The Spirit Bender: The Descent Beckons

Chapter One

Sophia Jones frowned. She was in the front yard of her beautiful beach house, reading and facing away from the shimmering sea. Not at all unlike her, her dad would say, if he was even looking at her now. Daniel Jones was busy tending to his beloved garden, that was facing the sea, and also the sun. Their beach house was far away from the city, which also meant far away from any schools. Sophia didn't mind, she was home schooled now. When her dad wasn't teaching her, he was working on his newest cringe worthy romance novel.

Her dad was The Daniel Jones, romance extraordinaire. All of his novels have been made into movies, which all did well at the box office, but not very well with the film critics. Sophia had just looked up the reviews for his latest movie, In That Moment. "Very bad, dull and cliche. As usual from a Daniel Jones book." from user TheKillerCritic. 

Very 'killer' indeed.

Sadly, Sophia did not inherit her dad's good looks, mainly his chestnut brown her or his sky blue eyes. Her hair looked like a muddy brown, and she inherited her mum's eyes, which was a chocolate brown. She didn't mind her eyes. Her mum, Abigail Jones was dead. 

According to her dad, her mum died in a car accident when she was 2. Sophia never got to meet her mum, as a child or teenager anyway. She did see her in photos. Her mum was beautiful, eyes with a sparkle in her eyes and her dyed blonde hair cut into a pixie bob. Her dad said she was attempting to be a 'cool' mum, just for her. When she grew up and went to high school.

She never did see Sophia grow up.

Abigail Jones was Sophia's role model, however. Her mum was an architect, everything Sophia wanted to be. Sophia can't draw. She can't invent. She can't write. In fact, Sophia didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. Sophia wanted to be a doctor, but looking at her grades in science, her dream wasn't looking so good.

Sophia sighed and placed her book on her lap, before tying her brown hair into a ponytail. The month of July in Los Angeles wasn't exactly hot, but she was hot now. Sophia tried to get back into her book, but failed miserably. She shifted around in her plastic chair, attempting to get into a more comfortable position. Legs crossed, or legs down? It didn't really matter anyway, her legs were too sweaty. 

Sophia glanced around and squinted as she looked out to the sea and the setting sun. It wasn't supposed to be this hot, plus, the sun wasn't even shining on her, even though it felt like it was. Sophia was about to get a refreshing glass of water when a blonde girl jogged out of the beach house beside her, and shouted her name.

"Sofi!"

Sophia spun around. She reacted mostly to Sofi, which was her nickname. People only called her Sophia when she was in trouble. "Sophia Jones!" It sounded like something you'll say only when your child got into trouble. Serious trouble. Sophia saw a very tanned girl, with blonde her cascading down her chest, and this very girl was her best friend.

April Smith was one of the only girls she knew her age. Only because, 1) she's homeschooled, all the kids living in the street of beach houses were homeschooled and 2) all those kids were homeschooled by either Sophia's dad, or April's mum. April was smiling widely, and she waved at Sophia.

Sophia walked over to the edge of her front yard and said to April, "Hot day, isn't it?" April did an exggerated waving gesture with her hand, to fan it over her face and nodded. She was wearing a tank top and short shorts, which also happened to be the exact same thing Sophia was wearing. April shot her a wink and said back to her over the pavement sperating them, "Guess who I got to take you to a date for your birthday?"

Sophia shrugged and waited for April's reply. April coughed and whispered, "Him."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO."

April was about to react when suddenly a loud crashing noise was heard towards the direction of the beach. Sophia heard April mutter something under her breath, and ran to her backyard to take a look. Sophia was just about to follow her when she heard her dad's and Aprils' voices.

"Sofi! Get out of here. NOW."

"SOPHIA JONES! Run. Run, run!"

Curiousity got the best of Sophia and she took a peek at the sea. She watched as the water retrated back a couple of meters, then suddenly, it was pushed back out by an invisible force, and came towards the land at lightning speed. Sophia was struck by fear. Her first instint was to run, but she watched for a while longer, just a few seconds longer. There was a man. Dressed in black. Or a boy, or-

Oh my god. It was him.

He had his hands out, as if he was summoning the water to come towards him, towards land, towards Los Angeles. It was him, defintely him. Sophia knew that mop of curly red hair anywhere. He seemed to be concertrating hard, then he suddenly turned his head towards her. Sophia gasped and slowly backed away, how could he sense her from so far away? It suddenly hit her, run. She had to run.

April was no where to be seen, probably ran inside to warn her family, and her dad. He was right beside her, grabbing on her arm and pulling her to run faster. So she did. Sophia pushed her body as hard as she could, and she ran. She could hear the water reach their houses, the souund of breaking wood. 

Suddenly, her dad stopped. He gave her one last longing look before pushing Sophia infront of him. Sophia was confused, she slowed down to call out to him, but he nodded and turned his back towards her, and he did the weird hand gesture, the one he did. Sophia watched in awe as the water slowed down, just a bit, then her dad's words hit her.

"Sofi! Go! Please, Sofi, please!"

Sophia shook her head and rushed to her dad's side, and shouted over the roar of water he was holding back, "Dad, no, dad." She was crying. "Come on, Dad. Please. We can make it. I don't know what we're doing but, please. Let's go." Her dad ignored her, seemed to be concentrating on the water. Sophia scowled and willed him to let go. Let it go. Let it hit Los Angeles.

As if pulled back by an invisible force, her dad was jerked back, forcing him out of the trance he was in. Sophia was relieved, and pulled her dad to run, but not before the water hit them.