A Hero in the Dark: 2nd Edition

Chapter 1: Changing the Ending

It's quiet. My window's open, as it usually is; one of the three. Crickets chirp in a midnight breeze and the city whirrs in my ears—the city of Kingston, Ontario, packed with a population of nearly 587 345, the prime country of loonies, maple leaves, and the sweet maple syrup.

I sit up in bed in my pyjamas and robe, my computer resting in front of me glaring its usual blue light. Mom, dad, and my little brother are asleep already; dad's snores are loud through the walls even though our doors are closed. YouTube plays a gaming video, but when it's done, I click the trending option—out of sheer boredom—and something catches my eye: a video, being streamed in HD. "lit flames in Paradise," the title reads. What the hell?

Whoever's house that is, is literally on fire! I've never seen such a thing. But that's not all. There are people surrounding the place, all over the yard, in the street, but there's a boy too. It's hard to see his face; the camera is shaky. My bones chill when he flies out of the second story window, carrying a girl in his arms and two bulldogs. No. It can't be...

Mark's house, as in—Mark James?

I shut the laptop closed as soon as the feed cuts out and glance at the novels on my bookshelf, half of them written by Pittacus Lore, my favourite series ever, a fictional story. It wasn't supposed to be real, but a story full of aliens masked as hidden superheroes. Everyone knows it's not! I always assumed the author worked under the pseudonym Pittacus Lore, that the true author was James Frey, but if that's not true... How is it not true?

I saw the footage; it was crystal clear. The Loric; they're real. They're on Earth, and their planet—Lorien—is destroyed. But that means the Mogadorians... they're real too, and they're hunting the last of the Garde. Does that mean everything in these books is true too? Like, the future? The death, battles, romance, all the insignificant brawls... Five, Nine, Henri, John... Is Earth in the same danger that it quotes?

I've heard of countless teens around the world disappearing from their homes unexpectedly, but this... Rebecca Flare. Joseph Bolton. Alex Palatine. Rex Linnean. They've been missing for weeks, some of them months. Were they readers of the Lorien Legacies too? If so, it means they knew just as much as I do. Have the Mogadorians found them? Captured them? Killed them?

I try not to consider that last possibility.

What if the Mogadorians come for me next? What if they find me and kill me like the first three Garde? Would they bother? Or would they know that I'm just a human unrelated to their war? I haven't been as anonymous on the internet as I should've been; surely, any of them would be able to track me, right? They might be hunting for me now...

The thought is enough to make my heart race faster than time itself.

I need to go; I don't have a choice. Even if I stay, they'll find me. I need to find John Smith, warn him, protect them, and try to help them win their war. I know what happens. I can change the ending and get them a better one. Prevent the bad. Embrace the good. None of it needs to happen. I can help. I've got to, so I start packing a bag. I don't carry much, leaving my laptop, books, and anything I won't need. I arrange a few clothes to take on my journey, fold, and pile them away. I grab my iPhone and its charger and head out as quietly as I can.

Before I leave though, I take one final look at everything I own; my bed, my desk and matching leather chair, my bookshelves, my closet full of clothes, even the glazed hardwood floor. I gloss over the covers of each of the ten books, recap what happens in each one...

I don't know how long I stand there for, but eventually, I shut the door closed, write a quick note to my parents, and leave it on the kitchen table:

Going to help John Smith.
Be back soon.
Love you.

It's 1:23 a.m. when I board the bus at the nearest bus stop.