Chapter 1: My Window Breaks

Index

Three.

Two.

One.

Bring!

The school bell rang signaling the start of summer break. My favorite part of the year, and not because school was out. My Mom came home for the whole summer every year. See, my Mom has two jobs that keep her away from our house. Her main job is as a physicist, and ever since she discovered a way to manipulate electricity at lower costs she has been traveling around the world for lectures and all that other stuff. Her other job is much more interesting.

She is currently holding the championship belt in fencing. My Mom trains with every kind of bladed weapon, but she prefers swords. She taught me how to fight with a sword ever since I could walk, and ever summer when she comes home we break out some practice swords and duel each other. I usually loose, but last summer I won for the first time. Since she left last I have been practicing some more and I think I got this new move that will totally surprise her. Tomorrow when she comes home, we get to do our first match.

“Hey Max!” Called Josh, my best friend. He was a little scrawny and got picked on by the other kids at school when I wasn’t around and stuff. Plus he walked funny. He said it was because he hurt his back when he was younger. Anyways he was walking up to me, his shaggy brown hair hanging all over the place.

“Your Mom coming home tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to show her those new disarm moves I have been practicing, she is gonna flip.” I replied. As we left school I saw some weird people standing around. By this really neat looking Hummer were these two kids, must have been college kids or something. One was wearing a black jacket, which made him stand out because it was like, ninety degrees outside. The other was this hot chick with black hair going down to her shoulders wearing tight black leather clothing. Some of the older kids looked like they were going to try and talk to them, but I swear they both were staring at me.

Behind Josh and I was the second weird person. The Janitor, Mr. Wolf, never came to the front of the school when the kids were getting out. He always complained about the noise and stuff. Sometimes, when he was cleaning an area and he thought nobody was around, he would pull raw meat out of his messenger bag and eat it, and his eyes would glow red. It was creepy.

The last sight was not so weird as it was unusual. The housekeeper, Mrs. Aura, was waiting for me by her car, a little Volkswagen Bug. She usually let me take the bus home, but on days when something big happened she came to pick me up. Josh and I angled to her.

“Whats up Mrs. Aura?” I asked.

“I told you Max, you can call me by my first name, Field.” Yes, that was her legal first name, I had her show me her Drivers License when I first heard it.

“Hi Field,” Josh said dreamily. “That’s Miss Aura to you Josh Woodcomb.” She doesn’t like Josh though.

“Umm Mrs....Field, can Josh come with us? If he goes on the bus their going to do mean stuff to him...” She scowled, but motioned for him to get in the back. Once we were all in she nodded her head, got into the drivers seat and took me home. Josh said that he had forgotten his keys and his parents wouldn’t be home till nine, so I invited him to stay over. Ms. Aura sniffed at that, but said nothing.

“As you know Max, because your Mom is coming home tomorrow I will be leaving tonight, as I usually do. I want to get as early a start as I can, so I will prepare your dinner when we get home, and leave it in the stove for when you get hungry.” In the rear view mirror Josh opened his eyes wide, then brushed his hair back. Strangely, Ms. Aura smiled and nodded, almost like it was a secret code or something. I decided to leave it alone.

When we got home, I went upstairs and got changed into some home clothing - a simple tank top and shorts. Then I went outside and started practicing with my sword. Normally I was supposed to practice with a practice blade, a bunch of wooden lathes wrapped together. But Mom always told me that I should practice with the real thing once I was sure I wouldn’t hit myself while practicing. It was a getting used to the weight thing she said.

My sword was a gift from my father, who I have never met. See, my Dad left when he found out my mom was pregnant with me. Mom doesn’t talk about it much, but when she heard me call him a deadbeat because of that, that was the only time she ever hit me.

“Your father is not a deadbeat Max,” she had told me. “He is a very important man who was called away for very important reasons. He would be here if he could.” The year after that incident he sent me my sword. I found it on my bed, which was funny because there was no delivery box lying around, and I had been home all day that day, and Mom had been downstairs with me the whole time. But when I went to my room to take a shower, there it was sitting on my bed. The leather scabbard was inscribed with one word - Watt. Josh said that it was in Ancient Greek, but I doubt that, it looked normal to me. The blade itself is made out of some sort of super steel and bronze mix or something. I accidentally dropped it once, and it sliced through our stainless steel table like it was butter.

Anyways I went to our backyard and started practicing, some basic cuts at first, followed by thrusts. Then I got complicated. I envisioned someone in front of me - I picked Ashley Johhanson, the school bully - and I pretended that he was attacking me with a sword like mine. I blocked, parried, and sliced him up six ways to Sunday. Before I knew it, it was sundown. That happens to me a lot, the doctors say it’s because of my ADHD. I looked inside and saw Josh watching TV, the oven light blinking WARM over and over again. I went back to my room and took a light shower to get rid of all the sweat, then I went back downstairs.

Josh was watching some sort of nature show, about how there was this group, “Pan for America,” who was petitioning the government to create more wildlife preserves in every state. So far, they weren’t doing too well, but some big businesses were getting behind it, so it might take off soon. I went into the kitchen to see what Ms. Aura had left for us to eat. Inside the stove was some enchilada's, beef on the left and vegetarian on the right. I pulled the tray out and used the spatula to load up two plates, then I went back into the living room. On the TV somebody named Grover Underwood was leading a rally to encourage people to plant more tree’s while the reporter was summing up her interview.

“When I get my horns I want to be just like him,” Josh said out loud.

“What?” I asked. What the heck did he mean, when I get my horns? He jumped like he had forgotten I was there.

“Uhh...uhh... OH enchilada's. I love enchilada's.”  He grabbed the plate of vegetarian enchilada's and dug in. Oh ya, he refuses to eat any sort of animal meat.

“Gimme the remote.” I asked, and when he handed it to me I hit the guide button and flipped around till I found a good show. Once we settled on a “Serenity” rerun we dug in to our dinner. We finished eating and dozed as we watched the movie, and once it was finished I turned the TV off. It was around ten o’clock, I was ready to go to sleep.

“Alright buddy, I know your Mom is probably home by now, worrying her head off. I need to get some sleep, my Mom is coming home tomorrow and you know what that means.” He looked a little panicked at this, but then nodded and got up. I walked him to the door.

“Hey, Max. Why did your Mom move out here?” He asked. I frowned, I knew the reason but I didn’t like to talk about it. I figured it was only fair to tell Josh though. He was my best friend.

“Back when I was eight we lived in LA. Mom had me going to this special school for the kids of physicists, its kind of a close knit community down there. Anyways, one day during a lightning storm the teachers fielded us into the auditorium, it was the only building on campus that could hold us all. It also could take a lot of damage. Turns out that one of the teachers had been dating this weirdo and they broke up the day before. He went nuts, breaking into a gun store and had shot the clerk and stolen a gun. He had been seen around the school grounds, so for our protection.” He nodded.

“Anyways the lightning was pretty strong outside and I could tell, I don’t know how, that the storm was getting closer. Something was weird about the storm though. It felt...I dunno, angry I guess. Anyways the weirdo had snuck into the auditorium before the doors were locked, and so once the teachers finished making sure nobody from the outside could get in, he came out from hiding. He separated Ms. Hearts, the teacher he had been dating, from the rest of us. He started arguing with her, I don’t remember most of what he said, something about loving each other forever and going out with a bang, but the storm was freaking me out. It was right above us now. I could feel the pressure building right above the building

“It was getting so frightening I started to cry. One of the teachers started petting me and whispering soothing sounds to get me to calm down, but it didn’t work. The weirdo started to yell at me, telling me to shut up but it freaked me out even more. Ms. Hearts started to panic and scream at him, which didn’t help me either. I started to scream, I vaguely remember a window shattering somewhere. Then it all went white, and I passed out. When I came to, my Mom was there, and the police, and the paramedics. They carted away three kids, Ms. Hearts and another teacher, and one body bag.

“My Mom told me that a freak lightning bolt had busted the roof in and hit the ground. It knocked me out, but I didn’t suffer any real damage. Three kids and one of the teachers were hospitalized with electrical burns. Ms. Hearts had tackled the weirdo and tried to wrestle the gun away from him. It went off, killing him and lodging the bullet in her shoulder. After that she had us move over here.” I finished. Josh just nodded, like it all made sense somehow.

“See you tomorrow?” He asked. I nodded, and he left towards his home down the street. The strange hummer from earlier was parked in front of his house.

I closed the door and turned the locks. Mom had the keys if she wanted to get in. I trudged upstairs and climbed into bed, checked to make sure Watt was nearby, and went to sleep.

I don’t remember my whole dream, just something about Saffron robes and flowers. But I was awakened by a noise from downstairs. It sounded like arguing. I could hear my Moms voice, so I figured she had just gotten home and was paying the Taxi Driver.

Then I heard the growl. It was coming from outside my window. I slid my arm down to grab Watt, just in case. Then I heard feet pounding up the stairs, then as my door burst open the window shattered inward. Something big, growling, with teeth jumped inside. Someone from the door threw something sharp that hit the big black beast. The beast disintegrated and a dagger fell onto my stomach with the gold dust. Then the person from the doorway spoke.

“Come with us if you want to live.”

Chapter 2