Two (Countdown Book 5)

Chapter 9

That night, I had the weirdest dream I'd ever had before. 

Now, I'd had some pretty weird dreams in my time. I mean it. My dreams were never good, usually involving my dead friends, odd warnings or creepy voices. But this just topped them all.

To begin with, I was in a large room that looked midieval, with fires burning in braziers around the rooms and columns holding the domed ceiling up. In the middle, was a large round stone table, and, sat around it, like the Nights of the Round Table were five people, all looking worried. 

A few minutes passed in silence, as I observed the people around the table. I recognised them, but they looked different to last time I'd seen them, I was sure. They all looked different, but were all around fourteen or fifteen and wore battle armour. It was hard to place the era of the armour. It seemed somewhere between medieval and Greek, to me. 

Then, suddenly, someone burst into the room. He was tall and muscly, but obviously no older than ten or eleven, by far the youngest in the room. He had something clutched tight in his hand. "I took it!" he gasped, staggering into the room. Two of the people at the table, a girl and a boy, who appeared to be twins, got up and slammed the heavy oak door behind the young boy. 

They both leaned against it, muttering under their breaths. Wind blew around the enclosed room, swishing the hair of everyone there. The mud around the door grew, sinking the the door a few feet in. The younger boy looked around the room at the others. 

"We don't have long." he said, even as the doors were jarred as someone knocked into them. There was a lot of unintelligable shouting. 

"Quickly!" the oldest-looking of them shouted, gathering the other five around her. She was around fifteen, with fiery red hair and a pale face. The others gathered around the youngest boy, joining hands. The young boy took a deep breath, shaking, and began chanting. It sounded like Ancient Greek, but I could tell it wasn't. It was similar, but I'd studied Greek and knew what it sounded like. 

After a few lines, the jarring of the door stopped. Then it resumed, louder and harder. I knew the six kids had around thirty seconds before the door was broken down. The others quickly took up the chant, speaking quickly in that weird language. The young boy in the middle started crying as he chanted, fear showing clearly on his face as he clutched tightly to whatever was in his hand which was beginning to glow. 

Then, the doors burst open again. 

There was an enraged yell, and a man stepped into the room, snarling. He was glowing darkly, attracting all of the shadows in the room. I couldn't look directly at him, though I couldn't explain why. 

The young boy in the middle of the circle of older teens dropped the glowing thing in his hand, trembling. As it hit the floor, it smashed into three pieces, each part skittering in a different direction, dimming a little. 

The five kids on the outside immediately broke off their chant, drawing weapons and charging at the man. It was immediately obvious that they were hopelessly outmatched. The man took care of the twins first, swatting them aside as though they were rag dolls. 

The youngest boy dived for the nearest part of the shattered thing that he'd dropped. As his fingers scrambled around for it, the next two of the kids were disposed of, thrown across the room with some kind of telekinetic power. The man locked swords with the last kid, a youngish looking girl with muddy brown hair and a determined look on her face. 

The boy's fingers grazed the piece just as there was a scream, and the girl skidded past him, unconscious.

His fingers closed around it, but as he stood up, the man stood in front of him, towering over double his size. The boy cowered, clearly afraid. I still couldn't see what he was holding, what was so special.