Chapter 3 ~Painful Imagination~

I laid on the hospital bed, and was utterly bored. The doctors left be alone, and my family had other thing to do, but I was uncomfortable, and it hurt to move. The only thing to do was talk to Devon. "You know, you're really boring when you can't move around, Nisha." He commented. "And who's fault would that be? Getting attacked, which broke three ribs, my leg, sprained my wrist, not to mention my skull cracking wasn't on my list of things to do." I grumbled. "My fault, maybe, but who saved you from having your neck break, losing your soul, and getting eaten? We are even, I caused a trouble and then I saved you from it!" "True." I said, thinking back tot hat day. It was a week ago, and we were at a small, empty, park that had a big, grassy field. Devon was talking about the shadow monsters.

"The darkness of the human soul?" I asked. We walked along the edge of field, no kids playing football, no parents, just us. "Yes. Humans are made up of darkness, it's apart of them. Humans are also made up of light. Humans turn light, and darkness into energy. The two forces should even out and neutralize each other, but humans always tip the scale." Devon explained. "what happens when the scale tips?"
"When the scale tips, the energy can form creatures, in the right condition. Our world is powered by the energy from human souls, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you humans." "So, humans are like batteries?" Devon smiled, "In one sense, yes, you are a battery that powers my world. But, like batteries, we also suck away your energy, or life. The positive people give a more powerful charge, and we have little need to suck it up from humans, but the shadow monsters are constantly sucking up energy till theres nothing left. That's why negative people, depressed people and such have so little energy."
"But, if your made up of energy, how come I'm the only one who can see you?" I asked. "We are more then energy, but I'm too young to understand what that is. And, our energy is differnt then the ones you use, the times that people do sense us, they call us ghosts. Human souls generally don't stick around, and when they do they don't give off a lot of energy.
"When humans die, their soul transforms into a differnt living creature, rarely do they stay. Even rarer, they can become a creature of the light or a creature of darkness." "Human souls can do that? Can I do that?" I asked. "No, right now you are in this world with this host. Your host is your physical body that you call the human body. Your soul is bounded to it, and will stay there until the body is no longer useful, like when it dies. You can simply part with your body, some claimed they have left their bodies, but most of them just imagined it, like a dream. The point one percent of those who did part didn't leave or go anywhere, they still were rooted tot he body. But, when you die, your soul is free again, and can choose another host to live in. But, some of them can find my world and enter it. they are extremely powerful souls, light or dark, and all are in awe of them, and all free them.
It's a dangerous world that I live in, and all those who can see us suffer the same danger." "There are others?" I gasped. "Yes, there are others across the world that can also sense us. The only difference is how they react to us. Most try to ignore us, believing we are only imaginary, others try to fight us. You treat us like any living creature, which is nice but your charge is a lot more powerful and others want to use that power. That might explain the last attack of shadow dragons, they were after your energy."
I was going to say something, but the world flickered. Four shadow dragons appeared, and a heard of giant hell hounds moved up silently behind them. I stared in shock at them, and whispered, "What should we do?" Devon glared at them, and said, "Stay still, don't flee. They have a master, and have been well trained, move and they will kill us." I fought the urge to run, my heart started beating faster and harder, and felt like it was going to beat out of chest. The world flickered again, and a cloaked figure appeared in the middle of the shadow monsters. Gray mist flowed off him, and his hood covered his face. He made a silent command, and three hell hounds moved towed me. "Don't move, and they won't attack!" Devon hissed. He glared at the cloaked figure, mumbling curses. I fought to stay still, and now it seemed like my heart wasn't beating.
More soundless words floated in the air, and the world vanished. "Knowledge is sin." A ghostly voice said, it was a s thine as mist but still cut into me like daggers. The hell hounds howled and Devon screeched. The three hell hounds around me chuckled, as another one charge right into me. The air was pushed out of me onto the invisible floor. I heard a crack, and a sharp pain shot through my head. The hell hound jumped on me, claiming me as his prize. His huge paw landed on my wrist, making me scream, and then bite my leg. Another crack, more pain, the hell hounds were enjoying the show. Devon screamed, and launched himself at the hell hound. The hound kicked him, catapulting him tot he cloaked figure. Devon was ready to fight, but so was the figure. He didn't flinch, only another soundless command and the shadow dragons surrounded. "Devon!" I screeched. I struggled to get up, the pain alone would have stopped me, but the pack of hounds surrounded me. The snarled, snapping at me, and pawing at me. Light, light would have been very useful, but I didn't know how to summon it.
I knew Devon couldn't respond, but I was still disappointed not to hear his voice. I struggled once more to at least sit up, the pain was intense, and the huge paws of hell hounds were lightly pushing me down, but I managed. I was too scared, too tired, to scream, I felt like my energy was being sucked out of me. "Devon..." I whispered. The hell hounds were getting bored, and getting hungry, they wouldn't be playing with me for long. A paw pushed me down, and more paws were clawing at my skin. I couldn't stay awake, and started drifting off into painful and confusing dreams.

I woke up in the hospital, Devon was nowhere to be seen. I still felt the pain, all of it, but my energy had returned. Mom was the first to come into my room to see me awake. "Oh, Nisha, thank god your finally awake! Some of the doctors said you were in a comma, and we thought you will never wake up again! Two weeks, not responding , not healing, it was horrible!" Mom sobbed. "Two weeks?" I asked. "Two weeks! Some doctors thought you were in a comma, and your wounds! Your wounds wouldn't heal, it took everything to close them and stop the bleeding. What happened to you?" I tried think about that. What could happen to me in an empty park to cause wounds like this? "I', not sure, everything seems fuzzy..." I started. "Well, take your time to remember. I'm just glad your awake, and still yourself."
I talked with my family for awhile, then claimed I was tired to get them to leave. It worked, and as soon as they were gone, Devon showed up. "Your awake, thank god. I was worried that I was too late to save you." "Where were you? What happened?" I asked. "I went to my world, to get healed. In one way, we have hospitals to heal our wounds. But, I kept an eye on you, and tried getting information about what happened to you. Your case was sent to important people in my world. Actually, my world is buzzing about you." "What?"
"Gossiping about you and me. The attack with the shadow dragons started it, a bit of gossip with alight interest. Lower creatures are always interested in those who can see us. But many more are interested in you becuase of how comfortable you are with us. The last attack grabbed everyones attention, you survived an attack of what we think was a human soul. Human souls in my world are rare, and as I said before, very powerful. That fact that he took any interest in you always is grabbing attention. Doctors from my hospital will come see you to heal you, and still make it look like the humans are doing it. We have a cover up story already made, so just heal and relax." I smiled at him and went to sleep.

Author's Note

I wrote this a few days ago, submitted but forgot to put which book this was in. So I had to start over, and I'm really mad about that.