Phoenix Dawned

Part 1 Athen

Chapter 1 The beginning of how everything ends.

Stefanie already deleted the whole thing once. Hopefully she won't do it again. Your world is about to change drastically, and if you have received this in recording, you are going to be a big part in it. I can't explain now, but by the end of this, you'll understand.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Athen. I don't know where would be best to start. I guess, at the beginning. That is usually where things start.

My 10th grade English teacher started reading the first page of chapter 9 of the book Before Phoenix. It was about how we all got elemental abilities. Or, that's what it was supposed to be about. The author twisted it up so that it was more fiction than real.

"'I turned the corner and found a long narrow hallway, and the only door was at the very end. I started walking and found that as soon as I went into the hallway, I could no longer even see my hand in front of my face. I looked back to where I came from and found that my starting point seemed to be miles away. I stumbled around in the dark for what seemed like hours until I reached the door. I felt around for the door knob until I found it. But, as I was getting a grip on it, it moved. A jolt of irritation went through me.

'Enough games, Nix! It's time we end this!' The only answer was maniacal laughter.

'Fine, if you want to play it that way, then let's play.' I took a deep breath and blasted the door down. I stepped in. "All right, Nix, what didn't you want me to find?" I looked around and found that the room was just a small platform over a deep chasm. I couldn't see the bottom of it. On the far side, there was another platform that there was no way to get over to. Or so it seemed. I shifted the rocks until there was a bridge. I made it to the other side without any problems. I looked around and found nothing but a book. There was only one page in between the two covers. I opened it and found that there was only one sentence written. It was in a different language that I couldn't decipher. Or maybe it was code? I don't know. It went like this:

xis ereth era tsniaga eht taerg eof.

tnes eth motnah ot etalihinna meht lla.

denimreted ot yortsed meht lla erofeb yeht ezilaer erehgt htrow.

regnorts dna erom elbaulav naht yeht ezilaer.

eht s'dlorw ylno epoh rof noitpmedr.

xis ereth era tsniaga eht taerg eof.

The platform started collapsing. I ran across the bridge and all the while, all I heard was maniacal laughter.'"

Ring!!!!! The bell interrupted our teacher. The whole class groaned. we started packing up our stuff. It was time for lunch. I rushed to my locker in hopes that I could beat my locker partner, Stefanie. I made it around the corner and... she was already there. She had a victorious gleam in her ever-changing eyes. (That day, they were a deep blue.)

"Hey, Stefanie. You beat me!" I said with fake enthusiasm.

"Hey, Athen, are you ready to go to lunch?" She asked as she flipped her uneven, strawberry-blond hair. (It was layered to look thicker. In reality, it was actually really thin.)

"No, I haven't even gotten to our locker yet."

I pushed past her to get into our locker. I looked up and saw my stormy-grey eyes staring back at my in our locker mirror. I put my stuff in and we started heading down for lunch together.

"Guess what?"

"What?" I responded hesitantly. When she says thing like this, it usually doesn't mean something good.