Continue the story - Best Chapter Wins!

We so should.

That would be cool. It could sell at the minimum price so it'd be easy to buy and no-one would get a profit.

They stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the brief tranquility amid the yelling and the Vredion and the prophecies and the confusion. But then the moment was over. Craig dropped his arms and took a step backwards. Dana lifted her violet gaze to meet his.

“Good night,” he said in a dull monotone, carefully keeping all expression off of his face as he turned away to go back to his room.

“’Night,” she whispered, watching him go. She waited until he had vanished into his room and then a few seconds longer, looking at the door. Then she went back to her own room, shutting and latching the door behind her. She flicked off the light and went over to the bed, but it had vanished.

She stiffened. She went back over to the light switch, but it wasn’t there. The wall was gone. The cold floor beneath her bare feet had turned to grass and dirt. Stars twinkled to life above her head but proved useless for illumination.

Dana shivered as a cold breeze swirled around her, blowing her hair into her face. She brushed it away impatiently and pulled her thin pajama top tighter around her torso.

“Is anyone there?” she called out tentatively, feeling kind of stupid. No answer was returned to her except the faint echo of her own voice. She frowned.

“Dana.” Craig’s voice floated out of the darkness.

“Craig?” Dana asked, taking a step towards the noise. “Where are you?”

“Over here.”

“Keep talking,” she said, taking another few steps towards him. “I’ll follow your voice.”

“I’m right here, Dana.”

“Where? Craig, I can’t find you.”

“Right here.” His hand caught hers, but it was wrong... cold.

“Where are we?”

Suddenly his eyes became visible. But they weren’t his warm, ocean blue eyes. They were the red, glowing eyes of Garthe.

* * *

“Dana.” A strong hand shook the slight girl’s shoulder gently. “Dana.”

The hard linoleum was cold against her bare arms, contributing to the speed of her waking. A moment later she recognized the voice and scrambled away from it.

“Dana?”

She looked up and gazed into the concerned blue eyes of Craig, not the malicious red ones of Garthe.

“Dream,” she breathed. “Just a nightmare.”

“Another one?”

“I - hang on, how did you know I had one before?” She frowned, a cold knot of suspicion forming in the pit of her stomach.

A flush darkened his tanned face slightly. “I heard you muttering.”

“Why were you awake?”

His flush deepened farther. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“You too?”

“Garthe wants us on his side.”

“Probably,” Dana agreed, hugging her knees to her chest. “But he’s not going to get us. Right?”

“Right,” Craig accepted, laying his hand lightly on top of hers. “We won’t turn bad. The prophecy will never be fulfilled.”

“Never,” Dana whispered. But deep in her heart she knew it couldn’t be true. Prophecies were always fulfilled.

* * *

Dana had no more nightmares that night. She was woken just after dawn by a panicked banging on her bedroom door. She rolled sleepily out of bed and opened the door, revealing Merdock standing there with his fist raised to continue knocking.

“What?” she asked, stifling a yawn as she brushed a few strands of hair from her face.

“The hourglass,” he said breathlessly. “It’s gone. And the Book of Prophecies. And... and Craig’s not answering.”

“What?” she demanded shrilly, pushing past him and over to the door of Craig’s bedroom. She grabbed the golden knob but it wouldn’t turn. She rattled it, but the door was firmly locked from the inside. She murmured a few words of magic and a thin tendril of violet mist snaked out of her palm and threaded through the mechanism of the lock. There was a soft click and the door swung slowly open. She pushed it impatiently and stepped inside.

There was no sign of a struggle. The bed was neatly made; all the furniture was in its original position. The window was closed, but that could have been done from the outside. Dana strode over to it and tested it by pushing outward. It swung open silently, as if the hinges had been recently oiled, which was unusual for the decrepit old building. She peered through the opening. She might have been able to just barely squeeze through it, but it didn’t look big enough for Craig.

She turned and noticed a short note scrawled on the wall with a Sharpie in Craig’s messy handwriting. It said:

I’m not joining Garthe. Don’t worry, don’t follow. Sorry. -Craig

Thanks. *waits impatiently*

He could be lying.

Nice.

Craig shivered slightly as he walked through the forest. He felt like someone was... watching him. He glanced around, but he couldn’t see anything, which honestly shouldn’t have surprised him, because it was the middle of the night and very dark. He sped up slightly, unconsciously lengthening his strides. The feeling didn’t fade, however, and soon enough he was running, sprinting through the forest, and the feeling was running right with him. Finally he stopped, breathing heavily.

“Who are you?” he gasped. “What do you want?” He waited for a moment, but no one answered. Feeling kind of stupid, he started to walk again, then stopped in his tracks. In front of him was a pair of glowing red eyes. He stumbled backwards until he was pressed against a tree, the odd shapes of the hourglass and the book cutting into his back.

“I think you know what I want,” a voice sneered.

“I - I don’t-”

The red eyes drew closer. “Bet you wish you’d paid attentions to your little friend’s lessons now, don’t you?”

“I -”

The voice cut him off again as the disembodied red eyes drifted closer until they were hovering right in front of his face. “Now, Craig, I won’t hurt you. I’ll only... alter your memories a bit.”

Every particle of Craig’s mind was screaming at him to run, but his body was frozen, paralyzed with fear as the shadowed creature reached out and gently brushed his face with a touch so feather-light that he could barely feel it. He writhed in pain as something firmly gripped his mind, shifting it, changing it, and then slowly extracting itself from his head as everything went black.

* * *

“But what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Merdock replied for the umpteenth time, sounding flustered. “I really don’t know. Perhaps something to do with the hourglass.”

Dana once again traced her new features with her finger, making sure they were really hers. How could she have aged two years in ten minutes? She dropped her head onto her hands.

“What am I supposed to do?” she moaned, her voice muffled. “What am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why not?” she yelled, suddenly angry. “You’re the wise one, you’re the one who’s supposed to have all the answers!”

“I only know what the stars have told me,” the old man said wearily. “I am an astrologer, nothing more.”

“How can I fight him, though?” she whispered, fighting back tears. “He is... was... my best friend. How could he betray us like this?”

There was a long moment of silence before Merdock spoke again. “Perhaps he wanted to save you from joining. He may have thought that by joining Garthe he could protect you, keep you on the right side and away from Garthe.”

“But why take the hourglass and the book, then?” she asked, getting up again and beginning to pace restlessly around the small room. “No, Garthe must have done something to him... Yes, that’s it. He wouldn’t have gone bad on his own, I know it. He was too good for that. He promised... He promised he wouldn’t... not ever...” Her voice trailed off with a sob.

“Remember the prophecy said you would both be on the same side again. Maybe he’ll come back to us.” He didn’t say the second part, but Dana knew they were both thinking it. Or I’ll join him, she thought morbidly. What if I do? What if we destroy the world?

“I can’t do this,” she muttered. “This is... I can’t. I’m sorry, Merdock, I need to go.”

“Go?” he said in surprise. “Go where?”

“I’m going home.”

“This is your home.”

“No. This is not home, this has never been home. I thought it was, but it’s not. I’m going back to my real home. I’m going back to Red Lodge*.”

“Dana, you can’t, you know you can’t.”

“I don’t care!” she snapped. “I don’t care if I can’t, I will, and you can’t stop me!” She grabbed the small bag with her most prized possessions and ran out the door.

*A small town in Montana

Thanks. Your turn.

Dana sat on the bed, trying to ignore the twisting of her gut. It had been so simple. And now here she was again. Home. She heard her parent’s excited voices drifting up from downstairs, and the higher pitched voice of her younger sister, Lily. They had been so happy when she came home from the “exclusive boarding school” that she had gotten a “scholarship” for that made it “free.” Or so they thought. She had said they were on spring break, and her parents had asked no question, too overjoyed that she was back.

“You’ve grown quite a lot Dana!” was her father’s only response, when he took her in, and then he had wrapped her in a bear hug that the rest of her family had soon joined in on. But then again, I suppose she could be mistaken as a tall, mature fourteen year old- barely. And for a minute, everything had felt right. But the feeling soon faded, leaving her here, gnawing on the bottom of her lip in anxiety.

She had retired to her room, claiming she had a headache from the long plane ride back to Montana. What a lie. It had taken two seconds. All she did was mutter a quick transportation spell, and then poof, she was standing, concealed from view at the edge of the forest, with the bag in her hand. She had walked out from the trees, and found herself at a distantly familiar park, one she realized was right next to her house. But perhaps it wasn’t such a lie. Because her head was throbbing horribly, and even Advil wouldn’t help.

Suddenly, a voice called to her, and there were soft footsteps coming up the steps. She watched silently as the knob turned and her door was opened. Her mother’s kind face peeked through. “Dana, honey?” she asked. “Do you want to come downstairs? There’s someone here. He said he was a friend at the boarding school and heard you were here too.”

Boarding school? But that was all false. . . Well who knew anyways? “Sure Mom,” she answered and as soon as her mother retreated back down the stairs, she exhaled a long sigh, and stood up. But once she got out the door of her bedroom,, she stopped absolutely still at the top of the stairs. Because standing in the doorway was Craig.

“Dana?” his voice sounded so giddily happy, she didn’t know what to do. What was this all about? Surely he didn’t expect to walk in and convince her to join him and Garthe did he? Wait, he had killed Garthe. Correction. Surely he didn’t expect to walk in and convince her to join him and the Vredions did he?

“Craig?” she asked back, her voice careful, guarded, and puzzled even. But those things were exactly how she felt.

“He says that your superintendent says that you need to come back to school. Something happened at the school, and the students have to come back,” my mother chimed in. Obviously her and Craig had spoken before Dana arrived.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Dana replied, almost coldly, staring Craig down. He met her gaze evenly, but it didn’t seem malicious.

“I don’t quite know either,” Craig admitted, almost looking sheepish. “But it’s what Mr. Davenport wants.” Davenport?

“Is that the name of the new leader of the Vredion? Last I checked, our superintendent was Mr. Merdock,” Dana replied, her voice sweet and innocent. She knew her parents wouldn’t understand, so she didn’t mind mentioning it in front of them.

“Vredion?” her father asked quizzically.

“The name for the school board,” Craig explained quickly, lying. “But no. I suppose Mr. Merdock is still the superintendent. I don’t honestly know who the new leader of the Vredion is.” He fixed Dana with such a convincing glare, she almost believed him. Almost.

But in the end, her parents forced her out the door with Craig, and her bag of belongings. They were sad to see her go, but said that if she wanted to keep the scholarship, she better do what the school wanted her to do. So here she was, out here with Craig.

They were walking on winding paths through the forest, deeper and deeper into the unknown. Dana was secretly just waiting to make her escape when Craig wasn’t looking. But before she could, his voice broke through the seemingly perpetual silence.

“I haven’t changed sides,” he said suddenly, his head twisting so that he could see her. Her mouth dropped open in surprise.

“I don’t believe you,” she finally said, clamping her mouth shut with a snap. “This is all a trick, Craig. I know.”

“No, no it’s not, Dana!” Craig exclaimed, his voice pleading. “I promise, no I swear, that I haven’t changed.” Dana wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t let her fall into his trap. He would just get her to trust him, and then lead her straight to the Vredion. So she shook her head stubbornly. “I haven’t changed sides,” Craig repeated, and then sighed. “Well I just wanted to let you know, before I got away from all of this,” he said and then turned and walked away. Dana stood, shocked as he walked away. He wasn’t going to try to kidnap her or anything?

“Wait, Craig, wait,” she called rushing back towards her. Craig paused, and for just a minute, his blue eyes flashed a bright, beady red with success that could only belong to one person- Garthe. But Dana didn’t know. His eyes turned blue again, and he turned with a smile, and open arms.


But inside Craig’s mind, a fierce battle was raging. His own consciousness strove to send Dana away and to safety, but a stronger force held him at bay. Because Garthe wasn’t truly dead- maybe his body, but not his spirit. He was alive in Craig.

Liar, Craig's conciousness hissed. All those things are lies!

Not true, boy. I don't know who the knew leader of the Vredion is, because there is no new leader. I am still the leader. And I haven't changed sides. I was never with that stupid wizard or whatever he was, Merdock I believe was his name. Now be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate.

Awesome. And now... I have absolutely no idea what to have them do. XD

Oops... It's still my turn. Haha. Anyone else want to try?

Aaaaand... it's still my turn. xD Someone else really needs to have a go, because I have no idea what to do.

I suppose I'll have a go, but I'll have to do it later. This is great! It doesn't have anything to do with VAMPIRES!!!!

Finally! That's okay, we can wait. No it does not, unless you happen to want to add them in. xD You should probably read all the written chapters before writing any more, though.

Running ideas through my mind...
None are very good, so I'll try again tomorrow!
Sorry for the wait.

Dana was still wary. He had left. Without any explanation at all. Now he just shows up at her house, and gets her to come along? Had he really not changed sides? "Please," she said quietly. "Don't lie to me."

Craig consiousness wanted to tell her it was all lies. He wanted to tell her to run. But Garthe was overpowering him.
"Dana. I'm not lying. I'm still Craig." He widened his eyes. "You know me."
Lies! LIES!
Shut up, human. You are no longer in charge of this body. It is mine, and I shall use it how I like. Do not question, or protest, and do not try to rebel. You will fail, and I will be forced to take over your little woman friend there.

Tears sprung to Dana's eyes. "Do I?" She choked back a sob. "Do I really?" This was embarrassing, crying in front of Craig. She turned so he couldn't see her face.

Garthe directed his body over to Dana. He touched her shoulder. "Dana... please don't cry."

Dana whirled and leaned her forehead on Craig's chest. "I want... to trust you..." she sobbed into his shirt.

Garthe put Craig's arms around her and squeezed. "Then do it," he whispered in her ear.

"No... you-you left. You left me." It didn't come out the way she meant it, but it would have to do for now. "You left me."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I didn't want to, but I had to. I had no choice, Dana! Didn't you see that?!" He suddenly pushed her an arm's length away. "I had no choice..." He turned. "Let's keep going."
"Um, Craig?" Dana said, composing herself. "We can use a transportation spell."

"Oh...yeah. Sorry."

She grasped his hand and said the incantation.

She appeared in front of Merdock, who's arms were crossed in front of him. She gasped for breath. That was strange, transportation spells were never this physically taxing. It was just two people, so she should have been only slightly out of breath.

She is feeling the repercussions of bringing all three of us here, Garthe voice said in Craig's mind. She knows that it should not be exhausting.
**********************
I have to get off right now, so I'll come back later and finish!

I suck at thinking for this.

Well this died. xD