A Bridge to Mars

The Moonstone Prophecy

It happened again. Arianna could see something glowing in the corner of her eye, but every time she looked round, nothing was there. She was definitely not imagining it, but there was something odd about the way it seemed familiar to her, almost as if she was having déjà vu. She began to shudder as the wind whipped her hair and the night grew ever darker around her – but she simply couldn't leave. She had to find out what was making her so unnerved. Ariana was not the sort of person who would hide from something she was afraid of, she believed it was better to confront fears because most of the time they would turn out to be something silly (like a floorboard creaking or a cat outside).

Automatically she trudged towards her favourite bench just next to the bushes, the same bench she sat on every day since she moved to this beach 5 years ago. Shivering she sat down and began to look around the beach for anything unusual. Hanging in the sky the moon was illuminating the black sea which was washing gently over the sand. Squinting she could just make out what looked like a very bright star...but it couldn't be, because it looked like it was coming closer to her.

Suddenly a white orb the size of a small car flew towards the bench she was sitting on– she dived sideways and landed painfully on the sharp stones and winced with pain. The orb was hovering and pulsating slightly as though it was alive; it smelled like rotting fish and was so bright it was hard to look at directly.

Ariana sat up and looked over at it; there was something eerie about it, she could feel it watching her although there were no visible eyes upon its surface. Backing away across the stones she tried to get up to run but something wouldn't let her an invisible force was pinning her to the ground, she tried to scream but no sound would come. Her heart pounding in her chest she looked back at the orb and her eyes became foggy and white. A thought that wasn't her own entered her mind. What should she have to be afraid for?

Eyes widening she realised that the orb wasn't going to hurt her, that it was in fact quite pretty. Laughing madly she tried to reach for the orb...if she could just touch it...if she could just feel what the swirling mist that surrounded its surface was like. The invisible force was no longer pinning her down; she reached her hand up and was inches away from the surface, when somewhere near a woman screamed.

"NO!" she shrieked, "Ariana don't touch it!" she pleaded.

Turning her head she looked at the woman trying to reach her as something held her back. Confused, Ariana withdrew her hand from near the orb's surface. Everything around was suddenly muted, the only thing she could now hear was the orb, It was whispering to her "touch the orb, touch the orb", it was chanting. She started to reach again for the orb but something heavy landed on her and pushed her away from it.

"Mum?" she croaked.

"It's ok...I'm here", Ariana's mother sighed.

"What is that?" Ariana said anxiously.

Pulling Ariana to her feet her mother said rapidly, "It's a fire demon, we need to go now!"

A piercing shriek erupted from the orb as it burst into hot fire. A monstrous creature stood before them flames licking at its sides as it bared its fanged teeth and sneered down at them - it was at least seven meters tall.

It began to speak - Ariana and her mother clamped their hands to their ears as a horrific voice bellowed "Darkness is coming, and you will die...but that doesn't mean he won't mind me killing you for him".