 
ECLIPSE

by

David Moschioni

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

David Moschioni on Smashwords

Eclipse

Copyright © 2010 by David Moschioni

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the proper written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Eclipse is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locals is entirely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I would like to thank all my good friends that stuck with me through high school and to my parents and family members that pushed me to get this book finished.

ECLIPSE

*****

Place: Vahn's house

Time: 2:30 AM

Chapter: 0

I woke suddenly and sat straight up in my bed. Waiting a second for my eyes to adjust to the blinding darkness, I took off the five covers covering my body. Still not being able to see, I jumped off of the long side of the bed and banged my knee on my chest of drawers knocking my katana off the rack of three swords. I tried to keep the noise level down but inevitably my mom heard it.

"Vahn ... *Groan* ... are you okay, honey?" she called.

"Yeah I'm fine," I responded as I headed for the bathroom.

I pulled up the toilet seat and let loose. As I was going I felt wide awake, not because my knee throbbed, but because the house felt different. The night light in the bathroom was on, and the white walls of the house extended the reach of the light it emitted. All I was wearing was a green XXXL shirt and underwear, my usual.

"Man, I had to go. It's still coming, what did I eat?" I whispered to myself.

Finally finished, I pulled my pants up and walked out of the bathroom without flushing the toilet. My mom, who just can't sleep when I'm up, piped up:

"Vahn, put the seat down and flush it."

* **GRUMBLE** *

"What was that!?" I turned and looked down the hallway, I couldn't see much, but I could tell nothing was there.

I turned and flushed the toilet. I noticed something different about the water, it didn't look right. However, I turned around and, with a shrug; I walked out of the bathroom. Making it into my bedroom I shut the door behind me. It closed with a clunk. I totally forgot about the noise by now. I jumped into my bed and pulled the covers over me.

"Maybe the third day of my junior year of high school will be better than the second," I wished to myself.

* **CLICK** *

The light on my lizard's cage switched on.

I had my eyes closed about five seconds before I heard the noise.

I also heard very heavy breathing next to my bed.

My mom called out: "Vahn, go to bed. Stop playing around."

I was in bed so who could she be talking to? The heavy breathing got heavier. I opened my eyes and saw two legs, maybe four inches from my bed, being shown by the red light which keeps my lizard warm. I looked up and a figure, human shaped, stood six or more feet tall and had a blade on its arm ready to strike.

"Oh, shit!!"

"Ahhhh!" my mom screamed.

"What the hell," my dad was quick to follow. They were both in the room adjacent to mine.

I rolled off the far side of my bed to avoid the down swing of the man's arm. My bed was torn in half. I scrambled for the light to at least see my attack to no avail as the light switch didn't work. The man stumbled forward. I could barely see its figure through the red light my lizard's heat lamp gave off. I reached for my katana on the rack but it wasn't there, so I grabbed my kodachi, a two foot long, short samurai sword.

The figure poised to attack once more. I made the first strike, however, placing my sword through its head

* **SCREECH** *

It moaned in pain. I pulled out the kodachi and sliced the front of the figure. It fell to the ground. I continued hacking away at it. A warm liquid flew on me. With its other arm it grabbed me and, while I got away from it, it scratched my leg putting three - five inch cuts into my leg, not to deep, however. It spasmed on the floor for a minute and died.

* **BANG** * * **GROAN** *

I got up as my second attacker was bearing down on me again. I noticed now that it was bigger than a medium sized dog. It lunged at me, I swung my sword up cutting its head in half. Its momentum kept it going forward so I got out of the way. I ran two feet to my parents' bedroom and opened the door. My mom was standing at the closet door to the right of the bed in the far right corner holding a .45mm pistol. My dad was on the ground in front of the bed trying not to get hit by her stray bullets. The creature, which was spasming, was to the left of the bed on the ground. I walked over and stuck my sword tip in it. It let out a horrible groan and finally died. The only thing lighting the room was the reflection of the bathroom light off the walls and the illuminating clock from the radio.

"Mom, get me the flashlight out of the drawer there and see if the lamp on the night stand works," I told her.

She continued to stand there breathing very hard. My dad finally got up and walked over to her.

"Pam...Pam!"

She finally loosened her grip on the gun allowing it to fall. She fell to her knees and collapsed to the floor apparently fainting.

* **SCRAPE** * * **CLOMP,CLOMP** *

There was another creature in the house like the ones before. I walked over and grabbed the flashlight out of the drawer and flipped it on. Shining the light on the dead creature I noticed the long blade was too big and bulky for them to walk and attack easily. So they were very slow.

I walked out in the hallway to find the next attacker rounding the corner from the family room. It didn't seem to notice me at first, but when the flashlight's light hit it, it could tell right away that I was its target. Instead of wandering aimlessly like it was before, it stretched out its neck in all kinds of weird directions and sped up toward me. However, its speed could not compare to mine.

I ran for it, sword poised for a spear attack, it was still walking toward me. As I got near it, it reached out with its other free arm and grabbed my neck. Raising me off the ground, the creature was trying to crush my neck and was doing a good job of it. Its hand was slimy, and thick liquidy ooze ran down my neck. I couldn't breathe.

* **BANG,BANG** *

Two bullets streamed down the hallway hitting the creature in its right leg and upper thigh.

* **CLICK,CLICK,CLICK** *

The gun was empty. The creature, however, let go and I fell to the ground. I took major advantage of the opportunity and speared the creature's throat slicing left then right cleanly cutting its head off. The body instantly died not even spasming; however the pool of blood it left was larger than that of the previous ones.

I quickly picked up my flashlight and walked into the family room looking around for more potential dangers. I noticed a danger; a very big danger. I left the ice cream out and it was probably all melted, other than that, no other dangers. I moved into the kitchen carrying the ice cream in my hand with the sword. My flashlight was my most important tool right now because I couldn't see very well in the dark without it. Nothing was amiss in the kitchen, the birds were still in their cage and the few long lived roaches were still out.

* **AHHHHH** *

Screaming out front.

I went to the window in the kitchen and threw it open. There, out in the street, were maybe about twenty or thirty figures humans and monsters alike. Some were killing and some were running and some just died.

"AHHHH, my head, what is this sharp pain in my head? AHHHH, it's getting worse. I can't see. My vision's gone. Am I dying some how?"

I dropped to my knees and fell to the floor holding my head in intense pain. Then I blacked out...

Place: Vahn's house

Time: 6:15AM

Eclipse: 01

I awoke suddenly with an intense licking on my face made by my dog, Spice. Spice, who was a Chihuahua, was covering my face in doggie drool. Her tongue was just a racing. My mom was standing at the door making sure I was awake. I gave her a small groan to go away. I shoved my dog away so I could at least breathe.

Sitting up in my bed I recalled my nightmare. I wondered if it was true so I moved the covers off my right leg and found three gashes. I gasped. Next I looked at my sword rack. The katana was not there nor was my kodachi. Maybe my parents thought it was a dream.

"Wait," I said out loud. "I killed three creatures and one was in my room, next to my bed...on the floor..."

I turned and looked on the floor but what I found was my books and backpack all over it. "This is weird. Okay, let me think...So my mom doesn't panic let me cover up my leg. If she tells me about what happened I'll tell her it was nothing but a dream." I looked around for my kodachi and found it on my desk which held my laptop and more school materials. "Hopefully she won't find the gun in the closet empty of its bullets."

"Vahn, get moving or we'll be late. You're taking the garbage out this morning too. I need some help so help me out, your dad won't," mom yelled.

I overheard my dad say, "That's not true. I help you; I just have to get to work by 6:30 in the morning."

My mom commented back, but the rest of the conversation wasn't interesting to me anymore, I finally got out of bed and opened my closet door.

"Humph. What to wear; how about this and this?" I picked out a black and white dragon shirt and a pair of black zip off pants to go with it. I quickly put on the pants.

"Ouch," I cringed. I ripped one of the cuts on my leg open. I quickly ran to the back bathroom trying not to leak blood. I put my leg up on the small sink and pulled some toilet paper off the rack in front of the toilet. I held the paper on it as I reached in the nearby cabinet to grab the alcohol. The alcohol stung badly as I poured it on all three cuts. After all the intense pain I wrapped my leg up in the in proper bandages. While I was in the bathroom I decided to fix my hair. I squirted some yellow gel into my hand, rubbed my hands together, and mixed it into my hair. I just brushed my hair down and fluffed my bangs out.

"Okay, done with that. I'll probably be limping all day but I'll see what happens," I said to myself. "I think I might want to bring a weapon to school just in case. I think my kodachi will fit in my backpack. I know a few techniques with it. I wish I could bring my katana. I could use that even better." After arguing with myself for a minute, I left the bathroom and went into my room. After putting all my school stuff into one compartment of my backpack, I put my sword, sheath and all, into the front compartment.

"Okay, feed my lizard then find some breakfast." Those were the last two things on my schedule.

As I was walking out of the door to my mom's car I realized I forgot my cd/radio player. So I ran back inside and got it. My mom finished taking the dog to the bathroom outside; she locked the house, and got in the driver's side of the car. When we were both in I commented to her about the morning, "Wow, it's really dark out here this morning."

"Yeah," she responded. "It's staying darker later these days. A typical August day I guess."

We pulled out of the driveway and started down the street.

"Is there a chance of rain today?" I asked her.

"I don't know. I didn't listen to the news this morning. I didn't sleep well and kind of have a headache this morning."

Uh oh, I thought to myself, this might have something to do with what had happened last night. If she tells me about it I'll tell her it was just a dream, nothing more.

"Yeah, I had this horrible dream last night but of course you probably don't want to hear about it. But the weird thing was your dad had the same dream. He and I are staying home today. We have some things to do around the house, I'm going to work to arrange for my absence today," she said.

"Well, I don't want to hear about your dream and I thought that dad left for work?" I responded.

We were driving down the road called Abrams and rounded the corner to the street called Royal Lane. I was going to Hillcrest High School where I pick up my but to go to Townview Science and Engineering Magnet. Townview is one of the top rated schools in the Dallas metropolitan area. I live in Mesquite and it would be a lot faster if I got on the bus that picks up at Samuel High School. But it is more convenient that I catch the bus at Hillcrest because my mom works a few blocks up the street.

We finished our conversation as I picked up my breakfast. We were about five or less minutes from my drop off point and I usually eat breakfast a lot sooner than that, however I had been quite preoccupied. I have a calculus assignment due today and I haven't done it yet.

*****

"Okay, bye mom, see you at Samuel," I said as I got dropped off at the corner.

As I looked down the sidewalk I could see my two friends, Jason and Cameron, already waiting for me. Cameron was a sort of cry baby. When he doesn't get his way he usually complains. And he wants his way quite often. Jason, however, was a red head, kind of on the heavy side. He curses a lot but I don't have a problem with it. He is quite the opposite of Cameron. He does not complain a lot, but he will tell you like it is.

I remember one time we were at the arcade. My other friend, who hasn't arrived yet, was trying one of those dance revolution games. We looked pretty stupid, and Jason told us about it, however the bad part was that he was so loud that the entire arcade heard about it. That's what really bothers me about him.

I looked up at the sky and noticed dark thunderheads forming off to the south and they looked to be heading this way. I also noticed a minor aspect about my backpack. It was heavier than normal and it wasn't the sword causing it either. Oh well, I thought, I'll find out what it is later. As a rule on an A-day in school I only carried one book and my backpack was light. The sword didn't add too much weight to the overall weight but I could tell something else was in there.

After I finished what felt like a long walk down a short sidewalk, I met up with my friends as the bus pulled around the corner. I could see my other friend, Erik, coming down the far side of the school. The bus usually ends up driving to him. Erik was my age mentally in such a way that he had a mature mind. He didn't complain nor did he act foolish or stupid like Cameron or Jason. The bus pulled up in front of me and I got on the bus.

I looked down the rows of seats and saw the freshman taking up eighty-five percent of the seats. There was a lot of freshman this year, maybe more than usual. I sat down in a seat near the front of the bus. This was my seat for the past three years. The first and second day of school a couple of freshmen decided to sit there. Being the junior that I am, I kicked them out of their seat. Luckily the fish, as they're called, were timid and were easily scared of me.

As I sat down Cameron and Jason found two seats around me and Erik, who walked on the bus a minute later, sat with me on the inside of the seat. He and I immediately took out our radios and tuned into the local radio station. A song was on but it wasn't a very good one so, I just ignored it and talked with Cameron in front of me. We talked about the usual items such as games.

The song finally ended so I tuned Cameron out, which he thought was offensive. The news came on and of course they talked about the strangest things on the station.

"There's supposed to be some type of eclipse today. The moon is supposed to block out the entire sun shading this whole half of the earth in darkness," one jockey stated.

"That's called a lunar eclipse, and do you know how long the eclipse is supposed to last?"the second one said.

"I have an idea. The meteorologist says it's supposed to last for a good couple of hours. And on top of that we have thunderstorms planned for all day today. So it's going to get pretty dark out there by mid day.

"Yeah, some people start to act weird during these types of days. Some type of psychological thing."

My eyes widened in fear. This can't be good, I thought to myself. If what happened last night was real, I might be in for a hell of a day. But I might as well try to make the best of it. I actually hope nothing happens.

I looked out of the front window of the bus as we drove the rest of the way to school. As I was looking out of the front window, I noticed two of the hottest girls riding the bus this morning. They seemed to be in deep conversation. The one, whose name is Tamara, looked really distressed for some reason. However, I could never get up the courage to talk to either of them and, besides I don't like the crowd they hang out with. So it might be for the better not to talk to either of them.

The people on the radio station talked about the eclipse for a couple more minutes. Nothing important. I did hear a faint static that grew louder in the background. It filled the entire station with nothing but static. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone. I turned to Erik and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Erik, did you hear the static in the background?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did. That was pretty weird. It was there and gone," he answered

"What's weirder is that we both experienced it at the same time."

"Yeah," he laughed. "You're right. Wonder if anyone else heard it?"

"Maybe we should find out?" I took my earphones out of my ears and stood up.

"Hey!" I yelled, "Did anyone listening to the radio experience a tone of static a second ago?

One kid got up and stated that he did. Then two others joined him.

"Okay, thank you," I turned around and sat back down. I turned to Erik with a concerned look.

"Oh, it's probably nothing, don't worry about it," Erik said.

Cameron turned around and asked me what I was talking about. I told him and he and Jason, who was eavesdropping, laughed at me. Erik laughed too. Then Cameron started to tell me about another one of his stupid non-real stories. I tuned him out again.

Something caught my eye as we drove down the highway to school. On the wall just to the right of us was something red. It looked like it was painted. I looked ahead and saw writing in the red. A message of some sort:

"The beginning is near."

I looked down on the ground and saw four or five mutilated dogs. I came to realize that the red paint was actually blood.

I looked at Tamara who had a horrified look on her face. I was horrified. Her friend, Jen, was trying to calm her down but it didn't work.

The traffic flow around that area was slow so the dogs were in view for a few moments.

I read the message again out loud: "The beginning is near."

What was that supposed to mean anyway? And what was more important was who did this? The traffic began to increase in speed so we got out of view of the mutilated dogs.

In no time we were at the school, Townview. I got off of the bus just after three kids and stopped about twelve feet from the bus and gazed at the sky. The storm clouds produced little sparks of lightning. Then I looked toward the sun and noticed the eclipse beginning. I noticed no birds in the sky today. Maybe because there was a storm coming, but I couldn't be sure about anything today.

Looking at the large three story school, I was able to walk to the entrance with no problems. However, a problem could occur getting into the school with a sword in my backpack. There were cops that the school hired at the front door. Their job was to check backpacks and make us walk through metal detectors. However, the way to get passed them was to open a pocket, of your choice, on your backpack. That's how I planned to get inside of school without delay. The line through the metal detector was a long one today, but it went fast.

It came my turn to show the officer the inside of my backpack. I opened the opposite pouch, and I found my laptop with another book as did the officer, or rent a cop as I call them. He waved me on. I slid my backpack on the table and after walking through the metal detector my backpack was handed to me.

The first of the morning went on without a hitch, meaning all my homework was turned in on time without complaints. Engineering was my first class this morning. In this class we build circuit boards and work on computers. This class is really fun to me. The teacher was loud, as always, with enthusiasm towards the class. He apparently loved his job. Today was the start of the entire Dallas School District saying the Pledge to the United States and Texas Flag. I had no problem with that except that it took time away from class.

While walking down the hall to my next class I came across Tamara who was walking slowly in my direction. Her head was down, and she looked terribly tired. As she neared me I turned to speak to her.

"Hey, Tamara, how are you doing today?" I asked her.

"Yeah, hi, Vahn," she returned. Her voice seemed to have no bearing.

"Hey, you don't look so well, is something the matter?" I had a concerned voice this time.

"None of your business! Just...just stay out of it," she yelled.

"Stay out of what? Is there something wrong?" I hesitated a moment wondering if I should ask about the creatures I saw last night. Maybe I wasn't the only one who saw them.

She continued to walk away from me. I had to decide quickly.

"Tamara! Did you see...um...some sort of creatures last night?" I hesitantly asked.

She stopped and turned to look at me. Our eyes met. As I peered into her deep green eyes I could tell she had seen something horrible, something as terrible as I did. Then she turned and quickly walked off.

I walked around the corner to finished heading to my Computer Science class when I stopped to look outside the large glass pane windows in the cafeteria. The clouds had not yet overwhelmed the sun but the eclipse was almost complete; the sun was almost blocked out. Enormous thunderheads filled the sky with the hint of rain any moment. The clouds were pitch black. I could see the ground from the second floor with little strain on my eyes. There seemed to be something out there wandering around the premises. The walkway outside that I mentioned was connected to the cafeteria. I looked around and all the doors appeared to be closed. None of the windows in the cafeteria were broken either so supposed we were safe for now.

The chimes rang for the start of the next class, so I hurried about nine or so feet to my classroom and took my seat at my computer near the front of the room. My computer was a new Dell computer. It was fast with a Pentium 4 processor and 32 megabytes of graphics. That was all I cared about anyway.

My teacher, Mr. Crane, issued out his orders to us, a class of twelve. The project for the day was to complete a JAVA program that computed the grade point average of the students in the school and store the data in a matrix.

In no time the chimes for lunch rang and we headed down to the Commons Area.

******

Meanwhile...

"Jeremy, sit down on the bus and be quiet. The bus driver is having a hard enough time seeing outside. He doesn't need distractions," the adult on the bus lectured.

"Yes ma'am." Jeremy, a medium sized black kid, finally took his seat on the far middle right side of the bus. He was the only one in that seat so he stretched out his legs across the aisle. Jeremy was wearing a white t-shirt and white pants which really went well with the color of his skin.

He looked out the window on the other side of the bus as they headed toward Townview via the highway. However, he couldn't see far because the surrounding atmosphere was becoming darker and more mysterious.

"Okay, my gifted students, this school is very good choice to transfer to from your current high school. There are five individual schools in Townview," the instructor said.

"What does the school look like and where is it located?" Jeremy asked.

"The school is located roughly three to four miles away from downtown Dallas. The school is brand new, maybe five years old. The structure contains three floors with almost four hundred rooms. The max class size in each room is twenty-five people so you won't have the over crowdedness as in our school."

"Well that would be nice," Jeremy laughed. The rest of the kids on the bus laughed as well.

Jeremy looked out of the front window of the bus and noticed a few raindrops on the window. Then he heard a low rumble of thunder in the background.

"Hmm, seems there's rain in the air," Jeremy said to himself. "This is not going to be a good day. I'm already feeling bad with my parents' dead and all. I was attacked last night by monsters in the night. My house got torn up pretty bad," Jeremy thought to himself. "I managed to escape being killed, however, when I ran outside to the street I got more than I could handle. Monsters everywhere. I ran and ran until my head started pounding and I fell to the ground. When I woke up I found myself in the middle of the street almost being run over by a car. No monsters, however, but being run over by a speeding car would have been bad enough."

"When we get to Townview, students, we need to be on our best behavior. There are cops that patrol the halls. And one more thing, please keep your shirts tucked in at all times," the instructor stated.

Place: The doorway to Heaven and Hell.

Time: Time does not exist.

Eclipse: 02

A dark figure sat in the chair between two gates, one gate with a dark aura surrounding it and one with a light aura. This man wore a black cloak that was draped over the chair. Along side the chair was a large staff that bore a gem stone of some sort. This figure was lifeless in every possible way. He didn't move, he didn't breathe, he didn't blink. Darkness was all around him. The walls cried with blood. Blood seeped in through every crack and hole in the walls, the ceiling and the floor.

Creatures walked along the ceiling: some large, some small. Creatures walked along the floor: some big and tall. But they were all hideous creatures somehow being lured to this man from some other dimension; some other hell.

* **CREAK** *

The door way at the end of the hall suddenly opened. Four figures walked in. One carried two large medieval axes in both hands and only seemed to be wearing pants. Another wore a broad sword sheathed by his side. He also was adorned with a cape of all white. The third bared two pistols on her hips and a shot gun around her back. She wore tight revealing clothes.

The fourth looked exactly like the man in the chair who was lifeless. His black cape was actually robes of the deepest and darkest black. His staff's crystal was a pale black. His face was unavailable to see because his hood was covering it. The creatures in the room fled from him back into their dark corners. They huddled together in fear.

"Okay, let's start this," the man with the staff stated. "The time is almost upon us, we must be ready to act."

"Yes," said the woman in a mysterious voice. "The setting is set beautifully. All three subjects are in one place. Or, rather will be. These three will be the greatest threat to our plan."

The man with the white cape spoke up, "I still don't see how these three children are to be a threat."

"I have foreseen it," the man with the staff said. "Seig, do not worry, for everything will go according to plan."

"Have you ever wondered if you had not tried to kill them in the middle of the night that they would not have been so prepared?" Seig explained.

"Seig, calm yourself. Yes, they are a bit more prepared however, them being the greatest threat; we will be able to subject them to a life time of torment. They will only get so far before they break. That is how we will stop them," the woman said.

"Now, Seig, you will be in charge of the school. Make sure that the demon outside does not enter the school until the appropriate time. When the eclipse is complete then you may let it in for it will not be able to defend itself before then. Kill as many as you like and try your best to kill the three kids.

"Sasha, make sure all the electricity in the affected area will be shut down. We don't need the police calling for back up from any other source such as the armed forces. You then will head to Baylor Hospital and make that our second antenna point for the calling. Do you both understand?" the black robed figure said.

"Yes, master, we understand. We will do as you order," both of the mysterious figures said.

Everyone and everything left the room except the robed figure.

The man in the black robe walked to the chair in the center of the room and eyed the figure. The jewel on the staff of the lifeless man now turned white, as the jewel on the staff of the robed man turned black. The lifeless man stood up and became somewhat transparent, it walked into the robed man and they merged into one. The room started to glow a soft violet color.

_These fools have no idea of our true goal. They are all my puppets_.

*****

"Okay Seig, it will take me approximately two hours to get to and destroy all communications and electricity in the area. After two hours, regardless of what you do, you must start your run on the school or the targets will be out of range," Sasha stated.

"I have the perfect plan to further play around with our victims. They are going to have one hell of a day. Let's kill them all."

The two of them walked out of the room. The man with the axes stood there silently. He could not speak; his mouth was shut tight with rope. His lips were sewn together. He walked out of the room a moment later.

Meanwhile:

Place: Townview

Time: 12:13

It was raining outside pouring so hard the teachers in the lunchroom would not let us go outside. It pounded the glass of the skylights as if it were hail. Outside, everything was pitch black. A person who would come to Townview would not even notice that downtown Dallas was a few miles away from the school.

As I was walking back up to my computer class on the second floor, I looked through the second floor window. I saw, barely, what looked like a tall figure just walking around, about twenty meters from the lunchroom. I walked into my classroom as the chimes rang and took a seat at my computer.

My screen was black so I moved the mouse and the screen blinked on. Out of nothing came a desktop. There were twenty eight computers in the room but in this computer science class there were only twelve people using them. I had no reason to be in Computer Science II class because I didn't pass the advanced placement test to get college credit. However, I'm in here and am learning from the best students.

An adult walked into the room maybe five minutes after me and handed a tube to the instructor. The lady left and the instructor beckoned me to him.

"Vahn, I don't know what this is but put it in your backpack and open it later. If I see it out I'm going to trash it," Mr. Crane said.

"AHHH, what the fuck is this?" Matt yelled in the corner. The rest of the class wasn't far behind him.

I looked toward a computer screen and there was a message on it. There were different messages on all of the screens. I started to read them aloud starting with Matt's computer screen.

"Hell is the beginning," it said. I moved on.

"Hell is paradise."

"Hell is on Earth."

"Hell is the gateway."

"Hell is good."

"Hell has evil."

"Hell is sin."

"Hell is the human minds wretched desires."

That was the end of the first row of computers.

"Heaven is the end."

"Heaven is a hell."

"Heaven is not on Earth."

"Heaven is a closed door."

"Heaven is a blockade to the mind's desires."

The rest of the computers had blinking screens switching between Heaven and Hell. After another minute the screens started oozing blood from the cracks in the computers

* **CRACK** *

A luminous bolt of lightning sprouted from the clouds quickly and very loudly, it was followed by thunder. The bright lightning showed into the room illuminating everything brighter than the weak lights of the school. With the tense moment the thunder made everyone startle with fear.

******

Place: The school bus

Time: 12:19

"The Emergency Broadcast Station has issued a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for the Dallas - Ft. Worth area. Shelter is heavily advised as this storm is likely to produce extreme winds and hail," the bus radio blared.

"Well, it's a good thing we are right at the school," Jeremy stated.

"However," said another student, "we will have to hurry into the school or we will get wet," the girl finished.

"Poor little girl. Are you going to break a nail in the rain too?"

The bus pulled into the parking lane for the busses in front of the school. Jeremy was first off of the bus as the driver opened the sliding door. He ran to the building as did the others. As Jeremy approached the doors, he politely held them open for the others; then he went in. The door closed and locked behind him. However, he didn't hear the doors lock.

The two officers in the building were quick to stop all of the children as they ran in. The teacher walked forward and told the officers why they were there. The rent-a-cops herded the children to the Science Office, room 216, on the second floor.

******

Another man walked onto the school grounds, he bore a heavy broad sword and wore a white cape. He wore gauntlets on his hands as well as armor on his legs. His eyes were stern and cold. The police officers quickly spotted him and tried to open the doors to speak to him. They could not. The doors were locked. As the man approached, all of the doors opened and closed as soon as the man entered.

"Sir, I must ask you to leave now or you will be arrested," one officer said.

Seig drew his blade and dashed forward making two clean diagonal cuts. Both men fell into four pieces onto the ground.

Seig walked in and took a left toward the main office. The eight people in the office were immediately and silently killed.

******

After being dazed by the blood, not only the computers but all the cracks in the wall as well, I finally snapped out of it. I walked to my backpack and opened all the pouches.

Mr. Crane was trying to calm everyone down. He was having little to no success so he finally gave up and walked to the telephone on the wall.

Meanwhile, I emptied my backpack of everything except my notebook and some pencils. I put my textbook onto the desk beside me. After putting my laptop on the table next to my computer, I opened it and turned it on. While waiting for it to turn on I unbuttoned my dragon shirt and tucked in my white t-shirt underneath. I loosened my belt and slipped my sword between it and my waist. No one had notice yet.

Another flash of lightning took out the electrical systems. The back-up generator failed as well. However, the fire alarm light blinked on and off. Screaming could be heard throughout the school. My class was quite calm, thankfully,

*Ding ding ding dong*

"Ah, yes, the sweet sound of screaming." Someone was using the announcement system. "My name is Seig, and I will be your host for the day. I believe the time is 1:00 on the dot and school ends at 4:00 sharp. If you haven't already noticed something weird is going on." After a brief chuckle the voice continued: "All the doors have been locked, magically secured, and basically all escape routes cut off." An evil laugh followed. "Now I have a few items that I need to go over. I need Vahn Ring to go to the third floor library; Tamara Green to go to the second floor and head to room 256; and Jeremy Dra to go to the first floor and head to the band hall. If you don't know where these places are, I suggest you be very careful in your search," another evil laugh followed, "because for your enjoyment I have added, how should I say, monsters to the party. Your only light source is the blinking fire alarms around every corridor. It's very dark in the building. Oh, and one more thing, I hope you don't run into Scythe. He is a really nasty figure. For more information of a depressing matter, the phone lines have been cut and all external access has been cut off. As I said before, school ends at 4:00 sharp. I hope you survive the day. Hahahaha!

*Ding ding ding dong*

The announcements turned off.

******

Tamara stopped hugging the girl next to her in fear. A guy pulled her away and told her she needed to go to room 256.

"Tamara, I don't' know what's there but I think if you go there we might get out of here earlier."

* **BANG,BANG** *

Something was pounding on the door.

Tamara got up. She stood tall and stern. Her long hair flowed around her neck. Her athletic and slender body stopped trembling. Her hands were clinched tightly. Her green eyes pierced the darkness.

* **BANG,BANG** *

Another pounding and the door seemed to crack. Tamara quickly went into her backpack and pulled out a gun. It was a standard police issue Beretta. She pulled out seven clips, each held fifteen bullets. The clips were longer than the hilt of the gun, but they fit into it with less than an inch sticking out.

* **BOOM** *

The door shattered and some sort of figure entered the room. The figure was very round, its arms, legs, head, and its body area. Its weight allowed for it to only move at a slow place toward the group of terrified students. Each step it took, its entire body jiggled. It showed its massive sharp teeth. Each time it breathed through its mouth, mucus flew out.

Tamara aimed in the general direction of the creature. She fired once, a miss. She corrected for the difference. She fired four shots into the stomach of the moving creature. The creature hesitated and fell to the ground. She could hear the creature groaning in pain as it spasmed and spurted blood onto the floor.

Tamara picked up a small metal desk and walked over to the creature. It was still spasming in pain. Small bits of ruby red blood got on her fairly tight shirt. She held the desk over her head and slammed it onto the creatures head. The creature groaned even more. Now it tried to get up. She slammed the desk down on the creature again. Its arms gave out as it fell to the floor. Again the desk was pounded against the creature. This time the desk broke as the creature let out a horrid scream as it finally died. The metal leg she was holding was three feet long and she decided to keep it.

"I don't know what awaits me, but I must go to find out at whatever the cost," she said confidently.

******

"What happened? The lights went out, and who was that strange voice that I just heard."

* **STOMP,STOMP** *

Jeremy was in the office which was a small enough room that led to a hallway that branched into four separate rooms. He looked back down the hallway. The other nine kids and teacher that were with him were very panicked, but they didn't scream, they listened. The one flashing light in the room didn't reveal much.

Jeremy was trying to find a weapon he could use to fight whatever was there. He noticed a girl, who was complaining earlier, was wearing a industrial chain-link as a necklace.

"Hey, give me that chain off of your neck right now," he asked politely.

"Yeah, sure, but what do you need it for?"

"Brass knuckles."

Her eyes widened as she took off the necklace.

*SCRAPE*

The creature came into view and it was carrying something, something long and shiny. Jeremy wrapped his right fist with the chain and charged for the attack. The creature was unsuspecting and was caught off guard, and Jeremy hit it full force in the stomach area. It hurled blood onto the floor. Jeremy then kicked its right knee and it toppled onto the ground. He continued to kick it as it moaned trying to get up with no success. Blood dripped from its stomach and the kick punctures. Jeremy pummeled it in the face a few time. Finally it died.

"I don't think I'm going to like what awaits me at the band hall at all, but to no avail I must prevail. Here I go." Jeremy walked out of the office.

******

"Vahn, what's going on?" Josh looked at me. "What is that?" he laughed. "Is that a sword?"

Mr. Crane looked at me as well.

"Yeah, it is a sword and I plan to use it. I plan to save the school from this nightmare."

There was a scream in the corner of the room. I looked around and found a tall monster with a lance type arm stabbing a fellow student. The girl was dead, but the creature still had her speared on its lance. I was angry at this point.

Vahn dashed toward the enemy, sword still sheathed. The monster lunged its left lance at him. Vahn dodged to the right coming into the inside of the creature. While crouched, he fiercely drew his sword, cutting the creature's legs off. Before it could fall to the floor, Vahn swung up slashing the monster's entire front, killing it immediately.

"Matt or someone, here's my cell phone number. Call me if you get in trouble. Use my laptop to stay updated on any current events, it has a wireless modem. Try to contact anyone you know for help. I don't know what I'm going to find, but I hope the other two people, Tamara and Jeremy, have some good luck. I will put a stop to this somehow."

"Yeah!" they cheered. The teacher just sat there with his arms crossed over his chest.

Vahn walked out of the class with his empty backpack and his sword at his waist.

Place: Townview

Eclipse: 03

Tamara walked out of classroom 301 on the third floor on the far right side of the building. The screaming in the hall had all but stopped as she walked down the long dark corridor. She was equipped with her gun and the chair leg. She also carried her emptied backpack just in case she needed to carry something in it.

The narrow hall didn't reveal much as she walked. Even the two fire alarm flashing lights didn't illuminate much. The darkness was too powerful to be overcome by a weak light.

*GROAN* *SLOSH*

She looked toward the noise and found some liquid dripping on the ground. She stepped closer to the locker as the sound got louder. She then noticed that the liquid was blood dripping from the accused locker. She slowly stretched her hand out to open it. Her heart pounded. Instead of opening the locker herself the door opened flung open by itself. She jumped back as she found a small slug type creature banging inside a cage that was stuck in the locker. Startled, she slammed the door and backed away.

While she was quite disgusted with the creature it did not affect anything about her. Her eyes stayed focused on her task at hand. She had to make it to the front of the building to go down the stairs to the second floor where she would then take the appropriate path to room 256.

Some sort of figure rounded the corner directly in front of her and swung its elongated arm knocking her against the far wall. The creature slowly walked toward her raising its arm again for another attack. She jumped out of the way as the creatures arm broke through the wall. She got behind it and swung her chair leg as hard as she could into the creature's back. It took the full attack. The creature was forced against the wall.

She swung her pole against the creature's head this time and its head hit the wall causing itself more damage. The creature quickly turned around swinging its arm in the general direction of Tamara. She blocked with the chair leg but was still knocked to the ground. She got back up and raised the weapon above her head and with the force of both of her arms she swung down on the creature's head.

This time it fell to the ground where she was able to beat it with the chair leg in the head. The creature groaned and spasmed on the ground as it died. Tamara moved on.

The air was thick with blood, the smell of the blood alone made Tamara cringe in anticipation of death. Lightning flashed in the distance and lit up the entire hall corridor for merely a second. Tamara stopped and turned around to go back the way she came. She headed for the large glass windows at the end of the set of lockers. Upon arriving she blankly stared into the darkness.

The rain was pounding on the glass window. The sound of the rain made her want to move away from the window but her eyes would not let her leave. The sky was pitch black; nothing could be seen by the naked human eye. She wondered if the monsters could see in the dark, if they couldn't she would have an easier time getting around.

The desolate world outside of the school was just as terrifying as the atmosphere inside the school put in one word: Horrifying. The morbid creature stuck in the locker was still banging; trying to get out. Tamara took her eyes off of the sky and continued on her journey to a deeper darker hell that awaited her and the others.

She walked by the creature and back down the dark corridor. As she walked she thought about her parents and her friends.

******

Place: Tamara's house

Time: 12:30AM (last night)

"Hey, Tamara, let's watch another movie. This time a horror flick," one of her friends said.

"Ok, I'll put on something good." She walked over to her movie rack and selected a movie from it. She masterfully placed it into the VCR. Her three friends were wide awake, most likely from all of the soda that they were drinking. Her parents were sleeping in their bedroom at this time of the night and could care less about what the four kids were doing.

Tamara turned off the lights in the room and laid down on the loveseat situated by the right wall. Suddenly all the power in the house went out, nothing but screaming could be heard, then death took control of the noise.

The set of parents in the bedroom came running out with a flashlight and gun. They found Tamara surrounded by her four friends. Her friends were all torn apart limb from limb. Blood dripped from the ceiling. Her dad yelled as he was impelled from something behind. He dropped the gun. Tamara picked up the gun as her mom aimed the flashlight at their attacker. Tamara fired the entire clip into the monster.

Suddenly her head started pounding. The pain grew quickly in intensity as she fell to her knees. Somehow she had awakened on the bus with a gun in her lap and seven- fifteen round clips of ammo beside her. As she fully awakened she quickly put the items in her backpack securely.

******

"Why is this happening to me? What have I done in life to deserve this?" Tamara made her way down the stairs to the second floor when she heard a sound; the sound of a telephone ringing. She walked behind the set of stairs to find two pay phones. One was ringing: she answered the ringing phone.

"Hello, my dear," came the sound of a demented man. "Are you lost in your thoughts? Is your life but a mask to hide the real you?

"Who is this?" she responded.

The tormented man did not directly reply to her response but continued on with his speaking: "I need help to help you. Because you see ... um ... I'm ... uh... stranded in this place of hells. I will help you if you get me out of here. They're coming for me and the children and I ... uh ... don't know how long I can hold them off"

"Who are you? You must tell me who you are and where you are before I can do anything."

"I ... I mean we are in dire need of help, and if you help me I know I can help you unmask your true self. Please, I'm begging ..." There was a brief pause then screaming. "You must help me now! They're here and they're slaughtering us."

Tamara heard screams to the left of her in the total opposite direction of her designated room number. She took off running, leaving the phone to dangle. As she got farther away from the phone, faint laughter went unheard.

******

After I walked out of the classroom, I immediately came in contact with another creature of hell. It was easily dealt with. These monsters so far posed little to no threat to me, but I needed to stay alert and on my guard.

I walked toward the front of the school to the main set of stairs, which was the fastest way to get to the library. The library is at the top of the stairs.

As I walked I passed a long hall. I stopped because I thought I saw a woman running away from me. The blinking light allowed me to only see that she had long hair and wore clothes, so I immediately dismissed the idea of it being a monster. I also noticed a metal pole in her hand. She rounded the corner and went out of my view. I continued on.

My eyes finally started adjusting to the darkness, but the flashing lights were not allowing me to fully adjust. Every time they flashed my pupils dilated and I couldn't see again.

Something rubbed against my head. I quickly grabbed it. It was a thick wet rope dangling from the ceiling. A flash of lightning lit up the hall revealing the entire hall filled with blood soaked ropes. Some of the ropes actually held human shaped figures. Dead bodies. The school was changing slowly as the day went on; changing into a vile, evil realm beyond hope. The atmosphere became darker as well.

I looked down the hall and noticed three tall creatures mindlessly wandering about. They blocked my path to the main stairs. I knew I could take one at a time, but I was unsure about how a group of monsters would work with each other.

Pushing myself against the wall I tried to sneak past the monsters. I had my kodachi ready for an attack. The horrid beasts didn't seem to notice me. I crept further and further down the hall unseen ... or maybe just unnoticed. Regardless I was making progress.

I made it to the stairwell and noticed a phone dangling from the phone booth. I hurried over to it for I heard a faint laughter coming from it. I picked it up and sure enough heard the laughter. I spoke into the phone.

"Hello," I said cautiously.

"Ahhhh, yeeees, my first phone call," came from the other end. "You know the moon and the sun are alike in many ways. The darkness and the light; neither can live without each other. I have a riddle for you in order to complete your task: The way in is the way of light. If you can answer this, you will be able to enter. Go to the bathroom on the third floor. Maybe it's the men's; maybe it's the women's. You must find it," the laughing continued.

I slowly hung the phone up. The monsters in the hall didn't notice my presence yet. I slowly crept around to the front of the stairs and started moving up the stairs. I was walking on blood. The blood was slowly creeping down the stairs and out of the building.

*HOWL*

Following the sound I was immediately attacked by a fierce dog like creature.

*****

Vahn fell off his feet as the dog trampled over him from the top of the stairs. The dog quickly vanished into the darkness at the bottom of the stairs. Vahn's back was covered in the blood from the stairwell.

*Pit pat, pit pat*

The dog's toenails were clicking against the floor as it walked. The vague figure of the dog started its ascent up the stairs. Vahn quickly recovered and got up, his sword unsheathed and ready for attack. The dog howled again and charged toward Vahn. The dog jumped, Vahn sliced quickly, and the dog fell to the floor, dead. Vahn wiped the blood off his sword and sheathed it once again.

******

I finished walking up the stairs, the library was in my sights. I decided to forget about the bathroom thing and head straight to the library and find a piece of this puzzle. I tried the right side door of the library, it was locked. The door was made out of wood so I couldn't break it. I walked over and tried the other door, it was locked as well.

"Maybe I need to go to the bathroom after all. He said if you answer you will be able to enter. Maybe the key is in one of the bathrooms on the third floor," I talked out loud to myself. "However, there are how many bathrooms on the third floor...five bathrooms including the teachers' lounges that I constantly use. Well, I will be on my way."

I started walking to the right side of the building and when I turned the corner I was immediately greeted by four more monsters. Two were the type that had long blades stitched to their arms. They were slow but smart and powerful. The other two carried one ax each. This is the first time I saw these. I had no idea of the capability of these monsters. I'd have to sneak around them carefully to get to the bathrooms they were guarding.

I put my backpack down and searched all the pouches for some type of small object. I came up with a square plastic floppy disk holder.

"This will be fine. I'll throw it to the other side of the room hoping they go to see what it is."

After throwing it, all four of the monsters predictably followed the sound. I strolled to the women's bathroom door with a smile.

* **RING,RING,RING,RING** *

"Oh no, my cell phone!"

The monsters turned around at the new noise and came running toward me. The ones with the axes were faster than the other two monsters that were dragging their swords on the ground. I quickly leaped into the girls' restroom and shut the door behind me. My hands fumbled around for the lock in the dark. Finally finding the lock, I twisted it, locking the door. The creatures banged on the door but the thick hard wood would not give away.

I couldn't see anything; the bathroom was pitch black. I walked to where the light switch was supposed to be, I knew where it was because it was the same in the boys bathroom. I flipped the light switch up and to my surprise the lights came on. Nothing was different about this bathroom - nothing at all.

* **RING,RING,RING** *

My cell phone rang again. I picked it out of my pocket and answered it.

"Yeah, Vahn, it's Matt. I was, uh, looking on your laptop and noticed a news station showing all the happenings around the city. There are reports of large numbers of monsters not only at this school but at Baylor Hospital and the middle of the downtown area. People are dying everywhere. The police are not responding for some unknown reason and people are too frightened to fight back."

"So, basically all hell is breaking loose. This is just the beginning. How is everyone in the room?"

"They seem to be calm for now and no more monsters have tried to break in, but I don't know how long their spirits are going to hold. And the smell of blood is horrible."

"Okay, I see, I have to go. I will talk to you later. Oh, and by the way, do you know what time it is?"

"Yeah, it's ....2:27."

I hung up the phone. After the phone was put back in my pocket, I walked around the bathroom in search of anything. Upon finding nothing I had to ponder how to get out of the bathroom with the four monsters there.

Vahn walked over to the door and opened it slightly. He then ran back into a bathroom stall and locked the door. The four monsters quickly piled in. Vahn climbed over the top of the stall and quietly snuck out behind the monsters. He shut the door behind him. He could not lock the door so the monsters could easily get out.

"Damn, I can't see. My eyes aren't readjusted to the darkness yet."

The boys' bathroom was right next to the girls' restroom so I wandered in there. The lights in the bathroom were already on. There was nothing wrong with this bathroom either. I checked it and found nothing. After using the restroom and leaving the bathroom, I had to walk to the other side of the school where there were three remaining bathrooms. A student set and one bathroom in the teachers' lounge.

I made it to the main hall and noticed a clanking far away from me in the direction I was headed. My eyes were almost adjusted to the light so I could make out a tall figure with a scythe type weapon making its way slowly this way.

"Could this be the monster that the guy on the announcements told us about? This hideous creature?"

The creature was walking slowly, not in any hurry to catch up with its victims. It had the basic shape of a human with small differences. Its legs were very large and round. Its arms looked very muscular and it could probably use its weapon very well. The clank I heard was from its scythe hitting the ground as it walked.

I turned around and ran toward a row of lockers and hid amongst them. It came closer to me nearing my position. The stench from the blood crusted on him reeked. The vile smell of the creature alone made me want to run from my hiding place. The creature walked passed me and down the corridor behind me. I wondered even if it saw me. If anything, I knew it smelled my fear. I was afraid of it; to me this creature seemed different from the others: possibly smarter, or even worse, more deadly.

As the creature went out of my sight I and continued to walk toward the other side of the building.

* **SMASH,CRASH,CLING** *

The lockers behind me suddenly toppled over with such force that they hit all the nearby walls. I turned around quickly and saw Scythe coming for me. It was fast. He came swinging its enormous scythe. Still out of range, the weapon came. I backed up and tripped over a locker about two feet long. I was on the ground, helpless.

******

Jeremy walked out of the Science and Engineering office. His muscle shirt was stained with droplets of blood from the dead creature. The other students opted to stay in the office near and inside the backrooms.

"Okay, so, I see no evil and hear no evil. Let me analyze this before I go about on my journey. Since I don't sense any evil, I could assume that one of the other two kids came by here. I don't know the layout of this school, however, I do know that I have to go to the first floor band hall and I am on the second floor right now. Okay, I can see a set of stairs going down maybe forty feet from my position. Okay, let's start there." After Jeremy finished talking to himself he walked toward and down the stairs. He came to a large area with maybe one hundred tables, which he guessed correctly, was the cafeteria. There were monsters there. A lot of them, tall hulking figures wandering aimlessly. Jeremy proceeded to his right not knowing where the band hall was.

He walked by a couple of soda machines and an ice cream machine and decided he needed a beverage. After digging a dollar out of his pocket, he inserted it into the machine and received a Sprite. He twisted the top off and let the fizz die down before he drank it. Jeremy savored the taste as he slowly guzzled it down. He capped the top and continued walking down a small corridor.

As he looked at the wall to the left of him he noticed writing on it; writing written in blood. It read: "The barrier between the real world and hell is breaking..."

Jeremy stood there and looked at the cryptic message for a moment wondering what it meant.

"Whatever," he said then continued on.

Upon coming to the end of the hall he noticed a door open with the lights on. He also heard talking. But the smell of the atmosphere was most unpleasant. Opening the door fully he found a workshop with half built robots in it. He looked to the back of the room and found several high school kids huddled in the corner. The teacher was strung to the wall in the shape of a cross. There was string around his neck, arms, legs, and torso. Blood dripped onto the floor from his mouth.

"Okay guys, I'm here, don't worry," Jeremy stated uneasily.

The four boys and three girls didn't even seem to care that Jeremy was there.

* **CRASH** *

Jeremy looked to the right very quickly. He saw a work area enclosed by a fence which was the only thing holding back a creature from Hell. The creature was short, about three feet tall. Its stubby arms banged against the chain link fence. Jeremy picked up a piece of PVC pipe he found on the ground next to the fence and smashed it into the table. The front of the pipe broke crating a point on the end. Jeremy rammed the pipe through the fence and into the belly of the creature. The monster staggered backward and fell over. It spasmed on the floor, Jeremy left it there to die as he left the room.

The floor in the hallway was a little slippery from the fog that was forming on the ground. The fog was preventing the small pocket of light from showing the way down the hall. Jeremy continued down the hall and came back to the cross section from before. He went back the way he came heading to the cafeteria where all the monsters were. However, as far as he could see there were no monsters in the area at all.

A brisk wind flowed through the cafeteria from one of the open doors. Jeremy paid no attention to it and continued on.

He walked across the cafeteria being careful to not make loud noises. When he came to the other side of the cafeteria he came across a sign that pointed to the Band Hall. Jeremy followed the sign into the darkness. The darkness also followed closely behind him.

Upon making it through the large double doors that specifically said Band Hall, Jeremy was thrust into action as three monsters took notice of him. One was a fat creature just like the one he ran into in the office. The other two had long blades stitched to their long arms.

Jeremy immediately rushed the closest creature, one with a blade, and hit it in the face with his chained fist. The creature staggered backwards. Jeremy jumped out of the way as the heavy blade of the second monster swung down. The fast monster hit Jeremy square in the chest; Jeremy flew backwards.

"Ah, you want some of this? Here I come."

Jeremy quickly recovered and continued to attack the first monster. He hit it in the stomach then in the head and kicked it in the leg making it topple over. The second blade monster again cut down with its blade as Jeremy moved to the side. The blade cut the first monster on the ground in half.

"Stupid monsters!"

* **AAHHHHHH** *

Something screamed in the background. The sound came from neither of the monsters.

Jeremy went on to attack the fat creature which for some reason had blood spurting out of its mouth. The other creature seemed to be in serious pain as well. Both were now on the floor in soundless pain. Then suddenly their motion stopped and they died.

Music started playing from the band instruments, but none of the drums were being hit or any of the strings were being plucked. Regardless, sound was coming from them. The room lit up with light, and when Jeremy walked out to the cafeteria, the entire first floor was illuminated.

"Okay, what the hell just happened!?"

Place: Townview

Time: 3:30

Eclipse 04

I was on the floor; the scythe weapon of the creature was coming down from the air. I was about to die.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH," the creature screamed.

It ran off down the hall and down the stairs and into the darkness of the now wretched school. After opening my eyes fully, I noticed I was not dead. I was spared for the time being. I walked to the set of stairs that I came up and peered down through the second floor. Light was showing through the cafeteria, a brilliant white light. That's where the creature was headed.

"Hopefully who ever went there will be all right," I said to myself. I continued to the left to the other side of the school where there were bathrooms that I haven't explored yet. About halfway down the hall the fire alarm light stopped flashing and I could not see much anymore. The atmosphere grew heavier, I felt like gravity was pushing down on me restricting me from walking. This school is determined to kill me, dead. The creatures haven't killed me yet. The people hanging from the ceiling were tied there and none of the monsters looked capable of that.

Wandering around in the dark proved very unpleasant because I couldn't see what was ahead of me. There was no sound accept for the moans of the monsters. Those moans were all around me. The hall echoed their horrid cries and didn't let me find even a direction of where the source was. The rain was pounding on the glass window overhead, but I didn't count that as a scary noise.

The first bathroom I came to was the men's bathroom, I pushed the swinging door in and groped around the dark wall for the light switch, which I found, and turned on. The light came on and I immediately heard a static type noise coming from one of the stalls. I opened the second one and found a small television sitting on the clean toilet seat. The static cleared up. I could see Tamara running down the hallway and quickly opening a door and rushing into a classroom. Then I saw a creature, crawling on the wall, rush into the classroom directly after her.

******

Tamara walked into the classroom where the man on the phone directed her to help the screaming kids. She found no one in the room except a figure in a hooded jacket sitting on a table on the far side of the room.

"Hello?" Tamara asked. "Where are all the kids that were screaming?"

"That screaming came from your head. The different personas of yourself hiding behind the mask you wear constantly, and though you hide who you are, you cannot escape the real self inside of you. Being that you hide yourself, you are hurting people that would like to be close to you. Vahn for instance."

Tamara's eyes widened from the statement.

A small four legged creature entered the room.

"I hope you can find your true self before it is too late my dear, as you will die or someone close to you will."

Tamara leveled her gun on the cloaked man's head and fired. He vanished. She swung around in time to catch the four legged creature about to attack.

She quickly looked around, grabbed a desk, and shoved it between her and the creature. It jumped at her but hit the desk instead as Tamara jumped out of the way falling to the floor.

A spray of bullets hit the side of the beast sending it flying to the wall. The creature lay on the floor lifeless. Or should it be considered dead when it was never full of life anyway.

Tamara got up, her whole body shaking. She held herself as tightly as one could.

"Vahn, why am I feeling this for you? We have never really been together, but when I see you, there is always something I feel. Stay safe until I am able to see you." Tamara walked out of the classroom and headed toward the main corridor.

Tamara quickly noticed the bright light emanating from the cafeteria. She stared at the light for a moment and saw a person walking up the stairs. The black man wore a white muscle shirt that was not very white anymore. Tamara stayed in her position about twenty feet from the stairs and let the man come to her, which he did.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Jeremy. And you must be Tamara."

"Yes, I am. What happened down there?"

"The light came on that's all I know. After I killed a creature the light just came on. I can't explain it. Some horrible monster with a large weapon came running down the stairs, crossed to the other side of the cafeteria, and went up the other set of stairs."

"That's weird. Do you mind coming with me to the place I'm suppose to go to? Room 256. It's near the place where that monster went."

"No, I don't. Do you have a weapon of any kind?" Jeremy asked. "I really don't. I just have this chain that I'm using to increase the power of my punch."

"Yeah, I do," Tamara showed Jeremy the table leg and her gun. She explained that she really didn't know how she got the gun only that it was her dad's.

"Okay, let's go."

The destination, room 256, was located on the exact opposite side of the school they were on. Jeremy and Tamara passed the main stairwell where Tamara was led astray by the mysterious phone call.

"I haven't seen any of the children around. I wonder where they went?" Jeremy asked.

"The school seems to be changing. Maybe they were sucked into hell before we were. Speaking of which, I haven't seen any monsters around either for a while besides the ones we have killed already," Tamara stated.

"The lights in the school have fully gone out too. Maybe we were sucked into hell and the others are in the real world having fun as we stay here being tortured."

"Whatever the case, something bad is happening to this school. No, to this city and I think we might want to find out what," Tamara said seemingly bold.

"Wow, you're braver than any other girl I have met. Maybe we should go out sometime."

"Ha, you wish." She said to him out loud and to herself said "My heart belongs to someone else. I just hope he realizes it before it's too late."

A few moments later, "Okay, here we are. We just need to turn this corner and walk down this dark hall here."

At the end of the hall thick glass windows stopped the rain from coming into the building, but let the two high school kids' eyes look outside. Instead of going to the classroom the two continued on to the windows and just stared outside into the void. The eclipse mixed with the heavy storm clouds completely blocked out the light. Though they couldn't see the eclipse, they could still tell it was there.

"Is an eclipse supposed to end just as quickly as it covered the sun? I mean, the Earth is always spinning right? But why is the moon still fully blocking out the sun even after some odd hours?" Jeremy asked her.

"I have no idea. Some evil forces are at work here that I can't explain."

* **CRASH** *

They both looked toward the sound and saw what appeared to be a leg sliding down the window leaving a trail of blood along the way.

"That's disgusting," Jeremy stated with disgust.

Tamara and Jeremy turned around and entered room 256 on the right side of the hallway. Upon entering they saw that all the desks were pushed up against the far left side of the room, piled on top of each other. Some of the tiles in the ceiling were missing and wires were hanging out. Two wires stood out the most, a black cut wire and a white cut wire. A message was also scribbled on the chalkboard. They both squinted to read the dim writing. It read: "Heaven and Hell make Earth as it is now."

Tamara got the riddle right away. "Heaven is usually symbolized with white and Hell with black. However, I don't know how they combine to make the world as it is now."

Tamara walked over to the wires and tied them together making the circuit complete. A rush of light quickly and painfully blinded them as the room lit up. A metal object hit Tamara in the head as she held her eyes from the light. She slowly opened her eyes allowing them to adjust to the new found light and picked up the metal object which turned out to be a key to something.

The two left the room to find the entire second floor lit up. Two out of three floors were now back to normal. The room they just left was now filled with kids and the entire hall was filled with screams of terror.

"Maybe they were pulled into a void of some sort and now we released them. Let's hurry and help Vahn finish his task so we can release the school." They both agreed.

******

"Ha,Ha,Ha, you stupid fools, you have no idea what you are doing do you?" Seig sat down in his cushioned rolling chair in the main school office. Four dead bodies lay in a pile in the center of the room. Seig was watching a twelve inch monitor showing the progress of the three students of his nightmare.

"This school is going to be the medium no matter what." Seig's broad sword was stabbed into the floor to the side of him. "I just wish I had some popcorn because this is a good horror movie. However, the screen is not in color. Now, where is that fool Scythe. The second light should have pushed him to the second floor near room 256. And the third light will push him back to the third floor to attack the three kids and finish them off once and for good. I might not even have to get my hands any dirtier with the stain of children's blood."

******

As I watched from the TV for a few extra minutes, I saw Tamara come out of the classroom not harmed at all. I was very relieved. The television went blank, and I left the stall as it did.

I continued to the other bathroom that was right next to the elevator which was positioned next to the boys' bathroom. I opened the heavy wooden door and stepped inside. The lights were off so I turned them on. The bathroom was the same as a regular bathroom. The air even smelled like a regular bathroom.

*Bloop*

I walked forward toward the sound and came to a row of water filled sinks. One of the sinks had a key in it that I picked up. A liquid started flowing through the faucets. It was a foul smelling blood. An image in the mirror caught my eye. The message was not printed on the mirror but in the mirror; seemingly being printed on the back wall, however, as I turned around to look at the wall there was no message written. The message in the mirror read: "Congratulations for solving the riddle." The light burned out and the bathroom turned pitch black.

* **CRACK** *

I covered my ears as the thunder boomed.

"What riddle was the mirror talking about?" Then I recalled the riddle, "Damn, I'm stupid, the way in is the way of light. The key is in the bathroom. The light had to be turned on in all five of the third floor bathrooms. The lounge's lights must already be on." I put the key in my backpack and left the bathroom. Two ax monsters were waiting to greet me outside the bathroom.

******

The furthest one away made the first move. It swung its first ax over Vahn's head as the second ax quickly followed swinging down vertically. Vahn rolled out of the way. Vahn made the next move attacking the other monster. He slashed horizontally at the creature. The creature blocked it but the force of Vahn's sword made the creature stagger backward. Vahn quickly speared the same creature through the throat. With the sword still inside the creature, Vahn slashed left then right decapitating the creature. The first creature came at Vahn again. Vahn cut its attacking arm off and dodged its right arm coming down from over head. It attacked again swinging downward. Vahn then kicked it making it stagger backward. He then decapitated it.

******

"Geeze, that was crazy. They're harder to kill than those things with long blades. Okay, now I can go back to the library."

Another bolt of lightning lit the hallway, nothing special was seen. I continued to walk, in the darkness, back to the library, which wasn't too far from my position.

The stream of blood coming from the library which flowed down the main stairs had stopped flowing and was now crusted to the floor. I walked over to the library door and set my backpack down. I dug through my backpack for the stupid key when I felt a hand on my back. It was Tamara. And, the other guy.

"Could it be? That you, Vahn? It's me, Jeremy, from middle school."

"Oh my god, it is you! What the hell are you doing here man?" I asked.

"Apparently you two know each other," Tamara stated.

"Yeah, we do," Jeremy said. "Anyway, I was on a field trip to this school to see if we wanted to transfer here, and the next thing I know I'm being sucked into hell. I was attacked last night as well. So, I kinda expected to have this happen."

"Okay, enough of the reunion. Let's end this nightmare school, I can feel the darkness closing in on us," Tamara hurried them along.

"Well it's good to see ... the both of you."

I caught Tamara's gaze with my eyes. We stood there for a moment then I picked up my backpack and inserted the key into the hole. After I turned the key and unlocked the door, the key disengaged. I pushed the door open and light filled the entire floor.

* **AHHHHHH** *

A scream from the second floor.

All the books, except one, were gone. The book was standing by itself on the set of shelves in the middle of the room. We walked over and I picked it up. The title was "Hell, Heaven, and Earth". The book was torn and only Hell's section was found. I didn't bother to read it so I put it in my pack.

Jeremy walked to the back of the room and Tamara and I quickly followed. We came up to a gold box sitting on the table in the center back of the room.

"Maybe the key you picked up, Tamara, will open this," Jeremy suggested.

Tamara pulled out her key from her backpack and placed it into the keyhole. The key disengaged the lock and the box opened. There was a button.

"We are almost out of here. I think..." Vahn reached down and pressed the button. A piercing bright white light shot up to the heavens. The light outside pierced the dark clouds. The light dissipated and the darkness quickly returned.

* **Click, Click ...***

A door unlocking could be heard. Children could be heard screaming and running outside in the rain and darkness. The busses were waiting outside to pick up the children and taken them home to end their nightmare. They hopefully make it home in one piece.

"Hey, let's get out of here y'all," I said to my friends.

"Yeah, it would probably be the best idea in the short and long run," Jeremy stated.

"Wait, I need to get my laptop from Cranes room, "I said.

The three friends started to walk out of the lit library when the door blew apart and in stepped a walking piece of flesh with a large scythe.

"Um . . . this can't be good. I fought Scythe, and he almost killed me last time 'til he ran away from me," I stated.

******

Vahn cautiously stepped back as did the others. The creature moved forward. His large weapon did not seem to hinder it from walking. This creature was strong, beyond belief. He raised his weapon and started to run at them. Tamara raised her gun and fired the last four shots in the clip into the creature. It was unaffected by the screaming bullets. The creature jumped at Tamara and attacked vertically with its scythe. Vahn jumped and pushed Tamara out of the way. The scythe was stuck in the ground. It tried to pull itself out but almost the entire scythe was in the floor. Jeremy rushed in and hit the creature with his chained hand. The creature brushed the hit off and hit Jeremy with its hand. Jeremy was thrown across the room.

Vahn took out his sword and charged at the enemy. Vahn swung vertically down. Scythe broke his weapon free from the ground and deflected Vahn's attack.

"This is going to go nowhere fast. We have to make a break for the door," I stated.

"Yeah!" Tamara and Jeremy responded.

Tamara and Jeremy both ran for the door while Vahn distracted the piece of flesh and they made their getaway.

Tamara and Jeremy were both able to escape from the library. Jeremy held the door open for Vahn as he ran toward the door. They all made it out of the library without any more resistance. The Scythe creature was following them, but it was walking instead of running after them.

******

"Quickly, follow me," I said as I reached into my pocket to obtain my phone.

I quickly punched the quick keys for my friend, Erik, who was hopefully on the bus already. We ran down the hall toward the Computer Science class to get my laptop because we might need it later. Someone answered the phone as we made it into the classroom.

"Hold on a sec," I told Erik on the other end of the phone.

"Jeremy, can you pack my laptop into my backpack real quick. Don't forget to put any and all cables attached to it into my backpack as well," I told him as I took off my pack.

"Erik, you need to listen to me. Tell the bus driver to wait for maybe five more minutes. We need to head toward Baylor Hospital. I am on my way."

"Okay, I'll try," came the deep voice from the other side of the phone.

Jeremy handed me the filled pack, and I put it onto my back. We all ran out of the classroom.

"I know a short cut, so follow me," Tamara stated.

Tamara led us down the stairs to the cafeteria and we turned left toward the band hall. At the far left side of the cafeteria there was a walkway toward the school's gym which also led outside to the school parking lot. We arrived into the parking lot and I saw my bus at the far end of it. All the cars in the parking lot were either gone or destroyed.

We were also able to reach the bus and get on. The bus driver made a slick remark as the bus doors closed behind us. Only seven people were on the bus; Tamara and I sat behind Erik, and Jeremy took his seat to the right of us. Jason and Cameron both sat on the right side of the bus with their backs leaning on the frame of the bus.

The bus started moving and turned left onto Interstate 30. The highway headed into downtown Dallas. The pounding rain required the bus driver to drive slower and have the windshield wipers on at high speed.

"Thanks, Erik, for the assist," I said.

"No problem. Now, what the hell is going on?"

"Yeah, we would like to know also if you don't mind," Jason said.

"I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea myself. For some reason someone wants to kill us three for no apparent reason. Monsters are arising everywhere and killing people or injuring them beyond belief," I stated.

The bus rode down the dark and desolate highway. I explained the happenings of today's events, but I couldn't explain how Jeremy got involved in all of this. Maybe it was just coincidence that dragged him into all of this, or maybe it has something to do with his connection to me as a friend. Regardless, I know this night is not at all close to being over.

The bus swerved to the right. I got up to see what happened. The bus driver told me that there was something moving in the road. The bus stopped just a few meters away from the object. I walked to the back of the bus and opened the emergency exit door to get a clearer view in the rain. The object moved. It appeared to stand up on four feet. It looked like a mutated rhinoceros bull.

"GET THIS BUS MOVING NOW!!!" I yelled. The monster started moving toward us as the bus started moving. I closed the door and stood there in the aisle staring at the creature that was picking up speed, coming toward the bus.

The other cars on the highway were few and far between. Some cars were flipped over or had gotten into a wreck with other cars, but mostly the highway was deserted.

"Vahn, come here and take a look at this," Jeremy gestured.

"What's up, yo," I said as I walked over to his seat.

"Take a look at this," he said as he pointed toward the sky.

I notice something hovering above us. Then three more hovering objects came into view from the storm. They were some sort of mutated large birds waiting for attack. The four legged monster was picking up speed and was almost close to gaining on us.

One of the flying monsters swooped down and its wing cut into the entire right side of the bus. Its wings were about two feet long and a good foot and a half penetrated the bus. Its wing cut through the entire length of the bus. I looked at all the people sitting near the window. Their heads fell off, including Jason's and Cameron's head.

"That bastard. Someone is going to pay for this."

* **BAM** *

I was thrust forward as the monster behind us rammed the bus. The bus swiveled back and forth to stay upright and going in the same direction. The bull left a large dent in the back door. It must have been running at a much faster speed than the bus. The bull hit the back door again, this time I was forced to the floor. The door got stuck on its horn and was completely ripped off.

One of the bird creatures flew through the now open door but was immediately repelled by two shots from Tamara's gun. I ran to the front of the bus as I heard a rifle shot from somewhere ahead of us. The driver was shot dead. I pulled him out of his seat and took my place at the wheel. I pushed the accelerator all the way down and the bus hurled forward. The bull could not keep up but it kept running.

The remaining three birds all attached themselves to the roof of the bus and, with their sharp talons, pulled the entire roof off. One bird creature swooped down and pulled a boy, sitting in the back row, into the sky. A woman, with what looked like a sniper rifle, was standing in the road 200 meters from my position. She aimed and fired. I moved the bus quickly out of the way as the shot pierced another kid's neck ripping it off. We went past her as she raised her rifle for another shot. Tamara shot two shots in the general direction to distract her. The woman lowered her rifle.

The bull creature came behind her. She caught a ride on it as its speed somehow increased again. Jeremy just sat in his seat doing nothing but listening to a radio that he found on the floor. The bus plummeted down the streets of downtown Dallas. Monsters were everywhere roaming the streets. I kept going straight, heading for the hospital, trying to see in the dim headlights.

"The bull creature and the lady seem to be gone. I don't see them anymore. I don't see the bird creatures anymore either," Tamara stated.

"That's good," I responded as I slowed the bus down.

Rain poured through the new skylight of the bus. Thunder cracked in the distance followed with immense bright lightning almost immediately. The tall buildings of the city were dark with emptiness. No light, no life. No life except for the monsters wandering about smashing random objects available to be smashed. The flying monsters that were following us seem to have perched on any nearby lamp posts, glaring down at the bus as it drove off down the dark streets. Jeremy walked up to me and peered out of the window trying to look and see if he could see something.

"Vahn ... I kinda have to go to the bathroom. Do you see any restaurants?" Then something caught his eye. "Vahn, stop now!!" he yelled in my ear.

I slowly stopped the bus in front of a building and opened the door. I pulled a plug that let air pressure out of something. I saw previous drivers do this so I thought it would be a good idea. I let go of the large steering wheel and walked out of the bus behind Jeremy and Tamara followed the both of us.

"I found something better," Jeremy pointed his hand to the sign above the door of the building. The sign read: Dallas Police Department. This must be one of their sub stations that handle problems in the area.

"This place will not only have a bathroom but also guns and hopefully flashlights that we can use for later inside the buildings," Jeremy stated.

"Should we leave the others in the bus or bring the live ones into the building?" I asked.

"Yeah, let's bring them in and put them in a safe place," Jeremy concluded.

"Why haven't I seen any other people around? I wonder where they went. Jeremy, Jeremy?"

******

"He ran into the building to go to the bathroom," Tamara said. "Let's get these people out of the bus and into the police station," she said as she walked to the bus.

The entire bus was ripped apart, almost. All the windows were broken on one side and the entire roof was torn off. The people on the bus, the five left alive, walked out of the broken front door. I peered off into the distance and saw some type of creature holding a big weapon. It was Scythe.

"We need to hurry!" I yelled. "It's Scythe, he's coming!"

The people ran into the building as I followed after them. Jeremy came back out seconds later.

"How could he have followed us that far of a distance on foot?" he asked me.

"Maybe there's more than one of the," Tamara suggested.

"Let's hope not," I said as I sheathed my kodachi into my belt.

We ran into the police station and shut and locked the front double doors. Darkness consumed us quickly. I fumbled around for a light switch and finally found it. I switched it on but to no avail. The lights would not work.

"Jeremy, please tell me you found a flashlight while you looked for the bathroom?"

"Yeah, Vahn, I did. Did you find one outsi..."

* **AAHHHH** * * **CRASH** *

Some figure went flying across the room following the scream. The children came running back toward the front of the building. I pulled out my kodachi as I ran toward the danger. Tamara followed closely behind me. I arrived in a stretched out and narrow hallway with doors on either side. I didn't see any monsters. I heard a noise above me on the ceiling. I was grabbed by my neck by some sort of tentacle and pulled up to the second floor of the building. I unsheathed my kodachi and sliced the tentacle. I was released as the creature joined its friends. There were at least twenty or thirty creatures on the second floor's ceiling, floor, walls, and some were even standing on top of each other. I couldn't see them very well, but I could tell each of them had two tentacle arms and four legs and feet for crawling.

I quickly jumped down to the first floor and took Tamara by the hand.

"We have to get out of here now!" I yelled to her. "Creatures are everywhere. JEREMY! Open the front door.

* **CRASH** *

"I don't have to any more. It's Scythe."

I came into view of the front section of the building and saw Jeremy standing in awe at the horrid creature before us as he lifted his blade out of the rubble of the door.

Eclipse: 05

"Um, I think we are kinda trapped, don't you think?" I stated.

A beam of bright light was shown onto the Scythe creature. I looked toward its origin and saw Jeremy with a flashlight. The creature was bleeding all over. Its runny skin was disgusting to look at. The light made it all the more terrible to look at. Its scythe was dripping with blood. I thought about all the kids that ran outside to their deaths, their blood and bodies now spattered all over the street and buildings.

The creatures behind us stopped when they saw Scythe standing in the door. Jeremy kept the flashlight on the creature as he walked to join us in the center of the room. Surrounded, we had nothing to do but hope we wouldn't die.

"Tamara, provoke the creature so we can make him come forward and escape through the door," I told her.

Tamara nodded her head and raised her gun. The creature no longer stood there, it rushed forward with its weapon raised. The creatures behind us charged toward our position. Tamara fired two shots into Scythe and dodged to the side as did Jeremy and I. All the creatures collided into each other in such disarray that bought us enough time to escape death's grasp.

We ran through the building doors and down the street toward the hospital, our next destination. The creatures all attempted to follow us to our new destination. The air smelled highly of blood. The pouring rain wasn't enough to stop the smell from our noses. The now flooded streets were hard to run in. The now ankle deep rushing water pushed against our legs. The crawlers with the tentacles were scurrying along walls catching up to us. Scythe was taking its time walking through the water with its muscular legs. The water was nothing to it, it just kept pushing forward.

Scythe was not the worry for right now, the crawlers were. Tamara shot two down off the wall with a volley of five bullets. The some twenty others moved closer to our position. Then many began slashing with their tentacles at us. I hacked two of them with my sword. Tamara dodged the ones targeted for her with ease. Jeremy was not so lucky. One targeted for him, grabbed a hold of his leg, and pulled him up into the air. I grabbed Jeremy and yanked on him forcing the creature off of the wall into the river of water.

I grabbed the falling flashlight before it hit the water. Jeremy was even more soaked than before because he also took a swim in the water. Tamara pulled him out of the water and we continued running. Baylor Hospital entrance was in sight. I looked back to see if I could see Scythe. It wasn't there. The rain and darkness could have been his cover, for I was unable to see it.

My legs were getting tired of running now, but I pushed myself. The creatures on the walls seemed to stop their attack for now. I fear the worst has yet to come. An ambulance, that was on its side, half filled with water and a stretcher floated by me. I looked ahead and saw some man standing in front of the hospital entrance. He wore a white cape and had a long broad sword at his side. His drenched hair was a flame colored red. His stare pierced my integrity to its bitter end. We stopped nearly twenty feet away from him as he started to walk forward.

"Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Seig. You have come far, father than I expected, but now your time has come, you are no match for me. There is no way you can win against the up-coming evil. There will be no Purgatory for you; you will go directly to Hell.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but we already freed one place from your evil, Seig. So let's get on with this. I will fight you alone," I challenged.

******

Vahn walked forward as he took his backpack off and handed it to Tamara who reminded him to be careful. Vahn took his sheathed sword out of his belt loop and posed for a botojutsu technique, a sword drawing technique. The pouring rain is going to slow my movements. Not by much however. If my movements are to be slowed, then Seig with his broad sword will be even slower.

Seig started into a run raising his broad sword with ease. Vahn took an even greater stance grabbing the hilt of the kodachi with one hand and the sheath with the other. He twisted his hips in a wind-up toy manner to be able to have greater circular momentum.

Seig was almost upon him as Vahn dashed forward. Vahn drew his sword in a spiral manner cutting Seig's left arm off and leaving a large gash in his side just before his armor stopped the attack. Seig flew back in pain and recovered himself.

His arm gushing blood, Seig stood firmly and said, "You are more skilled than I thought. I won't make the same mistake twice in one match. Here I come."

Seig charged again. This time with his sword set in a spear position. Vahn stood in a passive position so he was able to dodge better. Vahn placed his sword up and parried his attack placing his foot in the way of Seig's legs allowing him to topple over on the ground.

"You're horrible, and you said you would kill me. Ha. What a pathetic weakling."

Seig got up. He was mad now by the insults that were given to him. Seig swung his sword at Vahn who deflected it with ease.

"You will not beat me for two reasons. You are injured and not able to swing fast enough with one arm. Two, my sword is shorter and much faster than yours will ever be," I stated with sarcasm.

Vahn punched Seig in the face with an upper cut then deflected Seig's sword attack with his sword. Seig kept swinging his sword but to no avail as Vahn continued to block all of his attacks. Seig fell onto the ground as blood slowly seeped out of his arm.

"I'm actually surprised you made it this long against me with loosing an arm and a large gash in the side and massive blood loss."

"Fine, I am defeated, but you will never defeat my master or escape this nightmare," Seig gargled on blood.

With his last amount of strength, Seig was able to swing his massive blade one more time. Vahn merely stabbed Seig in the chest through his armor killing him instantly.

******

I looked at Tamara who was in awe about the situation. She was shocked to see me taking pleasure in killing. The art form of death; playing with my victim; letting my victim suffer with ease; and without a thought about it, killed the man. I looked away and continued to walk toward the building. Tamara and Jeremy exchanged glances of fear and terror.

The towering hospital loomed over us with a dark atmosphere that sent chills through our bones. Windows were shattered; people lie on the ground as though they were thrown out of the windows. The water building up in the road continued to flow into the building. The water level was just above my ankles, but the force of the water pushed against them. The glass double doors leading into the building were already open.

As usual all the lights were off and the flashlight was the only source of light. The registration counter was enclosed and the only way to do anything with the person or persons on the other side was through a bullet proof window with a microphone and a slot for papers.

Jeremy moved the flashlight around the room revealing the entire floor flooded ankle high with water. The walls were soaking wet with the cheap wallpaper peeling off the walls. A few bottles of medicine were floating in the water. Doors leading to many different rooms were scattered down the L-shaped hall. Gurneys lined the walls, some with dead patients on them with an arm hanging over the edge.

No sound was heard. Not even the rain. With further inspection we noticed the rain had stopped falling on the world bringing its dread. No sound, except the ringing in our ears, was heard.

"I guess we should start exploring on the first floor," I said.

"What are we looking for?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, I guess some sort of switches that will activate something to bring us out of the hell hole and back into the real world," I stated.

"What if this is the real world?" a quiet pause followed Tamara's question.

We started walking farther into the building and a blinding light split the darkness and shot into our eyes. The origin of the beam revealed a receptionist counter with two flashlights, a small toy doll with a pin in its head, and a note in an envelope.

I walked up to the counter and pulled the letter out from the envelope. The letter had a doll printed on it with a pin in her head with a few words under the picture. The words stated: Complete me, I am lonely. I turned the letter over and noticed a full paragraph on the back of it.

Split up if you dare, but be warned if you take too long the hospital will fall. The doll's brother will be your only way out. There are six parts to the doll: head, body, arm, two legs, and a needle. Be quick or they will come for you...

"Well, I guess we know what we are looking for, but we don't have any idea where to start looking. We do need to split up. I will take the top floor and work my way down," I said.

"Be careful and watch out for Scythe. He might be wandering around in the building somewhere," Jeremy warned.

"I will take the first floor and work up the floors," Tamara stated.

"I guess I will go in the middle and search around," Jeremy groaned.

"Okay, well, I guess we can all explore this floor together since I need to find some stairs and or an elevator," I said as we started to walk down the L-shaped hall on the long side.

The darkness of the room succeeded in covering up any chance of finding anything small. The three flashlights together were able to remedy some of the hindering darkness. The doors leading to all the rooms were large doors able to fit gurneys needing to pass through. We opened the first door on the left side of the hall to find nothing, just an empty hospital bed and a barred window. We walked out and turned around to find an elevator in front of us. The doors were wide open as if inviting me to go into them.

I was compelled to go into the dark small elevator. Jeremy and I walked into the elevator and I looked back to Tamara who had a sort of scared look on her face.

"Will you be okay down here by yourself?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah," she said. "I'll be fine." The elevator doors closed in front of her preventing any other communication.

"You know, Vahn, she likes you," Jeremy said as he pushed the number three button and the number six button.

Place: Hospital

Time: 5:12

Eclipse: 06

Jeremy got off the elevator on the third floor. Vahn continued to the sixth floor.

"Well, it looks like a regular hospital so far," Jeremy stuttered as he walked out of the elevator. "I wonder what kind of horrid concoctions the enemy will come up with. I guess I'm talking to myself to comfort myself because I'm scared out of my mind."

Jeremy tightened the chain around his right fist, "I kinda wish I had a better weapon too, maybe I'll find something that I can use as a blade." Jeremy moved his flashlight around the half lit hall. Most of the overhead lights were broken, glass was everywhere on the floor, and the darkness was barely broken by the scattered pockets of light. The flashlight revealed to Jeremy that the hallway was entirely empty. There were no benches, gurneys, or most importantly no enemies.

However, as he moved his flashlight further down the hall he noticed a red door built into the end of the hallway. This door had some small words written on it. Jeremy was too far away to read the words. He started walking down the hall and stopped at the first door on the right. The door read C-12 and had a patient's chart by it. Jeremy picked up the chart out of curiosity. The chart read:

**Patient:** Thomas Binds

**Age:** 47

**Diagnosis:** Schizophrenia

**Notes:** One personality is a nice sweet 10 year old girl; the other is a vicious dog of some sort.

**Treatment:** None, use restraints and extreme caution.

"This man sounds interesting, I wonder if he is still here, with this hospital going to hell and all," he said as he opened the door to room C-12.

The heavy metal door swung open with Jeremy's push. A foul odor rushed at him. Jeremy covered his nose as he peered into the room with his flashlight. A barred window was the only source of the outside world. A restraining bed with a man attached to it, dead, sat in the corner.

Jeremy walked in trying to ignore the rancid smell of a decaying body. Nothing immediately caught his eye except the body, which he could swear he thought was staring at him. He left the room with relief moments later. He closed the door, but the smell still lingered. The smell made him somewhat a little dizzy. However, he pressed on to the next door which had another medical chart on it.

**Patient:** David Witherman

**Age:** 17

**Diagnosis:** Violent mood swings

**Notes** : This young boy is very calm at first glance. However, don't anger in any way. Mood changes to extremely violent behavior.

**Treatment:** Mental therapy seems to have no effect. Use tranquilizers intravenously.

Jeremy decided he wanted to stay away from this door until he found some sort of sedative to use. He moved on to the next room: C-10. The door was locked and no chart was given. Doors C-9 through C-4 were all locked with no charts given. The red door was becoming closer, and looked even less inviting than any of the other doors. The door leading to C-3 contained a chart stuck to the door. The part of the hall Jeremy reached was darkest of them all. The chart read:

**Patient:** Robert Williams

**Age:** 62

**Diagnosis:** Bipolar Disorder

**Notes:** Patient believes strongly in God and Satan. His personality reflects these two extremes. Stay away.

"My god, my grandfather!"

******

"Grandpa!" the little boy screamed with joy. Jeremy ran up to his grandfather in the hospital bed and jumped upon the bed.

"Oohff! My, you're so big. How old are you now?" he asked.

"I'm seven years old and how old are you?"

"Ha, ha, ha ..."

Two years later...

"Is grandpa going to be alright?" Jeremy asked the doctor at 9 years old.

The doctor knelt down to Jeremy's level and immediately Jeremy knew that his grandpa was not going to be alright. "Son," the doctor said calmly, "your grandfather has a condition called Bipolar Disorder. In another word your grandfather can become very happy or very mad and might hurt someone."

Five months later ...

"AHH!"

"Mr. Williams, please, calm yourself. Where's the tranquilizers, and take the boy out of here."

Jeremy was taken out of the room as a woman with two syringes came in. More screaming was heard.

******

"My grandfather had the worst Bipolar Disorder ever recorded throughout the world. I hope to god these damn enemies don't bring him back," Jeremy said to himself. "In the end, police had to shoot him after threatening the lives of several babies."

He opened the door cautiously and slowly. The large grey door was very easy to push in. Light flooded into the hallway. The light in the room was on but absolutely nothing was in the room, except a small key dangling in midair attached to an envelope which was ultimately attached to the ceiling. Jeremy plucked the key into his pocket, opened the envelope, and read the paper. The paper had only two words: Condition: alive.

His heart started to pound in his chest faster and faster.

*BaBump, Babump*

"Damn those bastards, I don't want to do this at all! This makes me sick!" he said as he threw the letter and himself to the ground.

*BaBump, BaBump*

A tear rolled down his face.

******

"Go say goodbye to grandpa dear. This is *sniff* the last time . . . you're going to be allowed to see him again," the mom turned around and cried.

"Goodbye, grandpa." The grandfather did not respond. He was sedated. Jeremy kissed him on the forehead and left the room with his mom as the doctors moved in to take him to a high security wing. After which, everything went downhill.

******

"I guess the next thing I need to do is walk through that red door." Jeremy got up and shook his head to clear his mind. The red door in the hall had been waiting for him. He inserted the key into the locked door, opened it, and walked through it. The key disintegrated as the door closed behind him.

******

"Ha, ha, Jeremy just walked into Hell, and Vahn has been there since he entered the top floor," the woman said.

"Good job, Sasha. So far the school has become one medium and now it's only a matter of time before the other two are activated," the cloaked figure said. "Stupid Seig got killed but his job was finished so it doesn't matter. I want these kids dead before the third beacon is lit, then light the beacon yourself."

"Yes sir. I will not fail," the woman said as she held up her rifle and walked out the door.

"You, speechless one, will head to the executive tower that I designated as the third location. Set up something nice for Vahn and the others, Vahn especially." The hulking giant, holding an ax meant for Thor, nodded and walked off dragging his ax along.

"Yes, everything is going to plan right now. The eclipse is locked in place and time has stopped. The border between Heaven and Hell will soon shatter and flow into Earth. My minions have to believe in what they are doing for this to work, and they are playing their part very well."

******

"My shoes are totally soaked and I'm ready to take this drenched backpack off," Tamara whined. "And my clothes are stuck to my body. It may look sexy, but it's very uncomfortable." Tamara was wading through ankle high water. The walls were soaking wet and various lights on the ceilings were somehow filled with a dark liquid and they looked as if they were going to fall into the water any minute. Panel lights not filled with the liquid were dimly lit.

"Where do I even begin?" she said as she explored around the upcoming corner. "Let me just look around here then I will start exploring rooms."

She was greeted, when she rounded the corner, by a wide open door leading downstairs. The water was quickly flowing through the doorway and down the stairs into the basement.

"This doesn't look too inviting whatsoever. However, I guess I have to go down there."

Most of the surrounding water had already flowed into the basement area. Tamara walked in the uninviting door and it shut behind her. The water flow ceased and blocked the door. She turned on her flashlight and readied the table leg that she had brought from the school.

The stairs continued to go down into the bowels of hell, or so it seemed. The narrow stairwell had a line of blood on both walls, fresh blood.

* **Clank,Clank** *

Tamara froze in her tracks. Something was walking up the metal stairs. Water had still been on the stairs. She shined the flashlight down the stairwell but didn't see anything.

* **Clank,Clank** , **Clank** *

The sound grew louder and louder coming closer and closer. Tamara's adrenaline was pumping in her blood stream.

She still didn't see anything until the sound was three steps below her. There was no figure, just invisible feet splashing on the stairwell. Tamara stepped to the side and the invisible entity continued up the stairwell. A cold blast of air followed the steps passing, pushing her down. She got back up and brushed herself off. The feet stopped making noise.

Tamara continued walking down the stairs and finally came to the end. The water level was waist high from all of the water flowing to the bottom. A gate closed behind her and a monster crawled down onto the gate and wrapped its tentacle around the bars. Its one eye looked straight at Tamara; its massive body covered the entire gate. The monster made no aggressive movements toward Tamara.

"I guess I'm not going back that way," she said out loud.

She dropped her guard and started wading around in the water with her flashlight searching for signs of anything. The flooded narrow hallway yielded no doors, no lights, and no life. Tamara came within light range of another door.

The wooden door was blocked by the water. Tamara tried to pull on it. It was hard to pull, but a small crack managed to open.

* **Clash** *

"What was that?" Tamara turned around closing the door again. She pointed the flashlight down the hall and saw nothing. A ripple of water flowed toward her.

* **Clash** . . . . **Clash** *

The sound was getting closer to her.

* **Clash** . . . . **Clash** . . . . **Clash** *

Tamara turned around and pulled hard on the door trying to open it. It barely budged.

* **Clash** . . . . **Clash** . . . . **Clash** . . . . **Clash** *

The sound was almost upon her. She dared not look back for fear of being frozen in fear. Instead she put her right foot on the wall and pushed with it as she pulled with her arms. Her flashlight was in her pocket along with her gun. She jammed the table leg into the slight opening of the door and was now pulling on that.

* **CLASH** . . . . **CLASH** . . . . **CLASH** *

She pulled the door open a little more. The water was rushing to get into the opening. She pulled with all her might getting more strength from fear and adrenaline pumping throughout her blood. Tamara pulled the door open far enough for her to barely squeeze in. She went through, and the door immediately closed.

* **CRASH** *

The door rattled and sent tremors through the concrete causing her to lose her balance and fall on the ground.

Tamara lost her table leg on the other side of the door. She got up and brushed herself off and quickly covered her nose. A horrible reeking smell hit her like a ton of bricks.

The hallway Tamara entered was another long hallway, but this one was filled with doors on both sides. There were many doors. The hallway seemed to continue forever.

"What the hell is this horrible smell?" The smell was almost gagging her. She continued to hold her nose with her hand as she started walking down the hall.

Light throughout the hallway started to flicker violently as if fighting the darkness. Finally the darkness won and the lights burned out. Several doors had a flickering light leaking out of the cracks in the door.

"I guess this is the only way to go. I hope I see the light of day again. This will be the darkest hour of my venture." Tamara's strength was fading, her eyes showed every bit of this. Her walk was still stout but her heart was lagging.

*Crackle*

This noise continued to echo through the hall. Yet another unfamiliar noise that could easily be another danger waiting to take her life.

She shined her flashlight down the hall. There was nothing that could be seen beyond the darkness.

* **AHHH** *

A scream echoed down the hallway as the lights in a distant doorway grew brighter. More crackling followed the scream.

"I can only imagine what operations are going on in these rooms" Tamara shrugged and rolled her eyes as she was now ready to see what lie behind these doors.

After coming to the first door she opened it. The handle was hot and a blaze of heat rapidly hit her along with more of the wretched smell. The entire back of the room was a huge furnace, charred corpses and bones strengthened the fire.

Keeping her nose covered she continued into the oven, leaving the door open behind her. The light came only from the furnaces. Two tables and gurneys held some sort of figures covered by blankets. The shape of the body was human. Tamara walked up to the gurney on the right and pulled the sheet just enough to uncover the head. Nothing special was seen, after quickly covering the head back up, she moved to the gurney on the left and pulled the cover off, still nothing special.

She turned around and immediately stepped back in horror. The burnt naked man was sitting straight up on the right gurney. It turned and slid off the table, trying to stand up, it fell face first onto the ground. Then the creature on the left gurney got up and stood firmly on the ground. Tamara made a break for the door and when she reached it, she turned and took one final look at the zombies and exited the room. She left the room only to find twelve more zombies roaming the halls; six on each side of her. The zombies were immediately alerted to her presence and started coming after her.

They groaned, they twitched, they wobbled, and spasmed as they came. The horrid smell reeked throughout the halls. The moans echoed like a person first getting out of bed. Their first attack did not come physically but mentally. Tamara immediately equipped her gun and took aim.

******

The elevator door slid open and it hit me. The smell. The awful stench hit me as if someone threw a brick in my face forcing me back against the wall of the elevator. Not only was the stench bad, but the scenery was worse. Four dead nurses stumbled down the hall. But that was the nice part. On the floor, on the walls and on the ceiling were bodies of zombies pinned to the walls by large stakes through their bodies. They reached out for me, trying desperately to grab me.

I tried the elevator button to maybe move to a different floor, the power was dead. The stench started burning my eyes. Focus! In ten seconds I dashed forward and hacked the four wandering nurses into several pieces. I continued walking past them until something grabbed my leg. I turned. It was a piece of a hand of one of the zombies I just killed. I pulled it off my leg and threw it.

The other nurses started moving and spasming toward me. They apparently did not want to stay dead. I ran further down the hall escaping from the enemy.

I kept my nose covered through the hall. There was no way I could possibly acclimate to this wretched smell. Every time I breathed I thought I was continuing to become infected with some kind of viral infection that could kill me slower and ever more painfully than any monster could.

The first set of zombies I mutilated still wiggled and wormed about on the floor trying desperately to move toward me. A few of the zombies on the walls and ceilings, that were pinned, still tried to reach at me.

I was beginning to weaken, under the pressure of the dead. Their dark piercing eyes tried to entangle me in their crossroads of life and death.

Coming to the first door not blocked by the dead, I opened it. To my relief I found the room clean and fresh with the smell of mountain berry fragrance. Upon the bed in the further corner of the room laid a straight, ironed blanket. On top of the blanket was another letter in an envelope addressed to me.

The envelope was wet and smelled as if someone urinated on it. I picked it up with my finger tips and pulled the soggy letter out and unfolded the tri-folded piece of paper. It read:

The dead see without eyes.

They see your friends suffering, their strength waning.

The dead hear without ears.

They hear the cries for help from the silent mouth of your friends.

The dead know all and will not let you go.

A doll piece is close yet you have a far journey to go.

Have fun!

A strange signature was signed at the bottom, smeared, however, and ink ran down the page. I scanned the room once more and prepared myself to return outside once again.

Opening the door, my eyes widened with relief as the hall was entirely clean. Pure sparkling white walls reflected the illuminated lamps on the clear translucent ceiling. I looked at the floor, and I could see right through it down two floors where the bottom of the last floor, I could see, was covered in blood and blackened out. I could look up and see the dark sky above and random flashes of lightning sparked. The darkness was steadily growing, flooding, like water into the building, but slowly as an ooze rolling down a hill.

For now I could walk in the light, and that is what I did. I walked to the next room on the right and opened it. I was forced back by the smell of decay and death. The door swung the rest of the way open. I poked my head in and saw two undead nurses slicing some abomination open. Something shining caught my eye that was inside that abomination.

The far nurse saw me and both of them twisted and spasmed as they started to walk. Their leg muscles clenched as they walked, and they walked as if both of their knees were broken. Their knees were folded sideways inward. The closer of the two nurses held her hand over her head with a scalpel ready to attack.

*****

Drawing his sword and cutting that arm off was the first task Vahn accomplished. The arm flew across the room as blood spilled out of the horrendous wound. The bloody nurse did not seem to notice her loss of arm for she still swung down with her shoulder. Her momentum forced her onto the floor.

Vahn dashed forward and beheaded the first nurse and was surprised to find the corpse dead. He then pierced the skull of the last one pinning it to the wall. Its body convulsed on the wall as it died. Vahn slowly slid his blade out while it was streaming blood onto the floor. The corpse also fell onto the floor.

I dared to look at the open body on the table. All of the organs in the stomach still seemed intact but the blood, however, seemed to be drained out. Behind the stomach area there was a silver object, a key, about three inches long was lodged into the kidney. I pulled it out after cutting an opening with my blade, and put it into my pocket. After wiping the blood off of my sword, I sheathed it, and I walked out of the room.

The lighted hallways were becoming darker ever so slowly. I had the sinking feeling that time was running out.

My mind was swirling on different images of what could be happening around me. What Jeremy was doing and even more importantly, what Tamara was doing. I had hoped this enemy, this central terror, was kind to them. I wished I could stop this madness by myself, stop it from harming others, from harming my friends. I have to place my trust in Jeremy and Tamara to help me stop this nightmare no matter what. Even more horrifying was the one truth that I know: We can't win. We haven't even begun to see the horrors that could possibly await us, to kill us, to mangle our bodies, and wreck our minds. Was this the same world as I knew it or has this world changed because time has stopped. The horrors that await a frozen world have truly not yet been seen.

Time: 3:30

Eclipse: 07

Jeremy nervously took in his surroundings, the horrid desolate surroundings. The walls were a kind of black that made it seem as if it was a black hole. Gurneys lined most of the walls. Absolutely no light showed in the abyss. Gravity seemed to push in on him.

Jeremy's flashlight was very dim in the surrounding darkness. Visibility was only about ten feet in front of him. Jeremy stretched his right arm out to try to see more with his flashlight to no avail. Nothing more could be seen. The rest of the hall was left to be heard and feared.

Jeremy took a step forward, his shoe steps echoed throughout the corridor. He took another step. That echo increased in sound slightly as the first echo returned. Jeremy's third and fourth step continued to increase in sound unbelievably. He continued to walk and started to cover his ears after a few more steps.

* **Groan** *

Another sound flowed through the hallways. A low grumbling sound started to ring in his ears.

* **Klomp,Klomp** *

Steps of some sort were moving toward him. Jeremy froze in his steps, listening to the everlasting doom coming toward him, and wrapped his chain tighter around his right hand. The dead nurse came into view, she was holding a scalpel. Jeremy, just for convenience, switched his chain to his right hand and moved the flashlight to his left. Almost within arm's reach the nurse started her swing. Almost immediately two more nurses, holding the same weapon, came into view.

He rushed the first one hitting her square in the chest. Her entire upper body bent over backward over her hips. She lifted herself back up, catching Jeremy off guard, and made an attempt to slash at him but was too far away to actually score a hit. The other two nurses, coming into range, raised their weapons. Jeremy shoved the first nurse into both of the other two forcing them all to the ground. Jeremy jumped into the air and landed on his first attacker's skull. It crushed under his weight; the decayed bones were already weak. A pool of blood and bone shards quickly spread out.

The other two zombies were starting to get up. Finally the first zombie was standing all the way up; Jeremy extended his first two fingers of his right and thrust them through the soft area under the jaw of the zombie. As blood spilled down his arm, his fingers still half in its mouth, Jeremy twisted and threw the monstrous creature into the hospital wall head first killing it immediately.

The third nurse zombie attacked as Jeremy recovered his hand and made a clean cut into his left arm. Jeremy cringed as the dirty scalpel stuck in him. The nurse was without a weapon now; he took it out and thrust it into the nurse's head. Her legs gave way and she fell lifeless on the ground.

Jeremy put pressure on his arm and winced in pain. He felt the pulsing of his warm blood. Putting the chain around his neck he picked up the flashlight and put it half into his pocket. His muscle shirt was now totally soaked in blood. He opened the door to the first hospital room hoping to find materials he could use.

More zombies filled the room - two of them this time. Jeremy quickly looked around for materials he could use, after finding nothing with his quick scan he closed the door before he was noticed.

He looked down the hall as a red light illuminated a sign on a door. It read: "Operating Room". Apparently an operation was in progress he thought to himself. Slowly he moved toward the door. The dismal atmosphere aided in his discomfort. He was being led somewhere, to something, to an end either to the hospital or his life. He felt very close to obtaining a doll piece to get him out of this hell hole. He was glad he did not have to face his grandfather . . . as of yet.

* **Clank . . . Clank** *

Jeremy quickly turned around and shined his flashlight down the hall. A tall dark figure had entered the hallway out of view. Jeremy noticed one important detail about this threat: a gigantic scythe. Jeremy stepped back in horror and disbelief. This creature was still following him. Thoughts raced through his head. Had he already killed Tamara and Vahn, and was I the only person left?

Jeremy turned and bolted for the nearest door. Locked! He tried the next one. Locked! All locked! Except for the operating room where the light was on. Jeremy hurried down the hall, looking back he saw scythe now running down the hallway gaining on him. This scythe, however, was not in attacking position. Jeremy turned his head forward for fear he might trip on something and almost ran into the double doors labeled Operating Room. He swung the double doors open and immediately closed them as he slipped through. The doors locked behind him. He looked through the rectangular windows to see where scythe was, but the monster was nowhere to be found. Jeremy relaxed and turned around.

The room was large and circular with one operating table in the center of the room. Two nurse zombies were working on a patient. The patient was restrained by body, arm, and leg restraints. It seemed to be trying to break free. His mouth was also stuffed and covered preventing him from loudly screaming. Blood covered the floor and an extremely bright light hung overhead.

One of the nurses, the furthest one, grabbed some sort of scissors and started to cut. The patient screamed or rather tried to, but only a muffled yell came out instead.

"I guess I can take them by surprise and try and save that person if that's what he is," Jeremy thought to himself. His arm was still aching from the cut. He looked around quickly for a weapon but found nothing. Jeremy rushed forward and jumped, kicking with both feet, the nurse square in the back. The nurse and Jeremy both toppled over. He got back up quickly, grabbed both her arms, stepped on her back, and pulled. A cracking sound was made and the nurse went limp.

The other nurse had finally realized what was happening and came to attack Jeremy with the scissors. Jeremy reverse punched her in the throat breaking every bone in the front half. She staggered backwards while Jeremy grabbed a hold of her head and broke her neck instantly rekilling her.

Taking a second to catch his breath he switched his attention to the man on the table. The lone figure had a pale face and an old complexion. Immediately Jeremy recognized his grandfather.

******

The blazing heat finally started to die as Tamara emptied the rest of her first clip and an entire second clip into all the zombies in the hallway. Sweat was dripping down her face, her makeup had all but come off and her clothes were soaked, not by the previous water, but now by her own sweat. She reloaded her empty clip with a fresh one from her backpack. The zombies proved to be fairly easy to kill; however, their sheer numbers would eventually win.

She moved down the hallway trying all the locked unlit doors. The long hallway was only lit by the flickering firelight coming from beneath the doorways. The half burnt zombies littered the hallway, and the increasing smell of burnt flesh and hair filled the hall. The hall seemed to be slanted downwards because the blood was flowing that way. The ceiling was low only about a foot over Tamara's head. The width of the hall was less than arms length apart. She felt constrained, confined in this hell hole

Finally, she came to a lit room. She quickly flung open the door and readied her weapon. Immediately flames, crawling on the wall, caught her eye. The flaming flames made a sentence on the wall which read: Heaven has entered the world.

"Well, I guess that's good," she told herself. However, a horrid feeling was left with her words. She didn't feel comforted by this fact, but a deep terror. Not only did the words, left in flame, give her this feeling of unrest, but the fact that the dead were still alive. What if Heaven had a part in creating this nightmare?

"It can't be," she tried to reassure herself. "Forget it. I will get answers later. For now, let me focus on the problem at hand."

* **Clank** *

Tamara turned around at the noise and immediately dropped to the floor as a large scythe swept over her head. A few strands of her hair floated to the ground. She quickly looked up in time to see the great scythe coming down over her head. She rolled out of the way and got up. The massive scythe struck the ground igniting the blade of the scythe. The creature was so strong and the blade so sharp that it was cutting the ceiling and walls around it as it swung the massive weapon.

Tamara was finally able to take a second to regain herself. She saw that Scythe was standing in the doorway. She reached for her gun, took it out and fired three shots - two to his body and one to the head. All three made a sound as if they hit metal. She stepped back in awe. The creature moved closer to her unblocking the doorway, however, the massive scythe could easily reach across the room to kill her. The flames of the blade made her worry even more, for now she could see into the eyes of the creature, the flames reflected in its eyes. Its eyes were of pain and sorrow.

Scythe stepped forward, stepped forward again, and again, raising its scythe for a horizontal strike. Tamara was almost backed against the burning wall, the flames heating her skin. She stopped before she got burned anymore. "I am not going to die," she thought to herself over and over again. The flames were reaching out to her on one side and the massive scythe was poised to kill on the other side. Scythe swung quickly, Tamara dived forward, jumping over the scythe, and past the creature. She hit the ground and rolled to a standing position and continued running toward the door at full speed not looking back. She slammed the door behind her shutting the creature in.

Equipped with her flashlight, she charged down the hall.

* **CRASH*** *

Tamara kept running, not looking back at the sound which was probably the creature coming after her. There was absolutely no light in the hall except the dim shine of her flashlight. No flames flickered under the doorway.

Tamara quickly pulled her backpack around in front of her and pulled the rest of her gun clips out and stuffed them into her pants. This process slowed her down a little.

* **Clank . . . Clank . . . Clank** *

She could now hear the horror behind her coming to deal her death of all unnatural types. Once finished emptying her backpack, she tossed it to the ground, then greatly increased her running speed. The creature also seemed to increase its speed.

"What the hell?"

The hallway was narrowing as she ran further down it. Fear was escalating. She was being led somewhere, herded like a cow into a corner, a cow herded into a slaughter house.

She kept running. The hallway seemed infinite, but the hall was still narrowing. She was bent over to keep from hitting her head. The creature stopped walking toward her and blocked her path. Tamara looked at the creature and sighed. The creature seemed to look right through her and was looking as if the creature was given the orders to stop and not pursue. It stood there breathing in and out with no sense of emotion on its face. It looked as if it wanted to attack, its body fully tense, but it was held back by some higher force. At that moment Tamara was fully aware that something or someone was playing with them. She didn't like being played with, however, with a huge monster standing in the way she had no choice but to continue on.

The walls had now enclosed her into a crawling space with a width and height barely enough to accommodate her small body. The darkness also enveloped her, smothering her, and the dim light of the hallway now merely a crawlway. She was breathing hard, her heart racing, the fear of being trapped in this dark hole forever. Claustrophobia. She could not stand being trapped.

What if water flowed down me, what if monsters crawled to attack me, what if I had to turn around, what if . . . She hesitated to crawl any further but realized she could not go back.

The walls enclosed a few inches more. She could not turn around now even if she wanted to. Tamara crawled for what seemed like eternity until she came to a split in the road. One went right and the other left. Both were just as tight as the tunnel she was now in.

* **Rumble** *

The tunnel started shaking, Tamara clenched in anticipation of her own demise while she screamed loudly.

*****

I was startled as I felt the tremor and heard a scream following it. The scream seemed to be coming from many floors below me and in the general direction in front of me. This scream was not a gargled scream like those of the monsters, no this scream came from Tamara, my chest tensed and my heart seemed to stop as I came to this realization. I can't do anything for her because I don't even know where she is. She's below me, that's all I knew. There is nothing I can do for either of my friends, even if I wanted to.

Figuring out that I was going in circles, meaning when I walked through the door at the end of the hall I would arrive in the very same hallway. One thing remained the same, the darkness was closing in from above and whatever is below me is coming up. I had to get out of this complete circle fast or I would die. I had not noticed it before but many holes were made in the floor; many small holes.

I decided to keep looking for clues, anything out of the ordinary, or anything ordinary out of the non ordinary which ever makes sense in this wretched place. The third door on the right was unlocked. I opened it and stepped in. Computer terminals, office equipment, stacks and stacks of papers lined the walls. I wasn't going anywhere so I decided to jack my laptop into an Ethernet outlet. Pulling my backpack around and checking my laptop for any damages, after finding none fortunately, I pulled a plug from behind a computer and plugged the Ethernet cable into my laptop. I'm now connected through high speed internet.

My laptop finally turned on and I logged onto my instant messenger service. No one was on. Next I checked the live news stations, still nothing. The web site was not available. Next, for the fun of it I checked my e-mail. I clicked the send/receive button and forty-two e-mails came through. All of them titled "Death".

"What is this, maybe forty-two ways of dying?" I thought in a cheerful tone. All of the e-mails contained attachments. I opened the first direct e-mail, nothing was in it. Next I opened the attachment and executed the .exe file in it. A doll started jumping around the screen. Its right arm tore off, then both legs, the head, the body. All there was left was its left arm. The arm started blinking and words started appearing on my screen. "Heaven has entered the world; you are very close to discovering a piece of the doll. Try the door leading to the hell world again." My computer shut off and the entire room blackened. The darkness had finally arrived. I groped around for my backpack and found it and pulled my flashlight out. A dim light poured out of the now on flashlight. I put my laptop back into the backpack along with the cable I now had "acquired" and left the room.

* **Skuffle,skuffle,Ark** *

Something's walking, and a cry from that something. I couldn't see but maybe ten feet in front of me with my dim light I drew my sword into my right hand and held the flashlight in the left.

* **Scrape,cling,cling** *

Something metal being dragged on the floor. I had to keep moving. Whatever is below me could still be rising and I don't want to be here when it gets here.

* **Arrrk** k*

I was moving toward the sound at a regular pace. I came to two doors on both sides of the hallway. Both had a long steel board nailed to them, obviously I wasn't going in there. I continued on down the hall.

* **Clank,Clank** *

I feared this noise because I've heard it before; hopefully my mind was playing tricks on me. I continued walking. The next three doors were barred, the examination room up and to the left of the hallway, barred.

The something moving finally came into my view. Another dead nurse equipped with a bed pan, in her left hand, filled with some sort of liquid. Its right arm was twisted inwards and a piece of bone sticking out of its flesh.

I attacked making a downward strike aiming for its head. The nurse blocked my strike with the bed pan sloshing the liquid all about. I was forced backward as the nurse slammed the pan into my head with incredible force for a dead creature. I was dazed for a moment as the creature swung again. I blocked with my left arm, jumped up, and speared the nurse in the head with my sword. She stepped backwards from the force but other than that she didn't seem to care about the hole in her head.

"Not these again, argh," I said with a sigh.

* **Clank,Clank** *

The sound was louder than the last one.

I sent the nurse's arm with the bed pan flying. Next, I made gashes in her chest and stomach. Still she insisted on moving toward me with aggressive force. I tried the next obvious thing and severed its head from its body. The head ceased to move, but the body started spasming in all sorts of directions, but it continued to look for me groping around in the darkness of blindness. I extended my sword and proceeded to push her out of the way. She stumbled and hit the wall. I continued on down the hall and tried the next door on the left this time. It opened.

The room was a public shower area. Six shower stalls lined two walls with what looked like a flashlight shaped shower-head. Water was dripping down. I scanned my flashlight around the room once more before I decided nothing important was there. I walked out.

The headless zombie was still banging into walls outside of the shower stalls. Pointing my flashlight to the path I had already came, I scanned the hallway and found two more nurses some distance behind me, too far away to be of any concern at the moment. I ignored them and moved on.

I didn't hear the clanking sound anymore, or at the moment anyway. All I heard was the echoes of the feet scraping on the tiled floor and random groans of the zombies. Nothing I couldn't handle.

Continuing on down the long hallway I noticed a door with a sign on it nailed to the door. The sign read: "Stay Out". My inevitable curiosity tugged at me. I had to know what was behind that door. I tried the door knob; to my surprise it was unlocked. The door swung out into the hall unlike the other doors that swung in. I stepped into the threshold of the door. The door closed and pushed me in. I fell on my face as I heard the door lock. My flashlight fell and turned off. I was trapped in an extremely dark area with no defense against the unseeable.

Place: Desolate areas of the hospital

Eclipse: 08

After the rumbling stopped, Tamara took a moment to compose herself. Catching her breath she turned her attention to the two dark tunnels. She shined her flashlight down both of the tunnels again to make sure neither had collapsed, neither had, they were both fully intact and seemed less inviting as before. A cool breeze flowed from behind her; somehow it was a fresh breeze, somewhat refreshing.

"I guess I will have to randomly choose what tunnel to go down," her voice echoed back, degraded.

She chose the left on hoping it was the right one. The correct one rather. She tried to scurry down the tunnel as fast as possible, but the small enclosure allowed her to barely move. She still dragged on. Crawling seemed to be a challenge. Tamara was using muscles she had never used before. Her elbows were becoming bumped and scratched up on the cement floor. Not much dust had accumulated on the floor, actually none had as if this place was either just cleaned or only just created. Either way the tunnel was unusual, weird, and horribly terrible all at the same time.

She crawled, and crawled, and crawled some more seeming to get nowhere but obviously going somewhere. Finally, she noticed a change in the tunnel. There were carvings of pictures of some sort. Circles, with more circles, triangles and squares and mathematical writing of some high level mathematics above calculus. Tamara couldn't make heads or tails of the work. The work looked like astronomical projections of some sort.

She ran her fingers over some of the carvings and they began to glow a deep aqua color blue. She felt some energy run through her, then all was zapped away. She felt exhausted and tired to the point where her eyes closed and her head fell to the floor.

The floor gave way and she fell into a black void, fell down into the vastness of space. She closed her eyes again and when she didn't feel as if she were falling she opened them.

She was standing barefoot in a shallow river; the fresh cool water swept past her legs and sent a slight chill through her spine. She knelt down in the water and took a handful of water and splashed her face. Letting the cool water run down her face, down her neck, and rolling down her semi-developed chest cooling and refreshing her body.

Tamara stood up and looked up at the sky. The sky was colored an angry purple, the clouds were moving very swiftly. Tamara saw something in the distance, down the river. It was a man holding a sword in his hand.

Tamara broke into a run toward him; coming into view she saw it was Vahn.

"Vahn!" she engulfed him in her arms.

Vahn slowly put his arms around her.

"Where are we?" she asked. "This place feels so great, but it feels wrong."

Vahn didn't say anything. His body felt limp in her arms.

"Vahn, are you okay?" She pulled back and screamed. His face was covered in blood, his eyes gouged out.

Vahn fell into the water and the blood started polluting the refreshing river.

Darkness took over Tamara, engulfed her. Her will was gone. She fell to her knees in the river and picked up his sword, holding it to her neck.

"Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this?" She closed her eyes and rammed the sword through her neck.

Tamara startled awake in the narrow tunnel surrounded by the blue carvings. She had no clue where she was at that moment, taking a minute to reorient before she started moving on.

Short bursts of cool air continued to cool her but reminded her of the awful vision of her standing in the fresh cool river. Tamara sort of expected to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but she knew better, in this dark desolate place.

The flashlight showed what looked like a small area up ahead with some bars going across the opening. Now, crawling somewhat faster, Tamara neared the opening. The bars were in fact a ladder leading up. The space leading up was also very cramped. Tamara slithered through the small opening and started crawling up the ladder.

"Heh! Talk about an extreme aerobic workout. I can barely move my legs to climb the damned ladder. Just randomly going somewhere is not my idea of fun. I'm starting to get hungry too. Time sure doesn't feel like it's going anywhere," she said to herself.

The ladder seemed to go forever just like the tunnel. Tamara came to the conclusion that she must be climbing up the building, maybe to the third floor by now. There was no ventilation what so ever in the musty tunnel.

Finally, she came to a door on the wall - standard sized. She turned the door knob. It didn't budge. Her heart sunk. She continued to climb upwards toward the sky maybe. How high could this hospital be, she thought. She must be up to the fifth floor by now. Another door came up. She tried it. Locked.

She continued up the ladder. The ladder was becoming wet and slippery. She had been climbing with one hand the entire time. Her gun was in her belt, her ammo filling up her pockets, and the flashlight in her left hand. The flashlight was too bulky to carry in any of her pockets and right now she needed both hands on the ladder to keep from falling. She could not give up her flashlight. The back wall was close enough for her to lean against while she climbed up the ladder. She put her back against the wall and climbed awkwardly up the ladder.

The ceiling was now visible with her flashlight. A few more feet and she would reach the top. There was a trap door with a padlock on it. Tamara fully leaned against the wall and took out her gun, aimed, and fired at the lock. It came off easily. The lock fell all the way down the vertical tunnel.

* **Splash** *

She opened the door and pulled herself through the opening. Tamara was on the roof of the building. The trap door closed behind her and locked. The horrible down pour of rain had ceased. Surrounding her were four large air conditioning units. On each air conditioning unit was a string, it stretched from one diagonally to another and in the center of the "X" was a doll piece dangling in the wind. The right arm.

Tamara was relieved, not only could she get some fairly fresh air, but she had also acquired a doll piece. She took in a deep breath, reached up, and pulled the arm piece down.

* **AHHhhhh** *

Something hideous screamed. Then she remembered, Scythe. When something was completed in the school, it came for them.

"Oh my god, I'm going to die. I'm trapped up here with absolutely no where to go except back down." She ran over and tried the hatch she came up from. It was locked, somehow it was locked. She was scared. There was another door on the far west corner of the roof, probably the actual way for the roof access.

"That's probably where Scythe will come up from."

She quickly ran over to the door not knowing what to expect. The door looked inviting; there wasn't anything wrong with it. She tired the door, it was open, the door knob turned smoothly as if just oiled. The door swung back without a creek.

* **Clank** , **Clank,Clank** , **Clank,Clank** , **Clank** *

Footsteps on metal and more than one pair coming up the stairs, coming to get her, coming to destroy her, send her to her death. Figures finally came into view, one was definitely Scythe with its massive weapon, but the other figure was smaller carrying a short sword.

******

I groped around in the darkness for my flashlight while my eyes adjusted to the everlasting dark. The cold atmosphere raised goose bumps on my skin, and a shiver was sent throughout my body tingling the hairs on the back of my neck. The floor was chilled as well. I knew somehow that I was blowing steam as I breathed. I crawled around some more with my sword in hand when I finally found my flashlight and flipped it on.

To my "surprise" I found myself in a morgue. Two autopsy tables were filled. The back wall and both side walls were covered by three sets of closed storage cabinets. The cold air was necessary to keep the patients preserved. I walked around and decided I needed to open all the cabinets just in case something important might be there.

The right wall proved to be normal. Halfway through the middle wall I noticed a book, or rather half of a book, on the table instead of a corpse. I picked it up. The title read "Heaven". I swung around my backpack and took out the part of the book titled "Hell". The two copies fit together perfectly, but the full book was not yet completed. The texture and size of both sections seemed to provide evidence that there was one more piece to the book, probably in the next area we were to go to.

I started to continue checking the rest of the cabinets when I found one more interesting aspect: a tunnel leading somewhere beyond this room.

* **Crackle,Crackle,Slurp** *

I turned around at the sound; something was crawling along the walls, streaks of blood consuming the room. The exit was blocked. The blood moved like a river toward me. Many streaks coming. My only option now was to climb through the tunnel. I sheathed my sword and hurried through. The blood was following me through the tunnel making designs all over the walls. I reached the other side and pulled myself out. There was a door to the opening, I immediately shut it. I heard a squishing sound as the passage was apparently filled with blood and blocked.

The room was crusted in dry blood all over the walls, floor, and ceiling. Other than that the room was exactly alike; except the zombies on the gurneys got up to attack. Then the storage units in the walls yielded zombies. Seven zombies total probably all have the abilities to stay alive even if I chop the heads off. Maybe they're puppets being pulled by strings and those strings don't care about body parts. I decided to ignore the puppets and walked out through the door. Their groans echoed through the barren hall. Scratching on the door was expected because they knew where their prey went. But why was I their prey? Why was I targeted for death and deemed necessary to die? Who deemed this? Now, I had a new question, one more important than that of the last: Who wanted me to die?

It doesn't matter now, when I finish my missions I will soon find out. I came out of the room at a "T" intersection in the hall. Straight in front of me I could see a door with a red light above it. To the right was a door with a green light and to the left was also a door with a green light.

"Mmmm, which way should I go?" I rubbed my scratchy chin.

I walked toward the door with the red light. Straight ahead. I steadily walked the short jaunt and grabbed the door knob. The door was a plain wooden door, nothing unusual except for the red light above it. I turned the handle, locked. I sighed for I was desperately getting tired of this game, if it was one. I tried the right door. Locked. Then I moved to the final green lit door on the left. I didn't even touch the door knob and the door swung open. I walked in and the door immediately shut on me. The room was pitch black, and I could hear tapping all around the room.

* **CRASH** *

Some type of glass fell over and shattered. I turned on my flashlight and randomly aimed it in front of me.

Bugs! Flying, crawling, scurrying bugs. None of them dangerous, just all very disgusting. I was standing on them, crushed.

"Argh, this is not cool what so ever. Ahh, what's that?"

A button, in the desk, in the center of the room, all by itself. I brushed a few bugs off my arm and shooed one away from by ear. They were all over my shirt, my shoes, and pants. I shivered. I reached over and punched the button.

* **Click** *

I quickly tip toed out of the room. I took my shoes off and shook them. Bugs fell out. I jiggled my pant legs. More bugs. I brushed my hair and jumped around and around. Tons more bugs fell off. Slipping my shoes back on, I noticed the once green light to the right of the "T" was now red. I strolled over to it and opened the unlocked door.

Three beds lay parallel to each other in the center of the room. The two outside beds had a corpse half on them with a spear through their body. Actually the spear was a six foot pole with dull rounded points on each end. The center bed merely had a pole through the bed.

The speared corpses dripped blood onto an inclined floor which sloped and the blood ran into a drain under the center of the bed. And a lot of blood was still flowing into the drain. The corpses had a frightful expression on their face. They were covered in blood, their bodies half on the bed. It looked as if the pole was the only thing holding them on the bed.

The walls held some sort of dissecting instruments. All of which were covered in blood, crusted blood. There was a cold fireplace in the back of the room.

I moved over to the empty bed and placed my hand on the six foot pole. I pulled.

* **AHH,gurgle** *

I quickly stopped pulling. I heard heavy breathing, as if something was in extreme pain. I looked at the two bodies but nothing was different about them. I shrugged and grabbed the pole yet again. I yanked the pole out of the bed.

* **AHHHH** *

This time I saw a ghost of a person that could have been lying on the bed. Its chest rose up as I finished pulling the pole out. Immediately the two corpses came to life. They tried to move, but the pole held them down.

"Proceed to Heaven," I said solemnly as I beheaded them. Their lifeless bodies continued to hang over the bed. I sheathed my sword and picked up the pole I had acquired. Jeremy could use this, was my first thought.

* **Click** *

"Mmmm, that just might be the last door I unlocked."

I walked out of the room of death and down the center walk way of the intersection. The light above the door was now green, so I opened the door and found two things. A doll piece, the body piece, which was attached to a string strung from one side of the room to the other. The second thing I saw was a door with the symbol of a stair case next to it, obviously indicating a stair case was inside. I reached up and grabbed the body which contained the legs and left arm.

* **AHHHHHH** *

An ear piercing scream came through the halls.

"Ah shit, I forgot about Scythe!"

* **AHHHHHH** *

Another scream.

"Oh no, not two of them!"

I opened the stair door. A creature ran past me and up the stairs. It was Scythe. It wasn't coming for me but heading for something else up the stairs. I decided to follow. I had put my flashlight into my backpack so I could carry the pole and move easily.

Scythe clanked up the stairs while I stepped softly. I'm sure it knows I was following it.

The stairs went all the way to the roof. I looked up and saw the door open and a person stuck their head in. The person immediately shut the door when they saw the massive creature. That was where the creature was headed, to kill that person.

Place: Operating Room

Eclipse: 09

"Aug,ack,ack," he coughed blood into his hand, after he sat up. Jeremy's grandfather looked down at his stomach to see it cut open. As he watched, it instantaneously healed closed. His chest spasmed as he coughed some more and gasped for air.

"Oh holy lord, I recognize this boy. Praise the heavens. Ack.Ack," he said in a slow decayed voice.

This must be his holy side at the moment. I must use caution, Jeremy thought to himself.

"I haven't seen you in many . . . ack,ack," he gasped for air again.

"Years," Jeremy finished. "You are dead. But why are you here, in this place, alive, somewhat alive?" Jeremy reached over to the nearest desk and pulled out gauze wrap. He wrapped it tightly around his arm where he had been cut.

"Why do you stay away from your grandfather like this? You're making me unsettled." The zombie slid off the table and stood hunched over with its head turned forward to look at Jeremy.

Maybe I should go to him, to comfort him so he doesn't switch to the devil.

Jeremy continued to eye the room looking for a weapon of range, while continuing to step backwards as his grandfather moved forward.

"Jeremy. JEREMY! Boy you don't know torture. You don't know anything, high school punk." His eyebrow raised and his frown got longer as if he just pondered something.

"You let them do this to me didn't you, boy? Let them subject me to those awful tests. My head pounded and pounded and I couldn't take it anymore."

The devil reincarnated.

The zombie stepped closer to Jeremy. It reeked in smell. The heat of its anger flooded toward Jeremy.

"Oh, you need to just calm down a moment. You have a major Bipolar Disorder. The doctors were just trying to help," Jeremy tried.

"BULLSHIT! I saw you. You were there. I saw your face, your expression! Disgust! You couldn't bear to stare into my weak and feeble eyes!"

"Even though, I didn't tell them to kill you. I loved you; I can't stand to see feeble people!" Jeremy shouted back with tears in his eyes.

The monster smashed the operating table denting it almost breaking it in half.

"Why are you alive, grandfather? Why did you come back?" Jeremy asked.

"For one purpose: Revenge!" He showed his decayed teeth in an evilish grin.

"Ha,ha,ha,ha"

"Okay, so you're dead, what do you want me to do about it?" Jeremy stood tall and stout. "Kill you again? Do you want to die yet again? If so I will grant you your wish."

His grandfather stopped and looked at him wild eyed for a moment. Then he cocked his head back and grinned. At that moment two dead nurses rolled two gurneys into the operating room. One took out a chart and started reading.

"Thomas Binds and David Witherman are here for operations. They are in your hands now." The two nurses left the room.

Oh, no! The other psychotic patients.

The grandfather, Robert Williams, walked over and stood between the two gurneys placing his hand over each victim.

"I release you from you slumber my friends." Power was released from him as it shook the building. The only overhead light broke shading the room in darkness.

Thomas and David, the other two zombies, spasmed and spasmed some more; electrical currents flowed through their bodies. They moved, their flesh decayed eyes bulged. Then all at once it stopped. Robert breathed deeply and slowly to let the air in and out. Finally, the two zombies sat up in unison and slid off the table in unison.

"Is this our prey, Sir Robert?" Thomas said in a small girl's voice.

"If it is it is gonna be a good meal," David said in the calmest of voices.

Thomas dropped onto the ground and stood up on all fours acting like a dog. With his butt sticking high in the air and decayed teeth showing he made a loud convincing roar. He looked straight at Jeremy.

David stood there calm as ever, his arms were crossed across his bare decayed chest. His long hair covered his face. His long fingernails were longer than normal because they grew while he was dead.

Robert's hair was one inch long because they hadn't cut it in months. His black skin was also decayed enough to almost see his bones. Ligaments were still attached so he could move his hands and arms.

Jeremy had to hold his flashlight so he could see his enemies. Instead of using his chain as knuckles, he used it as a foot long whip.

Robert made the first move springing toward Jeremy. Caught off guard by such speed of the zombie, Jeremy staggered right, falling to the ground as his grandfather stopped running. Jeremy looked up just in time to see Thomas pouncing down on him. Jeremy kicked his foot up and stopped the attack placing his foot in Thomas' chest. He then kicked him backwards. Thomas tumbled into his original gurney making it roll backwards.

Jeremy jumped up and lashed his chain toward his grandfather, Robert, not aiming for a hit but rather just to keep him back while Jeremy regained an amount of control. Jeremy panned his flashlight toward David Witherman who still stood calmly in the same spot.

Then David moved, but not toward Jeremy, toward the other side of the room. Jeremy lost sight of him as Robert tackled him back down to the ground. They rolled and stopped ending with Robert sitting on top over Jeremy. Jeremy punched him in the face again and again and again. Blood flowed down Robert's body and flew across the room. Thomas encircled Jeremy and let out a vicious bark. Robert raised his hand to strike Jeremy and swung. Jeremy caught it and forced Robert off of him. Again Jeremy lashed out with his chain to fend off the human dog. Instead of jumping back, Thomas took the full attack. Blood and teeth flew out of his mouth.

Robert got up and screamed, "Let Satan himself give me strength. AHHH!"

Jeremy hopped up and jumped out of the way as Robert dove madly at his grandson. He rolled into a standing position.

* **Wham** *

Jeremy was thrust forward a few feet, face first into the ground. He got up and turned around to see what hit him. It was Witherman, holding an entire gurney, poised to strike again.

Pain. Dizziness. Were these the feelings people felt before they die? Or was there more? Was there more torture that was left to endure? Throughout life you can choose to experience Heaven or Hell but in dying do you get to choose what torture you bear? Whatever torture, if it were to be extreme, it had to end.

Jeremy got up and staggered around; right foot stepping to the left, left foot tripping over the right. He stumbled and fell back to the floor. His arms caught him and he pushed himself back to somewhat of a standing position. Jeremy shook his head to try to shake off the pain. The other two zombies just stood there looking. The grandfather leaned on the closest cabinet keeping himself up right, and Thomas was still standing down on all fours like a dog. David Witherman swung again from the left side. Jeremy put his left arm up to shield some of the attack. It hit with full force. His left arm shattered; every bone destroyed. He cried in pain. David dropped the gurney and hastily walked over to Jeremy with his fist raised, poised to strike. Then he stopped, an awe stricken shocked face. David looked down and saw Jeremy's arm penetrating his body. The soft decayed skin and bones were easily destroyed. They leaned on each other until Jeremy stood up straight and Witherman slid down his body.

******

Scythe reached the door and smashed through it like it was nothing. Immediately it started looking for its target and immediately honed in on it like it was drawn to it. Scythe raised its scythe and swung it at the large air conditioning unit slicing it straight in half.

Vahn stood there in awe as Tamara dashed out from behind the cut up unit. He sheathed his sword and held the pole with both hands ready to swing like a batter at the mound. Vahn swung and hit Scythe in the side full force.

*CLANK*

Was its body actually made of metal? Regardless the creature felt the hit and was forced to take a side step to regain its balance. Vahn swung again but this time the creature blocked with its massive scythe instantly stopping my attack. Vahn struggled to force him backwards to no avail. Scythe thrust him backwards toward the ledge of the building. He used the long pole to hold himself up from falling backwards. Vahn took off his backpack so he was able to fight better.

"Tamara, we have to push him over the edge," Vahn yelled into the air.

Within seconds, Tamara popped out and pelted the creature with a few bullets to get its attention. Scythe stopped and turned toward her, then charged with his scythe raised. Vahn jumped in close behind with his pole raised ready to strike. Tamara dashed out of the way as the massive scythe sliced the air. Vahn smacked Scythe in the back. Scythe toppled over on his face. Vahn stood over the creature, raised his pole, and slammed the pole into the creature's back again and again. Again and again the familiar clanking sound was heard.

"Vahn, get the creature's scythe!" Tamara yelled.

Vahn looked around and realized the creature's weapon was far away from his body. Scythe was slowly getting up. Vahn dashed toward the scythe. Scythe grabbed hold of Vahn's leg causing him to fall onto the ground but within hands reach of the weapon.

Vahn grabbed the weapon and tossed it to Tamara, who caught it with ease. Scythe got up and tossed Vahn across the roof. Vahn still held onto the pole as he fell. Scythe rushed toward Tamara, who held the scythe in both hands and the gun in her pocket. Vahn got up with the pole extended toward Scythe, the pole reached in front of Scythe's legs. He tripped over it and stumbled over toward the edge of the building. Tamara raised the scythe and swung it like a bat at Scythe's back giving it an extra push. Scythe tripped over the ledge and fell and more than 8 floors and hit the street with a loud clank.

"What the hell? It's getting up" Tamara cried.

"What!?" Vahn returned.

It was true, even as Tamara looked over the edge Scythe stood up and walked back into the building.

"How the hell do we kill this thing!?" Vahn cried.

Place: Dark regions of the hospital

Time: Unknown

Eclipse: 10

"So we have two pieces of the six needed," I stated.

"Yep," Tamara said with a sigh. "You know- this scythe isn't really that heavy. It's top heavy of course, but having the right position you can have great leverage with it." She waved it around in a controlled fashion.

I tossed the pole and decided to give Jeremy the scythe as a better weapon.

"You're alright now at least . . . right?" I asked her as we started walking down the stairs toward the floor Jeremy got off at.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"I don't know either," I chuckled.

The walls were decayed and peeling the smell was awful. The stairs were made of metal and was totally rusted over. The only light came from their flashlights waving and dancing as they walked. Rain water from the roof was seeping in and was dripping down the stairs. Each step they took had mixed sounds of metal clanking and water sloshing.

We hurried down the steps and exited into a wide doorway. We were then greeted by a very long and wide hallway. There were red reflectors lining both sides of the hall in one straight line. I shined my flashlight down the hall and noticed the reflectors stopped at an intersection further up. I also noticed dead nurses mindlessly walking up and down the hall - probably the type that doesn't die when I sever body parts.

"We are being directed again and I don't like it," Tamara whined.

"It doesn't matter, what else are we gonna do? Wander around like these nurses?" I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Too true, too true," Tamara returned.

"But what if we were to wander around and explore the nether regions? I asked.

"Because of Scythe."

"How so?"

"Scythe is merely a puppet bound by the strings of his master, whoever it may be. Scythe chased me down a corridor into a tunnel then stopped as if bound. For if it was not bound then it would have continued to follow me ant tear me to hell," Tamara explained.

"I see. I'm beginning to understand a little."

"My true thoughts are: They need us to do something and if we cannot get past the mindless aberrations, then we don't deserve to follow through with whatever they need us to do."

"So, if we free the three zones, one of which we've already done, then our true tasks will be laid before us by the people who did this, whether good or evil. But, how do we know that we're not helping them now?" I asked.

"We don't."

"The only way to continue is to play this nightmare through to its end. At the moment we know that the people are in danger and to free them we need to make the pillar of light as seen in the school."

"Exactly!" Tamara concluded.

So we continue to walk down the hall toward the intersection. Actually, I guess, it was an optical illusion because when we did reach the end of the lights there was a door, among many others, but this door was apparently special because there were three locks and bolts and a letter attached to it.

"Hmm, I wonder what this could be," I said sarcastically. I took the letter off and opened it. There was absolutely nothing on the letter. It was blank, empty.

"Hmm, okay, well . . ."

"Well, we know we need three keys to open the door, this letter isn't gonna tell us anything different," Tamara suggested.

"True, but I'll hold onto the letter anyway. Well, since we are together, let's stay that way."

"I agree."

The peeling walls encompassed them. Darkness engulfed them. Terror commanded them. Disease infected them and decay would destroy them. The moans of the dead chilled their bones. The walk, the disorientation of the zombies disgusted them. Though, the most terrifying thing would be to be alone . . . again.

"So, you were searching all these doors, right?" I knew the answer to my question; therefore I knew Tamara wouldn't answer. I sent out a sign of being disappointed. "Well, let's start on one side or the other." Then I realized that the fastest way was to split up and cover more ground, I sighed again.

"Alright, we're splitting up again," saying that as if she came to the same disappointed conclusion. "We are in yelling range of each other at least, so we will be fine. Just be quick and efficiently search each place."

I walked to the left where the three nurses were. Tamara took the right and walked all the way down to the entrance they came in.

"Whew, have fun!" I grinned. Tamara didn't even turn to look at me.

All of a sudden the hospital started to shake. An earthquake? I wasn't able to keep my balance and I fell on my butt. Looking toward Tamara, I didn't see her at all. Finally the shaking stopped.

I noticed the zombies had fallen as well. I quickly got up, dashed forward, and beheaded all three of them with my sword. They continued to squiggle and squirm; blood pouring out of their necks.

The first door was finally upon me. I opened it, slowly. Something forced me through. I couldn't stop myself. Making it through, the door closed behind me. My eyes were closed for some reason. Or was the darkness to powerful for me that I just couldn't bear to look. I forced my eyes to open, and what I found was even more surprising to me. No, horrible - the most terrible thing in the world that could happen to me. I was surrounded by real people: nurses, doctors, patients, and children. I stood in the middle of a real hospital, with real people, who were alive, holding a kodachi and covered in blood.

They were awe struck. I was bathed in the bright lights and the light of the people's eyes.

"This can't be real! What the hell is going on?" This was the exact hall I was in but clean and bright and beautiful. I looked around and then yelled, "Tamara!! Where are you?" No response came.

The awe struck people stepped back. I turned and opened the door I came through. There was an old lady cut to shreds, blood on the ceiling and the walls. The bed was soaked with it. I looked down at my hand and saw my sword dripping with blood still from the zombies I killed earlier. I could only think of one word at the moment, and I said it out loud.

"Shit!"

I said it again, "Shit!" Then I thought of some more words.

"This can't be good at all."

Okay, I thought to myself, this cannot be real, I was just in a hell hole and now I'm here. I will treat all my actions as if this place weren't real. These people aren't real and these people's deaths aren't real. According to my theory, it wouldn't matter if I kill a person.

Just then four security guards surrounded me in the old person's room. I quickly shot a glance around and only one had a gun on me and they were in a close quarter's area.

"Put the items down and your hands behind your back."

The one who spoke stuck his gun in my back. One was examining the room and just not paying attention to me. The other two had batons ready to strike.

This is not . . .

"REAL!"

I turned to the right, deflected the man's gun. He fired and shot the man, examining the room, in the head. I severed the gun man's hand with my sword, took a hit to the side from the right officer. I cut upwards slicing the left officer's chest and face then, continued with a downward slice killing the right officer. Finally I thrust my sword through the armless man's throat. All four fell to the ground, lifeless.

"I've got to get out of here before I get more company. I bet someone is having some real fun with me."

******

"I haven't seen Vahn come out of there for a while now. Don't pay attention, he'll be fine. Just continue my search."

Tamara made it to the far side of the long hall and opened the door. There was an old woman lying on the bed hooked up to various machines. The room was fairly small and very dirty. Just like the outside of the room, decayed. After a quick thorough search of the room, Tamara left. She slowly closed the door behind her as to not disturb the woman in her somewhat peaceful sleep.

She moved down the hall a couple of feet, carrying the massive scythe over her shoulder, to the next door.

"I'm so happy I get to do the repetitive job of searching rooms! Ha," Tamara sighed.

Opening the door she found a woman being eaten by a zombie. An old woman trying to scream but her mouth was bleeding tremendously. Tamara swung her weapon and sliced the dead nurse in half. She then kicked the monster across the room as it continued to squirm. Tamara proceeded to examine the woman. It appeared to be the same woman. It was the same woman as in the other room.

"How can this be?"

The woman was dead; her heart was missing, probably eaten by the creature.

* **Clash** *

Tamara jumped at the sound. She didn't know where it was or where it came from. After she calmed down she examined the room and after finding nothing else of interest, she left.

Tamara gasped in awe, she walked out of the first room she went through not the second. Shouldn't I have come out of the second door, Tamara thought to herself. At least the enemy keeps this somewhat interesting. She giggled to herself, moved forward, and opened the second door again, went through, and closed the door.

She was in the position of the third door down the hall.

"Oh, god," she whined, "come on."

* **Click, click . . . click,click,click** *

She shined her flashlight toward the noise and didn't see anything. Her heart beat harder in her chest. Tamara reopened the third door.

* **Wham** *

Tamara fell across the room, her head throbbing in pain. She opened her eyes and saw a nurse coming toward her, its legs wobbling tremendously and a bedpan in its hand. Tamara pulled out her gun from the back of her pants and put a bullet through its head.

Blood splattered against the far wall as the nurse was pushed backwards by the blast. The nurse throttled forward and came to attack again. A huge round hole was missing from the back of its head. Tamara was up by then, so she thrust the nurse backwards with her foot, picked up her scythe, and slashed the nurse down the middle.

The room looked the same as the two before it, rank with that horrible smell of death and the walls were damp and the glue to the wallpaper was coming off. However, the only difference was the old woman was fully eaten, blood all over the bed along with chewed bones and blood dripping onto the floor into a drain in the middle of the room. Tamara examined the remains and found a small key soaked in the blood. She picked it up, wiped it off, and placed it in her pocket.

"Well, one key down. I hope Vahn can retrieve the other one. I'm not worried he will pull through."

Then she remembered a horrifying moment: Vahn slashing away at Seig. He looked almost exhilarated to kill another human being. She quickly shook the thought away.

"I wonder where the third key could be?"

* **Click,click,click . . .click,click,click** *

"That noise again. Probably leading to another means for a possible death. Better investigate."

Tamara walked down the hall towards the sound, and she finally got down to the other side of the hall where Vahn was supposed to start looking, however, he was not there. But there was a half opened door. She pushed it open and gasped.

Four police officers lay in a circle: two with large gashes across their face, one missing an arm, and one with a bullet in its head. Also there was a cut up woman in the bed. Blood was everywhere, even dripping from the ceiling.

"Hmmm. . ." Tamara stated.

She was holding her breath the entire time, the stench of the decayed bodies and crusted blood reeked horribly. She took a quick glance and closed the door.

* **Click,click,click,click . . . click,click** *

That noise again, now it sounds like something crawling, but where.

Tamara shined her flashlight down the hall. Nothing. The horrid darkness dimmed most of her light so she was only able to see a few yards in front of her at the most.

* **ssssssss** *

. . . sort of a sizzling sound up ahead near the location of the clicking sound.

"Ahh," Tamara backed away.

On the ceiling crawled the monster. Tamara swung upwards with the scythe. The enlarged ant like creature jumped to the right wall nimbly dodging the attack. Her scythe stuck into the ceiling. Tamara left it there and reached for her gun. The ant jumped on her then kicked her down to the ground as it jumped back onto the ceiling and scurried down the hall.

Tamara slowly got up and pulled her gun out from the back of her pants. After she stood there for a minute, she was convinced the creature was gone for a while.

She replaced her gun and pulled down the scythe. All she could do now was wait on Vahn.

******

I jumped over the dead cop blocking my path and entered the hall.

"Call 911," I heard someone yell.

I had no idea what I was going to do. This was a different world than the last, and I have no instructions on what to do. In the hell world I needed to find 3 keys to unlock a door. However, now I need to find some keys and get the hell out of here before I find myself surrounded again. However, I didn't even know if there are keys in here - in this world.

* **AHHH** *

I rushed toward the screaming, down the hall by the stairs, as a woman was thrown through the closed double doors. She was dead, her head completely torn off. I slid in front of the now open doors and saw a trail of blood leading downstairs. I looked down the stairs and I saw a tall deformed figure racing down the stairs. It stopped and looked up at me. One of its eyes was protruding from its head. It held up its hand and in it was a single key.

I sheathed my sword and took charge down the stairs. The creature was already one floor below me. I kept my eye on him as I ran down the stairs three and four steps at a time. The monster exited on the second floor, as did I ten seconds later.

The floor was a large cafeteria recreation area. Many people occupied the area. As the creature ran through it, he left a line of destruction in its path.

I picked up a plastic chair that had fallen over and threw it with a mighty force at the creature's legs as I kept running. It toppled over.

"Move people! MOVE!" I yelled ahead of me.

They didn't seem to hear me so I shoved them out of the way. I ran and tried to jump on the monster. It kicked me in the stomach with its leg, I fell a short ways on a table, the table shattered under my weight.

The creature got up and picked up an old paralyzed man, by the neck, and threw him at me. I rolled out of the way and charged the beast again.

"Can you hear that?" it asked.

I stopped. "What!" I returned.

"Terrified people," it said in a gurgled sadistic voice that echoed amid the screaming.

"You sick bastard. Have you no decency? Some of these people are on their death beds!" I harshly hollered back.

"You said it yourself, this is not real," a brief pause. Then in a quick sentence it continued, "How can you be sure! If you look at these "fake" people's eyes, their horrified look. Can you still tell me these people aren't real?"

"Give me the damned key or I will have to kill you," I demanded.

"Then what!? How do you get out of this "fake" world?" Blood ran out of its mouth as it talked.

I could hear whispers from the audience asking about a "fake" world. I glanced around pondering its question."I'll find out when I get there," was all I responded. I unsheathed my sword and stepped forward with such determination that the creature stepped back with a small hint of fright. Then it retaliated and stepped forward.

"This is it, time to die."

"Die?" the creature questioned.

I slid near a chair as we made our dueling circle. I picked the chair up and threw it towards the creature hitting it in the face.

******

Vahn dashed forward as the creature took the blow from the chair. It regained balance just in time to punch Vahn in the chest forcing him backwards a few feet. Vahn slashed horizontally after he recovered. The creature jumped back dodging the attack, grabbed a long table, and threw it at Vahn. Vahn ducked under as the table flew over him and shattered against the far wall.

******

All I can do is keep trying to rush it. Its strength is incredible for a tall skinny deformed human monster. Most of the tables were filled while all but about two chairs were out of range. I could throw a table, but I need two hands to do so. Then I looked at the trays the sick people use, they're large, rectangular, and made of plastic. There were many trays lying around and that would be my plan. I wonder what that "thing" is pondering . . . It's been standing there for as long as I have.

Vahn grabbed the closest chair to his left and threw it with all his might at the target. Before it hit, Vahn dashed forward, grabbed a table tray, and threw it. The creature blocked the chair, but the force of the throw unbalanced it. The tray quickly followed up and bashed the creature in the head.

Finally, Vahn pierced the monster's chest with his sword. Vahn quickly drew the sword out and lanced it again. No sound came from the creature, nothing. Vahn realized it was already dead.

"Hmm," I hummed.

The monster stood upright and frozen. Its complexion was extremely pale and its right hand held my key. I took it with pleasure and gratitude while half my audience was either dead from heart attacks or gasping in awe.

"Now, how do I get out of here?" I asked myself as the police walked in.

"DON'T MOVE!" I heard one yell.

I sheathed my sword and put my hands in the air. All six of the police officers were focused on me with their guns armed and ready. I could do nothing. Three walked over while three stayed at a distance. Then one cop took out some handcuffs and, as he looked up, I was gone.

I blinked, and in that instant, I ended up in the dark cafeteria of hell, back where I was supposed to be. The environment looked the same, the tables were toppled over, old and sick people lined the wall and floor. And the disfigured monster still stood petrified there in the near

"Okay, well, let me back track to where I came in," my words echoed off the walls.

Turning around I saw six police officers dead, scattered on the floor near the double doors that I needed to go into. I stepped over their dead bodies and continued to the stairwell, the double doors were wide open for me to travel through, as I did the doors shut and locked behind me.

"I don't need to go that way anyway," I proclaimed.

I traveled back up three floors and entered to find Tamara sitting on the floor waiting for me. I made my presence known by closing the door with force making a good amount of noise that echoed down the hall.

Tamara jumped and slung her gun out pointing it at me.

"Chill out, yo!" I yelled.

"Damnit, don't do that. Where the hell were you? I've been sitting here for five whole minutes."

"I have no clue where I was . . . or even where I am for that matter. What does matter is that I have two keys and . . ."

"I have one. Let's open the door," she concluded as we both walked over and inserted our keys.

The three locks snapped open and the door slightly squeaked open. Another long hall was laid before us, and at the end of the hall were large double doors with a large bold red sign labeled "Emergency Room". We started walking toward it and two dead nurses came into view. Both were carrying clipboards. We strode passed them, I made some swirling motions with my sword, and they both fell to the ground in several pieces.

Picking up the clipboard, I read it and quickly summarized it for Tamara.

"David Witherman and Thomas Binds are both mental cases and extremely deadly. I think that sums it up."

We finished walking through the hall and we both pushed the double doors open. The large circular room was fully lit. Apparently someone wanted us to see something I assumed.

Six bodies were scattered on the floor. Two were obviously nurses and three were old men.

I heard Tamara gasp as we both examined the sixth body. It was Jeremy. I winced in pain as Tamara grabbed my arm and put her head onto my shoulder.

"Oh, you're finally here aren't you? Must've dozed off waitin' on ya," a woman's voice came from the corner shrouded in darkness.

"Show yourself woman," I yelled. Tamara stood upright and reached for her gun letting the scythe fall to the ground. She didn't pull it out though she just kept her hand behind her back.

The woman stood up from her chair. She had long black hair and skin tight leather. She had two pistols on her hips and a double barrel shotgun in her left hand.

"I'm not supposed to kill you _all_ now," she remarked emphasizing "all". "But I was allowed to kill one person. And since your friend was damn near dead already, I thought I would do him a favor. You should have seen him. Beaten up and cut, bones shattered. He managed to kill one of the three before I walked in the room and shot them all."

******

Jeremy was kneeling on the floor with his grandfather and the other remaining men around him. He accepted the fact that he was now going to die. His arm was shattered, and the pain excruciating, so much so that he could hardly move. His legs had given out, and his other arm that was previously cut by the knife was so infected that it was nearly impossible to move.

"My grandson, your time is nearly up. There is nothing more satisfying than killing your own blood; know that you will see them again moments later in the afterlife."

"Why? I don't understand how you got this bad. You were a good man. Then all of a sudden you changed."

"Ah, sentimental. How touching," a feminine voice said.

Two shots rang out destroying the two zombies.

"I apologize, my boy, but since Seig died I must keep the balance. It's nothing personal really. You are now tipping the scales in your favor and I just cannot have that. " She aimed her shotgun at Jeremy's chest and fired.

******

"You horrible person," Tamara cried.

"Is that the best you can come up with!? I know damn well I'm a horrible, terrible, wretched person and I love it. Ha-ha," she gave out a small laugh.

"What is your name and purpose," I ordered.

She walked toward me and placed her hand on my chest then bent close to my ear, "That is not important. Look there; the final pieces of the doll to finish with the hospital. This is where life and death takes place. That is why the hospital is important. The souls of the dead wander restlessly here. You're almost out."

She walked behind us, opened the double doors, and left. I looked where she previously pointed and found a letter and the final doll pieces.

Tamara was still distraught over the fact that Jeremy was dead and killed by that woman who just left. She let go of my arm as I walked over to pick the letter up first. It read in bold red letters:

Now proceed to the bridge that links

Heaven and Earth, the tallest of

buildings. You will there free their

souls and be just about finished with

your nightmare.

Have fun!

A scribbled signature was at the bottom of the page.

"The monsters are all crowded around this building so it should be easily found. The bridge that links Heaven and Earth; a large building that reaches to the sky. A skyscraper nothing more."

"Rest in peace, Jeremy." We both left the room after bowing.

******

We noticed the ground floor was still a bit flooded when we got to the last set of stairs taking our time in grievance. No threats were along the way, just the ever looming darkness and horrid smell.

As we opened and walked through the double door to the lobby area the six pieces of the doll started glowing and floated out of our hands and pockets. The first complete doll floated from the counter and merged with the six doll pieces. The glowing got much, much brighter. Then, in an instant, they seemed to merge and we were blinded by the bright light. Then the light dimmed enough for us to see.

The hospital was returned to normal with people doing their daily work. Three police cars were outside and the people seemed hurried and drastically agitated. The staff, patients, and all the other random people didn't seem to notice us as we stood here in the doorway.

Tamara and I walked through the front door and commandeered a police car with the engine running.

Place: The City

Eclipse: 1l

The desolate city proved to be menacing because of the labyrinth like set up with the enormous buildings being the walls and the street leading from one to another. The pillar of light stood above the hospital and shot endlessly through the heavens as did the one at the school.

It was hard to tell one street block from another. And since we were heading in the general direction, and not by street names, traveling was even harder. The dense fog that encased the city made the feeling of being trapped in a box. The semi-claustrophobic feeling did not deter us as we finally found our destination: The only skyscraper with the lights still on.

This was unusual because the lights being on indicated that everyone was safe, based on past experience of places infected by the hideous creatures.

I drove the police vehicle slowly and quietly in front of the building. We wearily got out and equipped ourselves with our weapons. The police car did not provide any extra weapons and the radio only blared static.

Tamara and I steadily walked to the building and came upon revolving double doors. People could be seen inside going about their business totally clueless of what's going on. We walked to the revolving door and pushed it to revolve so we could enter.

A man looked up from his desk and looked straight at the door. He must have looked straight through us because the security guy went back to his work. If I were a security guard, I would be frantic if a man and a woman with these kinds of weapons came into the door.

I walked up to the man and looked at him doing his work. He was watching sports on the television. I reached over and shut the TV off. He made a strange confused face and reached over and turned it back on. I also made a confused face because he didn't look at me. I looked at Tamara with my confused face and she merely shrugged.

"This is very interesting. He can't see us at all," I said.

"I don't know." Tamara walked over and pushed the small TV off the shelf. The man jumped out of his seat and put his hand on his holster. He examined it thoroughly, even nudging it with his foot.

Something caught my eye on the ceiling which was about two stories above us. A black hole was forming on the ceiling. Then I saw a metal appendage shoot through it. It was shaped like a crescent moon. The appendage pushed a small eagle head through and so followed another similar appendage. By this time I had nudged Tamara to look up at this event. We were both gasping.

Its body was merely the top half of a human body with its spine protruding from the rest of itself. Its sickle shaped arms attached to the ceiling holding it from falling. The black hole slowly disintegrated into nothing.

The creature scurried about the ceiling to the wall in front of us and hurried down the wall toward the security officer. Tamara took out her gun and fired at the creature. No effect. The bullets seemed to go right through it. The officer heard the wall being hit, looked up, and died. The creature jumped on his face and ripped his body utterly apart. The creature looked around then jumped back into the wall and disappeared.

"What the hell!?" I yelled.

"My bullets didn't phase it. I couldn't save him. He was slaughtered right before us. I even have his blood on me, but he couldn't see us," Tamara cried.

"Ya, this is gonna be a weird trip."

*Screaming heard in the distance*

We both turned toward the screaming and our gaze fell upon the elevator. The elevator was rushing down the glass tubes then, abruptly stopped on our current floor. All the passengers rushed off.

A crackly voice came over the intercom for all to hear.

"Would T...T...Tamara and Vahn p...p...please go to the fourth f...f...floor on the elevator? Thanks." The intercom shut off.

We looked warily toward the elevator with the door open. Then we exchanged glances with each other. Slowly we walked into the elevator and pushed the "4" button. The glass door slammed closed shattering the glass. I jumped back away from the control panel. The elevator shot up to the fourth floor and jerked to a stop. We were thrust upward a few feet and came crashing down on the ground. The door thrust open felling all remaining glass down.

The entire floor was made of small cubicles, all of which had people in them. A few people in the closer cubicles looked at the elevator then dismissed it and went back to work.

I saw a black hole form on the ceiling over a cubicle.

"Crap, not again," I cried.

The creature pulled itself out of the ceiling and thrust its claw through a guy's head. It then pulled a spirit out of the guy and let it float there lifeless. The guy slumped back in his chair and let the blood soak into the fabric. The creature floated around the room and chose another victim. It found a guy in the corner, floated over, and destroyed him in the same way. Its spirit was lifeless floating with the other. The creature disappeared into the ceiling again.

The room and atmosphere grew darker. People in the cubicles stood up to see the reason for the decrease in light. They didn't notice the two dead people for they could not see in the cubicles.

"This is insane! Totally insane! These people are dying right in front of us and we can't do a damn thing about it," I shouted.

"These people have no defense against them. Let's hurry and free this place before more people get killed. Now, why did we come up here?"

"Split and look for something unusual." I walked around to the right side of the room and started searching the labyrinth of cubicles. The workers were programming various programs on their computers. Their small spaces were so small and confined and cut off from the rest of the room.

I walked around to the first dead person and examined his computer. He was programming in C++ language and I saw that the programs were compiled and ready to run. I pushed the correct shortcut buttons to run the program and an enormous "D" popped up on the screen. I scratched my head and decided to write it on my hand to remember it. I found a pen on the man's desk and used it to do so. "D" is now written on my hand.

"Tamara, did you find anything?" I shouted.

"I don't know. Come here," she yelled back from the other dead person.

I strode over to her cubicle hastily. The computer was set up the same way. I compiled and ran the program. "E" was placed on the screen. I wrote that letter on my hand next to the "D".

The power in the room gave out. The room turned pitch black. Only the outlines of the cubicles and people could be seen. The workers kept their cool, but then someone saw the spirits floating above the dead men's heads. That was all it took. The women screamed, a few men screamed as well. They groped around in the darkness as the darkness consumed the light of the spirits. Like the light was dissolving in the ever growing darkness.

We hurried to the corner where the emergency exit could be found. As we reached the door the announcer came back over the intercom.

"Very good," said the deep gurgley voice. "As you can see these people are in horrible danger from my parasite, and there is not a damn thing you can do." All the people had stopped talking to listen. "Yes...some, if not all of you, will be killed. Tamara and Vahn will do exactly as I say and a minimal number of deaths will result in their obedience. I have various eyes throughout my tower of hell. Tamara and Vahn head to the 27th floor, take the stairs, detours will have to be made. Have fun, my friends." Dead silence quickly spread.

The lights of the emergency exit popped on. We reluctantly walked over to the door and pushed it open. Everyone saw the door open but never saw us. The door closed with a slam and locked. We could hear the people scrambling to the trying desperately to escape the room to no avail.

"We have to find some way to get in control of this situation," Tamara stated.

"I'm thinking about it."

******

The huge man put down the microphone and swiveled in his chair. An enormous axe sat against the wall. He looked up at the woman in skin tight leather equipped to the hilt with guns.

"Thank you for cutting the stitches from my mouth, Sasha."

"No problem, Nameless One," she said.

"I have a favor to ask," Nameless One's voice echoed.

"Yes?"

"Lead the children to the rooms necessary to complete this puzzle so we are not wasting more time than needed."

"Will do," Sasha said and opened the back door.

"They will have to go through the thirteenth floor. Here's a map of the key items that I've placed."

She shut the door.

"Now let's see, where is my good friend Scythe? There he is - just coming in the building."

Place: Tower of Hell

Time: Who cares?

Eclipse: 12

Floor eleven, locked. Floor twelve, locked. Floor thirteen, open. We walked through and looked up. The entire center of the building was hollowed out. Various shops and tables lined the floor. Large decorations hung from the sunroof on the ceiling. Lights were placed on the floor and some hung from the ceiling. Most of the light is supposed to come from the sunroof in the ceiling. But the looming dark clouds prevented that. The entire tower was placed in a gloomy state of light.

"So, uh, what the hell are we supposed to find?" I asked.

"I'm sure we will find out soon enough."

"Quite right my friends." We followed the sound of the voice to a high platform. It was the woman in leather again.

"You want to know where to go?! Then start running," she yelled.

"Oh crap, she's got her gun posed on us."

A bullet tore a hole in the floor behind us. We started running in the opposite direction of the bullet shot. Tamara fired a blind shot toward the woman not even getting close to the target. We kept running forward and another bullet pierced the floor. We turned left; another bullet forced us to turn around.

"The door," I yelled.

Tamara and I charged through into another room. The shooting stopped but we were met with more zombies floating toward us. Twenty-seven total. They were the office workers. The room was filled with more cubicles. The zombies had to float through a labyrinth to get to us. Tamara's scythe was useless.

I moved to the right of the room and pulled out my sword. I hacked the first creature down, pierced the next one through the skull, and continued to hack and slash around the room. An evilish grin grew across my face; a horrible grin, one that I should have been ashamed of, but I wasn't. I enjoyed this, enjoyed the destruction and annihilation of these creatures. I continued until everyone was dead, blood splattered all over the room. Tamara was mortified. At a glance I saw her disgusted face, and then I began to cry. I wiped my face off with my shirt, I dropped my sword, and looked down at my blood stained hands.

"I don't know what takes over me when I kill these already dead creatures. This hunger for more over runs me. Am I no better than these creatures? Am I an animal with this weapon in my hand?" I felt a hand wrap around my shoulder. I looked up and Tamara was there, beside me, with her arms around me trying to comfort me from this peril.

"Vahn, we will work through this. This is anger over the loss of Jeremy."

"No, that's not it." I cut her off. "Before, when Jeremy was still alive, when Seig confronted us in front of the hospital, I enjoyed killing him, though I was doing it to protect you. There was a self satisfaction to it. The adrenalin kicked in and there was nothing holding me back."

"I see, so you are a monster!"

"Reverse psychology does not work on me. I'm too smart for that." A slight grin broke across my gloomy face. I turned around and faced my friend. When I peered into her eyes I saw a person who adored me with those caring, loving, beautiful eyes. I could only imagine what she saw in mine. Sorrow. She embraced me. I was shocked and didn't know what to do. Then I embraced her back and closed my eyes, for I felt at peace and I'm sure she felt the same way. I saw a tear fall down her cheek.

"We must get out of this hell and go back to a normal life," Tamara cried.

"Our lives can never be normal again unless this is erased from our memories. But, we will get out of this, we must succeed or we will fail the world."

"Now, let's go and finish this. Nothing more can be done. We are going to be led to all of the places so we don't have to worry about becoming lost. But, what if we die? Does the enemy need us?"

"I don't know, but also think if we die what will happen to all the people in the city, if not the world," I stated.

"Too true. Let's go. We have to find some more clues in this room. It's another room with cubicles. Look for computers that are on."

We split up taking both sides of the room. It didn't take long to find the only computer on. I walked over to Tamara and compiled the finished program. The letter "M" popped up on the screen.

"So, now we have the letters "D", "E", "M". What does it mean?" I asked.

"We probably haven't reached the place that the code is needed if it's a code at all."

"Anything else of importance in this room?"

"No, not that I can see."

I started walking toward the door and stopped as Tamara pulled on my shoulder and shook her head when I looked at her.

"That woman isn't out there. She forced us into this room, so she is probably gone for the time being."

"Okay."

We opened the door and walked back into the main lobby area.

* **Oh God no! Stay Back. Get away! AHHHH** *

The scream came from the upper floors. As we looked, we saw a body being thrown by a creature seven floors up. The body fell fast and slammed into the ground. The already mutilated body began to bleed over the blue carpeted floor.

We looked back up to the same floor and saw the creature walking back into the room. We quickly looked for stairs but only found another glass elevator. Getting into it we pushed the only lit button and the elevator shot up to the floor. We walked out.

* **Squish** *

"Ah, what the hell is this stuff?" Tamara cried.

There was a thick layer of slime on the carpet. We looked over to the designated room to see another body being thrown over the railing. Since we were close enough we could make out the creature by its looks. Scythe. The creature followed us even here, and he was killing these people.

It saw us and turned and broke into a run for us. Its feet making squishing noises as it ran.

"Run!" I yelled.

We turned and ran in the opposite direction of Scythe. The slime was slowing us down considerably but didn't seem to faze Scythe at all with its massive muscular system.

"Shit, we're not going to make it. Here, in this room."

I opened the door and we both tan in. The room was empty and covered in slime as well.

Scythe came crashing through the door, his bare hands fisted and ready to attack. Slime on the wall built up around the broken door making a solid film of slime.

"This is it. We find a way to kill him or fail the world," I stated.

"Right," Tamara readied her scythe.

The room was very large and empty, quite large enough for a battle to go on. All the slime that once covered the floor now covered the door area so none was left on the ground. We couldn't leave but, our movement was no longer restricted.

******

Vahn drew his sword and attacked first. He sliced vertically, but Scythe punched him in the chest first. He flew backwards and clenched his chest in pain. Vahn spit blood out of his mouth.

Tamara ran and swung the large weapon. Scythe caught it and threw Tamara across the room. She hit the wall and slid down to the floor.

"Now that you are subdued . . ." the creature spoke to them in a harsh gurgled voice. "Here is the problem. As of now I am out of their control. To kill me you just use the Lance. You cannot and will not succeed if you try to melee. Now, leave this room before I return to their control. You have to light this tower to proceed to the Land and to my master and annihilate him." Scythe walked over and punched through the slime wall.

Tamara walked over and helped me up. We walked through the door as we watched Scythe jump over the edge of the railing and land on his feet and run into another room. Scythe also had his weapon back.

We limped to the room where we first saw Scythe. Dead bodies were lying in some sort of formation. The formation was a capital "I".

"These poor people; what has happened?" Tamara's expression became sad.

"Ugh. This pisses me off!" I shouted. "I hate it that we can't help these people. We have a monster that's not in our reality phase and one that has an indestructible body."

"We are almost through this and we must continue to go forward. So far we have the letters "D", "E", "M", and "I".

"Demise," I spouted. "Their demise is eminent. That's what the word is."

"It's the most fitting word for the situation at hand. Now we must figure out what to do with this word," I pondered.

"Let's try to reach the top of the tower."

"Yes, that's probably the best and most logical course of action," Tamara supported.

The only means of rising in the tower was the glass speeding elevators. It was illuminated with bright flashy lights as if to say "Ride me".

* **Noise of a cocking gun echoed in the distance.** *

"Well, there's our motivation to hurry up," I grinned.

We hurried over to the elevator as a long dark shadow reached across the floor. A female's body was able to be made out, and a shotgun was seen as plain as day. The elevator's doors opened and we ran in. The shadow on the floor walked away.

This elevator was slow and horrid elevator music was being played. Apparently the elevator was preprogrammed to a destination. I looked out of the window only to find the bottom floor become engulfed in water filling the floors up to the thirteenth where we first got on the elevator.

The building at this point must have been sealed shut and the windows very durable. The tremendous force of the excessive amount of water on the glass must be incredible.

A few bodies floated to the top of the water, only to sink back down to the bottom moments later. People who were still alive swam to the top and reached dry land on the thirteenth floor. This didn't last long as the ghost apparition, from earlier, pulled their souls out into thin air.

The men and women screamed as their souls were ripped straight out of their bodies. Then their flesh melted off and their limbs fell to the floor. Their bodies could not hold themselves together. They continued to crumble until their bodies were nothing more than the previous ooze left on the ground. This made me feel queasy inside seeing that I stepped and even fell in it. We watched as all this happened. The people dying as their souls were devoured, as they tried to hopelessly run for their pitiful lives. The worst part however was: We could not do a thing about it.

We had to stand there and watch them die as our slow elevator rose higher and higher to whatever our destination was. The elevator dinged and I noticed the number of the floor we stopped on: 27.

Many people on this floor were hanging over the railing in awe over the happenings below them. Some were running back and forth screaming. Others were cursing their cell phones for not working.

We stepped out of the elevator and people started to move back from us. We walked to our right and the people there assumed defensive forms. I took my sword and sheathe out of my belt and held it in my left hand, on the sheath, and extended my thumb revealing part of the blade. I was ready to attack them if they turned on us.

Their eyes stared directly at us, scanning us. They were filled with anger, anxiety, fear, and protectiveness (for those hero type people). We steadily and slowly moved by them, using caution and showing only defensive behaviors toward them. Somehow I could smell their fear. They reeked of it. Not only did they show it, but their scent filled my nostrils.

I looked around the floor to try and find my destination and found a scythe stuck in the center door on the other side of the floor. We changed to a hasty walk passing people and following the path around to the door. Tamara touched the scythe. It vanished and a large number pad appeared. It seemed to emerge from the door rather than appear. The numbers had three letters below them just like a phone's number pad would.

"Type in "demise", Tamara." Tamara punched "3", then "3" again (D,E); then "0", "4", "7", "3" (M,I,S,E).

The door popped open blowing a chilling blast of air onto us. I shuttered. We stepped through the threshold only to find ourselves in the same spot. But, when we turned around there was only a wall, not door, nothing to show we actually entered into this place.

We were stepping in human gelatin. It was almost two inches thick from the amount of people that were here before. Their fluid, unshaped form covered the floor and stuck to our shoes. The water from fourteen stories below was now just under this level. And that crazy elevator, still shone brightly, inviting us yet again to ride it.

We looked into the water as we yet again walked around to the elevator. Fish were swimming in the water, a wide array of them however, they were mutant fish. One of the fish leaped out of the water high into the air. It was as big as a shark and on its backside was a head of a human just above its tail line. It splashed back into the water sending ripples in a circular direction.

Finally we entered the elevator, after watching the magnificent fish, the doors slid closed enclosing us once again. We rode higher again up the building. The elevator seemed to take its time. It went slow . . . very slow.

I leaned on the door after taking my backpack off. Then slowly slid down and sat on the floor of the elevator. Tamara took her gun out of her back pocket and sat down next to me. I sighed as I felt her hand reach for mine. Our fingers interlocked and we held each other tight as if we were going to lose each other soon. No words were said, no words were needed, we just held onto each other until the elevator would stop.

I even closed my eyes for a brief moment and Tamara even leaned on my shoulder to take a brief rest. Let it all go and rest while we can. A feeling of easiness made our rest even easier. What easiness could come from this; only the comfort of each other. The elevator was merciful to us, taking it slow, to whatever destination it might hold.

The pale light of the building allowed for a small rest instead of a bright shining light. But that changed. The light, what remained of it, was suddenly irradiated, snuffed out by the destructive black darkness. Our eyes immediately shot open to no avail. Our eyes could not penetrate the dark void. I could not even see Tamara.

I groped around for my backpack, and upon find it, recovered the flashlights from it and handed one to Tamara. With the lights on only a fraction, less than a fraction of the darkness was pierced. I could barely see Tamara who was not more than two feet away from me. The elevator was still moving slowly up, farther up the tower. The darkness made the tower seem infinite; the black void swallowed all visible limitations.

My heart was pounding, almost audible. I heard Tamara's heavy breathing. A worse feeling than claustrophobia was attacking. The elevator enclosed us, but the darkness pressed even tighter. Tighter even so that it was suffocating us.

We were filled with the loudest sound of all \- a sound that could not be destroyed by covering our ears because it was in our ears. The sound of silence, the ear piercing ring dominated our ears almost to the point of actual pain. Stupidity got the best of me when I tried to cover my ears, I had to do something, but there was nothing to do to stop the awful ringing. Except, let it slowly subside.

The elevator finally stopped and the sliding doors cracked open only four inches. I opened it the rest of the way having used my sword as a lever. I peeked out to find two tall figures swaying back and forth to my right, and four smaller figures crawling on the floor to my left.

"Okay, I got the taller ones," I said as I put my backpack on and drew my kodachi. "Ready? Go!"

I rushed out of the door and drove my sword through the head of the first tall creature, pulled it out then slashed the second one three times in the chest. Both fell over at the same time making a loud clunk which echoed through the room

Tamara held her flashlight under her gun so she could see the creatures. She shot them all down within seconds.

A couple more monsters with large deformed arms came charging toward us around the corner railing from both sides. Tamara finished her clip on her two. I, however, had a little more trouble.

I blocked the first creature's over head attack and jumped back as the second creature slashed his sword arm horizontally. I slashed its upper arm off and grabbed it by the neck and threw it over the railing.

* **Splash* *Chomp** *

The other one slashed repeatedly with both arms, seeing an opening, barely, I attacked decapitating it.

Then the silence attacked again. Not deafening this time, our breathing nullified some of the silence.

I pointed the beam of my flashlight toward the direction Tamara went. I couldn't find her. I walked forward a few steps, maybe she was out of range of my light. I hurriedly took more and more steps until my flashlight hit the wall. There was nothing, no bullet riddled monsters, no blood, and no Tamara. The darkness must have swallowed her and sent her away from me. I traveled around the catwalk once and didn't find her. I didn't even locate the bodies that I killed, or the elevator.

"What the hell is going on here?" I started walking around again trying to find a door. I made it all the way around the catwalk again and didn't find a door. I was trapped here, on this floor, this floor that apparently doesn't exist. We entered but there is no entrance, and now Tamara left but there was no exit.

Place: No where

Eclipse: 13

"Vahn! Where did you go? This is not cool."

* **Cool** * * **Cool** *

Her words echoed off the walls.

She walked around the catwalk and came back to her same position only to find all the bodies gone. She stood there looking for a second when a bright light shattered the darkness on the other side of the room. The extremely bright light dimmed as Tamara walked toward it. The bright light ultimately took the form of a door with a handle made to open the door.

Tamara slowly and cautiously moved her slender hand to the door and opened it. Light consumed the area and blinded her as she walked through the door. The door slammed shut behind her and the extreme bright light subsided.

She looked around. There was a swing set in front of her, slides behind her, and children all around her. The sun shined brightly in the sky. Sand covered the tips of her shoes. This was not a room inside the tower she thought to herself. This was a playground on a warm sunny day.

"What the hell is going on here?" Tamara walked forward unnoticed by the young cheery kids. She took a couple steps before all the children disappeared except one.

The one girl, with beautiful flowing hair, was sitting on the edge of a merry-go-round with her face placed in her hands. She seemed to be crying. Tamara could hear a soft weeping coming from the young child.

Tamara walked over and knelt in front of the young girl and placed her hands on the girl's knees. She stopped sobbing and gently looked up. Tamara's eyes widened as she looked into her eyes, a younger version of herself.

"What's wrong little girl?" Tamara asked softly.

Through the tears Tamara was able to interpret, "My friends left and played with the new kids."

I could never keep friends as a child, Tamara thought to herself.

The young girl took a deep breath and the tears managed to subside once again. "They even made fun of me yelling "Poor girl lives in the alley ways. Look at the ugly clothes she has.'" She placed her head in her hands again.

I was never a middle classed or rich person, my clothes were makeshift: long pants into shorts, the same with long sleeves. I've taken a job now and bought myself new items. My clothes, however, are not very good looking though. I bought clothes to show off and sell my body, so to speak. Clothes like the other girls wear. This is how I made friends. I dishonored myself. I shamed myself to have friends. Were these really friends? Friends don't care about your clothes, how you act, what you say, they aren't ashamed to be around you when you have a bad day. Friends are just there to be with you in all times.

"You don't need those people little girl. They left you. It is their loss that they don't want to be your friend. You are a beautiful and cheerful child and have a magnetic personality. You just aren't around the right people who can appreciate you for who you are, not what you have."

"But I'm no one. I live in a run-down neighborhood. I go to school and people run into me and knock me over. I don't know if they don't notice me or do it on purpose. It really hurts me and makes me sad." Tears flowed from the little girl's eyes and down her face. Tamara is almost to tears herself. She wiped her eyes to not show her weakness, but ended up losing to the will of her emotions.

Crying is said to help the soul, shed the tears of all that is bad. Wash away the filth with your own body fluid. Holding back tears shows true weakness; being able to cry ultimately gives you more strength.

"That's it. * **sniff** * Let it out. Don't be ashamed to cry, * **sniff** * be proud of who you are."

"I'm not ashamed of who I am," the little girl's voice was demented, not that of a six year old. She looked up and her eyes were red. "You are the one who shames herself. Death will solve your problems; you have dishonored the person most dear: yourself. Death is the only reprieve. Prepare to d . . ."

* **BAM** *

The little girl slumped over and blood spilled into the sand.

"Die," Tamara finished the girl's statement as smoke billowed from her gun. Nothing apparent to Tamara happened. She was still on the playground with the sun shining brightly and the warm sand covered some of her shoes. The blood of the young demon child was being soaked up by the sand. Tamara walked over to the edge of the nearest slide and took a seat.

******

A bright light filled the area and on the other side of the catwalk a door of light formed. I looked over as my eyes dilated to compensate for the extreme light. I walked around the catwalk to the door and placed my hand on the knob and twisted. I was surrounded by white light that seemed to pull me in. The door shut and I was shrouded again in darkness.

A television turned on in front of me, one like the one in my house. Nothing else was in the room, just a never ending black void.

The word "play" showed up in the top left corner of the screen. The static turned to a blue screen and immediately changed to a video. Two people were getting married, they turned to kiss each other and I saw it was my mom and dad. They were laughing and everyone was having a good time. The tape blanks and comes back with the birth of a child. It was me. The doctors said I had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days for observation from some illness.

The video switched again and I was on our patio playing with my two dogs. I was playing with the smaller one and it forced me to the ground and proceeded to tear at the right side of my face. My mom tore the dog off of me and rushed me to the hospital.

"Why are you showing me this? This has already happened to me and there is no need to make me watch this again."

I smashed the television screen and water started pouring out of it defining the edges of the room. There was a lighted circle on one side of the room that was my only escape from the water that was increasing rapidly. I darted across the room. The water was slowing me down. I took my backpack and sword off and shoved them into the hole. The hole was not lighted beyond the opening. I jumped into the hole and started crawling as fast as I possibly could. The tunnel was going down which was not good. I was crawling down and down. I felt the water soaking my pants. I put my backpack back onto my back and placed my sword back there too. I had to crouch lower which slowed my crawling.

The slope became so steep and the walls so slippery that I started to slide down. I slid faster and faster then fell into another room. It too was filling with water. The water wasn't up to the hole yet, the other room was feeding this one. There was a red switch in the center of the room on top of a three foot stand being illuminated by an overhead light. I waded forward and pushed the switch forward. Four small drainage holes appeared in the bottom of the floor letting the water slowly run out. The water kept piling up because it was draining out too slow.

******

Another door of light appeared in front of Tamara. She slowly got up and sighed.

"Here we go again." She stepped through the door and was blinded again by white light.

"And here today we are gathered . . ."

"What the hell now?"

" . . . to honor Tamara Reese. She was found dead inside the Reunion Tower."

Tamara was covering her mouth in awe.

"Her beautiful body was found in pieces throughout the tower. Is there anyone who would like to offer their condolences?"

"I would, Reverend."

"Is that Vahn? It is!" Tamara gasped.

Vahn was in a wheelchair; both his legs were in casts. A woman wheeled him forward, probably his mom. Tamara wasn't sure because she had never seen his parents. They finally made it next to her casket. Vahn leaned forward and raised the lid to the top half so he could see her one last time. Tamara, however, could not see in the casket, she was at the wrong angle.

"Tamara . . . I didn't know her to well, but the time we did spend together, in Hell, I saw the development of her real self, not the slut she made herself out to be."

Tamara was shocked at this. "Do I actually do those things? I must disgrace myself horribly."

"She did die heroically trying to save the city, but it was inevitable that we lost, as we begin to feel the effects of our failure. I do not blame her, and very soon I will be able to see her again. Good luck in Heaven, Tamara."

Everyone faded into oblivion as the bright blue sky became the angriest green one could imagine. Lightening stretched across the sky.

Tamara walked up to the casket expecting to see a corpse of herself, hoping to see how she died. She wanted to see what she looked like from a third person point of view, to see how others could view her. But when she got up to the casket all she found was a button.

She felt sort of at ease and let out a sigh of relief. She pressed the button with dignity and the clouds above her started raining. Hard, thick, heavy drops of water poured from the sky above. Instantly, Tamara became soaked in the water.

******

I tiptoed on the switch in the center of the room with my affects held above the water. The water was up to my neck. Suddenly all the water poured out to somewhere. It didn't matter where. It was gone and for the moment I didn't have to worry about drowning.

With the water gone, I fell off the switch and onto my back. Some pain shot through me but other than that I was fine. I placed my pack back onto my back and carried my sword in my left hand as I walked toward the door of light that just formed. I didn't even give a look back, mainly because there was nothing to look back at.

The door sealed and disappeared behind me. A dim fire became alive in circles around the room. Numerous circles were formed each with a pool of liquid in the center of them. Then two flames appeared on either side of me and formed out a path in front of me into the darkness. My only choice would be to follow the path of fire into the impending darkness. I started my walk down the trail.

The liquid in the pools started to bubble. I could feel the heat in the room steadily increasing. The good thing was I was I was becoming dry quickly.

* **Phoof** * * **Phoof** *

I turned around and saw the source of the noise. The trail of flames was going out and they were catching up to me quickly. At that moment I knew I had to run as fast as I could. The absence of the flames would pass me and continue until I was left in the darkness, to walk in oblivion for eternity. I ran as fast as I could. The flames that licked the walls had gone out. All I could see was the path before me. I looked back; the darkness was closing in on me barely faster than I could run. I ran and ran. I had no way of telling if I was actually going anywhere at all.

The banishing of the lights were about to surpass me. I was apparently not at all close to being at a specific place. I slowed down to a walk as the banishing overcame me and passed me quickly. The rest of the flames in front of me simultaneously went out. Fear gripped me. All my muscles clenched up as the darkness seemed to become darker. For some reason I could not move. I seemed to have no control over my feet and legs. I heard all sorts of noises echo around me. Some sound like birds, others like howling wolves. Scampering of feet on the ground, fluttering of wings, all of them sounding at once louder, and louder, and faster, and close until ...

Bright light illuminated the area. I had my eyes shut because they could not bear the brightness. All the noise had stopped except one: a laugh. I still could not see, but I could tell this person was laughing extremely hard. I pried my eyes open, and found the woman in black sitting in a red chair and behind her was a massive stereo system. I opened my eyes fully and looked around. There were speakers all around me. The noises had come from all these speakers.

I was still trembling a little but most of it had subsided.

"You're so funny little boy. But I probably would have done the same thing if you did that to me. Come and sit." She motioned to a chair that popped out of the floor.

I walked over slowly, cautiously and slowly sat down in front of her. I placed my backpack on the floor and my kodachi on my lap. Seeing that I wasn't taking any chances, she pulled her shotgun out from behind her and placed it on the ground. She took her shoulder holstered hand guns out and placed them on the ground ejecting the clips. I felt a little better so I followed suit and placed my kodachi on the ground.

"I don't mean to alarm you, but we must talk about what you don't know."

Place: No where

Time: Who Cares

Eclipse: 14

Tamara was huddled under the nearest tree trying to keep warm from the freezing rain. Goosebumps grew upon her arms. Her nose was red and running. Her eyes continued to scan the sky and immediate area for any signs of escape of a new portal to another place to torment her. Nothing appeared.

Then, she thought about Vahn. Was he okay?

"I haven't seen Vahn for a while now." She started talking to herself to keep herself company. "What kind of hell have you been through? My hells are meant for me, they actually taught me. Would this still be hell if I learned what I actually do and what I need to do? Vahn, what are you really like? You have always seemed so distant, not opening up in crowds."

Tamara's eyes opened a little wider. "Have I seen the real you, what you actually want to be? A killer?"

She remembered the time before they entered the hospital, that man with the large sword. Vahn had seemed to take joy in that killing. Her thoughts were shattered by a loud instant BANG and a bright light. Another door appeared. It was an oak door with a diamond door knob. Tamara let out a sigh, got up, and walked through the doorway.

******

"First of all let's bring your lovely friend in here with us." The woman touched a button on the control panel and a door appeared and moments later a soaked beautiful entity walked through the door.

"Here, take this." The woman in black produced a blue blanket from somewhere and handed it to me. I ran over and covered Tamara in the cloth and held her close. The floor produced another seat and I helped Tamara into it.

"Okay, so get to the point." I glanced over to Tamara and saw her shivering a little. I did nothing.

"Alright. The point. I and my cohorts, Seig and the Speechless One, are being controlled by the one creating this horror film. We are trying to stop you from lighting the beacons and releasing the hold on the city, which if not completed, will spread throughout the world," the woman in black stated.

"So . . . what the hell is happening to the city?"

At that question the woman started spasming out. Her body started jumping violently; her eyes were wide open in pain. Blood ran down both nostrils and her mouth was foaming with a mix of saliva and blood from her nose. Then she was gasping for air, grasping at something with her arms that wasn't there. The she ceased and fell out of her chair dead, with all forms of liquid flowing out of her body. She was dead.

Tamara and I could only gasp.

*CRASH*

We immediately looked toward the noise and saw a hulking figure with a large, great ax standing in the new opening of the wall. The new monster let out a loud yell echoing through the lit room. Then he stretched his mouth and began to speak.

"That Bitch! I can't believe she would betray us like that. I can't fathom why," he screamed again. "Prepare to die children, for your time is up. You shall not proceed any further. This is THE END!"

The titan sung his ax around his back and held it there as he charged at us full speed. He had the speed and strength of a Minotaur.

Tamara fired a few bullets into him, seemingly having no effect. The creature neared us all too quickly. We were both standing, but in less than two seconds, I had my kodachi in hand as I shoved Tamara away from me and I dove out of the way as the hulk swung his ax around in a smooth swift circular motion around from his back and over his head and came down with extreme speed and strength onto the ground sending a shock wave and cracks along the floor throughout the room.

Tamara was still a little shocked. Not me, my adrenalin was pumping, I was ready.

******

I crouched and held my sheathed sword at my left hip and charged at the monstrosity. He saw me coming and swung his closest arm to try and stop me. I ducked under it and drew my sword slashing him in the gut. He grabbed me with his other hand and tossed me away while he picked up his ax. Instead of coming after me, he started charging at Tamara.

Blood was coming from the wound I inflected, but it did not seem to affect him. Tamara drew her gun, but it was too late to aim, the monstrosity was already on her. Tamara rolled off to the side as his ax slammed down on the ground again sending another shockwave. Dust and pieces of ceiling fell down to the ground.

My legs were aching, but I got up any way and charged at the titan. I had my kodachi sheathed again for another botujutsu move, sword drawing technique. The titan pulled its ax out of the ground and swung blind horizontally toward me. It was a low semi-slow swing so I jumped over it, drew my sword, and pierced him in the chest, twisted, pulled it out, and jumped back with my sword poised ready for another strike.

The monster growled a deep growl with liquid, probably blood, mixed in it. Tamara pelted it with a few bullets in his chest, dropped the clip out of the gun, and reloaded it with one of the remaining two clips.

"Conserve your ammo! I got this." I made the mistake of looking at her behind me instead of keeping my eyes on the target. I turned around at the last second, enough time to block a horizontal swing from the great ax. I may have blocked it, but I was flung across the room. I hit against a wall and slid down hitting my butt on the hard floor. The creature charged for me. I was still dazed, but I could see the massive object coming toward me. I jabbed my sword into the ground and used it to help me get up. I balanced myself by spreading my feet apart.

I jumped in the general direction toward Tamara as the beast sliced his ax into the wall. I reached Tamara and whispered into her ear, "I'm going to shut these lights off. Be as quiet as you can."

Using some of the strength I had left, I jolted to the control panels where we met the woman and immediately found the panel controlling the lights. There were six different switches, all of which were in the up position. I switched them all to the off position after closing my eyes. The room became pitch black, no flame lit candles, no light whatsoever. I tried desperately to slow down my breathing and be as quiet as possible. I inhaled deeply and held my breath for a few seconds, and wondered if my heart's thumping against my chest could be heard. I slowly let out my breath, and deeply inhaled another. My heart rate slowed, but my muscles started aching, thinking it was time to relax. Finally, as I let out my second breath of air, I breathed slowly and more regular and more importantly, I breathed quietly.

I listened closely in the silence and I heard his heavy breathing, I started to move silently.

******

"I've got to be as quiet as I can. Damn him!" the beast thought to his self. "I've had my mouth sewn together all my life. I'm finally able to speak and be as loud as I want again. But, now, if I want to continue to live I must be the quietest I have ever been. Damn this boy and his intellect. Damn my large body. Damn this world. Damn my parents for silencing me. I was threatened with the most precious thing in the world if I unstitched my mouth. They threatened me with the death of my true love. I was loud, ignorant, obnoxious, and hateful to everyone, but she warmed my heart. I spat in my parents' faces about the end of the world, preached to them all the time how I would be part of it. They called me a heathen, a devil's boy, when they knew damn well they gave birth to me. They finally got so tired of me they held me down and stitched my mouth shut. Even though I could break free with a knife they threatened Rose. She was beautiful, so beautiful.

I worked out every day, secluded and in silence. Pumping weights, training with my ax until the day He called me. Said Rose was going to die if I didn't help when in fact He said I had already killed her one night along with my family. She could not accept me. She died. My parents caused this. They died. I killed them all and joined Him. My heart died. I still love her. My beau . . ."

* **Slice** * * **Ack** *

"My beautiful Rose."

The lights turned on and the man with a heart fell to the ground from the man with a sword.

Place: The floor that doesn't exist with the door to nowhere

Eclipse: 15

I whipped my blade to the right getting the blood off it, and then sheathed it to my left hip.

"Rose?" Tamara got up with a confused look on her face.

"I don't know who that is but it is time we finished this tower. It's time to go home. I'm tired of this killing."

"I agree. I have seen enough death. This has to stop before it spreads throughout the world. This city must be liberated from the dark to see light once again. Let's go," Tamara stated.

At that moment a door appeared, and before we even touched the door, it slowly started to creek open. Darkness emanated from the door. The darkness was consuming the light of the room, the illuminated ceiling lamps were being overrun by the over whelming power of the dark and, in less than ten seconds, was snuffed out completely. We could only see the door and its opening because it was illuminated by the glowing dark, so all we could do was walk toward it because there was nowhere else we could go. Eventually an invisible force pulled us through the door and, not less than a second later; the door shut and was gone.

We had arrived in a narrow, steep stairwell. This was not a winding stairwell like most people would find in a building. No, it was almost a ladder, but with five inch steps so steep that they had to be climbed like a ladder.

I started first and up I went. Tamara waited a few moments before she started after me. I could not tell how far we had to climb for it was too dark to even see the third step in front of me.

Is this the stairway to Heaven, I thought; a straight up climb to the top of infinity? Could one ever reach Heaven if it exists? A place of Nirvana; complete peace and happiness, and pleasure? One cannot have pleasure, however, because pleasure is most often than not associated with sin. One would then ask: Does Heaven allow sin? If Heaven were to be a place of happiness, then how could it not have sin? So, if there is no sin, the next question would be: Is a person void of physical and mental emotions to suppress their feelings because feelings lead to choices and choices can either be bad or good, sinless or sinful.

"What is your view on Heaven, Tamara?" I asked.

"I am pagan," she said quickly.

"That's fine. I'm atheist, however, the quest is still present," I then returned. "Generally my train of thought is Heaven is a temporary holding place where the souls of the dead are transported to the newly born as is with Hell."

"So, you're saying each person on Earth is a recycled soul from Heaven or Hell?

"That's how I see it."

* **BANG** *

"OUCH!" I held the top of my head for I banged it on a metal ceiling.

Tamara heard the bang and stopped short of running into me.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Well, hopefully it's a hatch. Hand me my flashlight out of my pack."

Tamara tried carefully to get the flashlight out of the backpack. She moved up closer to me to get better leverage. She reached in my backpack and pushed my items aside including the two half books of Heaven and Hell and finally reached my flashlight then she resealed my pack.

The flashlight, being turned on, barely illuminated even a foot in front of her, so she gave it to me and I used it to find the latch which I promptly unlatched and opened. My ears popped as the air around us pressurized. I faked yawned to depressurize my ears. I moseyed up through the hatch and helped Tamara up.

We found ourselves on the top of a building again. There was a light mist in the air as thunder rumbled over head and every few seconds or so lightning would streak across the sky like a snake in brilliant, dazzling, and terrifying colors. Chilling breezes swept over us as we looked around.

We had not gone far when we came upon an incubation tube in the center of the roof. There, it held a creature, no - it was not a creature but an organ, what appeared to be a heart with tubes stretching down toward the building. It pulsated; it seemed to be the life of the building as a heart in the center of a human body.

This is our target.

The heart started beating faster.

This is what we must destroy.

It was anticipating my impending attack.

This will liberate the area, saving the people. I drew my sword and slashed at the glass, it easily broke. Tamara put her hand in front of me.

"Please, let me," was all she said. She took the sword from me and held it pointed at the organ. The heart was beating so fast it looked as if it were going to burst. She thrust the kodachi forward and pierced it. The heart popped. I couldn't help but give off a laugh as Tamara was covered in slime. It soon dissipated as the pillar of light appeared so bright in the night. The beautiful light parted the clouds in the sky. I could not, however, see the starts.

The beacon above the school and the one over the hospital along with this tower's all started to glow different colors between red, blue, green, yellow, and different shades of all those colors, and finally the settled on one color. Red. The color of blood. We were bathed in it. The light around us turned red and the smell of blood filled the air. I was tempted to cover my nose until I saw the Reunion tower, the large building with the ball on the top of it.

The ball started to glow white. Then the three beacons emitted a beam of red light into the sphere, filling it with red light until the once white light sphere was now a very deep red.

This was our next, and hopefully final, destination.

Place: The journey to the sphere of evil.

Eclipse: 16

Exiting the building, we found our previous ride, the police squad car, was now totally destroyed as if something extremely heavy fell onto it. The roof of the car as well as the front hood were caved in and smashed.

I sighed and looked out at the darkened sky. The rain had stopped. The water on the ground had flowed away now leaving the sidewalks damp. I looked around and found a bench under an awning and promptly decided to walk over to that bench and sit down. Tamara, who was a little confused, came and sat next to me.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Well, you know," I started, "I'm quite tired and need a break for about five minutes if you don't mind."

"I guess that's okay."

"Oh, I'm sure it's okay because the monsters aren't going anywhere and it seems time has stopped."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, its pitch black out here and even on a cloudy night like this the moon should be showing some light through the clouds but it's not. That means, I can hopefully safely assume, that there is still an eclipse and it's at the same position in the sky because there has been no sunset against the dark and gloomy background. What time would you guess it to be?"

"I don't know. Late into the night probably," she answered. "I kinda wish the rain hadn't stopped."

"Why is that?"

"I still feel quite dirty from when that thing exploded even though the liquid crap evaporated away. I still feel it on me."

I was grinning.

"But, anyway, I want to ask you, what happened to you last night? How did you know to bring a gun to school today? I was attacked last night but in actuality the event was a dream because my house was all in order." I was staring blankly across the street, not even looking at her until I heard a faint sniffle. I turned and looked to find her head buried in her hands. I put my arms around her and held her close and she was getting as close as she could.

"I'm sorry. Should I drop the subject?"

"No," she managed, "I'll tell you." She released me, sat back up, and then started her story. "I had my friends over for an overnight stay, it was probably about midnight, that's usually when the monsters come out in the movies; anyway, my first friend dies as the lights go out. I hear more screaming and my head starts pounding. My parents rush out of their bedroom with flashlights and a gun. My dad was the first to go. The gun dropped in front of me, the flashlight lay on the floor pointing toward a most hideous creature. Then, as I turned the gun and fired, my mother was impaled. I couldn't fire the gun 'cause the pounding in my . . . my head hurt so horribly bad that I blanked out, and the next real actual memory after that was watching you get on the bus with the gun in my lap."

Most of the story was hurried with sobs in between. I made out most of it. "So, you don't know if your parents are still alive or not?"

"No, I don't."

"Okay. Well, I am truly sorry. You seemed to have a much worse time than I had. My parents were still alive when I left home this morning and had no recollections of the horrid things that happened during the night. Well, let's go; enough of this."

******

The quiet streets held no threat to us as we walked toward our destination. The small and quiet pit-pat of water drops from silent and still trees to the puddles under them could be heard. The darkness provided a small peace for us because we could not see all of the horrible things around us. The smell of rainwater was still heavy in the air, and a light fog was just now accompanying the dark light of the night.

Our pace was quick for we felt the fog pressing in on us so heavily that it might squeeze the life out of us. The air was thick, almost hard to breathe, so we could not hurry any faster than our breath allowed.

My legs already ached and the five minute sit helped naught. I am hungry and tired all at the same time, but I cannot think about that because the enemy doesn't care one bit. They will kill you all the same, and you will then be the food for them.

Then the pit-patting of the water and the silence was broken. Now the groans of Hell's creatures came echoing through the air. My muscles tensed at the first sound as it seemed to come from the air.

Great, that's all we need, I thought, aerial enemies. Nothing would please me more than fighting an enemy, which could fly, with only a sword and a gun running out of ammo.

Then all was silent. We kept walking, though we never stopped, there was no point in stopping. What's going to come will come and will be dealt with when it arrives.

We crossed through a four way light section in the road, the red lights were all flashing. I couldn't, however, make out the street sign but above it I swear I thought I saw a bird like figure. I wouldn't doubt that we were being hunted, and not seeing objects until they are right on top of me isn't very good. Nevertheless, I kept my eyes scanning the skies in front of me, discreetly, however.

The shadow of the tower finally came into view as did more flying creatures as the fog seemed to lessen. They didn't seem to be ready to attack, more like circling the building, almost drawn in by it as we were being, knowingly.

We came around to a parking garage, for we couldn't find a front door, and entered into the dark void. I switched on my flashlight and we went in.

Place: Near

Eclipse: 17

The man in the cloak sat in his massive stone chair in between two gates, one white and one black, inside of a large circular room. The room was dimly lit from an over head chandelier.

The man was smiling. A devilish grin was drawn on his face. A devilish grin where you know everything was falling into place so precisely that nothing could go wrong.

The man moved his right index finger pushing a certain button on the arm of his chair and an overhead T.V. screen turned on. He pushed another button and the screen displayed the two teenagers walking in the parking garage.

"Yes," he said in a devious voice. "Everything is going exactly to plan." He paused for a moment and leaned his chin on his left hand.

"I was worried at first. The three of them off balanced the scale. Three good beings thinking they are saving the world." Laughter filled the air around him from unknown beings. "Yes, so I had the one killed. He seemed the easiest to do, and the perfect set up was there. Angry spirits are quite easy to persuade."

The man got up and started pacing around the circular room with his hands placed behind his back. His robes fluttered around as he walked.

"I haven't seen Scythe in a while. I wonder where he is. It is the last off balancing factor now that the three beacons are lit. Scythe must die therefore I will need to place my special weapon in their path. Ah, there he is walking through the front doors of the building now."

The monitor split into two screens: one keeping the two factors, and the other containing the off balance factor.

"And that woman, Sasha, as she like to call herself, both sexy and cold as ice, had to die. She was off balancing the scales too. Sasha played her end role nicely making the kids think they are winning. The end is near but there is nothing to fear Muhahahaaa...."

The Weapon

Eclipse: 18

* **Click,Click,Click** *

. . . was the sound of our shoes. Occasionally fatigue brought about a skip.

* **Grumble** *

. . . came the sound from my stomach.

Cars were still parked in the multilevel garage. We continued walking, following signs directing us toward the building. The signs seemed to be taking us the long way, avoiding every set of stairs and taking us through the ramps the cars use.

I was carrying my sword with my left hand and let Tamara carry the flashlight. She had her gun and the few remaining clips in her back pockets.

There was growling in the background; sounds from multiple enemies close by scampering around. We continued to make giant circles with no challenge. However, the challenge could be walking in itself. We were becoming more and more tired as we walked.

Then I noticed something. I guess it didn't catch my eye until now, but there was a car on every level with its head lights on. The lights were not very bright that's why I might have not noticed it. The car was a white Chevy truck with the front window busted out.

"Damn it! We have been walking in circles," I said with such a sour face.

"What!?"

"Look, truck, there, now come here." I ran up the ramp to the next level and to the exact same spot. And there, for sure, was the same truck with the head lights on and the front window broken out. All the other cars were different except this one.

Wait! The lights in the back flickered off then on, like an eyelid opening and closing. I waited about five seconds, fully wide eyed, and they did it again.

"It's alive," I whispered to Tamara.

"How do we kill it?" she whispered back.

"Let me try."

I drew my sword. I held it so the blade was pointed down, raised my hand and thrust the blade through the hood of the truck.

The truck shattered like glass into a thousand pieces onto the ground and it echoed throughout the garage and eventually another shattering sound rippled through the garage.

"Interesting," I said as I started walking toward the second sound. Tamara followed.

We arrived and found that the entrance to the stairs was now covered in glass. We carefully walked past the glass, crunching it on the way and entered the stairwell. The set of stairs going up was blocked, but the bottom set was not. Tamara looked at me and shrugged.

We started our walk down into the pits. Once we made it around the first pass there was no way out. The entrance sealed up and there were no more doors or windows. Pitch black and enclosed, but our flashlights led the way to keep us from falling down the long set of stairs. I put my hand on the railing but quickly took it off. There was some kind of liquid covering the railing. I could only guess what it was. Blood. I wiped my hands off on the wall.

We continued down. The air started to change, more stagnant and stale. We came to a turn where there was a dead carcass of something. The rotting flesh smelled extremely bad. Blood was still spilling out of its body down the stairs almost filling each step as it traveled. The blood was far below for it had filled the next ledge and the one after. We stepped carefully trying not to slip as we went.

This stairwell seemed to have no end. Strange symbols started appearing on the wall as we continued down. Some symbols were still being drawn on the wall by the slithering blood. There were geometrical symbols inside and overlapping each other: circles and triangles and squares.

Tamara's flashlight happened to catch a drawing on the wall in front of us at the corner. The snake like blood drew on the wall much faster than the rest. By the time it was done a pentagram was drawn. My heart started racing. The lines started to glow. Then an arm protruded through it. We froze and could not move. Then another arm protruded. The hands were placed on the walls and they started pushing against the wall. A head appeared. It continued to push. The body appeared and the rest of the creature came out as it fell onto the floor.

I put my hand in front of Tamara all confident. "They sent an easy creature against us, I got this," I said proudly.

The creature slowly got up and reached its right arm toward us as it shuffled up the stairs. I slashed through its chest. The nice sharp blade easily cut through the rotted skin of the walking corpse. For a moment I thought I had easily destroyed my foe. I was sadly mistaken.

I watched in awe as the top part of the body merged so cleanly with the bottom of the body forming once again a whole creature.

"Oh shit!" was all I could say.

I then cross slashed it like an "X" hoping body parts would fall to the floor. Instead they floated a couple inches away from each other. Strings of skin emerged from the four pieces then pulled themselves and merged back together.

"Um . . . run, ya," I shook my head. "Run." I hit the zombie with the flat side of my blade making it tumble down the stairs.

We ran past it and at the bottom of the next set of stairs we finally found the exit. We shoved the push door open and ran through and shut the heavy iron rusted door behind us. We thought we were safe until we saw another pentagram being drawn on the wall. The creature fell out of the hole again. I slapped it against the wall and started running with Tamara following close behind. The creature promptly got up and started quickly walking down the long hall toward us.

The hall was extremely long. On each side were three inch sharp spikes protruding from the wall, blood tipped on most of them. We weren't charging on concrete either, it was heavy steel grates. Through the steel grates was another room where blood was collecting. There was a pool of blood as well as a platform where a person could stand and look out into the blood.

The creature was gaining on us, and we were running out of strength. I could see no end to the hallway. It kept going and going forever with no possible end in sight.

Then I noticed another platform emerge from the blood pool. This platform had a pentagram on it. Other than the pentagram, the platform was completely clean. This pentagram glowed white as opposed to the creatures' pentagram which glowed red.

I unsheathed my sword and wiped it off on my shirt so it was clean. I slit my hand and squeezed blood out of it letting it drip through the floor and onto the white symbol turning it black.

After the symbol turned black, the creature immediately started withering in pain. It was holding its throat and screaming, blood dripping out of its mouth, ears, and eyes. The creature fell to the floor and melted spilling onto the now black symbol.

* **Sound of glass breaking** *

"That noise again, we must have unlocked something again!" Tamara cheered.

Sure enough a stand alone door came rushing toward us and stopped two inches from Tamara's nose. Tamara caught some dust and sneezed on the door.

"Hold on before we go in. I need to bandage my hand," I said as Tamara's hand reached for the doorknob.

I ripped my t-shirt, a part that wasn't bloody, then buttoned my over shirt back up, which was mostly stained. I wrapped my hand up with the piece. I didn't cut myself too deeply so the bleeding wasn't bad.

"Okay, let's go and see what's behind door number 16,001." I made a weird face showing my disgust.

Tamara opened the door. As it spread open we were presented with a beautiful room bright and lit. Several chandeliers hung overhead spreading the light. Disturbing pictures of a man hanging on a cross were spread throughout the room. I assumed it was a picture of Jesus. Two stairwells on either side of the room led up to double doors. Sitting in the center of the room was a lance encased in a gigantic glass frame stretching from the floor to the ceiling. There were three information stands in front of it.

We walked through the door onto the shining red velvet carpet toward the lance. The right information stand's card read:

This is the Lance of Longinus. It is

stained with the blood of the Lord in his

final days.

The middle stand's card read:

This lance is made of a Holy material

and is the strongest weapon

on Earth.

The last stand's card read:

This is the Holiest weapon ever to be

in existence. It vanquishes even the

most vile evil. Use it wisely!

"Nice, this is ours." We encircled the glass case in hopes to find a way to open it. There was none.

"Shoot it," I told Tamara. Tamara took out her pistol and put two holes in the glass. I then kicked the glass where the two holes were breaking a larger hole into the glass. Tamara reached in and maneuvered the long lance out. Then she tried to hand it to me, but I refused.

"No, you need it more than I do," I motioned to my sword.

"Alright, let's finish this," she said.

* **Ding** *

The door at the top of the stairs made the noise. We walked up the stairs and entered the open elevator door. There was only one button to push on the elevator. Up. We were apparently taking too long, so the button pushed itself.

Place: Elevator

Eclipse: 19

The elevator was made of glass, so we could see the darkness outside. The elevator was moving at the speed that an elevator should, but apparently we were so far underground that this was going to be quiet a long ride. Music was playing, dark ambience, quite annoying actually. There was some slight background static, like white noise. Instead of tile on the floor it was covered in velvet carpet.

Tamara had leaned the Lance of Longinus on the wall in the corner. The lance was incredibly light and an aura seemed to flow through her. The sensation thrilled her. Tamara sat on the floor opposite me with her feet touching the bottom of my feet.

While she was concentrating on me, I was spaced out. Death was what I was thinking about: flowing blood, dead bodies. I could find no peace in her, not from what I have seen and done. It seems I have had the worst of the experience. From my friends dying in front of me by a woman whose insides came spurting out, to bodies of women, men, and children being stapled to the walls of a hospital building. Hearing them reach out for me with their decayed hands and having to slash their bodies to no end before they did not pose a threat any more. I slaughtered innocent people who were merely under the control of a creature that could not even be touched. I was being mentally tortured. It was almost becoming unbearable. I don't know what to do, but we are almost done, and then I will come to terms with my conscience. If I can.

******

He must be mentally distraught; he's not even looking at me. I couldn't even begin to comprehend and such. But my sanity has also been brought to the brink of destruction. They have made me endure what I truly wished to deny. They showed me myself - who I truly am. But this epiphany is welcomed. For I was never truly comfortable being the person I never was to people I try to impress.

Yes, I was brought to the brink of insanity and I came back seemingly a better person for it. That is why I must show my sympathy for Vahn.

******

"What have you seen that makes you so distraught?" Tamara asked me.

"I don't wish to share my vision with you." My face became dark and my head tilted downwards and I looked up at her through the top of my eye sockets. "For if I do you will not sleep at night."

"I am already not going to be able to sleep."

". . . your mind will be shattered . . ."

"Just let me help you," Tamara said in a soft voice.

". . . and your body would shiver," I finished. With that I became quiet again and silence shrouded over us inside the glass elevator.

The elevator kept going up to what seemed to no end. Maybe it wasn't going up. Maybe it reached the top of the building and what felt and looked like going up was only a transition from one plane of existence to another. That has been what's going on. Another plane of existence interacted with ours and became the cross version of the world Tamara and I have been trudging through. And that plane of existence was also manipulated by the force crossing the two planes into this disgusting version. And now, provided the theory is correct, we will move _all_ the way into the _other_ plane and see what kind of terrible world that is. Maybe the crossing of the two created the awful reality, and the other dimension was just as plain as ours. Or maybe not.

* _Ping_ *

The elevator finally, after an extremely long duration, came to a finalized stop. I was thoroughly relieved mainly because my thoughts were starting to irritate me much to the point of actually killing myself. Sanity returned to me, however. Thank God, if one was here right now.

We stood up and waited in front of the door . . . patiently. . . very patiently . . . soon becoming aggravated . . . very aggravated. The doors didn't open. They just stayed . . . closed. Three inches of steel and other material just in front of us, closed. Tamara reached over and hit the control pad's open button. The light stayed dim. Tamara leaned over and whispered in my ear. . .

"Say, Vahn?"

"Ya, Tamara?"

"The doors are not opening," she whispered.

"Are you sure?" I asked with a grin.

"Extremely."

"Okay, Lance please," I asked her.

"Good thing the Lance is only the broken off part."

"Yup," I said as I thrust the Lance in the crack, and started to pry the doors open. Water started flowing in. Murky, thick, and disgusting water. I pried the door the rest of the way open and walked through.

Place: Hell

Eclipse: 20

Blood, red and thick, crawled along the walls of the hallway in front of us. The disgusting water was only an inch high so our shoes were barely getting wet. The ceiling was a wet mop dripping with water, if that's what it was.

Tip-toeing, as we hurried down the hall, about halfway the hallway became normal with no warning of any kind. Our shoes weren't wet, hair was dry, and the smell was gone. I urged Tamara to stop.

"Hold up a sec, I wanna see something to prove a theory I'm having," I said. I turned around and walked a few steps. The heavenly view of the normal hall turned into the hellish nightmare view of the same hall.

"I knew it!" I proclaimed.

" . . . What!" Tamara was a few feet behind me and she didn't see the hell that I saw.

"There is an imaginary line right here," I pointed to the spot in front of my foot."When I step over this line I'm in the untainted world. Do you see? The dimensions are crossing over." I walked forward expecting to be in the other dimension with one step; however, my heart skipped a beat because this was not true. I then looked at Tamara and her eyes grew wider.

" . . . Shit, Vahn, it's moving," she said.

I stepped forward even farther and found myself still in the diseased hallway. I grabbed Tamara and we bolted for the end of the hallway. After about ten more steps we were back in the real hallway. I kept walking quickly not yet giving a sigh of relief. My heart was pounding faster as I felt Hell drawing upon us.

We reached the end of the hallway and opened the wooden door with a gold doorknob, scurried through, and slammed the door behind us. Now I gave a sigh of relief but it was cut short. The only overhead light shattered and we were shrouded in darkness.

The Lance of Longinus gave off a dim light and with it we saw several creatures moving about. The walls were bubbling with some type of ooze. The ooze started glowing with a faint purple.

A taller monster started trudging toward us. I dashed forward and in a single motion slashed its stomach. Blood spilled out onto the floor and onto me. Another large figure was moving toward Tamara. She used the Lance and speared it in the head. Its entire body started spasming as the spear burned the flesh of the creature.

Things were scurrying on the walls. Tamara and I made short work of them. A large shadow grew out of the floor and took the form of a gorilla, still in the texture of a shadow. I dashed forward again and cut it. The form fell like water into the floor.

The form reformed again on the ceiling and grabbed Tamara by the head and started to squeeze. She screamed in pain and thrust the Lance into the gut of the shadow. It fell like water again into the ceiling.

"Tamara, the lamp!" I yelled.

"What!"

"Shove the Lance into the broken ceiling lamp!"

Tamara found the overhead lamp and touched the Lance to it.

The shadow appeared on the wall behind me and wrapped me in a bear hug and started squeezing the life out of me.

The Lance started to brighten and the room instantly filled with light instantly but only for a second. In that second, the shadow disintegrated.

The glowing purple ooze started crawling up toward the ceiling, toward the cord holding the lamp, down toward the lamp, and up into the light socket, and when all the ooze was sucked into the lamp the light bulb reformed and lit the room. All remnants of evil had disappeared.

Tamara and I exchanged glances about the disturbing transaction that transpired here just one moment ago.

With the light in the room shining bright, we could now see another door on the opposite side of the room. This door was made of gold and had a wooden doorknob. We strode over to it.

Upon opening the door we found another door about two feet away. This must be the shortest hallway ever. The next door way was made of silver steel, as was the door knob. Bolts on the door formed an "X" on the full length of the door.

Tamara stayed holding the gold door open, which opened into the room. I walked in and turned the steel handle and pushed . . . the door budged less than a centimeter. I then started to lean on the door and started pushing. The door didn't move at all.

"Tamara, come help me push this. The door is extremely heavy."

"You weakling, making a woman do a man's job," she laughed.

As soon as Tamara stepped through the threshold of the gold doorway, the gold door slammed shut behind her and the steel door reclosed itself. At that point the small hallway, now a small prison, jolted suddenly. Then the room stated going down, and down, and down, faster, and faster, further and further. At one point I felt so light that I could swear the speed of the drop was levitating me. Then, before I actually got off the ground, the room, elevator, sort of speak, jolted to a stop and we fell to the ground.

The room, elevator, opened up to a long, very narrow hallway. It was a prison - a disgusting, awful smelling prison.

Both sides of the hall were prison cells, two rows of cells stacked on top of each other. We could not see in the top row for it was too high. There was nothing in the prison cells from what we could tell. But we heard this heavy breathing and stomping like pacing coming from the top row.

The floor was wet like water was leaking from somewhere. We tried to be quiet while walking to the other side of the prison, but we were splashing in the puddles. We quickly tiptoed to the other side and then I stopped as something caught my right eye. I turned and looked into the prison cell and saw a totem pole about six feet high with the head of an eagle and wings spread out.

Its eyes were drawing me in. It felt like my soul was being ripped out. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. All of a sudden the totem pole turned into me. Then it looked real. The me, in the cage, actually became real and started walking around the cage. My body all of a sudden felt weak. Fear and pain suddenly over took me.

The me inside the cage stood tall and proud and he stood their laughing devilishly at me. "Look at this piece of shit!" I said from inside the cage. Then I started laughing.

Tamara stood there in awe as she looked at the two Vahns standing in front of her. She didn't understand what just happened. On her side of the cage stood a weak and afraid Vahn; on the other side of the cage stood the mean brute of a man.

"Okay, what the hell!!!" she cried.

"You don't understand do you, woman!?" the mean Vahn said.

"No, I don't obviously."

"I am the totem of separation. I suck the evil and courage out of a person and become them in physical form."

"Well, go back!"

"NO! Now, get me out of this damned cage."

Tamara used her Lance as a lever and broke the lock releasing totem Vahn.

"T-T-Tamara," weak Vahn said.

"What!?" Tamara said flustered.

Weak Vahn pointed down the prison hall. Moving slowly toward them was Scythe. Its weapon tapped the floor every time it walked. As it came into view, all three of them could see blood dripping from him and from his scythe. He had just finished slaughtering people or torturing them. None the less he was coming with the full intent of killing them.

Since the replicated me was an exact duplicate, it copied me and everything on me including my kodachi. We have two kodachis now. However, my weaken self is too scared to fight.

"Give me your sword you sorry excuse for a man." Vahn grabbed the blade from Vahn. "Let's go you two" Vahn pointed down the corridor and they continued, running now, down the hall. Scythe, however, kept walking.

They opened the iron door at the end of the prison cells and walked through. They came into a room with four doors, all identical wooden doors, even the one they came through. They ran to the opposite door and opened it. They found themselves back in the same room; the door behind them was closed. They opened it. Again they found themselves in the same room.

"Shit! We're trapped!" Vahn said. The door on the other side of the room opened and Scythe walked through.

The Creature entered the room.

"This is it," a devilish grin grew across evil Vahn's face. With kodachis in both hands he turned the blade of his left hand so the blade was against his fore arm. This is a defensive position and his other kodachi was in more of an attack position.

Scythe charged, weapon raised, Vahn jumped in front and blocked the down swing with his left arm and slashed the monster's gut, but was stopped short by a metal clang. Scythe punched Vahn in the chest. He flew back and hit the back wall.

Balance

Eclipse: 21

"This is it? The end? Weak Vahn started crying.

"No! Quiet you! Tamara, use the Lance of Longinus. I will back you up for defense. Vahn, here, you will need to help." Vahn tossed the kodachi to Vahn who immediately dropped to the ground.

Vahn walked over to Vahn, "Get up you pathetic fool!"

"I can't, I just can't. Let me stay here and die."

Scythe's weapon came swinging toward Vahn. Strong Vahn blocked it with the kodachi, but the force was so strong that it forced the two Vahns to topple over each other. Tamara whacked Scythe with her Lance, and then his attention turned to her.

"You fool! You die, I will die, and Tamara will not last for much longer! Get up and fight, goddamn it."

Weak Vahn's eyes looked so scared, sad, depressed, and sorrowful. He was paralyzed and looked as if he could do absolutely nothing.

"Damn it!" Vahn forced him down on the ground and reequipped with the other kodachi.

"Tamara, let's go, we have to kill him somehow, try and stab him with the Lance somewhere. I will try and distract it while you get a cle . . . Vahn!!!"

Scythe was raising his weapon to swing at the pathetic Vahn lying on the floor. The other Vahn dashed toward them and caught the downswing.

"Ahhh," he cried as the force and strength were incredible. "Now!"

Tamara lunged forward, Lance extended. Scythe twisted and grabbed the Lance with its hand. Its hand started sizzling like it was burning. As Tamara held on, Scythe flung her across the room.

Vahn slashed both legs of the creature, blood dripped out, but again metal stopped a fully clean cut.

Tamara pulled herself off the floor and held the Lance up again in attack position. Scythe was busy playing with Vahn again. Tamara tried rushing again to no avail as she was again thrown across the room. Her strength was waning; she struggled to get up as pain surged through her. The once light weight Lance was now becoming heavy.

Scythe slashed and slashed and slashed at Vahn. The heavy forceful swings were becoming too much to handle, his legs hurt, his arms were being shaken to the point where they felt like rubber.

Vahn on the ground ceased crying after seeing the hopeless situation; he felt he needed to help. Though his killing half had been stripped, his courage, once found, was still intact.

He crawled over to Tamara and grabbed the Lance. He put his hand on her forehead comforting her. She relaxed. Vahn finally stood up and started walking toward Scythe. His other half was forced down to the ground and had just about given up, his strength gone, destroyed. Then he saw his weak half coming. With his last amount of strength he heaved his kodachi into Scythe's face. The familiar clank stopped the attack, but he was forced back with the amount of force.

Vahn rammed the Lance into Scythe's back. The holy power pierced through the metal like butter and came jutting out through the other side. Scythe dropped his weapon and grabbed the Lance and yanked it out with a blood curdling scream. It slowly turned around to Vahn with the largest grin it could stretch on its face which wasn't much. And it burst out laughing, the most devious, most hideous laugh ever to be heard; the type of laugh where everything is going according to the enemies' plan. Then it bent over and leaned closer to Vahn's face.

It whispered into Vahn's ear, "You have balanced the scales fool! I let you win, AHHAHHAHH." Scythe fell to his knees and was engulfed in violet flames.

The room they were in started shifting. Three doors vanished. Part of the wall started changing into a rustic color with dark blood dripping down them. The lights blew out over head. Everything was going to hell literally. A rancid smell arose. All the bodies huddled together in the center of the room as the darkness and light surrounded them. Yes, even though darkness was forming, light still stayed to deep the balance.

A man walked in through the only door left. Or, we assume it is a man, because whoever it was wore a violet robe embroidered in light blue. He had his hands in his sleeves across his stomach. His head was bowed and was covered by a cloak. When the three victims noticed him he motioned them through the door by extending his hand out.

"This way please," he said in a kind, gentle voice.

Existence

Eclipse: 22

People have hidden personalities within them that only show in extreme circumstances. Or online people become different people entirely in a crowd, but when you see them individually they are their normal self, the self shown in normal life. These selves are masks for the true person inside of us. Or it could be said that the mask is a container or a shield rather to protect them and/or the outside world from that inside self. The inside self is always the opposite of the outside mask so if one is out one is always in - the balance must be held, Ying and Yang, light and dark, good and evil. A balance must be kept in all places of the world in all living creatures.

A perfect existence is acknowledging that these two entities be able to merge themselves together flawlessly and fully. Chocolate milk comes to mind in certain cases as I am drinking some as I write this. But, the blend would be very similar, dark plus light equal gray. This configuration makes your existence strong and fulfilling because you no longer have to hold your other self back. This is what a person should strive for.

However, in Vahn's case, his entire other half was completely ripped out. Vahn's demon to kill, or rather slaughter, anything in his path with excitement, his most deadly arts are used.

The other Vahn, the protective shield, one of the kindest persons one could ever meet, though that is his main fault, as people do sometimes take advantage of him. Scared of killing and fighting all together he stays secluded to avoid hurting others.

The Totem of Despair saw to it that his other side was transferred out and the real Vahn was left without his other half. Actually, neither half is the real half because in order to exist a person must have a light and dark side or the gray area. So, in actuality, they both are the real Vahn, but not the complete Vahn.

Tamara has yet to find her other half. She is aware of it because the creatures have shown her, but she does not want to believe it. She has to come to terms with what her mask is hiding so she can find herself in the world.

Place: The Room of Truth

Eclipse: 23

The cloaked man closed the door behind them as they cautiously walked through. The room became pitch black. The figure of the cloaked man brushed past them. One single spot light shown over the cloaked figure.

"Thank you for coming. I greatly appreciate it as all has gone according to plan. You have successfully restored the balance at each of the designated locations: the school - a place of growing up; the hospital - the place of life and death; and the skyscraper - a ladder to the heavens. Do not be excited however, because I needed you to do this for me: I needed you to spread Hell into the world. Have a wonderful day my puppets." The one spot light shut off.

The lights turned on and the man had vanished, however there were three chairs sitting next to each other. The three puppets took a seat in those chairs.

"So, we helped him? Whoever that is?" Tamara asked.

"Apparently so. The school for instance, when we got there it was all fine like a normal day. Suddenly all these monsters appeared and strange things started happening," one of the Vahns said.

"Right, maybe the Hell dimension moved into ours creating the havoc. The Hell dimension had to switch over to activate the switches for the pillars," the second Vahn stated.

"And, to complete the ceremony, someone had to light the pillars and when all the pillars were lit Hell was able to be brought into our world, just like it is now," said Tamara.

"DAMN IT. He made us think we were helping, but instead we were helping him! Gah!!!"

"We didn't know, but if you look at this mathematically four pillars will give you exact coordinates for Hell to converge into," stated Tamara.

"Isn't it three for a coordinate to triangulate a position?" Vahn asked.

"Yes, but we are also dealing with a different dimension here, so obviously we need a fourth marker," Vahn stated.

"But, we didn't light the last pillar yet," Tamara stated confidently.

A bright light poured through the building.

Place: The stair way to Heaven?

Eclipse: 24

"Well, we need to stop this since we inadvertently started it. We just need to find out how the hell we can get out of here," Tamara said.

There were no longer any doors in the room. The room was extremely bright as the pillar of light went straight through the room. The center of the room was the brightest. There seemed to be a pad there that a person could stand on. They were all a little skeptical though.

The bold daring Vahn stepped up first. When he planted his other foot he immediately disappeared. After Tamara and Vahn exchanged glances for a minute or two, the other Vahn reappeared and motioned for them in an angry annoyed manner. The other two followed up the teleporter.

Before them were three dark pathways. Cold stale air flew from each hallway. The air was so stale they almost had to cover their noses. There were two small white lights faintly glowing at the end of the center hall. They decided that this was as good as any place to start looking for the enemy.

The trek was actually longer than expected. The white lights, now blue and still changing colors, seemed to keep moving back. Finally, after about five or so minutes of this, they made it to the door.

The two orbs were on candle sticks on either side of the door. The face of a dragon was painted on the door. A quite hideous dragon at that, blood was drawn flowing out of its mouth.

Vahn, the braver of the two, walked up and pushed on the door. The two balls of flames took attention and attacked. One ball of white fire thrust itself into that Vahn; the other found the next closest target, Tamara. The ball went into her chest. Not more than five seconds later the flames burst out ten times larger than before. Tamara and Vahn both fell to the ground while the orbs whipped past the other Vahn and zipped in opposite directions down both hallways.

Vahn rushed over to them, his hand nervously shaking. The two looked as if they were dead, but they were not. The light in their eyes were gone. Their souls were forcefully removed from their body. Their bodies were cold and lifeless to the touch.

Even though their bodies were lifeless and soulless, Vahn still tried speaking to them, "You all can't die on me like this. I can't survive alone like this. I'm completely worthless." A mental thought came into his head of his stronger half yelling at him for being a cry baby.

"I know what I must do; I will replace your souls. I have to in order to proceed any further." Vahn stood up and started walking, with the Lance of Longinus, down the right path.

Here I am alone, utterly alone walking down this dark corridor. Afraid. Fear. I must destroy these if I am to rescue myself and the person I love. I cannot falter. I cannot despair. I cannot fail!

Vahn clenched his fist tightly and moved down the hall with eyes of conviction and determination. He walked with the Lance using it as a staff, and the bang on the floor every time he walked echoed throughout the hall.

Then came the fear, as the lights from the enemies' eyes appeared in the distance. His body started to tense and almost shiver and shake. He had no light. All Vahn could see was the enemies' eyes and try to make out their shadows. He clenched his hand tighter around the Lance.

The Lance of Longinus started to glow brightly as if responding to his fear. The light from the Lance barely broke through the darkness placing a faint glow down the hall enough to shape out fully the shadows of the enemies.

Darkness holds fear over the soul, the thought of nothingness, emptiness, the thought of something that lurks in the black void. Even the smallest hint of light can diminish fear.

Vahn didn't care what they looked like. He held the Lance in both hands and rushed the monsters. Several monsters stood in the hall. The number didn't matter in the end. Fear gives way to an unnatural strength. The monsters were slaughtered, pierced, sliced, ripped, thrashed, and bashed. No resistance was put up, as no chance was given.

Blood dripped from the ceiling, dripped from the wall, and pooled on the floor as the mangled corpses lined the floor. This was even a cruel fate for those of the damned.

The flame of white that held Tamara's soul captive was within reach. Past the dead corpses and a few steps, Vahn reached out his hand and tried to grab the flame. An invisible barrier stopped him. Vahn readied the Lance in attack position and thrust it forward directly into the white flame. The barrier shattered and the ball of flame exploded into vibrant colors.

Tamara's soul was released and hovered in front of Vahn for a moment as if to say thank you. Vahn nodded his head as her soul floated back to her body.

Ah, the satisfaction of saving a tormented soul Vahn thought as he strolled down the hall. Makes me feel good inside and gives me the strength to do it again. Vahn then started shivering as he started walking around the other side to release his soul. Puffs of cold air were coming from his mouth. The air was freezing, getting colder and colder as he walked down the hall toward his soul. Vahn slipped on some ice but did not fall. The entire ground in front of him was covered in ice to prevent him from moving quickly.

Vahn slipped and slid his way painfully down the hall. He couldn't move any faster in fear of falling, so he had to endure the freezing hell. The enemy was clever; it put in Vahn's path an obstacle that could not be destroyed.

He was now walking with his arms folded across his body trying to keep warm. Vahn saw the flame in front of him maybe thirty steps away. His breathing became heavier as the spit on his lips started to freeze. His eyes hurt from the cold. His ears were in pain and bright red. His legs gave out but he caught himself by thrusting the Lance into the ground.

Using it as a cane, he moved more easily across the ice toward the flame. Steadily he moved closer continuing to thrust his Lance into the ice. The air was fortunately getting warmer; the flame must have been heating the air.

Finally, feeling returned to his body from the cold as Vahn entered the sphere's radiance, the warmth of his soul. Vahn touched the Lance to the flame and the other half of his soul was released. The soul circled around him warming his frozen body then shot down the hall dispersing the icy cold air.

Warmth fills the soul with comfort, relaxes the body and warms the heart. How comforting it is to be curled in a ball and under several blankets falling sound asleep. This is the true feeling Vahn felt as he was warmed. With his body replenished, Vahn trekked back to the towering doors.

Place: The stair way to the heavens

Eclipse: 25

As Vahn walked around the corner, his other half and Tamara were up and ready to greet him.

"I knew he could pull it off, ha!" evil Vahn laughed. "He is me after all."

"You're so egotistical," Vahn said.

"Anyway, let's go!" Vahn punched Vahn in the stomach, Tamara laughed.

Tamara smiled at both Vahns and took the Lance from honest Vahn, then walked up to the eerily enormous double doors. She placed her hand on them and pushed the door. It swung open quickly and loudly.

In front of them were the first steps of a very tall and long stairway. It was made of stone that seemed to reach up into the heavens. The odd thing about the stairwell was that on both sides of the stone walls were ancient symbols carved into the wall and were glowing a relaxing shade of blue.

The three victims looked back at the entrance to find it completely vanished. What was in the place of the doors was a wall with a blue pentagon drawn onto it. The three exchanged glances and started their trek up the cold hard stairs.

"These drawings are beautiful," Tamara thought out loud. She reached her hand out hesitantly to touch them and ended up sliding her index and middle finger across the drawings. As she ran her fingers over it, the texture of the rock didn't seem to change at all. The wall and the letters were cold and rough.

The three walked silently not saying anything or thinking for that matter. Their only thought was to get up the stairs.

Tamara walked a couple of paces in front of the two Vahns. Her eyes were half open and her head bent back a little so she could see. She took a step and found, or rather, lost herself in a wide open field of grass with a beautiful sky and a bright shining sun hanging over head.

Her eyes were fully open now, panicked. She looked in every direction, as far as she could see, was the open field. Neither of her companions were with her, she was alone in the Heaven-like place. A breeze blew past her bringing with it a few blades of bright green grass.

"Vahn!" she called out, tried rather, as nothing came out of her mouth. Her lips moved and her vocal cords vibrated, but no sound came out. She tried again putting more air into it, "Vahn, where are you?"

"Tamara!"

Tamara turned, she heard Vahn calling her. "Where are you?"

"Tamara, I'm right here!" The distant voice came closer. It sounded much like an echo.

Even though no sound was coming from her mouth that she heard, she still tried to cry out. "Where is here? I can't see you." She started to cry from frustration.

"I am here. . ." went the echo, but transformed into a stern cold voice from within, ". . . here, in your mind."

"Uh!?" she jumped and turned in every direction trying to find the voice to no avail for the voice actually did come from her mind.

"Now, fear what you are Tamara. You are nothing, but you can become everything."

Clouds started to gather over head, dark thick heavy clouds. Rolling thunder shook the land, and behind her a baby was crying.

"A light can be born in the darkness, but can easily be extinguished if not cared for."

Tamara turned around and dashed for the crying baby. She knelt down, picked up, and cradled it in her arms whispering soundless coos to try and settle it. Rain started pouring over head drenching everything within moments.

The baby stopped crying and looked at Tamara's eyes. The voice in her head and the baby's mouth synchronized as they continued the lesson.

"Having fear and doubt in your heart will destroy you; you are destroying the light, Tamara. I am you, your fear, not of death but of truth."

The baby in her hand started spasming and choking. Blood started trickling out of its ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. Then suddenly the baby turned to red sand and fell like powder to the ground. Within the blink of an eye she was in a searing hot desert. The beautiful field of grass and flowers had vanished.

"The bleak barren desert is as desolate as your existence. There, but meaningless, utterly useless, Tamara."

"No, I am something," she started to cry.

"What are you then?"

"I am . . ." she hesitated.

"Say it!"

"I am . . ." she started crying into her hands.

"Ha, ha, ha, you can't even finish it can you? Say it! WORTHLESS!"

"Noooo," her voice echoed through the desert. "I am Tamara, I love Vahn. I will help save the city from this death and decay!"

The dream shattered and she fell to her knees on the stone stairwell as the good Vahn held her tight. She cried into his shoulder as he comforted her.

The other Vahn stood ahead of them with his arms folded across his chest.

"Look at them, Vahn," a strange voice said. "They are weak, useless, utterly worthless."

"Agreed," Vahn said out loud.

"YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT!" the voice screamed.

In an instant Vahn was in a room quickly being filled by water. The water was up to his knees in less than a minute.

"You're nothing without your other half, Vahn. Like slowly drowning in water, you destroy them with the despicable copy of what you are."

"They would not be alive without me fool, whoever you are!"

"Being separated from your compassionate half has made you rash, unsympathetic, and blind. Had you not touched that door, you and Tamara's souls would not have been taken."

The water was moving up past his chest now and moving quickly to his neck.

"False! The door was rigged regardless. I was just lucky . . ." Vahn stretched his neck out as the water engulfed him, " . . . that my other half was there," he said under water. "I am him and he is me!"

His vision shattered and Vahn fell backwards onto the ground gasping for air. But quickly realized he didn't need the air because he wasn't soaked at all.

"God Damn Mind!" Whoever the voice was tricked his mind into believing he was drowning. Had it come to the point where he did drown in his mind, he would have died.

"The mind is a powerful thing my evil half," Vahn spoke while still holding onto Tamara. "You could have died if you didn't realize who you were. He's trying to divide our perception of who we are. Won't work on me though, 'cause I have already figured out what he's doing, and I figured out who I am when I went to go get your souls."

* **Ahahahahahah, dwahaha** *

The most evil of laughter echoed through the corridor. Then the tower started shaking almost violently, enough to make standing difficult. The scribbling on the wall turned from the light blue to a blood red.

"We have to hurry!" Tamara jumped up and yelled, "We have to prove our worth!"

Place: Heaven and Hell

Eclipse: 26

Finally, reaching the top of the stairs, they reached a plain oak door with a simple handle. Nothing elaborate, just a simple door at the top of some stairs. The shaking of the tower had long stopped, continued for no more than a minute when it started.

They pushed the door open and dark light flowed out of the door. The light was kind of purplish in color and extended into the hall just like regular light. But to the three weary travelers, the aura was both evil and good which spiked their interest even more.

Walking into the dark lit room, they found the source of the strange light. Two passage ways: one held a bright white light, and darkness poured out of the other. And, in between the doors was a large crystal ball and behind that, the villain. He sat on a large stone chair. The villain was the cloaked man they had met earlier.

"Good evening adventurers," he chuckled. "You have all come a long way and I appreciate you and thank you for helping me oh so much."

"I don't understand what you are talking about," Tamara stated. "We liberated the three areas and released them from the vise grip of darkness."

He chuckled evilly some more, "You did, I give you that. But, before I explain, allow me to introduce myself." The man stood up, untied the cord binding the cloth together, and removed his cape. His eyes glowed with a bluish color. Half of his bald head was sewn together with a different skin. His body was slightly muscular, and he was medium build in height.

"My name is Shift. I was born and named specifically for this purpose."

"What purpose is that? To destroy the world?" Vahn asked.

"No, sir," Shift said with a snicker. "To balance the three dimensions. You see, on this world, there are three dimensions that humans inadvertently created. Well, one was created by natural happenings. The Earth. The dimension you live on now. The other two were created by humans as a place of salvation and punishment: Heaven and Hell."

"Interesting concept, I do agree. Humans actually believed in a place so strongly as a group, a cult, a religious gathering, that a dimension, a place actually came into existence? That is incredible," Vahn agreed, the evil Vahn.

"Quite brilliant - the power of collective imagination. My purpose in this place is to bring all three dimensions into one and create the perfect Utopia that people want."

"What they want!? This merge, as it is happening, is destroying humans completely," Tamara stated.

"You are wrong, my dear. They are being transformed into what you have been killing all the way to get to me."

They all gasped at the horror of the truth.

"The humans that wanted these dimensions could not handle the transition they were being exposed to. The light and the dark wreaked havoc on their bodies, their minds, and their souls. You all were unaffected because I protected you because I needed you to light the several beacons around the town. You had to be tricked into thinking what you were doing was correct, so I created images with your minds. Children running and being released from the darkness, the school, and all other places returned to normal. Ha!"

He pointed at a television screen behind them. They all watched the screen as the city of Dallas popped up. Then the first beacon being lit showed up on the screen, then the second, and then the third. Then they found out what caused the trembling earlier. The ground split and a line of fire was drawn from one pillar of light to the other forming a triangle. Then a red pillar of light ignited and shot brilliantly to the sky.

"The three beacons, the three dimensions, all being brought to a center point to create the new world," Shift finished explaining.

"That's mad, you fool! How or why are you doing this?" Vahn shouted.

"It is what the humans wanted. And yes, as I delved into your minds even further, I found you all have a similar want as of this very moment: to kill me. You cannot, however. But fear not as your wish will be granted in no more than seven minutes, twenty three seconds from now," Shift tried to comfort them. He pointed at the crystal orb in front of him.

"The power is almost full. Soon there will be a full transition into the Utopia: there is nothing you can do. Right here in this very spot," he pointed to the pentagram on the ground where the table stand held the orb. "The gates of Paradise will open and humans will get their wish: to be both punished and loved at the same time; to see the light and venture into the darkness. They will reap and sow the benefits of their new lives! GWahahaha!"

The evil Vahn gripped his sword tighter. The pentagram on the floor started flowing red. Vahn grabbed the Lance of Longinus after dropping his sword. He charged forward and thrust the spear at the orb but was stopped as Shift threw himself in front of the Lance. Vahn ripped the lance out as blood came gushing out of Shift's wound. Shift fell to his knees.

"And the final ingredient has been added: the blood of an immortal." His breathing slowed and his eyes shut. "On the second," he whispered.

"SHIT!" Vahn yelled, "All of this has been thought out down to the second."

The building started shaking again. They looked at the monitor and saw the dark light filling the city, consuming, or was it creating. It didn't matter. This city, the world was going to be transformed into, in our perspective, Hell.

The two doors began emanating brighter and brighter light.

Tamara started thinking to herself. Everything started making sense to her. Good and evil, right and wrong. There must be a balance for the world. Even in our own mind there must be equality in each and every one of us.

"Wait! We can fix this," Tamara cried.

"How!?" both Vahns shouted in unison.

Two rays of light shot from the doors into the orb.

"Stand here, now!" Tamara pushed the two Vahns into the pentagram in front of the rays of light emanating from the Heaven and Hell doors. The beams continued to shoot through them and into the orb. The two Vahns started screaming in pain and three seconds later they were vaporized into thin air. Tamara gasped at what she had done. She killed her best friend.

The doors closed and faded into a solid wall. The tower stopped shaking, the pentagram stopped glowing, and the monitor stopped showing images from outside and faded into the ceiling.

Eclipse: 27

Tamara was bent on her knee crying, her hand covering her face full of tears. All she could say was "Vahn". She was now isolated, alone, and in the dark; the desolate darkness. She had no way to know what has happened outside whether or not they succeeded or failed. Nothing was known, except her loneliness and sadness.

"Why did I do that?" she cried into the palms of her hands. "Why, oh why did I do that? I just thought . . ."

Some arms wrapped around her, comforting arms that she thought she was imagining. She felt the warmth of a body behind her and she stopped sobbing.

"You thought correctly, my love," the man's voice said.

Without Tamara being aware of it, there was a purplish glow to the room. Tamara lifted her head from her hands and turned around to find her love, Vahn. They embraced each other tightly, she cried more tears of joy and relief, even Vahn let a tear run down his face.

"You did the right thing, Tamara," I said in my calmest voice. I held her close, comforting her and myself at the same time. The purple aura around us started to fade and a chandelier over head was brought to life. But, I didn't need a light; I saw my light through the brightness of Tamara's soul.

Being made of both a dark and light side, and having the totem strip me of my evil, I was then no different from the separate dimensions of Heaven and Hell. The beams extracted my two souls and entered them into the orb which then rebirthed me: my real self, the perfect combination of good and evil. No one can live without both for no one can be fully good or evil.

We kneeled there in each other's arms, neither of us wanting to let go, fearing that if we did we would lose each other. Finally we moved; we had to, to survey the damage outside. We stayed near each other though, held each other's hand as we walked out of the room, down the now dark stairway, and to the once disappeared door.

The wall where the door had disappeared now contained an elevator with the only direction of down printed on the number pad. The doors slid open ever so slowly and we trekked inside.

I sat down in the corner of the elevator and Tamara sat in front of me. I curled my arms around her and held her close. She leaned back against my shoulder.

The elevator slowly slid down the shaft. There was barely any light over head coming from a dimly lit lamp. After a certain point the light finally went out. Tamara and I didn't care. Our eyes were half closed from exhaustion. The elevator could not go any slower if it tried. As if the elevator was alive it could feel we needed a break, and slowed down to let us rest in the darkness in preparation for what is to come. However, the elevator did continue to move slowly but surely to our impending doom, to the world outside, whatever has become of it.

What would our purpose in life be with a world gone evil, not evil, just transformed into; I don't know what to call it, the Utopia that Shift mentioned. We cannot hit the monsters as they are our fellow man. Should we just sit here in the darkened elevator and die together? There are many unanswered questions here that cannot be fully answered until we find out what the world actually looks like.

There is also this feeling that I have, a mad sickening feeling that something is waiting for us at the end of the trip down. This feeling was of something incredibly evil. I checked myself and found my kodachi still strapped to me; however we left the Lance of Longinus on the top floor. The world was not ready for that holy artifact even if the world had changed into the "Utopia". I think Tamara felt this feeling also because her heart started to beat a little faster. I felt it - my heart was beating almost in time to hers. I'm sure she felt mine too.

A light lit up above the door of the elevator showing what floor they were on ...5...4...3...2...1

* **DING** *

The doors slid open and they found themselves in the enormous lobby of the Reunion Tower. Two sets of escalators were in the center leading up to the next floor. And in the center of those was a beautiful fountain spewing water. People were walking around and there was even one dumb kid with a skateboard being chased by building security. Everything looked normal.

We got up and I immediately placed my kodachi back in my backpack so I didn't get in any sort of trouble. Our clothes still had blood stains on them but had dried so they didn't look too bad.

My heart started pounding again. I gripped Tamara's hand tighter and moved forward to the front of the lobby. Everything seemed fine. Nothing at all seemed disturbed or out of place. Maybe it was just anticipation of something bad that would be wrong when we got off the elevator. Something still just doesn't feel right though.

I looked at the clock on the wall, and it said 7:13 AM. The time felt normal. We started this adventure early yesterday, then it seemed time stopped, freezing the eclipse outside in place, allowing these things to actually happen. I looked at Tamara as she looked a little troubled also. We walked out of the sliding double doors into the sun that was peeking through the towering buildings. The city was busy with people on the way to their jobs.

"Vahn, my parents wouldn't be home on Saturday at this time, can you try your parents? I want to be somewhere with people I am comfortable with."

"Sure," I said as I pulled out my cell phone. "Wave down a taxi for us would ya?"

I dialed my number as Tamara moved toward the street. I kept a close eye on her for various reasons. The phone rang all the way to the point where the answering machine picks up, finally my dad picked up.

"Yo," he said imitating me in what I say to him.

"Dad, I had some trouble . . ." a taxi cab pulled up and we got in. ". . . so I am taking a taxi cab home. We are in downtown Dallas so we'll be home in 30."

There was a pause then he said, "O... K...," then hung up. That's my dad, still the same.

"Where to?" the cab driver asked.

I gave him my address and we sped off.

Tamara moved closer to me and I put my arm around her. She lay on my lap as I peered out through the window. Everything was fine, perfect, the way we left it. No one was aware of anything that happened, for the most part. I started listening to the radio the cab driver was listening to and I overheard about a few brutal murders at the hospital I was in, as well as my school and the business tower.

I took a deep sigh of disbelief that all this was real. My best friend dead, my new girl friend's mind was near broken. All I could do was to try and comfort her. But who would comfort me? My inner balance had stopped struggling and became equal. My two sides have formed the stronger me; my compassion and my strength. I tried to close my eyes but I couldn't. Every time they shut I smelled the blood, the salty crimson blood, I tasted the death. My eyes shut again. I was walking in a hall of the hospital; bodies were stapled to the wall reaching out. Something touched me from behind. I jerked awake. I was still in the cab. I must have been out for more than a few minutes; I didn't even feel Tamara curl up on the seat away from me.

******

Tamara wandered in her mind, she couldn't seem to wake herself from this dream she was having. She was chained to a merry-go-round in a park, with trees in the back ground bursting into flames. Charred bodies lined the ground, the awful stench of burning flesh and hair. Some of them were moving toward her, crawling and reaching out to her.

She couldn't move from the merry-go-round no matter how hard she tried. The handcuffs strapping her to a bar held her tightly in place. Closing her eyes didn't help; she knew what was out there coming for her. Something ran its fingers down her back, her eyes burst open, and she found herself back in the cab.

She sat up and looked at me. I could tell from her eyes that she was scared. I moved over to her and put my arm around her again. Her body relaxed a little, I then kissed her on the cheek, and then stated to whisper in her ear, "We will never be rid of this Tamara. The pain and torment we have suffered will stay with us. A friend once told me that time mends all wounds. It's difficult to know if we will ever be rid of this trauma."

She looked at me with confused eyes and I returned her glance with caring eyes.

"It seems too good to be true," I whispered, "that we saved this city with minimal damage. But it is done and it is time for us to try and forget it, try and put this behind us. Try and be together with each other for as long as we can."

I moved my face closer to hers preparing to kiss her, she moved closer to me. I closed my eyes anticipating the kiss, my first with the girl I love. Death, disease, blood, bodies. I pulled back startled, turned, and stared out through the window.

My mind was not settled at all. Something must still be wrong. This is not right at all. I can't get over the feelings that I'm having: fear, anxiety, hatred, darkness, loneliness, pain. Why am I feeling these, why will this feeling not go away, why is it getting stronger? I felt almost sick. My mind could not stop thinking about the death that I have seen.

Tamara clasped my hand and held it to her cheek. I just sat there staring into nothingness, something, a blur of buildings and cars, everything, then back again to the desolate thoughts of my mind. I seemed to be caught in a trance of some sort, and I never moved my head, I stared out through the window.

The cab drove on . . .

Place: The sanctuary of home

Eclipse: 28

The yellow cab finally rounded the corner of the street I lived on. I didn't notice though, I had stared out through the window the entire time. I thought about Tamara, I thought about death, my own and that which had surrounded me, I thought about finally being home in my bed sleeping peacefully, which would probably never happen again.

When we finally stopped, Tamara had to touch my shoulder to wake me from my thoughts. The cab driver gave us the bill and I gave him my check card. After a brief transaction we left the cab, and I stood there in our driveway for a moment and looked at the house.

"Something is not right here, Tamara." I pulled my kodachi out of my pack and held it in my left hand ready to draw with my right if I needed.

"What's wrong, Vahn?"

"We're going to find out; let's go."

This is the feeling I've been having when we first stepped outside the elevator in that building. I don't want to walk into my house, but I have to, the conclusion of this nightmare.

The door was already unlocked, which was generally usual if my parents were home. I moved into the family room, I smelled food cooking on the stove for lunch; the TV was on, on some random station.

"Mom, I'm home," I yelled. "Where are you?"

"Back here, Vahn," her voice said.

I made a kind of sigh of relief when I heard her voice. I put my backpack on the couch but held onto my kodachi.

Tamara followed my lead and I walked to our office in the back. I found my dad sitting at the computer with his head tilted back. "Dad," I called. He did not respond. "Dad!" I tried again, and again. Nothing. I moved around so I could see his face, then fell to the floor.

He was dead. Blood was dripping out of his mouth. A giant hole was ripped out of his chest, like something did it with claws. I gasped. Mom. I frantically searched the house for her. Nothing. Tamara walked up behind me; I turned and looked at her. Her face was pale white. She took my hand and led me out back into the backyard. She pointed at our pool.

My eyes widened at the red water. There, I found the rest of my family; their parts. My mom and my dog were floating in pieces. Their body parts had been ripped apart and thrown into the pool. I was stunned. A tear ran down my cheek. I again fell to my knees and bowed down to the ground. I cried.

"Good evening my friends," a cocky voice said.

I stopped crying immediately and looked toward the voice. There was a man sitting at our picnic table. He was dressed all in black. There was a strong aura around him. I could see wings, bat type wings that were distorting the air. Anger took me. I stood up and grasped my kodachi, but I did not draw, I sat down on the seat opposite the Devil.

"You fucking bastard," were the first words out of my mouth.

"Words mean nothing my friend, only my actions against you. You are broken," he said.

"Who are you?" I asked subtly.

"I am the one and only Lucifer, thank you very much. And to answer your question, I was let out when that gracious man, Shift, opened the doors. You can thank your fellow man for creating me. I would never have had been created if it was not for the imagination of humans."

"This was not necessary to kill people, my parents, to get to me."

"Why not? They are human. Why would they want to stay on this plane of existence if they are part of the civilization that created Heaven and Hell? If people think they can live in bliss in the Heaven they created, why do they all not kill themselves? Being reunited with their loved ones, living in happiness? Oh, I know, because it is possible they could end up with me down in Hell. Gwahahahaha," Lucifer provided a deadly laugh.

I stared at him slowly growing angry.

"Why are you upset my friend? Do you not want to die and be reunited with your parents? Oh, wait, I think you were on my list to be dragged down into the depths of Hell."

"How so? What makes me evil enough to be brought to Hell?"

"Your lust to kill," he quickly said.

"That lust has passed. I am a new man. I love, I am compassionate, but . . ."

"But, there is also a want to destroy and become powerful. You even said it yourself, back in the business tower. I saw the grin on your face as you slaughtered those zombies. I see your lust to kill me now. That's all you can think of, that's the only thing you know how to do, Vahn, is kill.

"No! I know how to love! Enough of this, Devil, you want to kill me?"

Lucifer got up and started moving around the table toward me. I got up and moved back away from him. He extended his hand out and a red lance materialized in front of him. He grabbed it. The aura of his wings, tail, and horns grew more outstanding.

"Prepare to die," he said in a deep gruff voice.

I pushed Tamara back as I parried his first lunge with his lance.

"Tamara, I need my real kodachi, the longer one, in my room, go get it," I said quickly.

"Excellent choice, a kodachi is meant for quick blocking and parrying not really for attacking," he said as I blocked two strikes from both sides.

He started attacking constantly, I was blocking them all somehow. The speed of this kodachi is what is keeping me alive. I found a chance to attack. I made a low slash toward his legs - blocked. I did a full 360 turn and slashed with excessive speed to Lucifer's chest. He grabbed my arm just above my hand, stopped my attack, and sent me flying into the pool of blood.

"You have lost already, Vahn. Your clothes are now soaked, which will slow you down."

I jumped out of the pool, shook my head, and wiped the bloody water off my face. I then took my over shirt off so I just had on my t-shirt.

Tamara finally came out with my katana and she tossed it to me past Lucifer. I grabbed it, dropped my short kodachi, charged, drew, and slashed with incredible speed. He blocked by moving his lance in the way so gracefully. And gracefully he lunged again, I was too slow trying to dodge it, he slashed my left arm. Blood soaked that sleeve as I winced in pain, as did Tamara.

I had no more time to feel the pain. I rolled to the side as he sent an overhead strike my way. He gracefully turned and lunged at me again. I moved back, deflected his attack up, moved in, and thrust my elbow into his gut, punched him in the stomach, and an upper cut to his jaw. When I tried to slash however, his free hand turned into a giant claw and pushed me down hard in the chest. I flew back, smashed through the fence. I coughed up blood. Lucifer teleported in front of me and put his lance through the meat of my left leg. I screamed in pain.

"Did you honestly think you could beat me? Die!" he yelled. At this point he turned into the actual red devil. Dark black wings unfurled, his tail whipped, and his body morphed. His enormous claw hand rose to strike. Then a piece of metal appeared in his chest, twisted, was

pulled out, then forced in again.

"Return to your prison and leave us at peace, Lucifer," Tamara cried.

Lucifer ceased his attack, looked at his chest to find the sword still in there.

"So be it mortals, I shall return to my realm. I am an evil but honorable demon. Rot on your ...your Earth."

A pillar of white light surrounded and engulfed him. He was gone. I was leaving too. I could feel my life leaving me. I didn't even feel Tamara pull the lance out of my leg, or hear the sirens of the police cars turning the corner. I couldn't taste Tamara's lips when she kissed me. Her lips moved, but I heard no sound, the darkness took me.

Was this death? I felt or heard nothing, saw or smelled nothing. My consciousness was floating in a well, a void. If humans created Heaven and Hell, why am I not in one of those places? I mean, they must be real for the devil just killed me. Maybe, since the devil killed me, I had no place to go. He said I was meant for Hell, but now he rejects me from his palace, and since I was not granted access to Heaven, I have nowhere else to go. So I am stuck in this void of darkness to ponder for all eternity. No, this was my Hell, my own defined Hell. Nothingness, loneliness, boredom, senselessness. Because I believed that Hell and Heaven are self defined, that was my path. I would not go to the Heaven and Hell that was created by the general population, but everyone goes to their personal Heaven or Hell. That is why I am here floating in the void.

I saw a light off in the distance. It started to brighten, almost blinding, it was blinding. I put my hand in front of my face, and when the light ceased I put my hand down. I was in a hospital bed being operated on. My leg was numb as was my left arm. I could see the doctor smile at me through his operating mask then he went back to work stitching my arm back together. Two doctors were working on my leg where the lance pierced it. I'm sure it would be a while before I could walk again.

One doctor left the room for a brief moment and came back in with Tamara close behind in tears. I smiled and reached out my hand. She grabbed it and held tight. She said something, but I still couldn't hear. My ears were ringing. I smiled, and whispered: "I love you," to her.

She cried some more as the doctor placed his hand on her shoulder. She said some more words and got up reluctantly and left the room. Another doctor injected me with something and I was asleep again in a matter of seconds.

Final Chapter

End

I rolled my wheelchair down the hallway of my house with Tamara close behind. I am expected to take at least three months before I am able to walk again. My arm was fine now, I had been in the hospital almost a week, but now I was out and I wanted to view my house one last time.

Police came and evidence numbers were still scattered throughout the house. I rolled into the office and found the contents of my backpack scattered about. One item caught my eye, the tube that Mr. Crane gave me before this whole event started. It was a time capsule. I grinned as I picked it up and opened it --

Name: Vahn Ring.

Date: October 9, 1998

Hi me, it's me. I think writing this is stupid. I don't care where I am in the future; the present is what I care about. My teacher says I am too young to think about the future so heavily. So, I guess I will say a few things for my future self. Not much to say really. I got that new Playstation that came out, what do you have now a PS6 or something? Not many games out for it yet. Girls are horrible, I hate them. All they are good for is for me to tease them. They are too mushy.

I grinned at this point, then a tear ran down my face. Tamara was also reading over my shoulder.

... _So, any way, Vahn, how is life treating you ten years from now? Good I hope. Mom and Dad are still doing good?_

My smile faded.

What pets do you have in your house now? Tiny and Cinnamon still there by any chance? Still playing with your friends next door to you? I hope I still have a vivid imagination. Well, I can't think of anything else to write at the moment.

Good-bye Vahn and have a good life.

I imagined myself as a six year old folding the paper and putting it into the capsule. I remembered it vividly, as I held my eyes closed, giving it to my teacher, Mrs. Randle. She put it in a pile with about twenty others.

Tamara placed her hand on my shoulder as I put my face into my hands and cried. "I have lost everything, there is nothing left. My parents are dead. I can't bear to live in this house after what has happened."

"Vahn, stop!" Tamara walked and kneeled down in front of me. She took my hands away from my face. "I am here, Vahn; I have already made arrangements for you to stay with me. I ... I love you and it hurts me to see you like this. You have lost a lot but not everything. Think, for me, about what you do have, not what you have lost."

"You're right, but it will take some time for me to get over this."

"We will never get over it, Vahn. We have to live and grow around it. This pain hurts, but time heals all wounds, mental and physical."

"Oh." I looked into her beautiful eyes. "Thank you."

"Now, let's get some of your stuff and get going."

I placed several of my items in Tamara's car including stowed away cash and account numbers from my parents, items that are of sentimental value: a few pictures, a hand crafted blanket, and some other things. When I made sure I had everything I wanted, I rigged the stove to catch fire.

The flames spread - burning the kitchen first, wrapping around into the hallway and the family room. Down the hallway the flames whipped and danced along the floor, the ceiling, and the walls. The fire consumed my room after igniting the bathroom, destroyed my parents' room, and engulfed the office. The smoke billowed high as we drove away down the street in the bright daylight toward whatever future may lie ahead of me. I held Tamara's hand as she drove.

******

"Finally! The book of Heaven and The Book of Hell are now in this dimension along with the Book of Earth which I already have. Everything is going according to plan," a devilish grin grew out of the darkness.
