Awakening

Awaking

 

Lily Night

 

 

 

I woke up with the noise of hysterical screaming and crying around me. I tried opening up my eyes but there was a blindfold tight around my head pushing against my eyes, a gag was in my mouth. I was lying on my side, my shoulder and the back of my head throbbed. I moved my arms up to remove the blindfold from my head and realized my hands and feet were bound together behind my back. Panic started to grip my body, someone yelled and the noise around me stopped, allowing me to listen but my heart was beating so loudly I could barely make out the words.

“Shut up! Before I make your miserable existence end!” said a deep male accented voice. The crying started again. I heard a grunt of frustration leave the man, heavy footsteps followed, making it sound like he was walking away from the group around me.

“What’s going on?” said Rachel. “Why are they doing this? How could they do that to Lily?”

“I don’t know Rachel. They have to be after one of us, I mean a few students here do have powerful families.” Michael said. “On the news, private schools like ours have been attacked all over the country. The FBI and a whole bunch of different organizations are trying to find these guys.”

Rachel started to cry, and through tears she said “But she didn’t even fight! She collapsed and then they…they hit her again and again…” Rachel started to sob.

I tried to move to a sitting position. But as soon as I moved something pushed me back down. My hands dug into my back.

You can escape this; let me in Lily Night…

“Don’t move Lily. I don’t want you to be hurt by them again.” Michael whispered in my ear. Fingers touched my mouth and the gag came out.

“What’s going on?” I croaked out. Rachel’s crying continuing in the background. “Am I the only one like this?”

“There are few others, but they tried fighting the guys who caused all this. They said they were looking for someone. They weren’t speaking in English when they brought us down here.” He whispered hurriedly.

“Where exactly is here?” I whispered back.

“We’re in the basement-”

Heavy footsteps echoed to the right. I heard a scream followed by thuds hitting the floor: “Get a way from her!” yelled a garbled voice.  

That’s when I heard the gun shots. Not five feet from me.

Their looking for you…

“Victor,” said a suave voice “you shouldn’t have done that. You know your orders. Find the boy, and bring him back as well of the others with the blood. We weren’t supposed to kill any of them.”

A raspy voice answered back. Speaking in a language I didn’t recognize. Warm liquid surrounded my arm, I heard Rachel squeak. It started to soak into my shirt; bile filled my mouth as I realized what it was.

Multiple groans came from the direction of the blood. “What do we have here?” said the same voice, he approached. “Looks like we have a few winners: bind them, and take them with the others.” Heavy footsteps followed, I could hear things splattering on the ground. “And for the gods sake Victor, heal them. We don’t want them to die before they reach the Arena.”

“Of course,” Victor answered. “my Lord.” He took the other students. The man before seemed to shuffle around.

“What do we have here…” A gloved hand pushed my face upward. “Now why are you without a gag my dear?” up close I could hear a slight English accent to him. He stood up, “Victor…I believe we have another one.”

I heard Rachel whimper behind me. Just as a boot kicked me in the chest and my head smashed against the hard floor. A high ringing flashed in my ears. Someone grabbed the back of my collar and yanked me up so that it pressed against my throat and choked me.

“Leave her alone!” yelled Michael, grunting immediately followed with a very loud thump.

“Idiot.” A very thick accented voice that belonged to Victor said. “My Lord, am I to put her with the others?”

“Yes,” the suave voice said. I felt the same gloved hand grab my chin and jerked my head up to get a better view of my face; of what he could see. He jerked my head to the left.

“Something the matter My Lord?” said Victor.

There was a slight pause before I heard an answer, I still felt nauseous and my side was becoming cold from the soaked blood.

“Nothing, throw her with the others.” He replied.

“It will be done.” The hand left my face and was replaced with two different pairs grabbing my upper arms.

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain on my neck, and I felt like I was spinning around, my balance was thrown off. My knees buckled from underneath me and I would have fallen if I had not been held up.

The voices around me started to get warbled and I felt like they were talking extremely slowly.

I fell unconscious within a few seconds afterwards. But the last thing I heard was another gun shot. As well as a scream.

 

When I woke up my restraints had been removed, as well as my gag and blindfold.

There was a dim light coming from the small rectangular window in the door. My head still throbbed, and it hurt to breathe. I started to get up and I felt my rib move underneath my skin. I took shallow breaths, and tried to think of a way to get out of here. Trying to make use of the skills my Uncle taught me and my brother since we were kids. I sucked in my breath and jerked my body up. I could move without it hindering my movements to much. I made my way to the door, moving up the steps slowly. I stood on my toes and took a peek out into the hallway.

Huge men who looked like professional wrestlers stood on either side of my door. Both in black shirts and pants, they had a military hair cut and they had what looked like scales underneath their skin

I tried the door handle. It was locked.

I stepped away from the door and looked around the room; it was a dark square room with the boiler stuffed in a corner. The floor and walls were made entirely of concrete. There was nothing in the room that wasn’t bolted down left in the room. I sank down to the floor against a wall. Four other girls were unconscious leaning against the walls.

It was hard to believe the day had taken such a drastic turn from what seemed such a normal morning…

 

It was the first day of the second semester as me and my older brother raced to our school and as always he blamed me.

“You said you wouldn’t make us late!” said Chris.

I ignored this and ran faster, “Come on, crybaby. Try and keep up.”

That worked and he shut up and got in front of me with his backpack bouncing against his back. His blonde hair messed up like he just got out of bed. He looked back and grinned, his bright green eyes looking mischievous.

“Who’s falling behind now?” he asked. I rolled my eyes and jumped up onto the ridge that ran next to the sidewalk and ran on that till it ended at the intersection and I dropped and rolled getting last nights remains of a downpour on my school uniforms skirt. I was several feet ahead of Chris. I continued to run: my combat boots pounding against the ground, my messenger bag bouncing against my hip.

That went on until we got to our school. It was lovely, if you liked a school for rich kids who when you came from a family who struggled with the rent every month tended to pick on you. The school was surrounded by trees and a chain link fence. It was still foggy out and dew was sticking to the leaves and the grass, and despite it being the middle of January it wasn’t as cold as it had been last year.

The drive way was packed with cars as it always was in its boring U bend where the kids got dropped off, by expensive cars or on some occasion’s limos.

The chain link gate to get in the school had a line of fifty people; where the students have to get their bags checked and go through a metal detector. I was actually genuinely surprised that it had lasted this long from all the rain we had in Washington.

As me and Chris got in line, one of the seniors a little bit ahead of me started to brag about how they had spent their winter break in Paris and going to fashion shows. Spoiled beyond belief was the norm of all the girls that went to this school. 

The line moved quickly, I set down my backpack and stepped through the metal detector. It beeped in alarm from the teardrop shaped necklace I had around my neck. It rested below my collar bone just above my heart.

I unclasped it, and gave it to Don our seventy year old security guard despite his age he was still in prime shape. Still had a full head of silver hair, full goatee, and smelled of peppermint he never changed, never looked different from the day before. Nobody wanted to mess with him and no one ever did.

I stepped through the metal detector again. Don gave me my things back and I walked to the gym where the principal was going to give a speech like he did every year. I pushed open the door and walked inside. The smell of the plants and flowers that the committee always decorated the gym with whenever there was a special occasion, hit me and made me almost fall down. I breathed through my mouth and continued to walk.

My skin started to tingle; I took shallow breaths holding my breath as I pushed through the crowd to my friends who were standing near the back.

“Hey guys.” I said to my friends, using up some of my air.

Michael turned around with a large cardboard box in his hands his midnight black hair sticking up in multiple directions. “Where have you been?!” I stopped moving. He raised the box toward my direction “You told me to bring this for our science project,” he shook the box a little bit and a hissing sound came from inside it. I took steps back, I hated snakes. “you said you had an idea for getting rid of this thing. That was a month ago!” He tried to hand me the box I continued to step away.

“Oh please! Give me the snake.” Rachel said her blonde curly hair and make up perfect as always. She took the box and raised it over her head as she waded over to the door in her designer leather boots. She was the daughter of a judge who worked in Olympia, and her mother was a fashion designer, so she always had the money and the clothes, both of which I lacked.

Ben, Jessica and Alex were having an argument about who would win in a fight: Thor or Martian Manhunter.

Michael looked at me, as I put my hand up to my head I was starting to see black spots. “Lily, are you-”

“There done.” Rachel said putting her arm around my shoulders and leaned against me. “Now the big bad snake can’t hurt you.” She brushed off her skirt.

“What exactly did you do to the snake?” Michael asked her.

“I released it to the wild, and then I threw away the box.” She said looking at her nails. “Honestly you call yourself a man Mike, you couldn’t even get ride of a little snake!” she teased.

Michael glared at Rachel. “You’re the one who was crying from fear of a fly.”

“Hey now people.” Jessica said stepping between them, leaving Ben and Alex to start yelling at each other only to both give up. “Let’s not do this--”

“Lily,” Ben said drawing my attention away from them, he adjusted his glasses, pushing on the sides with each of his index fingers. “are you okay? You’re shaking.”

I looked at my hands sure enough they were shaking. I shoved them into the pockets of my jacket and took shallow breathes ignoring the pain in my head. “I’m fine,” I said with a smile. “it just stinks in here.”

Ben lowered his voice. “Is it happening again? Lily, you should go see the nurse--”

“I’m fine.” I said still smiling. “I promise.” He frowned but left the subject alone.

The principal stepped up to the stage and started to give his speech, he looked tiny compared to the giant red drapes behind the stage that had wisps of dust at the top. Everyone got quiet, the occasional giggle from masses of girls around the gym.

When it was over we all went to our classes. Everything seemed to move faster than usual. I walked into my classroom, its large windows and poster filled walls the same as always. The girls were bunched up and giggling between themselves. The guys were talking among themselves, looking at the girls or standing with their hands in their pockets sharing jokes.

My science class was always like this. The same boring routine again and again, I started hoping that something would happen so it would be a day to remember. A lockdown, a fire alarm, someone blowing up their chemistry set, a giant chicken bursting into the classroom: something that would let me escape this repetitive life.

I had no idea what was about to happen to me and that that would be my last normal five minutes.

 

I was scribbling down notes when the fire alarm started and everyone started panicking. Running around in circles screaming, acting like complete idiots.

The sprinklers started going off, water poured down from the ceiling and the screaming grew higher as the teacher yelled at all of them to stay calm and form a single line.

I got up, picking up my bag and just as I was about to take a step an explosion shook the building. I felt a shock wave run through the building, making me fall to the floor landing on my hands and knees. Some kind of smoke came from the crevices of the door. I was shaking again. I could barely move, it felt like a huge weight was pushing and keeping me down. I used the desk next to me to help me get back on my feet.

But my legs gave out and I fell back to the floor. Rachel was next to me asking what was wrong but it sounded garbled and I couldn’t make out any of the other words that seemed to be coming from all around me. Time seemed to flow slowly as words in many different languages started appearing on the floor in rings around me they moved in circles. It looked like they were written in blood.

This is not your future. Lily Night, to live among the Mortal Humans. Your true future waits: you must find the man who killed your parents. But in order to find him you must follow the one who has a soul of lightning…

I looked up and saw a figure in black robes; the hood was pulled up and hid his face. “Who are you?” I asked it my voice echoed and was barely more then a whisper.

I am your obedient servant; the darkness in your heart. In the next few days, you will find out who you truly are. You must find the Dragons Will. If you do not this world will be burned by fire, flooded by water, crushed by earth and carved by air. He knelt down next to me and I saw a little of his face it was decorated with shimmery almost transparent tattoos, he had sad brown eyes and mud brown hair that fell in his face. He looked eighteen. My name is Atrum Unus, it meant Dark One a long time ago. I have been a part of you for quite sometime. I will serve you for all eternity just as my ancestors served the Dragons since the beginning, my princess of the Immortal Throne. He touched the side of my face; it felt like a soft breeze, barely able to feel it. If you ever need me, you only need to ask… He slowly faded away and darkness seemed to follow as I lost consciousness.

 

The memory faded as I found myself bound again, dragged to a destination I did not know. My upper arms were grasped by giant hands, my feet dragged across the floors getting caught on lumps that appeared on the floor in front of me.

They had opened up a door in front of us because I then felt a cold breeze and fresh air filled my lungs. They dragged me across the parking lot, my boots scraping against the asphalt.

The one who had been grasping my left arm let go and stepped away from me. I heard a car doors open, the man still holding my arm threw me into the bed of a van. My ribs which were still sore, hit the floor hard and pain shot through me. The doors behind me slammed shut and I heard them talking in the same foreign language.

They stopped for a second and started yelling, and I heard them start to fire off shots at an unknown enemy. I heard crackling outside of the van, and then silence once more.

The van doors opened and a hand tried to grab me again, I backed up and pressed myself against the wall of the van.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Lily.” said a new voice. I felt fingertips at my lips as the person pulled the gag away.

“You know me?” I asked him, my voice croaked. The hands took my wrists and I heard clicking.

“Not personally, but I know about you.” The male voice said, as the bounds around my wrists came off. Clicking once again came from my ankles. And once they were off, the same hands pulled off my blindfold. These hands belonged to a boy, maybe a year or two older than me. His black hair falling in his face, spikes shooting from the top.

“Why did you help me?”

He grinned “Because I was told too.” He put his hand on top of my head. “I’m sorry about this Lil’s.”

My back arched as my body was electrified: I passed out in less than five seconds. The last thing I saw was the dark sapphire eyes which belonged to my rescuer.

 

 

Frank Lorentzen

 

Lorentzen was staring at the monitor of his computer, the cold coffee cup in his hand, occasionally taking sips almost in an afterthought. His desk was littered with folders and files, pens were shrew everywhere, post-it notes were pinned to a map, yarn of all different colors connecting each pin to the other. Newspaper clippings of explosions and child-abduction’s were taped to the corkboard, with white and black yarn pinned to each point.

“Oh yeah Frank,” Richard said sarcastically, his glasses glinting from the overhead lights “you’re the pride of the department.”

Lorentzen lifted his eyes from the black screen, an amused grin painted on his face. “Gotta’ make my quota this week.” he replied, quickly hitting the space key on the keyboard. The sounds of the computer booting up filled the office. “So what’s the special occasion Richard? Or are you here to make fun of my organization again?” Lorentzen asked, taking a drink of coffee, referring to the map and corkboard.

Richard pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose “There was another school attack,” he closed the office door, opening the folder he held. “fifteen were taken, eight dead, one unaccounted for.”

“Unaccounted?” Lorentzen asked. Taking his eyes away from the monitor once again, typing furiously.

Richard handed him a flash drive in answer to his question. Lorentzen connected the flash to his computer, opening up the one video file it held. “The private school that was hit has a back-up system that saves all the video camera footage of the school to the cloud, as well as the cameras themselves have backup power.” The video started to load. “Inside the school the cameras didn’t give us any information that we had not already known.”

“Then why am I watching this Richard?” As the words fell from his lips, the security footage loaded, the image of a young girl bound and bloodied, carried by two hulking figures was the center of the screen. They carried her outside. The camera flipped, showing at a distance, the parking lot. One of the hulking men threw open the back of the car doors: the other then threw the girl into the back with a smooth robotic motion. They initiated contact with each other, innocently talking as a figure clad in black approached the van. Light seemed to flash around his hand, he crouched walking closer to the men. He attacked and beat the thugs in a matter of seconds. Landing a few quick jabs, which made them fall to the ground. The figure looked up at the security camera, adjusting his hood. His face disappeared from view as he approached the back of the van and stood there for at least a minute. Light flashed out of the back, he quickly closed the doors, and made his way into the driver’s seat, escaping from the carnage of the private school.

“Well that’s new.” Lorentzen said, getting up from his seat and making his way to the map and corkboard.

“New doesn’t exactly sum it all up Frank.” Richard said, taking the office chair and looking down to the folder again.

“Well the hit on the school was a month ago.” Lorentzen commented, rearranging and adding light blue pins to the map. “Why are we just learning that he made an appearance at the school now?”

“Shipping problems apparently. It was on the other side of the country.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose again. He looked up to Lorentzen staring at the map trying to make sense of the chaos that had been raging the states for the past 2 years. The blue pins were paired with half of all of the schools that had been attacked. “Who is that guy? He has never help anyone before has he? Why would he take the risk for that girl?”

“Maybe he finally found what he was looking for.” Lorentzen turned around and looked at Richard. “He has shown up at half of the schools that were attack and we have only had glimpses of his face. We have seen that he goes out of his way to avoid anyone at the schools, he literately does not exist anywhere.” He set the coffee cup down on the desk and moved to the windows, peering out through the blinds. “And yet he rescues a seemingly random girl, a girl who doesn’t stand out. Doesn’t have anything that could possibly make her a target…”

“Her file says that she and her brother were adopted when they were 8 and 10, no parents, really no information on them before then. Nothing that would take anyone’s attention.”

“Unless they were looking for that..” Lorentzen mumbled. “Come on Richard, we’re going to go fishing.” He turned around and in one fluid movement, grabbed his coat from the back of the chair, put on his gun holster, and FBI badge placed into his pocket. Then out the door with his head held high and briefcase at his side.

“I will never understand what goes on inside that man’s head…” Richard closed the file, taking one quick glance at the photo of Lily Night. He didn’t like the look inside her eyes, they were empty and cold. He then followed after his partner, the file lying on the desk, becoming a part of the 400 other files of the abducted students.