2.Falling Into Darkness

She tried to get up, but the oil resisted, and the monsters we starting to move towards her. She began to panic as one dashed towards the door, and the other stalked towards, But it did not rush her. The monster smiled as it tipped its head to the side, causing it to crack loudly and started to flex its long fingers in a gripping motion.

As it did, the spines running down its forearms began to extend. The flesh tore as the bones started to writhe like snakes. She began to panic when a tinny voice rang out in her mind.

"You have to let me help you, but you won't like it at first. Changing takes time to get used to." The voice was more substantial and no longer strained to speak. Instead, it was replaced deep, powerful voice filled with confidence and resolve, yet still sounds like it was coming from a metal pipe.

"How? What are those things, and why are they after me?" She asked frantically, but as she gasped for breath, she breathed in the darkness.

A feeling of bathing in radiance enveloped her like the sun's rays. Something smelled familiar, like lavender. Where was she? Opening her eyes, she found herself to be standing in a room.

It was a stone room with a beautiful crib and a rocking chair. Something about this place felt familiar to her. Above the crib was a shield hung from a spike drove into the mortar. On closer inspection, she could see a wolf's head with three claw marks below. Then, hearing a noise, she started to turn around, and the scene changed.

A man with a black fur mantle hung off his silver armor bent over a woman. Looking closer, She could see that a pool of blood surrounded the woman, and the king was crying. Something ripped at her heart. She knew these people!

She began to reach out and to try to speak, but the scene blurred and shifted again. She was standing in a dark hallway and could hear the sounds of men fighting above. A man in a cloak turned the corner at the end of the hall and ran towards her. Before she could move, the man ran through her, and as he passed, she noticed a small bundle in his arms.

As she turned to say something and the scene shifted again, then she was outside her house. A small greenhouse with a low roof, but the place looked newer, and the yard was different. The old tree her father had cut down when it had started to decay was still there and looked healthy. They had only cut that tree down last year, but she didn't even remember it looking that good. A man was walking towards the house carrying something. It was the same man in the cloak with the bundle walking towards her house. He knocked on the door and began talking to her parents and then handed over the bundle to them. It was moving! Her mother removed the cover, and small arms reached up. This swaddled child was her, the shadow was showing her what happened and why she was here and not where she was supposed to be. Waves of questions and confusion rushed over her in torrents.

"Yes, Pandrea, but you must focus, or this will all be in vain," the deep metallic voice rang in her mind. That wasn't her name, but something about it felt right. Then Pandrea was back in the classroom with the things still staking towards her. "Let go, and surrender to me."

The pain began to rack every inch of her body. It felt like her body was tearing itself apart. She let out a gargled scream as her face became longer. Pandrea could feel bones cracking, skin stretching, and flesh tearing and knitting it all back together at the same time. The pain lasts for what felt like eons and her perception of time seemed to stretch like her body.

When her eyes finally opened, her skin had turned black as midnight. Pandrea's fingers had grown long and sinew looking, with sharpened thick claws. Pandrea reached up to touch her face, but it was longer and her ears...were pointed?

Then she felt a searing pain run through her as the demon slashed into her with his living bone blades. The blades cut deep into her side, and she could feel the sharp edges moving inside, cutting even more. In more pain then she had ever felt, a raged below came out like a howl. Shoving the demon back made the knife rip out of her abdomen, but she didn't care. Molten hot rage filled her sight with red, and she dove for the dazed monster. It appeared as though it expected no resistance.

"We will make them regret that assumption," the voice chuckled as Pandrea flew through the air.

She landed on the red monster and began to tear the spines off it. Chunks of flesh flew through the air as she ripped into the thing, but she had forgotten the other one.

The other monster came running over and connected soundly with Pandrea and sending her crashing into some still intact desks. The monster helped the other one up, and they fled through the hole they had made coming in.

Coughing, she lay back in the wreckage of the desks, suddenly feeling drained. Steam began to rise, and she began to shrink and lose the inky blackness. Those things had almost killed her. Thinking, she looked down to see the cut in her shirt. There was also blood on the shirt.

"How am I still alive?" Pandrea asked as she tried to get back up. Once on her feet, she noticed her pack and walked over to picked it up.

"I healed you. It's my job to keep you alive till we can get back to the king," The metallic voice said in her head.

"Who are you?" Pandrea asked the voice as she peeked out into the hallway. Really, after all that noise and no came to check to see what it was?

"My name is Calimus, and I am a shadow Shyft. A Shyft is a physical spirit that allows certain intelligent lifeforms to change. Each is different, and some are stronger than others. Harkaeduim has many kingdoms that are constantly trying to gain power, and one of those kingdoms became jealous of your father. In this jealous rage, he killed your mother and attacked your father's kingdom during a feast the other king had been invited to as a peace offering. Your father took you and ran to the mystics of Fila Astrotha Elisha to open a portal to the Outworld to take you to grow up in safety."

"So my parents knew, but they couldn't tell me? Where is my father then? You said the kingdom had been overthrown, won't I just be walking into danger?" Pandrea asked Calimus as she left the school and walked over to her bike and started to bike home.

"Demorim has already found you, so nowhere is safe for you, but your father can help you learn to use me and others like me. Your father has a small force and a hidden camp, but we need to get off this world before more of those things come back. I don't have much energy left, and I might not be able to help you if you run into trouble before we leave the Outworld. Head out of town straight ahead and head into the forest."

"But, my parents..." She began to protest but then realized that she would just be putting them in danger.

This information was all so much. She was supposed to be getting ready to go work on a farm and summer fun, not running away from flying red monsters. Regardless of what Pandrea wanted, she knew she had to get away from here before she or someone else got hurt.

She grabbed her bike from the rack as she raced out of school and headed out of town in the direction Calimus had indicated. She continued forward into the forest on the road until Calimus told me to turn off the road and head down a path. The sun was slowly getting lower in the sky as Pandrea biked down the dirt path. Soon she came up to a pond that was strangely surrounded by trees with a small entrance.

"This is where we have to cross over," Calimus said in the back of her mind.

Above them, Pandrea could hear the flapping of wings, a lot of them. She looked up to see red shapes above the trees. There were so many of them. She had begun to count but lost track soon. Calimus shouted in her mind to jump into the pond. Pandrea turned to the pond as red shapes began slamming down to the forest floor around her and she jumped.

Pandrea didn't get wet as she thought, splashing into the water. Instead, there was a bright light and then a rushing gust of wind.