time so the Red Skeleton just let them be but made sure that they were always being watched. They ran away to Michigan and have lived there since. Devalor knew that you were definitely not with them because it had been seven years since.

“Even though the Entered are most beautiful, they don’t have the best tracking skills. Even worse than a human’s and that’s bad. Especially for vampires. After the seven years that you have not been with your parents, they had finally found you. It was all of a sudden. Like one minute they had no clue and the next, they just knew where you were. That is why you left Oregon. The good thing is, they do not know that Zenida has been with you the time. In fact, Devalor has a whole different group of servant searching for you separately, Zenida.

“So something must have happened to you, Angel. Recently because they only got a lead on you a few days ago. Since they cannot come out when there is sunlight, they will do what ever they can to get you at night.”

“So that’s why Lucy told us not to tell anyone where we’re going. So that no body would fallow us. That is really bad because I accidentally told someone where we going.” Now I felt really bad about the whole Ace Skelon thing. If I knew, I would have kept my big, fat, stupid mouth shut like I was supposed to. Crap. Hopefully, I didn’t do too much damage.

“Who!” Screams Jenira.

“Ace.”

“ACE SKELON?”

“Yeah…”

Jenira takes a deep breath. I could tell she was furious at me. Well what can you do? I am just a fourteen year old teenager and if a guy that good-looking comes up to me and asks me a questions, I am bound to answer him.

“That’s one of Devalor’ servants! You told him? Why?”

“I didn’t know! It just came out of my mouth! I am really sorry!” Remember that guilt feeling I was telling you about? Well, take that and multiply it by five thousand!

“You must have been hypnotized! What exactly did you say?”

“Um, I just said that we were visiting in Colorado.”

“Okay so we still have some time. Like I said, they have very poor tracking skills and it will take them a while to search all of Colorado to find two girls.”

“So what does this Devalor want from us? I mean, what would he do if he got to us?” Zenida asks.

“He want to kill you. If he has you both dead, he will put your bodies in special graves that will suck out your souls and power. He will then put your power inside himself. The thing is, he must do this before your sixteenth birthday or then, your powers will come in fully and then it is impossible for then to be sucked out. Even if you are dead. If you are dead after you sixteenth birthday, your powers die with you. He does need both of you.

“To be honest with you, I really know nothing else. When you meet Lucy, she is sure to explain more. I know you probably have more questions, but unless they are about what I just said, then you are out of luck. I apologize.

“Um… so you’re telling us all this stuff about this evil Devalor. But how in the world do you expect us to deal with all of this? Are we magically supposed to just get rid of him? What exactly do you want us to do?” I mean seriously, does she really expect us to deal with the whole situation by ourselves? What does she expect from two teenage girls?

“I am truly sorry but I do not know. I am just one of Lucyena’s friends and I don’t know anything about that. I am sure that Lucy will explain when you meet her.

That night, right before Zenida and I wrote a note to Lucyena and dropped it out the window. We didn’t know if this would work here but there’s no harm in trying, right?


DEAR LUCYENA,

ZEINDA AND I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW A FEW THINGS BEFORE WE PROCEED ON OUR QUEST. FIRST OF ALL, WE WANT TO KNOW HOW DEVALOR HAD FOUND US ALL OF A SUDDEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS OF SEARCHING? SECONDLY, HOW IN THE WORLD ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS WHOLE SITUATION? HOW WILL WE STOP DEVALOR? OH AN THIRDLY, HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW WE FEEL ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING? I MEAN ALL OF A SUDDEN WE FIGURE OUT THAT THERE IS SOME FREAK THAT IS TRYING TO KILL US AND WE’RE JUST SUPPOSED TO GO ALONG WITH THE WHOLE THING? PLEASE LUCY, WE DON’T MEAN TO SOUND MEAN BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH. WE NEED YOUR HELP.










ANGEL D.








ZENIDA W.






“Hello, Angel. Hello, Zenida. Nice to see you two again,” says the talking squirrel, a little after we drop the letter. “Well, here you go.” He handed us a note.

“What’s this?”

“The Note from Lucyena.”

“But she hasn’t even gotten ours yet! How would she know what it said before even reading it?” I had a theory in my mind. I thought about how stupid it sounded but after hearing all of that little story, nothing really sounds too crazy. I’m just guessing here that she’s psychic.

“Oh, she is psychic. She can see anything she wants too. Like she has a little magic mirror in her mind. That probably sound weird though,” says Bill.

What did I tell ya? “Thanks, Bill.”

“Don’t mention it, its my job.” Away the squirrel goes into the distance.

I look over at Zenida and she’s just starring off onto space. With a look like she just saw a ghost.

“Zenida, what’s wrong?” She looks over at me and just stares.

“What's wrong? What's wrong, she asks me. Nothing. Absolutely nothing! I'm not at all a little shaken about all of this complete and total nonsense. You see, this is all just a stupid dream! I am going to wake up any freaking moment! I'm gonna wake up and go to school and come home and see my normal parents in my normal house in my normal neighborhood in my NORMAL life! I mean come on! A talking squirrel? Vampires? Monsters? Evil freak who wants us dead because we are special and have so called powers? How does that sound to you? There is NOTHING special about me! I am a normal teenage girl who just watched too many scary movies before bed and is having the stupidest nightmare of my freaking life! Now asks yourself, what is wrong here? Is any of this normal to you? Or maybe we’re just in one of those reality TV prank shows. You know what I mean. It could be anything? I’d want to be anything. Except for this! Just, just leave me alone for a little bit, k? I am going to go to bed and when I wake up, I better be home!”

Out of the blue, I smack her on the arm.

“Oww! What the heck was that for?” She yells.

“How did that feel?”

“Uh, I don’t know, like it freaking hurt!” I could so tell she was pissed at me.

“Exactly my point, you dummy! If this were a dream, you would not feel that! You wanna sleep, go ahead! Just don’t expect to be back home when you wake up, okay?”

“Whatever, just give me the stupid note.”

I handed her the paper and she snatches it out of my hand.



Dear Angel and Zenida,

I am very sorry to say that I cannot answer any of your questions right now. But I will tell you soon. Bill will send u another note some time tomorrow. Once again, I apologize.



I didn’t under stand this lady at all and why couldn’t she tell us anything?

The next miserable day, Zenida and I woke up and went downstairs to find Jenira ready with breakfast. Her kids were getting ready to go to school. Her husband drove them and went o work afterwards so now it was just us three (Jenira had taken a vacation from work to be with us). We really appreciated that she would take time for us even though we didn’t really know her that well. Obviously she was a good person and a good mom.

“Do your kids know about the whole vampire thing?” I asked Jenira as we were eating breakfast.

“My older ones do like Tyler, Kelsey, and Jocelyn. I’ll have to tell my other two boys very soon.”

“So what’s it like? You know, being a vampire?” Zenida asks. Here we go again with the whole reading my mind and then stealing my questions.

“It feels like your free but at the same time trapped. The blood craving is a little annoying but you live for about two hundred years, give or take. Which is why I am much older than I look. You may think that I look like I’m in my twenties but believe it or not, I am actually sixty-seven. Of course I don’t tell anyone this but as you can tell, we don’t exactly age by our looks.”

“When you turn into a vampire, does it hurt?” I ask.

“Not really. There may be a little pain for you but its sure not to last too long. And you will have to be asleep for one week with no sunlight. That way, the craving of blood reduces and your health will be greater.”

“What about turning into a Wizard?”

“I wouldn’t know. There have only been a few number of Wizards in our time and I have absolutely no idea where they are right now or if they are even alive.”



With a blink of an eye, everything was dark. What the heck is going on? I then saw my parents and little me sitting in a living room and everything made sense again (I probably shouldn’t put it that way). I was in my memory once again.

“Thank goodness, Jake,” says Mom, “that they haven’t come yet.”

“Yeah, it’s been two weeks but I have a feeling that they will come soon.” Dad replied.

“We’ll leave maybe tomorrow or the day after.”

I take a step forward and they all turn around to look at me with fear and anger in their eyes. They saw me! What am I supposed to do now?

“Who are you! Get out of here now!” Mom screamed.

“No, I’m not who you think I am.” In this situation, I had no clue of what to do or say. Help me.

“You are outnumbered so you better leave now or you will die.” Dad states. What do I do? Run? Run where? Where am I right now? What the hell is going on. All of a sudden they could see me? How?

“No, I am not one of them!” Lets take this one step at a time. I don’t promise that will work one bit. Oh, man here we go again. Round two.

“Then who are you?” Mom questions.

“It’s me, Angel, your daughter.”

“Stop this stupid nonsense! Our daughter is right here.” Dad and Mom turn around to where little me was previously sitting. Just my luck, she was gone.

“Where is she! What have you done to her!” My mother screams.

“Mom, I am her! It is me, Angel. Angel Dellae!”

“No, this is one of Devalor’s tricks! Even if you are some sort of future version of Angel, your not real! Devalor did this. Now give Angel back right now or you are dead! You here me, dead!”

“Mom, Dad, please! Devalor did not do this! Please! You need to believe me! When I am seven years old, you will lose me! I don’t know how but you will! I will lose my memory and get sent away! Please! You have to believe me!” Little Angel suddenly appeared on the couch out of thin air. My parents look at her then they look at me. My head was spinning. My heart was throbbing. And to top everything, I fell unconscious.






* * *

I begin to slowly open my eyes and the first person I see is Zenida. She and Jenira were there by my side.

“Angel!” Zenida yells, “Are you ok?”

“Angel, do you need to go to the hospital?” Jenira asks me.

“Uh, no, I’m fine. I am okay; I just need to lay down. I’ll be in my room.”

“I’ll go with you,” Zenida announces.

“No, just… give me ten or twenty minutes alone.”

I practically crawl my way to the room. My first thought was to just go to sleep. Instead, I grab a piece of paper and a pen and begin to write.


DEAR LUCYENA,

DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE ILLUSIONS I AM HAVING ABOUT MY MEMORY? WHAT’S GOING ON? PLEASE, HELP ME OUT HERE.











A.D.



I dropped my note out the window. A moment later, Bill comes and places the note on the windowsill. He then leaves without saying a word. What a surprise for a talking squirrel not to talk.



I know about what’s going on with your ‘memory illusions’ I know your probably not going to believe me but I honestly don’t know why. I’m really sorry Angel. I cant help you here because I have nothing to do with it. Sorry.


Fantastic. Just great. I put the note in my pocket and dropped down on the bed. I yawned and closed my eyes and drifted away in a peaceful, dreamless sleep. Time to relax. So goodnight.

“Angel, Angel, wake up! It’s five o’clock for pete’s sake!” I yawned and tossed and turned. Zenida was over me like a vulture. Huh, was I really asleep for that long? Half asleep, I get off the bed and stretch.

“I’m hungry. Do you have any food?” My stomach rumbled and my head hurt throbbed too. Jenira comes into the room with a bowl of soup, some toast and fruit.

“I thought you might be hungry. You slept for a really long time. How are you feeling?”

“I’m better, thanks for the food. I really appreciate it.” I took the food begin to eat it. Delicious. The best home cooked meal that I have ever had. I headed downstairs when I was finished. Jenira’s kids were all home now. Man I slept a long time. For the rest of the night, we just watched TV.

Here is where the mess started. One of the most horrible moments of my life.

The doorbell rings and Jenira gets up to answer it. Zenida and I peeked to see who it was. There stood a guy about nineteen years old with dark brown hair.

“Well, hello Jenira,” he says. Jenira begins to panic.

“What are you doing here? You better leave, right now! How dare you come over here?”

“Jenira, I’m sorry it has to be like this., but give me the girls and there wont be a mess.”

“What do you want with my daughters? They have nothing at all to do with this! My family and I have done nothing wrong and by the way, your master can go to hell along with the rest of you. Now get away from my house!”

“Oh, foolish woman! You know exactly what I am talking about! Now where are Angel and Zenida? I know they are in your house.”

“What are you talking about? I have not seen those two in twelve years! Last time, Van, get away from me and my family!”

“Those girls are not your family!”

“Get out!” Jenira yells as hard as she can.

The guys named Van hissed and I could see his two sharp teeth. He was a vampire. It all happened quickly after that.

He pushed Jenira out of the way and ran into the house. His piercing eyes perused the room. Zenida and were able to quickly get out of the living room and run upstairs before he could spot us. We went into Jenira’s room and crawled under the bed. There was only room for one of us so Zenida went into the closet. We heard many crashes and screams. Tears started to come down my eyes. I knew this was all my fault. More screams and crashes came. Jenira’s kids were crying for help.

Zenida, hiding in the closet, couldn’t take it anymore. She opens the closet and comes out.

“What are you doing?” I yell at her.

“Those are little, innocent kids down there and they are being hurt because of us! This family is suffering because of us! This is wrong, Angel! They are being hurt!”

She turns around and runs down the stairs. I had to fallow her, quietly.



Van looks at Zenida when she comes downstairs.

“Don’t hurt them if it’s me you want!” she yells. Zenida, no, no! How foolish can you be? I hid behind a door, out of sight while still able see the whole thing. What is wrong with that girl?

“Well hello, Zenida. Nice to see you. I’m Van!” After introducing himself, he leaps towards her with great strength. She attempted to dodge his attacks and failed miserably. He now had her cornered. How I wish I could do something to help her, but if I come out there, he’ll take me too! Once again, Zenida tries to make a break for it but once again, he stops her. This time by pushing her down as hard as he could. She landed face down on the floor. When she looked up, there was blood on the floor from her bleeding mouth. With an attempt to get up, Zenida is now realizing that she is powerless against him. As he comes over, she screams, “No, please!” he picks her up and she tries to squirm her way out but his grip is too strong. Poor Zenida. I tried to make as little noise as possible so that wouldn’t also be me out there. Van pushes any obstacles out of his way and takes Zenida out the door. Her screaming and pounding and kicking had no affect on Van. The door slammed shut and I rushed downstairs. It was too late.

“Zenida, no!”

The kids were crying in the other room with Jenira. I rushed out the door to see Zenida and the vampire, driving away, in the car.

“No! Zenida! I run as fast as I can after them. Stupid mistake because when I was running, I tripped over a rock and fell down. For the second time today, I passed out.






* * *


Here we go again! I was standing outside at a park with a bunch of little kids running around. They were all about two or three years old. I scanned the playground and found little me and my parents.

I came toward them to see if they would notice me. When I stood right in front of their faces, and they didn’t respond, I realized that I was once again invisible. Little Angel was playing tag with a little boy a bit older than her.

“Tag, your it!” The little Boy says.

“Ok, break time! I’m tired!” Says little me.

“O.K.!”

The two kids run over to their parents. The little boy’s parents were sitting next to mine.

“Did you have fun, Angel?” Mom asks me.

“Yea, Mom, thanks!”

“You may go play for a little longer but we need to be heading home soon, okay?”

“O.K.!” I say. Then, I rush away to the park with the little boy. My mom turns to the little boy’s mom.

“It’s good that they can play together, finally,” My mom says.

“Yes, they are so good together. How’s Angel doing?” the boy’s mom asks.

“She’s good. The moving around is hard but, yeah she’s a good girl. And how’s Ace doing?”


Wait a minute! ACE? As in the Ace from the airport? How can this be? NO WAY!!!!!


“He’s doing good. And it’s good that they’ve seen each other, finally,” Ace’s mom says.

“You know, before we part again, you guys should come to dinner today. For a last time, you know?” Dad suggests.

“Well, I guess we could since you guys are leaving tomorrow,” says Ace’s dad.

“Tonight, then?”

“Tonight,” his parents agree.


There was a flash of light and now I was standing in a house. I’m guessing one of my houses. Everyone was at the dinner table, getting ready to eat the feast.

Thank you for inviting us, this was a good idea,” Ace’s mom says.

“No problem, it was our pleasure to have you here.”

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! RING, DINNNGGG!

Someone was at the door, pounding.

“Oh, my gosh, it’s them! No!” Mom screams, “We need to get out of here!”

The door suddenly breaks down and there stood a man who was very tall and about twenty-seven years old. His hair pitch black and his eyes were as red as blood. The scariest man that I have ever seen in my life. Everyone’s eyes almost exploded in shock that he was here and a gallon of sweat ran down everyone’s faces.

“Hello, ladies and gentlemen! You all having a wonderful time? That’s good.” The man looks at angel and Ace, “Well ,hello young ones, having a good time?”

the kid’s parents held them tight. Everyone was trembling in fear. That was including me!

Ace’s dad held him and tried to run but Devalor stopped them. Everyone tried to make a break for it. Devalor roared with all his might, his two knife-sharp teeth showing. Devalor was a vampire, too. Mom grabbed a fork and threw it at him. He caught it with one hand and then broke it in half. Devalor ran over and tried to get little me but Dad got me just in time. Once again, Ace’s family tried to escape but couldn’t. he tried to get Ace but his dad protected him. Now, Devalor has had enough. He began shaking and a cloud formed around him. He turns to Ace’s parents. His mom first. Devalor had now become the cloud himself and entered her body. She began to shake and her eyes were turning blood red. Her skin pale. Too pale. Now, she was lifting off the ground and dropped down. The cloud came out of her and Entered Ace’s dad’s body. The same thing happened. This time, when the cloud came out, Devalor transformed into his human form again. A smile appeared on his face and he began to laugh. With his eyes now locked on Ace, he once again shape-shifts into a grey cloud and enters Ace. Ace stands up with his head down. He lifts his head up slowly wit his eyes as red as Devalor’s. Ace laughs and evil, diabolical laugh. As the cloud comes out of his body, he screams and cries and yells. Little Ace grew two sharp teeth. His eyes changed color and were now very dark. He stood, motionless. His parents were dead. Devalor looks at him and smiles.

“You’ll be a fine servant, Ace.” An epiphany come to him and he suddenly realizes that my family wasn’t there. Gone. Escaped. Yes! He hissed. “Let’s go, Ace.” Ace obeyed his orders and fallowed him out the door. They disappeared into the darkness of the night.






* * *





“Angel, Angel! Wake up!” a voice calls. I open my eyes and noticed that I was laying in bed in Jenira’s house. The voice was not Jenira, or any of her family.

“Good, your awake.” The voice says again. I turn around to find Ace standing there. I observed him carefully and thought about little Ace and how similar they looked.

“Ace… what are you doing here?”

“No time to explain, Angel,” he replies.

“Ace… I saw what happened… with you and your parents and I … I’m so sorry, it was all my fault. It was horrible! I am so sorry!” I burst into tears like an idiot. Poor guy. I mean he watched his parents die right in front of him. I couldn’t imagine what his life was like from that point.

“Angel, it’s not your fault. It was all Devalor. Listen, Angel, you need to get it through your head that we all need your help. Devalor is regaining all his power which means the spell is wearing off. If he isn’t stopped soon, who knows what will happen. I know it may be too much for you but we really need your help. Please.”

I became speechless. Then it just came out, “If you are Entered, why are you here helping me? And where is Zenida? I… I… I just cant do this, okay! Your right, this is too much! How can I stop that evil monster! I’m just a fourteen year old girl, what does everyone want from me! I’m sorry, I ma really sorry but don’t think I can help you here. Now tell me where Zenida is!”

”They have her but I promise you, she is okay. I will make sure she is okay. I want to help you Angel, I really do. But he still has me, owns me. I am still under his command, I am still his servant. And unless someone gets rid of him, I will always be his servant. You know, if he knew I was here right now, I would be dead. Literally. I’m sorry but I cant help you. You’re on your own, kid."

He turns away from me and leaves without even looking back. the words run through my head over and over: you’re on your own, kid. You’re on your own. And there was nothing I could do about it. Just the thought made me cry even harder.

Think about it, what would you do if you were in my situation? Wait, don’t answer that. You have no idea and it would be wrong of me to ask you that question.

So many things ran through my mind. One of the main things was Ace. I thought about how I barely knew the guy and already I felt the greatest sympathy for him. I thought about how my life has been so far and how I pity myself a lot. That is, until now, when I realized that his life is ten times worse than mine. I mean, my parents are still alive, his are not. Not only are they dead but he watched them die! Can you imagine watching your parents die? Can you imagine watching anyone die? The only person that I would actually be happy to see get killed right in front of me would have to be Devalor. Of course, he’s not a person.

How much I wished I had a normal life. I always thought that I had it real bad because of the whole foster care thing and not remembering anything. My perspective now changed that I knew about Ace. Controlled by a monster, forced to do whatever he tells you to. I would probably kill myself by now. I inhale a deep breath and slowly release it. I drop my head back down on the bed and close my eyes.


Tap, tap, tap. Window. Which can only mean one thing. I got off the bed to see the one and only, talking squirrel.

“Hello, Angel,” says Bill.

“Hey… Bill.”

“I am very sorry about what happened yesterday. I hope everything turns out good because this was not according to plan.”

“Yeah…”

Bill holds out a note in his hand,” Well, here you go.”

“Thanks… Bill, what in the world am a gonna do? How am I supposed to do this especially without Zenida here. What are they going to do to her? What if she’s dead? What did we do wrong, do deserve all of this?

“I’m sorry, Angel, this is all hard for us, trust me I know. So many things are going wrong and Devalor is regaining his powers which is the worst part. I’m really sorry… Angel?”

“What?”

“Do you even know who I really am?”

“Uh, no… well yeah, I mean, you’re a talking squirrel.”

“yes, I am but I wasn’t always like this.”

“So you mean you were a person? Human? Or…”

“No not human. I was one of our kind. I know the word probably bugs you but I was a vam,”

“Don’t even say it,” I interrupt.

“”You know what I mean, but anyways, that was many, many years ago. I, was Lucyena’s husband. Then Devalor came and.. well, put a spell on me. And now here I am.”

“That’s terrible!”

“It was. Lucy tried to save me but it was too late. Devalor had turned me into this animal and the spell does more than just this, the spell is also a slave spell. So I must always work. Luckily, he didn’t decide who I would work for so I escaped ion time and now I work for Lucyena. It’s the least I could do to help her.”

“So now you deliver messages?”

“Yes, and for so long, I wished that it would all just go away forever. I learned not to get my hopes up. But you know, if Devalor goes away, so do all of his spells. Which means that I would be human again. If he is gone, so are his spells and everything that he has destroyed would be put back together. But unfortunately, not the lives that were lost because of him.”

“Why, was there someone close to you that you lost because of him?”

“Yes… our daughter. Her name was Irene and he killed her when she was only four months old.”

More tears come running down my cheeks, “That’s awful! How can someone do that? How can someone be so evil?”

“I don’t know. he is the most evil thing that has ever walked this Earth. He has spoiled everything and now he must die.”

More tears. “We’ll try our hardest. I promise.”

“Thank you, Angel. I wish you the greatest of luck but must be headed off now. Goodbye, Angel.”

“Bye, Bill.”

I watched the little squirrel-human ran away and disappear into the darkness of the trees.

Everything that can go wrong has. Well, almost everything. At least they haven’t gotten me yet. Maybe there is still a chance, maybe there is some hope left. I don’t know how I’m going to do it, and I don’t promise you that I will succeed.

I just hope that Zenida is alright with those horrible monsters.

My eyes were closed and I didn’t bother to open them. Just the thought of what happened gave me the chills. Where was I? Remembering what happened caused many terrible thoughts to shoot through my head. Was this really happening or was it a dream? Even though I knew it was all real, I forced myself to think otherwise. I guess I had fallen asleep in the car or fell unconscious because I don’t remember being taken out of the car. Where had those horrible people taken me? Do I dare to open my eyes? Am I even still alive?

Okay, here we go. One, two, three! Even though I could now see, I still did not have a single clue of where I was. Was it a cave? It seemed to be either underground or in a cave because when I looked up, the ceiling was all dirt and rock. I looked around more thoroughly and saw that there were many passageways and tunnels all made of rock, dirt, and stone. Unfortunately, they were too far away for me to what was on the other side of any of them. It seemed like I was in a little room in the shape of a circle. Nothing else was in the room besides me. This was when I noticed that I was tied to chair. I mean I’d seen this in movies but who would have thought? Creepy.

Footsteps. I heard footsteps coming towards me. From one of the dirt tunnels, I saw a shadow of a person. The person stepped into full view and I could see now that it was a woman. She looked about 18 or 19 and had brown hair and eyes of a strange color. She was pretty. She was familiar. She was Della.

“You’re finally awake! Wow, do you know how many hours you slept?” she says.

I kept my head down. “Why are you doing this? Do you know what you’re doing! You’re killing people, destroying everything, you’re ruining lives! How could you be such a monster!”

“Listen kid, I have never killed anyone! I am supposed to sometimes but I refuse. I find every excuse in the book to get out of doing things like that! And so you know why? Because I care! We are forced to do this, don’t you understand? It is NOT our fault! Devalor owns us! And he wants us to many horrible things!”

“But don’t you still have to do them?”

“Yeah, but I try not to and so does Ace. so do not go blaming us for anything that has happened! It’s not our fault, we’re not guilty!”

Silence for a couple seconds. “Who was the guy who brought me here? His name was Van?”

“That was my… twin brother. You see, Devalor brainwashed him completely and put him under this spell or something. So now he’s mostly evil you could say. But that’s only on the outside, on the inside he is a sweet, caring person who would never hurt a fly. I promise.”

“Why is Devalor doing all this?”

“Some people aren’t born evil, but that’s not Devalor. He was born evil, wanting to rule all. He wants to kill and destroy. That’s just the way he is. He loves it and I t has to stop. There’s no other option.

“I'm trapped here so… cant do anything to help you out right now.”

“Ill get you out but you must promise me that you will not tell anyone that I let you go or that I was even talking to you. Understood?”

“yeah, sure, whatever. Now get me out of this!” Della unties me from the chair and as I get up, my whole body feeling numb.

“Lets go, you’ll get lost in these tunnels if you go alone,” Della states. I follow out he passageways. We go onto many tunnels. There were doors leading to other room but we didn’t go through any of them until we came to a dead end with only a door as our option. So she opens and I step through, hoping that this isn’t some trick to lead me into a death trap.

No death trap, just more tunnels. We go into a few more doors on the way with nothing that surprised me in any of them, just more tunnels. Then after an hour of walking through dirt, we finally come to a stop. We were outside. I breath in the fresh air. Ah, that felt good but, with me, good moments don’t last for more than five seconds.

Della and I were in a forest. She found the way out by leading us to a tunnel that came out of a tree. This whole time I felt like I was being taped for a one of those prank reality TV shows. I only wished that it was.

It was dark outside. Of course it had to be dark out or else we wouldn’t be here right now. Remember; the Entered cant be out in sunlight.

“Well, well, well, what have we got here,” says a familiar voice. Della and I turn around to find none other than Ace Skelon standing behind us.

“Ace, what are you doing here?” Della growls.

“Relax, I’m on your side, remember? And just because I feel nice today, ill help you out. I’ll take Zenida.”

“Alright, but be careful. Don’t run into anything suspicious,” says Della. She then disappears back into the tunnel in the tree. when she was out of sight, the tree-tunnel closes behind her, making seem like there was nothing even there.

“Follow me,” Ace tells me. Without hesitation, I do. My heart was throbbing but not as bad as my head right now. I felt as if I was about to explode. My whole body was bruised up and scarred. I cant even explain how sore I felt. Oh lord, help me, what did I ever do to deserve all of this?

“So how are you, Zenida?” Ace asks.

“Horrible!” I snap back. I wasn’t in the mood for his small talk.

“Don’t worry, this will all be over soon you know.” Don’t worry, he tells me. Who does he think I am? I’m just a freaking teenager and in my opinion, I really don’t recall doing anything so terrible to deserve this kind of torture. “Well, we have to go to Lucyena’s brother, Marty. We’ll just have to figure something out because that’s in Illinois. We could stop at my uncles place which isn’t too far from here. Then we’ll start planning.”

Planning? Planning for what? Oh how much I want to go home. I don’t even care if it’s the foster home, anything is better than this. I would rather be living on the streets or in a homeless shelter. Anywhere, just not here with these freaks.


When I first saw Ace, I thought, wow! I look at him now in disgust. A monster, I don’t care if he’s good or bad or whatever, to my eyes he is nothing but a monster. Still pretty cute though.

We walked for about 20 minutes until we come to a car.

“Get in.”

Away we drive through the forest. And here goes my big mouth, “Do you have any other relatives besides your uncle?”

“Nope, they’re all dead. My mom, my dad, my grandparents. Uncle’s all that’s left.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

I could see Ace’s two sharp teeth showing. Angel would think that I love this kind of stuff but I don’t. She judges me too much. I mean just because I may seem like a freak, doesn’t mean I am one. I mean look at her, she’s the one seeing things from the past. Oh well, I’m not judging. I’m not.

“What state are we in? Are we still in Colorado?”

“Nope, Kansas.”

“We must have gone really far.”

“Yeah, you did. And you ended up in Devalor’s underground lairs. You wouldn’t believe how many miles those things are. He has more in other states.”

“What was in all of those rooms? In the tunnels and behind all of those doors?” I ask curiously. Curiosity killed the cat.

“I don’t know, we’re not allowed in there. We all think that maybe they’re Devalor’s laboratories. Like he’s a mad scientist. But who knows, that’s just what we think.

“So you and Della and Van are really on the good side?”

“Yeah, well Van is brainwashed you could say. So he’s on the bad side for now.”

“So then its two against hundreds. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is that Devalor is like an army. In fact, he could wipe out an army. Besides, why do you think we haven’t taken a step into our world ever since it happened? Because Devalor has that place guarded. For one thing, it’s destroyed and what’s left of it is surrounded in his own little army of slaves. He made it very clear that if we were to step foot on that planet, he will unleash his servants. So technically it is not Two against hundreds. Its hundreds against hundreds. And take a guess of whose hundreds are more powerful? Even though Devalor cannot make servants now doesn’t mean he can’t ever do it. The spell is sure to wear off soon and we need to stop him before that happens or else.”

“So why is Devalor actually called the red skeleton? Is that like a code name or something?”

“Nope, its literally.”

“But,” As I prepare to ask another question, Ace interrupts me.

“Zenida, way too many questions. What do you think I am some sort of robot? But lets just say that Devalor wasn’t always a skeleton. He transformed himself into his true form. Then Lucyena changed him into a human permanently. That is, until the spell wears off.”

It became silent after that answer. I didn’t even bother to attempt to ask any more questions for the whole trip.

I hope I didn’t piss him off too much. I mean think of what could happen if one of these monsters got angry? I got chills just thinking about it.

We soon come out of the forest and into a clear area. Farther and farther we go until we drive past a really small town. Ace could see our destination up ahead. A farm on the side of the little town. Ace pulls up and parks. I hesitate while getting out of the car.

“Don’t worry, my uncle wont bite, he’s really nice.”

“No its not that its just… never mind.” I did not feel like revealing my inner personal thought to this guy who wasn’t even a human. Then again, I don’t think I’m a human either.

Ace knocks while I step back. The door creeps open and a man comes out. Wow, he actually looks like a real human being. With the whole farmer get-up and everything.

“Ace! Well how ya doin! Come on in, haven’t seen ya in a while!” Ace step in and motions me to follow him. Here’s my chance to run. Yeah, that would be really smart. Run to where? I take baby steps and pretty soon I’m inside the house which doesn’t look too bad. I’m probably going to take that back when I see a coffin in the basement.

“Thanks, uncle. Hope we can stay for a little. You know, till the sun comes up and goes down again.”

“No problem, Ace! well ya haven’t visited me for so many of them years and I am so glad you finally came here,” Ace uncle looks at me, “And who is this young pretty lady? Ya got yourself a girly-friend, do ya?”

“No, no, she’s not my girlfriend. Of course not. I’m just helping her out with her journey.”

“Alrighty then you big, fat liar! Them lies aint gonna nowhere with your girly-friend.” Says Ace’s uncle.

“I’m umm… not his girlfriend,” I announce to Ace’s uncle.

“Alright, alright,” he says, “I’m just fixing up dinner. You kids hungry?”

“I could eat,” I tell him.

“Sure, but first, I’ll be right back. Watch Zenida for me, okay?” Says Ace.

“Ok!” his uncle says as Ace walks outside.

“Where’s he going,” I ask his uncle.

“He needs to drink some before we eat. Oh, I hope he don’t kill any of them cows. Oh God he probably will. What in this world am I gonna do with that boy?”

“Wait, you mean blood?”

“Yep, whenever that boy comes over, I lose my cows.”

“Are you a vampire?” I ask him.

“Yea but I’m not an entered one luckily. They have to drink way more blood than the rest of us! I bet ya had to drive here all night, staying out of the sun. it’s almost midnight.”

“Why are you making dinner at midnight?”

“Heh, it’s kinda weird but I always eat at twelve o’clock. It’s just what I do.”

“I haven’t eaten anything for two day so I’m really hungry.”

“Alrighty then, I will get ya some food,” says Ace’s uncle as he begins to walk away into the kitchen. I go over and sit down on the lumpy couch and wait for Ace to come back. he returns a few minutes later.

“Yeah, I’m back, deal with it.”

“Ace,” says his uncle, “Did you drink one of them cows again?”

“Uncle, please, you know that I cant help it, I have to.”


For our midnight dinner, we have some cow. (Beef, ironic isn’t it?) We also had mashed potatoes, corn, and some salad. I ate quicker than both of them. When I was offered seconds, I dint hesitate to take the offer.

I was also offered some sleep. I refused to take that offer for I had been sleeping for a whole day. My energy was pretty high and Ace of course would sleep either. Not until morning, that is. For the rest of the night I watch some TV. He only had local channels so I watched the news. Nothing exciting. Well there had been a series of suspicious murders and other news stories like some girl got hit by a car and died, a bus flipped over on the highway and a bunch of high school students were injured and some man committed suicide earlier today. Hearing these incidents didn’t affect me like they used to. Before I would be devastated if someone’s relative or friend died but now, it’s a whole different story. Ever since a couple days ago when Angel first received that stupid note. Oh how I hated that note. Anyways, ever since then everything that I hear or see or feel is different. It all just runs through my mind in a different way, a bad way. I don’t look at things like I used to. I mean yes, I am a foster kid and yes, my parents are nowhere to be found but it really pisses me off to hear that on top of all that, some crazy killer is after me and my friend. Now we have to go who knows where and do who knows what. I’m still having trouble processing all this through my mind.

I grab the remote and click the off button. Ace’s uncle was asleep by now and I don’t really care where Ace was right now.

When, oh when will this just magically end? When will I wake up from this horrific nightmare? Unfortunately, the questions aren’t that simple. When will I find my parents if they’re even still alive? When will I see Angel again? When will I know the whole truth about everything that going on? Even if it is all true, when will I have proof? And not just sharp teeth on a couple people but real solid proof? When will I meet Lucyena? When will this all be over? When will I just disappear off the face of the Earth?

Ace walks in. Ugh, when will he be out of my life? I mean, he just entered my life and already I cant stand him.

I look at him with a look that says, please leave. Well maybe without the please.

Sigh. “Why?” I ask.

“Why what?”

“Why is this happening? Why cant I be normal and go home to my normal life with my normal parents and my normal home? Why?”

“Why? Why? Why am I even here? Why was I placed on this Earth? I know why Zenida, because I am here to help you and Angel. I am here to guide you through to stop this nonsense and as soon as it is stopped. It will all be over and you can go back to your normal life with your normal home and you normal parents. Get it? Now do you know why you’re here? Why you were put on this Earth? You were put here to end thousands of people’s misery. You are here to stop the evil and to defend us. It may be hard to get it through your thick skull, but you need to at some point, understand that it is the truth. No matter what you say or what you do, that is and will always be the truth.

“Good morning! How was your night?”

“Fantastic! Couldn’t have been better,” Ace replies to his uncle in a sarcastic tone. I wanted to strangle him at this moment. “Well , I’m off to bed wake me up when the sun’s down!”

“Alright Ace, well you sure are in a cranky mood. Go off and get a good sleep and feel better in the morning.” Ace’s uncle is obviously a very cheery and jolly person. I know this is going to sound so Goth but; I hate people like that. I mean sure his uncle is a very nice person but he is a little bit too happy.


The day was horrifically boring. Eating breakfast was probably the most exciting thing that happened in my day. The sunset was around six o’clock. That’s when Mr. Grouch wakes up. Seeing him didn’t make this day better.

“Okay uncle, we best be heading off now. We’ve got a long way.”

“Alrighty then if you must be off, you must be off. Hope you come visit again soon.” We said our goodbyes and finally left that torture cell. Now on to the next one.

Ace and I walk to his car and get in. it was actually a pretty nice and comfortable car. Ace puts the keys in and turns to start it. Once he gets it started and it warms up, we are on our way, going who knows where. “So… How are we going to get to the tunnels.? Are there more passage ways to get us there?” I ask.

“Yeah, there’s one up ahead in some woods.”

“But are we going the way we’re supposed to?”

“Of course we are. Don’t you think I know where I’m going. Why in the world would we be going back? stop asking me all these ridiculous questions okay?” I decided that from this point on, I am going to keep my mouth shut.

The streets were empty and silent. We were going through a small town. It was almost eight o’clock. No one was outside but all the lights in the houses were still on. We then kept turning and turned onto another deserted road. We drove and drove and as I was just about to lay my head back and sleep, I happened to see a figure standing on the side walk ahead of us. I press my nose to the window to get a better view of this mysterious person. It was a man. As we drove by, he followed the car with his dark eyes. he actually looked strangely familiar.

“What are you looking at?” Ace asks.

“Do you know who that was?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The man standing back there on the sidewalk. Didn’t you see that guy? He looked so familiar.”

“Zenida, there was no one back there. I think I would have noticed.”

“He, he looked a lot like… like… Van. Exactly like him!”

“Zenida, Van is not there. If he was I am positive that I would have seen him. He is really hard to miss. Trust me.”

I didn’t know what he was talking about because I definitely saw a guy that’s looked just like van back there.

We turned to another road and once again, I saw the man standing right there.

“Ace, look! There he is!” I point at him in the distance.

“I don’t see anything, just be quiet!”

Stupid Ace. never pays attention to anything I say. Whatever. I examined the man as we drove closer. All of a sudden, he begins to walk to the middle of the road. He pauses and then turns towards us, driving right at him! I of course begin to panic.

“Ace! Watch out!” I yelled. Ace swerves around in the car a little but we get back on the road. This was when I noticed that we just drove into that man as if he was invisible. We went straight through Van! I look back to where he was standing and there he was, still in the middle if the road, staring at us.

“Zenida, what is wrong with you!” screams Ace.

“I know I saw Van! He was standing in the middle f the road and we were about to hit him but we went right through him! I KNOW he was there. I SAW it with my own eyes, I swear!”

“Okay, Zenida, you are seeing things! Illusions! Now relax and just go to sleep or something. Van was not there. Oh, and NEVER do that ever again. Almost gave me a heart attack over here! I want to make it there in one piece and not dead from getting into a car accident because of you!”

Illusions. Illusions! ILLUSIONS! Now I am going crazy. Just like Angel! Just calm yourself down, Zenida! Calm yourself down!











* * *


Running. Running in the darkness. I didn’t know what I was running from but I knew I just had to run. It was pitch black all around me. I finally come to a stop. I squint to see a small, glowing, green light in the distance. I could barely see it but I knew it was there. Closer and closer I came to the green light until I trip and fall down, flat on my face. When I looked up it wasn’t pitch black anymore. Now, it was all white. No sky, no clouds, no ground, just white. After rubbing my eyes a couple times, I begin to see two people standing in front of me. It was a man and a woman, holding hands. I knew exactly who these people were. Their manes were Kelly and Daniel Williams, my parents. I knew that this was a dream but it was still good to remember them and see them again. All of a sudden, they disappeared and Angel appears in their place. This process continued of people that I know disappearing and other people reappearing. When Angel disappeared, Ace and Della took her place. Then Jenira and her family. Then Bill. When bill vanished, Josephine and my foster family showed up. Finally, appeared a woman about twenty year old, whom I had never seen before. She was a redhead and her eyes were bright green. She was wearing the most beautiful turquoise dress I’d ever seen.

“Help us, Zenida. Save us all. And then you will be rewarded,” says the mysterious woman with a very soothing, enchanting voice. Suddenly everything starts shaking as if an earthquake was occurring.

“Hurry, Zenida! Hurry before it’s too late!” the woman says. Everything turns dark again. More shaking and rumbling. I look up and the woman who was in front of me is now gone. I attempt to walk forward but fail due to the massive shaking. I fall a few more times and at my last attempt to move ahead, I fall down a crack in the ground that was caused by the quake. When I land, the shaking stops. I look up and there is a sudden flash of red light. I slowly begin to rise and stand up. When I am up, I can now see what was in front of me.

I wanted to scream for in front of me is what seemed to the grim reaper. Only much more terrifying. The skeleton was the color of blood red and hideous. He was wearing a long black cloak and standing there staring at me with bloodshot eyes. My whole body froze. I tried to run but my leg nor arms were working. I began to shake and shiver with great fear.

The skeleton suddenly opened him mouth and roared. This was not just a simple roar. It about a thousand times more powerful than the roar of a lion. My ears were about to explode but I just stood there. I noticed that he was also a vampire. With the sharpest and longest teeth I had ever seen. Blood dripped from his vampire teeth. Now blood was coming out of his mouth. It was horrific, it was terrible. I felt as if I was to die any second. But no, all I did was just stand there motionless. Hypnotized by the beast that stood in front of me.

The Red Skeleton began to disappear and I was relieved. Unfortunately, my prediction did not come to be true. The Red Skeleton turns into a grey cloud and begins to drift towards me.

Run you idiot, run! But I did not run. I stood still, letting the grey cloud enter my body. I begin to scream from the agony. The Red Skeleton comes out.


And that is how I had woken up from my nightmare.


* * *


“AHHHH!”

“Zenida, what’s wrong?” Ace asks. I was acting like I just saw a ghost. Well I did, only a thousand times worse.

“Umm, nothing I just had a nightmare. And well… I saw Devalor in his true form. It was… terrible! Horrific! And in my dream I couldn’t do anything but to let him enter me and it was horrible, Ace!”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. It was just a dream,” says Ace, “It will be okay.”

“How can you say that? How can you say that it will all be okay when I have to face that! What if it doesn’t work. I really don’t know what we are going to about the whole situation. What can someone like me possibly do?”

“Zenida, you are not alone and we will figure everything out. Just don’t worry for now, okay?”

“Okay. I know. so, where are we?”

“We’re almost there.”

“Okay, what time is it?”

“Uh, it’s four.”

“Ace?”

“What?”

“I have a question.”

“If you have a question, just ask away. I mean, you’ve been asking me questions this whole time so why stop now, right?” I see a smile begin to appear on Ace.

“Do you know a lady with orange and red hair, with bright green eyes, dresses fancy, has this really soothing voice, and is really pretty? She has a really unique look to her and I’ve never seen anyone like that before. I don’t know she is about twenty years old or maybe younger.”

“Why?”

“I’m just wondering. I have never seen her before but she appeared early in my dream? So do you know anyone who fits that description?”

“I do in face know someone with the exact description that you gave me.”

“Well… you want to tell me who that might be?” I say.

“I don’t know, do I?” Ace replies in a sarcastic tone, “Alright well that description fits Lucyena. In her true form that is. If you see her any time soon, she is not going to look like that. She has to be disguised so they wont find her too.”

“Oh ok, that makes sense I guess. Wow.”

“What?”

“I now know what Lucyena really looks like. I didn’t expect that. I actually expected he to look much older.”

I think that was the longest drive of my entire life. Relief came to me as soon as we arrived at our destination. Ace led us through the wood. We walked through the trees and we kept walking and walking. Longest drive of my life and longest walk of my life all in one day. After what seemed to be forever, we arrived at a small clearing. Past the clearing we go to find some more trees and behind a big group of trees, was a hole in the ground. Not noticeable but big enough for a person to crawl through.

“Here we are,” says Ace. he crawled in first. Then I went. My claustrophobia kicked in and I became so uncomfortable. Once we got far enough in the tunnels, I stood up and felt much better. There were doors, more tunnels, and passageways everywhere. Just like before.

“So we have to stay underground for the whole day?” I ask Ace. I guess I knew the answer would be yes.

“Technically, you don’t. but I have no choice,” Ace replies.

“What would happen if you did go out during the day?”

“I’m not going to die, don’t worry. I’ll just get the biggest sunburn you can possibly imagine. It will last for weeks and my skin will start to burn up. It is not a pretty picture. I’ll pretty much be paralyzed for week and if that happens, how will I ever be able to help you out. You’d be lost without me, of course. so if you want to leave, go ahead.”

“Uh, no thanks. But do we have to walk for another mile? My legs are already feeling broken.”

“Well, no we’ll walk a little more maybe half a mile or three quarters. Then we’ll take the train.”

“There’s a subway down here?”

“Yep.”

Who would have thought that there would be a whole train system down here. I wonder how they did all of this. How did they build it and how in the world has no one found it yet. Who am I kidding, they probably use some type of stupid spell to get it to disappear to all humans or something like that. I was going to ask but I didn’t bother.

We kept walking through the tunnels and kept turning into more tunnels. Lanterns and candles lit our way. If they weren’t lit I wouldn’t be here due to my fear of the darkness. I would rather take my chances in the woods.

By now we have probably walked about half an hour. Or so it seems. I tries to keep up with Ace but he walks so fast and these tunnels are like a maze. Ace was so fast that I had to almost jog to keep up with him and of course, I trip on a rock. I skinned my knee pretty bad and when I got up from the fall, what I saw was not a bunch of tunnels. I was in a forest. I’m not sure if it was the forest that we were just in but the area did not look familiar. It was pitch black outside and I heard the wind blowing through the trees. The leave were rustling all around me and it was actually somewhat peaceful. That is, until I heard a heart-throbbing scream. When I hear footsteps coming toward me, I run as fast as I can. As I run, I look to the side to see that a couple yards away, someone was running with me. I began to slow down and so did she. We look at each other and them she ducks down behind a tree. I go up to the tree and duck down beside her.

“Who are you?” she asks me.

“Lucy, it’s me, Zenida, don’t you remember.”

“Zenida? What are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here. Oh now everything is ruined!”

“B-but I… I don’t even know how I got here. I just appeared here out of nowhere. Please you’ve got to help me.”

“No Zenida. I cannot help you know. you have to wait.”

“Wait for what? But I…”

“Shhh… they’re coming,” says Lucy.

“Who is coming? What is going on,” I whisper to her.

“Devalor’s new servants. Don’t you know? The spell is wearing off. He is once again able to enter. It’s not too long before the regains his power. Zenida, you must get out of here. Or they will find you. Be careful, please.”


I stand up from where I was kneeling. “Now what?” With a blink of an eye I was back in the tunnels. Either everything around me was spinning or a was extremely dizzy.

What in the world was that? Am I going crazy? It was just like Angel and her illusions that she has. Now where is Ace? Where am I? this does not look like the place where I fell down. “Ace!” I yelled, “Ace, where are you?” I began running through the tunnels. I soon came to a dead end so I turned back and started running in a different direction. I turned a couple more corner and when I was out of breath I dropped my head down. Where do I go? These tunnels are like a maze and I’m already lost. What if I don’t find my way out? What if someone catches me? As I was about to continue running, I look up and see Van standing right in front of me.

“Well, well ,well, what have we got here? Zenida?”

“What are you doing here? No, no, no, you’re NOT supposed to be here!”

“Aww, did I ruin your little plan? Well that is too damn bad. The real question is what are you doing here? You are supposed to be tied up back in Kansas. Master will not be pleased that you are not there. Oh and by the way, it is not nice to hit someone with your car and just leave without an apology. That’s a hit and run, Zenida. But I’ll tell you what. I will be nice and not call the police on you.” A wicked smile appears on his dreadful face. I slowly take a tiny step back because I noticed that he was coming closer and closer. I wanted to run but something told me not to.

“Van, listen, it doesn’t have to be this way. We can all work together and overcome everything. Please just hear me out and try to understand. What if you were in my position, wouldn’t you just want a chance to figure everything out?”

“In… your… dreams…” his fists clench together I at this point I knew he was going to attack. I guess this is the end. Just as he is about to pounce, BAM! Ace lunges at him and knocks him into a wall.

“Go! GO! RUN!” Ace screams. I follow directions and run. I run as fast as I ever did in my life. I felt like a race car. I looked back only once and that was for only a second because I couldn’t stand the sight of Ace and Van tearing each other up into shreds. I just could not. I kept on running and turned a couple more corners. The whole time I just prayed that this was not how it would end. Faster and faster I ran through those horrible tunnels. Where would I go? What would I do? Do I dare try to find the train on my own? Without Ace?

I pause and stand motionless trying to listen to the sounds of the caves. All I heard though, was footsteps. I panic so I quickly look around and see a door ahead which I enter. In the door was just a room that lead to more tunnels. Once again I start to run through this new set of tunnels. This time I guess I just got lucky. So far, this was just a straight tunnel which resembled a hallway and no door on the side like before. Farther and farther I go until I come to a dead end with no other option but to go through one door. No other choice so I enter.

Now I come to a very big decision. Because through this door, was our destination. The subway station. Should I? Ace was back there. But it is my only chance to escape. What if he doesn’t make it? What if I’ll be stuck here forever? No. I wont get on that train. Not until Ace returns. But it is my only chance to escape. What if he doesn’t make it? What if I’ll be stuck here forever? No. I wont get on that train. Not until Ace returns.

I hear the footstep coming towards me again. I turn to my right and keep running. A past a couple more doors and when I come to the last door I decide to enter and hope I don’t get lost. I close the door behind me and turn to see what awaited me behind this door.

“Ahhh!” I scream as I see the bones of a dead being laying on the ground. Other than that horrible sight, there were more passageways. No matter how tired I was, I knew that I had to continue doing what I have been doing for the past two hours and run. Footsteps. Closer and closer. Click-clack. Click-clack. Another dead end, except for one door which I have no choice but to enter. No more luck because this was an empty room. No where to run, no where to hide. Nothing to hide behind. The door behind me start to creak open. I backed up to the very end of the room to the corner. As the door opens, I see a figure coming into the room. It seemed to be a little girl about seven or eight years old. There was a moment of silence until I began to speak.

“Who are you?” No answer. The little girl closes the door. She turns around and stares at me. “What do you want from me?” once again there was no answer. She goes over to the left side of the room and pushes on the wall which then opens to a staircase.

“Go now,” she says.

“What… why? Where does this lead to?”

The little girl turns to me and gives me an annoyed look, “It’s your way out. Go now or they’ll catch you.”

“They who?”

She rolls her eyes, “Devalor’s spell is wearing off. Now he’s got more servants. And they are all after you! You must go now!”

“No! How do I know if I can trust you? I don’t even know who you are. I am not going anywhere!”

“Please just go!” the girl yells.

“I’m not leaving!” I yell back.

“Okay…” After the girl said that, the doorknob begins to slowly turn. We both look over at the door. She then whispers, “I warned you…” She looks at me. Then back at the door. After a long sigh, she turns around and disappears through the wall that she opened which lead to a staircase. She wall shuts behind her.

What a creepy little girl. Oh man, now what? The door knob turns even more and the door slowly opens.

Two women come into the room. They appear to be twins around nineteen years old. Honestly, they didn’t look too well, they looked as if they had just seen a ghost who murdered them and then they came back to life. They looked to be either half dead or fully dead. Like blood-thirsty zombies who were hungry and ready to eat their first meal in years. And that was the bad news for me.

They don’t close the door behind them. They just stand there and stare at me with those demon eyes. I am terrified at this point for I know who these people are. Lucyena and the little girl were right; Devalor’s spell was beginning to fade away and he now has the ability to enter once again. He can know make the slaves. He can now make his very own personal army to destroy us. These two women are just members of that army. Out to get, as the little girl said and she was correct.

“W-who are you,” I ask the servants.

“Hello, Zenida… my name is Hailey,” says one of the women.

“And my name is Bailey,” says the other. I saw that they were also vampires. Their teeth were very noticeable. The first one hissed at me. Then the second one. Blood dripped from their mouths. They attempted to lunge towards me and I scream at the top of my lungs as I crouch down and try to dodge. But… before they could make it, I saw someone tackle them both down.

“Ace!” I yell with excitement. He was wrestling with the vampires and he was winning.

“Go! To the train, go!” he exclaims, “I will meet… you there! Go!”

I ran trying to remember where the subway was located. Great, more running. soon enough I actually arrived there. I hop onto the train and sit there, waiting, hoping that Ace will meet me here soon. Just my luck, he does. I see him running to the train a little while after I got on. He is a fast fighter. He hops on the train to I am sitting and then he leads me to the very front of the train.

“North-east bound,” says Ace.

A red light flashes on. All the buttons light up.

North-east direction. Confirm identity.

This was the train talking. It was a robot.

“Ace Skelon,” says Ace.

Ace Skelon. Confirmed. Print required.

Ace puts his hand on a pad to confirm his handprint.

Access granted. Welcome Ace Skelon. Prepare for departure. North-east direction. Choose your stopping point.

“Yeah, uh, area 16 C,” Ace says.

Destination granted. Ace Skelon, prepare for departure. North- east area 16 C. Correct?

“Yeah, that’s correct.”

The train now begins to shift a little and now we are on our way. Ace and I sat in the train, silently.

“Did you kill them?” I asked Ace.

“What?”

“Did you kill those two servants that you fought?”

“No.”

“Okay, that’s good. Uh, why didn’t you? Not that I wanted you to. I’m just asking.” That was a stupid question.

“Because… it is too hard to kill. So I just knocked them out for a little. I wouldn’t kill them. There is still a chance for them.”

“Have you ever killed anyone before?”

“Yes, only when I have to. Or when I am given direct orders to.”

“So, umm…”

“What, spit it out,” he says to me.

“So what happened to Van? What did you do there? Obviously you won.”

“Well we fought, but none of us got hurt. And you are wrong. I did not, as you say, win. I just lost him. I was coward and ran away. I ma not as brave and strong as you think I am.”

“But what about those two vampires that you took down? I think that is pretty strong. You know, being it two against one. Would Devalor punish you in someway?”

“The new born Entered are the weakest. Trust me, you could have taken them down. I may be somewhat strong, but I am no match for Van. He is strongest of us all. Devalor loved him the most. He actually looked after him as though a son. Van was the favorite and for no good reason. You know how Della and Van are siblings, well Della was always the least favorite. I thought I was a softy and then she came around. At first, she refused to do anything. No matter how much he hypnotized her or controlled her. That was the toughest time for all of us. He try to get her to obey but she continued to refuse. That is when Devalor couldn’t handle it anymore. He became even more violent. He beat her. He tortured her until she would compromise. And being on the other side and watching all that happen made me feel horrible. It made me hate him even more. Our whole lives were like that. Devalor wanted us three to be the best. So he trained us extra hard and put us through extra pain. You have no idea. If you think your life sucked because you lost your parents well, think again. I would give anything to be you. But… the thing is… Devalor is the only one who ever looked after me. I don’t really remember my parents and I don’t even know what happened to them. They’re probably dead by now. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Devalor more that anything in the world. But he was my father figure for all my life. I don’t even know what it’s like to live in the real world. Devalor taught us that the real world was nothing. That there was no real world. He made it very clear that our worlds revolved around his plans. I know he doesn’t care about anything but himself. This one day, he and I sat down and had a talk. He explained to me why Della’s misbehaving was wrong and horrible. And that he had to teach her a lesson. He told me all these things about how everyone besides him and the Entered were bad, terrible people. And for a while, I believed him. I had nothing else to believe in. But then as I got older he trusted me more and let me take on harder missions, in the real world. Funny thing, that day when we had that talk, I was very young and foolish at the time. I believe that I was about ten years old. And that day , at the very end of our talk, he told me, that if he dies, he wanted me to rule over what he has. I was so excited because I was so jealous of Van and when he told me that he wanted me to rule, it just brought me a sign of relief. At that time I actually looked at him as though my father.”

No words could explain what feelings I had after hearing that story. I felt sorry for Ace and Van and Della. I was angry at myself for thinking that Ace was a terrible person and for thinking that my life was any worse than his is. I couldn’t even swallow. It was too hard. Tears began to come down my cheeks. My thoughts on the whole situation changed from this moment. Devalor took care of Ace and Van and Della. Maybe not in a good way and for the wrong reasons but he actually put a roof over their head and fed them and talked to them. He gave Ace something more to believe in. He encouraged them and taught them something. I know he is an evil person (creature, or whatever he is) but maybe even someone like him has the tiniest of heart.

“It’s okay, Zenida. It will all be okay. Don’t cry, please. I did not mean to upset you.”

“No it’s not that I am upset it’s just that, that story was so… I don’t even know but I am so sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not sorry that it all happened this way. Life is life and if this is the way it was supposed to be then so be it.”

Maybe Ace was right. This was all going to work out and be okay. I mean think about it, we did make it this far. I would have never suspected. Ace and I look at each other. I view him differently now. He is like my guardian. My protector. Like an older brother trying to do what’s best for his little sister. After that awkward moment of silence, I feel a little rumble towards the back of the bus.

“Ace did you hear that?” By the look on his face I could tell that he did. He tells me to stay down and be quiet. The bus shakes and rumbles. Ace then signals me to follow him. I quietly get up and Ace leads us to the other parts of the train. He looks around for anything suspicious. Nothing seemed to be out of place.

Hisssssss…….

“Ace, what was that?”

Suddenly, a boy jumps out from one of the seats. A boy about eleven years old with pitch black hair and piercing red eyes. His skin was pale and he looked as if he was a zombie. Just like the other girls back in the caves. Half dead. Cracked skin, white as a ghost. Blood shot eyes. He hisses again and his sharp teeth show. The lights flickered on and off in the train, and I hear Ace hiss back at him. Ace doesn’t hesitate to jump at him and attack. The little vampire boy stood no chance against Ace. he knocks him down and punches the boy. For a second, he manages to push Ace off and get out of his grasp but that wasn’t for long. The boy struggled but for one thing, he was much smaller than Ace. this wasn’t even a challenge for him.

I stayed down behind the seats, watching with fear and curiosity. I wanted to see how Ace fought. I enjoyed watching this. Is that wrong?

Ace managed to tear a gash in the kid’s arm and blood sprayed everywhere. Once again, he managed to escape Ace for a moment and right at that moment, he lunges towards me, ready to bite. I duck behind the seat and cover my head. Nothing happened. I looked up and saw that Ace had apparently grabbed one of his legs and pulled him away. It looked like the vampire boy was having a spasm. Ace swung him around and he flew out of the window. We looked out to see him rolling on the ground. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or alive. Me and Ace go back to the very front of the train.

“That… was… amazing.”

“Well, thanks,” says Ace.

I smiled at him and he smiled back. my smile then turns into a frown and I couldn’t breath well. My chest was full of pain and breathed hard in and out. I look around the train for the nearest trash can.

“Zenida, what’s happening?”

I found one! I rush over and grab the trash can and puke. Huge stomach pain came over me then disappeared.

“What was that,” Ace asks, worried.

“Ace?”

“What?”

“Are we gonna die?” He sighed. I could tell he knew the answer was maybe. But with great hesitation, he ends up saying no. I ask him how ho knows that for sure.

“I don’t,” was his answer.

“Well Devalor is obviously regaining his some of his powers. Now he can enter again. He is a monster and now he is turning people into monsters.”

“Yes, and that is why we cannot give up and we have to try our hardest to stop him. Now that he has so many servants, he is probably going to kill me because I am helping you. And it is not just an ordinary kill. When he kills you after you have been entered, you don’t just go to heaven or hell. Not with this monster. Once he kills you, your soul stays within him. For eternity. So pretty much, you go to hell either way and Devalor is the devil.”

“Ok, but what’s with the whole ‘Red Skeleton’ deal?”

“Well he wasn’t always like that you know. His mother and father were evil and they taught him everything they knew. His parents wanted to rule over our world but they were always overpowered. Lucyena would stop them every time and she said it was easy as pie. But one day, Devalor actually died when he was seven years old. This may sound strange but he fell off a cliff. He said someone pushed him from behind but he was unable to tell who it was. When he fell, he said he fell for days, it was a never ending hole. A hole of darkness. He landed alive. They found him unconscious and they concluded that he was dead. Then it was the biggest surprise but he began breathing again. Out of the blue. He says he was given another chance to correct him parents mistakes and make them a reality. To rule over all the land and not miserable fail like they had. Soon enough Devalor lived on his own for the rest of his life. That whole time Devalor was creating his evil plan. It was a while before he gained his powers. It was by the time he was sixteen years old. He had the ability to transform and enter people’s bodies. He changed his name. Devalor was not his real name. his real name was Danny. Then you were born and it all changed. Everyone in the whole kingdom knew you two were special. You generated a powerful every that he needed. When Lucyena took away all his powers, he knew his one and only chance was you. Yes his powers are returning, but so are Lucyena’s so she could just take it away again. But if he had what you have, nothing in the world would stand a chance against him.

Devalor is a monster. And he is turning people into monsters.”

“Monsters,” I agreed.

We sat silently for the rest of the ride and when we got off, we found some tunnels to lead outside where it was pitch black. I wondered where we were as I looked around and saw the dark woods. We walked through the woods for about half an hour then we came to a small house in a clearing. The house was the kind of house you would see in Snow White. It was like a dollhouse. Cute and small. Therefore, very well hidden. Ace leads up to the house and he is the one whole knocks on the door while I stay concealed behind him. When the was no answer, Ace knocks again.

“Who be there!” yells a voice from inside the house.

“It’s Ace! Open up!”

I slide behind Ace as the door gently creaks open. When it closes I see the man in full view. Handsome young guy He appeared to have ginger hair and bright green eyes. this must have been Lucyena’s brother.

“Hello Marty,” Ace greets.

“Ace…” Marty didn’t seem too happy to have Ace here. Then he looks over at me, “Well hello, Zenida! Good to finally see you again! Where’s Angel?”

“Yeah about that… we had some troubles on the way so she’s not here yet. She will be here soon though, I know it.” There was something about Ace when he spoke of Angel. Anything of her and his voice has a different tone. A gentle, more calming tone. I really did admire this guy. I remember at first when all he had been was just another pretty face. I see past that. I see past all the bad things like that he still was one of the Entered. He could turn on us, and betray us any second but I know for a fact that he wouldn’t.

“Well don’t just stand there in the cold and dark,” Marty says, “come on in, make yourselves at home.” From the out side Marty’s house look pretty puny. It looks like the small house in Snow White where the seven dwarfs lived. I expected to enter some two bedroom house which was decorated with old furniture and wasn’t that comfortable. As we enter the inside, I study the house. It’s actually really big. Much bigger than it seemed. Marty lead us to the living room which was not covered in dust but decorated very elegantly with some nice expensive furniture. There were a lot of paintings up on the wall.

Ace and I sit down on the leather couch while Marty sits down on the matching chair right by us. There was no TV, radio or anything electronic really. In the middle of the living room stood a glass table. On it was only a photo. Since it was turned opposite of me, I (with my big nose) turn it around to have a look. A nice gold picture frame with diamonds around the edge. I observe the picture. It was a picture of Marty. He was standing there in a tux, next to a woman in a wedding dress. The woman was gorgeous, in her early twenties at the time, as Marty was. Now he looked to be in his mid-thirties.

I couldn’t seem to keep my big mouth closed and I just had to start some conversation and break the silence.

“Is this your wife?”

“Why yes, that is. She’s beautiful isn’t she? That was the day of out wedding,” Marty says, with a gentle smile. I look over and notice Ace staring at me, giving me a look that told me to be quiet. If you haven’t noticed yet, I am really good with interpreting people emotions just by the looks on their faces. This look that ace was giving me was definitely not a good one but not a bad one either.

“So where is she? Is she home? What is her name?” I ask curiously. Curiosity killed the cat.

“Um, no. She is not home.” The look on Marty’s face was not a good one either. A sad look. I take a closer look at the picture. They looked so happy. I glance over at Marty again. Then a have an epiphany and realize exactly why his wife was not at home.

“She died didn’t she? Oh I am so sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” Me with my big mouth again.

“It’s ok, don’t be.” There was a pause. “Her name was Ebinia. But everyone just called her Nina. I bet you can guess how she died. Who murdered her.” Another short silence. “Devalor. He murdered her in her sleep. I was out of town for one day, and I came back to find her laying there. Dead. Still beautiful, dead. It was awful. Nine years ago. She was twenty one years old. And pregnant with my son. I didn’t just lose one person that day, I lost two. My Ebinia, and our son, Victor, we were going to name him. Nina was so sweet and kind to everyone. Nina was a human. But there are rules. There are rules that Seranians cannot marry humans. That is, unless you are willing to give up all your powers. And I did. To marry her, because I loved her. Even considering what happened, I don’t regret anything. I mean, I would only because of the suffering I put her through. If it was not for me she would still have been alive. But now, she is still with me every night, in my dreams.”

I sincerely feel bad for Marty. To find true love and just have I taken away from you like that. And a child! That’s crazy. Devalor ruined so many lives. Lives of people who never did anything wrong. He just does it out of the pleasure.

I was starting to think again. we have to stop Devalor. We have to destroy him before he gets his powers back or the whole world will be nothing. Nothing will be left of me of you. But how? How in the world are we supposed to stop him. Has anyone even tried yet? If they have, how do they expect some teenagers to do it if they cant?

I yawn. I wonder how long it has been since I got a real night’s sleep. One thing’s for sure, I was more tired than I had ever been before in my entire life.

“Well you should really be heading off to sleep. I can tell you are tired. When was the last time you rested?” Marty asks me.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “a couple days, maybe more. I am a little tired, but it’s ok. I can stay up.” This was a lie. I wouldn’t be able to stay up at all. I yawn again. Wow, I was really giving it away. I am not, nor will I ever be a really good liar.

“Okay, okay, lets go. I will show you to the guest bedroom.”

I didn’t hesitate to get up and have Marty lead me into the guess bed. It was a very comforting room. Very relaxing. Perfect place to sleep in, to have a good rest after not sleeping for days.

Marty says ‘sweet dreams’ and closes the door on his way out. Just as he was about to completely close it, he returns into the room

“Oh, I forgot to tell you something. This is important. It may seem crazy but if you do have a good dream, you have to make sure that you do not wake up from it. If you have a nightmare, you have to get out of there as soon as you can. Try your best to get out of it or wake up. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but…”

“Just trust me.” Then Marty exits the room. What was that all about? And to tell you the truth, I did not understand a word he just said. Why should I wake up from a nightmare? It’s just a nightmare and I have them all the time. I will try my hardest to follow his instructions, just in case.

That night I had a dream. A very good dream. In fact, it was the one of the best dreams I have ever had. It was about the time when I was very little and my family and I went on a vacation to the oceans in Florida.

I stared at the water with great amusement and excitement. The ocean. Something that I haven’t been able to see for a very long time. It was so soothing and relaxing.

What great adventures can happen out at sea? I thought. I breath in deeply, inhaling the aroma of the sea. How much I miss those times. How much I missed my parents. Hopefully, someday I would reunite with them. And we would live happily ever after. The way it is supposed to be.

The skies were clear and the sun beat down on the water making it sparkle. I found some cool looking seashells and rock then showed it to my mom and dad. I hug my mom and dad. I tell them I loved them.

I remember this day like it was yesterday. I loved this day.


Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop. Faster and faster the rain started to beat down on the window and on the roof. It began to bet so hard that it woke me up from my wonderful dream.

Oh, great! I woke up from a good dream. That was not what I was supposed to do. That was not the instructions I was supposed to follow. Good job, Zenida! More failure.

Now what would happen? Marty said it was important for me to follow his orders. My first thought and reaction was to try to fall back asleep. So I tried.

I heard a creek in the floor. What was that? No, no. I forced my self to keep my eyes closed. There was breathing. There was breathing at my neck! Nope, not going to work! I kept my eyes closed. It’s nothing, its nothing. The breathing went away.

“Zenidaaaa”

I started to shake now. The sound of name was faint and I could barely hear it but I knew it was there. Something brushed across my face and that was when my eyes burst open. I breathed deeply and looked around the room. Nothing. once again I lay down and close my eyes tight.

Again I heard my name being whispered and I shot up swiftly. Nothing. Again. when I closed my eyes this time, I did not hear or feel anything. I lay there, as still as a statue. Not moving, not breathing. I peek open my eyes without making a single sound.

There I saw it. I did not know how to react. Hovering above me. I could not make out what it was at first. It looked as of to be just a faint, dim formation of a cloud. Hovering above me. The fog-thingy began to move in place. It was shape shifting. Transforming into a shape of a lady. She appeared to be see-through. I knew right at that very moment, my face probably looked as if I had seen a ghost. Well, there you have it; I had literally seen a ghost. A woman’s ghost.

I was still being a statue. No movement, no sound. The ghost lady didn’t move. She wasn’t looking at me. She wasn’t even facing my direction. Yet. Then I saw her beginning to turn. To look at me with her dead eyes.

Ghosts really creep me out. I remember when I was a little kid, I used to watch ghost movies and have terrible nightmares about them. Occasionally, I would wake up and see a ghost in my room or hear someone tap on my window in the middle of the night. It’s not real. It’s not real. I kept telling myself this. Trying to force all those images out. The images of the scary movies and the ghosts I used to see in my bedroom.

My eyes were again closed tight. Go away, disappear! Believe it or not, when I opened my eyes, the ghost was nowhere to be in sight. She was gone. Nowhere to be found. I looked around and she was not there. I did it, I made the ghost disappear! Or maybe I was losing my freaking mind. Or maybe not. Or was I? Who knows? Man, what is wrong with me? A ghost! What in the world would a ghost be doing in here anyways?

Suddenly, it all was starting to make some sense. Just a little bit. The breathing. The voice calling my name. The fog. The woman. It all made sense. There was a ghost.

“Ebinia?” I whisper, “Nina? Is that you?”

The voice answers, “Zenida?”

“Ebinia, is it you? If it is, please come out. Don’t worry I’m not scared anymore.”

It worked! I could now see the ghost woman again, floating above the ground. She begins to say something, “Zenida… what are you doing here? This is my house… leave while you still can.”

“But… I have to stay here until Angel arrives. We’re going to stop Devalor and rescue everyone. Or at we’re going to try”

Ebinia chuckles. “You?! You are going to stop Devalor? Ha! That is hilarious and utterly ridiculous! Devalor will tear you apart! You and your little friend will stand no chance against the evil of Devalor! Ha!”

The ghost thought that I was a joke. Maybe deep down inside I knew I was a joke. She has a good point. I mean, how can we ever defeat anyone? We could try, and die. Then the whole world will be destroyed. If we die, the world dies with us, but Devalor will live on. Forever. “We at least have to try,” I say to the ghost.

“Please leave this room,” Nina asked politely. Why did she want me to leave? What was I doing?

“But why?”

“No one is to be in this room besides me and Marty. This is our room. So leave right now!”

“Please don’t be mad. You need to understand that we want to help everyone okay?”

“Just get out of this room and I mean it! Get out now!” Ebinia’s ghost had an evil look in hers eyes. I see her eyes turning blood red with the rest of he transparent body, which was not so transparent anymore. Her fingers became claws and her teeth became sharp.

She begins to slowly drift her way towards me so I quickly jump out of bed. I scrambles to the door and tried to open it. It was locked! By now I am on the ground with my eyes shut and tears falling down my face. With a quick peak, I see the ghost right at my side, ready to attack. Right then, I hear the door break open and Marty comes into the room. He looks at me then he looks around the room.

“What was all that noise?”

“G-g-ghost. Did you know your wife as haunting this room? Oh my goodness how could you let me stay here? What is going on? It was going to kill me!”

“No, no, Zenida. Don’t worry she wouldn’t hurt you. She’s just very protective of this house. I’m so sorry. I should’ve known better.” Marty apologizes.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. She… she laughed in my face saying that Devalor will kill me. That I stand no chance. It’s true isn’t it? How will I ever be able to defeat him? He’s killed so many people! What if he enters me? Then we are all doomed! Forever! What if we fail and the whole world is over?” More and more tears pour down my face.

Marty sat silently and then he asked, “Would you like to sleep on the couch, I think you would be safe there.”

“No, I’m not tired anymore.” He didn’t reply when I said that I would fail. Does he think that I will fail? Of course he does! Like the ghost said, I stand no chance. We all stand no chance. None. We might as well be dead now. I get up and Marty leads me back to the living room. I sit down on the couch next to Ace and he begins to ask me if I as okay, but stops in the middle of the question because I have a feeling he already knows what the answer would be.

Marty breaks the long, akward silence, “Oh and by the way, Angel should be arriving tomorrow in the late afternoon. I am going to hae to pick her up at the airport.”

Wow, I had to go through hell and she gets to ride a plane here. Whoopie.

I rest my head on a pillow and end up falling back asleep. I guess I was kind of tired. This time, I didn’t have a dream or a nighmare. Just a dreamless, relaxing sleep. When Angel comes tomorrow, we will return on our little adventure.