ONE

Lora Caves pushed open a giant oak door and stepped into a large spacious room where her comrades were waiting; five gate keepers, each with their assistants.  The Gate Keepers were the special set of humans responsible for keeping the Six gates of uncontrollable evil closed.

The gates where created thousands of years ago to trap different evils which filled the earth, even more than today.

Lora was the sixth Keeper the most powerful.  She could open any gate at will but weirdly they could only be closed by their Keepers.

The room had a round table in the middle where the keepers sat, coming up with ways to close the gates if they where ever opened and the next generation had no way of knowing. They had recently come up with a plan, during the last Star Alignment they hid closure keys at the entrances of each gate.

"Only keepers can find them and the Alignment lasts only some months, with thirteenth to fourteen years in between. " Lora said to her team

"But how will our children know?" The first Keeper asked

"Yes, Lora, how? We all have to agree each of our children are too young to about this now." one of the assistants asked, she was married to her boss, they had just had a son a year ago.

Lora put her words into consideration,  she too had recently given birth and since she had a bad feeling something may happen to she and her team before the children grew she decided what must be done, "Let's send a message to the Alliance of Order"

The Alliance of Order was the council in charge of monitoring chaos and order all over the earth. They created the gates and chose the six families who keep the gates. Lora sent the message telling the Alliance to pass down information to the next generation when the time is right. With all that was to be discussed was done the team dispersed to their homes. The keepers possessed Trans keys which could open a gate way to any where in the world when they were turned in mid air as if they were in a key hole.

Lora used her key to go back to her home where her husband, Rick Caves was waiting for her, they were a happy couple with a beautiful baby girl they named Chelsea.  As Lora prepared dinner she hoped her message had gotten to the Alliance,  the headquarters of the AO was in a remote part of the earth. They some what control some of the mystic happenings on the planet and were totally top secret. Rick cleary saw something was bothering Lora and that night before they got into bed they talked about it. She told him about her recent bad feelings but he comforted her,

"Nothing will happen to either of us, we'll raise our baby together."

Lora smiled, he always knew what to say, she could picture their  little girl growing up responsibly.  With happy thoughts on her mind Lora went to sleep.

The Keepers weren't the only ones hatching plans that night dark forces were at work. The two lords of the nightmare world were scheming on how to release their master who had been trpped for thousands of years after the war with the first Keepers. They needed the blood of the Keepers to make a key, which if it could work for the firt gate, would only need a few different ingredients to wor for the others.

Lora used her Trans key to get to the location of the Keepers building in another remote part of the earth. The team were having a night meeting so they were meeting in room they met last. They were all having a peaceful discussion when an alarm went off.

Demon like creatures burst into the room trying to attack but the team was ready all Keepers were trained fighters with unique weapons and some, powers. They fought bravely but were soon overpowered by the stream of seemingly never ending demons. When the Keepers were subdued the two lords

Fear and Panick walked in, they had come in human form to carry out their mission,

"Well well, what do we have here? " Fear, the tall skinny one asked mockingly,

"I belive they are the Keepers of our master's prison" Panick answered he was round and looked like a shaved gorilla.  The two lords cackled as the demons put cuffs on the Keepers and their assistants.

"Fear, I have a delightful plan" Panick said

"Spill it out dear brother"

"Do you know what master would love more than being free?"

"What?"

"Finding out the descendants of his enemies are dead,"

Lora saw the grin on the lords' faces and fear on her team's, she decided if this was their last stand they would not go down fearing their killers,

"We will never give you what you want, we shall never help you open the Gates"

"Well too bad" Panick spat

"By tomorrow night our master will be free" Fear added.

Despite their predicament, the Keepers still had hope and chuckled, Lora spoke up,"You fools, the next Star Alignment is thirteen years from now"

"Impossible" Fear excliamed, he and his brother had calculated wrong.

"It's true, check your calender" one assistant said.

"You two are complete dummies no wonder you were the Dark emperor's lowest" another Keeper put in.

The Keepers taunted their enemies more, the Lords became infuriated and killed them all, the fifth keeper was killed with his wife and Lora was killed last. The lords took the blood of the six dead keepers inside separate containers. Though their dates had been incorrect they had accomplished a lot out of that day, they had managed to brutally murder the six keepers. They left just as they had come- swiftly.

When the news of the death of their loved ones reached the keepers' families, no one  took it well but the deed had been done, the only thing to be done was to protect the next generation. The Alliance consoled each family the best they could and tried to take Chelsea from Rick to properly bring her  up for her responsibility but he declined.

Later on Rick found her a foster family who would bring chelsea up in a quiet and normal life where no one could trace her to he or her mother. He left the country but still sent over gifts and letters on special occasions. And so begins the story of the Six Gates,

Years later...

"You should try smiling more," her best friend, Chealsea's best friend, Nelly Meyers advised, "it makes you prettier"

"I'll smile when there's something in life to smile about." Chelsea said, skating ahead. Nelly groaned this is what she gets for trying to give beauty advice,

"Come on Chels. I'm not running after you"

Chelsea stopped and let Nelly speed walk to catch up,"You have no idea what my life is like" she adjusted her glasses, she knew people had it worse but what she had was still bad. Her foster parents treated her like she didn't exist and her foster siblings...well, they jerks. She and Nelly continued their trip home.

"Chels, you have a dad who sends money every month and you can basically go anywhere you want."

"That's because the Lawsons don't care where I go they only put up with me because my dad pays them."

The Lawsons were Chealsea's foster family, Mr and Mrs lawson had two kids, Maryse and Max,  twins. The twins were both four years older than Chelsea, Maryse hated her for no particular reason and Max had ignored her existrnce for nearly thirteen years.

Chelsea had given up on trying to get them to like her, if thirteen years was not enough, then it was never going to  happen. She only found comfort in hanging with her two best friends,  Nelly and Ray Felton, a fellow skater and classmate who she had agreed to meet at the park that evening. As they walked home, she planning how she'd avoid Maryse's  wrath. She had accidentally crashed into Maryse at school spilling a can of soda she had been holding unto Maryse's top.

"She's going to kill me. Mr and Mrs Lawson won't be back until tonight by then she and Max would have buried my body in the backyard"

"Aren't you been a tad bit over dramatic, Chels?" Nelly asked.

Just then they spotted Maryse driving by in a friend's car, her eyes met theirs and she grinned wickedly at Chelsea,

"Hey dorkess, prepare to launder till you drop,when you get home."she yelled out the window. The car came closer to to sidewalk and Maryse and her friends threw soda cans at Chelsea, only a few hit Nelly and those were accidents. "See you at home"

They watched as Maryse and her friends zoomed away.

"Jerks" the two of them said at the same time and laughed. Chealsea knew she'd some how find a way out of the chores, either that or she'd get lucky.

Chelsea arrived home after seeing Nelly to her own home. She saw Maryse at the door talking to a guy from school, who was clearly flirting. Right then Chelsea knew she was safe, after things like that Maryse would be in a good mood and hardly care about her. She passed Max on her way up stairs and as usual he said nothing to her, she shrugged, she didn't care.

That evening she went out of the house to meet Ray at the skate park, they were both just arriving and met at the gate,

"Hi Chels" he said warmly, stopping his board,

"What's up, Ray?"

"Nothing much since we left school," the two rolled into the park,

"can't belive we just have one month of school left"he sighed with relief and happiness.

"Sure, amazing, very much looking forward to it," she said sarcastically.

"You have to learn to be a little more positive"

"School or not I'll still hardly be happy. Besides," She winked, "I am positive about something...skate boarding."

"Whatever you say" he paused to push back his hair,dark brown,  with his hand."speaking of positive, Nels told me to find out what kind of party you'd like,"

"You two know I don't like parties,"

"Come on, it's your birthday,"

Chelsea hated her birthday neither of her parents had been at any one for the past thirteen years of her life so what is the use of celebrating it,"you'll be happy on yours because you're with family"

"I stay with my grandparents"

"Still family"

He chuckled, "Just tell me what kind of party so Nelz can stop texting me" his phone had been beep wildly with every text that Nelly had been  sending.

"So that's what that sound is." she smiled, "if you two want to throw me a party so bad then fine, just something simple"

"You got it" he said typing the info to Nelly, "now let's shred"

They spent about two hours at the skate park before it was time to leave, Ray insisted on walking her home,

"Chels, maybe some time we can hang out-"

"We already hang out"

"I mean just he two of us somewhere special, not the the skate park and without Nels"

"I'm cool with that." Chealsea said nonchalant, a cool relaxed smile made its way to Ray's face but inwardly he was ecstatic.

"Bye" she waved and walked up the stairs to her porch,  "see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow." He said as Chelsea walked into the house to be greeted by the noise of the usual arguments between  Mr and Mrs Lawson and Maryse. She wondered what the  girl had done this time. She stood by the stairs watching but unfortunately Mr Lawson saw her.

"To your room now " he yelled.

"Yeah, brat it's none of your business" Maryse said agitated,  walking out the door,

"Maryse, get back here." Mrs Lawson went after her.

Max came downthe stairs and pulled on his headphones. "If I were you I'd go to my room."

He hadn't said it in a mean way like everyone else in the family, it was like a friendly piece of advice and actually the longest sentence he had ever said to her. She took the advice mainly because Mr Lawson was glaring at her from the front door. She marched upstairs to her small room, anytime she stepped in she somewhat felt lucky and at other times she felt like a reverse Harry Potter. 

She changed into her pyjamas a climed into bed, she heard more noise from downstairs, 'Jeez what did she do?'

The noise was bothersome but soon she found sleep although a bit restless because she hadn't had dinner.

Chealse found herself standing in a house she did not recognize, she was in some sort of baby's room, standing by a cot with a baby about a few months old. She looked closer and saw the baby had her features, she was stunned, what kind of dream is this?

The baby began to cry and whine, even she was fed up with her own crying that she clapped her hands over her ears. Soon a woman in her mid twenties walked into the room and picked up the child.

"Aww, did my little baby have nightmare? Don't worry I'll make Fear and Panick pay." She rocked the baby and placed it back in the cot. Chelsea could not believe who she was staring at, her own mother, the hair and eyes told it all,

"Mum, mum, hey it's me, look," but all her efforts to get her mother's attention was futile, it wouldn't work, it was only a dream after all. Lora walked towards the door and was about to switch off the light when,  she turned around and gave baby Chelsea a loving look. "Remember dear whenever nightmares or evil treathen you, never fear and always fight back."

Why would she say that to someone who can't even stand.

Her mum turned off the light and went out of the room. Chelsea was only in darkness gor a few seconds, soon she saw she was standing in a desert like place, the sky was a creepy shade of red and there was a moon darker than anything she had ever seen. She knew something was wrong, this wasn't a dream,  it was a nightmare.  She turned to go but she bumped into someone,  a tall skinny looking man,

"Dear child what are you doing here?" He asked in an odd manner, he had a crooked smile on his face, kind of psychotic.

"I was just leaving," Chelsea backed away slowly, but someone  was behind her, a man who looked like he was half ape, the look on the two men's faces told her things won't go well.

"Child, stay let us help you." the round hairy one said grabbing her arm, she grimaced.

"Brother we forgot to introduce ourselves," the tall one said,"My name is Fear and he is Panick"

Chelsea gawked, that moment she had been in the dark, a few things her mum had told her when she was a baby had come back to her in an instantly, a few things about an alliance, evil forces, dark lords and even some gates. At first she didn't want to believe it but now here she was standing with the two lords of the nightmare realm,

"Get off me you freaks!"

"Stay still, brat we only need to kill you" Panick said putting her hands  behind her back.

"In this realm or another" Fear added pulling out a very sharp knife, he moved it to her neck.

"Not before my birthday you won't" by instinct she kicked Fear in the groin and shook Panick off and made a run for any direction.  She looked back, but they weren't following her, strange. Ahead she saw a large gate, bigger than any kind she had ever seen, it was bronze and gleaming with gold stars across it. A way out, she thought.  She merely touched it and was dazzled by the bright glow that pured out. Strangely she fell to the ground and passed out.

In the morning,  Chelsea woke up unsure of what her dream has meant,  but two things were clear,  people were after her and she had to find out more about her mother. She jumped out of bed her heart was racing for some reason and she felt  different,  alive in a way. She had narrowly escaped possible death in a dream which had felt so real that she was scared and also filled witha sudden drive to uncover more, what was this feeling? 

She smiled to herself. Wait till Nel and Ray hear this.

On the way to school, she met a strange sight, a cat grinned and winked at her.

"What the heck?" She checked the road sign to see if said Welcome to wonderland. It didn't.

The cat jumped  into a near by shrub and came out holding a golden key in its tail. It walked towards her but it didn't give her the key. Instead it looked around as if trying to make sure no one was watching, touched a wooden fence with the tip off the key and turned it . The fence tunred into a door which flew open, the cat dropped the key and went in, the door disappeared. Chelsea stared at the key laying on the pavement, figuring out what she had to do.

The  cat dropped it on purpose, clearly, she was meant to follow.  between school and curiosity she knew the right one to choose. She picked up the key, "Otherside of this fence here I come" she did exactly what the cat did and walked through the opened door.

If she was expecting a nice cute flower garden well she was very wrong.

Chelsea found herself standing in some kind of court room. On a long table in the middle of the room sat four people; a middle aged man, a beaming rosy-cheeked woman, a majestic queen and a man dressed in black, the cat was laying down at the foot of the table. The four at the table stood up,

"Chelsea Caves,  welcome to the Headquarters of the Alliance of Order" the middle aged man's voice echoed in the silent room, "I am Father time."

"I am Mother nature." The lady said.

"I am the Queen of peace" the queen said.

"And I am Yang, controller of chaos" the young man dressed in black added.

"This can't be happening" Chelsea said slightly amazed, surprised,  bewildered, any word that could possibly describe how lost she felt.

"Oh but it is, Chealsea Caves you have been summoned here for an important reason" Mother nature said.

"The earth's balance rests in your hands" Father time added,

Chelsea looked down at her hands, she could suddenly sense what ever she was there for wasn't exactly safe.