CHAPTER 5

I cover my ears to the screeching voices calling out my name, clenching my eyes closed to avoid looking into the darkness that promised to snatch away my soul.

My knees are pressed close to my chest as I hide in a corner and pray to be somewhere else, it didn't matter that I knew this was all a dream, an illusion, every time I closed my eyes I would always be tormented by the same nightmares.

Rolling nausea rose from the pit of my stomach to let me know the scene has changed, and I trembled where I hid, never daring to open my eyes for I knew the dream had finally reached the worst part of it. Rather than an endless sea of darkness, I'm sure the scene has changed to that of a ballroom hall covered in blood.

I knew laying all around me are the mangled bodies of people barely recognizable, every one of them nothing but teenagers.

Their blood flowed like an endless river, and standing in the middle of all that bloodshed is a female who looks like me but isn't me. She's dressed in medieval battle armour with a large, domineering sword in hand. The blade of the sword is lit by a bright ray of light which glows so deeply its almost blinding, her entire body is bathed in blood and without much effort, I know the blood belongs to the people laid dead around her.

The sudden shift in the air told me a shadowed beast loomed over her form, it's breathing harshly as a screeching caw rippled through the air.

To anyone else, it looks like the demon beast looms over her body in an attempt to attack her, but deep in my heart, I knew the shadowed beast was nothing but a reflection of who the female was within. Whom… I was.

Startling awake with a jerk, I couldn't help my rapid breathing as I looked around my surroundings in fright, still startled by the earlier effects of my nightmare.

It took me a while, but I was able to pull myself from my confused haze and recognize the public bus sent to pick us. I reassured myself that I was safe, and in no danger of any monsters lurking in the dark. My heart slowed to a steady beat when they rested on the white blonde resting her head on my now numb shoulders.

Breathing out in relief, I slump back against the leather seat and turn my gaze out the window. I focus my mind on the endless view of trees rather than let my mind wander.

If this was a story, I guess it'll begin on this particularly chilly day as we drove up a picturesque mountain to an academy named Elite Force Warrior Academy (EFWA).

I'm going to spend the next two years of my life in a place I've only ever heard about, all because I am running from danger. Sighing, I remember the last real conversation I had with my mother before her death.

~*~*~*~

"Rachael, what choice will you make if you had to face a great danger that will cost you your life?" My mother had asked, her soft voice floating through the air and being carried with the wind. "Fight or flee?"

"Fight of course." I had snorted in response, glancing over my shoulder to gaze at her in puzzlement. "Didn't you always teach me to be strong, and brave?"

"Darling," She sighs, pulling out the weeds choking up her flowers in our backyard garden. Glancing into space, she smiles solemnly. "Sometimes it's best to flee. Because only then, can you gather your courage to fight."

I'd harrumphed, rolling my eyes. "Sounds like cowards way out."

~*~*~*~

Who'd expect that a year later I'd have to take those words to mind?

My thoughts take a dark turn when I unconsciously remember events, I would prefer to have left back in LA. Sighing, I stretch out my aching legs and wish this bus would stop for a bit so I can relieve my bladder.

Looking around, I notice most of the teenage occupants of the bus have been lured into a deep slumber just like I had a few minutes ago. We've been travelling since the early hours of the morning and there have only been 2 rest stops throughout our entire journey.

Now that I'm awake, I wish for a more thrilling experience in other to relieve myself of the boredom I'm feeling.

And surprisingly enough, my wish came in the form of a brutal crash. Completely blindsided, our bus is hit by an unimaginable force which sends the large vehicle toppling sideways with screams of fright and terror leaving the lips of startled teenagers, every one of us was thrown off our seats and left to land none too gently on our sides as shards of broken windows pierced our skin while the bus skidded down the road until we're falling off the edge of the mountain. I don't remember much before I lost consciousness as the bus rolled down the rocky mountain, but I could have sworn that before we reached our deaths a blinding light covered my entire vision and through that light, there seems to be some kind of red, glass orb shaped like a medium-sized ball trailing after our descending bus.

I felt the impact of the bus crashing to a stop once the back of my head slammed against some kind of metal and caused a ringing sound to deafen my ears.

Unimaginable pain covered my entire body and I could do nothing but lay still and profusely bleed out from several places, through my teary vision I could see the number of bodies surrounding me as some bodies were positioned in such awkward angles it was frightening.

No sound could be heard, not even a small moan or cry to indicate if anyone else had a slim chance of survival, and amidst the deafening silence of death, I came to terms with the fact that I'll be meeting my mother sooner than expected.

The red orb I'd seen before suddenly fills my vision, the crystal glass ball hovering above my head with a radiant glow surrounding it, and through the glass, I realized what made the orb so red was the swirling cloud of mist which seems to be trapped within.

Mesmerized, I felt a compulsion to touch the orb, and I do. Only, when that happens, the surface of the glass produced several cracks until it shatters.

I let out a strangled scream of pain when I felt the force of an invincible hand shove into my chest and gradually seems to rip out a significant part of me until I no longer felt or saw anything but darkness.