The Echoes of Stranger Days

I meet a girl

How do you start a story? Especially my story. I don't know, I've always been a horrible story teller, unlike my mom who's a writer. She wrote stories about adventures in far away worlds. I wish I could watch her at her desk again. But I don't want to drag my family into this mess.

It all started with the girl. It's was a normal chilly day in the middle of Fall, leaves crowded the streets, crows cawed outside my window. I sat in my bed staring at my ceiling that was covered with cheap plastic glow in the dark stars.

"Nathan! Me and your father are going to the store we'll be back in about an hour!" My mom called from downstairs.

"Alright! See ya later, love you!" I called back. I heard the door open and close. When it closed I slid off my bed and pulled out a bunch of art supplies from under my bed. I was the worst artist but I liked to do abstract art. My friend Katelyn says my art is amazing and just different. I disagree, I just splatter colors I like on a canvas in random shapes that have no meaning to me. I started painting with greens and blues when the doorbell rang. I put down my brushes and ran downstairs. I opened the door to a girl. She wore an aquamarine scarf but her brown eyes looked like they were on fire. She had shoulder length black hair that looked a lot like mine and a black poncho on over jeggings and white converse. She was gorgeous and I was disgusting. I was wearing a white t shirt that I had been wearing for the past three days, I hadn't shaved in weeks and my light brown hair was a mess. My jeans were covered with paint and leftover tacos. The girl looked at me with a stare that gave me cold chills.

"Your life is in danger." She spoke with a cold emotionless voice that was somehow calming. I stared at her blankly.

"Yes, hi I'm Nathan. How can I help you?" I asked my arm out reached to shake her hand. Her eyebrows narrowed.

"I'm being serious, Nathan. You need to come with me you're not safe here." I didn't like how she used my name. She hardly knew me how could she talk to me like that? I'm just some dumb teenager who makes crappy art and flunks his classes. How could my life possibly be in danger? Who would want to hurt me. Was this a prank. I laughed. She looked angry now.

"Is this a prank." I probably shouldn't have said that. She shoved me against the wall her forearm against my chest pinning me to the wall.

"I didn't come all this way to deal with your crap! I have a job to do and I'm going to do it! Come with me or you can die. If you don't come willingly I'll take you by force." She growled.

Okay. Who does this chick think she is? She came to my house, told me I'm in danger and now is threatening to kidnap me? My chest was starting to hurt now.

"Okay! Just get off me." I said shoving her off. She glared at me then BOOM, something large crashed into the street in front of my house. A woman with black eyes and smoke pouring out of them glared at me. Scarf girl grabbed my arm and ran outside. I ran along and decided I'd rather stick with scarf girl than take my chances with lady of death.

"ALICIA! GIVE ME THE BOY!" Lady of death shouted. I screamed when I looked back. The lady was surrounded with black smoke and her black eyes glowed red. My brain stopped for a minute. Okay I thought I'm being kidnapped by a random girl and chased by something impossible. I must be dreaming. I tried relax. But if this was a dream is was a stupidly realistic one. Scarf girl let go of my arm.

"This isn't a dream, Nathen. I promise you this is real." Scarf girl said and grabbed a necklace from under her scarf. The necklace started to glow and a sword like thing made of light that matched her scarf appeared in her hand.

"DIE DEMON!" Scarf girl yelled and threw the growing object at lady of death. The sword thing hit the demon or whatever and she exploded. The light sword returned to scarf girl's hands and disappeared. She walked back over to me. I stood there like an idiot, waiting to wake up.

"You were thinking this was a dream, right? That's a typical reaction, it's not fake or an illusion this is real, Nathan Sullivan. My name is Alicia. I'm a warlock. My job is to protect you and bring you to Almoreia. I know this feels rushed, normally I have a lot more time before demons follow me here." Alicia said. I still stood there like an idiot. I turned around and started to walk home. Alicia didn't follow me. I walked to my house and walked inside and laid down on my bed. I gave myself time to decide what to think about this. During this time I fell asleep.

I woke up sometime near dusk and got up and walked downstairs where my parents were talking. They were talking in soft quiet voices and that was never a good thing.

"Hi sweetie. Did you sleep well?" My mom asked.

"Yeah, but I had a really weird dream. There was this girl and this creepy lady." I rambled on. My parents looked at me full of concern. I knew something was wrong and I didn't want to know. I sighed and walked upstairs. I walked into my room and almost screamed. Alicia stood by my open window.

"We have to go, Nathan. Do you really want your family to get hurt?" She looked upset. I knew now this wasn't a dream, because I never imagined people I didn't know. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to say, but I trusted her. Whatever was going on I trusted her.

"Where do we go?" I asked.

"Home."