The Chronicles of Nia Cicida, Book 1: The Light at the End of the Tunnel [CHAPTER EIGHT ADDED]

Maturity: Killing, fighting, violence, maaaybe some crushes, not sure about kissing or boyfriend/girlfriend. May contain blood [if I'm evil when I write the chapter. xD]
Fantasy: Magical creatures, [mermaids, dragons, et cetera] spells[eh, not really], darkness and light.

The Chronicles of Nia Cicida, Book 1: The Light at the End of the Tunnel

~*~Contents~*~

Preface- This Post
Chapter 1- Page 1, Post 6
Chapter 2- Page 2, Post 11
Character Pictures- Page 2, Post 17 [UPDATED 9/29/09]
Chapter 3- Page 3, Post 25
Chapter 4- Page 5, Post 41
Chapter 5- Page 5, Post 44
Chapter 6- Page 7, Post 62
Chapter 7- Page 8, Post 76
Chapter 8- Page 10, Post 94

Preface

"The walls start breathing
My mind's unweaving,"
It Ends Tonight, The All-American Rejects

A girl was standing in the middle of her living room, listening as the pretend fire on her father's laptop crackled. She then noticed her father rummaging around in one of the closets. She held her backpack closer to her as she waited. What was he doing? What was he muttering under his breath as he searched? She didn't know.

She stared out of the living room window, "So many ravens." she whispered to herself, eyeing the flock of black birds as they hopped around impatiently. One of them cocked its head in her direction, its beady black eyes catching hers. For a moment, she was in a hypnotic trance, and out of her mind's eye, she could swear she saw black beginning to creep up the walls. She snapped her head away immediately, almost by instinct.

Her father came back, with a small letter, and a necklace in his hand. "This time came sooner than I would have imagined." He said in a rough voice. "Your mother wanted me to give you to this, she told me to keep it safe until you were old enough. I would have imagined giving this to you later, but..." He trailed off, handing her the two items. Hanging from the necklace, was a silver scale. It changed colors as she held it up to the light. She then opened the small letter which was hanging from it.

"Dear Nia..." it read.

Chapter 1- Birthday Blues

"Come break me down!
Bury me, bury me!
I am finished with you!"
The Kill, 30 Seconds to Mars

I woke up to the sound of Lovebug playing on my iPhone.

I sighed, it was 6:25 in the morning. My alarm clock would be going off soon, I might as well unplug it so it wouldn't wake my father. Oh, and what happened to my mom? She took off when I was a kid, leaving me with my father, all on our own.

I slipped into my dull school uniform, and slung my messenger bag over my shoulder. My phone continued to ring. I yawned, covering my mouth with the back of my hand. I held the phone up to my ear, "What do you want?" I grumbled, rubbing my eyes. Of course, it was Natalee, one of my close friends.

"Early bird catches the worm!" she sang. Boy, was she awake. She already sounded hyper. "And did ya guess what day it is?" She squealed.

I yawned again, placing the phone between the crook of my neck, and yanking a brush through my unruly hair. "What?" I asked.

"It's your birthday, woman! Hullo, February eleventh, the day you came outta yo' momma's belly, silly!" Natalee giggled, her words coming out in a flash. I could practically visualize her jumping down in her spot.
I rubbed my eyes, for probably the tenth time, "Hold on, hold on-- slow down, girl. You put sugar in your cereal today, didn't you? Or was it syrup?"

Natalee squealed, and then burst out laughing, "Good guess, but no dice. I put chocolate milk in my cereal, aaaand maybe some of those sugar coated strawberries..." She sighed dreamily.
"No wonder." I muttered, but she obviously heard me.

"Don't blame me because I'm a sugar addict, dude!" Natalee snapped, her voice joking. "Alrighty, I'm having a party at mah house--"

"Stop talking gangster, I can't keep up." I chuckled, throwing random books that were scattered out on my homework desk into my bag.

"Alright, miss Nia." Said Natalee, adding a fake British accent to her words, "Would you care to come over to my lovely abode for some tea?"

"Eh..." I trailed off.

Well, why not? Not like dear ol' daddy would care.

I could just picture a little devil appearing on my left shoulder, and the little angel on my right, as my thoughts fought with each other.

You should be more considerate of your father, Nia, what if he--

Can it, halo-girl, her dad's working late tonight--

I wanted to scream at my 'double' conscience. Of course, I only had one conscience, but sometimes, it felt like two. One tiny voice would say, 'This is a bad idea,' but I could barely hear that little voice sometimes, because an even louder voice was screaming, 'Bah, just make up your mind, woman!'

"Uh, Earth to Nia...?" Natalee spoke.

I snapped out of the trance I had been put into, and said quickly, "Yeah-- um-- I'll go. Alright?"

"Sa-weet!' Natalee sounded happy. "My mom will pick us up, if you want, kay? Oops-- gotta go. See ya!" And before I even got a chance to say goodbye, the sugar-high girl hung up.

It was a long day in school, and I got a demerit for forgetting my Language Book at home-- which normally, I never do. I almost had a panic attack when I found that the large, hard cover thing wasn't in my locker. It isn't hard to miss-- it's big, and green. But, apparently, it must have been on 'invisible' mode.

I sighed as I walked down the concrete pavement to my home [because I needed to do my homework before I went to Natalee's house]. I lived in a quiet town, surrounded my trees instead of busy streets.
I looked around.

"Why am I the one to be stalked by ravens?" I muttered to myself. One of them cawed, and for a moment, it almost sounded like a chuckle.

I looked down at my pocket as I felt, and heard, vibrating. I picked up my phone, "Unknown caller." I whispered to myself, and held it to my ear. "Claudia," I sighed, using the name of my best friend Claudia.

See, I had three close (girl)friends, and maybe three close (guy)friends. Claudia is the random, yet funny one. "You're wasting my minutes, dude." I listened closely to how she would reply. But there was no sound.

I was startled to hear a low growling sound in return.

I gasped and hung up, from then on beginning to quicken my pace to a slight speed-walk. After a few blocks, I flat-out sprinted back to my house.

I locked myself inside of my room, panting. Maybe it was another one of my friends. Maybe it was just one of the boys trying to scare me. "It's nothing," I told myself, hooking my messenger bag on one of the empty coat hangers. I got dressed for Natalee's party, my mind drifting off to the unknown. When my phone rang, I was pulled out of my stupor.

"Natalee," I sighed in relief, "Nia, you better not be late for your own party, don't make me come over there to get you," Natalie threatened, I laughed.

"I'm almost done getting dressed, no need to get the machete or something," I chuckled, and hung up. I walked out of the front door, and double checked to make sure that I had locked it.

I walked in silence to Natalie's home. I knocked, and the door creaked open. The lights were off. "Natalee, what am I going to do with you?" I rolled my eyes and kicked the door open all the way. Natalee flipped the lights on,

"Surprise!" she squealed, tossing pieces of colored paper at my face, I laughed.

And so, the party began. It was fun, don't get me wrong-- there was food, soda, candy, the works. But as I stared out at all of the faces of the people that Natalee had invited, part of me wished that one of them was my mother's.

Chapter 2- Dark Man

"Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it."
Shakti Gawain

Alright, to say the least, my little fifteen-birthday-bash went great. But there are a few very suspicious things that I just wanted to quickly list for all of you, before I start on what happened after the party.

1.) Natalee's parent's and her sister weren't there, along with her dogs, Elvis and Pokie. Natalee's parents never left her home alone, and if they had to-- well, I don't know, they never have left her alone.

2.) Every now and again, when someone would flash their phones in Natalee's face, she would shrink back.

But I could just be Little Miss Paranoid. If someone were to randomly flash their phone in my face, I might have reacted just the same as Natalee did. But still... it was weird, not seeing Carol [Natalee's mom] practically tackle-hug me as I walked through the door. It was... unnatural.

But never mind that, maybe her parents had to go to a funeral or something, and they didn't want to take her. My dad never took me to funerals, he thought it would 'make me afraid'. Come to think of it, I have never really thought about what it would be like to go to a funeral.

I always thought it was just a bunch of people, saying Bible verses to comfort them, or just spending the entire time weeping for their loved ones.

But, never mind that. Now, on with the story.

I was just standing by the punch table, rocking back and forth on my heels, bored. Some of the party guests were beginning to leave, and now Natalee and a few others were beginning to clean up. I stood on my tip toes for a few moments, and asked, almost hastily, "Hey, Nat-- mind if I go home now?" I asked. To tell you the truth, I was feeling a bit guilty that I had left my dad alone in the house. And for some reason, there was this tiny voice in the back of my head, telling me that it was time to leave.

"Sure, sure, dude!" Natalee nodded quickly, shooing me out of the front door. "Hasta la bye-bye!" She waved cheerily, shutting the door.

I tilted my head, staring at the now closed door, dumbfounded. Had she just kicked me out of her house? I wondered to myself. Yes, and also no. She did it in a nice way, but yes, she did kick me out, basically.

I turned around, preparing to walk back to my home, which was just five blocks away.

I wasn't aware of how late it had gotten.

I pulled my jacket tighter around myself as I began my little 'nature hike' down the sidewalk which led to my home. I whistled to myself, trying to make at least some noise. It was just too quiet- it made me feel fidgety and nervous.

Now, I know what you all might be thinking, [or at least along the lines of it] 'What the freak, Nia?! Haven't you ever heard of stalkers? Or, better yet-- child kidnappers?!'

Well, to reply, yes, I have. And that is why I remembered to snatch a knife from the kitchen before I left. Yeah, I guess you could call be a paranoid psycho. But at least I'm an armed paranoid psycho.

Man, I'm really starting to lose my mind...

Anyways.

I continued to walk down the side walk, whistling a happy tune to myself. I stopped, spotting a dark silhouette of a person standing a few yards away from me. I could tell that it was a male, because, number one: the figure had spiked out hair, and the way that its body was shaped. He-or, it, since I wasn't exactly sure- stood there, hands folded behind its back. It stood at about 5"6, and had a thin frame.

"Hello?" I called when the shape began to walk towards me. I squinted my eyes, and turned on my cell phone, shining the light from the screen on the person. Now, I couldn't really tell that it was a guy.

The boy shrank back, letting out a hissing sound. Soon, the shape evaporated, and disappeared.

Now, from there I was thinking, 'Why the heck is he afraid of the light on my phone?' and a few other questions.

But I would soon realize; it wasn't the light from the phone that had made him do that, it was me.