The ground was muddy, and wet. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was surrounded by large grey stones. He knew this place, Stonehenge. He tried to think, he sat up. He kept asking himself ‘how did I get here?’ but no answer sprang to mind. The sun was low on the eastern horizon; it was early morning probably 7.30 am.
He saw a woman heading up to the stones, she looked angry. She was short, brown hair cut by her ears. She was in a Stonehenge preservation uniform.
He quickly lay on his back and closed his eyes. Her footsteps grew closer, they stopped. He listened wearily for sound. A high pitched scream shocked him and he jolted. His eyes flashed opened and he saw the woman; she was running back shouting for help. He lifted his hands and observed his bony fingers. They were dripping with blood.
Some time later a flurry of people in uniform came up to meet him. His eyes blurred slightly and although he blinked the a grey film remained over his vision. He couldn’t see the people properly, they all looked the same and he couldn’t see the detail on their faces. They lead him away from Stonehenge. He was taken down a road to a building, outside was a car park. It didn’t look right, he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong. Then he was taken into the building and allowed to clean up in the bathroom. He stood alone in the Men’s, the walls were tiled green although Dean could sense they had once been white. The repetitive dripping echo was driving him insane, he splashed his face. The water tasted stale. His red hands wouldn’t clean.
He scrubbed hard, the blood wouldn’t leave his skin. The water was running clear down the plug hole. He scratched at it, hard. He began to see a red line curve into the plug, he eventually was clean. He turned the stiff tap and the water stopped running. The repetitive dripping echo was driving him insane. The door opened and a dark man entered the room. He stroked the blinding white tiles as he made his way to the urinals. Dean stood frozen at the sink, he noticed the dripping had stopped, he turned the stiff tap and the water stopped running. A strange sense of de ja vu crept over him. “Your not clean yet, trust me. You have an unclean spirit still.” Dean turned round sharply but no one was there. He stood alone in the green tiled bathroom.
“You have memory loss related to some sort of accident, hitting your head etc. other than that you are fine.” The doctor was a nice man, he was one of those on call doctors. “One little knock to the head hadn’t done any damage, and in time you should remember what happened in the past few months.” The doctor stood up and left.
He shook his head, that didn’t sound right, that didn’t sound like a doctor-ish thing to say. He went to the bathroom again.
Overcome suddenly by the events, he was sick. After he felt better though. As he came out of the toilets he noticed a news report on the TV. He went and sat down on a chair to watch, there were several other people watching too.
“The hunt for the three missing teenagers; Katherine Barnfield, Dean Knight and Taryn Ash is reaching it’s second month…”
His photo came up on the screen.
He didn’t have to look to know all eyes were on him.
*
Zander thought for a moment.
“Yes, I think I do. It’s been a long time though.” He gestured for Katherine to stand up. “Take your crystal out and hold it tight in your hand.” Katherine stood still; she looked around and then gasped. “I don’t know where it is!”
“What!” Taryn exclaimed “It was in your bag last I knew.”
“Where is my bag? You’ve got my book with the map and I had my bag.”
“You didn’t have it on the mountain.” Taryn put her head in her hands and remembered.
“The blue forest! You had it then, you must have left it there.”
Zander interrupted, “We will go in a minute, first…” this time he told Taryn to stand up and hold her crystal. “Think about what you’re going to do,” He looked around and pointed to a picture hanging on the wall. “Destroy that picture.”
“What!”
“It’s a bad one, destroy it.”
Taryn concentrated on the picture, she visualised it blowing up. She held the crystal tightly, she felt it’s heartbeat. She pointed the crystal at the picture, nothing happened,
Confused, she looked at Zander.
“If you really are the children of the prophecy you should have a natural bond with the crystals, try again.”
“What’s the prophecy?” asked Katherine.
“Not now, try again.”
Taryn concentrated on the picture again, she visualised shooting it into a million tiny cinders. She held the crystal tightly towards herself, she breathed in time with it’s heartbeat, “You can do it.” She whispered and pointed the crystal at the picture; a surge of electricity ran through her, a thousand voices screamed in her head;
Fire and ice, Good and Bad, Heroes and Villains,
All together at end of the sand, Good will fall,
For power is not strong enough,
But together with love is stronger,
The loss of a friend or of a foe,
My Hero will choose,
My Power will help,
My Kind-Heart will die.
Taryn lessened her grip on the crystal and a bright orange beam shot out, she collapsed. Katherine jumped up and went to her. Zander examined hole under the picture.
“Not bad aim.”
“I heard the prophecy.” Taryn croaked.
“I will tell you about the prophecy later.” Zander said “Right now we need to get Katherine’s crystal.”
*
Dean sat in the back of a police car. From Stonehenge all the way back home to Worthing was a long way. As he left he took another look at the car park, he knew what was wrong now. All the cars were the same. It worried him somewhat. The police woman driving decided to make conversation about 10 minutes into their journey. But Dean politely said he didn’t feel much like talking. She put the radio on instead. Dean listened to the cheerful chatter and then a generic pop song played. He lay his head against the cold glass, a transparent wall between him and the world outside. Walls very much like the wall of his lost memories. The song ended. Dean never realised how green and beautiful the English countryside was, he just wanted to leap out of the car and dive into a crisp blue lake they were driving past. He wanted to splash in the cool water and then roll out onto the grass and bathe in the sunlight. Instead he would have to give a statement to the police.
*
The walk to the blue forest was proving hard for Zander, whose size held him back. They took a different route to the one they had taken last time. They walked through a desert like area and they were heading to some sandy hills. There wasn’t a look to look at. Zander stopped the girls once they had reached the hills.
“I brought you this way for a reason, Astran as you know it is collapsing.” He looked solemn. The girls didn’t understand so Zander told them to go over the hills, but do so carefully. Taryn went to go first but Katherine barged in front and went first. She marched over the hill and stood still, fixated on the view. Taryn caught up with her and saw too; there was nothing beyond the hills. Taryn opened the book she was still carrying and flicked to the map. “There should be valley here! Pelegant valley?”
Zander was nearly over the hill, still waddling. “The Pelegants were the most fantastic creatures, they were kind and friendly and amazingly beautiful. They would float gracefully in the sky all day and they were so shiny, like the stars at night.”
Taryn asked him what had happened to them but he remained quiet for a long time. He eventually spoke up and in a fierce tone spat “Cyba happened! The Pelegants were here a day ago! Astran is crumbling under Cybas power, he has one more crystal and his power grows a lot stronger. It causes the world to collapse under the power.
Before your parents came here he was planning to take the planet Earth and use it as a new home because Astran was dying. I think he is going to try again, now that he has your parents.”
Katherine ran of towards the blue forest. Taryn and Zander followed while Taryn asked Zander another question “Where does the debris go?”
“I think it goes into the core, and melts or disintegrates. Astran was a planet, it was round too once. Only the top half is left though, so I suspect the core is exposed under us and the collapsed debris is pulled into the core.”
Katherine screamed from within the forest.
Taryn left Zander to make his own, slow way. She ran as fast and she could down the hill, trying not to tumble. Brushing past the trees she found Katherine on the floor and Cyba on top of her grabbing at her crystal. Taryn attacked him. He hit her violently in the face and she fell backwards. He grabbed at Katherine again, he was shouting for her to give him the crystal. Her grasp slipped and he prised it from her. The crystal glowed brightly and his blue aura shone brighter. He grinned his horrible crooked grin. The trees rocked fiercely. Branches plummeted. Winged creatures soared to safety. The ground severed, a crack divided Katherine and Taryn. Katherine’s half tottered and shifted away. Taryn crawled over to the crack and reached over “Grab my hand!”
Cyba laughed and disappeared. Katherine slipped further away. She climbed up and grabbed for Taryn’s hand. She missed. A tree snapped. It fell. Katherine tried to grab again. She never heard the tree land. Taryn lurched forward dangerously. She reached for Katherine’s hand.
*
Dean had never been happier to see his Dad. He hugged his Dad but his Dad just stiffened. He found giving a statement very hard because he could only remember waking up at Stonehenge. His Dad told the police woman that he last saw Dean around two months ago, he had been watching the 10 o’clock news and Dean had been in bed asleep and once the news finished he had gone to the bathroom to brush his teeth and as he was heading to his room he noticed that Dean’s door was open, he walked in and the bed was empty and Dean was gone. The police woman left and Dean showed her to the door, as he watched her get in the car and drive away he noticed all the cars on the street were the same, it wasn’t right.
His Dad was behind him, “Everything ok?” Dean replied with an unconvincing ‘Yeah.’ It all seemed very wrong; he had been missing for months and his Dad was being very cold.
“The Fair is down on the beach tonight, would you like to go?”
This seemed better “Yes please!” Dean smiled then. He forgot his train of thoughts.
*
“Taryn! Pull me up!” Taryn couldn’t, she wasn’t strong enough.
Zander ran up, he was breathing very heavily. He held Taryn and she tried to pull again. The ground beneath Katherine gave way and plunged down into the open air she looked down and watched it get pulled by the core’s gravity. It did a U-turn and she saw a little fireball erupt from the core. Katherine looked up again at Taryn and Zander.
“Oh my God!” She screamed ear-splittingly, they pulled and slowly she rose over the edge and climbed onto safe ground. Katherine said to Zander “He got my crystal.”
Zander nodded “Look at the trees, their bright blue leaves have faded to grey. He is growing stronger.”
“Talking about me?” Cyba glided out from behind the trees. Zander eyed him with a deep disgust.
Zander unbottled his anger “Leave here Cyba, your not wanted in Astran and you know it. Your not king of this land, go back west.”
“Don’t mind me dearest Zander, I just need to have a word with your little friend here.” He came up to Taryn. “Your little boyfriend is at home with his daddy having a great time. Give me my crystal and you can go home too, with your granny.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Zander shouted.
“Oh girls, isn’t he being so heroic. Shame he is a liar, you can’t trust him either.”
Zander’s heart dropped.
Katherine looked at Zander, at the person she had come to trust. Taryn’s eyes didn’t leave Cyba and as he turned his back on her and focussed on Zander she tossed her crystal into the nearest bush.
“I’m afraid girls, your Zander here betrayed your parents. He told me where to find them, that’s how I managed to take them away from you.” He laughed his sick laugh.
“Please girls it wasn’t like that.”
Cyba fired at Zander “Shut it you gargantuan pig!” Zander flew back into the trees. Cyba snatched Taryn and held her firmly by the shoulders.
“Give me my crystal; I don’t have to play nice. I’ll shoot you down and leave you here dying for the Serenads to feast on!”
Katherine leaped at him. She pushed him over and Taryn shouted “Run!” Katherine followed Taryn who was fumbling in a bush. A bolt of lightning shot past her face. Taryn found the crystal and prayed that it would work. She held Katherine's hand and thought about home, she shouted inside her head “Take me home!” Lightning fired in all directions, she could hear Cyba’s roar and saw him racing towards them. Cyba faded away. They faded into thin air, a bolt of lightning shooting through their visual echo. Cyba stood still, burning anger singeing his insides. He clicked his fingers again and dispersed. His last words ringing in the air. “Let it begin.”