Mind of War (On Hold)

Behold, This Is Darkness Part I

It has been a year since Team Liberate added Free to their team. There was much progress made in the mission of freeing 144,000 souls from the realms of their own dark flaws. The
Shadows, now feel their grip loosening and their reign coming to an end, are on the move. For the past month, every night at 9:00, the Shadows from the Second Dimension begin a united hunt rolling in like a cloud of ash. If you get caught in the darkness, the light of the amulet is gone. Second Dimension is trying to regain their numbers, as if to say: Behold, this is Darkness.

"Come on, it's 8:57. We can make it." Said a tall girl with long black hair and amber eyes. She continued, "Bliss, get in front with your key in hand, we have to be quick."

The girl who was referred to as Bliss, darted in front with her key and asked, "Is everyone here?"

There was no response until a boy with black eyes and tan skin asked, "Where's Kai?" Bliss stopped dead in her tracks.

The black haired girl grabbed her arm, dragging her along, "We can't stop now, it's 8:58. Remember the mission."

"I can't leave him, Song!" Bliss screamed. She pulled away from Song.

"Look, Bliss! Who is that running towards your house from the alley?" Shouted a girl with brown skin and hair."

"Come on, we can't waste time, run!" The boy with black eyes growled. The four ran towards, Bliss' house. She quickly opened the door. To everyone's surprise the person running to her house from the alley was a tall, wiry boy.

"Kai!" Song shouted. Everyone charged into the house.

Kai said, "Go in. Hurry!" The door closed once five people were inside. Song looked at the soft pink clock on the wall. It was 9:00. Song walked to the front window and looked outside. The sky began to look like ash. A thick cloud of shadows rolled in. The light was gone. Everyone could hear distant screams, echoing throughout the night. Free walked over to Kai and hugged him, clearly relieved that he was safe.

The boy with black eyes held his head in his hands as he slid to the floor and said, "I think we should do a head count, every night. We also, need to check each other's amulets, every night."

Song turned towards him and replied, "That's a good idea, Onyx." She pulled out her amulet from out of her shirt. It was still bright orange. Onyx mimicked her to reveal an ocean blue amulet. There was a moment of hesitation from the other three. Song slid to the floor beside Onyx and asked, "Bliss you want to go?" Bliss looked away from Song angrily.

The girl with dark skin and hair looked at Bliss then Song and said, "I will go." She turned her chain around to present her sunshine yellow amulet, "See here it is."

"Thank you, Free." Onyx said.

"I have nothing to hide!" Bliss yelled and pulled out her soft pink amulet. She folded her arms and turned her back to them.

Kai lightly smiled and said, "This is so nice, you are all worried about me. But look at this." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out an emerald green amulet. Everyone sighed in relief. "So, do we have any ideas? I mean we were making such progress and then this." Everyone looked at Song and Free.

"I don't have any ideas. Last month we just needed to liberate 500 souls, now today it's more like 5,000." Free sighed.

"This is our mission. The opponent never goes down easily. This experience is forcing us to get stronger and better faster. We have to liberate faster. We won't give up," Song said.

"Well, it will be over by midnight, like it has been every time." Onyx reminded them.

"And tomorrow night at nine, it starts all over again, the big question is what do we do?" Bliss asked frustrated. There was nothing but silence. Although they were all friends, this silence felt like a nightmare to come so far and save so many to be driven backwards. Song returned to the window and the ashy shadows brushed the window aggressively. Kai and Bliss sat on the couch side by side. The mood that hung over the air was tainted with an unspeakable fear: maybe we can't win. But no one spoke those words. Slowly midnight came and the cloud of shadows left.