Into the Darkness

Prologue

There I was, dressed in a golden armor that protected my body. I was just about to kill the dragon. A big ugly red dragon. With large black leather-like wings, a scrunched up face, and a crazed look in his yellow eyes, almost as if he knew his life was at an end. He was dripping dark red blood from multiple places as I slowly walked up to him, my head pointed down at his giant red feet, and my sword drawn. I looked up at him and raised my arm-

"Eevee!"

My eyes shot open and looked wildly around the room. Where was the dragon? Where was he? My heart was beating erratically and realizing that I was in my bedroom was the only thing that could slow it down. With the thought of being safe in my bed, I closed my eyes once again and took a deep breath.

"Eevee?!?"

Oh. That was what woke me up.

"I'm in my room. I'll be right out!" I sighed, opened my eyes and looked around, the thoughts of my extremely strange dream already fading. There was light shining though my one small window, and penetrating my white curtain that never really helped with the light at all. The room was kind of plain. The walls were blue and the ceiling was an even darker blue with glow in the dark stars that had been there since my childhood. The bed didn't really match the walls, as the blankets and pillows were all different shades of red, my favorite color. There weren't any pictures or posters around the room, there was no clothes thrown about or on the floor, no nic nacs that I had collected thoughout my life...really, it kind of looked like this was just a guest bedroom, even though this is the only bedroom I had ever had. I guess I never really felt that this was where I belonged.

I stood up, walked across the floor to my closet, and opened the door. I took out a pair of black leggings, a long black and white stripped t-shirt with a grey cardigan, a leopard print scarf and brown leather boots that went up past my knees, set them on the end of my bed, and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. I turned on the light and then walked to the shower and turned the water on. I made sure that the water wasn't to hot, nor too cold, before I took off my pajamas and stepped into the warmth. I tried not to take too long to brush and shampoo my long brown hair, before I turned off the warm water and stepped into the cold open air. As quickly as I could, I rapped myself in a fluffy white towel and plugged in my blow drier.
I walked out of the bathroom and to my bed, picked up my clothes, and walked back into the steamy and hot bathroom. I set the pile of folded clothes on the edge of the sink and allowed the towel to fall from around my body and to the floor when I reached for my clothes to put them on one article at a time. I looked in the fogged up mirror, and saw my striking blue eyes, then I blow dried my chestnut brown hair and curled it, then picked up the discarded towel and walked back into my bedroom. I put the towel in the laundry basket and then sat on the edge of my bed to pull my boots on, before I preceded to walk out to the living room.

There was a boy sitting on the couch staring off into space, but the look on his face wasn't the one I was used too. This one was more sad.
The boy seemed to snap out of what ever he was thinking, looked up at me, and smiled.

"Hey Eevee. Took you long enough."

I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah. Whatever Cal. You okay?"

The boy was my best friend Calium Jenson, or as I called him, Cal. We'd been friends for as long as I could remember. He was sitting on the brown leather couch watching TV. The living room had white walls and a white carpet, and the walls were littered with pictures of me and my parents throughout different stages of my life. Some of the pictures even had Cal in them as well. My mom liked to take pictures...a lot. She was a professional photographer and was gone traveling most days out of the year, and my dad was usually at his office in town. It was rare when they'd both get time off so we could all be together. Sometimes they would take breaks for a family Christmas or something, but more often than not it was just me and dad. With mom being a photographer and all, and Christmas being a prime opportunity for good pictures, it was hard for her to take time off at all. There was a large window behind the couch and the opposite side of the room opened up into the kitchen, where the sliding glass door was that led to the back patio, and even further beyond that, to the woods.

Cal smiled and stood from the couch. He had tousled blonde hair and dark blue eyes that looked a little too intelligent for his age of 17.

"I'm just fine." he replied with a smile, "So what are your plans for today?" he asked me.

"I... I don't know. I'll probably just do homework."

"On a Saturday?"

"Well yeah. I have nothing else to do."

"How about you take a walk with me?"

I hesitated, thinking about the large load of work my teachers gave me to finish over the weekend, then thinking 'what the heck' finally replied,"Uh...sure. Why not."

Cal smiled, grabbed my hand and walked us to the door.

__________________________

I was so deep in my thoughts of what the earlier look on Cal's face could have meant, that we had been walking for about an hour through the woods before I realized that I had no idea where we were. We lived in Oregon. Right outside of the woods, but I never explored them. They were too big, too ominous, too dangerous.
Everything was green. The ground, the tree bark was covered in green moss, and even the sky seemed to be a greenish color beyond the canopy of trees.

"Cal?"

He looked over at me as if I had just pulled him out of deep thoughts. He had that look on his face again. The weird one that he had earlier in my living room, but this time it didn't go away.

"Cal? Are you okay?" I asked.

He looked at me for a minute, sighed, then pulled something out of his inside jacket pocket.

"I'm so sorry Eevee. I tried. I really did." He seemed to be admiring the thing in his hand.

"Sorry for what? Cal, what are you talking about?" I had started to worry by this point. I mean, after not talking for so long, and then saying that...it just wasn't Cal.

"I know about your dreams Eevee. I told them that you would never know! But now you do. I let them down, and I let you down. I'm sorry. I didn't want it to come to this." He lifted his arm a little and looked at me. I noticed that what he had pulled out earlier was a knife. The blade was black and kind of see through, like a thin piece of obsidian, or black glass, and the hilt was silver with dragons carved in to it and some kind of red jewel at the end, but looking at the blade more, it seemed to be moving...almost like fire.

I felt a strike of fear run through my body and I immediately started to back up a little. The only reason that I hadn't ran off by now was the fact that this was Cal. I mean, come on. This is Cal were talking about. We had been friends since Preschool. He wouldn't hurt me. Right?

"You just couldn't stay out of it. Could you Eevee? Not that it was really your fault, and I understand that. I do. But that doesn't matter to them"

He lifted the knife a little more and turned it, so it was facing me and took a step forward.

I saw his movement, and started to walk backwards, faster and faster, until I found that he had backed me up against a tree. Cal shook his head, looking a little disappointed, and took another step toward me, as if mocking my inability to move back any farther.

"Cal stop it! You're scaring me!" I yelled.

Just as I turned to try to escape around the tree, I felt a searing pain in my arm and looked down at it. There was a rip in the sleeve of my cardigan, and blood was seeping in to it. I looked up at the knife in Cal's hand and screamed.

He quickly covered my mouth and whispered."No. I don't think so," and plunged the knife into my chest. I tried to screem again, but all that came out was a gargling sound and a wet feeling in my lungs. For a second, I thought I saw sadness in his eyes, but I can't be sure, for my vision was already fading.

The last thing I heard, was Cal whisper, "I'm sorry Eevee. I tried. I really did."