All Bad Things Must Begin Somewhere

 The sound of a hard rain flooded her senses as she stood by the raging river locked deep in the evergreen wood behind her house. The rain droplets pushed through the cotton weave of her already soaked navy blue tank top. She sighed as she tilted her head back and looked to the sky, her tawny eyes wide as she felt the rain drop into her eyes and slide around her eyeballs and turn into tears. Then she closed her eyes and lowered her head. How long would it take until they realized that she was out there, drowning in her own sorrow and mutiny. She sat on the once dirt floor of the forest and looked at her slightly tanned hands and shook her head, her long black/blue hair swinging about her head in rope as she did so.
     "I guess I could jump...would they notice I wonder...Alex would...but at least they wouldn't know why I jumped." She muttered to herself.
     God, when did this fiasco all start? Six months ago? Eight? By now she had lost count and she didn't really care about the length of time it took for this to happen. All she cared about was that she had done it...and now they would all die because of her. 'What can I do now? They'll all be dead soon...unless I precede them...' She thought darkly as she brought her knees to her face and rested her chin on them.
     "RIA? Ria? Where the hell did you go now?!" called a voice from the score of trees behind her.
She whipped her head around to see a tiny clustered group of flashlights coming towards her.
     'F**K!' Ria cursed to herself as she jumped to her feet and looked around for a hiding place. But to no avail. The group of flashlights cleared the wood and came closer.
     "Ria? What are you doing out here woman?" That was Alex, she knew his voice easily out of all the chattering coming from the group.
     "Thinking..." Ria answered rather lamely.
     "Yeah...riiiight..."
     "F**k off Alex."
There was a stifling silence that swallowed her up as she stood there, her head lowered and her fists clenched.
     "....A-Alex....I-" Alex shook his head and held up a hand as if to silence her.
     "Don't worry about it...I shouldn't have sounded so harsh." Alex answered.
Melchor stepped over to Ria and put a slightly damp jacket around her.
     "We should get you inside. You'll get sick..." He said softly, an uncomfortable tone in his voice.
     "He's right....let's get you inside...."Alex said in agreement.
As Melchor led Ria back towards the house, a dark clot appeared lightning quick in her vision and then was gone.
He was coming.
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     Ria sat curled up in the large burgundy arm chair that Melchor had set before the roaring fireplace. She sighed as she stared into the blaze, her tawny eyes half-open in silence. Melchor sat nearby watching her worriedly.
     "Ria? Are you alright? You don't look like you feel well right now..." He commented.
     "True...I feel like hell..." Ria answered, her eyes sliding over to look at Alex who stood in the kitchen making tea.
     "...Because you snapped at him?" Melchor pressed.
     "Mostly...and my stomach feels queasy...." Ria murmured, curling in on herself and holding onto her stomach.
     "Do you want anything?" He asked scooting closer to her side.
     "...No...I just want to sleep..."
     'I want to forget about what is going to happen...' She thought to herself as she stood up and ambled up the stairs to her room.
     She lay back on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She reached over and flicked on her cd player, and "Illuminati" by Malice Mizer blazed softly to life.
     'Lord....what am I going to do...I can't let this happen...but what choice do I have?'
Ria closed her eyes and sighed softly. She curled up on her right side.
     "Alex..." she whispered as she felt a rush wave of cool darkness envelope her.
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      Ria sat up in bed. She had no idea how long she had been asleep, but it must have been awhile, seeing as her cd player had turned off after her cd had ended. She lept out of bed as her ears picked up the sound of a rather violent scuffle from down in the sitting room. She ran out of her room and down the stairs to the sitting room. She screamed as she nearly stepped on the bloody hand of Kelsey Whitewin, her bestfriend. Ria's hands flew to her mouth as she stepped around Kelsey's twitching body.
     "Oh my god...not like this...not like this...ATHREN!!!!!!" Ria screamed running out of the house to the rainy, misty morning outside.
When she arrived outside she saw Alex standing down towards the gravel road in the yard, standing against a tall man, who had long back length black hair and silver/blue eyes. He was wearing a long black cloak over a black and silver chest plate. He had a cold look in his eyes and a malignant smile on his face.
     "I am here, dear Ria. Just taking care of something." Athren Eternos chuckled as he swung a blue bladed scythe at the unsuspecting Alex.
     "STOP IT! I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO KILL THEM!!! PLEASE STOP THIS!!!" Ria screamed as she ran down towards the two who were battling.
     "Where is Melchor and the others?!" Ria cried as she reached them.
     "They are around of course..they tried to face me and failed miserably." Athren chuckled as he effortlessly staved off Alex's attacks.
     "You SON OF A B***H!!!" Alex screamed flying at Athren, a potentially damaging orb of Fire growing in his hands.
     "Now, now Alexander. Let's refrain from using that kind of language infront of a young lady like Miss Knight." Athren smirked side stepping Alex's attack.
     "There isn't really anything you can do about your friends, either of you. Two Elementalists against the Lord of Nothing? How tragically funny!" Athren screamed with laughter as a wave of darkness came rushing at the two. Ria was engulfed in the corroding waves and she blacked out.