Gregor the Overlander and the Ghost of War

Chapter 1

Gregor trudged down the hallway of his high school, lost in his own thoughts. His brown curls hid under the hood of his grey hoodie, his eyes trained on the reflective hall floor.

School is pointless. All it does is teach you meaningless stuff that won't help you in the future. Why don't they cancel it and make it mandatory to take self-defense classes instead?

His mouth formed a thin line at the thought.

That would be useful - it's a dangerous world.

Something skittered over his foot, and he looked up in surprise, stopping in his tracks.

It can't be -

He turned, his eyes immediately fixing on a small rat galloping down the hall. It stopped, turned its head towards him, and made a small, almost indistinguishable squeak that did not go unheard by Gregor. It wants me to follow it, he thought numbly. Without hesitation, he took off after the rat, ignoring the stares and whispers coming from onlooking students. The rat took a sharp left into the boy's bathrooms, and Gregor pushed open the door only to freeze in horror.

Ares.

Memories of the big black bat flashed in his mind – Gregor laughing as they flew over the Waterway, an underground reservoir located in a world miles underneath the surface. Gregor, driving his sword through oversized enemy rats as Ares expertly flipped and rolled through the air, as though the duo had been one joined since birth, forming a single deadly weapon. Gregor's hand interlocked with Ares' claw, reciting an ancient oath to form their connective bond, signifying their willingness to save each other as they would save themselves...

Gregor's body began to tremble in fear as he registered the scene before him. Ares' fur, normally glossy and black, was thin, matted, and falling out in clumps. His eyes rolled up into his head, blood dripping from them like tears. His wings bent at unnatural angles, and his left claw was missing, the wound leaking more blood onto the floor. But the sight of his dead friend wasn't the thing that made him shake; it was the rats.

Hundreds of rats tore Ares' flesh from his bones, biting into his body and gorging themselves on his corpse. Gregor began to breath in short pants, sweat beading on his forehead. Ares was dead, the rats had killed him - trembling, he took the slightest step back, and all of the rats suddenly turned their bloody muzzles towards the sound. There was a split second of silence, and then they were careening towards him, creating a wave of bloody, furry bodies. More blood poured from Ares' corpse from behind the rats, and it quickly mixed with the animals, creating a horrifying mixture of beast and blood. Gregor cried out in fear and sprinted back into the school hallway.

"GET OUT OF HERE!!" He yelled in fear at the confused students. "RUN!! THEY'RE COMING!" He turned to look over his shoulder as he ran, and chills ran through him as the mass wave of nightmares drew closer. For some reason the students didn't seem to notice it – how couldn't they?! The scratching of claws on stone and shrill shrieking squeaks was all Gregor could hear, overwhelming his senses.

He reached the end of the hall and looked around desperately, not seeing any escape routes. I can't escape them, he thought in terror, and not knowing what else to do, he curled up and hugged his knees to his chest tightly, breathing rapidly. He was speaking rapidly, releasing a string of sobs and words that made no sense. He had to protect his family, he had to get to Luxa... Luxa... He shut his eyes tightly, the squeaking, rushing of liquid, and panting growing impossibly louder as he waited for the wave to smash into his body.

But it never did.

He opened his eyes and looked around in confusion, his breaths coming in short, panicked gasps. Where did the rats go? The hallway swam before his eyes, and students swayed and dipped like a mirage. Black crept into the edges of his vision, and he felt a hand on his shoulder, heard a muffled voice that sounded far, far away. He pitched forward, and everything went black.