Chapter 1: The Wish for a Hero
The waters are the worst kinds of thieves. They steal and covet the things we all hold near and dear and return no apology. And we as humans mimic the oceans as though it is our own reflection. We are mindless beings who wish for everything we don’t need or know how to control. Perhaps these ocean waters will covet me from this silky beach I lay upon and drown me and my many sorrows. If only life was as so kind to offer death’s salvation…….
“Acelynn! Acelynn! Come back to the car. It’s time to go back home.” My mother calls to me. I sigh and get up from within the smooth sand of the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
“Next time, don’t be such a tease.” I say, gazing out unto the dim waters. I hurriedly run to Mother and as I get closer, Mother giggles slightly.
“Goodness Acelynn, can we come to the beach one time without you making such a mess?” my mother says. She takes a deep breath and let loose a gust of wind that vacuums all of the sand clumped on me. Then the wind vanishes into oblivion, taking the sand along with it. I believe my Mother has OCD because she cannot stop cleaning no matter what. Drives me absolutely bonkers! But I still love her.
“Come on Acelynn, let’s go home.” Mother said as she climbed into the car. I also get into the black Lexus and we drive down the road back to our home. As we are driving, I notice that spring had begun to bewitch nature already. The apple blossoms had begun to bloom and the red lips of roses had begun to open. I remember a time when nothing bloomed here except scorching flames and ravenous spawns of horrid monsters. That was during the war. The Final War of Good and Evil where the fate of the world would be decided. 10 years ago, all forces of evil broke loose from the pits of a fiery hell and began their attack upon the human world. In turn, the benign forces of the world emerged through the gates of heaven to fight back to save the world. As they battled, many suffered and much of the world had been destroyed. Rivers evaporated, forests transformed into ashes, and entire cities evaporated in seconds. As well, these forces of power created tremendous surges of power that somehow fused with humans of the world and gave birth to a new race of human beings. Ones with extraordinary abilities. They are called Animusians. My family is part of that race. Well, what’s left of my family anyway. When humans discovered these newfound abilities, they devoted themselves to the side of Good and fought to become victors of the war and vanquished every source of evil. However, during the great and gory battle, my father and twin brothers were murdered and my mother and I were left alone to find a way to survive the destruction of the war. As the years have passed, Mother and I have found our peace and have suppressed our sorrows in order to stay alive but I fear they will be the end of us someday.
“Acelynn, how is school going?” Mother asks me as she is driving down the road. I hesitantly answer because school is not my favorite part of the day so to speak.
“It’s going pretty well. How’s your job going?” I respond, attempting to change the subject.
“It’s going pretty well! I haven’t dropped a single drop of coffee on anybody for a whole two weeks! Proud aren’t you!?!” Mother says turning to smile at me. My mother is so kooky. Sometimes I think she likes to be a ditzy woman but then I remember that she told me a dumb woman is worth as much as the gum on your shoe. Sometimes I think she makes so many jokes to hide the tears that swell within her at night when she weeps.
“Oh and I know you are lying to me. Are you still being picked on in school because you’re ‘different’ than everyone else?”
“No Mother. It’s fine. Everything is just fine. Please leave it alone.” I snap. Mother says nothing more after that. She only blankly stares down the road slightly grinning every now and then. What could she possibly be grinning at? My pain she knows exists? Maybe she is masking pain again. Her pain of remembering something. Maybe she’s remembering Father too. Something that I think is holding us down like gravity. Soon we get back to a cozy little house at the end of a long road.
“Are you hungry Acelynn? I’m making a sandwich.” Mother asks me.
“No thanks. I’m not really hungry.”
“Well, shoot yourself. I’ll enjoy that sandwich alone then.”
“It’s ‘suit’ yourself Mother. Not shoot.”
“Oh really? Hm, maybe that’s why I had the highest death rate when I worked as a suicide hotline lady.” Mother says. All I can do is shake my head at my Mother’s silliness. She has always made me laugh. Even when we were on the run during the war and when Father and Abram and Cain died. She could still make me smile even though she wanted to cry.
“Well I’ll be upstairs taking a nap.” I say as I walk upstairs to my room.
“Okay, see ya later.” Mother responds. I get upstairs to my room filled with pictures of my once whole family. I climb onto my bed and close my eyes, wishing for a dream.
In Acelynn’s Dream…….
In the darkness, Acelynn wanders aimlessly. “Hello? Is anybody here?” Acelynn asks the lonely darkness. She continues to wander until she can just hardly see a faint light in the distance. She hurriedly runs to the faint praying it is a way out of this endless darkness. As she gets closer and closer she can hear faint whispers and the light grow brighter. “Remember the light. Remember the fight. Remember the ones before.” The whispers chant. Finally, Acelynn stands before a shining sphere of light and reaches out to touch it when, alarmingly, the sphere of light burst into a million sparks which then attach themselves to Acelynn’s skin and cloak her in a harsh light. Acelynn’s dream then morphs and brings her back to the beach she had been at earlier. She looks to her right and sees a woman dressed in polished silver armor and has long brown hair like her own. The woman gazes out unto the grey ocean and then says: “Find me and be born anew.” Then the woman becomes effervescent and evaporates into the sky. Suddenly the ocean turns a deep, bloody red and the sky fills itself with heavy, black clouds. Thunder booms and lightning strikes unto the beach. The ground begins to split in half and drain all of the sand into the endless crack and Acelynn falls through as well. She falls and she falls and she falls through the darkness until…….

“Acelynn! Acelynn! Wake up!” I faintly hear Mother shout. I slowly open my eyes and see my room distorted and warped. It looked as though it was melting away.
“Stop it Acelynn! Hurry before you take the whole house down!” Mother exclaims. This has happened on many occasions and each one growing worse than the last. I focus really hard on returning my room back to how it was before. Then, the room immediately becomes undistorted, but my head is pounding like a hammer on a nail.
“That was much worse than the last time. And you even lost the picture of your father this time. Maybe we should think about binding your powers again.” Mother says as she walks over to my bed and sits beside me. Animusians’ abilities are connected solely to their emotions. My emotions are rather suppressed and therefore my powers are suppressed. They find a way to be unleashed through my dreams and have lately gathered tremendous power. However, in turn, I can hardly access my powers when I need them. Animusians are a very strange race.
“I don’t know Mother…”
“I think it would be safest for us because you have very little control of them and it would be terrible if something were to happen to one of us. And I think it would help you fit in at school a little better.”
“What!?! I don’t need to fit in Mother!” I exclaim.
“I just want you to be happy Acelynn!”
“I am happy Mother! Can’t you see me smiling and grinning every day I come back from that godforsaken school! Don’t you see I’m happy I lost my entire family!?!” I shout back. Mother then slaps me right in the face. I am absolutely stunned. Mother has never laid her hands on me before. I run out of my room go into the bathroom. I lie on the floor and begin to sob. How could Mother hit me? Her last family member and her only connection to her one true love. Could this mean she doesn’t love me like I thought she did? I hope I didn’t hurt Mother’s feeling. I love her too much to hurt her. Hopefully everything will be better in the morning. A girl can only hope…….

The next morning…..
“Bye Mother.” I say before I walk out of the door to my bus stop. Mother gives me no answer as she sits on the couch, watching her favorite show, Doctor Who. “Okay, see you later…. I love you…” I say, leaving to my bus stop. I hold my tears back. As I walk to the bus, it begins to rain heavily on the cold streets. My mother told me it was going to rain yesterday so I wore my white rain coat, my white rain hat and my white rain boots. As I stand waiting for the bus, I can hear other people whispering about me under their umbrellas.
“Oh my god, what does she think she is wearing? White is like totally my color.” One girl whines.
“Yeah, it like totally is.” The girl’s groupies agree. I can’t believe people can be so ungrateful after the war. I mean, come on now. The entire Earth was almost completely destroyed! You’d think they’d appreciate the little things. Apparently humans do mimic the oceans.
“Just because she’s an Animusian, she thinks she can just do whatever she wants. Well she can’t because white is totally my color!” the girl continuously rants. Her clan of teenage girls giggles and echoes the one girl’s words. Why did Mother insist on putting me in an all mortal school? Thankfully, the bus arrives and then we are off to school. As I sit in my seat at the front of the bus, gazing through the window, I begin to remember the dream I had yesterday. It had not been the first time I had had that dream. On many different occasions I had that dream and each time my powers lost control. I never told Mother because I didn’t want her to worry. Maybe it was a warning of something to come. Maybe my powers had advanced to where I had premonitions. If they had, it’s much too bad that I can’t even use my abilities. About 20 minutes later, the bus arrives at Brynhildr High School. It was a school meant for mortals but apparently I was an exception to the all mortal rule. I get off the bus and head into the school. I immediately head to my first period class because I think I have dealt with enough stupidity this morning from those girls.
“Good morning Ms. Wilson.” I say to my teacher as I walk through the door of my Algebra class and take off my white rain hat.
“Good morning Acelynn. How are you?” Ms. Wilson replies. I wanted to tell her all of my problems but why burden another person with the weight of the world.
“I’m great.” I lie. From there we make small conversation until the bell rings for class to start. I love Ms. Wilson’s class because I love Algebra. But I also hate it because I have the dumbest and loudest people in my class. 30 minutes into class, I have nearly lost my mind. Everything that Ms. Wilson says, everybody just responds:
“Huh?”
“What?”
“I don’t get it.”
How hard is it to understand a simple math problem!?! They act like she is speaking Arabic or something...
“Can anybody tell me the solution and domain to this function?” Ms. Wilson asks the class. Before everyone could exchange blank looks and I end up answering the question yet again, the room begins to violently shake. Shrieks of terror are let loose throughout the classroom. From the windows, I can see the sky turn deep red and heavy black clouds pepper the sky. What is going on!?! Suddenly, the windows of the classroom shatter and spray glass all over the classroom letting in a powerful gust of ice cold winds.
“Everybody get down on ground! Cover your heads!” Ms. Wilson exclaims. We all obey her orders and get on the ground. Horrid screeches bellow out through the air and pierce everyone’s ears. The moment I hear the screech I remember a time when Mother and I were one the run. How she saved me from a terrible, horrific monster that almost ate me alive. She was my hero. That monster is the one that’s on its way here again but this time, will she be here to rescue me?
“Kill them all! I want their blood splotched upon these streets! Destroy it all!” a voice announces from outside the window. The cries of my classmates grow louder and are missed with sobs, because they know their death is coming to them. My heart is sitting in my throat. I’m too frightened to scream or hardly even breathe. I am hoping my powers will sense that I am in danger and will keep me from being killed. Suddenly, flaming monsters pounce through the window and screeches in everyone’s ears. Shouts flutter through the classroom and people run to the door, attempting to escape their impending death. Before they could even touch the handle, the monsters snatch them away and begin to rip them apart, limb from limb. I cower in the corner, praying to myself that Mother will come to save me again like she did before.
“Oh god!” Ms. Wilson cries before her body is mutilated by a fiery demon. As I watch the massacre of people I once knew, I remember all the things I never did and never will do. Tears run down my cheek.
“Ashaban, forget not the being in the corner! All must die!” a demon exclaims. A monster with horns like a ram and a head like Great White shark eerily creeps toward me with its gapping mouth ready to devour me whole.
“”I shall feast upon thy feeble, mortal bones!!!” Ashaban exclaims before it pounces at me.
“Mother!!” I shout. Suddenly, a raven swoops through the window and rams the monster out of the way. It then plucks and pecks at the monster as it lies on the ground. The monster can no longer take the inflicted pain from the raven and explodes into nothing but ashes.
“Mother?” I ask as the raven flaps in front of me.
“Rrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooooooooo!!!!!” The other monsters shriek when they see the ashes of Ashaban.
“Kill her! Kill the bird! Kill them all!” a monster says. All 6 monsters rush towards us in an attempt to kill me and this mysterious raven. As these creatures begin to get near us, the raven continuously caws and uproars at the sight of these bloodthirsty creatures. Just before the demons claws mangle us, a heavy gust of wind smashes the monsters through the adjacent wall. I quickly turn my head and I see my Mother wearing a suit of glimmering silver armor, standing at the door.
“Mother, you came!” I exclaim. She points at me and the raven, indicating for us to come to her.
“We don’t have very much time to be here Acelynn. I have to get you out of this world.” Mother says as she pulls me through the door and down the hallway extremely quickly. As I am pulled through, I notice the many mutilated bodies that soil the floor. The stench and the impending fear of death are nearly enough to make me faint. Soon my mother pulls me out to the courtyard where all I can hear is the echo of horrendous screeching and shouts of people being murdered ruthlessly.
“Mother, what’s happening!?!” I panic.
“Calm down Acelynn. It’ll be okay. But you have to leave her. To fulfill your destiny.”
“Destiny!?! What destiny!?! Mother, I do not understand! How are those things back? What destiny do I have? Are we going to die?”
“No! I won’t let them get you! I’m going to keep you safe as long as I can until they arrive. But after that, I won’t be seeing you again Acelynn.”
“What!?! You’re leaving me. If you leave me I’ll die! You can’t-“
“I can and I will! You are going to be okay my dear child. Let’s savor these last few minutes we have together before they come for you.” Mother interrupts. I say nothing more to Mother because my mouth has been sewn together by sorrow. I can hear the monster’s screams get closer. Mother holds out her hand and summons a golden blade sharpened to a fine point. Who is coming to get me? To take me away from my Mother when I seem to need her the most? What is happening right now!?! I can only stare at Mother, wondering what secrets she-
“Watch out!” Mother shouts as she jumps at me, saving me from an incoming fireball.
“Stay down Acelynn. I mean it!” Mother commands as she runs toward a wave of fiery demons, ready for some more blood to be spilt. I watch as Mother wings her golden sword, slicing demons and throwing them to and fro. Soon, no demons are left standing. Only piles of ashes exist in the place of the demons. I lay on the ground in sheer awe at the amazing feat my mother has just performed.
“Mother, that was amazing.” I say, obviously awestruck.
“I know, I’m just that- AHHHH!” Mother shouts as she suddenly catches on fire. A demon attacked from the top of the school.
“Nooooooooooo!!!!” I shout. I swing my arm at the demon and he immediately explodes into a million pieces. “Mother! Mother no!”
“Be good my girl. Don’t give up on your journey, my dear. And never forget who and what you truly are. Goodbye….” Mother says before she burst into flames and completely evaporates. I get onto my knees and stare at the air where my Mother once existed. Suddenly, I hear the raven begin to caw weakly. I turn around and see that it is beginning to decay into dust.
“Mother………. Mother!” I exclaim. My eyes a overflowing with tears. I have now entered a heavy flow. Now I am positive that I am going to die. No one here to protect me anymore. But wait, I just completely destroyed that demon with my powers when I wanted to. Maybe I can protect myself. Probably only for a few moments before my I am murdered like Mother was. Only a short distance from me, I could see a crowd of angry, bloodthirsty demons. I take a heavy gulp and begin to say my prayers. Then I realize, I had been wishing for death to come and take me for a long while but now that it was here, right before me, I wanted it to go away. I wanted it gone. I was not ready to die yet. Especially like this. But I cannot save myself from this impending doom. I wish Mother had not died. I wish this wasn’t happening………. I wish for a hero. Throoom!!! Suddenly a loud, echoing crack of thunder silences the air. For a few moments all is still and calm. I believe even the demons were startled by the bellowing noise. Abruptly, a lightning bolt strikes the ground in front of me with immense force, throwing me on my back. The lightning bolt seemed to linger for a moment and then evaporate leaving behind three tall women dressed just as Mother had been. Their long brown hair flowed down their backs and flowed about in the heavy breeze. Two of them released a bone rattling war cry and charged toward the coming crowd of demons swords hungry for death. The other came up to me and helped me up.
“Are you okay?” She asks me. I gaze at her face. She had misty blue eyes, a strangely small nose and fair skin.
“Yes, I am okay.” I lie.
“Well, are you going to stand there gawking at me or hurry along. We don’t have much time!” She says to me as she pulls me to the spot where the lightning bolt had struck. I gasp at her blunt attitude but then I hurriedly follow her to the scorched ground. In the distance I can see the other two women fighting the horrid beasts. They were so skillful at it. Their swords easily cut through each demon and they jumped and twirled to dodge attacks. They used weird kinds of magic. Explosions and flames and frost and lightning! It was incredible. But as incredible as it was, I did not want to join them. I just wanted to get away from this place.
“Okay, when the lightning strikes, hold your breath and hold your heart. Otherwise, you will be completely destroyed. Do you understand?” The woman said to me, holding both of my hands. Mother used to do the same thing when she would put her trust in me. “Can I trust you to do that?” she says. I take a deep breath and nod my head. The armored woman smiles and release go of my hands. Oh how I wanted to keep holding her hands, it reminded me of Mother. It made me feel safe and protected.
“Wait, what is your name?” I ask. I must know my saviors name. In order to thank her in my prayers I must know her name.
“Melinda. My name is Melinda.” She says to me.
“Thank you Melinda. You are my hero.”
“Isn’t that what you wished for?” She says to me with a slight grin. “Remember to hold your heart and breath. Ready? Here we go!” Melinda says before she raises her hand over her head and then throws it down. I hold my breath and put my hand over my heart. I look up and I see a portal crackling with electricity. Suddenly, a lightning bolt begins to descend upon me. I try with all my might to not scream because I do not want to be murdered but the fright causes my mouth to act against me and I take a breath and scream. The lightning bolt strikes down on top of me and I feel myself rising into the air and then suddenly jerked upwards into the murky, peppered sky. I had not obeyed what Melinda told me. Was I certain to die when I arrived to wherever it was Melinda and those women came from? Where had those women come from and what would happen to me when I got here? Mother had said something about a journey. Maybe this was what she was talking about. This could it. The beginning of a new story for me. Or quite possibly the end.