Appearances

Our story begins.

Pulling my hood over my head, I slip out of the alleyway, feeling like an idiot. No one is chasing me, I tell myself. You're imagining things. But that's the problem. I imagine too much. My creativity gets out of hand. And if it's crazy enough, it actually does become real. Hunching my shoulders, I walk faster. Maybe I really am crazy. Crazy enough that my imaginations become real. No... my friends saw it too. At least, for the last minutes of their lives. I had to move cities again, this time across the country, to escape. Again. That wasn't the first time my strange powers have gotten out of hand. I'm a monster.

"We're all monsters. Some of us just hide it better." I whirl to see who's talking, and the indistinct figure of a man dissolves into shadows, laughter echoing around me. No one else notices. No one else hears. I'm the only one who sees them. This particular imagining I've seen before. He even has a name.

"Now, now, you aren't going to tell, are you?" The same voice again. As if my thinking about these things makes them more real.

"But it does. Don't you see?" He's in front of me know, dark robes flowing around him, blending into shadows. His face concealed behind a mask except for his eyes, brown except when his powers make them flash green.

"Leave me alone," I mutter, getting strange looks from other people. I shove past the fictional, almost running as I hurry to get back to the house.

"You're never alone," he says, and I know it's true. One of them is always watching.

"What are you running from?" Another voice. The younger brother of the other man, though you wouldn't guess it. He flickers in and out of view as he drifts along next to me, half human and half pure light. His green eyes flash, and a burst of wind ruffles his spiked-up hair.

"I said leave me alone," I practically snarl. The younger man disappears obligingly, but the other is following me still, teleporting from shadow to shadow. A girl with silvery metallic wings, short blonde hair, and sparkling blue eyes salutes me from a rooftop as I turn onto my street, fumbling for my house keys. She looks kind of like me, but my eyes are more grey than blue, and these days my hair is turning darker, brown. And, of course, I don't have cybernetics and wings like she does.

I slam the door behind me, locking it. Ever since I was young, these characters have plagued me... "When will this end?" I whisper.

"When you accept who you are," The shadow man whispers from right behind me. When I shriek and jump, he laughs. "You should know by now it takes more than doors to stop us."

"No," I whisper. "Not again." Just like last time... They're growing stronger and stronger. Soon another one of my imagined abominations, one of the worst villains, will break the line between fantasy and reality, and step into this world... using me as a gateway. Or a puppet. Just like Brooklyn. And New Orleans. And Tipisco. And the very first time, in Seattle, when my two friends who have their own characters in the fantasy world, were almost killed by my creativity. The only two who haven't been killed. The reason I stay away from Washington...

"Did you ever stop to think that they might have the same problem?" The man points out, as if hearing my thoughts. "That they're the only ones who could help you?"

"I will not put them in danger again," I hiss.

"I'll behave, I promise," he says, no hint of taunting in his voice. "Honestly, it's getting a bit annoying to me as well."

"Character development? Huh," I quip. "Not what I expected, but... I guess if you all promise to behave... I could give it a try."

Immediately they appear: the man and his brother, the girl who looks like me, the elemental with fire for hair, his half-human son, the speedster girl named after her genetically modified ancestor, the boy with an eagle's wings that glows like a ghost. And, finally, the most dangerous. The man with graying hair and brown eyes that still glint green, even when he's not using his power. A man who causes the brothers to call up their weapons of shadow and light.

"You especially need to behave," I tell him. He only grins, more of a smirk really. I know he doesn't need a weapon, that his weapon is his mind. Or, rather, what he can do with it. "I'm serious. If you all want this fixed, he has to behave," I say, addressing the others. Solemn nods all around. Hands touch weapons. They want this stopped as much as I do. And I know that any of them would do their best to stop the gray-haired man, though only the winged girl and the masked man stand a chance.

"The rest of us can fight you know," the fire-haired man says irritably.

"Yeah, give us a chance," the eagle-winged boy exclaims.

"Okay." I heave a sigh. "Let's go find my friends."

Author's Note

Don't get mad if you can't figure out who the people are. The characters are from the Descendants series my friends (Crazy Dragon Lady and Peregrinator7) and I have been writing.

Reviews

[Peregrinator7]

also
manipulator has red hair
that's manipulator, right?

[Jay_Bluefire]

He's really old at this point duhhh I mean DARKLING is an adult, so...

[Peregrinator7]

but you should add the detail that it's graying red hair

[Jay_Bluefire]

I did
10 characters

[Locke Redwyne (night sy..]

YEAH DARKNIGHT, BEHAVE YOURSELF OR KYNDRA WILL BEAT YOU UP
dude
she's schizophrenic
she needs to see a doctor
like, right away
but DUUUUUUDE
it's great, i love it

[Jay_Bluefire]

She's me if I had this problem. BTW do you want to help write this?

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

COULD I?????

[Jay_Bluefire]

Yes go to groups I made a new thread.

[Locke Redwyne (night sys)]

OK 10 characters