Twelve Hours Till Dark: 2012

Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 6

“What are you?! Where’s my mom!?” I yell at him. “Tell me!” I swear I can feel him grinning now and I start to get mad. I push everything the old man taught me into breaking out of these bonds. I struggle for what seems like hours, pushing against the invisible force that restrained my movement.

After about five minutes of enraged struggling, my body collapses in a fatigued slump. The thick branch falls from my hand as the cloaked thing looked at me with obvious bemusement. I looked back with utter disdain. "Done yet?" He asks, his voice echoing in my ear drums. "You won't be able to escape", he says as he pulls a red and black sword from inside his cape. "The Arkling must die."

I look at it, heart pounding, and know I'm about to die. I once again start struggling with restored vigor, trying and trying to kick my legs out. The cloaked man looks at me and raises the sword above his head, and chops it down in a obvious death blow. I wince and shut my eyes against the inevitable doom.

I hear some shuffling of feet and a hoarse grunt and open my eyes slowly. I gasp as I see the most puzzling sight ever; the old man standing in front of the cloaked thing, pointing a bright green hand in his face. The old man sounded menacing when he snarled out the next words, "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand, scum."

"Gre-Green aura... You're supposed to be dead! I must tell the others.. The fir-", the cloaked man's nervous chant gets put to a swift end by a blinding flash of green light.

As he dies, my limbs are suddenly released and I fall to my knees. I look up at the old man with something that resembles awe. "Wha-What was that? You just killed him! How? Why?" I look down as I realize something and almost inaudibly whisper out, "Where's my mom?"

The old man looks at me and I notice something strange. His eyes have turned a deep green color, and, in a trance like state, I reach down my shirt and pull out my green charm. He looks at it and his old eyes wrinkle up as he gives me one of his rare smiles. "It is time. I must explain everything, and bring Jinny with you."

"Why should I do something like that? She's not involved", I say.

"She is more involved than you think, now hurry. More should be coming soon. And, please, rose, can you get out of that tree? Your presence is driving my enthal crazy."

I look up in surprise as I'm untying Jinny and see a dark shape in the tree. The shape jumps down and, once illuminated by moonlight, I see it's the red haired girl from earlier. "Hey you! What are doing and why ar-"

"The Arkling is weak, are you sure this is the one? His enthal is so tiny I can barely sense it", says Rose. The old man chuckles and looks at me.

"Believe it or not, he's the one. The Fourth Ark."

I look at him in confusion. "That's the second time someones called me that in one day, can you please tell me what it stands for? And stop making weird nick names for me!" I look down and gently rub Jinny's shoulder, waking her up.

She opens her eyes wide and it's immediately apparent that she is scared out of her mind. She looks at me and starts to tear up. She starts to talk and blubber and speaks so fast that I can barely understand her. "Alark, he asked me where you were and I said I didn't know so he attacked me and I tried to run but he was too fast and he caught me and started dragging me and my head hit a rock and I was knocked out and-"

I look at her and hug her. "Shut up, it doesnt matter. I'm just glad you're safe." she gasps as I hug her and weakly hugs me back. Then she proceeds to start sobbing on my shoulder.

Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 5

I look at the text for a while, wondering if she was tricking me. But Jinny doesn't seem like the type to do that. My heart starts to beat faster and faster as I, unexpectedly, start to feel concern. I think back to our strange connection, how I feel when I'm around her. I realize I dont want to lose that and I spin, dashing out of my room. I run down the stairs in a frenzy, almost falling. "Hey old fart!", I scream out while running, "I'm off!"

He walks out of the living room, a bewildered expression on his face. "Where are y-." I don't know the rest of what he was saying, seeing as I was already outside, the door slamming after me. I run as fast as I can to Jinny's house and ring her doorbell. After 30 seconds of continuous ringing, her dad finally steps out.

"What in blazes?" He asks, a strange expression on his face. "Where's the fire?"

Annoyed by his lack of concern, I ask in a sharp tone. "Here's a better question, where's your daughter?"

"Wh-What?" He blubbers out. Totally exasperated, I shove him out of the way and run upstairs screaming out Jinny's name. I run into her room and see she's not there. I look out her open window and notice a strange glow on the horizon. I jump out the window, tucking and rolling upon landing. I start to sprint in the direction I saw the red glow coming from. I hear her father's shouts after me but, not caring, I continue to sprint.

My senses start to tingle as I feel immense danger settling on me. I have never doubted my instincts and I'm not about to start now. I dash out from the corner of the house, seeing trees and forestry in my path. I barge straight through, my inhuman night vision keeping my ankles safe as I jump over rocks and roots. I see a clearing coming up and a faint redish hue outlining the trees around it. I slow my run and duck behind some thick bushes and, noticing a large tree to my right, quickly but quietly scramble up. I lean on a thick branch and peer over the side and what I see shocks me.

In front of me is, I think, a human. He's cloaked entirely in black with a long hood covering up his face. He is holding onto an unconscious Jinny, pulling her through the field. I stand up quietly, snapping a thick twig off the tree. I run to the edge of the tree and leap of the branch, taking a handful of leaves with me as I do so. Hearing the commotion, the cloaked man looks up at me and to his delight receives a face full of leaves. I swing my branch down hard and hear a satisfying thud as it connects. I land and look to see the damage done to my prey and realize that the thud wasn't on his face, it was on his arm which was blocking the branch.

I see a rustle and barely jump back as a fast moving kick whizzes directly where my face used to be. I take two steps and send a brutal punch, only to have it connect with mid air. I barely have time to react as an uppercut with the force of a sludge hammer connects with my chin and lifts me off my feet. I'm in the air and he punches me twice in the stomach, and leaps up to finish it with a flying kick to my face. I land on my knees and double over, clutching my stomach. He pulls me up by my hair and punches me again. I start to see double and lose focus, blood trickling down my nose and my busted lip. "The Fourth Ark", he mutters in a voice that cuts into me. Just his very tone implies a most certain and painful death so I do the most logical thing; I spit in his face.

He jerks his head away and slowly looks back. I swear his red eyes flash as he starts writing in the air with his finger, a red light emanating from his finger tips. He lets me go and I hang there, restrained in mid air. That's the last thing on my mind however as I realize something. That's the same light that was coming from my mom's fingertips... right before she was murdered.

Twelve Hours till Dark: Chapter 4

I open the front door of my house, angrily slamming it shut, the thought of that woman still irking me. I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I experience a weird feeling. All of a sudden, all I want to do is get out of here.

I glance left and right, looking for the danger I know is there. Not wanting to make any sudden moves, I turn my body slowly towards the door. I tentatively reach my hand out for the door knob. Seeing something being hurtled at me out of my peripheral vision, I jerk my head back as a foot long knife appears on the wall where my head was a moment ago.

I look to where the knife came from and see the face of an old man. Sharp, blue eyes that match my own and curly locks of white hair on his head. Thin lips with a long wiry nose and a small, frail looking body. This old man is the one who took me in after my parents died. He still refuses to tell me his name, promising that when I beat him he'll tell me. Needless to say, I can never beat him. "What're you doing, you old fart, you almost killed me", I ask.

"How rude. Calling the one who taught you how to survive and took care of you all this time an 'old fart'. You need to be taught a lesson." He springs at me with his arms outstretched, surprisingly nimble for such an old man.

I take one step back, shifting my center of gravity while raising my hands in an offensive stance. I strike out with one leg as he comes to me, my foot whipping towards his chin. This is sure to knock him out, I think.

"Not likely," he replies, as if reading my mind. He grabs my ankle and shoves it down so my foot flies down under his chin. I try to regain my balance quickly as he moves both hands behind his back. He strikes out with both palms, whipping them forward and hitting me softly on the pecs with each hand.

I look at him silently, shocked. I start to laugh and say, "You messed up the technique old fart, that didn't hurt at a—." I suddenly stop talking as I feel an excruciating pain in my chest. The pain, that sudden excruciating pain, made me double over, unable to move. "Wha-what?" I stutter out.

"You've still got much to learn," the old man mutters out. He pushes down on my back, relieving the pain instantly. I spring up and look at him, to see him sauntering in to the kitchen. He looks at me once, and gauntly says, "Let's eat."

I walk into the kitchen to see boxes of pizza and sprite. I look at him, surprised, and say, "You actually spent money on me?" I start getting the feeling that somethings wrong. I grab three slices and a sprite and walk off to go to my room.

After I'm done eating, I stand up to take a shower. I feel a vibration in my pocket and pull out my phone and groan. I got a text from Jinny. It had one word, four letters only, that would forever change my life. It said, "Help."

Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 3

I walk into the modern day version of the Roman Coliseum, Anoka High School. I Shoulder past teenage gladiators in a futile attempt to worm through the crowd. Finally, I find a gap in the masses of teens and dive for it to get to my locker. Bobbing and weaving, I finally make it to my destination. The loud ding of the morning bell cuts through the crowd to let the students know it’s time for school to begin.

I sit down at my desk in the most heinous class of all time, algebra. My teacher drones on and on about this and that, formulas and the junk, when I notice something peculiar; there’s a girl with flaming red hair standing outside, fixing her icy eyes on mine. A shiver runs through my back as I experience a strange feeling

“Weird,” I mutter to myself.

“First day dreaming in class and now talking to yourself? Get a grip, Mr. Alark,” the teacher says to me. Thankfully, the bell rings just then. I rush out of class, face turning red at the sounds of scattered laughter coming from behind me.

The rest of the school day goes by in a blur. Girls giggle as I walk past, teachers picking on me for daydreaming in class, same old same old. I step out of my last class of the day, looking left and right for the red headed girl. Seeing that she’s no where in sight, I move along. Then, I cringe as I hear a familiar, shrill voice yelling, “Alark! Wait up!”

I inwardly cringe again as I place the voice. Jinny Rolls, a transfer student who has been attached to me for a while. She bounces up to me with her little happy step, blond hair curling around her shoulders. She has jade green eyes and high cheek bones. She’s actually super cute, but her personality is a bit too peppy. Despite that, for some reason I feel a strange connection to her. When I’m with her I feel safer. “Alark. Where’s your coat? You’ll catch a cold”, she pouts.

“Why does it matter to you?” I ask in a haughty tone. “You’re not my mother, don’t fuss over me.”

She looks at me open mouthed as her eyes glaze over a bit, and I think I’ve gone too far this time. Maybe she’ll leave me alone now. Of course, that was too much to expect. In an instant she recovers herself and has a wide smile on her face. “There’s a school dance coming up, you want to go with me?”

I don’t believe the nerve of this woman. She’s been in town for a month, and she’s asking me like we’re best friends. “Sorry, I don’t dance.” I turn around and walk off, silently fuming.

I guess giving her the cold shoulder was the right move, seeing as she doesn’t come after me. I silently rejoice.

Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 2

I jerk awake in a frightened sweat as the memories of that day flood back into me. I’ve been having that same recurring nightmare for the past year. Shuddering, I walk into the bathroom and spray cold water on my face.

Looking into the mirror I see a shadow of the boy I once was. Ten years later and the memories of that day still burn inside me. I’m very handsome, or so I’ve been told by many females. Dark, curly hair spreads around my head and forehead. A permanently creased brow leads to my sharp, intelligent blue eyes. Thin lips that forever show disdain and hate making a tattooed frown on my face. I check out my lean arms and sculpted body that lead down to my toned legs. I give myself a quick smile just to see if I remember how.

I brush my teeth as fast as I can and get dressed. I throw on some jeans and a loose fitting v neck t-shirt, purple like always. I walk out of my room and slip on my shoes. I sling my backpack around my shoulder and saunter off to my greatest battle of the day, high school.

Twelve Hours Till Dark: Chapter 1

“Please honey, hide in the closet,” says my mom, tears streaming down her face. She hugs me tightly, and I silently notice how bad her body is shaking. She gasps with every gunshot and scream. The dark sky flashes red as another house erupts in flames.
“Mom, mommy, its okay, I’ll protect you,” I say as I look up at her, fear in my eyes. I try to sound strong for her, and walk as bravely as a six year old can into the closet. “See, mom? I’m going to be okay.” I look at her and give her a big grin.
“Oh Al, Alark honey, I love you so much, don’t forget that okay? Grow up to be strong and healthy, find a good wife and have nice kids.” She looks at me once again and smiles sadly.
I can taste the salt of the tears running down my face as I cry. “What are you saying mom,” I ask in a trembling voice, “you’re going to come back right?”
I look over her shoulder and see the faint outline of twelve men in the smoke. She looks back and curses silently, venom dripping from her voice. One of the men starts walking in our direction and all the others follow him slowly. Mom makes a strange drawing in the air, flicking her wrist as a trail of blue light emanates from her finger tips. Making a small symbol in the air, she says softly, “That’ll buy us some time.”
She looks at me again, smiling sadly, and shuts the closet door with me inside it. I cry and cry, no longer even trying to hide it. “Mom? Mom! Mommy, please come back! Mommy!” It seems that’s all I can say now as my small fists beat against the wood. The steady bumps matching my heartbeat as I cry throughout the night. That’s the last time I ever saw my mother alive.