Realm of Fiction

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Magic. Powers. Talents. Adventures. Heroes. Villains.

"Fiction.

"Endless stories have come from the minds of men and women, completely unreal. Books, movies, games, and more have shown the world other worlds in which anything is possible. Everyone knows that these concepts are unreal.

"They're wrong.

"These human concepts come from a world in which heroes fought an endless battle against the forces of darkness. Warriors and gods fought against demons and madmen, and anything was possible. Anything was possible, until that world died. A new evil brought about the end, and the remnants of that reality gave birth to the realm of imagination.

"All that was left of a once proud world was fragments that no one believed could be more than creativity. Until, one fateful day, they will become more than fragments. they will become real on a day very soon. I can feel it, they're coming. They're coming so very soon."

Drew didn't know how to respond to that. The homeless man had run up to him and started talking about this nonsense so abruptly that the 15-year-old didn't know how to react.

"Yeah, uh, that's great, but I really need to get going. My mom's looking for me," Drew managed to say, and then made a break for it.

His mom wasn't looking for him at all, but the crazy guy didn't need to know that. He was actually heading over to a friend's house. After all, today was the last day of spring break, so he had to do something with his time.

As he turned the corner on the street, he went past a group of girls that were in a few of his classes. Not the best sight to see after such a strange encounter. These "ladies" were, without a better word to describe them, jerks. They were those kids that teased anyone different from them and acted like they were better than the rest of the world. Luckily, Drew knew how to deal with those kind of people.

"Oh, look at the albino nerd run. Are they playing chess somewhere? Or do you always run around like an idiot?" Lindsay, the obvious leader, jeered. The other girls snickered behind her.

The albino part wasn't offensive, it was true. Drew was born without color, but had gotten used to it.

"Nah, there was this weird guy back there, so I ran this way. See ya at school," Drew calmly retorted.

As always, the bullies were shocked by such a calm response. They did the typical routine of shaking their heads in a disappointed manner, then giving up and talking among them selves. Drew just smirked and steadied his pace. No need to run, he had put enough distance between himself and the weird guy.

Drew lived in the town of Springfield, Illinois, famous for The Simpsons and President Lincoln. Maybe not the greatest town, but it was nice enough. He had, after all, lived there his whole life, and all his friends were there. Even if he had the choice, he probably wouldn't want to leave.

After a few more minutes of walking, Drew finally made it to Zack's house. It was a decently sized house, but his friend's large family made it seem much smaller. Not only did Zack, his parents, his two sisters, and his three brother live there, but his uncle, aunt, cousin, and elderly grandfather also resided in that place. Yet, somehow, the family always seemed to give everyone their own space, and always made room for Drew.

Drew started to walk up the driveway, but stopped when he felt a buzz from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and quickly responded to a text from another one of his friends, Alexis. She was just asking about the physics homework, yet again. She never remembered until the last minute, when he was preoccupied with something else. Drew would just send a quick message saying he was busy, but she'd understand. Inevitably, she'll just ask someone else to help her.

With that taken care of, Drew walked up to the door and knocked on it. He had a specific knock of four beats that only he used, an inside joke between Drew and Zack. Within moments, a boy of the same age as Drew was at the door.

"Where've you been?" Zack exclaimed, "We've been ready to start for fifteen minutes now."

Zack was a bit taller than Drew, and more athletic. He was a serious track star, and having so many siblings was probably what made him so competitive. He liked a lot of the same things as Drew, and was probably his best friend.

The boys hurried through the house and into the backyard. The yard itself was incredibly small, but it opened into a small forest, which was what was important. All of Zack's siblings and his cousin were waiting there for the boys next to a pile of toy weapons. ranging from fake guns to foam swords.

"The name of the game is war," Zack's oldest brother Nicholas explained, "We all know the rules. You choose a weapon, you enter the forest, and you try to beat the other team. Jenny, Ian, Zack, and Drew will be team two, because obviously Melody, Kyle, Phil, and I will be team one."

This was met with boos and cheers from the kids, but Nicholas said something like that every time they played, which they had done quite a few times before. The teams changed every time, but Nicholas always made sure that Zack and Drew would be on the same team.

Drew rooted through the pile. He used a different weapon each time he played. Today, he figured he'd use one of the swords. He wasn't very good with it, but it was fun. Unlike Drew, Zack had a signature weapon, the bow and arrow. Zack had actually taken archery lessons, so even though the weapon was a toy, he had very good aim.

Once everyone was ready, Nicholas began the countdown.

"Ten... Nine... Eight... Seven... ThreeTwoOne GO!"

And everyone ran off into the forest, not knowing that that's when everything would change.