The Eight

Building a New Life in the Shadows

Joel's P.O.V

BTW I wrote this at 2:00 am so there might be errors

When my dad told me that I had the potential to become a master builder I jumped with joy. Now I wish that those days were still here. Ever since the new king became King, I have built nothing. I am this kingdoms best and fastest builder, and I have built nothing. I still do repairs to the house, but that's it. I had a mission to fix up an old building that had fallen apart. My dad says it was beautiful and he has a picture to prove.I went to go and look at the building and see what martial I would need yesterday and today I would fix it up. It was in terrible shape and I would need stacks upon stacks of different kinds of wood, cobblestone, stairs, stone, and wool.When I started on my walk over to the building I saw two girls entering another girls house. I continued on my walk and I saw a flash of green on the girls neighbors roof. I stopped because I saw a person. I ran and hid behind a corner of a house and kept an eye on the person. It seemed to just look off into the northern woods. Weird. I saw the person turn around and run. Super weird. I started to sneakily follow the person and I saw three girls chasing after her. They must be who the person is running from. I wonder why? I see it stop outside of a chicken farm and look around. I hear the crunching of the gravel paths and I know the person does to. It makes a break for it and the girls Chase after it. It runs outside of an ice cream parlor and I see the girls sneaking up behind it. I here another crunch of gravel and the person runs into an alley next to the parlor. I have a direct look in to the alley way and see the person at the end of the alley. I see it put one hand on one wall and one hand on the other. It puts one foot on one wall, jumps up, and puts its other foot on the wall. It climbs up the wall and runs away. Very weird. I can see the building from here. I look up at my new project and head inside. I have heard that this used to be a civics center. I look up and I see where there use to be a glass floor on the second floor. When I walk through the building I see a stage where plays were held. I look around for a light switch to see how the electricity is working. I find a switch and I flip it. A few lights flicker on and off. One light shines brightly. The electricity is ok. I start to fix the theater and put the wool where the curtain was. I fix the holes in the ground and I think about how this place came to be like this. I was a young kid when it happened

Flashback
"Mommy! Daddy" I yell when I walked in the center. I went to the theater room where I was going to see Peter Payan. I saw the Peter Payan actor fly around the stage when I smelled smoke. "Mommy" I whispered. "Hush honey, watch the play" "Mommy, I smell smoke" I watch as she smells the air and her eyes widen in surprise. She tells my dad to smell the air and tell her what he smells. He does as told and says smoke. His eyes widen at this and looks around. Nothing. "Hmm weird" I watch as he gets up and goes to one of the helpers. "Excuse me, I smell smoke." The man smells the air and his eyes widen as well. Adults are weird with there wide eyes. The man walks out of the theater. Weird. I continue to watch the play when suddenly a huge fire breaks out from under the stage. "Mommy! Daddy!" I scream. Everyone screams and trys to rush out. My mom grabs my hand and tys to rush out while she is holding dads hand. I get squished in between two people and I slip out of my moms hand. By now the whole theater is filled with smoke. I can just see my mom look back behind her to lock eyes with me as she gets pushes away by the crowd. I get trampled and I think I broke an arm. I try to get up but immediately fall back down. In school they taught us that smoke goes in the air so stay low to the ground. (He's six BTW) I start to army crawl out toward one of the exits when I hear a loud crack and the exit gets covered. I go toward the main exit and I see my mom trying to get back in while police officers are telling her to back away. "I only want to get my son! Look behind you! The police officers look right at me and as one comes to rescue me I hear a large crack. The main exit has just collapsed on itself so now there is no escape. "You have to save him!" I hear my mom cry. I stay near the exit and I can almost feel the flames. I get over whelmed in smoke and my nose is burning. I start to get dizzy when I pass out. I wake up and the flames are gone. It smells like smoke and I can't hear anything but loud ringing. I try to stand up and I see a bit of light. Its the exit of the center. Someone is trying to get in. I see a bigger rock being cleared and more light. Finally there is an exit. I walk toward the light and stick my face through it. "Joel I see someone mouth out. She looks familiar I can't put a name to the face though. Wait I know her! She's my mom! "What?" I ask clearly confused. I can't even hear my self? "Mom" "What honey?" I can hardly make out what she's saying. "I can't hear anything. All she does is gasp. I crawl all the way out of the hole and my mom gasp again. She points to my arm and I see that there is a major burn on my arm. It is a scar, it will never go away.

Flashback end

I look around and I smell smoke. I run to the exit and I see that it is already closed off. "Oh no" I heard roaring flames coming from the theater room and I try to get out of this room. I look around and the only thing I can see is shadows. It is so dark in here. I look down and see a small circular box. I open the box and in it a dark circular ring. I also see a note.

Dear Joel
You are in a predicament. I can tell. If you put on this ring you will become the eight of shadows and you will be able to get out. Fire is no longer your greatest fear. Meet the others in a hut in the northern woods

I was chosen to be the eight of Shadows! No way! I put on a ring that has a black opal in the center. As soon as I put the on ring on I am surrounded by a vortex of shadows. When the vortex is gone I see myself standing in the middle of the stage. I turned off the lights and wait a few minutes. No fire. By the time I am to the hut in the woods it is 8:30. I open the door and see the person in the green hoodie staring at the designs on a glass of water. I get a book and sit down. Around ten minutes later those three girls from earlier burst in and sit down. The pink haired one sat next to me. Five minutes later 3 boys burst into then room and the one with sunglasses said, "I guess were last."

I keep breaking my word count record every chapter. I hope you like the chapter and I hope that you will like comment and favorite. Comment questions and I might do a Q&A later.

-Melanie