Prologue
The ritual was performed during a full moon. The order always chose that time of month for such things. It was the time that what the humans called “Dark Magic” was at its strongest. True, it was incredibly ignorant of them, but they didn’t know any better. They didn’t know what true darkness was. The members of the order had seen darkness, and compared to that, their magic was undoubtedly light. But the strength of their magic was not the reason that this date had been chosen. That date had been chosen for them.The members gathered around a large fire. It was easy to see why people misunderstood them. They wore black robes that covered their entire body’s, enveloping their face’s in darkness. The most ominous thing about them was the full moon on the back of their robes. It was not a symbol of evil, but it could easily be mistaken for one. The ritual began. They order sank to their knees and began to chant. At first, nothing seemed to happen. But as the chanting grew louder, the fire began to move. There was a flash and the fire had tuned bright silver. It warped and changed in shape until it was taken the form of a wolf, and the chanting stopped abruptly. The wolf looked around at the people surrounding it. Without warning, it curled back its neck and howled. The order joined in. This idea may seem a bit strange, even disturbing, but for anyone that would have seen it, it was not. Somehow, in an unconventional way, it was beautiful. The howling began to fade, and the fire slowly smothered itself. Lying in the center of the ashes was a bundle. A girl wearing one of the robes walked up to the bundle and lifted it high in the air. “All hail the Guardian!” she yelled. Everyone fell to their knees. “All hail the Guardian,” they chanted. That was when all hell broke lose.Men with torches and pitchforks burst out of the trees. They rushed towards the order. “Kill the sorcerers!” one of them yelled. “Kill the henchmen of the devil!” Normally, a mortal attack was a mere annoyance to the order. Magic could beat whatever they could throw at them. But this time, not only did the humans have the element of surprise, but the order was almost completely out of power. They had used too much of it during the summoning, and it was all they could do just to stay alive. The girl rushed towards the fire pit and stood in its center. Sumening the last of her magic, she cast one final spell. She hugged the bundle close and whispered, “Be safe little hero. Be safe.” She hurled the bundle into the air. Instead of coming down, it floated up, until it seemed to disappear into the moon itself. Chapter OneHave you ever wondered what it’s like to be different? Not mentally different, or differently opinionated, but really, truly, different. Different in a way that truly separates you from the people around you. To be so different that at times you doubt your own humanity. So different that it chills you to the bone. My name is Alex Lucifer. I have been that different all my life. It started to show when I has little. I was in kindergarten, playing tag with my friends. Normally, I was the fastest kid in my class, and very proud of the fact. But one day, a new kid came, and he was even faster then I was. He was humiliating the rest of us, never getting tagged once. Before long, I was it. Wanting to prove I was the fastest, I unsuccessfully went after him. He taunted me as he ran, insulting me every chance he could get. Suddenly, something changed in me. I went down on all fours, and charged after him. I slammed into him with the speed of an Olympic runner. By the time I regained control of myself, my teeth were inches away from his neck. Something happened again in second grade. I had just come home from a long day at school, and called my mom for a snack. But there was no answer. I called again, still nothing. I looked all over the house, but she was nowhere to be found. I waited for an hour, and she still hadn’t returned. Slowly all other thoughts left my head, until all I could think about was where she was. Once again, I felt something change in me. I ran into her room, and sniffed her pillow. The smell hit me like a ton of bricks. It was like I was seeing with my nose, and there was a trail starting from the pillow and leading me out of the house. I followed that trail all the way to the grocery store, where I found her. I could tell you every instant that I have changed, but it would take weeks. Recently, it’s happened almost every other day, and always on full moons. The worst part is I kind of like my little episodes. Not after they happen of coerce, that’s just embarrassing. But while I’m having them, I love it. It makes me feel powerful and alive. But enough about the past. This story is about me and my battle against what can only be described as darkness. I know that sentence is overused, but it’s true. Trust me, I wish it wasn’t.This story started a week before Halloween. It was a normal school day, and I was sitting in pre-calculus and not hearing a word. Apparently, I have ADD, but I’ve never believed that. I can focus better than anyone I know, but only on the things I want to. Once I start thing about something, almost nothing can get me out of it. That day, I was reliving my last episode, were I had asked for a raw burger at lunch and then eaten it using only my mouth. When I was little, I only changed during times of need, but lately it seemed to be compulsive. I would see something and I would set me off. My friend Paul shook my shoulder. “Yo, Alex. Pay attention. We’re getting a new student.”I rubbed my eyes groggily. “Sorry dude.” I whispered. “I was thinking about lunch.”Paul had been my best friend ever since middle school, and was the only one I had ever really explained my episodes to. Everyone in the entire school thinks knows about them, but they just assume that I’m some kind of Psycho-freak who acts like that all the time. Paul is the only one who really knows me. “You can think about that later.” He whispered. “There are enough people here who think you’re crazy as is. It would be good for you to make a good first impression on someone new.” I knew he was right. He normally was. I turned my head towered our teacher.“Now, everyone,” he said. “Please welcome our new student, Mary Anderson” A girl about my age with long brown hair and plain looking cloths walked in. She was modestly pretty, and had a friendly look about her. She looked up and smiled at the class.“Hi! I’m Mary, and I’m really glad to be here.” She said. It didn’t know it then, but Mary Anderson would change my life forever. Chapter Two I soon as I laid my eyes on Mary, it began to happen. I got that familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach, like there was something in there trying to get out. “Oh no.” I thought to myself. “Not now. For the love of god, not now.” But I couldn’t hold it in. I leaned towards Paul. “It’s happening. Cover for me.” I whispered. I shot out of my chair and ran out of the class room. I rushed into the bathroom and crumpled to the ground. “What going on?” I thought. This kind of thing had never happened before. But before I could think about it, images began to pass through my head. I saw people in shrouds bowing to me. I was so little, I must have been a baby. A girl wearing a shroud picked me up and held me close. I saw her face. It was Mary Anderson. Then, flashed back to reality. I began to shake. Without warning, I threw back my head and howled. I howled with all my soul, and the scariest part was that I sounded just like a wolf. I woke up in a bed in the nurse’s office. Paul was sitting next to me. I rubbed my eyes. “What happened?” I grunted. “The found you out cold on the bathroom floor.” He said. He leaned in. “But what really happened?” “I’ll tell you later.” I whispered. A few hours later, Paul was over at my house, and I had just explained to him what had happened. “So?” I asked him. “What do you think? This girl knows something about me, don’t you think so?”Paul shifted uncomfortably. “Look Alex, I mean this in the best way. But until now, your problem could pass as some strange physiological disorder. But now that you’ve brought this girl into the picture, well I’m afraid that someone besides you might get hurt.” I looked at Paul, unable to believe what I had just herd. “What are you saying? This isn’t some weird brain thing Paul, I’m not crazy!” Paul stood up. “Really?” he asked. “Because last time I checked, eating a raw burger without your hands and then claiming to have no control over isn’t considered sane. Thinking that you are some kind of super-powered freak isn’t sane. And I’m pretty sure that seeing visions of some girl you just met and then howling until you black out isn’t sane at all! I’ve been playing along with this entire thing because I thought that you needed someone to believe you so you didn’t get out of control. But I’ve seen the stuff that ‘your problem’ has caused. And I don’t want that to happen to someone innocent. You need help Alex.” There was a long silence. “Paul,” I said. “I know everything that I do is hard to believe. But you have to trust me on this, I’m not crazy. All my life, I’ve wanted to know why I’m the way I am, and I can feel it, I’m really close. This girl has the answer.”Paul shook his head. “I have to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.I took a walk to think things over. What if Paul was right? What if this was all in my head? When I thought about it, everything that happened to me was pretty hard to believe. “Maybe I really am crazy.” I muttered to myself.“No you’re not”I looked up. Standing a few feet away from me was Mary Anderson. “What?”“You’re not crazy.” She said. “It’s just your instinct. It’s to expected. You are the Guardian after all.” I blinked. “The what?” She looked up at the sky. “It’s not my place to tell you. Not yet anyway. You’ll learn soon enough.” I closed my eyes and rubbed my head. “Huh? Look, I’m really sorry, but I don’t follow.” I opened my eyes, and she was gone. Chapter ThreeOver the next few days, I kept trying without much success to talk to Mary. She always seemed to be talking to someone else, and if she wasn’t, something would always distract me and she would vanish. I knew that she had the answers to my existence, so my inability to contact her was incredibly frustrating. Still, the worst part was that I couldn’t talk to Paul. He had been the only person I could truly confide in, and now I needed to confide more than ever. So instead, I put all my focus into Mary, and it paid off on Halloween night.This year, Halloween happened to coincide with a full moon, the night that I’m at my most reckless. The full moon makes me lose any sense of consequence, allowing me to do almost anything. I had managed to follow Mary halfway home unnoticed, a feet that I was usually unsuccessful at. Suddenly, she changed coerce and walked into an ally. Curious, I followed her and hid behind a trash can. She stood in the middle of the ally-way, pacing back and forth. “What am I going to do?” she said to herself. “They shouldn’t have found me yet, I was supposed to have more time. I need to…” She stopped. A look of pure terror crossed her face. “Their here.” She whispered. Behind her, a hole appeared in the middle of the air. Caped figures zoomed out of it and pinned her to the wall. They were the most terrifying things I had ever seen. They all wore dark capes with bloody fangs on the back, and had long dark hair covering their faces. I could hear them breathing raspy breaths, and they smelled of death. The one in the center spoke in a raspy voice. “Where is he, girl? Where is the guardian?” Mary spat in his face. “I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did!”Apparently, that was the wrong answer. The thing pushed her even harder against the wall. “You lie!” it screamed. “You know the location of the Daylight Warrior! Where is he? Where is Alex Lucifer?” I let out a yelp, and they monsters whipped their heads in my direction. So did Mary. “Damn it.” she said. “Well, it’s now or never.” She kicked the monsters off her and rushed towards me. She began to chant in some strange language. Somehow, I understood every word.“Beast that has slumbered within the flesh for three thousand years, free yourself from your bindings. Come forth and fulfill you purpose.”She slammed her hand into my chest.“Howl, Guardian!” Pain shot through my entire body. I began to shake uncontrollably until I collapsed of the floor. “The binding has been broken!” rasped one of the creatures. “Kill him before he changes!”All four of them charged, and one of them slashed their hand at my arm, causing a deep cut to form in the flesh. I cried out in pain. They began to circle me slowly, closing in. “Go away.” I whimpered. “Leave me alone.” But they continued to come closer. “No. Go away.” I whispered, so quietly I could barely hear myself. They didn’t stop. That was probably the biggest mistake of their life.I felt the change again, but it was different this time. It was thousands of times more intense. Suddenly, all sense of fear left me. I stood up and look at the creatures head on. “I’ll give you five seconds to run.”The creatures paused and looked at each other.“Times up”What happened next was both horrifying and amazing. My body began to stretch until I was a good eight feet tall and my teeth began to form into fangs. My nose became a snout, and hair began to sprout all over my body. I shape changed and shifted until I could no longer be considered human. I was a cross between a human and a wolf. I looked down, and realized that the creatures had begun to inch away. I felt a surge of rage, and I felt myself move. I looked again, and all the creatures were dead on the ground. I let out a doglike whimper and passed out. Chapter ThreeI shot up from a deep sleep. I was breathing hard and sweat was pouring down my face. “Oh thank god.” I said. “It was just a dream.” It was then that I realized that I wasn’t in my bed. I was lying on a cot in the middle of a small log cabin, and people were standing all around me. “Who are you?” I whispered. I hoped I didn’t sound as terrified as I really was. They looked at each other. Mary stepped forward. “Not yet. Rest, you need it.”I blinked. “Ummm, how about no?” I said. “I just woke up surrounded by people I’ve never met, and I’m fairly sure I just turned into a wolf our something. So excuse me if I’d like some answers. So, once again, who…”Before I could say another word, Mary passed her hand over my head. “Sleep” she whispered, and I was out again. When I awoke again, the room was empty. I looked around and took in my surroundings. I was in a small room with a cot and a table in it. It was so dark I could hardly see. On the other side of the room was a window with the blinds all the way down, letting almost no light in. I got out of bed and went to open it. “DON’T!” said a voice from behind me. I looked around to see Mary. “If they see inside, they’ll be able to find you!”I paused and looked at her. “Well, good morning to you, too.” She looked embarrassed. “Sorry” she said. “There’s just so importance in keeping you safe.”I sat back down on the bed. “I gathered. You mind telling me why?” She sat down on the desk. “Ok. Here it goes. When’s your birthday?”“November 29th, why?”She shook her head. Your birthday was October 31st, at the end of the dark ages. My jaw dropped at least five feet. . “What?”She sighed. “Look, all this is going to be near to impossible to believe, but bear with me. When the earth began, there was no darkness. There was physical darkness of coerce; I don’t intent to deny science. I’m talking about physiological darkness: Hatred, fear, anger, any negative emotion. None of that existed because there was only light. My people, no, our people were given the task of persevering that light.”I started to speak, but she lifted her had.“Save it for the end. At that time, our leader, Luna, lived with us on earth. She was an amazing sorceress, the greatest the world had ever seen. She was pure light. Under her watchful eye, the world was in peace for thousands of years. Until the evil one, Senkrad, betrayed us. He had been one of Luna’s chief advisers for decades and had never strayed her wrong. After one thousand years of loyal service, Luna made him his equal.”“Wait” I said. “One thousand years?”Luna nodded. “Yes. I myself was there during all this. The members of our order live much longer than normal humans. We age normally until age seventeen, and then age incredibly slowly from then on after, and you are no exception. You and I shall probably live at least another few million years. But enough about that. Not long after his promotion, Senkrad went on a quest. He said something had called to him in a dream, and he needed to find it. It seemed that even after the dream, the thing was still calling to him, and he could sense it. He came back seven months later, saying that his search had been fruitless.” She took a long pause to reflect on what she had said, and then she started again. “Everyone knew he was lying. He had changed, and everyone but our great leader saw it. She had always trusted him too much. He spent all his time in his chambers and stopped helping Luna entirely. Finally, after spending an entire year in his chambers, he emerged. Slowly, he began to trap the minds of all those who had ever felt any kind of fear of anger. These poor souls were the firsts of the Necrosapiens. After only a decade, Senkrad had started a revolution. The war raged on for thousands of years, until in a final battle between Luna and Senkrad, Luna forever imprisoned Senkrad in the depths of the earth.” She paused again. “Unfortunately, this victory did not come without a price. In order to imprison someone as powerful as Senkrad, she had to imprison herself as well. So she locked herself in a giant orb that now floats in our sky, which is now known as the moon. But not all was won. The Necrosapiens where still at large, and they found a way to free their master. They realized that if the moon was destroyed, the binding would be broken, and Senkrad would be free. They have almost succeeded on several occasions. They made this discovery not long after the end of the middle ages. The dark army had the means to destroy our great leader; she sent us a message before they could. She said that one day she would send her only son down to earth. That boy would one day decide the fate of the entire world.” All of it sunk in. It was a long story, and it was a lot to take in. “So, what does any of the have do with…” and then it hit me. She saw my face and smiled. “I see you understand. You are that boy. You are Alex Lucifer, son the light goddess Luna. Alex Lucifer, the daylight warrior. You are the Guardian of the guardian of the moon. Chapter FourI spent most of that night lying on my bed, taking things in. Needless to say, this one answer had brought about thousands of new questions. It seems that both of my parents weren’t really my parents. They were members of this “order of light” that Mary kept talking about. After I had been summoned, there had apparently been some kind of catastrophe. Mary had sent me into the moon, where my true mother had taken care of me for thousands of years until, for some reason, she sent me back down. And it also seemed that I wasn’t 16. No, apparently, I’m over a thousand. So, to keep things simple, everything I’ve ever known is a lie. As for the prophecy, that’s also a shady subject. All that my mom said was that I would one day decide the fate of the universe, and that I was destined to be the guardian of her prison. This of coerce meant that I was going to meet a lot more of those things that had attacked me before. Thanks for making things easy on me mom. But what really intrigued me is what she said about the incident with those Necrosapiens that attacked me. “One last question.” I had asked her. “What exactly went on that night? What happened to me?”“Have you ever heard stories about werewolves?” she asked. “In modern stories, they are portrayed as evil beings, cursed creatures that prowl the earth to in search of helpless mortals to kill. This is the work of Senkrad. He fabricated these lies so people would fear you during your coming. He even went as far as to make your last name, Lucifer, the name of the devil. ““Wait, wait, back up.” I said. “So I’m a werewolf?” Mary gave me a bewildered look. “Well of coerce. I thought you would have figured that out by now.”I took that in. “Ok. Considering everything else that’s happened, I think I can believe that. So why did I change?”“Well,” said Mary, “According to what Luna told us, your powers are triggered during times of emotion. How were you feeling when you changed? I would say that brave of protecting would seem most likely. Any kind of positive emotion like that would work.” I thought back to the incident. I remembered how the Necrosapiens had been circling me, slowly closing in. “Go away.” I had been saying. “Go away.” “No.” I said. “I don’t think it was positive at all. If I felt anything, it was fear.”A look of bewilderment crossed over Mary’s face. That look slowly turned into confusion, then fear, and then more confusion. “No, that can’t be rite…” she whispered.There was a long pause. “Well, to tell the truth, I don’t really know if it was fear that made it happen.” I offered. “Maybe I was trying to protect myself and that was the emotion.” Mary didn’t look up. “Yeah, that’s probably it.” She said, but she didn’t sound convinced. “Look, it’s getting late, I should go. I’ll see you in the morning. So I lay on my bed, taking in all that I had discovered in the past few hours. It seemed totally impossible. Werewolves, Necrosapiens, the Order of light… everything in my life that I had taken for granted until that moment was untrue. I wasn’t safe anymore. I couldn’t even go outside for a while. I doubted that I would ever see any of my friends or family again. Sure, I knew who I was now, but what good did that do me? I had been torn from my relatively normal life and was being tossed in to one full of monsters and magic that was relying on me to protect it. I wasn’t sure I was ready for that kind of responsibility. How could my mom expect all this from me? Anger started to boil up from the pit of my stomach. Why hadn’t she told me? Why hadn’t she prepared me for this? The anger was beginning to get more and more intense. Why? How could she do this to me? How could she tear me away from everything I had ever loved? The anger became so intense that I began to do something strange: I began to growl. Pain shot through my stomach, and I suddenly realized what was happening. “Oh, shit.” I muttered. Chapter Five Seconds after I transformed, I burst through the window and began to sprint through the forest. I was filled with pure unadulterated rage. It was different than the first time I had transformed. The first time, the fur had grayish color, and my eyes had been yellow. This time, my fur was jet black and my eyes were glowing red. I had no idea where I was going, but I seemed to move naturally, as if the wolf knew where to take me. I came to a cliff and began to scale it. I didn’t know why, I just knew I had to get to the top. When I finally reached the top, I could see the moon shining brightly above me. “You!” screamed a voice in my head. “This is entirely your fault! Why did you did you do this to me? You are not my mother!” “No!” another voice echoed through my head. There was a great flash of light and my fur turned pure white. “It’s not her fault! She protected me for thousands of years! It’s not her fault that this happens to me, it’s my purpose!” “So what?” screamed the first voice? A cloud darkness enveloped my body and my fur turned black again. “I didn’t ask for this! I want to be normal! I’ll never have that now!” It went on like this for the rest of the night. I argued with myself until my fur was changing color faster than I could see and I seemed to be a cloud of darkness with light bursting out of it. The worst part was that neither of the voices were mine. It was as if I had retreated into the back of my head and was watching these two creatures battle it out for control over me. It was painful. Imagine to people grabbing either side of your brain and using it for a game of tug of war. Now imagine that those people are both super strong magical werewolves. Then you might have some kind of idea of what I was feeling. Without warning the pain stopped, but the voices continued. Slowly, I opened my eyes. I was no longer on the top of the cliff. I was in some kind of different world. I was standing on a great line that was separating both parts of the world. On one side, there was nothing but beautiful trees and flowers, and sunlight was shining through them. On the other side, it was pitch black. I could make out dead trees and animals motionless within it. It smelled like death. Farther up the line, I saw two werewolves fighting each other. The one on the dark side of the line was black, and the one on the light side was white. Every time one of them crossed on to the others side, a jolt of pain would shoot through my body. Slowly, I began to stager up the line. “Please stop…” I whispered. Suddenly, they both turned their heads and looked at me. Without warning, they leaped towards me and they grabbed one of my arms. The fight had become a tug-of-war. I shouted out in pain. But before they could tear me to shreds, a female voice boomed from the sky. “Stop this foolishness!” it said. Slowly, the world began to dissolve and I was back on the cliff. I looked at my skin, and found that I was the grey wolf again. “Poor child”I looked up and saw a silver wolf standing in front of me. She smiled and her voice echoed through my head. “I know how you must be feeling, and if you want to blame it on me, you can. I just want you to know that this really isn’t what I wanted for you. If I could have, I would have protected you forever. But that can’t be. You’re too much like your father for that. You will face many challenges in your future, so do not give up now. The world is counting on you. You can do it. You are the Twilight Warrior. ”It took me a second to realize who she was. “Mom?” I whispered. The wolf seemed to smile, and the vanished. It wasn’t until then that I realized that until a moment before, the moon had been missing from the sky. Chapter SixAs the grey wolf, I began to sprint back to the cabin. Part of me was afraid to go back. Mary seemed to be a nice person, but she could make me fall asleep by waving her hand in front of my face. I wasn’t eager to see what she could do when she was pissed. Unfortunately for me, I needed to. The members of The Order were the only ones who would accept me, even after this. I fallowed Mary’s sent back to the cabin and found it with all the lights off. I climbed in through the window (which had somehow repaired itself) and tried to think calming thoughts to get myself back to normal. If I was lucky, no one would know this happened. Unfortunately, as soon as I set foot in the room, Mary burst through the door. She did not look happy.
