I: Disturbing Power Now Unleashed

Chapter I

Disturbing Power Now Unleashed

She looked back at me and in a whisper she said, “Don’t be scared.”

 

 (First Quarter)

            A throbbing pain in my head made me dizzy as I opened my eyes. I was in a dimly lit room and as my eyes adjusted, I realized that I didn’t know where I was. I was lying in a bed that I didn’t remember climbing into and he been tucked in by someone. The ceiling in the room was slanted, kind of like an attic would be. I knew I wasn’t on the ground floor. The room was small and smelled of a type of wood that I couldn’t place.  As I gripped to covers to pull them off of me, my hands began to sting as open wounds on my hands chafed against the skin around them. I quickly opened my hands and looked at them. There were pieces of skin on my hands that had been scraped off. I was sure that I hadn’t been cut by a blade. It looked more like I fell and tried to break my fall with my hands. I wasn’t sure though, I couldn’t remember.

I gently closed my hands and pulled the covers off. I stepped out of the bed and then I heard the door knob turn. I quickly turned to the door and backed up against the window directly opposite of it. The door opened slowly and then it quickly flung open. I jumped. My heart dropped into my stomach and my ear and armpits started to itch.

A tall, lean guy with red hair rushed in towards the bed and then turned to me as I stood still by the window.

“Oh, there you are,” he said with a sigh of relief, “I thought we los-” He stopped. He could tell I was afraid. “Sorry buddy, I didn’t mean to scare ya. I was checking up on you and I saw you weren’t in bed so I came in. I see you are awake now. Are you okay?”  

I relaxed my shoulders a little but I was still wary and alert.

“Yes, I believe I’m fine,” I replied.

“My name’s Barton,” he said. He took a careful step closer as if he was approaching a cornered beast. “What’s your name?”

   Barton was fairly taller than me, a guy of average height. He had red hair that he wore pushed forward so that it covered his right eye. His arms and legs were long but not lanky. The looked strong and he had broad-like should for his frame.

As I tried to remember my name the throbbing in my head grew stronger like a heartbeat of a person in danger. I lost my balance and leaned against the wall.

“Whoa,” Barton rushed over, “you don’t look so good. Maybe some water and something to eat will help.” He came over and began to help me up by putting my arm around his neck and walking me over to the bed. “Just sit tight and I’ll go and get you something.” He sat me down.

I laid back on the bed, legs dangling and looked towards the ceiling. I couldn’t even remember my name. I had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Barton came back into the room accompanied by three others this time. A man about the same height as him with long blonde hair that trailed down his back. He had pound broad shoulder, this one did, with a broad chest he stuck out with perfect posture.

There was a blue girl. Well, her skin wasn’t blue but she had blue hair, blue fingernails, a blue sleeveless shirt that revealed her stomach, and a blue mini skirt that left little to the imagination.

And another guy, a very plain guy. His shiny black hair was pulled back tight into a small ponytail that wasn’t even long enough to touch his neck, he was about my height, had pale skin, and I noticed that the middle of his top lip came together rather sharply. It was an interesting feature.

“So he is awake,” said the man with the long blonde hair. Barton walked over and sat next to me on the bed and offered me some water from a ceramic white mug. He sat too close to me.

“So what’s his deal?” the blue girl asked.

“He hasn’t said much,” Barton answered. I asked him his name and he got all dizzy and fell over.

“Dizzy then,” said the blue girl, “We’ll call him that until he can remember. I like that name from him.” I continued to look into the cup of water that Barton gave me. I felt that she was looking at me when she said this but I didn’t bother to look back at her. I had accepted the name though. I liked the idea of people who were named (or nicknamed) after adjectives.

“Let him finished,” the man with the blonde hair sounded annoyed with the blue girl.

“That was it,” Barton concluded, “After he fell over I went downstairs to get him a drink and gathered you all.”

“Well where is he from?” the blonde asked.

“Who’s his family?” asked the blue girl.

“Don’t you think if Barton knew all of that we’d be contacting someone to come and get him?” the plain man spoke for the first time. Oddly enough his voice was “simple” too. It matched his “plainness”. There was no inflection when he spoke and I couldn’t associate an emotion with how he spoke so I was unsure about the kind of mood he was in.

The blonde turn his attention to me. “How rude of us,” he said, “to speak about you as if you were not here. And I hadn’t introduced myself either.” He took a step forward out of the doorway and into the room. “My name is Renardo. I own this villa. This is Chang and Heaven’s Eye.” He pointed to the plain man and then the blue girl. “They are two of my tenants.”

“Nice meeting you,” I said, “I suppose I’ll take up the name Dizzy for now.”

“Well, at least we know he can speak and articulate full sentences so that must means that he has some sort of sense of self,” Chang said. Chang was right. Although I didn’t remember my name, how I got where I was, or what happened before I got there, I did indeed have a since of self. Even in the short interaction that I had with them, I had preference for speaking, how close I’d prefer someone to be to me in relation to proximity, and when to talk and not talk. These are things that people have to learn from contact with others.

“How did I get here?” I asked.

“Well, Chang found you in the temple lake after the Sethos attack. We thought you had drowned but Chang was able to bring you back,” Barton said.

“Sethos attack?”

“You don’t know about Sethos?” Heaven’s Eye questioned. She scratched her head as I shrugged my shoulders.

“Let’s just head downstairs and discuss everything over dinner,” Renardo suggested, “The food is ready anyway and I’m sure he’s hungry.” At the moment, hungry hit me. With all the confusion and commotion, I guess I didn’t notice how hungry I was. I never experienced hungry in the form of pain before. It was usually just discomfort.

Renardo and Heaven’s Eye left the area. “I’ll help you downstairs,” Barton said as he put my arm around his neck and helped me up. As we left the room, Chang stayed behind.

The stairs were directly across from the doorway. As we came down, the dining room table revealed itself. It was a spacey room on the bottom floor with high ceilings. The long rectangular table had so much food on it. There was bread rolls with golden mushroom like tops freshly baked from the oven. The steam was still resonating from them and its scent filled the air like misty rain. The roast was marinating in gravy, brown gravy. On the sides of the roast platter was mashed potatoes drenched in the same gravy as the roast. I could tell these potatoes were manually mashed as they still had a couple of lumps of potato pieces that had been missed during the “mashing” process.

People had started to gather in the dining area, pulling chairs, passing around plates, pouring drinks.

            “Have a seat,” Renardo sat at the head of the table and pointed his hand at an empty chair to his right. Barton left my side and sat at Renardo’s left.  Heaven’s Eye and two other young ladies sat on either side of the table. As I sat down, Chang came into the room and took a seat in the next empty seat a space away from me.

            “Are we having guest?” a girl sitting next to Barton said with a sweet voice and white blonde hair.         

“Please introduce yourselves to our guest for tonight: Dizzy” Renardo picked up a knife, sliced the roast and offered a piece of it to me. I took it with gladness.

            “Well, I’m Dominique,” said the girl sitting next to me. She seemed a bit shy and her voice was soft too. She had two small brown ponytails and her skin seemed to be toasted lightly brown, like cinnamon. “I’m Rellenae’” The girl across the table sitting next to Barton said. She was dressed very nicely. She had on a white gown and a pearl necklace. She wore her long white blonde hair down her back and used the hair on the sides of her head as a restraint; braided and tied at a meeting point directly in the middle at the back of her head. Her posture was upright and proud. She arched her back and erected her chest bringing notice to her perfectly formed breast.

Then, Heaven’s Eye, at the end of the table spoke: “I already told you but my name is Heaven’s Eye,” she said. She point to her left blue eye. I notice that the other was brown due to everything else she was wearing was blue. Her sleeveless shirt was blue, her shorts were blue, her bracelet was blue, her make-up was blue and even her hair was blue. “And this is Cloud.” She patted the white moped parked on the side of her chair that I hadn’t noticed until that moment.

            “I’ve told you about bringing that rusty thing inside the dining hall.” Renardo spoke with a firm voice.

            “Let it pass,” Rellenae’ suggested, “We have a guest tonight.” She picked up the glass bowl of bread, “Here, have a roll.”

“Heaven’s Eye is one of the new residences here,” Barton informed me, “She came the day before we found you.”

            “About that,” I interrupted, “tell me what happened. I can’t remember anything.” 

            “Yeah, Barton told us. Are you okay?”  Dominique whimpered.

            “There’s not much to tell,” Chang said, “He was at the lake in the back after the attack happened. He probably ran there in a panic, bump his head on something a fell into the water.”

            “You guys say there was an attack; what happened?”  Rellenae’ took over. “It was a vocodin attack.”

            “Vocodin?”

            “Yeah, you know? Sethos spawn?” she imitated a spooky voice but failed miserably. I sat in confusion.

            “Wow, you seem to have lost more of your memory than I thought.”

            “Maybe we should take him to the temple with us tomorrow. We can show him the teachings. That may shed some light on the situation and jog his memory a bit,” Dominique suggested.

            “And I wouldn’t call these strings of events proper table conversation,” Renardo pointed out as a sign to change the subject.

“I’ll get the dessert then.” Dominique hopped up with excitement. It was the first I heard her raise her voice well above a whimper.

“I’ll assist,” Barton stood up and followed Dominique into the kitchen. Chang excused himself from the table. Moments later, they came out with a platter of blueberry cobbler. It was steaming and bubbling as if it was alive or at least crawling with something. The crust was perfectly golden and the blueberries seemed like they were trying to break through the surface of the crust.

            As we helped ourselves to dessert, the tenants all told me stories of themselves and what they did. Dominique moved here from a place called Rahoroh, Barton was being brought up as a priest for the local temple, Rellenae’ was a gifted singer but never pursued a career due to the fact of her love for simplicity, and Heaven’s Eye was a runaway since she was a teenager. She ran away from home a long time ago and she claimed that no one ever came to look for her. I was sad for her.

            After dessert, Renardo allowed me to stay in the room I had been sleeping in and left me with “You can stay here for a couple more days but it’ll be unfair to the other tenants if I let you stay here for free too long. Depending on how tomorrow turns out, you should maybe look for work around here or perhaps stay at the temple.” He closed the door behind himself. He didn’t even say good night. I went over to the window and lifted it up. I rested my elbows on the seal and supported my head with my hands. I looked down at the roof top below the window. I wasn’t particularly thinking about anything, I was only “being”. “Nice night out, huh?” I looked over to my right and Heaven’s Eye was standing next to me with Cloud. I’m unsure how both she and Cloud got up on the roof. I jumped away with a sudden jerk and bumped my head on the bottom of the open window. I lost my balance and fell flat on my back. I sat up right to the sight Heaven’s Eye climbing through my window. “What’s your problem?” she laughed. I took a deep breath. “You scared me.” She closed the window behind her.

            “What are you doing here?” I asked, “Is climbing through a stranger’s window something you do often? I could be a killer.” I paused, “Wait. You could be a killer. You didn’t come here to kill me did you?”

She smirked, “No, I just came to talk. I was bored.” We sat in silence for a few minutes.

            “Are you going to the temple with me and the others tomorrow?” I asked.

            “No, I pass on that type of stuff. The teachings just depress me.”

            “Oh… ok” I decided not to probe.

            “I don’t want to talk about that. They’ll explain it at the temple when you go with them on tomorrow.”

            “Were you there when I was found?”

            “I actually had moved onto the villa that day. I wasn’t the one that found you, but we just assume that you lived somewhere around here but no one has put up any missing reports about you. You might not even be from around here.”

            “Then where am I from?”

            “Heck if I know.” She looked at me sharply. Her blue eye stood out to me. “What do you remember? I mean obviously you remember how to walk, talk, and function like a human being. You have a personality and know what items are. You have likes and dislikes. You don’t remember any types of events that happened in your life?” I shook my head. She laughed. “You’re completely unjaded.” She made that word up I think, “Pure.” She turned to look out the window. “You’ll soon discover the screwed up universe we live in.” There was a moment of silence between us. “It’s late.” Heaven’s Eye broke the silence. “I should let you get some sleep. The other tenants will probably be here kinda early to take you to the temple.” “Are you not going with us?” She looked at me and smiled as she walked over to the window. “I told you: I pass. I’m not really into the whole religious thing. I’ll leave that to the rest of you.” She jumped out the window onto the roof beneath, where Cloud was waiting. I walked quickly to the window. “I’ll see you later!” She jumped onto Cloud and started the engine. It revved loudly and she drove right off the roof and onto the ground. I watched her drive away until she turned the corner and I could no longer see her. I went over to the bed and decided to lie down. I was a little anxious about what awaited me tomorrow.

(Waxing Gibbous)

“Dizzy, get up!” Barton barraged my door with a series of knocks. I quickly jumped out of bed and opened the door. “Put these on.” Barton threw some clothes at me. “I’m not sure it they will fit but they should be comfortable enough. It was a pair of jeans, some blue striped boxer briefs, and a black short sleeve shirt. “The bathroom is down the hall.” Barton pointed me in the direction. “Hurry and get ready. I don’t want us to be late. We’re having breakfast with the temple keepers and the Love.” “Um o-okay,” I really hadn’t interpreted anything he said to me; I just knew there was supposedly free food involved.

            After I got dressed, Barton, Dominique, Rellenae’, and I headed to the temple. According to Barton, the temple wasn’t far away so we decided to walk. Today was moderately cool with a gentle breeze. The sunlight was frequently interrupted by high clouds. There was a path from the villa that led into town. At the heart of the town was a valley. There were a few big houses around the valley and at the valley’s center was the temple. The temple stood tall as if it were trying to reach the sky. The very tip of the temple was cone-shaped and depending on the angle it looked like it was holding up the sun. As we step onto the door step we were greeted by the doorkeeper. “Go on inside,” the doorkeeper said, opening the door and standing aside for us.

            “Oh, you’re here,” said a woman who was putting up decorations in the sanctuary. She stopped what she was doing and focused her attention on us. “Breakfast is ready. No one has started eating yet. We’re waiting on you guys and Selene hasn’t come down yet, either.” Her voice sounded tough, the type of voice that could fit an adolescent boy.

            “Kymberly, this is Dizzy, the young man we told you about. You know? The one who lost his memory?” “Oh, so this is him? Can’t say that I’ve seen him before.” She focused on me. “How are you faring?” I was speechless. She spoke to me so directly that I was unable to react. “He’s fitting in as well as he can,” Barton laughed, “We were hoping you could shed some light on a few things for him.”  “I guess I could do that. We can discuss at the table.” She walked towards the back of the sanctuary and glanced back for a quick second to make sure we were following. She took us out a side door that led to the dining hall area. The food was already placed. It was breakfast normals: eggs, bacon, biscuits, etc. There was a man sitting at the head of the table. Kymberly went over and sat beside him. “This is my husband, Theodore,” Kymberly announced. I went over to shake his hand. “I’m Dizzy.” Theodore looked like a smart fellow. He had on the expensive-looking glasses and a morning robe. His hair was cut short; close to bald and his facial hair was all shaven off. “Good day to you good, sir,” he whispered. It surprised me a bit that he spoke in a whisper but I pretended not to notice. He continued on, “Selene and Bruce should be down shortly to join us.” He held his hand out toward some chairs. “Have a seat.” The whispering continued so I had no choice but to assume that that was just how he talked. Barton, Dominique, Rellenae’, and I all sat on the same side of the table together; to Theodore’s right hand, opposite side of Kymberly.

            “Then the side door behind Kymberly opened and a built young man and a young girl walked in. “Oh, the guest are here. Excuse my tardiness.” She walked over to our side of the table and gave Rellenae’, Dominique, and Barton a hug, in that order. She stopped at me. “This must be the guy you all were telling me you found.” I felt like a lost dog. She looked at me for a moment. “Well, I’m Selene.” She gave me a hug. Selene had dark brown hair and she was wearing a long black skirt with pink flower designs and a nice white blouse with ruffles towards the bottom. “I’m sorry, and your name is?

How rude of me,” I had gotten distracted for a moment. “I’m Dizzy!” She sat down opposite side of us. “I’m Bruce, Selene’s brother” said the large young man. He was very masculine. His voice was deep and vibrated through the room like an earthquake. His arms and legs were muscular. Two of my legs together did not add up to the size of his arm. I could see his abs through the shirt that he was wearing. He was very tall as well. He reached his hand across the table to shake mine. He shook it very firmly… too firmly. I thought my hand was going to turn blue. “Bruce, it’s rude to shake over the table,” Theodore whispered. Bruce let go of my hand and didn’t respond to Theodore.

“So Selene, I hear you’ve been very busy with everything that’s going on.” Rellenae’ attempted to inspire conversation.

“Yes, I have.” Selene’s voice was soft, yet very strong. “I’ve been praying at the temple none stop.”

“Do you think we’re ready?” Dominique whimpered.

“Speaking of which, you guys mind explaining the big picture to Dizzy here?” Barton reminded Kymberly.

“Let’s just give him a quick run through,” Kymberly suggested, “He’s lost a great deal of his memory so there’s probably a lot that probably won’t register,” she laughed. Kymberly got up and went over to one of the end tables and picked up a thick book. “This is the Adithi.” She held up the dusty book. Some of the dust got on her plate and caught up in the syrup. “I’m gonna try to explain this big book in a few simple words.” She took a deep breath. “The man that wrote this book, Darius, has written a record of everything we need to know about our spheres, Sethos, and the Salvation.”

            She sat down again. “Thousands of years ago, back when there was only one world to live on, called Earth, people began to cross the line between spirit and carnal limitations. A group of people had been conjuring spirits from an underground sanctum they made. Many of the spirits were just lesser demons that cause earthquakes and other disasters but one shaman took it a step too far. When he tried to make contact with the spirits, he opened a dimensional rift between our universe and a demonic universe. When this happened, the god of that universe crossed over and the people who conjured the spirit were unable to control it or send it back. It slaughtered many of them and then cursed the remainder of those who were spared. It left from underground and onto the surface of the Earth, where it wreaked havoc and killed many people. Millions of people died and the demon god absorbed they’re souls to make itself stronger. This demon god’s name was Sethos. As these events took place, the Salvation, the watchers over the Earth, could not stand by and let this happen. As a result, the seven salvation spirits came together to do something.”

            “Salvation spirits?”

            “Yes, the gods that watch over the Earth. Each salvation had a set time period where they watched over the Earth. These periods are called ‘ascents’. Each ascent is just a period where the Earth is evolving. Each salvation watched over the Earth at specific ascent. When one ascent is over and the next one begins, one salvation passes duty on to the next. Then that salvation watches the Earth until the end of the ascent. Before a new ascent is initiated, a new salvation is created to watch over the Earth. There were six ascents before the Earth was destroyed yet we have seven salvations.

 Now, after the salvation spirits came together, they configured a plan to stop the demon. They called upon Darius, who was a priest at the time. He was considered to be one of the most powerful priests to ever live. They shared their knowledge with him. He and his wife, Yolanda, went forth to stop the demon god Sethos. In order to do this, the salvation spirits would have to reconfigure the universe. Each one of the salvation spirits recreated a sort of ‘miniature Earth’ that represents the Earth the way it was during the ascent in which they watched over it. Seven spheres were created and the people were scattered about the spheres by the Salvation.  We live on the Kotsu, where the salvation Acedia resides. Acedia is the salvation spirit of diligence and the keeper of the sloth. Our platform lies in the period of peace, technology, and green energy use. The ascent that our sphere was based off of was said to be right after a period of multiple wars on Earth.”

            “So how did the salvation save the universe?”

            “After all these multiple spheres were created, people were dispersed among them, and the Earth was destroyed. Soon after, both Darius and Yolanda were sent on a pilgrimage, guided by the salvation. Yolanda had to purify her body and soul by eating all fruits of the spirit. Yolanda was to go to each sphere and take into her body the seven holy virtues and then receive a blessing from each of the salvation spirits. Each blessing would help her and Darius seal Sethos away.”

            “Seal him away?”

            “Yes, well, you see, Sethos is such a strong spiritual being that there has been no way to truly dispel of him. We’ve only been able to seal him away for periods of time. Darius wrote all about it in the Adithi. But the person who seals him away has to have very specific qualities, you see. They’ve had to have eaten from all the spiritual fruits and they must be born under the day of the new moon.”

            “Why does the moon matter?”

            “When Yolanda and Darius sealed Sethos away, it was under the new moon, making days of the new moon holy. Every child not born under the new moon is affected as well. Children born under the New Crescent, First Quarter, and Waxing Gibbous are born with lunar blessings but children born under the Waning Gibbous, Last Quarter, and Old Crescent are born with lunar curses. Children born on the Full Moon are born with a mix between a lunar blessing and curse and children born under the New Moon are born as humans in purest form. These are the only type of people capable of receiving the gifts of the salvation. The salvation spirits are unable to use the others as a vessel to seal Sethos away but they can still use their lunar blessing and curses to assist the Love on their pilgrimage.”

“And now this demon god is back?”

            “Yeah, and it’s only been about ten years since his last sealing.”

            “It comes back every ten years?”

            “Not every ten years. It depends on the strength of the Love that last sealed him.” Kymberly walked back to the end table and sat the book down. “I mean, sometimes it’s 10 years, 30 years, 1 year. Hell, some people never experience Sethos’ Wrath in their life time because of a 100 year sealing. It just differs.”

            “And what about the Love?”

            “Yeah. The Love is just the title we give to a person who is going to seal Sethos.”  Kymberly turned to Selene, “Selene here is a Love. She’s been preparing to go on the pilgrimage.”

 “Yeah,” Selene interrupted, “I’ve been praying at the temple every day. I’ll be leaving in a few days!” 

“So you’re going to do what Yolanda did?” Selene nodded.

“I have to go to all the main temples of the spheres and take in all the seven holy virtues and receive the gifts from all the salvations.”  

“And what of this vocodin business? What are they?”

 “Oh yeah” Barton said, “The vocodin attacked the other day. Vocodin, they’re like the army of Sethos so to speak.”

“When Sethos claims the life of someone, their souls get trapped inside their body. Without the proper release into the Crossfields, the curse of Sethos twists the essence of the souls in the person that he killed. It uses the twisted souls to animate the body and turn it against the living. Sethos can control the vocodin at will and spread his curse to other people through them. When Sethos rises from his sealing, it sends forth the vocodin to gather more souls for him. The vocodin know no mercy. They will attack and kill anything. No man, woman, or child is safe. And once they kill a person, that person becomes a vocodin.”

            “That’s horrible. There was a vocodin attack here?” I was surprised at everyone’s calm composure.

“Most people around this area are usually well prepared for an attack like that. It wasn’t a really bad attack like they usually are. Many people didn’t die.” Theodore whispered.

“Well people died. Isn’t that enough?” I shouted.

“Well, that’s why we have to seal Sethos away again, so people don’t have to die,” Theodore whispered.

            “Well, enough about all that,” Kymberly was tough about this decision. Rellenae’’s blonde hair bounced a little as she nodded in agreement.

“Well, while you’re here Kymberly, we could see what moon Dizzy was born under and see if he has a lunar curse or blessing,” Barton suggested. I gave a puzzled look. I was not surprised there were more things to be discussed.

“Okay, last thing before we dismiss brunch,” Kymberly agreed. Theodore began whispering, “You see, Kymberly was born on New Crescent so she has a Lunar Blessing. Her lunar blessing allows her to know if people have lunar curse or lunar blessings just by touching them. She can also tell what their lunar ability is.” I was still a bit puzzled. Kymberly walked over and grabbed my hand. She closed her eyes for a bit and then opened them with a confused look on her face.

“I don’t see anything.”

“What?” Theodore was surprised but his voice still whispered, “Could Dizzy have been born on New Moon?”

“I-I don’t know. I didn’t see a moon at all.” I could tell Kymberly was questioning her abilities. Barton reached his hand over me.

“Here, try me,” he volunteered himself. Kymberly grabbed his hand.

“The new crescent, lunar blessing skill of turning away spirits.” she was confident again.

“Haha, maybe Dizzy here wasn’t born at all,” Barton laughed.

“I’m feeling a bit nauseous,” Kymberly held her stomach, “I’m going to go lie down for a bit.” Kymberly dismissed herself.

“I’ll get some of the temple workers to clear the table. You kids should go into town and show Dizzy around a little. It may do him some good,” Theodore suggested.

“Bruce and I will go, too.” Selene seemed eager.

“Go ahead; I supposed you have been cooped up around here long enough.” With that, Theodore dismissed us. 

            Dominique and Rellenae’ decided to return to the villa so I went with Barton, Selene, and Bruce to the local school. Selene wanted to introduce me to one of her best friends that attended the school. As we walked in, everyone seemed to know Selene already. I could tell that the school staff had great respect for her. They were happy to take us right to the courtyard where her friend was having lunch.  We approached a young man sitting on his hands, on a bench, looking off into the distance next to his half-eaten sandwich.

“Rai.” Selene shouted her voice fading in the gentle breeze. Rai jerked his head around. His face lit up with excitement. Rai was a plain looking young man with blonde hair and peach toned skin. His eyes were a glasslike blue. They almost looked invisible. He ran over and hugged Selene.

“I almost thought you weren’t coming,” he whined. He shook Barton’s hand firmly.

“Good seeing you,” Barton nodded his head. Selene noticed me lingering in the corner of her eyes.

“Oh,” she grabbed me suddenly by the arm, “This is Dizzy,” he was the guest that Barton and the others from the villa have been keeping.”

“The one who lost his memory?” Rai questioned.

“Wow, who doesn’t know?” I thought out loud by mistake. Rai laughed,

“Word gets around rather fast here. Ophanim is a small town.” Rai looked over to his abandon sandwich. “Come, sit with me.” We all walked back to the bench. “So, Dizzy,” Rai initiated conversation, “Do you have a lunar curse or blessing?” Before I could form an answer Barton answered in my place,

“We took him to Kymberly but she was unable to tell what day he was born or even if he had a lunar curse or blessing.” Rai looked surprised,

“Really? But her lunar blessing is to identify other lunar abilities, how does that work?” There was silence.

“Do any of you have a lunar curses or blessings?” I asked.

“You guy haven’t showed him you lunar abilities yet?” Rai was a bit surprised.

“Well we didn’t want to overwhelm him,” Selene said.

“I want to see,” I said in agreement with Rai.

“Well, I don’t have a lunar ability,” Selene reminded me. I looked to the others to show me theirs. Bruce finally spoke,

“Well, I suppose I can show you my lunar blessing.” He stood up and put his hand under the bench we were sitting on. Almost effortlessly he lifted the whole bench with all of us still sitting on it. I was startled and almost fell off.

“Wow!” I exclaimed, “That’s amazing!” Bruce put the bench down. “It has its downfalls though. People with lunar abilities aren’t considered to be pure human beings. We can’t accept gifts from the salvations… we can’t even communicate with them without a person who was born on New Moon to be the mediator. We can never act as a Love either. There are many downfalls that come with having this strength... this lunar blessing.” Rai spoke suddenly to clear the air,

“Unfortunately, I have a lunar curse and lunar curses don’t work on the blessed days.”

“Thankfully” Selene smiled, “Of all the lunar abilities my friends have I think yours is the one that I hate the most!”

“Come on. It’s not a big deal.” Selene grabbed his hand. Ria sighed, “You never want to see my curse!” I turned my attention to Barton.

“What can you do?” I asked. “Well, I can’t actually show you but I can turn away spirits. That’s why I’ve been training and studying up under the church and other priests.” Barton’s lunar blessing sounded quite boring but I didn’t show it on my face. I smiled gently and nodded lightly.

            “Is Dizzy coming to the festival tomorrow?” Rai asked. It seemed as if he bailed me out of an awkward situation with Barton.

“There’s a festival?” I was intrigued.

“It’s Selene’s farewell festival,” Bruce informed me, “She’ll be leaving in about two days so the town wanted to do something nice for her.”

“There’ll be food, games and all sorts of things for us to do. People from all over will be there” said Barton.

“You should let Dizzy go,” Rai stated, “It’ll be fun for all of us to get together and let him make some friends.”

“I think it’s a good idea.” Barton seconded. “I’ll bring him along with me and the others when we leave the villa.”

            “Well, my lunch break is about over, I’m gonna get back to class now.” Rai packed up all his leftovers into a small paper bag and balled it up. “Yes, I should get back to the temple to pray,” Selene said. She turned to Rai and with both hands; she grabbed his free hand.

“You should come by the temple and help Kymberly and me with the decorations.” Rai gave Selene a hug but didn’t say yes or no. Bruce stepped between Selene and Rai. He knelt down and helped Selene on to his shoulders “Thanks Bruce,” Selene said, “I was a little tired.” Bruce stood up with Selene on his shoulders. It made him look taller and a bit softer. He looked a lot less intimidating to say the least.

            Barton and I departed from Selene and Bruce. Barton took me to the lake where he says they first found me. I sat down on the ground near the water. Barton stood next to me for a little bit and then walked around the perimeter of the lake a short ways. “Dizzy, are you okay?” I looked up at him and nodded. I really wasn’t okay though, I was scared. “I know it’s hard but just hang in there. You’ll get your memory back soon.” There was a long silence between Barton and I. Hours had past and the night came along. There were stars and the moon was over head. The phase was waxing gibbous getting ready to change over to full moon. I pointed up. “It’s amazing how that can make a person’s destiny.” Barton looked puzzled and sat beside me. “What do you mean?”

            “It’s just strange. If you’re not born on a certain day when the moon is a certain way, you’re cursed or blessed or human or whatever.” I opened my hand around the moon as if I was able to grab it, “Can’t we just go up there and rip it down?”

Barton laughed, “We’d have to go all the way to the Sandrox sphere to do that.” He looked up at the sky. “You see that up there, it’s just a lunar glyph, it’s not the real thing. There’s only one moon in our atmosphere. It’s on the sphere of Sandrox.”

“That’s not the real moon?”

He shook his head. “When the salvations recreated the universe they were unable to destroy and recreate the moon because Sethos’s curse had taken hold on it. None of the other spheres have a moon so we would never know which phase the moon was in on Sandrox. So the salvation created lunar glyphs so that we could know what phase the moon was in. Ultimately, it’s good to know because you can only seal Sethos away on the day with a new moon. It doesn’t work when the moon is in any other phase. It’s much harder since the moon changes phase with each day. There was a time when it took several weeks for the moon to change between phases and complete a cycle but that was before the First Earth was destroyed.” He paused. “Sethos is most powerful and active on the full moon and weakest on the new moon so the lunar glyphs are very helpful when it comes to periods outside the Lull.”

            “So I imagine timing is crucial.”

            “Very much so. Many Loves have died because they sometimes arrive to Sethos’ alter on the wrong phase. And sometimes it may take them too long to get to Sethos’s alter. It takes about a day to get to his alter so the loves have to plan carefully. If they arrive too early or late and the phase changes; the situation changes. It’s even more difficult because the moon changes its phase every day. So it’s almost like they have one day to get the job done.” 

            He stopped. I could tell he was done talking about the subject. “It’s late. I’m going to go upstairs. I promised to help out with the festivities in the morning. You should consider going to bed too. Things are always better in the morning.” Barton walked over and put his hand on my shoulder and then left me. I decided not to go in right away. I laid down next to the lake and looked up at the lunar glyph.  

            “Weird, huh?” I heard a voice next to me. I turned slowly to my side to find Heaven’s Eye lying beside me. I jumped a little. “What?”

“You scared me,” I sighed.

“You’re so jumpy all the time,” she laughed. She sat up and sat on her folded legs. The wet grass was sticking to them. I sat up right with her. She brushed some of the grass off of my back.

            “So, how was the visit to the temple today?”

            “They explained the whole Sethos and lunar ability thing to me today.” I looked at Heaven’s Eye sharply, “So what’s your lunar ability?”

“Mine,” she acted surprised that I asked. She almost seemed to be a bit insulted. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” She giggled a little.

            “Being difficult?”

            “Difficult? I don’t know anything about you. You can’t just expect me to be an open book. For you not to know anything about yourself you sure seem to want to know a lot about other people.” She was being a bit abrasive so I turned slightly away from her. She jumped from her seated position and suddenly locked her arms around my neck. I fell down. “Don’t worry, I’m not mad.” I could feel the muscles in her cheek expand against my neck as she smiled lightly. “It’s late. You should go to your room and go to sleep.”

“I don’t have a room. If I don’t figure something out soon I won’t have a place to stay.”

“Well, if that’s the case, why don’t you go on that pilgrimage with Selene? You might even find something out about yourself. I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.”

“That’s crazy,” I objected, “I wouldn’t even know what I was getting myself into!”

“You don’t know what you’re into now.” She had a point but I wasn’t going to admit it.

“I’ll sleep on it.”

She smiled, “Good idea.” She walked over to Cloud a few feet away from the lake. I didn’t notice that Cloud was present until now. “Want a ride?” She stood up and held her hand out to me. “It’s late, we should be heading back. You should be well rested for Selene’s festival tomorrow.” I allowed her to help me up.

“What about you? Are you going?” I asked. She just looked at me and smiled. She turned away and hopped onto Cloud. I sat on the seat with her and clamped my hands around her waist. The seat was cold. She started the engine in a sudden burst and it shot off into the night. I tightened my grip. She looked back at me and in a whisper she said, “Don’t be scared.”

(Full Moon)

            The next day, I woke up when I heard Barton talking in the next room. I pretended to still be sleeping when he knock on the door. “Dizzy, you awake?” he yelled from the other side of the door. “Be right there,” I said in a sleepy voice. “There will be breakfast in a bit. Everyone is headed to the table.” Barton left me. I cleaned myself up a bit and put on some clothes that Barton went to buy for me early that morning. I went downstairs for breakfast with the hope that everyone wasn’t waiting on me. When I got to the table Renardo had just took his seat from placing all the food on the table and Barton and Dominique were already seated. Renardo sat at the head of the table. Dominique sat to his left hand and Barton sat to his right. Feeling more comfortable with Barton I sat next to him instead of Dominique.

            “Did I get here before Rellenae’, Heaven’s Eye, and Chang?” I laughed.

            “Rellenae’ is finishing up her hair and Heaven’s Eye left early this morning. She won’t be joining us,” Barton informed me. He didn’t bother to say anything about Chang’s whereabouts. It made me sad a little. I felt like I was missing out on all of Heaven’s Eye’s excitement and sass.

            “Did you have a good time with the other tenants?” Renardo asked.

            I nodded politely,

“Yes, I did. They took me out to the temple and to the school.”

            “Have you seen any places around here you would like to work?” I felt like he was pushing me.

            “Renardo,” Barton was indignant in my place.

“What?” Renardo was laughing now, “I can’t let him stay here for free too long. Ultimately that’s unfair to the residents here that do pay.” Dominique was silent avoiding eye contact with everyone at the table.

            I spoke up, “Heaven’s Eye suggested that I go with Selene when she goes to receive the blessings.”

            “What?” Barton had indignation in his voice again, “Don’t listen to her, she’s crazy.”

            “Barton,” Dominique said in a light and unnoticeable voice. No one even looked her way to see if she had said something. Barton made an expression as if he may have heard her but quickly disregarded it.

            “Wait, wait,” Renardo took this into consideration, “That might not be a bad idea after all. He wouldn’t have to get a job and with the group that is going with her I know he would be well taken care of.” He turned to Dominique who quickly looked down to avoid eye contact and conflict. “You’re going. What do you think Dominique?”

            Dominique looked up slowly and fiddled with her thumbs. At the same moment, Chang walked in silently not saying anything to anyone and sat down opposite of Renardo.

“Well, it might be a good idea. He might even find out where he belongs if he goes.” Dominique was agreeing with Renardo.

            “Do it,” Chang said suddenly, “If he stays here he’ll only be unproductive. He’s crippling himself by staying around here.”

            “You know that was Heaven’s Eye’s idea, right?” Barton tried to discredit the idea. He seemed to be fighting more than I thought he should have been to make me stay. Chang ignored his comment.

            Then Rellenae’ emerged slowly at the top of the stairs. She had a certain presence about her that made her noticeable. All our heads turned to watch her descend. I’m not sure if it was her flowy white dress, her perfect hair, or her perfect breast. She sat down next to Dominique across from me.

“What’s for breakfast?” she asked.

“Your hair is so pretty,” Dominique smiled politely at Rellenae’. Rellenae’ smiled back.

“Took you long enough to get down here.” Renardo complained before Rellenae’ could return a compliment to Dominique. Rellenae’ put her hand through her hair and let it flow through her fingers. Everyone began passing food around the table. I went with blueberry pancakes, sausage, and a side of orange juice. 

            After breakfast, Dominique, Rellenae’, Barton, and I headed to the temple to help set up with the decorations. When we arrived, Bruce was holding Selene up on one of the lower roofs so she could put some ribbons up on the cone-shaped towers.

“Selene,” Rellenae’ sounded appalled, “you shouldn’t be putting up your own decorations.” Bruce picked her up off the roof and placed her on the ground.

“Well, she kept complaining, so we let her help,” said Rai emerging from the inside of the temple, “Let her help. It won’t hurt anything.” Selene ran over to Rai and latched on to his arm.

“Come on,” Rellenae’ continued, “Let’s go find some chairs and find a spot to relax in this nice weather.” She walked over to Selene and held her hand out. With one arm still latched on to Rai, Selene put her hand in Rellenae’s and allowed Rellenae’ to lead her. Rai was drug along with them.

“Let’s go and see if there’s anything we can help Kymberly and Theodore with. I’m sure they’re putting people to work,” Barton suggested. I followed him into the temple.    

            Theodore and Kymberly were putting decorations on all the pews inside the temple, decorating them with ribbons and bows. Kymberly waved her hand at us as we walked in.

“Get on over there and put up the banner.” She had yawn in her voice which made it deeper and more masculine than before. “The ladder should be in the back room.” We both went to retrieve the ladder. The ladder was rather tall and heavy. It definitely would take two people to hurl it around. We carried it back into the main sanctuary.

            “The other ladder is outside with some of the other volunteers. You guys will have to do one side at a time,” Kymberly informed us, sounding more awake this time.

            “Dizzy, I’ll need you to hold the ladder in place while I climb up with the banner.” Barton took the end of one side of the banner and began to unroll it. It had big red letters on it but I could really read it yet. Barton began climbing the ladder and I held it firmly from the bottom making sure he didn’t fall. It made me feel good that he trusted me enough to take on such a task.

            “So,” Kymberly initiated conversation in the middle of everyone working on decorations, “where did Selene take Dizzy yesterday?”

            “To go see Rai,” Barton replied.

            “What did you think of him?” Kymberly turned to me.

            “I’m not sure. We caught him on his lunch break so we didn’t get to talk to him that long.”

            “It’s a shame that he won’t be going with Selene on her pilgrimage,” Theodore whispered. It surprised me for a moment. I forgot that he spoke in a whisper.

            “Wait. He’s not going?” Barton sounded unpleasantly surprised, “He’s her best friend, why isn’t he going?”

            “You know Rai doesn’t believe the way our religion works is the right way. He says he doesn’t want Selene going forth with all these shenanigans and he refuses to be a part of it.”

            Theodore continued, “Selene was so sad. She still is intent on him going. She got him a ticket for the Dux Ex ship and everything. Rai sounded pretty adamant about his decision though. I’m sure that even Selene can’t convince him to go along.”

            “Heaven’s Eye had a crazy idea of taking Dizzy along,” Barton informed them.

            “Oh?” Theodore seemed curious.

            “Yeah. And can you believe that Renardo, Dominique, and Chang agreed with her?”

            Kymberly finished tying a ribbon on one of the sides of the pews before speaking, “I agree,” she said.

            “You what?” Barton’s head suddenly turned in a jerk to look at her. He shook the ladder a little bit and I almost lost my grip on it.

            “I agree with Heaven’s Eye.” She paused for a minute as Theodore and Barton looked to her for an explanation. I pretended to be invisible. That’s how I felt anyway with everyone discussing me as if I wasn’t in the room.

            “Look at it this way,” she continued, “A number of good things could come out of him taking this journey with Selene and the others. He could possibly visit a place that he’s from and remember something about where he should be or where he was going. He could find family members. He wouldn’t have to keep bumming off of Renardo either. He’d be making good use of himself if he chooses to help out.”

            “Doing what?” Barton asked, “He doesn’t even have a lunar ability!”

            “To our knowledge,” Kymberly reminded him, “Let’s bring it up to Selene and the Halos that she’s taking with her and see what they think. Selene has an extra ticket anyway since Rai isn’t going to be with her.”

            Barton began climbing down the ladder. He was finish with pinning the banner up on the right side and was going to pinning the other side up now. He took the ladder from me and lined it up accordingly and began climbing up again taking the other side of the banner with him.

            “Has anyone taken this up with Dizzy?” Theodore asked, “What do you think about all of this.”  My invisibility had worn off.

            Before I could speak, Barton interrupted, “He doesn’t even know what he’s getting himself into.” I was invisible once more.

            “That’s not the questioned I asked him. Even so, the people going with Selene will be more than capable of protecting him. He won’t accomplish anything by standing around here.”

            “If the Halos have to waste effort protecting him; he doesn’t need to go. The Halos are there to protect the Love. Why can’t he just wait around here until his memory comes back?” Barton asked.

            “It won’t come back if he sticks around here.”

            “How do you know?”

            “I just know.”

            Kymberly interrupted, “Jeez Barton, it’s only been a couple of days and you’ve fallen in love with the kid.”

            “It’s not like that at all. I just want to keep him out of danger,” Barton was raising his voice.

            “It’s dangerous everywhere as long as Sethos is roaming.”

            “Dizzy, what do you think?” Theodore addressed me. My invisibility suspended itself once more.

            “I wouldn’t mind going actually. I think it would give me something to do besides sitting around waiting for something to happen.” I didn’t look up at Barton fearing that he would be most disappointed in my answer.

            “That settles it then,” Kymberly seemed content, “We’ll bring it up to Selene and the others to see what they think about it.”  Barton finished pinning the sign up high on a wall that jutted out from the ceiling. It read:

“FAREWELL SELENE. MAY THE SPIRITS BE WITH YOU!”

            We followed Kymberly and Theodore outside to see how the other decorations were coming. Everything looked festive in my opinion but the look on Kymberly’s face suggested that she was satisfied just enough not to complain.

            “There are the others.” Kymberly pointed to our friends. They were all standing around lounge chairs talking over drinks. Dominique saw us in the corner of her eye and shifted her attention to us giving everyone else the signal that we were coming.

            “Did you get the sanctuary finished?” Dominique asked. This was the brightest I had seen her. She was vibrant and happy.

            “Yeah, it’s finished,” Kymberly answered.

            “Everyone is starting to show up now,” Barton looked around the valley.

            “Yeah,” Rai said, “They’re bringing the food booths out now. Are you guys going to eat? We were thinking about grabbing a bite.” Selene latched on to Rai arm as he said this. It was as if Rai was a security blanket for her; her protector.

            “Before we get moving to other things we wanted to bring something to your attention Selene,” Kymberly was more serious now. Selene was attentive. “Have you considered taking Dizzy on your journey?”

            “Dizzy?” Selene was a little puzzled.

            “We were discussing that at the table this morning, too,” Rellenae’ relayed this old news to Kymberly.

            “It’s a bit short notice, wouldn’t you say?” Selene asked, “We don’t have enough tickets for him.”

            “You can give him my ticket,” Rai said without hesitation, “I’m not going anyway.” Selene made a sad face at Rai. “I told you I’m not going. Don’t look at me like that.”

            “I’ll have to think for a bit,” Selene said.

            Suddenly, we saw a cloud of blue smoke in the distance. It was tearing through the valley. No one else seemed to be alarmed.

            “What’s that?” I asked.

            “It’s her,” Barton didn’t sound excited.

            “Her who?” Then suddenly the blue smoke was upon us and as it drew closer I saw Heaven’s Eye approaching us as Cloud left blue exhaust in its path. She slowed down a little and as she drove by she jumped off of Cloud and onto my chest. The force at which we collided was so great that it took the breath out of my lungs. We fell on the ground together; her on top of me.

            “And this is who we’re taking advice from?” Barton was appalled.

            “My advice?” Heaven’s Eye asked. She was sitting on my legs now, the front of her body facing me but her head turned to everyone else surrounding us.

            “They are actually considering taking Dizzy with them tomorrow because of what you said.”

            “It’s a great idea,” both Kymberly and Theodore said simultaneously but Kymberly’s voice overriding Theodore’s whisper.

            “Yeah,” Heaven’s Eye continued, “Dizzy and I laid all night to talk about it.” I pretended to be invisible again.

            “All night?” Rellenae’ sound intrigued, “Wow, Dizzy, I didn’t know you two had that sort of relationship.”

            I caught my breath. “What relationship? We don’t have a relationship.”

            “Of course we do,” Heaven’s Eye objected and put one finger in her mouth trying to look seductive.

            Barton reached down and grabbed Heaven’s Eye up by the arm. “Get up, get up. There are children here.”  Heaven’s Eye stood up reluctantly. Barton then helped me up.

            “The masses are starting to come in. I’m supposed to be working one of the food booths. You all stay out of trouble for the time being.” Kymberly grabbed Theodore by the hand and together they went off.

“We’ll find something to do too!” Dominique was glad to continue the festivities. She grabbed Bruce by his large hand and attempted to pull him along. 

“We?” he laughed. He picked Dominique up on his shoulders and they left, disappearing into the crowds of people.

After some time passed the valley was full of people. Everywhere I turned, I would bump someone. Everyone was trying to do something. There were hot dogs and cotton candy, little petting zoos and fortune telling booths. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. I decided during the festival to stick with Barton after Heaven’s Eye disappeared suddenly and Rellenae’ decided to go home. During our explorations, we often encounter Dominique and Bruce or Selene and Rai. Kymberly and Theodore helped to work multiple booths all night. Later on in the night the booths shut down and everyone gathered to the front of the temple. The temple was lit all around with torches. Barton and I struggled through the crowd to reach the front. Through the entanglement of people we spotted Dominique sitting high above everyone else on the shoulders of Bruce. We made our way over to them to find Rellenae’ in a new sun dress, and Rai without Selene.

            “What’s going on?” I asked.

            “Theodore and Kymberly are about to anointed Selene. They’re inside the temple setting up the ceremony.”

There was a sudden commotion at the tall temple doors.

            “I think they’re about to start!” Dominique looked forward. The tall stone temple doors opened. The crowd began to cheer loudly as Theodore and Kymberly emerged. They stood silently until the cheering subsided.

            Kymberly began to speak. I suppose it only made sense for her to do all the talking.

“We have all gathered here today to witness a miracle began to take place. Today we shall anoint our Love: Selene.” Theodore held a white shining staff into the air with both hands. “Tonight we shall send her forth to receive the blessings of the salvations and use them to defeat Sethos.” Kymberly’s voice was strong like a warrior’s. The crowd cheered as if to egg her on. The temple doors opened again and Selene emerged in white flowing garments that billowed as she walked in the still air. Kymberly took the staff from Theodore and walked over to Selene with it. It was dead silent, so silent that I could hear Kymberly’s footsteps as she approached Selene. She lifted the staff up to Selene at chest height. “With this staff,” she said, “you shall go forth and do great things. You shall defeat the demon god Sethos that causes us such pain. With this staff I now anoint you as Love: Selene.” Selene took hold of the staff and turned to the crowd and held it high. “Praise be to Darius,” she shouted. “Praise be to Darius” The crowd shouted in unity. Everyone began cheering. Dominique and Bruce had tears raining from their faces.   

            Suddenly, there was a separate disturbance on the other side of the crowd. People were running and screaming, “It’s coming! It’s coming!”  Theodore and Kymberly took Selene and ran inside the temple, closing the doors behind them.

            Everyone in the valley began scattering. I almost got lost in the crowd of panic but Barton grabbed onto my arm and pulled me close to the rest of the group.

            “I knew I should have just stayed at home,” Rellenae’ complained making light of whatever the situation was.

            “What’s going on?” I cried.

            “It’s Sethos,” Rai replied “We need to take cover. Being out in the open like this is dangerous.” He looked around for a moment. “This way,” he led us. We all ran over to a nearby food booth that was out for the festivities. I looked outside to see what Sethos looked like with my own eyes. What makes this creature so horrible? Why was everyone so afraid? Then it happened; from behind the temple Sethos reared its head. It was a creature of unimaginable size and stature. From where it was in relation to me, I could not fit all of it in my vision at once. It was surrounded in a dark aura that swallowed light. Its aura swallowed all the light of the torches and decorative lights that were set out. It had talons that looked like it would shred anything they grazed. It harbored multiple heads of creatures that I wasn’t able to identify: one that might have been a bird of some sort, I think there was maybe a lion’s head, and I saw a twisted face but I was unsure of what that was.  It had multiple terribly contorted limbs popping out from all side of its body: its back, its stomach, limbs coming out of its main limbs; none of which looked functional. It had large wings like a bat and in the wings there were imbedded faces of people that looked like they were crying out. The sight of it struck fear into my soul. It flew above everyone high in the air and even at such a distance, every time it flapped its wings you could feel a strong gust. From its belly, creatures spawned and fell upon us. Some making a loud cracking sound as they smacked pavement, others were landing on top of people. At that height, I’m sure those people died instantly. It was pregnant with evil and death.

As these creatures began to stand and move they resembled people. They also had this strange dark aura about them too. Their skin was pale and flaking off and their eyes were but empty black pupils. They stood up straight and quickly began bending and twisting their bodies until they took on a sort of feral stance. I could hear their bones breaking and some of their bones bulged outside of their skin. A few of them foamed at their mouths. Like beast, they hurled themselves at the people in the valley. They had no souls; no feeling to pain as they went about slaying people with their bare hands then bending down over their victims with open mouths to suck the life from them. Those same victims then got up and were now monsters with dark auras killing everything in sight. They ran about the panicking crowd of people slaughtering whomever they could catch; biting off limbs, pulling hair, mauling. In their eyes, all was the same. No man, woman, or child who was caught was spared. I ducked my head down and got as low to the ground as possible. From there I could see Sethos’s dark shadow disappearing from up above as the torch lights revamped. Rai stood us up quickly. “Come on.” I looked around; devastated at the sight before me. I was shocked and paralyzed with fear. My friends were running ahead of me, Rai leading the way, creating a path for us through all the chaos. I was suddenly approached by one of these beings. I felt that it could smell my fear as it stumbled quickly over to me. It was viscous. It grabbed me with its dirty cold hands and as it snarled it drooled on my feet. It was thick and seemed like it would be a bit venomous. It stared at me with dead eyes and opened its mouth. I could feel myself losing consciousness. I began losing my vision and all the screaming around me started to fade into murmurs until I could hear them no more. It was taking my soul from me. Suddenly, I felt the creature release me. I could no longer feel its cold hands around my arms anymore. My vision slowly came back to me. I was lying on my back looking up at the sky. The others had come back to help me. Chang was with them now. I pointed to a creature that was approaching. Barton turned to it calmly and put his hand out. The creature turned away from us and went elsewhere. It was the first I’ve seen Barton use his Lunar Blessing.

            “Dizzy, are you okay?” Rai was worried. I sat up. I replied,

“I’m fine.” I glanced around the valley. Many of the people at this point were retaliating against these creatures using their lunar abilities to fight back while the ones without abilities fled.

            “You guys without lunar abilities should go inside,” Bruce said, “It’s not safe for you to be here.” He looked at Chang.

“I’m going to go check on Selene,” Rai said. Bruce looked at him funny. At this moment, I saw Barton turn another creature away from us. “What?” Rai asked, “What’s with that look?”

“I was making sure you haven’t used your Lunar Curse. You know Selene hates to see you after you’ve used it.” Rai smiled.

“She’s just squeamish.”

“Okay, can we go?” Rellenae’ asked.

“Go on ahead,” Bruce said. He jumped into a crowd of creatures and swung his arms around in a flail slapping away multiple creatures causing them to go airborne.

            We left Bruce, Chang, and Barton behind to go to the temple. Things around the temple weren’t as chaotic. The volunteers were using their lunar abilities to keep the creatures at bay. As we approached the temple, a man ran over and escorted us. The panic extended into the sanctuary. Parents scattered to find their children and temple volunteers raised their voices as an attempt to calm the crowd but that only made things worse.  

            “Good, you’re safe,” It was Kymberly’s deep voice.

            “Where is Selene?” Rai asked.

            “She’s in the kitchen with Theodore.” Rai began heading for the kitchen. I followed him not sure if anyone else was following. I was genuinely concerned as well.

            When Rai opened the kitchen door, Selene came running and crying into his already open arms. “I’m here,” he reassured her.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

            “Outside fighting,” Rai replied.

            “My brother?” Selene broke from Rai’s embrace and headed out the back door.

            “Selene it’s dangerous out there,” Theodore’s whispers were ignored. We ran behind her trying to stop her. She ran outside and around to the front of the temple to find Bruce. As I looked around still following her, I saw that most of the creature had been slain and cleared out of the immediate area. Bruce, Chang, and Barton were helping some of the injured around the side of the temple when we found them.

            “Bruce,” Selene cried. Bruce looked over, almost stunned that Selene was even outside.

            “What are you doing out here?” he shouted as he ran over to her and pick her up on his shoulder. There was blood all over his hands and some got on Selene’s garments. It was now tainted in my eyes. Chang was covered in blood, more so than some of the victims lying around. Barton was free of blood. With the nature of his Lunar Blessing, I assume that he didn’t have to get too physical in the midst of all the chaos.

            “This is terrible,” Dominique started crying. She was devastated.    

            “Selene, you need to go back and get ready for tomorrow,” Chang was firm. I’ll take Dominique and Dizzy back with me to get them ready.”

            “So he’s going?” Barton was talking about me. Chang continued walking without looking back. Dominique and I followed him back to the villa without encounter.

            That night, as I lay in bed, nearly asleep, I heard something at my window. I sat upright in my bed and looked over. It was Heaven’s Eye.

            “Hey, open up,” she shouted tapping on the window glass again. I went over to the window and opened it up. Before I could say a word, she jumped over the window seal into my room and made herself comfortable in a chair, all in one motion.

            “What do you think you’re doing here at this time of night?” I asked.

            “What do you mean?” she questioned, “I always come over to visit.”

            “Can’t you just come in the day time like any other normal person would?”

            “Nah, too much commotion in the day time. And how do you know what normal is anyway? You don’t even know where you’re from.” She looked over at me with a glare.

            “Well, I know enough to know that this isn’t normal. We should be sleep. The drowsiness I feel tells me so.”

            “I just came to check up on you. Well at least you didn’t get killed like a lot of others did.” There was a moment of silence between us which was broken by:

            “I really should be getting to sleep, Heaven’s Eye.”

            “Oh…” she said in a somewhat disappointing voice, “So what are you doing tomorrow?”

            “I’m going with Selene on her journey.”

            “What? What did you just say?”

            “I’m going with Selene, Heaven’s Eye.”

            “Dizzy, you can’t leave. The journey is long and perilous. What if I never see you again? Why are you going anyway? Does it have anything to do with little ole me?” She got up and spun dramatically around and laid across my bed with her hand on her head as if she had just fainted.

            “Something on my mind urges me to go on. I feel…I feel that it is the right thing to do; the right thing to do for myself.” I looked at her waiting for her to drop the act. “Beside, this was your idea anyway.”  

            She stood up. “I guess you’re right,” she said, “People must find their own purpose in life. This very well may be your calling. You must cut your own path through fate.” She stood in the window seal as if she was ready to jump out and she turned to me.

            “That sounded kind on corny, huh?” we shared a laugh together. “Dizzy, just never forget: wherever you are, I’m always watching.” She paused for a moment again. “Ew, that was corny too.” She jumped out the window onto the lower roof where Cloud was waiting. She hopped on Cloud drove off the roof on into the street and road off into distance. I stood there and I watched her ride on and on until I could no longer see her.

 

 

Author's Note

Looking for opinions on dialogue, character personalities, scene transitions, and originality versus cliche' (which side of the spectrum am I on)

Reviews

[Mila]

Hey! I really, really enjoyed this! I thought it was very original and well-thought out! :)
I caught a few things that I thought I'd point out. I hope they help! I'll number them in order of how I saw them.
1. The phrase "I was in a dimly lit room. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room, I realized that I didn’t know where I was." Try switching these two sentences. It would add a better flow to your sequence of events; they don't know where they are but, as their eyes adjust, they see that they are in a dimly lit room and so on so forth.
2. The sentence "I stepped out of the bed and then I heard the door knob turn. I quickly turned to the door and backed up against the window directly opposite of the door..." the word "door" is too repetitive here. Try replacing it. Try "...quickly turned to the door....directly opposite of it" after the first say of it, we know what he is making a reference to in regards to his location.
3. The phrase "And I hadn’t introduced myself either..." since you're writing in present tense, it would be "haven't". Make sure to keep tense consistency.
4. The phrase "Nice meeting you..." This is more of a farewell sort of phrase. Since he's saying this to someone he has just met, it would be "Nice to meet you."
5. The phrase " “Dizzy, are you okay?” Rai was worried. I sat up. I replied,

“I’m fine.” I glanced around the valley. " Try "I sat up and replied, 'I'm fine.'" and that will help that flow much better.

Most of what I listed above is what I mostly saw throughout. I'd definitely giving this a quick proof read to see what other fixes need to be made :)
For the most part, I really, really enjoyed this! It's only the beginning and I'd love to keep reading more of your stuff; you are very creative and the organization of thought is good, despite the few mistakes I found. This was awesome :) Well done!!

[Herbertc]

Thank you so much for sharing your input! I really appreciate you pointing out those mistakes. I'm glad you took the time out to read this, I know it's a little long. I'll be sure to watch out for repetitive wording and tense. I found your entire review helpful.